The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-09-03 00:00:00

THE CONSERVATIVE AND RADICAL PRESS

When we consider how short the period is since Liverpool
first aroused itself to dispute the pass with Liberalism, and
to vindicate to itself a good conservative name, we are much
more surprised at what has been accomplished within the
time, than what has not. That much remains to be done we
do not deny, and we admit that it is a strong and legitimate
proof of the position, that, as stated by a contemporary, the
Liberal press is, on the whole, better circumstanced than the
Conservative. He mentions, that in the last three years the
Conservative papers circulated, in the aggregate, 1,191,997
copies, and paid advertisement duty £4,123, whilst the libe-
rals have circulated 2,484,541 copies, and 'paid advertisment
duty £8,192. From this it appears, that however influential
and respectable the classes are by whom the Conservative
journals are supported, there is a large mass, even of the
reading population, who are whigs, or liberals, or altogether
indifferent about any political parties or principles what-
soever. There are Papists and Dissenters hostile—but there
is a multitude utterly careless about every thing but what
relates to their own immediate pursuits and business. These

will not support Conservative journals, the one party from
hating whatever does not fall in with their own views, and
the other from that vis inerlire which invariably leads men of
no particular opinions of their own to go with what they be-
lieve to be " the stream." Our contemporary attributes too
much blame to the Conservative party ; the state of things
to which he alludes is, in our opinion, not altogether their
fault; but we admit they are open to:censure. We will do
the :leaders of the Whig party, and the agitators of the
Liberals the justice to say that they have ever shown a more
correct appreciation of the importance of the public press,
and have been more careful to give their best support to that
portion of it which supported them and their views. The
Conservatives, on the other hand, have been too much in the
habit of allowing the press which reflects their sentiments;to
shift for itself till the moment arrives when they find them-,
selves in urgent need of its services; and then they are per.-
haps surprised to find that the journals of the other side have
been making much more way than they had any conception'
of. Conservatives take in Radical prints, and advertise
freely in them ; the Liberals rarely, we might almost say
never, confer a similar favour on Conservatives. The Liber-
als never pass by their own journals for the purpose of
giving publicity to any article, advertisement, or communi-
cation that could be of the least use to them ; the Conserva-
tives a contrario are far from being so scrupulous in provi-
ding for their own. We take the liberty of speaking thus
candidly of our friends ; but our serious and deliberate opi-
nion is, that the more favourable state of the Radical press
as to circulation and advertisements, is owing mainly, not to
the laches of Conservatives, but to the mass of Radicalism
which exists in the town, and which must be invaded, stirred
up, and leavened, before the statistics of Conservative jour-
nalism can present a due superiority over, or an equality
with, those of Liberalism. We must act upon a system of
aggression, and carry off our supporters from the enemy, and
not rest satisfied merely with what may be done from our
own resources. If Conservatives generally become impressed
with the importance of these views, and act energetically
upon them, their journals, we doubt not, will soon partici-
pate in the resulting advantages.

AN ANALYSIS OF OUR EXPORTS OF COTTON
GOODS, VIEWED IN RELATION TO THE PRO-
POSED FREE-TRADE MEASURES OF LORD
INIELBOURNE'S GOVERNMENT.—No. I.

It is unfortunate that few of those public documents,
which are usually quoted by statesmen and politicians, are
to be depended upon, as furnishing accurate data for legis-
lating upon commercial questions. This is especially the
case at the present moment, when the question before the
public is, essentially, " How are the working classes of
Great Britain to be employed ?" We are not concerned to
know now what foreign markets consume the greatest " de-
clared" or " official" value of our manufactures. We do
not wish to inquire to what country we export the greatest
quantity of manufactured cottons, woollens, or hardwares :
but, emphatically, we require to know what markets they
are, whose consumption of British goods furnishes profitable
employment to the greatest number of British ailizans. In
this information all official documents are (perhaps of neces-
sity) deficient ; and hence it is that the most flourishing
statements of exports and imports are quite compatible with
the existence of distress amongst the operative manufactu-
ring classes, and therefore do not afford a correct index of
the true worth, to the country, of its existing commerce.
We have before us just now a table of this description,
(which appeared at length in our publication of the 10th
August,) professing to be a table of the exports of manufac-
tured cotton during the year 1810. We shall not remark at
present upon any of it's details, becauss we are fully con-
vinced that no correct conclusion can be drawn from them,
bearing upon the important question which is now before
the legislature, viz., the employment of the working classes ;
but we mat for a moment invite the attention of our readers
to their general result, which is given as follows :

TOTAL AMOUNT OF EXPORTS OF MANUFACTURED COTTON
White or plain cottons 433,114,375 yards.. £7,803,772
Printed or dyed cottons 357,517,624 do. .. 8,498,448
Hosiery and swallwares .. 1,265,090
Twist and yarn

£24,668,618

To the unreflecting reader, we have no doubt that it would
afford ground of considerable gratulation if this total of 24
millions and upwards should next year be increased by a
couple of millions ; yet that increase would be far from
being, in itself, a proof of such an improvement of our ex-
port trade as would benefit materially the condition of the
working classes or of the country. Nearly one-third of the
money amount of our cotton manufacture, it will be seen
from the above statement, is at present exported as " twist
and yarn," having sustained the smallest possible quantum
of labour, and being in fact but a grade removed from the
state of raw material. An increase, therefore, of our yearly
exports—if that increase was principally in this article of
cotton yarn—would benefit only a mere fraction of the ma-
nufacturing community, and would be anything rather than
an evidence of increased manufacturing prosperity. Already
it is a rirmlnistance which excites considerable uneasiness in
the unmis of those who wish to see, in the developement of
our manufacturing system, the sources of permanent sup-
port and comfort to the masses of population which it is
drawing together into the large towns, that so great a por-
tion—in fact considerably above one-half—of the cotton ex-
ported from this country receives from us only the small
amount of labour required to convert it into yarn for the
purposes of the foreign manufacturer ; and yet it is an es-
tablished fact—established by the statements published by
government, and admitted by manufacturers themselves—
that it is in this very article of cotton yarn that the increase
of our exports, of late years, has principally consisted.
Undoubtedly, to the legislator or to the political econo
mist, the leading object of interest must be to encourage the
export of those more finished descriptions of cotton goods,
which require for their production the greatest amount of
labour and skill to be applied to them; and those foreign
markets are of the greatest value to us, as a manufacturing
people, which consume the largest quantity of those goods,
or possess the means of so doing. Hence the superior value
to us of the trade with our North American colonies—of the
East and West India trades—of our Mediterranean and
South American trades—which afford us a profitable demand
for the finished productions of the manufacturer, when com-
pared with the trade which we at present carry on with some
of the nations of Northern Europe, bordering upon the Bal-
tic. With the former, which consume our calicoes and cam-
brics, our printed and dyed goods, the trade is second only
in importance and value to the home trade, as furnishing a
large source of employment to the artizan• of every grade.
With the latter, which take chiefly cotton yarn to supply
their own manufacturers, the trade is comparatively value-
less to the labourer and to the country :—to the labourer, as
furnishing employment chiefly for machinery, or, where it
does employ human labour for its production, -requiring
principally the labour of children ; whilst, so far as the
country at large is concerned, it is much if its extension
ought not to be regarded rather as a calamity than as a be-
nefit.

Let us examine, then, how the measures recently pro-
pounded by Lord Melbourne's ministry—the opening of the
trade in timber and corn, and the reduction of. the sugar
duties in favour of the Brazilian cultivator—are calculated
to operate upon our export trade in cotton goods. We are
told by the advocates of these measures, that' it is the pro-
tective system of Great Britain, in favour of her colonists
and the home producers, which is at the root of all the em-
barrassments now experienced by the mercantile, the menu-
facting, and especially the working classes ; that it is the
existence of this system alone which places bounds to the
extension of our export trade ; and that upon its removal
markets will be found at once to draw off the stocks of goods
which now lie unsaleable in our warehouses. We are told,
by the organs of the manufacturing body in parliament and
throughout the country—and the assertion is eagerly repeat-
ed by the hired itinerants of that body, with every inflam-
matory comment that the most ingenious mendacity can
supply, to mislead the reason and excite the passions of the
suffering operative—that millions of the people of the corn
and timber-producing countries are now praying us to allow
'them to exchange their surplus produce for our manufac-
tured goods. Admit, then, for the sake of argument, that
such is the case ; yet still, before we conclude that the ex-
change proposed is one which we ought to accept, we are
bound to inquire, " What are the goods which these millions
propose to take from us, if we accede to the sacrifice of our
colonial and native industry in their favour ?"

The countries which urge us to take their timber, and vir-
tually to discourage the timber trade with our North Ameri-

can colonies, are exclusively those situated upon the borders•
of the Baltic. The countries which offer us their corn in ex-
change for our goods—(or are said so to do, which is not the
same thing)—are also the countries of Northern Europe, with
the addition perhaps of the United States. With these coun-
tries our trade is at present comparatively insignificant in
amount, and valueless in its character. Russia, we find from
the document to which we have referred, takes from us ma-
nufactured cotton to the amount of £1,151,798 annually ;
Sweden £66,350 ; Norway £28,000 ; Denmark only £6,338 ;
and nearly the whole of these amounts consist of the article
of cotton yarn. Yet the trade with these countries chiefly it
is, which is to be increased by the opening of our markets
for their timber and their grain. For the increase of this
trade in cotton yarn we are to inflict a heavy discouragement
upon our own colonies, which supply us with timber, and
consume large quantities of our goods fully manufactured;
for the increase of this trade, which is carried on almost
wholly In foreign bottoms, we are to inflict a heavy blow
upon one carried on exclusively by British shipping, and em-
ploying thousands of British sailors ; and, more than all, for
this worthless and unprofitable trade we are to throw out of
cultivation thousands of acres of British corn lands, and to
limit the means of millions of our best customers—who are
our own fellow-countrymen. We are not about to give the
labour of our industrious population, or a •commodity of
which the principal ingredient is labour, for
.the timber and
corn of the foreigner ; but only the raw material of cotton—
a foreign product—combined with a minimum portion of la-
bour ; and that, even, not the labour of the suffering manu-
facturing operative, who is assumed to be benetitted thereby,
but of the machinery of the large millowner, who i3.the only
real party to be advantaged by the.change. • •
Whatever may be the value of our export trade—however

conducive it may be to the greatness of our country—it can-
not for a moment be denied, that it is the home consumption
of manufactured goods which affords profitable employment
to the greatest amount of labour and skill. A large—

—a very

large increase—of foreign demand it must be, which can com-
pensate the British manufacturer, and especially the British
artizan, for the loss of any portion of the home demand ; and
before the legislature consents to seek an increase of our
foreign trade, by measures which involve a limitation of the
home consumption, it is bound, in justice to the artizan,
whose interests ought to be its leading object, to take care
that the trade to be increased is a trade in commodities, of
which the labour of the artizan is a sufficiently large compo-
nent part. We are satisfied that this is not the case, medi-
ately or immediately, with respect to the trade whose increase
is the object of the recently propounded measures of the
Whigs. The exchange of food and of timber for British
goods, which must result from those measures, is not one by
which the British labourer or the British nation can be bene-
fitted, inasmuch as those goods are not such as, to any mate-
rial extent, furnish employment to our adult working popu-
lation, or have sustained a large increase in value from the
application of machinery or skill, in their transition from the
state of raw material.