The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-02-19 00:00:00

STATE OF TRADE,

The brisk demand for cotton at Liverpool on Monday, and
the consequent advance of price, caused a little more inquiry
here yesterday, both for goods and yarn ; and a better busi-
ness was done than on the preceding Thursday. This was
particularly the case in yarn; and, in many cases, rather
so high as were current a few weeks ago.—
higher rates were paid than could be obtained last week,
though, a
nc
y Guardian, Wednesday.
essetaerree

ROCHDALE FLANNEL MARKET, MONDAY, FEB. 15.—We
have had rather a flat market to-day, but no change in prices.
During the last week another small manufacturer, who makes
for the Black-water market, has suspended payment. The
woolstaplers, as usual, will be the principal creditors. There
is no change to report in the wool market.—/bid.

CONSERVATIVE LIBERALITY.—We have great pleasure
in drawing attention to the munificent donations from the
Beverley Conservative Association to the poorer conservatives
of that borough. The association has distributed in coals
and flour no less a sum thar. between £4OO and .£5OO. This
charitable allowance has been annually distributed since 1837,
and has cheere,d the hearts and greatly benefitted the poorer"
classes whilst struggling against the inclemency of the weather.

FRIDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 19, 1841

By the South America, Capt. Barstow, we have re-
ceived New York papers to the 2d inst., being two days
later than those brought by the Acadia. The New
York Journal of Commerce, of .the 2nd, copies the fol-
lowing paragraph from the Buffalo Commercial Adver-
tiser, and adds, " for the' honour of our State and
nation, we hope the statement will prove unfounded."-
BAILING or IWLEOD.---We understand that the required
bail in this case was given yesterday, by Messrs. Bretherton,
of Queenstoun, and Buell, of Loekport, and M'Leod was
forthwith discharged from custody. We learn in addition,
that no sooner was he released, than a very numerous band
of armed men—one account says two or three hundred—in-
terposed, and forcibly reconducted him to jail, where he is
yet confined. The avowed object of this disorderly and un-
lawful proceeding, is to afford the owner of the Caroline an
opportunity to arrest M'Leod for the destruction of that
boat, and thereby detain him this side of the river. We
hope this account will prove to be exaggerated ; but, if true,
no time should be lost in asserting and enforcing the supre-
macy of the laws. The propriety of admitting M'Leod to
bail at all, under the cirumstances, we will not stop to dis-
cuss ; but the proper legal authority having decided in favour
of so doing, and bail having been legally entered, those who
have restrained and reimprisoned him by lawless violence,
should be properly and severely punished."

A correspondent of the New York North American
states—

The stock of tea in this country is but moderate. What
is here and to arrive is estimated at 90,000 chests, of 70 lbs.
each. Of this only 70,000 are in the hands of importers,
and 10,000 in the hands of speculators. The rest is expected
by three ships yet to arrive. All this is about an eight days
ships supply. Neither ships nor funds are now in China or
that region, or on their way. About one-third of the stock
in first hands is held by three concerns.

(From the Dayton (Ohio) Tranacript, June 27.)

ABOLITION Mon.—An attempt was made on Saturday
night last to get up an abolition meeting in the Court-house.
The attempt, however, failed, but the business did not end
here. Having heard that a white woman was residing with
some negroes in the outskirts of the city, a number of indi-
viduals repaired to the place, and demanded of the individuals
whether such was the fact. Upon being answered in the
negative, they then enquired if any abolitionists were within.
Whereupon a general fight commenced, and an individual
named M'Creery was killed upon the spot, and four or five
others badly wounded.

(From the New York Herald of the Ist instant.)
IN PEACE PREPARE FOR WAIL—It is said that the British
are fortifying Halifax in the most imposing and formidable
manner."

COTTON MARKET, MONDAY EVEYING, FED. I.—Cotton
is going in a great way. There were several sales of cotton
on Saturday evening, which were not out until this morning.
They were sufficient to make up the whole sales of Saturday
to 3,400 bales. To-day the sales are 2,100 bales, and prices
are fully up to the highest recent point, or a little higher.

IMPORTANT FROM AIONTREA L—UN lON OF THE CANADA S
—FIRST PARLIAMENT.—We learn from Montreal, that
Governor General Thompson will issue his proclamation on
the 7th inst., declaring the union of the two provinces, and
for the assemblage of the new parliament at Kingston in May
next.

Kingston, the new capital of the United Province, is situ-
ated at the lower end of Lake Ontario, nearly opposite
Sackett's Harbour.

From next May we expect great doings, agitations, and
warm words in Canada. The experiment of a new govern-
ment—in a representative form—side by side with that of the
American republic, " to prick them on," is now to be tried
and tested fully in Canada. if there are not some droll
scenes in Canada before the year is out, then we will have to
smoke fewer segars per week—that's all.

FROM TEXAS.—By the arrival of the steam-ship Neptune,
we have received files of Texas papers to the 16th instant,
inclusive.

The Austin correspondent of the Galveston Courier states
that from 1200 to 1500 Mexicans under the command of Vas-
quez, Rodriguez, and Bradburn, were concentrated at San
Patricio, on the Nueces. This intelligence is confirmatory
of the statement of Col. Seguin, who saw the order of Canales,
before his escape from Mexico. They have already driven off
200 head of cattle, 30 miles from Bexar. The writer adds,—
•' The most sceptical on the probability of another Mexican
invasion, are now giving up their doubts.—There will
probably be an order issued immediately fora draft of militia.
Further delay would be madness and ruin—especially ruin to
the West."

Generals Rusk and Johnson arc spoken of in Austin as
candidates for the next presidency.
News from Matamoros to the 30th ult. gires no indications
of the raising of troops for the invasion of Texas. On the
contrary, the Federalists, were returning to their homes to
resume the occupations of civil life.—N. 0. Bee, Jan. 21.

On Tuesday evening Mr. Cresswell brought forward
the subject of the " Danish Claims," and succeeded in
carrying his motion, very much to the annoyance of
her Majesty's ministers, by a majority of 96 to 127.
The honourable member deserves great. credit for
bringing the matter to such an issue, considering that
the question was not a party one, and that; he was not
only not supported, but opposed by sevexal members
of the opposition side of the house.

The UM' of these claims stands on ground so very
much their own, that it is difficult to extract from them
any general principle capable of extensive application.
Our bombardment of Copenhagen and seizure of the
Danish fleet in 1807, without any previous declaration
of war, was surely no ordinary circumstance, and con-
sequently gave rise to transactions which require to be
viewed in their own peculiar light. Men of all shades
of opinion have admitted this, and yet it is remarkable
that, when the claims of British subjects to compen-
sation for losses occasioned in the firSt instance by an
act of the Government, are put forward, the righteous-
ness of refusing such compensation is grounded upon
the pretence that the affair was an ordinary one—a
mere casualty of war, which left the parties without
any title to relief. Such was the argument put forward
the other night by the noble lord the Secretary for the
Colonies—an argument, however, so notoriously con-
trary to the fact, that it can be only treated as a shabby
apology for the government not doing what they must
well know is their duty.

Of the three classes that originally made claim to
compensation, two have been fully satisfied—namely,
those whose property consisted in book debts, and
goods on shore ; the third class is that for which Mr.
Cresswell has now so far successfully pleaded, and
is composed of those whose property consisted in ships,
and the cargoes contained in them. Up to the present
time this class have been denied all relief, and the
question is how they come to be so unhappily distin-
guished from the other two. One would have ima-
gined that merchandise and shipping would have ra-
ther had a prior claim in this commercial country, and
not that their claim would be coolly denied and con-
temptuously treated in the very same transaction in
which those of " book-debts and goods on shore" had
been fully acknowledged and paid. Oh, it is said, but
there was a causus belli and a status belli ; and in such
ease ships and merchandise have nothing to expect but
confiscation without compensation when they happen
to be taken by the enemy, and their owners have no
right to complain. But there is an assumption of the
matter of fact here, which, on the other side, is dis-
tinctly and on good grounds denied. There was, in
reality, as Sir Charles Grey, in his excellent speech on
the question, said, no war. It was merely a c ,se of
embargo ; and it was fully admitted in the caw ,ry at
the time that there was no just cause of war, The
Danish fleet was about to be seized by our ~eadly
enemy; we anticipated the seizure; Denmark became
naturally irritated; and, under this irritation, impru-
dently declared war against this country. Under
these circumstances our Government should have either
demanded compensation, or have made it themselves to
the injured parties.
This matter has lain over now a long time, but we
should hope that the claimants are at length in the way
of obtaining that justice which, though tardy, is better
late than never. At the same time, we would not have
them to be too sanguine. Our ministers are notori-
ously tricky ; and, as hunger is said to sharpen men's
wits, so we may depend an empty treasury will stimu-
late the exercise of their ingenuity to evade every pay-
ment on their part that can possibly be avoided.

A meeting takes place this day at the Amphitheatre,
at which an opportunity will be afforded to the Con-
servatives of Liverpool to speak their mind on the
conflicting Registration Bills. That it will be attended
to the full capacity of the place of meeting, spacious
though it be, we feel so well persuaded, that we shall
not say one word by way of urging them to be at their
posts. If we dwell for a moment on the, subject, it
shall be rather to justify the zeal, spirit, and forward-
ness of our townsmen, and to hold up their example
for imitation to others. We say, then, that there is
" a cause," and a very sufficient cause, for Conserva-
tives being now on the alert. The rival Registration
Bills solicit a judgment, and demand a preference, one
or the other, at their hands. There is connected with
and involved in them everything that ought to interest
us for our fellow-men, as well as individually on our
own account ; and to be apathetic or silent at such a
time, is to be blameable in a very great degree.
Lord Stanley's is a bill of regulation—a bill not to
diminish of increase the extent of the. electoral Fjualifi-
Otion, but to regulate its attainment—a bill-, not
throw impediments in the way of an honest and rightr
ful claimant of the franchise, but to shut out a perju-
rious and fraudulent one—a bill, in short, to prevent
injustice and to remedy wrong.
The bill of the noble lord the Secretary for Ireland
proceeds in part on an acknowledgment of the neces-
sity, the proved necessity for regulation, but takes
other and different means for accomplishing the object
—means that, on inquiry, appear to be objectionable
and insufficient ; and, in fine, winds up with a new
Popish Emancipation Act for Ireland—an act that
would confer upon the multitude a right of voting
quite unknown in this country—a £5 household fran-
chise, which would put the veriest priest-ridden pauper
on a level With the respectable ill) householder—the
hard-working but independent mechanic, or substan.-
tial yeoman of this country.
Now between these two bills there is so wide a dis-
parity, that no Conservative can hesitate in his choice
for one moment. On the one hand is a bill applying
itself simply to repress abuses, and purge away cor-
ruption—abuses and corruption notorious and admit-
ted : on the other, a bill that couples with a far more
inadequate and imperfect means of accomplishing the
end—if a like end indeed be at all contemplated by its
framers—that couples therewith a new breaking-in
upon the constitution, expressly designed for the bene-
fit,
_not of the people—no, truly—but for that of Mr.
Daniel O'Connell and the Romish priests ! Between
such bills, we say, there is no choice for the Conserva-
tive. There is a plain course before him, and we know
no excuse he can offer for not pursuing it.
It has been sneeringly said by an organ on the ad-
verse part, that notwithstanding all our ,cent tri-
umphs—at Walsall, Canterbury, Monmr f,h, East
Surrey, and, we were going to add, St. Al i's, but
it will be time enough to speak of that feafter—
that notwithstanding all these advantages, and the
strong Conservative feeling so unquestionably preva-
lent throught the country, still our leaders in parlia-
ment keep cool and unelated, and little as ever inclined
to the movement en avant. Now we shall not stop to
inquire if there be any real ground for this attack.
We are of those who think that great latitude is due
to men who occupy the arduous and responsible part
of leaders, and that they ought to have credit for
knowing best the " times and seasons," and for-exer-
cising a good discretion in the use of them, till the
contrary can be shewn by the- most urgent proofs.
But if there were really any such faltering, or disincli-
nation. to the onward march, as the Radical journal
insinuates, the proper way to animate and energise,
and screw the courage of such leaders to the "sticking
place," would be the holding of just such meetings as
we expect to see this day at the Amphitheatre of Li-
verpool.

On this occasion Conservatives are called upon to
declare their sentiments in favour of a measure that
they clearly perceive is intended and calculated to pro-
mote the ends of justice, fair dealing, and morality;
and against another that they as clearly see is mis-
chievous and revolutionary, anti-Protestant and anti-
English ; and we know they will cheerfully obey the
invitation. To the rendezvous, then, Conservatives !
and out with the Radicals ! Now is the time to be
"up and at them !" The O'Connell-and-Popish-
priest-driven ministry are tottering at this moment on
the brink of a precipice : give them but one good-
kick more, and out they go !
Let the Conservatives of other towns and districts
unite with the Conservatives of Liverpool on this oc-
casion, and soon will the fate of those bills which will
seal the fate of ministers be determined. Only begin
the movement, and the deed is done.

The Earl of Cardigan's trial came on last Tuesday,
and terminated in his acquittal on a point of form. The
peers were unanimous in their verdict, and we cannot
permit ourselves to think for a moment that the noble
lord received any favour or indulgence to which, in
point of law, he was not strictly entitled. Had the
same point, trifling or even ridiculous as it may seem,
been made in favour of the-meanest culprit arraigned
at the bar of the Old Bailey, we are bound to believe
that the presiding judge would have told the jury that
the case had not been made out as the strictness of
our laws (or their lenity, if you please, towards accused
parties) requires ; and that; however satisfied they
might be of the guilt of the party in a moral point of

view, yet that as they must decide according to law,
and abide by legal rules, it was their duty instantly to
acquit. Now our presumption here is quite warranted
by fact, for escapes through defects in pleading and
legal niceties are not matters of rare, but almost of
daily occurrence. The same mode of defence is cer-
tainly open to the peer as well as to the peasant; Lord
Cardigan's counsel had a right to pick holes in the
indictment, or in the legal sufficiency of the evidence
brought against him; and the peers were bound to
give his lordship the benefit of their legal ingenuity ;
—but certainly nice technicality, subtlety, or whatever
else we may call it, resorted to and rendered available
in such a case, does strike us with a much stronger
sense of the ridiculous than it would do upon any
ordinary trial.
With regard to the barbarous and impious practice
of duelling, however, it is impossible to say that it re-
ceives any countenance by the acquittal of Lord Car-
digan on this occasion. The law, it has been shewn,
can reach it, and is one which may not be trifled with.
Were there any better defence against the statute than
that to which Lord Cardigan's counsel resorted, we
may depend they would have had recourse to it ; and
this is an acknowledgment of its efficiency. On the
whole, we are satisfied that the tendency of this trial
will be to good, and not harm.

It is impossible to examine the late proceedings of
the " liberal" party in Liverpool without arriving at
the conclusion that a deep-rooted hostility to the in-
terests of their fellow-townsmen is the feeling by which
they are actuated. We find—if we may consider our
contemporary' of the Mercury as the organ of this "li-
beral" and anti-local faction—that a blow is to be
struck at another great interest in our community—
the shipowners of the port—and, connected with them,
the shipwrights, blockpalkers, sailmakers, and every
class, in fact, whose prosperity depends upon the ex-
tension and profitable employment of our commercial
marine.

The demonstration against the shipping interest, to
which we refer, is contained in an article of our con-
temporary on Friday last upon the subject of the tim-
ber duties, 'With a view of advancing the interests of
our colonies, the British Government has, wisely, we
think, allowed their timber to be -imported for con-
sumption at home, at a lower rate of duty than that
imposed upon foreign timber; and, contemporaneously
with the benefits thus conferred upon British subjects
in Canada and upon the manufacturing interest at
home, which is furnished with an extended market for
its goods, a large source of profitable employment has
been opened for our merchant vessels and our seamen
in the conveyance of British merchandise to, and of
timber from our Canadian possessions. From this
carrying trade, we need scarcely say that the shipowners
of Liverpool reap considerable advantage.
The equalisation of the duties, however, and the
transferring of the benefits derived by British subjects,
upon both sides of the Atlantic, from their operation;
to the landowners of Russia and Norway, has long been
a favourite object of the free trade school of politicians.
" Why should we," they ask, " be compelled to buy
our timber from Canada, when, but for these discrimi-
nating duties, we could buy it nearer home, and at a
less cost ?" For the same reason, we answer, and upon
the same principle, that the people of Canada are com-
pelled to buy their merchandise and their manufactured
goods from us. We give our other colonies the pre-
ference, and reduce our scale of import duties in their
favour in every instance; and the sole reason why the
protection afforded in the article of timber to our
fellow-subjects in Canada is greater than upon other
articles of colonial produce, is because a less protection
would be entirely inoperative, and exclude them alto-
gether from supplying the markets of this country—
thus not only destroying a leading source of the grow-
ing prosperity of the Canadas, but rendering them at
the same time unable to supply" themselves with those
articles of comfort and necessity which they now re-
ceive exclusively from Great Britain. The colonists
themselves receive not a shilling of advantage, beyond
the bare permission to vend their timber, from the
operation of the duties in question, the advanced price
psidby,the people of this country being almost entirely
compot4d•of the cdst'of transport;

We admit, then—and we are content to meet our
contemporary upon this ground alone—that the shipping
interest of the country absorbs the greatest portion of
the benefit derived from the trade in colonial timber.
At the same time, however, we are far from supposing
that a reduction of duty, in favour of the Baltic, would
operate materially to cheapen the article. This part of
the question, howeyer, we leave for the present, and
confine ourselves to the object with which we set out,
viz., to she Wing the animus by which our " liberal"
contemporary is influenced in opening the subject, and
the arguments by which he endeavours to support his

views.
" The average duration of the voyages of the timber
vessels," observes the Mercury, " to and from Canada,
cannot be less than six weeks; the average duration
of the voyage to and from Norway may be estimated
at one week (query ?); so that the discriminating duties
must be sufficient to cover the employment of all the
ships and seamen necessary to supply us with timber
for five weeks every year." If we understand this
Sentence aright—and we have been at some pains to
do so—its meaning is simply, what we have before
stated, that the protection given to the colonist must,
to be effectual, be sufficient to enable him to compete
with the timber-growers of the continent, notwith-
standing the heavier cost of transport to which the
former is subject. " The distance," continues the
Mercury, in explanation, "from London to the entrance
of the gulf of St. Lawrence being six times as great as
the distance between London and Bergen" (fudge!)(
" and the amount of tonnage engaged in bringing
timber from our colonies being estimated at 216,000
tons, navigated by nine thousand men for five months
out of every six, in order to procure the required sup-
ply of timber"—(clear-headed logician !)—" the timber
duties cause the labour of that amount of men and
that amount of tonnage to be as completely destroyed
as if for that period the men's hands were tied and the
ships were rotting in port" ! !
Who would have imagined, whilst wading through
this obscure trash, that he was about to be introduced
to such an astounding conclusion ? The people of
Great Britain are absolutely throwing away, for ten
months in every year, the expense of navigating
216,000 tons of shipping and the wages of 9200 men,
the former of which might just as well be converted
into as many floating baths, and the latter be engaged
in kicking their heels along our dock walls ! " Besides,"
continues our contemporary, ." the vessels employed
in the timber trade to North America are very bad"—
who told him that ?—and " the dangers of a voyage are
proportioned to its length"--we always thought dif-
ferent; and the poor lambs of " seamen would be far
safer on land during five months .out of every six that
they now spend afloat." (?) Very considerate this, we
must admit; but perhaps our free-trade philosopher
would add to the safety of the British tars, by allowing
the timber of his Norwegian friends to he imported ex-
clusively in foreign bottoms, and the " dangers of the
sea" to be allotted altogether to those unclean animals
whom we have occasionally observed in the neighbour-
hood of the Queen's Dock luxuriating upon a mess of
tallow or cart-grease, served up upon wooden platters,
and forwarded to its destination by wooden spoons or
marling-spikes. By all means let the foreign seaman
monopolise this very hazardous employment!
Now, reader, come we to the modest proposition of
the Mercury, which is simply to throw out of employ-
ment 216,000 tons of British shipping, and 9200 Bri-
tish seamen, for five months out of every six, or ten
months in the year—to condemn the former to rot in
our ports, and the latter to sit idle for the same period,
" with their hands tied," and nothing within their
teeth ! This, we suppose, is free trade naked, for we
have seen the same wretched fallacies advanced before,
but never so openly and so impudently betraying their
object; and from this specimen of the recklessness with
which such small philosophers as the Mercury are ready
to sacrifice the interests of the nation in pursuit of their
various and absurd crotchets, our readers may imagine
what results may be anticipated whenever—which
Heaven avert !—the commercial welfare of the country
is placed at the mercy of theorists so wild and sense-
less. Coming from such a source, this or any other
proposal must, we grant, be harmless; but it must be
borne in mind that there are other men who have ad-
vocated the same views before, and may do so again ;
and we therefore call upon the shipowners of Liver-