The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-05-28 00:00:00

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roy lito fi4pif et p 4 Ai 4410Piti9 at too
i 49;, 4dit PrflAkatil may
Gwort tionast in the ii array a the trede, tia shipped
at less than two-thirds of that price, Such a state of
things cannot long continue, and if, in the course of
another year, the planters are not relieved, or, rather,
are not permitted to relieve themselves, the abandon-
ment of at least that portion of the West Indies—the
very richest and most productive of the whole—is
vitable. Many proprietors are already on the brink of
ruin, and now only continue their exertions in the hope of
better times. Arrangements can very easily be made by
which any ahuses to which this, like all human measures, is
liable, may be totally prevented. One precaution would suf--
fice—a law that should commit the whole process, from the
first invitation to emigrate down to the emigrant's comfort-
able settlement in the colony, to a special and responsible
public authority; and after they are once settled in their
future home, iere is no class of her Majesty's subjects
whose rights are more scrupulously defended from egression,
than the labouring population of the West Indies, in every
district of which there are stipendiary magistrates stationed,
for the sole purpose of preventing any act of tyranny or op-
pression to the coloured population. There is no part of her
Majesty's dominions where religious and moral instruction
is more accessible to the poor; none where there is a more
ample field for the labour of the industrious ; none where
the industry of at least the natives of the tropics is so libe-
rally rewarded. Everything seems conducive to the success
of this most desirable measure, and the philanthropists of
this country have only to throw the weight of their influence
into the scale of public opinion, to insure the removal of the
middle wall of partition which at present stems the stream of
immigration from flowing over a country thirsting for its
fertilizing influence

(To be continued.)

THE CORN LAWS

We copy the following letter from the Albion of this week,
as many of the facts and arguments advanced therein are not
only important, but will, we feel persuaded, if attended to,
be productive of any result but that which our contemporary
has so long and so strenuously endeavoured to arrive at.

LETTER V.
TO LAWRENCE HEYWORTH, ESQ.
SIR,—I had purposed, in this letter, to have held up to
your view the Quixote fallacy of what you are pleased to de-
signate "universal free trade" : but this, I find, must be
deferred to next week.
-1,4, now deal with your assertion as to the cruelty of the
You say, in your letter, that they (the corn laws)
CRUEL": and " dishonest", and that they produce
wide-spread poverty and destruction of human life." Now,
sir, what is here quoted is either true or false. I see, how-
ever, no reason for supposing it to be true, as the thing is
asserted only, not proved. No instance of cruelty, traceable
to the Corn-laws, is brought forward ; and there is reason,
therefore, to believe, that none could be produced. It is im-
possible to believe an unproved charge of cruelty. So
neither is any instance of the " destruction of human life"
brought forward. This we may also reasonably designate an
unfounded assertion. When a respectable and independent
gentleman, such as Lawrence Heyworth, Esq., makes such
assertions as these, he should not do so without proof; for
even His ipse dixit cannot supersede the necessity of facts.
It is not for me to show that the corn-laws are not chargea-
ble with cruelty. I shall not place myself in the absurd po-
sition of attempting to prove a negative ; it is for you, sir,
who make the affirmation, to substantiate it by fact, or, at
least, to attempt to do so ; and then, and not till then, will.
the assertion be entitled to refutation.
On no point have the corn law agitators laid more stress
than on that of the cruelty of the corn laws. Mr. Villiers
avers that they have " borne down the productive classes ;"
and you, Mr. Heyworth, assert they have caused " our
wretched operatives to pine away under the twofold evil of
dear bread and want of employment." Every circumstance
of destitution, of starvation, of suffering, and of death that
could at all be twisted into such a position as to pass off as
the result of the corn laws has been thus metamorphosed into
an argument against them.* But such Jesuitism can only
tell on the swinish multitude. Unthinking men may re-
ceive such assertions as well as authenticated facts, but none

corn laws

4104.
It now devolves on you, sir, to show that the corn laws,
by facts clearly traceable thereto, are cruel. In the mean-
time the assertion to that effect can only be treated as untrue
and contemptible.
I have not, however, done with the charge of cruelty. I
repel, as unfounded, such a charge, when applied to the corn-
laws ; but I beg most distinctly and unequivocally to retort
the charge upon you and the noted corn-law confederacy. I
charge on them the crime of cruelty. I do more. I bring
forward proof direct that the charge is well-founded. The
Leeds, and Manchester, and other mill-owners are now
principally referred to : they originated the repeal agitation,
and claim for themselves the merit of the philanthrophists.
They are not philanthrophists ; they are unworthy the name ;
and, if they would redress the wrongs of the labouring classes,
let their " charity begin at home." Examine one of the
children working in the factories of these philauthrophic
corn-law repeaters, and then say on whom the charge of
cruelty rests.