The Sun. — London, England, 1841-05-10 00:00:00

MORNING EDITION THE BREAD TAX. GREAT MEETING AT LIVERPOOL. On Thursday evening a public meeting was held in the Music. hall, Bond street, Liverpool, to receive a deputation from the National Anti.Corn.law League, consisting of Thomas Bailey, Kee.. John Bright, Esq., Jan Brooks, Esq., Richard Cobden, Esq., and other gentlemen, who came hither to stimulate the people of Liverpool to a vigorous co.operation with the Manchester League. The Music-hall was more densely crowded than we have ever wit. tressed it on any previous occasion, thionged as it frequently has been. It is probable that so vast an amount o- persons wa.s never before congregated within the walls of the Music.hall, and the most enthusiastic spirit was manifested by the meeting. Shortly after seek' o'clock the deputation entered the room, accompanied by several of the leading gentlemen of Liverpool opposed to the corn -Laws; and were most - rapturously received. On the platform -We observed a large body of gentlemen well known in Liverpool z!siaitaunah opponents of the Corn-laws. On.the motion of Mr. W. HATHBONR, Sir Joshua Walmsley was esilled upon to preside. The worthy Knight took his seat amidst the lOud plaudits of the assembly. 'The CHAIIVIAN, in opening the bnsiness of the meeting, said thus —He was not aware of the exact order in which the pro_ Ovedings were to be conducted, but they had assembled for the pure Pose of receiving a dapusation from the Manchester Anti-Corn.law League, who would address the meeting on that all-important teak which had been so frequently discussed in that room. The su bject Was one in which all, from the highest to the lowest, were -Most deeply interested, and he was sure that he had no occasion to bespeak their earnest attention. All the deputations from the Anti-Corn-law League had observed the strictest impartiality as to politics, which were totally excluded from all their meetings, for the repeal of the Corn-laws was a subject which could be freely and fairly discussed without at all entering upon party putitics.— ttoud cheers ) The CHAIRMAN then called upon THOMAS BAZLEY, Esq , who came forward amid much applause end addressed the meeting. He said that a deputation from Manchester had come here to confer with the people of Liver pool on one of the most important subjects which could occupy th e attention of the citizens of any community. They had come to ask for the advocacy and assistance of Liverpool in thee great struggle in which they were engaged —a struggle which had for its object the feeding of the hungry and the clothing of the naked. They came hither not to dictate, not to give advice, not to interfere in local questions, but to be cheered in their onward course its procuring bread for the people.—(Applause.) Man chester and the manufacturing districts, but Blanchester espe. chilly, had long felt the deprivation attendant on our fiscal regu lations, especially of that barbarous and inhuman law which hindered the labourer from receiving for his industry the staff of life. Hitherto Liverpool had enjoyed a higher degree of comfort than Manchester, but if tt at law were not repealed, the slay would come when distress would be flit more acutely, when ships would go from this port freighted with a less amount of our manufactures, and return with a less amount of the produce of other countries. All that the League asked for were equal and just laws—(Cheers)—and on this principle alone was their agitation conducted. Would not the meeting, therefore, join with them ? They (the deputation) had been In almost all the neighbouring towns; indeed, he might say, in nearly all parts of the country, endeavouring to enlighten and to arouse the people. They stood there as missionaries of the cause in which they were engaged, and even thanhful for the help and assistance which had been afforded to them. They would proceed as they had hitherto done, fur a crisis had now arrived when one grand effort must be made to emancipate the industry of the country at large. For a long time Manchester had stood almost alone. They had been accused of indiscretion : they had been charged with having asked fur too much. When wish bated breath and beaded knees they asked for an inquiry, they were taunted with being unreasonable, When they asked permission to bake foreign corn, in bond, they were said to be unreasonable; but the fact was that they had asked for too lit•tle, inasmuch as they did not demand the whole amount of justice to which they were entitled.—( Applause.) In connection with the subject before them he would state one or two facts which would show the negligence of our Government compared with that of other countries in reference to that employment which ought to be afforded to every people. Being himself interested in spinning by machinery, he was some time ago waited on by a Prussian no. bleman, who, after a lengthened conversation, told him that they had in Prussia water power, building materials, and all the elements for constructing manufactories, but he concluded by saying, " we have not got your arts, your industry ; give us those, and then we shall be able to compete with you, and, probably, to rival you.') — (Hear, hear.) The other day, in coming from Bolton by the railway, an engineer of some celebrity, said to him, " Permit me to introduce to you a general officer in the Russian service, which is in this country for the purpose of obtaining information con xiected with our arts and industry. He (the speaker) found that this Russian general was not only purchasing steam-engines, mill. gearing, &c. and looking after all the materials of industry which were to give impetus to his country's manufactures, but carrying out plans which would very materially injure this country if the intention were to enter into foreign competition with us. He would ask if ever an English nobleman or general officer went from England to learn the arts of other countries so as to enable the People of these kingdoms to earn their bread or to raise themselves in the scale of civilization. He had neves heard of such a thing, the people were left to themselves, but they were shackled, and they would never be free unless with giant strength they broke the bonds that bound them.—(Cheers.) A combination of huge monopolies was crushing the energies of the United King dom ; but the greatest of these monopolies, he was sorry to say, was to be found in our own landed interest. The unnatural sight was presented to thee' of Briton crushing Briton. They found that the landowners were possessed of all the comforts which arts and manufactures could give to them, and monopolised to themselves all the bounties and blessings of Providence. They circumscribed the island, and said it shall not maintain any except those w lie can be supported by the limited extent of our domains. They found, continually, that the eldest sons of the landowners possessed the estates of their fathers—that the eldest sons of farmers became farm era—and the eldest sons of labourers were permitted the high privilege of being hereditary hedgers and ditchers.—(Hear, hear, hear.) Ile disubted whether the Legislature was aware o the amount of distress at present in this country, but this ought tto be made known, and every one exert himself for its removal. They (the deputation) had one elaim upon the meeting—Man. chester was identified with Liverpool as one Intelligent vast corn. triunity, and he would ask them whether they were willing to pros' :mote that degrees of liberty in trade which they had a tight to Obtain. He would ask them whether their representatives in Par- Lament. were supporters of that degree of liberty ?—(Cries of No.") With our commerce unshacked he had no fear of our wintry ! but with our trade in chains, as though it were a felon, he had_ no hope ! He would exhort them with one effort to esta bliSh the freedom and supremacy of commerce—for commerce, like its sister mercy, was twice blessed. It blesseth him who gives and him who receives. —(Cheers.) JOHN BRIGHT, Esq., of Rochdale, next presented himself, ana was very warnsly received. He said that on any ordinary cccasion he should feel that he owed a very humble apology for offering himself to the notice of that audience, but he felt that he should owe an apology to them, and to every one of his fellow-countrymen, if on this occasion he hesitated to come forward, and throw any little influence he possessed into the scale of justice which now seemed trembling in a balance. He was as convinced as he was of his existence of the justice of the principle in which the Anti-Corn .law league was based, and being thus convinceed was certain that it would ultimately suceeed in its object. He thought that there was abundant evidence in the present condition of this country, or rather of the people of this country; to show the necessity of his coming forward, and indeed of every man becoming a missionary in this great cause. From the highest to the lowest in the realm all felt difficulty and embarrassment, and to a degree, which, probably, :the oldest in this country had not hitherto witnessed. This wide-spread distress spared no man, woman, or child. The deputation, therefore, came before the meeting on a sound principle as respected the justice of their cause, and as they had shunned all party politics —as they Caine, not as a combination of one trade against another trade, but as the bread -eating people of England against a giant and wide. wasting monopoly—they were surely entitled to the sympathy and support of all.—(Great cheering.) Dining the whole of his life, but especially during the past two years, he had bestowed much consideration upon this subject, and the result at which he had :arrived was not to endeavour to make a mystery of the question. !The want of success which had attended exertion previously made, hail arisen in some measure from the question having been wrapped up in so many coverings that the kernel could not be reached. The mode in which he wanted the meeting to view this subject was the one in which he had endeavoured to view it him self. He wanted them to bring the best judgment of their heads, together with the test feelings of their hearts, to bear Olson the question, to drive away all prejudice, and regard it as the simple question that it really was. He defied any sane man to come forward and say he believed that a Corn.law, by which the supply of food was diminished, was just, or could be defended by a sensible or conscientious person. The bread-tax , wag passed for the avowed purpose of keeping prices &Ltd steady. If that was the intention of the Le. gistature, as it undoubtedly was, and if the effects of the law had been in accordance with the intention, which was well known to have been the case, by what means had the price been raised ? By making an abundance or a scarcity of corn. Did the meeting 'think that the price of a commodity could be raised by increasing s upply?—(Cries of " No, no.") If during the Parliament of 1815 to 1828—for he considered them as one Parliament, as they had throughout manifested one spirit and one object—they had passed some such provision as the following, it would only have been to state the real object :—" Whereas, for some unknown purpose, it is expedient that the bread of this country should be raised to 60, 70, or SO shillings per quarter," and if officers had been sent throughout the country to enforce the law, could they have kept up the price without cooking a scarcity ? Nothing but a scarcity .could make corn dear, and therefore it followed, as a matter of in e.vitable necessity, that the Corn-laws of 1815 and 1887 had for t h o. , r object the diminution of the quantity of corn. Could any az ," man believe that a law, having for its object the diminishing of t h a .unount of food, could be beneficial to a country ? It was ' an vi m ° , ibted fact that the supply of food was diminishing, whilst the population was rapidly increasing; and if the meet. ing could gonvince themselves th a t an i ncreased population could be a de•guately supplied with a decreasing amount of food, then lb ey Could convince the mse l ves o f t h at which was a melf.evident falLO)'. If they could follow him to scenes that I.e had wit nesse d , th ere ,vas no Man so stupid as not to acknowledge that thousands and millions were suffering from something which rtitht be remedied, or that a state of things must come about in which propetty and life. would be insecure. Two or three of the London Papers, well-known supporters of the Corn-laws, had been loudly denouncing the factory ayttem, and declared that it must be destroyed, Why, the landowners would be the greatest sufferers if this were done, for there was not an estate in the country that would then be worth 6d. Liverpool could not exist in prosperity if the tr. anufacturing districts were in distress. What would they expect ? Su.'eiy agriculture could yield nothing to export when it could not give sufficient food for the people on its boil. What then must be exported ? manufactures or nothing at all. If there were no ex ports Were would be no imports, and the splendour and wealth of toil would then vanish more quickly than it had appeared. He defied any man to point out a place where the Anti.Corn.law Mis. sionaries could not bud arguments as strong against this system as in the factory districts. 3very part of the country was interested, and to every part the Anti-co:It-law League was determined to carry information on this question.—(Much cheering.)—Ne der was there a question requiring so little clap-trap. It was the pi:shiest that he Iliad ever spoken upon, when divest'td of the hundred thousand things which had been winded about it for the sake of mystifying the people. He came from Rochdale, whero there were manufac tories of woollen and cotton, but owing to this law the cotton had got the better of the woollen manufacture. In 1838 one third of Our woollen manufactures went to America. At that time the tariff was laid on, and the British Minister wrcte to say that had it not been for our Corn-law that tariff could not have been passed. Since 1838 not 1-20th part of our svoollen manufactures had gone to America. The result had been a decrease of employ an wages to the labourers, much discontent, and extensive combinations, for the men thought that the masters had wrongfully reduced their wages, whereas the profits of the master had also been severely cut down, and many became bankrupts. Tne men wasted their 'efforts uselessly against machinery instead of directing them against the abominable law which had ,been the cause of their dis. tress, Wages, since IS3B, had declined one-half. Was it likely that these men could live in comfort if any of them had an additional child ? he looked upon it not as a blessing but s's a ;curse sent from heaven.—(Hear, hear.) It used to be a proverb in their neighbourhood, when God sends mouths lie se, Ws food. God might send children, but the aristocracy would riot: let th em have food —(Much Cheering.) The wide -spread and disastrous effects of the Bread-tax were one of the most appalling in circumstances connected with it. It would be a very small Matter if only some dozen of brokers and manufacturers were tumbled d own through it, In America, so customary was it for the brokers to fail, that Wall-street was known by the name of "" Rotten Wall_street," but notwithstanding this failure of brokers, all the labouring population could procure an ample supply of total. Ile knew from letters which he had seen, and from state- Wants which he had heard, that labouring men who had gone to A Aserica were continually exhorting their relatives here to go to a cutintry where they were permitted to eat the fruits of heaven tura listurbed—(Much cheering)_....and yet there was no country so Itilessen with natural advantages as this, and God had THI-47. SUN,' LONDON, MONDAY, MAY 10, 1841. not bestowed these advantages in order that one class might live in magnificence and splendour and the great bulk of the population starved. It was never intended that machines which gave a productive power to this country equal to that of the population of the whole world, should cause men to ' work twelve and fourteen hours a day at machines that never tired, for paltry wages, which, when they had obtained, they were rot allowed to spend where they could get most in exhange.—(Hear, hear.) But the agricultural districts were in no very prosperous condition. In Wiltshire, at the present moment, one man out of every seven was a pauper, and in all the agricultural counties the pauperism was double what it was in this district. Surely this ought to be enough to convince even the Duke of Buckingham or the impolicy of the Corn-laws. The other day he (the speaker) said to a gentleman of Sussex, when speaking on this subject, the Scotch never applied for a Corn-law, and they say tnat they can live very well if they get 40s. or 50s. a quarter for the wheat. " Oh," said the gentleman," we cannot do that in Sussex, we should have to improve our agriculture wonderfully." And why should they not improve their agricultureas much as the Scotch had done P The farmers of England had this advantage, that they were able to buy all the things not produced on their own farms at the cheapest market in the world, and sold their produce at the highest rate of any other country on the face of the earth. The rent of land here was also higher than in any other country, and this could be attributed to nothing else than the manufacturing and commercial prosperity of Gr.at Britain. One thing was certain, that if manufactures were destroyed, and undoubt edly they would; be if this tax on b Tad was continued, the prin ciple of the old and new Poor-law, that the poor have the first right to the soil, must be adhered to; and if paupers become so numerous that they would swallow up all the produce of the soil of a given parish, theymust take it, and the landlord would have no rent. This result had already been wiinessed at one place in Buckinghamshire, where the landlord had refused to own the soil, saying, "No, no, don't tax me with the rates." He was sure, however, that the present system could not continue. Neverthe less, if it did continue for another fifty years, and the population went on increasing, as it had done during the last fifty years, every green thing in the land would be eaten up by paupers, and not a single estate would be worth sixpence of rent to any man who might call himself the possessor.—(Hear, hear, hear ) Solemnly convinced as he was of these shings, the meeting need not wonder that he should feel deeply interested in this clues. tion. But should not Liverpool feel deeply interested in it as well as Manchester. Should the latter town alone bear the burden of the contest, ,raise its thousands at a time in support of the opera tions of the league, and alone produce men who subscribed their 11)01. and 2001. a year to spread information ? In wealth this town was equal to Manchester—for enterprise it was not surpassed —its fame was known in every part of the globe—and was it right that such a town should stand by while a contest was going on in which it as well as every ether part of the empire, was vitally affected? Why, if he were an inhabitant of Liverpool, he should be ashamed or it.--(Applause.) Rochdale contained at the last census a po pulation of 25,000 persons, and there was in the neighbourhood also a considerable population. There in a few days a petition against the Corn .laws received 12,200 signatures. He believed that not a single man within the sound of the old Church bells neglected to sign it. If Liverpool, Hull, Birmingham, and other . . large towns had made one half the stir that Manchester had done, _ _ the Cora laws would have been repealed long ago. They ought to get every man to speak, and every clergyman to preach on this all ab sorbing question. There was hardly a party in the House of Lords or Commons, hardly, indeed, a single individual that would stand up for the present law. An alteration must be made, and it depended much upon this town, which had great influence, whether the duty, which Ministers proposed, was merely a registration duty or not. If it were, then the League would die a happy death, but if not, it would continue, and the meeting had heard sufficient of it during the last three years to know that it contained men who had courage enough to proceed, and intelligence enough to disdain and thwart all sophistry.--(Very loud and long-continued cheers.) JOHN BROOKS, Esq., late Boroughreeve of Manchester, next stepped forward, and was much applauded. He addressed the meeting in a homely but very very argumentative style, on the evils of the present Corn-law, and particularly addressed himself to the following effect, that the repeal of that law would be detrimental to the working classes and cause a reduction in the amount of their earnings. His observations occasionally exhibited much humour as well as force, and excited mingled laughter and applause. RICHARD COBDEN, Esq., was then introduced by the Chair. man, who spoke of his literary talents, his great and continued exertions for the abolition of the Corn.laws, and of the vigour and ability which he had manifested as a member of the Anti- Corn-law League. The Speaker on presenting himself was most raptuously received. After a few words of introduction, lie proceeded to say, that after so much had been said, and well said on this subject, it would be quite unnecessary for him to speak at any length. There was a word or two, however,to besaid,and by way of being systematic, he would begin at the beginning. This Corn-law, this bread-tax, which he hoped they had met to pass judgment against was, he most of the meeting were aware, passed in the year 1815, and he would tell them under what circumstances. England had been engaged for twenty years in war; some called it a glorious war, but he himself was not fond of such glory. By that war the prices of all sorts of commodities were stimulated to an artificial extent. There was a perfect fever. As soon as peace came a great depreciation took place in all kinds of goods. Men of business, those, for ins ance, engaged in the:cotton trade, imagined in 1817 and 1816 that peace was going to bring great prices, but a sudden collapse took place, and to their amazement down went the prices of all kinds of goods. Many merchants and wholesale ma nufacturers were ruined by this depreciation. Others struggled on, and by dint of increased exertions, diminished expenditure, improved machinery, and economising in every possible way, succeeded in adapting themselves to the circumstances of the times. They did not appeal to Parliament to keep up their prices, and if they had, very little attention would have been paid to them by the 658 sworn landowners, who • weie at that time busy in keeping up the prices of their manufacture, corn, to the price it was during the war. That was the origin of the law, and the nature of it was well un derstood by the millions at the time, for it was passed at the point of the bayonet, and amidst such tumults, riots, and bloodshed as had not been witnessed since the House of Commons was sur. rounded by a dense body, infuriated against the Bill, and the House, contrary to the Constitution, was surrounded by armed soldiers, to keep off the people whilst the law was teing passed. For three days and three nights London was one scene of riot ; the house of the mover of the Corn.law, Mr. Robinson, now L: rd Ripon, was gutted; so also was that of Lord Eldon and of others. In the North of England there was an universal ris ing against the measure two millions of persons, he believed, against it ; and the people surrounded the House of Lords to protest against it. Was not that a protest loud and deep enough to warn the landowners that they were infringing upon the tights of the people, to how that in the opinion of the people the law was an unnatural and unjust one, and had been passed in fraud and in violence ? Though he was just old enough to remember these scenes, he was not then old enough to raise either his hand or his voice against the passing of the measure; but he had never lost sight of the impression which was then made upon his mind of tho injustice of that law ; and when he arrived at the years of citizenship, he never allowed an opportunity to pass of prosesting against it. Two or three years ago he was one of thefirst, though not the first, as h a d been stated by . . . . _ _ the Chairman, to join a chosen band in Manchester in a movement against it, to disseminate information, and to raise an agi tation throughout the country in opposition to the law. He com menced with furious tir Ales against the authors of the law, and many of his friends would recollect that he shocked them with the strong language which he employed bOth against authors and benefitters. His language had now become cooler, because in 25 years there had grown up a generation habituated to this law. They did not feel its injustice because they were not at its birth. The conse quence was that he had found to his astonishment that Englishmen themselves had to be converted before they could begin with any show of fairness to attack the aristocracy. Two years and a half ago, a large majority of the spinners, manufacturers, and other capitalists in Lancashire would, if appealed to, have voted for the law as it stands. This was not so now, and he doubted whether one capitalist could be found to vote for it. How had the con version been effected? Not by the humble advocacy of the members of the Anti Corn-law League. There.had been at work a much harder, a much more efficient agent, adversity had held her school every day in the week on the Exchange, and taught the capitalists, that this was a law which grinds them to dust, and inflicted pauperism on those dependent on them for la bour. But they had found another and more lamentable feature in the course of their agitation ; they had discovered that the younger men had grown up almost unconscious of the operations of this law. The old working men were well aware of its effects on them, but the young men, the active spirits of the day, did not pos sess that knowledge, and they had raised a cry, " You want to get rid of the bread.tax to reduce wages," He asked them, " Has the law served to keep up your wages ?" and they replied, No, they are reduced constantly." " Very well then," he asked, " of what use is the law to you ? In this dilemma they resorted to declamations against machinery, and he would ask them whether machinery would not be a very good thing if its produce were fairly divided? The reply would be yes. And how is it, he went on to say, that you do not get a fair share of its producing? Because you are not allowed to exchange your pro. duce for the food of other countries, which would be glad to teen abundance into your lap. Machinery eats nothing and drinks no thing, and would you not be more able to compete with it if you got your bread at half the price you now pay ? Th 4 ese ignorant errors of the people it was the intention of the Anti-Corn-law League to do away with. Mr. Brooks had glanced at the high pri ce of bread as affecting wages. He (the speaker's) own trade would afford as good an illustration as any other. He was a calico primer, employed 500 or 600 people regularly, and had paid 20,00001, a-year for wages for many years. The scale of wages had been the same for the last ten years. How did he show the effect of the high price of corn on wages ? In 1835 lie paid 20,000/. to his workmen, and the same sum in 1839. In the last year the food that the men were obliged to consume cost from 6,0001. to 8,0001. more than in 1835. Where went the difference ? The same amount of food must be obtained, and less would consequently be expendod on manufactured articles. It was a mistake to suppose that the higher classes supported the manu. factures of this country. They were supported by 20,000,000 of people ; and if they were obliged to pay for their food nearly twice as much in 1839 as xi 1835, was it not clear that they must have so much less to expend with the draper, the hatter, the shoe maker, and so on ?—(Cheers). The consequence had been, that from the rise in the price of food in 1839, trade had been much diminished. He had fortunately been able to find employ for his men for the last ten years, but many manufacturers of the coarser kinds of goods had not been able to find the workmen half labour. Where could the fallacy ever have been bred—where in the world could such an insane notion have originated, or that the workmen could be in any way benefitted, protected, or relieved, by having a tax placed on his bread? Of all conceivable follies or fancies this was the last that he should have expected to take root in the minds of working men of common sense. To those who were still in. dined to place faith in that fallacy he would say, " Go down to yonr own quays on any day between this and September—look at the ships conveying away hundreds of emigrants from your shores_ look upon the scores of families transported to other lands in order to • get bread to eat, and then you will see a specimen of the protection hat is afforded to you.--(Cheers.) His friends had said a good deal about the distress of the manufacturing districts, and had talked to the meeting as though they were residents of a kind of Elysium, where roast pigs ran about the streets, where no want was experienced, and where people lived in palaces. Now it was a fact which appalled some of the gentlemen of the meeting of the British Association in this town, that 50,000 people were living in cellars in Liverpool. Oh ! this is very deplorable, said the Corn' mittee of the House of Commons, when the fact was made known to !hem, and forthwith our representatives proceeded to pass laws providing that the people should have better houses, that towns should be better drained and cleaned, and that proper sewers should be made. Now how were those 50,000 employed ?—(Hear, hear.) They were principally, no doubt, carters, porters, and others working at the docks. \Vhat did the bread tax do for them ? It put a penny on every pound of flour they bought. Take the price at New York and at Liverpool: at New York the barrel of flour of 1961bs might be had for 18s. or 195., and might be sold here for 22s.—(A cry of " 205.") He would not exaggerate, and would say 225. ; but when it arrived here it had to be locked up in what was called the Queen's warehouses, which would be better deno. minated the warehouses of the landed aristocracy. It was put under the Queen's key, which would be better styled the Duke of Buckingham's key, and could not be taken out of the Duke of Buckingham's purgatory until it had paid a duty of 14s. or 15s. a bushel.—(Shame, shame.) Supposing this system were done away with, what a forlorn and desolate creature the poor man would be In every shilling that he now expended in food be might save fourpence at the least; and what harm would that do to the working men?—(Hear, hear.) But they were told that the merchants would make a monopoly. Did they think that Mr. Sanders and Sir Joshua Walmsley would lay their heads to. getber to starve the people? That was very unlikely. The bar. rel of flour might be obtained from their warehouse at little more than one.half, but say two-thirds, of the price that was now paid, and what effect would this have ? The increased importation would demand more ships—the arrival of more ships would make more lunipers, porters, and carters necessary —more shops would be risqvirod tbr vending the additional quantity of flour, more shop. cells lira and shopmen would be necessary, and was not this the way to laserease the prosperty of the town ? But if this were allowed, then the Duke of Buckingham and the Duke of Richmond would be obliged to sell their flour at the same price as Ar Joshua, and that was the real grievance. To talk, however, of the working man being protected, or benefitted by this law, was preposterous. The late of relief of the New Poor-law was the whole amount of protec tion that he would get. While from fifty to eighty thousand per sons were yearly expatriated, torn from their relatives, and from all that they had been accustmed to look upon as dear, never let hint hear of the working man receiving any protection from the bread tax. Why did those poor emigrants bear themselves from this country ? Was it to find cheap clothing ? or to go in search of habi. tations ? Why, there were 20,000 empty houses within a mile or two of the Exchange of Manchester, and in many of those that were inhabited, two or three families were driven by poverty to live together. Was it then to find better cloth, better iron im plements, or better utensils of any kind to number to their domestic comforts that Englishmen in thousands left their native shore? No. wherever they went they took these things from England. They went away to other lands to obtain the very bread which was de nied to them here under the plea of protecting them, and the last sight they may behold on leaving their native shores may be those towering warehouses called the Queen's, ;n which are deposited hundreds of thousands of barrels of American flour, which was de nied to them in the place of their birth, and which they were obliged to go 3,000 nines to eat.—(Loud cheers.) The quantity 01 American flour which now came to Liverpool was no criterion of what it might be if trade were free. He never talked of foreign competition—whenever he talked upon this subject, it was of our inherent right, as free men, to exchange the productions of our kbonr fot the food grown in every part of the world, and if this right were conceded, abundance might be found without complaining of foreign competition. Three-tburths of the earth were at present lying fallow, or were very thinly populated, and some people were living in the midst of superabundance of that which we wanted. They would exchange that superabundance with us for our manufactures. They would exchange with the Germans too. Why let them. The storehouse of the world lay open, and there was enough for all.—(Much cheering.) There was a country with which England was most intimately connected, and it produced by slave labour cotton, tobacco, and rice. These were the only articles of any magnitude which we were allowed to take from the United States. There were two millions and a half of slaves in America toiling, he was sorry to say, for this country ; but there were twelve millions and a half of free men in the splendid prairies, who pastured cattle and raised corn, and with these we were forbidden to treat (Hear, hear.) Mark the hypocrisy of those men who forced us to treat for slave-raised produce - alone with the United States, and who yet at public meetings pre. tended to have so great an anxiety that we should not treat with the Brazils for slave-raised sugar.—(Much laughter, followed by very great applause.) But this was not all, England compelled the great communities of free men to purchase their commodities through the slaves. The free State of Ohio could not receive our goods unless through the slave states, and they were consequelisly compelled to minister to slaves as much as we are. Now, what was the prospect which opened up to Liverpool as well as Manchester if the Corn-laws were repealed ? Why, the trade we might do with the twelve and a half millions of freemen, speaking our own language and having our own sympathies, was infinitely greater than that we now had with the slave states. Would not this, he asked the meeting, minister to their prosperity ? Would not it be advantageous to them, if twice as many ships came hither freighted with flour as there came ships from New Orleans ? There were boundless praries in the United States, on which suc cessive crops of corn might be raised almost without labour. There was the State of Illinois itself and he had been told by an intelli gent American in Birmingham, that that single State was capable of producing as much wheat as would give to every man in the United States, England, France, and Germany 31bs. of bread every day; and that State was as accessible to us as the counties of Sus sex and Devon, and only comprised one-thirtieth part of the sur face of the United States. We need not talk of the danger of Ame rica not taking our goods in return. The fact was, that they did take our goods ; and the only complaint that he had ever heard of was that they had a habit of taking more that they could conve. niently pay for. It was not with them as with the ports in the Bal tic. Was there a man with the spirit of a Christian, who would not rise up and protest against this mighty grievance ? He knew that they should have to encounter difficulties and ob jections, and this reminded him that one of the great lights of this town, one of the Nestors of commerce, Mr. John Glad stone, had said that we could not send out goods for corn, and that therefore there would be a drain for bullion if corn were imported. He the (speaker) had never heard this argument em ployed to restrain the importation by the aristocracy of one arti. cle that ministered to their luxury or convenience. In the course of his travels he had inquired wherever he went whither the best of lie productions of the place went. Lately, for in stance, he to, k a trip up the Mediterranean, stopping by the way at Lisbon. At Oporto there were immense cellars of wines, and on inquiry lie found that all the fine brands were going to Eng land. Melaza produced fine raisins and plums, and when he asked where the best were going to the answer was all to England. A little further on he encountered a specimen of the ingenious partiality of our lawmakers. At Genoa there is manufactured of fine flour an article called maccaroni, which came hither to mako soup, and was packed up in very delicate boxes and ha was told on inquiry that the finest are sent to England. Thus the aristocracy had no objection to the importation of flour when it came in the shape of an article of luxury for themselves. At Smyrna they talked of figs as the people in Manchester did of cotton, and he saw that the plumpest and most delicate of the fruit was packed up in drums to be sent to England. In Egypt he found persons employed in packing up luscious dates, and they told him that all the deli cate qualities were going to England. To complete the climax he got to the top of theAlps,and found that the Swiss were manufacturing Gruyere cheese, the finest of which went to England. It was very curious too that the beautiful and fine damasks, and the splendid silks of China worn by his family, and even the mahog any table lie ate from, should never have entered into Mr. Glad stone's recollection, when speaking of the sudden peril to this country from the drain of gold. Did he not fear that there should be a drain of gold for all the articles that had been enumerated ? If he (the speaker) were to go on from the places mentioned to the vast plains of Russia and Poland, or to the almost boundless prairie lands of America, where he might see pigs in the corn fields, stacks of wheat lying there to rot and waste, and the peo ple clad in the mean time in sheep skins, and ask why the superabundance was not sent thence to England. in exchange for the fustians that they would be de. lighted to wear, he should be told that there was a sliding scale of duties on corn in England that prevented their doing It.—(Loud cries of " Hear, hear.") He calculated that during the last 25 years we had imported about a thousand mil lions worth of foreign produce into this country. He meant of foreign luxuries or conveniences. This would give from 40 to 50 millions every year, and he believed that the whole amount of gold which was in circulation did not reach 25 millions at any time, and was it not curious that though we had imported so much there had never been a drain of gold for any of those things. When Mr. Gladstone: wanted to show that drains of gold might happen, he lost sight of those things imported for his luxury and pointed close to the small amount of corn imported, and to the consequent drain of gold. Yes, it was true that this drain of gold did follow that slight importation, and this was the very argument which they used against the sliding scale.—((Hear, hear, and cheers.) After a few ftather observations, in the course of whirls he con. tended strongly for a total and an immediate repeal of the Corn laws, the speaker concluded an idst vehement and prolonged applause. Mr. Dices, a tailor, then came forward to advocate the existing Corn.laws, of the justice of which he professed himself a firm sup porter, and entered into a long argument to show that the Anti- Corn.law League was only deluding the labouring population, as much as their object was so to reduce their wages as to enable them to compete with foreign labour in a neutral market. Mr. COBDEN briefly, but triumphantly replied, and carried with him the sufftages of nearly the whole of the vast assembly. Mr. W. RATDBONE then came forward amidst great applause, to propose the following resolution :—" That this meeting, deeply sensible of the gross injustiae, as well as impolicy cf the existing system of Corn-laws, pledge themselves to persevere in their exer. Lions for the total repeal of those laws." Mr. L. HEYWORTII seconded the resolution, which was carried by three dissentients only, and amidst the most rapturous demon strations of delight, Mr. Alderman &MIL then proposed that the best thanks of this meeting be given to the members of the Manchester Anti-Corn. law League, who have this day honoured Liverpool by their pre sence, for their powerful advocacy of the cause of justice and humanity. Mr. C. HOLLAND seconded the resolution, which was carried unanimously, and with loud acclamations. Thanks were then voted to the Chairman, and the meeting Sepa rated at a quarter to Twelve o'Clock. CORN-LAW CRISIS. The following extracts from the Country Papers will give some idea of the excitement which Lord John Russell's motion has created. (From the Derby Chronicle.) A more important week than that which is now ended will probably never be witnessed in the political history of this Empire. Since the days of the Reform Bill, no measure at all comparable to the momentous one to modify the Corn-laws, announced by Lord J. Russell has been brought forward. This great question has come upon us with the rush of an avalanche when seemingly most rooted and remote; just as the Reform Bill itself exceeded by its extent the most sanguine hopes of its expectants. A political, a financial, and a commercial crisis have happened at the same moment in conjunction, so as to force every man in the empire to range himself on one or the other side of this battle. This Ministerial defeat on Lord Morpeth's Irish Bill forced the Cabinet to pay their trump card at the end of the game. While an annual deficit in the re venues of the State, amounting to upwards of two millions, in the face of declining commerce and the expiration of our com mercial treaties with the Brazils and the United States, and the more and more rigid exclusion and competition of the Ger man States, all combined to threaten with malign aspect the star of England's supremacy. To resign inglori ously the Palladium of European liberty and progress into the hands of its deadliest foes, the Tories—to hang on in gloriously in a state of inaction " bombarding the Lords and the Commons with good measures" amidst the taunts of friends and foes, or to make one last final appeal to the magic of Re form, and to the enthusiasm of popular principles, were the al ternatives which presented themselves to the Whigs. The Ministry were not th e teen to " b ow b eneath the ills upon them piled." By one vigorous effort they have cut their way through the serried ranks of the monopolists, and once more stand in the vanguard of the battle. Disguises are thrown aside, and the twenty-seven millions of people and the thirty thousand oligarchs stand face to fate, " foot to foot and steel," under tried and trusty leaders. (From the Durham Chronicle.) THE CORN-LAWS—MINISTERIAL PROGRESSION.—OnCe more we hoist our flag for the Ministry ! They reformed the Poor-law, which was eating up the land ; and with equal wis dom and courage they have announced their purpose to alter the Corn-law, which, for years past, has been undermining the commerce of the country. It is a bold and manly course ; and regarding it as such we seize the earliest opportunity to declare our adhesion to their new scheme of fiscal policy. We feel the greatest satisfaction in doing this, because it has been more than once imputed to us, that we were amongst the unreasonable grumblers who had deserted the Reform Ministry to play the game of the Tories. But suffering by-gones to be by-gones, we now see the Whigs taking up "the question of questions,"—that on which the wel fare of the country depends—with something like the spirit which distinguished their conduct on the introduction of the Reform Bill. They have intimated their determination to stand or fall by the measure ; and the circumstance of one of their official connections—Mr. Gordon—having resigLed his seat, through dissatisfaction with their movement in commer cial reform, is an earliest that they are as fiim in their pur pose as just ar.d enlightened in their policy. This, vie con ceive, to be precisely the point at which a reunion between them and the earnest Reformers of England ought to take place. (From the Western Times). The falling state of the revenue has driven Ministers to a course pregnant with the most momentous consequences. They have determined to grapple with the existing Corn-laws, and alter the whole system of protection. The announcement was made by Lord John Russell in the House of Commons, last Friday night, and to-night he is to state the specific na ture of the proposed alteration, which is to substitute a fixed duty for the present sliding scale. This step has gained for the Ministry a burst of enthusiastic approbation in the manufac turing and populous districts ; but in the rural districts it will of course be differently received—the amount of the duty to be proposed being now the sole question of interost—when that is declared we shall haw° an opportunity of seeing how the matter is received in th• a?ricultural districts. All the towns of the north are already t I and alive, anxiously waiting for the Ministerial proposition, and prepared to give it effect. (From the Staffordshire Lxaminer.) We will not deny that on this struggle depends the existence of a Ministry hitherto deservedly obnoxious to thorough-going Iteformf.rs, and to the great bulk of the people. We do nut r seek to disguise that by assisting this movement of Govern,. ment, the people will renovate Ministers in office. Never ! the'ess, we conscientiously call upon every class of Reformers , strenuously to espouse the cause. By supporting Ministers on the present occasion, the vario us c l asses of Reformers whom they have dissatisfied, will best obtain the ability to discharge them for better men, in event of future provocation: By sup porting the present movement, those who advocate propositions to which Ministers are inimical, can best remove the obstacles to their propositions. Chartists, Anti-Poor-lawites, Educa tiotds's, and every other . peculiar class, cannot further ad vance their particular projects, if their views be right, than by contributing to destroy the bread-tax. ( From the Coventry Herald.) Let every homely working man do his duty himself, and in his own sphere, and we shall then fear nothing for Charlatans, either of one sort or another. The abolition of the bread mo nopoly is offered. The abolition of the sugar monopoly is offered. The abolition of the timber monopoly, which en hances the rent of every dwelling house erected, is offered. If the Tories and the Chartists combine to get these offers re jected, let every man put the question to these unnatural agents —can or will the Tories or the Chartists give anything better ? Succeed in breaking down these monopolies, and other monopolies of less magnitude must inevitably share the same fate. There can be no better rule adopted at the present crisis then to take exactly the opposite ground to the great landlord interest, and to imitate their energy at this opposite point—that is to say, exert as much energy as the landlords; but let it be in favour of what they oppose. (From the Hull Advertiser.) With heartfelt satisfaction we congratulate the friends of the national interests and the industrious classes of this country upon the wise and patriotic course adopted by Ministers—a course which has awakened both terror and exasperation among the supporters of monopoly and class legislation. if the people of the Unit e d Ki ng d om only prove true to themselves, the day of their deliverance from want, the consequence of iniquitous privileges and insufficient employment is at hand. An en lightened system of finance is now offered for public acceptance, and such a revision of the accursed Corn-laws as will render justice to the many without oppressing the few. (From the Leicester Mercury.) Men and measures must sometimes be distinguished. We will not, like the Ministerial Papers, call on the people to rally round the Ministers, but we do invoke them to assemble, in all their might, beneath the banner of Corn-law Repeal. We deem it a sacred duty to support so good a cause, by whomso ever it may be advocated; and were Sir Robert Peel to come into office next week—which, for ought we know, he may_ and to propose an alteration of the Corn-laws, we should re commend just the same course as we do now, and that is, to 'petition agitate in every possible way—not for the measure be fore Pailiament, but for total and immediate repeal, leaving the House to draw its own inference as to how much short of jus tice it may be safe to grant. (From the Brighton Herald.) All suffer now. Trade being bad, wages are low, millions unemployed, and many of those employed not half paid. With more trade would come increase of wages; with increase of wages, increase of consumption ; and all, even the agriculturist, would benefit. As it is certain that the Government will ap peal to the country before long, it will depend much upon the people whether they will have more trade, good wages, cheaper food, or whether they will have increase of taxation without any advantageous adjuncts ; the continuation of the Corn-laws; and misery and crime rapidly increasing. If they support and urge on the Government, much good may be done ;if they blindly and selfishly ,oppose the intentions of the Government, let them not hereafter complain, but submit quietly to the tyranny they will have assisted to establish. (From the Plymouth Journal.) _ _ That this question of opposing and various interests and of party spirit should be so manfully grappled by the Govern ment was beyond our fondest hopes. We honour the courage which has induced this bold adherence to this great measure of reform ; but that courage is upborne by the broad principles of wisdom and justice on which the alteration is founded. Nothing could follow more opportunely the late Government minority than the Micis'erial adoption of this measure. It will establish the present Ministry more firmly than ever in their country's esteem and confidence and ensure their sup port. The question of Corn-law repeal has within the past year made astonishing ground in the general conviction of its high expediency. We shall reserve any further remark until the Goverment measure is more fully knewn. In the mean time petitions should be sent up. Not an hour should be lost. (From the Nottingham Review.) This is a new prospect; this is a bright era opened to the view. All the lords will band together—the land-lords, the corn lords, the timber-lords, the West Indil-io;•ds, the aristo crats and monopolists of every size and feature, will conjoin with the Tories in a determined effort to overthrow the Minis ters. Were it a conflict only for power and place, we should say, let them alone, let them waste their time a n d th e i r powers i n the unholy strife, the time of the people will come. But the case is very different; if we are not mistaken, the time has now come. Let this long oppressed, burthened, and insulted nation unitedly avail itself of the opportunity offered at such an unlooked-for moment, and by putting forth its powers, as at the Reform Bill, crumble alt mcnopolies to the dust ! Probably there may never be another opportunity offered, in which it can be done without a bloody struggle ! " The people must gird up their loins for the battle, and consider that it is one for life and death. Not a day, not an hour is to be lost. Let every man bare his arm for the fight. A brief display of vigour and energy now may avert years and years of suffering. The best interests of the country are at stake, and the interval must be turned to account. .England expects every man to do his duty.' " (From the Kent Herald.) NECESSITY FOR FREE TRADE.—In making the financial statement for the year, the Chancellor of the Exchequer de veloped principles of commercial liberality, as welcome as un expected, in a reduction of the sugar and timber duties, and Lord John ItusAin crowned the dismay of the monopolists by announcing his intention of bringing forward the question of the Corn-laws with a view of substituting a moderate fixed duty for the present almost prohibitory restrictions. 't h i at tack on the stronghold of the the aristocracy excited among lords and gentlemen" the utmost astonishment and conster nation. The landed monopolists, the grinders of the poor, the oppressors of commerce, the destroyers of the national prospe rity, burst at occe into loud expressions of fear and anger. The cry of exul'ation out of doors was scarcelyless. The pro pet of food becoming cheap and plentiful, of trade reviving, of England's commerce again resuming its ascendancy, of na tions becoming bound together in amity by the enduring ties of mutual interest was hailed at once with grateful acclamations. (From the Wilts Independent.) THE Coax-Laws.—\\'e hail the announcement with joy not that we approve of any duty at all on the first necessary of life, but that we see a clear indication in it that public opinion is operating upon the Government, and that those who have buckled on the armour of Anti-Corn-lax agitation need but proceed in their course to achieve the most important vic tory that ever was won by human means. (From the Derby Reporter.) We remind those who deprecate this struggle, that it is in evitable. They may di sapprove of the Anti-Corn-law agitation, but it will go on, and no earthly power cart stop it. The mer chants and manufacturers of England are not a class to be put down by legislative enactments, aided by the sword. It would be a dark'day for England that should witness the attempt. They will go on to agitate, and rouse the masses; every year their exertions increase, and the Tory Poor-law agitation is adding to the vast amount of discontent, rapidly spreading throughout every part of the land. All this is tend ing to the ovei throw of a monopoly which enhances the price of food. The opportunity for settling this question is most op portune ; if neglected, such an one may not occur again, and hence it becomes an urgent duty that all whose habits and views lead them to deprecate strife, should join her Majesty's Government in the attempt to reconcile these conflicting in terests by such an adjustment as will at least put an end to dangerous agitation, if it do not give universal content. (Front the Kendal Mercury.) We " the people of Westmorland," were very glad, not very long ago, to have London news two or three days after date. Now, the London evening papers are spread on the tables of our reading rooms by eleven o'clock the following morning. Under ordinary circumstances, the Ministers should have resigned. But new circumstances immediately arose, which have sent the Irish Parliamentary voters' Bill into a temporary oblivion, and fixed the attention of the whole country—of the entire United Kingdom—on a question mightier, broader, deeper than the qualifica tion of Irish voters, for it is a question concerning the life and death of Englishmen and Scotchmen, as well as Irishmen—a question that touches landlords, farmers, masters, and servants—which touches capital and profit, labour and wages—a question, which, while it extends its influence over the civilised globe, and follows British commerce into the remotest seas, comes home to the British artisan, and glistens in the eyes of his children, when they mount his knee, and imploringly cry for bread. Last Friday week the Chancellor of the Exchequer opened his Budget. But before he did so, Lord John Russell gave warning note of preparation, by his an nouncement of an intention to move for a Committee of the whole House to consider the Acts relating to Corn. This was like a trumpet blast in the House. Then came the dreadful expose of the head man of the Exchequer. The revenue of the country was a great way below its expenditure—wh a t was to be done ? New taxes ? Oh, no ! New taxes in a country whose industry has been so deplorably crippled, and which ought to be prosperous and to a certain extent happy Therefore, if no new taxes be allowable, what then ? Liberate the industry of the country ; no longer shut it up within the prison walls of monopoly, for the benefit of the Governors of the vast House of Correction— " Open your doors, and let m e gang f ree, I darns stay longer in bonnie Dundee !" is the mournful song of the .Commerce of Great B r it a i n . The proposals of the Ministry d o not amount—they scarcely come near—to FREE TRADE : but they are an approach ; and as we have ill along advocated the expe diency of a gradual approximation, in order that all may be protected, and injustice done t o no b ody, we cannot but rejoice, in common with the c ountry, in the proposi tion of Ministers. A fixed and mo d erate duty on corn will lead to a steady and healthy t ra d e i n grain, aftbrd ict protectionurers to . com merce on a footing far different i from th e w il d, f i tful, ir regular condition in which it s at p resent ; and though we are far indeed from expecting a c ommerc i a l m il len- Itwill farmers, pavean nufi d give empl oyment to our ma the way to placing our nium, we have at least aright to expect, that instead of our commerce being sacrificed to the plough, it should be based on a system which will benefit plough and com merce together. We are not now going to argue the matter. We have done so very recently and repeatedly ; and be the fate of Ministers what it may, the step th ey have taken has given an impulse to the question, which not even twenty fory administrations could cheek. It is debating all over the length and breadth of the land ; every man feels it to be a question vitally aff ecting himself, an d i s therefore roused to its consideration. --- As to the miserable fallacy, that cheap provisions im death. work I lt al i% im ply low wages, and that it is no matte r to a work i ng half he h the e r p i r i i a c d e of 1839 man whether the quartern loaf is a shilli ng or a six pence, it may be left to die ° is fast expiring : the working man kn ows t h at in 1835 since. v and 1836, when corn was just The ,ar and I n Ei 4 de O t bhe ( e o t ii a n r r g gN to am abu ndantthan sharvests),that ever he miserable had more the m ore f oo d a man has for his family, the more miserable he becomes ; and that is an argument which even a beggar could answer, for he knows the difference between an empty and a full wallet. We are more afraid about the result of the modification of the sugar duties than about the Corn-law s . There are a number of philanthropic individuals in this country, with their heads and hearts so completely enlisted in the Anti-Slavery cause, that they are willing to maintain an injurious. Monopoly under the idea that they aro pro moting th e cause o f humanity. We give them full credit for their humanity, but it must not run away with their judgment. There are people at home to be benefited, as r well as people abroad ; and by admitting foreign sugars at a rate of duty quite sufficient to protect the West Indies, we not only take care of our own colonies, but by opening commercial relations with slave holding coun tries, we are opening channels for pouring into them our anti-slavery principles wider and broader than any other we can at present command. • The hattle commences —or rather commenced—on Friday night: All the great powers of monopoly are gfithering together, to defeat the intentions of the Ministry. . They may obtain a temporary triumph : but never will the industrious classes of this country rest until they place their trade and commerce on a footing, which will keep them from wasting their energies in use less exertions—from " labo ur i ng i n va i n , an d s p en ding their strength for nought." [We recommend the following petition, drawn up, we are assured, by working men at Lewes, to the considera tion of their class throughout the empire.] CHEAP FOOD ! FULL WORK ! HIGH WAGES ! In 1835, the price of Wheat, for the whole year, was Thirty-nine Shillings and Fourpence per Quarter :—the whole cost of the year's consumption (16,000,000 quar ters) was only 31,400,0001. leaving a large sum to be ex pended in manufactured goods of all kinds, which gave full employment to all. DEAR FOOD ! LITTLE WORK ! LOW WAGES In 1839, the price of Wheat, for the whole year, was Seventy Shillings and Eightpence per Quarter :—the whole cost of the year's consumption (16,000,000 Quar ters) was 56,533,0001. ! ! ! leaving 25,000,0001. less to spend on manufactured goods of all kinds than in 1835, which has thrown thousands out of employment, re duced wages, caused starvation, disease, and death ! To the Honourable the Commons of the United King dom of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled. The Petition of the undersigned Inhabitants of the borough of Lewes, in the county of Sussex, and its vicinity, Showeth,—That your petitioners consider themselves grievously oppressed by the operation of certain laws called the Corn and Provision-laws. That the avowed object and certain effect of these laws is to make bread sell at a high price ; and to prevent all kinds of butcher's meat, if produced and brought from foreign countries, from being sold at all. That from a Report of your Honourable House, it appears that a greater amount of money is taken from the people by these laws than by all the other taxes levied by Government, and that the amount has been estimated at fifty million pounds sterling per annum. That your petitioners are severely suffering from the want of profitable employment, which is felt alike by workmen and their masters ; and the want of profitable employment your petitioners learn from the Reports of your Honourable House, is, in a great degree, owing to the high price at which food is sold in this country, and which high price of food it is the object of the Corn and Provision-laws to produce. That your petitioners' wages do not by any means rise and fall with the price of their food, as certain ignorant and interested persons have often asserted, but appear to your petitioners to be much more influenced by the de mand which exists from time to time for the labour of the workman and the production of his industry. That in illustration of this opinion your petitioners record with sorrow their mournful experience of the few last years, during which the price of bread has doubled, while wages have barely advanced at all, and the con stancy of their employment has diminished. Your petitioners therefore pray your Honourable HOu — e forthwith to repeal the Corn and Provision-laws, and by so doing afford a free scope to the industry of your petitioners, and remove from the legislation of the country the stain and opprobrium of withholding from the people their daily bread. And your petitioners will ever pray. ENTERTAINMENT AT THE MAN SION HOUSE TO THE JUDGES. On Friday the Lord Mayor gave a very splendid en tertainment to the Judges at the Mansion House. There were amongst the gue;ts the Lord Chi e f J us ti ce o f t h e Queen's Bench, the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, Baron Park, Baron Gurney, Mr. Justice Pattison, Mr. Justice Coltman, Mr. Justice Coleridge, Sergeant Wrang ham, Sergeant Gazelee, Sergeant Halcomb, Mr. Hum phrey, Mr. Bullock ; Aldermen Sir C. J. Hunter, Sir Matthew Wood, Brown, Sir Peter Laurie, Farebrother, Lucas, Sir John Cowan, Wilson, Thomas Wood, Sir George Carroll, John Johnson, and Magnay ; Sheriffs Gibbs and Farncomb ; William Charles Pearson, the City Solicitor ; Mr. Potter, the Secondary ; Under-She riff James and Stone, &c., &c. After the usual routine of loyal toasts, The LORD MAYOR proposed " the Bishop of Llandaff and the Church," of which that Right Reverend Prelate was so distinguished an ornament. The Bishop of LLANDAFF returned thanks for the high honour done him by the company, in connecting his name with the ecclesiastical establishments of the coun try, of which he was an zealous, however unworthy and inadequate supporter. Those who were engaged in the direction of the affairs of the Church had many difficulties to encounter in the prosecution of their labours, but with the assistance of the civil ma gistracy, they entertained no doubt of being able to ac complish the great plan of the large extension of reli gious improvement.—(Cheers.) It might be expected that lie would make some allusion to the cathedral of St. Paul, with which, he was particularly connected. He hoped that the good feeling of the public would protect that great building from being subjected to desecration, by being thrown open to all ; and that the spirit of the party who, were endeavouring to effect that object, would always be successfully opposed. He trusted and believed that the cause of religion would be greatly ad vanced by the vigorous 'efforts of the clergy who were so strongly united in the endeavour to promote the great interests of the community.—(Cheers.) The LORD MAYOR next proposed the " Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, and the Judges of Eng land." It was, said he, the high ancient privilege of the Magistracy of the City of London to entertain her Ma jesty's Judges at the Mansion-house, and he felt deeply the - honour of seeing at his board so many characters of marked distinction for learning and virtue. Perhaps one of the most important duties and obligations upon a Chief Magistrate was to show respect for the dignitaries of the law of this great country.—(Applause.) Lord PENMAN thanked the company "for his brethren and himself. It had been said by the Lord Mayor that the Magistrates of London enjoyed the ancient privilege of entertaining the Judges at his hospitable board. He assured the Lord Mayor that the Judges considered it a very high and delightful privilege to partake of the hos pitality of the Mansion-house, and to enjoy the intimacy which invariably existed between them and the City Magistracy. The- opportunities which were afforded to the Judges, by that sort of intercofirse, of knowing the state of public feeling and opinion, gave them advantages which they could not otherwise obtain in consequence of the nature of their labours, and served to lighten those labours in no slight degree.—(Cheers.) The benefits which favourable public opinion was calculated to produce in the performance of the duties of public men were considerable, and there could be no doubt as to the ef feet of the expression of that opinion upon 'high' public functionaries.—(Cheers.) From the manner in which the company responded to the toast he and his brethren did infer that they performed their duties to the satisfaction of the public, without whose goo d o pi n i on and respect it would i n d ee d be impossible for them to perform their duties at all. The LORD MAYOR next proposed the " Army and Navy," stating that in the midst of their testimonies to the merits of the Church and the Bench, they must not forget the heroes who raised the nation's glory to so ex alted a pitch and good permanent security to this great empire. The toast was drunk with enthusiasm. The Bishop of LLANDAFF proposed the health of the Lord Mayor, under whose hospitable roof this company were assembled. He (the Bishop of Llandaff) had been long connected with the City of London, and had long experienced the friendship and hospitable kindness of the several Chief Magistrates who had filled th e c h a i r since his appointment.—(Hear, hear.) He was very happy to bear testimony at that _moment to the continuance in the present mayoralty o f th e goo d feeling which h a d so uninterruptedly existed, and to de clare that the present Chief Magistrate was peculiarly entitled to the acknowledgments of the Company for the courtesy, suavity of manner, and liberal hospitality which had been so conspicuous on every occasion in which his Lordship met his guests.—(Cheers.) The LORD MAYOR declared that he felt great pride at the manner in which his health had been proposed and received. He would next propose the health of his bro ther Magistrates, the Aldermen who had passed the Chair, and from whom he had received the most valu able assistance. Indeed, he might well take the oppor tunity of expressing his acknowledgments to them, as without their aid he would have had to contend against insurmountable difficulties.—(Cheers.) Sir C. S. HUNTER returned thanks, and adverted in laudatory terms to the firmness and manliness with which the Lord Mayor acted in resisting the encroach ment on the privileges of the Court of Aldermen, in the case of his election to fill the vacant gown in Portsoken Ward. Alderman J. JOHNSON returned thanks for the Alder men below the chair who were yet to arrive at the ho nour of presiding over the hospitalities of the Mansion house, where lie knew they would feel pride in following the excellent example of so amiable a predecessor. Sheriff GIBBS returned thanks for his coadjutor and himself. The company testified peculiar warmth of feeling when Sheriff Farncomb's name was mentioned, as it was perfectly well understood amongst them that the friends of that gentleman were most anxious to see him repre sent the ward of Bassishaw in the Court of Aldermen, and considered his election as indisputable. The LORD MAYOR, it proposing " The Bar," took occasion to observe, upon the spirit, zeal, and independ ence with which the gentlemen of that profession per formed their arduous duties which devolved upon them. Sergeant llALcomn, in returning thanks, said it was usual with the profession to charge each other with fi n di n g mares' nests. He and his Learned Friends who were assembled around him had never amongst all the mares nests which they had been so fortunate to find in their professional discoveries so comfortable a mare's nest as the Mayor's nest, in which they were at that moment sheltered and enter tained.—(Lausliter and ch eers. ) It would be, added he, the constant aim of the bar to defend the liberties and in terests of those for whom they acted with firmness, in tegrity, zeal, and independenee.—(Cheers.) The entertainment was of the highest order, and on this occasion was one of the few in which the distin guished members of the Bench are known to relax. The i i , im pagne, and Burgundy, and Claret, which wore of the first quality, passed round very briskly. The company separated at half-past ten o'clock highly delighted with the business of the evening. NAVAL INTELLIGENCE. (From the Hampshire Telegraph.) PORTSMOUTH, MAY B.—The Volage, 28, Captain G. Ellio, (with the flag of Rear-Admiral the Hon. G. El liot), arrived on Thursday, from the Cape of Good Hope and St. Helena. The Volage left the Cape on the 6th, and St. Helena on the 20th March. We are glad to state that the Gallant Admiral's health is considerably improved. Earl Minto arrived here yesterday to greet his brother on his return to England, and set off again for the Admiralty this afternoon. The Rear-Admiral struck his flag yesterday. The Edinburgh, 72, for England, and the Apollo, troop-ship, with the 60th Rifles on board, for the West Indies, arrived at Gibraltar on the 27th ult. The Britannia, which sailed for this port ablaut Christ mas, and presumed in a state fit for at least five years' active service, is now found at Malta in so decayed a state, that it is a qu es ti on if s h e w i ll attempt to return to England ; several of her bolts have drawn. It is true she experienced severe weather when she first es sayed to sailed from this port, and encountered a hard gale while at anchor in Marmorice harbour. The Bittern, a new 16-gun sloop of war, is forthwith to be commissioned by the Hon. Commander Cary, at this port. The Dublin, 50, is ordered to be got ready imme diately for commissioning. The Numa, transport, Lieut. E. Ward, arrived on Thursday in nine days from Gibraltar ; she b r i ngs home Colonel Chesney 's company of artillery, under the charge of Lieutenants Buchanan and Bland, together with 150 invalid soldiers from the sth, 47th, 59th, and 92d and Rifles. The Samarang, for Madras, sailed from Spithead yes terday. The experimental corvette, Modesto, designed by the Hon. Admiral Elliot, has, we are informed, been most successful in her trials of sailing with other vessels, and has beaten the Rover, a corvette of similar tonnage. The Rover is the fastest sailing ship constructed by Sir Wil liam Symonds, of ships of 28 guns and under. In sail ing on a wind, and especially in a stiff breeze and a head sea, the superior sailing of the Modesto over that of the Rover has been the most decided. The very re markable and important point of difference between these two vessels appears to be their draught of water—the Modeste's being more than two feet less than the Rover's ; and it thus appears that the talented Admiral has suc ceeded in effecting a most desirable improvement in the construction of a man of war, the Modeste being most easy in her motions, and having decidedly beaten the Rover with so much less draught of water. The great advantage of a small draught of water in a ship of war will be fully appreciated by naval men. The Boadicea transport, Lieut. Richard Ward, agent, is expected to call at this port on her way to Rio de Janeiro. The private ship, Prince Rupert, Captain H. James Atkinson, sailed on Tuesday for the settlement of New Zealand, having taken on board, at this sport, Mr. Spain and family, who is proceeding to that colony as the Commissioner for regulating and adjusting claims of land. Mrs. Spain is accompanied by her mother, Lady White, formerly of this town. The Dutch galliot Scheeps Bowlast, from Lisbon, for Maasslynns, arrived this morning with a Norwegian schooner in tow, laden with wine, which she found aban doned on the 29th ult. off Cape Finisterre ; the name of the schooner appears to be Harold Nicolay of Christian sand. On Tuesday arrived at the Motherbank the R.Y.C. schooner Gitana (belonging to N. Harvey, Esq.), from a voyage of pleasure in the Mediterranean, where she has been cruising for upwards of twelve months. She has touched at nearly all the Greek Islands—Smyrna, Con stantinople, the Bosphorus, and into the Black Sea ; indeed, almost every port in the Mediterranean. She is under quarantine. The schooner Jane, Reid, master, from Leghorn, with wheat and timber, for this port, was admitted to pra tique, on Wednesday„ and came into harbour, to dis charge. She left Leghorn on the 10th March, at which time there were about 30 English vessels loading, amongst which were the Hebe, Green ; Don Juan, Luscomb ; and Patelina, Strong. She also spoke, off Scilly, on the 30th ult., the schooner Elizabeth, of and from Dartmouth, bound to Oporto, and requested to be reported. In Harbour—Queen, Victory, Excellent, Royal George, Fair Rosamond, Comet and Echo, steamers. At Spithead—lndus, Vernon, Volage, Pelican, Nau tilus, and Rapid. PROMOTIONS AND APPOINTMENTS. PROMOTIONS. —Mates —W. W. Wilson, and A. S. Austen, to the rank of Lieutenant. APP OINTMENTS. —Commander—The Hon. B. C. F. P. Cary to the Bittern. Lieutenants --Arthur Kennedy, to the Acorn ; Wil liam Rees Davies, to the Niagara ; George Williams, to Land Surveying Service, Scotland ; C. limber, to the Indus ; W. H. Bridge, to the Excellent ; George Wode house, to the Queen, vice Tringham ; D. Reid, to the Monarch. Surgeon—.T. Salmon, to the Medea. Assistant-Surgeons—Robert Fulton, M.D., to the Bel leisle ; Charles Fergusson, to the Cornwallis ; Alexander Scott, to the Fair Rosamond. Mates—Thomas E. Sanders, to the Caledonia ; D. H. M'Neill, to the Acorn ; E. Hardy, from Excellent, and Henry Burroughs, to the Indus. • Midshipman—W. G. Douglas, to the Cornwallis. Master's Assistant—W. F. Palmer, to the Polyphemus. Gunner—Joseph Woodman, to the Acorn. Coast Guard—COinmander A. T. GOldie, to be Inspect ing Commander. Medical Officers—ln consequence of the recent death of Mr. Dunn, Peter Suther, Esq., is appointed Surgeon of the Woolwich Dockyard ; James Prior, Esq., becomes Surgeon of the William and Mary yacht ; Isaac Noot, Esq., is appointed Surgeon of the Royal Sovereign yacht. The Earl of Minto has appointed W. D. Christie, Esq., his Private Secretary, in the room of Lord Melgund. The Royal Naval Club held their quarterly dinner at the Fountain Inn on Thursday, Sir Richard Grant in the Chair ; about thirty officers and their friends sat down to one of Mr. Nance's best . displays of the good things of this life. PLYMOUTH, MAY 6.—The Lightning steamer, Lieut. Waugh, arrived from Liverpool, and proceeded the same day for Woolwich. The Driver and Geyser steamers arrived from Pembroke on Thursday, and are since gone to Woolwich, where the Geyser is to be fitted for com mission. On Saturday the St. Anne transport arrived from Portsmouth, and • embarked a de tachment from the 85th depot, and proceeded for Canada with other detachments to join the service compa nies.. The Portsmouth yacht sailed on Saturday, for Wales, having on board the Rear-Admiral-Superin tendent of Portsmouth Dockyard. The Polyphemus steamer, Lieut. Evans, and Cockatrice schooner, Lieut. Oxenham, arrived from Portsmouth on Tuesday. The Minden, 72, was undocked on Thursday, having had a thorough repair. In Harbour—Caledonia, San Josef, Cornwallis, Polyphemus, Wilberforce, Albert, Avon, Carron, and Adventure transport. In the Sound—lm pregnable, Belleisle, and Cockatrice. SAD MISTAKE.—When a female member of he British Royal family holds a levee, it is customary for her to kiss the ladies of the nobility, and no other& It happened that the lady of the Lord Justice Clerk was, on one occasion, among the number of those presented to the late Princess Amelia, who, as it is well known, was very deaf. " Stand by for my Lady Justice Clerk," said the man in waiting. Meanwhile, some meddling person whis pered him that his announcement was incorrect, the lady being a commoner. By this time the kiss preliminary was about to be performed, when out bawled the man of office through a speaking trumpet, " Dont kiss her, Ma dam, she's not a lady I" SARK SILVER MINES.—We derive the fol lowing information from a respectable source at Guernsey . : —The existence of a s il ver mine , lik e l y to b e pr o ductiv e , in the Island of Sark, appears to be no longer a matter of doubt. In addition to the high opinion entertained by every expe rienced person who has inspected the Sark Mines, we have with much pleasure read the report of W. J. Henwood, Esq., F. R. S., and her Majesty's underground mine sur veyor in the Duchy of Cornwall, in which he gives a most satisfactory and encouraging account of the undertaking, and which has since been confirmed by the discovery of silver ore in the forty fathom level (the greatest depth yet attained), producing 639 oz. of fine silver to the ton of ore. It appears the ore improves both in quality and quantity as the works descend, and although the greatest depth at pre sent attained compared to other mines is but very trifling, upwards of 15,000 oz. of silver have been raised, besides many tons of lead. There is a silver mine now working in Brit tany which has been producing a profit of 50,000/. per an nual for some time past, the characters of which are known to resemble that of Sark ; and from the direction it bears is not unlikely to be a continuation of the same vein, asmine ral veins have been traced to a much greater distance than that between Sark and Brittany. Mr. Henweod also speaks favourably of the Herm Copper Mines, an under taking which we understand is about to be carried on with takingsincreas wiedvl;igour. As the prosperity of b ot h t h ese under be of great importance to the Channel Is lands, as well as to the proprietors, we hope the opera tions will continue to be crowned with success.—Jersey Tintes. (Specimens of the rich ore from the forty fathom level may be seen on application to the Secretary of the Royal Gallery of Practical Science, Adelaide-atteet, Strand.) T • SUGAR MONOPOLY.—The working classes pay more than one-third over the amount of the fair market price for their sugar, in order to sustain the West Indian interest ; of every sixpence spent in sugar, twopence at least is plunder. The Government propose to relieve the people from this burthen, and all the West Indian monopolists are up in arms. They roar out that the plan will encourage slavery—as we pay them the extra twopence because they are so benevolent as not to use slaves. But it should be borne in mind that, so far as these West India gentlemen are concerned, they held their slaves till we paid them twenty millions of British gold for their emancipation ; and that even after they had ob tained the money, th e y endeavoured, under the name of apprenticeship, t o screw ou t th e slavery to th e last minute of the bond. Moreover, with all their horror of slavery, they use the slave-grown sugar (after it is re fined in this country in bond), which they buy at 4d. per lb., in order to e nable us to take all the ir f ree - grown sugar at 6d. per lb. This cant will not do in a tea-pot question.— Western Times. STATE OF TRADE.--The market remains al most without change. A little more inquiry has tak en place in yarns, but the prices submitted to are ruinously low. In cloth the business done is trifling, and very low prices alone will effect even the small amount of busines s to be done. Twenty-seven inch 66-reed printers are sell ing at ss. 71d. to 58. 9d, Seventy-two r ee d s at ss. 100. to 6s. 3d. Forty's mule twist, lOid. to l ld. Thirty's wa ter twist, 104-d. to Mid., for good s econd qualities It may not be improper to observe, th at a feelino• of hope for the future " appears to be gaining ground amongst exporters, in consequence o f the probabilityof a speedy change in the Corn-l aws an d sugar monopoly.— Manchester Tunes. MORN LNG DITI ON. THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. THE BILL INTRODUCED ON THURSDAY EVENING BY THE DUKE OF ARGYLL TO REGULATE THE EXERCISE OF CHURCH PATRONAGE IN SCOTLAND. Whereas by an Act passed in the tenth year of the reign of her late Majesty Queen Anne, intituled "An Act to restore the patrons to their ancient rights of preserving Ministers to the churches vacant in that part of Great Britain called Scot land," the rights of patrons to present to vacant parishes in Scotland, which by an Act of the Scottish Parliament passed in the first year of their late Majesties William and Mary, had been discharged, annulled, and made void, were restored to the said patrons. And whereas the exercise of the said rights of patrons, in the manner and to the extent in which the same were restored under the said Act of her late Majesty Queen Anne, has at various periods occasioned great discensions in the Church and among the people of Scotland, and has given rise to sundry evils and inconveniences which it is expedient for the future to obviate by certain modifications of the said rights of patrons as hereinafter provided. May it therefore please your Majesty, that it may be enact ed ; and be it enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, and by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and emporal and Commons in this present Parliament assem bled, and by the authority of the same, that if, at the meeting held for moderating in a call in favour of a Presentee to any Church or parish in Scotland, the major part of the male pa rishioners r members of the congregation to which the minis ter is to be appointed (being r.f the age of twenty-one years complete), who, at the date when the then existing vacancy in the said Church or parish occurred, were in full communi cation with the Church of Scotland, shall not concur in the said call either by subscribing the same, or by not expressly dissenting therefi oin (all who do'not so dissent being holden as concurring), but shall appear before the Presbytery, and state in its presence their dissent from the call ; and if, after the Presbytery shall have endeavoured, in the manner here inafter provided, to remove ;any misapprehensions that may appear to them to exist in the minds of the parties so dis• senting, their number shall not, by withdrawal of their dissents, be reduced to less than a majority of the whole male communicants as aforesaid, and the Presbytery or superior Church Judicatory reviewing its judgment, do not find that the said dissent proceeds from factious or malicious motives, or otherwise than from a conscientious regard to the religious in terests of the congregation—all r ght competent to the Pre sentee under his presentation shall thereLre cease and deter mine ; and upon a final deliverance by the Presbytery or supe rior Church judicatory to that effect being pronounced, the patron shall have power to issue another presentation to a dif ferent Presentee, provided the same be done within the period of six months allowed by law to patrons for pre=euting, it being declared always that, in computing the said period of six months the interval which elapses between the lodging of any presentation with the Presbytery and the final deliverance pro nounced thereupon by the Presbytery or other Church judi catory, shall in no case be reckoned or included • and failing of the patron issuin g an oth er p resentat i on within the said period, so computed, the jus devolutuna shall take effect in manner hereinafter provided. Provided always, and be it further enacted, that the indivi duals composiug, in each parish or congregation, the body of male communicants her e i n bef ore mentioned as entitled to dis sent from the call shall be ascertained, and the mode of stating their dissent before the Presbytery, :hall be fixed and regu lated in such manner as the Church may direct ; and itshali in all cases be incumbent on the Presbytery, before pronouncing any final deliverance on the said call, to take such means as to them shall seem most expedient to ascertain that the dissent of the major part of the male communicants as aforesaid, does not proceed from factious or malicious motives, and further, if they see cause to take such means as they may judge suitable for removing misapprehensions from the minds of the people, and obviating their objections to the p resen t ee ; an d i t s h a ll in all cases b competent to the patron or the presentee, who may allege that the said dissent proceeds from factious or ma licious motives, to establish the same before the Presbytery or superior Church Judicatory by evidence, competent accord ing to the law of the Church in the judgment of the said Ju dicatories. And - be it further enacted, that in no case in which, in virtue of the provisions of this Act, the right of any presentee under a presentation in his favour shall have ceased, as afore said, shall it be competent for the Presbytery of the bounds, in any event, to claim el- exercise any right tanquam jure devo luto to present to the said Church or parish for that vacancy, any law or practice to the contrary notwithstanding; and if thereafter the patron shall fail within the time by law ro vided, and computed as aforesaid, t o i ssue a presentation which shall prove effectual to fill the vacancy, the right to pre:ent to the said church or pariah for that vacancy, shall thereupon de volve upon and be exercised by her Majesty and her heiri and successors, as fully and freely in all respects the right to pre sent tauquanijure devoluto is at present used and exercised by Presbyteries of the Church; the presentations or successive presentations so issued by her Majesty and her heirs and suc cessors, being always subject to the provisions of this present Act. STEAA NAVIGATION ON THE THAMES. The greatest activity prevails on all parts of the river in building and fitting out new steaue-vessels, of all di mensions, intended for the home and foreign service ; and the ship-builders, iron steam-boat makers, engineers and boiler manufacturers, have more orders than they can execute to time. The men are working over.hours at several yards and factories, and realizing large wages. The fame of London steam-boats and London engines has spread all over Europe ; and recemly the Mongi hello, a beautiful steam-ship, has been launched and fitted out on the Thames for the Sicilian Government, and is one of the finest vessels ever designed by English artizans. She was built in Pitcher's yard. The fit. tiogs up of the Mongibelie are of a very costly descrip tion. Other steam-vessels are building on the banks of the Thames for the Sicilian and other Italian Stater. The building of six large steam vessels has been cone- . menced at Nortlifint, for conveying the mails be. tween England and the West Indies, and not less than 500 shipwrights are employed upon them. The iron steam-boat factory of Messrs. Ditchburn and Marc pre sents a busy appearance ; they have recently launched two handsome steamers for the Watertnee's Steens- Packet Company ; four others are in a forward state for the same Com; any, and a large iron steamer to run bete ern Hungerford Market and Gravesend, for the Star Company. The building of iron steamers at Bleckwell and the Isle of Dogs has become a very im portant branch of trade, and for rivers and shallow waters they are decidedly superior to wooden boats, for they arc much lighter, they are not so deep in the water, they are less expensive, and there is no risk or their being attacked with the dry rot. The London and Westminster Steam-boat Company, running be tween Chelsea and London-bridge, have eight of these boats, called the Daylight, Twilight, Starlight, Moon light, Bride, Bridegroom, Bridemuid, and Bachelor. The Waterman's Steam-packet Company intend build ing twenty of these iron boats, at an expense of 3,0001. each. They ere intended to run between Woolwich and Richmond. The Black.. wall Railway Company are making great aorta to improve their property by establishing a line of steam packets to run between the terminus at the Brunswick-wharf, Blackwell to Woolwich and Graves end. Three small steamers now leave the terminus every quarter of an hour for Woolwich, and the dis- Lance between London and Woolwich can now be ef fected in half an hour. The Blackwell Railway Coin. pang have also built three large steamers to run between the terminus and Gravesend. One has been voyaging between the two places for the last fortnight, and the average passage each is about an hour and a quarter. Two are fitting out in the East India dock ; yesterday they appeared in a very forward state ; they are built very sharp in the bows, and are, indeed, regular clip pers. When those steamers are completed there will be a regular hourly communication between the Blackwell terminus and Gravesend. There are now 14 steamers carrying passengers daily between London and Graves end. In addition to those, others occasionally call at Gravesend, and there will soon be 3 from the Blackwell railway terminus. A powerful steamer, belonging to Mr. Napier, the engineer, called the Eclipse, has lately commenced running between London and Margate, calling at Herne Bay. This Eclipse is propelled by one high-pressure engine, and her speed is wonderful. She performs the passage from Hungerford to Margate and back every day in about 12 hours, calling at Herne Bay going and returning. The two handsome steam vessels, the City of Canterbury and the Red Rover, which have been running between London and Herne Bay with so much success for several years, have met with another opponent this year in addition to the Eclipse —the Mercury, but the Red Rover and the City of Canterbury will never lose their fame. The cid steamers are more commodious and comfortable than the new ones, and are built with a broader beam and with much greater strength than those which have been launched during the last two years. Ever) thing is now sacrificed to . speed, acid many of the new steamers are very slight. They are very a ppropriately termed " bread a n d b u t ter b oa t s ," and cannot b eat collision w ith a s kiff. T er e et - n s w t i e c a h me a ra nd are Con. stantly running between G but their receipt s du r ing th e present seaso n h ave not been sufficient to pay for coals, which may be attributed to f d .r n e ri h ng the present the heavy pier dues and the formidable rivalry o f the Greenwich Railway, which has a third-class carriage in great trade, and dailv b ' which passengers are c arried for Gd., being 2d. less than Commercial Steam-packet Cote. s s t p e i a g n s t ; b a h n i p d s the steamers. There has been no increase in the nuns ring op but not very meat for the the world, with their ber of Irish and S c c aa o t t t c l h e London pl y aa c rn a gy r e aqr but amda they tnkigee st a. d o oi The steady brisk trade. mo General .'team Navigation Company, the most ex tensive abl e :managing di rector, Thomas Brockelbank, Es • cf., are increasing their powerful and immense fleet of steamers . have lately _aye l ate l y purchased the Wilberforc in for the Hamburgh statioo. aiTh e, a large steam-ship, e General Steam Navi gation Company have re cen tly l aunched the Princess Royal from Wigrarn and G reen's yard, at Blackwell, and are fitting her out. for the s Ipswich tr ade _ with en gines and machinery of 200 ors power. The greatest activity prevails at the factory of this company at Dept ford in fit t i ng out new st eamer s . Last year the vesse l s of the General Steam Na vigation Company carried. more than two millions of passengers without the lose of a single individual, or any one receiving the slightest injury. This speaks volumes in favour of the safety of steam navigation when properly conducted., ---Sunday paper, 'he Commission on Greenwich Hospital Schools have recommended, and the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty have approved the reconnendation, that the office of Captain Superintending the Schools should be that as asbescooomn le the d arr isp an en g s e e m d en w t i s t h n ; cnv and i it is in contemplationtended the duties heretofore assigned to the p-' Ca Captain shall devolve upon the Masters, whose ntunbers are to be considerably increased. The whole of Captain Huskisson's duties at the school ceased on Tuesday the 27th of April, with the exception of his being retained aa one of the Committee for examining the claims of, find selecting children for, the Lower School.—Hampshire Telegraph,