The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-06-19 00:00:00

sures for the Consolidation and Amendment of the
Bankruptcy Laws, and for the Administration of
the Australian Colonies. Most of these bills are of
a practical character, and will require ample time
for rigid examination of their provisions; and one
or two—that, for instance, which proposes to pro-
vide a constitution for Australia—are of momentous
political importance. To these, of course the dis-
cussion of the budget has to be added ; and a few
more bills may be mooted by private members be-
fore the close of the session. We must allow of
time, moreover, for Irish debates; - for the im-
promptu skirmishing of parties ; and we may per-
haps have one or two regular field days in both
houses.

Is it at all likely, we ask, that one-half of
this mass of legislative business can be satisfactorily
got through within the next two months ? It is
not ; and yet we confess that we cannot see a
remedy ror that loss of legislatorial time, which
annually creates such remanets. Small members
will talk; and, unfortunately, are afflicted with an
ambition, not only to babble on all imaginable pre-
texts and subjects, but to make set speeches.
There we have wits and bottled-up jokes, which
must be let off; honourable gentlemen. anxious to
be saved the necessity of fighting, by calling upon
other honourable gentlemen to explain ; ingenious
finders of mares' nests, and other trespassers upon
the time of the house, and the space of the re-
porters. How such bores are to be put down, in
order that the real business of legislation may go
on, except by the adoption cf a plan which would
not be generally palatable to the public, we cannot
well see. Many of the bills now before the house
could be satisfactorily arranged by a committee of
half a dozen members, in half an hour, and much
opportunity for mere talk saved. Practical mea-
sures, involving no party questions, are peculiarly
susceptible of this mode of treatment. Perhaps,
also, in the house itself, the French practice of
speaking from the tribune might be resorted to
with advantage. Honourable gentlemen of a certain
class, who occasionally pour out their unreported
dribble from back seats, would perhaps hesitate to
put themselves prominently before the house,
unless they had really something to say. Such an
advantage taken of the modesty of hon. members
would be a cruelty no doubt; but it is plain that
unless something is speedily done, legislation will
be brought to a dead lock.

THE law officers of the crown in Ireland have
been most unfortunate in their prosecutions for
political offences. In England we managed the
business without any tnistake. We had no break-
ing down of indictments; no mistakes in jury
panels ; and no attempts on the part of the mis-
guided men, who were placed upon their trials, to
sneak away., by a sidewind, or a legal coup de main
from the consequences which they had risked by
their conduct. The Attorney-General of England
went about his business with professional propriety;
and the convicted submitted to their fate with be-
coming manliness. But in Ireland all has been
blundering on the one side, and wriggling and
special pleading on the other. An eel, or a soaped
pig, is not more slippery than an Irish patriot of
the modern school. A single twist; and he slips
out of the noose, in which you thought you had
him as fast as legal subtlety could bind him.
A few weeks ago the Irish law officers were com-
pelled to give up the case of Mr. Charles Gavan
Duffy as a hopeless one. They were tired with
continual attempts which led only to continual and
disgraceful failures. But at least—and we presume
the reflection was a consoling one—Mr. O'Brien
and his fellow-patriots had been secured, and were
in their hands, after exhausting, as was imagined,
every effort after escape, or procrastination. No-
thing remained but to carry out such a measure of
punishment as was befitting the heinous crime of
which they had been convicted. But, here again,
a legal blunder was committed. Government re-
solved to commute the sentence of death passed
upon them to transportation ; and they were upon
the point of removal from Richmond Bridewell to
the deck of a transport vessel, when their amiable
intentions were frustrated by a notice from the pri-
soners' solicitors. The penalty laid down by the
act, under which they were tried, was death; and
her Majesty's pardon having been given, on the
sentence being commuted, they contend that they
are now entitled to be set free. " Hang, draw, and
quarter us, they say all, or release us ! You dare
not, however, do the former, for we have her Ma-
jesty's gracious pardon !" A further delay and
further litigation is therefore unavoidable; and how
many more blunders that further litigation may in-
volve it is not possible to predicate. _ _ _

Under this new and disgraceful defeat the ex-
Chancellor, Lord Campbell, has just come to the
resfue of her Majesty's Irish law advisers. A bill
has been brought in, passed through the House of
Lords in one sitting, and was sent down to the
Commons on Friday night, which is to legalize the
punishment of treason by transportation, and to
have an ex post facto operation upon Smith O'Brien
and his companions. Of course we can have no
sympathy with these men ; but it does appear to
us nevertheless that the proceeding to which minis-
ters have had recourse is a most unconstitutional
one, and damaging to those feelings of respect,
which all parties ought to be enabled to entertain
for the majesty and the impartial administration of
the law. Imagine such a proceeding adopted by a
Tory government; and who would have denounced
it more vehemently than the present Premier and
his colleagues ? We should have had Lord John
rushing to Guildhall, boiling over with patriotic
indignation • Richard Shiel threatening another
Penenden Heath ; and Joseph Parkes engaged to
march a hundred thousand or two of the button-
makers of Birmingham to march upon London,
and storm the Treasury, or Buckingham Palace.
No invectives and no epithets would have been
severe enough to launch against the authors of
such an outrage upon the liberty of the subject.
But, alas ! Whig statesmen are but small minded
men at any time; and conscience and principle sit
as lightly upon them, when weighed against the
charms of office and official pay, as the thistle's
down upon a whirlwind.

We were perhaps a little in error in our last
publication in attributing the whole sum of the
disaster, experienced in the winding up of the
affairs of Messrs. Cruickshank, Melville and Com-
pany, to the effect of Free Trade. The operation
of our Currency Laws had certainly a large share
in its production. But we cannot allow the Man-
chester Guardian to ride off by the aid of a false
statement of the case. Our contemporary com-
mences :

" In the course of some remarks on this subject, the
Liverpool Standard of yesterday cites the case of Messrs.
Cruickshank. Melville, and Co., merchants, !of London,
who stopped payment in the great crash of 1847, as a
proof of the rt.hous consequences of free trade, to which,
and not to the imprudent dealings of the house itself, the
failure is ascribed. As this is one of a class of cases very
frequently referred to by protectionist newspapers, we
propose briefly to examine how far the assumption of the
Standard is correct, and how far free trade is chargeable
with the inability of Messrs. Cruickshank and Co. to meet
their engagements in 1847."

Now it is not true, in the first place, that the
house in question " stopped payment in the great
crash of 1847. They suspended their mercantile
operations, with a view to retiring from business,
in 1845; and their balance sheet at that time
slimed an estimated surplus of £36,000, a respect-
able sum to retire upon. The deficiency, which
ultimately accrued, was caused by the deterioration
of the value of the assets during the period between
their retirement, in 1845, and the 19th December,
1848, when their balance sheet, under the fiat of
bankruptcy, was made up, the Sugar Duties Bill,
which so disastrously affected all West India pro-
perty, having passed in the meantime. The "great
crash of 1847" had, of course, its influence in caus-
ing a loss on the realization of their estates in the
colonies, and other property; and creating bad
debts to the amount of £68,359, shewn in their
schedule. The loss on their West Indian Estates
was £90,535 ; and we shewed in the article com-
mented upon by the Guardian that the value of six
estates in the West Indies, which previously to the
agitation of that measure was £146,000, fell, sub-
sequently to its passing, to £27,500. If the Guar-
dian can show us any other description of non-
speculative, or tangible property, which has sus-
tained the same depreciation, in the same interval,
we may perhaps acquit Free Trade of having had
anything to do with the matter.
We might pass over the Guardian's remarks
upon what he calls the " dangerous system of com-
mercial gambling" carried on by this unfortunate
house; a system which, he says, "would only have
been carried on when undue facilities for raising
money was in existence." He adds, by the bye,
"the wonder is, not that the house finally sue-

cumbed, but that it could have stood for a twelve-
month." It is not shewn that the house ever
succumbed at all ; and we have the fact in proof
that a partner of the firm carried on a branch of
the business after 1845, and upon its then untainted
credit. Hundreds of commercial firms have carried
on an equally extended business, with no greater
capital than that possessed by Messrs. Cruickshank
and Co., and never been accused of " commercial
gambling." But what does our contemporary mean
by the " undue facilities for raising money" which
were then "in existence ?" The same facilities are
in existence at the present moment. Money, the
property of bankers in our own town, has recently
been advanced on call to a London discounting
house at two per cent. At the time when Messrs.
Cruickshank were realizing their property, money
was worth from twelve and a half to fifteen per
cent. Here we have at once the clue to commer-
cial gambling, and subsequent " heavy crashes."
We could enter heartily into the Guardian's horror
of " commercial gambling," if he would aid us in
putting a stop to those " undue facilities for raising
money," by which it is caused.

THE news by the Caledonia steam-ship, arrived
yesterday morning, after an excellent passage, from
Boston, is not of great interest, politically or other-
wise. The business season was nearly over. She
brings, however, a fair amount of orders for British
manufactures and produce, though not so consi-
derable as may be anticipated by the next steamer
from New York, the bulk of the southern orders
being kept back for the New York line. The
weather had become very seasonable, and was
exercising a beneficial influence upon the growing
crop of cotton, the frost occupying less attention.
Exchange upon England was at 109.

THE closing debate in the House of Lords, upon
the Navigation Laws Repeal Bill, contains some
very striking features ; and is probably the most
interesting which has taken place upon the ques-
tion. The Speech of Lord Ellenborough in parti-
cular, and that portion of it especially which is
addressed to the shipping interest, pointing out to
them the nature of the efforts which must be made
by themselves to sustain them in their future un-
protected position, is well worth the attentive
perusal of that body. Many of his suggestions,
too, as to the measure of relief with which the
legislature ought to follow up the abolition of pro-
tection, are most timely and judicious; but we are
afraid that these will fall *upon deaf ears. Her
Majesty's present government deals,. in their com-
mercial policy, with sweeping changes only—
measures of demolition. They can r either recon-
struct nor strengthen any portion of the social
fabric. Let them attempt a step towards any mea-
sure, which will afford to British industry fair play
in its severe competition with the foreigner ; and
forthwith their power to legislate at all will fall
away from them. Say that it is proposed to repeal
the duties upon timber, and other articles, used in
the construction and navigation of ships ; and the
Chancellor of the Exchequer himself will plead a
deficient revenue. Provide for the improvement
of the position and morale of the British captains
and seamen; for a proper registration of British
tonnage, or for any other of the practical measures
suggested by his lordship; and objectors and
cavillers will step forth on every side, from Wapping
and the forecastle, to Westminster and Downing-
street. His lordship evidently was impressed with
a conviction of this fact; and such conviction
doubtless added to the deep feelings of alarm and
disgust, with which he viewed the whole measure,
and closed one of the most able and states-
man-like speeches of the session.
" He (Lord Ellenborouz,h) would not, under present
circumstances, further trouble their lordships. He con-
fessed he felt most deeply with regard to this measure.
We inherited the dominion of the seas. We inherited it
from men who did not shrink from difficulties, having be-
fore them that great object—from men who did not think
that a higher rate of freight was too high a price to pay
for the supremacy of the ocean, for the security of their
country, and for the high place it held among the nations
of the world. But the authors of this measure were men
who would sell their birth-right for a mess of pottage,'
and who acted upon principles more suited to the diggings
of California than to a British legislature. (Cheers.) He
dismissed this bill with great disgust for the principles
and feelings upon which it appeared to be founded. He
dismissed it at the same time with a profound apprehen-
sion of its consequences, which, let the shipowners do
what they might—let the Government do what they might
—must, he conscientiously believed, impair the mercan-
tile marine of this country, and in so doing affect the se-
curity of the empire at large." (Renewed applause.)
The ministerial tone, throughout the debate, was
apologetic and feeble ;—we may add, at times, shuf-
fling and disingenuous. Earl Granville, with refe-
rence to a charge made by the protectionists, that the
bill had been carried by the votes of some members of
their lordships' house, who were not satisfied of the
soundness of its principle, and afraid, by rejecting
it, of bringing on a ministerial crisis, " begged to
say that he was not himself aware of any peers who
bad been influenced by feelings such as the noble
lord had described." The Marquis of Lansdowne
echoed the protestation; and added :

" The opinions of that house were to be collected from
the votes of the house, and from nothing else ; and if their
lordships should be prepared at any time to go into a
scrutiny of the motives which had led to the opinions ex-
pressed by those votes, there was no degree of personality
—(hear, hear,)—there was no degree of misrepresenta-
tion—there was no degree of interference with the sacred
right of individual opinion, that might not be brought
into action, or to which their lordships would not expose
themselves, by such a practice ;—(hear)—the effect of
which would be to divert the attention of the house from
those arguments by which they were bound to be governed
in giving their decision to the consideration of matters
wholly irrelevant to the immediate subject of debate."
We do not believe that there are half a dozen men
in her Majesty's dominions, who can lay their
hands upon their hearts, and say that, not only did
some of their Lordships vote, whilst holding opi-
nions adverse to the bill, but that influence the
most strenuous and the most unconstitutional was
used to coerce, or to seduce, them to this course.
Was not even the last resort of the Crown—the
swamping of their Lordships' House—openly
mooted, and suggested with almost official autho-
rity, by the advocates of the measure ? Had we
not noble Lords brought home by express from
their official duties at foreign courts to secure its
passing,—men who had never heard a sentence of
the arguments for or against its wisdom,—and can
we say, under such circumstances, that the votes of
the House are the only proper index to the private
opinions of their Lordships ! The whole country
says, unequivocally, "No," to this question ; and
the ministerial supporters—every brawling Radical
and Republican in the land—laugh as they read
the assertion, and prophecy as the result of the
timidity and truckling which has been displayed in
the course of this measure, one of the most severe
blows which could have been dealt against the
influence of that Branch of the Legislature, to
which we have been accustomed to look up as to
our palladium in seasons of danger to the Consti-
tution, and aggression against the liberties of the
people.
The most remarkable feature of the debate, how-
ever, was the amendment proposed by the Bishop
of Oxford, (Dr. Wilberforce,) proposing to with-
hold the advantages conferred by the Bill upon
foreigners, from the Brazilians, on account of their
practice of the slave trade. His Lordship remarked :

" That one part of this measure seemed distinctly to
touch upon moral considerations of the most important
kind, and therefore came directly within the sphere of
those who occupied the benches on which he himself sat.
And if any one on those benches were desirous of taking
any step in regard to that important point, their lordships
would agree that the duty must naturally devolve on him,
to whom by the closest tics and as it were by hereditary
transmission the subject was intrusted. He thought he
could in a very few words establish, that if they allowed
this bill to pass without introducing the clause he was
about to propose, they would directly give a great stimu-
lus to the African slave-trade, and would indirectly de-
stroy the effect of this nation's protest against the exis-
tence of that trade—while they would run the further risk
of mixing up this country in its maritime concerns
directly with that accursed traffic they had been so
anxious to demolish. Those who from the beginning
had advocated the abolition of the slave-trade had regarded
it as a moral and religious question. It was the moral
sense of the nation which appealed to and constrained the
Legislature to abolish that trade. When this country
protested at the Congress of Vienna against the slave-
trade, she took the ground that it was plainly repugnant
to the principles of humanity and universal morality.
When she undertook the clientship of Africa, she consi-
dered that the only reparation she could make to the
people she bad injured was to use her influence and
wealth and strength to put down that trade. Until the
unhappy year 1846 it was on this ground upon which
alone questions touching the slave trade were handled
and based by the British legislature."

Perfectly true, and worthy of a son of the vene-
rable Wilberforce, and of an English Protestant
Bishop. Would that the whole of the Right
Rev. Bench recognised the fact that there are
questions involving "moral considerations" which
" come directly within" their Lordships sphere !