The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-12-18 00:00:00

POLITICAL MISCELLANY.

It is reported that a protectionist amendment will be
moved upon the address.
A well informed London paper says that government
has decided on abandoning Canada as a British colony.

Mr. Shelley has retired from the contest, and Lord
Alexander Gordon Lennox, third son of the Duke of
Richmond, is, therefore, likely to walk over unopposed
for the borough of Shoreham.
DEMONSTRATION AGAINST FREE TRADE.—The requi-
sition to the high sheriff for a county meeting to petition
the Queen and both Houses of Parliament to restore pro-
tection to native industry, has received 7500 signatures.
This will shew how universal is the feeling against free
trade. The meeting has been fixed for the 21st of De-
cember.—Exeter Gazette. _

vv
The• Times calls the Protectionist activity a "furor,"
or ".unaccountable phenomena." The counties are re-
presented as having lost their senses ; they ought to be
considered, rather, as having come to their senses. Alison,
the historian, is assailed, for his Philippic of " Free Trade
at its Zenith,"—which put the Times out of breath.
"THE STRAW IS MOVING."—It appears that Lord
Portman, whose connection with the Cabinet is sufficiently
notorious, met (some say by appointment) a number of
the leading tenant-farmers, who have been drawn to Lon-
don by the agricultural exhibition of the past week—that
his lordship intimated, in terms which could not be mis-
understood, that he was prepared to support in the House
of Lords a proposition for a fixed duty of Bs. per quarter,
or of Is. per bushel on foreign wheat. Nay, it ;s alleged
that Lord Portman promised to urge upon Her Majesty's
Government (we all know what this means) the adoption
of such an impost upon foreign grain, if the agriculturists
of the country would agree to, and agitate for, this
amount of protection, as a final settlement of the question.
Let us wind up with the following quotation from the
Court Circular of Thursday :—" Lord Portman had an
interview with Lord John Russell, yesterday, at his
official residence in Downing-street! !" Verily " the
straw is moving." _ _

POLICY OF THE PEACE PARTY.—In truth, the peace
congresses which now amuse the world, and give an op-
portunity for clever but chimerical and ignorant men to
declaim upon the speedy advent of a political millenium,
are nothing more than an effort, on the part of the free-
trade party, to escape from the consequence of their own
measures. Mr. Cobden and the free-traders of England
now see as clearly as any body, that cheap prices and a
large revenue, either to individuals or nations, cannot by
possibility co-exist ; that the £100,000,000 promised us
from the abolition of the corn-laws have vanished into
thin air • and that the reduction of the income of the
whole classes of society will be so considerable, that it is
quite impossible the national expenditure can be main-
tained. As the touching of the dividends is not for a mo-
ment to be thought of—as that would be bringing the
tempest back with a vengeance on the moneyed class who
evoked it—his only resource, to make our expenditure
square with our reduced income, is in disbanding the sol-
diers, instituting a national guard, and selling our stores
and ships of war. He is quite serious in that ' • and, like
all other fanatics, he is not in the slightest degree in-
fluenced by the decisive refutation of his principles, which
the universal breaking out of hostilities, and arming of
tha world, in consequence of the French Revolution of
1848, and the momentary triumph of liberal principles,
has afforded. He is perfectly aware that if industry was
protected, and we had a currency equal to the wants and
necessities of the nation, we might, with our extended po-
pulation, raise £lOO 000,000 a-year, with more ease than
we now do fifty millions, and thus secure the independence
of the country, and bid defiance to all our enemies. But
that would lower the value of money in the hands of the
great capitalists, and would amount to an admission that
he had been wrong ; and, rather than risk that, he is con-
tent to prostrate the national defences, and hand us over,
unarmed, to the tender mercies of the Chartists and Re-
peelers at home, and the Red Republicans or Cossacks
abroad.—Blackwood.

THE ASSIZES

CROWN COURT.-TUESDAY

John Nelson, alias John Clough, 27, was sentenced to
fourteen years' transportation for having been at large at
Manchester before the expiration of a term of ten years
for which he had been. transported.
Robert Dawson, 29, James Burke, 18, Mary Ann
Jones, 18, and Thomas Mason, 35, were charged with
having entered the dwelling-house of Theophilus Prit-
chard, Vine-street, Manchester, and stolen seven yards of
plaid, two shawls, a handkerchief, and other drapery
articles. The jury returned a verdict of guilty against all
the prisoners, except Mary Ann Jones whom they found
guilty of receiving stolen goods. Previous convictions
against Burke and Jones were proved. Dawson, also had
been previously convicted of felony. Mr. Justice Wight-
man sentenced the whole of the prisoners to transporta-
tion for seven years.

George Leigh, 26, pleaded guilty to having, by means
of a forgery, at Manchester, obtained 18 yards of cloth.
He was recommended by the prosecutor to mercy. Sen-
tence deferred.

Benjamin Anderson, 33, also pleaded guilty to having
at Manchester, forged an order for the delivery of two
pairs of compasses. Sentence deferred.
James Smith, 19, was sentenced to seven years' trans-
portation, for having, with two other persons, at Man-
chester, violently assaulted Elizabeth Motherill, and
robbed her of an umbrella. A previous conviction was
proved.
John Gillman, 18, was sentenced to transportation for
seven years, for having, at Liverpool, entered the dwell-
ing-house of Isaac Brunt, and stolen a dress piece,
a vest, two handkerchiefs, a cloak, and other arti-
cles. The prisoner pleaded that he was very drunk at the
time of the burglary, and that he had found the articles
lying on the flags. A previous conviction of felony was
also proved in this case.
George Carr, 25, was sentenced to nine months' im-
prisonment, and hard labour, for having, at Liverpool,
stabbed and wounded Robert Flynn, with intent to do
him some grievous bodily harm. The jury, after a short
deliberation, returned a verdict of guilty of an assault,
but not guilty of felony.
Ann M'Donald, an interesting-looking girl, seventeen
years of age, for having, at Liverpool, feloniously cut and
wounded Mary Ann Philips, with intent to do her some
grievous bodily harm. The prisoner called two witnesses,
both prostitutes, to prove an alibi. The jury returned a
verdict of guilty of assault. Sentence, to be imprisoned
and kept to hard labour for twelve months.
Mary Leonard, 17, for having, at Liverpool, feloniously
stabbed James Nolan, with intent to do him some griev-
ous bodily harm. Guilty of common assault. Sentence,
to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for six months.