The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-02-24 00:00:00

(Hear.) It was said that

as no 1

n since the commu

for a certain corn

n comae-

,n ; but

sition was

Fur it, and it was as much a burden as

The excise duty on malt, Lord Beaumont con-
tended, was an impost which pressed more heavily
against the agriculturists than upon other consum-
ing classes, inasmuch as, besides increasing the
price of beer, it discouraged the growth of barley,
the most profitable, crop of the farmer. They were
s, too, from not being allowed to malt, or
grain for feeding purposes, with-
nce of the excise. The excise duty
lordship thought might be re-

even to steep their

moved with advantage to the landowner, whose clay
would thus come into extended consumption. The

Another serious grievance felt by the owner of

land and other real property was the stamp duty,
which rendered the transfer of such property most
and raising money upon it for temporary

expensive,

purposes
1
ev•

lmost ruinous

He admitted that the
gacy duty upon personal property was to some

but he wished the

scale, a few exernptionsjamongst which was the in-
surance duty on certain articles of an agricultural
Lc. rnntonriarl

,vhich wer

of incendiaries, and to accident

Lord Brougham, Lord Stanley, the Duke of
Richmond, and Lord Dacre entirely concurred in

the propriety of the motion, and, generally, in the
correctness of the statements of the noble mover.
The latter noble lord contributed the following
figures, which clearly show that to the poor-rates,
at least, the agriculturist contributes very much be-
yondhis legitimate proportion :

ere had been returns printed for the purpose of

ble value

f property prior to the

imposition of the income-tax in 18-12. The valuation for
the poor-rates amounted to £48,400,000, while the pro

millions, exclusive of the incomes below £lso—a year,
which were not charged, though the poor-rates were levied
on the poorest cottiers. (Hear, hear.) He felt, therefore,
justified in saying that the value of property in this coun-

Z2U(I,OOU,Ut
that fully thre,

including the in-
-fourths of this

annunt was not subjected to the poor rates, which thus
fell most heavily on the landed interest."

,And what has Sir Robert Peel held out to the
agricultural classes, thus burdened, to enable them
to compete with the comparatively untaxed foreign
grower ? A few reductions of the duty upon articles,
the bulk of which are only apparent reductions,
and three-fourths of which are never likely to affect
the farmer at all. If justice is to be done to every
class—if the home grower of corn is to be allowed
a fair chance of success in the struggle to compete
with the foreign grower, and to maintain his relative
position amongst the great interests of the country
--:he should bear no more than his fair proportion
of the public burdens. A great minister, whilst de-
vising such great changes in the fiscal system of the
country, as those which have been making from
1842 to the present period, should surely have ex-
tended his views of amelioration beyond the mere
revision of a tariff, and not have teft untouched and
uninquired into, every other mode of taxation. If
the commerce of the country is to be advanced by
the application to it of the new principles of the po-
litical philosophy of modern days—if the pressure of
indirect taxation is to be lightened—why should the
direct taxation, which bears so heavily upon the
owners and cultivators of the soil, whom we are
about to embark in a fearful and perhaps a fatal ex-
periment, be permitted to groan beneath a system,
erected to meet very different circumstances than the
present, and when those upon whom it was imposed
were in a very different position to endure its weight ?
We trust that the motion of Lord Beaumont, and
the facts which his committee must elicit, will not
be without their results. In one respect it is clear
that a change must be made. An alteration of the
law of settlement must be made, by which all classes
will have to contribute their fair share towards
the support of the poor; or, perhaps better still, the
maintenance of the poor must be taken into the na-
tional charge.

The gentlemen of the Anti-corn Law League ap-
pear to be endowed with so universal a genius, that
it is matter of great difficulty to determine what is
their peculiar forte. They can discourse learnedly
on every subject, from cotton and corn to the solu-
timn of a problem in Euclid. They can lay aside
their ledgers or their cash-books, step out of their

pete with the foreign farmer; and, therefore, the ho-
nourable gentleman. instead of being, as he then
was, a thorough-going and an ultra free-trader, would,
at this moment, have been a most determined and

or an opinion

ca - •
when carrying on naannfacturirg operations, consequently
he must excuse him (Mr Tollemache) for declining, as he
,
did decline, to acknowledge him as any great authority, or,
any authority at all, on matters relating to agri-
However, as the hon. gentleman had favoured

culture

them with his

itiervations. he should state that, although
he had the honour of being one of the members for South
Cheshire. he was connected, both as a landed proprietor
and as a resident, with another county, which was
acknowledged to be one of the best cultivated-in the
kingdom; and, from all he had seen in that and other
counties he did not hesitate to declare that, in many parts

of Cheshi

ricultural improvement was progressing as
TV mbar nsart of rhn nn.lntrty rt

We may perhaps be exposing ourselves to some
little derision by the avowal which we are about to
make ; but we must candidly acknowledge that,
upon such a subject, we would regard the opinion
of Mr. Tollemache as one entitled to much greater
weight than that of the hon. member for Durham
city. We should readily defer to the judgment of
the latter gentleman with respect to the quality or
the value of a piece of calico, a pound of cottori
yarn, or a yard of flannel—commodities more im-
mediately in his own line. But, when he talks so
glibly about the slovenly farming and the absence
of improvement in Cheshire, we are inclined to sus-
pect that he cannot have carried his observations
much beyond the building land in the outskirts of
the large manufacturing towns, whose population
he has enlightened from time to time with his won-
derful discoveries in political economy. It may,
perhaps, he a shock to the vanity of such a remark-
ably sagacious personage as himself, if we were
to remind him of the moral of the old fable—" Are
sutor ultra crepidam."

The third report of the Select Committee ap-
pointed for the classification of Railway Bills has
just been published, and must have materially con-
duced to remove the alarm with which its resolutions,
based upon instructions supposed to have been
offered by Government as the guide of its conduct,

were looked for. It was feared that we were to
have seen a clear sweep made of all those schemes
which did not partake of the character of necessary

extensions or branches of existing lines ; that no
merely competing lines were to be permitted to
occupy the attention of Parliament; and the old
companies were in extacies with the thought that
they were to be permitted to enjoy their monopolies
and to dictate terms to the public for some more
years to come. The report before us, however,
wa`rrants no such conclusion. It plainly admits
that the committee " have not deemed it advisable

to recommend the house to make anv selection from,
or to place any limitation on, the number of rail-
way schemes to be submitted to Parliament this

session ;" that the whole of the railways whicli shall
succeed in passing the standing orders are to be in-
vestigated upon their merits ; and intimates the
opinion of the Select Committee that, with such.
alterations in the modes of procedure which it re-
commends, and the saving of time, and talk, which
it advises the committees to enforce, the entire rail-
way business of the session may be got through
without seriously inconveniencing the members of
either house.

Taking the whole number of Bills for which peti-
tions have been presented this session at 562—viz.,
395 for Railways in England and Wales, 120 for
Railways in Scotland, and 47 for Railways in Ire-
land—many of which they consider must fail in
standing orders, the Committee conceive that the
number for England and Wales may be conveniently
formed into 51 groups, and those for Scotland into
10. For the whole, therefore, only 61 Select Com-
mittees would be required, the Irish Bills, with a
certain class of English Bills, having already beeh
ordered to be taken up in the first instance in the
House of Lords. The number of Committees last
year was 52 ; but, owing to peculiar circumstances,
only 45 appear to have sate. When the tedious pro-
ceedings which took place before these Committees
are considered, it is not wonderful that they did not
succeed in getting through the entire business before
them. Months were taken up in hearing conflicting
statements of traffic, which were calculated only to
leave the Tribunals before which they were made in
a happy state of confusion. The Committee recom-
mend that with respect to these enquiries the practice
laid down by the present standing orders should be
altered ; that it should no longer be imperative upon
the Select Committees to report upon the traffic, or
probable profit to the projectors of the schemes sub-
mitted to them ; but nevertheless they may " make
such enquiries as they may judge proper with regard
to population and to the extent of accommodation
that would be afforded to the public." Any unop-
posed Railway Bill, they suggest, may be " referred
to the Chairman of Ways and Means, and the Mem-
bers ordered to bring in the bill, to be dealt with as
other unopposed bills." By this judicious course the
time of Parliament and a vast amount of unneces-
sary expenditure by the Companies will be saved.

With such opinions, coming from a committee,
one object of whose appointment was assumed to
be to ward off a supposed danger to the country
from excessive investment of its capital in railway
speculations, we cannot think that the public, in-
terested in railway property, is warranted in enter-
taining the fear of any unnecessary severity or
rigidity being extended to really sound schemes by
the committees who will shortly have to sit upon
their merits. By this time, we think, the absurd

Thus the number of criminals, under twenty years of age,
committed to prison in the year 1835, was 6803, or one in
449 of the population, between ten and twenty years of
age ; while in 1844 they amounted to 11,348 or 1 in 304

upon the population of the Bart _
The learned gentleman does no
such increase is attributable to the absence of edu-
cation, for he reminds us, that " during the whole
of the intervening period most strenuous exertions
have been made to afford to the masses of the
people increased education—intellectual, moral, and
religious—and to supply them with the appetite
for knowledge, which elementary instruction was cal-
culated to inspire." Now, here we may remark,
that it was never contended that education, how-
ever good, could do all, whilst it has ever been the

:onsider

strongest argument against mere " elementary
instruction," that it gave an appetite for knowledge,
without a standard to direct to the proper food
with which it should be gratified. Mr. Pearson
has, no doubt, discovered by this time how great
an aid to t-

le acquisition of proficiency in the juve-
nile criminal has been the ability to peruse the lives
and ape the achievements of the gaol birds of other
days—the Jack Shepherds, and other worthies of
the same stamp.
Another very important fact the City Solicitor
brings before us, viz., that although it is true, as
we were informed by Sir Robert Pee

Graham, that, during the last three years of_ pros-
perity, as compared with the previous three years,
crime, in the aggregate, had decreased ; yet this was
not the case with juvenile crime, which had increased
in the latter three years upwards of seven per cent.
The only gratifying feature which we can find in
these statistics of the condition of our population is
the fact that, whilst the number of committals and

convictions has increased, the offences generally
have been of a less aggravated character.
The increase of juvenile crime Mr. Pearson attri-
butes to the recent multiplication of petty offences,
punishable by fine, or, failing payment, by impri-
sonment in gaol :

" Upon summary convictions, short imprisonments are
awarded for the smallest offence, and it is no uncommon
thing to read in the newspapers of young urchins found,
in a state of destitution, or in the commission of some
petty- delinouencv enmmispratpd hv the mnoiqtrntp

expresses his pity for their unfortunate condition, and
laments that he has no other place than a criminal's gaol,
to which he may consign them."
" The mind of the child thus becomes familiarised with
a gaol—a prison is at once disarmed of its terrors and its

shame. In a gaol the novice in crime gets acquainted
with the hardened in guilt; he finds himself the object of
commiseration; he finds that be is betti -
fed, better housed, and better cared for, .........
than in the habitation of his parents or the workhouse of

gravest crimes, and the chile

oecome me preclude
limated to the atmo-

•• UIiPAVACU !tutu gain-
ing an honest living, by having had the brand of crime
stamped upon his forehead, and he so remains, perhaps
for years, a continual burden to the State, until his educa-
tion is finished in the Model Prison, at an expense of some
thirty or forty pounds, arenaratory to his tranannrtatinn

from his native land at'arfurl-her cost gf The like sum."
As the remedy for this state of things, Mr. Pear-
son recommends the committal of juvenile offenders,
for first offences, or, when found destitute, to refor-
matory establishments, in which, by judicious,
moral, religious, and industrial training, they may
be useful members of society, either at home or in
our colonies. These establishments. he Insioß

should be national asylums, erected at the national
cost, reserving to them, however the right to pro-
tect the nation against the risk of poor children be-
ing thrown upon its care by the wanton neglect of
parishes to provide for 'end direct them in honest
courses.

There is much in the suggestions of Mr. Pearson
which is well worthy of attention and which the
claims upon our space will not now allow ul3 either
to quote or to comment upon. We may, however,
take up the subject again.

The subject of this evening's lecture at St. Andrew's
Church. being the last of the series, is " The Ministry of
Angels."

The Railway Standard says that influential persons in
this town are buying up the Liverpool, Bolton, and Wigan
stock, to prevent the amalgamation with the Manchester
and Leeds.

It will be seen, from an appeal from the Committee ap-
pointed by the owners of property required for the new
docks at Wapping, that the " sinews of war" are wanted
for the purpose of being heard before a parliamentary
committee.

ST. DAVID'S DAY.—We beg to draw the attention of
the Welsh inhabitants of this town, and others friendly to
the education of the children of the poor, to an advertise-
ment in this day's paper, announcing the annual examina-
tion of the children taught at those old and excellent
institution., the Welsh Charity Schools in Russell-street.
We understand that, in consequence of the Town-hall
undergoing some necessary repairs, the Welsh Charity
Ball is postponed until next year.
The second of the course of lectures, on Tuesday even-
ings, in the Concert Hall, Lord Nelson-street, by clergy-
men of the Church of England, on the Errors of the
Church of Rime, will be delivered this evening, by the
Rev. David James, the subject being, " The Bible the
only Rule of Faitb,"—a great and important truth, and
one which it is now more than ever necessary to press on
the attention of the public ; and we know of no one better
able to enforce it with the cogency of powerful and conti-
nuous argument than the reverend gentleman appointed.
A naval officer arrived at Cork, 'on board a merchant-
vessel from the coast of Africa, reports the safe return of
Mr. Jamieson's steamer Ethiope to Fernando Po, after a
successful expedition up the Niger. Dr. Kiog and the
master were in perfect health, as were all the others on
board as far as can yet be learned. The Spectator, which
has given an intimation of the arrival of the steamer, is
incorrect in one or two particulars. In addition to the
commander and the doctor, the two officers and the engi-
neer were all white men, and though no details have been
received, it is understood they have all returned in good
health.

and that his sister-in-law was in the last agonies of death.
After his arrival at the house, he took tea, and previous
to bed he thank (as was his custom) two or

tumblers c

also, at break

morning, drank tea, made from the water used by the

felt a distressing nausea of the stomach, and a giddi
, which he soon after mentioned to Dr. Bickersteth
he other afflicted members of th
witness said, as the circumstances were

who was attendir

he hoped the jury would institute the most rigid inc.
into the circumstances. He added, that he heard of aca
Wales, in which water had
manner, and no arsenic c

led in a

the well; but a big, containing that substance, had after-
wards been discovered within the pump.
A post mortem examination of one of the bodies was

[nation and appearances such as led him to the decided
opinion that the decessed had died from the effects of
poison. He had analyzed the water from the well, and

h is sta