The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-04-20 00:00:00

amount of bread-stuffs which it will be in the power of
the United States to supply will be almost unlimited, is
more strongly announced than ever, coupled with a state-

ust tend to produce a rate of exchange against
that country which it is ill-prepared to meet, and thus to
ness felt here during the last three or
ding her monetary prospects. That
upplies to Europe will not speedily terminate is
certain by calculations as to the fall which
the price of produce and rate of
profit to stimulate exporta-

which

he unc

this ci

'iarice is foreseen by American
own by the fact that not only

a large increase of sowing and planting intended during
that establishments for kiln-drying,
hitherto retarded the exportation

nt of which I

now completed, and in operation to a
Cincinnati it is calculated that from
if of last season's crop, both of wheat
ill remains in the hands of producers,
an at other places, the prospects of ex-

.re remarkable.
venlig; of the PI

In Philadelphi,

msylN ania canals

f prod

Lc'e have

been beyond any existing

le in several la-rge corn:

io hope is entertained

we than

Our prospects of
n-e, it will be seen, in

1 tliffrOnlyquestions, consequently

v sent out pay f

It i; ei

hove that the British farmer

him of competition, the e

l'hose .v

however, for all these circumstances, we are com-
pelledto express the opinion of a large body of

the Health Committee is disappointing public
expectation. We are ready to give that committee

ing the health of our population, and the whole-.
someness of the town. In their efforts to provide

them to be sincere,

as we have hinted

upon. In the more humble details of their
work it is that we principally complain of their
Ind it is precisely to that portion of such

k that their a

present,

n ought, in a c

The scavenging, the emptying of ash-pits and
cess-pools, and other similar matters, have been
lamentably short of th(

Iciency with which t

ought to have been pressed on, at a period wine;
fever is seriously on the increase, and may be

s the season ad an

the fatality of its operatior

these particulars, after the nieessit,

attention has been entre

nd it cert

tors et

Lot very consolatory to contem-
have formed their conclusions

the _effect of Free Trade measures from their ope-
ion upon prices during a period of famine, and
it rivals in production unprepared to enter
test, will, it is too certain, be doomed
acy have miscalculated their position,
)rdeal to pass through, far more trying

von the

wined

e, it is not to be expected that a body,
)nerous duties to discharge which are
ipon• the Health Committee, can be
There

Xs in—tl

in complete effectiveness

- - -
ider which they labour at th

very attempted

-
.rovement upon the past, the public expect too
,nuch from them at first. No allowance is made
for inexperience—for the time required to
.organise
a staff of• officers, or the opportunities requisite to
enable thoie officers to . arrive. at a knowledge of
the difficulties with which they. have to grapple,
and the evils which they have to remove.
Making a large and very charitable allowance,

THE LIVEMPOOL STANDARD.

PROTECTION TO THE CURRENCY,

Glasgow, 17th April, 1847. 1

IRS OF THE CANADIAN PARLIAMENT,

.011;Mmt

A RUN THROUGH THE - COTT

ON MANUFAC-

TURING DISTRICTS,

It is seldom that a visitor entering Manchester, or any
of the Cotton Manufacturing towns and villages in the
district., feels inclined to complain of the absence of the
dense mantle of smoke, which ordinarily envelopes them.
Yet such is the feeling now created by the sight of tall
chimneys, from which no smoke issues, and of the many-
windowed factories, within which there is no sound of the
shuttle and the spinning frame. Sad tales they suggest
to the mind of the poverty and suffering, which this sus-
pension of the operations of induStry is causing—of the
cottages once the abode of decent competence, which are
now being denuded of their scanty furniture, the saving
of years—of the blanket, or the Sunday coat stripped off
and transmuted into bread for the mother's or the child-
rens' necessities. The very stillness of the streets as you
pass along them is depressing. No crush—no crowd
thronging from the factory gate to their meals or their rest.
Here and there, only you meet some half-famished opera-
tive, or a group of them, with want staring out of their
sunken eyes and cheeks, creeping feebly to the soup kit-
chens or the club rooms, from which the bulk of the once
busy population draw the trifle upon which they contrive
to keep body and soul together, the few . hands that are
working—many of them on short time—contributing to
the support of those totally stopped. In Manchester
itself, the central magazine for the industry of the entire
district, you cannot fail to be struck with the almost total
want of that bustling activity—the jostling of printers'
and bleachers' carts in its streets—the throng of vans
loading and unloading—which used to pervade its market
days, and indeed its other days. The manufacturers and
spinners who frequent its exchange wear anxiety in their
very faces ; and well they may, for upon their mingled
feeling and prudence in the present crisis hang the for-
tunes and the very existence of thousands.
From what we have been enabled to learn in the course
of a somewhat hurried run through the district, last
week, we do not find any strong grounds for hope, that an
early return to active operations can be looked for. The
state of the Market for the raw material, the prospect of
high prices and short supply, confirmed by the accounts
by the last mail steamer, together with the absence of
foreign demand, and the inability of the manufacturing
population themselves to consume threatens, indeed, to
make the working of short time more extensively resorted
to, and to bring about in many cases a total stoppage, as
more profitable to the manufacturer than partial working.
Already many establishments are contemplating the
adoption of such a course ; and are only prevented by
the consciousness of the sufferings which it must involve
to the working classes. and the danger to the public peace

GENTLEMEN.—The most headstrong' Free-trader must
now feel, and begin to see, that the untaxed import of fo-
reign labour is _ detrimental, not only to the agricultural

body in England and the colonists (and, indirectly through
them, to all other classes), but also directly to every inte-
rest of the empire, through causing a vast diminution of
the currency by the removal to other countries of our pre-

cious metals.
It ig true that famine in Ireland is the ostensible cause
of part of the evils this country now labours under, but it is

taken the suicidal course of depressing home employment,
and encouraging foreign, is the cause of that want of con-
fidence which will prevent England rising superior to the
present distress without a most serious interference with
the currency.
1"- -o

_nere is nt. doubt that England is better situated to
carry out Free-trade than any country in the world, and
if other countries would reciprocate, the advantage wonld
be ours IN EVERY CASE; for even the circumstances of
1-bra n•mtivoa of ITinancfan worn Tint on rlorrradorl ast not tr.

be lowered by British competition. Enilishmen -would
therefore. ALL be Free-traders as a matter of theory ; but
what is about to be shown to be even England's expe-
rience of free imports without reciprocity, which, in
bitter irony, is called Free-trade, ("in me convertite fer-

—that it matters not whether the cause of
imports into England, disproportioned to our exports, be
famine or Free-trade, the direful effects are the sanie.

Ist. We have a reduction of employment to the people
of England to very nearly the whole amount we pay for
foreign labour.
2nd. A reduction of England's ability to manufacture,
through the superstructure of our currency being brought
down by the removal of gold, its basis.
3rd. We suffer from the gain to our rivals in manufac-
tures being exactly equivalent to our loss, a better stock of
the precious metals giving an increased power to manu-
facture to foreign countries (so that in fact the less gold
England has to part with the better.)
To these general eir..cts miglit be added the p articular
one as regards the United States, that our new laws will
turn a proportion of the cotton land into wheat and In-
dian corn, thus, by diminishing its quantity, raising the
price of cotton to the English millowner.
Such being the experience of England, what would the
Canadas be under Free-trade ?
So that, whether this reaches you convened at Montreal
for your first session under Lord Elgin, or finds you sent

in what we used to call British or protective principles at
a general election. I feel it equally important by the pre-
sent steamer to let you know the exact position of things
in this country.

I particularly desire to guard you.ag,ainst being deceived,
by the stuff now being written by some of the London
newspapers, into the idea that Free-trade has little or
nothing to do with our present degraded state in this
country.

You- will observe that I have been cautious in not
charging Free-trade with getting us into this state
(though I believe Sir R. Peel's 1842 measures have much
to do with it), and that my charge against Free-trade is,
that under it no elasticity or confidence exists to get us
out of the scrape.
I may, however, state my firm conviction, that the evils
arising from the potatoe rot are nothing compared with
those which (in the absence of a potatoe rat) would have
flown froth the price of wheat being lowered one-half, not
by an increased quantity of o own growth, but by foreign
importations, for which we had to pay gold.
Our hor trade would now be froinv through the ordeal

and to property, which must arise from additional thou-
sands being thrown altogether out of employment. In
Stockport, where since October last the working has been,
two days a week, a meeting of the Masters was held on
Friday, at which the question was discussed whether the
time should be further reduced to three days a week, or
the mills should stop altogether for a month. No conclu-
sion however was come to, an adjournment to Wednesday
next, (to-morrow,) being carried, in order to allow the,
hands time to choose between the two evils. The condi-

arc _ going
of a general bankruptcy, unconsoled even by the prospect
+lint nftpv +lwo vetting they pan lives nnalnw

tion of 16,000 workers is involved in that town alone ;-
and, whatever be the result, increased suffering is inevi-
table. In Ashton and Staleybridge a further suspension
is in prospect ; and here the working classes are already
sunk to the lowest state of want and weakness, many of
them scarcely having strength sufficient to get through
their reduced weekly labour, and t 6 crawl at the close of
the day to their miserable homes. Bolton, Blackburn,
Preston, and other towns, are in like case, both employers
and employed being equally sufferers, the former carrying
on their concerns at a loss of capital, r-id the latter work-
ing for wages barely sufficient to pay the rent of_their

cot tages and get half bread. It is needless to say that them-
tail tradesman shares largely in_ the suffering thus created.

Le Undue: and cruel competition of untaxed foreign labour

thisncoliniry are in no degree caused by the conduct of
the Bank•of England, but entirely by the want of confi-
dence caused by Sir Robert Peel's Free-trade measures.
This is incontrovertibly a bullion, and not a Bank of
England, panic ; and one which will convulse the mo-

Lombard-strest

To be sure we have not as yet got a bullion panic in
the shape of a run upon the bank, and this shows the
bank's innocence of the cause of the suction of gold ; but
we have a bullion panic in the higher and less equivocal

sense of a run on the country for gold, and from the en,
during cause that it• is the most profitable and disposable
property foreigners can take abroad.
I have said that Sir Rob:rt Peel's Free-trace measures
will render a depreciation of the currency inevitable.
I do not believe that the Bank of England will be able
to sell Government securities, so as to prepare for the
payment of the July dividends, unless Parliament, before
it rises, passes a no less sweeping measure than MAKING

In those districts (principally the manufacturing vil-
lages and isolated works) where the practice too much

prevails of • compelling each operauNe w ueetniiu vim
tenant of a cottage owned by his employer, the wages
received in many cases barely cover the rent, which is
deducted from his earnings. Complaints of the stern
exaction of rent in these localities are too common. As
an additional tax, the operative,_ although working only

SILVER SHILLINGS A LEGAL TENDER TO ANY AMOUNT,

............... , .
half time, and deprived of the food requisite to enable
him to support nature, is expected to contribute, and
does contribute, a portion of his earnings towards the
maintenance of those totally unemployed. The condition
of the latter may be judged of when we state that two

AND,7ALLOWING THE BANK OF ENGLAND AND Al;
OTHER BANKS TO ISSUE (confined by Sir Robert Peel's

and sixpence :a week the extent of relief affo:
each family from this source.

regulations) ONE POUND

As a natural result of the severe deprivation to be found
in the manufacturing districts, fever is becoming rife
amongst the working population. In Manchester it has
been found necessary to hire a factory in Long Millgate,
formerly worked by Messrs. Clegg and Norris, for the
reception of patients. A more unfortunate selection as
to locality could scarcely have been made, the situation
being low, in- the heart of a dense population, and close

in• aea o
upon the filthy waters of the river Irk. As the summer
advances, it is greatly to be feared that an awful spread
of disease and mortality will result, not only here, but
throughout the manufacturing districts. To add to the
.1" misery of the population, .the tide of immigration of
Lt beggars and paupers from Ireland continues to increase,

['his would, by raising gold to a market price, place the
foreign trade on the same foot'
draws nn fral

of the dep-reciation of the silver currency

It will soon become evident that gold cannot be had
except at a premium, and then will come the run on the
Bank of England, not from shippers only, but also by
parties to hoard for the premium.
Such are the direct and legitimate consequences of Sir
Robert Peel's departure from the principle of protection
to British labour at home and abroad.
I believe that he has undermined the prosperity, and

contagion

abits to promote the spreaC

struck a fatal blow at the integrity of the empire
Even the National debt of England will 1
only so much waste paper if we pc
suicidal course, for it is secured onl
the empire, from which we have tak

fonfid to be

and their filtl
and suffering.
Altogether the picture presented in these once hives of
industry is most distressing ; and the most sanguine dare
not flatter himself with the prospect of any speedy im-
provement. The question appears to be, not how soon
business may be expected to take a turn fur the better,
but how long the manufacturer and the spinner will be
enabled, without ruin to themselves, to give work at all
In r.nnnlatinn whn lnnk nn to them for bread.

silt in our present
v by the industry of

n away the ability to
perform peculiar duties and bear peculiar burdens, by the
removal of all its peculiar privileges.
One shudders to think of the individual misery which
will be inflicted on the population here, if we persist in
viewing the currency and Free-trade as two questions in-
stead of one, as in reality they are—a fact that you know
well, froin the cruel experience of Canadian industry,
when the Legislature of the State of New York stopped
specie payments iu 1837.
And begging you not to suppose for a moment that I
am less the irreconcileable opponent of class interests
than you knew me when I had the honour to represent
the metropolis in the first parliament of United Canada,
I remain, 'Gentlemen, your obedient humble servant,
ISAAC BUCHANAN.

TESTIMONIAL OF RESPECT.
We last week made a passing allusion to the handsome

parishioners of Prescot, on the reverend gentleman's re-
moval to Bootle, but our space would not admit of the
rev. gentleman's reply, the substance of which we now
give as nearly as we could report it :
" My dear Sir,—Let me offer you and the many kind
friends around me, my sincere, grateful, and warmest
thanks for the very handsome present you have just
offered to my acceptance, and for the (too partial, I am
afraid) opinion you have expressed of my ministry among
you. It is no easy matter to clothe with language the
very simplest emotions of the heart, when those emotions
are the offspring of gratitude and affection. At some
period or other, no doubt, you have all experienced this
difficulty ; and therefore, if I should fail to convey to you

e impress:

upon me, I am relieved by the cheering conviction, t
you can well conceive what I would exnmss if tho I,
CAUTION TO CAR DRlVERS.—Yesterday, at the Police-
court, Birkenhead, a car driver named Jamgs Darbvshire
was fined 205., or in default to be imprisoned 7 days, for' left the tongue at liberty.
foofryyoourur
gliifbtesrality and ki
being drunk while driving his car.
L -On slat- ' - last, was launched from the that I have IT

_..relay ,
building-yard of Peter Cato and Co., a beautiful yacht,
of 34 tons, 0.M., and 25 tons N.M. She is called the
Echo, and was christened by the first and amiable daugh-
ter of John Miller, Esq., of Everton. We believe the
yacht is on sale.

As it is, I can only thank you
dness. Believe me, the value

is not a little enhanced by the recollection
n..454;111/4 claim anon you for such a demon-

stration of .you; esteem and, generous feeling towards me.
I did, indeed, humbly endeavour to fulfil the sacred obli-
gations incumbent upon me, as one of those to whom the
oversight of you in the Lord was committed ; but I am
conscious that I might have risen to a higher standard—l
might W:*b ffreater dilitreupp and faithfulness have sought

IRISH IMMIGRATION INTO LIVERPOOL AND
EMIGRATION FROM OUR PORT.

As the immigration into Liverpool of the population of
Ireland is becoming increasingly interesting to those rate-
payers who are burthened with their support, and to the
country at large, whose charity is taxed with their habits
of mendicity, we have considered it our duty to endeavour
to arrive at as correct statistical details as is possible of
the number which have reached our shores during the pre-
sent year, and the proportion, of which we have been re-
lieved by their subsequent emigration to the United States
and Canada. By the kind assistance of the head consta-
le of T rt ref-

_averpool, Mr. Dowling, by whom a corre.
has been kept since the 13th of January last, when the
evil became pressingly apparent, we are enabled to give
the following statement ;
Arrivals.
From 13th to end of January

Estimate from commencement to 13th Jan
February _ _

2,062
1,022
1,413
1,012
1,000
1,299
1,513

Women. Children.
14,517 8,783

860
3,804
620
2,220
1,484
1,671
2,155

554 3,704
423 2,313
538 2,797
361 1,858
338 1,787

5,171 3003

Grand total, from January Ist

To Ist Apr.l
Faom Ist April to this date

138,528

29,201 persons,
13,948 ~

Total since commencement of year 43,149 ~
of which we may set down 40,400 as natives of Ireland,
leaving 3149 as the emigration from this country and
Scotland, and 98,528 persons as the number remaining
in Liverpool in a state Of pauperism or mendicancy, wait-
ing' for vessels to emigrate, or gone into the interior of
the country.

Undoubtedly a large portion of the last quoted number
(98,528) are intending to emigrate, and are only kept

emigrant vessels went out it Tuesday and the following
days, up to yesterday. and nearly the whole of those load-.
ot be far wrong in calculating

ing are _ _
that the number thus waiting is z
since the 11th, or 17,500 person
the large number f 80,000 perso
counted itr.

equal to the arrivals
This will still leave

It is remarked that the class of persons recently arriv-
ing have been principally composed of the_ middle. and
_ _

tion of the sexes and of children for the last seven days, to
shew the valuable sort of population which we are losing, and
America and Canada gaining. Thus the men. arrived
from the 11th to the 18th were 9326 ; the women, 5171 ;
and the children, 3003—the first outnumbering the two
latter. Such emigrants must be generally the young and
the able, not the mere outscourings of a famishing
country.

It would be an interesting object of inquiry, if it could
be ascertained, what amount of bullion is withdrawn from
the country by such parties. Of course, we can only be
allowed a guess ; and we shall, perhaps, not be far wrong

if we set down as the lowest average sum for each male
emigrant at £lO. In many. cases it must be much higher.
Taking five-eighths of the whole number gone to he
males,. we have thus £250,000 in gold to be added to the
exports, which constitute the Ban of England's ascer-

.wealthy mendicants who swarm in our streets, it would
be hard to say.

ITION OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND

We have already called attention to an admission by a very

eminent authority on Free Trade

-the London Time

there is little hope existing that our imports of bread stuffs

admission, with the fact staring us in the face that specie is
rapidly leaving the country; that the coffers of the Bank of
England are rapidly being drained of bullion, notwithstanding
the efforts made to repress speculation by the rise of the rate
of interest to five per cent, and the caution—even at that
price--with which the Bank is dealing with the commercial
world in its selection of paper for discount.

The Times of yesterday, remarking upon the position of that
establishment, says,—

de stat

turns of the Bank of England published to.4lray_ took me

parties by surprise, in the- fact 6f the notes and bullion now
held in the banking department having diminished to 43,463,628
(being a reduction during the week of .4'927,842), while their

the total dejosits

nd hence the efts

holding of accommodation from the public has been fhr more
than counteracted by advances to the Government."

The question, however, with us is not whether the Bank of
England has acted prudently, but whether that establishment,
under the existing state of affairs, possesses any power to pro-
tect either its own shareholders or the public. Our imports
must be paid for in something valuable-- *, tact.

metals.

. „in the precious
. There is no alternative between that course and an
action upon-the currency, which some parties will regard as
n declaration of insolvency. We know not
nue; but we
that drain.

how long the drain upon us for bullion may Cont
know well the small amount of our power to mee.
And it will be wise in Government, the bank,

well-informed correspondent, Mr. Isaac Buchanan, the late
Vice-president of the Board of Trade, in Canada, in which some
most valuable hints will be found. Mr. Buchanan, we may re-
mark, is no theorist ; has no class interests to serve, and it may
be remembered that, in our own paper and in other publica-
tions, he pointed distinctly, when the Free-trade measures of
Sir Robert Peel's administration were in agitation, to the
coming of the very crisis under which we are now labouring.