The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-07-10 00:00:00

POLITICAL MISCELLANY.
_._

Mr. John Bell, M.P. for Thirsk, has been declared of
unsound mind under a commission of lunacy. He has
been for some time unable to attend to his parliamentary
duties.

The only Lancashire members who voted in favour of
Mr. O'Connor's motion for the People's Charter were Mr.
Sharman Crawford, M.P. for Rochdale ; Mr. W. J. Fox,
M.P. for Oldham; and Sir Joshua Walmsley, M.P. for
Bolton.

Mr. Horsman will, on the 17th instant, move in the
House of Commons that an humble address be presented
to the Queen, praying her to take into-consideration the
unhappy condition of Ireland, with a view of devising
measures of relief.

THE QUARANTINE LAWS. —ln the House of Commons,
on Friday, Mr. Labouchere said the foreign secretary,
was in communication with foreign powers in order to
ascertain in what degree they were disposed to co-operate
with this country in abolishing the quarantine laws, and,
as soon as their answer had been received, the whole sub-
ject would be considered, and proper measures taken.
YANKEE RECIPROCITY.—The captain of an American
ship from a " down-East" port, which lately landed at
Belfast a cargo valued at fifteen thousand pounds, and
paid for in hard cash, boasted, previous to his departure on
his return voyage, that he had not expended here, on ac-
count of self, crew, or British goods for the States' mar-
ket, more than 30 dollars !
MR. DISRAELI'S MOTION.—In the minority of 156 in
favour of the motion for the appointment of a committee
to consider the state of the nation were, Sir P. • Egerton,
J. Tollemache, J. Bailey, J. Bailey, jun., Lord Brooke, E.
Grogan, J. C. Herries, Lord Mandeville, W. Miles, Sir
L. O'Brien, Lord Ossulst on, Lord Seaham, Hon. E. H.
Stanley, R. Spooner, Ald. Thompson, Bsc. In the ma-
jority of 296 were, E. Cardwell, Sir T. Birch, W. Brown,
A. Henry, J. W. Patten, J. Heywood, L. Heyworth, Sir
J. Walmsley, T. Thornely, J. Bright, R. Cobden, W.
Ewart, T. M. Gibson, W. Gladstone, Sir J. Graham, G.
Greenall, Lord R. Grosvenor, Earl Grosvenor, C. Hindley,
Sir J. Jervis, G. C. Legh, Earl of Lincoln, Col. Lindsay,
J. Llch, Sir R. Peel, F. Peel, G. Sanders, Sir F. Thesiger,
Lord Villiers, &c.
FsssAerrer donx."—ln the course of the debate on
Tuesday evening on Mr. O'Connor's motion, Mr. Muntz
avowed great satisfaction at what had just fallen from
Lord John Russell in reference to a further extension of
the suffrage, " especially (said Mr. M.) as his Lordship
had once expressed an opinion that the Reform Bill must
be final ;" a conclusion from which Lord John was under-
stood, by a significant sign, to dissent. " Why it was so
generally considered to be the case (added Mr. Muntz)
that the noble lord has been actually called Finality John."
This brought the Premier upon his legs. " I assure you
(said his lordship) I never used the word. It was a very
good nick-name ; but I give you my word I never said
anything of the kind." This little episode, as may be
supposed, afforded no little amusement to the house.
LONDON ELECTION.—The polling commenced on Tues-
day morning, at eight o'clock •, upon the first vote being
tendered for Baron Rothschild, Mr. Brown, the conser-
vative agent, expressed a wish to deliver to each voter on
behalf of the Baron, a protest, alleging incapacity on be-
half of that gentleman (for which various reasons were as-
signed) to sit in the house, if elected. The sheriffs, how-
ever, refused to permit the notices to be delivered ; but,
at a subsequent period of the morning, Mr. Brown pro-
duced the opinion of a high legal authority for the course
he proposed to pursue, and from that time the notices
were delivered to each elector who gave his vote for Baron
Rothschild. It was very evident, from the commence-
ment of the proceedings, that the friends of Lord John
Manners were not making any exertions, as they consi-
dered the votes given on the other side to be of no avail
hereafter. Close of the poll, Rothschild 6619, Manners
3104 ; majority 3515.
WHAT FINANCIAL REFORM MEANS.—" The Financial
Reform Association" is pursuing its course ; and ap-
proaching very fast to a plain and open attack on the
funds. Two meetings were held on Wednesday last, the
one at Hackney, the other in Marylebone. At the first
a Mr. Cassell (we take him to be an advertising grocer)
said :—" Owing to our enormous national debt every
working man was compelled to labour two days in the
week to support that burden. Let them unite in the pur-
chase of 40s. freeholds as the only means of ridding
themselves of the burden." In a similar meeting at
Hackney Sir W. Clay said, "The interest of the national
debt must be paid." On which cries were immediately
heard of " Sweep it off!" Thus things are working
rapidly round to the position predicted by us many
months ago. We have said again and again that the
" further measures," spoken of by Messrs. Cobden and
Co., meant the sponging out of the National Debt, but
that these leaders wanted courage to propound such a
plan. The people, however, begin to see and feel what
is really meant, and they intend to force the question on.
The revenue falls ' • the people are becoming more and
more pinched, and the moment will probably soon arrive
when the debt will become the chief point of attack.
THE SICILIAN INSURRECTION.—On Thursday, Fri-
day, and Saturday, the Central Criminal Court was occu-
pied with the trial of Prince Granatelli, Louis Scalia, and
John Moody, for an alleged infringement of the Foreign
Enlistment Act, in equipping and arming two English
steamers, as vessels of war, for an expedition against the
King of the two Sicilies. Another individual. Salvadore
di Amico, was included in the indictment, but he did not
surrender. In 1848 revolutionary proceedings took place
in Sicily, and in the early part of that year a Provisional
Government was established at Palermo, and the defen-
dants. Granatelli and Scalia, were appointed by that new
government to proceed to tats country in the capacity of
commissioners or envoys, and were received by the Bri-
tish Government in that capacity. It would seem that
the Provisional Government of Palermo were desirous to
create an armed force to act against the sovereign ; and
very soon after the arrival of these two defendants in this
country they entered into an agreement with the Penin-
sular and Oriental Steam Company for the purchase of
their vessels, called the Vectis and Bombay, for the sum
of £60,000 ; and in August, 1848, the agreement was
ratified by the government at Palermo, and the Vectis
was sent to Liverpool, where she was fitted out as a war
steamer, under the superintendence of the defendant
Moody, and she was eventually despatched to Palermo
without any interference by the authorities cf this coun-
try. The Bombay remained at Blackwell. Colonel
Aubrey, who had formerly been in the English service.
had been despatched to this country by the Provisional
Government at Palermo, with instructions to raise a body
of 1,200 men, and to embark them on hoard these steamers.
On Saturday the case was brought to a conclusion, The
jury acquitted all the prisoners. Amongst the witnesses
examined was Viscount Palmerston.
DECLINE IN THE VALUE OF OUR FOREIGN COMMERCE.
—I am indebted to the courtesy of the President of the
Board of Trade, for a return which has only just been
completed of the entire imports and exports during the
years 1847 and 1848. I find, from this return, that on
contrasting the much maligned year of 1848—the year of
continental convulsions—with the great years 1845 and
1147, there has been no diminution in the quantities of
goods exported. The official value of goods denotes their
quantity. The average official value of the exports of
1845 and 1846 was £133.000,000. The total value of the
exports in the year of the continental convulsions, was
£l34,9o4,ooo—nearly the same amount. But mark the
significant fact—the average of 1845 and 1846, in declared
value, was £59,500,000, but the declared value of 1848 was
only £53,000,005. That is a most important conseqnence,
full of instruction, and I recommend hon. gentlemen—
and especially the advocates of free trade—carefully to
consider that result, and, if they can, satisfactorily to ex-
plain it. We have it here upon the records of the Govern-
ment that the working classes of this country received, in
1848, £6,500,000 less than they obtained in 1845 and 1846
for the same quantity of goods exported. I do not believe
it is continental convulsion or railway investment, or
commercial speculation, or the Irish famine, that has
caused this decline in the exchangeable value of the Eng-
lish workman's labour. It is the hostile tariffs of foreign
nations which you have to encounter, which no policy of
yours has yet modified, and which the system you are
pursuing aggravates in their consequences. I have often
taken occasion to state the principles upon which I think
the theory of reciprocity in commerce depends ; but
hitherto I have done so with all the disadvantages
which, in an assembly like this, any one must endure who
appeals only to abstract reason. Now, however, we have
practical results before us—in the sufferings, unfortu-
nately of the people of this country, and in the decline of
our wealth—which illustrate that theory. D'lsraeli's
Speech.