The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-09-12 00:00:00

WILL BE MIXED WITH TAR!

AS MAY BE OFTEN SEEN ON THE DOCK QUAYS
for the purpose of
MAKING IT UNFIT FOR FOOD.

When thus spoiled it will be allowed for use as GREASE
for CART WHEELS, &C. at the LOW DUTY of ONE
FARTHING per lb."

We need not, of course, say one word with
respect to the object of this disgraceful publication—
for disgraceful it is in every sense of the word. Its
object is to inflame the popular mind ; and in the
pursuit of this object, its authors have not scrupled
to pervert facts, and to mingle absolute mendacity
with their ignorance, to an extent which one would
imagine that men of honourable character and re-
spectable station would be ashamed to contemplate.
For what, let us ask, would be the first impression
which a perusal of the document is calculated to
create ? Manifestly this, that the importation in
question was made with a view to its entry for con-
sumption in the British market ; and that nothing
interfered with the profitable result of the transac-
tion except the " exorbitant high duty" of 2d. per
lb. But was such the case ? We venture greatly
to doubt whether this " good butter" was anything,
after all, but the "grease butter" which is a regular
article of exportation to this and other countries
from the United States. It was not imported here
for consumption as an article of food, for the very
simple reason that no man of common sense, and
with his eyes open, could possibly dream of enter-
ing into a speculation at present so hopeless.
An appeal to facts and figures will sufficiently
prove this position. The price of American " grease
butter" in bond is at present 355. per cwt. The price
of " Old" Irish—a better article than the American
—is only 40s. Without a duty at all, therefore,
and allowing the American to be (what it is not) fit
for human consumption, there could he very little
profitable importation. The price of "new Irish"
butter, in firkins, is at present 565. to 68s. per cwt.
The corresponding quality, viz. in tubs and pails, in
New York market, by the last advices, is 121- to 15
cents per lb., or 58s. 4d_ to 70s. per cwt I The
price of good butter in New York is therefore just
2s. per cwt. greater than in Liverpool; and yet these
anti-monopoly people can deliberately tell us that it
is only our " exorbitantly high duty" which prevents
the working classes of this country enjoying the
cheap (?) butter of the United States !

The fact is, that at the present rates it is only the
high duty of 5 cents, or nearly 3d. per lb., levied
under the tariff of the United States, which
prevents our becoming exporters of butter to Ame-
rica! The "prime dairies" of the United States
would, in case of an open trade on the part of that
country, be superseded in part by the best qualities
of our Irish. It does not, however, suit the object
of the anti-monopoly gentlemen to allow this fact to
be known, lest agitation should become an un-
profitable game.
But we are told that the 396 kegs in question are
to be spoiled, and afterwards used " as grease for
cart-wheels." Now with respect to this "spoiling,"
we must confess that we do not contemplate the
process with any great favour. It has been found
necessary, however, we imagine, to keep importers
honest, by rendering it impossible for them to pass
as grease what in reality is butter. It is quite pos-
sible that some less objectionable plan might be hit
upon. In the meantime, however, we console our-
selves with the reflection that it is not " human
food" which is thus " tarred" and " spoilt," but
rubbish, which some very "liberal" and enlightened
gentlemen, who are fond of reducing the people to
" a coarser kind of food," might otherwise be
tempted to dispose of as such ! We may remark,
by the way, that neither such butter nor " grease"
can be used for cart-wheels, as indeed any one less
wooden than a cart-wheel might easily discover.
We may add a word to our contemporary, the
Mercury, who has perpetrated a paragraph upon the
alleged enormity of this transaction. Our contem-
porary says that he has tasted the butter, and that,
although a little salted, it is "in other respects equal
to our own butter at Is. a lb." Now this is surely
going too far; for if the article is worth ls. a lb.,
the importer could make the very handsome profit of.
nearly sixpence per lb. by paying the duty upon it,

instead of having it spoiled as grease. But your
thick-and-thin advocate, who is not overburthened
with information upon the subjects which occupy
his pen, is apt thus to blunder.

The Council proceedings of Wednesday last
afford us little material for comment. To one or
two points, however, which they suggest, we may be
permitted to direct a few passing observations. And
first, with respect to the proceedings of the Finance
Committee.

It does really strike us—and the conviction is
forcing itself elsewhere—that this Committee takes
upon itself a little too much. An observer of its
doings would imagine that the Council itself was a
merely subsidiary body, called together once a
month for the sole purpose of recording their ap-
proval of the acts of the Finance Committee, and
enabling a few talkative members to let off spirts of
oratory addressed to the reporters The committee
is every thing—head, hands, spirit, and body of the
municipal machine—whilst the Council itself is
mere shadow, inoperative alike to do and to design
for the common weal. The committee can decree
an expenditure of thousands, or determine upon tilt
sale of one-half of the Corporation property, and
simple "Sic volo, sic jubeo, stat pro ratione volun-
las," conveyed in a bland speech, is all the expla
nation which it deems necessary to make, and 1.1
the deference which it chooses to pay to the body
of which it is, or ought to be, only an importan
member.