Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-09-01 00:00:00

LIBRAIW

Your council have the gratification of reporting that they have
received more valuable additions to the library from the Earl of
Clarendon, Foreign Secretary, Board of Trade, and the East India
House, for which they h the ratu. nel the grateful thanks of the
chamber. The number of volumes now each nearly 400, berides
many: pamphlets and works on subj.cts not included is the
catalogue.

♦LTEHATIONS OF THE LAWS RELATING TO THE azEctviro,
Upon the motion of ore of tne directors, a special committee was
appointed to consider the prestnt mode of e'ecting directo s, which
has made a report recommending certain alterations in the existing
law, which have been daly adopted by the council. These alterations
will Le submitted in the shape of resolutions at the present meeting,
and the members of the chamber are invited to express their opinion
thereon.

A letter was read from Me. Thomas B. Horsfall,
expressiLg his great regret that ind.spoeition prevented
him from attending the meeting.
The letter was as follows:

Mill bank House, Monday Morning.
. -
My Dear Sir,—lt is 11 ith great regret that I find myself
unable to be present at your ruceiing to-day.
Though comparatively well this morning, I was confined to
my bed all day yesterday, and feel myself quite unequal to
attending the meeting of the Chamber to-day.
• Pray assure our friends of the ex'reme regret whieh, on
every account, I fe 1 at being unable to be present.—Believe
me, my dear sir, yours very sincerely.

THOMAS B. HortsrALL.
John Torr, EQg , President of the
Chamber of Caraniercc.
The Chaitman said the meeting would have perceived
by the lengthened report which had been read by the
secretary that the number of subjects brought under the
notice and attention of the Council daring the last

six menthe had neither been few in number nor
unimportant in their nature. .Probably, fewer than
usual had been brought to an issue. This might be
accounted for by a larger number than usual, having
reference to a change in thelaws. When it was remembered
that the greater portion of these questions was taken up
after they had been some time under discussion by the
House of. Commons. When they remembered the length
of time which was occupied in getting any measure through
the House, and especially when it had reference to any
change in the law. When they remembered how many
bills reached no farther than to have the honour of being
laid upon the table, whilst others might be read a first time,
but few reaching to the second reading. while a great
number probably might be thrown out, even if they should
reach so far as a Committee of the House. When they
remembered all these 'Acts, it was not to be wondered at
that many measures which claimed the attention, and justly
claimed the attention of the Council, should either occupy
a great length of time, more than half a year, in discussion,
or should terminate altogether abortively, But this
fact neither weighed against the duty of the
council to take cognizance of such measures, ner was it
for a moment an argument against the utility to be derived
from a Chamber of Commerce In fact, it was quite the
reverse. It was an argument in favour of that utility in
so far as this, that such bodies gave a spur to any measure
which was being deliberated upon by the House of Com-
mons, and also gave an opportunity of giving to the
government the expression of the opinions of practical men
upon measures which affected the commercial dealings of
the country. (Hear, hear) Measures had been brought
forward during the half year something like twenty two
in number, ten of them having reference to a change in
the law. One or two of them had been alluded to in the
previous revert, and others were new but out of the whole
of the ten he was sorry to say that not one of them had
passed into law. Not to lay the entire blame and undue
blame upon the tardiness of the legislature, he might say
that peculiar circums'ances in the last session pre-
cluded the hope that parliament could give that
time to matters of detail which were necessary
to be considered in any change of the law. - The
chairman of that committee, Mr. Damson, he was h.ppy to
see present, and as that gentleman was fully conversant not
only with the discussions which had taken place in the
committee on those different measures, but being himself
a barrister, would be able to give to any gentleman
requiring information upon the measures, a much more
graphic and much more tangible explanation of their details
of their bearings, and of the desirableness of the changes
to be made, than he (the chairman) mid, who of course
knew very little about law, and had no great wish to know
much abmt it. Of the other measures there were four or
five which had engaged the attention and the consideration
of the council, the importance of which it would be diffi-
cult ti overrate. The first on the list appeared to be the
proposed change in the constitution of the Board of Trade
He had hoped that, he would have been spared making any
remarks upon that part of the report, by the presence of
Mr. Horsfall, who, would of course, have been able to
give so much more explicit and more able a com-
ment upon the subject, and not only to explain
what was proposed to be done, but to
account for the failure of that measure, which, as tho
meeting must of course be aware, had been proposed by
Mr Horsfall himself in the House of Commons, that a
committee should be formed to consider the present con-
stitution of the Boat d of Trade, and how far it was appli-
cable, or could be rendered applicable in its proceedings
and construe ion to the present requirements of etmmerce.
The part which the Council had taken in the matter was
to appoint a special sub-committee to a'd Mr. Horsfall in
the acquirement of such information in reg -rd to the past
history and past working of the Board of Trade as should
strengthen his hands in bringing forty: rd the question.
He believed the members of the chamber would feel that
they owed a great debt of gratitude end thanks to Mr.
Horsfall, for the very able manner in which he took up
the question—and not only took it up, but very ably
brought it forward .11;mseif in the House of Commons.
(Hear, hear) Whatever time such a motion was brought
forward, there might, of course, have been difference of
opinion as to its expediency; but Lord Palmer-
ston, of ccurse, having been just re-seated in
the house, was for the time being almost omnipotent, and
it seemed that whatever he put his hand upon with a veto
could not succeed, and there was therefore little chance of
any individual member carrying a motion which affected
any branch of his government. That was the real origin
of the miscarriage of Mr. Horefall's bill. In reading the
report of the debate it would be seen that no member rose
to speak upon the question who did not admit that there
was some ground fsr the inquiry which Mr. Horsfall
someht. But he thought there was an error, probably, in
the minds of many members. To him, reading the report,
it seemed to be the feeling of the house that Mr. Horsfall's
motion was an attack upon the government. Knowing
the peculiar circumstances of the Boar l of Trade in con-
nection with two great towns, Manchester and Liverpool,
it might be that the Manchester school thought the motion
was a rejoinder—that as they had sought to gain some
advantage over Liverpool, through the Board of Trade,
by the attack upon the Liverpool town dues, this was a
set-off, or rather a counter-blew on behalf of Liverpool
against the Board of Trade as a rebuke. No such
feeling, he was quite sure, actuated Mr. Horsfall in bring-
ing forward that motion; and certainly no such feeling
&matted the Chamber or the Council of the Chamber in
their support of Mr Horsfall. (Hear, hear) The pro-
posal originated in the mind of Mr. Horsfall, he was sure,
keg previous to the last session of Parliament; and it
was quite transparent that a Board which had, as Mr.
Horsfall so graphically said, a lord at the head, and a
lawyer at the tail, and these constituting almost the whole
Board, which had to regulate and to interfere with the
whole ramificaf on of the commerce of the nation, to inter-
fere with trade at home, abroad, and everywhere, so that
scarce any law could pass, whatever were its application,
without being referred to that Bsard in some of its details,
could not possibly be, in its present constitution, the best
possible body for regulating and assisting in regulating the
trade of the country. It appeared an absurdity upon the
very face of it, to suppose such a thing. All Mr. Hors-
fall said was that the present constitution of the Board
ought to be looked into, to ascertain whether it was
not capable cf some change. He believed that.
if the House had looked dispassionately and simply
at the question as it stood par se, they would have
granted the committee which Mr. Horsfall sought.
(Hear, hear.) The next question to which he wished to
refer was the free tabour question. There seemed to be a
mistake in the minds of many parties who believed that
the free labour question and the cotton supply question
were one and the same. They were held as two distinct
questions in that chamber, and there we e two separate
committees. They had still the Free Lab ur C immittee
sitting, of which he regretted not to see the chairman, Mr.
Booker, present. The Cotton Supply Association certainly
arose out of; and, therefore, mutt be considered the off-
shoot of the free labour question. Tire svggastivn was
made that more free labour was wanted for the West
Indies, and could be procured from China, as one of the
great sources of supply, and that it could be applied to
producing cotton, of which all were complaining that the
supply was very deficient. That was the simple con-
nection between the two questions. The Free Labour
Committee had memorialised the Government, point-
ing out the desirahleness in any new treaty
with the Chinese Government, that a clause should be
inserted, if possible, to the effect lhat that government
should permit its subjec s o emigrate, both males and
females, under such restrictions and regulations of our
consuls as our Government might direct in concert with
the Chinese Government ; so that there should be no
pressure, and no violation of any law which the Chinese
m;ght think sacred, bat eimtly that they should be urged
up ei to emigrate. That committee was s:ill sitting, and
probably would have made farther progress had it not
been for the present untoward state of affairs in China ;
and, as the meeting was well aware, in conseveace of the
recent outbreak in India, the affairs of China had to re

main in something like static quo, the troops sent out to
enforce our claims having b..,en already directed to attend
to the greater urgency in India. The Chinese squabble,
as it might be called, and the Chinese difficulties, re-
mained as they were. Another very important question
which had engaged tl e attention of the Council was the de-
ficient supply of cotton. The "Jouncil thought this quesion
of such importance that they deemed it necessary to
call a public meeting over which the president of the
chamber preiided, and of course the members were aware
that the result of that meeting wes the formation of a
corresponding committee as a branch of the Manchester
Cotton Sapply Association. They deemed it more prudent
to ally themselves with the association already formed in
Manchester, than to form an independent body in Liver-
pool. They believed that one concentrated body would
have more power in moving the government and the legis-
lature than a number of smaller bodie.. Ile believed the
meeting would bear them cut as having acted judiciously.
—(Hear, hear) —They had received a number of sub'crib-
ers to their association. That morning he had received a
very interesting letter from Mr. Charles Buxton, son of
the la's Sir Fowell Buxton, in which he said I enclose
a cheque for two guinea., and am anxious to see your
important associat;on well supported." The urgency of
the case had increased greatly since the general meeting,
for they were threatened with a second deficient supply in the
crop of American cotton. The ste; s taken by Manchester
had been energetic so far as they wenP. There seemed,
however, here again to be some mistake in the mind of
tae public. It was thought by some that the association
proposed to be cotton growers—that it proposed to raise
cotton by means of money which would be subscribed by
the members; thus raising up an interference, by an
aseocietion of monied men, m opposition to the legitimate )