The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-12-11 00:00:00

STATE OF TRADE

MANCfitSTER.-A large amount of business has been
done during the last ten days, especially in yarns for India
and in goods suitable for the Mediterranean markets ; but
the feeling yesterday was not quite so buoyant as on the pre-
ceding Tuesday, and the demand was generally on a more
limited scale, but without any change in prices. Some little
flatness was, no doubt, caused by two failures reported in
Glasgow, by which some loss will be sustained in Manches-
ter ; as well as one in Liverpool and another in Belfast, which,
though not materially connected with the trade of this dis-
trict, have still a tendency to diminish confidence. The pri-
vate accounts received from London are decidedly more fa-
vourable than for some days past. Saturday last was con-
sidered to have passed over more quietly than any fourth of
the month ever recollected at this season of the year, and
money was, consequently, abundant ; the bill-brokers being
glad to lend money, for short periods, on the stock exchange,
at four per cent. _ _ _ _

ROCHDALE FLANNEL MARKET, MONDAY, DEC. 6.
The market to-day has been worse than that of the preceding
Monday ; there have been fewer pieces sold, and, in some
cases, lower prices have been given. In the wool market,
therel has been little doing:; but prices have undergone no
change. _ _

HUDDERSFIELD MARKET, DECEMBER B.—This market
was not s,) animated as last week ; but, generally speaking,
a fair winter trade is doing. The fact that the operatives are
mostly employed, and the mills continue working full time,
is certain evidence of a fair amount of orders in hand. Stocks
'are by no means heavy, and prices remain firm. In the
warehouses a slight improvement is observable. On the
whole, the woollen trade is as good as usual at this season.—
Manchester Guardian.

Our Paris correspondent says that Marshal Vallee is re-
called from Algiers, and that General Cubieres to be the
new Commander in Chief.
The Spanish Regency is said to have addressed a note to
the French government, complaining of the menacing knot
of emigrants collected in Prris around the ex-Regent.
WINDSOR, SUNDAY EVENING.—The nursery and three
adjoining rooms at the castle, for the use of the infant prin-
cess and her royal highness's attendants, are nearly com-
pleted. They are very plainly furnished, and are most con-
veniently situated in the Victoria Tower, over the bed-room
which was occupied by her Majesty previous to her marriage.
They are a very short distance from her Majesty's chamber,
which is over the Augusta Tower. There is now not the
least doubt that her Majesty will spend Christmas at the
castle.

We regret to learn that up to this time no accounts have
been received of the Fairy surveying-vessel, Captain Hewett,
missing since the 13th ult., when she was last seen off Low-
estoffe. Had the vessel been wrecked or foundered off the
coast, some of the wreck would undoubtedly ere this have
come on shore, and we entertain the sanguine hope that she
has been driven off the land, and obliged to run for shelter
to a port in Norway. Several revenue vessels and the Sala-
mander steamer have been despatched in search of her, and
until these return the relatives of the crew should not
despair.—Naval and Military Gazette.

In ten years the Whigs have expended upwards of six
millions of money in providing for themselves and their
retainers by useless and obnoxious commissions, by the
creation of new places and the pensioning of numerous
members of their own party.

We find that the mate of the Cyclops, whose conduct
when leading the Turks at the taking of Sidon, obtained such
flattering approval, is the son of Lieutenant-General Sir H.
J. Cumming, colonel of the 12th royal lancers, and the same
officer who, when serving in her Majesty's ship Hastings,
saved on two different occasions the lives of two men, by
jumping overboard after them, the one the carpenter, the
other a seaman of that ship, for which the Royal Humane
Society awarded him a medal.

TROOPS TO INDIA.—The usual detachments for the three
Presidencies in India, are to be embarked in the course of
the ensuing month, or early in February. The united
strength of these detachments will be about 1500 or 1600
men ; that being the extent of the number of cavalry and
infantry soldiers belonging to the depots of regiments sta-
tioned in the East Indies who are now available for duty
there.—United ServieeGazette.

THE ROTATION SYSTEM.--The announcement contained
in our last Gazette, relative to the 22d Foot being under or-
ders for India, has been officially confirmed. The regiment
is to proceed to Bombay. The ten years' hard service which
it recently saw at Jamaica, coupled with its eight years' pre-
vious service in India—its stay of nine years at the Mauri-
tius, and its comparatively short tour of home duty, the
major part of which has been of a harrassing description in
Ireland, would certainly seem to give the 22d a strong claim
to a better station than Bombay, and which would, no doubt,
have been allotted to it, if the obnoxious farcical and unjust
rotation system had not been in existence.—United Service
Gazette.

CHESS IN THE CAFE DE LA REGENCE.—A certain man
was once seen, who spent daily six or seven hours at the
Regence for ten years, constantly occupied in poring over
the players, but refusing invariably to play himself, and never
speaking even a single word. A disputed point arose ; the
galirie was thin, and the taciturn veteran was pressed into
the service of the umpire. Sorely pushed to decide the ques-
tion, monsieur owned that, so far from being a player, he
did not even know the moves of the pieces ! Astonished at
this, the query naturally came, Why, then, waste ten years
of life in looking over the board ? The reply was, that "he
was a married man, and did not care to go home !"—Fron:
Fraser's Magazine for December.

A Cow WITH A WOODEN LEG.—About five months ago
a cow very heavy in calf, the property of Mr. F. Kearsey,
dairyman, of this town, was gallopping down a hill near Ben-
nall Wood, when she broke the master sinew of her near
fore leg. Mr. J. Ballinger, farrier, of Leckampton, being
called in to attend her, amputated the foot at the fetlock,
and supplied a wooden one. About a month after the first
accident her foot caught in the ground, and her legiwqs
broken short off at the knee. Mr. Ballinger then supplied
her with a wooden leg. She has since calved, and has con-
tinued to give milk up to the present time. She is now kept
in a stable near Mr. Kearsy's house in this town.— Chelteiz-
ham Free Press.

SIR ROBERT STOPFORD.—The recent splendid success of
the British navy, so generally interesting to the empire at
large, will be doubly so to our readers when we inform them
that Sir Robert Stopford—the gallant admiral in first com-
mand off St. Jean d'Acre—is brother to the Hon. and Rev.
R. B. Stopford, of Barton Segrave, in this county, and hence
related to several of our noble and most respectable North-
amptonshire families of good conservative politics. It re-
mains to be seen whether a peerage will be withheld an officer
so distinguished, simply because he is a conservative, and
whether the vacant situation at Greenwich will be a second
time assigned to a whig without reputation, in defiance of
what the whole nation are wishing, and all of England that
is worthy of that navy, are demanding—Northampton Herald.
EXTRAORDINARY TUMOUR.—One of the most gigantic,
flesh, and cartilaginous tumours, which the annals of surgery
record, was removed on Sunday last from the back of a poor
labouring man, residing at Elmore, by Mr. Charles Clutter-
buck, surgeon, of this city. Its base extended along the
spine from the shoulders to the loins, with a diameter of
upwards of seventeen inches, and a circumference of about
four feet and a half. Its weight amounted to 261bs. ! The
patient, who is a fine strong man, upwards of six feet in
height, and about 48 years of age, bore the severe operation
most heroically, and is now doing well. This tumour had
been only about two years in arriving at the above monstrous
dimensions, and its removal was necessary for the safety of
life, as the first stage of mortification had commenced. The
mere inconvenience to the poor man from carrying such an
immense mass about with him which must have been great,
and his misery was aggravated by his being unable to lie
down except upon his face. The operation was very skilfully
performed.—Gloucester Journal.

Upon unquestionably authority we now state, that imme-
diately after the birth of the Princess Royal it was decided by
the Government that there should not be a brevet, even on
the most limited scale. Whenever a brevet is in contempla-
tion estimates are required from the departments, but up to
this hour not a single calculation of expense has been made,
either at the Horse Guards or the Admiralty. Thus, unfor-
tunately, is verified to the very letter the statement we put
forth many months since, that a brevet depended on the birth
of a Prinee of Wales. It will be borne in mind that no ac-
tual promotion has taken place since the accession of Queen
Victoria. At the coronation merely death vacancies were
filled up. This fact, of no general promotion having been
granted in a space of time during which a coronation, a roya
marriage, and a birth have transpired, is, we believe, without
a parallel in the history of this country, and as such it de-
serves to be recorded. We are well aware that the authori-
ties have endeavoured to fortify themselves by precedents
and have in their researches gone back even so far as the
birth of George IV., when no brevet was granted, but we
assert that there is no case equal in hardship to the present
Naval and Military Gazette.
THE BENCH.—It has been some time known, if not to all
the world, at least to that very large part of it, the legal
body, that it is the intention of one of the highest function-
aries of that profession, Mr. Justice Littledale, to retire
from the bench at the close of his labours for the present
term. This retirement indeed has been long expected, and
would, in all probability, have occurred ere this, had not the
devotion of the learned judge in question to his office—a de-
votion carried well night tobe
tabis a
doas it mtingpaayss,iounn—lesksetpbte hisre
re-
solve in suspense. But
expec-
tations of the whig section of the bar are destined to be
wofully cheated, the retirement of Mr. Justice Littledale at
byhe ad-
vancement Christmas may be considered certain. Of all the supporters
of the Melbourne administration among the legal profession
Mr. un. destinedhiy.f! .
to astonish
' member fo
cMourntEs,rith t
mer outbrecwityer,m is, all ac,
by
of his brilliant array of talent to the bench.
Others, we are aware, have been named, (the seats of all as
slippery we trust as his,) but we hear from the very best
authority that Mr. Erle is to be the fortunate man. This
elevation will, of course, occasion a vacancy for this city...-.
Oxford Herald.

Ebt Eiberpool tanbarb.

FRIDAY MORNING, DECKNIBER 11, 1840,

By the overland mail, which arrived in London on

Monday, we have received intelligence from the island
of Chusan, to the 21st of July; from Macao, to the 4th
of August ; from Calcutta, to the loth of October ;
and from Bombay, to the 21st of October. The same
mail has also brought news of importance from Egypt
to the 25th of November.

The news from China will be read with great inter-
est. It will be seen that the city and island of Chusan
were captured, on the sth of July, by Brigadier-General

Burrell, who forthwith assumed the command of the
island. This conquest was made without the loss of
a single individual belonging to the British forces en-
gaged on the occasion. The expedition, under the
command of Sir J. G. Bremer, arrived off the island
on the 2d of July, and the necessary soundings having
been:taken, anchored in the harbour on the 4th. The
governor was immediately commanded to surrender,
and, upon his refusal, operations were commenced
against the place on the sth. After a short resistance,
from some war junks on the beach, which was soon
cleared, the troops landed, and began the attack on
Ting-hae-heen, the capital of Chusan, which was de-
fended till a late hour, but on the following morning,
was found to have been evacuated during the night.
The British troops immediately took possession. They
found the city abandoned by the inhabitants, with the
exception of one man, who was holding up a board
with this inscription upon it :—" Save us for the sake
of our wives and children." A great number of guns
were captured, together with numerous stores and a
large quantity of ammunition. The troops are said to
have committed great excesses after their entrance into
the city, having freely partaken of a spirit distilled
from rice, which was found in large quantities. The
loss of the Chinese was estimated at about 30 killed,
among whom was the governor.

In sailing along the coast, the Blonde, sent into
Amoy with a flag of truce, was fired into. The
Blonde, in return, battered down the fort and de-
stroyed the junks there.
Lord Palmerston's letter had been refused to be re-
ceived by all the local authorities to whom it was pre-
sented for conveyance to the Emperor. At Ningpo
the letter was returned opened to Capt. Elliot, who
eventually declared Ningpo, Shanglae, and all the in-
termediate ports to Nankin, in a state of blockade.

It is stated that Admiral Elliot intended to proceed
to Pee-thee-lee, in the neighbourhood of Pekin, with a
part of his force.
The accounts from Canton state that Commissioner
Lin was vainly endeavouring to raise volunteers to de-
stroy our ships of war, by the promise of high re-
wards. Nothing had been done against the Bogue
forts ; and a large fleet of war junks, which, towards
the end of July, once ventured outside, and were at•
tacked by the blockading squadron, fled over the flats,
and took refuge in the shallow water. Several junks,
laden with salt and grain, had been captured under the
forts by the blockading squadron, which consisted of
the Druid, Volage, Hyacinth, and Larne, subsequently
reinforced by the Nimrod and Columbine.

The capture of Chusan, and the action at Amoy,
appear to have caused a great sensation in that part of
China. Great secrecy was still observed respecting the
further objects of the expedition.

The news from India is more satisfactory than that
which was brought by the previous mail. From Aff-
ghanistan we learn that Brigadier-General Dennie had
obtained a decisive victory over Dost Mahomed and
the Walee of Khoolum, whose combined army of 8000
men had been totally routed by a body of 5000 men
of the 35th native infantry, and the Goorkha corps,
with two guns and some cavalry. Dost Mahomed,
who was wounded, lost all his tents, baggage, &c.,
with 500 killed, and about 1500 wounded.
Scinde was tranquil, and the powerful force assem-
bled round Lukkur was not likely to be called into
action before February, when some important expedi-
tion is expected to be set on foot. The Ameers of
Scinde were much dissatisfied at having to pay tribute.
The troops under Major-General Nott were advancing
on Khelut.

Captain Brown had evacuated the fort of Kahun,
by treaty with the Murrees. He succeeded in reach-
ing Shikarpoor in safety, with all his baggage and
artillery.

It appears that Sir R. Gale experienced a repulse at
a small fort in Kohistan, near Cabul, with the loss of
several killed and wounded. His aide-de-camp, Capt.
Conolly, was killed by his side. The fort was subse-
quently taken.

Aden had not been again attacked. The European
garrison was in good health, but the sepoys had suffered
severely. The Arabs having remained perfectly quiet
since the last repulse.

The Oriental has brought letters from Alexandria
to the 26th of November. Commodore Napier arrived
there in the Powerful, on the 21st, and immediately
opened communications with Boghos Bey. Captain
Maunsel landed with a flag of truce, and a letter from
the Commodore to the Pasha, informing him that the

Sultan heel been prevailed upon ti; restore to him the
hereditary possession of the Pashalic of Egypt, if he
immediately removed his troops from Syria, and restored
the Turkish fleet, the latter to remain till the necessary
guarantees were furnished. Commodore Napier had
made every preparation for the bombardment of Alex-
andria, in case his terms had been refused. The result
of his negociations with the Pasha is said to be a con-
vention, by which the Pasha promises to evacuate
Syria, recal Ibrahim, and deliver up the Turkish fleet.
The official papers have not yet been forwarded, but no
doubt existed as to the fact of a convention.
The following ships were lying at Alexandria when
the Oriental sailed :—the Powerful, Rodney, Revenge,
Cambridge, Ganges, Vanguard, and Carysfoot, and the
Medea, and Vesuvius steamer. 'The Oriental accom-
plished the voyage from Falmouth to Alexandria in 15
days and 16 hours. The net time occupied in steam-
ing was 318 hours,—less by 111 than on the first trip,
and less by 37 hours than the time allowed by con-
tract.

Our readers will perceive, from the Gazette of Tues-
day evening, that both houses of Parliament are to meet
on the 26th of January, " for the despatch of divers
urgent and important affairs." What be they ?—we
ask. What be these "divers urgent and important
affairs," which her Majesty's ministers are incapable of
performing, without calling Parliament together a fort-
night before its usual time ?

The Foreign-office, under such a profound states-
man as Lord Palmerston; the Home-office under Lord
Nornsanby ; the Colonial-office under Lord John Rus-
sell ; and the [Board of Trade under—Mr. Shiel (!)
can want no direction from the people of Great Britain
and Ireland. But they want money occasionally. Mas-
terstrokes of policy in Syria, buccaneering wars in
India, and "little wars" in China, cannot be carried
on, even under the admirable management of a whig
government, without money ; and that money even
Whig financiers cannot get without rotes of Parliament !
Hence the unfortunate necessity of breaking up so soon
the elysium of a vacation, and plunging, before the ac-
customed period, into the discomforts and annoyances
of the session.

We are afraid, however, "the monies" will be very
grudgingly spared just now by those liberal and econo-
mical gentlemen in whom ministers have hitherto found
supporters, both within the walls of Parliament and out
of doors. That national glory, of which Whig-radical-
ism has become so suddenly enamoured, is an expensive
plaything. Fortresses like St. Jean d'Acre are not bat-
tered down for nothing. Chinese islands are not taken
and kept without cost. The demand for a few millions
to be voted by the House of Commons, within a week
or so of the 26th of January next, will be anything, we
fear, but a pleasant foretaste of similar votes to follow
during the session. 'Where and how the money is to
be raised is not our affair.

Certain it is, however, that something urgent requires
the meeting of Parliament. But we are really at a loss
to know what urgent necessity could require her Ma-
jesty's presence at a privy council for the purpose of
summoning it—or the holding of a council at all, if
her Majesty's presence is indispensable—within little
more than a fortnight after her accouchement ! Inde-
pendent of all considerations as to her Majesty's health,
there are other considerations which ought to have in-
duced ministers to recommend to the royal mother a
little more seclusion from the eyes, even of her privy
council, for a few days longer. It may be that the
manners of court life are different from those of ordi-
nary life—that the former are regulated by a foreign
standard, whilst the other are regulated by a more old-
fashioned pattern, of which external decency is an in-
gredient. It must he gratifying to her subjects to be
assured, by this early assumption of the cares of her
station, that her Majesty, after her late trial, is so per-
fectly recovered; but it would furnish additional gratifi-
cation if her Majesty on similar occasions—of which we
hope to witness many—would be guided a little more
in this respect by the practice of respectable English
mothers ; and at any rate refrain from mingling unne-
cessarily in the affairs of government, until she has
first publicly returned thanks to the Supreme Being
for her recovery, in the mode prescribed by that church
of which she is the national head, and practised by the
matrons of her country, to whom her conduct ought to
furnish the example. We have not heard as yet that
her Majesty has performed this duty.
It may, by some persons, be thought trifling to notice
this circumstance. The enlightened and reformed of
this brilliant age, we know, have thrown aside, with
the old-fashioned opinions and institutions of their fore-
fathers, much of that decency and propriety of manners
by which they were distinguished. But we doubt if it
is good policy for a youthful, and especially a female,
Sovereign, to take the lead in this display of contempt
for prejudices—if they be such—which have still so
strong a hold upon the public feeling. Her Majesty
has subjects who could advise her better ; but the
" friends of her youth" appear not to be amongst the
number of those advisers.

The news from China has given rise to much dis-
cussion in the public journals, and has naturally excited
a powerful degree of interest among all classes of the
community. The war with China we have already
denounced as impolitic in the extreme: its impolicy is
only made the more apparent by the plan of operations
which has been adopted in carrying it on. It has been
remarked by the greatest hero of the age, that " Eng-
land cannot have a little war." The truth of this ob-
nervation has been strikingly exhibited in our attack
upon China, The only way in which we can hope to
make any impression upon the ruling authorities in
that country is by an overwhelming display of our
forces, such as would enable us, at once, to strike terror
into the very centre of that vast empire. This cannot
evidently be accomplished by the inadequate and divided
forces which have accompanied our expedition. The
partial advantages which we have already obtained may
be followed up by others equally as great. We may
succeed in destroying the ill-manned junks of the
Chinese, and in battering down their badly-defended
forts ; we may level the towns on their coasts with the
dust ; we may compel their timorous inhabitants to
fly before our thunder into the interior; but it is next
to impossible that our present inadequate forces can
garrison the deserted forts, and it is utterly impracti-
cable that they should be enabled to produce any ge-
neral impression upon a population so vast and multi-
tudinous as that of the Celestial Empire. The war, so
far as it has yet been carried on, appears to be likely
to issue in a series of interminable skirmishes. From
such a course we certainly cannot entertain any rational
expectation that the obstinacy of the Chinese will be
subdued. Our desultory assaults, so far from inspir-
ing the government with any degree of awe, will only
lead to exasperate its hostility and to strengthen its
prejudices.

But even if we should succeed in overcoming the
whole military force of China, we should only be in-
creasing the difficulty of our position in reference to
that empire. It is plain that we cannot compel the
Chinese to enter into amicable relations with us. It is
utterly out of the question that we could force upon
three hundred millions of people habits which are
utterly repugnant to their natures. The only rational
alternative by which we could expect to secure these
ends, would be the retention of the empire under our
own government. Then, indeed, if we possessed forces
sufficient for such a purpose, we might expect to esta-
blish our own commercial regulations with the people;
but what would America, and the other powers, whose
merchants are engaged in the Chinese trade, say of
such a proceeding. Would they rest satisfied with
our conquest ? Would they not claim a share of the
spoil ?

In whatever light we view the subject, we are com-
pelled to acknowledge that we cannot divine the end
which our present government has in view in its expen-
sive operations against China.

The Liverpool Times is sadly vexed at the publica-
tion of the Poll Book, which it characterises as " some-
thing altogether new in the history of municipal elec-
tions in this town." If we are not grievously in error
a similar list was published immediately after the first
municipal contest which took place in Liverpool : at
all events a poll-book is far from being the novelty
which the Times seems to imagine, even since the pass-
ing of the reform act. On two occasions after. that
event a poll-book was published, without exciting any
remark from the Times as to its obnoxious nature.. It
is really laughable to find our contemporary declai, wing

with such vehemence as he does against the publiee•
tion of a list which, even on his own acknowledgment,
must be perfectly well known to the several ward com-
mittees. It is absurd to suppose that "intimidation
and corruption" cannot be practised without the aid of
such a list. The recent proceedings of the liberal fac-
tion prove the fallacy of such a supposition. Our
contemporary should remember that the poll-book is
not composed exclusively of a list of voters on one side
only. It does not give the conservative voters any sort
of protection. If this had been done there might have
been some reason for complaining.

We are tempted to recur again to the embarrassments
under which the commerce of the country is at present
languishing, by an article from the city correspondent
of the London Times of last Friday It appears by a
statement, furnished from Manchester, and quoted by
the Times, that the average prices of two descriptions
of printing calico, viz., 64's and 72's, a staple in the
Manchester cotton trade, were as follows, viz. :—ln
1835...... Bs. 9d. per piece. 1838 Bs. 4d. per piece.
1836 Bs. 71d. „ 1839 6s. 4d. „
1837 7s. 9d. ~ 1840 ss. 10d.'

the extreme depression in the five years from 1835 to
1840 being 2s. 11d. per piece, or 331 per cent.
A similar calculation, with respect to two descrip-
tions of export yarns, shows a like result. A gradual
depreciation in this article has been going on for the
same period, attended, however, with one very impor-
tant circumstance, viz., that whilst cloth, the manufac-
tured article, has been dull of sale, and has accumulat-
ed in the hands of the manufacturers, an increased
quantity of the yarn has been taken off by the demand
for exportation.
Were it a fact that the raw material—cotton—had
sustained an equal reduction in.price, we should regard
the circumstance as of less importance in a national
view. Our Liverpool readers, however, are aware that
such has not been the case. The descriptions of cotton
from which these fabrics are manufactured, have not
sustained any thing like the same depreciation. It
cannot be said either that any improvements in machi-
nery have materially contributed to reduce the cost of
manufacture, or that any deterioration of quality has
taken place. The conclusion, then—the obvious con-
clusion—must be, that this great staple manufacture
of the country has been, year by year, sinking in the
scale of profit ; and we believe we are not far wrong
in stating, that, for the last two years, it has been car-
ried on at a positive and a heavy loss to the parties
whose capital is embarked in it.
This, however, we fear—bad as it is—is not the
worst. A mere reduction of the value of the article,
even to a point below the cost of production, might
have been caused by circumstances temporary in their
effect. What we regard as the most dangerous fea-
ture which these statements display, is the fact that the
article, in which alone we have an increased consump-
tion, is that in which the smallest proportion of human
labour is employed. The home market and the foreign
markets have alike decreased, in their consumption of
our cloths, whilst the latter continues to increase—and
that only at a miserable price—in the consumption of
the lowest quality of our yarns ; and the deduction
which we are compelled to draw is, that manufacturing
industry is decreasing at home and increasing abroad.
This, we are well aware, is a sore and a dispiriting
confession; yet how can we escape it? The utter in-
efficiency of the present government to regulate the
commercial affairs of the nation has, we doubt not,
been instrumental in destroying the profitable nature
of our manufactures. Two successive deficient har-
vests have seriously injured our home market ; and
our various embroilments with foreign states have put
a stop to a large portion of our most valuable export
trade. But not even these causes are sufficient to ac-
count for the fact that the trade which we do possess
is precisely that from which the country derives the
smallest advantage ; and that that trade is increasing
whilst every other is declining. On no other ground
can we account for these circumstances, than by con-
ceding that the foreign consumer is becoming daily
more capable of manufacturing for himself; and that
if supplied with our yarns, in which at present we pos-
sess a superiority over him, he can dispense with our
cloths.

We know well what will be the whig retort to this
statement of facts. We shall be told that it is the
corn law, and the corn law alone, which renders us
unable to compete in manufacturing with our foreign
rivals. But, we ask, have we not here sufficient evi-
dence of the mode in which the repeal of the corn law
would operate ? We dare say that such a measure
would give a temporary stimulus to the export demand.
But that demand would not be a demand for our ma-
nufactured goods. It would not be a demand for our
calicoes, our prints, our fustians, or our cambrics ; but
for yarns, to be wrought into these commodities by
foreign hands and by foreign machinery, paid for by
the gold iniquitously and dishonestly wrung from the
property and the labour of the British agriculturist.
The foreign manufacturer wants only capital to enable
him to compete with us in every market of the globe.
Such a measure would supply him with that capital.
He wants a home market,—by which, primarily and
chiefly, all manufacturing industry is supported,—and
the prosperity thus conferred upon foreign agriculture
would furnish him with such a market.

Admitting then that an increased foreign trade would
result from the abolition of the protection afforded to
the English grower by the present corn laws, can such
an increase, when its object is an article into which so
small a portion of labour enters, be weighed for one
moment against the diminished consumption of our
finished fabrics at home by the British agriculturist ?
We imagine not. Such a trade might enable the spin-
dles of some few of our overgrown manufacturing ca-
pitalists to run more merrily. It might furnish more
freights to some few of our trading vessels; it might
replenish the exchequer of a few continental states and
elevate a few petty foreign landowners to the possession
of a decent menage to match their absurd pretensions
and preposterous titles ; but upon the great body of
the English people it would be a gross fraud. To the
agricultural interest it would bring utter ruin, and to
the manufacturers themselves certain disappointment
and injury.
It is a mere folly to suppose that the manufacturing
states of Europe can be induced by any concessions on
our part to abandon those pursuits by which they have
witnessed England's growing, and, we may add, en-
vied greatness, maintained in past time. We may
flatter ourselves with a millenium of reciprocity to
arise from our abandonment of the interest, call it
selfish if you will, of our agricultural population. We
may lay the "flattering unction to our souls" that by
throwing our population upon the mercy of Europe for
food, we shall be their specially retained purveyor of
manufactures in return ; but we shall deceive our-
selves. So long as human nature is, what it ever has
been, interested and selfish, we shall deceive ourselves
if we expect any preference as a commercial nation,
except that which we can fairly command by the supe-
rior cheapness of the wares which we furnish.

And here at length we come to the gist of the anti-
corn-law argument. Will the reduction of the import
duty on foreign corn enable us to undersell our foreign
rivals in their own markets ? It may, we reply, for a
time. And how? The Times, which has furnished us
the text upon which we are commenting, gives us at
the same time a solution to our question. We must
lower our wages to the continental standard. The ave-
rage wages of continental factory labourers, we are
told by the limes—and although a conservative jour-
nal, the Times is an advocate for the repeal of the corn
laws—is six-and-ninepence per week, whilst that in
England is ten-and-sixpence. Let the corn-law re-
pealers tell their poor deluded dupes in the manufac-
turing districts what is the fate which they are prepar-
ing for them. But when was dishonesty so frank ?

The Manchester Guardian of Wednesday has an
article on the subject of the supply and price of sugar
which calls for a few observations. It is a singular
fact that those journals in which the repeal of the corn
laws is most strenuously advocated are uniformly cha-
racterised by their bitter hostility to the West India
colonies. These advocates of free trade would seem
to take a sort of malignant delight in the ruin and de-
struction of the British colonies, while, with that pa-
trioti3m which is always a distinguishing mark of your
modern liberal, they are indefatigable in. promoting the
interests of foreigners. This is precisely the policy
which the Guardian has consistently pursued. The
conductors of that journal little reck what direful con-
sequences may befal the West Indies, so long as our

foreign trade is proinoteii—a trade which is the least
profitable of any to this country.
The Guardian remarks that " the average of brown
or Muscovado sugar, in the two years between October
1838 and October 1840, rose from 31s. sd. to 575. 6d.
per cwt. in bond, or upwards of 80 per cent. The
present duty on British plantation sugar is 245. per
cwt; and on Brazil and other foreign sugars, it is no
less than 635." With this discriminating duty it fol-
lows that, under ordinary circumstances, foreign sugar
must be excluded from the home market. The Guar-
dian laments this exclusion, or, in other words, it ex-
presses its regret that the slave-grown produce of
foreign countries should not be allowed to supersede
the free-labour produce of our own colonies. If we
are not much deceived, we venture to say that nineteen
out of every twenty of our fellow-countrymen do not
share in this regret. After the noble sacrifices which
have been made by the people of England, for the pur-
pose of extinguishing the very name of slavery in our
own colonies, it is by no means likely that any atten-
tion will be paid to the representations of those political
economists who are desirous of perpetuating the bonds
of slavery in foreign states. Nay, we feel convinced
that the people of England will submit to any priva-
tions rather than undo what has been so nobly done in
the cause of abolition.

The Guardian exclaims, " will the people of Great
Britain long submit to be thus fleeced, for no advan-
tage to the public revenue, nor for any object to the
government, but simply for the private profit of a few
West India proprietors ?" We emphatically deny that
the discriminating duties are unprofitable to the reve-
nue. The contrary is notoriously the fact. What !
does not the government derive between three and four
millions per annum from the importation of colonial
sugar alone ? Is this no source of advantage ? Does
the Guardian mean to insinuate •that it is " no object
to the government" to preserve our colonial possessions?
It is obvious that those colonies cannot be preserved
without protecting duties. We cannot, under existing
circumstances, contend with foreign states in which
slave-labour is devoted to the cultivation of sugar.
But if the people of England will only have a little
patience, and devote their energies to the promotion of
free immigration into the West Indies, we have no
doubt that the day is not distant when we shall be able
to procure a cheaper supply of sugar from the West
Indies than can now be procured from the Brazils.
We pass by the sneering allusion to the " private pro-
fits of a few West India proprietors." Those proprie-
tors have found the cultivation of sugar, within the
last two years, even at the great advance which has
taken place in the British market, any thing but pro-
fitable. They are disposing of their estates in every
direction, and frequently at a ruinous depreciation in
value. The diminution in the quantity of sugar culti-
vated, and the great increase in the cost of production,
have rendered the sugar properties in the 'West Indies
hardly worth retention. This is a fact too well known
to need any further remark necessary on this head.
The Guardian assumes, on the authority of Mr.
M`Gregor, that " the duty reduced on British planta-
tion sugar to 15s per cwt., and on foreign to 30s,
would produce a revenue exceeding the proceeds of the
present duties by no less than £3,000,000 per annum."
This estimate is a monstrous absurdity. At present
there is scarcely any foreign sugar admitted for home
consumption. Indeed, the quantity is so small that
we may safely leave it out of our calculations. Taking
the quantity of colonial sugar entered for home con-
sumption at 3,200,000 cwts. per annum, and the duty
at 245, as at present, the revenue from this source would
be £3,840,000. Supposing the duty to be reduced
to 15s per cwt., it would require a consumption of
9,120,000 cwts. of colonial sugar to produce a revenue
of £6,B4o,ooo—that is, an increase of £3,000,000 in
the revenue. It would be manifestly absurd to expect
such an increase in the consumption of colonial sugar
at a reduction in price of only 9s per cwt. It is true
that a considerable increase might be expected to take
place in the consumption of foreign sugar ; but if the
whole £3,000,000 of increased revenue could be de-
rived from that increased consumption, it would still
require stronger reasons than any advanced by the
Guardian to prove that such an increase of taxation
would be of any advantage to the people of Great
Britain. It is useless to argue that slave-holding coun-
tries would consume a much larger proportion of our
manufactures. Whatever increase might take place in
our exports to those countries, it would be more than
counterbalanced by the diminution in our exports to
our own colonies, which are now compelled to take our
manufactures in exchange for their produce.
It is evident, from the whole tenour of the remarks
which the Guardian has offered on this subject, that
one of the grand objects sought for by the anti corn-
law agitators is the introduction of slave-grown sugar
for home consumption in Great Britain. This, we con-
scientiously believe, the people of this country will
never tolerate. Such a measure can only meet with
countenance from tyrannical wing cotton-lords, who
have done all in their power to reduce the operatives
of England to the condition of slaves. What care
these men whether their fellow-creatures be consigned
to perpetual and hopeless bondage, so long as they can
aggrandize themselves ? It is perfectly disgusting to
hear men prate about humanity who, for filthy lucre,
would thus offer a premium upon the continuance of
the slave-trade.

If the people of England want cheap sugar, let them
encourage free labour in our own colonies. This will
be a sure means of permanently benefiting the revenue,
and of giving an unparalleled stimulus to our manu-
facturing prosperity.

The recent election in the county of Carlow is, per-
haps, one of the most important which has taken place
during the last three years. The triumphant return
of Colonel Bruen, by the overwhelming majority of
167 votes, has afforded a demonstrative proof that the
domination of the popish priests in Ireland is rapidly
declining. Every possible exertion was made by Father
Maher and his coadjutors to cajole and intimidate the
electors ; but all to no purpose. Their feelings of
attachment towards their natural protectors, the land-
lords, proved stronger than their superstitious fears of
the power of the priesthood.
The radical journals are resorting to every species
of ingenious device in order to account for the triumph..
ant majority obtained by Colonel Bruen. They have
the hardihood to assert that " the people" have been
disfranchised, and that the tenantry have been exter-
minated, in the county of Carlow. A simple reference
to figures will soon set this matter at rest. We find
from our able contemporary, the Dublin Evening Mail,
that the numbers polled at the present election were
1,277. Besides these, there were 50 struck off for
want of being re-registered in time. These, added
to the numbers polled, make a total of 1,327. In
the last contest for Carlow, when every man in
the county was polled, the gross number amounted
only to 1,373. What, then, becomes of the ab-
surd plea of disfranchisement ? Tbe truth is, that
the success of 'Colonel Bruenimust be attributed to a
healthy reaction among the electors—a reaction which
will cause O'Connell to tremble in the seclusion of
Derrynane, and which will cause grievous misgivings
among the tenacious occupants of the Treasury benches
in the House of Commons. The people of Ireland
begin to find out that they have been warring against
their own interests by listening to the insidious and
mischievous advice of the meddling priesthood, and to
the deceitful persuasions of the arch-demagogue.
The result of the Carlow election must be considered
as a formal "notice to quit" to our townsman, Air.
John Ashton Yates, the other member. The electors
of Carlow have shown their determination not to be
sold, as they were to Mr. Raphael, for " a thousand
pounds—say a thousand pounds." They will no
longer submit to be made subservient to the agitator's
selfish purposes, by replenishing his exhausted ex-
chequer.
We may now look forward to the event of a general
election in Ireland with feelings of confidence in the
strength of the conservative cause. The partial ex-
purgation of the registry has made a serious difference
in the amount of O'Connell's forces. His influence
vanishes in proportion to the return of the people to
their senses. His days are now numbered, and he will
soon be consigned to the execrations of an insulted
nation.