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

tenant farm
more more
fault or thrc

cultural prices

~ient authority also attributes a
large portion of the farmer's present difficulties to
the fact of his having—speculated in Railways !
This is really a sad declension in the great talent
which, whether directed to express the truth or to
pervert it, the Times in general displays. On what
rule. 9uld the agricultural
-ars he " by far the
of the empire ?"

ame e

vh.t machinery, c
four

interest during the pa
most prosperous of all the interest
They had tolerabl
1847; but tl
yield of grain. tl

prices, certainly, in 1845 and
e prices were caused by deficient
rot, and the mortality

amongst -cattle

They have since had prices low
enough to astonish the Times himself. They had
to submit, like their neighbours, to the monetary
pressure of 1847, which took from them some por-
tion of the increased price which they ought to
have received for their deficient crops; but not a
single favouring feature in their position is to he
discovered. If these men have " saved money,"

as our contemporary intimates, they are in an
enviable plight. All the world believes the saving
to be mainly in the trouble of counting it. If the
savings of the free traders are upon the same scale,
the trouble of disposing of them will be slight
indeed.

ONE of the most striking features of Whig
legislation is its steady march towards centraliza-
tion of all authority in Government Boards and
Secretaries of State. The public resident upon the
spot, the payers of rates—and the best judges, one
would imagine, of their own requirements—seem to
be regarded as infants, too simple to he trusted to

perform any of the ordinary affairs of life, without
being controlled by some jack in office domiciled
in the pleasant region of Whitehall or Somerset
House, and picking his nails at the moderate cost
of some thousand or two of the money earned by
an industrious people. Bye and bye, not a kitten
will mew in any corner of the empire, whose plain-
tive note will not be duly reported to London, the
seat of all official and administrative wisdom, and
recorded in blue books, as statistics for the ingeni- The result of the division on Thursday night,
ous speculations of the James Wilsons and other upon Mr. D'lsraeli's motion, must be regarded by
waiters upon treasury pickings. every candid man as affording unequivocal evidence
We have before us, at this moment, a bill, just that the landed interest, even in the present House
introduced by Government into Parliament, for the of Commons, possesses an amount of vitality very
extension of this centralization system, and styled different from that which has of late been attributed
•"A Bill to amend the Laws relative to the Manage- to it by the Manchester school of politicians.
ment of the Highways in England and Wales." Twelve months ago, the idea that a proposal of re-
Its promoters are Mr. Cornwall Lewis and Sir lief to the agricultural body of this country was
George Grey—a new Poor Law Commissioner and likely to receive the support of two hundred and
a Home Secretary seeking patronage ! The nature fifty-two members of that house, independent of
of the amendment of the law to be effected by it pairs, would have been scouted with derision.
will be readily guessed at. The gist of the bill is a Practical suffering, however, brings home to men's
transfer of the powers of the public to manage their minds convictions which, though based upon suffi-
cient reasoning, are treated lightly in the hour of
own highways to Boards of Guardians acting under
the control of the Somerset House Commissioners. prosperity. Declining incomes tell a plainer tale
There is no suggestion of any material difference than volumes of political economy. Farms thrown
in the mode of managing highways throughout the up into the hands of their owners ; rents falling
thirty-six clauses of the bill. The grasping of new into arrear, and labourers clamouring for employ-
-sources of patronage by the Poor Law Board and ment and food, are convincing facts, which all the
her Majesty's principal Secretaries of State is, how- statistics of the board of trade are insufficient to
ever, very palpable. Boards of Guardians, for overthrow.
example, "may employ for the purposes of this act We are not amongst the number of those who
their treasurer and clerk, and such other paid believe that much of permanent value would accrue
to the agriculturists from the adoption of such a
officers of their union as they may think fit so to
employ, and may, with the consent of the Poor Law measure as that proposed by the protectionist
Board, pay increased or additional salaries to such leader. Two millions, in rates, transferred to the
treasurer, clerk, and officers." The Poor Law consolidated fund, is a miserable compensation for
Board may "regulate the amount of such increased the large amount swept away from the produce of
,or additional salaries ;" in place of the consent and the soil by foreign competition. The admission,
authority of the justices being required for the dis- however, involved in the amount of support which
posal of any property heretofore vested in surveyors i it received, that some fresh mode of imposing taxa-
of highways, the consent and authority of the Poor tion must be resorted to, in order to meet the
c Law Board is henceforth to be required—in a word, changed position of the owners and cultivators of
t the powers of the magisterial bench, and the will of the soil, is all important. It is significant of more
the ratepayers, are to be placed in abject submission than meets the eye at a first glance, and some of
the incidents of the debate are worthy of serious
to the Somerset House officials. They are to audit
all charges, pass or disallow just whatever seems to attention. The whole tone of the discussion, in
them fitting and right ; to raise the salary of this fact, betrays a decided change in the relative posi-
or that pet official ; and the ratepaying community tion of parties. The protectionists, although ac-
have only the pleasing duty to perform of paying-- knowledging their present inability to return to the
I system of former years, had throughout an admit-
and asking no questions.
We presume that the plea of the promoters of ted basis of truth to entitle them to the sympathy
this Bill will be that it will economise expenditure and consideration of the public; whilst the free
upon highways. In small or thinly populated trade party, for the first time since the enactment
parishes there can be no reason why the same col-
of their boasted system, spoke " with bated breath,"
lectors would not suffice both for poor's rates and and evidently felt themselves compelled to assume
highway rates, and salaries be thus saved. But a deprecatory and defensive attitude.
the very framing of the act is calculated to unde-
Amongst the most significant features were the
ceive any one, who might otherwise hays looked speeches of Sir James
Graham and Mr. W. E.
to a reduction of expenditure as the result of its Gladstone. The following remarks by the Right
H
adoption. In the first place we find it most con- Hon. Baronet are especially important. Speaking
siderately laid down in clause 15 of the act,—that as a member of the agricultural interest, he said,—
the guardians shall not demand more from the "As a country gentleman, I have always urged upon
overseers or collectors than "tenpence in the pound the class to which I belong the great impolicy of pursuing
t(hcehiereinte)resitshas a class apart frota the entire community.
of the rateable value of the property rateable to
alwaysa the
community told t them, aantdot
the relief of the poor in any parish, at any one that, arss.a class with rtebllacthkem now,
of
equity,tc.e are
time." But the very same clause allows them to irresistible, and that there is no int, either
levy two and sixpence in the pound in any one I justice, or policy, which we cannot force upon any
year, care only being taken that there shall be an Government; but that, on the other hand, if we as a class
Pursue exclusiveroeusrth
t e cointerests tat the expense of the gene-
interval of two months between the periods at
e ar(l,ou altogether
eeri
np o v)rerl-
which each instalment is paid. Power, too, is less, and our overthrow yiw
retained for the levying of an additional rate, with will illustrate this. I shave always contended, angd the
the consent of four-fifths of the parish assembled hon. member for Warwickshire will agree with me, that
the most improvident bargain that could have been made
in Vestry, in the same way as it is authorized un-
by any great class was that which the landlords made in
der the act of 6th Wm. 4th. The most formida-
ble harbinger, however, of increased annoyance wlBhli9c,hw haeivae, It'nhe7cnontshi
edesroaietiono ofessaion
flex;
thel usihe corn law,
is to be found in the clauses, 18, 19, and 20, in- up to 80s. per quarter, they sconsented to the° restorationme-maret
sisting upon particular modes of keeping books, of a depreciated standard of value--a standard which
&e. Instead of simplifying matters by amalga-- had been depreciated for a quarter of a century. That
mating poor rate and highway rate, we are to have
that was an improvident bargain I thought then, and I
"separate and distinct accounts of all sums of thinklotenroows
t.a
1()C haeaeirdso. )0.
fTorh
ae y are
money received and expended for the purposes of laws, in the vain yhope oradvanci
roeg- i
tmhpeovsai tl
omenoof ft :ohier
pro-corn
'this act ;" such books shall be open at all times for perty at the expense of, and in opposition to, the
entire
inspection ; all the formalities of a new poor law community. Let them be on their guard. (Hear, hear.)"
audit are to he gone through, at the expense, of We accept most fully both the passages which
course, to the country, of auditor's mileage and we have marked with italics. The agricultural body,
travelling charges; and, finally, "an abstract of with justice on their side, and the sympathies of
the receipts and expenditure in respect to the high- the majority of the nation to support them, are
ways in each union, with whatever particulars may irresistible ; and the free-traders and the demo-
_ „, cracy of the manufacturing towns are learning the
. .... „,, (MC or her Majesty's princi- fact from the result of this debate. They did make
° state, who is to draw out and an improvident bargain, too, when they agreed to
• i'. he will have it made. sustain a pressure, increased by one-third, of the
-”ments may be whole of the amount of general and local taxation,
..rie.land mortgages, annuities, and debts, as the condition
of their receiving 80s. a quarter for their wheat.
But the bargain has not been kept ! They are
sustaining this increased load of taxation, with
wheat reduced to less than half the price they
stipulated for. Here is the screwing point ; and
r.arusal, we leave .. ~.. __ in this direction, or a return to a protective system,
nuch, hor ' the remedy for their present suffering will have to
be sought. The agriculturist is paying two bushels
of wheat in taxation, and for the satisfaction of
debts, where he only undertook to pay one. The
working man is giving to the state and to his cre-
ditor two days' labour, where he only undertook to
give one. We have here the solution of the
mystery of our present anomalous position as a
nation. We have an explanation of the reason
why the rich are growing richer, and the poor are
sinking deeper into the abyss. Let Mr. D'lsraeli
grapple with this question, and then, indeed, he
will have in his hands " a gigantic cause" worthy
of a great statesman. Or let Sir James Graham,
who tells us that his opinions as to the " improvi-
dent bargain" are changed, take it up with a reso-
lution to do justice. Anything short of this is
mere trifling—skimming over the sore, not healing
it. By such a policy the nation might be saved.
As it is, we are approaching rapidly a social
convulsion.
Mr. Gladstone's speech, in support of the propo-
sition, certainly contained no reference to this view
of the question at issue ; but it admitted the
justice of dealing with the inequality of the taxa.
tion complained of, notwithstanding the fact that
the proposition before the Hon* was but the be-
ginning of an end, such end being a total reversal
of our fiscal 13yetozo, required .to bolder up, or to

_.,ianned, has to be transmitted on the 25th of
March in each year to one of her Majesty's princi-
pal secretaries of state, who is to draw out and
dictate the form in which he will have it made.
How many of these interesting documents may be
furnished from the thousands of parties in England
and Wales, setting forth that three or four tons
t upon this lane, or that, and that
Richard Adams received 575. per
ton for breaking them, before one of her Majesty's
principal secretaries of state soils his fingers in an
attempt at their 1, we leave to our readers to
say. Th;- is certain that whenever
a n nclant of one of her

John Timms or

pal secreta

Majesty's princi-
wishes to get a snug place for a
ernumary scribe in the office of the

friend, as a s

parish in which he lives,
patron to sear

e has only to move his
mrn a demand for some statistics
.and render the engagement of an

to consume time

extra hand decent

It would not have been in accordance with the
character of the Whig Government if such a bill
as this had not contained on the face of it some-
thing cowardly and shabby. Accordingly we find
that it is not proposed to bring it into operation in
parishes where the population is over five thou.
sand, and Highway Boards have been formed by
the inhabitants in vestry assembled. It is also
provided that " nothing in this act contained shall
affect the city of London, or the liberties thereof,
or the rights, interests, privileges, franchises, or
authorities of the Mayor and commonalty and
citizens of the city of London, or their successors,
or the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of the said city.
or the Lord Mayor of the said city for the time
being." Of course Lord John Russell durst no
more touch London by a measure of the kind than
face an exasperated wild cat. Moreover, prophets
are not respected in their own country; and
the Poor-law Board, interfering so near to their
official location ae the city of London, might dis.