The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-03-31 00:00:00

HOUSE OF LORDS.-THURSDAY.

The Duke of WELLINGTON gave notice that he should
move the adjournment of the house from the 7th to the
21st of April, for the Easter recess.
Lord BROUGHAM gave notice that he should move, after
Easter, for the inquiry into the conduct of the Poor Law
Commissioners, in the case of Mr. Parker.

HOUSE OF COMMONS.-THTIRSDAY

The debate on the second reading of the Corn-law bill
was resumed.

Mr. FINCH opposed the second reading, and made an
elaborate reply to the speech of Mr. F. Baring on Tues-
day night. He declared that this bill would produce a
five-fold revolution in this country ; for it would make a
Poor-law revolution. a financial revolution, a political re-
volution, a land and cotton revolution, and a colonial re-
volution, which would separate Ireland and the colonies
from the empire. He therefore hoped that if the
House of Commons passed this hill, the House of Lords
would reject it; for a more pernicious measure was never
Introduced into a British Parliament. The number of
Country gentlemen in England was 200,000, and the
amount of the capital which they and their tenants had
vested in land amounted to £400,000,000. He showed
tbat this bill would destroy at least £50,000,000 of that
capital. No wonder, therefore, that it had spread great
discontent throughout the country, and was endangering
the constitution and government of the empire. Mr.
Finch proceeded for more than two hours to utter " pro-
phetic sounds so full of woe," that every member fled in
alarm from the Opposition benches, and only 29 members
on the Government and protection benches had fortitude
enough to bear them. The hon. member considered this
conduct on the part of the Opposition as an insult to the
Protection party, and threatened to avenge it by either
speaking four hours himself on the subject, or by getting
some of his fiends to deliver themselves of the same
amount of eloquence.
Lord G. BENTINCR contended that the allegation by
the Government of the likelihood of a potato famine in
Ireland was nothing else but a gross delusion. The ac-
counts, which he had recently received from Ireland, con-
vinced him tbat the price of potatoes was falling rather
than rising in most of the markets of that country. He
endeavoured to prove that the alarms of the farmers re-
specting the repeal of the corn-laws were not visionary,
from the tact that in the year 1836, when corn was at a
lower price than it bad ever been before in England, fo-
reign corn could have been imported into it at a profit of
10s. per quarter to the importer. He complained bit-
terly that Ministers, in introducing the present Corn Bill,
bad blown hot and cold at the same moment. First of all
the farmers were not to be alarmed, because, upon look-
ing at the results of the tariff of 1842, there was every rea-
son to believe that a free trade in corn would rather en-
hance than depress the price of the article; and yet after-
wards Ministers unblushingly proclaimed that their object
was to produce cheap bread, and that the time was gone
by wherein rents could be eked out of the sufferings of
the poor. He then quoted several statis•ica' documents
to prove that the fluctuations in price under the sliding
scale c"

'ere muc

'lose win

curred in countries where the corn trade was said to be
more free. Under the law of 1842 the fluctuation in the
English market amounted to 321 per cent., whereas in
Bordeaux It amounted to no lrss than 81 per cent. Ile
next proceeded to prove that under the existine duty

of 1R... corn could now he imported into England by all
tie im trters of corn from foreign countries. lie next
argued t tat the welfare of the labouring classes in general,

ann. of toe agricmturat classes in particular, did not de. Brigadier Uureton. %%nen r noservea t►:e enemy's en•
pend on the low price of wheat, but on a profitable price campment, aid saw it was full of infantry, I immediately
of wheat to the farmer. Referring to the question of Mr. brought upon it Brigadier Godby's Brigade, by chancing
F. Baling on a former night, he declared that he was pre- front, and taking the enemy's infantry en n verse. They
pared to give him a comprehensive answer to his very drove them before them, and took some guns without a
Titjue and indefinite question about the future policy of check.

in company during the last five days, and entered the tier
see within a short distance of each other.

The Oregon discussion, in the senate, had not termina-

Letters have reached the Prussian capital rrom Prince
Waldemar of Prussai, statint: it to he h s royal highness's
intention to accompany the British army to Lahore!

The English Gras Comp my of Berlin have sustained a
great loss of late, by the hur;:ting of one of their gigantic
gasometers, which they had imported from tins country.
On being filled it burst, and is totally useless.
The celebrated navigator, Otto de Kotzebue, son of the
dramatic writer, died at Revel, on the 15th ult., aged
hfry.eight. lie had been three times round the world,
making several important discoveries; but in 1839 retired
from service, and died in his family circle at Kan, in
Ear honia

RELIGIOUS TOLERATION IN CHINA —Keying, the
imperial c.,mmissioner, has just issued an order, by corn.
maul of the Emperor, which decrees toleration to all
Christian sects, in China, not merely as regards f,reieners,
but regarding native Chinese alto. The latter may now
attend the Protestant or Popish chapels, without let or
hindrance upon the part of the government.
The government steamer Virago, on board of which the
Indian mail had been placed in consequence of the non-
arrival of the Oriental at Alexandria when the mail came
to hand, and for the safety of which cons:dersble appre-
hensions had been entertained, owing to the delay in the
arrival at Malta, has at length reached that island ; and it
appears that she had been impeded by some accident to
her machinery.
THE FAMINE IN ANATOLIA. Extract of a letter
dated " Smyrna. March 7, 1846.—An extraordinary
thing has happened here—manna, or a -glutinous sub-
stance of which they make bread, has fallen in immense
quantities in a large district of Anatolia, where the peo-
ple were starving previously. I will endeavour to send
you a sample; it is selling publicly in this Ldistrict at
about 17s. per quarter.
SPAIN.—The Miraflores ministry resigred on the 16th,
after the meeting of the Cortes. The Qu 'en sent for
them to dissolve the Cortes immediately. This they de-
clined to do, but tendered their resigna•ions, which were
accepted. In the new Administration Narvaez is Presi-
dent of the Council and Minister at War; M. d'Egana,
Minister of Justice; Burgas, Minister of the Interior;
Orlando, Minister of Finance; and Pezuela, brother-in-
law of the Martyuis of Viluma, and an ultra-monarchist,
Minister of Marine. The first acts of the new cabinet are
ominous. By the unanimous advice of its members (an
address has been published to which their names are at-
tached) two royal decrees have been issued, the one sus-
pending the Cortes, and the other the liberty of the press.