The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-08-18 00:00:00

'ME LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

tr, be iLiberpool *tanbarb.

TURSDAT MORNING, AUGUST IS, 1835.

We have 'great pleasure in observing that the lords
are doing their duty in an admirable and fearless manner
by the municipal corporation bill. They have, preserved
the rights of burgesses in perpetuity, which will remain
exactly as they are at present. They have also restricted
the limits of boroughs to their present boundaries, and
have accordingly" lawn d JOST;PIr-PARKSS'vdrift s
legion of new commissioners. Their work is- termi-
nated, and we hope that instead of depending upon pub-
lic bounty in.a wasteful and useless expenditure of the
revenue; they will betake themselves to some more re-
SPectable employment.

The greatest difficulty in amending the bill has re-
ference to the qualification clause. Lord LYNDHURST
propeses to divide rate-payers into six sections or clasSes,
the highest class only to be eligible to the office of mayor
and common councilmen. After considerable delibera-
tiob, we cannot see how this scheme can be reduced to
practice. For instance, in a town of 1,200 rate-payers,
some ten only will be found who inhabit sixty-pound
houses, an hundred who occupy fifty-pound ones, three
hundred who occult:), twenty-pound ones, and the re-
mainder only ten-pound and tinder. How is it possible
to divide these rate-payers into six classes ? Besides,
the. qualification is of too arbitrary and exclusive a cha-
racter. It would produce dissatisfaction, without secur-
ing 'any :important or beneficial results.
That some qualification is indispensable we admit. A
thousand pound qualification would not be too high in
Liverpool, but it would be so perhaps in Tiverton or
Lancaster. In small boroughs many excellent men might
be found competent in every respect to discharge the
duties of a councilman, but who might not be able to
swear that they are worth a thousand pounds. The
qualification should be dependent upon the rates, but how
is a scale to be framed which shall apply fairly to all
towns ? There is one plan we think which would meet
the ease. We, with due deference, beg to propose that
thelualifieation should be the average of the rates paid
in every distinct borough. For instance, after the regis-
tration it can easily be ascertained what each elector has
paid. One man has paid upon a hundred pound house,
a sicond on a fifty, a third on a twenty, and a fourth on a
teu pound house. Strike the average, by dividing the
payments by the number of rate-payers, and you have at
once a qualification which will regulate itself, and adapt
itself to all the peculiar circumstances of the various
boroughs. In a tich town the average will be propor-
tionably high; in a poor town it will be comparatively
lbw. Liverpool would thus be regulated by the, amount
bf its assessments, and Tiverton, Wigan, Lancaster, and
all other places in the same way. We throw 'out the
sllggestiori as one calculated to remove objections, and
siiliciently protective to insure responsibility.

On the other clauses of the bill we have no doubt that

Ville Lords will show the same caution and be actuated
,by the same spirit of equity. Lord MELBOURNE threat-
`ens the. Lords with the rejection of the bill by the Co-
mmons.. This is nothing but empty talk. Let the Com-
mons throw out the bill if they please, but let them
remember that, the electors can return the compliment
to,'them• An election in November would stipp7lY a

remedy.

The conduct of Lord BaovonAst throughout the
whole of the inquiry has been of the most extraordinary
nature, so much so that we cannot trust ourselves in at-
tempting to describe it. What he means no man •on
earth can tell. What connexion there is between him
and the administration we cannot conjecture, but Lord
MELBOURNE does not gain any thing by his support.
Thc.. Times very properly asks, " has Lord BaouanAm
no friend to advise him ?"

Right worthy and most excellent FUNDIIOLDER, we
have a piece of intelligence to communicate which must
considerably interest yout sensibilities and warm your
heart. Open, therefore, your ears, and listen attentively.
There is in LOndOn a dapper-looking personage, with
hands of rather indifferent whiteness, whom you would
take to be a sort of second-rate collecting clerk in a brew-
ery, and Who goes by the name of SPRING RICE. He is
said to be an liishman, who once represented the popish
priests of Limerick in the Imperial Parliarnent;bnt, for
some reasons best known to himself, was several years ago
discarded by the Said priests in order to make room for some
nominee of a feliow called O'CONNELL. This curious per-
,
SPRING RiCE,'who knows init as much of finance

as the keeper of a turnpike knows of astronomy, is, per
favour of Lord JOHN Rtif4SELL, Chancellor of the Exche-
quer of Great Britain ; and in his place before the trea-
sury bench of the House of Commons, on Friday last,
had the great candour to confess that the expenditure of
the country, under whig governnienti exceeded its in-
come. In other words, this SPRING RICE detlaied Great
Britain TO BE INSOLVENT !

"There, now," Mr. FUNDHOLDER, as ford BROUGHAM
says, crack this nut if you can. SPRING RICE did not
say that the nation had actually stopped payment... He
did not intimate his intention of calling a meeting of you
and others the creditors of the nation. On the contrary,
he put the best face on the matter he possibly could, and
smirked and prided himself on his ability to "go on,"
like a saddler or respectable tallow-chandlei, who, by
showing that he can pay seventeen shilling!, in the pound,
is saved by a miracle from the Gazette. He told you and
us that not hard pushed he would pay all. He told us
that his liabilities exceeded his assets, and that if his cre-
ditors demanded instant payment he would be deficient
some two hundred thousand pounds. He threw himself,
however, on the clemency and forbearance of his creditors.
He owed a large sum to the West India proprietors,
which he trusted they would not press for until it was con-
venient. He hoped that it would not be necessary to pay
the whole twenty millions before this time two years.
He acknowledged the money to be due, but he trusted
that the parties entitled to receive it would consider the
circumstances of the nation, and draw long bills for the
balances they claimed. He said also that he had a large
sum to pay to certain poor rogues of commissioners who
had dunned him so incessantly that he could no longer keep
them off. They were, he said, miserably poor— destitute
of the means of sustenance, and that charity dictated an
_immediate settlement of their demands. The house
agreed that these needy people, who otred money to
tailors and butchers who had trusted them on the,credit

of the state, should be paid. Then again-the said SPILIKO
Ilicr.c confessed that he owed several sMos to Danes 'find
otherloreigners who would not trust liiin-:an hiitir longer,
and who threatened to arrest him. These also were Or-
dered to be paid. He had, not dreaming that his re-
sources were exhausted, promised to lend certain sums to
unfortunate speculators who were considerably under
water, hut %vlia depended upon his word, such as the peo-
ple concerned in digging a hole under the Thames. He
had pledged himself, and consequently the advance was
held to be a debt of honour, no matter how seriously
Jon Butt might suffer. In short, the Right Honorira •
ble Chancellor of the Exchequer confessed that he was
considerably embarrassed, and that he could only keep
faith with his creditors by trusting to their liberality and
forbearance.

Gracious Powers l is this England we are writing
about ? Is it to go forth to the world that this once proud
and opulent nation, whose merchants are princes, whose
rich men are as numerous as the stars in the firmament,
whose wealth overflows, and who could buy all the estates,
and mines, and manufactories of Europe and America—
is it to go forth to the. world that the Chancellor of the
Exchequer of Great Britain is so hampered, so purse
pinched, so low in means, so " cleaned out," as they say
at CROCKFOR WS, that he is two hundred thousand pounds
deficient of the sum required to meet his just and lawful
debts ?

Such, however, we lament to say, is the fact. Yes,
lords and gentlemen of England, this is the avowed con-
dition of your national credit. The kingdom, as SPRING
RICE, third clerk in an Irish brewery, admitted on Friday
last, on bringing forward what is called the " budget,"
is INSOLVENT! He did not say—he dared not say—that
England is without the means of paying its just debts.
The Irish financier did not go this extreme length. But
he confessed enough to wound our pride and excite our
indignation. He confessed that by a series of blunders,
by large promises, 'by foolish remissions in the time
of the stupid and, thank GOD, now silent Lord ALTHORP,
the exchequer had been emptied, and that in a period of
profound peace, when no subsidies were required, no ar-
mament to provide for, no foe to meet, no invader td op-
pose, no tyrant aggressor to punish, the income of the
country is inadequate to its expenditure, acrd that our
just debts cannot be satisfied without an increase of tax-
ation.

SPRING RICE did not make this humiliating confession
in these words; but his impoverished explanations au-
thorise quite as much as we have assumed. He threw
the blame of his embarrassment upon his predecessor.
He excused his inability at the expense of Lord At-
THORP. He did not call him a blockhead, but he insinu-
ated as much. He did not say that Lord ALTilotte's cal-
culations were fallacious and absurd, but he pointed to
the. treasury chest, as a beggarly heir does to his prede-
cessor's obligations, saying, "see what the extravagant
old fellow has imposed upon me—rot him I"
But come we to unlace the budget. We had a suspi-
cion from the first that SPRING Ilion was extremely re-
luctant to divulge it. He knew that it would be unfa-
vourable to the ministry, and would bring scandal upon
the Whigs. Instead of opening it in April, the usual
time, he postponed it to'August, when the session was
near its close, and when Sir ROBERT PEEL and the lead-

ing tories would be absent. He resorted to every kind
of low subterfuge in order to put off the requited expla-
nation. He did not choose to tell the country, in the
early part of the year, that he was not in a situation to
meet the obligations of the country. Had the truikbeen
told at the proper time it would have embarrassed Lord
JOHN RUSSELL; we say Lord JOHN, for we look upon
Lord MELBOURNE as nobody. The nominal prime mi-
nister has shown that he is equally devoid of intelligence
and independence. He has no ideas which are not bor-
rowed, and he is the mere echo in the upper house of the
opinions he receives from' the Commons. His arguments
are as shallow as the sunbeams upon sand indicating wa-
ter. We have the illusive glare. but no fluid—the ap-
pearance, but not the reality—the hope which ends in
disappointment and sorrow. And his temper too ! what
is it but protests in angry fustian—furious but silly, at
which the serious shut their eyes and the ,more volatile
laugh ? It is impossible to consider Lord MELBOURNE
in any other light than as the agent of Lord JOHN Itus-
'SELL who himself can hardly be considered in any other
light than the steward .or attorney of DANIEL O'CON-
NELL.

But to the budget. The people who sell gin in small I
quantities, and who were taxed most unsparingly by
Lord ALTHORP, last year, are to be relieved from a,:por-
tion of the license duty. Those who only sell not ex-
ceeding-fifty gallons of gin annually are to have fifty per
cent remitted from their license. Those who sell up-
wards of fifty gallons are to remain taxed as at present.
This will, no doubt, be hailed as a great boon by the
small publicans, and to the honest dealer it will be a re-
lief. But what will it be to the dishonest one ? We
much fear that it will lead to' frau4:ski'smuggling. A
license will be taken out for the smaller quantity, and
double or treble the quantity Will be sold in defiance of
the excise, and without the means of detection. Who
is to decide bow many gallons of gin any publican sells?
There are numerous gays in which he can procure and
dispose of gin without the excise knowing any thing as
to his resources. He need never' have more. tban,.five
gallons in his house at one time, and yei may sell five
hundred gallons in the course of a year.
The second item in the budget is the reduction of the
duty upon flint glass from sixpence to twopence per lb.
We have no objection to this repeal inasmuch as it will
encourage manufactures, and enable the trasiej,tg corn-
peie with foreigners in distant Markets.'''' It:.' wail also
have a tendency to prevent smuggling, -or whiAjiot a
little has been of recent years.successfuli-4-
we say not by whom. But as to this inaction in the

duty upon glass being any boon to the public generally,

. .
we scout the idea as preposterous. Have the working
classes been benefited by the repeal of the leather tax
Not one penny in a pair of boots—not one farthing in a
pair of shoes. So will it be with the reduction' of the
glass tax: Not one tumbler. decanter, or wine glass,
more or less, will be made or sold, saved or broker, filled
or emptied, in consequence.

The third ani last boon offered by SPRING RICE is
the repeal of the stamp duty upon awards or arbitrations
in Ireland. This is intended to encourage amicable

settlenieuts amongst -O'CoNKELL's congtituents.. Wtillit
hate this effect ? 'We doubt.

gowever, this is the whole. 0f The httdf4, and-Use
whole of the reductions contemplated by SHUNS; AWL
• , •
and which it has taken him six montlui to Mattiri.
has been under the agoniei of gestation fur a longer.
period than any other Chancellor; and lei hebas pro-
duced nothing. Lord BROUGHAM, joflßPu.Hua .a per-
.son of the name of BULLER, and that water-rat of a
statesman, ItoEnucx, who certainly came out of some
pump at. Bath, and ought to be returned to whence be
came—these people made a great outcry .about the
" taxes on knowledge," but not one farthing of reduction
does SPRING RICE throw to them t 0 save them front
starvation. The window taX, about which the radicals of
iOndon set up a howl, remainsas before. Lord ALTIIORP
was More liberal when he repealed the tax on shepherds
dogs. The removal of the diity upon soda water was
princely compared to any thing ddne by SPRING RICE,
We therefore wish the people joy who support such*
Ministry !