The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-08-31 00:00:00

SIR WM. BURNETT'S PATENT

For the PRESERVATION of TIMBER, NVASS,
CORDAGE, COTTON, WOOLLE , drc.,
FROM DRYROT, MILDEW, MOTH, AND PRE TURE DECAY.
CANVASS, Cordage, Ships' Sails, Ten , Awnings, Sun
Blinds, and all Articles of Linen and oollen Manufac-
.

ture, for Preparation by the Patent P/ess, are received at
No. 4, FAZAKERLY-STREET.
For particulars apply to the Licensees,
GEORGE LOCH, 4, Water-street.
JAMES BOLD, 7, Water-street.

Eiberpool itallbarb.

TUESDAY MORNING, AUGUST 31, 1841

We insert, in another column, the principal features
of the intelligence brought by the Acadia, which ar-
rived here on Saturday. The. following letter has been
forwarded to us from the Nem York Morning Herald
Office, and though it only contains a confident "pre-
diction," we believe it has not been formed but on the
strongest grounds :
" Office of the Herald, New York, Aug. 14.

" Our intelligence from Washington, on which we can
place the fullest reliance, enables us to predict the vetoing
of the bill for the establishment of a Bank of the United
States, with branches in the several States of the Union.
The failure of this favourite Whig project involves that of
several other legislative measures, and the breaking up of the
first Whig cabinet of President Tyler.

We had not the pleasure of being in the House of

-;ommons last week when the great gun of the calico-

prints was fired off, for the first time ; but judging from

the oration itself, which we have perused, we say it
must have been quite an astounding affair. The great
Cob—the favourite war-horse of the League—on this

occasion went through all his paces, and, having been

long in training, the performance of so many feats, all
within the compass of a short hour, must have been
an exceedingly brilliant business. Had we enjoyed an
opportunity of whispering him, however, we would
have recommended him to husband his resources; for
well do we know that it is now all over with him, and
that nothing is left for a future day. All his points are
made—all his tours de force are played off—all his
most impressive passages are exhausted ; he ran him-
self completely out, and many are of opinion that he
entirely broke down. We hope the case is not so bad;
the worst that we should apprehend is that he may be
found to be a little touched in the wind. Poor
Cobby-o ! how mortifying that the collective wisdom
of the nation did not feast upon his eloquence, as the
fuzbosses of Stockport have been in the habit of do-
ing, and that when he sat down, declaring that if Sir
Robert Peel would acknowledge himself a convert to
his opinions, he, Mr. Alderman Cobden, "would be
the first to shake hands with him," the House indulged
in a loud laugh I This was unkind towards a maiden
speech; it is usual with the collective to be more in-
dulgent ; and we are inclined to sympathise with Cobby
as an ill-used man.

With regard to the speech we do not find anything
particularly ridiculous about it. The texture was not
more flimsy than ordinary—the pattern was one of the
newest, and the colouring—far less gaudy and flaming
than that which has often given satisfaction in the
Manchester market—might have been thought well
adapted to the metropolitan taste. He argued that the
corn duties amounted to a tax of 40 per cent on the
price of bread, that the operative, earning only lOs. a-
week, paid 2s. in bread tax, whilst the nobleman of
£200,000 a-year paid less than a halfpenny in every
£lOO on the same account; the Commons laughed; but
whether at his monstrous calculation, or at himself,
poor Cobby could not tell, and the point was fairly
lost. Then he swore by sun, moon, and stars, that
the price of bread had nothing to do with wages ; that
the millocrats—generous, disinterested men—had no
wish whatever to reduce wages; that they only wanted
markets ; and that it was for this purpose, and not to

reduce the poor man's earnings, that they looked for a
revision of the impost duty. But, Cobby, this was an
awful falsehood on your part, and the House did not
swallow it. Reduce the price of bread 40 per cent,
and not reduce wages ! What precious nonsense !
Why it would certainly reduce wages—either medi-
ately or immediately ; immediately if the labour mar-
ket be at the moment overstocked ; or mediately, by
encouraging population, and so increasing the number
of labourers as to bring them up to the point at which
competition begins to produce its usual effect. But
here our Stockport knight encountered a sort of mill
to which he has been, unfortunately for himself, but
little accustomed, in the form of the honourable mem-
ber for Inverness-shire, Mr. H. J. Bailie, who, in his
short but admirable reply, asked him " if the increase
in the production of our manufactures had hitherto
tended to raise the wages of the artisan, to better the
condition, to increase the comforts, and augment the
happiness of the people ?"
The honourable gentleman, said he, " is a political econo-
mist, and would tell him, perhaps, that it must be so; he
(Mr. Baillie) would prove to the house that it was not so.
(Hear, hear.) In the first place, he would prove that during
the last 20 years the manufacturing productions of this coun-
try had been more than trebled, and that during the same
period the wages of the operative had been reduced between
70 and 80
manufacturers
) He would prove that the
master
making great fortunes, while
per cent. (Hheaadr
b, he
eena r .
their operatives were reduced to the greatest misery and des-
titution (hear, hear) ; that, consequently, the interests of
the master and those of the workmen were not identical ;
and that, although cheap corn would be advantageous to the
former, it could in no way be advantageous to the latter.
(Hear, hear.) He knew well that these opinions were at
variance with those entertained on the other side of the
house; but if hon. members gave him their attention for a
few moments, he thought he would be able to prove the pro-
positions he had laid down by official documents, which had
been placed on the table of the house."
The honourable member then went into his proof,
but we must refer to the debates for it ; suffice it to say
that it was most complete. Proofs of this kind seldom
find their way down the long ears of such animals as
Cobby, and cannot reach their perceptive faculty, all
pre-occupied as it is with self. Their idea of national
wealth is symbolised by the cotton mill; stop the mill,
and the world itself, in their opinion, must cease to go ;
it is their balm for all national misfortunes—their so-