The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-01-21 00:00:00

their Parliamentary programme been written in
French, and then translated into English, we
should not have been able to see, through the
pomposity of its style, the real drift of the Associ-
ation, and that their change of tactics simply
means that they have taken up a bill which has
been signally defeated as a public measure, and
are about to intrude it on the notice of the Legis-
lature, for a second time, as a private enterprise.
They say that " the necessary steps have been
" taken to deposit a bill." Now, this depositing
of bids is not required except where relief is
sought for an individual or private interest.

Whether Mr. LowE is a party to this very
strange mode of procedure remains to be seen.
The Government to which he belongs, and has
given so much trouble, proposed to deal with the
whole question of passing tolls and all other dues
affecting shipping. They instituted a general
inquiry, sent out a Royal Commission to examine
their operation, in a national point of view, and
they proposed to deal with them in a public
statute. Liverpool was not to be mulcted, and
Manchester to be benefitted only. The rights of
property, in the many localities where shipping
dues are levied, were to be treated with equal
severity and recklessness. The evidence given
by Manchester, before the Royal Commission,
did not show that she was the sole martyr to
feudal rights, which have been reduced, in
the 'progress of time, to contracts of a far more
sacred character. Where British trade and com-
merce are concerned, Manchester must fore-
shorten her pretensions, to make room for other
seats of industry, where enterprise is just as rife,
and prosperity has become quite as remarkable
and praiseworthy. But since her zealous corporate
officials have " deposited" their bill, the Liverpool
public will be curious to know its preciseobjects,
They are these :—To secure a " more equitable
" administration of the revenues of the port of
Liverpool, and to vest the management of the
" docks of Liverpool and Birkenhead, the con-
" servancy of the river Mersey, &c., and the
" control over pilotage, harbour lights, and
" all other matters conducive to the safety
"or convenience of the shipping frequent-
' ing the port of Liverpool in an independent
" public body, elected by the persons who pay
rates for the maintenance of such works and
"objects as aforesaid, and for the making pro-
" vision for the application of the Town Dues
"solely to shipping purposes, so long as they
" continue to be levied." This is all very
plausible.
Who could quarrel with the simple demand
Manchester makes ? What a corporation holds
in trust for a number of citizens whose money
has been taken to invest for the benefit of those
who may come after them, belongs, according
to Mr. LOWE and the Manchester reading of the
British Constitution, to nobody ! Local repre-
sentative bodies are not, in their eyes, fit guardians
for the funds raised from local taxation for local
purposes. It would be idle work, however, to
continue splitting straws with this clique of
dangerous innovators. Parliament will see
through their design, and the Government will
not countenance their barefaced trickery. Liver-
puol ,auutiL be pluLlleied or lie& legally obtamea
property by small schemes. If all the dues
owners of the United Kingdom are to be deprived
of their lawful rights, Manchester must be made
to give up her tolls, and to relinquish all control
over her corporate trusts. Let her ratepayers
look to this, as it must be the inevitable result
of that professional scheming we see going on
among a set of her local officials. The state of
the cotton trade is a far more important matter
for liverpool at the present moment ; and we are
glad to find that the Commercial Association
have warned both the Ministry and the manufac-
turers of the impending difficulties and dangers.
A scarcity of this staple, such as that now
threatened, must henceforth prove a most
lamentable social scourge, and political evil to
England. It will bring in its train high prices
for the raw material, which will be followed by
the closing of many mills, and a large suspension
of employment. That there will be a very short
supply of cotton this year we have repeatedly
stated, and we almost regret that the tradel.s of
Manchester have so speedily confirmed the cor-
rectness of both our figures and opinions; for,
short as our stocks will be at the close of the
year, the pressure on the supply will be more
severely felt if' trade should go on expanding as
the Manchester Association say it has since the
close of the war.

If we are to rely on the Board of Trade
Returns, they show an increase of £20,000,000
in our exports since peace has been restored,
and if another £20,000,000 should be added to
the present total of the foreign demand alone for
British products, what will the price of cotton
be ? Mr. JAMES ASPINALL TURNER, the Presi-
dent of the Manchester Association, boasts, and
we hope with good reason, of our " manufacturing
" prosperity ;" but it is rather a serious thing, when
we come to reflect on the fact that, a continuance
of this very prosperity is fraught with incalculable
domestic difficulties of a very aggravated kind.
The evil is not, however, one of momentary
growth, or one which can be removed by magic.
it is the natural result of the public's belief in
the absurd doctrine of " over-trading," " over-
speculation," and " reckless buoyancy." Eng-
lish merchants have been deterred from ordering
produce by a money market fluctuating between
the fever of usury and the frenzy of uncertainty ;
while foreign producers have been kept from
anticipating our growing wants by an incessant
cry of danger a-head, and the general apprehen-
sion of coming bankruptcy. The London Times,
and every other newspaper published in the
metropolis, have lent their best aid in producing
that very scarcity which we now notice in nearly
all the leading articles of consumption. They
have gone on writing in their morbid and habitual
strain, and the public have acted upon their
counsel; and to this fact we may ascribe the
condition we are now in. They have defended
the bank screw, excessive rates of discount, to