The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-10-15 00:00:00

TEXAS.

(From the• Colonial Gazette.)
The state of the relations between this country and the
infant republic of Texas involves considerations of so much
importance to the colonial empire of Britain, and furnishes
such valuable illustrations of colonial policy, that we need
make no apology for examining the subject in our Gazette.
If ever it should be thought worth while to trace the history
of false doctrine, one of the most fruitful sources of error
would appear to have been the tendency of controversy to
push new truths into false extremes. We stop not to inquire
the wherefore, but of the fact there can be no doubt. A re-
markable illustration of it occurs in the progress of opinion
in this country on the subject of colonial policy. Adam Smith
may be said to have discovered the vices of what was termed
" the colonial system." A chief object of his great work
seems to have been to expose the errors of those economists
who had taught that colonies are especially valuable because
the mother country can monopolise their trade. His success
was complete. He convinced the world of the folly of
attempting to monopolise the trade of a colony by means of
restrictions and bounties. He proved that the trade between
a mother-country and her colonies would be beneficial to
both parties in proportion as it was free. But some of his
disciples were not content to stop there. It was not enough
for them to condemn the abuses of colonisation : they pursued
the controversy with the advocates of monopoly into the
extreme of insisting that colonisation has no uses. Bentham,
Ricardo, Mill, M'Culloch, and Parnell, have gravely urged,
that England has gained nothing by colonisation, and would
be better` without colonies. There is still in existence a
" school" of economists, who sincerely believe that England
would do well to get rid of her colonies and to plant no more.
And this doctrine has not been confined to speculative phi-
losophers ; it has found favour with Ministers of State : it
was professed by the late President of the Board of Trade ;
and the actual Prime Minister said to a deputation, about
two years ago—" England has colonies enough and to spare ;
more than :he can defend in case of war." The Colonial
Office, under Whig rule, appears to have been very sincerely
of that opinion.
The anti•colonial Doctrinaires have not, indeed, ventured
to contend that a country like England suffers by carrying
on trade with a colony. They insist only, that trade with
independent states is as valuable as trade with colonies, and
should be preferred because it involves not the jobbing mo-
nopolies and wars to which the possession of colonies has
given occasion. Why, they ask, colonise an island in order
to carry on trade there? why not trade without colonising ?
why not trade with indeperadent states ?
The instinct of the British people answers these questions
with the cry of ".Ships, Colonies, and Commerce 1" The
disposition to colOnise is stronger in this conntry than it has
ever been since the time of Elizabeth and the First James,
when England began to colonise distant lands, and also be-
gan to be a commercial and manufacturing nation. And rea-
son, we believe, will be found to agree with the popular sen-
timent.

The argument in favour of preferring trade with indepen-
dent states to colonising for the sake of trade, rests alto-
gether on one great fallacy. It is taken for granted that the
world abounds in independent states, having wants which
England can supply, producing commodities which England
wants, and desirous of making the exchange. Where be
they? The English would gladly trade with Japan, but can-
not, because the Japanese will not trade with the English.
What can be more precarious than the trade of England with
the "independent state" of China? More or less in all the
countries of Europe, trade with England is impeded—in some
it is almost prohibited, by restrictions imposed by indepen-
dent governments. The tariff of the independent United
States is the most serious impediment that exists in the
world to the,extension of the trade of England. Then as to
carrying on trade with islands without colonising them, what
trade would Engl md. have with Van Dieman's Land and
Australia if she had not planted colonies there ? The fallacy
of the anti-colonial Doctrinaires is obvious to all eyes but
their own. By limiting the trade of England to that which
she could carry on with barbarous islands and foreign na-
tions, the great bulk of her shipping would be rendered use-
less ; grass would he made to grow in the streets of her ma-
nufacturing towns ; and a large proportion of her people
would be starved for want of employment. It is by means of
colonising that England has become the first commercial and
manufacturing nation of the world. By colonising, she has
created markets wherein to dispose of the products of capi-
tal and labour employed at home in exchange for products
desired here.
For it is by colonising alone that the essential conditions of
a first-rate distant market can be secured. These are, first,
that the distant community should have tastes which occasion
a desire for English goods ; and secondly, that they should
have energy and skill to raise productions fit to be exchanged
for English goods. A society proceeding from England her-
self—of the'same race—with the same language, laws, and
national character—has these wants, and these means of sup-
plying them. No other society has either the like power or
the like disposition to trade with England. The trade of
England with the British minority of Lower Canada greatly
exceeds her trade with the French majority. The vast trade
of England with the United States, in spite of their tariff, is
owing to the prevalence of English tastes amongst a people
to whom England supplies language, law, fashions, and cus-
toms, as well as tens of thousands of emigrants every year.
It would be easy to fill pages with similar examples.
Now the infant republic of Texas is, commercially speak-
ing, an English colony. Founded by men of the Anglo-
Saxon race—deriving from England its language, its laws,
and its fashions—reverencing, like all other Anglo-Ame-
ricans, the very name of England—absolved by its inde-
pendence of the United States from the commercial re-
strictions of the tariff, possessing a most fruitful soil and
wholesome climate, composed of men of the highest energy
and the strongest commercial propensities, and very de-
sirous of promoting direct immigration from England, this

young society presents in a remarkable degree the essential
conditions of a first-rate distant market for England. It is
an English colony, free even from the objections of the Anti-
Colonial Doctrinaires. Anglo-Saxon Texas, then, having
established her independence, and formed terms with the
United States, asks for friendly relations with the old coun-
tries of Europe, and especially with England ; with whom,
as her mother country, she offers to establish a perfect free-
dom of trade. France acknowledges England disowns her.
So far as it depends on England, this thoroughly English
colony is put out of the pale of nations. Her affectionate
overtures are scornfully rejected. She is injured and deeply
insulted by the nation which has the greatest interest in cul-
tivating her good-will. And all for what?
Because the founders of the Texas have carried with them
. .. .

an institution which England has just abolished in her colo-
nies. England has ruined an important portion of her colo-
nial empire by abolishing slavery there without providing
any substitute in the form of labour for hire ; and because
Texas refuses to do the same—not in a distant colony of hers,
which would be a cheap indulgence of benevolent senti-
ments—but within her own bounds, so as to bring herself
into the condition of an impoverished and barbarised West
Indian colony of England, England treats her as an outlaw
among the nations. We are no apologists, stillless advocates,
of negro slavery, for any part of the world. But the truth
comes first, come what may next ; and we believe that so
long as land remains extremely cheap in Texas, or anywhere
else, there it will be impossible to obtain a sufficient supply
of labour for hire, or to raise much surplus produce for ex-
change except by means of slavery. Let us refer to the
history of the whole world. In all ages and countries slavery
has existed in some shape while land was very cheap, and
has been as surely abolished when and wherever land became
dear. The reason is plain. Masses of men will not work
for a master except upon on some kind of' compulsion. In
densely-peopled countries, the sole alternative of starvation
is to labour for hire. In England, the combination of labour
in masses, which is indispensable to division of employments,
is occasioned by the fear of hunger. This fear, this kind of
compulsion, is not felt in countries where every individual
may readily obtain land of his own. In such countries,
either all the people will possess land—will work separately
in the very same occupation—will neither divide their em-
ployments, nor raise a surplus produce for exchange ; or
some of the people will be forced to work for others by a
sort of complusion different from fear or hunger. Call it
fear of the lash ; and yet who will say that it is worse than
the other? It may be more obvious, more shocking to our
sensibility, but the penalty of idleness is equally severe in
both cases. When land is very cheap, the only inducement
to work for another is the only applicable necessity : as land
becomes dear, another necessity arises, and slavery disappears.
The establishment of slavery in Texas, therefore is no
new crime : it is but one more repetition of a practice which
has obtained in every country situated like Texas, and which,
deplore it as we may, will probably be repeated over and
over again in countries so situated, until the rationale of
slavery shall come to be understood, and artificial means be
devised of rendering land dear where it is naturally cheap.
Here is work for the abolitionists. Their efforts hitherto—
it is not only admitted, but emphatically asserted by the
most zealous of them—have done more harm than good—
have greatly aggravated the,evil which it was their object to
cure. We have set free 800,000 negroes in the West Indies,
and have thereby prompted Brazil to import as many fresh
slaves from Africa. The progress of slavery in America is
more rapid than ever ; and the African slave-trade was never
either so extensive or so horribly cruel as at this moment.
Such are the result of zeal without judgment. Who founded
negro slavery in America ?—the abolitionists of our time are
not less erring than Las Casas. They go to war with the ef-
fect,' of which they augment the evil, and let alone the
cause or origin—which is extreme cheapness of land. In the
southern States of the Ameiican Union the sufferings of the
slaves are increased by the fear and irritation occasioned to
their masters by the abolitionists of the northern States.
So in Texas, we may presume that the wound which Eng-
land inflicts on the pride of as proud a set of men as ever
lived, will have no effect towards abolishing slavery there,
but will rather convert what has hitherto been only the sense
of a want, into stubborn and relentless attachment to the
pracice. Had we not done better to establish a friendly
intercourse with the Texans, to supply them with free la-
bour from Ireland, and to persuade by reason and kindness
that their government possesses the means of abolishing sla-
very without injury to any class, by rendering land dear ?
But it seems vain to reason with the abolitionists. They
discard reason, to go by sentiments only. Their projects are
aavvild as their past exertions have, by their own admission,
bean mischievous to their own cause. One of their mouth-
pieces, Mr. O'Connell, has recently propounded a scheme
fur forming a negro colony in the neighbourhood of
Texas ; which could not be carried into effect, if at all,
without producing war between England and America, and
subjecting to terrible oppression the:three millions and a half
of negroes who inhabit the United States. But no abolition-
ist project is more impracticable than that of excluding
Texas from a place among the nations. The young republic
possesses all the elements of greatness ; and England will
sulk at her in vain. Protected by the United States, allied
with France, and probably ere long with other European
powers, and receiving, as also seems probable, large acces
sions of capital and people from this country, Texas will be
fore long be in a condition to render it necessary that Eng
land should acknowledge her. Meanwhile, we merely irri-
tate her without the least prospect of advantage to anybody
No ; we make France a present of her trade with Europe.

A convict who had just finished building a number of
houses in Sidney, wishing to give his speculation an at-
tractive title, was advised to call it "Fetterlane."
ORIGIN OF THE WORD " FARM."--IR the Saxons' time
the estates which the lords of manors granted to the freemen
were at the first but for years, with a render of a rent, which
in those days were of corn or of victual, and thence the lea-
ses so made were called formes or farrnes, which word signi-
fieth victuals ; but times ensuing turned the victuals into
money, and terms of years to terms of life and inheritance,
retaining the rents and those called quit rents, or the rents
of those persons that were acquitted or free.—Farmers'
Magazine.
DOMESTIC POULTRY.—Under the term domestic poultry
in this country are understood, the chicken or fowl, turkey,
duck, goose, pea and guinea fowl, to which may be added the
swan. We have no history so ancient as the domestication of
the common cock and hen. The cock was supposed to be of
Persian origin ; but the species has been since propagated
and introduced into general use, through the whole world,
from east to west, from the burning climate of India to the
frozen zone. Although fowls used for the table are by na-
ture granivorous, yet all the various species, the goose per-
haps excepted, are carniverous likewise, and great devourers
of fish. By propagation and crossing, gallinaceous fowls
have been distributed into almost endlesss variety ; but with-
out including the more marked breeds, Dr. Bechstein dis-
tinguishes eight varieties of the common barn-door fowl,
namely, the fowl with a small comb ; the crowned fowl ; the
silver-cqjoured fowl ; the slate-blue fowl ; the chamois-
coloured fowl ; the ermine-like fowl; the widow, which has
white tear-like spots on a dark ground ; and the fire and
stone-coloured fowls. It is, however, difficult in many cases
to identify the distinctions mentioned by foreign writers with
the fowls bred in this country.—The Poultry Yard.

LADY FLORA HASTINGS.
SIR JAMES CLARK'S STATEMENT.

(From the Dublin Evening Mail.)
Again we are compelled to enter on ground which we
heartily wish had been surrounded by a wall of triple brass
three months ago, for it is impossible to set foot on it and
not feel that we walk.

Suppositos ceniti doloso

—.—
Yet, Sir James Clark's statement claims our notice im-
peratively ; and, reluctant as we are to renew speculations
inevitably leading to the confirmation of surmises, from
which all right-thinking persons are bound to recoil, we can-
not refuse him that fair play which has already been given to
Lords Tavistock and Portman. Sir James Clark, from his
whole course of conduct, as well as from his present state-
ment, appears to be a man prone to suspicion, and easily led
by those whom,he regards as his patrons ; at the same time
we are bound to say, there are evidences of something ap-
proaching to candour and honesty in the statement before us,
which we could hardly have expected from one who had
played so servile and so odious a part. Sir James Clark re-
pels the charge of having acted " violently and coarsely,"
and having " even attempted to browbeat her Ladyship."
He also apologises for his original error respecting Lady
Flora's condition, in such a way as ought, we think, to have
been tolerably satisfactory to any reasonable person, had the
apology not been so long deferred. He virtually admits he
was wrong—he was rash, and he is very sorry for it ; and we
must say, that if he had stated as much, immediately after the
insult which now occasions his regret, had been offered, the
apology ought to have been sufficient. It might have
compromised his character for medical skill, it might have
destroyed his character for prudence—but it would, if made
in time, have rectified his-character as a man of honour and
a gentleman.

We give Sir James Clrk—now that the voice of the na-
tion is raised against him, and that he is made practically to
feel the effects of his conduct--full credit for a desire to re-
trace his steps, and a laudable anxiety to repair the injury he
has inflicted.

But has Sir James Clark told " the whole truth l" Is
there no other party involved—one that must be screened
coute qui coute—one that must be held harmless, and freed
from all knowledge of, and participation in, this hateful and
horrible transaction ? A perusal of his defence will answer
the interrogatory. This was the mill-stone around his neck,
and this was the cause of the incongruities and inconsist-
encies with which the composition abounds. The document
teems with discrepancies and contradictions, and is as disin-
genuous a production as ever emanated from the pen of man.
It may be said, how can we give a man credit for an honest
desire to apologise, if the very document containing his
apology abounds with instances of that which must be pro-
nounced dishonest? We answer, that since some conceal-
ment appears unavoidable, we cannot expect a perfectly fair
statement either from lord or leech ; and that it would be
hard to deny the doctor of medicine the same latitude of spe-
cial pleading which has already been conceded to the deer of
the realm. One or two discrepancies, however, which really
appear uncalled for, even making the fullest allowance for the
necessities of the case, must not be passed over. The Doctor
says that the only source besides that so cruelly imputed,
from which the original causes of suspicion could proceed,
was disease. " But," he proceeds, the probability of disease
being the sole cause in Lady Flora's case, was diminished by
the circumstance that the enlargement was accompanied b
very little general derangement of health: In fact, Lad
Flora continued to perform her usual duties with apparen
little inconvenience to herself."

This might be an excuse, if Lady Flora really had not been
suffering from continued ill health. Yet the reader cannot
fail to be surprised at finding Sir James himself stating, in the
very next paragraph—" I continued to visit Lady Flora about
twice a-week, from the 10th of January to the 16th of Feb-
ruary." He continued regularly to visit this lady, who had
nothing the matter with her; for better than a month, most
probably every other day, yet he pretends to say she was not
suffering from disease ! Does he mean to say that he went
twice or three times a-week to receive so much a visit for
doing nothing, from one for whom there was nothing to be
done? because with her there was nothing the matter?
Again : after waiting on Lady Flora, to communicate the
" suspicions of the ladies of the Court," in which communi-
cation he admits he was authorised to use Lady Portman's
name, the suspicious creature haa his doubts considerably in-
creased by the' fact that a young, innocent, noble lady starts
back with horror from the proposal "to see another phy-
sician at once, to put an end to the rumour," which could
only be done, as be had already hinted, by revolting means.
Lady Flora denied that there were any grounds whatever
for the suspicion, and named Sir Charles Clarke, who, she
said, had known her from her childhood, as the physician
she would wish to be called in : but she declined, notwith-
standing my earnest entreaties, to see him on that day. This
refusal, after the reasons which I had given, lessened very
considerably the effect upon my mind of her Ladyship's
denial."

A man who knows nothing of human nature has no busi-
ness in a sick room ; and if the folly and unreasonableness,
to use no harsher terms, displayed by Sir James Clark in this
transaction should have injured him in his profession, as he
hints it has done, no one knowing anything of the human
breast can for a moment feel surprise.
But after all, the main consideration remains the same.
Some one originated a grievous charge against the poor lady
who is now gone. The charge was proved groundless- The
originator ought to make amends, and has not done so. But
it will yet be traced home—Sir James Clark says that on the
16th of February "it was determined" that Lady Flora
should be made distinctly acquainted with the suspicions
existing in the Palace." Determined ! By whom ? That's
the question that must be answered.

We must say that we think Lord Hastings has been cul-
pably careless in asserting what was due to his own honour
as well as to the character of his sister, and the fame of an
ancient and noble family. His Lordship should never have
embarked in the puerile and silly correspondence with Lord
Melbourne, in which, by the way, fresh insult was added to
former injury, without having been prepared to prosecute
the affair to a far different termination than an appeal to his
" mamma ;,' and it strikes us that the dignity of a Peer would
not be greatly lessened in seeking reparation at the hands of
a medical Baronet, for the most grievous—and as it now turns
out—the most unfounded aspersion ever cast upon the cha-
racter of a murdered woman.

A satire has been just published in London—the "Palace
Martyr" (a copy of which is now before us) and which, in
a few days, has reached the fifth edition, and is purchased
and read with the greatest avidity. The writer, in describing
what would be the feelings of a peasant—and contrasting it
with the conduct of a Peer, on the occasion of a wife or a
sister being so traduced, concludes the comparison thus :
" No ; let the slanderer be however high,
He must retract, or suffer for the lie.
He might be sheltered e'en behind the Throne,
Still would the husband hurl the reptile down !
The peasant would not brook one cloud or shame
To rest upon a wife's or sister's fame.
* * * * * *
" Tied, like a martyr, to Destruction's stake,
While rival demons strove her heart to break;
Crushed by a mass of base and brutal lies,
Blazoned in Perjury's most glaring dyes ;
On rushed the yelling troop—the sland'rous crew,
Hunted their victim with a fiend's halloo ;
The Court Physician, with his cringing back
And cotvard sneer, the leader of the pack."

MPORTANT INFORMATION TO SURVEYORS OF
HIGHWAYS.

It is not perhaps generally known that an act of parliament
was passed on the lith August, of the utmost importance to
surveyors of highways, who are compelled by its provisions
to make, on or before the 20th November next, a return to
government of the particular state and condition of the high-
ways under their care. They will also have to answer seve-
ral inquiries which will be extremely troublesome. They are
likewise requested to state, for the three last years ending in
March, the following particulars, which, we apprehend, will
be found puzzling enough to many of them :
1. Extent of public highways used for wheel carriages in
statute miles, distinguishing streets or roads repaired under
'the local acts, and turnpikes from all other highways.
2. Amount of rates levied for the repairs of these roads
during each of these years.
3. Sum expended in repairs.
4. Sum expended in law and other expenses, not being re-
pairs.

This act also imposes an additional duty upon the clerks
of turnpike road trusts, who are, within sixty days after the
passing of the act, to state their answers to the following
questions, regarding their respective trusts :-
1. Extent of turnpike roads in statute miles, with the num-
ber of gates with side bars in them.
2. Name of each parish or extra-parochial place through
which the turnpike passes, and their extent in each parish.
3. The present state of their roads, and whether wholly
kept in repair by trustees, or in part by parishes, and, if so,
how far.

4. Effect, in their judgment, upon the security held by the
creditor of such road, arising from railroads, and by the abo-
lition of statute labour.

5. An enumeration of all statutes regulating their trusts.
6. Amount of debts on their trust at 31st December 1838 ;
when borrowed • how much of the debt consists of unpaid
interest converted into principal ; amount of interest paid to
creditors in each year, from 1832 to 1838 ; rate per cent. of
interest due on, and rate per cent. actually paid on, such se-
curity.

The act imposes a penalty of not more than £lO, nor less
than £5, in cases of neglect, and a penalty of fifty pounds for
making a false return. The duties of both clerks and sur-
veyors were, previous to this enactment, onerous enough in
all conscience, and the additional labour now required cannot
possibly be performed without additional cost.—Mark Lane
Express.

It is said, that Mr. Lockart, of literary celebrity, is to
lead to the altar Miss Angela Coutts Burdett, the wealthy
daughter of Sir F. Burdett.

THE LATE EARL OP ELDON, AND ROMAN CATHOLIC
EMANCIPATION.—In his last address on the third reading of
the Roman Catholic emancipation bill he said, with solemn
energy, " I would rather hear that I was not to exist tomor-
row morning, than awake to the reflection that I had consented
to an act which had stamped me as a violator of my sacred
oath, as a traitor to my church, and a traitor to the constitu-
tion." Having failed in alarming the king by a private in-
terview at Windsor to exercise his vote, though he abhorred
the measure as much as his faithful counsellor, and the start-
ling majority of 109 having sealed its fate in the lords, he bade
the house farewell in a moment of despair, and expressed
his sorrowing conviction that the sun of England had set.
Much idle merriment has been wasted on this strong fugitive
phrase, and puerile triumph evinced that the seasons here
should have experienced no perceptible change. The leading
advocates for the measure, who prophesied that the grant of
emancipation would be like oil poured on the troubled waters,
and prevent all future agitation, that it would strengthen the
church in Ireland, that it would save the country 50,000 bay-
onets, that all would henceforth be harmony and peace (these
and similar prophecies were braved by the oratorsfor conces-
sion,) and who laughed at the notion of danger to the church
from some half dozen Roman Catholics, the maximum num-
ber likely to stray into the house, are surely disqualified from
sitting in judgment on Lord Eldon. When we recollect
what has been attempted, and what accomplished, in the
space of ten years—ten protestant bishops cashiered, to apply
a military metaphor to a church strictly militant—oue-fourth
of the revenues of that church consficated, and the remainder
threatened—sixty Roman Catholic members voting for the
abolition of church-rates—every social institution tampered
with ; when we behold a people without confidence, and a
government without power, domestic insecurity, colonial in-
surrection, and foreign dishonour, we may be excused for
thinking that the light has been dimmed in our our political
horison ; and,•if the sun of England has not set, that it has
been in eclipse. Through the schism made by this fatal gift
of unconditional emancipation, issued the reform bill. The
aged peer though no longer sustained by the people, hastened
back to his place in parliament to withstand the popular de-
lusion with as much spirit as when thousands had been
shouting encouragement. " His thoughts (he said) were how
to serve, not how to please his countrymen, and so that he
acted for them, he did not greatly care whether he acted with
them." When taunted with returning to the house which he
had threatened to quit for ever, he made this mild and mem-
orable reply—" I certainly thought that was the last oppor-
tunity I should have of addressing your lordships. I felt
Myself called upon by a sense of duty which I could not re-
sist from the moment when my Sovereign called me to a seat
in this house, as long as my strengh permitted me, to offer
myself and my opinions to the suffrages and approbation, or
the dissent and reprobation, of my fellow subjects, and to
them I boldly,appeal after the delirium of this day shall have
passed away.' —Law Mag. No. 43.