The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-04-10 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We regret that we cannot find room for the letter of " A
Member of St. Jude's." Our correspondents generally
must exercise a little forbearance with us until the Assizes
are brought to a close, when we hope to be able to bring
up arrears. They must not construe the omission of their
favours, under existing circumstances, as a slight towards
them.

CIA' Um:pool .otanbarb.

FRIDAY MORNING, APRIL 10, 1840.

We have received our files of the Guiana Chronicle
to the 10th February, and of the Berhice Advertiser to
the 6th of February, both inclusive. We have also
been favoured with copies of the Royal Gazette to the
sth of February. The contents of these papers are
highly important; but we regret that we are compelled
to defer our extracts until our next publication.

The following is an extract of a private letter with
which we have been favoured :—" I have been down
on the east coast, but I am sorry to say that it is almost
abandoned. The Negroes are doing just as they like :
in fact, they are getting so independent, that unless
immigration is allowed, the colony must be ruined. The
crop last year is about one-third of what it used to be
formerly. Some estates cannot pay their expenses."
This description is not less true than melancholy.
We learn from the Guiana Royal Gazette that the
Court of Policy had equalised the taxes of Berbice
with those of Demerara and Essequibo. This is :a
boon which cannot fail to produce great satisfaction
among the Berbiceans, who have hitherto been pressed
with a much greater burden of taxation than their
neighbours. They are now placed upon a footing of
equality with the inhabitants of the other counties.
In our next publication we shall give insertion to
several important extracts ou the subject of immigra-
tion into British Guiana and the West India islands.

We have received our files of the Jamaica Royal
Gazette to the 27th of February, and of the Jamaica
Standard to the 22d of February, both inclusive. We
rejoice to find that these papers have commenced a
salutary agitation on the subject of immigration into
the West Indies, and that they have acknowledged, in
suitable terms, the obligations under which those colo-
nies are placed by the advocacy of their interests by
the British press. We cordially join them in the hope
that public meetings will be forthwith held in each
colony for the purpose of urging forward a scheme so
pregnant with the greatest benefit to the colonists, as
well as to the mother country; and we trust that the
day is not far distant when each of the Legislative
Assemblies will join in a powerful appeal to the go-
vernment at home on this important subject.
We have no space to-day for any extended extracts
from the papers before us : but we shall, in subse-
quent numbers, lay before our readers some of the
very valuable documents which they contain.
The subject of the equalisation of the duties on
sugar has naturally engaged a considerable degree of
attention in Jamaica. Petitions against the proposed
measure have been forwarded to this country from the
respective parishes in the island. On this topic the
Grenada Free Press has put forth some very sensible
observations, which we have transferred to our co-
lumns, and to which we beg the earnest attention of
our readers. The Jamaica Standard has also some
very powerful remarks on the same subject, which we
subjoin :

" The threatened equalisation of the sugar-duties, upon
which some stir is now making in these colonies, is a mea-
sure which‘has not unfrequently been deprecated in this
paper, and assuredly calls for the united endeavours of all
parties,
to prevent, if possible, any such scheme being car-
ried into effect. For this purpose, we observe, the colonists
of Trinidad have already, on their peculiar behalf, prepared
the drafts of a petition to both houses of parliament, show-
ing forth not only the impolicy to Great Britain herself, but
the almost certain ruin to her colonial possessions, of ad-
mitting the introduction of foreign and slave-grown sugars
into her markets, on the same terms as have hitherto been
extended only to the former. The truth of this, no reason-
able man, who knows any thing at all of the subject, can
doubt. It is morally and physically impossible, we assert,
for these colonies, shattered as they now are in all their agri-
cultural concerns, by the ill-managed emancipation of their
labourers, to compete for one moment with the variety of
markets which would thereby be formed on the continent
and elsewhere, for the supply of British trade and speculation
in this important article. The commercial treaties of the
British nation with slave-holding as well as other countries,
it is not to be supposed would be long allowed to lie dormant,
were the present restrictions upon their sugar-trade wiped
away ; and we should soon find the English market the recep-
tacle for sugars of every clime, from those of the Brazil on the
one hand, to China or Siam on the other. Nor is it else
than a perfect mockery—a deception to say, as some of the
equalization advocates do, that the benefits of this measure
are only to be extended to countries where slavery is not re-
cognised by law. Well has it been said by the Trinidad pe-
titioners, that such distinction is impracticable. For, putting
aside the treaties already existing with many of these coun-
tries, and which the Brazil Cabinet would fund it rather in-
convenient to disturb, there is this palpable difficulty in the
way—that even in their own colonial possessions of the East,
where they may be supposed to retain some power of sur-
veillance, the quantity of sugar smuggled from Slave States,

~#

Into their several ports, and therefrom shipped as the produces 1
of free labour, is known and proved to be immense ; and yet ,
no steps have been, or can effectually be taken, to prevent it.
With other countries possessing the same opportunities, and
freed from the present restrictions, 'the sugars of the British
West Indies, we advisedly say, would at once and for ever be
shut out from the only mart where they could effect a sale.
The encouragement to foreign sugars, by the withdrawal of
the protecting duties, and the immense quantities which
would then flow in, necessarily glutting the markets, would
reduce the price of that article to an ebb at which its cultiva-
tion in these colonies must inevitably cease to be profitable.
consequently, ruin—unmitigated and universal ruin must
ensue. For where the staple produce of a country suddenly
ceases, especially one situated like Jamaica, there is no time,
no capital, no enterprise, no opportunity even, to attempt
diverting her resourses into other channels ;—a few may lin-
ger on, who have not energy enough to carry them elsewhere ;
—but, we warn the country—its agricultural and commercial
prosperity will be gone for ever ! Surely, under these seri-
ously important circumstances, it behoves every man to unite
heart and hand in praying the Brigish legislature to beware
how they heap coals of fire, not only upon our, but their own
heads, by thus entertaining, even for one moment, a measure
so replete with mischief and desolation to their West Indian
possepions. Let them remember, moreover, lest selfish con-
siderations should have greater weight—the lasting obloquy
which would thereby attach to their name, for having thus
fatally struck on the head every further hope of emanicipation
' to the slaves of other countries, by the warning which will
have heeu sufficiently afforded them here.
" But, say these popular advocates of this measure : If the
colonies are no longer able to supply our markets with the
necessary quantity of sugar, and therefore it is absolutely
necessary to look elsewhere for it." Admirable presump-
tion! And so, it is now found out for the first time, that
the colonies have really fallen off in their exports of sugar,
notwithstanding the oft-reiterated assertions both in parlia-
ment and out of it, as well in the public prints as in public
speeches—that the emancipation of the negroes in these
colonies, and its attendant evils, had not deteriorated pro-
perty, and had not injured the planters ! What have they
to say for themselves—thus convicted even by their own
lips of the most foul and long-persisted in iniquity, of having
knowingly and wilfully perverted truth, and asserted false-
hoods, so long as they answered a particular purpose :
while they now, with other motives,,, equally culpable,
admit that they have been liars, that they may there-
upon hinge the plea of dealing that last and finishing
stroke to our existence ! We may search the annals of
public crime from end to end, but we must search in vain to
find an instance of greater turpitude, or more unmitigated
villany than this !—Yes, reader, it is too true ;—by arts and
interferences,slanderings and persecutions, they have managed
to reduce the exportations of this island alone, upwards of
20,000 hogsheads, and every other colony in proportion, so
that, as appears by the latest prices current for the city of
London, as published in our last, the arrivals in that port
alone in one year have been reduced to the enormous extent
of nearly 60,000 hogsheads, or upwards of eighty-nine mil-
lions of pounds—and because of this deficiency, these very
persons who are the cause of all, are now the first to cry out,
and to demand, in consequence, the admission of other sugars
on any terms, and at any sacrifice ! We trust, however,
there is still sufficient honour in the British nation, to pr•e•
vent any such gross act of injustice and oppression."
We are sorry to learn from the Jamaica Standard,
that incendiarism is becoming exceedingly prevalent in
the island. This is a feature of fearful import to the
prosperity of the colony, and one that strongly argues
the necessity of an active and well-organised police,
for the protection of life and property.
The Governor was making a tour through the
island, and was every where received with the greatest
enthusiasm. Most of the addresses presented to him
complain of the depressed state of agriculture. These
complaints elicited from Sir Charles Metcalfe distinct
assurances of his determination to do all in his power
to remedy existing grievances, and to promote the
general prosperity of the island. •

Fhe ministry of Lord Melbourne must be overturned
at once if England wishes to preserve her present mo-
narchical form of government or to secure the happi-
ness and prosperity of her people. The conservatives
of England must no longer be contented to wage
against it a war of resistance merely. The enemy
must, not only be kept at bay, but crushed, as we would

crush a reptile in our path. The fangs of the serpent
must not only be drawn, but joint by joint of his loath-
some form must be struck off, and the slime of his
trail no longer be allowed to pollute the sod.
" Delenda est Carthago !" was the warning voice
which at morning and evening saluted the ears of the
Roman Consul. " The ministry must be destroyed"

should be now the watchword of the conservative party
and the friends of constitutional liberty throughout
the kingdom. Let us no longer be deluded by the
thought that it is 'powerless or contemptible, or that the
government of the country is substantially in the
hands of Sir Robert Peel and his supporters. -Let us
no longer be told that the infamy which it is hourly
accumulating in its truckling and dishonest course will
ultimately overwhelm it amidst a storm of public exe-
cration. We admit all this. We know that, directly,
the administration of Lord Melbourne can effect no
great injury—can inflict nu " heavy blows" upon any
portion of the constitution; but, indirectly, this is far
from being the case. Not an hour is added to its
loathsome existence in which some bulwark of our ve-
nerated institutions is not weakened, or some cherished
object of our national pride defiled ! The axe may not
openly be laid to the roots of the tree, but the poison-
breathing plant is allowed to entwine amongst its
branches and blight its vegetation. The hand of the
destroyer may not be allowed to invade openly the walls
of that hallowed pile whose every stone has been ce-
mented with the blood of martyrs; but the stream of
impurity and infidelity is suffered to enter at its portals, and
the feet of the scorner to trample upon its green graves.
Yes : the ministry of Lord Melbourne must be de-
stroyed at all hazards and at any sacrifice. We must
impress again and again that truth upon the attention
of the people of England until the spirit which ani-
mated the hearts and nerved the arms of their fathers
shall be aroused, and the "accursed thing" driven

forth to hide its loathsome form in kindred darkness. If
we wish that the monarchy shall be preserved, which
that ministry is hourly bringing into disrepute; if we
wish that our national honour should be preserved,
which that ministry is hourly bringing into contempt;
if we wish that the peace of Europe shall be maintained,
which that ministry is hourly endangering; if we wish
that our commerce should flourish, which that minis-
try is hourly plunging into more hopeless difficulty ; if

we wish that a loyal yeomanry should still exist as the
object of our pride in peace and our trust in war; that
a race of English gentlemen should still be preserved
to rally round the throne in times of danger and of
difficulty ; that a proud nobility, the descendants of
the chivalry which raised the banner of St. George
upon the fields of Crecy and of Agincourt, should still
continue to interpose the shield of their unbending will
against the encroachments of mob tyranny and mock
liberalism ; we must take our stand now, and meet,
with a bold front and resolved hearts, the tide of de-
mocracy which that imbecile and degraded administra-
tion is directing against all that is good and all that is
great throughout the land.
We do not exaggerate the danger which hangs over
the destinies of our country. We are neither timid
men nor madmen. We have never advanced a posi-
tion which we are not prepared to defend. We have
never advised a course of action in which we were not
prepared to join. We assert that the continued exist-
ence of the present ministry is pregnant with danger
to the safety of our monarchical form of government.
Let us examine that position.
Our gracious Queen ascended the throne of her an-
cestors amidst the acclamations of her people. Eng-
land, Scotland, and Ireland with one voice and one
heart poured out before her the expression of their
allowed a n d
to eternalre
remain
in
sympathy and devotion, and the grateful spirit of an
admiring people rose up to Heaven in a prayer for her
temporalen
happiness.eiieartsHoafs
tbtehapteope
feelingl
beof
England ? We grieve to
say it has not. The name of
our beloved monarch has been dragged
from the hearts
of her subjects and prostituted
to the vile purposes of
a vile faction. The popularity
of England's Queen has
been used as a weapon of offence •
against the liberties
of her subjects, and the power of her prerogative di-
rected against the security of those institutions •
which
she has sworn to defend and preserve. Young and, as
youth ever is, unsuspecting, she has been led by the
councils of the artful and designing faction which sur-
round her throne to seclude herself from the presence
and slight the loyalty of those exalted men whom the
great body of her people delight to honour—to encircle
herself with profligates and convicted adulterers—to
throw off the wholesome restraint of parental affection
and to take to her bosom the parasites by whom her
inexperienced heart might best be diverted from the
exercise of those virtues implanted in it by the anxious
care of maternal love.

The ease of Lady Flora Hastings is still fresh in
the memory of the people of England, The pallid
features of the martyred victim of court slander still
haunt us in our dreams ; and, lest it should be for-
gotten, and the. memory of that unhappy error, into
which England's maiden Queen was allowed to fall,
should sink into oblivion, the royal matron is dragged
from her bridal couch to patronise the obscene nuptials
of a hoary debauchee, to outrage afresh the feelings of

her people, and to check the tide of returning affection
which had already manifested itself in her favour.
" The Buggins" must now, we presume, be permitted
to flaunt her well-earned dignity at the court of Eng-
land's Queen ; the " social partner" of a gross old re-'
probate be held up as a fitting companion for the ma-
trons and daughters of England's nobility; and an
example afforded in the very palace and in the person
of an uncle of the Sovereign, of the impunity with
which England's laws may be broken, and the moral
and religious sentiments of her people set at nought
and defied.

Is this, we ask, a course which is calculated to
strengthen and preserve the monarchy? Is an admi-
nistration which permits the name and character
of a young and amiable Queen to be thus mixed up
with impurity and extended as a cloak over the licen-
tiousness of an obscene dotard, so contemptible that
we may with safety allow its protracted existence ? We

think not ; and we urge upon our countrymen to
awake from their lethargy and to spurn from them the

foul thing which drops its poison as it crawls, and de-
files with its fetid breath the honour of our Womanhood
and the dignity of our Throne.
We assert that the continued existence of Lord Mel-
bourne's administration is pregnant with danger to the
peace of Europe, with destruction to our commerce, to
our agriculture, and to our national religion. Can
this be denied ? We think not. At the present mo-
ment we are entering upon a war with a country

whose resources are unknown to us, whose distance
presents difficulties the extent of which no man can
foresee, and whose population outnumbers the whole
of Europe. We have not an ally upon whose faith we
can depend, and the justice of our quarrel is at best

but doubtful. We are entering upon this war with a

declining and deficient revenue, with disaffection at
home, with our colonies alienated, with Russia me-
nacing our Indian empire on the one hand, and Arne-
rica our Canadian frontier on the other. Where, we
ask—in what member of that administration is the
commanding talent, the lofty integrity, and the firmness
which may be necessary to bring us through a struggle
so full of danger as that in which we are entering ? is
it in Lord Palmerston ? Few Englishmen, we think,
will be found at such a crisis to place confidence in a
minister so thoroughly and utterly contemptible !
We will not weary the patience of our readers by

detailing the heavy catalogue of errors which are daily
plunging into distress and difficulty our agriculture
and our commerce. We will not attempt to number
the insults which have been heaped upon our religion,
or the attacks which have been directed against our
church. But we will say that these things must cease,
and the ministry under whose rule they have been per-
mitted must give way to honester and better men. We
call upon the great conservative party and the friends
of constitutional liberty throughout the kingdom to
prepare for such a demonstration of their numbers, in-
fluence, and firmness, at the elections which, we trust,
are approaching, as will wipe out for ever the-stain
which has been allowed to sully England's name, and
avert the storm which is even now threatening to des-
cend upon her shores. 'We repeat again, if the glori-
ous institutions of our country are to be preserved— if
the torrent of infidelity which is now desolating and
perverting the hearts of its people is to be stayed—if
republicanism, sedition, and crime are to be checked—
if the giant strides of Popery are to be resisted, and
peace, contentment, and religion once more to be
found in the cottages of her industrious peasantry or
of her humble artizans—if England is ever again to
resume her proud pre-eminence amongst the nations
of the world, to stand forth the friend of the friend-
less and the protector of the slave—that consummation
can never be attained whilst modern liberalism and li-
centiousness reign in the palace and Popery thunders
at the Council Board!

The uneasy feeling with which the motion of Sir
James Graham on the affairs of China has been,re-
garded for the last fortnight by the ministerial faction,
is fully accounted for by the astounding nature of the
facts which that motion has brought, for the first time,
before the attention of Parliament and the public. We
certainly did not expect to find the management of any
department of our affairs by the present government
characterised by an extraordinary degree of wisdom or
of foresight ; and least of all did we expect to find
either of these attributes displayed in that particular
department which is confided to the presiding genius
of Lord Palmerston. Vie must, however, confess that
we were not prepared to find, under any administration
or under any minister, such gross dereliction of duty,
such utter ignorance and such lamentable obstinacy, as
is proved—incontestably proved—to have characterised
the policy of the Foreign-office in all its proceedings
affecting our relations with the Chinese empire ; and
we cannot, therefore, wonder at the soreness with which
the hacks of the ministerial press have endeavoured to
depreciate the importance of the discussion which has
precipitated such inconvenient and damaging dis-
closures.

The question which the motion of Sir James Graham
proposed to discuss was not, as the ministerial organs
urge that it ought to have been, a question as to the
justice or injustice of the impending war with China,
or as to the mode in which that war was to be carried
on. It was not a question as to the right of British
subjects to carry on a legitimate or illegitimate trade
with China, to purchase tea or to smuggle opium.
Wisely and judiciously, we think, the right honourable
baronet restricted his inquiry to the simple and intelli-

gible question, whether the present untoward position
of this country with respect to China was or was not
the result of the ill-advised course pursued by our go-
vernment towards that nation. To this point Sir James
Graham adhered ; and we venture to assert that a more
triumphant case, containing more damning evidence of
error and incompetency, was never brought against any
British administration.

We are not ourselves disposed to enter into the
consideration of the justice or injustice of a war with
China. We should, we must confess, gladly endea-
vour to secure to our countrymen tha commerce of
that singular people; and we admit that England is
not unprovided with just grounds for proceeding to
enforce her claims, and to demand reparation for in-
juries sustained and insults suffered at the hands of
the vapouring authorities of China. We know and
value the immense field of enterprise which that coun-
try offers to our merchants; and—the importance of
placing our intercourse with it upon a sound and last-
ing basis. But we are not prepared to say that, even
to obtain so substantial and undeniable a benefit, we
are justified in provoking a war ; and we are not so
sure of a favourable result as to rejoice in having pro-
voked one. We are not satisfied either that even a
successful war—successful to the extent which a war
with a nation such as the Chinese would be—could
secure to us the advantages which alone we ought to
seek, viz., the extension of a legitimate and honourable

We are therefore naturally driven hack
to our original position, and led to ask, as a guide to
our future policy, by u hat misdirection we have lost
the good which for years we have enjoyed, and from
which England has reaped a golden harvest, at the
sole cost of humouring a little the prejudices and ab-
surd vanity of an incomprehensible and, at the same
time, a harmless and peaceful nation.
To this question the motion of Sir James Graham
has elicited an answer the truth of which is undenia-
ble—an answer which establishes the fact, that to the
negligence, the want of prudence, nay the want of
ordinary diligence, on the part of our government, is
to he attributed a misunderstanding which has preci-
pitated us into a war with a nation possessing a popu-
.lation numbering 350,000,000, with a revenue of
£60,000,000 per annum, and which furnishes one-
sixth of our whole commercial revenue. We should
naturally suppose that, with such a country, the mi-
nister of a great commercial people would be anxious
to preserve the most friendly relations ; yet we have it
admitted in this debate, that to the successive repre-
sentations of three commissioners (Mr. Davis, Sir G.
Robinson, and Captain Elliot), all representing, in the
strongest manner, the propriety of opening a corre-
spondence with the head of its government, with a

commerce.

view to facilitate commercial intercourae, no answer
was vouchsafed by that minister during a period of

five years ! We should naturally suppose that, for

the protection of so extensive a
,commerce as has been
carried on by our merchants with China, a wise go-

vernment would have taken measures to furnish some

adequate force, especially after a written recommenda-
tion to do so by a statesman of such acknowledged
ability as the Duke of Wellington; yet we find, from
the published returns laid . by that government upon
the table of the House of Commons, that from March

1835 to September 1839, fifty-three months elapsed,
and that during that period there was no ship of war
at Canton, except for the space of eight months; and
that when the government superintendent, after having
exhausted himself with ineffectual requests for aid to
enable him to repress the predatory proceedings of the
illicit traders, and representing the danger into which

they were bringing the entire commerce with China,
was at length seized himself as a hostage, and his life
perilled for their unruly conduct, lie was compelled to
owe his safety to the accidental presence in the Canton
river of two American frigates ! It will scarcely be
believed, too, that during the whole period of the
growth of the opium trade—a trade the carrying on
of which has confessedly been one of the chief griev-
ances of the Chinese government, and the measures to
be pursued with respect to which have formed the
subject of a great portion of the despatches of the
British superintendent—not one line of Lord Palmer-
ston ever touched upon the subject, the mention of
the word opium only occurring in one despatch, and,
even then, coupled with an intimation that her Majes-
ty's government were prepared to abandon to its fate
the trade in that drug, which, if they had not openly
encouraged, they had at least permitted to grow up
unchecked and uncontrolled. •
We are told, however, as an apology for the gross
neglect of the Foreign-office, and in answer to the
charge of Sir. James Graham that sufficient power had
not been vested in the British superintendent, or suffi-
cient instructions given to enable him to regulate his
conduct in the di►'licult :position which he occupied ;
that it would be absurd for a government to attempt
to lay down rules for the guidance of a functionary
exercising his duties at so great a distance; and that
the superintendent himself, residing upon the spot,
was the best judge of the policy to be pursued to en-
sure the object of his mission. We admit freely and
fully the latter part of the plea, but certainly not its
application as an apology for Lord Palmerston. The
superintendent was, or ought to hare been, the best
judge of the policy to lie pursued in the various details
of his arduous duty; but, then, he had no poWers.
He urges upon the government the necessity of grant-
ing him powers, and his repeated applications and
remonstrances—the remonstrances of the superinten-
dent, "residing upon. the spot, and best able to judge
of the policy to be pursued"—are thrown aside and
disregarded ! He tells the government that unless he is
invested with the necessary powers—the same powers,
too, which had been enjoyed by officers occupying a
position similar to his own, under the East India Com-
pany—the suspension of our entire commerce with
China must be the result-; yet he is denied that power,
or it. is neglected to be furnished. And when the
Chinese, stung by repeated violations of their laws,
threaten measures of retaliation, he warns repeatedly
and emphatically the government at home of the cri-
tical posture of the immense interests under his charge,
and urges the importance of providing an imposing
force to repel any aggressions which may be made
upon them. Yet when those aggressions are made,
when the hour of conflict arrives, the superintendent
--the representative of the British monarch—has only
a pinnace, a cutter, and a few small craft at his dis-
posal ; and, after a fire of almost half an hour against
three war junks, is compelled (we use his own words)
"to haul off" from failure of his ammunition ! As
the next step a blockade was declared—still without
the necessary power to enforce it, and without a previ-
ous declaration of war; but, upon a remonstrance
being made by the American merchants, the blockade,
although declared in the presence of the Chinese by
the officer in command, was hastily abandoned, with-
out producing any other result than an impression
that insolence and cowardice were the characteristics
of the British character.
Will it be denied, we ask, that the gross errors
which we have detailed—errors which are scarcely
attempted .to be denied by the ministerial faction-L.
furnish strong and undeniable grounds for the cen-
sure directed against government by the motion of Sir
James Graham ? The weak and negligent policy of
the Foreign-office has certainly precipitated, if not
originated, the present embroilment of our commer-
cial relations with China ; and it will require all
the caution, wisdom, and firmness which can be
brought to the task, to reinstate us in our for-
mer advantageous position. Whether this can best
be effected by open hOstilities or by peaceful ne-
gociations, or, as is most likely to be the case, by a
combination of the two, we have not now to enquire.
Whether the people of England will regard a war with
China as a just or an unjust war is not the question
we have to discuss. Our position, and the position
of the conservative party, upon the motion of the
right lion. baronet, is one of aggression upon the past
policy of the foreign office. We argue that sheer in-
competency, added to gross neglect of precaution and
blind obstinacy, has shut out our commerce and our
manufactures from one of the largest and most im-
portant markets of the world—has brought into peril
our immense eastern possessions—and has degraded
our national character in the eyes of a people who
hitherto have looked up to us with respect; and we
contend by implication that the ministry whose ill-
directed councils have produced this unhappy state of
things, are not possessed of the honesty, the energy,
or the capacity which may be required to provide a
remedy for the evil.

We understand that at the meeting of the Dock
Committee yesterday the motion for rescinding that
for the admission of Reporters was carried by 11 votes
to 6. For the admission of Reporters—Messrs. T.
Holt, Holmes, Horsfall, Gladstone, Hornby and
Yates : Against—Messrs. Leathom, Benn, Mellor,
Smith, Booth, Bulley, Segar, Tobin, Ripley, Martin,
and G. Holt.

ROBBING OF CIIILDREN.—The robbery of children in the
streets of any loose article about them, whether of dress, or-
nament, or toy, has of late years been frequent, and the hat
mediate actors have generally been children themselves, tu-
tored by unprincipled parents. On Tuesday last a flagitious
case of this species of theft was disclosed at the Police Court.
A woman, named Alice Irvine, who had an infant in her
arms, and her daughter (a mere girl), were brought up,
charged with robbing a little girl of a link of coral beads from
her neck. It appeared that the mother had watched the
child, who was going to school, and after witnessing the rob-
bery, had received the beads into her own hand. The mo-
ther of the robbed child seized the younger delinquent, and
the other was -soon afterwards apprehended. Mr. Rushton
stated that the elder female was well known as having trained
her children to such practices, and committed her for trial.

GALE'S WHITBY NEW LIFE-BOAT.—A fine life-boat on
an improved principle has recently been completed by Mr. C.
Gale, of Whitby, for the Liverpool Steam Tug Company.
The builder is a gentleman of great ingenuity ; his merits
have been much appreciated on the eastern coast of this our
" tight little island,' where he is well known, and we trust
he will become not less celebrated in the west. As it may
gratify some of our friends connected with shipping, we sup-
ply a brief description of this new boat for the preservation
of life on occasions of danger :—Her length aloft is twenty-
eight feet, and her breadth ten feet two inches, she has ten
grunametted oars, with iron thouls, and two steering oars,
which will be worked on iron swivels. Through her bottom
are six lead tubes, by which, should she fill, the water, it is
calculated, would escape in 20 seconds. In her bottom amid-
ships, she has a well or tank capable of holding about 14 cwt.
of water, as ballast, which can be filled or discharged in three
or four minutes if required. Should she upset, which, owing
to her great beam, is not very probable, there is a large cop-
per tube, by which, on her righting, the water will be carried
off ; there is also, in case of such accident, a number of cir-
cular stretchers, secured by ropes to the timber heads, for
the support of the crew. She has portable wash boards at
the bow and stern, and is fitted with horizontal air boxes.
Her keel and sternplates are of iron. When fully manned,
say with 12 hands, and 14 cwt. of water ballast, she draws
only from 15 to 16 inches of water, and when completely filled
with water her draught will not exceed 21 inches. We
heartily wish her and her builder the greatest success, not
forgetting the spirited and enterprising company for whom
she has been constructed, and whose meritorious exertions
in the preservation of life from shipwreck, not only in the
memorable gale of last year, but during the present winter,
are yet too fresh on the public mind, to require the slightest
commendation.

The attention of our readers is directed to the following
communication addressed to Messrs. Rowland and Son, 20,
Hatton-garden, London (whose advertisement appears in
another column).—Canterbury, Kent, Feb. 20.—Gentlemen,
—I write this as a convincing proof of the efficacy of your
Macassar oil. For nearly three years my head was quite bald ;
during that time I tried several advertised preparations, but
to no purpose. Your oil being in high estimation in this
place, induced me to try it, and in a short time was wonder.
fully recovered, and I have the pleasure to assert, the oil con-
tains those virtues which you express in your bills and essay;
in short, my hair never was so comfortable, is free from dan-
driff, feels extremely pleasant, possesses a strong curl and is
very thick. 1 shall make it my study to recommend it, and
you have my free will to publish this note.—Your obedient
humble servant, CHARLES EDWARD COLMAN.