The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-01-04 00:00:00

"But what is the use of all this talk ? What do you
propose as a remedy ? What would you do, if you had
the power, to save mankind from these afflicting fluctua-
tions ? Well ! these are very hard questions, and when
we are wiser we will try to solve them. Meanwhile, we
have about come to the conclusion that in this world we
too much idolize and deify these precious metals, in mak-
ing them the basis of all business, and of all credit and
confidence."

Is there any exaggeration here of our position,
or indeed of that of the two countries ? We have im-
ported more largely of American produce during the
past year than in any within memory. America
has in return imported largely of our own manu-
factures. Yet the industry of both countries is
being paralysed by the process in which their
mutual indebtedness is being discharged. We
have had to send specie—the King Stork which we
have set up—to the United States to pay for the
corn and cotton which we have bought ; and now
we have to " break our merchants, and annihilate
the value of all other property save that of the
precious metals," to get it back again ! With our
three per cents. at 95 to 100, and our railway stocks
at 50 per cent. premium, we contracted responsi-
bilities, which we are sacrificing three per cents. at
85, and railway stock at 50 per cent. discount to
pay off. We are buying back every sovereign we
shipped for corn at thirty or forty shillings each in
our depreciated securities and manufactures. _

It is true enough, as hinted by our transatlantic
contemporary, that the converse of the operation
will have to take place. America will be called
upon to protect herself and her citizens from the
effects of this " march and countermarch of the
precious metals." America is importing from us
just now more largely than she is exporting to our
markets; and such a course must shortly impover-
ish her very seriously. What then must be the
alternative of America? We give it in the striking

language of another transatlantic contemporary,
the Boston Courier :

`• We are now (he remarks) brought into this position ;
the bulk of our exports are diminished one-thircl, at least,
in price, from what they were .a year since; while imports
are increasing, without a corresponding diminution in
value. It requires a third more property to pay for what
'mport this year than what it did last year, and that
be face of a decreasing demand and a falling in prices
What we have to export.

" Now, this state of things cannot long endure. We
cannot pay for imports with exports of anything but
specie, and our banks must contract and our currency be
reduced, in order to bring down prices low enough to save
our specie and to send our wheat, cotton, &c., abroad in
place of it.
" We have, then, before us a very plain and easily-
understood state of things. We must contract at 'once
until prices fall. Wages must fall—every article except
money must become cheaper, and that must become dearer
until we are reduced to the scale of foreign prices. Eng-
land is contracting, in order to turn the specie tide in her
favour; and we must contract, to prevent the drain fall-
ing too severely upon us. We are now coming to a trial
of strength, to see which nation can gripe the hardest,
and in many respects the odds are in our favour; but
we shall not long keep our vantage ground, unless we
begin and persevere in this necessary but disagreeable
course."

A most consoling sort of process for the produc-
ing classes of both countries must be this "trial of
strength to see which nation can gripe the hardest"
—this battle for the possession of the precious
metals, in which " wages must fall, and every article
except money must become cheaper," The British
artizan will doubtless be grateful for the cheap loaf
thus purchased from the American farmer; the
British agriculturist, too, must make up his mind
to bear his share of the result of the contest. The
manufacturer and the manufacturing operative
must also take their part in this mutual " griping"
between the two countries.

After all, however, this doctrine of our American
brother journalist is only remarkable, inasmuch as
it is candidly enunciated. The same views as to
the effect of Free Trade, carried on with a contracted
convertible currency, has been again and again pro-
claimed in our own columns. It is well urged by
the apologists of our new system that as yet the
circumstances under which we have been placed
have prevented its full operation from being made
known. The cultivators of our soil have been
saved from suffering, which would otherwise have
been their lot, by a bounteous harvest and the
griping exaction of the foreign grower, who has
sought and been enabled to reap, in the general
calamity of Europe, high prices for his surplus
supply. But this is not to last for another season.
America cannot hold back both her produce and the
precious metals. She must part with one to bring
back the other; and we venture to predict a slight
surprise to those who are just now flattering the
British agriculturist upon his " snug" position in
this first year of Free Trade, at the result of next
year's working of their boasted system. Most
emphatically we admit that the system in question
has not had a fair trial. It will have one, however,
before we are all a year older ; and we shall be most
agreeably surprised if the result is not a startling
one to all classes.

WE beg to call the serious attention of our
readers to a very able statistical statement, in
another column, of the moral and spiritual con-
dition of the inhabitants of Vauxhall district in
this town. The table has been compiled by the
Rev. Dr. Hume, the newly-appointed incumbent
of the district, and reflects the very highest credit
on his patient labours, and painstaking solicitude.
The results which may be gathered from the docu-
ment, as regards the neglect of the means of
grace and of education, are truly appalling, whilst
many other facts relating to the people are equally
distressing. _ _

..
We hope that no other district in the town would
present so unfavourable an aspect.

A numerous and highly respectable meeting of
the members of the late Conservative Association
met at the Clarendon Rooms yesterday at 12 o'clock,
when the report of the committee appointed on the
3d ult. was unanimously adopted, and the associa-
tion reorganized under the name of the Liverpool
Constitutional Association, on the principles sub-
mitted, a copy of which we subjoin.
LIVERPOOL CONSTITUTIONAL ASSOCIATION.
"THE CHURCH, THE THRONE, AND THE PEOPLE."
" SHIPS, COLONIES, AND COMMERCE."
The objects of the association are—
" To uphold all the great interests of the empire, whe-
ther in the United Kingdom, or in the Colonies.
" To vindicate the principles of the British Constitu-
tion, as generally held by ' William Pitt and George
Canning,' ' securing for commerce, agriculture, manu-
factures, shipping, and railways, due encouragement,
thereby procuring for the artizan, the peasant, the opera-
tive, and the merchant seaman, that fair reward for his
labour which Englishmen have been used to enjoy.
" To advocate the adoption of a sound and equal sys-
tem of taxation which shall combine the greatest return
to the national exchequer, with the least pressure upon
the English producer and consumer.
" To promote national education based on religion, and
to resist undue state interference with the educational
rights of the church, as by law established.
To uphold church principles, and defend the rights
and liberties of the church, while respecting the just claims
of all who dissent from her communion.
" To promote, by all legal means, the election of mem-
bers of parliament for the borough, who will subscribe to,
and uphold the principles of, the association, and conform
to its rules and regulations in the prosecution of a canvass.
"To promote by all legal means the election of such
candidates for the Town Council as are members of the
association, and to protect the welfare of the burgesses
generally.
"To watch the registration, and protect those entitled
to the franchise from frivolous and vexatious objections.
" The committee of the association to be chosen by the
members, the same to consist of 24,—four to retire an-
nually, and not to be re-eligible for one year.
" The chairman and secretary of the ward committees
to be ex officio members of the general committee.
" The general committee to draw up a code of rules and
regulations for the guidance, and appoint the necessary
officers required to conduct the business, of the assciation."
We find that persons desirous to enrol their
names as members are requested to notify the same
to the secretary, in writing, or to the chairman or
secretary of the ward in which they are resident,
accompanied by a request that the same may be
forwarded to the secretary of the general com-
mittee. _

Mr. Henry Buckmaster was appointed secretary,
and we anticipate the best results from his election
to so important an office.

WE observe that a notice has been put upon the
Council paper, by Mr. Samuel Holme, and will
come on for discussion to-morrow, proposing to
raise the salary of the stipendiary magistrate, Mr.
Rushton, from its present amount of £l3OO, to
£l6OO per annum. Of course we are at present
unaware of the grounds upon which Mr. Holme
will endeavour to justify this increase. The same
objections which we and others have formerly urged
against a similar proposition exist now ; and we
know of nothing which has occurred to weaken
their force in the slightest degree. On the con-
trary, we conceive that the present state of affairs
in the borough, and especially the increased expense
to which we shall shortly be put, by the increase in
the police force, rendered necessary to repress out,