The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-08-23 00:00:00

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a Liberal Administratien, to adhere to the truth in
such stitements. The second paragraph states
that by the retaissien and reduction •of taxes they

have given fresh extension to a system ,•of beneficent
nation, and have lamely increased:the means of

obtaining the:necessaries of life. Is:it the reduction
of 4d. per lb. on tea, or the retention of the Income-
tax, which has done this P In the rourth paragraph
Parliament is told that " the buttyant state of the

revenue, and the steady progress of our foreign
`trade, are prodfs of the wisdom 'of the commereird

so that the gala
discoveries are altogether ignored, and the "firmly

policy now fig

established

established" means that we have not yet reached
the panic which will shatter the whole fabric to

In the next paragraph the India Bill is
said to have been wisely 'framed, although the
Ministers have themselves acknowledged that it is

atoms

a mere temporary expedient. The most is made of
foreign affairs by alluding to our allies being friendly
with this country, the termination of the Cape war,
and peace in Burmah. They are events of which,
perhaps, the less said the better ; but they have
served to spin out a speech which otherwise would
have displayed a woeful poverty of incident, not-
withstanding the hardihood with which Ministers
have ventured on some of their assertions. It is
fortunate for Her MArEsTY that she could escape
the ungracious task of giving utterance to such
expressions, and leave it to the fiction of the
Gazette to say that they met with her approval.

OUR metropolitan contemporary, The Times, is
not ungrateful for the huge bribe by which Mr.
'GLADSTONE sought to win popular favour for his
Budget, and has shown its zeal to earn the pay-
ment by a fulsome laudation of the Coalition
Ministry for their legislative doings during the
last session. Those who think it worth while to
-remember the piecemeal condemnation of several
measures during /heir progress through Parlia-
ment, must view the present panegyric either as
well disguised irony, or a determination to preserve
-that character for inconsistency and vacillation for
which The Times has long been notorious. We
need not, however, grudge the Ministers the praise
-thus lavishly heaped upon them, for they were
'sadly in need of it ; and least of all Mr. GLAD-
-STONE, who required something to console him
for the miserable defeat of his pet scheme for the
-reduction of the National Debt. The most
-mendacious statement, however, put forth by our
-contemporary is that wherein he says 1—" In -this
session Free-trade has finally triumphed, and the
last semblance of opposition to its wise and
benevolent doctrines has been trodden down over-
powered and silenced." There is not a man
possessed of the commonest reasoning faculties,
who has turned his attention to the -subject un-
biassed by party prejudices, who cannot perceive
that all the prosperity for which we have reason
to be tharilthil is owing to causes altogether
independent of Free-trade or any other political
system. The enormous discoveries of gold, both in
California and Australia, have given an impetus to
our home industry, created a market.for us abroad,
lessened our population by emigration, and by
raising prices of almost every article in general
consumption, effected a result the very opposite
of that which the new .political theory was designed
to accomplish. By largely increasing our importa-
tions, Free-trade has almost brought us to the verge
of a monetary panic, from which we have ,only
been spared—if the danger is yet over—by 'the
unexpected supplies of gold ; while it has done
nothing to increase our exports, which are solely
owing to the cause it could neither create nor
prevent. If we look to the sources whence our
increased demands for exportation have arisen, we
shall find them to be the United States, enriched
by the Californian discoveries, and our Australian
Colonies ; while, from the North of Europe,

whence our large supplies of Foreign Corn have
been drawn, and whose ships have benefited by
the repeal of the Navigation Laws, the demands
for British Produce and Nanufa,ctures have
positively diminished. The connection between
cause and effect is so unmistakeably clear, that
nothing :but the prejudice of party:can refuse an
admission of its truth, and yet we are gravely
assured of the triumph of Free-trade, when every
circumstance betokens its utter failure.

The advocacy of this policy is based upon the
assumption that all commercial enterprise is more
successful and conducive to national welfare when
unfettered by human laws, and left to be guided by
the mere instincts of individual interests—that,
indeed, the greatest good will spring from the
competition of rival selfishness. This proposition,
if it be of the slightest value, must apply with
more force to our internal affairs than to operations
of international commerce, and yet these same
organs of popular prejudices point to our railway
system, and, drawing a comparison with those on
the Continent, leave our unrestricted competition
nothing to boast of. In France and other foreign
countries tht railways are under the strict super-
vision of Government, fettered by stringent regu-
lations, with none of the advantages of machinery,
iron, and fuel which England possesses ; the tenure
of their proprietors is only for a term of years, and
yet in almost all the completed continental lines
the shares are at a premium. In England enter-
prise is unshackled, the tenure is freehold, materials
at unlimited command, every aid which scientific
skill and large capital could supply were not
wanting, Government interference almost nominal,
and yet, with very few exceptions, the shares of
nearly every line in the kingdom are at a discount
many of them to a ruinous extent. Is this a proof of
the advantages of unrestricted competition P Is it
not rather convincing evidence that judicious
control is as necessary to the beneficial operations
of commercial enterprise as it is to the good order
Of a man's
household P There are some, however,
who will not learn even by experience ; the
st
mis-
chief e persisted in until it touches them-