The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-05-10 00:00:00

Eiberpool ,*tanbarb.

TUESDAY MORNING, MAY 10, [836:

The Chancellor of the Exchequer's budget was un-
folded on Friday last rather reluctantly, for he showed
every disposition to defer it for another week. It is pre-
cisely the sort of thing we expected from the petty mind
of so small a guager as Mr. SPRING RICE. With the
exception of the paper and newspaper duties, the re-
maining items are so contemptible that we feel persuaded
if they were fairly distributed they would not provide
brooms for the crossing sweepers of the metropolis. The
Chancellor calculates that his surplus revenue for the
current year will be, in round figures, about £660,000.
Even this, however, depends upon a contingent claim
due under the emancipation bill to some West India pro-
prietors. This reduces the assumed surplus to the low
figure of £soo,ooo—a surplus utterly unworthy the cre-
dit of a great nation like this whose Yearly income ex-
ceeds £50,000,000.

Of this assumed surplus Mr. RICE proposes to surren
der £350,000 for the benefit of certain parties con•
corned, in the following proportions:—

_ . .
Paper duties
Post-office treaty '20,000
Probates - 20,000
South Sea duties. lO,OOO
Newspaper stamps 150,000
Insurances on farming buildings.... 15,000
Advertisements (Ireland) 6,000
Tax-carts, flies, &c 5,000

£351,006 - -
Of the paper and newspaper duties we have on previ-
ous occasions expressed our opinions, and we have no--
thing to add except the repetition of our firm conviction

that the scheme will grievously disappoint the clamorous
cheats, the MOLESWORTII and ROEBUCK class, who have
long preyed upon the public in open violation of the law.
The proposed change will be no bounty to them. It will,
in fact, be quite the reverse, inasmuch as the amount of
their profits will be reduced in the ratio of the diminished

taxes. Four shillings per quart upon gin might encou-
rage smuggling; but let the duty be only one shilling,
and the smuggler would be compelled to apply himself
to some more honest or more desperate undertaking.
This is precisely the case with the cheap radicalism of

the day. Every kind of newspaper will now be subject-
ed to a penny stamp, and, as it would not pay to sell the
smallest stamped sheet at threehalfpence or even two-
pence, the trade of the ROEBUCKS is at an end. The
penny charge was a convenient sum. It suited every
costermonger and chimneysweep—every charwoman and
oysterwench—who had the ambition to patronise a
" weekly print" of their own—one congenial to their
taste, written by quack and humbug to enlighten the la-
dies and gentlemen who compose the useful classes. Any
sum above a penny must therefore alter the case asto-
nishly. Twopence is a leap too high—threepence, be-
sides being extravagant, is in most cases impracticable.
What ! pay the price of two glasses of gin for a single
newspaper, when the perusal of the Chronicle or the
Tap Tub can be had at any time for a halfpenny ! This
would be foolish in the extreme !

About the dimensions of the journals we are in hopes.
that the dispute will be adjusted. The Chancellor ought
to yield ;. but, if not, the Times has only to increase its
single sheet, or reduce by one inch or so its present one,
and print doubles regularly. This last would be driving
a coach and four through the scheme, and set Mr. SPRING
RICE'S pitiful enmity at defiance:
A word as to the other items. The loss of £20,000.
by theinew arrpgements of the Postoflice !up-
pose, irnavoidablei.and the •absurd South Sep duties are
very properly abolished ; but the reduction of the pro.
bate duty, to the amount of £20,000; abschite
<The probate &Ay may be a hardship, because in
principle,-as a source of taxation, it is unequal and un-
just, nod it ought to be swept away altogether 'lint this
nibbling at it is the most childish policy viir ,ewer
tressed. WbO in the nation will care, or will feel, or can
possibly be benefitted by the reduction of so trifling a
sum
The same objection applies to " insurances .on farming
buildings." A boon
of £15,000 is to be given to at
least eight millions of persons connected with or depend-
ant upon agriculture ! How much each of these persons
is to save we should like to hear Mr. RICE explain, It
would not purchase more than one pair of shoestrings
annually for the half of them ! Was there ever such
wretched legislation as this seen before ? The cost of
the new polices which the insurance offices will I;ve to
provide will be much greater than the sum saved, and
the farmer will have nothing to be thankful for but the
trouble of wearing a pair of shoes out, cr losing those of
his horse, in going to the neighbouring town to exchange
the documents--spending ten shillings in saving three !
This conies of importing a Chancellor of the Exchequer
from Cork, in Ireland!

But the duty on " tax carts and flies" is to be reduced.
This also, we suppose, is for the benefit of the farmer.
We did not know that farmers rode to market in taxed
carts; as for "flies" they are chiefly used in airing phy-
sic, in mortal vials, on the cliffs of Brighton and Rams-
gate. Fat dowagers and nursery maids, debauchees
near the turnpike of the last stage, and other sweet rem-
nants peculiar to hospital towns, are dragged along in
vehicles called " flies," but the farmer is as Innocent of
any such amusements as he is of flying in the air.
All that lie is to receive from this remarkable budget is

the half shoestring as before mentioned. His distresses
are admitted ; his embarrassed and critical circumstances
are made honourable mention of annually in the King's
speech; but, like a hungry man expecting food when he
Holds out his hand, he is favoured with the Penny Ma-

gazine and a cayenne lozenge. Lord BROUGHAM Sypplies
the one•and Mr. RicE the other.

Is this the way that the best portion of the British po-
pulation should be treated by his Majesty's government ?
But what can they expect frou.p:n udministration which
is essentially. 'lrish---whielt is under Irish influence--and
which has no sympathies in common with the people of
this country ? Why is the British farmer struggling with
insolvency, and his labourer a pauper ?. Simply because
such men as Mr. RICE are at the helm 'of public. affairs,
and dare not compel the landlords of Deland to maintain,
their own poor. The poverty of .Ireland is the curse of
England, The ignorance and boundless extortion of the
Irish landowners ate:the causes of our ruined agriculture
and the destitution of the English labourer., Compelthe
landtordi‘ on the, other sicle'of the water to maintain their
own poor, and the price of provisions would advance ton.
wholesome rate of remuneration. Compulsory support
would lead to profitable labour, and the idle would, be
beneficially employed who are now beggars in both
islands. This is the only way of correcting the worst
evils of Ireland, and doing justice to the English farmer,
Were this done the CHANCELLOR Of the EXCHEQUER
might keep his‘"cissurance" duty and his "flies" to him-
self; and if he chose to turn, market gardener he might
ride in his " tax-cart " without grumbling, or fear. Till
this is done justice will never be, rendere.d to the culti-
vators of our soil. Our over-taxed population, and our
poor-law-fed labourers are brotight intocompetition with
the under-taxed landlords, and
.ill .fed or. rather starved
peasantry of Ireland. The two classes ,to be equal in the
British market must be placed upon an equality of taxa-.
tion. They must be equally. rated to the. poor. How is
this to be accomplished ?
,We.tnp bere wbat is the We,
in asking such a question of.such men as Mr. RlCE—the
financier of the whigs—tbe-autlior of the snip•like bud-
get we have dissected---7the statesman who would sell
newspapers as they do butter in Cambridge by'the inch
—and who in the dearth of arithmeticians—the scarcity
of MICFIAEL CAS3l.og—is Chancellor of the Kxchequer
•
for Great Britain in 1836.

, The death of old RUTHVEN, whom no one who knew
the original could call " memberfor •Dubliu" without
laughing,was, as DANIEL who deserted•him.on his death
bed would say, miette convenient ! He died just in,
time to avoid being a,witness of the disgrace to which
matchless impudence, bat-faced lying,-. and, reckless
perjury on the part of persons calling. themselves his
constituents have brought his colleague.
It is adniitted on all sides'that DANIEi O'CONNELL,

the master of his majesty's ministers, has virtually aban7
doned his seat for Dublin, or rather like- a sensible but
unsavoury dog has given leg bail rather than undergq
_ _ _

the disparaging ordeal of being kicked down stairs. A
six-and-eight-penny attorney of the name of SULLIVAN,
which name is new to us, and ‘vhose voice, much to his
credit, has not been heard in the House, of Commons,
has since the election been the representative of Kil-
kenny, as the warming pan of Mr. O'CONNELL7‘ This
worthy person has accepted the Irish Chiltern Hundreds,
and has gone back to his three-legged stool, and his
manufactory of briefs for clients of suspected crime, in
order to make room for, the "goblin damned," or as Sir
WALTER describes him under the shade of another

rogue's name:—

" And Bertram stood amid the crew
The master fiend that Milton drew."

We take for, granted that these preparations have not

been made for nothing* ot• too soon. Dublin must be
given up. It has been held
,by the agitator as the ava-
ricious miser clings to tre6Stire.more tenaciously because
_ _

it has been audaciously and, diShonestly -procured. He
has struggled for Dublin like a desperate madman. It
was the goal of his ambition. He was prouder of its.
name, than words can convey, simply, because it was
during the greater part of his life time immeasurably be-
yond his hopes. His friends bought, bribed,,lied, anti
swore him into the seat; and he has imitated them in
defending it. But all to no purpose. Truth and justice
have prevailed. A favourable committee have decided
against his claims, simply, because they Were protestant
Englishmen, who, notwithstanding their political pre-
judices, could not as jurymen; lend themselves to a ,
ju-
dicial fraud, or submit to be fiired lawyers,
sighing, like frogs in dry weather, for the,promised and
congenial' rains of government patronage: They have
had an arduous but an honourable task; 'when they are
to be requited remains to be decided: '

But who is to pay fdr this elaborate and expensive en-
quiry ? We say nothing:as •to the expense of the dis-
graceful commission, for that, every body knows, must
be paid by the public. We book that as a clear loss
against the country. But who is to pay for the recent
scrutiny before the committee? If Messrs. WEST and.
HAMILTON be declared the sitting members, surety the
committee will decide that the defence of the sitting
members against the petition, considering. the mode in
which the defence was conducted, was both frivolous and
vexatious. In this case, O'CONNELL Will be saddled
with at least £20,000. If, on the other band he has.
only to pay his own expences, he must disburse £10,000.,
Where is even this last sum to be procured? • DANIEL,

has not the money. In the RAPIIAEL business'it was
proved that he had not a shilling at his bankers which
did not come from his dupe. Since that period he has
had no opportunity of selling seats. He can have no
balance remaining from the rent. He must be as the
city folks say, "hard up." How, then, can he be ex-
pected to pay any portion of the costs of the Dublin elec-
tion ?

There is a wny; and that way we strongly suspect is
open to DANIEL. It was on a former ocdasion open to a
patriot, equally honest and, respectable—we mean Mr.
WHITTLE HARVEY, who received from Mr. EDWARD.
ELLICE, their political secretary of the treasury, £5OO
to assist him in conducting the Colchester election,
which £5OO, or the greater part of it, HARVEY had the
good sense to put into his own pocket. •

If DANIELIiARVEY then had £5OO for ihis share—he
being.a comet without a tail--hovr much more shoUld be
the reward of DANIEL O'CONNELL with 4 tgil of thirty-
five joints, and sweeping the wholesurface of Ireland,
with its seven millions of paPisii, and some eight hun-
dred thousand protestants, as the lying priests and'their
subaltern lying agents represent that, country -to "be ?
Good GOD! how the people of England are deceived!
Wherever patriotism rears its self-anointed head, its
voice, like the tricks of the juggler, impose upon mil-
lions. WAKLEY, the fire king, draws his ribbons and the
bumpkins stare ; HtmE' gulls the rope by professions
of economy which they admire, purely;„ because they do
not understand them. He makes motley by his patriot-
ism—they ate amazed—he laughs. They are generous,
he fills his pockets. •
DANIEL O'CONNELL beats them all.

We feel confident that Mr: CURRIE, the mayor, will,
not again for some considerable time call any public
meeting to promote the views of Mr. JAMES BRANCKER.,
and, the . knot of senile busy-bodies. who hang by the.
skirts of the sugar-baker.. On reflection, the MAYOR
must regret. being dragged, into so disagreeable a posi-
tion as he was on Friday. last, where he had no power,
and where he was treated with marked disrespect, not by
his political opponents,. but by the score
,or two of un-
I
washed vagabondslcblefly Irish, who had been summoned.
.to cheer the self-constituted leader_ of, the -Liverpool
radicals. His worship must be master of a very small
purpose of insulting the House of Peers
share of understanding if he imagined that any meeting,
wecannot Conceive on vv'
called, fat the
pass over quietly or without encountering a col-
lisionlndeed,
hat
ground he called any such meeting considering the few
of sentiments.
and unworthy names which attachedb • • •
to the requisition.,
Mr. CURRIE, we believe, passes fora whig of the old
school, and, therefore, he mustk
nowthat any attempt on,
the part of the people to t.'
ins Tate one branch of the
legislature to interfere
or question the prerogatives of
the other is conduct of an unwarrantable and unconstitu-
tional nature. That this
was the avowedobject of the
meeting could not have been concealed from the discern-
ment of his worship, and, therefore;on no grounds, even
had the requisition been signed by four hundred instead
of forty persons, would he have been justified, as the
chief Inag'iSt.te, in summoning or presiding over it. He.