The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-05-21 00:00:00

reduced to from 15s. to 17s. the barrel, or about half.
What a pleasant prospect for the farmers and gentry of
Ireland ! And are we to suppose that the Enylish farmer
would come better off ? Let him speak, however, for
himself. He must know best at what reduction of price
he can afford to pay rent and taxes, and still continue

" a marvellous proper man."
As to the Irish, we observe that the Dublin
Evenisy Post exults in . the fact that they will
make no battle for their staple trade; but that
journal is not the organ of the gentry, or of the
Protestant farmers of the country, and has no right
to speak for them. Let it speak, if it please, for the
Popish masses and O'Connell's mobs; it has no feel-
ing in common with the enlightened Protestants of the
country ; and sure we are that they will deeply feel,
and indignantly resent the attempt to pass a measure
so ruinous to them as this scheme of fixed-duty trade
in foreign grain. If Popery lips so blinded the eyes
of the common people, or priestly and O'Connell
tyranny keeps them in such terror that they cannot
perceive what would be so fatal to them, or, perceiv-
ing, dare not endeavour to avert it—why their silence
and tameness at such a moment is a proof only of their
degradation. Of this, however, there can be no doubt,
that free trade in corn, or such a protection merely to
the native farmer as that proposed, would involve Ire-
land in a state such as we believe was never experienced
even in that country.

These few words we have said in reply to our con-
temporary's theory of a sufficing protection being
found in the Ss. duty; with regard to his argument
touching Brazilian sugar, and the exaggerated impor-
tance which he attaches to the liberation of the trade
in a commercial point of view, we are obliged to a va-
luable correspondent of his own, and a decided Whig
into the bargain, for some observations which quite su-
persede the necessity of our saying a word on the sub-
ject :

" Before you write another article on the Brazil trade,'
says this friendly writer, " you ought to inform yourself better
or the subject of it, for you may rest assured, that such gross
exaggeration and mis-statement as you have been led into
will greatly injure the cause you are advocating, and not
forward it.
" I send you herewith a statement of the exports to Brazil,
from Liverpool, for the year 1840, amounting to £2,326,439;
and, as I believe, two-thirds or more of the trade is carried
on from this port, (but this you can inform yourself of),
even Mr. Labouchere's estimate of four millions exceeds the
exports. You call the trade to Brazil five millions, which
vou say will be lost to us if we do not reduce the duty on
Brazil sugar and coffee. Nothing can be more preposterous;
I believe, from long experience of the Brazilians, that they
would continue to take our goods as usual. Some noise may
be made when the treaty comes to be renewed ; but to assert
that our trade will entirely " cease," if we do not do so and
so, is drawing too largely on the imagination.
" The Brazilians can have no great claim on our sympathy
as to treaties, which they regard as little as most nations ;
they lately added 5 per cent. without the consent of the Bri-
tish government, to the stipulated duty of 15 per cent. on
British goods. This you may not be aware of. We do not
consume their sugar and coffee at present, but we unques-
tionably take it for our goods, and as much to their conveni-
ence as if we did : though perhaps not quite so much to the
convenience of the English merchants. Who, let me ask,
would take their cotton were we to refuse it ?
" You state that the Brazilians are under no obligations to
this country ! I think this piece of intelligence would sur-
prise a good many of her Majesty's liege subjects. On the
contrary, I would say, that they owe us a great deal. Who
could supply our place 1 would ask, in the event of their
refusing to deal with us ? Have the Swiss and Germans, our
great rivals (and about whom so much has been said), the
means of doing so ? You have often dinned in our ears the
great competition our trade is suffering in Brazil from the
Swiss and Germans, I therefore wish you had condescended
on the per centage of trade they carry on in that quarter as
compared with ours. Vague assertion can carry no weight
with it.
" You may rely upon this, Mr. Editor, that the grievances
of the Brazil trade is not the question to beat the tories on.
I therefore regret, as a sincere reformer, that so much should
have been said about it."
This writer confesses that Brazil sugar is not the
question to beat the tories on ; and he is right. But
on what question will they be able to effect that con-
consummation ? Aye, that's the rub. We are per-
suaded that the corn laws won't do it either. The
people begin already to find out that the free trade
scheme is all humbug.

The ❑nprecedently prolonged debate on the sugar
duties was brought to a close on Wednesday morning ;
ministers were beaten by a majority of thirty-six, but
made no announcement of any intention to resign their

places. They were evidently casting about to see if
there were any lower depth into which they might fall.
If they could survive such a division, however, and
Sir Robert Peel's speech, even for a few hours, it is
plain that• they must be devoid of the necessary faculty
for conveying a consciousness of degradation to the
mind.

The speech of Sir Robert Peel will be read with un-
mixed pride and satisfaction by all conservatives, and,
indeed, we might add, by moderate and sensible men
of every class and denomination. It contained an ex-
pose of opinions and principles well calculated.to gain
over reflecting people to his side, and will do much to

confirm him in his place as the leader of a great party,

and to strengthen that party in all those opinions which
it is known they already hold. It was a speech

neatly judicious—that cannot fail to be of the utmost

service to the already triumphant cause of conserva-
tism. It did not advance or allude to a single point
on which all conservatives are not agreed—and was,

therefore, calculated to map out, as it were, the nume-
rous important topics in which they are united to a
man. Here we have points of union in abundance
which will have a rallying effect, and cause conserva-
tives to present themselves as one united phalanx.

In the exhibition of his opinions, the right hon.
baronet was abundantly explicit; no friend could hate
wished him to have gone further, or to have stopped in
any degree short of the point to which he went. With
respect to the immediate question in debate, he was
decidedly adverse to an alteration of the sugar duties,
on the ground that we had "no right to break in upon
the course of a great experiment."
The experiment being tried is, whether sugar cannot
be raised in the West Indies by free labour, and whe-

ther we cannot obtain from our own colonies a sufli-
cient supply for home consumption. To infringe upon
that momentous probationary measure, he conceived,
would be an act of unpardonable, we would say, atro-
cious criminality. For what would be the conse-
quence ? The consequence would be, failure—ruin to
the experiment ; and the consequence of such failure
would be this—a proclamation to the world—that slaves
cannot be set free ; and not only this, but an aban-
donment of the West Indian islands to the negro po
pulation ! With an experiment so big with the most
serious results, we have no right to trifle ; and to any
meddling of the sort the right hon. baronet, for one,
would give no sanction. With regard to the timber
duties, he could express no opinion favourable to the
ministerial scheme. He required information ; he
should ascertain how it would be likely to be received
by the Canadians. At present all that was known on
this head was, that the Governor-General, when ap-
plied to for his opinion, said, " that if the noble lord
(the colonial secretary) touched the timber duties, he
would, as, naturally might be expected, materially add
to his (the Governor-General's) ddficulties." Under
these circumstances, he would reserve his opinions, or
his plans on the subject.
With regard to the corn duties, he was decidedly
opposed to a fixed duty, because he did not think it
could be permanently maintained ; and as to the pro-
posed duty of Bs. on wheat, and 3s. 4d. on oats, he
" deemed it totally insufficient for the maintenance of
the present state of agricultural prosperity." He did
not, and would not, bind himself, however, to details.
It might be a question whether some modification
might not be made in the existing points of oscillation,
and he would not commit himself to any obligatory
declaration on this head. And this was right—per-

fectly right.
But the right hon. baronet, having thus satisfacto-
rily disposed of all the questions on which he was
called to give an opinion, at length began to flourish
the knout for the purpose of inflicting a little wholesome
chastisement on the trembling, convicted, and wretched
incapables. Never was punishment more loudly called
for, or more neatly, we would say, beautifully laid on.
Oh ! it must have been delightful to witness it.
Our readers will thank us for here closing our re-
marks, and inserting in their place a few of those
crushing observations with which Sir Robert Peel
concluded his admirable speech :
So much for the commercial bearings of this question ; but
then it was said, coincident with these commercial difficulties
there was also a financial crisis to be dealt with. Why, there
was a great financial crisis; but for that financial crisis, in
his opinion, her majesty's ministers were mainly responsible.
(Hear.) They had had possession of power since 1835. They
had had the administration of the finances ; when they were
successful they referred to the fact as a proof of their wisdom
and sagacity ; failure in adversity might certainly be no proof
of the want of those qualities, but at any rate if there was a
government intrusted with the financial concerns of the coun-
try, and if their whole course had been marked by deficit and
increasing expenditure, that fact must necessarily greatly di-
minish his confidence in their ability to conduct the adminis-
tration of affairs. (Hear, hear.). After five years of theld-