The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-01-02 00:00:00

nd her

laims that our burdens are a
taxed

him, the -rem
bertirra, mo ,11131/14

prOiperity, according, to hill
weight of taxation is placed on
Mr. M'Culloch tells us that the magnitude of

so long as a sufficient

he industry of the country

burden

influences

ve occassionedl'efforts of industr

and which we

iould in vain ha

national

*nom)

to produce by any less powerful means-'
writer of the letter under notice
to state how many who have
failed b
have reached ti

But (says the

Mr. M'CulloCh forgot

he wa

Itarted

and heart-brok

ie prison, how many the poorhouse ; hoW
many have died early, how many have suffered late, or
what the sum of human misery whicl

uman ear has

never heard of, all as the fruits, the bitter'fruits,

of these

ime national burdens of which he seems so much en-
Is it not to be regretted that, through the in-

amoured

of class legislation, the people are not permitted
to enjoy the reward which accrues from such indomitable
perseverance. Mr. Porter supports the same doctrine as
Mr. M'Culloch. But the resort, as in his time, from di-
rect to indirect taxation arose from the simple fact that
the landed and monied interests of that day found it of

advantage to themselves to throw their own proper lia-
bilities on the shoulders of every man, woman, and child
in the country, and that—with the desire to prevent " the
bitterness of taxation being brought in undisguised naked-
ness " before the people, was the consideration which in-
duced Pitt, and other ministers after him, to prefer
indirect taxation. The landed and 'honied interests were
their masters' and they had but the alternative of obe-
dience or discharge. Towards the end of his letter, Mr.
Macdonald says :—" Under the operation of the direct
system of taxation, the law-makers and the government
would be economical for their own sakes. What they
spent they themselves would pay, and pay largely. To
the man of twenty or thirty thousand pounds a year, who
yment of £lOOO per
a mind, it is of very

may now, if he choos
annum to the State, or less if he ha

piss off on pa

he says, but he is in the way of receiving a
.ge from this exercise of his patriotism.
the church, the colonies,

petit* or six

double advent
There 'is the

the nay

H,
and not a few commissions at home. e has a brother,
a son, or some other relative, who, of rnurse, is qualified
for either, as the vacancy may happen to arise; and then,
if real danger there be to the country, he gets his pro-
perty, which yields him his £30,000 a year, protected and

sustained in value, at an additional cost of 'in increase on
his tea of 3cl: or 6d. per pound ! But that would not
cover the proportion of increased expense for protecting
his property ;. Ana as he does not pay for its protection,
some other person must ; and that other person, and the
millions in the same station of life, are the parties who,
out of their scanty earnings, chiefly support the State and
its reckless extravagance, industry paying, in one way or
other, little short of fifty millions, against the balance of

pillions, or so, piid by real property. Direct tax-
ation would, by equalising the burthen, place on the
shoulders of
_each man his proper share, and each man

Id pay precisely according to the' stake he had in the
country, and would know what the government cost him.
If we want economy, there is the course to ensure it, and
to ensure it effectually and permanently. Again 1 must
repeat, make your law-makers and rulers pay their just
shares of the public burthens, and their own sufferings
and necessities will make them economical. In their
very selfishness the country will have a' guarantee for
protection, andindustry a guarantee•for the enjoyment of
its rew.

We have only room for another quotation, in which the
writer tlus enumerates some of the principal advantages

of direct taiation
" The cost of the necessaries of life would be reduced
by the change, not to the extent of the duty alone, (wit-
ness the case of salt, which bore a 30s. duty, with a selling
price of 40s.,"but which fell when the duty was taken off,
not to 10s., but to 3s. 6d.,) but from twenty-five to
thirty per. cent. beyond, on an average, which is now added
to cover Profits on duties and other outlays, occasioned by
the existinglsystem, so that a man could live in-this coun-
try as comfortably on moderate means as he could in any
other country in the world, while now his existence is but
one centinued struggle between state-treated poverty and
his desire to maintain a respectable position. Merchants
and trades Men could carry on their present business on
one half the capital now required, or do double the busi-
ness on the same capital."

d' wholl
,
.ntry.

:gardless of the internal condition of

The Chivnicyis greatly

Reform Associatic

" standard of vat

proposed a pla

goodness to enlighten the public on this

plain what are his v

,s Oh a

Currency

lion, in their manifesto, have fortunately not
themselves to so egregious a I
writer in the C

onicle
favour

lade it his

refer to

author, Mr. Harris, thi
aster to the mint, he would have found that that

'oramittecl Himself by speaking of a
' well knowing that such a thing cou

lever exist

When that

uthor makes reference
,asure of Value," this is his linurnai

I'IMS, MONEY is a STANDARD MEASURE by whit
values of all things are regulated and ascertained ; a

at the same time, the

/ue or equival

V by which

gooli are exchanged, and in which contracts are made
payable. So that money is not a pledge to be afterwards
redeemed; but is both an equivalent and a measure ; being
in all contracts, the very thing usually bargained for. as
well as the immure of the bargain : '* and in the next
page he observes

measures the t
is also what is

Money is always the standard that
rlue of commodities ; and most commonly,
given for them, or the equivalent with or

for which they are purchased." At pa:g,

though we

kon by money, yet labui

1 skill are th,

main standards by which the 'value of
are ultimately ascertained."

or mo;

Now when Mr. Harris wrote his essays, nQ
knowledge of the enormous powers of production by the
application of steam power to machinery ; nor did he
possess any idea of a Bank-constructed on the present
system under the Bank Charter, declaring £14,000,000
notes to be legal tender as money in all transactions of
trade and commerce.
It is the admission of this fact into the Bank Charter
which has destroyed the " principle" boasted of by the
framers of that act, viz., that their notes " exactly conform
to geld in value." That the Bank has hitherto been able
to exchange kold for its notes we do not attempt to deny,
but we may ask at what cost ? In being able to accom-
plish this object it has been driven to destroy the credit
of thousands of solvent merchants to maintain its own
These remarks are not intended to 'apply to th
of the Bank directors, but to a system that Compels them
to become the spoliators of property to defend themselves.
The great point to be decided is, whether merchants will
consent to permit the commercial transactions of this
country to be regulated and measured by the pxtent of
gold that may happen to be in the Bank of England, or
whether they will regulate them by the extent of our
industrial demands and the productions of British labour.
The-Liverpool Currency Reform Association will have
no

had no

re conduct

fficulty- in establishing one "great fact"—that a
measure of value need not consist of a material of equal
value to the thing which it measures ; and the most un-
questionable demonstration of this is given by the issue
of £14,000,000 on government securities.
The recommendation of the Chronicle
Robert Peel's famous question, " What is a pound

answer Sir

would occupy too much of your space to enter upon now ;
but it is suggestive of an interesting amusement. We
would recommend that during this season of festivity,
the merchants of Liverpool should introduce amongst
their after-dinner amusements a set of questions such as
the following, to be called " Peel's Puzzles for 1849."

"What is a Pound ?

" What is. Free Trade P

What is Capital ?"

" What is Curiency ?'

" What is Labour ?"

" What are Wa

Dec. 26, 1848

FABRICIUS

*Harris's Essays, r

A CLERGYMAN OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, AND
HOLLOWAY'S OINTMENT AND PILLS.— izeEolent
pastor, residing in Belfast, (whose is withheld by
his desire,) was applied to by a r woman of his parish,
who had been afflicted for years with an awfully bad
' leg, with 16 wounds, a. so extremely painful that she
could not place her •.t on the ground. Feeling for her
povertk and suff. .gs' this humane gentleman presented
her with a . 'ply of Holloway's Ointment' and Pills,
which 4:lu. y healed her leg in about five weeks, although

she ha Benin the Dublin Hospital-for severe months
and consulted several other medical men in Belfast
without benefit.

afair imr

mg out ti
HAABOR

Sir, do you m,
Mr. DANso

sternly in the
Mr. HARFIC

your nose here

The CHAIRM

Mr. HAtisoe
be in!sulted by

ful con

and Mr. Jame
Mr. IDANso

Mr. HARBOR
Mr. DANSON
)W to behave ,

Mr. HARE

quiry in this e
Mr. DANSO

Mr. "HARBOi
Mr. DANSON

are shirking
Mr. HARE
very wrong i

now going of
• Mr. Dansc

very many page

THE ACTIO

PEAKS

ssertio

unexampled
bola
which

Damson
(Uproi

aid be r

.er him, said
) say I am no
i.(Great upi
rder, if you p

is of the comfit.

arid at

en keep my temper.
t none of your CXCUS
you. Yol

1 very sor

a are no

rer, sir, was the pers

Lot behave themse

gentlemen of
It make what

the press
use you 1.

In of Mr. Bennett, here (half•pa
great confusion, and the inqu
urned sine die. although there
of Mr. Scott's report to be real

tt7 BETWEEN

THE SHANNON

"This action was
(and he

it was r

equalled

ur na►al annal

Captain

wounded : this indeed wa
place on which he received his we
that would be deeply felt, it v
enemy's ship. The Chesapeake had
`or the engagement. S
ail, No other shin was

of extraord

bour in full

test was to be singly
be called fair where t

fairly decided, if a

uperiority ir.

of metal, and in dimensions were all on on
Chesapeake's company consisted of 440 picke

50 tons

board forty-eight guns. The Shannon was mai
130 hands less than the Chesapeake,y and she w
thirtY-eight gun frigate. shot was fired u
were yard arm to yard arm
sides was incessant, but no
ous attack of the Shannon

INOL
I, when the exchange of

:fling could r
her firinz

and a spirit so
,unabat

:sitat the t:

a main chains were

precision, energy
, over all difficulties. The ene
in the fore chains of the Shannon, when the or
boarding was giver! by Captain Broke, and
was lost in carrying that order into ex,
boarders rushed at the same moment
deck, from every part of the Shannon, into the t
ship. The Chesapeake was carried,
possession in the course of three

gaged the

minutes

oprnen

topmen of the Shannon even .E
Chesapeake. He was warranted in saying that ti
was accomplished in less than fifteen minutes, k
. Captain
e fore,-

only three were occupier
was cut down by a sabr
Chesapeake

in boarding

Such was ti

blow o

and it may be

and most of h