Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-11-17 00:00:00

THE NORTHERN TIMES.---LIVERPOOL, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1857.

his 71 per cent. also. Would they be such fools as to pay
15 per cent. ? Certainly not. Do away with commission
and you deprive Liverpool of it ; you put it not into the
Docket of the broker, but into the pocket of American
shipowners, for in three months after commissions are
abolished, the owners or captains won't allow more than
5 or 7/ to the brokers; therefore, the runner won't have it,
the broker won't have it, nor will the emigrant gain one
penny by the change.
The solon of the Chronicle wants all lodging-houses to
be under the surveillance of the police, and to be licensed
by the magistrates, also terms for bed board and lodging,
with charge for storeage, to be conspicuously posted up,
&c., &c
Why this is the law at present, and it is carried out to
the letter, except that there are no lists of rates of board
and lodging, nor tire such necessary, as not one out of every
hundred emigrants ever board with the lodging-house
keeper—oh, no. The general charge is 4d. per night for
bed, and one-half for children, with free permission to cook
their own materials. I need not add, there is scareely
such a thing as a charge made for storeage or luggage. The
Chronicle will have only two adults to sleep in each apart-
ment. I wonder where he took this from ? He must be a
rigid sauatarian, for certainly such strict rules are not ob-
served at our very respectable hotels.
Our embryo pkilantropists will have no person to hold
a passage broker's license, except he be a ship owner, or
in the habit of chartering ships, or, in other words, a
rich man.

I wonder how it would go down with the trading
community of Liverpool, if one of their body, a cotton
broker, for instance, were told : " Eir, if you cannot purchase
a ship's cargo of cotton, you must not be permitted to deal
in it; " or to a grocer, "You won't be permitted to sell
sugars or teas, except you import the former from the
West Indies,,and the latter from Chna ; " or to the licensed
victualler, 4 You shall not have a license to follow your
trade, except. you have both a brewery and a distillery ;
also, vineyards in France, Spain, and Portugal." Would this
be tolerated ? no, certainly not ; and I confess I cannot
perceive the difference between telling the cotton broker,
the grocer, and licensed victualler this, and telling the
passaga broker he shall not have a license to follow his
calling, except he be the owner of a ship or ships. But
it is said, the humble broker must charge more to the
passenger than the broker who has the chief management
of the ship Any one acquainted thoroughly with the trade,
knows such is not the case. Eight or nine emigrants in
ono family will get their passage at a somewhat less We
than a single individual. Wherefore, then, should not a
broker get berths for a 100 or 150 passengers, at from 2s
to ss. per head cheaper than a single individual would get.
But this charge against the broker is too silly to need
further reply.
What more, then, is necessary, than that the broker should
be a man of good character ? and that his sureties should
be men of reputation, and meaus sufficient to pay down the
amount of their guarantee—.£l,ooo each—in tie event
of their being called upon to do so, thr mgh
the default of the party for whom they are responsible.
And, after all, when have we had a broker in Liverpool
who has been a defaulter, or convicted of defrauding
emigrants.
Sir, the Chronicle may be justly compared to the
" mountain in labour," but that it has not brought forth
even 'a mouse.

I should like to know, Mr. Editor, who are those
newly-sprung-up benefactors of the human race, that
presume to dictate to oar Government officers ?—where
have they got their wonderful amount of knowledge ?
for a wonderful amount of either brass or knowledge they
must have to presume to lecture men whose every day
study is the emigrant, the emigration laws, their uses and
abuses—men than whom there are none, under the wide
arch of heaven, so capable of forming a c7rrect judgment
on this subject, nor more ready and willing to do even -
handed justice to all parties concerned. Was it not unkind
and uncharitable, aye, almost inhuman, of those emigration
ref,rmers not to have mutilated this subject long since;
bu% better late than never. Some people are so unkind as
to say that the object of those philanthropists is centra-
lisation and monopoly: a large Emigrants' Home, an
Emigrants' Exchange, or something —call it what you may
—where the emigrants are to be driven, like so many
sheep or geese, and kept there until they a-e driven off,
in something like the style of the prison vans, to their
respective ships—the public, of course, not to be admitted.
Oh, no ' • 'none except a few large brokers, assisted by
Sfessrs.Murray, Sullivan and Co , and a few others from,
and in co-operation with, the Castle Gardens establishment
at New York.

I don't think, however, this will take. The days of
monopoly and restriction on trade, of all sorts, are fast
fading away, and fair and open competition in ,his, as in
all other trades, is its life-blood.

Having been one of the first, if not the first, to recom-
mend the propriety of grantin ! a license and badge to
the runners, and also that each of them should be required
to find two sureties for their good conduct in 130 or .220
each, the latter part of my suggestion, I regret, was not
carried out ; notwithstanding, I am still of opinion, that
the licensed runners' system is the best that can be adopted
I have already admitted that there are soma bad men
among them, who should not be entrusted with a li,lense,
and I have no doubt the pruning knife v. ill be rigidly
applied next licensing term, but I assert that no men
could have taken more pains than our government
agents'have, in preventing improper characters from being
returned ; and. as I have said before,, there is no man, or
body of men, living, who understand the "ins and cuts"
of the enaigra.ion trade of this port, as well as our govern-
ment officers here ; and I would, without anything invi
dious, particularly mention Lieutenant Prior, whose long
experience in this port, and sound understanding, havemade
him a complete master of this subject, in all its bearings.
Apologii-ing for this long intrusion on your valuable
space, and hoping you will, ere long, accord to me a corner
in your excellent journal, for a few further remarks on
this subject—l remain, yours, &e. FREE-TRADE.

SHAW'S BROW.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN TIMES•

Sir,— Can any of your readers inform the public why
an old dilapidated building is allowed to remain standing,
on the south side of Shaw's Brow ?
I have asked several of our Town Councillor s the ques-
tion, but none of them know anything about it,—Yoars,
&e , E Loor.
16th November, 1857.

QUARANTINE AT MADEIRA.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN TIMES.

Sir, —We, the undersigned passengers by the R. M. S.
Company's ship Tyne, from Southampton to Madeira, beg
to forward you, for the guidance of persons intending to
winter in the island, the following statement :
In consequence of the prevalence of yellow fever at
Lisbon, that port was declared infected on the Bth in=t.,
and the passengers of all vessels touching there on their
way to M ideir.t, are placed in quarantine for fifteen days
on landing at Funchil.
The Board of Health at this plac3, assuming, as we
firmly believe, illegal powers, has condemned us to seven
days more than the utmost period sanctioned by quarantine
laws, viz., eight days.
We are also subjected to restrictions quite unnecessary
for the preservation of quarantine, and dictated by a spirit
of despotic power.
We have appealed to our respective consuls, who have
done their best with the authorities, but hitherto in vain,
the plain fact being that the Local Board of Health,
iofluenced by popular clamour, has, by its arbitrary enact-
men+ s, not only placed itself above the Central Board of
Health at Lisbon, but also above the law of the land and
the law of rations.
The discomforts we endure, and the expenses we incur,
will form the subject of a future letter. We wish it,
however, to be understood that this annoyance applies only
to passengers via Lisbon, for those by any of the three
other lines of vends direct from England are free. The
island itself is in a perfectly healthy state.—We are, sir,
y ur obedient servants,
Baron d'llermelin Robert Lane
D. Jones, M.P. Robert Lambert
A. F. D. D'Orsay. Clk. James Gillies
George Lund, M.D. James Rennie
T. Bahr, M.D. E. M. Copeland
Richard Davis F. Bahr
W. F. M. Copeland Jessie Reid
John R. Grimes Albert Ji.ckson
John H. Gorden Henry Davies
H. Krohn L. Wlliams
E. A. Crowensbield G. Downard
Robert Wilson W. Debaeiff
Otto Treu W. Krohn

BRthFORD —Amongst the commercial disasters of the
day, none will occasion more regret than the failuro of Mr.
Wm. Marten, woolstaplPr, of this town, whose liabilities
are estimated at £40,000. Mr. Marten has carried on
business in Bradford for thirty yearn, and not only in the
town but in the remotest confines of the wool trade, was
universally esteemed and respected. The immediate effects
of this disaster will not be felt in Bradford, but in the
woolgrowing districts of Leicestershire and the West of
England, from which Mr. Marten chiefly received his
supplies. The announcement of his stoppage, nevertheless,
threw a great gloom over our commercial circles on Tuesday,
which was greatly increased by the intelligence from Scot-
land on that day.—.Bradforel Observer.