The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-04-14 00:00:00

April 14, 1846.

And it may not be inopropos that I here quote the fol-
lowing from my letter in the Scotch Reformers' Gazelle
of 14th March, as proving the inestimable value of colo-
nial trade as welt as THE MIGHTY FLUCTUATION WHIGS
IS THE INSEPARABLE CHARACTER OF TRADE WITH ALL
COUNTRIES WHICH ARE BEYOND THE PALE OF OUR OWN
CURRENCY AND TRADV LAWS AND REGULATIONS :-

" I desire shortly to recur to the subject of colonial trade
to show its infinite superiority over a foreign trade, or a
merely manufaclurtng commerce and I take my figures
from the official statement of the exports and imports of
Great Britain in 1843, not having the later returns at band.
" In the trade between 13: itain and her colonies in the
western world, about 60,000 seamen are yearly employed,
for whom the amount of wages and cost of provisions
cannot be less than £3.500,000 per annum ; and the repairs,
insurance, and replacing of capital in the ships £4,500,000
more.

" In the trade between Britain and India and China.
10,000 seamen are employed, and at a similar rate their
wages, provisions, &c, will amount to £500,000; and the
replacement of capital and insurance £800,000; in all,
£1,300,000. The whole, or nearly the whole of the sup-
plies necessary to maintain these seamen and tonnage, are
the productions of British soil and labour, which, in a
national point of view, shows the superiority of such a
trade over a merely manufacturing commerce.
"A comparison of the trade of the eastern with that of
the western world, taking the value of imports and exports,
stands nearly thu= :—From and to China and the East
Indies about £16,000,000 ; and from and to British North
America and the West Indian Colonies, £14,000,000.
" Iti4hus appears that the latter or British American
trade requires nearly five times more ships, tonnage.
and seamen to carry it on, than the former or trade to all
India and China! thereby affording an incalculable ad-
vantage to a naval power, and the support of a naval force,
and also to the employment of British lahour and capital.
" From the official statement of the exports and imports
of Great Britain to the different parts of the world for the
year 1813, to which we have alluded, we find that the
whole weight of cotton yarn and cotton goods exported
from Great Britain annually is 120,000 tons, and the value
£23,500,000.

" It follows, then, that one-half the tonnage employed
in carryinz the West Indian exports (value £2,882 441)
would be sufficient to carry the whole cotton export trade
of this country ; and as regards the North American trade.
one-seventh of the tonnage would be sufficient to carry all
that cotton trade about which Mr. Cobden has made such
a noise, but whose real and great intrinsic importance to
the empire no agriculturist nor colonist has ever shown
any disposition to undervalue that I am aware of.
" I cannot better finish off this statement than by
repeating that, while the trade of British America and the
West Indies, stated in 1843 to be only £14.000,000, em-
ploys 2,900 ships of 970,000 tons, and 60.000 seamen, our
trade with the United States, estimated at £22,000,000
three-fifths being imports of raw cotton, &c..) is carried
in 350 ships of 233.000 tons ; and the import from China.
amounting to £5,000,000, is brought in 84 ships of 39,712
tons.

" The trade of America when our colony in 1769 em-
ployed, on an average of three years, 1,078 ships; 'and
28,910 seamen, and the value of the goods taken' `from
Great Britain was £3,370,030 ; the exports of the colon,'
being £3,924,606.
" The population of the United States is now nearly
ten times what it then was, without any great permanent
increase in our exports to America, (causes over which
we hail no control brought them down in the year 1842 to
£3.528,807.)"
Before closing my remarks, I desire to recur to the
disingenuous conclusion of Sir Robert Peel's great speech,
which 1 have quoted from.
Yes, the Premier triumphantly concludes—" This is
what you have to dec de by your vote on this question--
Well you advance or will you recede!"

And again—
" What' should be the motto of a country lake this!
Should it amince or retroorade 7"
Now, Sir Robert Peel knew full well that he bad not
shown, and could not show, how FREE TRADE is to ad-
vance, even temporarily, any one of the great interests of
this country.
And Sir Robert Peel knew, moreover, that neither bog
any class of politicians nor any body of men in England
felt, or expressed; any wish or determination TO RECEDS
OR RETROGRADE IN THE LIBERALITY OF OUR LEGIS'
LATION for the regulation of commerce. •
Nor is Sir Robrrt Peel ignorant of the fact that ALL
PARTIES ARE WILLING AND ANXIOUS TO ADVANCE to the
greatest extent they think they can without giving a fatal
blow to the industry of our own people, whether artisanB
or asiricultorists.

All that Sir Robert Peel's former friends charge him
with is that HE SHOWS HIMSELF DETERMINED TO GO
FORWARD IN THE DARR!

They only der;an:l;Texplanation, and it seems high
time that they should c!o sn, when they can now see in the
Premier scarcely the shadow of his former principles.
Pausing, Sir Robert Peel's followers simply address
their political leader as HAMLET did the Ghost of his
father—
Hamlet—Whither wilt thou lead me?
Speak ; I'll go no further.
Ghost—Mark me. [This is Sir IL Peel to the life.]
Hamlet—l will.
Ghost—My hour is almost come,
'When I to sulphurous and tormenting flames
Must render up myself.
Hamlet—Alas! poor ghost 1
But the melancholy fact is, that the British Govern-

ment is now, and has for nearly twenty years been, in
hands so morally weak as to have no real control of the
greater affairs and interests of the country.
The statesmen of the present day aspire to no more
th-in to be (anparently unconcerned) lookers-on at the
fights of the Free Traders against the Protectionists, and
the Freethinkers against the Protestants, and side with
the winning party for the lime being.
such men as Chatham. Pitt, Fox, Earl Grey, Canning,
Wilberforce, and Anti-Corn-Law Villiers, disdained to
count numbers in their rn,,ral contests; but the fact IS,
that the present and the other governments we have had,
since the days of Canning, have not had the moral power
in England and her depenencies, even of the Nora's and
the Walpoles of the last century.
I am, Sir, your obedient humble servant.
ISAAC BUCHANAN.

THE PARISH OF LIVERPOOL AND THE NEW

POOR LAW.

The Mercury says, with reference to the New Poor'
law Act, and our local act, that the control of the
Poor-law Commissioners is as complete under the latter tal
it would be under the former. " The Net is," he saYe'
" that we are under that control ; we have been for sotoo •
years under that control ; and the Legislature is de;
termined that we shall continue under that c.mtrol. The
is an immoveable, remediless fact."
Now we tell the Mercury, and we tell our feller",
parishioners that, practically, we are not, under our Ws;
act, under the control of the commissioners to ready
same extent that we should be if placed under the general
act, and that the result is one of mercy and charity to 0
poor. Look at the ordinary dietary of our worlbrinse.
It is lite-Tal compared with that in unions where the con,'
missioners have full scope for the exercise of their poll'
ors, and has never been attempted to be inierferrd wit
although the assistant commissioner has remarked uP°..
it as' being " too good." The sick dietary is in a sirnilr;
condition—" too good"—and, if we remember right!ea
was a " liberal of the Mercury school," who propo
to exchange it for a more meagre one. The scale of ouir
door relief given by the select vestry is regulated by the.,
own discretion, and not interfered with by the comilg
stoners. In short, under the present act, the vestrY,
the body which exercises authority in the administratiehe
of the parish funds to the relief of our poor, and to" 0
commissioners ate the body who have the shadow of
authority. They hang over the vestry to ct:eck any Flo
sible jobbing"ot which our contemporary prates so ell iv
Strange, by the bye, that a whip-radical can never 1.6,
template the existence of power, in public or local aff',lo,
without assoc'at rg with it the loss of honesty !_but
ther they are for all practical purpose an incumbrance
an annoyance. he
The Mercury in part admits this. lie admits tllt t
to
Commissioners cannot be safely relied upon as guiae.ooo
the Vestry in cases of emergency ; and that their oPintiate,
upon questions submitted to them always come too I
But he says it is the local Act which causes the tteTbf
The Commissioners—innocent beings—are bewilders.' 01 •
the fact of their having to consult a special law, j°s ere
of having to act upon one which they have at their fie°o.
cods. Yet the two are alike! So at least says Or
gacious contemporary. Aferi
It is a paste of time, however, to argue with the ,11
Bury; and we tear it is equally a waste of time to the
upon our consert ative fella/ townsmen to oPP°:, sod
insolent dictation of the party which it represen"boe
whose modesty will be apparent from the fact thel pe
io
generously proposed that of the 15 select vestrymen the
elected this day. 12 are to be of liberal politics 80 to be,
tutee which they allow to the conservative party are 189,
selected by themselves I The object of the "
clique is supremacy in parish affairs—a hold 1100,0"
mush purse, and an absolute control over the regiiiro thiV
If the conservatives of Liverpool choose to submit tbile°'
it is their affair ; and they will•have to regret their
t'lcoste
ness and lethargy when they feel the feet of r
pressing upon their necks.

NEW THEATRE. ROYAL, ADELPIth
%chi°
Last night this theatre, under its improved form*" the
we have already noticed, was opened to the Pnb'i; 0,!,;
Misses Cushman, celebrated American actresses,
engaged for six nights, being the stars of the evening:i tot;
audience was a bumper one—inconveniently so ; Bi
was the effect produced that we shall not attemPt e-stiefgt;
a crit que of the acting, much of which, from the rt. oico
ness of the gods was inaudible, and the whole ° ocb to
was certainly marred from the same cause---Se to t. 6
that a request for quietness had to be conveYctobte"
audience by one of the performers from Miss ed
herself. 01107 g
So far however, as our opportunities of bettrir.g lady I'l,
us of judging, we must say that the Romeo of thl.'
sapnldenidnidoptehretrosr.mraetm, performance—in-many
iinngmuasn yof portionssome of
ee trt,.°ll:coteclr
welluponfr
th e
distributedß ri tiskabmoaorndgas.t
aTbhleetwnihnoalse;o f the ch,',rtetere it° p.
tt the ew
ort b , t l the we mug say, is without exception the parnedatiheesttuir'atthheteliatet
Amongst the audience we noticed some observeogt•
amongst our gentry and merchants. We ° Mr. et
of the Liver Theatre.
managementlatehaacvteivseeacnudredcotahreteoreursvibcoesz obroooed

TUESDAY,LIVERPOOL APRIL: 14,_1-846' .?„101
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EVERY TUESDAY MU
NT 1104
JOSHUA FLETCHER LACE, of 53. Gr°ve.l er"
LEONARD ADDISON. of 14. Great Orford streo,
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