The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-03-12 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY TIMES

Sin,—Although the subject treated of in the enclosed
.correspondence is now a settled question, it may, never-
theless, be interesting to your readers to know for whose
benefit an additional income-tax of half-a-million has to
be imposed. I therefore beg to request the Wont of its
insertion in your columns.—l am, sir, yout most obedient
servant,

Liverpool, 9th March, 1860

Liverpool, Feb. 29, 1860.
SlN—Being aware of the extent of your present
engagements, I think I shall best consult your con-
venience by writing to you, instead of asking for an inter-
view, on the subject of duties on foreign wood, which
you now propose to place on the same footing as Colonial.
Owing to the cheapness of labour in the Baltic, their
wood can be brought to the ports of shipment lower
than it can be done in our North American colonies,
and owing to the shortness of the voyages from Norway
and the Baltic, freights from thence range from one-half
to two-thirds of, what must necessarily be paidlfor the
longer voyage from Canada and New Brunswick, conse-
quently in these two items the Baltic merchants possess
natural advantages to the extent of 15s. per load ; and
as the Baltic cannot supply all the wood that is
required in this country, there is an absslute
necessity that some portion should come from our North
American colonies, these being the next nearest point of
supply, and as no country can long continue to supply
goods under cost, it follows that the best and only way
to obtain a good supply at the lowest first cost at the
ports of shipment, both in the Baltic and in the colonies,
is to establish such a reasonable scale of differential
duties as shall at least compensate for the unavoidable
difference in freight.
The differential duties, as they have stood since 1851,
are much in favour of the Baltic merchants; and of this
they have not failed to avail themselves, as in every
remission of duty since 1842 they have on an average
added at least two-thirds of it to first cost, whilst con-
sumers have only been benefited to the extent of one-
third ; and I have no hesitation in predicting that the
reduction now proposed, if made, will share the same
fate

In the year 1840 the import of forein
wood was
Ditto ditto ditto colonial 927,050 „

1,511,581 „

while in the year 1859 the import of
foreign wood was - - - - - - 1,366,557 loads.
Ditto ditto ditto colonial 1,248;069 „

2,614,626 „

Thus, in a period of twenty years, the import of foreign
Wood has increased 782,026 loads, or 134 per cent.,
whilst colonial has only increased 321,010 loads, or 341
per cent. The effect of now reducing the foreign duties
to the same scale as colonial, will be a loss to the revenue
of this country, computed on the quantities entered for
home consumption last year of about £423,000, and
with the reasonable prospect of a large annual increase,
equivalent to, and causing the unnecessary necessity of
an additional income tax to the extent of a halfpenny in
the pound,, and that, as before stated, without benefiting
consumers as much as one-third of that sum.

It will be a great discouragement to our North
American Colonies who have been most loyally attached
to this country, and in proportion to population are our
best customers. '

It will further depress the shipping interest, inasmuch
as any impulse given to" increase the supply froM the
Baltic leads to the carrying being done by foreign ships.
You may say that the shipping interests have sought for
a reduction in duties in order that ships might be built
cheaper in this country ; but the relief could be more
effectually afforded by giving a drawback on all
foreign timber used, equivalent to the reduction
which you now propose making, and considering
that the class of vessels which will hereafter be
built in this country will consist largely of iron, I am
persuaded that the claims for drawback which could be
made in any one year would never amount to £25,000,
and in this way builders would enjoy the whole sum,
instead of the small portion that would be obtained
with reduced duty and increased first cost. There is,
no doubt, an objection to drawbacks, but under certi-
ficate of actual measurement by Lloyd's surveyors of the
quantity of wood used entitled to drawback, I appre-
hend that little or no difficulty weuld arise.
Believing that it is your earnest and anxious desire to
do that which will the most tend to the national pros-
perity, and as you have invited suggestions which perhaps
my long experience in the trade enables me to give, I
hope I need make no apology for offering the foregoing
remarks ; and I earnestly request that they may have
your serious consideration, and I sincerely hope that you
may be induced to defer making the proposed reduction,
and requesting the, favour of your reply,—l remain, with
much respect, sir, your most obedient servant,
(Signecly ROBERT RANKIN.
To the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone,
Chancellor of the Exchequer.

11, Downing-street, Whitehall, March 7, 1860.
SIR,—I am directed by the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer to acknowledge the favour of your letter of the
29th nit., and to say that he regrets to inform you her
Majesty's Government cannot accede to your suggestions.
am, your obedient servant,
JAMES F. STUART WORTLEY.
Robert Rankin, Esq.

The following correspondence has just been pub-
lished

Saddle Hotel, Liverpool, March 3, 1860.
The Right Honourable W. E. Gladstone, Chancellor of
the Exchequer.

Sin,—My private affairs have required me to make a
hasty visit to this country, and since my arrival I have
learned, -to my great surprise, that you intend to equalise
the duties on foreign and colonial wood.
I feel confident you cannot be aware of the extent of
injury which the proposed change in the duties in wood
would inflict on her Majesty's subjects in New Bruns-
wick, and more especially on those engaged in the
manufacture and export of deals for the United
Kingdom.

I deem it incumbent upon me, on behalf of my fellow
colonibtz in New Brunswick, to respectfully remonstrate
and protest against any alteration in the present ar-
rangement of the wood duties, until they shall have had
the opportunity of submitting for your consideration the
rootzlicer Lardl.hipa of Flair nova

I believe that my fellow colonists, who have expended
large sums of money in saw mills and in the other re-
quirements of the deal trade, on the faith of the con-
tinuance of the present wood duties, have on this as well
as on other grounds a just claim to be heard before any
change be made ; and I beg most respectfully to express
my conviction, that should the proposed change be made
without notice, and with out their having a reasonable
opportunity of being represented, such a hasty proceed-
ing would undoubtedly cause serious discontent among
a people who have always been conspicuous for their
attachment to the institutions of this country.
I purpose leaving for America by the North Briton,
on Wednesday, the 7th inst., and I hope you will enable
me to inform my fellow-colonists that they will have an
opportunity of presenting their case to the consideration
of her Majesty's Government before you make a change
in your policy so destructive of their trade and their
property.—l have the honour to be, sir, your most
obedient servant,
THOMAS M'AvITY
Mayor of the city of St. John, New Brunswick.
(Copy.)
Downing-street, March 6, 1860.
feel some difficulty in replying to your letter
of the 3rd, which I received yesterday afternoon on
returning to town.

In that letter you " protest," as well as remonstrate,
against any change in the duties levied in this country
and paid by the English people upon wood from the
colonies and from foreign countries respectively, until
the inhabitar.ts of New Brunswick shall have had an
opportunity of stating their views upon the subject.
Were I to examine your language critically I could
not admit your title, even individually, to protest against
any legislation which Parliament may think it right to
adopt, for the equalisation of the duties on foreign and
colonial wood. And when you desire to remonstrate
"on behalf of the inhabitants of a colony," I must
observe that such remonstrances ought to be addressed
to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, who would
exercise his discretion as to bringing them before the
Minister of Finance.
As, however, you are about to quit England without
delay, I waive all regard to these considerations, and
I must beg leave to apprise you that I am aware of no
circumstance or argument which could have led any
person interested in the colonial timber trade, and
exercising ordinary prudence, to reckon on the per-
otnyn o
e f
d the
on
manence of a law which charges differential duties upon
timber the produce of foreign countries.
At the former periods when those differential duties
have been reduced, I am aware of no pledge that has
kindbeen
should b
gihvoednthate ipern permanently maintained.nthiiaanpeanrtticularcaseancy d.d
If no such
expectation could be formed from a distinct pledge of
thethe generalßfitis ph
policy
cy
Government,and legislation
still less could
thisituntry.
beo fu
That legislation has for a long series of years been
founded upon the policy of abating, and then destroying,
or of destroying at once, differential duties. It was
applied with great stringency to some cases of colonial
produce, even under peculiar circumstances. It has
been applied in the case of wood from British North
America with much caution ; and by degrees so slow that
the wonder is, not that Parliament should now decline,
without a dissentient voice, to sanction the continuance
of the differential duties, but rather that it should, for
so long a time, have permitted them to continue.
You describe this change as destructive of the trade

ate fhe property of the colonists. If so, it can
only be so because the differential duty exacts from
the people of England, who provide for the Military
and naval (Idol* of NeW Brunswick at their °wilt
charge, an artificial price for its produce ; and the
demand for the permanent mainteriarree of that artificial
price would thus be a demand, in efted for the per-
manent payment of a tribute from the mother co•untryfl
not, indeed,' to the colony at large, but to a portion of
its inhabitants."

arri, note -.however, prepared to admit that the
change deserves the character which You give it.
The predictions of relict which you and some others
now tender to the Government are not new. They have
many times been repeated, and were much more loudly
uttered in 1842 than they now are, by much more
numerous witnesses, not less informed of the circum-
stances, and with not less unquestionable good faith.
Yet the result has been of a character totally opposite to
what was anticipated; and the very statements which
are now. sent in to deprecate the present change are
based upon allegations of facts with reference to the
present state of the colony, that themselves bear
witness of the fallacy of their sinister prophecies.
To place the colonies in any respect wider the pressure
of legal inequality would be repugnant to every feeling
of the British Government. To give them the benefit
of freedom in trade has been their early and anxious
desire; but they cannot decline to make proposals upon
a proper opportunity, which will at length extend these
benefits to others, and among them to the people of
England.

As this letter, with your own, touches on a matter of
public interest, it might perhaps be convenient that they
should be published; but I shall take no such step as to
your letter, if I am given to understand that you disap-
prove of it.—l have the honour to be sir, your obedient
servant, (Signed) W. E. GLADSTONE.
J. M'Avity, Esq.

LIVERPOOL POLICE COURT.-surt-RDAy.

(Before Mr. RArru,s.)
GAROTTE ROBBERY.—William Williams, William
Sheehan, and John Jones were brought up and charged
with having garotted a matt in the neighbourhood of
St. John's market on Thursday evening. Mi. Cobb
defended. The prosecutor, an engineer, arrived here on
Thursday last in the screw steamer Kangaroo, and on
that evening went from the " Edinburgh Castle," where he
had stopped during the day, intending to take a train
from the Lime-street Railway Station. On the way he
met two men who volunteered to direct him to the
station, and, having missed the train, he accompanied
them to a public-house. Here they were joined by a
third man, with whom they went to the Star Hotel
Concert-room, Williamson-square, and had more drink.
On leaving this place the prosecutor was accompanied by
the three men, and led into a back street near St. John's
market, where he was seized and held by two of the
men, while the third took all his money, amounting to
£l2, from his pockets. On being released, he gave an
alarm, and afterwards ;reported the robbery to the
police. The prisoners were apprehended by Carlyle for
another offence, and were afterwards identified by the
prosecutor as the perpetrators of this. The case was
sent for trial, and the prisoners were also remanded on
suspicion of being concerned with several females who
are in custody, and will be brought up on Tuesday,
charged with the robbery of a Mr. M‘Mahon.
A PREMIUM TO CRlME.—William Smith was charged
with having stolen a coat from the shop of Mr. Davies,
Byrom-street. Mr. Raffles, having ascertained that the
coat had been placed outside the door of the shop, con-
demned the practice of shopkeepers placing their goods
outside. It was, he said, a most horrible system ;it was
holding out a premium, and was a great temptation to
people who were disposed to commit crimes of that sort.
The prisoner had, however, committed a most impudent
robbery, and must go to prison for three months with
hard labour.
ROBBING AN EMPLOYER.—A well-dressed, apparently
respectable female, named Maria Trelfall, described as a
dressmaker, was charged with having stolen a large
amount of property_ from her late employer, Mr. Maddy,
25, Bold-street. Up to Christmas last the prisoner was
employed by the prosecutor as a dressmaker, but, in con-
sequence of some property having been missed, and the
suspicion that she bad stolen it, she was discharged.
Mr. Maddy, after that time was doubtful of being able
to bring the charge home, and, therefore, did not
give her into custody ; but, a few days ago, the
prisoner removed from her lodgings, and left
there a few articles which Mr. Maddy identified as his
property. This led to inquiries, and Detective Eaton
searched her boxes, and found stolen property valued at
£l5. ' Mr. Maddy said he had no doubt that the pri-
soner had robbed him to the extent of £5O or £lOO.
The prisoner, who pleaded guilty to having stolen some
of the properv, was sent to gaol for six months, with
hard labour, Mr. Raffles remarking that robberies by
trusted servants were about the worst robberies that
could be committed, and in order that they might be
checked, and employers protected, should be severely
punished.

PICKING POCKETS.—Two youths, named respectively
James Ellison and Edward Marshall, were brought up
for picking pockets on the previous day. Being in rather
low water they thought probably they might obviate the
difficulty by taking a walk down to the Landing-stave to
see the monster tide. There Ellison, who had been already
initiated into the secrets of the light-fingered craft, as
was testified by a previous conviction, the record of
which appeared on the police books, suggested to his
companion that in the crowd they might find profitable
employment. The suggestion was adopted, and the
youths having great horror of the sin of scandal,-plied
their avocation as secretly as they could, but it happened
that they tried a pocket once too often, were caught, and
apprehended. Ellison was sent to gaol for three months,
with hard labour ; Marshall was remanded for seven
days, to ascertain whether he was a fit subject for a
reformatory.
INFORMATIONS UNDER TILE PASSENGER ACT.—Lieu-
tenant Hay, R.N., of the Government Emigration Office,
appeared to support an information against William
Freckleton, for a breach of the 71st section of the
Emigration Act. Mr. Almond appeared for the defence.
It appeared that a man named Michael Neylan, desirous
of proceeding to America, applied to Michael Hynes,
who is the defendant's correspondent at Gort, and paid
to him £4 10s. He received no contract ticket, as he
should have done under the 71st section ; but a letter
was given to him, addressed to a man named Kirwan, a
boarding-house keeper in Liverpool. On arriving at
Liverpool, not having a contract ticket he was unable to
procure a passage ; and having applied to the Emigra-
tion Office, the summons was issued. Mr. Almond said
that Mr. Freckleton had never heard from Hynes ; and
Mr. Raffles having been informed by Lieutenant Bay
that Hynes was not only agent for Mr. Freckleton, but
also for Messrs. Tapscott and Smith, dismissed the case.
It was also stated that the complainant had been offered
a passage by Messrs. Tapscott and Smith.—There was a
second information against the defendant, for having
charged more than th proper amount for a passage to
America, but this case was also dismissed.

MUSICAL, DRAMATIC, LITERARY, AND
ARTISTIC NEWS AND GOSSIP.

A plan is rumoured for giving operas in English at
the Princess's Theatre during the months of spring and
early summer.

Mr. Smith announces that he will open her Majesty's
Theatre on Easter Tuesday, and advertises as engage-
ments already made those of Mdlle. Titiens, Mesdames
Alboni and Borghi-Mamo, and Mesdames Ferraris and
Pocchini. Mr. Benedict and Signor Arditi are :to be
the conductors.

At Eden, Lodge, Kensington Gore, says the Athenaeum
a large collection of historical letters and papers has
been brought to light. The collection consists of,
among bthers, private and secret letters from George 111.,
Lord Mansfield, Sir W. Blackstone, Lord North, Wed-
derburn, Woodfall, Adam Smith, Burke, Fox, and Pitt.
ITere ought to be found something about Junius ; here
will certainly be found much about Howard. About
the private life of Pitt there is some deeply touching
and romantic information. On subjects of more public—
not more popular—interest, we may mention, that the
collection contains the whole secret correspondence of
Mr. Pitt and Mr. Eden (afterwards Lord Auckland),
who negotiated the commercial treaty of 1786—a sub-
ject of very groat interest at this present time. Lord
Suffolk, Lord George Germaine, Lord Granville, Lord
Lord Hawkesbury, Lord Melville, Lord Thurlow, are
among the names of Mr. Eden's confidential terrespon-
dents. Altogether, these papers are of the greatest value ;
and selections from them, at least, should be given to
the world.

The Messrs. Black write to the Atheneum, "We beg
to thank your correspondent, W. S. Johnstone' for his
excellent hint t€ publishers to cause the weight of a
book to be indicated in such a way as to facilitate the
use of the book post. In a book (" Macaulay's
Biographies") we are now getting bound by Mr. Burn,
of Kirby-street, he has promptly availed himself of the
suggestion' as you will observe by the above adhesive
label, which, besides bearing his name as a binder, con-
tains conspicuously in the centre the words "Postage 4d ,"
so that any one wishing to send the book by the
post sees
at at once the postage without being obliged to weigh it.
We consider that Mr. Johnstone and Mr. Burn have
thus redeemed the binder's label from the charge of
deformity that used sometimes to be cast upon it, and
have turned it to good account.—yours,&c A. C
~ AND C.
Belex,"
A remarkable trial has just been concluded in Leipsic,
namely, that of a Dr. Linder, Professor in the Univer-
sity of that town, who has been convicted of the erime
of stealing and mutilating some of the books and MSS.
in the public library. The sentence passed upon him is
a severe one, but not disproportionate to the aggravated
nature of his crime—six years' imprisonment, with
hard labour ! Let the delinquents in the British
Museum reading room take warning in time by this
example, since the law in this country is, we believe,
fully as severe as that of Saxony with respect to such
offences.
In the course of the debate on the abolition of the
duties on silk Mr. Bright said that as to the superiority
of French designs, all our English silk manufacturers
had to do was '''to cross the Channel and bring bottle a
car Pet bag full of designs; the freight of which would
not be heavy. Yes, says the Literary Gazette, that is
the Manchester idea of competition. Now it is a popular
error, that of the excellence of French designs for silk,
or anything else. They are dexterous in execution, but
in principle vicious. So long, however, as English
designers are simply set to copy and vary and pirate them,
so long, of course, will the copyists be behind their
originals. Set the English designer to think out designs,
adopting hints from Nature suitable to textile fabrics,
and a different result would be obtained. The manu-
facturers and warehousemen need schools of taste to
instruct them. Till they mend, schools of design are
idle, and unfit the poor designer for his ultimate hapless
fate.

The usual notice has been given to artists proposing'
to send their pictures to the Royal Academy, for exhi-
bition. This year, the latest day for sending in pictures,
Will be Tuesday, April 10.
The pictures are being hung for the seventh annual
exhibition of the French and Flemish artists, at the
Gallery, in Pall-mall. A private view will be given at
the end of next week—that is to say, on Saturday,
March 17.

COURT AND OFFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

OSBORNE, March 10.
Her Majesty and His Royal Highness the Prince
tonsort and the members of the royal family walked in,
fie grout-Ms,
The Queen will hold her first drawing-room this
season on Saturday, the 24th March, in St. James's.
kalage. On the fallowing Wednesday, the 28th inst.,.
her Majesty will hold her third levee at St. James's.
Hls Royal Highness the Prince Consort has been.
graciously pleased to become patron of the NationaL
Rifle Association.

CABINET °once-ft.—About three o'clock on Saturday
afternoon a Cabinet Council was held at Lord Palmer-
ston's residence in Downing-street. Lord Granville
was prevented attending, owing to the continued illness
of his countess. The Lord Chancellor, the Duke of
Somerset, the Duke of Newcastle, the Duke of Argyll,
Lord Palmerston, Lord John Russell, Mr. Gladstone,
Sir G. Lewis, Mr. Milner Gibson, Sir Charles Wood,
and Mr. Sidney Herbert attended. The Coancil broke
up shortly before five o'clock.