The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-02-19 00:00:00

FINE ARTS,

VALUABLE COLLECTION 61r HIGH-CLASS PICTURES,
WATER-COLOUR DRAWINGS, &c., FINE ARTS GAL.
LERY, LORD-STREET.
MR. BOSOMWORTH respectfully announces that
he has received instructions to SELL by AUCTION, on
WEDNESDAY, the 27th instant, at Twelve o'clock, at the
Gallery, 79, Lord-street,
The valuable Collection of genuine and authenticated
PICTURES, including the exquisite picture of "The Blonde,"
by Charles Baxter; " A Bit of Gossip," J. F. Herring, sen. ;
" Scene in the Highlands," G. W. Horler ;" The Fern Gatherer,"
J. J. Hill ; " The Bird's Nest," W. Hemsly ; " View in Cum.
berland," Arthur Gilbert ; " Landscape with Sheep," Williams
and Morris ; " Coast Scene with Figures and Cattle," Wm.
Shayer ; " Landscape and Cattle." Baker, of Leamington ;
" Cottage Children,' J. J. Hill; " View near Dawlish, Devon,"
John Ifogford ; " The Pride of the Village," H. Andrews; "The
Pet Owl," Crane; " Scene in Hungary," Zeitter ; " The Quar-
relsome Breakfast Party," Frank Eats, (from the Duke of
Buckingham's Collection) ; " Undine, the Spirit of the Waters,"
Thomas
H. MOgford
sCpoetctiamgeenslnbtyerior," Provis ; " Fine Flower
obitieii" The Anxious Moment," G. Armfield ;
tPoigeecteee'r
with choice
Pri tchet, Berland, Pether,
Bright, Sidney Percy, Williams,
Cobbett, Earl Campbell, dm
N.B.—The A ucrioNEER respectfully intimates that he has
instructions from the Proprietors that every lot will be sold
under a guarantee.
May be viewed on MONDAY, the 25th, and TUESDAY, the 26th,
from 10 a.m., to 5 p.m., and descriptive Catalogues hadi on the
Premises ; or, at the AUCTIONEER'S Office, 34, Duke-street.

DREADFUL DRATII.—A sad accident, resulting in the death
of Mr. Gibson, manager of the Glan-r-afon Colliery at Mold,
has just occurred. Mr. Gibson, finding that an engine he was
about to set in motion, needed a start, placed himself upon
one of the spokes of the fly-wheel. The great accession of
speed suddenly effected caused the unfortunate man to fall,
with his head within range of the wheel, which, in revolving,
caught his head and shattered it to atoms. He has left a wife
and three children, and, being greatly respected, his death
has cast great gloom over the neighbourhood,

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1856

THE LIVERPOOL TOWN DUES.

THE Bill by which the Government proposes to
legalise the robbery of the Corporation of Liverpool
is now before the public ; and, notwithstanding the
ambiguity of the language in which the clauses are
expressed, there can be little doubt as to the intention,
supposing the legislature to be weak enough to
consent to the spoliation at the bidding of an un-
scrupulous Ministry. The bill professes to have for
its object the regulation of local dues on shipping,
but the mover attempted to persuade the House of
Commons into a consent to its passing on the ground
that the intention was to relieve the shipping interest
from charges which pressed unfairly upon it, and
his argument for the relief was founded upon the
assumption that the repeal of the Navigation Laws
has rendered it necessary. We may start, then, with
the objection that, however great may be the alleged
necessity for relief, it is not afforded by the measure
now under review ; and, indeed, so far from this being.
the case, shipping will in many instances be subject
to higher charges than it is at present. It will le
recollected that, in making the statement upon which
he obtained leave to bring in the bill, Mr. LOWE sad
that in every instance in which the higher dues
payable on any Foreign ship or goods had been
abolished, compensation to the receivers of such higher
duties had been paid out of the Consolidated Fun'.
He therefore proposed to relieve the Consolidated
Fund from such payments, by the abolition of th 3
right of the claimants, and in so doing took great
credit for his financial economy; by which, withou,
additional charge, the Government would be enableC
to discharge existing incumbrances, and thereby
assist in effectuating the false pretence of relief. A
reference to the bill will show that this saving to the
state is actually at the cost of the interest professed
to be benefited. The twenty-seventh clause of the
bill says :

" The proprietors of any dock, pier, or harbour,
and companies, out of the profits of which a dividend
may be paid to the shareholders and private individuals
entitled by reason of a private proprietary right, may
indemnify themselves for any loss they may sustain
by the abolition of differential taxes and rates, and of
compensation therefor, by raising their taxes on all
ships and on goods carried therein by such au amount
as will produce an annual sum equal to the average
annual amount received by them as differential dues
and compensation therefor during the ten years end-
ing with the 31st of December, 1855."
We now come to the twenty-eighth clause, which
relates to the charges for rendering services to ships.
He says :
" All such pilotage authorities and other bodies cor-
porate, bodies of persons, and persons as have here-
tofore been entitled to differential taxes or rates, or to
compensation therefor, in return for services rendered
to the owners of ships, or of goods carried therein,
may indemnify themselves for the loss of such differ-
ential taxes and rates, and of compensation therefor,
by raising their taxes and rates on all ships, and on
goods carried therein, by such an amount as will pro-
duce a sum equal to the average annual amoun:,
received by them as differential dues, and as compen-
sation therefor, during the ten years ending the 31st
of December, 1855, or equal to such less sum as
enable them to perform the said services."
This, then, is the great relief which Mr. LOWE pro-
poses to afford the shipping interest, and for which
ship-owners ought to feel so grateful to a paternal
Government. The Consolidated Fund is to be spared
from paying the amount which has hitherto been
expended as compensation for the abolition of differ-
ential dues, and the loss is to be made good by
raising the taxes to be levied on ships, and on goods
carried therein. This is, truly, an Irish fashion of
affording relief, and worthy of the profound wisdom
from which it emanated. Another alteration, of the
same character, is proposed in the 31st clause, by
which 311 exemptions of freemen, of any borough, from
local rates on shipping are abolished, so that this
class, being owners of ships, or goods carried therein,
are actually made subject to taxation.
Sufficient has been stated to show that ship-owners,
generally, have a direct interest in opposing the till,
inasmuch as they will, in no case, be spared from pay-
ments to which they are at present liable, the altera-
tion being chiefly as to the appropriation of the money
received, and the mode of collecting it, while, in many
instances, they will be subject to higher rates. Liver-
pool, however, has the greatest interest in that portion
of the bill which proposes to transfer to the Commis-
sioners of Customs the right of receiving those dues
which have, hitherto, been the property of the Corpo-
ration. On this point every inhabitant of the borough
has a direct concern, so as amply to justify that indig.
nant protest against the projected spoliation which
will, doubtless, emanate from the public meeting about
to be held.

If the question were simply a deprivation of that
large portion of the revenues of the Corporation which
is at present obtained from the dues levied on ships
and merchandise, there would be ample ground of
complaint and of popular indignation at the fraudulent
pretence under which it is attempted. We might
lament the final cessation of all improvements of our
streets and public buildings, the termination of the
handsome surplus at the close of every annual account,
and even the prospect of an additional borough-rate
when expenditure for a public purpose became
inevitable. But this is by no means the extent of the
evil, nor the whole of the loss to be endured. It is
well known that, in order to carry out the many great
works of public advantage undertaken by the Corpo-
ration, and in full reliance on the honour of Parlia-
ment guaranteeing the security of property possessed
by every right which can be conferred by the law,
large sums of money have been borrowed, and liabi-
lities incurred, which, as far as the,public creditor is

concerned, must be met. Following out the principle
ibserved in similar cases, the least that could have
)een expected was the relief of the Corporation from
ill liabilities incurred on the faith of a continued
right to the receipt of the Town Dues ; but, on the
contrary, the thirteenth clause provides that—
" Subject to the rights of mortgagees as herein-
before reserved, the following rules shall be observed
with respect to the discharge of all charges on taxes
to which the second part of this act applies :
" 1. Every charge made on any taxes to which the
second part of this act applies in common with other
property of the mortgagor shall be payable out of such
taxes and other property respectively, in the pro-
portion which the income derived from such taxes,
calculated on an average of the three years imme-
diately preceding the first day of January, one
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, or the last pre-
ceding day on which the annual accounts of the mort-
gagor were made up, bears to the income derived from
such other property calculated on a like average."
According to this provision, the rate-payers of
Liverpool will have to pay a share of the debts
already incurred proportionate to the amount which
the ordinary income bears to that hitherto received
from Town Dues ; and, in order that there may be no
mistake on the matter, the ninth section of the same
clause provides that—

" Where the mortgagor is a local authority having
power to levy any rate or rates other than rates on
ships or on goods carried in ships, such authority
shall in each year, if their property is insufficient to
discharge their proportion of any charge to which it is
by this act made subject, raise by means of any rate
or rates leviable by them, other than rates on ships or
goods carried in ships, a sum sufficient to satisfy the
same ; and no prohibition contained in any act of
parliament as to the maximum amount of rate to be
levied by any such authority shall affect any rate to
be levied in pursuance of this section,"

It is time for united action, and for energetic resist-
ance of such legislation ; the rate-payers of Liverpool
being threatened with increased taxation, not only
for the expenditure hitherto paid out of the Town
Dues, but also to discharge the liabilities already
incurred on the faith of Parliament, respecting rights
the legality of which is undoubted.