The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-02-22 00:00:00

fairs was painful

—it -would have
trong effort of patience—have re-
ind unresisting under the same
hey had been paying, and

The community we repeal.
een, h(

y had received an

e Tariff reductions, by which it was
But an addition to that impost, un-
)onding boon„ upon a

smarting under

the ME

losses, barely able to keep
engulphed with the frag-
7reck with which they are
.mity not to be borne—a

good nature, sufficiently

e the very stones find tongues.
it once busy manufacturing dis-
e and steeped in poverty; view
cies and quarries, our suspended

oyed labourers ! Enter
;e seaports, and see the
!d up unsaleable, except
Sign their owners to the
Am Russell and his incapable
and then tell us if this is a time
a people by whom, a single ad-

gla Of taxation can be imposed

to find that such is the feeling
sterial proposal has excited in Liver-
t it pervades all classes and all parties
inity. But such a feeling must have
and a powerful one, which will be heard
oed in every part of the empire. It must
umblings on 'Change
or at the clubs ; blit must be a united voice—the
voice of Liverpool's gentry, merchants, and trades-
men, who upon this occasion must lay aside their
'erences of opinion upon ordinary political mat-
t on one common ground to resist
f and audacious act of spoliation.

n unix

Tsai storm of indignation

whieh the mir

pool; and t
in the come

y has borne more than its
fair share of the national suffering. Our town has
been made a Lazar house by Ireland's fever-stricken
epayers have had to feed and
hospitals and graves for, thou-
f idle, depraved, or helpless wretches, who,
eir flight from famine in their own land, were

communit.

nurse, to

Our rat

directed here as to a place in whose streets the
means of life might be had in abundance for ask-
ing. This greatest commercial port in the world
has peculiar reasons for taking the lead in .a deter-
mined opposition to this preposterous measure ;
and her claim to such a leading position will not
only be admitted, but will be followed, by every
community through the length and breadth of the

Let us urge, then, upon our fellow-townsmen to
be prompt in their action upon this matter; and to
attend the meeting summoned by the Mayor for
Thursday next, to consider this very subject; and
moreover, to come to that meeting prepared to pass
)lutions of the most uncompromising character.
r deserves the thanks of the town—yes, of
ting so readily to con-

The M

for conse

vene such a meeting, dealing as it will have Co do with
a subject of such absorbing interest to all classes of
the community, and upon which the minds of men of
shade of party politics are so much in unison.
movement must, necessarily, be prompt, in
that a sufficient array of public feeling may
,ot up, in time to arrest the measure when it
comes before the House on Monday next.
In connection with this subject we would direct
the attention of our readers to a prospectus of
ional Confederation for a more direct and
equitable adjustment of national and local taxa-
tion," to which we shall refer more pointedly next

_ 3 entered upon the perusal of the annual
of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce,
it was in the hope that, in this document, at least,
we should have a full explanation of the causes
which have rendered the manufacturing trade of
the past year—the first year of Free Trade in corn—
one of the worst and most disastrous years on
record. We expected to find it explained why,

with vastly-increased imports of breadstuffs and
some other commodities, our exports to nearly

every foreign country have declined; but we found
no such explanation. The committee treat us with
their proceedings with respect to the " Corn-laws,"
the " duties on butter and cheese," the " reduction
of the duty on tea," the " sugar duties," " navi-
'----- " "tidal harbours," " bankruptcy and
" London morning mail," " post
,ommunication with South Wales," " direct steam
mail to New Orleans," "letters by American packet
"currency," "Birkenhead docks," (!) and
of other matters; but what might readily

insolvent laws;

have been concluded would form the leading sub-
ject of such a document is quietly disposed of in a
few remarks "in conclusion !" We must endeavour
to give, so far as wt can understand them, the
cnibstance of the apologetic pleading of the asso-

evident confusion of mind displayed
in the commencement of this apoio-
which is not to be wondered at when
ra,atable nature of the task assigned them
considered. They eicdress regret "that the
lawn of the Free-trade policy of this country should
have been so clouded by adverse circumstances as
to make it almost true to say that the commencement
has yet to take place ! ' Now, whatever may
adverse circumstance referred to as having
" the dawn" of our Free-trade policy, we
intend that that policy had been in operation
upwards of a year and a half, and that its com-
mencement was precipitated by more than two
years. The Corn Importation and Tariff Bills re-
ceived the royal assent on the 26th of June, 1846;
and, although a small sliding duty was retained,
ranging from 4s. to 10s. per quarter, until the Ist
of February, 1849, when it was to cease altogether,
we might virtually have been said to enjoy perfect
freedom, the minimum of 4s. having never been ex-
ceeded up to the time of the suspension of all
duty whatever, which took place on the 21st of
January, 1847. From that date we have bad no
duties whatever.

the unj

We give a specimen of the adroitness with which
the chamber contrive. to throw dust in-the eyes of
the public, and to get away from the real question
atissue. After remarking upon the distress of
1845, and its influence in bringing about the repeal
of the Corn-laws, the report proceeds—
" The autumn of 1846 again displayed a second failure
of the potato crop, and a second defective harvest, not
only in this country, but throughout the whole of northern

sery which has since been suffered, tfiiit in every country
except our own the promptest measures were taken to
supplies of food. On the 14th of October. of that
when the bullion in the Bank had fallen to
f notes to £8

615,582,234, and the reserve o
our board addressed an earnest memorial to the lords of
he treasury, who had assumed po

of Sir Robrt Peel's administration, imploring then; forth-
with to open the ports for the free admission of food, and

antil the 21st of January, 1847, on which day ministers
announced to Parliament that it was their intention to

iwed to becoe

competitors