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

6d., an

ioin 42

Figures the REDUCED

aced SALESMAN WANTED.

CONTINUE DURING THE PRESENT WEER

ANNUAL SALE OF
SOILED G O O D S,
AT A. HILLYARD CO.'S, 91, BOLD-STREET.
rpHE Ladies of Liverpool and the Public generally
I are respectfully informed, that the SALE of SOILED
GOODS will be continuedat the above Est,o-,*

[shment

GOODS

FOR ONE WI
:ed at the above
h instant. and

K AMOR

(Monday,) the 161
The Articles ar

aiellt, YESTERDAY

)r several days,
Selling. Price
Dresses. Bal;

md will i

WANCY for an Indoor -ii3PRENTICI

DEAFNESS AND OTHER DISEASES OF THE

I DR. WOLFF, PHYSICIAN, &c., from Berlin, who
has de-- tn this 'subject, and invented a
• ~,—*.mber.lB4s,)

3 HIS Sh,
o'clock,

'STINGS in

- .
DAWI3AR
_ TAILO]

AND
ND DRAPI

ARRIVAL OF

1W tal

imptrial Varltannitt.

HOUSE OF LORDS.-MONDAY.

Lord BE;t7moNT moved—for ;select committee to in-
uire into the.bualens on real property. He had ever
held that peculiar burdens and protection to agriculture
were intimately connected ; that either both must be con-
tinued or both removed ; and if the choice were before
him, he should prefer the continuation of both to the re-
peal of both. In a report of the Poor. law Commissioners
he found twenty-four distinct rates as raised entirely from
real property. but he wished to distinguish such of these
as were raised for local purposes from those which affected
the community at large. In this latter class the rates for
the maintenance of the poor, for the defence of the coun-
try, and for the administration of justice, were raised from
real property alone ; but yet the support of the poor was
a national object, just as much as the maintenance of jus-
tice and the national defences; nor (lid the original poor-
law ever contemplate levying these rates from one parti-
cular .class of property. He would next refer to the
highway-rate, which he considered a tax for general pur-
poses, since the towns profited so much, or more by the
road than the farmer by whose land it ran. The noble
lord, after exempting the tithe-charge and the land-tax,
then passed in review the malt-tax, the excise on bricks,
the hop duty, and the stamps on transfer of property, as
peculiar burdens on the landed interest, who, besides,
contributed their full share to the general taxation of the
country :and proceeded to say that he brought forward
the present motion as a matter of necessity, and not for
the sake of interfering with the measures of the govern-
ment. The fact was, Sir Robert Peel had put forth cer-
tain measures as a compensation to the landed interest,
which he (Lord Beaumont) considered as no compensation
at all. In his opinion it was impossible to estimate the
loss of protection, and he would defy the most ingenious
calculator to arrive at a satisfactory result. He respected
the courage and sincerity of Sir R. Peel, but if his mea-
sures were carried in the present parliament, it would not
be by the triumph of opinion, but in a trial of complai-
sance. Let the right honourable baronet appeal then to
the country, and gain his ends, if they were to be gained,
backed by a majority of the nation, instead of trusting to
an able manoeuvre in party politics.

. .
Lord STANLEY was anxious to enter his protest against
the opinion put forth by Lord Beaumont, that tithe was
not a peculiar burden on land ; on the contrary, he agreed
with Lord Brougham in thinking that the land-tax and
tithe were burdens upon land in the sense in which they
were now talking of burdens, and that in throwing these
on one side Lord Beaumont had thrown away the strong-
est part of his case. The claim of the titheowner. indeed,
was as sacred as the claim of the landowner ; and the pur-
chaser, in his individual capacity, had no right to com-
plain of the burden of tithes; because he paid less for his
property in consequence of their existence ; but the ques-
tion was very different when they had to consider whether
they were not in themselves a burden on land. Lord
Beaumont had looked upon the tithe mad rent as identical,
but he (Lord Stanley) denied their identity ; rent was the
urplus after the return for capital and profits, while tithe
was paid in the first instance before the farmer had any
profit, and before the landlord received his rent ; if the
land were unprofitable, the rent fell, but the claim of the
titheowner was undiminished, and undiminished
must be added to the price actually paid for tie produc-
tion of the corn. He concurred with Lord Beaumont in
his desire that the opinion of the country should be deli-
berately taken on the question.

The Duke of RICHMOND could not consider the corn-
laws settled, because he could not conceive any member of
the House of Commons would he sufficiently daring to
pass the bill contrary to every pledge they had given on the
hustings. If this measure passed, the excitement now go-
ing on would he still kept up, and he believed the League
would never be content till it had destroyed the Esta-
blished Church, and every other institution which the
house fel: called on to stand by and defend.
Lord GREY felt convinced that the landowners would
be found on investigation to bear less, instead of more,
than their due share of taxation.
Lord ASHBURTON had great doubts of the expediency
of the proposed committee, which was more likely to be a
scene of wrangling than productive of any important col-
lection of facts. It seemed impossible not to consider
tithes as a tax upon land, and the house should consider
that in the event of land going out of cultivation when
protection ceased, the first portion to go would be that
which paid tithe.
The motion as amended was agreed to, and the commit-
tee was nominated.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.—MoNnAY.

The Earl of March, Mr. Halsey, Lord A. Churchill,
Mr. Buck, and Sir J. Tyrrell, stoke against the govern-
ment measure. and Mr. M. Gibson, Mr. Dickenson, Sir
W. Clay, Lord H. Vane, and Mr. James, in favour of it,
after which,
Sir R. PEEL said that two important questions bad oc-
cupied the attention of the house during the last nights'
debate. The one, the manner in which a great party
should be conducted ; the other, the mode of averting a
great national calamity, and the way in which the future
commercial policy of the country should be administered;
and of these the former had occupied considerably the lar-
ger share of attention. 'With respect to that one, he
would at once admit that he had no defence. These mea-
sures were the worst for party purposes that could have
been devised ; but with respect to the latter, with a great
calamity impending, his duty to his Sovereign and to his
country forbade that he should be influenced by party mo-
tives when the very existence was at stake of a great por-
tion of the population. The right hon. baronet then re-
stated all the circumstances connected with his retire-
ment from office in December, and his shortly afterwards
resuming it, expressing at the same time surprise that the
noble lord had not formed a ministry, and his belief that
if be had formed one he would have succeeded in carrying
the measure. lie had nothing to complain of in the ex-
planation of the noble lord on a former evening, and in-
deed in a long course of opposition to each other he be-
lieved that no ground was given on either side for any-
thing like acrimonious feeling; but in order to prove the
sincerity of the support he proffered to the noble lord, he
quoted a letter written by himself at the time to her Ma-
jesty, in which he stated the measures he thought neces-
sary, and pledged himself to support his successor, know-
ing at the time from her Majesty that it was her intention
to send for Lord John Russell. He also in the same let-
ter pledged himself to support any increase which the
noble lord might think necessary to the army and navy
under the peculiar circumstances of the country. He
said that, to show that be was not disposed to rob others
of the credit of measures which they had always advo-
cated, but that on the contrary he was prepared td give
the noble lord the same cordial support which the noble
lord made it his boast that he was about to give him.
With respect to those of his party who had now with-
drawn from him their confidence, he must say that in his
situation he must know men's motives, and he believed
no gentlemen were ever actuated by more honourable
motives than those which actuated them ; but he would
tell them that the month of May would not arrive without
convincing even them that he would have been guilty of
treachery to his Sovereign and to that house if he had
taken any other course than that which be had adopted.
He would not attempt to conciliate parties by any expres-
sion of regret for the course he had pursued. So far from
it, he most solemnly declared that he looked back, as the
happiest moment of his life, to the day in which he had
proposed the opening of the ports, feeling that the great
object of a Minister ought to be, under such circumstan-
ces, to increase the quantity of food in the country. The
right hon. baronet then, in order to show the extent of
the calamity to be anticipated in Ireland, read letters
which he had only that and the previous morning received
from Sir David Roche, Lord Stuart de Decies, and others,
giving the most deplorable state of the potato crop, and
the consequent hazard of famine, if steps were not taken
to ward it off. The Government was doing all in its power
to meet the evil by establishing granaries from whence
corn might he furnished at low prices in return for labour.
If, as May approached, the danger should increase, could
he come down to the house to ask for £300,000 or
£400,000 out of the public purse, without calling upon
the landed interest to abate one letter of their law of pro-
tection ? It would be impossible. Under the pressure
of the Irish case, it would be out of all character to talk
of hoisting the banner of protection, of rousing the Bri-
tish lion, or of maintaining the corn laws in all their in-
tegrity. The right bon. baronet then referred to the
course pursued in all former times of scarcity, and showed
that in those cases the invariable remedy was to admit
corn duty free. He had ample precedent, therefore, for
the measures he proposed ; and had he done otherwise,
be would only have thrown such odium on the protective
duty as to excite strong public feeling against the landed
interests. It was true that the most fitting times to have
opened the ports would have been the first of November,
but not having been done then, the necessity became
greater for doing so now. But parliament was sit-
sing, and while sitting it would scarcely be proper for
the executive to do that which he had invited the house
by the measure before it to accomplish. The ports once
opened for a few .months, he did not believe they would
have ever been able to re-impose the duty. In the course
of the lost session notice was given of a motion to admit
maize free of duty, because it was useful for feeding cat-
tle. All were agreed that the duty on maize should be
abated or taken off, but how was it possible to propose to
parliament to take off the duty on maize, because it was
useful to the farmer to feed his cattle and his pigs, while
the duty was to remain on corn, which was the food for
human beings ? The hon. baronet then proceeded to reply
to the arguments of Mr. T. Baring and Mr. Scott, inti-
mating that the latter hon. gentleman seemed likely to
rival Anacharsis Cloots, who had described himself as
Attorney-General for the human race. He subsequently
referred to the speeches of Mr. Colquhoun, Mr. B. Hope,
Lord J. Manners (spoken in a former debate,) and Mr.
Miles, who, he said, id most of his arguments was hand-
ling edged tools, as mischievous to himself as to his oppo-
nents. With respect to flax, to which the hon. member
had alluded, what were the facts ? Ten years ago the
duty on flax was taken off; and at this time three fourths
of the cambrics used in this country came from France
and one from Ireland. Now, however, these proportions
ware reversed, and in the absence of protection the ista-
nufac.ure in Ireland had so far progressed now that three
fourths of the cambric came from Ireland and only one-
fourth from France. Many of the agricultural members
had said they preferred immediate repeal to the postpone-
ment for three years. He intended to adhere to the
plan of the government, but should those hon. members,
in conjunction with hon. members on the other side of
lace him in a minority upon this
the house. P point.
bis only consideration then would be to give effect to the
opinion of the house thus expressed upon this point
against him, and to carry the immediate repeal of the
corn-laws in such a way as to create as little confusion as
possible in the country. The right hon. baronet then
quoted some returns to show that agricultural prosperity
did not altogether depend upon t 1 price of wheat. In the
five years ending in the year 1815, the rental of England
was thirty-two millions, and the average price of wheat
wu 102,., while in the five years ending in 1842, the

average price of wheat.fell, to 615., and the rental of Eng-
land rose to thirty-seven millions. The whole question
raised by the amendment was only whether in our com-
mercial policy we were to advance or recede, for to stand
still was in effect to recede. He was ashamed when he
read some of the petitions presented to the house, and
more particularly of that of the shipowners, which prayed
the house to check all further rash experiments and resist
the reduction of the duty on timber. And yet the aver-
age tonnage employed in the Canada trade with Liverpool
was 163,000 tons, but since the removal the tonnage em-
ployed has risen to 194,000. Notwithstanding this, the
shipowners, in their petition, spoke of hazardous experi-
ments. It was a fact that in Liverpool they had not a log
of timber that would build a ship which would last twelve
years, and yet it was shipowners that complained of
his lowering the discriminating duties so as to enable
them to obtain it. The right hon. baronet proceeded to
show that in every instance in which it had been proposed
to reduce protection, as in the case of potatoes, hops, silk,
&c., predictions of ruin invariably assailed the minister,
and yet in all those cases the results had been most bene-
ficial. England, he contended, had nothing to fear from
competition, possessed, as she was, in addition to her
skill and capital, of so many natural advantages. Other
countries were waiting to follow her example. Sardinia
had already adopted the principles of free trade; Naples
would shortly follow ; Prussia was sha`<en ; and in France
public opinion was rapidly advancing in the right channel.
But whether they followed or not he called upon them, for
their own sakes, to go on in a course of wisdom and
sound policy without reference to the proceedings of other
❑ations. The right hon. baronet resumed his seat
amidst loud cheering, after which

Lord J. MANNERS moved the adjournment of the
debate.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-TUESDAY.

Mr. O'CoNNELL moved that on Monday, the 23d inst.
the house should resolve itself into a committee of the
whole house, to consider the condition of the Irish people,
with a view of adopting means for their relief.
Sir JAMES GRAHAM admitted the accuracy of the pain-
ful statements which Mr. O'Connell had made to the
house. Government had obtained the most complete in-
formation by means of their officers, and they purposed
losing no time in carrying out measures suited to this
emergency. Already the sum of £168,000 was in progress
of expenditure upon government works in Ireland ; and at
least £2,000,000 would be expended in the present year
upon Irish railways. Government, however, had not
contented themselves with these palliations, but had
adopted other precautionary measures, which he did not
think it necessary to detail. He was prepared to give no-
tice, on behalf of government, of a measure for founding
fever hospitals in Ireland, and he should propose, if ne-
cessary, still larger relief to be afforded. He wished the
matter to be left with the executive.

Mr. SHAW considered that the statements respecting
the disease in the potato crop had been greatly exaggerated.
Mr. OSWALD exhorted the house to take warning from
the state of Ireland, and not to precipitate the people of
England into similar destitution by repealing the corn-
laws.
Mr. O'CoNNELL then withdrew his motion.

The debate on the corn-laws was then resumed by Llrd
Jetty MANNERS, who said thlr, apart from the merits or
demerits of free trade, no case had been made out by the
Government for proposing so sweeping a revolution, and
that he felt perfectly justified in voting with the member
for Shropshire for an appeal to the constituencies of Eng-
land. He should give his hearty vote in favour of pro-
tection.

Mr. R. Palmer, Mr. Shaw, and Mr. Hudson also spoke
in opposition to the measure ; Captain Layard, Sir C. Na-
pier, and Mr. Bright (at great length) in its favour.
The debate was adjourned till Thursday.