The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-02-24 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

SIR ROBT. PEEL'S FREE-TRADE STATISTICS

( From his speech on Monday nit.)

RELATION OF THE PRICE OF WHEAT TO THE RENTAL
OF THE KINGDOM.—What I want to show is this, that
agricultural prosperity has no necessary connection with
the price of wheat. (Hear, hear.) It is admitted that
never was there a period when science has been so much
applied to agriculture—when so many improvements have
been made—and when the cost of production was so much
reduced, as it has been within the last three or four years.
Let us see what is the price of wheat—and I would ob-
serve that there is a natural tendency in the price of
wheat to decline, quite apart from legislation—let us take
the price of wheat for the ten years ending 1805 ; the
price then was 81s. ; for the ten years ending 1815, it was
975. 6d. ; for the ten years ending 1825, it was 78s. Bd. ;
for the ten years ending 1835, it was 565. 7d. ; for the ten
years ending 1845, 575. lid. Now, what was the average
for the last four years, during which it is admitted great
improvements were made in agricultural science. The
average of the last four years was only 51s. 10d. Thus,
it has fallen from 975. 6d., 78s.'8d , 81s. 2d., and yet it is
admitted that agricultural prosperity never was more
marked, or that greater improvements were made than
within that period. And therefore, if there should be a
continued fall in the price of wheat, do not attribute it to
the operation of the law—it may be the result of scientific
improvements, and even the reduced price of wheat shows
the increased extent of agricultural resources. I would
now compare the rental of land in this country, as taken
from the property-tax returns, with the price of wheat.
The rental of 1815 was £32,532,000; the average price of
wheat for five years, ending 1815, was 102 s. sd. ; for five
years, ending 1842, the price of wheat was 645. 7d. ; and
yet the gross rental of the country had then risen from
£32,000,000 to £37,000,000. (Cheers.) So that, instead
of a great fall in the price of wheat, there had been a
great increase in the rental of land. I quite admit there
was a difference in the currency ; if you take off ten per
cent. from the price of 100 shillings on account of the
difference in currency, you must take off ten per cent, on
the rental of £32,000,000. Take off a proportion on both
sides, and still it will leave them unquestioned, that with
a great reduction of the price of wheat, there bad been a
great increase of agricultural prosperity.
THE QUESTION OF HOSTILE TARIFFS.—It is not a
fact that every country' is determined to meet you with
hostile tariffs. (Hear, hear.) No, there are countries
which you, perhaps, least expect, and to which I did in-
justice, perhaps. by not naming before—as Sardinia,
which has already set the example of a free importation
of your goods and manufactures. (Hear, hear.) Naples
will shortly follow the example of Sardinia. (Hear.)
And Prussia, I can tell you, is already shaken. (Cheers.)
France is desirous of following these examples. These
countries have been controlled by the aristocracies of
their manufactures and commerce, which exercise a pre-
ponderating weight in their chambers; but the opinion of
sensible men not interested in protection is bearing upon
willing governments, and they are desirous of following
your course, and of reciprocating the benefits you may
offer to them. (Loud cheers.) Then the United States.
(Hear, hear.) I believe you will give by this measure an
encouragement to that party in America which is in favour
of commercial intercourse with this country.
GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH SILK TRADE.—Daring the
ten years which immediately preceded the year 1823, the
total amount of raw silk imported into this country, under
the old system, was nineteen millions of pounds. Iluring
the next ten years it was thirty-nine millions, and during
the next decennial period, that terminating in the year
1843, it was fifty-two millions. (Hear, hear, and loud
cheers.) Could any eloquence of any human tongue,how-
ever gifted, speak more potently than do these figures?
(Cheers.) Under the prohibitory system the quantity of
foreign silk imported was nineteen millions—when that
system was relaxed, it increased from nineteen millions to
fifty-two millions. On that fact alone I might base my
vindication. And now I will give you a statement of the
aggregate consumption of raw silk after the duties were
relaxed. During the first decennial period after the re-
laxation, the average consumption was 1,540,000tb5. ; dur-
ing the second, 3,968 000Ibs.—(bear, hear)—during the
third, 5,200,0001b5. (Loud cheers.) There-was a further
reduction of protection in the year 1842, and the results
were equally satisfactory. The gross resuit of the experi-
ment shoes that whereas under a strict and inexorable
system of prohibition the quantity of silk consumed in
our manufactures averaged no more than 1,940,000 lbs. in
each year ; in the year 1844, when a wiser and more libe-
ral policy was adopted, our consumption was no less than
26,400,000t1 s. (Loud cries of hear, hear.) * * Look
at the state of the silk trade at this moment. The French
have been long accustomed to plume themselves upon
their silk manufactures. But it may, perhaps, surprise
not a few of those who are now listening to me, to learn
that last year, with our relaxed tariff, we actually exported
to France more silk than we exported to the whole uni-
verse in any year under the protective system. (Hear,
hear.) And there is no branch of manufactures in which
the same improvement is not observable. lam prepared
to prove this; and could enter into matters of the most
minute calculations in support of the assertion.
EFFECT OF THE REDUCED DUTY UPON FOREIGN
FEATHERS.—In the year 1842 we reduced the duty upon
foreign feathers. When it was understood that this re-
duction was in contemplation, an extensive dealer in the
article, who resides in Cork, came to me in an agony of
anxie.l, and gravely assured me that the proceeding in
which I was about to engage was the most revolting,
cruel, and hard-hearted measure that it bad ever entered
into the mind of man to conceive. (Laughter.) In fact,
he represented to me that the absolute ruin of every one
engaged in the feather trade would be the inevitable con-
sequence of the reduction, and he calculated that the-in-
jurious results would be felt in an especial degree in Ire-
land. He said that he was in the habit of purchasing
large quantities from the Irish farmers, who were more
provident with respect to their feathers, and set greater
value upon them than the English, and he represented
that this source of revenue would be entirely removed
from them if the duty were relaxed. His representations
were pathetic and moving in the extreme. But I was not
to be diverted from my purpose. We reduced the duty
on feathers, and I have the happiness to inform the
house, that many weeks have not elapsed since 1 received
a letter from the some gentleman, in which be admits
that he was totally in error, that he was but a sorry pro-
phet, and he returns me thanks for the firmness with
which I adhered to my purpose, in despite of his repre-
sentations, and those of many others similarly circum-
stanced. He had given me to understand that, before
the alteration was effected in the tariff, he was in the ha-
bit of purchasing about 100 tons of feathers annually in
Ireland, for which he paid at the rate of 20s. per stone,
and herein consisted almost the entire of his traffic.
But observe how his fortunes are improved. He now in-
forms me that, during the last year, he imported 250 tons
of feathers from Russia, and that in Ireland he purchased
150 tons, instead of 100 tons as heretofore, and that he
paid for them to the Irish farmer at the rate of £l2s. 10d.
per stone, being an advance of 2s. 10d. per stone upon
the price which the article fetched under a higher duty.
So much for my friend's prediction that his own trade
was about to be lost, and the Irish farmers ruined. But
there is another circumstance connected with this com-
munication which is highly gratifying, as evidencing the
increase in the comforts of the poor, which results from a
liberal policy in commerce. He tells me that his princi-
pal customers are the miners of Cornwall, whose condi-
tion of late years has become so much improved that a
feather bed is no longer a rare luxury amongst them ; and
their orders to my correspondent are daily becoming
more numerous. This is a trivial matter, and yet I have
not thought it wholly irrelevant to allude to it.
WHAT SHOULD BE THE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE
LANDLORD AND THE FARMER.—Referring to a supposed
dialogue between a landlord and his tenant, related by
Mr. S. O'Brien, in which the former is represented as
stating that a manufacturer, who is able to improve the
yield of the soil from three quarters per acre to five, pay-
ing a full rent, and that the latter is likely to be dispos-
sessed; his farm being let to the highest bidder, the right
hon. baronet continued :—" Well, now, I will suggest
another speech, and a better speech to be made by this
landlord: My good fellow—(laughter)—let us both start
with this advantage. Your forefathers have been buried
in the churchyard of this hamlet. Your forefathers ',eve
had their fortunes intimately connected with those of
mine. It is possible that a stranger may outbid you in
this farm. Under these protecting laws, your land, which
ought to produce five quarters, only produces three, and
public opinion will hardly tolerate this. (Hear.) That
there shall be no foreign corn imported, but that the na-
tural fertility of our own soil shall be promoted. We must
really, therefore, take some measures for increasing the
produce of this farm from three quarters to five. (Hear,
hear.) But I have the advantage of the new tariff.

(Hear, hear.) lam enabled to purchase my commodities
at a lower rate—(hear, hear)—and I intend to apply the
saving in your assistance and in the improvements which
I wish to effect. (Cheers.) I will not, therefore, turn
you out of your farm ; I will not let the manufactdrers
come here ; but it is for your interest and for mine that
the land which can bear five quarters shall not bear three.
(Hear, hear.) You have not capital, perhaps; you have
not science ; I can afford you both—l will lend you capi-
tal, I will get you the aid of science to assist your im-
provements, to assist you in the education of your son,
and enabling him to succeed you. (Hear, hear.) I will
cut down the trees that encumber your land, and let you
and me together keep out the foreign invader—the manu-
facturer. (Hear, hear, and a laugh.) But let us now, by
the application of capital and industry, improve this farm,
and let it be handed down to my son and to yours in an
improved state. (Cheers.) Let five quarters be pro-
duced where three have been before. That will be for the
benefit of both landlord and tenant, and your son's son
shall be buried in this churchyard.' (Hear hear, and
laughter.) Suppose the tenant should say, But this is
a labourer's question.' I should answer then, My good
friend, but if we can make this land, which now produces
three quarters, produce five, we shall employ more labour
—we shall have a greater demand for labour, and all
parties will be benefitted, and the state will he improved.
The guarantee for the rent will be enhanced, your com-
fort increased, and all this by the application of a little of
that saving which the honourable gentleman says that the
rich are to derive from the tariff.'

MURDERS AND SUICIDE AT CAMBERWELL

Shortly after seven o'clock on Monday morning', the
neighbourhood of Southampton-street, Camberwell, was
thrown into consternation by the frantic screams of a wo-
man who had just made her escape, by the back door of
No. 5, Wellington-place, a small cottage residence only
one story high. The first person who repaired to the
spot was Mr. Pratt, a surgeon, who resided at No. 4,
and who, upon entering, was horror-struck at the scene.
In an upper room, upon the floor, lay the lifeless body
of M. Philarete Iloreau, a Frenchman, aged 53, with his
throat. cut from ear to ear ; on the bed, hie son, aged 13,
quite dead, shockingly mutilated about the throat ; and in
the lower room, an.rther son, aged 11, with his throat cut,
a wound on the cheek, and his hand much lacerated, who
was at first supposed to be dead, but afterwards showed

some symptoms of life, though unable to articulate or give
the least account of the dreadful catastrophe; and in a
short time afterwards, a fitnale child, aged eight months,
was found dead in a rain-butt which stood in the garden,
but having no wounds whatever about its person.
Upon investigation we find that the unfortunate man
had resided at No. 5 for nearly the last twelvemonth,
supporting his family as a teacher of languages; but this
mode of existence had been so precarious, that for dome
time past they had suffered extreme privation and great
pecuniary embarrassment. M. Horeau had been in the
habit of rising about seven in the morning, and usually
took down stairs with him one of the twin infants (a male
and a female), who slept in the same bed as be and the
mother.

On Monday morning, upon dressing himself, he did the
same thing, taking the female child with him, and leaving
the male infant in bed with the mother. In a few minutes
the mother was alarmed by a loud shrieking, which she at
first attributed to the two elder boys quarrelling, and
therefore took no farther notice of the matter for a few
moments, but the shrieking being continued, she went to
the room, and upon opening the door was met by the
younger boy, who immediately ran down stairs bleeding,
at the bottom of which he fell down apparently lifeless ;
and, on entering the room, Mrs. H oreau saw her unfortu-
nate husband in the act of cutting his own throat, and be-
fore she could interpose he bad fallen down a corpse.
On looking farther, she discovered her eldest son dead
in the bed, but could not perceive any trace of her infant
child, who was, however, shortly afterwards discovered
to have been drowned in the rain butt. There is no doubt
whatever but that the unfortunate father proceeded to the
garden instantly on leaving his bed-room, and having
drowned the child, then ascended to the children's room,
where be afterwards perpetrated the other murder, com-
mitting suicide the moment an alarm was raised.
As no vital organ has been severed, hopes are entertained
that the younger boy's life will be saved. There seems to
be little doubt that, owing to their privations, temporary
insanity was the immediate cause of this shocking affair, as
his pecuniary embarrassments had for some weeks past
induced great depression of spirits.