Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-06-09 00:00:00

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TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 1857

THE DAY'S NEWS.

In the House of Commons, last night, a long
discussion took place on the working of the civil
service. The Chancellor of the Exchequer said
that although the government had instituted ex-
aminations—yet the executive did not abandon
the right of appointment. The hon. gentleman
did not say whether the person selected should be
fit and proper—in fact, the right person in the right
place. But he evidently left the impression that
if any of the Ministry, or other influential parties,
should wish an appointment—why the government
reserved the right of granting such an appoint-
ment, whether the party was fit or not tc fill the
situation. A sufficient commentary on the present
system of examinations. The recognisances in
the Cashel election petition were announced by
the Speaker as unexceptionable. Mr. Wilson
stated that the way in which the Australian mail
contract was being carried out gave the
government the utmost satisfaction. It had been
intended that branch mails should be established
between Victoria and several other of the Aus
tralian Colonies, but so far this had not been done,
no doubt, through some misapprehension. How-
ever, renewed instructions had been sent out, and
it was hoped that in a short time the scheme would
be in full operation. Lord Palmerston stated
that the forces at the Cape,which were now entitled
to return to England, would for the present be
detained in that colony, as it would not be prudent
to remove them. He thought that the Govern-
ment might be granted the power of using their
discretion respecting the removal of the regiments.
The Bill, having for its object the
admission of Jews into Parliament, was read a
second time, after several petitions having been
presented against the measure. Subsequently,
Sir Frederick Thesiger gave notice that on the bill
going into committee he should move that the
words, "on the true faith of a Christain" should be
re-inserted. The Fraudulent Trustees bill was
read a seeond time.

In the House of Lords, no business of im-
portance was transacted.
The Asia has arrived with one week's later news
from America. There is but little interest in the
advices now to hand. A new Governor was to be
sent to Utah territory, and a Western man is said
to have been elected for the post. Strong measures
were to be adopted against the Mormons, and
a large military force is to be despatched against
them. Dred Scott, and his wife and two daughters,
were emancipated at St. Louis, on the 26th ult.
Mr. Morse, late commissioner to Bogota, who had
arrived in Washington, expresses no doubt as to
the eventual settlement of the difficulty between
New Granada and the United States, in a manner
satisfactory to both parties. Several of the New
York journals anticipate a financial and commer-
cial crash in the States. In Michigan and other
places the people were starving for lack of bread.
The gold of California and Australia, the land,
railroads, and other speculations were assigned as
the cause There had been terrible storms of rain
and hail in North Alabama, West Tennessee, and
Arkansas, and the valley of the Mississippi. The
damage done to all descriptions of crop had been
great. The crops in Texas were threatened
with total failure from the absence of rain.
The Canadians had exhibited their loyalty
by celebrating the birthday of her Majesty.
Kansas advices to May 21st, state that Secretary
Stanton had issued a proclamation for the election
of delegates to the Constitutional Convention on
the third Monday in June ; returns from nineteen
out of twenty-six counties were in, giving 9,251
legal voters. It was said that many Republicans
were going over to the Free State National Demo-
cracy; also that as attempt was made by Northern
Democrats to send Free State men of that party to
the Convention. Monterey papers of the Bth ult.
report that the Administration of Vidaurri conti-
nued popular, and the State politically at peace.
The Governor had left on the 7th for the Federal
capital. Dates from Mexico are to the sth ultimo.
President Comonfort had returned to the capital
from Tacubaya. There was an active canvass
going on pending the candidates for the Pre-
sidency and seats in Congress, and on the
Bench of the Supreme Court. General Comon-
fort and Senor Lerdo Sejada were the most
popular candidates for the Executive chair. Th
Archbishop was dangerously ill. Santa Anna's
friends were intriguing for his restoration to power.
Detailed accounts from Australia to the 14th of
April are to hand. Parliament was to re-assemble
on the 15th, and the Parliamentary verdict on the
O'Shannassy Ministry would then be given.
The Inspector General of the Penal Department,
Mr. Price, had been brutally murdered. He had
been set upon and so maltreated by a number of
convicts, at Williamstown, that he died next day.
When this became known among the convicts in
the Colony the greatest insubordination prevailed,
and had not measures of a determinated nature
been taken, there is very little doubt that much
bloodshed would have taken place. Fortunately
quiet had in a manner been restored. The immigra-
tion scheme of the Colonial Government met with
most determined opposition, and several meetings
condemnatory of the measure, had been held. The
population of the Colony in ten weeks had

increased 11,000 souls, making the total popula-
tion on the 14th April about 363,000. The gold
fields continued to yield pretty fairly considering
the seaaon of the year. The absence of rain had
interfered with the workings, but as soon as the
wet weather had set in, it was hoped that the
escorts would materially increase. A full sum-
mary of the news will be found in another
column.

The advices per the Overland Mail do not add
anything of importance to that received by tele-
graph. General Ashburnham, with his staff,
arrived at Bombay on the 4th, and were to leave
for China in a few days. Three months at least
are, it is understood, to elapse from the ratifica-
tion of the Persian Treaty before Bushire and
Mohammrah will be evacuated. The former
place is, and will continue to be, occupied by the
Ist, the latter by the 2nd division. Letters
from Afzal Khan, at Balkh, to his father,
the Ameer, speak of a report that the Russians
have marched a force upon Bokhara, the Khan of
Kokan aiding them to the best of his ability. The
ruler of Bokhara was endeavouring by negotiation
and promises of servile submission to ward off the
impending., blow. A despatch from Marseilles says
that the Rajah of Hindore having died, the territory
is to be annexed to the British possessions.

News from the Cape of Good Hope represents
the colony as very prosperous. Railway works
and immigration at the public expense were con-
templated. The frontiers were tranquil, but the
Kaffirs were suffering great privations.
From the Continent there is little or no
intelligence. A. circular by the French Minis-
try of the Interior, has been addressed to
the Prefects of Departments. explaining the
course they are to pursue with respect to the Im-
perialist candidates who may present themselves
in competition with the official candidates put
forward by the government. The minister desires
that complete liberty shall be allowed to these
candidates.

The Moniteur publishes additional despatches
from Kabylia, announcing fresh submissions from
Arab tribes. No further hostilities have occurred
and the campaign may be considered at an end as
far as fighting goes. The troops will, however,
find ample employment in the construction of roads
and other works of civilisation.

The Turkish Empire appears in a very bad state
indeed. Failure of all the bank projects, taxes on
Ch►istians and Jews with payment in advance for
two years, serious insurrections in the northern
provinces, adjournment of the settlement of the
affairs of the Danubian Principalities—such is a
picture of the state of the Empire of the Sultan.
Locally there is nothing stirring. Three stabbing
cases were brought before Mr. Mansfield, at the
Police Court, yesterday, and the worthy stipendiary
sent the prisoners for trial.

WE are the advocates of the interests of the
working classes. Capital, without labour, is
useless. Hence it is that we are, at all times,

most anxious to see a proper understanding,
and good feeling, kept up between the employer
and the employed. Influenced by this principle,
we have witnessed with deep regret the existence
of a strike in two important branches of manual
labour, namely, the Cabinet-makers and Stone-
masons, and are sorry to learn that, as yet, there
is hut little prospect of a settlement of the
trade disputes in question. On Friday last,
there was a meeting held at the Clarendon
Rooms, for the purpose of enabling three gentle-
men, the Rev. H. S. BROWNE, Mr. WILLIAM
RATHBONE, and Mr. J. R. JEFFERY, to arrange
the Stone-masons' strike, and to hear what both
masters and men had to urge in support of the
respective positions which they have assumed.
From the proceedings at this meeting, we learn
the requirements of the operatives, and these we
sum up in brief—a decrease in the hours of
work, an increase in the rate of wages, and a
geeater stringency in the binding of apprentices.
In reply to these demands, the master operatives
showed that they were unwarranted, that the
workmen had overlooked the political economy
of the question, by disregarding its two main ele-
ments, supply and demand. And there was some
force in the remark of Mr. GLAISTER, that '‘ there
was no real ground for these demands, as there
was a surplus stock of labour in the market,
and were they to raise the price, society might
turn round on the masters, and ask, " Why make
such demands, when there are plenty of workmen
in the market at the present rates ?" It was
evident that the operatives went to the meeting
on Friday with the full intention of not abating
one jot of their demands, or else they would have
listened to, and acted upon, the very proper
suggestions put forth by Mr. JEFFERY, who
treated the matter in a very business-like
manner—and thereby have saved a discussion of
nearly four hours' duration. If anything, the
master operatives showed the best disposition,
and we deeply deplore the fact, that the
operatives themselves should have been so blind
to their own interests, as not to have manifested
a disposition- to concede some little differences,
and to return to their work, seeing that they
totally failed to show that the present supply and
demand for Stone-masons warranted the strike.

We are not going to argue this question for
the purpose of causing a greater conten-
tion between the masters and their men,
nor shall we lose much time in controverting a
fallacious principle put forth in connection with
the strike by one of our weekly cotemporaries,
who contends that the claim for the slight
advance of wages is a just one, inasmuch as
rents and provisions are not cheaper in this
Borough than in other places where higher wages
are paid. Our cotemporary should know that
the price of wages or rents have nothing
at 211 to do with the subject.
The value of labour, like every other
commodity, is fixed by its supply and demand
alone. We cannot, therefore, counsel the conti-
nuance of the strike under the hope that the
masters will give in, and the operatives prove
triumphant. The proceedings of Friday do not
warrant such an expectation, and once again do
we request all the parties concerned to see and
come to amicable terms with each other.

The case of the Cabinet-makers is nearly
similar to that of the Stone-masons. They, too,
desire considerably increased wages. But
it would seem as if they had determined to carry
matters with a higher hand, for we are credibly
informed that every workshop of the master
cabinet-makers is guarded by a couple 01

sentinels, who use all kinds of enticements and
intimidation to compel any strange workman
from working at any of the shops who have
advertised for hands. Now, this is not only
illegal, an offence which the law punishes with
severity, abut one which every well regulated
society sets its face against, and will not
tolerate. If an employer does not feel himself
justified in accepting my rate of wages, I
have no right to injure him in his business, or
seek to compel him by unjustifiable means to

pay me my demand.
This is the rock on which all trades' unions
split. No one will deny their desirability as
a means of regulating their respective callings,
and of being a barrier to any acts of oppression
or tyranny on the part of the master ; but the
moment they go beyond that boundary, that
moment do they become illegal and inflict
injuries on not only the members themselves,
but upon society at large. We all know the
lengthened strike which took place at Preston
some years ago, and how it resulted—the poverty
and suffering which was inflicted upon
the operatives, the ruin it caused to the
tradesmen of the borough, the loss which
the mill-owners sustained, and the trifling
advantage which the operatives gained by their
lenghthened refusal to meet the overtures of their
employers. To the Masons of Liverpool, and
the Cabinet-makers, as well as their employers,
we would, in the spirit of kindness, say, think of
these things, and beware of a similar result.
You are each links of the same chain in the
social scale. . The prosperity of the employer
must tend to the comfort and happinees of the
employed. Meet each other, then, in a spirit
of fair play. Let moderation guide your
deliberations ; and seek, by mutual charity and
goodwill, to put an end to a dispute which
inflicts pecuniary loss upon all concerned, and
disturbs society by the public inconvenience
which it produces.

THERE are still many of our Fiscal regulations
which bear unduly, and exercise a mischievous
effect upon several branches not only of our
native industry, but the trade and commerce of
the country. It has been the boast of several of
the late Parliaments that all undue restrictions
upon commerce should be removed ; but, despite
these patriotic declarations, the Government
authotities still cling to remnants of the anti-
quated Tory regime, and in nothing is this more
clearly visible than in the anomalies, the incon-
sistencies, and the restrictions which appertain
to the Timber trade.

On Saturday last we gave an extract from the
elaborate and excellent Circular of Mr. EDWARD
CHALONER, which sets forth that such is the
state of our Customs' regulations, that Baltic
sawn timber can be sent out to our Australian
Colonies at a cost much below American. and
even cheaper than deals, the product of our own
Colonial possessions. Indeed, so paternal are
our Customs' authorities, that before we can
export or even bond the latter, we must pay a
Customs' duty of 7s. 6d. per 1,000, which is
about 8k per cent. on prime cost. Furthermore,
we are prohibited from transhipping them to
another Colony belonging to the British Crown
without paying the aforesaid imposition. This
tax, be it observed, is confined to timber the
production of British Possessions. All other
foreign timber, sawn or unsawn, may be tran•
shipped or bonded, free of the aforesaid tax
which is put down as equal to about 50 per;
cent. on the prime cost of Baltic or
foreign deals. The inference of all this is, that
our Colonial-grown timber, New Brunswick,
Quebec, &c., is subject to a duty of at least 81
per cent., while the production of the Baltic
provinces, or indeed all other foreign possessions,
is so treated as to save to the owner some 50 per
cent. of its first cost. But the evil does not rest
here. According to the existing law, we can
bring a ship, built of our Colonial timber, pitch
pine in her masts, spars, and planking, and she
can be sold free of duty; but the very material
of which she is constructed, being her cargo, is
taxed as aforesaid. Again, on looking over the
tariff of duties levied on timber, we find that
furniture, and most ship-building woods, the
growth of foreign countries, are admitted duty
free, whilst pitch pine, extensively used for both,
are taxed from 7s. 6d. to 10s. per load.

Lastly, we perceive, from the foregoing facts,
that we are not satisfied with rewarding the
foreigner by giving him employment to supply
the most desirable of all ship-building woods—
pitch pine—but the Customs here step in, and
add an additional tax of 22 to 26 per cent. on
the cost of a wood grown in a country producing
cotton, the duty on which has been abolished ;
and though this latter is also produced in British
possessions, the former is not imported from
any of our colonies.

This is a state of things which should certainly
be remedied. Its continuance gives rise to many
and serious injuries to British interests. The
foreigner is enabled to compete with our
colonists. The terms are unequal, and hence
much of that trade—the supplying of many
of our more distant colonies—Australia in
particular, is taken out of our hands and given
to foreigners. The country last named is an
extensive purchaser and consumer of wood for
the purposes of social and commercial life, but
they are too wide awake to pay for colonial tim-
ber with the tax named hanging on it, when they
can supply themselves at a cheaper rate through
other channels. This, however, is only one
item of the disadvantages of the present unfair