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

TUESDAY MORNING, OCT. 3, 1848.

"A good man struggling with difficulties," the
philosopher has said, "is one of the noblest
spectacles in the universe ; " and of a similar
character is that of a nation or a community sum-
moning up its energies to the task of inquiring
into, and grappling with, the causes of its de-
cadence from prosperity. Hence, we watched with
interest the movement which gave rise to the
formation of the National Financial Association of
Liverpool. The whole community was suffering
under a prostration of credit, unparalleled in mo-
dern history. Commerce and industry were para-
lised ; and even- realized property seemed to be
melting away in the hands of its owners. Railways
and mines, lands and houses, produce and manu-
factures were unsaleable, except at a ruinous
sacrifice; and, to complete the picture of disaster,
the finances of the country were no longer equal
to meet its ordinary expenditure. At such a crisis
it was a step worthy of the merchants of Liverpool
to give to the public the advantage of their vast
and varied experience, in an effort to unravel the
complication of evils which were pressing us down,
and to undertake the task of cure, which a feeble
government bad shown its utter incompetency to
perform. Here was a great occasion seized; a great
opportunity to be made use of to win the lofty
meed of a nation's gratitude. Let us see in what
it has resulted ! We take our text from the pro-
ceedings at the meeting held on Wednesday last,
which, we presume, may not unfairly be regarded
as a kind of epitome of the views at which the
association has arrived-on the conclusion of its first
year's labours.
From such a body, with one of our most in-
telligent merchants at its head, we might have
. expected a comprehensive inquiry into the whole
subject of the nation's suffering; an inquiry into
the causes of that prostration of commerce and in-
dustry which visits us in cycles, sweeps away the
results of intermediate years of striving and saving,
and blights the best-directed enterprise. An asso-
ciation of gentlemen practically acquainted with,
and who feel daily the burthens which it imposes,
might have been expected to examine for us the
causes of that fearful growth of pauperism around
the very seats of our wealth, which threatens us,
from time to time, with convulsion, and provides
such 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 :
" It will be for me to secure for those gentlemen who
may address you this evening, a patient and attentive
hearing, requesting that a strict observance should be
made in adhering closely to the immediate subject before
us. 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,
or to stop for a moment to inquire into the fearful depres-
sion that has for so considerable a period pervaded every
branch of trade. It is not for me to call to your recol-
lection those painful scenes that we witnessed some two
winters back, when the poor Irish thronged our streets,
driven from their own country by starvation, imploring
charity from those they happened to meet, and urging
their case still more strongly by thrusting their. almost
inanimate offspring in your faces. I have no desire to
recal to your recollection those painful scenes, but I can-
not forget the contrast."
Such, at all events, he acknowledges to be the
character of the evils to be remedied. But most
" lame and impotent" is the conclusion to which
he and the association would lead us, as to the
causes 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-
pital has, undoubtedly, been one main cause of distress;
but the present evils ander which we all suffer, in a
greater or less degree, arise from excessive taxation—
(loud cheers)—with an undue and unlimited expenditure.
(Tremendous cheering.) To remedy these evils the Fi-
nancial Reform Association was first called into exist-
ence."

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
convention, and certainly most unworthy of himself,
or in keeping with those principles which he has
always been supposed to entertain. We give one
or Ws uuciuuo tto u 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 be to wait on
each scion of nobility on the occasion of an increase to his
family. 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 destroy 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
be enabled, out of their salaries, to "appear in a
clean shirt and white neckcloth and black dress ;"
and thus be subjected to the exactions of the washer-
woman, as Mr. Gladstone seems to think is 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,
or 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
of 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 lighten 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 \lr. Gladstone calls " overtrading' —a term
which, we presume, means importing produce, and
making 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-
dicament, 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
to 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-
prise.

Such an enquiry—an enquiry, in short, into the
effect of the present monetary system—would well
become a body of merchants, such as those who
compose a leading portion of the 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
ruin and privation throughout the community in
which they live. The experience of the past two
years is surely not to be lost upon us. Destroy, or