The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-01-10 00:00:00

Sierra Leone, those restriction

are left sullicientl

stringent, if not indeed too stringent, for the pro-
tection of the Aft ican from any imposition on the part
of the colonists.

Faithfully, we believe, we have given the substance
of the document before us, and perhaps more intel-
ligibly, to the general reader, than it could be readily
gathered from the original itself; and now, we may
ask, is there anything in the principles and details
here laid down at which the most ardent friend of
emancipation can except? We think there is not;
and yet we are fully prepared to find the measure,
which government are about to frame in accordance
with them, assailed, by a section of the pseudo-
humanists and assumed especial friends of the African
race, with furious and unrelenting hostility. We shall
he told that immigration, even thus watched by all the
vigilance of government, is but a disguised and
legalised slave-traffic; that the condition of the immi-
grants will be but a modified form of slavery; that the
emigration agent is but a licensed crimp ; and that
the transports, in which the emigrants are to be con-
veyed, are but slave-ships, liable to all the miseries and
fatalities which attend the middle passage. To the
good sense of the people of England we willingly
leave the task of determining the justice of these ob-
jections, and the purity of motive of the parties by
whom they will be made. With respect to the good.'
faith of the statesman by whom till measure is being
drawn up, right-minded and candid men will have few
misgivings; and, as to the mode of conveyance, surely,
that which is sufficient for our gallant fellow-country-
men, when sent to fight the battles of England in a
foreign land, is not insufficient for the Africans in
Sierra Leone, just liberated from beneath the hatches
of the foreign slave trader.
Another objection, and a more plausible one, will be
urged against the measure. It will be said that its
object is to reduce the earnings of the free negro
population of our colonies. We admit, in part, that
such is its object. We wish to reduce the cost of
sugar cultivation in the West Indies ; but we hope to
accomplish this more by the acquisition of continuous
labour than merely cheap labour. If the present
working population of our colonies would, at this
moment, perform task-work for half the exorbitant
rates now paid, and perform it just at their pleasure,
as they do at present, the object of the planter would
not be achieved. But admit that a permanent reduc-
tion of the price of labour must be the result of the
extensive immigration ; yet look at the circumstances
which will accompany such reduction. In the first
place, the free negro, who has now become owner of a
plantation, can cultivate profitably for export ; and, in
time, this class must become a powerful middle class—
an important link binding together in amity the two
races, and perhaps destined ultimately to take the
place and perform the duties of the existing white race
in the tropics. In the second place, the working
negro, who limits the amount of his toil to his necessi-
ties, would he only mulcted of the opportunity to
indulge his luxurious indolence. No extent of immi-
gration that we can imagine as at all practicable could
have the effect of depressing his condition lower than
one which, to his race, is a condition to be envied.
Bear in mind, too, the encouraging fact, that every
African thus landed upon the shores of our West
Indian islands is a soul transported from barbarism
and slavery, to be placed within reach of the light of
the Gospel and the influence of civilization ! Bear in
mind the fact that every additional facility offered to
tropical cultivation by free labour is a rivet struck from
the fetters of the slave in foreign lands! Surely the
sincere philanthropist will cease to place obstacles in
the way of a consummation so blessed !

It is not, certainly, with any satisfaction that we
point to the large deficiency in the revenue for the
year ending the sth of January,lB42, as compared with
that of the year preceding. This total deficiency
amounts to no less a sum than £922,630, whilst that
for the quarter just ended is even more—viz., £940,062,
thus shewing, we think, that something more than
ordinary causes has been at work to produce the un-
satisfactory result exhibited. Undeniably the trade
and the circumstances of the country, during the past
three months, have been much more prosperous than
during the preceding nine months of the year. But
still, bearing in mind that a great portion of the excess
of the last quarter over the present must have
been created by the amount received in duties
on foreign corn admitted into consumption, there
is certainly a great falling off to he accounted
for and lamented. In part, and especially as the
principal falling off is in the excise and customs,
we may refer to the unsettled state of the wine trade,
and to the effect of the new tariff. Apparently in-
creased consumption has not, as yet, made up the loss
incurred by the various reduced duties. In one im-
portant trade, too, the timber trade, importation has
been almost at a stand still, owing to a further reduc-
tion to be made this year. It is said, too, that consi-
derable reductions of expenditure have been made by
individuals, to meet the demands imposed upon them
by the income tax. Upon this explanation, however,
we place little weight, as the particular portions of the
revenue suffering are precisely those least likely to be
effected by such an imposition. The pressure of the
income tax has, as yet, scarcely been felt ; and it is
more likely to tell upon the amount of assessed taxes,
than upon the excise or the customs.
We shall, no doubt, have the Io p&an of victory
rung by the advocates of the late ministry over the
government of Sir Robert Peel, on account of this
state of the national finances. The cachination, how-
ever, we would suggest, will be a little premature. No
man ever expected that the mere circumstance of a
Conservative minister being at the helm could at once
right the vessel engulfed, by reckless steering, in the
whirlpool. It would infinitely better become such
politicians to ask themselves—what would have been
the position of the country had its restoration to
financial solvency been left to be accomplished by the
" sugar budget " of the Melbourne administration—
if we had had no Income and Property Tax to fall back
upon ? We leave them to reply to the question.

There are one or two considerations which the
existing state of the national finances cannot fail to
force upon the national mind. These are, first—" have
we not arrived at the limit of the productiveness of
indirect taxation ?" and, secondly—" can free trade in
corn or in any other or all other commodities he longer
regarded apart from revenue considerations ?" We
merely glance at these questions, for the present; and
that they are not idle, the reader will perhaps admit,
whatever his political creed, when he finds such an
opinion as the following coming from the lips of so
eminent a free trade authoiity as the London Times :

It seems to us," remarked the Times on Friday last,
" very clear, whatever our free trade friends may say,
that any alteration which may be made in the corn-
laws, ought not to be made irrespective of financial
considerations. We cannot in these times afford to
throw away a revenue."

We give, in another place, a summary of the news
furnished us by the recent arrival from India and
China. It will be seen that the entire British army
has retired through the hostile passes of the Khyber,
with little difficulty, and with very inconsiderable loss
of life, having destroyed in their course the forts and
strongholds of the enemy, and established upon a firm
basis the prestige of its invincible power in India. :At
the time of the last letters from that quarter, the
troops were under orders to march through the Sikh
dominions; and, long before this date, the last British
soldier will have quitted—we trust for ever—the scene
and the neighbourhood of those disasters which,
though they have been in part wiped away from the
national mind by subsequent triumphs achieved, must
stand upon the page of history as so many damning
testimonies of the unfitness of Whig statesmen—the
present race at least—to rule the destinies of this Coun-
try. and of her vast colonial empire.
From China we gather little worthy of commenting
upon. Affairs, as between the two countries, were in
statu quo, both parties waiting for the ratification of
the treaty between them by her Majesty the Queen.

The Report of the Paid Officers' Committee and the
debates in the Town Council thereon seem to have
displaced the garrulous self-satisfaction of the Albion,
and to have raised the Journal above his accustomed

dullness

For these blessings we are sure the readers
of those brilliant luminaries have cause to be thankful,
and we hope the dispensation will be received with
becoming gratitude.

There are two bones at which our excellent con-
temporaries have been gnawing ; and certainly, to
theta, they are not very acceptable morsels. One is, that
the Town-clerk should have to take the legal possession
of the deeds, muniments, and records of the Corpora-
tion, and so stumble over Mr. Okill, who, they would
wish to make it appear, must therefore be dismissed.
The trifling difficulty in the way of our contemporaries
is a clause in the Municipal Corporation Act, which
most stringently imposes the office of custodian upon
the Town-clerk ; and another stubborn obstacle to the
truth of their representations is, that the idea has never
suggested itself to the committee of superseding Mr.
Okill. The committee, as far as we have the means
of judging—and we are governed by the personal
character of the members—wish to retain the very
efficient services of Mr. Okill ; but they wish also to
see the law properly executed—a point, indeed, which
was settled by the Town-clerk, who insisted in Council
upon the law being observed. The question, then, is,
is one object inconsistent with the other? T. this we
reply, emphatically, that they are not inconsistent—
that Mr. Okill may, and willhe, still retained in office,
whilst the law will be observed; but to effect this there
must be the modification of duties which the Town-
clerk explained in his speech last Wednesday. One
would think that, in this arrangement, there was very
little to cause any discussion, but our cunning con-
temporaries have discovered in it the solution of some
mysterious feeling, on the part of the Chairman of the
committee, against Mr. Okill, because the latter,
almost before the former was born, was an excellent
servant of the Corporation—for which, by the way, he
has always been excellently paid. Truly, they are
sagacious critics, and profound politicians ; and the
public cannot fail to feel deeply indebted to their
ingenuity for making such a very probable sug-
gestion. The other bone, at which this worthy
pair of professing Liberals are worrying, is the resolu-
tion which was proposed, on the part of the committee,
that, on the Town-clerk assuming his proper office
with regard to the Repository, Mr. Abbott would no
longer be required. The moment this was proposed,
it was discovered that Mr. Abbott possesses nearly all
the virtues under the sun. Mr. Abbott, like other
men, has not the power of übiquity ; but, unlike many
men, he combines two individuals in the same body.
The Town-hall has the honour of having within it "Mr.
Abbott, assistant committee clerk," and " Mr. Abbott,
law stationer, of South John-street." In the . former
character he receives annually £270 ; in the latter, as
much as he can make, which has been no trifle; and
any confusion which might happen to occur between
the two has been sure to encl. in the pecuniary advantage
of " Mr. Abbott" proper. Besidesihis keeping "twelve
or fourteen " clerks in South John-street, he has
had the further advantage of having his clerks in
the Town-hall, to perform extra work ; and the
history of the poll-clerks is a strong illustration of
the extreme disinterestedness with which this valu-
able servant has promoted the welfare of the Cor-
poration. The Paid Officers' Committee, having
framed a scheme which was subsequently adopted by
the Town-clerk and confirmed by the Council, for the
more efficient management of the legal department, it
was at once obvious, that " the assistant committee
clerk," as such, would no longer be needed. Hence
the proposition which has been the means of publish-
ing Mr. Abbott's virtues to the world. That gentle-
man is not the clerk of the Town-clerk. Like Mr.
Okill, he derives his appointment directly from the
fountain of power, the council; and, of course, no
power but the Council could dismiss him. There is
the justification of the committee; but, as in the case
of Mr. Okill, he may be retained under the new ar-
rangement. That, however, very properly rests with
the Town-clerk. As far as the Paid Officers' Com-
mittee are concerned, they have, in submitting the
resolution, only performed a duty incumbent upon
them by the terms of their appointment. These ex-
planations place these parts of the case of our contem-
poraries, as the lawyers would say, " out of court."
With respect to the alterations in the departments of
the Town-clerk and Deputy Town-clerk, they have
been made with two views—economy and efficiency.
It would fatigue our readers to describe the confusion
in which the two offices frequently were, owing to an
inadequate establishment. They will now be efficient :
no man's business with the corporation will be ne-
glected : and a check will be maintained against pro-
crastination of all sorts. The business, thus condricted,
must be a great public convenience : it will, doubtless,
he productive of benefit to the borough fund, by in-
creasing the fees. It is evident, therefore, that the
scheme adopted will prove, as stated in the committee's
report, econorncal. Further, in future there will not be
any person paid bothby a fixed salary and the convenient
weekly addition of extra bills. Human nature is very
weak ; and such things may have happened as a frit-
tering away of the time for which the fixed salary was
paid, to provide occupation for the extra hours.

Our contemporaries sneer heartily at the duration of
the labours of the committee. They are both, no
doubt, skilful workmen, and would have managed
matters much better—to their own satisfaction. Our
amiable friends, however, will please to be informed,
that, although the committee have reported only on the
Town-clerk and Treasurer's departments, their labours
have not been confined thereto. No time has been
lost : no time will be lost : and we are convinced, that
the labours of the committee, whether considered as a
whole or in departments, will terminate advantageously
to the interests of the corporation. The Council of
last year deserve credit for having appointed the com-
mittee, and the committee deserve honour for the per-
sonal sacrifices they have made in embarking upon so
extensive an investigation—an investigation, by the
way, from which the soi disant reformers would either
have shrunk in dismay, or avoided from incapacity.

The most prominent feature in our present number
is the account we have given of the proceedings at the
opening of the Collegiate Institution.
Those proceedings will be read with no common in-
terest ; and in calling attention to them, we congratu-
late our townsmen upon the happy circumstance of
Liverpool possessing such a noble Institution, for the
education of all classes, wherein the purest religious
instruction will be intimately and continually associated
with the largest communication of secular knowledge.
Of the inaugural address of Mr. W. E. Gladstone
there has been but one opinion expressed. All parties
are unanimous in ascribing to it merits of the highest
order. It commanded immediate admiration, not so
much, perhaps, from the elegance of its composition or
the propriety of its delivery as from the power of the
argument. We have not space to point out its excel-
lencies, in detail; and at present all we can say is, that
it was a proud thing to hear one of the most pro-
mising statesmen of the day shew an assembly
of more than two thousand people the necessity
for the definite revelation of God being made a
part of the education of all ranks, and empha-
tically to declare, that in that, there was the only
sure guarantee for the permanance of our institutions.
It was, indeed, " appropriate, eloquent, and thought-
ful," in the language of the Morning Herald ; and on
perusal, it will be found to justify the character given
to it.

Now that the Collegiate Institution is before the
world, we strongly recommend the public to examine
its claims. The more they are investigated, the more
worthy will they be found of support. It is founded
upon the rock of Christianity, and all its fruits must
be good.