The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-08-03 00:00:00

HOSTILE TARIFFS OF FOREIGN

COUNTRIES.

IT is becoming day by day more apparent that, with
respect to one portion of our recent commercial
policy, the Free Trade party themselves are begin-
ning to be dissatisfied. Reciprocal concessions
have not been made, as promised, to our Shipowners.
British bottoms are still excluded by differential
duties from many foreign ports, towards whose
shipping we have extended freely the privileges of
unfettered trade with Great Britain and her Colonies.
Nor have the claims of the manufacturer received
more attention from foreign powers,notwithstanding
the flattering promises made to them by Mr.
COBDEN on his return from his Continental ovation
a few years ago. That sanguine class have been
only laughed at for their folly in supposing that the
powers of Europe would sacrifice their own manu-
factures to gratify the cotton spinners and calico
printers of Lancashire and Yorkshire. The follow-
ing extracts from a lecture recently delivered before
the Society of Arts by Mr. E. POTTER, proprietor
of the Dinting-vale Print-works, near Manchester,
will serve to show where the shoe pinches. We may
presume that Mr. POTTER is a very able man, of
high standing in his business, and, we presume, a
FREE TRADER :---
" The Zollverein, Austria, and Bohemia produce for
their own markets ; and by their protecting duties pre-
vent any other supply, except of very fine French goods.
Their prints are good in execution, imitations of French
taste in the finer goods, and of English prints in the
medium and lower qualities. Whilst referring to pro-
tective duties (a subject deeply interesting to the printer),
T may just refer to the Z.)llverein. Prussia takes credit
to herself for her liberality in not having raised them
,they are very nearly prohibitory). These duties are
charged by weight ; a few years ago, when prints were
higher priced, we had a trade with her, the duties then
being 25 to 30 per cent.; now, on our reduced prices, a
print worth Ss. Gd. pays 50 per cent. In Austria the
duties are also charged by weight, and on a print at Ss.
amounts to SO per cent.—of course a prohibition.

The great success of the French printer of late years,
and epecially in his fine goods, I attribute greatly (not en-
tirely) to the greater extent of markets he has for them
than ourselves. We are debarred from a considerable
part of the demand for fine goods he enjoys. He has
our market free, and we are prohibited from his : he
gains the chance of sharing in, the supply of our thirty
millions of population, in addition to his thirty-five: he
has thus the fine trade of sixty-five millions open to him,
while we have it only for thirty."

How often were these gentlemen, and especially
the calico printers, warned that this would be the
result of their policy—that the Zollverein would
continue to protect their manufactures of coarse
fabrics, whilst France would beat them in the finer
ones ! If Protection is "a subject deeply interesting
to the printer," was it likely to be otherwise to the
British agriculturist ? The concluding paragraph
is particularly important. The manufacture of the
finer description of goods is the most valuable to
the country ; and the home market has always taken
the greatest portion of those goods. Diminished as
that market now is, from the distressed condition
of the agricultural community, France, it seems,
has secured a large portion of it, in addition to
retaining her own, and taking a lead in the supply
of foreign markets.

CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN MR. S
HOLME AND MR. W. 0. STANLEY, M.P.

A CORRESPONDENCE has recently taken place between
Mr. S. Holme, late a candidate for Chester, and Mr.
W. 0. Stanley, M.P. for that borough, which exhibits in
a striking light the superiority in taste and in conduct
which may be evinced by a man of no pretension to rank
over an aristocratic rival. Mr. Stanley—thanks to the
influence of the Grosvenor family—was permitted to be
returned for the City of Chester unopposed, Mr. Holme
retiring when he saw that, contrary to promise, such
influence was being used against him. Most men
would have been satisfied to see his adversary retire from
the contest ; but Mr. Stanley,—who, it appears. has been
compelled to put his hand inconveniently into his pocket,
or rather, that being an operation very like pumping a dry
well, to incur certain little liabilities in consequence of
Mr. Holme's opposition,—felt somewhat sore ; and at the

nomination indulged in some personalities of a very

character. For example, he remarked :

" The contest which was terminated by the placard
which you saw this morning published, was begun in de-
ceit and has ended in falsehood ; for I know well that all
those who have canvassed the city of Chester are per-
fectly satisfied that many of the paragraphs in Mr.
Holme's retiring address are grossly untrue. * * *
When a party gives up fair means of discussion, and re-
fuses to adopt what Mr. Holme threatened—coming to
the hustings with the sledge-hammer of fair discussion
and argument in his hands—and resorts to disgraceful at-
tempts to injure public character, I must say that such a
mode of warfare is disingenuous and disgraceful. * * *
I never before saw a contested election sought to be won
by the destruction of private character and domestic hap-
piness."

Very naturally, Mr. Holme requested to know what
were the grounds of this charge of falsehood and slander
made against him ; but the honourable member, in his
reply, " declined being led into any correspondence on
the past occurrences of the Chester election, which could
be productive of no good result." Such a correspond-
ence, we should imagine, might be productive of the good
result of vindicating Mr. Holme's character, or of con-
victing Mr. Stanley as a reckless libeller. Mr. Holme,
in his rejoinder, however, has placed that gentleman in a
position of no very enviable description. He says :
" Although you ' decline being led into any correspon-
dence on the past occurrences of the Chester election,'
and shield yourself under the evasive plea that no good
can result from it,' yet you have not declined' sending
to a newspaper my interrogatory letter to form the sub-
ject of scurrilous comment, nor did you ' decline,' when
it suited your purpose. to utter most uncalled for and
most unjustifiable slanders, and to make charges which
you shrink from proving, because you know well that it is
out of your power to do so. Whether such conduct is
honourable or consistent I leave others to judge ; but I
shall not permit my character to be maligned without
exposing the maligner, whatever may be his rank or posi-
tion."

And after having explained the circumstances under
which he first came forward as a candidate, and afterwards
retired, Mr. Holme concludes as follows :

" And now, sir, unpleasant as the task is, regard for
my own reputation obliges me to give to your assertions
the flattest and most direct contradiction. It may be
beneath your dignity to condescend an explanation ; but
it is not beneath the dignity of a gentleman to acknow-
ledge himself in error, or prove that he is in the right.
For myself, I shall be glad if the labours which I under-
took, and the personal vituperation which I have bad to
endure, may be the means of directing the people of
Chester to their real interests; and I have lived long
enough to know that the day of retribution invariably
arrives for those who set aside the dictates of honour and
justice. For that period I can patiently wait. The day
has gone by, when parliamentary representation is to
be principally confined to the aristocratic classes ;
and you and others will find that we are not to be
insulted and maligned because we ask to represent our
peers,' and demand a share in those honours and pri-
vileges which are open to all. Recent events will have
shown the citizens of Chester that a man may write ' ho-
nourable' before his name, and yet be the propagator of
calumny ; and that another may belong to the tradesmen
class, and yet practise greater courtesy than he receives
from his titled opponent."