The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-03-19 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, MARCH 19, 1833.

IT is stated in the best informed circles, and by those who
are in the confidence of his Majesty's ministers, that there is
no longer any doubt of the intention of government with
respect to the East India trade. They have resolved to put an
end to the monopoly of the Company, and throw completely
open the trade with China. Certain ports, and of course
Liverpool among the rest, will be licensed upon certain con-
ditions.

These conditions are represented to be of the following
nature, but subject to further consideration as the interest of
the parties concerned may dictate or render expedient. In the
first place, the imports from China are to be deposited in ware-
houses specially secured, built within the walls of a dock, pro-
perly guarded, and under the King's lock. In the second place
it is Proposed that the duty on tea should continue as at present,
ad valor-am, taken by auction sales, similar to those of the
East India House. The four London docks, it is said,
have already agreed, each in its turn, to have quarterly sales.
Tfie sales at the outports are to be regulated in a similar way,
but held at such intervals between the London quarterly sales
as would give at least a monthly sale of tea at one place or
another alt over the kingdom.
We understand that the East India Company have a sufficient
stock'of teas in their possession to meet the consumption of the
next three years. How they come to have so much remains
for them to explain, for by the act of parliament, they are only
bound to hold a stock equal to one year's consumption. This,
however, being the care, the trade cannot be fully thrown open
before 1836. Tea might be warehotised for exportation before
that period, but this is all. There is some difficulty as to the
protective arrangements to prevent smuggling, but it is in con-
templation to fix a minimum of tonnage for the size of the ves-
sels employed in the China trade.
This is an outline of the ministerial plan; but our immediate
readers will perceive, that it cannot be carried into, effect, so far
as Liverpool is concerned (and we might say the same of Green-
ock), where we have no warehouses within the walls of a dock.
If ministers insist upon this arrangement, these warehouses
must be built; although we cannot see how tea should not be as
safe in a private warehouse as wine, rum, or brandy.

LORD SANDON has succeeded in inducing the House
of Commons to consent to the admission of counsel to
examine and cross-examine witnesses before the Com-
mittee on the Liverpool election. This is merely an
act of justice. The freemen were entitled to the assist-
ance of legal advisers, but this simple act of justice which
13 awarded to the worst criminals, would have been denied
the freemen of Liverpool, if Mr. Ewart had been per-
mitted to exercise a veto upon the proposition. He stre-
nuously opposed the motion. He joined O'Connell and
the rest of the Irish brigade, in obstructing the defence of
the .accused, and he would, if he had had his will,
have converted the committee, composed, as it unfor-
tunately is, of thirteen of the most ignorant men that
ever sat in parliament, .into a sort of star chamber, to
condemn the burgesses of Liverpool without the slight-
east regard to the rules of evidence.
Lord Sandon, we say, has defeated this singular effort
on the part of the liberal member for Liverpool, to make
.the allegations of bribery the instruments of oppression.
The witnesses will be under the protection of counsel
learned in the law, and we are much mistaken if evidence
be not given of a very different nature from that which
is expected, and which will surprise and annoy those who
are the originators of these invidious, we had almost said
iniquitous, proceedings. Lord Brougham may not have
expressed an opinion to Mr. Shepherd with respect to the
enquiry, but we are informed that he has stated to
another friend, more in his confidence, that the "necessity
for enquiry into the Liverpool election is the most sar-
castic commentary upon the Reform Bill which has yet
been made ! For this the Lord High Chancellor of Eng-
land has our hearty thanks.

LORD 'ALTRORP is incurable 1 He is not only beyond
all hope of amendment, but is in that unhappy condition
which every tedious day and lingering hour render more
helpless and pitiful. On Thursday last he and his church
tax bill broke down together, the bill being postponed, or
rather withdrawn, and the noble lord pleading ignorance
as his excuse for violating the forms of the House of
Commons. The " talking parliament" has,. therefore,
wasted its breath for two nights in vain, and the measure,
if brought forward again, must be introduced de novo
and its fiscal enactments be based upon the resolutions of
a committee of the whole house.
Our readers will recollect, that on yesterday week the
bill was read a first time, and although the house was not
in pOssession of its details, still ministers resolved to read
it a second time (*.the following Thursday. When the
Thursday came, however, and the preamble of the bill
had been considered, it was found to be a bill to impose
taxes on a certain class of his Majesty's subjects, in which
case its mode of introduction was irregular, and contrary
to the standing rules ,of the Commons. Every money
bill must originate with a committee of the whole house,
or in other words, must not be introduced by ministers,
or by an individual, but emanate as it were from the
house itself. These forms not being attended to, or ra-
ther an attempt being made to disregard and violate them,
the Commons thought proper to vindicate their dignity
and enforce their rules by compelling Lord Althorp to
postpone the bill under the pretext of searching for pre-
eedents. Lord John Russell made.some frintless,efforts
to save the credit of ministers. He called to his aid. the
police bill, but he might just as well have quoted a pas-
sage from his own ill-fated play of bon Carlos, for the
Speaker on being appealed to by Dr. Lushington de-
cided that it was a tax bill, and being so could only ori-
ginate in the way we have already described.
No wonder that England is the sport of the profane,
and the laughing-stock of Europe ! .The Whigs have
now been in office for more than two. years, and yet of the
many measures they have introduced not one has been
carried without undergoing as many alterations as the
beggar's coat, on which party-coloured patches had su-.
perseded every vestige of the original superstructure.
We do not even except the refoun bill. That which is
now the:law of the land is as different from the first bill
propounded by Lord John Bussell. as the noble lord is
from his illustrious ancestor who was hanged. Blunder
has followed blunder, without intermission, like the waves