The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-09-07 00:00:00

uperi our rteimaper qualities and qualiacationa, auelt
as they are, and to let the public decide fairly upon our
deserts. Once more then, we repeat, that if the jour-
nals of the other side are in more favoured circuiu-

stances !or pecuniary or other purposes than we are,
the cause is as we have stated—that Conservatism in
Liverpool has come late into the field ; that when it did
enter, it found the ground largely pre-occupied; that
to make the great progress it has already done, it had
to dispute every inch of the way ; and that there yet
remains a large mass of the people whom its influence has
not as yet reached, and which by throwing its support
into the scales of Liberalism, gives the press of the party
that advantage to which it is by no means entitled on
its own account. But let not our Liberal contempo-
rary crow over us too tauntingly. Our cause has long
been looking up, and is now politically triumphant ;
the Toryism of a past day is at an end, and Conserva-
tism—young Conservatism—has succeeded to his in-
heritance. We return to power wiser than we left it.
We are quite at ease then concerning our lights of the
press. If they have been dim, or obscure, they shall
not be always so. Our schoolmaster is abroad now,
and the people are coming fast over to our side. We
know in what our strength consists, and we are confi-
dent of our onward progress and our ultimate triumph.
Magna est veritas et prevalebit.

We are informed by a journal of the clique, that a
number of " large and influential spinners and manu-
" facturers had a meeting at Manchester, on Tuesday
" last, to consider the propriety of withdrawing their
" business from all merchants and brokers who give
" their support to pro-corn-law members of parlia-
" ment." Now, we doubt the correctness of this in-
formation—we doubt at least that, if any such meeting
at all took place, it was either " large" or " influential."
We think the paragraph bears an impress which shows
that it is the production of some mere manufacturer of
" dreadful accidents," and other articles for the news-
papers, at a penny a line. It is, we think, a sort of
hoax, got up for the twofold purpose of tickling some
of the members of the "great league," and of attempt-
ing, at the same time, to " frighten Liverpool from its
propriety." The artist proceeds to inform us that "these
" large and influential spinners came to the conclusion
" that such a course would be quite justifiable, and that
" they saw no reason for giving business to those who
" were doing their best to deprive them of their means
"of living—no reason for increasing the wealth of those
" who were reducing them to poverty." It is added,
that, notwithstanding the " conclusion" thus come to,
another meeting is to be held this day, for the purpose
of " considering farther of the matter," and of carrying

it into effect. The announcement is altogether such a
piece of miserable bungling, so ill jointed and so ab-
surd, that we trust, for the credit of the country, no
other manufacturer but the one to whom we have al-
luded has had any thing to say to it.
Observe the texture of its several clauses, and the
consistent intimation with which it winds up. In the
first place, it proclaims an ex post facto law—to the
elect that all who voted for Lord Sandon.and Mr.
Cresswell, at the last election, should be punished for
having done so, although, at the time, there was no
law—factory-made or otherwise—against their so do-
ing ; and no caution or notice to beware of any kind
was served upon them. Here we must perceive and
admire the justice of the alleged proceeding.
The next clause is intended to be justificatory of the
foregone conclusion ; but the only justification dis-
closed in it is, that the parties came to the conclusion
that, in their opinion, this unjust law would be justifia-
ble, and that " they saw no reason for giving business
to those who were doing their best to deprive them of
their means of lining." The concoctor of this para-
graph, or the parties to this transaction (if any such
there were), would have done well to remember the
tyrant maxim, stet pro ratione voluntas, and to 'have
abstained from assigning any excuse for their threat-
ened infliction; for the nonsense they put forth must
be obvious to every man. In plain English it comes
to this, that it is justifiable to punish a man for exercis-
ing his lawful privilege according to the dictates of his
conscience—justifiable to do so without apprising him
of the penalty he would incur, or the consequences that
would follow—and justifiable because, by having given
his vote to a particular candidate, he has unconsciously
done-something which, in the opinion of these righte-
ous legislators, may be injurious to their interests.
The league ought to prosecute the author or publisher
of this paragraph for a libel, for it has a most evident
tendency to bring them into greater contempt than
they have enjoyed heretofore. It represents them as a
set of would-be tyrants, as heartless and stupid as it
would make them appear ridiculous—setting them-
selves up as a sort of Popish inquisition or O'Connell
association—depriving free citizens virtually of their
rights, by forcing them to exercise them according to
their dictation—and seeking, through the power which
a prosperous business has given them, to do a great
and irreparable injury to the country which has warmed

them into being.
'We heard something, shortly before the election, of
" Manchester dictation," and we rejoiced a good deal
at the result, as it served to show, amongst other
things, in what spirit that unwarrantable interference
was answered in Liverpool ; but for this afterpiece of
" The Spinners' Revenge," we were certainly not pre-
pared. Most sincerely and anxiously do we hope that
it is, as we have supposed, no more than the hoax of
some ready writer. We do hope, for the credit of
Manchester, that the exclusive dealing system of the
Popish priests of Ireland has not been imported
there, or, if imported, has found no such encourage-
ment. However, if we should be mistaken, we are
satisfied the mischief will ultimately fall much more
terribly on the heads of those who have presumed to
meddle with so nefarious a weapon, than of those for
whom the injury was primarily intended.

REVISION OF THE IMPORT DUTIES UPON
ARTICLES CONSUMED IN MANUFACTURING.

It is perhaps somewhat late in the day to recur to any por-
tion of the speech of her Majesty's defunct administration;
but there is one recommendation contained in it upon which
we feel inclined, nevertheless, to offer a few remarks. "It
will be for you to consider,"—thus runs this quasi-royal
document,—" whether some of these duties (upon the pro-
ductions of foreign countries) are not so trifling in amount
as to be unproductive to the revenue, whilst they are vexa-
tious to commerce." It would be somewhat difficult, we
think, to deny this proposition ; and it is scarcely surprising
that the introduction into a royal speech, concocted by Whig
authorities, of an undoubted truth, such as this is, has been
hailed with a most extraordinary cock-crowing from their
admirers throughout the kingdom.
Unfortunately, however, the suggestion is neither novel
nor of Whig origin, for we find that we ourselves, so long
ago as last January, in a series of articles upon the subject
of the revision of our system of taxation, proposed something
very like it. WE were not, however, so anxious as the
philosophers of Downing-street to confine our proposition to
mere generalities ; and, after all, therefore, it is quite possi-
ble that the duties recommended to be abolished by Lord
Melbourne's government may not be those contemplated by
ourselves. To a Whig it may appear the extreme of wisdom
to untax powdered heads, armorial bearings, rouge, eau de
cologne, and other foreign cosmetics, whilst we, it must be
admitted, contemplated a totally different class of articles ;
and yet, should Sir Robert Peel very perversely fix upon
those which we particularized, we are quite prepared to see
the advocates of Whiggery step forward and lay claim to any
merit which there may be in their suggestion—such is the
advantage which diplomatic generalities possess over plain
speaking. _

We have alluded now to this subject in order to repeat the
recommendation in question, which appeared in our publica-
tion of the 15th January, and which we take the liberty of
quoting entire. "We might instance, along with the cotton
" duty, a number of other imposts levied upon articles almost
" exclusively used for manufacturing purposes, and from
" which a very inconsiderable revenue is derived, the reduc-
" tion of which would be received as an important boon to
" the manufacturing interest, as well as to consumers.
" Amongst these are the duties upon dyewoods, upon a
" variety of drugs, foreign gums, &c., most of them the pro-
" ducts of our colonial possessions, and extensively used in
" the different processes of dyeing and printing, as applied
" both to cotton and to woollen goods; and we are confident
" that a reduction of these might be so judiciously arranged
" as, without materially affecting the revenue, to give a very
" material impetus to the foreign and domestic trade of the
" country."

Such were the views which we promulgated in January,
some months before any new lights upon the subject of taxa-
tion had fallen upon the late Whig cabinet; and amidst all
the hubbub which has recently been stirred up in behalf of
the Whig panacea for all the evils under which commerce
has been prostrated—" free trade in corn"—our opinion
remains the same, that from a judicious modification of the
duties referred to in the extract above quoted, a vast benefit
might be conferred upon the industrial interests of the coun-