The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-06-09 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS mndent who has given ns his name, but whose letter find room for, complains with apparently the son , of the very deficient supply f water to the i of Lime-street. We hope complaint. A correspondent enquires • ,e reason why the Town y to accompany her Royal sion of laying the fonnda It is not in accordance , C tion st ,sort to Liverpool, on the Jr of the Sailor's Home tte to do so. ( such occasions her .Mojesty arc enabled to state that in !ceiv , sd, the Council will ba quite prepared with the necessary arrangements for her re ception. er of reviews of new publications shall appear ne'st (ht Lthtrpool tailbarTi. TUESDAY MORNING, JUNE 9, 1846 Sir Robert Peel appears likely to experience, in a few days, a little of Whig gratitude. When in op position, he saved Lord John Russell's ministry, on a score of occasions, from being defeated by their ultra-radical allies. He supported their coercion bill. He threw the influence of his party into the scale whenever any unpopular measure, necessary or unnecessary, for the public interests and safety, was in jeo ardy. In office, he has passed their much desiderated Corn Law Repeal Bill ; and no doubt thought that he was about to be idolized by the " friends of the people." Alas, for the hopes of vacillating and temporizing men ! Sir Robert is not to reap, for long, the gratitude of the Russell and Cobden section of the Parliament. He bid over Lord John's head in his Corn and Customs Bill, and Lord John is about to bid above him for the support of the Irish repealers, by strenuously oppos ing the Assassination Prevention Bill. Referring to the recent meeting of Whig members convened by Lord John Russell, upon the subject of this bill, the London Times, of yesterday, says : To all appearance, Sir Robert Peel's fate is sealed. A few days back, and he was saved from defeat by a con olave of Whig peers at Lansdowne-house; now he is threatened with destruction by a synod of Whig mem bers in Chesham-place. Within a month the Whigs will Lave preserved and annihilated the Conservative Minister. Sir Robert Peel's positio❑ is neither strange nor unan ticipated. Strange it cannot be to one who has shown himself equal to every variety of fortune; anticipated it must have been by a Minister who has only preserved his position by the assistance or the sufferance of two great patties to which he is equally opposed. An escape from his present danger seems only possible by another concession to his adversaries. He may withdraw the co ercion bill, and with the aid of his old friends the Protec tionists fight the battle of the sugar duties against the Whigs; but one thing seems certain—that on the Irish measure he must, if he perseveres, be defeated. Indeed, as it was only by the aid of the Whigs that he was ena bled to carry:the first reading, it seems to follow of course that, when that aid is withdrawn, he will not be able to carry the second. The Protectionists have only to stand aloof, and leave him with his six score of personal follow ers to fight it cut with the whole phalanx of the Whigs, who more than double his numbers. Such is the danger ; but, nevertheless, the Premier, we believe, will remain faithful to the Coercion Bill, choosing to fall, as so many have done before him, under the pres sure of an Irish difficulty. We will not say how far this determination is prudent, but at least we must admit it to be decent. Neither the Mini , ' er nor his friends can wish to prolong such an unequal struggle as that to which, since tine passing of the Corn and Customs Bills in the Lower House, they have been exposed. The very notion of Government is outraged by the existence of a ministry nominally in power, but in reality at the mercy of its estranged friends or its natural opponents on every petty question on which a division may be called for. A few days, therefore, will decide the fate of the present Minis `Ty, if it be not rather already decided. Before the ex 'ion of the week we may see the formation of another and the return to power of a party which, what- Ay be its defects, will come in with all the prestige dted victory, and the merit of Saving mainly and honestly contributed to the success of a me Pi Camne., a recent and !onz-c6r sure the most comprehensive and the most impor- tant of modern times We observe tha Morning Herald has another version of the matter. That journal states Sir Ro bert's determination to withdraw the bill, and to try We fancy, however, that the firmer is most likely to be right; but it is difficult to speculate upon the conduct of such a statesman. liation again At the time when the proposed extension of the Dock Estate, by the purchase of the property in Wapping, was first mooted, we took some pains to bring the scheme, not only in detail, but pictorially as well, before our readers ; and at the same time ex pressed the strong feeling which we entertained of its value to the commerce of the port. We esteemed it, as we now esteem it, one of the most important local measures ever submitted to the public and to parliament; and we have now to congratulate the people of Liverpool—and, we may add, all to whose industry and enterprise the Mersey affords facilities —upon the safe passage of the measure through the Cemmittee of the upper }lons,: of Parliament. Al though its, progress has been assailed by an opposi tion unparallelled in determined severity—although we have seen arrayed against it influences apparently the most irreconcileable—a late Dock Trustee, and present representative of a Liverpool constituency, in unholy alliance with what, by the voluntary acts of its own promoters, must now be set down as a scheme competing with the Dock Estate of this town—the bill has passed the Committee in all its integrity, and, as we shall show, with even increased advantages and powers conferred by the opponents themselves upon the Dock Trustees. The public will by this time have arrived at the fact, that a clause has been procured to be inserted in the Bill which was not originally contemplated, and may probably be dwelt upon as a triumph over the Dock Committee. To some extent this circum stance is attributable to an error on the part of one of the promoter's counsel, who offered to the oppo nents of the Bill clauses containing terms somewhat beyond his instructions, which clauses, with a tri fling modification, their Lordships would not permit to be withdrawn. We give, in order to put the pub lic in possession of the exact state of the case, the clauses themselves as agreed to : AND ItE IT ENACTED, that the said trustees shall apply, and they are hereby directed to apply, within two years from the expiration of the preaent session of parlia ment, for an act to enable them to build warehouses upon and around the quays of all the docks made or now being made in Liverpool aforesaid, belonging to and being under the control of the said trustees ; and that the said trus tees shall not proceed with the construction of the Wap ping Docks (or of any other dock or basin) to the cast of the King's Dock, so delineated as aforesaid on the said plan, and described and comprised in the said book of reference, or intended so to be delineated, described, or comprised, until such act of parliament as aforesaid shall have been obtained. And be it further enacted, that no warehousd shall be i down, removed. or destroyed by the said trustees Joh as it may be necessary to pull down, remote of forming or widening any d by this act to be formed or quays of the Albert or destroy for the pnrpo street or streets so authori uth and d by this or ent to be erected on the north d dock, shall be opened for the the completion and finishing ase of the public a thereof, Now, what we a must be the ffect, for practi- cal purposes of these clauses inserted in the bill. The trustees are directed by the first clause to apply within two years from the expiration of the present session for an act to enable them to build warehouses round the quays of all the docks made or being made. Obviously, so far as it may have been intended to have been coercive upon the Dock Trustees, the clause must he perfectly inoperative. Suppose they go to Parliament for warehouses round all the dock quays, what capital must they ask for ? Five millions, or ten millions, or twenty millions, or even more ? Why any committee would laugh at them— would tell them that they could not raise the money. They may go to Parliament for such an absurd bill; and as the result they will perhaps he told to select what docks they consider it advisable to sur round with warehouses, and to take powers to raise what limited sum they consider it prudent to expend. There is nothing here at which any member of the Dock Committee can take exception. On the contrary many will be delighted with the fact, that without any breach of faith on their part, theyare released by the legislature from the restriction imposed upon them by their agreement with the warehouse owners, and are practically allowed to exercise, with respect to the erection of dock warehouses, their own judgment. The latter part of the clause which restricts the Trustees from commencing the Wapping Dock until the act of Parliament is obtained is similarly innocuous. The Trustees, by their utmost exertions, would not be in a position to proceed with the Wapping Dock before the expiration of that period ; and for the same reason the second clause restricting them as to pulling down warehouses is also a mere brutum fulmen. Our readers may perhaps_like to see the kind of 1 stringent clauses which would have suited Mr, Evan Here they arc AND W HEREAS, the erection of warehouses for the re „„„,tc. ~,prphnudise uuon the ouays port of Liverpool, will furnish additional security to mer chants, and will remove the opportunities which ric,w exist for the commission of crime. BE IT TIIEREFORE ENACTED, that the said trustees shall apply, and they are hereby directed to apply in next ensuing session of Parliament, to enable them to build warehouses upon and around the quays of all the docks made or now being made in Liverpool aforesaid, belonging to or under the con- trol of the said trustees. And that the said trustees shall not proceed with the construction of the Wapping Dock and Basin, or with the construction of any other dock or basin by this act authorised to be made to the east of Kinv,'s Dock, or with the construction or enlargement of the Salthouse Dock so respectively delineated as aforesaid on the said plan, and described and comprised in the said book of reference, or intended so to be delineated, de scribed, or comprised, until suchact of Parliament as last afocesaid shall have been obtained. AND BE IT FURTHER ENACTED, that no warehouses shalt be pulled down, removed, or destroyed by the said trustees, except such as it may be necessary to pull down, remove, or destroy for the purpose of the intended rail way, but for no other purpose whatsoever, until the act of Parliament for the erection of such warehouses as aforesaid shall have been obtained by such trustees. A comparison will show how far the committee sympathised with this gentleman's policy. We have already referred to the incongruous al liance patched up between Mr. Eyre Evans and the Birkenhead Dock Commissioners to oppose this Dock Bill—a bill wh'ch will effect more in the way of giving facilities to the commerce of Liverpool than any other Bill ever propounded to Parliament, and is likely to inflict a most damaging blow to the inte rest of the Herculaneum Dock scheme; for with a dock and warehouses east of the King's Dock, and at the very mouth of the Railway Tunnel; with a chain of Railways connecting the whole of the docks from north to south with each other, and with this tunnel ; the: undertaking in question must beseriously injured. It will be seen, from our report, that the landing accommodation on this side of the river is left to be provided by the Dock Committee, accord ing to their original plan. Since the Commissioners have placed themselves in the position of rivals to the Dock Trustees, we can conceive some excuse for their opposition to this bill ; but for Mr. Evans's course of proceeding, we cannot find any legitimate ground. Although he seems to think that the acreage of the port has always kept pace with the tonnage, and that, with even the present system of dock working, instead of the 80 acres of dockage forming at the north end of the town, 24 acres would meet every requirement, yet the real facts of the case were ably stated by the Chairman of the Dock Com mittee, at the last Council meeting. It was shown that, in 1815, the docks and basins of the port extended ol er 52 acres ; the tonnage was 709,849 tons, or 13,600 tons pet acre. In 1825, there were 71 acres of dock space ; tonnage, 1,233,820, or 17,200 tons per acre. In 1835, the dock room was 99 acres ; the tonnage 1,768,426, or, per acre, 17,800 tons. In 14145, the dock space was 120 acres; and the tonnage was 3,016,531, or 25,000 tons per acre! Our existing docks had to accom modate, in 1845, five times the tonnage turned out of the London docks; and, assuming the port to remain stationary, and all the new docks, now in progress and proposed, to be in actual operation, we should he at the present moment n precisely the same posi tion, as to comparative acreage and tonnage, that we were in 1815, when the Prince's Dock was about to be constructed ! The value of Mr. Evans's opinion, that the com merce of the port is likely to decline, may he judged of from the following facts. In the session of 1344, Mr. Evans, when examined before a committee of parliament, appeared to think that the timber trade was not likely to increase. The actual consumption up to the commencement of the preceding year, 1543, had been thirteen millions odd. To that of 1844, however, it incr:ased to fourteen millions odd ; to that of 1845, to thirty-one millions odd ; and to the commencement of the present year, it has risen to 35 millions odd ! With respect to the general tonnage of this declining (!) port, Mr. Bramley Moore informs us that, notwithstanding the increase of last year, amounting to the enor mous sum of 383,000 tons, the increase in the pre sent year, up to the 2d instant, was the further amount of 152,509 tons. Such a statement speaks volumes in favour of the course adopted by the able Chairman of the Dock Committee and his col leagues. Tho Corn and Customs Bill may now be con sidered to be, in effect, carried. We are, as a com munity, embarked upon the current of free trade and competition, with each other and with the world. It is time, therefore, that we were beginning to enquire what is the course which we are to pur sue, and what the exertions which we have to make to enable us to sustain ourselves under the coming struggle. Let us first take the case of the agricul turist, for upon him the pressure will first fall. We shall presume that the promoters of our free trade policy can now afford to lay aside the delusive sophistries which they have used in the course of their advocacy of that policy. They will admit to the farmer that he will be called upon to sell his grain for a reduced price. For a time, probably— in the present state of foreign cultivation, and with the deficient continental crop of last year—the re duction will not be great. For a time the opening of our markets may raise prices abroad ; but even, at present, it will not be contended that foreign prices can rise to the rate of those in British markets. They will most likely meet midway at first, with a downward tendency, as the foreign cul tivator directs more of his energies towards supply ing our demand. The farmer must therefore pre pare to reap a profit from his capital and industry with diminished prices for the produce of his land. How is this to be done? " Improved cultivation, more perfect agricultural implements, draining, fenc ing, manuring," is the reply which we shall hear. But all these things imply the possession of ade quate capital, of which, perhaps, the farmer is not in possession. The resource •f those who are un happily in this emergency, must, of necessity, be the landlord, who must assist them, either by direct ad vances, or by forbearance in the collection of rent. But where neither farmer nor landlord have the ne cessary capital—where the former is a small holder only, with small means, living from hand to mouth, and only a grade or two removed from the condi tion of a labourer, and the iatter cannot go a day beyond the stipulated term for the receipt of the rent, which is his sole available income, what is to be done ? The answer is obvious. Such a man must resign his farm to the agricultural capitalist, who alone can develop fully the resources of the land, and withstand the competition to which agri cultural industry is exposed. Such small farmers must become labourers. But the class above this have also sacrifices to make; and those sacrifices will not be made with great alacrity. Personal and household expenses will have to be diminished. A riding horse or two, it will be found necessary to dispense with ; music lessons must be curtailed in quantity, although the piano-forte may remain in the now modestly fur nished parlour; a Yorkshire school, of the Squeers sort, may become the substitute of the academies at present resorted to for education by the young gentleman farmer. The Leger, or the Derby, the cup at Ascot or at Goodwood, may be run for with out the trim white cords, the well polished top boots, or the sganking hunter of that young gentle• man, being seen upon the course. In a word—and we sly it not in mockery, although some of the class of whom we speak are not the best specimens of humanity, whose reducti6n in the social scale to make a-grievance of—the race of gentlemen farmers must descend into the condition of practical far mers, lay aside guns and dogs, hunters and scarlet . coats, and look after the more profitable occupation of improving turnip crops and fattening cattle. To this class we would recommend the very different course of action, pursued by our scientific farmers —by men, even, who although not dependent upon farming as a business, devote to the improvement of agriculture an amount of industry and painstaking which is infinitely creditable to them. We have a few instances in our own town, of gentlemen who, although immersed in vast commercial undertakings, are not ashamed of resorting to cultivation of the land, nay, even delight in the pursuit, and may, with justice, pride themselves in the success which at tends their efforts and their liberality. We have to record in our columns, this day, the forward state of the crops of a gentleman of this town, Mr. Harold Littledale, whose entire farming manege will chal lenge the admiration of the most experienced prac tical agriculturist, and whose example it would be most creditable and profitable, at the same time, for the race of young country squireens to follow. A sacrifice, too, of no ordinary magnitude in their eyes, mush be made by the agricultural capitalists, and the great landowner himself. We shall: pro- THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD. bably see less of preserved game, and more of pre served morals amongst the labouring classes, whom the abundance of that game exposes to temptation and crime. We may perhaps see fewer fox-covers and rabbit-warrens. With all the devotion for field sports, ingrained in us by early associations, we can not but perceive that, in this hard, cast-iron age, these things are out of place. The poet Words worth's sense of the beautiful was shocked at the vision of a locomotive careering through the roman- tic localities of Rydal Mount arid Windermere; and some Nimrod of the next generation may be doomed to hear a steam-engine groaning upon the banks of the quiet stream where " the meet" used to assemble its hundred red -coats, and the crop of wheat wav ing upon the site of the coppice or the furze, from which many a fox has " gone away" with forty couple of staunch hounds baying after the scent of his brush. A few old sportsmen—a few good old English gentlemen —may, perhaps, make a struggle for a time to keep up the sports and the habits of their fathers ; hut, alas ! the field " will be no more. It will have vanished—red coats, top boots, and all—with the race of dashing young farmers and independent squires. But we are not without a ray of hope for the agri culturists as a class, new-modelled as they must be, both in their social position and their habits. A few years ago they had to contend with bad roads and dear conveyances for their crops to market, and dear transport of the necessaries of cultivation. Did they want lime, or coals, or manure, they had to cart them over bad roads, through expensive turn pikes, with horses that could ill be spared from the plough or the harrow. Some of them were as far from their best market, measured by cost of convey ance, as the German, the Swedish, or the Polish grower is now. They had heavy agency and fac tor's charges to pay. They had, in many instances, to sell to the factor at his own price. We have, however, of late years, been altering all these things. The rail has superseded the road. Internal com munication is no longer, either in time or in cost, what it was. Manchester is coming every year nearer to Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire; Lon- don has Norfolk within a two or three hours' run ; and Scotland has no longer to lose a month's feed ing of cattle on their way to the English consumer. Lime, coals, manure, are being brought by the lo comotive into districts which never saw them be fore, except at almost prohibitory prices ; farming produce of all kinds, in the most sequestered dis tricts, is approximating to the value which the sub urban grower alone has hitherto exclusively com manded, and even the article of milk is as cheaply marketed by the grazier living thirty or forty miles from a large town, as if he brought it half a dozen miles in his own pony cart. The increase of railway formation must wonder fully increase the means of the farming class. It is giving to land, many miles from the large marts of consumption, something approaching to the- value of land in the immediate vicinity of populous places. It is changing the whole face of the coun try, and imparting to remote localities the advan tages of suburban localities. We regard this feature of the times as one most worthy of the farmer's consideration. But, with even this to assist him, it is clear that he has a terrible struggle before him. He has per sonal privation to submit to. He has to school his pride to no trifling descent in the social scale. He has—perhaps a harder task still—to bring himself to sunder ties which have clung to his family for generations ; to throw from him, into the turmoil of a new world and a new walk of industry, dependents whom he has cherished for years; to cheapen on every side ; to contract the springs of his customary benevolence to the weary and heavy laden amongst this world's denizens ; and, yet, is he assured that all this will be sufficient ? We fear not. We are not certain that even this painful transition is all that is meditated as his lot, by those who are impel ling him upon it. The British farmer—that bold, manly race of yeomen, who have been in all past ages their country's pride and defence—we fear, are destined, under the operation of our new-fangled policy, to become the mere "hewers of wood and drawers of water"—the serfs and drudges—of the more fortunate commercial classes, who appear just now to engross the sympathies of our legislature and—our philosophers ! But we have exhausted our space, and must deal with the rest of our subject on a future occasion. Whilst we deprecate most strongly the recurrence of such scenes as that which took place in the Coun cil on Wednesday last, there is a dash of the ludi crous, mingled with its folly, which is irresistibly diverting. It is painful to see a gentleman, whom advanced age ought to have taught the mastery of his passions, catching at every pretext for the exhi bition of his combativeness—butting at imaginary walls, and bearing palpably upon his brow the caution, "When I speak, let no dog bark ;" but such an exhibition resembles the freaks of a froward child, who has come into school with half a breakfast, or has been refused sixpence to buy a peg-top or a hoop, and has put mud in his trousers pockets for the purpose of flinging at the head of the first lad who will give him an opportunity of thus venting his dudgeon. Mr. Eyre Evans appears to have come to the Council on Wednesday in somewhat of this un happy humour. He had sustained some rebuffs in his attempts to defeat the Dock Bill in the Lords' Committee; and was therefore apparently disposed to be offended with anybody and everybody, but more particularly so with the Chairman of the Dock Committee, whose business-like straightfor wardness, and extensive acquaintance with the com merce of the port, had contributed to prevent their Lordships being misled by Mr. Evans's statements. Possibly his cross-examination by Mr. Sergeant Bellasis, and its result, had not been thoroughly digested ; and when Mr. Bramley-Moore proceeded to lay before the Council some of his replies to that cross-examination, the ex-Alderman hastened to stay the exposure by an insinuation that the speaker was not representing the facts as they were elicited in evi dence, and appeared in the shorthand writer's notes. The retort of Mr. Bramley-Moore was only a natural one that "he was not in the habit of drawing upon his imagination for facts." Mr. Moore, in proceeding with his remarks, thus interrupted, reverted to the opinion of Mr. Evans, that the acreage and tonnage of the port had gone hand-in-hand, and that he anti cipated a decline in the tonnage of the port. A sore subject, however, this statement appeared to be. Mr. Evans, apparently, remembered that he had failed to establish its correctness, and that statistical docu ments, produced before the Committee, established directly the reverse; and he again threw out an in sinuation against the veracity of Mr. Moore. He demurred to any evidence of that sort going for a fact, unless the documents upon which it was founded (the short-hand writer's notes) were duced." The reply of the Speaker was natural, that he was responsible for what he said. He was re sponsible, as every gentleman is, for the truth of his representation of the conversation in Committee. His character was staked upon its truth ; and Mr. Evans could have brought the short-hand writer's notes, if Mr. Moore had misrepresented him, to prove the facts. But he preferred to take the remark in a fighting sense. With Mr. Evans the idea of responsibility in any one, who presumes to differ from him, seems to suggest at once pistols and twelve paces ; and of course the gentleman was on his haunches forthwith, bristling for the coming fray, and smelling powder. There was something alarmingly significant in the tone of his " I am glad to hear it," which provoked the rejoinder, "At your service." We do not question the valour of Mr. Evans upon this or any other occasion; but men who wish to fight do not usually intimate their wishes before forty or fifty persons, amongst whom are magistrates. The result in this case was only what might have been expected,—an interference by the Mayor and the Council, for the preservation of peace between the belligerents. Such interference having taken place, it was scarcely becoming in a gentleman, who by his own hasty temper had virtually placed both him self and his opponent under something equivalent to legal restraint, to make such an attack upon him, as is contained in the following remarks : " Mr. Evans.—l take great blame to myself for having allowed some observations of Mr. Moore's to pass on a former occasion ; but I say now that, so far as I am con cerned, I leave the sincerity of the Dock Committee in the hands of the public. I have no objection to have my character collated with that of the Dock Committee, or with the chairman of the Dock Committee. (Uproar.) Therefore, I treat his remark with the contempt and scorn it deserves. (Loud cries of :` Order, order ; chair chair.') It is false ! (Tremendous uproar, and renewed' cries of ' Order and chair.')" A terrific explosion this would have seemed, if we could forget that the piece of ordnance was loaded with powder only—that, thanks to the interference and the presence of the Mayor and Council, it was " warranted to do no mischief." From the moment of this interference, Mr. Evans' wrath and scolding irresistibly reminded us of the scene depicted by that mad Wag, Punch. " Master WELLINGTON— You daren't hit me. " Master JOINVILLE— Daren't I ? " Alaster WELLINGTON — No you daren't. " Master JOINVILLE—Daren ' t I ? " And they did nut fight after all." The after proceedings appear to us really childish, and beneath the dignity of the Council. The ques tion, as to the course to be taken, was, after the above explosion of temper, clearly one between the Council and Mr. Evans himself, and was viewed as such by that gentleman's friends. Our contemporary, the London Times, has just found, and placed a feather in the coronets of the Peel section of the peerage, which, we much fear, will not be permitted to remain there. It is in ac cordance with a principle of human action, he says, which will be found influencing the majority of Le gislators, to see men leaning towards the advance ment of their own interests. "No class of politicians willingly, and apart from the impulse of fear, give countenance to a measure fraught with ruin to them selves;" and hence we have acquired the habit of forming a judgment as to the tendency of any par ticular measure, from the interest, real or supposed, of the men whom we see supporting it. The Times proceeds to remark on his newly-discovered (?) prin ciple of human nature, as evinced in the recent di vision in favour of the Ministerial measures, thus:— " The application of the test of self-interest to the recent vote of the Peers is eminently satisfactory as to the pro bable results of the measure on which they voted. We advert not only to the fact of the majority itself, but also to the characteristics of those who composed it. In the list of the majority we find the Dukes of Norfolk, Buc clench, Leinster, Bedford, Hamilton, Argyll, Somerset, Devonshire, Northumberland, and Sutherland; the Mar quises of Lansdowne, Abercorn, Hertford, Westminster, and Northampton ; men whose property rests upon and is inseprrable from the possession of land; men who are, prima facie, the most unlikely in the world to support any scheme which might tend to destroy their influence or impair their fortunes; and who, as landed proprietors of every degree, would be withheld by their remonstrances and reproaches from consenting to a measure pregnant with ruin to all who had say stake in land." We do not quarrel with the "principle" of our contemporary; but we must say that it cuts two ways. If the measures in question are safe ones for the landowner and the farmer, because they are sup ported by these noblemen, who have a large stake in the prosperity of native agriculture, they are destruc tive of certain of the institutions of the country, be cause they are supported by men who hold those institutions in contempt, and would uproot them to morrow if they had the opportunity. They tend to throw the whole power of the State into the hands of the manufacturing and commercial classes, because they are supported by men who have declared that the people of England are henceforth to be " the people who live in towns." This is clearly the de duction to be drawn from the principle laid down by the Times, which is, after all, only a refined echo of the brusque ejaculation of an eminent Leaguer,— " Bless you we're all for ourselves in this world." But admitting that it is so—that the noblemen mentioned are looking solely to the increase of their rent rolls, as the result of the measure for which they have just voted—let us see of what such rent rolls, in their particular cases, are mainly composed. The whole, or nearly the whole of the noblemen mentioned, owe their great wealth to the increase of the large towns in the vicinity of their properties. The Times says : " Let no man say that such persons as the Dukes of Devonshire and Northumberland, the Marquis of West minster, and Earl Fiizwilliam are not among the very best judges in the country of what is advantageous to the land ed interest." Probably they may be good judges of what is advantageous to the landed interest; and we mean not to say that any one of them was influenced by considerations of self interest, but it is rather singu lar that they are all greatly dependent upon com merce for their incomes. The Duke of Devonshire we fancy draws a great portion of his fortune from minerals and from his property in buildings and building land ; the Duke of Northumberland is an extensive owner of coals. The Marquis of West minster probably draws as much of his vast revenue from the squares and streets of our metropolis as all his other property put together, and Earl Fitz william would not be a very rich man, were it not for the proximity of a portion of his estates to Sheffield and Leeds, and the existence upon it of great mineral deposits. The whole of the Peers, mentioned by the Times, would, we have no doubt, grow in income though the agriculture of the country were to be ruined by the ministerial policy, if only they could be assured that, concurrent with its ruin, the commercial activity of the country, and the growth and extent in population of the large manufacturing towns and of the metropolis, would go on. It is a striking fact, which we are obliged to the Times for affording us an opportunity of noticing, that the bulk of the landowners in both Houses, who have declared in favour of free trade, are more or less independent of the prosperity of mere agri culture. Lord Francis Egerton, in our own locality, derives no inconsiderable portion of his income from the Bridgewater canal, and is, of course, inte rested in the extension of the trade between Man chester and Liverpool. He is an extensive coal owner besides. Lord Ducie has building-land in the neighbourhood of Manchester, which is increased a hundred-fold in value by every new street that is erected upon it. The Duke of Norfolk is similarly situated at Sheffield and at Glossop ; and, besides, supplies the former town with a large portion of its coal. The Duke of Bedford would shrink into small dimensions without his property in the West End of London, as would a host of noble and honour able metnbera whose support of Sir Robert Peel the Times assumes to he an argument in favour of the innocuous operation of his measures upon native agriculture. We can, indeed, point to a few in stances in which noble Lords have, upon this ques tion, pursued a course diametrical!) , opposed to their apparent interests. Lord Stanley is heir to a magnificent income, derived from lands in this vicinity, some already occupied by buildings, &c., and others being rapidly absorbed by the growth of the town, the extension of its docks, &c. The Earl of Wilton is similarly situated in the neighbourhood of Manchester, his property at Heaton Park having quadrupled in value within the last few years, and being now rapidly increasing. Both these noble lords would be injured by any thing which would check manufacturing and commercial prosperity. Yet both we find ranged in opposition to the Go vernment measures. Upon the principle of the Times, therefore, either Lords Stanley and Wilton are less selfish than the rest of their order, or they do not anticipate that commercial and manufacturing prosperity will flow from free trade in corn. It is immaterial which horn of the dilemma the Times, snd those who think with him, choose here to adopt. There is no subject, connected with the social condition of our working population, to which we are inclined to attach a greater importance, than the promotion in them of habits of saving, by which they may be enabled to lay by, in security, a pro vision for the exigencies of sickness and old age. The more wealthy have the means of effecting this by our numerous and well-managed insurance com panies. For those a little lower in their worldly circumstances, the savings bank affords a safe and an advantageous place of deposit for their surplus earnings. But the savings bank fails to provide allowances for temporary sickness, and it allows the money deposited to be withdrawn in a moment of improvidence, and the careful hoarding of years to be squandered or lost. To provide the desidera tum, a class of institutions have sprung up, of late years, ur 0- , r 1 name of Mutual Benefit Societies, from whicil, cortain stated payments, their mem bers are promised pecuniary assistance in sickness, the attendance of a medical man, and the expenses of interment after death ; and it is to the composi tion and operation of these societies that we propose is draw the attention of our readers. It cannot have escaped the notice of those who have paid any attention to the daily proceedings of our police courts, that very glaring malversations have constantly been occurring in the management of these societies, and that, in many instances, they have utterly failed in affording to the poor man, in his emergency, the relief for which he has paid dur ing his years of health and strength. Some, which have been the n - mst improvidently conducted, have broken down under the first serious pressure upon their resources. Others have lingered on, until, from the insufficiency of their means to meet the claims, for the liquidation of which they contracted, they have expired of inanition, or have been dis solved, at a great loss, by their own members. Not a few, we fear, would have been shown, on rigid ex amination of their affairs, to have been swindles from their commencement. Viewed generally, these societies have been failures; and the fact is not sur prising, when we look at their composition, and the character of the men in whom their management has been principally vested. It is not an ordinarily educated man by whom a scheme of mutual assur ance, embracing numerous contingencies, can be satisfactorily devised. Obviously, no general system can be laid down to suit all localities. A scale of payment, which may be abundant in an agricultural district, where the duration of life is the maximum, and the scale of sickness is a low one, cannot be made to apply to the densely populated towns, where the duration of life is a minimum one, and sickness is more than usually prevalent, and de pressing in its influence upon the capability to labour. Hence, without the additional evil of mis management, it is not to be wondered at that socie ties in large towns, and amongst populations pur suing unhealthy avocations, are continually experi encing their inability to fulfil their engagements to their members, and see their funds melt away be fore their eyes, without the mea s of saving them selves from the dilemma into which they are thereby brought. The fact is palpable, that the original projectors, basing their scale of contributions upon some general formula, have ignorantly contracted for more than they have allowed themselves ate means of performing. They have aimed at good ; but the issue is serious and lamentable evil. More than the mere loss to the members is that' evil—more than the mere loss of the nine or ten shillings a week during sickness, or the five or ten pounds to the poor family in the event of death. A feeling of distrust has been created, which tends to repress all attempts to provide for a day of neces sity. The working man will no longer tax himself, even sixpence a week, for a promised benefit of which he does not feel secure of receiving the ulti mate benefit. He gets into the habit of saying to himself—let the future provide for its own emer gency. We have no wish to particularise any one society as being liable to the objections we have detailed ; all, we suspect, or with an exception or two, are de ficient in their construction and their regulation. They have not the elements of permanence in their constitution, and must gradually sink under the weight of their obligations, and their deficient means to bear them. A young society, composed of young and healthy members, may fancy that they are in flourishing circumstances—that their strong box or their balance at the bank is in a condition of ple thoric prosperity. They have had few drains upon them; and perhaps they begin to indulge a little in decorations and banners, •r in that mysterious item of the expenses of a joint stock company—" ex penses of management. But the fact remains an enduring one, that the scale of payments is too low for the ultimate object contemplated, and the disas trous finale will come, as soon as the claims upon them arrive at maturity. _ _ What we should recommend to the whole of these benefit societies is, to in'titute forthwith a searching exmination into their p esent financial position, and an inquiry, by competent authority, whether the principle upon which their affairs are regulated will bear them through. No man can make two and two into five ; and if an experienced actuary skews them, as we think he will, that their rate of contribution is insufficient to preserve them from ultimate insolvency, it is the duty of the committees of such societies—a duty which they owe to their members, who place faith in their ability and ho nesty, and to their own characters—to look their position boldly in the face, and to make an effort to retrieve past errors. To place this most vital matter, however, upon a still better footing, we observe that it is proposed to organise in Liverpool a nnv and comprehensive so ciety, upon safe and equitable principles, with such a management as the industrious classes may look up to with confidence in their savings being hus banded properly, and rendered available in the time of emergency. This society is to form connexions with other saf societies, existing or to be formed, throughout the country, by which means persons contributing here may, in case of removal, be able to transfer their claims to, and continue their mem bership in, whatever district of the country they may be driven to take up their residence—a deside ratum which has long existed, and from which seri- ous inconveniences have been felt. We know of no object to the carrying out of which the philanthro pist can, more advantageously to his fellow-men, direct his energies ; and we trust that it will be fully and spiritedly carried out. As respects the general view of the subject, we shall have next week some important statistical facts to bring forward. THE SOUTHERN HOSPITAL We have had repeated occasions to publish the benefits arising from the Christian appeals of the Rev. Thomas Nolan, the honorary chaplain to the Southern Hospital, on behalf of that most valuable charity, and we have now the pleasure of giving another roost gratifying one, being a small contribution to the funds of the institution, en closed in the following unassuming but Christian-like communication to the rev. gentleman : REV. SIR,—Not having been present at any of the appeals to the public in behalf of the Southern Hospital, with which object I became only acquainted by reading your sermon, I take the liberty of enclosing ss. as my small mite to this charitable object, the remaining ss. please divide between the Church Missionary Society and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts.—Excuse the trouble, and believe me yours re spectfully, AN HUMBLE MEMBER OF THE F,STATsi.TSHED CHURCH, The Rev. T. Dixon, 8.A., of Jesus College, Cambridge, has been appointed head master of the mathematical cc partment of the Collegiate Institution, Liverpool. Mr. Douglas, the barrister, has been appointed solici tor of excise. A public meeting of the Evangelical Continental Society will be held in Great George-street chapel, to-morrow evening, to receive a deputation from the Geneva Evan gelical Society. THE REV. DR. SCORESBY, VICAR OF BRADFORD.— This gentleman, who will be well remembered by the Li verpool public for the active part which he took in the promotion of various religious objects during his residence in this town a few years ago, has undertaken to deliver two lectures at the Collegiate Institution on the subject of telescopes, embracing an account of the construction and performances of the Earl of Rosse's gigantic instru. ments. The first lecture will be delivered this evening. Dr. Scoresby, we understand, will enjoy the hospitality of his worship the Mayor during his stay i❑ town. STEALING FLOWERS AND SHRUBS FROM GARDENS.— Two young women, Mary Brownhill and Ellen Jamieson, were yesterday charged before Mr. Rushton with having on Saturday morning, between three and four o'clock, entered two gardens in Bootle, and stolen therefrom a quantity of flowers and shrubs, also destroying in the course of their depredations a fine white rose-tree, and other plants. A gentleman who happeneu to see them gave evidence, and some of the flowers were produced. They admitted taking the flowers while they were out walking, before going to their work at Kirkdale. Mr. Rushto❑ said he had pwer to imprison them for six months, and ordered them to gaol for 7 days. SMUGGLING.—An elderly female, apparently in humble life, named Catherine Collier, was yesterday brought be fore Mr. Rushton, on a charge of smuggling whiskey. An officer of excise stated, that on Saturday he observed the prisoner coming from on board the Waterford steamer with something bulky under her cloak, and on searching her found three gallons of whiskey contained in bladders in a basket. The prisoner said that it had been given to her by a man who had promised her half-a-crown to carry it. It appeared, however, that she had, in the first in stance told the excise officer that it was her own. Mr. Rushton said she was liable to a fine of £lOO, which he should mitigate to £25, and in default of payment she must be imprisoned for three months. STEALING FROM A DWELLlNG.—Yesterday. at the Police-court, a stout, coloured man, named John Martin, and who had previously been known as practising the vocation of a beggar, was charged with having stolen a tin cash-box, containing some few valuables. It appeared that on Saturday night the prisoner had gone to the Night Asylum to procure a bed. Mr. James Coghlan, the keeper of that charitable establishment, saw the box in his pos session, and questioned him about it. His answers not being satisfactory, be was next mot ning given into custody of the police. On the box being opened it was found to contain a gold ring, a silver thimble, and several other articles of the toilet. The owner was discovered to be Mrs. Hayton, of Duke-street, who identified the articles, and her servant said she had seen the box on Saturday under the window in the back parlour, which was ope❑ at the time. The value of the whole was stated to be about 30s. The prisoner said the box had been given to him by a black man, while he (the former) was sitting down at the Salthouse Dock. He was committed for trial at the sessions. INQUESTS HELD BEFORE MR. CURRY, YESTERDAY. — On view of the body of Thomas lioberts, aged 40, who lived in Albert-street. On Sunday night deceased went to bed without complaining of illness. About five o'clock on the following (yesterday) morning, be was heard to moan, and his sister, th e m i s t ress o f t h e h ouse , went to see him, and found him speechless, frothing at the mouth, and his eyes fixed. She went to fetch water for his re lief, and on her return found him to be quite dead. He had been a hard drinker; and, after an indul gence in this way, frequently complained of cramp in the stomach. From the evidence of the surgeon, who bad made a post morletn examination, it appeared that he had died from apoplexy, and not from any external violence, and the jury returned a verdict of natural death. —On the body of Bernard Downey, aged 42. The deceased had complained of his bead, and had been engaged in a fight in which he had sustained a fall. His death was oc casioned by extravasation of blood on the brain, but as the evidence was not complete, the inquest was adjourned to Monday neat. June 9, 1846. LATEST INTELLIGENCE. BY EXPRE DEATH OF THE POPE We are indebted to a Telegraphic Despatch, contained in a second edition of the Times, for the following an- nouncement, dated " PARIS, June 7.—His Holiness the Pope died sud. denly on the Ist instant, between 9 and 10 o'clock a.m." RAILWAY COMMITTEES.-YESTERDAY. HOUSE OF LORDS.-IMPORTANT DECISION, London and York.—A decision Laving been expected on this important bill, a vast crowd assembled i►i the coridor of the New House of Parliament before eleven o'clock, the hour at which the committee was to meet. The doors were, however, kept closed until near one o'clock, when Messrs. Brunel and Locke, engineers, (not connected with the line,) were called in to be pri vately questioned by the Committee, with respect to (as we were informed) the expense of construction, and the engineering merits of the line. Shortly after ten o'clock strangers were admitted. and The Chairman announced that the preamble of the bill had been proved. This announcement was received with immense cheering by at least 700 or 800 persons present. LONDON CORN EXCHANGE.—YEsTsnmir The supply of English Wheat by land carriage samples being again barely equal to the demand, holders realised the prices of last week, and the whole was nearly cleared at the close of the market. Free foreign is still neglected, but the inquiry for low qualities of red bonded for Belgium continues, and several thousand quarters haue been disposed of for export to the country ; Polish Odessa at 41s per qr. The arrivals of spring Corn are very moderate ; Barley, Beans, and Peas sell at our former quotations. The show of Oats is small, and where an abatement was last week sub mitted to, it has been recovered to-day. SMITHFIELD CATTLE MA RKET.-YESTERDAY We had a large number of Beasts on sale to-day, owlnglo which, and the continued warm weather, the Beef trade was in a very depressed state, at a decline in the quotations of 2d per s Ws, and a clearance was not effected. The general quality of the stock was remarkably good. For the time of year, we had a full average number of Sheep on offer. Prime old Downs were in fair request. at full prices ; but all other breeds moved off slowly, at late rates. From the Isle of Wight, 281 Lambs came fresh to hand; while the receipts from other quarters were good. The Lamb trade was brisk, at an advance in prices of 2d per Bibs. Calves—the supply of which was moderately good—moved . . off steadily, at full prices. In Pigs, very little was doing, at low rates LATEST FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. WEST INDIES. The royal mail steam packet Tweed, George Parsons, R. N., commander, arrived at Southampton on Sunday at noon, bringing the unusual number of 138 passengers. The Tweed has been much retarded since leaving Ber muda by fogs, and experienced also eight days' rain. The accounts from Jamaica are very unsatisfactory. The drought still continued, and in Saint Ann and Saint Mary, in particular, it was very disastrous. Every blade of fodder was scorched up, and as for water, there was none to be had. The consequence was, that the cattle were literally dying of thirst and exhaustion. Nearly all the wells were empty, and what little remained in some of them was retailed out for domestic purposes at enormous prices —as much as 45., for instance, for a single pail full. The process of sugar making had entirely ceased in most parts. If the inhabitants have not ere this been blessed with rain, the results will have been distressing in the ex treme. Another importation of 200 coolies, by the barque Tropic, had taken place, and they were eagerly sought after; 500 more could easily find employment. Another importation from Sierra Leone was shortly ex pected. Those already located in the island were pro gressing exceedingly well ; were not only industrious, but thrifty, and many of them have accumulated their savings to some little amount. From the Port of Spain we have nearly similar accounts ; so severe and prolonged a dry season has not been known, and the usual planting operations have been altogether suspended. The Barbadoes Standard gives a most unsatisfactory account of the weather in that island. Serious drought prevails in many parts. On some estates all progress with the crops is stopped for want of water. Fires may be descried in all quarters; the hills on the Maravals and St. Juan's side are completely illuminated at night. Great distress from the want of water is also anticipated by the cocoa planters. At Grenada much rain bad fallen. MEXICO.—THE WAR. The news from the seat of war by the West India steamer is not of a decisive character. The American squadron, under the command of Commodore Cowner, was lying off Vera Cruz. It consisted of the Cumberland, of 56 guns ; Potomac, 56 ; Princeton, 56 ; Palmouth, 22 ; John Adams, 22 ' • and two brigs. The first-class steamer, Mississippi, was daily expected, together with two more frigates. Not a shot had been fired on either side, but it was fully expected when the Tweed left that the Missis— sippi would bring directions as to the future proceedings of the fleet. The Mexicans are working with the utmost energy in fortifying the Castle of St. Juan d'Ulloa. Guns of the largest calibre are placed in every advantageous position, and additional ones from the interior of the country were continually arriving. It is also thickly lined with sand bags, and every available means have been taken to render it invulnerable. Coaipetent authority asserts that it is ill a better state of defence than ever, and will defy the efforts of the Americans to make it surrender. No en gagement had taken place, the Mexicans remaining pas sive, and busily occupied in every preparation of defence. The American Commodore bad received orders, in the event of the least overt act on the part of the Mexicans, to attack the Castle, not otherwise. It is, therefore, generally supposed that as the Mexicans will act on the defensive only, no blood will be shed, unless the Ame ricans choose to fire the first shot. There is no particular news from the land forces, in fact, nothing since the date of the last advices. All that is known is, that the American army, under General Taylor, was close to the Rio Grande. It is only 3,000 strong, while the Mexican strength is 7,000, in addition to which a reinforcement, under the command of General Bustamente, had set out to join them. The first shot fired by either party will be the signal to commence hos• tilities. ARRIVAL OF THE YORKSHIRE. ANOTHER SKIRMISH AT THE SEAT OF WAR, A passenger by the New York packet-ship Yorkshire, who left her outside the harbour of Cork, and has reached Liverpool by a steamer, has brought a few American pa pers to the 18th ult. We learn from the New York Morning Express of the 17th, that the News from the seat of war received from New Orleans by telegraphic despatch, was again disas trous, "It shows," says the Express, " a forttier lose of life, but it is consolatory to know that Poiut Island is yet safe." Seventy men were killed and taken prisoner!. The Majority of them were cut to pieces by large g esi " can force, estimated to amount to about 3,000. The killed consisted of seventy rangers under Captain and the attack upon them was made about seventy miles from Point Isabel. Capt. Walker was proceeding at t he time towards General Taylor's Camp ; and, while on his way, an overwhelming force of the Mexican s, as we have said, appeared very suddenly. and cut t o pieces neat ly the whole of those under his command. At Rio, on the 9th April , rumours had been received from the River Plate of a b attle having taken place be tween the Buenos Ayrean and Monte Videan forces, in which the latter were worsted. and ; AFFAIRS OF THE LA PLATA. The Morning Chronicle of yesterday announces the departure of Mr. Hood to re-open negociations Wits Rosas, for tne settlement of the affairs of the River Plate. He departed in the Devastation steam -frigate. Lecomte, who recently fired at the King of the Frencllt has been condemned to the punishment applied to parri cides. The sentence of the Court is, that the prisone; shall be taken to the place of execution in his shirt, al?? barefooted ; and there, his head covered with a black veil' he shall remain exposed on the scaffold while a huissier, reads to the people the sentence of the Court, and he shall immediately afterwards he beheaded. List of the passengers per Yorkshire, from New York. , arrived last night :—J. E. Yateman, and lady ; P. Thompson; Dr. C. A. Pape, and lady; E. " Hanghwort, and lady ; BarorhDe Ciperly, lady, daughters and servant ; M. L. Keinet, lady, and child ; S. F. Dul l ; lap; Ph. Marrett and daughter; F. Russell; G. L. Hel l „, ser ; H. Roving; Wm. Lyons; F. M arcuse; Mi s s P"' Bustard ; Miss Ann Lynch ; James Mc Dowell; Wm. Robinson ; John T. Shaw. Yesterday afternoon CV9 had in this town a bi l l thunder shower, which, th oug h it did not l ast long 11 prove refreshing to the country. The Tweed steam-ship, which arrived at SoutlianaPP ii , on Sunday from th e W es t I n di es , h as b roug h t 9000 Pin" apalt PROTECTIONISM.—A numerous meeting of Prot e c tionistu„r Peers took place on Saturday. Several meaw n - e of the Lower House were also present, a n d the ntr a .. : o l unanimity prevailed. It was declared that the Cane. protection is still by no means desperate ; and it wa s to termined that an attempt should be made in comrait te- ie• perpetuate the -operation of the diminished slidingf c t i l ' i or Confident hopes, too, were expressed that even i' h i e Ia should be defeated in this attempt, they would be 8 ,: o the forthcoming general election to obtain such a P r- gera derance in the House of Commons as would ensu r t n t of a continuance, if not an augme n t a ti on , o f this aro °- protection. At No. o A . d t v , e S r T ti . se G m a e o n s t e s aLs e LIVERPOOL : Orders TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 1846 ' PRINTED AND PUBLISHED NTN Or TUESDAY MORA- - BY JOSHUA FLETCHER LACE, of 53. Grove-street, and LEONARD ADDISON, of 14, Great Orford-street. Co , Warwick-square ; Barker and White, Deacon, Walbrook ; Reynell, Chancery-lane ; Cliarl.e, ° . son.' Birchin-lane ; Joseph Thomas, 1, Finch-lane, C0rn 1 ;2,7 1 L i m den Hammond, '27, Lombard-street; Mitchell, Sr n. Cori , court, Fleet - street ; Lewis and Lowe, 3, Castle-co hill: at the London Commercial Coffee - house , Minop r of.. at the Jerusalem Coffee-house, Cornhill ; Ch a P A .rlida l fee-house, Paternoster-row ; North and South jive l 0111 , Coffee-house, Threadneedle -street ; Parsons, ( 9 2 : 1 „,,,- Dabl i lV C r eAcEesivcegdNbT;LlVess:;s°.Ze.ew .. ---4 t.;.9 0 ,0 4? er n d ot lane, London ; Johnston and Co., Eden ...,Z ke t.st . Wheeler, Exchange-street, and C. H. Lewis , ''''......i i aller O f A yr Doan. inrut skil% Manchester ; Haddock. and J. am. • act VIK & Warrington; Clarke, Pilot-Ole*. Preston; Pain,. Herald-office, Birmingham. EVERY