The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-11-01 00:00:00

TUESDAY ifORICING, NOV. 1, 1853.

WHILE those who can,discern nothing-that lies
(deeper than the surface-are felicitating themselves
-on the great advantages which they choose to
-believe have been gained by Free-trade, there are
many circumstances which tarnish the spurious
gilding, and give occasion 130 the judicious to ques-
tion whether it was worth while risking so much
to gain so little. There is hardly an additional gain
that has served-to -swell-the note of triumph raised
by these Manchester -politicians, which -may not be
clearly traced to causes over which human wisdom
or foresight could have 'had no control. If Free-
trade promotedemigration,it was not on account of
the blessings which it-produced, but 'directly the
reverse, for the-miseries .which it occaiioned com-
pelled hundreds andlhouscmds to forsake the land
of their birth, kin order -to seek in other countries
a home and -subsistence which •were denied
them in this. The census of 1%1 tells the
melancholy tale of our rural villages: almost depo-
pulated, and most of our country towns show-
ing a diminution of numbers, while the only
evidence of increase -is in ithe seats of manufac-
tures and the-shipping ports, to which the peasan-
try had been driven as a last.resource. If-the phase
of internal affairs was a revival of manufacturing
industry, it was
e wing to. the increased ethigration,
and the demands of our distant colonists, stimu-
lated by the extraordinary discoveries. Otgold, to
which Free-trade contributed nothing. All that
our modern policy can claim .credit for is the
impetus which'has been given-to our 'foreign trade,
and when this:has been examined with aniimpar-
tial eye, the doubt may fairly he-raised whether it
is not a source rather of loss -than of gain.
The first step .which was Wien was -to discou-
rage the raising of our food on our own broad acres,
-by admitting to • our markets -the -produceuzlich
(contributed nothing to our Revenue, and did not
,even give us the -benefit of exchanging- one pro-
duct for another, as:every increase .of importation
;has led to a decrease of exportation in'thesame
direction. The consequence was a depreciationoof
:agricultural property,:by far the moat important
-interest in the kingdom, and such a (discourage-
ment to the cultivation ,of wheat, that ,now,- after
only a few years' experience, we are dependent for.
the -greater proportion of the most important
article for our subsistence tupon the surplus pro-
ductions of other countries. This is au evil of
such magnitude, that a quarrel between Turkey,and
Russia has augmented the -price of bread beyond
the :average during the mu& maligned times of
protection, and so all the dream of cheapness in
which the Manchester orators so fondly indulged
has proved a delusion. But this is by no means
the extent of the evil, for in dealing with foreigners
we have to oppose the principle of common honesty,
which was once the peculiar characteristic of
English trading, to the craft and fraud which
appear inseparable from the dealings tof our new
foreign customers. This is Particularly the case
in the corn trade from the ports on the Black Sea,
where it is a common practice to commit wholesale
frauds by having bills of lading signed in blank,
and transmitted to England with bills &awn
against these imaginary shipments ; and should
merchants here be weak enough to accept on the
faith of such securities, they afterwards find large
discrepancies between the actual and the alleged
quantities, and may seek for a remedy in, vain.
Last week we called attention to the risk in-
curred by British merchants in shipping by foreign
vessels, owing to the difference between our laws
and those of other nations, and the difficulty, if
not impossibility, of obtaining redress fori the
grossest injustice. This is one of the evils spring-
ing out of the repeal of the Navigation Laws, and
can only be met by merchants refusing to employ
vessels owned by foreigners, notwithstanding the
T
apparent temptation of lower rates of freight. .he trade in foreign fruit is another source of
dishonest practices, wherever they can be at-
tempted, through the ill-deserved confidence of
British merchants. An instance of this kind was
brought before the Liverpool Court of Passage, on
Tuesday last, which chows, at the least, the animus