The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-04-25 00:00:00

are about to witness an end

that our town is at
bout to put forth its claim to be listened to

I, as well as local

merch

Ilveroool have to
faire

laissez

A.silently h

inersei
been 1
exposi

lations, whilst it has

portant b

to act as the

f their or

too long been content
deduced from their

with seeing ti

--smothered in b
of parliamentar
acted upon.

in commercial and ordinary affairs
[e books, or cushioned in reports
committees, destined never to be
) be respected, to be listened to
hey must speak out; tl

ey must

address themselves to the legislature in the hearing
of the people. They possess a moral power equal,
if exerted, to that of any community in the king-
dom. They have intelligence and character equal
to that of any community in the world; and they
have only to give that power a right direction to
render it effectual in securing for themselves and
their fellow-countrymen vast and important

benefits.
The formation amongst our mercantile body of
an association, having for its object the securing of
a general retrenchment in the national expenditure
and a more equitable and politic system of raising
the national revenue, we may regard as the first
overt act of the desired change ; and we rejoice that
the promoters of the association have chosen for
their exertions a direction at once so appropriate
and so justifiable. For years past, the question, as
to the imposition and the disposal of the national
burthens, has been left too much to the direction of
successive administrations, as a matter upon which
the community at large were not in a position to
form an opinion ; and, if an outcry against over-
taxation and national extravagance has been raised,
it has generally come from parties, with whom the
respectable portion of the community were not
disposed to associate themselves. The promulga-
tion of views of economy has either been regarded
as allied with the indulgence of democratic feeling,
or it has come from members of the Hume and
Cobden school, who could see no other mode of
effecting a saving than by crippling one or both
arms of the national strength. _To strip the crown

of a portion of its dignity-has been the specific of
one class of financial reformers, whilst the other
would have us rush into dependence upon a dream
of universal peace and national brotherhood, aban-
don our colonies, dismantle our fleets, and sink
down into the position of a third-rate power. The
financial association just formed, composed as it is
intended to be of some of the leading merchants
and tradesmen of this great mart of commerce, of
every shade of political opinion, with, as its chair-
man, Mr. Robertson Gladstone, a gentleman
whose name 'and connexions carry with them an
important influence, independently of his admitted
high intellectual and personal character, will
exercise a materially different influence, and com-
mand the attention of the legislature. It will no
longer be in the power of the hangers on of party,
or of the government, to urge that the cry for
reform emanates from the ignorant democrat or the
dreaming theorist. The country can no longer be
taken on its weak side by an appeal to the loyalty
and the love of order of its people. There can be
no suspicion that such a body seeks to weaken the
defences of the crown, to expose our foreign com-
merce to danger, or to peril the safety of property
at home. The large stake which its members hold
in the welfare of the country will effectually protect
them from these imputations.
The time too, as well as the men, is most apropos
for the movement. On the one hand, we have
witnessed, during the last twelve years, a progres-
sive increase in the national expenditure, amounting
at present to nearly seven millions sterling of yearly
excess over the expenditure of 1835. To meet this,
and to fill up the vacuum created by the remission
of various import duties, we have been compelled
to submit to an inquisitorial and oppressive income
tax • and we have the prospect, besides, of a serious
deficiency at the close of the present financial year.
Yet we have a government which tells us that it is
alike impossible to effect reductions, and to render
our system of taxation equable in its pressure.
Again, we are surrounded on every side by com-
mercial and industrial suffering. The merchant,
the shipowner, the shopkeeper, the manufacturer,
and the labourer, are alike plunged into difficulties,
and some of them into almost unbearable distress.
We have, moreover, large masses of our population
ready to rush into extensive political changes, for
relief from their sufferings,—ready to imitate the
example of republican phrenzy set them in the
neighbouring continent of Europe. Who then, at
such a crisis, are so fit to approach the discussion
of such a question as that of reform in our financial
system as the mercantile bodies of Liverpool and
other towns ? Who are more likely to be able to
point out where the shoe pinches ? Who are more
likely to discover where the fetter galls them, than
those who first and most severely feel its pres-
sure ? None : and we regard, therefore, this move-
ment of the merchants and traders of Liverpool as
a noble and manly effort, which, whatever may be
its success, entitles them, for the intention alone,
to the regard and gratitude of all classes of their
fellow-countrymen. _ _ .

With respect to what may be the particular views
of the association, we are,- of course, at present
uninformed, the proceedings thus far having
only been preliminary. In the character of its
chairman, Mr. Robertson Gladstone, however, we
have an ample assurance that they will be such as
loyal Englishmen, whether engaged in commercial
or in other pursuits, can advocate without loss of
character; and that they will he urged with that
determination of purpose which distinguishes his
t to every question upon which
„nviction. We trust also to see
by the accession of a host of the
l mercantile sagacity of
and commercial

conduct with resj

contemporat
the town,

.of men whc

sanding, as well as their known constitutional
principles, will give a prestige and influence to the
retarding power

association, whi
t.

t, too, that, under his

can res

ation which may be

any a

guidance
••• 4.
will be legitimately condi

d. We must neither
overnment resorted to, in the
Lbstain from consumption of
5, as recommended by Mr. Finch, nor

have coercion of tti

nape of pled

d artia