The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-05-22 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS,

The letter' of " Placidus" Would subject us to au action for libel
t• if insetted.
The poetry of " illi. K. J." has been received.
The request. of "A Liberal Prosestant" shall be complied with,
it possible.

Zije iiibrrpoot

TUESDAY MORNING, MAY 22, 1838.

The Publication of the STA N DA It D commenced this morn-

ing at 5 o'clock.

Tue BUDGET.— —The Chancellor •of the Exchequer
brought forward his'iontg deferred budget on Friday last,
and a sorry exhibition of himself did he make on the oc-
casion. Well might Colonel Sibthorpe say that he had
!lever seen a Chancellor of the Exchequer rise in the
To-use of Commons with such a pallid countenance.
(Well might he say that he looked the very picture of de-
*''Pair• Instead ,of rambling through a speech of six •
or
~,le":11coltnns, as in farmer years, dilating upon the gal-
..protill'!°sPects of the country, and holding. out splendid
.11104 e 4 of a reduction of taxation, Mr. Spring Rice
estiy.
contented himself on Friday with an oration of
much
nl°re moderate dimensions. The exposition which
- of the financial condition. of the country was
atcholy in the extreme. He '113;l no bright
Zia„Qt which his eye could rest, and in deseri-
iCl.lg which he might lavish his eloquent self-gratu-
'°ll3. All behind was dreary and: confused— all
"efore
was dark and unpromising. The revenue of
• al't,)ar,cOr.Apared with the year heforelast, has declined
• to
t" (.x;-'it of nearly three millions. The expenditure
rtithe last ve e:..,,eeds the receipts by nearly half a
am (.:,e (h liciency is to be made up by an in-
'ere'liged issst; tJ. exchequer bills. Such is the sum and
substance of Air. Spring Rice's budget.. He stated the.
I'liscaleulation of the year before at £1,422,000.—an
abtlndant proof of his utter incapacity for the managerni-nt
of our financial affairs. But his estimate falls short of
ht. R.-.
I:e 'mai truth, as the following figures will demonstrate:
I. estimated Income for the year end-
Attul itv rpincomh April 18.38, Was £47,240,000
p
46,090.000
Ttle
Deficiency
stirn
ittea
Actual Expenditure
endEx
Surplus of Expenditure 47,511,000

1,150,000

616,000

g 1,798.000
But. Mr.
.Rice insists that the deficiency and the surplus
or expenditure were alike unforeseen, and that it was,
therefore, ituposti ible for bins to have formed a better es-
timate than he did. On this point we find the following
apposite remar— in the radical /Spectator
4dp.litting Lis great ilkappoiotuient in the actual results of

the last financial year, Mr. Rice referred to the average orthe
last two years—he wished, in fact, to be allowed to spread the
deficiency of 1837-8 over two years ; and the average excess of
income over expenditure would then be £217,000. He attri-
buted.the excess of the actual over the estimated expenditure
for the last year to the payment of £681,000 on account of the
Canada war, the necessity of providing for the whole amount of
the interest on the West India loan—£750,00(1; the earlier
payment of £200,000 for interest on Exchequer bills,•in conse-
quence of a change made to obviate the inconvenience of a
large amount becoming due while parliament was not sitting;
and to the general advance•on the interest of Exchequer bills.
Of these items, it is plain that the Canada war expenditure
alone was unexpected,. The others must. or -might have been
foreseen when Mr. Rice made hisfinancial statement last year;
but, taken altogether, they do not make up the amount of the
deficiency."

We see no reason for conceding that the Canada war
expenditure was unexpected. To any one that bestowed
any attention upon the signs of the times, it was long
since evident that the seeds of rebellion had been sown
in Canada before Mr. Rice made his estimate of last
year's expenditure. The Secretary for the Colonies was
at the time in possession of documents which .ought to
have put Government upon their guard, and induced
them to Make preparations to meet the contingency of
an insurrection. To Joseph Hume such an event was
by no means unexpected, even while he was endeavour-
ing to cripple the resources of the executive by still fur-
ther reductions in the estimated expenditure of the
year.

In dilating on the causes of the deficiency in the reve-
nue:during the past year the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer was equally blundering and unfortunate. The bur-
den of interest payable on the \Vest Indian loan and the
increased outlay occasioned by a high rate of interest on
Exchequer bills ought to have been anticipated in his
estimate of last year. if Mr. Spring Rice had been a
wise and prudent statesman he would have taken these
circumstances into his calculation ; but Mr. Spring-Rice
happens to be anything but a wise and prudent man, and
that-ihas caused a very great difference between his es-
timate and the actual results.

11/.:,RHces allusion to the fever of speculation which
pervaded the country in 1836 is exceedingly, comical.
At
.the time when that speculative spirit was manifested
the yhig ChancellorA:the Excheqvr boasted of it as a
proOf, of the presperitY'Of the ectirit7il—as a proof of the
superabundance of capital, for ,which it It;Tas difficult to
provide a-dequate employment. The same whig tinancier
now imputes a large'share of 'nth-late depression to that
very system----a system to which, for temporary objects,
the whig goVernment had affolded every encouragement
in their power.
Aslo the future Mr. Rice could hold out none of those
splendid promises in which it has been his habit to in-
dulge. He could not promise any reduction of taxation.
The improvident and culpable condtct of the govern-
ment in reference to the affairs of Canada will .eventn-
allyentail upon the country an extraordinary expendi-
ture of upwards of one million. All this might have
been saved if the whigs had not connived at the prornO-
te.rs of the rebellion. But as it is impossible for the
whigs to carry on their measures without the assistance
Of .Hume*and his tail, the whigs are contented to saddle
the country awith all this. unnecessary expense in order
to purchase the support of the traitorous faction.

SERGEANT TALFOURD'S COPYRIGHT BILL.—,AS this is
;a-measure which, in a greater. or less degree, affects
every individual in Great Britain, we feel called upon to
offer a few remarks upon the subject. In doing so we
shall endeavour to abstain as much as possible from any
of those coarse personalities in which the radical repre-
sentati% e of Finsbury recently indulged in the House of
Commons. The bill ought to be judged upon its own
merits, irrespectively of any isolated instances which
might be adduced to show the operation of the present
law of copyright.
That the Bill of Mr. Sergeant Talfourd will materially
affect the literature of the country is,.of course, obvious.
To prevent speculation in the art of bookselling may be
legitimate employment for the legislature; but it cannot
be injurious to such labours to notice one or two evils
which the proposed bill will positi7ely inflict, whether
the expected benefits to authors be realised or not.

It is a sound maxim in political economy, that no one
department of art is independent of some other ;. and the
relation between authors, publishers, and printers, is so
intimate, that it may well be asserted, that no one of
them could exist without the other. In Mr. Talfourd's
bill, the book is spoken of as the author's sole property ;
but before it can become •a book, a few transforming
Processes are necessary ; every man, however remotely,
connected in its getting up, could with all propriety lay
hisjiand upon it, and say, " this is my work."
The first assumption of Mr. Talfourd, therefore, is
untrue.

There is a second maxim in political economy equally
unquestionable, that no one branch of art or manufacture
can be unduly advanced, but at the expense of some
others. Mr. Talfourd pfoposes to grant by law, what
can only accrue by fact, and which no law can prevent,
if just,—an additional endowment to authors, at the ex-
pense of the other parties engaged in the production of
books.

Mt. Talfourd's purpose is therefore unjust.
On this part of the subject, at. least in so far as the
printing business is concerned, a few illustrations may
not be out of place. By the present law, a book is pro-
perty for twenty-eight years; and the result is, that
many books, which one publisher might print and circu-
late during that time lie dormant, because the present
holder of the copyright either will not, or cannot, do it
himself. This evil, sufficiently glaring, is proposed to be
increased, by adding sixty years to the term of copy-.
right ;:--on the plea, that authors should have a longer
personal interest in their own works. No man need de-
sire that an author should be paid less than he can get,
for that is to desire what is impossible. The question is,
.has Mr. Talforird proved that authors will be more highly
remunerated under the proposed bill ? The evidence of
a few of the leading publishers has already settled this

point.

It
may be supposed, that by the extension. of copy-
right, if the author does not derive the benefit the pub-
lisher will. But even this is highly problematical. All
-fiscal regulations on trade are injurious, and much more
so"in departments where as much depends upon the time
and manner, as or. the matter of publication: The pub-
s are now, to a certain extent, classified, &anti:pub-
lishing,. in a -more or less degree,-books relating to his
own department, But will a • scientific publisher, aril's
suceeS'sur, be .of that.class sixty years hence?.' Will his
present copyrights be available to his then. connexiOns?'
This, also, could be better proved by publishers them.
selves titan by Mr. Talfourd.

Private interest must give way to public benefit. This
third maxim is one on which the members of the printing
business have some light to expatiate. By turning from
the law of copyright to that on patents, it will at once be
seen, that printing is now accomplishetl in a somewhat
different manner from what it formerly was, and that to
theinjury of .operative printerS generally.
By the invention of stereotype, the re-composition of
books was rendered unnecessary; and by the introduc-
tion of Machinery, the duplication of the daily •newspa--
pers fell into disuse, and long numbers were. no longer
sent to press. From these inventions, however, the pub-
lic reaped immediate and much advantage, and the inter-
est of, the few gave way to that of the many.
The judicious and proper publication of any one parti-
cular book is as much a personal invention as the manu-
script of the book itself; and if two or more publishers
can compete in these inventions, will not the public reap
the benefit ? to this case, such inventions will be for the
perpetual advantage of tl:e printing business, as those
before spoken of were to its temporary injury ; and
hence the paramount interest which printers generally
have in 11 tight disposal of the question.
" Leave well alone," is an excellent remedy for diffi-
culties Which present no outlet, and, so far as practical
skill and individual enterprise are concerned, it would be
better if parliament, instead of proffering assistance,
would stand aloof, and leave private men to settle their
own private matters.

But if Mr. Talfourd's purpose is bad, (for the printing
busin,,ss,) his manner of effecting it is worse. 'He ad-

wits, in fact, that hiS plan will not work, and mates a
number of exceptions, which, had he consulted practical
men, he would never have so far committed himself in
making. By the fifth clause of his bill he gives an ex-
isting copyright to the publisher for twenty-eight years;
and if the author has died ih the interim, the copyright
is, after the twenty-eight expire, to revert to the author's
heirs for the balance of sixty years, counted from the
author's death, which may be any number from 1 to 59.
By the se vent!), the publisher can sell, during these sixty
years, whatever number of copies lie may have left on
hand at the expiration of the twenty-eight. Here the
copyright is printed paper, instead of author's manu-
script.

By the eighth
.clause, under the same circumstances.
if the work has been yereotyped, the publisher can prin
from these plates during all the sixty years, provided
only that the plates last so long. It is not an-uncommon
circumstance, where immunity from taxation or rent is
given to a particular building so long as it lasts, that
every sort of repair is given beyond the price of a new
erection, that the immunity may be retained; and, under
such circumstances, the repair of stereotype plates would
be its parallel. By this clause the copy right is in plates.
The best authors, therefore, whose works are gene-
rally stereotYped,'.9m• „derive no benefit whatever from
the act; the publicliG4ll be compelled to read coarse and
ill-printed editions—new types NVill be idle—the art of
printing will retrograde. And this is called—" the en-
couragement of learning."
. Mr. Talfourd, it is true, anticipates that the public will
not be so satisfied, and attempts to provide against it. I
any author or publisher neglect to reprint or republish a
work within five years after the author's death, or five
years after the twenty-eight from the date of its publica-
tion, any person who may remember such a hook to be
in existence,. (thirty-three years after its publication,)
may apply to the Court of Chancery for permission to
print it, after having given one or two years notice to
the original thirty-five years copyright holder, and the
Lord Chancellor may grant such permission, if the origi-
nal publisher has not then republished it. • Thus one
man'S idea, that he could make a certain bocdpay its ex,-'
pease of publication, must have entailed upon it a two
years' Chancery suit, and the risk added, that the origi-
nal publisher, who, in all likelihood, had himself forgot
it, avail himself of the said idea, republish
_the book
on another man's hint, and leave him to .digeA the ex-
pense of his application to the Lord Chancellor as hebest
may. Can this be what the legislatOrs of Mr. Talfourd's
school call " a healthful 'competition, from which the
public derive much benefit."

IRISH TITHES.—THE APPROPRIATION' CLAUSE.—After
all the trumpeting of 'the whig-radical press about the
" glorious majority" obtained by ministers, on Tuesday
last, it appears that the conflict upon 1110 subject of Irish
'tithes has issued in a conservative victory. The leading
organ of the government thus prematurely rejoices over
the " prostrate tories"
" After gaining a victory, the next consideration is how to
turn it to the best advantage. We have given the tories a
heavy fall; and the question is, whether we should not repeat
the blow while they are in a position so convenient to receive
it.
.Let us hope that their defeat upon the Church question
will be followed as speedily as possible by another still more
humiliating upon that of Municipal Reform: Since beating is
to their taste, we advise Ministers to give them enough of the
amusement, and allow them as little pause as possible between
the strokes."

This is certainly bold language; but how has it been
followed up by the " gtorioils majority"? - Let us see.
The following very pithy conversation took place on the
subject in the House of Commons on Friday last :
„.

Sir Francis Burdett asked Lord John Russell, whether he
intended to go into Committee'on the Irish Tithe resolutions
on Monday?,
Lord Juhn Russell said, he did not, but would proceed with
the Irish Municipal Corporation Bill. He did not intend, how-
ever, to abandon the question of Irish Tithes; but if the Com-
mittee on the Municipal Corporation Bill had finished its la_
buurs by the Monday following, he would move a simple reso-
lution for converting the tithe into a rent-charge, on which he
should found a bill.

Sir Robert Peel but imperfectly understood Lord Jo,lin Rus-
sell; and it was impossible for him to state at the moment
what course he should take in the altered circumstances.
Would not Lord John Russell defer his -Committee on the Mu-
nicipal Corporation Bill till Friday ?
". Lord John Russell assented to this, postponement ; and in
further explanation of his tithe plan, repeated that he should
call upon the committee to adopt a resolution consisting solely
of this—that the tithe composition at present existing should be
changed into a rent charge : that would be the only object of
his proposition.
" Sir Robert Peel.—Aut Ito understand that the noble lord's
proposition will be limitted to the conversion of tithe-composi-
tion into rent-charge ?
" Lord John Russell.—Yes.

Sir Rohert Peel--I will meet that concession in the same
spirit in which it was made. I, however, reserve to myself the
right to take an unfettered course. If I decide on taking a
course on Friday hostile to the municipal bill, I will give full
notice of that intention, to prevent any unfair advantage."
From this conversation it would appear that the Tithe
Bill Committee is to be postponed to Monday next, and
that the Irish Municipal Bill is to be introduced on Fri-
day. Both measures will, in consequence,.pass under the
notice of the House of Commons nearly at the same
time, and it is next to imposSible, in the present state of
public business, that these bill can reach the House of
Lords before the Coronation takes place. Although
Lord john: Russell declares that his proposition relative
to the Irish church will be limited to the concession of
tithe-composition into rent-charge, it is very probable
that protracted discussions will take place on several of
the details of the bill. Nor is it unlikely that another
debate and another division will take place on the prin-
ciple of the bill.

It is now evident that the ministers have thrown the
appropriation clause overboard—that very clause upon
which they have repeatedly staked their official exist-
ence. Passing by the inconsistency of their conduct in
thus deserting a principle to which they were so strongly
pledged, we shall proceed to inquire whether'the present
Tithe Bill can be considered a final and satisfactory set-
ment of the Irish church question.
Will it be satisfactory to the protestants of England
and Ireland—to those who are sincerely attached to the
Established Church and who zealously desire tbe spread
of the doctrines of the Reformation ? We answer, no!
Every true protestant, views the church of Ireland as a
grand instrument for the moral and political ameliora-
tidn of that benighted and priest-ridden Country ; and
that it has already' proved efficient to this' great end is'.
abundantly proved by the .CriMinal statistics of the
several provinces of Ireland. Those portions of the
island in which popery is predominant are charaCterjsed
by an accumulation of the deepest crimes; those in
which,the civilising influence of protestantisrn. prevails
are comparatively'peaceful. In the province of Monster,
comprising only six counties, and with a
population of
2,227,152, the snm of £105,366 was required within the
last year for the repression of crime; whilst in the pro-
vince of Ulster, comprising nine counties, and with a
population of 2,286,622, the amount required for that
purpose was only £68,090. What has caused this great
disparity ? Why is crime so rampant in. Munster ?
We unhesitatingly attribute the pre-eminence in delin-
quencv of its population to the malignant, debasing, and
brutalising influence of poperp,---popery, the greatest
curse which ever afflicted any nation on the face of the
earth. Seeing, then, that the spread of protestantistn in
Ireland is the spread of peace, of virtue, of industry, and
loyalty—that the eradication of popery is the rooting
out of brutality, vice, indolence, and disaffection; it is
impossible for any one who wishes well to Ireland, or,
in other words, Who wishes to see protestantismregnant
in that country, to hail with any degree of satisfaction
any measure which may emanate from a ministry so ob-
sequious to the demands of the popish faction asLord
John Russell and his associates in office. The English
protestants have reason to deprecate the introduction of
any such measure as that propounded by the leader of
the House of Commons, lest it should afford a precedent
for the spoliation of the Established Church in England
The bill, therefore, roust be considered as objectionable
by every sincerely attached friend of Protestantism:

But will it prove satisfactory to the Irish olergy—,the
party most deeply implicated in all its enactments ? We

LIVERPOOL SiA NDARb.