The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-02-26 00:00:00

Tlli lIIVIRPOOL STiNDARIL

THE CONSTITUTIONAL ASSOCIATION.

The annual meeting of this association was held at the
Clarendon Rooms on Tuesday evening, and was well
attended. Thos. Littledale, Esq., presided ; and among
those present were the leading gentlemen of the town.
The Chairman urged upon those present to make such
sacrifices as were necessary in the present day to give due
support to the church and state. _ _

Mr. Buckmaster, the secretary,read the report, of which
the following are the heads :,
The committee appeal to the enthusiastic zeal with
which ward meetings pronounced in favour of a just pro-
tection to British industry. Liverpool only awaited the
':opportunity, which during the recess was given to South
Devonshire, Staffordshire, and many counties and towns,
in order to return, like them, protectionist members, who
will faithfully represent the wishes of the nation.
.The enemies of the British Constitution had gained an
important position in the abrogation of our time-honoured
navigation laws, which had fostered the commerce of
England, secured for her flag the dominion of the seas,
guarded her colonies, and made her the exalted mission-
ary of civilization. This act of reckless misrule would
close the profitable industry of tens of thousands of our
laborious, our skilful artizans in the shipbuilding depart-
ment. It was in vain that a petition was sent from
Liverpool, signed by 48,000 inhabitants, against the
abrogation of those laws • and eqeally vain that nume-
rous deputations of merchants waited on the ministers of
the crown, to implore them to avert a measure so suicidal
'to the commerce of the country. The prime minister in-
timated that Mr. Cardwell was the representative of the
interests of Liverpool e though it was well known that
that gentleman had deceived his very proposer and se-
conder into the belief that he should advocate the funda-
mental principles of these laws. Lord Grey had also doubly
insulted them by asserting that" the Liverpool petition was
signed by paupers, and worse," which was not the truth.
The anarchists further triumph in the assault they have
made against the influence, dignity, and stability of the
church, by attempting to crush numerous bishoprics in
Ireland and Wales, and our national schools, but encour-
aging godless colleges, and the encroachments in our colo-
nies and elsewhere of the Roman Catholic church.
The committee next notice at length the evils resulting
from free trade, which has spread distress far and wide,
and has already " multiplied the wealth of those great
capitalists whose riches press as mortgages upon the toil-
ing diligence of the country ; but it has also peopled the
workhouses with those poor sufferers whose occupations
have been transferred to the untaxed operatives of other
climes. * 4' It has added to the gains of the
master-spinner; but it has raised such a cry of misery
from the helpless needlewomen, that humanity shudders
at their fate, and charity seeks to transport them from a
country which Cobden and Peel promised to make the El
Dorado of the world. It has produced letters to tenants,
and generated agricultural schemes most worthy the
Triptolemus Yellowleys of the day : but it has filled the
counties with agitation, and roused to turbulence the
once loyal and peaceable yeomanry of England. It was
ushered in by fair promises of reciprocity ; but it has been
met by hostile tariffs. It has been lauded by German
students in memorable letters to Sir Robert Peel ; but it
has been repudiated as an insane principle of legislation
by the President of those United States which ere our
great rivals in the marts of commerce. * * *
The free traders idolize cheapness, and extol it as a
motive of action, far beyond all moral, social, and politi-
cal principles. In order to save one penny in the pound
of sugar, these avaricious hucksters sacrifice the trans.
cendant glory of negro emancipation—nullify the labours
of Wilberforce and his philanthropic coadjutors—en-
courage the infamous slave trade—perpetuate the horrors
of the middle passage—blight the hopes of the Afri-
can stimulate the tyrannies of Cuba and Brazil,
and reject all the claims of justice and humanity."
An instance of the evil effect of free importations of provi-
sions was found in the article of " cured beef" from
America, which had not only risen greatly in price, to the
sole advantage of the foreigner, hut he'd largely and
ruinously decreased the exports from Ireland. Even the
navy was victualled with American beef. Agricultural
labourers in Ireland were driven to emigration (and some
'of them to crime) to effect it • and the agricultural
labourers of England are also feeling that dire extremity of
distress which is the necessary result of' cheapness' obtained
by the holders of money at the cost of the venders of
labour." The interests of buyers and sellers were ren-
dered antagonist, and the rivalry of free imports • will
eventually press with baneful force on every branch of
British industry for the taxation required for the payment
of our National Debt has given to the foreigner advantages
commensurate to the most stringent laws of protection."
The whole of these destructive measures were attribu-
table to Sir Robert Peel, who, by his free trade system
and his currency bills of 1819, had tyrannously crushed
British industry. The report, which is ably and elabo-
rately drawn up, concludes as follows :—" Your commit-
tee will continue, by every constitutional means, to resist
this novel course of legislation. They will advocate a
return to that " great league of mutual insurance" which
once bound the colonies to the mother country, and
strengthened, by the closest ties of reciprocal support, the
whole varied fabric of the empire. They will oppose the
schemes of anarchists, who prepare, by wrongs done to
the yeomanry, peasantry, and labourers of England, the
opportunities' of revolution and civil war. They will
withstand the devices of those restless politicians of the
Manchester school of economists, who, under the leader-
ship of Mr. Cobden, use the catch-word of free trade as
a mask to ulterior designs ; and who, for their own
aggrandisement, would destroy that " territorial basis"
on which rest the monarchy, the church, the aristocracy,
the laws, the whole polity and constitution of our once
envied and glorious country."
At that portion of the report referring to the return of
Lord John Manners for Colchester, the greatest enthu-
siasm was manifested, and three hearty cheers were given
for his lordship, whilst the allusion to the treachery of
Mr. Cardwell, with regard to the navigation laws, was
responded to by hisses and other marks of disapprobation.
Mr. Councillor FISHER, in moving the first resolution,
said that the report had left him little to say, and he fully
concurred in it. He alluded to the letter of William
Brown, Esq., M.P., in which he expressed his surprise
that the American Treasury had not followed the exam-
ple of Great Britain in the career of free trade ; but he
(Mr. Fisher) would have been surprised if American
statesmen had ventured upon so dangerous a plan. The
member for South Lancashire expressed surprise that the
Americans should tax themselves by levying a duty upon
British produce. Now he (Mr. Fisher) wondered that the
hon. member did not find out long ago that we should tax
ourselves by allowing foreign produce to come into this
country free. (Hear, hear.) He would reduce the duty
on all British and colonial produce, but he deprecated the
principle of taking the duty off one article and laying it
upon another, which was only shifting the burden, and
the experiment, nine times out of ten, was a failure.
Mr. Brown asked how could the United States find people
to work their mills, to spin, and to weave, so as to com-
pete with British industry ; but they could find hands
enough, when 300,000 persons left our shores annually,
driven to a country in which their labour was protected.
Our poor dare not trust their own legislature, but pre-
ferred to live under the stripes and stars of a foreign
country to living under tharitisliflag. ( Hear, hear, and
cheers.) He then alluded to the shipbuilding of our port
which was now at a stand-still. We had but eight ships
being built, while in New York there were not less than
eighty. America had not reciprocated our free trade, and
did not allow us to take freight to New York, and so give
us the benefit of her trade to California. He concluded by
alluding to a letter written by Mr. W. Lindsay, in the
Economist, in which he made the best of bad legislation,
and attempted to show that the farmers of Great Britain
were a lazy set of men, and deserved to perish if they did
not rouse up to save themselves. He considered the as-
sertion devoid of principle and of truth. He moved that
the report and accounts be adopted.
Mr. RANKIN seconded the resolution, and it was una•
nimously carried.
Mr. KILPIN urged the necessity of increased exertion,
in the face of the difficulties that beset them. The pre-
sent Government had entered into a reckless series of po-
litical experiments which could not be carried ott without
totally setting aside laws, interests, usages, customs,
long-tried principles, and time-honoured institutions,
which we, as Tories, have always cherished as essential to
the strength and safety of England, and under which we
know that she has grown in greatness and in glory.
After alluding to the devastating revolutions in France
and other states, he said that to sound political informa-
tion—to mutual confidence and knowledge of each other
—to loyal principles, and those habits of acting together
with vigour in political emergencies as ours, are more than
all things else, calculated to create and perpetuate, he be-
lieved, we owed, under heaven, our happy exemption
under similar calamities. He concluded by urging the
imperative claims of this association upon the support of
every one professing constitutional principles, as pre-
senting, in conjunction with others, the most efficient and
almost the only means by which they could send men to
Parliament, who, strong in the confidence of a united,
increasing, and powerful party, could assume a deter-
mined attitude, and say to the rash innovator, whether in
office or not—" you may be eager to attack, but you shall
find us resolute to defend—you may endeavour to-over-
throw and destroy, but we will maintain and withhold—
you may try to substitute your crude theories and untried
projects for laws and institutions which have stood the
test of ages, and have made Britain the pride and envy of
the world, but you shall not
"Rashly lay your hands upon fie ark
Of her magnificent and awful cirse.' "

—(Cheers.)
Mr. HENRY BREMNER, in seconding the resolution,
also urged greater energy in the association. He com-
plained of the smallness of the contributions for the year,
and said it was a disgrace to the tory party of Liverpool
to think that so few were willing to give their time and
subscribe their money to rescue Liverpool from the dis-
grace of being represented by a Radical baronet and a
disciple of the apostate Peel. (Cheers.) He attributed
this to party dissensions, amongst some, and ambition in
others. Let them rouse themselves from their apathy—
heal their unhappy divisions—throw away all personal
vanity and ambition ; and reject this insidious spirit that
would abolish pasty, and if they once more become
united, they should again resume the triumphant position
which they had occupied in previous years.
Mr. P. B. DRINKWATER proposed a vote of thanks to
Mr. E. Molyneux, the chairman of the association, for his
great exertions in its behalf; also thanks to the members
of the committee. (Cheers.\
Mr. H. C. CHAPMAN alluded to three measures now
before parliament, and wished they had been before the
committee previous to the preparation of the report, so
that they might have been noticed—he alluded to Mr.
Labouchere's bill for the improvement of the mercantile
marine of this country ; the Merchant Seaman's Fund
Bill ; and a bill for an improveraent in the measurement
of ships in this country. (Hear, hem) With regard to
those three measures, he was not one of those who were
at once prepared to condemn that.. (Hear, hear.) On

the contrary, he gave in his adhesion to the principles of
protection and encouragement enunciated in Mr. Labou-
chere's speech ; but, in doing so, he took the liberty of
differing with the honourable gentleman's details. With
regard to the merchant service bill, that was in course of
receiving ,great improvements and alterations, and he
thought it would be beneficial to all parties concerned ;.
but he came to that measure which be thought was of the
greatest importance to the town of Liverpool—the Mer-
chant Seaman's Fund Bill. Four years ago, he was one
of a deputation to go up to London to oppose that mea-
sure when introduced by Mr. William Ewart Gladstone,
and they were successful. The bill would have the effect
of confiscating the local fund of Liverpool, which had
accumulated through the energy and zeal of those who
had undertaken its management to the amount of £50,000.
Now, it was-the intention of this bill, because other par-
ties had mismanaged their affairs, to confiscate this large
fund. If this fund was taken from Liverpool, it would
deprive the. Liverpool seamen of the exclusive benefit.
He deprecated the bill as encouraging the system of cen-
tralisation, and said they would not do their duty as mem-
bers of an association which professed to protect the
artisan, the peasant, and the merchant seaman, unless
they called a.public meeting to consider the proposed bill.
He maintained the Seamen's Fund of Liverpool ought to
be held as sacred for local purposes as the property of the
Corporation, in which Manchester may some day be
claiming a joint interest, unless the inhabitants of Liver-
pool rose in defence of their Merchant Seamen's Fund.
He appealed to the meeting whether they did.not think
this was a fit subject for the association to take up ; and
when they were perfectly prepared to come. before the
inhabitants of Liverpool, let it be known what the sub-
ject was, then he contended that they would have all
men rallying around them and raising their ;voice against
the measure. (Hear, hear.) He hoped some-gentleman
would second his proposition, so that in due.time a public
meeting could be called on the subject.
Mr. Imq/ix said that in the ward in which, ho resided
nine-tenths of the population, especially. the labouring
classes, were in favour of constitutional opinions. He
related a case which had come under his own knowledge
shewing the effects of free trade. It was only, five or six
months ago that a vessel sailed from this port to Austra-
lia, and a manufacturer from the neighbourhood of Wal-
sall, near Birmingham, emigrated to New- South Wales
with his family, admitting that he possessed property to
the amount of £lO,OOO or £12,000. He (Mr. Inman)
naturally inquired how it was that a man possessing a
competency at home should leave his own country to go
to a strange land. The manufacturer candidly admitted
that he commenced life without a shillin& and that, owing
to his own exertions and the goodness. of trade, he had
realized a handsome competency; but he added, that for
several years past he had been losing money, and that
eventually he gave up the manufacture of goods himself
as he could obtain them cheaper from the continent, and
from that source he supplied his customers in this coun-
try. His property continued to dwindle away notwith-
standing, and be thought it best to emigrate to a new
country, in order to add to the money he had remaining,
or at any rate to prevent himself losing any more. He
(Mr. Inman) was quite satisfied,. whatever the manufac-
turers might say, that the time would arrive when they
would lose as well as other people. (Hear, hear.) He
expressed his conviction, that at no period were the labour-
ing classes and tradesmen in a worse position than at the
present time ; and he said it was for those who were in
the higher positions of society to see that this state of
things did not go on any longer.
Mr. Berreeee said, that as a manufacturer, perhaps
one of the largest in this part of the country, of chain
cables and anchors, he could give a little information rela-
tive to the effects of free trade. In the year 1846 he was
manufacturing 50 tons per week : in 1849 the quantity
was reduced to 40 tons per week ; and now they were only
making 20 tons per week. He was sorry to inform them
that the result was that he was obliged to propose a reduc-
tion in the wages of Vie workmen, and he regretted that
he was obliged to discharge some deserving and industri-
ous men. He urged the great importance of the proper
management of our colonies, and invited the meeting to
give its support to a forthcoming journal to be called the
Colonial Advocate, to be established in London, by Dr.
Bartlett, late of the New York Albion.
Thanks were then voted to the Chairman, and the
meeting separated.

ABOLITION OF SUNDAY LABOUR IN THE
POST-OFFICE-GREAT MEETING IN THE
AMPHITHEATRE.

On Wednesday, at noon, a meeting of persons favour-
able to the total cessation of postal operations throughout
the kingdom, on Sundays, was held in the Amphitheatre.
No meeting has been held in Liverpool for some time at
which there was such a large attendance; pit, boxes, and
gallery were crowded. Amongst the company present
we noticed most of the principal gentlemen of the town.
On the proposition of JOHN Moss, Esq., banker, John
Holmes, Esq., the mayor, was called to the chair.
His Worship the 'MAYOR, in opening the proceedings,
said that he considered himself highly honoured in being
called upon to preside over a meeting having such an
excellent object in view as that of putting an end to the
work of the post on Sunday. The house with which he
was connected had most important transactions with the
Isle of Man, and during the winter there were only two
mails per week; but they experienced no inconvenience
in
convenienced
by that circumstance, nor would they be
by their letters being delivered on a Monday, instead of a
Sunday. (Hear, hear.)
THOMAS B. HORSFALL, Esq., then came forward to
propose the first resolution. This was the chief speech of
the day. He said—Mr. Mayor, in looking at this ques-
tion it is right that we should look to it in its practical
bearings, and, sir, it is right to notice the objections which
are urged against what we now propose. We are told
that it will be very inconvenient to the mercantile com-
munity of Liverpool. Now, sir, I meet that by asking
whether it is inconvenient to the mercantile community
of London, where they have no postal delivery ?—(hear)
—but it is, perhaps, desirable that the people of London
should speak for themselves ; and, sir, they have spoken
for themselves. I hold in my hand the Times of Monday,
with a declaration covering the whole side of it; and not
only do they require no delivery of letters in London on
a Sunday, but they declare that they believe it is quite
unnecessary to have the post-office open on a Sunday in
any part of the country. (Loud cheers.) Now, sir, I
may be told that this is the opinion of the London bank-
ers ; what is the opinion of the Liverpool bankers ? We
have three old-established banks in Liverpool which are
well known. There is Moss and Company, the principal
of which is here, and has spoken for himself to-day.
(Cheers.) There is the firm of Heywood and Company,
and Leyland and Company, both of whom have autho-
rised me to say that, so far as Liverpool is concerned,
they entirely concur in the declaration of the London
bankers—(cheers)—that they do not get their letters on
Sunday, and they experience no inconvenience from it.
(Continued applause.) Now, having alluded to these two
objections, there is only one other which I have heard
stated with reference to the steamer from America, which
frequently comes in on a Sunday. Now, sir, we well
know the steamer arrives regularly almost to the day.
(Hear, hear.) Let it go out to America that the post-
office is closed on Sunday : they will alter the days of
sailing of the vessels, and you will have the steamer to
arrive in mid-week. (Applause.) I venture to express
an opinion which I have heard from various quarters, that
however desirous we may be to obtain this boon, this pri-
vilege, this right, we are not more anxious to obtain it
than, I believe, the prime minister of England will be to
grant it. (Great and prolonged applause.)
The resolution having been seconded by RICHARD
HOUGHTON, Esq., was passed unanimously.
FRANCIS SHAND, Esq., proposed the second resolution,
in the spirit of which he fully concurred. He alluded to an
inconvenience which he thought ought to be amended.
When the mails from the West or East, or from Spain,
arrived at Southampton on Saturday evening or Sunday,
they got the letters in Liverpool too late for any purpose
on Monday evening, and only in time for business on
Tuesday morning. That did not arise becouse the post-
office in Southampton was not working, for the letters
were transmitted to London, where they remained all
Sunday, and were then returned to Southampton, for the
letters to be forwarded to their destinations.

The resolution, which was seconded by JOHN CAMP-
BELL, Esq., passed unanimously.
ADAM GLADSTONE. Esq., proposed the third resolution.
They were merely endeavouring to carry out a simple di-
vine command, to which there were many and eternal
blessings attached, and in the disobedience of which we
incurred the wrath of the Almighty. (Cheers).
The resolution was seconded by JOHN CROPPER, Esq.,
and carried unanimously.
CHARLES INMAN, Esq., proposed the next resolution.
He contended that the man who did not look for success
in business first of all by fearing God was not likely to
prosper. He knew many persons who had for a long
time discontinued receiving letters on Sunday, and they
had not found any disadvaatage to arise therefrom.
Much had been said about the inconvenience of closing
the postoffice on account of sickness at a distance, but
not a single instance had come to his knowledge in which
the loss of the Sunday's post would be felt in that respect.
At present they could have letters by the four o'clock
mail up to midnight on Saturday ; they could have them
the first thing on Monday morning; and what more could
they desire
_? They heard nothing of these disadvantages
when there was a mail only every second, or, perhaps,
every third day. (Hear, hear.) He had heard gentlemen
in the commission business complain that they were sorry
that they were obliged to get their letters on Sunday, but
they were compelled to do so because others in the same
business get their letters and correspondence with their
connexions on the continent on that day ; and if they did
not do so, the others would get the credit of being the
more diligent men of business. Now, he would say that
the sooner the Government prevented one man injuring
another, by transgressing the commands of God, the more
ought they to rejoice. (Cheers.) He proceeded to show
that the present system interfered with merchants' clerks,
who had to convey the letters to their employers—with
the Postoffice clerks and letter-carriers, who had to be at
work from an early hour, and with the merchant himself,
for the letters might be of a nature so unsatisfactory as to
interfere with his peace of mind throughout the day.
WILLIAM HALL, Esq., who seconded the resolution,
urged them to seek for an alteration in the system com-
plained of, on the higher ground of obedience to the
commands of God; and concluded by seconding the re-
solution, which was carried unanimously. _ _

SAMUEL HOLME, Esq., made a long"and able speech,
referring to his own exertions in the Town Council on the
subject. He dwelt on the pleasureable anticipations, in
the midst of an arduous life, of spending the Sabbath in
the society of those around whom our affections are cen-
tred; and he said that the opportunity of spending the
Sabbath, drawn away from the cares, disappointments,
competitions, add anxieties of life, always cheered the
labourer, and gave a fair taste of the enjoyments of the
Sabbath, without which, he felt, that he could scarcely
have existed ; and he did say, from his own. experience,—
fromlaving spent many years in labour, that,, if. it, had,

not been for these abstractions, for the rest which he en-
joyed, and the associations with which he was privileged,
he-believed that he should not have been there that day
for the purpose of advocating the cause of those who
were not similarly situated with himself. (Cheers.) het
did not ask for the rigid observance of the Jewish Sab-
bath ; the position of society- in which we were placed
rendered it impossible to carry that out. The observance
of the Sabbath was a matter between individuals and
God ; but what he asked was, that our Government would
obey the law of God—would set an. example of obedience
to the law of God, in the same way that they required ua
to pay obedience to the law of man._ _ _

The meeting, was then addressed by C. Bushell, Esq.
A. Hodgson, Esq., and Dr. M'Neile,

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