The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-09-10 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS,

We have again to say that we cannot insert advertisements
from London, unless they are forwarded to us by one of
our agents. The announcement of " The Daily Despatch"
cannot appear in the STANDARD unless transmitted
through the medium of some regular news-agent in
town.
The number of licensed victuallers in Liverpool was stated
in our last at 382 ; it should have been 1382.
One of our country subscribers asks us to enclose the
STANDARD in a stronger cover, and write the address on
the paper in addition to the usual one on the wrapper, and
tie a string around both for greater security. W. c should
be glad to follow our correspondent's advice it we had
only half-a-dozen papers to despatch ; but to send two or
three hundred in such a way as he recommends, with fre-
quently only two or three minutes for the operation,would
not only be inconvenient, but absolutely impracticable.
We can assure the fair authoress who has addressed us on
the subject, that her selection of a radical printer and
publisher will not, as she fears, have the slightest influence
on any remarks which we may submit to the public in no-
ticing her productions. We 'felt almost inclined to be in-
sulted by such an insinuation.
The " Fine Young English Gentleman" shall appear on
Tuesday.
The Speaker of the House of Commons is not elected by the
ministry, but by a majority of the members of the house.
The present speaker was first appointed in 1839, on the
elevation of Mr. Abercromby to the peerage, and whilst
the whigs were in power, Lord Melbourne having suc-
ceeded on the resignation of Sir Robert Peel, who was
driven from office by the Bedchamber Plot.

CIA) Llbtrpoai OtanDarb.

FRIDAY MORNING, SEPTEMBER 10, 1841

A London contemporary describes the. present mi-
nisterial party as probably the " strangest in moral
force" that ever appeared in a British Parliament. It
is almost superfluous to say that we concur altogether
in the observation ; and such strength is the more re-
markable from tile contrast in which it stands with that
of the exiled company, who were extremely deficient in
this particular commodity. Nobody ever spoke of time
moral force of the Whigs; it was a sort of thing upon
which they seemed to set Very little value—conceiving,
probably, that they could get on quite well enough
without it. People would only laugh to hear anybody
talk of the moral force of Lord Nielbourne, Lord Nor-
manby, Lord Palmerston, or of Daniel O'Connell,
(who, by the way, had more of it than any of the rest);

and what was wanting in the individual could not, of
course, be found in the aggregate. It was a great
blunder of. the party that they did not " assume the
virtue if they had it not." Lord Melbourne is a great
observer of men and things, and Lord John Russell is
unquestionably a clever man ; but it was a great mis-
take of theirs to suppose that they could get along, in
this most thinking country of ours, for any length of
time, without the smallest conceivable quantity of
" moral force" 'among their stowage. The want of it
destroyed them. All their cleverness, all their combi-
nations, all their many ingenious devices could not
compensate for such a deficiency; and they came to
the ground, never, never to rise more.
To acquire this moral force in all the fullness of its
efficacy, men should be what they appear to be ; but
the Whigs took no pains at all upon the subject. Men
may acquire a certain degree of moral force by affect-
ing to venerate and regard those institutions which are
especially appointed for the preservation of sacred
things, and by seeming to uphold principles and prac-
tices whiCh have a deep hold of the world, notwith-
standing that they reprove its errors and reproach its
vices; a certain degree of moral force is by this means
reflected on themselves irrespective of any prestige
which may belong, or may be wanting, to their own
private character. All this the Whigs rejected. It
was hard to tell what particular thing they reverenced.
Certainly the National Church—the first, the most sa-
cred, and most important of all our institutions, owes
them little on this score. If religion of any kind re-
ceived any honour from them, it wis not that religion
which the people of this country cold in estimation,
and what they did in this way consequently tended
much more to detract from, than to 'add to, any little
moral force they ever possessed. It was just the same
story with every other institution in the country; the
Gallios of the Whig ministerial party cared for none
of these things ; anything and everything was plainly
in the mart for auction ; only apply an adequate pres-
sure from without, and they would surrender every
fragment of all that Englishmen once were proud of—
yea every particle, old timbers, old bricks, and all, of
their ancient constitution. Such men could have no
moral force individually or collectively. The self-inte-
rested and unprincipled might laud and magnify
them ; a wretched rabble might cheer them; but the
judicious of every grade and order could only feel grief
at their doings, and heartily despise them.
The ministry of Sir Robert Peel succeeds, and it
comes to power with that double moral force of which
we have spoken—the moral force which is derived
from defending and upholding those things which
command the respect of mankind, and from weight of
personal character, or that additional influence which
men gain by being esteemed sincere, earnest, unaffect-
ed, and pure in their designs and actions. To have
such a ministry at the head of affairs is a subject which
we cannot contemplate without deep acknowledgments
of thankfulness, and offering to our readers our warmest
congratulations. Its influence will be felt in the re-
motest corner of the empire. It reaches toAts whilst
we write, because the accession of such men to power
inspires us with a confidence which' we could not
otherwise feel, that their actions will be right, and that
the affairs of the country will be administered wisely
and well in their hands.

That which is " moral force" on their part becomes
"confidence" in its operation upon others; and such
confidence is one of the most powerful agents in pro-
moting social happiness. People no longer perplexed
with fear of change, cease from the agitating pursuit
of party politics; they place trust in their rulers, and
without ceasing altogether to be observers of their
conduct, they enjoy repose from the conviction that
their affairs are in good hands. Confidence and repose
of this kind are favourable in the highest degree to
commerce, the arts, and peaceful industry in every
form. There is but one thing more which civil go-
vernment can do—one other effect which it can aim at
producing—and that is the religious enlightenment
and moral happiness of the people. We expect that
such an aim will be kept in view by the administration
of Sir Robert Peel, and that such an effect will be pro-
duced by it,
Sir Robert Peel comes in as a Conservative minis-
ter, and, as such, has nothing to do with Liberalism—
that thing which has to look for its religion—its political
creed—its everything. Ile must know well that this
country owes everything -to that pure faith which it
professes, or, rather, to that gracious dispensation of
divine Providence which attests the purity of the na-
tional worship by the signal prosperity and great ho-
nour to which it has permitted the people to attain ;
and therefore he will spare no pains to uphold and ex-
tend the National Church, and spread the faith and
practice taught by its ministers widely through the
land. The Whigs pretended a mighty zeal for the
welfare of the people ; but they did not show it in any
one way that could contribute to their moral elevation
or solid happiness. They ministered to their lust of
power, or their love of change; they indulged them
with a liberty of opinion, and a choice of instructors,
which amounted to licentiousness ; they abandoned the
flock to thieves and robbers, and sent out none to guide
or direct them ; they, in fact, did nothing for the peo-
ple which could subserve their moral interests ; on the
contrary, their influence was in quite an opposite di-
rection. A Conservative ministry cannot do so ;it
cannot remain neutral on such a subject ; to remain
neutral would be to betray its cause ; it would indeed
be treason to their own interests. We agree then with
our London contemporary in esteeming the present
ministerial party, as eminently strong in moral force,
and we add our own agreeable anticipation that such a
ministry will, for its, own sake, and consistently with
its known principles, go on to add to its strength in
every essential and honourable way, and cause the em-
pire to rejoice and prosper under its authority.

Who is to be our next Mayor? The scales are at
this moment nearly standing beam ; Liberalism trem-
bles in the balance, and so, of course, does Conserva-
t ism; a very trifling weight will settle the preponderance.
We have already shown that our next municipal elec-
tion may make the Council Conservative, without
necessarily giving us a Conservative Chief Magistrate;
because the retiring Aldermen have a right to vote in
this election before they are finally !Linea officio ; but
we have shown, at the same time, that the return of
twelve Conservative Councillors would dispose of the
Aldermen and their last retiring shot. The point
which we have to aim at, then, is the securing of this
round dozen—just a respectable jury ; and we cannot
apprehend that there will be any great difficulty about
it. At the last general election our candidates had a
majority in every ward save one, and the surplus
aggregate of votes recorded in their favour penetrated,
like a deep wound, into the very vitals of Whiggery ;
how can we suppose, then, that in the Council we
shall fail to obtain that trifling accession of strength
which we need to give us, next year, a Conservative
Mayor, and to make the Council out and out, and
altogether Conservative ? That a change of some sort
is most desirable, we call Alderman Evans, one of the
astutest of the present dominant party, as a witness.
The Alderman feels deeply, and laments bitterly, that
the present Corporation has little or no weight in the
community—that it is good for nothing, and that if it
were swept off to-morrow, scarcely any body would
miss it, or be at the trouble to inquire, when did it
die ? 'We grant that this is a blank, a blot, a sort of
hiatus maxime deflendus over our town, which ought to
be filled up, and which might be so, in a very ad-
vantageous way. But we and the Alderman differ in
our mode of cure : he demands for the sick body more
authority by law—more influence by act of parliament;
whereas, we only ask a little change in its constitution
—a removal of its rotten branches and unhealthy
members, and the restoration of a Conservative energy
to its vital functions. This would give it, what nothing
else can, a power within itself—something that would
render it inherently respectable and, consequently,
influential, and be of more essential use to it than all
the powers that any mere act of the legislature could
confer.

We have been speaking elsewhere of " moral force,"
and what we have there said is applicable in all respects
to our local government : it wants, we say, what Con-
servatism alone can give it—moral power and influ-
ence; and as the municipal electors will soon have an
opportunity of exercising their privileges, we have
only to remind them that our fate is in their hands.
You have seen how inefficient, how insignificant, how
absolutely contemptible government, or administration
of any sort is in Whig or Radical hands; that they

feel it as a hurthca themselves, and are painfully con-
scious of their deficiencies. Do, then, electors, we
say, relieve them of their municipal offices ; set them
at liberty from cares of state, and you will do them
and your fellow-townsmen, at the same time, an infinite
service.

Strangers have frequently remarked to us the im-
mense amount of demoralisation which presents itself
to view even in our most public streets ; and we find
it difficult to offer any apolog►y on the subject. Every
body is aware that there is a large Police force con-
stantly on duty through the town, i. e., doing nothing,
and each man helping his companion diligently at the
same laudable work : also that her Majesty's proclama-
tion against vice and immorality is duly read twice in
the year, at the commencement of each assizes ; and
also that Mr. Rushton, the Stipendiary Magistrate,
duly admonishes, as well as fines, all the disorderlies
that come before him in the course of his daily sittings
in the Police-court If and :yet, with all this, the town,
as we hear, presents to the eye of the stranger much
that offends, in the way we refer to, and is, in fact,
reproachable in this respect beyond other towns. Now,
is not this a disgrace to our local government? Where
is their " moral force," if they have any, whilst these
things exist in a degree so glaringly apparent and so
offensively visible to the eye of a visiter? Does the
Chief Magistrate, or the Council, assist in any degree
in carrying out the royal proclamation, whilst they
wink at these things, and take no pains to remove or
restrain exhibitions so extremely disgusting ? Why,
we might as well have no such authorities at All, for
any thing they do to keep such nuisances out of sight;
and when we refer to the outward demonstration, of
course we would be understood to complain of the still
more unpardonable laxity and liberalism which must
exist in a proportionate degree towards the resorts of
infamy, and the vices themselves which lead to the
exhibition.

Change, then, in its personal composition, we say
a local government which exerts no wholesome intlit
ence in the abatement of gross immorality--whicl
shows no paternal care for the moral well-being of thi
lower orders—and which knows no better creed to ac
upon in the education or government of the people
in religion or politics, than indiscriminate licence.

Every man who feels the most ordinary degree of
regard for the locality in which he dwells, ought to
feel a deep interest in this subject—we care not whether
he be Whig or Tory for this purpose. If he be any-
thing of a fair or moderate Whig, we would seriously
put it to him that liberals have been tried long enough
in municipal administration, and that they have failed
most miserably; and that he ought, therefore, as a
good citizen, and a good townsman, to assist in turn-
ing them out of a position for which they have no
talent—no fitness. The party in power do themselves
acknowledge their own littleness, and total .want of
consideration, and all the town echoes their voice—the
whole world responds to the truth told them by their
internal monitor. They are, unquestionably, a most
miserable crew—ludicrously incapable, and wholly un-
profitabel to the community in any one way. A
moderate Whig would necessarily wish for a change,
and our expectation therefore is, that at the next elec-
tion all moderate Whigs will vote for conservative
councillors.

But there is a further reason which onght to influ-
ence him, and it is this, that since our new municipal
corporation was formed, it has ever been in the hands
of one party, and of one only; now, before we con-
demn the act of parliament altogether, which has
given us so inefficient a local government, another
party ought to have a trial ; this. is only fair towards
your own act; wherefore on this ground we would
expect that a reasonable Whig would vote for conser-
vative candidates. Let us ascertain what could be
done under the act with a conservative council. We
never admired that piece of legislation much, but we
should like much to see it worked conservatively. We
have frequently made our acknowledgments to the
parliamentary reform bill ; we should be OM to turn
so far Whig, as to say so much fin• their municipal

We alluded last week to the preparations making,
and the attempts likely to he made, for the purpose of
swamping the friends of order in the registries, with a
view principally to the municipal elections ; and we
repeat that, on this head, the Conservatives cannot be
too much upon their guard, judging from what we
know the Liberal party, as they call themselves, have
done here, and, we are informed, they do in other
places. In Dublin they have lately carried on their
fraudulent proceedings with such a shameless defiance
of all decency, as, happily for the Conservative cause,
is likely to re-act with unexpected mischief on their
own heads. The Municipal Act has not yet been put
in force in Ireland, and the process of carrying it into
effect, is now for the first time in motion. To the
churchwardens of the several parishes was entrusted
the important duty of preparing the burgess rolls,
which, when completed, they were required to return
to the Lord Lieutenant ; but conceive what must have
been the handywork of the Papist party, when the
churchwardens of the several parishes of Dublin de-
clared, that such were the alterations, interlineattons,
and, of course, falsifications made in the rating-books
of the Poor Law Guardians (from which the lists were
to be taken), that they could not perform the task as-
signed them in any satisfactory manner ! Lord For-
tescue, however, peremptorily commanded that they
should make their returns—threatening them with im-
mediate law proceedings and heavy penalties if they
disobeyed. By these means returns were extracted
from them, but they were made under protest, and we
perceive that petitions have been presented to both
houses of parliament representing the entire transac-
tion, and complaining of such outrageous proceedings.
Earl de Grey arrives in Dublin this day, and it is con-
fidently expected that seeing it to be impossible to do
justice to Protestant Ireland, if the Dublin municipal
election were to go on upon pretended burgess roll lists,
made up from forged or falsified entries purposely
inserted in order to give a preponderance to the Radi-
cals., his lordship will, as he has the power, in his
capacity of Lord Lieutenant, postpone the election, or,
in other words, continue the old Corporation for
another year. Thus the vaulting ambition of the
O'Connellites would have over-leapt itself—their frau-
dulent rapacity defeat its own ends. We refer to the
business to show our readers what the party are
capable of doing to attain their objects.

Will the Conservatives of Liverpool, then, we ask
submit to having a municipal Council chosen by sue}
persons, or by persons who fraternise with them, an
not only sympathise with their views, but would prac-
tise the same devices to carry them out if they might i
If not, let them be wise and alert in time.

AN ANALYSIS OF OUR EXPORTS OF COTTON
GOODS, VIEWED IN RELATION TO THE PRO-
POSED FREE-TRADE MEASURES OF LORD
MELBOURNE'S GOVERNMENT.—No. 11.

It is urged that if we take the timber and the corn of Eu-
ropean nations, who now only purchase from us our cotton
yarns, they will then be enabled to purchase more largely
our perfect manufactures. It is urged also that the native
consumer, paying less for his food, will be able fully to main-
tain his present consumption of manufactured goods. Ma-
nifestly, however, the latter assumption is dependent upon
the realization of the former. The British labourer, when
agricultural pursuits become unproductive and the demand
for his labour in those pursuits is decreased, cannot afford
to consume at all, unless increased employment is found,
sufficlent to compensate him for the want of that which has
been destroyed ; and that increased employment, we have
seen, cannot be afforded by any increase in our trade. with
those countries, unless that increase is in finished fabrics,
into which labour largely enters. Have we. then, any sure
ground for the supposition that the countries of Northern
Europe, from which our supplies of corn and timber must
be principally derived, will become, through the influence of
the proposed abandonment of our present protective policy,
large consumers of our manufactured cotton cloths ?

A very brief examination of the condition and the habits
of the people of these countries, and of their climate as well,
will suflice to shew that no measures of ours can ever make
them consumers of our lighter and more expensive fabrics.
Our coarse, heavy materials might, indeed, by possibility,
be brought into consumption ; but those goods which afford
the greatest amount of manufacturing employment fer their
production we can scarcely hope to induce the agricultural
labourers of Russia or Poland, of Norway, Denmark or
Sweden, to exchange for their present covering of coarse
woollen, even if we could succeed in so far raising their con-
dition as to enable them to make the exchange. Perhaps
some impulse might be given to our goods trade with the
markets of Germany; but it must be borne in mind that the
people of that country are not themselves likely to become
large exporters of grain to England, and that whatever in-

crease of trade we create from thence by our proposed policy
can only be to the extent to which the traders of the German
cities are benefitted by the prosperity which we have con-
ferred upon the landowners and agricultural labourers of the
neighbouring states. And even whilst deriving, ourselves, a
present advantage from the increased demand in the German
markets for those fabrics, in which their manufacturers are
as yet unable to compete with us, it is much to be doubted
whether we shall not be so far stimulating the demand for
the coarser fabrics of their own manufacture, for the con-
sumption of those agricultural labourers, as to enable them
eventually to rival us in materials requiring more advanced
skill in their manufacture.

The entire arguments in favour of free trade in corn and
timber proceed upon the supposition that the foreigner is
driven, by our restrictions, to manufacture for his own con-
sumption; and that upon a change of policy on our part he
will be induced to abandon entirely or to neglect the pursuit
in question. But is such a supposition, we ask, at all war-
ranted? Have we any bona fide assurance that the tariffs of
the European States will be reduced in our favour? Vire
have no such assurance from any foreign government; and
the assumption that the people themselves of those countries
will voluntarily abandon their present manufactures to be-
come dependent upon us solely for their clothing, is mani-
festly improbable. There is no possible system of corn-laws
which can ensure to the countrie,s of Europe the regular sup-
plying of our markets with corn ; and surely it would be an
insane policy, on the part either of the people or the govern-
ments of those countries, to give up an already flourishing
manufacturing systeM—one which, at the least, is capable of
meeting the wants of the mass of their population—for the
prospect of a precarious supply from Great Britain. if we
are blind enough to allow ourselves to .become dependant
upon them for a supply of food, which they may not always
have it in their power to afford us, they are not likely to
throw themselves upon us for a supply of clothing., which
they may not always have it in their power to purchase
from us.

The foreigner who now takes from us the yarn which he
requires for the supply of his own looms, we may rest as-
sured, is too well acquainted with the value, to him, of a
prosperous manufacture to be lightly tempted into abandon-
ing its pursuit ; and, when he asks us to take his surplus
corn, is not disposed to push the principle of reciprocity so
far as our manufacturers would have us imagine. The con-
cession from us,- which is sought for, we have no doubt
would be gratefully accepted ; and we have as little doubt
that, so far from inducing the foreigner to abandon that sys-
tem of manufactures which for the last 25 years he has been
so sedulously engaged in erecting, it will be used by him only
as a means of increasing his powers of manufacturing. We
give prosperity to the foreign corn and timber grower, not,
we are assured, to enable him to extend the growth of the
manufactures of his own country ; and the only result,
therefore, which we shall derive from opening to him our
markets, will be an increase of the least valuable portion a
our export trade. The manufacture of cotton yarn will re-
ceive an impulse, whiCh will be co-extensive with the in-
creased prosperity which we shall have conferred upon the
foreign manufacturer ; but here the direct effect of our
change of policy must stop. So far as the great corn and
timber-producing countries are concerned, the remaining
branches of our cotton exports will be little affected ; and
any increase which the free-trade measures of Lord Mel-
bourne and his colleagues are to afford to these branches,
can only be looked for from the cheapening of food at home,
and the means thus afforded to the manufacturer o6cheapen-
ing production, by reducing the price of labour to the bread
standard.

Before proceeding to this part of the subject, however, let
us examine the nature of the question between the Brazilian
and the West Indian cultivator, the latter of whom we are
urged, upon the principles of free trade, to sacrifice to the
former. Our exports of cotton goods to Brazil are large—
amounting last year, as the table before us states, to
£2,525,037—whi15t those to Cuba, and the other fiireign
West Indian colonies which are included in this question,
were £401,382 ; and we are assured that, without a reduc-
tion of our discriminating duties upon sugar and other
Brazilian produce, we shall be excluded, upon the expiration
of the present commercial treaty, from the markets of that
country, or at the least be driven to enter them upon less
favourable terms than at present. We will not now insist
upon the fact that no such dreadful deprivation is before us ;
that, by the market which Great Britain affords for its cot-
ton, coffee, and other produce, she is in a position'to ensure
a renewal of that treaty upon favourable terms. We will put
aside, too, the question of slavery entirely ; and, viewing the
trade with Brazil upon its own merits, we are prepared to
maintain that the proposed reduction of the discriminating
duties upon foreign and British colonial sugars would not be
productive of that substantial benefit to our manufacturing
community which is insisted upon by its advocates ; that—
independent of the loathing entertained by the people of this
country towards that traffic in human flesh, which such a
measure would so fearfully stimulate—the export trade to
our own free colonies, which would be destroyed by it, is
infinitely more valuable to us as a manufacturing community
than thlt which we shall gain.

In amount the present cotton exports of Great Britian to
her sugar-producing colonies are fully equal to her exports to
Brazil. Last year, we find frOinthe document before quoted,
our West Indian islands took from us manufactured cotton
goods to the amount of £1,234,687 ; and when we know that
it was a year of short crops, and consider, besides, the mise-
rably inefficient supply of labour under which those colonies
are suffering, we may safely look forward to a large increase
of consumption in the ordinary course of events. When we
add, however, to this amount the exports to the Mauritius—
and such a portion• of the present amount of four millions
and upwards of our exports of cotton goods to the .East
Indies as may fairly be said to be at stake upon the decision
of the sugar dutieS—we shall have, at the least, a nominal
equality of exports of cotton goods taken by British sugar-
producing colonies and by the foreign slave-owning states.
Upon the principle, however, which we have before laid
down, with respect to the comparative value of our export
trade to different markets, we believe that the value to Great
Britain, as a manufacturing country. of the trade to her own
colonies is, although nominally and apparently equal, far
greater in reality than that which is attempted to be weighed
in the scale against it, inasmuch as it affords employment to
a greater quantity of manufacturing labour. To both these
great markets we export finished goods alone; but to our
West India colonies even at present these goods are of a
much better class—more remunerative to the British manu-
facturer and more nearly approaching in description to the
fabrics of home consumption—than the markets of the
Brazils can take from us : and as the free population of the
West Indies advance in the scale of civilization and pros-
perity, and imbibe more and snore a taste for the habits Of
European life, we may anticipate from those colonies a stilt
larger and more valuable demand. The trade with Brazil is
almost exclusively a trade in those articles which are suited
for the consumption of a slave population ; and we believe
that there can scarcely be a doubt as to the superior value,
to the trader or the manufacturer, of the consumption of a
free population, when compared with that of one in which the
slave class largely predominates. With the effect of such a
measure as the reduction of the sugar duties upon the
condition of our home population, we have in this enquiry
nothing to do. That measure might temporarily reduce the
cost of sugar to the English consumer; but we are quite sa-
tisfied that it would never promote largely, by its action upon
our export trade, the increased employment required by the
manufacturing labourer.