The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-10-12 00:00:00

EIR Eiberpoot &tanZiarTi.

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TUESDAY MORNING, OCT. 12, 1847.

THE publication of the official documents relating
to trade for the first eight months of the present
year, has thrown some light upon the nature and
causes of the difficulties under which the country
is just now labouring. Hitherto our free trade
journalists, driven to resort to all manner of sub-
terfuges, in order to account for a state of things
which, had their own theories been correct, ought
never to have existed, have obstinately persisted in
tracing our position to the effect of undue invest-
ments in railways. The commerce of the country,
we have been told, has been placed in a state of
abeyance by the ,demand for money to meet railway
calls. Merchants have been unable to procure
discounts for commercial purposes, because they
were met in the discount and loan market by boards
of directors, seeking to borrow, in accordance with
the powers of their various acts of parliament. We
have been, in short, burying our disposable floating
capital in cuttings and embankments, sleepers and
rails, from which, it is argued, that it must be years
before we can get back again either principal or
interest, and have not left ourselves the means of
conducting the ordinary business of the country.
There might be some truth in this view of things
if it could be shown that, for want of capital to
purchase raw materials, our manufacturing interests
were at a stand-still; that, for the same reason,
production was in arrear of the demand for our
goods ; that we had not stocks of such goods
in abundance to pay for our increased exports,
or if our home consumption of the produce
of the national industry had materially fallen
off. Nothing of this kind, however, can be shewn.
Our stocks of goods have accumulated so rapidly
that we have had to place the artizan upon short
time, or to refuse him employment altogether; and
the only active demand which we have has been
for some time, and continues to be, our Home de-
mand. We are expending large sums it is true in
Railway Works, probably to_ the inconvenience of
those individuals and classes amongst the commu-
nity, who are called upon to provide funds to meet
this expenditure ; but the expenditure is im-
mediately reproductive. It is repaid to the nation
at large in the increased demand for Timber, for
iron, for coals, for implements, for food, and cloth-
ing, the bulk of which are provided for us by
native industry. We have also been expending
largely increased sums in the purchase of food,
and even of luxuries, from foreign nations, to set
against which we have no such increased demand
for the products of native industry, but on the
contrary, we have had to pay for our excess of im-
ports in gold, thus, by the operation of our Bank-
ing system, abstracting a large portion of the cir-
culating medium of the country. A few items
from the returns just published will show the opera-
tion of the drain. In the first place we shall take
the exports of the eight corresponding months of
1845, 1846, and 1847, which were as follows :

1845
1846
1847
We thus imported in 1847, £1,098,797 less than
in 1845, and about £BOO,OOO more than in 1846.
That the imports of the last two years however did
not consist of those articles, which chiefly employ
the industry of our population is proved by the
diminution which has taken place in our import of
raw materials during the same period. We im-
ported in the years—

1845 1846 1847
Cotton Wool, cwts. 5,390,286 3,446,984 3,007,369
Sheep's Wool, lbs. 46,131,778 44,329,466 36,103,557

Flax, cwts
814,138 499,770 533,685
Hemp, cwts. 480,295 431,320 319,023
Raw Silk, lbs.
The falling off shown here in our two main staples,
cotton and sheep's wool, is immense ; and yet the
supply has been more than our export trade has
been capable of taking off, as we know from the
fact of our mills, and every branch of our cotton
and woollen business having been for the last 18
months in a state of partial susnens4m,...., ..A,

railiort Trade and the depression of our manufactur-
ing industry, let us see to what extent we have
been encouraging the foreiguer to consume, by
taking from him an increased supply of food. In
the first place we turn to the return for the imports
of Foreign Cattle, which we. find to have been as
follows in the eight months of 1842 (when they
were first admitted at reduced rates,) 1844, 1846,
and 1847 :

1842. 1844. 1846. 1847.
Oxen and cows 799 1,979 19,428 41,295
Sheep and lambs
A similar increase will be found to have taken
place in the following leading articles of imported
food :

Wheat, qrs.
Oats, qrs

1845. 1846. 1847.
254,093 1,095,663 1,572,847
359,542 505,393 1,083,390

WheatnealorFlour, 264,239 2,177,639 4,528,994
cwts
Indian Corn, qrs = 46,759 421,041 2,941,900
Indian Meal, cwt - 96,162 1,167,756

Cocoa, lbs
Rum, gals. 2,813,172 2,428.695 3,304,983
Brandy, gals.
Tea, lbs. 30,502,657 37,514,283 41,768,689
Sugar, cwts.
Butter, cwts. 160,731 148,007 207,938
Cheese, cwts.
Thus, in the two years of 1846-7, up to the sth
September in each, we imported breadstuffs alone
to the following enormous amount, viz., wheat,
2,668,510 quarters; oats, 1,588,783 quarters; flour
or wheat-meal, 6,706,633 cwts. ; Indian corn,
3,363,341 quarters ; and Indian meal, 1,263,918
cwts. ; the bulk of which must of course be consi-
dered as an excess over our ordinary imports,
caused by the partial failure of our home crops.
The large increase, however, in our imports of
cocoa, rum, brandy, tea, sugar, &c., is to be ac-
counted for, mainly, by the remission of the duties
upon some of the articles, and perhaps by the cir-
cumstance of some of our working classes being
driven to find other substitutes for their ordinary
food. It is said, indeed, that the population em-
ployed in railways have largely contributed to in-
crease consumption ; but we have, to counter-
balance such increase, the diminished means of our
manufacturing community. In addition to the ar-
ticles enumerated above, we have an increase gene-
rally in the importations of articles of luxury ; and
all this is going on without the slightest sign of
any immediate increase of our exports in re-pay-
ment. In fact, we are, by our amended tariff, di-

rectly encouraging an improvident expenditure
with foreigners; and we challenge any free trade
authority to show us how we can thus go on gra-
dually increasing that expenditure without be-
coming, as a nation, poorer.
-. It is not at all an encouraging sign that, whilst
we have been thus increasing our consumption of
foreign food, the national revenue from the excise
and taxes has largely decreased in the quarter just
ended. Such a result shows us that our increased
imports do not denote increased internal prosperity
or commercial activity, but only an increased taste
'on the part of our population for those articles
which we do not consume, and the purchase of
which is rapidly abstracting our bullion from the
country.

IT is no doubt a fact, that there are to be found
hundreds of persons, upon whom the cails, at pre-
sent being made for the carrying out of railway
undertakings, produce feelings which are anything
but pleasurable. It is painful enough to have to
draw out capital from profitable use in the ordinary
channels of business, or to borrow money at exor-
bitant interest, to pay investments, which seem to
become of less value the more you have sunk in
them; but it is still more painful to be in the po-
sition of some parties, who have the liabilities
banging over them for calls upon shares which they
have long ago ceased to hold, and with which they
have been flattering themselves that they had
finally disconnected themselves upon very favour-
able terms.

Awkward, however, as is the position of the
latter parties referred to, we cannot altogether
agree with them in the propriety and justice of the
course which they suggest should be adopted for
their relief. A case has just come before us, in
which it is proposed to dissolve a company—the
Liverpool, Manchester, and Newcastle Railway
Company—for whose, line an act of Parliament has
been obtained, and the merits and usefulness of
which have always been considered far above those
of the bulk of the projects which two years ago
were so rife. A meeting of the Manchester share-
holders. in the line in question, was held in that
town on Friday last, convened by circular, the party
moving in the affair being a Mr. Henry Rawson, a
sharebroker ; and the principal reasons which we
find urged by him are, first, that, whereas the stock
is only worth five or six shillings per share in the
market, the directors have in hand from 255. to
30s. per share ; and secondly, that the parties who
have purchased, and are in the actual possession of
such shares, cannot be induced to come forward
and register. Mr. Rawson, the convener of the
meeting, acknowledged that he was in the position
of an original holder, responsible for, calls; and
that having sold, he was not released from the
liability which he had incurred, the parties who had
purchased refusing to place themselves under such
liability; and he urged, with a most tender regard
to his own individual convenience, that, under such
circumstances, the best plan would be to abandon
the undertaking altogether, and to divide the un-
expended funds in hand.

There are a few considerations which Mr. Raw-
son and his friends seem to have overlooked.
They forget altogether that they are incorporated
under an Act of Parliament to carry out the line in
question. They have made a direct contract with
the Country, to which Parliament is an attesting
party. What a mockery it would be if such a con-
tract could be permitted to be broken, merely be-
cause the parties who have entered into it find that
they can pocket a few shillings more by so doing
than by submitting to take the fair market price
for their property ! Again, how absurd to com-
plain that parties who have purchased will not
come in and register ! Sharebrokers, such as Mr.
Rawson and the gentlemen who composed the
majority of the meeting, ought to know better
than to sell stock, without bargaining for a proper
transfer. Gentlemen ought to remember too that,
if they have sold, they have most likely pocketed
a little sum in the shape of premium, which, if
handed back again to those parties who have paid
it, might probably coax them into registration; and
moreover that there are many parties, some original
holders and others purchasers only, who are quite
in earnest and bent upon proceeding with the work
to which they have put their hand. Besides, we
may remind Mr. Rawson and his friends that it is
not strictly correct on their part to deal with pro-
perty which they acknowledge no longer belongs to
them.

We should not have troubled ourselves to notice
this rather immodest meeting, were it not that it
appears to us quite as unreasonable and uncalled
for as it is immodest. The Directors of the Com-
pany in question are not pressing their shareholders,
or pushing forward the undertaking in the face of
the existing difficulties in the money market. On
the contrary they have pledged themselves to pro-
ceed cautiously ; and to avoid as far as is in their
power incurring the necessity of making an early
call. The line itself is no bubble project ; and we
cannot see why it should be shelved and the coun-
try deprived for years to come of the accommoda-
tion which it is calculated to afford, merely because
a few individuals have miscalculated their means,
or otherwise acted imprudently.

Mr. Richard Cobden is at length on his way
home to the country which he has favoured by con-
ferring upon it the blessings of free trade. After
having been feted by the merchants of nearly every
city of Europe, handed round for inspection like
some curious specimen of the animal or the vege-
table creation, listened to as the promulgator of
a new system of philosophy, and lauded to his face
until one wonders that the man's features have not
attained the permanent red of one of his own
brightest prints, he is coming amongst us, no
doubt, to be met with an ovation, similar to
that with which he has been received by those for
the productions of whose industry he has procured
admission into the British market, to the exclusion
of similar productions of the native artizan. In
what condition will the great philosopher find the
duped community upon whose prosperity he has
been experimenting ?
We can imagine him entering his beloved borough
of Stockport, without any preliminary announce-
ment, to enable his old friends and fuglemen to
get up a demonstration, and put the best side of
things outside. Two out of every three chimneys
are guiltless altogether of emitting smokei.and
few pale emaciated beings are to be seen, huddled
up in their rags, standing listlessly at
,street corners,
or stealing from the pawnshop, where they have
just been leaving their last valuable, to their almost
desolate homes. There is hunger in every eye you
meet ; and the stillness of the air, and the bright-
ness of the sky above, have an unnatural effect.
There are no heavy lorries rumbling along the
pavement, no dyers' or packers' vans obstructing
the thoroughfares; no clang of machinery to break
the terrible dullness of the scene. Over almost
the whole borough, indeed, might be written up, to
meet the eyes of the returning philosopher. " to
be let unfurnished—key at the Union Workhouse."

What must be the sensations of the honourable
member, when he finds in this dreary and desolate
condition, not Stockport alone,- but nearly every
other seat of the national industry, we cannot even
guess, We might tell what would be the feelings
of shame which would assail ordinary men, on
witnessing such a lamentable falsification of the
hopes and expectations which they had raised. But
Mr. Cobden is not by any means an ordinary man.
No misgivings of his own pre-eminent wisdom
seem to strike his mind. His confidence has not
deserted him, but seems to increase as he approaches
nearer to the sight and sound of the sufferings of
his fellow-countrymen.
On the 4th instant the honourable gentleman
was entertained by a large body of the mercantile
people of the city of Hamburgh, when he took the
opportunity of delivering the impressions made
upon him, with respect to Free Trade, by his four-
teen months' tour over the Continent :
" He had met men of all parties—free traders as well
as monopolists—men of enlarged views, and men of nar-
row views ; but he was happy to state that amongst the
, enlightened ones be had found no difference of opinion
about free trade. Almost all the governments were op-
posed to protection. He then drew a striking picture of
the salutary influence of free trade, by comparing the sea-
ports of Leghorn and Barcelona with each other. He
went home with the firm conviction that free trade would
make the tour of the world. Tie was not so sanguine as
to believe it could be done in a year or two. It had taken
seven years in England, led to an expense of £400,000,
and they had distributed 120 tons' weight of tracts during
that period ; but the cause must triumph, because it was
the cause of justice and humanity."
We have not the shadow of a doubt that he has
found this wonderful unanimity amongst foreigners
in favor of free trade with Great Britain. The
agriculturists of the north of Europe and the Me-
diterranean will doubtless be delighted to pour into
the British markets as much of their grain as we
are willing to pay for. The protected manufac-
turers of Germany and Russia, upon whose ad-
vanced state of proficiency Mr. Cobden expressed
himself lately in such enthusiastic terms, are equally
delighted to be permitted to compete with our own
artizan in the British markets; but we have yet
to be pointed out to us any one " Government "
which is " opposed to protection," unless Mr.
Cobden means protection to the British artizan.
The main question, however, is not now with
respect to the opinions of the foreigner upon the
subject of Free Trade, but what are those which he
.will find amongst practical men at home. Mr.
Cobden's nostrum has failed to bring prosperity to
any class or any interest in Great Britain or her
dependencies. After a year of Free Trade the
commerce and industry of the country are steeped
in ruin and suffering. No doubt he can explain
all this very satisfactorily. We have mis-managed
his measure, most probably ; and he will be pre-
pared to set us right, and guide the vessel of the
nation into smooth waters once more. One thing,
however, we must impress upon him to avoid,—he
must not ask us to wait for the better days which
are in store for us, until free trade " makes the
tour of the continent," and the common sense of
other nations is smothered beneath the weight of
another hundred-and-twenty tons of tracts, and
the annoyance of a six or seven years' agitation,
which were so effectual in deluding the statesmen
and the people of this kingdom. We cannot wait
for so tedious an operation,