The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-06-15 00:00:00

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TAO THE ELECTORS OF LIVID:0001.
'Gertn.EmaN,

rpHE declarations of her Majesty's Ministers have now
1 placed it beyond a doubt, that a Dissolution of Parlia-
ment is close at hand. On no other ground, indeed, do they
defend their present retention of office, than that the sense
of the people is with them, though that of their Representa-
tives is not, and that to that sense they are entitled to ap-
peal . _ _ _ _ - -- .

Whether the experience of defeat after defeat, in Election
yee after Election, in County, Town, and B rough, warrants
them in pretending to such an expectatio , seems more than
doubtful ; but there can be no doubt, at men, having a
proper sense of their responsibilit ~ s Ministers of the
Crown, for the peace and good gov r ment of the country,
would never, in the hope of recov ng a popularity which
their general principles and genera administration had for-
feited, have left questions so complicated and so exciting as
the Poor Laws and the Corn Laws, to be discussed and de-
cided, as best they might, under the fever of a general elec-
tion.

For my part, I am ready for the appeal, not resting my
claim upon your confidence, like her Majesty's Ministers, on
the discharge of my whole stewardship to

one point, but

my constituents and my country

With regard to the new POOR-LAW, IT IS NOT
FITTED for the MANUFACTURING AND COMMER-
CIAL DISTRICTS. HARSH IN ITS TONE AND
ASPECT EVERYWHERE, though, where administered
with consideration and tenderness for the poor, I am not
prepared to deny that it has conferred considerable advan-
tage on those districts in which the character and comforts
of the people were suffering under the growing substitution
of parochial relief for wages, in our northern districts, where
these abuses had not arisen, it is, I believe, an unmitigated
evil. In communities so situated, it is neither right nor
practicable to put in force the main principle of the new law,
and make the workhouse the test of destitution and the
chief instrument-of relief. In communities so fitted for self-
government and accustomed to it, and so approved in its ex-
ercise, it is not right that the proceedings of the local au-
thorities should be controlled by a distant and arbitrary au-

thority, actuated by a reference rather to some general and
impracticable principle, than to the circumstances and feel-
ings of the population. and to the occasions as they arise.
As to what is called FREE TRADE in general, no man
can doubt that it is the duty of every government to encou-
rage among nations THE FREEST POSSIBLE INTER-
CHANGE OF COMMODITIES, fettered with the light-
est duties that are consistent with raising the revenue requi-
site
for the service of the state, and only limited by consi-
derations of high political importance. OUR IMPORT
DUTIES REQUIRE REVISION : I believe much good
may be effected by it; with the changing condition and alter-
ation of our markets of supply and consumption, our Tariff
shonld be from time to time revised, and the requisite altera-
tions proposed; but they should be proposed at the proper
season ; political considerations, the bearing of these altera-
tions on our domestic interests and our distant possessions,
on our Shipping and our Colonies, should not be neglected;
they should not be proposed and withdrawn; they should
not be opposed on principle one year and proposed the next ;
they should not be proposed on principles which they do not
carry out, and which therefore bear with them the seeds of
further disturbance ; above all, if they affect great interests, if
they affect large classes, and the distribution of wealth and the
value of property, and the channels of industry throughout
the country, they should not be proposed till there is some
chance of a practical result, beyond that of moving the pas-
sions of class against class, and of man against man, by fal-
lacious statements and revolutionary declamation, and thus
unsettling the foundations of society.
With regard to the CORN-LAWS specifically, I have
only to repeat what I have said before in Parliament in
former years, that if the object were simply to promote a
regular trade in foreign corn, and to derive a certain revenue
from it, a fixed duty was indubitably the best method of
proceeding ; but that, as I believe that not to be the object, I
PREFER THE PRINCIPLE OF A GRADUATED
DUTY. WHICH MAKES THE TAX LIGHTER TO
THE CONSUMER, as the burden of price increases, until
with high prices the tax virtually disappears. I believe such
a system best secures the grower of corn in a country in
which the general standard of prices, of comforts, and of
wages is comparatively high, against constant and unequal
competition with countries in which prices, comforts, and
wages are at the lowest level ; where it best protects the
consumer against inordinate profits; and, as far as the na-
ture of the case and the uncertainty of the seasons will per-
mit, against great elevation or fluctuation of price in the first
necessary of life. But while I thus adhere to the principle
of the existing. law, I say again, as I have said in former
years in Parliament, that I believe the pivot-noint to be
placed too high, the present system of the averages to be ob-
jectionable, and the scale of duties to be too sudden in its
transitions.

If in my preference of a graduated to a fixed duty I am mis-
taken, I have at least the satisfaction of erring with my great
predecessor, MR. HUSKISSON, whose name is more often
quoted than his doctrines are understood, and who claimed
the principle of the sliding scale for his own; and, if in de-
siring that the agriculture of my own country should be in
some shape protected, I am mistaken. I have at least the
consolation that I err not only in the company of that great
man, but in that of many of the most eminent merchants of
our time, and in company with all the civilised countries of
the world, including Holland and the United States, with
the exception, I believe, of Tuscany alone.
But if in this point I am mistaken, or if in this point, as is
very possible, my opinion should not coincide with yours, if
I have been placed by my own conscientious conviction, in
points like these, in apparent opposition to important inte-
rests, the value of which I fully recognise, at least of this I
am confident, that no such difference of opinion will shake
that warm attachment to the Protestant altar and the Pro-
testant throne, to the principles of well-ordered liberty, and
earnest, though tolerant, religion, which has so long and so
peculiarly distinguished the English character and the En-
glish constitution in Church and State, and the maintenanee
of which has so long and so often recommended me to your
support.
To the lure of (to say the most of it) doubtful advantage,
in a much controverted point of public economy, you will not
sacrifice your abhorrence of unprincipled agitation, whether
set on foot for personal or party objects, whether on the
English or. Irish soil, you will not sacrifice your rooted mis-
trust of a government, weak, wavering, and unprincipled,
occupying no fixed position, holding up no settled standard,
in politics, in religion, or in commerce, inviting the unsettle-
ment of every question, and the disturbance of every interest,
by the example of concession after concession—of declared
opinions made for the sake of personal objects, or the pro-
longation of party influence.
You will look for the advancement of commerce, and the
restoration of interrupted prosperity, less to the effects of
sudden and contested changes, than to those of wise and
steady government, of an administration just and impartial
to all parties, not tampering with, or bargaining with, or
truckling to, any ; not exciting hopes only to disappoint them,
and to exasperate those whom they have misled and disap-
pointed ; at home, promoting order and security by encou-
raging the spread of religion and education on definite but
tolerant principles ; in finance, not allowing embarrassment
and deficiency to accumulate from year to year without a
remedy, nor leaving unsettled questions affecting, through
the state of the circulation,• the whole industry of the coun-
try ; abroad, watchful over the interests of trade and naviga-
tion, whether affected by the tariffs or dissentions of foreign
countries, and preserving peace, and confidence in peace, by
the timely settlement of disputed questions, and by a sagacious
provision for coming dangers. Such a Government you have
not now ; but such a Government I believe is now within
the power of the people of this country, if they do their duty
to themselves and to their children, to secure. Their Con-
servative representatives have done their duty ; the people
must do the rest. The electors of Liverpool, I know it from
experience, will not be wanting in the struggle.
With these feelings, this hope, this confidence, I offer my-
self, in conjunction with my able and valued fellow-labourer,
Mr. Cresswell, for your support at the coming election.

I am, Gentlemen,
Your obedient and faithful Serma,nt,
SANDON

Grosvenor-street, June 8, 1841

TO THE ELECTORS OF LIVERPOOL.

GENTLEMEN,
THE debate, which terminated this mornlng, and the di-
vision by which it was followed, have rendered it im-
perative in her Majesty's Ministers either to resign the Offices
which they have continued to hold, in violation of the Spirit
iof the Constitution, or to dissolve the rfiament without
delay. Judging them by their past con t, I conclude that
dissolution, and not resignation, will. their choice, and
lose no time in again soliciting your Suffrages. It seems
probable that her Majesty's Ministers, finding that their de-
feats in the House of Commons were becoming more frequent
and by increasing majorities, resolved, some time since, to
dissolve the Parliament; but knowing also Oat they enjoyed in
no higher degree the confidence of the People than of their
Representatives, the dissolution was postponed until, by the
proposal of certain measures which they call a Budget, but
never expected to carry, a feverish excitement could be raised
in the country, under the operation of which their past mis-
government might be forgotten, and their lost influence re-
gained. If this was not their motive for proposing these
measures, why has the consideration of the Poor Law been
postponed, and the motion respecting the Corn Law perse-
vered in ? I admit, that the former might have created an
inconvenient degree of excitement at the Elections. But are
not both these questions equally exciting and equally im-
portant? Is it not essential that both should be discussed
calmly? Can any satisfactory adjustment of either be pro-
duced by the violent and unreasoning hostility which it is
sought to raise in one class of the community against ano-
ther? .

For this purpose, the cry of class interests has been raised.
Some persons may suppose, that the protection given to
Agriculture is for the benefit of Landowners alone; but no-
thing can be more erroneous:-'-- How many interests are
bound up and inseparably united with those of the Land-
owner, the Farmer, and the Agricultural Labourer? How
many heavy burdens are at present borne by the Landowners,
which are essential to the welfare of our complicated state of
society, and which cannot be removed from him and imposed
upon the owners of any other description of property ? I can
hardly imagine anything more important to the well being of
the nation, than that it should be independent of all foreign-
ers for the necessaries of life ; and if that be so, is not the
encouragement of Agriculture by an adequate Protection,
equally a benefit to all classes of the community ? IF PRO-
TECTION IS TO BE GIVEN, surely PROTECTION
BY A GRADUATED SCALE (whether the one now in
existence or any other which the wisdom of Parliament may
determine upon) IS THE MOST RATIONAL AND THE
MOST BENEFICIAL : on the one hand, it affords the
greatest protection when prices are low, and it is most
needed; and, on the other hand, it imposes the lightest bur-
den when the people are least able to bear it.
Our colonists and our shipowners have also been assailed
as classes enjoying an undue degree of favour. • I cannot but
think that the welfare of OUR COLONIES AND OF
OUR MERCANTILE MARINE is of the HIGHEST
IMPORTANCE TO THE NATION, and that while the
protection of those who, on the faith of our existing laws,
have embarked large capitals in the Colonial Trade and in
Shipping is but an act of common justice, the encouragement
of others to extend that trade, to build ships, and to main-
tain a large body of British seamen, is an act of political
wisdom calculated to promote the interests, not of a class
only, but of the whole British empire.
Subject to these limitations, where protection is either a
simple act of national justice, or where it operates for the
benefit of the whole nation, I subscribe entirely to the
principle of Free Trade. But our national interests and the
state of society in this country are far too complex to admit
of the simple unregulated application of abstract principles..
On the subject of the POOR LAW I frankly admit,
that it may have had ahotewnedveenr7
mtoAcoyrrecßtEsommetjofc tube evils
(sometimesTHE toPRuEn--
E TOO LARGE—THE arising from the law,poasvvbEeßfosre
GadwmEinNistered.
TOO ABSOLUTE, HAVING AN
S resortE L Y
to PEO-
PLED the fPBe COMMIS-
SIONERSEReI NOi
n'l rgrEmDSeY;STITHREAEIMR
UNLIMITED POWER OF LEGISLATION BY
THEI RULES—and above all, THE SYSTEM IS IN-
results.
destitution without producing the
IN-
APPLICABLE TwOheLreAiltiGisE
imApNoDssibDleEtNo
mworkhousest
cr
uTel O
These are my opinions on these interesting questions,
which I have thought it my duty to declare, while I renew
my former assurances of inviolable attachment to those in-
stitutions in Church and State, which I know you hold most
dear. Believe me, your exertions in their defence are still
ed
needed : the attempt at the spoliation of the church has
don—the attempt to establish a
been postponed, not abandoned—the
scheme of secular without religious education was foiled by