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

planter or the legitimate producer of cotton. This was
certainly a great mistake. The objects proposed by the
Manchester Association, and of coarse concurred in by the
corresponding committee in Liverpool, were simply to
receive information, to supply information, to supply
machinery, when they could do so, for new dis-
triets, and to supply seed for new dietticts; to ascertain
whether it was possible to find a larger area of the
world upon which cotton could be produced, and also
to urge upon the government, and the East India govern-
ment especially, the encouragement in every possible way of
the growth of cotton in India. And here, again, not that
they wished either government to become cotton growers,
but to remove, se far as lay in their power, all obstacles to
the growth of cotton, by sanctioning and encouraging the
formation of rail wet s and of means of navigation through
the country, and removing any obetruetions which at
present were considered a hindrance to the larger supply
of cotton. Tt e association hat memorialised the govern-
ment in favour of different companies, and met with a
favourable response. He believed the association in
Manchester hid also met, from the Chairman of the East
India Company, a very favourable response. Here again,
however, they could not bat regret that all their efforts
were crippl'd by the disastrous and sad information which
they were receiving from Bengal. The attention of the
East India Company and of the government, as regarded
India, would be too fully occupied in suppressing the
mutinies which had broken out there, and the development
of the resources of India must for a length of time
be crippled. Another subject which had been brought
before the council was the project of tatting a capal
through the Isthmus of Suez. The Council thought it
right to express their opinion upon this question in the
most guarded m inner possible. He had read the opinions
elicited from the various Chambers of Co:cmerce through-
out the country, and from the various other bo lie 3 which
had teen asked to express an opinion, and he believed the
opinion of that Chamber was the most Bearded he had
seen. (Hear, hear.) The question of the Sound Dues, as
the meeting was aware, had been settled. It was an
incomplete measure when they last met, but he'trasted
that many measures which they now regretted to see left
in an incomplete state for half a year would meet with a
similar solution to that of the Sound Dues, before they
next met. A committee of the Chamber had sat for
nearly two years in reference to the question of the Sound
Dues, and did all which lay in their power to get informa-
tion for the pu pose of urging upon the government the
necessity of having the dues removed. They were engaged
in considering the Stadt toll question, which was of exactly
a similar chamter, and he hoped they would have a
similar result. The robbery of specie in Mexico had also
called forth' a remonstrance from that chamber and the
chamber in Manchester. The government immediately
interfered, not indeed, merely at the instigation of the
chambers, but at the instigation of justice to their subjects,
and from information receive] from their own consuls.
The matter had now been put into a fair train to have the
money refunded. Thera was another subject of great
importance to which he wished to allude—the uniformity
of weights and measures throughout the country. They
all knew the great anomalies which existed in weights
and measure's, arising out of past periods of history, when
every county was almost an independent state, and had, to
a certain extent, its own laws and its own local regulations
and rules for conducting its own trade. Now, that all
counties had become more assimilated, and communication
from one to another was rendered so easy by means
of railroads, and produce had so greatly in •
creased that the remotest counties bought and
sold wi,h each other, it was moat desirable
that the weights and measuees of the whole country
should be assimilated. The Council had formed
a sub-committee for considering that question and pro-
curing information, and no doubt the matter would be
brought forward with effect in some future session of
Parliament His excellent friend Mr. Brown thought
they should include in that question that of greater
uniformity in the monetary system of the world—that is
to say, the decimal system of coinage. As Mr. Brown
himself was p-esent, *hose opinion they were all happy
to have upon the matter, he would leave it to that gentle-
man himself to make any further comment upon it. The
postal affairs had been closely watched over by the Com-
mittee presided over by their excellent vice-president,
Mr Bushell. That gentleman, together with the president
and two members of the C ouncil, went to London, and
had an audience with Mr. Rowland Hill, and also
with Mr. Wilson, and they had met with a very
satisfactory result, so far as official routine would allow
of a satisfactory reply. The reply was, that further
information must be had before the authorities
would take upon themselves the responsibility of saying
whether they agreed with the Chamber in thinking that
further po,tal accommodation in Liverpool was necessary,
or that the site in Dale strret was the most favourable t 3
the Post Office. They also stated that they would require
an expression of opinion from the Town Council, which
they considered as the mouthpiece of the town. Legisla-
tion was slow, and the Town Council were so thoroughly
occupied with what all must admit to be a more important
question—namely, that of the Town Dues —that this ques-
tion had not received that attention from them which it
would have tad if they had been more fres handed. Wi h
regard to the library, he le,cl merely to point to it. It had
grown to its present dimensions in about six months He
need offer no comment to show that the Library Commit-
tee had been most active and successful in their attention
to the interests of the Chamber, and in procuring a library
which, no doubt, must be of great utility to that body.
(Hear.) Gentlemen might thing that the Council's present
report was rather a barren one. inasmuch as a great
number of questions had been tak -n up, but few had been
brought to a successful issue. As he said before, however,
this was no argument against such a chamber, and the
more he saw of the workiege of that chamber, the more
he considered it to be a valuable or rather an invaluable
channel of communication betwixt such a town as that
and the Government, and also a most valuable agency for
procuring information and investigation of every subject
which might be brought before it. (Hear, hear.) The
public of Liverpool, which might be considered as the
metropolis of commerce, ought never to allow that
chamber to sink into inefficiency. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. W. BROWN', M.P, secondee the motion, and in
doing so referred to a few of the subjects embodied in the
report. As to the bill which had been brought forward dur-
ing the last session to assimilate the weights and measures
throughout the kingdom, it was very properly withdrawn,
as the feeling of the House of Commons was not in favour
of passing a bill to coerce people to equalise their weights
and measures when they had a prospect of obtaining a
better system, and one which would be more cengenhat to
the wants and wishes of the country. He should himself
have voted against the bill, n that ho did not admit all
the evils of the present system, which was most anomalous
and vicious, but that he was unwilling to take a bad
measure when they had a prospect of obtaining a better.
With respect to the decimal system, they were aware that
it was referred to a royal commission, of which Lord
Overstone was president. As President of Commission,
Lord Overstone had thought fit to issue a certain number
of queries which were calculated to create a prejudice in
the minds of the public against the decimal system, but
those queries had been satisfactorily answered by some
of the most able men in the country. They had the
questions and answers, and they would no doubt be
published for the information of the public. He believed
that a few of the commission were in favour of the system
of decimal coinage, and therefore he should not like to see
any measure adeptel which would hive a tendency to
postpone the adop•ion of that great system. As to the
Inter-Oceanic Railway, he could say that its promoters
were endeavouring to bring the scheme to maturity; bit
they did not think fit to bring a prospectus before the
public until they themselves were first satisfied of its
correctness. They had sent out a strong corp; of
engineers, and their reports on the project were most
favourable. Government had placed at their disposal the
services of Colonel Staunton, and he would proane 1 to
Honduras in a few days to verify those reports. They
were aware that the government of Honduras had granted
a large tract of land for the purposes of the line, and that
its neutrality would be guaranteed by England, Fiance,
and America. The distance between port and port
was 161 miles, and the distriet through which the line
would pass was the healthiest and least influenced by a
tropical climate of any in South America. The Atlantic
telegraph was a question in which they were else most
deeply interested. (Hear, hear.) Unfortunately they
had not succeeded in their first experiment, owing, as he
thought; to the mismanagement of the person at the break,
who checked the cable too suddenly, but they did not
dispair of effecting their oiject. (Hear, hear ) It had
been under consideration whether it would not be desirable
to sell the present cable, and wait until next year to carry
out the experiment; but he rather thought that that had
not been successful, for if what he heard was true, the
chairman ef the Board of Control, Mr. Smith, had said
that he did not see the use of telegraphs in India.
(Laughter ) If that were M. Smith's opinion, the sooner
he left the Board the better, and n that view he (Mr.
Brown) believed the Chamber would agree. (Heels hear )
Mr. J C. Eseter, M.P., supported the motion. He rai
that he was sorry that his excellent friend and colleagae,
Mr. Horsfall, was not present to support the motion. In
his absence he would beg to do so, but the report went so
fully into all the questions connected with commerce
touched on in the report, and they had also been so fully
explained by the president and his friend, Mr. Brown,
that there was no necessity for him (Mr. Ewart) to detain
them with any lengthened remarks Since they last met
a new parliament had assembled. Perhaps it was rather
too early to judge of what sort of parliament it would be,
as it had only sat for a few months ; but he would say, that
if they continued their sittings in the way they had done,