The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-09-28 00:00:00

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Yearly kubseription:
In Advance, Iss. On Credit,

TUESDAY MORNING, SEPT. 28, 1847.

THE Marquis of Londonderry has at length
come up as a forlorn hope to back the Chancellor
of the Exchequer in his chivalrous defence of the
Currency Laws. His lordship is rich ; and, like
Sir Charles Wood and the Times, can discourse
eloquently in reprobation of speculation in railways
and other matters. Especially he is indignant at
the audacity of certain "young" persons who have
ventured to open collieries in his neighbourhood,
in punishing whom the Bank of England, he seems
to think, is doing great service to the State. He
is himself just now in easy circumstances. He is
one of those persons of good credit who, the Chan-
cellor tells us. finds no difficulty in procuring dis-
counts; and, being thus impregnable, he would no
doubt be delighted to see the " young coal pro-
prietors" swept out of his way or buried in their
own pits.
We certainly can remember the time when his
lordship was very generally believed to be by no
means in such affluent circumstances; and when
his lordship's friends would have been delighted to
hear that he " could utterly deny the existence of
coal owners' distress." We presume, however,
that of late the Coal Trade must have been a par-
ticularly good trade; and hence the soreness felt
towards those parties who have been striving for a
share in its advantages. Or perhaps his lordship
has of late been a very prudent man; and hence
his right to lecture people who may have gone a
little beyond their means. We rather imagine,
however, that the public will not be disposed to
view matters in quite the same light as his lordship
does. The public will not say that energy and
enterprise engaged in opening out fresh coalfields
should be cramped and strangled, in order that
noble' proprietors should be secured in their mono-
polies; but would more probably be found disposed
to cheer on all such efforts to add to the national
stock of wealth, and to the- national comfort,
although some of them might be based upon some--
what too sanghine calculations.
Of course, however, we are not to regard the
Marquis's adventure into the world of politics and
into print as solely prompted by his feelings as a
coal owner, or ,his fear of being suspected of la-
bouring under the difficulties complained of by the
Newcastle deputation. The political influence of
Wynyard is just now rather out at elbows. Dur-
ham will not own him or his nominees ; and the
opportunity of breaking a lance in defence of the
pet measure, which Sir Robert bas left behind him
to be the stumbling block of the unhappy relative
of the house of Howick, was a chance of advancing
his claim to remembrance which the marquis was
not disposed to forego. Perhaps some league,
offensive and defensive, is to be formed, by which
Northumberland and Durham are to be divided,
or a ribbon or a star is in the distance. His lord-
ship's propensities are well known; and we trust
that to whatever minister or party this letter is an
appeal, it will not be endorsed, as was once a si-
milar document, by a statesman well acquainted
with his nature—" this is too bad."

THE British public are as yet unacquainted fully
with the operation of free trade in depressing native
industry. We acknowledge that every interest and
every class of the community are undergoing intense
suffering; but when we set about an inquiry into
the cause of that suffering, we are met by tem-
porary circumstances, which prevent a general con-
clusion being drawn. Thus we have the potatoe
disease, the mass of capital directed to railway
investments, the high price of cotton, and other
similar causes of social and industrial derangement,
to get rid of before we can form a conclusive
judgment as to what will be our ordinary position
‘under the present system.
There is one class of British subjects, how-
ever, who do not labour under this difficulty.
We refer to our West India colonists. There
is no accidental circumstance interposed be-
tween their suffering and its cause. Ruin has
followed too closely the measures adopted towards
them by the Imperial Legislature to leave any
doubt, in the mind even of the most bigotted

worshipper of free trade, that those measures have
been its direct cause. A long course of tyrannical
interference had already brought them into strug-
gling circumstances. Dear labour and heavy taxa-
tion had brought them to the ledge of a precipice
which called for very wary walking. They were
redeeming their position by the exercise of that
indomitable energy which belongs to the character
of British men in trying emergencies; but the
legislature of the country of their birth and their
affections has consummated its unkindness and
injustice by pushing them over the precipice. In
a word, these noble and once prized possessions of
Great Britain are irredeemably sacrificed.
The following resolutions, recently passed by the
Chamber of Commerce of Kingston, Jamaica, tell
the melancholy tale of these colonists with sufficient
distinctness :

That since the adoption, of free-trade principles in
England, and the admission of foreign slave-grown sugar
into her markets for home consumption, the.average price
of colonial sugar has fallen 13s. per cwt.. or £l3 per ton,
being a reduction of fully 50 per cent. in thi short space
of nine months in the value of the main staple of this
island.
" That independent of this great fall in price, another
and more alarming feature presents itself, in the fact that
although the consumption of sugar in England has greatly
increased, yet that this increased consumption is entirely
supplied by slave-grown produce, whilst the consumption
of British West India sugar has very considerably de-
creased ; and that unless this be checked by some vigo-
rous and permanent measures on the part of the govern-
ment, the British colonists will be inevitably and entirely
driven out of the English market, and the cultivation of
estates be rendered ruinous to all.
" That this Chamber views with alarm the commerce of
the country daily dwindling into insignificance. Confi-
dence is shaken to the centre, and it is but too plain to
perceive that our most respectable citizens (foreseeing no
doubt, worse evils to come, and no energy exerted to
avert them), are leaving the country with the little they
have saved from the wreck of their affairs. Estates are
fast becoming abandoned, poverty stares us in the face
wherever we go, the expenses of living are enormous,
and taxation is unbearable.
The resolutions conclude with an appeal to the
inhabitants of the colony for aid in an endeavour
to bring their condition before the British Parlia-
ment and the public.
" British honour and integrity, they add, will see us
righted yet. Our cause is England's cause. They cannot,
and will not, wilfully risk the loss of Jamaica as a colonial
dependency, or the allegiance of a loyal and faithful
people."
One would really imagine that such an appeal
might have been received by Englishmen, what-
ever their political leanings, in a spirit of sympathy
and respect. If the feelings of the British public,
however, are to be considered as represented by the
columns of the daily organ of the Government, the
London Times, the announcement may at this mo-
ment be on its way to these unfortunate men, that
their sufferings are only met with mockery—that
we have cast away, as unworthy of preserving,
their persons, their property, and their allegiance.
We have, however, the satisfaction of assuring our
-colonial brethren hat the infamous levity and in-
sult with which their case is treated by the Times,
has excited very general disgust in the minds of
right-feeling men of every party. Nay, more :—it
has satisfied many that where flippancy is resorted
to, instead of arguments and facts, it is because
the latter weapons are not at hand and available.
The Times urges that "the plaint" of the West
India colonists is unseasonable ; that if they are
suffering, so is every other class and interest at
. home; that if planters are abandoning their pro-
perty, shareholders are abandoning their shares,
-and Irish landlords their estates. What amount
of consolation is to be derived from this commu-
nity of suffering' it is difficult to discover. It is
equally difficult to find out how the fact, as to the
position of affairs at home, bears upon the state of
colonial industry, unless it may go to show that
the policy which has depressed the latter has
equally affected the former. The commodity.pro-
duced by the Jamaica planter has been depreciated
by the introduction of foreign slave-grown sugar
fifty per cent. in the space of nine months ; and con-
temporaneously with that decline in colonial pro-
duce, the mills of Manchester are closed, and busi-
ness of every sort is at a stand. Where the suffer-
ing is common, it is not beyond the bounds of pro-
Lability that the cause is a common one.
There is one important lesson which the people

of England may derive from a perusal of the article
referred to, and from the tone generally in which the
Times, and other journalists of his class, are in the
habit of treating the complaints of suffering which
are unhappily so rife on every side. The colonist
is kicked and derided ; and the time will undoubt-
edly come when the British agriculturist, the ma-
nufacturer, and the artizan, will receive the same
treatment. The colonist cannot compete with the
producer of slave-grown sugar; and the Times says
that he must be abandoned to his fate. The artizan
of Birmingham, the spinners and weavers and
printers of Manchester, the cutlers of Sheffield, and
the clothiers of Leeds, may, by and bye, have a
similar complaint to make that they cannot com-
pete with the cheap labour of continental states ;
and they will be told that they too must have cheap
labour, improved machinery, and diminished pro-
fits, or that they must retire from the struggle.
One by one they will be told, in the language ad-
dressed to the colonists by the Times, that the people
of England "are too much occupied with their own
difficulties to feel very tender-hearted about the
impending decay of an interest which is maintained
at the expense of the public, and to which every
one of them contributes."

THE time is drawing near when the minds of
members of the Council must be made up, with
respect to the gentleman to be nominated for the
office of Mayor of Liverpool for the ensuing year.
Thus far, we believe, little difference of opinion has
existed upon the subject,. though we observe that
the usual Whig-Radical move is being made to
create disunion and conflicting action amongst the
majority of the Council. Of course there are many
gentlemen in the Council, who have not yet passed
the civic chair, but who possess claims on the score
of character and general attainments inferior to none
of their fellow-townsmen ; but we trust that every
effort will be used to prevent the strength of the
Conservative party in the Council being divided:
an arrangement may, we are sure, be easily made
which would prevent any possibility of disunion.

THE question as to the extent to which expendi-
ture upon railways is answerable for the present
financial derangement of the country, we regard
as having been almost set at rest by Mr. Henry
Houldsworth, in his remarks addressed to the
shareholders of the Lancashire and Yorkshire (late
Manchester and Leeds) Railway, at a recent meet-
ing. Mr. Houldsworth contended then -that the
absorption of capital by railways, and its diversion
from the usual channels of employment, did not
take place to the extent contemplated by the
London Times and other anti-railway authorities ;
and that the most material way in which railway
formation operated upon our financial system was
by the increased amount of money which it places
within the reach of the labouring classes to expend
upon foreign productions.
In a letter which has just been addressed by the
same gentleman to the editor of the Manchester
Guardian, in reply to some objections urged, the
views originally promulgated by him have received
a strong confirmation. A portion of this we make
no apology for transferring into our columns.
Referring to the effect of the increased expenditure
of the working classes, he says :
" Concurrently with this burden we may have another to
sustain. The Almighty in His wisdom, has withheld, in
1846, a portion of the annual gifts He dispenses to his
creatures, and to that extent we had less to spend—in-
terrupted or restricted labour, want of raw materials to
work upon, or want of capital to supply the implements
of production and keep in active operation such as we
have—all may produce a similar pressure.
" If, in this state of things, consumption goes on at
its previous rate, which it always does for a considerable
time after the accession of such evils,—if we consume all
that Providence gives us, all that we produce or receive in
exchange for the various articles of manufacture, and
something more,—then,to the extent of this something
more (which must soon -show its amount by the export of
the gold), we are crippling our means and diminishing the
floating surplus capital of the country, to the inconve-
venience of all.

" Now, during the last year, Providence withheld pro-
bably 30,000,000 or 40,000,000 in value of the usual gift
annually bestowed upon us, and for six months of the
year, until after the beginning of 1847, the consumption
continued at or near the previous rate ; to these circum-
stances, coupled with the deficiency in the supply of cot-
ton, and, perhaps, aggravated in the spring by the sudden
shock given to commercial credit, under the operation of
Sir Robert Peel's Bill (the general soundness of which, if
it embraced a slight degree of elasticity under proper re-
strictions, I am by no means prepared to question), and
again by the heavy losses in grain, and consequent failures,
—I ascribe more of the present pressure than to railway
expenditure, so far ; and, as the causes which brought
about these evils have to a great extent disappeared, I
look for an early improvement, proportioned to the in-
fluence which I conceive they have exercised."
. .

The concluding portiOn of the letter, in which
Mr. Houldsworth expresses his opinion as to the
course best to be taken by the country to obviate
the evil which he admits to exist, whilst he ques-
tions its extent, we must also take the liberty of
quoting, as particularly valuable, on account of the
known business talent and experience of the
writer :

" If we assume, as I did on the occasion to which you
alluded, an annual expenditure of £50,000,000, and de-
duct about £12,000,000 as payments for the land, &c.,
which is a mere transfer of money, we have X 38,000,006
as the probable amount to be paid in salaries, wages, con-
tractors' profits, &c., the greater part of which 'goes in
consumption. This would represent 700,000 men, at an
average of 21s. per week, including engineers, overlookers,
labourers, brick-setters, masons, coal and iron stone min-
ers, and persons employed in making iron, mechanics, &c. ;
but, if allowance be made for the keep and tear and wear
of horses, and for contractors and trade profits, the num-
ber of men directly and indirectly employed is probably
not more than 450,000, if so many.
" If we further assume that these men earn on the
average, one-third more wages than before, it gives
£12,000,000 as the increased consumption of these men
per annum ; and if we add about £5.000,000 more, as re-
presenting the improvement in the wages of the labourers
generally, &c., consequent upon the demand for railways,
we have £17,000,000 per annum as the estimated excess
of consumption or measure of disturbance, supposing
there is a sufficient supply of capital to maintain the pro-
gress of productive industry in other branches.
" Now, if the surplus capital of the country is insuffi-
cient to meet the demand of this sort for two years and a
half, which is about the duration up to the present time,
without producing such effects as we at present suffer
under, I am at a loss to account for the power we appear
to have possessed of carrying forward improVements of
all kinds, and of raising and expending capital unpro-
ductively during the war. With a population of 20,000,000
in 1813 and 1814 we raised, in taxesand loans, X 106,000,000
r annum—the highest rate of interest paid by govern- 1
per annum—the highest rate of interest paid by govern-
ment not exceeding, I believe, 5i per cent.
" It is true that £106,000,000 of the currency of that
day was only equivalent to about £80,000,000 of our
money, but population having increased about 50 per
' cent. and wealth more so, I blieve we could as easily
I raise £106,000,000 per annum now, if needed, as we then
I did. And how was the money then spent ? Much of it
in maintaining armies abroad ; subsidizing ' • in providing
powder and shot, muskets and cannon, and rearing men
and horses for the consumption of war ; all unproductive
expenditure—dead waste.
Now, railway expenditure is unproductive only for a
time, differing in nothing from the ordinary application of
capital to mills, dwellings, &c., except that in the former
case the period of non-production is from two to four or
five years, whereas in the latter it varies from one to two
years. Then, as to the extent of railway reproduction, it is
not to be measured by the net return only to those who
embark the capital, but by the saving to the public in the
reduced charge of transit.
" As to the extent of this saving, I have reason to be-
lieve it not less at this time than £8,000,000 to 9,000,000
per annum upon the railway capital in operation, without
reckoning the economy in the use of capital arising from
the economy of time • and if thisbe true, it goes far to lessen
the burden of the £18,000,00 of estimated pressure upon
the surplus income of the country, arising from the ex-
penditure in progress.
" I would conclude by saying, that, although I think
the railway expenditure has undoubtedly aggravated the
present difficulties, it is not as yet the primary cause.
At the same time, as the pressure for capital bears only
on part of the community, the expenditure, if continued
at the rate of interest above 5 per cent., is sufficiently
pregnant with evil to point out the importance of spread-
ing the outlay over a longer period.
" If the high rate of interest continue, we shall see the
Government securities sink far below their present value,
mortgages foreclosed to the ruin of thousands, and an
immense amount of misery created, quite within the
power of Parliament, but not so much within the power of
Railway Boards themselves to mitigate.
" Let Government declare that they will introduce a
measure at the commencement of the session to facilitate
the postponement of railway works, and much of the
apprehension and difficulty would cease."

Favouralle winds brought into Plymouth, in a couple
of days, last week, at . least 150 ships laden with grain,
waiting for orders. A great number were sent to the con-
tinent.
On Thursday, Mr. J. C. Haverty, of this town, passed
his examination in the science of surgery, and received
from Apothecaries' Hall a certificate to practice.
The St. Jude's Evening Schools are now reopened, and
we have no doubt that they will be well attended, as the
neighbourhood has already derived much benefit from them.
SUDDEN DEATII.—An inquest was held, yesterday, be-
fore Mr. Statham, deputy-coroner, on view of the body
of Mary Markey, wife of Thomas Markey, labourer,
Maguire-street, and 40 years of age. On Tuesday night,
she complained of a pain in her right leg. A surgeon was
called, who ordered mustard plasters, but she died on
Thursday night. Death arose from congestion of the
lungs, the result of 'natural causes,