The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-11-16 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We will bear in mind the hints s,pplied by "Great George-
street," but the publication of the letter now would do no
good.
If " Fidelis" has seen our payer for the last few weeks, he
must have ob,e,•ved that we have done all we could to forward
the object for which he t-o benevolently pleads. We would
Otherwise have inserted his letter.

eb: iLtlirtpool tanbarb.

Yearly Nuloccription :

In Atlvance, 15s.

OR Credit:,

TUESDAY MORNING, NOV. 16, 1847.

We think it our duty to call the attention of the
burgesses of the four wards for which elections are
to be held on Wednesday, for the purpose of filling
up the places of the four members of the Council
recently chosen as aldermen, to the following para-
graph in the official notice issued by the Town-
clerk :
"Those burgesses who, being enrolled on the burgess
roll, 8.9 rated in respect of premises in Castle-street Ward,
Great George Ward, Rode ey-street Wa rd , and Abercromby
Ward, and also in respect of premises in any other ward,
did; at the several ward elections, holden on the first day
of November instant, select their warl by voting in any
other ward, other than Castle-street, Great George, Rod-
ney-street, or Abercromby Ward respectively, will not be
entitled to vote at any of the present elections." •
Thus, a b •rgess having a double qualification,—
say, in Castle-street and Everton,—who, on the Ist
of November, voted in Everton, cannot, on Wednes-
day, vote in Castle-street Ward, or, during the legal
existence of the present register, vote in any other
ward except Everton, the one selected. This inter-
pretation of Section 44 of the Municipal Act, which
regulates the right of parties having votes in two
or more wards, was laid down in an opinion given
by Sir Frederick Pollock. dated 28th October, 1840,
upon a case furnished to him by the late Town-
clerk, and communicated by him to Mr. Penning-
ton, the solicitor for the Conservative Association,
and Mr. J. G. Snowball, solicitor for the Reformers.
It will have a considerable bearing upon the result
of the elections in two of the wards—George's
and Castle-strt et—on i'Ved.3cday, nether of them
Navin; been cont.; stA on the Ist instant, and most
-of the voters with double qualifications Laying
most probably vottd in other wards.

Mr. Bromley-Moore having of necessity vacated
the chair of the Dock Committee, when his period
of service as an Alderman had expired, and the
Vice-ChairMan, Mr. W. Nicol, being similarly
situated, it became doubtful whether these gen-
tlemen, if again elected, would choose to occupy
such onerous and troublesome situations as those
which they have so admirably occupied for the last
four years. The Council acted wisely in re-electing
both these gentlemen as Aldermen ; and they,will,
no doubt, be again elected to the same offices as
they have filled with so much credit to themselves
and advantage to the town at large. Fearing,
however, that the events of the last week might
.render their acceptance of the Chair and Vice-Chair
of the Dock Committee somewhat doubtful, a re-
quisition to each of them was placed in the Ex-
change News-room, and in the course of a few
hours was signed by a great number of our most
influential mercantile firms, of all shades and politics.
We are happy to find, from the subjoined corres-
pondence, that we are not to lose the inestimable
services of either Mr. Moore or Mr. Nicol, hut
that both gentlemen have, in a frank and cordial
manner, acceded to the wishes of so many of those
who are most competent to appreciate their services.
We subjoin the correspondence, which, we are sure,
will be perused with pleasure by every one who can
appreciate talf m and i tegrity, and who desires to
see the Dcell Estate of Liverpool wielded by masterly
hands.

COPY.)
Liverpool, 11th November, 1847

. .
DEAR Slns,—We have been desired to present to you
the enclosed requisition, signed in a very few hours by a
great number of the most respectable Merchants, Ship
Owners, and Brokers, in this town, and had time per-
mitted no doubt numbers more would have had great
pleasure in joining in the request.
We sincerely hope you will comply with their wishes,
and beg to subscribe ourselves,
Dear Sirs, most truly yours,
(Signed) J. NELSON Woon.
THOMAS CHILTON.
To J. Bramley-Moore Esq. and William Nicol, Esq.

(Cory.)
Liverpool, 12th November, 1847.
DEAR Stas,—l have to acknowledge your kind letter,
addressed to myself and Mr. Nicol, accompanied by a
requisition, signed by upwards of one hundred and fifty
firms, composed of merchants, shipowners, and brokers,
requesting that we would resume our respective positions
at the Dock Committee, in the event of our being re-
elected.

To such a requisition there can only be one answer :
that of cheerful and ready compliance with a request
signed by so many influential parties and kind friends.
Permit me, through you, to thank the requisitors for
this expression of confidence, and to assure them of my
best endeavours to discharge the onerous duties of Dock
Chairman to the best of my ability, with impartiality, and
for the general benefit of the commerce of this great port.
I beg also to thank you personally for your very friendly
nd kind conduct on this and many other occasions.

My friend, Mr. Nicol, speaks for himself, and I have
the pleasure herewith to transmit you his answer.
I have the honor to be, dear sirs,
Your obliged and faithful servant,
(Signed) J. BRAMLEY-MOORE.
To John Nelson Wood and Thos. Chilton, Esqrs.

(CoeY.)
Liverpool. 12th November, 1847.
DEAR SIRS,—The requisition which you have conveyed
to Mr. Bramley-Moore and myself, bearing, as it does,
the signatures of nearly all the most eminent merchants
and shipowners of Liverpool, could not fail to be very
gratifying to me.
Any hesitation that I may have felt in resuming my seat
in the Dock Committee, has arisen entirely from a belief
that recent events, connected with the Council of the
Borough, implied a want of confidence, in the minds of
the trustees, of my capability to perform longer the duties
of the trust to the satisfaction of the town. Such impres-
sion may have been erroneous, and it is, at all events, re-
moved by the very flattering communication which you
have presented to me. I shall, in consequence, willingly
place myself again at the disposal of the trustees for re-
election, if they see fit, to a seat in the Dock Committee ;
and I am, _ _ _

Dear sirs, yours very faithfully,
(Signed) WILLIAM NICOL.
To John Nelson Wood and Thomas Chilton, Esqrs.

For some years past we have laboured in the
columns of the Liverpool Standard to impress upon
the attention of successive administrations the in-
:justice and the tyranny of the coercive policy which
has been adopted towards the West Indian body,
and again and again we have reiterated the warn-
ing that, without some large modifications of that
policy, the ruin of that body and the abandonment
of our colonies were inevitable. The former of
these results has been already, in a great measure,
accomplished. The West Indian proprietary have
year by year been drawing nearer and nearer to the
state of bankruptcy predicted. Plantations, once
productive of large profits to the cultivators, have
ceased to give even the cost of the labour em-
ployed ; and many are already abandoned, or
parcelled out as squatting grounds for the emanci-
pated and naturally indolent negro.
A correspondent of the Daily News, in illustra-
tion of this fact—no very great friend certainly to
colonial interests—after referring to an article on
the West India interest, furnishes the following
statement :

" An account of sales of six hogsheads and two tierces
tof sugar, handed me by a merchant a few days ago, gave
me the following results :
Duty to government
Nett proceeds
A similar sale of one hogshead gave—
For the government duty
Nett proceeds
giving a proportion in each instance of two-fifths to the
government, and of three to the proprietor of the estate ;
with this difference only, that the government receives the
cash : the proprietor has immediately to hand it over to
others, to defray the cost of production. The balance
sheet, therefore, of a West Indian estate, of £5OOO per
annum, will be as follows :
Proceeds of estate..
Duty to government
Cost of production

£5B 16 6
91 0 4

45000 0 0

£2OOO 0 0
3000 0 0

- 5000 0 0

Balance for the proprietor 0 0 0
From which it appears that government derives a revenue
of £2OOO per annum from an estate which gives its owner
nothing."
The coming of the latter result is now evident to,
and admitted by, even that party, the carrying out
of whose arrogantly dictated measures has pro-
duced the evil by which it is being caused. The
last pound weight which breaks the camel's back
has been laid on by the policy which withdrew
from the West Indian planter the small remnant
of protection which he possessed, in the exclusion
from our markets, of sugar, the production of slave
labour; and without some prompt interference of
the home government to neutralise or to balance
that step, the fate of these valuable colonies is now
sealed.

We ask ou behelf of the Weet Lithe, bony, for

no concession injurious to the' interests ;of the
British consumer. It was for a clear stage lind no
favour that we interceded. The parlianient of
Great Britain, in deference to the feeling of ihorror
—real or affected—which was professed by °a large
mass of the people towards the existence of slavery
in these colonies, thought proper to emancipate the
negro labourers by whom the cultivation of the
sugar cane and of other tropical products was
envied on. The planter was told that, with free-
men as his labourers, he would he enabled to coin-.
pete successfully with the slave states of The world; .
that free labour would be found the cheapest
labour; and that, as the result of its adoption in
our colonies, the slave would cease to be dragged
from his home or to he held in bondage. But the
men who uttered these predictions were theorists,
taking the negro character from the representations
of interested men, or flippant tourists, or from a still
worse authority—the mendacious statements of
such authorities as the Anti-Slavery Reportek The
experienced planter knew better. lie was aware of
the natural indolence of the negro; that, left.to
himself, he would perform the minimum quantity
of work required to enable him to purchase cloth-
ing and implements, a few weeks in the year suf-
ficing to enable him to raise food in that prolific
chine. The correctness of these conclusions was
soon apparent. Field labourers were speedily- not
to be procured, the emancipated negro only work-
ing when he pleased and-for what wages he pleased.
The canes grew, and ripened ; but the planter was
condemned to see them rotting in the ground, for
want of the hands to reap them, which he could
not procure. In this emergency he implored of the
home government, since he was to restrict himself
to free labour, to enable him to secure the ineces-
sary supply, by encouraging voluntary immigration
of the African race from their own continent to
share in the blessings of that freedom and civilisa-
tion which theorists and the , exclusively humane
boasted that they had ensured for the population of
this black paradise.

How was this reasonable prayer answered ? By
an outcry from every quarter of the empire inwhich
a coterie of sentimentalists, or a platform orator,
with the necessary quantity of tears and simulated
groans for the fate of " the unhappy negro race,"
could be found. The project was regarded as an
attempt to restore the system of slavery by a side
wind ;as a kind of legitimatized slave trade. Visi-
ons of crimps, of horrid slave-captains, and of de-
coys were held up before the eyes of the tender-
hearted public. Missionaries and the agents of the
anti-West Indian interests in those colonies wrote
home doleful predictions to congenial parties in the
mother country; and meddling whiff magistrates—
the perpetual blisters with which the government
of the day had saddled the unfortunate planters, as
an acompaniment to the emancipation act—de-
nounced the measure as an encroachment upon the
right of the free negro to work when he pleased,
and to set his own price upon his work. The re-
sult was a resolute denial of the boon sought.
A succeeding administration opened its eyes
partially to the justice of the planter's claim, 6.nd to
the ruinous effect which was being produced upon
the former prosperity of the colonies by the scarcity
of labour existing. A half and-half measure was
devised, accompanied by checks and counter checks,
which rendered it almost totally unavailable to the
planter. A dribbling immigration was directed to
the colonies, of captured and liberated slaves, dis-
solute Kroomen from Sierra Leone, and Coolies
from East India, not a tenth part sufficient to sup-
ply the places of the negroes yearly withdrawing
from field labour to become squatters in the bush.
Side by side with this insufficient concession came
measures directed against the unfortunate pro-
prietors, already pressed to the earth with accumu-
lated expences of cultivation and local imposts.
The West India planter we were told then, as we
have lately been told, was a gouty ill-conditioned
old gentleman, grumbling in his counting-house
in the city over his decreasing income, whilst he.
allows the bulk of the produce of his plantations
to be eat up with interest of mortgages, and dis-
honest overseers. He must be driven to reside
upon his property; to superintend personally his
manufacture; to adopt new and improved modes
of cultivation : in short, to resort to those curative
efforts for the removal of existing evils, which no-
body seems to be so familiar with, and so feeble in
suggesting, as your politico-economical doctors—
ycur philosophers who can talk and write learnedly
upon every subject and matter under the sun, and
are perfectly familiar with everybody's business.
The sovereign remedy proposed was a little stimu-
lating competition; and straightway the home
legislature invited the already half ruined West
Indians, in the language of the memorandum of
the acting committee of planters and proprietors, ,
to "compete with possessions of the East India
Company, enjoying the advantage of the cheapest
free labour in the world, their trade with foreign
nations being at the same time free from the re-
strictions imposed on the West India colonies."
After a few years of this unprofitable struggle they
were called upon further to compete with "every
country having the semblance of freedom, while
they were themselves prohibited from endeavouring
to procure an accession of suitable labourers ;" and
at length the distinction between free labour and
slave labour is swept away altogether. The simu-
lated humanity and virtue of the nation have taken
flight; and we find that saints as well as sinners
can lick their lips after muscovado or molasses,
whether it has been produced by free British
subjects, .or by slaves toiling beneath the lash of
the Cuban or Brazilian driver. We are at the climax
of our grand experiment ; and after all we find
ourselves only in possession, as the result of all the
sacrifices which we have made, of ruined colonies,
a free negro population relapsing into barbarism,
and the accursed traffic in human flesh carried on
with an increased vigour in every country, from
which we have made, and are incurring, such costly
sacrifices of life and treasure to drive it away.
- At the last hour, and only when the British Go-
vernment is called upon to contemplate the prospect
of the abandonment of these noble colonies, the
prayer, which the planters of the West Indies have
been urging for the last ten years, is about to be
granted. It has been discovered at last, by the
employment of a Government steamer to cruise
along the shores of Africa upon which the slave
trade is not carried on, that immigration from that
country is only checked by the want of the means
of transit, and by the absurd restrictions which our
ill-timed philanthropy has imposed. A hardy race
of labourers is to be found on the Kroo Coast, fit-
ted for the climate of our colonies, and anxious to
exchange their present lot of semi-barbarism for
the civilized condition of the free labourers of the
British West Indies; and the Colonial office has
issued permission to the proprietors of freight sliips
for the purpose of transporting those labourers to
our colonial possessions. We hope that the con-
cession thus made does not come too late. We
much fear that it has; and trust that the legisla-
ture, now that the demands of our Colonists are
recognized as having been just, will take such steps
as will encourage and enable them to accept the
tardy boon granted. It must take some time to
enable the planters to secure the quantity of addi-
tional labour required ; and, in the mean time, it
must be borne in mind that their industry and en-
terprise are unremunerating. The Colonist has not
brought himself into this position by his own act.
His fate has been cruelly forced upon him ; and it
would be only wise and righteous in the legislature
of a great nation to extend towards those, whom
they have oppressed and ruined, a measure of fair
protection, until the means used to bring back
their forfeited prosperity have had time to produce
their anticipated fruits.

Mr. Alderman James Lawrence, the respected
chairman of the Markets Committee, has been of
late made the subject of several scurrilous articles
in the columns of a contemporary of Saturday.
The man who, like Mr. Lawrence, discharges the
duties reposed in him by the public, with the sole
view to the public welfare, is almost certain to in-
cur the displeasure of clamourous officials, men
who look only with a favourable eye on those mem-,
hers of the Council who promise to increase their
emoluments. Mr. Lawrence is none of these, and
hence. the splenetic effusions alluded to. Mr. Law-
rende has earned for himself, amongst men of all
parties, the character of one of the ablest, most im-
partial, and by far the most zealous and indefatig-
able member, not only of the Markets Committee,
but of the Watch Committee. The public suffered
a severe loss when his invaluable services were
withdrawn from the latter committee.

The selection made of four gentlemen from the
Council Chamber for the office of Alderman has
created vacancies in four of the wards—viz.' Great
Gutlllo3, Itudi.oy-41:ea, Abezeromby, and Cattle-

street, the election of members for which will take
place on Wednesday next. One of these wards—
Castle-street—will in all probability he uncontested,
Mr. George Holt, to all appearance, being likely to
walk over the course. This ward, it will be remem-
bered, has always been in Whig hands, having been
very seldom contested by the Conservative party;
and it speaks something of the truly liberal feeling
of the Conservative majority in the Council, that
they selected the late memberfor the ward, although
a Whig, but of very inobtrusive politics, for the
Alderman's chair, well knowing that another Whig
member would, as a matter of certainty, be returned
as his successor. We shall look in vain for a similar
tribute to genuine worth, irrespective of politics,
from the Whig-Radical faction. In the other three
wards a contest will take place.
In Great George Ward the candidates named are
Mr. Thomas Dover, on the Conservative interest,
and Mr. J. Rogers by the Whig party, who are put-
ting forward, however, a claim on behalf of their
candidate., and stating it boldly, in their can-
vass, that an understanding has been come to
by influential persons in the ward, that he is
to be supported by 'men of both parties on
the no-politics principle. We entertain, ourselves,
a very poor opinion of the genuineness of Whig
professions with respect to their entertaining such
a principle. It is one of those garments, which
they are ready enough to put on when a point can
be gained by adopting it ; but which they.ordinarily
throw away whenever the political weather warrants
them in venturing upon more decided clothing.
In the present case, no such understanding, as to
politics being laid aside, exists in the Ward;
and, if it did even exist, the Conservatives have as
good, and indeed an infinitely better, candidate
in hand than their opponents. Mr. Rogers is no
.doubt a.highly-respectable man. In what is Mr.
Dover inferior to him in this respect ? Take up the
question, as to which of the two is most likely to
strive for the economization of the funds of the
ratepayers, and Mr. Dover has the call over his
opponent. He is one of the largest ratepayers in
the town, He is possessed of great experience,
both in local affairs, and in the commerce of the
port; and is, besides, a Man possessed of talent,
and willing and able to bestow a large amount of
his leisure upon the performance of the duties of
the position to which he aspires.
We have no doubt that the burgesses will he
told, as of a fact to his disparagement, that Mr.
Dover is a warehouse-owner; and the amour pro-
pre of the shopkeepers and tradesmen of the ward
will be flattered by their being reminded that Mr.
Rogers is a tradesman. Let us examine the perti-
nence of the objection to the one and the recom-
mendation of the other. Mr. Dover, we grant, is
a warehouse-owner. He has contended against the
principle that the private property of his fellow
townsmen should he deteriorated, so long as they
pay rates, and thus decrease the burthens of the
shopkeeper and the householder, by the erection of
warehouses on the dock quays, managed by a public
body, and which warehouses pay no rates. He has
objected to the Dock Committee becoming their
own porters, their own carters, their own coopers,
and thus carrying on various important businesses
within the borough, without contributing to the
general burthens. This ought certainly not to be a
bar to Mr. Dover's claims upon the constituency of
the ward. Again, with respect to the claim of Mr.
Rogers, as a tradesman, is Mr. Dover any less ?
Is he not, besides, a large employer of tradesmen.
and of the operative and other classes, by whom
tradesmen and shopkeepers live ? This objection to
him cannot be held as valid by the enlightened
portion of the ward ; and with every respect, there-
fore, to his opponent,. we must urge the claim of
Mr. Dover as more allied with the general interests
of the burgesses of the ward than his are.
In Rodney-street Ward the candidates are Mr.
Qeorge Booker, Conservative, and Mr. Lewin, on
the Whig-Radical interest. With respect to the
fitness of the former gentleman, who, we may
mention, is a brother of the respected, repre-
sentative of West Derby Ward, Mr. Josias Booker—
there can be no dispute. Mr. George Booker, as
a West India merchant of long standing, is pos-
sessed of great mercantile experience, combined
With an intimate knowledge of the local affairs of
the ward, in which he is a resident. What may be
Mr. Lewin's claims upon the Liberal electors, be-
yond his respectability and his Llolitics, we are not
aware.

In Abercromby Ward, Mr. It. Cardwell Gardiner,
at the request of a numerous body of electors, an-
nounced himself a candidate a little after the va-
cancy occurred, and none can doubt his fitness for
the honour sought to be conferred upon him. We
believe that he has been frequently before so soli-
cited; and that lie only consented to come forward
in this instance on the understanding that no other
gentleman of his party was prepared to be put in
nomination.

THE ARCHBISHOPRIC OF YORK.

The Times of yesterday says :—" We believe we may
set at rest the speculations which have been raised by the
vacancy in the See of York, by announcing that Dr.
Musgrave, the Bishop of Hereford, is to be the new
Archbishop, and that he is to be replaced in his present
See by Dr. Hampden, Regius Professor of Divinity at
Oxford." The Times of course condemns both appoint-
ments, the latter especially, but we think that our readers
will not regret to see Dr. Hampden's elevation to the
episcopal bench. In addition to his professorship, he is
a Canon of Christ Church, and Principal of St. Mary
Hall, Oxford. He has also been one of the celebrated
Bampton Lecturers. Several years since great bitterness
was excited in the University against him for alleged
heresy, but his appointment to the Regius Professorship
could not be disturbed, though the University enacted an
irregular sort of censure which has been removed in a
recent professional statute.

The water colour painting of the Rev. Dr. M'Neile will
we understand remain on view another week at Mr. Bur-
land's rooms. We strongly recommend the friends of the
reverend gentleman to see it.
We understand that Mr. J. Bramley-Moore left town
yesterday on a visit for a few days to the Earl of Elles-
mere, at Worsley Hall, in compliance with a polite invi-
tation received from his lordship.
Yesterday men were employed taking down some build-
ings near the Salthouse Dock, at the bottom of Charlotte-
place; being the commencement of the demolition of
buildings necessary for the completion of the new Wap-
ping Docks.
_ _

The annual sermon on behalf of the funds of the Blue
Coat School was preached on Sunday, at St. Peter's
Church, by Rector Campbell, when the collection amounted
to £B4 6s. The newly-elected Mayor (T. B. Horsfall,
Esq.) attended, in compliance with the usual custom.
On Friday last, Mr. George Stansfield Deane, Park-
road, operated upon a respectable maiden lady, for the
removal of a scirrhous tumour of the breast. The opera-
tion was skilfully performed, whilst the patient was under
the influence of the ether vapour.
We understand that three clergymen, in connection
with the Church Missionary Association, sailed from this
port last week for India. On Monday morning the Sac-
rament was administered, at St. Luke's Church, to these
self-denying missionaries, and to nearly twenty of our
local clergy, and a considerable number of laymen.
MANCHESTER.—Messrs. Swainson and Birchwood's
bankruptcy was superseded at the first meeting of credi-
tors, on Friday last. Their estate shewed nearly one
hundred shillings for every pound of their debts, and it
was understood that the legal proceedings had been
allowed to arrive at a fiat purely through neglect.
CAUTION TO FARMERS.—As a respectable farmer, Mr.
John Rimmer, of The Bronk, Formby, was returning
from this town, on Saturday last, he was attacked by two
men, near the new Catholic Chapel. Little Crosby, and
robbed of £5. A number of carts were not many yards
before him on the road, but owing to the noise they made
his cries for assistance were not heard. He received no
personal injury.
LIVERPOOL SUNDAY-SCHOOL INSTITUTE.—Our read-
ers will perceive by our advertising columns, that a class
for the study of psalmody has been established by the
above institute, and meets in Pembroke Chapel, on Tu-
esday evenings. We understand that nearly three hun-
dred Sunday-school teachers and others have joined this
class; and we doubt not that success will attend this
laudable attempt to improve an important part of public
worship.
WHAT HAS BECOME OF THE COBDEN FUND ?—The
Manchester Courier, very properly, we think, persists in
asking for a reply to this question. The great apostle of
free trade has now been in his own country and in the
chief seat of his agitating labours for several weeks. He
has visited not only the Exchange, "where merchants most
do congregate," but the rooms of the Anti-Corn-Law
League as well. Yet we hear of no public meeting of his
quondam admirers to present him with the meed of recom-
pense awarded to him—no statement, even, of the amount
which he may expect to reap. It is hinted broadly that
repudiation on a large scale may be expected, if it has not
already taken place ; that many liberal promises to pay
remain promises only still; that, in short, too many of
the subscribers- to the Cobden Testimonial Fund may be
included amongst the suspended firms; yet no denial of
the imputation is ventured upon. We trust, for the
honour of the free-traders, that the insinuations with
respect to their want of honour, in slighting their former
leader, are not deserved. It would not be wonderful,
however, if a movement, conceived in folly, should tenni-
mite with n display of shabbiness.