The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-12-26 00:00:00

TUE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

RA7 UAL

TO CORRESPOND

—ln our pap
.d Mr. Rval

stead of

of Toe

t several late-

Zibervool &tan Dan,

TUESDAY MORNING, DEC

26, 1813

The present

is the last opportt.

g our readers b

'e have, therefi

duties,

we have to w

.4. SI E R

CHRIS

'equired from the Colonial-office to eno
!ontr

,se" Che

zniinpertant year in En

wosperity to h

commerce

and wider bounds to

It has brought with it few reverses to

eve over,

h some of its ere

s, it is true, we

ght wish that history had not to record. "Take
' back upon

t for g

or ill," hoc

', we can 100

faction,

I in sincerity pray that its

for emigrants

1 embart

calculated to forward

s will introduce to

well, then, good old

upon and

record what you

unworthy selves

—for the prosperity and extended influence and

n of the Wh

The Land and I

Radical party,

.e organ, of

LIVERPOOI

ravings of intense ignorance,

h we I

'YEAR

ration

to be made, and the requisites to their validity and
,day last we erroneously proof •; and, as far as it can be made applicable, the
t for Wednesday last,
(to-morrow). Passengers' Act is to be the basis of their regula-
tions. In the colonies themselves, provision is to
he made to ensure the labourer, after his arrival, the
benefit of any contract made by him with the •la-
bourer who brings him, or of transferring him-
self to another employer should he find that he has
v which we shall been imposed upon.
the close of One circumstance contributed materially to our
'ties to per- hopes of the successful working of this measure,

and, amongst the most
viz., the circumstance, that the ports in India from
I
1, for each and all our which the Chinese labourers may be expected to

are not infested, like Sierra Leone and
ht he pardoned, perhvg, were we at some other places, with the emissaries of the Anti-
nbrace the opportunity of glare- slavery Society, to whose mischievous efforts is to
le year whose close we are be mainly attributed the failure of emigration from
our readers Africa. In the former ports the interests of both

ly. It has been no employers and candidates for employment will be
history. It has placed under the supervision of British laws, ad-

who, unlike the professedly ultra humanity mongers

of the latter localities, will certainly not interfere to

check the progress of civilization which the succes

ful carrying out of any scheme to cultivate our colo-
nial possessions, by means of free labour, is well

Under the head of " Our Commercial Policy
wards the United States," the Mercury of Friday

contains some statements which, if we did not re-
member that " enormous lying" was a favourite

Ire should say
As it is,

they display a confidence, on the part of the writer,
in the credulity of his readers, which is perfectly

rage the I Mr. Sands, it is alleged by Messrs. Evans and
guilty of the offence of concealing
Dock Committee - fraudulently as his op-
ponents would have us to infer—the fact that th
Harrington Dock Committee would have been dis-

Aikin, has be

posed to take 355., or any price indeed, for a por-
tion (40,000 to 60,000 yards) of the estate, for the
whole of which they subsequently agreed to take
31s. 6d. The facts of the whole case, we believe,
stand as follow :—Mr. Sands, as chairman of the
Dock Committee, was instructed to treat for about
60,000 yards of that estate, the whole of which, con-
sisting of 127,763 yards, had previously been offered
by the directors at 335. per yard. He accordingly
placed himself in communication with them ; and
at an interview with their chairman, on the 17th of
July, was informed authoritatively " that the price
for 40,000 to 60,000 yards of the land and strand
at the north end of the estate would be 425. per
square yard." Mr. Sands, however, was only em-
powered to offer 31s. 6d.; and the usual negocia-
tion was, therefore, closed for a short time. Further
approaches were subsequently made between the
parties, in the course of which it appears to have
been intimated to Mr. Sands that 355. would be
taken for a portion of the estate. This, however,
it was beyond the power of Mr. Sands to offer; and
the result of the continued negotiation was the re-
port made to the Dock Committee by that gentleman
that the whole estate could be bought for 21s. 6d.,
the committee's limit,) and a resolution that such
purchase be concluded.

The charge, as conveyed by the motion of Mr.
Aikin, is, that the Dock Committee were never made
aware that a portion of the estate of the Harrington
Company could be purchased at 425. or 355; that
they were urged, in fact, to the purchase of the
whole by an impression, left upon their minds by
Mr. Sands's communication, that they must take
the whole or none. That gentleman, it is urged,
ought, when making his report to the Council and
recommending the purchase of the whole estate at
31s. 6d., to have stated any and every intermediate
price named in the negociation and every other
alternative which had presented itself, to enable
him to avoid the larger purchase.
And so, in effect, Mr. Sands did; and we ven-
ture to say that there are not half-a-dozen candid
men in Liverpool who so far misunderstood him, as
have the authors of this trumped up charge and the
malicious insinuations which it is intended to convey.
There is not one man in ten thousand so senseless
as to believe that the Harrington Company would
ever refuse to sell a portion of their estate, the price
being sufficient. The whole tenor of Mr. Sands's
communication to the Dock Committee—and the
public can refer to it—was to the effect that the
purchase of the whole was the most advantageous to
the Dock estate and to the port of Liverpool—was, in
fact, the only advantageous course. It was distinctly
argued, at the time, by Mr. Sands, and that argu-
ment was commented upon by ourselves, that by
the purchase of the whole estate, at the low price
fixed upon, and its conversion to profitable ute, the
40,000 or 60,000 yards, first sought to be bought,
would be obtained for almost nothing.
Mr. Sands may or may not have formally con-
veyed to the Committee as a body the intermediate
circumstances of the negociation in which, with
their full confidence, he was engaged. We care
nothing whether he did or not—whether " the
records" of the committee contain this or that
offer. Perhaps they may contain neither. Perhaps
they may not even contain his authority to offer
31s. 6d. Messrs. Aikin and Evans can worm their

way into this mysterious mare's nest and inform us
what it contains. The public, however, we can
assure them, care little what they may find. The
public fully understood the whole transaction : recog-
nised the propriety and advantage of the conclusion
arrived at, and care nothing whether the nego-
tiations which preceded it were conducted by proto-
cols, by resolutions and counter resolutions of the
two bodies, like a kind of semi-political game of
chess, or was managed by the chairman of the
Dock Commitiee and the Harrington Company in
the way in which men of business ordinarily con-
duct their affairs.
And.what after all is the amount of criminality
which can possibly lie hid in this very small affair.
Has Nlr. Sands put any thing in his pocket from the
transaction ? Is any man bold enough to stake his
reputation upon the success of a charge of dishon-
esty against Mr. Sands ? We imagine not, nor can
any one bring home to that gentleman a self inter-
ested motive for any step taken by him throughout
the negotiation. 'What other charge then can pos-
sibly lie, unless it be that he acted too honestly for
some parties—too much for the interests of the
Dock Estate and too little to advance the pet
crotchets of some gentlemen, amongst whom are
his foremost accusers.

The whole matter lies in a nutshell. Mr. Sands
went, instructed to purchase of the worst portion of
the Harrington estate. He was asked for it double
and treble its worth. He found that he could pur-
chase the whole, including two docks already
formed, at a large outlay of money, with the busi-
ness of several carrying establishments attached to
them, at the price per yard which he was instructed
to give for the comparatively unproductive part of
the estate. He saw that by one course he left the
Company in possession of the paying portion of
their estate, r lieving them of its incubus, the un-
productive portion ; and more than all, he left them
in possession of their act of parliament, which re-
lieved
them from the payment of dues to the Dock
Trustees. By the other he secured a valuable pro-
perty, at a reasonable price, and removed from the
Dock Estate a competing Company. As an honest
man he recommended the latter course, for which
we - thank him, and his fellow-townsmen in future
time will thank him still more, But he did not
afford Mr. Aikin and Mr. Evans a peg on which to
hang obstructions—there's the sore point ! He car-
ried the majority of the Dock Committee with him,
and struck the iron whilst it was hot. He did not
—so we are told—inform these gentlemen of the
astounding fact that they could, have the worst part
of the Harrington property for 355. a yard. We
venture to assure them that they can have it yet !
If the Dock Committee choose to reverse their
course, the Directors of tha Harrington Company
will have no objections to embrace the opportunity
of keeping the best themselves. The Committee,
however, will not thus stultify themselves at the
bidding of Messrs. Aikin and Evans ; and, if they
will not do this, what becomes of the charge ? Why,
it resolves itself into its true character, of a spiteful
and trumpery effort to injure the well won reputation
of a political opponent,

It will be perceived, by an advertisement in our
columns this day, that a meeting will be held, on
Thursday next, in the Commercial Hall, at which
Mr. Ferrand, M.P. and other distinguished advo-
cates of the cause of Conservatism and of humanity
will be present, for the purpose of organising an
effort, in this town and neighbourhood, for the libe-
ration from prison of Richard Oastler. We have
given in another column a sketch of the past labours
and present position of this persecuted patriot, to
which we refer those of our readers who are not so
familiar with them as hie immediate friends ; and

;vith this before them, and the fact that the Whig-
radical and League factions, here and in the mann-

:acturing districts, are striving might and main to
,ifolong his imprisonment and divert from him
public sympathy, by every description of misrepre-
,;entation and falsehood, we are confident that
:he people of Liverpool, ever faithful to the good
cause, will be found doing their duty.