The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-07-07 00:00:00

ourage the spre

sworn by her coronation oath to defend,
as the ascendant religion of her subjects,—we are
inclined to ask the question, " Is there any longer
such a thing as truth to be a guide for statesmen,
and a boast for a Christian people ,"

vereign is

The Romish
eresy, we have always been given to understand,
was the great apostacy foretold as the curse of the
Christian world —an apostacy, for entertaining
which God would severely punish his people. The
principles laid down by Sir Robert Peel, however,
set aside any considerations of our duty to keep
steadfast in the faith of the gospel. We have
nothing to do with false creeds or true creeds. The
erities of religion have nothing to do with legisla-
kll, in short, which we have to do with re-

_ lative policy, is to take
interfere with our recently-
found propensities for money-grubbing, or offend
the latitudinarian or the infidel.
The conclusion is humiliating. We can no
longer, with such principles as those enunciated
Sir Robert Peel, be called either a Protestant or a
religious nation. Expediency, of the most tem-
porary nature, is now She god which we are to
worship. The truth we have cast from us, and all
the high and holy destinies which its promulgation
would have assured for us. It is, we trust, how-
ever, only for a time, We were never raised to our
present eminence, for the advancement of the wel-
fare of mankind, to be cast down by the backsliding
of a few weak men.
But
is there nothing in the background,
as the
result of this doctrine that in legislation
we must
treat all men, all forms of religious belief, all phases
of political opinion upon a footing of perfect equa-
lity ? Obviously there is. Plunder the Church of
Ireland ; give her revenues to Popery, or apply them
to educational purposes; and what is there left to
justify the retention of an establishment in England.
Endow Popery, and why not Infidelity ? Give to
the Irish peasant the direct hold upon the soil, which
his demagogue declares must be granted as the price
of his support of a liberal governrnent.
.and how far
short of conferring upon him ownership, shall we
be allowed to stop. Give Ireland the equality of re-
presentation contended for, and then see whether
the same principle will not be appealed to as justify-

ligion, as a part of our legi
care that it does not

ed constitution is incompatible

lation. There cannot be at one time, in our country,
a monarchy, an aristocracy, and a commonalty, and
the perfect equality of all classes and creeds. Per-
haps, however, there is in Sir Robert Peel's mind a
limit, beyond which his new principle is not to be
allowed to be carried. If there is we should like to
know whereabouts it is fixed.

For a few weeks past we have observed symptoms,
on the part of sundry amongst the heretofore most
sanguine of the free traders, of something very like
alarm at the success of their favourite movement.
In the language of Collins' celebrated ode, they have
- " Started back dismayed
Even at the sound themselves have made."

The London limes makes no secret of the fact
that he would have infinitely preferred a fixed duty
to the present measure, He is afraid of the loss of
revenue and of coming deficiencies, to be made up
through the medium of direct taxation. The Leeds
Mercury, also, a thorough-going advocate [of the
abolition of all protection, has just proclaimed to the
world similar fears. In an article last week upon
the final crisis of Sir Robert Peel's administration,
our contemporary remarks on that statesman :--
'` He goes out with unmerited eclat. Sober men must
allow that a statesman ought not to be a quicksand to all
Rho trust him. We doubt whether even his financial
system wilt bear the trial of the next twelve months; for,
notwithstanding he came in with the confidence of the
mercantile and moneyed classes, on the express ground of
his determination to keep the public income above the
public expenditure. we much fear that be has now brought
the revenue too low. We have great confidence in Free
Trade and in low duties ; but there may be so rapid a re-
duction of duties as not to yield the requiaile
_funds. to the
Exchequer. We say this, retaining every opinion we
have ever expressed on the magnificent measures included
in the Corn and Customs Bills. They are all good in
themselves,—they will be a great relief to the public,—
but we fear, under the reaction from the fictitious pros-
perity of last year, the reduction of duties may prove to
have been adopted with somewhat greater haste than was
safe and prudent. If so Sir Robert will have left finan-
cial embarrassments to his successors. He has reaped
the glory, but left others to pay the cost. He is like a
tenant who has overcropped the farm, and impoverished
the soil. Let it be distinctly understood that we are
only speaking of the financial character of his recent
measures, not of their commercial or economical cha-
racter.

It strikes us as being rather late in the day to in-
trude upon us these fears, if it is not even provoca-
tive of a suspicion that, in its past agitation for free
trade measures, Whiggery has not been quite in
earnest. We heard of no dfficulties of the sort dur-
ing the battle for Corn Law Repeal. There were no
misgivings. Parliament could not go fast enough ;
could not possibly go too fast. It is a different
thing, however, now that the task of conducting tl:e
machine of public affairs is thrown upon Whig infir-
mity. We have now the note of preparation sound-
ed for the coming of that very dilemma which every
sane man, who could count his fingers, anticipated
as the result of such wholesale lopping of the sources
of revenue. An excuse for a deficient balance sheet
is being manufactured; and Lord John Russell, it
is easy to perceive, is once more, as the distinguish-
ing characteristic of his period of administration,
to have year by year an excess of expenditure over
income, and to add a yearly million or two to the
public debt.
But this is not the worst feature of the case.
When the agitation for free trade was in progress,
the wish, or the necessity, for protection to manu-
factures was every where denied. The cotton
spinner was indignant at the supposition that his
enterprise and ingenuity required the aid of pro-
tection to enable him to meet the competition of the
foreigner. The woollen and other manufacturers
were equally confident in their own powers. Cheap
bread—unrestricted commerce—the means of ex-
changing their commodies for foreign productions—
were all that they required ; and, with these granted
them, they were prepared to enter into the arena,
and compete against the industry of the world. A
communication, however, which has just been ad-
dressed by Mr. Wm. Beckett, a free trader, to his
constituents, the merchants and manufacturers of
the borough of Leeds, may perhaps tend to dissi-
pate this illusion. 'We quote a portion of the
letter

The patterns and specimens of continental cloth wh'ch
I have lately seen very much surprise me in their quality
as well as in price ; and knowing as I do from yourselves
that you have long felt the severity of competition in neu-
tral markets, it cannot be expected that under the free-
trade policy ou can escape from the same competition

.. „.
It appears to rne that the same means which must be
applied to the preservation of our agricultural prosperity

trust b

ied to that of our manu-faeto

to every element of our manufac

turing processes, and a patient investigation to those par-
ticular parts in which foreigners may have obtained a
superiority—all our energies must be called into requisi-
tion, and trifles must not be overlooked, If we are to
excel in quality, our wool-staplers must seize every oppor-
tunity of laying in the raw material upon the lowest pos-
sible terms—if we are to vie successfully in colours, our
dyers must consent to devote themselves to chemical
study, in order to obtain a thorough knowledge of che-
mical combination—and if the superiority of our manu-
factures is to be proved, every advantage must be taken
of any improvement which mechanical ingenuity can
devise.

Such are the means which will be necessary, and which
I believe will be found effectual in the preservation and
extension of our trade ; and taking this view of the neces-
sity of these precautions, I have felt the more desirous of
stating it to you, because I am fully sensible of the great
responsibility which attaches to me as one of your repre-
sentatives, in having given my support to the system of
cummercial reform at the same time. I confess to you
that I have no fear as to the issue of this conflict with
foreign competition, be it agricultural or manufacturing,
so long as we are all made fully aware that the conflict
will be severe, and provided we call into play all those
means which we so happily possess within ourselves to
meet it.

We have told our manufacturers long ago the
fact, here announced, that the foreigner is treading
upon their heels ; beating them in some neutral
markets both in cheapness, in quality, and in colour.
We have heard such fact declared, and fabrics pro-
duced in proof of it, at public meetings, in the
early period of the Anti-Corn-Law agitation. It
was found convenient, however, to lay it by. It
suggested awkward conclusions. People might
have questioned the propriety of sacrificing the
agriculture of the country to prop up so
rickety a thing. It is now, however, resusci-
tated ; and Alr. Beckett urges upon the manu-
facturers of Leeds the importance of bestow-
ing a minute attention upon manufacturing
processes and the quality of their materials. Un-
doubtedly they must do so. The gentlemen who
have, for the last few years, been teaching our agri-
culturists the science of farming—talking learnedly
of the four course system, of cropping, manuring,
draining, fencing and other similar matters, have
something yet to learn themselves, and something
also to impel them to learn. There is one thing,
however, which strikes us very forcibly, arising out
of Mr. Becket's letter. If all this energy and im-
proved science is called for in order to attain in-
creased excellence and cheapness of manufactured
products, might not the latter quality—cheapness—
be attainei by a little—just a little—reduction of
the wages of the operative ? Of course there would
be a trifling breach of faith in such a proceeding ;
but we ask any honest sensible man to read atten-
tively Mr. Becket's letter, and to. tell us how long
he would like to guarantee the operative the present
money amount of the reward of his labour.

Sir Robert Peel was magnificent when, in his
speech on Monday last, he intimated to his sucessors
that they would be expected to carry out his policy
by further unshackling the commerce of the country.
" I have taken off millions of taxation," exclaimed
the Right Hon. Baronet, "and you see I have still
a revenue equal to expenditure." The public, how-
ever, do not view matters quite in the same light as
Sir Robert. We are unpleasantly reminded every
sth of April of the source of this financial pro-
sperity. We have an Income tax, which brings into
the Exchequer five millions a-year—an impost which
was only to be temporary in its duration;—and
we are beginning to suspect that it is to be perma-
nently fixed upon our backs; that we are only to
see the further carrying out of Sir Robert's Free
Trade policy, at the cost of sevenpence in the
pound for ever, upon our incomes. We should
like Lord John Russell to be explicit upon this
point. How long are we to be annoyed by this
blister, or are we ever destined to be relieved from
its irritating pressure ?

UNITED STATES.—The packet-ship Cambridge, which
left New York on the 17th ult., arrived at this port yes-
terday, bringing one day's later news than the previous
arrival. The Oregon treaty had not been presented to
the Senate on the 15th ult., as was expected. The con-
tract for establishing a line of mail steamers between New
York and this port had been rejected by the Senate, but
that for a line between the former port and Bremen was
sanctioned by a majority of three. Mr. Allen resigned on
the 15th ult. the chairmanship of the Senate Committee
on Foreign Affairs.