The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-10-03 00:00:00

aLlg Eibtrpool &tanbarb.

TUESDAY MORNING, OCT. 3, 1848

14 good man struggling with difficulties," the
,Oher has said, "is one of the noblest
lea in the universe ; " and of a similar
Int of a nation or a community sum-

ter is t

) Its E

ies to the task of inquiring

causes of its d

. .•
nee froin prosperity. Hence, we watched with
.est the movement which gave rise to the

tion of the National Financial

The whole

lssociation of

;ominunity was suffering

a prostration of credit, un

alleled in m

CM history. Commerce and industry were para.-
sled and even realized property seemed to be
way in the hands of its owners. Railways
lands and houses, produce and mann-
L,re unsaleable, except at a ruinous
and, to complete the picture of disaster,
:es of the country were no longer equal
its ordinary expenditure. At such a crisis

_ .
a step worthy of the merchants of Liverpool
e to the public the advantage of their vast
aried experience, in an effort to unravel the

plication of evils which were pressing us down,
to undertake the task of cure, which a feeble

avernment had shown its utter incompetency to
perform. Here was a great occasion seized; a great
opportunity to- be made use of to win the lofty
reed of a nation's gratitude. Let us see in what
at has resulted! We take our text from the pro-
ceedings at the meeting held on Wednesday last,
whieb, we presume, may not unfairly be regarded
-as a kind of epitome of the views at which the
asgociation has arrived on the conclusion of its first
year's labours.

From such a hody,4with one of our most in=
ligent merchants at its head, we might have
aected a comprehensive inquiry into the whole
Liject of the nation's suffering; an inquiry into
causes of that prostration of commerce and in-
stry which visits us in cycles, sweeps away the
;nits of intermediate years of striving and saving,
d blights the best-directed enterprise. An asso-
tion of gentlemen practically acquainted with,
who feel daily the burthens which it imposes,
ght have been expected to examine for us the
ices of that fearful growth of pauperism around

the very seats of our-wealth, which- threatens us,
from time to time, with convulsion, and provides
sich easily excitable materials for the demagogue
and the incendiary to work upon. Such, indeed,
would almost appear to have been the views, as to
the duties of the association, of Mr. Robertson
Gladstone, the chairman, as referred to in the
following portion of his opening address :

"'lt will be for me to secure for those gentlemen who
tay address you this evening, a patient and attentive
Leming, requesting that a strict observance should be
made in adhering closely to the immediate subject before
as. Nor let us regard this question as one of a trifling
moment, for we have not been induced to come hither
out of an idle curiosity, and I would ask you respectfully
to listen to what you may hear from those who are about
to address you, and, approving, to decide that in a peace-
able but determined manner, you will hereafter act on the
suggestions that may be made.—(Cheers.) It is not for
me, on this occasion, to attempt to harass your feelings,
stop for a moment to inquire into the fearful depres-
that has for so considerable a period pervaded every
inch of trade. It is not for me to call to your recol-
1-ion those painful scenes that we witnessed some two
back, when the poor Irish thronged our streets,
n from their own country by starvation, imploring
`y from those they happened to meet, and urging
•ase still more strongly by thrusting their almost
...late offspring in your faces. I have no desire to
-al to your recollection those painful scenes, but I can-
wet forget the contrast."
finch, at all events, he acknowledges to he the
elraraeter of the evils to be remedied. But most
"lame and impotent" is the conclusion to which
be and the association would lead us, as to the
muses of this state of things and the remedy to be
applied.
Now, with respect to the cause (he says) of the de-
pression which has existed for so long a period ; to a cer-
tain extent, the circumstance of trading beyond our ca-
ital has, undoubtedly, been one main cause of distress ;
&at the present evils ander which we all suffer, in a
greater or less degree, arise from excessive taxation—
Jona cheers)—with an undue and unlimited expenditure.
(Tremendous cheering.) To remedy these evils the Fi-
nancial Reform Association was first called into exist-

riders

And he launches forthwith into a strain of accusa-

tion of the aristocracy, as the authors of the mis-
chief, which is worthy only of Mr. Cuffey of the
oonvention, and certainly most unworthy of himself,
or in keeping with those principles which he has
always been supposed to entertain. We give one

of his notions as a specimen :
" I think that a registration ought to be kept of the
`births in the families of the nobility, and that it would be
more economical for us to have a committee or deputation,
whose exclusive business and duty it should he to wait on
each scion of nobility on the occasion of an increase to his
&may. Of course, they would be shown into one of the
most splendidly-furnished apartments, and it would be the
duty of that deputation to congratulate the:noble lord or
duke on the occasion. I cannot say that that congratula-
tion would be a very sincere one ; but it would be far bet-
ter for the people, in an economical point of view, that
the deputation should then and there make a bargain with
the head of the family to provide for the sustenance and
welfare of the new-born infant, than that the child should
grow up and be saddled on our backs at ten times the
cost, through the army, or navy, or any other source."
Nothing, certainly, can be in much worse taste
'than this, or more calculated to eestroy any prestige
which the association, from the station and pursuits
of its members, might have possessed.
'We will not deny that there is some justice in
"Mr. Gladstone's complaints of excessive expendi-
ture in some of the departments of government.
For instance, it is perhaps not absolutely necessary
that the officers of the House of Commons should
he enabled, out of their salaries, to "appear in a
dean shirt and white neckcloth and black dress ;"
and thus be subjected to the exactions of the washer-
woman, as Mr. Gladstone seems to think io their
unhappy lot at present. Perhaps, too, constituted
as the 'House of Commons is at present, the bulk
of its members not being, necessarily, gentlemen,
"a policeman in an ordinary coat" would be suffi-
cient to take them into custody when they misbe-
haved themselves. It would be most desirable if
we could safely reduce our army and navy, and get
rid of the necessity of sending soldiers to Ireland;
although we cannot think with Mr. Gladstone
that the fact, that the promised rebellion there was
"quelled by the ordinary police," proves that the
soldiery were not wanted there, or that their being
ready, if required, was not a wise precaution. But
that the utmost saving to be derived from such
cheese-paring reductions in the Royal Household,
tor elsewhere, can produce the slightest sensible
,effect in restoring the country to a state of pros-
perity, or that our recent and present suffering has
been occasioned by the atomic burthens which we
have had imposed upon us, from the extravagance
complained of, we utterly deny. We might as well
wisely argue that the trade of Liverpool has been
thrown into a state of stagnation because a pound
or butter too much has been consumed weekly in
some gentleman's kitchen, or the Mayor's servants
have, unnecessarily, red collars on their coats.
It is preposterous to suppose that two or three
millions expended, which might be saved, can have
produced the crushing devastation by which every
class and every interest in the country has just been
visited, and by which the property of the nation
'has been diminished in value to the extent of hun-
dreds of millions. An attempt to restore us to a
sound position by these peddling means is like one
to tighten a sinking ship by throwing overboard
,our pocket handkerchiefs or tobacco-boxes. To be
sure, the association is, in addition, to put a stop
to what Mr. Gladstone calls " overtrading' —a term
which, we presume, means importing produce, and
tasking hats, coats, and shirts when everybody has
already plenty to eat and wear. As we cannot ob-
,serve, however, that everybody is in this happy pre-
dimment, we are a little dubious as to the " over-
trading;" and would suggest respectfully to the
association the advisableness of an enquiry in
another direction. Probably it might result in the
discovery that there is a power in the country which
'works periodically far more disaster to the country
than all the extravagance of maids of honour and
officers with clean shirts and white neckcloths;
which one year impels all classes of the community
o what its chairman calls " overtrading," but what
some people think is only the activity of prosperity,
and, in the next, dips its hands into people's pockets
and snatches the reward of their past toil and enter-

Such an enquiry—an enquiry, in short, into the
effeet,of 'the present monetary system—would well
-become a hotly of merchants, such as those who
compose a leading portion of he members of the
National Association, who cannot but witness daily
the effect of that system in countervailing even
their best directed enterprises, and in spreading

min and privation throughout the community in
Which they live. The experience of the past two
poursis surely not to be lost upon us, Destroy, or