The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-08-03 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, AUGUST 3, 1841

One of our much esteemed representatives, Lord
Sandon, observed at the first anniversary dinner of
the Liverpool Shipmasters' Association, that " he had
seen bodies of men associated together for all useful
purposes, but perhaps there was none which promised
more extensive usefulness, although yet in its infancy,
than the association which he saw before him." His
lordship then assigned his reasons for this opinion, and
they were such as could not fail to make a deep im-
pression on all who had the opportunity of hearing or
reading his forcible and eloquent enumeration. The
association is not one of mere conviviality; it is an
association for self-improvement—an association whose
first tendency is to elevate the tone and character of, a
profession which all admit to be a most important
one, but which, from the various interests with which
it is connected, must tend in no remote degree to pro-
duce consequences of the highest value in a social and'
national point of view. The situation of master of
a ship," says M'Cullock, " is so very important, that
in sotne countries no one can be appointed to it who
has not submitted to an examination by competent
persons to ascertain his fitness for properly discharging
its duties; but in this country the owners are left to
their own discretion as to the skill and honesty of the
master." Whether this be a defect or otherwise in
our laws, we do not stop to inquire ; but it follows ob-
viously, as a consequence from our open system, that
every voluntary means of improving the profession,
and of establishing a high standard of excellence
among its members, ought to be promoted and encou-
raged. The Shimasters' Association is a means to this
end ; it is an addition to a man's responsibities ; it
aims at diffusing information among its members, and
seeks to convey to their minds a just impression of
those consequences which must result both to them-
selves and others from men acting in their capacity ful-
filling their engagements in a spirit of enlightened phi-
lanthropy. The society, at the expiration of its first
year, had enrolled the large number of nine hundred
and forty members on its books—a fact which shows
how greatly the want of such an institution must have
been fr.lt, and speaks most creditably for the mind and
disposition of the shipmasters towards its objects.
The subject has, we fear, been a neglected one, al-
though there is every conceivable reason why it should
have been otherwise. It is one in which all shipowners
are primarily interested ; it is their interest to have as
large and as well-instructed, as experienced and as
moral a body of men from whom to select persons to
command their vessels as possible. They should not
rest satisfied with being able to procure men who could
merely navigate their ships from one port to another—
men of little education, and of no information or
knowledge beyond what they have acquired by per-
sonal experience. This indeed, would make commerce
a grovelling, selfish pursuit, which cared for nothing
but sordid gain, wholly irrespective of the means by
which it was attained ; and it would moreover in this
respect be shortsighted; for how often does it happen
that far greater responsibilities than the mere trans-
sport of a ship and her cargo, however valuable, de-
volve upon the master ? There is no more absolute
monarch in the world than the captain of a ship at
sea. The law recognises and confirms his authority,
and it is the common covenant in the articles of every
seaman, that " each and every lawful command which
the said master shall think necessary to issue for the
effectual government of the said vessel, suppressing
vice and immorality of all kinds, be strictly complied
with, under the penalty of the person disobeying for-
feiting his whole hire, together with everything belong-
ing to him on board the vessel." How much then of
the happiness of others becomes immediately depend-
ent upon him?
No enlightened, no commonly humane, man could
be indifferent on this subject. " Commerce," says an
American writer, " is a noble calling. It mediates
between distant nations, and makes men's wants, not,
as formerly, stimulants to war, but bonds of peace.
The universal activity of the age is due in no small
degree to commerce, which spreads the thoughts, in-
ventions, and writings of great men over the carat,
and gathers scientific and literary men everywhere into
an intellectual republic. So it carries abroad the Mis-
sionary, the Bible, the Cross, and is giving universa-
lity to true religion. Let our merchants carry on their
calling with these generous views. Let them not pur-
sue it for themselves alone. Let them rejoice to spread
improvements far and wide, and to unite men in more
friendly ties. Let their. voyages be missions of huma-
nity, useful arts, science, and religion. It is a painful
thought that commerce, instead of enlightening and
purifying less privileged communities, has too often
made the name of Christian hateful to them—has car-
' ried to the savage, not our useful arts and mild faith,
but weapons of war and the intoxicating draught."
' This is all very true ; but unless merchants, however
philanthropic or enlightened, or however disposed to
make co:nmerce subservient to noble ends, can procure
men like themselves to take charge of their vessels, all
their good intentions or good wishes will be of no
avail. Hence the importance of the association under
consideration, and indeed of every other means which
could be made available to give to the masters of ves-
sels that deep sense of their great responsibilities
which would stimulate them in the discharge of their
arduous duties, and at the same time, by giving them
a consciousness of the large space they occupy in
the
publicmind, encourage them to its performance.
But if the shipowner is interested in this subject,
much more is the seaman. It is sometimes the mill-

fortune of' good captains to have to d"eat with bad men ;
but, generally speaking, we think it may be said, that
a good captain will make good men. The sailor has
every claim to the benevolence of his countrymen
whether on sea or on shore. Every plan which bene-
volence has contrived for his advantage, whether in
the shape of " Church," " Home," or " Hospital,"
is worthy of support; but it must be evident that there
is no one thing which would contribute more essentially
to his benefit than that of putting him constantly un-
der the command of a kind as well as intelligent mas-
ter whilst he is occupied on that element on which the
greater part of his time is passed. For the sake of
the sailor, therefore, every mean is important which
contributes to elevate the moral and intellectual cha-
racter of the master. We complain of the reckless
and dissolute character of seamen on shore ; but would
not a different sort of conduct be reasonably expected,
if they had been discharged from the service of mas-
ters who were such as we should wish them to be, and
such as we hope in time every member of the Liver-
pool Shipmasters' Association will be ? True, the as-
sociatiation is but yet in its infancy, and it may here-
after be discovered that other instrumentalities are re-
quisite to effect the wished-for results ; but we do not
confine our remarks exclusively to this society; it is
the topic in its larger sense to which we would direct
attention, and of its great claims there surely cannot
be question.

Sir Robert Peel's last speech at Tamworth affords
no more comfort to the unhappy Whigs than any
other speech of his in public that has lately preceded
it. He gives them no hints to improve upon; he
don't suggest to them what to do ; he won't tell them
what he would do himself; but, as if to tantalise and
provoke them to the highest possible pitch, he does
intimate that when called in, in a regular way, he will
not be without his resources, and will have his pre-
scription forthcoming. Now the right honourable ba-
ronet may rest assured that however 'his reserve may
be unsatisfactory or annoying to the adversary, it is
neither the one nor the other, even in the smallest de-
gree, to his own party. On the contrary, we quite co-
incide with him as to the prudence of his silence. We
should be sorry to see him affording the smallest help
to the incal.ables, flung as they now are into the mire;
and as the victory we have just obtained was never de-

pendent upon any one or two specific measures of
either party, but rather upon a feeling of confidence or
otherwise which involved a variety of considerations ;
so now that that point has been settled, there is: the
less occasion for him to enter prematurely into a detail
of his future plans.
With Sir Robert Peel's last speech, we, as Conser-
vatives, have no fault whatever to find ; it gives no oc-
casion to regret that our cause is entrusted so largely
into his hands, but serves rather to increase our confi-
dence and to animate our exertions in its behalf. We
like the tone which pervades that address, and relish
the advice which it contains ; for we must remark, that
it is in several places didactic and in all instructive—
however unpalatable the precepts may be to the Whigs.
" I am constantly asked," says the right honourable
baronet, " what it is I mean to propose supposing I
"dm called to the administration of affairs. Gentle-
" men, I will answer that question when I am placed
"in that position. My advice for the present is—dis-
" miss those who are now in office." Now there is a
piece of advice given gratuitously, and plain as our
Town-hall cupola. The Whigs cannot complain of
any want of candour, clearness, or precision in this
respect. The leader of the Opposition is asked for ad-
vice, and the first advice lie gives, and the only advice
that it would become him to give, while occupying his
present position—is, to " dismiss those who are now
in office." This is his primary reply to those who
consult him ; further information may probably be ob-
tained, when it is seen that the first has been acted
upon.

But, says the Globe,—the organ of the government
as some say, but of the bed-chamber women, as we
should suppose—" the right honourable baronet will
not stand to it. He is about to fly to the continent to
escape the embarrassments that he would be surround-
ed with, if he were to undertake the formation of a
new ministry." Not so, however, says the right hon.
baronet himself; " I am not going to the continent;
here I remain to meet all the difficulties which may
arise as to the consequences of my advice; and I pur-
pose being in the House of Commons on the 19th
instant, if parliament is then to meet." He then breaks
up a few more of the enemy's weak inventions—such
as the elegant tale of the 16s. 6d., supposed to be due
by Sir Robert to the fat publican of Tamworth, and
still unpaid, and the on dit that he boasted he would
make the Queen a Tory or Conservative, as he said, in
six weeks. These mean, malignant, and contemptible
slanders are a few foretastes of what may be expected
of the Whigs when they are turned over into opposition.
The object of the Globe is to render the Conservative
leader personally obnoxious to her Majesty, and to play
the same game over again which gave the favourites of the
bed-chamber women a two years' prolongation of place
and pay ; but such a finesse cannot be played a second
time ; all the lying of the Globe will fail to give it
success; a great change in the relation of parties has
taken place since then; and it is to be presumed, that
her Majesty has herself improved in knowledge and
discernment since that period. But there are other
resources ; there is the unpromising state of the wea-
ther, and the apprehension of a short harvest. This
is another god-send to the Liberals, which they look
upon as given especially to favour them. We would
not have them lay on the flattering unction too heavily,
however, that this will prove a way of escape for them.
The country has rejected the Whigs because it found
them unworthy of confidence; now, is it likely that
that confidence will be in any degree restored because
unforeseen difficulties should arise ? If we have deemed
these men unworthy of trust in the lesser emergency,
is it likely or reasonable that we should resort to them
in the greater ? By profligate expenditure and gross
mismanagement they have so abused and squandered
away the national resources, that they can contrive no
means of meeting the ordinary expenses of the country
without resorting to experiments full of danger to our
national independence ; and is it conceivable, that in
any extremity of evil entailed upon us by such causes,
we should again desire to put ourselves in the hands of
the ignorant quacks to whom all the mischief is attri-
butable ? We should think not. If there be a short
harvest, there is the descending scale in the duties on
foreign corn, and our deficiencies will he supplied from
abroad. Would the free-trade nostrum of the budget-
men afford a better palliative of the evil ? When
there is a deficiency under the existing law, we can go
abroad and supply ourselves ; under their free-trade
system we might go abroad, and seek to supply our-
selves in vain. Our dependence on foreign countries
is now but small and casual; under their system it
would be large and constant, and in case of a bad
harvest on the continent, our difficulty would be pro-
portionably increased. No, there is no reason to think
we should be driven to the resources of the desperate
and dying \Vhigs even by a short harvest. We are
far from thinking that there are as yet any just grounds
for desponding on this head ; but were it otherwise,
sure we are that the nation would endure its privations
and submit to all necessary ordinances much more
contentedly and confidingly under the government of
men of principle, piety, and paternal anxiety for the
general welfare, than it would under the administration
of a set of needy, place-hunting, unprincipled indivi-
duals who seem to have never any thought but of and
for themselves, and their own petty and contemptible

schemes.
Sir Robert Peel concludes his speech by calling on
Conservatives everywhere to secure the victory they
have obtained in the registration courts, as there it was
that they first obtained the means of achieving it.
"This, also, is sound advice, and we earnestly hope may
be attended to ; but still, it does not embrace the whole
matter. It may operate on those who are already
'Conservatives, but has no tendency to bring new men
into the arena; it does not snggest a sufficient motive;
it reaches no deep spring of action. This is the great
defect of the right honourable baronet's speeches. In
.our humble opinion, however, Conservatives would be
mightily stirred up to do the thing advised, if they
,were assured that it was a grand object with the leaders
of their party to use their increased power in building
up and strengthening the Church--in extending the
national religion, and restoring in the national coun-
cils that respect for sacred things and zeal for Chris-
tian instruction which we regard as the first element
of social happiness and of national prosperity.

The Conservative press is charged with tocr strong a
leaning to the landed interest; but the Liberal press
certainly leans quite enough the other way, in our

humble opinion, to set the balance true. A Liverpool
contemporary, the Journal, of Saturday, takes us to
task for some re►narks which appeared in this paper
during the great agricultural meeting, and from which
he infers that we have adopted the " exterminating
doctrine" touching manufactures. But we have not

been able to discover that we advanced anything which

could warrant such a conclusion, not even with the
assistance of so lucid and exact a commentator as our

contemporary. We are certainly opposed to the poli-
tics and policy of the gentlemen of the anti-corn-law

eague, most of whom are manufacturers, and we have

,een frequently disgusted when hearing with our own

ears the language used by their advocates towards the
gentry and landed proprietary; but as to any hostile
feeling towards their interests, or want of appreciation
for British manufacturers, or manufacturing industry,
we are not at all conscious of labouring under any such
preposterous state of mind. The statements with
which our contemporary seeks to quarrel are absolute
truisms. We said, and we say again, that the first
principle of national independence is, national self-
support. We said that manufacturing prosperity was
precarious, fluctuating, and might altogether cease ;
but that so long as we had a soil capable of supporting
the population, we might, under a wise government,
be a free and happy people, and that, therefore, how-
ever desirable it might be to promote manufactures,
yet that this should never be done at the expense of
agriculture, or to such a degree as to render us de-
pendent on foreigners for actual necessaries. And
surely the Jorirnal cannot be serious in disputing such
propositions ; but if so, we really do not perceive how
it is possible for us to conduct a controversy with him.
Where would be our axioms, and postulates, our data,
concessions, and so forth ?

But the Journal has no fancy for the golden age,
nor the primitive pastoral state ; he dreads the idea of
swords being beat into plough-shares, and spinning-
jennies being converted into hoes or rakes ; and he
takes us to Italy and the Italians to convince us that
this agricultural state is the worst in the world. But
is he sure that Italian misery and degradation are truly
the result of the agricultural state? Are the Italians

a degraded, servile, beggarly race, merely because they
possess a delightful climate and a fertile soil, and
because, instead of being confined to towns, and shut
up in factories, they labour in the open air, cultivate
their corn, and wine, and oil, their fruits and fields,
and reside in cottages ? " God made the country,',
saith the proverb, " but man made the town :" does
our contemporary mean to say, that the town is better?
He might have spared himself the trouble to quote
authorities for us as to the wretchedness of the Italians;
we should have readily conceded the fact ; but we
gladly borrow part of his quotation, as he says it is
from a work of first-rate authority. It is as follows :
" Every public walk, the doors of every frequented church,
are besieged by crowds of beggars. of whom, though many
may be idlers or impostors, a large majority are wretched
creatures really dying of hunger. These are, indeed, chari-
table societies which spend large sums every year; there are
also hospitals, amongst which those of Milan, Genoa, Rome,
and Naples, are the most famous. But all these remedies
are local and inadequate. The governments do little or no-
thing for the poor ; they do not even compel them to bide
their misery ; and the rags and sores of hunger and paupers,
pressing themselves on our attention by hundreds in every
town and village from Susa to Reggio, may help us to a part
of our account when we are next asked why the lower
Italians are discontented, and, as is alleged, addicted to
robberies."

" The Italians," says Eustace, "are a very barbarous
people ; and if they do not enjoy the blessings attached
by Providence to industry, the fault does not lie with
them, but in the system by which they are governed."
"It is with mingled sentiments of pride and gratitude,"
says another English writer, " that a native of this
country should return from traversing the Italian
states ; with pride that he is the member of a com-
munity in which the energy of the people has reared
a constitution which has shed o'er our northern isle
a splendour unknown to the regions of the sun;' and
with gratitude that public happiness is not the peculiar
growth of any climate ; but under all circumstances
and in all ages, is to be won by the vigour of a free
people." Neither of these writers, however, touches
the deepest spring of all, and that which is by far
the most important in our eyes ; but our contem-
porary of the Journal is not so deficient; he an-
ticipates most exactly what we would say. " The
STANDARD," says he, " will probably reply that the
misery of the Italian peasantry is not owing to the

want of manufactures, but to the want of a Church of
England among them, to the want of such "lions men
as the Stowells, M‘Neiles, Magees, of this highly-
favoured country." Most true ; we do say so. The
curse of Popery is on that fair land, and the people
are consequently what the Journal's " first rate autho-
rity" says they are, a nation of slaves and beggars.
But why did he go to Italy to show us what Popery
can do for a people? He need not to have gone so far;
it would have done to have just steamed over to
O'Connell's country. There, indeed, he would have
seen lights, and shadows—light in every Protestant
district, and darkness in every Popish. The agricul-
tural state again, and the British constitution, at least

in name; but Popery again with its blight—a mildew
and blast—powerful only for evil.
But our contemporary, in the last place, compares
the peasantry with the manufacturing population of
this country, and argues for the superior condition of
the factory operatives. Well, there is no disputing
about tastes; but as we do not feel ourselves particu-
larly concerned in determining the point, we shall leave
the matter in his hands. The happiness of a people
does not after all, depend so much on the nature or
character of their industrial occupation; it depends
much more on their religion and government. If
these be all right, it does not signify what their pecu-
liar occupations may be, so they be honest—and the
labouring man, whether peasant or mechanic, may en-
joy a reasonable share of comfort and contentment.