The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-12-14 00:00:00

n a race of freemen, in a soil where

the necessaries of life are ra

ion, the same continuous labour
s from the Cuban or Brazilian
we made the suuply of that labour

d with a minimum

anioun
which the lash exac

snd then our tardy remedy C)f immigration
he effective. It is to a comparatively
;es that we must trust for any great
is into our West Indian colonies.

slave, until w
a drug ;
will teas

high rate of
influx of Af
Withdraw ti

temptation; and the African will
remain upon his own soil, surrounded with his na-
tive barbarism. Human nature is the same under
whatever skin we find it, and it has been the cha-
racteristic of human nature in all ages of the world
to be averse to change of country without the
prospect of bettering its lot.

rade- 1

ot at a

gislators of Great Britain

He asks for " protection" indeed, and the term is
an unpopular one. But it is protection from a
monopoly which is demanded. He says to us—
" You have surrounded me with restrictions, and

ri you are power

cast upon me -
to enforce upon my foreign competitor. The re-
sult is that you give him a monopoly in your mar-
kets." He asks us only to afford him a prospect
of being able to compete on fair terms, and shows
us convincingly that we have framed the scale of
our fiscal policy so as to shut him out from that
prospect. He takes, moreover, a higher ground
than this, and reminds us of the national hypocrisy
which has made him its victim. Upon this part of
the subject we cannot resist quoting the eloquent
appeal of Dr. Clarke, one of the speakers of the
Metcalfe meeting :

" If." says Dr. Clarke, "it were a question purely of
free-trade in the fair acceptation of the term—that is of

the free interchange of commodities between people all
obtaining their goods by the same honest means, or with-
out any obvious dishonesty, we might be contented to
confine our views to those resources, and others of an in-
ternal nature. But our position is such that unhappily
they do not touch the fatal wrong which has laid us pros-
trate. There is an antecedent—there is a paramount
consideration, which even with abundant labour and
capital, and with ample resources, must be guaranteed
not less to whole communities, before they can lay their
account with any profit upon mere honest industry, and
that consideration is PROTECTION AGAINST CRIME.
Slavery is robbery : robbery of human life ; and before we
can pursue our honest cultivation with any prospect of suc-
cess, we must look for a defence against this robbery. We
obtain our labour and pay for it under the sanction of

. _
legal obligation and moral principle—we recognise as
civilized beings their claims, and exercise our calling under
their just restraint, and under the severe but just tax

which in a thinly-populated country they impose upon
us: and Government forces us to do this. Is it an un-
reasonable purpose,' or is it a reasonable expectation of
ours, to ask that the power which denounced and prohi-
bited the crime of Slavery on our parts should protect
us against that crime at the hands of others ? _ Is it

right-, or is it not rigbt,that the State—die'paternalState--
which has stripped us of our weapons of labour, on the
ground that they were cruel and unjust, should forthwith
turn us out unarmed and naked to an unequal contest
with others in full possession of tadr weapons, equally
cruel and unjust and exercised by them with ten-fold
cruelty and injustice? Is it consistent with national
honesty, with sound policy, or with the common principles
of right and justice, that Slavery, denounced by you as
guilt—prohibited by you here as guilt—should in foreign
colonies, and for exchequer purposes, be by you suborned
to our ruin ?"

We really know not with what arguments such
an appeal as this to the justice of the nation can be

kssuredly, if ever there was a case in which
the princidle of free trade might with propriety be
departed from—if ever there was a class which
should be excepted from its general application—
these are to be found in the British West Indies.
Should parliament persevere in subjecting the plan-
ter and the free labourer to the cruel competition
to which they are now subjected—should the nation
thus doom to destruction property worth millions,
and a population which, cherished by paternal
legislation, might be made the most potent instru-
mentality in human hands of civilizing and spread-
ing the blessings of Christianity over an entire
continent—should it wilfully abandon one of the
most noble efforts of philanthropy on record—the
British nation will deserve to be branded through-
out all time as having been guilty of hypocrisy
more glaring than has ever before been exhibited
to the world. We may withdraw our cruisers from
the pestilential coast of Africa, strip off our boasted
garb of humanity, and stand up in our true charac-
tet of a people willing, for selfish saving, to sacrifice
" the freedom of man for the freedom of trade."

tow-n, and personally seeing that both inspectors,
superintendents, and their men, are doing their
duty. There is ample time left for all this; and
we are not aware that in the bestowal of that time
IN introducing to our readers the following ex- the Board has ever been an obstruction.
cellent petition of the ministers and members of It is much to be questioned whether the moral
St. Jude's congregation, praying the legislature to influence of the head constable over his men will be
refrain from passing a bill for the admission of increased by his increase of absolute power over
Jews to the privilege of sitting in Parliament and their appointment and control. We suspect that it
legislating for this Protestant and Christian realm, will be decreased; that good men will not feel their
it was not our purpose to have done more than in- position improved by being subject to the orders
timate to our readers the fact that similar peti- of an individual instead of to the sense of justice of
tions are about being adopted by the members of a board. What is to prevent imputations of favour-
other congregations. A few remarks, however, itism being made ? What is to satisfy the force
upon the bill in question, which appeared in the that merit in one member is overlooked, whilst it is
Liverpool Albion of yesterday, afford us an oppor- rewarded in another? What, moreover, is there to
tunity of saying a few words upon the subject. assure the public, a daily board being discontinued,
But first we give a copy of the petition itself : that Mr. Dowling himself is devoting sufficient of
authority placed
have been To the Honourable the Commons of the United Kingdom of his own time to the duties of his office. and is not
Great Britain and Ireland in Parliament assembled. trusting too much to thedelegated
The humble petition of the undersigned, Ministers andsuperintendents ?
i n
Itlhree hmaunsdts
uoufnteud inspectorstilat wouldaitnd
Members a the congregation of Saint Jude's Church,
infi-
in the town of Liverpool, nitely more satisfactory to the community to have
SHEWETH,
That your petitioners rejoice to know that Christianity had a strict inquiry instituted into the causes of
is as yet, professedly at least, part and parcel of the law police inefficiency, than to have to take it for granted
of England. that such inefficiency can only be removed by the
Your petitioners can recognise no force in the argu- adoption of a new pattern imported from Birming-
ment which urges, that, because some steps have been
ham or Manchester. We know that, along with
taken in a direction which they deem injurious, therefore
it has ceased to be wrong to take a still further and more the existence of a daily board, we have had in Liver-

fatal step in the same direction. . pool an efficient police force ; and we want to know
Your petitioners have no sympathy with those who de- why we cannot have one now. We have had it
sire what is called the separation of Church and State ; when party spirit ran high both in the Watch Corn-
and they perceive that by the admission of Jews to the
mittee, the Council, and the town at large ; we have
Legislature of the country, .the advocates of such separa-
tion would have an additional ground of appeal on the had it when we were compelled to work with and
more palpable absurdity of so mixed an assembly legis- to bring into shape very rude materials. Surely
lating for the Church. And even if your petitioners what has been done with the same machinery may
looked upon the separation of Church and State as a good, be done again, without our venturing upon a novel
they could not advocate what they deem an evil, in order
experiment, which may very possibly result in
that good might come of it. .
Your petitioners deem the admission of Jews into Par- failure, and increase the disorganization of • which
liament an evil, because it will proclaim to the country we complain.
that our rulers consider Christianity unnecessary for a -

-Jpslator : it will thus encourage tne people to constuer
The leading oracle of Free Trade--Mr. Richard
Christianity unnecessary for manufacturer or merchant,
for landlord or tenant, for taaster 4 servant, and thereby Cobden—has at length spoken out with respect to
disparage the Holy Scriptures, offend Almighty God, and the non-realization of his previously expressed pro-
seriously disturb the peace and good order of society. phecies, as to the effects of Free Trade-upon the
Your petitioners therefore pray that your honourable welfare of the manufacturing community; and it
-I continue to require all your members to profess
is happy for him that he has chosen to do so in
addressing the Free-trade gulls of Stockport, rather
. . than the British . public in the proper place, where
In this ably-drawn up (locumet-It we have clearly such an apologetic effusion should have been ad-
set forth the principle upon - which a large portion dressed—viz., in the British House of Commons.
of this Christian people object to the admission of What would have been the reception in the latter
Jews into the legislature—" Christianity is as yet, place of the clap-traps which he has ventured upon
professedly at least, parcel of the law of England." in the latter enlightened borough ? A few extracts
The Connexion of the Church of England with the from his speech may serve to satisfy our readers :
State is equally part and parcel of that law • and " Our opponents," he says, "tell us that we have bad
the admission into Parliament of a body olmen, freeii trade,:. and it_ has not answered; but I say we have.e
vet_
tl.AtLroarr.sitofisloindottliy,frVtrheadvee i
nn Ofte gr,ol t
Lasfre e trade
1 who. are- ()noosed not only to :Christianity, but as

the true faith of a Chriitian." -
And your petitioners will ever pm;
&c., &c.

~. .
well to the connexion in question, . tends to ihose disasters to the trade of the district which we have
strengthen the hands of those who are seeking the at the present time to lament. Why, we have not had
separation of Church and State, and at the same free trade in corn yet; we have only been passing through
time to proclaim to the country that our rulers con- a transition state ; we have not got through the three
years we were to have had- of the fag end of monopoly,
Bider Christianity unnecessary for a legislator, or
and have not yet had trial 'of our principles at all."
to be professed by us in the other relations of so-
ciety. Our contemporary, however, urges, as a increase Why, one of these rind
imports of breadstuciples was that, for our
ffs, we should have
valid ground of granting the concession, that—
increased exports of manufactured goods. Has
"We allow them to be mayors, sheriffs, aldermen,
Oh
common council-Men. We perm them to elect mem- this promise been fulfilled ? Certainly not.
by a most inexplicable but, remarks our philosopher, !* we have not
nansidstetnheeyn, bwye command a halt, and
cad
sd
mysterious
fysyearriloiaums einntco,
had Free Trade in corn,- yet." We have certainly
will not suffer them to be themselves elected." had corn imported duty free; and, if that is not
_ We can see many good and sufficient reasons for free-trade, what is it i "We have only been pass.-