The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-05-14 00:00:00

DEBATE UPON LORD SANDON'S MOTION.

It would be a dull affair to attempt to analyze this debate.
The most happy efforts on Monday night were those of Lord
Francis Egerton and Mr. W. E. Gladstone ; yet two speeches
more dissimilar in their character it is scarcely possible to
magine. Tae speech of Lord Francis was one of those beau-
tiful displays of lofty principle, conveyed in fine and eloquent
language, which distinguish that amiable and talented noble-
man ; whilst that of the member for Newark, equally correct
in language and lofty in principle, addressed itself more to
the business details of the question. In the concluding sen-
tences of his speech Mr. Gladstone alluded, with happy effect,
to the position uniformly maintained upon the question of
slavery by the father of one member of the cabient—Mr.
Zachary Macauley—and contrasted it with that which his
son, the member for Edinburgh, at present occupied, as the
advocate of a measure which must inevitably tend, whatever

may be its effects upon the condition of the emancipated ne-
grocs in our West Indian colonies, to aggravate the horrors

of slavery and the slave trade as carried on in other countries
—an allusion the more valuabie inasmuch as it had the effect
of placing the glib-tongued placeman—Mr. Babington Ma-
cauley—upon his trial, and has afforded the country an op-
portunity of ascertaining with what reasoning a professed
abolutionist can defend, upon principle, the policy of govern-
ment.

On Tuesday night, accordingly, Mr. Macauley came down
with a set speech, which is verbatim reported, as all his pre- I
pared speeches are, in the Morning Chronicle of this day.
You cannot," urged Mr. Macauley, " dispense with the
use of slave-grown products. You must have slave-grown
coffee, cotton, &c. ; and why, then, your holy horror of
slave-grown sugar ?" Alas, has it come to this ? Are we to
be told now that all the speeches, written and uttered, of
Wilberforce, Buxton, Clarkson, and Macauley—that all the
diatribes of this same Thomas Babington in the pages of the
blue and yellow—all the eloquent denunciations of Chatham,
of Fox, of Brougham—all the amiable philanthropy of a Gur-
ney—have been utterly misplaced and thrown away because,
although we can do without slave-grown sugar, we cannot
yet dispense with slave-grown coffee, cotton, or tobacco?
Shame upon you, Mr. Thomas Babington Macauley—shame
upon any man whom the preservation of a seat upon the
treasury bench—whom a dirty question of salary—can induce
to falsify the recorded opinions of-a unroot and
trample upon the laurel which hangs over the grave of a dead
parent !

For one candid confession, however, we must thank the
Secretary at War. We know now, ex cathedrii, that in this
sugary proposition the ministry have " miscalculated"—
have committed an unfortunate error. Until the promulga-
tion of Lord Sandon's present motion the ministerial dreams
were all "coleur de rose." They confidently expected sup-
] ort, even from the Conservative side of the house (!) in
this endeavour to recruit their exhausted treasury at the ex-
pense of the agricultural and colonial interests of the empire.
But they know now their error ; nay, they tell us by the
mouth of Mr. Macauley that they know its consequences.
They will have very shortly—hard fate !—to occupy other
seats, from which they expect to witness the carrying out of
the very measure which they now propose,—an expectation
which we should be very glad, for my part, to allow them to
gratify, when the country shall become tired of seeing them
occupy thsoe seats,—but certainly not sooner.

Without this admission, however, it is sufficiently evident
that a grossly false move has been made by the unlucky
Chancellor of the Exchequer. The " unsettling" of the
agricultural and colonial interests—the attempt to raise a cry
of cheap sugar, cheap timber, and cheap bread, has recoiled
upon the heads of the ministry ; and, worse than all, has
placed them in a false position. They must now bid farewell
for ever to the support of the anti-slavery party in Great
Britain. They are now the avowed advocates of slavery and
the slave trade. Their press already has thrown off the
flimsy concealment, under which for a time, perhaps, this
fact might have been concealed ; the more indiscreet mem-
bers of their party in parliament have abjured the profes-
sions of humanity to the Negro race, which in past time have
formed the staple of many an eloquent diatribe—at anti-
slavery meetings, upon electioneering and other occasions ;
and full time it was that the hypocritical pretenders were
unmasked. Humanity to the enslaved African, front the
supporters of infant slavery in our factoriei—from the
supporters of adult slavery in our poor-law bastiles ! No ;
from henceforth the people of England will look for no such
fruit upon the barren branches of the tree of Whig-
radicalism.

DISASTER IN THE CHANNEL,

PAINFULLY INTERESTING PARTICULARS.
(From our Second Edition of Tuesday, 11th inst.)

We furnished in our first edition a brief statement of the
loss of a brig, near Holyhead, on Sunday night, by being run
into by the ship Brooklyn, outward bound, to New York, and
which left this port on that day. The supposition then was,
from those on board of the Brooklyn, that:the then unknown
vessel, (which was supposed to be of about 300 tons:bur-
then,) had suddenly disappeared with all.those who were on
board of her. We are glad, however, to state, that six of
the crew were saved, and from one of them—the mate—the
following particulars are derived :
The vessel was the ship Mary Scott, from Valparaiso,
bound to Liverpool, with a cargo of copper ore, &c., and a
quantity of specie. She was the property of Mrs. Little.
widow of the late Mr. Little, of Liverpool. She sailed 12th
January. On Sunday night, when off Point Lynas, she
showed two lights on the starboard side for a pilot. About
ten o'clock, while she was running on, a ship, without any
lights that were seen by the Mary Scott, ran into her,
striking her between the two lights, abaft the main rigging.
The wind was blowing fresh at the time, and the topsails
of the Mary Scott had been reefed. The concussion carried
away some of the spars of the latter vessel, and by the
fall of one of them the captain had his back severely
injured, if not broken. The Brooklyn was hailed by the
Mary Scott, but, according to our informant, did not
make towards her, and they soon lost sight of her. As
it was evident that the vessel was in a dangerous state,
the jolly-boat was lowered, and the mate told the captain that
now was the time for him to save his life. He said that if
the mate would fetch up a box of spice, he would follow him
into the boat. The mate went down and fetched up a box,
but, on his reaching the deck, he found the „water up to his
waist, she being in a sinking state. An attempt was then
made to clear the long boat, so as to save all hands ; but she
was so entangled with spars and cordage, that this could not
be effected; and the mate, as the ship sunk, got into the
jolly boat, together with the carpenter, four of- the crew,
and a boy,—being seven in all. He believes that all the
remainder, amounting to eight in number, (including the
captain) sunk with the vessel, of which they soon lost sight.
The boat drifted first towards Holyhead, and afterwards to-
wards the Isle of Man. Those on board had neither food
nor drink, and were, in the confusion of leaving the ship,
but scantily clothed. The weather was stormy, and they
were left at the mercy of the wind and waves. They had se-
cured the chronometer, but having nothing to bail with, had
to break out the works and use the metal case as a scoop or
ladle. After being tossed about for about twenty-four
hours they were picked up, naturally much exhausted, by a
Manx fishing-boat. There were no passengers in the Mary
Scott. Just before they were picked up, they passed a
water cask which they recognised to be one of those belong-
ing to the Mary Scott

'in addition to these particulars, we are informed that the
vessel and her cargo were insured for £35,000—a1l in Liver-
pool. Independently of the melancholy loss of life, the de-
struction of property involved will fall heavily upon our
underwriters. As in all probability a legal investigation of
the facts, as affecting the Brooklyn, will take place, we
abstain from all remark on the fatal disaster,—the more par-
ticularly as some conflicting testimony regarding the collision
may hereafter be adduced.

Captain Richardson has furnished us with the following
statement of this melancholy affair •
" On the 9th inst., at six.a.tn., the ship Brooklyn, under
my command, proceeded, with the assistance
two ofa steamer,
from- the river Mersey to' sea. At being seven
miles outside the Bell Buoy, discharged the steamer, and
made sail, wind light, from S.E. At 8 30 p.m. saw Point
Lynas light S.W., about 8 miles distant wind brisk from
S.S.W. At 9 p.m. brisk breezes from 'y
S. ; took in
the studding sails. At near 10 p.m., beng S.W.'on deck myself,
and having a good 100k-out kept by myself and men, we ob-
served a sail on our larboard bow. 1 immediately saw her,
and seeing she was steering in the opposite direction, (that
is E.S.E. and ourselves about W.N.W.) and she to wind-
ward of us ; the wind having just headed us one point, and
thus favoured the strange sail, I was induced to keep my
ship off, by putting my helm aport, which was done, and my
ship immediately swung off two points ; but on looking to
the strange sail again, to my astonishment I observed her
keeping off, which caused me to believe that as we were so
near each other we should soon come together, bow to bow,
which would have destroyed us both almost instantly. 1,
fearing so frightful a collision, thought, at the moment, that
if my helm was put down my ship might come to quick
enough to clear her ; consequently, I had my helm put to
starboard, and my ship began to come to quickly, and had
there been one or two minutes more time, the strange sail
would hive been sufficiently ahead to have cleared us, as we
struck her about the mainmast. I saw her in one minute
I after she was seen by the look-out. I did not see any lights
on board of her, neither have I learnt that any on board my
ship saw any. My ship .lost her bowsprit, cutwater, stem
badly split, bows much injured ; and at the time of the col-
lision, and for two hours afterwards, I had, strong fears of
my ship springing a large leak suddenly,. as, in addition to
the injury just sustained, her bowsprit was thrashing her
bows sufficiently to cause great anxiety for the safety of 195
souls on board ; also the foremast was much endangered by
the want of head-stays. As the strange sail passed from un-
der us after the collision, I heard dreadful shrieks and cries.
I had no doubt they were cries of distress, and I feared the
strange sail was sinking. I thought of the drowning crew,
but 1 had not the power of affording any relief, as my ship
was under full sail, and in an unmanageable and extremely
dangerous state ; however, in a few minutes I let my sails
fly, backed my rnaintoPsail, and stopped the ship's way ; but
did not, at that time or afterwards, hear or see anything of
the strange sail, her boats or men,until I heard of the arrival
of some of them at this place.
ABEL W. RICHARDSON,
Commander of the ship Brooklyn.
P.S. Understanding that a report has been circulated very
prejudicial to my character for humanity, to the effect that
immediately on the collision taking place I caused the hatch-
ways to be covered for the purpose of preventing the passen-
gers from coming on deck, I beg most distinctly to deny it,
no such order having been given by me, or by any officer on
board n-.y ship ; on the contrary, to my own certain know-
ledge, I state that the hatchways were open, and that several
of my passengers were on deck at the time of the accident.

On the subject of the above remarks of Captain Richard-
son, we beg to state that one of our reporters was in the of-
fice of the consignees, Messrs. James D. Roche, Goree,
yesterday, and there
saw many of the passengers by the
Brooklyn ; our reporter interrogated many of them on the
subject of the assertion that had been made respecting the
" closing of the hatches at the time the circumstance took
place : they one and all bore testimony to Captain Richard-
son's attention and kindness to them, and the anxiety he ex-
pressed for their safety. They distinctly stated that no in-
structions were given to close the hatches by any one, on the
contrary some of the passengers were requested to come
upon deck and assist at the pumps. How the report origi-
nated that Captain Richardson gave orders to close the
hatches, it is difficult to discover. We have, however, plea-

sure in setting the public and the friends of the passengers
right upon the subject, in denying the report which has given
Captain Richardson and the consignee of the vessel great
annoyance. sixty-five of the passengers from the Brooklyn
were despatched to New• York yesterday, by the Richard

di 11 del

Roche's first vessel. The consignee has shown a good deal
of liberality on the occasion, having provided for the pas-
sengers, so that they should experience as little delay, in-

convenience, and loss as possible

T H I

BUDGET

TO THE EDITOR OF THE MORNING POST

!et of the

SlR,—Having lately addressed you on the suL,_ _
corn-laws, in consequence of the appearance last evening of
the financial Budget for the year, and the means by which it
is therein proposed to provide for the deficiency in th...e re-
venue for the present year, I am again induced to do so.
That deficiency is proposed to be made good by what is
termed regulating existing taxes, and not by the erection of
new ones. The objects of regulation are stated to be the
duties now payable on timber and sugar, with the abandon-
ment of the principles as well as the application of the gra-
duated scale of duties on foreign corn, and the substitution
of a fixed rate of duty, to be payable at all times, without re-
gard to the abundance or deficiency of our own crops.

As regards timber, the contemplated chances promise to
act most injuriously on the interests of our North American
colonies, and those of our shipping. The apparent object of

these changes is increased revenue without regard to the in-
jury they may be expected to inflict on those interests; the
objects of the present system were to promote the interests
of those colonies, first, because they afforded a wide field for
emigration and employment to our growing surplus of popu-
lation ; next, because these colonies were paid for the pro-
duce with which they supplied us, in British manufactures
and the productions of our other colonies ; and, lastly, that
as British shipping were alone employed in the trade, it af-

Drded a most valuable nursery for British seamen, to which
he mother country could at all times look with confidence
a man our fleets whenever she required their assistance and

rotection

Such was the policy that produced the system which has
therto be acted upon. In its place it is now proposed to
. .

minish the inducements whichiave hitherto existed to cul-

tivate and protect that connection, and, in the hope of in-
creasing the revenue, to encourage the importation of Baltic
timber, of which the greater part has been hitherto imported
in foreign shipping, to the discouragement of our own, the
cost of the cargoes with the freight being chiefly paid in
money and not in goods, the ships, with the exception of salt
from Liverpool, an article of no small comparative value, re-
turning to their own ports in ballast.
These are the simple facts of the case. and it is for those
who will take the trouble to consider and reflect on their re-
lative tendency to judge of their bearings on British interests.

If the effect of their measures is to increase irritation and dig.
appointment in those colonies with a view to their separation
from the moth-c-r country, the object is likely to be effected,
though the price to be paid for it may be considered both ex-
travagant and injurious.
The next declared object is to reduce from 635. to 365. per
cwt. the duty on foreign sugar when imported into the United
Kingdom, the duty on the growth of oir colonies and foreign
possessions being 21s.
Hitherto the growth of these colonies and possessions has
been at all times fully adequate to the supply of the home
market, and for many years it was considered wisdom in the
legislature to protect by a small bounty included in the draw-
back the employment of our refiners in preparing annually

about thirtythOusand tons of Al useavado sugar, which was
exported in a refined state ; but it was reserved for the policy

of our present government to withdraw that encouragement
and extinguish the trade. _ _ .

The supply of sugar from the West Indies, Bengal, and
the Mauritius, is estimated for the present year at 230,000
tons ; the home consumption (and there is now no other
vent) cannot be taken at more than 130,000 tons, leaving a
surplus of 40,009 tons; yet it is now proposed to increase it
by the admission of foreign sugar, alike the produce of free
and slave labour, whilst the produce of our colonies is the
fruits of free labour alone; in fact, to possess it, a price
large in amount was paid by the public, though barely re-
munerating to those who received it. The result to them has

been the Infliction, by ministers, of severe restrictions on
emigration to cur colonies, and an immense increase in the
price of labour, caused by an inadequate population to carry
on the cultivation and manufacture of sugar, by which the
cost has, to the manifest injury of the planter, been greatly
and unavoidably enhanced, who is thus deprived of the
power of helping or protecting himself, and he is now threat-
ened with an overwhelming and ruinous competition in his
only market of consumption, that of the United Kingdom.
If this measure is persevered in by Ministers the British

anters have no choice left them but to maintain the conflict

against foreign growth whilst their means or resources will
enable them to do so, under the protection, such as it is pro-
posed to be, that the reduced duty on foreign sugar may afford;
a protection most unequal to the heavy expenses to which
they are now subject, and the disabilities under which they

must suffer; a cOmpetition that is likely to terminate in their
ultimate ruin, but which they will no doubt maintain to the

As, then, the British planter has no second market to re-
sort to, like the foreigner, to whom the Continent of Europe
if open—because, from the low price or cost of slave labour,
he can afford to sell his sugars there at prices with which it
is impossible for the British planter to contend, he (the
planter) must at all hazards retain possession of the home
market, and at whatever prices the foreigner may offer to sell
his sugars here, the British planter, whilst he exists, must
necessarily undersell him, since he will have no other choice
to make. Let not, then, the importer of foreign sugars, who
expects to find a market here, the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer, who expects to obtain a revenue from the increased
duty, small as it is, that he will require them to pay, or the
manufacturer, who is hugging himself in the expectation of
finding an increased sale for his goods to be taken in pay-
ment for the sugars lie expects to he sold and consumed here;
I say, let not any of the three united enemies of the British
planter lay the flattering unction to their souls, since they
must, at least for a time, be subjected to disappointment,
though they may be gratified by seeing our planters strug-
gling against ruin under which they would eventually perish,
unless the public should awake to the policy of such a disas-

rows course, and, while it may yet be time, stretch out their
lands to save them, by returning to. the safer policy of past
imes, when the theories of Free Traders, as they denominate
.heinselves, were without influence to delude and mislead the
?üblic mind.

But let us for a moment, and for the sake of argument,
suppose that the objects of those lovers of change were
gained ; and it is begun with the more formidable, the ma-

,ufactu'rers, let us inquire what their gain would be ?

present our colonies and foreign possessions purchase from
them all the goods they consume, and that consumption is
only limited by their means of payment. Let them, as they
propose, be supposed to succeed in extinguishingthose means
by the substitution_ of foreign sugar, the result must neces-

szirily he the loss of the colonial imarkets for the sale of their
manufactures; and the substitute for it, the expectation of
an increased demand for trade from the foreign grower, who
could not be bound to receive such payment, but must be

left at liberty to invest the mony received-for his sugar here,
or in the purchase of goods elsewhere, should he find it his
interest to do so. What. then, is the manufacturer to gain

from the change he would effect by the most unnatural sub-
stitution of the foreign for the British planter—the labour of
the slave for that of the freeman ? The disappointment of
the merchants who might be the importers here of these
sugars would be in all respects similar, and the Chancellor of
the Exchequer would find that, for a time at least, he must
be satisfied with the revenue that the present duty on British
sugar might produce. It is true the great and (to the plan-
ter) ruinous reduction in price would probably lead to a
given, but moderate, increase in consumption ; hut I think
even his fellow ministers would hardly wish him joy of such
fruits to be gained by the ultimate sacrifice of our West In-
dia colonies, which were once considered to be a source of
wealth and of great national importance to the mother coun-
try, and maintained during war at an enormous expense !

The next subject I have consider is the substitution of
a fixed duty on foreign corn for the present graduated scale.
I believe the comparative merits of these systems are, that
the effect of the graduated scale is to protect the grower in
seasons of abundance, when our crops have always proved to
be adequate to the home consumption, and that supply was
secured from the interference of foreign growths by a scale
of duties that increased as the prices declined, thus giving
confidence and security to the farmers of the United King-
dom and ensuring their industrious exertions to provide that
supply, the only one on which it has been found the public
could place a safe dependence ; on the other hand, in adverse
seasons, when deficiency has been experienced, that result
was ascertained by the falling off of the supply, for which
higher and increasing prices were to be paid ; then the scale
of duties, no longer required for protection, fell in proportion
as the prices advanced, until they wholly ceased, and admit-
ted the free importation of foreign corn at a low nominal duty
for the supply of the consumers, when that supply was thus
tested to have become necessary ; in this manner the gradu-
ated scale has been found to work well for the general bene-
fit, by affording the principle of protection alike to the grower
and to the consumer ; but this it is now proposed to abandon,
and substitute in its place a fixed rate of duties, to be equally
applied at all times, without regard to the seasons being fa-
vourable or adverse, the crops abundant or deficient; the
effect of which, it appears to me, will be, in seasons of scar-
city, when prices are unavoidably low, to load the consumer
with an additional burden when least able to bear it, in the
shape of a fixed duty, and in seasons of abundance, when ex-
perience has shown that our home growths have proved fully
equal to meet the consumption, to expose our farmers to com-
petition with foreign supply for the introduction of which no
necessity can exist—a competition which no protection from
a moderate fixed duty, subject as he is to bear heavy public
burthens and consequent greatly increased expense, insepara-
ble from cultivation here, from which the foreign grower is
exempt, could protect him under, or enable him to bear up
against, and although he would struggle fora time, he must,
if persevered in, eventually sink under it.

These appear to me to be the respective merits of the ex-
isting and proposed systems ; the beneficial consequences
that I belive have been reaped from the first, and the dis-
astrous results to be, in my opinion, apprehended from the
last, 1 did endeavour to point out and to condense, partially,
in the letter I lately addressed to you, but before more

largely (though then but briefly) in a statement I ventured to
make end submit to the to the public in January, 1839, of
which I now beg to trouble you with a copy ; since then no
events have occured to induce me to alter my opinions, or
change the conclusions I then came to, and to which I beg
to recall the attention of those of your readers who may have
done me the honour to read that brief attempt to explain and
support our existing system of corn laws.
If, as I think I have shown, that in seasons of plenty our
home growth are sufficient to meet the whole consumption,
it follows that at such periods to admit foreign supply would
be to increase the stock to a degree of which the unavoid-
able effect would be, to reduce the scale of prices to rates
much below those required to remunerate the farmers of the
United Kingdom, against which they could only struggle for
a time, and ultimately fall under a hopeless competition, with
the foreign grower ; in such case the inevitable consequence
promises to be that home production trust rapidly diminish,
to be followed by the ruin of the British farmer, and the
British public would be placed in a state of the most preca-
rious tenure, dependent for his supply of bread on the
growers of foreign corn !
Let us consider the probable results of such a state of
things. Our farmers thus pressed down to poverty, would
no longer be the important consumers they now are of British
manufactures, thus far the market for them would be di-
minished or lost ; but the manufacturer exults in the expec-
tation of foreign demand to be increased or created by our
consumption of foreign corn. Let us for a moment suppose
this to be the fact, would it not be only the substitution of
one vent or channel of consumption for another, in the most
favourable point of view, of the same extent, the borne cer-
tain, the foreign contingent and uncertain, but still only equal
in extent or amount, as they must be governed by the means
for purchase to be produoed by the same sources of consump-
tion. If this is correct, I ask, where, then, will the manu-
factures find the advantages they fondly flatter themselves
they are to reap from the change of system they are so anxi-
ous to effect—taking it for granted they are right in sup-
posing that the foreign corn grower would take payment from
them for their bread in their manufactures, as the home
grower now does, in place of requiring to be paid in cash,
which has hitherto been his invariable practice?
I venture to say to the manufacturer, do not delude and
deceive yourselves by
willthe
ph
oori
ee
ys ,
eof r
tchoen teieneuee t troy
,p et
hr seetv, e
Let
in requiring changes infatllsiee
rbe)
i 11 yt h e
end, opinion, s wp
roeualdd ,r iefi t daonpdt ed
dismay, as I ti•u st
throughoutthey
commu-
nity, from which they could not escape participating in—let;
them seek for the true cause of the distress they are now
suffering under, and apply the remedy to remove it, which,
I believe, rests with themselves alone, before it may be too