The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-01-06 00:00:00

been quite maintained, the reduction has not been to a
greater extent than might have been expected, all things
being considered. We are of opinion that prices have
now seen their lowest point, and trust that the prepara
tion for the spring trade will give an impetus to our staple
artic'e such as we experienced last year.
English and Scotch have partaken of the late depres-
sion, and must be quoted 10 per cent. below the highest
prices of the year.

It may be interesting to mark the progress of the
trade in American provisions, as being one only re-
cently introduced amongst our great staples of com-
merce, and whose probable progress has been va-
riously spoken of. The circular of an extensive Li-
verpool house states :

" A reference of the table of imports and stocks will
show a steady increase in the ccnsumption of beef. The
American cure has quite superseded Irish, and attention
in shipping a well-selected article is now only required to
hold the position gained. At no period during the past
year was the stock in excess ; hence the variati•ui in price
has been very trifling. The little old that remains is
likely to go off at about present rates. The new has found
purchasers for so far, ex ship, at full prices where fine ;
but as the supplies will now increase, lower rates may be
anticipated. . _ .

In pork there has not been a satisfactory trade. The
improvement noted at the commencement of last year in
a few parcels then received was not general in the suc-
ceeding imports ; hence a dull, dragging sale has resulted.
The present quotations are nearly nominal, as Irish cure
are taken by ships in preference, thougb at several shil-
lings per barrel higher.
Cheese has continued to show a very decided improve-
ment in qualify. Increased imports have met a steady,
regular demand, ht profitable prices. The stock at pre-
sent is larger than at the close of last year, the sales for
December, owing to the general mercantile distrust,
having been limited; but the dealers' stocks being low, a
good business is expected this month. Our present
prices are likely to b,! supported.
In the first eight months of the year the import of
lard was very trifling. Prices were, in consequence, well
supported, in October reaching the highest point this ar-
ticle has yet touc'led ; since, supplies have been more
liberal, and prices have receded 4s. to ss. per cwt„ the
market ending dull at the quotations.
Tallow has presented little of novelty : the character of
the best brands of North American continues to stand
high, as shown be the prices obtained, being little, if at
all, under the best Russian. The market is firm at the
quotations." . . . .

With respect to the timber trade—another im-
portant branch of our commerce, whose prosperity
is an index of the increased activity of industry,
and of the increasing comforts of our population as
well,—we find the following remarks in the last
circular of an extensive firm :
The arrivals from British America last month amounted
to forty vesels, 19,277 tons, the total import so far, being
433 vessels, 231,337 tons. Several Quebec cargoes in-
tended for this market have been lost, and there are still
a few to arrive, which, at the end of the import, (usually
made up to the 31st instant,) will cause the import last
year to fall short of 240,000 tons of shipping, the largest
previous import not exceeding 188,000 tons.
We might heap evidence upon evidence of a si-
milar character, tending to show that in nearly
every branch of commerce, the past has been a
year of great prosperity; and although the closing
a few months had a temporary gloom thrown over
them by casual and temporary circumstances, we
have abundant reason as a nation to be thankful for
the position in which we are placed. And in ap-
proaching another year, not certainly under such
flattering circumstances as we did the last, we can
do so nevertheless with the hope that a fair and re-
munerative business is before us for the twelve
months to come, if uncalled-for political change is
not allowed to unsettle men's minds, and to di-
minish that confidence in the mercantile body which
is ever the leading source of a nation's prosperity.

A new year has just opened upon us, pregnant
with more important problems to be solved, and
difficulties to be surmounted, than ever before pre-
sented themselves, in any one year, throughout the
history of British legislation. And brief, more-
over, has been the warning given to us of their ap-
proach, and short the period which is left for states-
manship to devise and to act in the emergency,
which circumstances ha• e partly hurried on, and
which it has partly created for itself. A few months
ago, the political horizon was without a cloud, save
that small one in the " far west" which was seized
upon as the pretext of sending " a message of
peace" to disaffected popery in Ireland. A minis-
try, stronger than ever, held the helm of the state,
sate secure and confident in office. Prosperity al-
most unbounded, extended through every branch
of industry and commerce. We had a full exche-
quer, full garners, and unexampled credit, amidst
which, the national enterprise put forth all its ener-
gies for the developement of the country's resources
and the people's social amelioration and comfort.
Yet this vast and imposing fabric of power and
prosperity, the caprice of one man—its chief ar-
chitect—has been sufficient to destroy, and without
even a glimmering of the reason which can have
brought about so total a change in his political con-
victions and purposes, the country has, within the
last three weeks, seen the helm put down, and the
vessel of the state directed upon a new course,
which its steersman, throughout his past public
life, has declared to be full of dangerous shoals, and
to lead to assured destruction of its most valued in-
stitutions, and the comfort, the liberties, and the
happiness of the people.
At the instigation, and as the act, we repeat, of one
man, the legislature, in the approaching session, is
about to venture upon the momentous experiment of
remodeling the entire social fabric, and reversing
completely that policy which has characterised the le-
gislation of Great Britain for centuries; under which
she has grown up to be first in arts, in arms, in
commerce,• and territorial greatness, amongst the
nations of the world, Who can look forward to
the issue of that experiment without a feeling of
trepidation and of doubt ? The repeal of the ex-
isting system of protection to the native producer
of food, is virtually a revolution which must ope•
rate upon the fortunes and the social position of
every man, woman, and child, throughout the Bri-
tish empire, and ultimately change and re-distribute
the elements of which our social fabric itself is
composed. Nor can it stop here. It deals not
only with financial considerations and the re-ar-
rangement of the relative positions and privileges
of the various classes into which the community is
divided, but will effect also an entire change in those
feelings and associations—prejudices if you will—
of the national heart, upon which the institutions of
the country have been based, and by which, for
centuries, they have been secured. Upon wealth
embarked 'in the ownership of the soil is founded
those feelings of traditional respect with which we
look upon that order in whose hands we have placed
a third share in the administration of the national
affairs, and with whom, principally, we have sur-
rounded the person of the sovereign—amongst
whom have we been accustomed to look for our
most eminent statesmen and the leaders of our army
and our fleets. Concede that a blow, more or less
severe, will be struck at the landed aristocracy of
the country, by the repeal of the corn laws, and
you concede the weakening of the power of the
house of peers to withstand the aggression of de-
mocracy, and thus destroy the nicely adjusted
ba-
lance and counter-check of the three branches of
the constitution. That the striking of a sudden
blow is the object contemplated as the result of
the removal of protection from agriculture is noto-
rious. It is evident, from the tone in which the ad-
vocates of free trade launch their philippics against
the, landlords, rather than at the law which protects
thetas. Ostensibly, the triumphs of the league is
one which is to 'secure a better and a cheaper sup-
ply of food for the people : in reality, it is one whose
result is to unable: democracy to plant its heel upon
the prostrate form of aristocracy, and obtain a pre-
ponderating influence over the direction of national
affairs. _

This is the movement, at the head of which Sir
Robert Peal has so unaccountably placed himself.
This—the reduction of the proud and honoured
aristocracy of Great Britain—of the descendants of
the warriors of Cressy and Agincourt—to a level,
in political power, with the mushroom millionaires
of the spinning jenny and the power loom, is the
price which he is prepared to bid for a new lease of
power and a triumph over men by whom, in consi-
deration only of his political cleverness, his claims
to rank with :them is grudgingly tolerated. That
he will be successful in carrying out his measures is
as yet an unsolved problem. We may assume,
however, that he has confidence in his strength, and
sufficient warrant from the past, for the required
amount of suicidal infatuation. to enable him to lure
on the credulous believers in his pre-eminent cun-
ning, to their own destruction.
Admitting, then, the successful achievement of
this first and great step towards the establishment
of pure democractical institutions, are the difficul-
ties of his position as a minister surmounted ? By
no means. The cry for cheap bread is not the only
cry of the party into whose hands he has thrown
himself. Thelprinciple of protection once given up,
upon what plea can he defend the continuance of
the differential duties upon foreign and colonial