The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-10-12 00:00:00

HENRY BOOTH, Secretary
01, October sth, 1852.

TORS AND BUILDERS
COMMITTEE of the LIVERPOOL

TO CON7'I,

CONSTR

DOCKS

st November next, to receive

in the formation of, ME ,
BASIN, the ALTERATION (

UCTION of the WORKS
roposed WAPPING DO(
he SALTHOUSE DO

QUEEN'S I
TRANCE'S
BASIN, and
cations.

and the FORMATION of OUTER EN
nd the DEEPENING ,of; the QUEEN':
)they matters as are et forth in the Specifi

The Plans and Specifications 9eil
jii r
seen on application at the Of of the Dock Surveyi_
yard, Coburg Dock, on and er the Ist October next
The Dock Committee w. not bind themselves to take the
lowest or any of the Te ers.

above Works may be
Dock-

The Tenders mtVrlg--sWaied, endorsed " Tender for Dock
W orks," addresse o "The Chairman of the Dock Commit-
tee," and be sent-in to the Office of the Secretary.
By order, DANIEL MASON, Secretary.
Dock Office, Liverpool, Sept. 2, 1852.

LADVERTISEMENTd
PROPOSAL TO LIMI l' COMMERCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY.

(From the Liverpo,

'imes of Thursda,, October 7.)

A party of gentlemen waited on Mr. Henley, at the Board of
Trade, on Thursday last, with the view of obtaining a royal
charter incorporating a joint-stock compapl, to trade with
screw steamers between this country and We United States and
Canada, with a limited responsibility op he part of the share-
holders. Except, as relates to this linrft of responsibility, the
parties who made the application, apd any others, are perfectly

, .
'at liberty to form a joini-stock co any fOr this purpose, when-
ever they think fit to do so. Th aw already gives every facility
for forming joint-stock com les for general purposes, but
leaves them subject to that ovision of the general law of part-
nership which renders ev partner liable for the debts of his
concern to the full exte of his means. What is asked in this
case is the suspension a provision of the general law, which
is alike applicable to • dividuals, to ordinary partnerships, and
to joint-stock comp nies, in far our of the proposed company.
There may be cases in which it is so extremely desirable, on
public grounds, that a new and hazardous experiment should

be tried, as to make it proper for Parliament to suspend the
general law in favour of those who are willing to risk a portion
of their property in trying it ; but there is nothing new, and
nothing hazardous, (beyond the ordinary risks of business,) in
stablisi-
-te - F,ngl

ire es, ...Ament of screw steamers between ~and and
America, and, therefore, nothing that calls for the suspension
of the ordinary laws of rade. 'Hie application appears to us to
be otiectionable both on general grounds and as relates to the

particular interests
England and America

concerned in the commerce between

In the first place, on general grounds, it is very desirable
that the leading principle of the law of partnership should be
one and the same kind in all kinds of commercial transactions.
Whether unlimited or limited responsibility is the better ar-
rangement we will not now stop to consider; but unlimited

and ninety-nine transactions, nothing bui an essential differ-
ence of circumstances can justify the adoption of a different
rule in the thousandth. An exception to general rules might
have been justifiable when steam-boats were first invented by
Robert Fulton; when Henry Bell introduced them on the
Clyde; or when the first experiment in ocean navigation had
to be made. But there is nothing like this in existing circum-
stances ; nothing that has not been tried repeatedly ; nothing
that is not now in course of being carried out, as our adverti-
sing columns will show; and, therefore, nothing that can jus-
tify a change in the ordinary laws or commercial association.
In the second place, it is not desirable, but very much to the

contrary, that the joint-stock gambling Should be encouraged.
There is no kind of joint-stock company that may not be made,
and that has not been made, a mere instrument of gambling.
In the early days of joint-stock banks they were scandalously
abused for that purpose; dividends of ten per cent. were paid
where no profits had been made ; shares were run up to pre-
miums of fifty or a hundred per cent. ; and., in a few years, the
wh-• 'ital of several --- 'thy' ks was ' F *here

..floie weir. oath,. los. .iacl U.
been limited responsibility, the public would, undoubtedly,
have been the losers, whilst the parties who had squandered
the property of the various concerns, and those who had for
some years received large dividends never earned, would many
of them (setting dividend against capital) have escaped scot
free ; but, under the law of unlimited responsibility, the pu-
nishment fell in the right place, and the public, who were in-
nocent, escaped. The lesson was a severe one; but its effects
have been most beneficial, both as relates lo public interests,
and to the management of joint-stock banks. The same obser-
vations apply to all other joint-stock concerns. They have all
been abused ; have all had bitter cause to rue it; and have all
attained to better management. In every case, a real responsi-
bility for all obligations incurred has been the check to restrain
the prudent, and the rod to punish the imprudent; and we see
no reason to believe that anything else would have done it half
so well.

The above observations apply to all joint-stock companies,
and to the principle of commercial association ; but the appli-
cation for a suspension of the general law of partnership in
favour of a screw-steam company between England and the
United States appears to us to be objectionable on nnrtipnl.”

as well as on general, grounds, for the following reasons:
Several millions of money are already sunk in the business,
wahout any exemption from the ordinary risks of commerce
and shipowning. It was stated by Air. Samuel Cunard, in his
evidence before a recent committee of the Ilouse of Commons,
that the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Corn.
pany had invested about a miliion sterling in their stcarn.ships,

the est

ress, that the I.

cpuipiily had invesieeat least half-a=

ling in a similar property. In addition to these two companies
there are the Liverpool and Philadelphia and the Glasgow and
New York Screw-steam Companies, both of which have invested
large sums, and the general shipowners of England and the
United States, whose ships, engaged in the trade with the
United States and Canada, !oust be of the value of several mil-
lions. All these vast investments are subject to the risks of
trade ; and not only these, but the whole property of the share-
owners and proprietors of the companies above mentioned, as
well as that of the individual shipowners engaged in the Ameri-
can and Canadian trades. A contest between parties who risk
everything, and parties whom the law allows to try for every-
thing, with comparatively little risk, is alike opposed to fair-
ness and to sound policy.
For the above reasons it appears to us that charters, with
limited responsibility, ought never to be granted, except for
undertakings out of the ordinary course of trade, and which
promise great public advantage at great private risk.

STRAUSS AND HIS SOPHIE WALTZ.—Strauss, the
waltz-hero, loved the daughter of a count. Sophie was
her name. He would have given worlds to have won but
one glance of love from this beautiful being, but she was
cold and stern. Madness indeed it was fcr a poor wan-
dering musician, with nothing but his violin, to dare to
love the high-born Sophie, who had as many noble ances-
tors as he had waltzes. Shortly afterwards Sophie became
the betrothed of the Count Robert, lord chamberlain, who
also could boast as many proud ancestors as the fair
Sophie, but beyond these and his titles he had nothing
else; One day Strauss chanced to be alone with Sophie;
he declared his love, and besought her to give him but
one word or look ere he was driven to despair. But no
tears or protestations could move her, she was as cold as
the inanimate marble. The ceremony was to be performed
in the grand saloon of the city, and the count called on
Strauss to request him to lead the orchestra on the occa-
sion, and to honour his bride with the composition of a
new waltz. Strauss, the most miserable man in God's
universe, promised them both. But his waltz ! a thought
strikes him, it shall be the interpreter of his passion and
his grief to Sophie ; it should challenge her pity, if not
her love. Oh ! what glorious power, to be able to speak,
to reproach, to plead ; and through his divine art. To
work ! to work ! When all the great city slept, Strauss
took his violin, opened his window, gazed out into the
cold night, and improvised and moaned forth his sad tale
of woe. The day of the wedding came at last. The fear-
ful agony of love bad given him a waltz every measure of
which spoke a longing sorrow and despairing woe. The
hall glistened and shone with bright jewel and brighter
eye, but Sophie was more gloriously beautiful than them
all. Strauss, a haggard, emaciated man, with brilliant
and piercing black eyes, sharp and strongly marked fea-
tures, dressed from head to foot in black, as though he
bad assumed this mourning livery for the bride now dead
to him, stood sad and silent in the gallery above, direct-
ing the movements of the orchestra. Sophie danced now
with one, now with another of the wedding guests, and,
as often as she paused after the giddy whirl of the dance,
turned her eyes towards the pale and grief-stricken
Strauss. It was more than pity she felt—it was remorse,
it was a kindled love. It sounded twelve ; Strauss gave
the signal for the performance of bis new waltz. The gay
dancers stood up—Sophie on the arm of the happy bride-
groom. All stand spell-bound with the magic witchery
of those magic sounds. They forget to dance, they gaze
in wonder up at the pale man in black, whose grief-torn
soul breathes out its woe through his beloved instrument.
The bridegroom leads off the dance, and Strauss, with
fascinated, tearful eyes, and torn heart, follows the flying
pair in their giddy whirl. They dance, and dance, and
dance, and still do not cease. Strauss plays and plays,
and no stop to his wonderful waltz, which so fearfully
affects both him and them. As suddenly as the light-
ning's flash the E of his violin snaps, and at the same
moment the beautiful Sophie falls dead upon the floor.
Violin and bow fail from his trembling bands, and with a
cry of horror, he shrieks "Sophie!" and falls fainting on
Since Sophies death, the waltz is called by
loved ber to the last moment of his
- Sophie

the ground

existence

He, too, is now dead, but his chart(
waltz still lives.—Mnical World.

3n of pr

We shall

:home of

tween the Free •traders and

es on paper, soap, an,

.tter duty '

he enjo

the muni

Ical or general interest ; an

to authenticate the same by their signs

lot "-:atanbarb.

ICAL FUTURE

In to I

nisterial Policy, ha

almost nec

to a series of spseulations as to the
)robable course to be pursued by the various poli-

sarily given rise

parties in which public opinion is at present

divided. Much of this has arisen from the opinions
sed by leading members on each side on the
tunities of which they have availed
Ives to declare their sentiments. Some few
since Mr. HENLEY, M.P., the President of
the Board of Trade, addressed a meeting of his
constituents at Banbury. In the course of his
speech he defended the Conservative party from
the charge of want of principle which has been
industriously levelled at it by unscrupulous oppo-
He boldly affirmed that his party has prin-
ciples of its own, mad has stuck to them; in proof of
which he referred to several well-known eventsof the
last twenty years—and the part which the Conserva-
tives had taken in opposition to the Whig plot for
swamping the House of Lords, the infamous Lich-
field-house compact, the Appropriation Clause, and
the successful resistance to the Shuttleworth scheme
of National Education. He also referred to the split
which bad subsequently taken place on the great
question of Free Trade, which he lamented had not
been made an open question, and spoke with some-
thing more than conventional respect of the mem-
bers belonging to the Peelite section. This latter
circumstance has been laid hold of as a ground for
believing that a union will be attempted between
the party at present in office and the Peelites who
last year held aloof from taking office on the sole
ground of the differences between them on this one
subject. Such an event is by no means improbable,
more particularly as both parties have agreed that
the question of Protection shall he waived until it
becomes the subject of popular demand ; and the
effect of such a union would be to establish the
Conservative party upon so wide a basis as to ren-
der the assaults of , its opponents for the present at
least harmless.

.eral opp

thems

On the other side, Mr. BRIGHT, the member for
Manchester, has been addressing a public meeting
of the Liberals of Belfast ; but though several of

our London contemporaries have occupied their
columns with a full report of his speech, the drift of
it may be expressed in a very few words. He
laments the destitution which exists in Ireland, and
which he attributes not to .their faults, but to-their
misfortunes, as being the tenants of absentee land-

lords, and hints in rather plain terms at the neces-
sity of adopting the spoliative principle, known as
Tenant Right. With a string of false assertions and
illogical deductions, he comments on their religious
animosities, and winds up his harangue with an
earnest entreaty to the Irish members to join him
in obtaining the objects of English Radicals,—Vote

by Ballot, Extension of the Suffrage, &c.,—in return
for which he promises to perform the part of Prime
Agitator in favour of all the impossible Irish projects.
His speech is in fact but a lame attempt to bring
about that union of discordant materials, the impos-
sibility of which Mr. HUME laments in his letter,
which we have commented on elsewhere.

THE NATIONAL REVENUE.

THE Quarterly Statement of the National Income

made up to the 10th of October presents a most