The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-05-19 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

POPKINS, NOT SIR ROBERT PEEL, THE AUTHOR OF

THE MINISTERIAL MEASURE

" The right hon. gentleman tells us that he does not feel
humiliated. It is impossible for any one to know what are
the feelings of another ; feeling depends in a great mea-
sure upon temperament; it depends upon the idiosyn-
crasy of the individual ; it depends upon the organization
of the animal that feels. (Laughter.) But I tell the right
hon. gentleman, that although he may not feel humiliated,
the country ought to feel humiliated. (Loud cheers.) In
place of the self-complacency of a great nation—in place
of the justifiable pride of Englishmen in one who from
his position has contrived to occupy the highest rank
amongst his fellow-citizens, it is felt, as Dean Swift said
of another Minister, that he is a gentleman who has the
perpetual misfortune to be mistaken ; and even now in
this, the last scene of the drama, when the party whom
he unintentionally betrayed and unintentionally annih►-
lated—even now at the last scene, the right hon. gentle-
man, faithful to the law of his being, is going to pass a
project which I believe It is matter of notoriety is not of
his own invention ; one which may have been somewhat
modified, but which, I believe, was in substance offered
to another Government, and by that Government wisely
rejected. (Hear, hear.) The fir at day after the right hon.
gentleman made his exposition to this house, a gentleman
well known to the house. and learned in all the political
secrets behind the scenes, met me, and said, " What do
you think of your chief's plan ?" I said I did not exactly
know what to say about it, but, to use the phrase of the
hour, I supposed it was a great and comprehensive plan.
(Laughter.) " Oh," he replied, "we know all about it ;
it is not his plan at all, it is Popkins's plan." (Roars of
laughter.) And, Sir, is England to be governed and con-
vulsed for Popkins's plan ? Will he go to the country
with it ? Will he appeal to the people upon such a plan ?
Will he appeal to that ancient and famous England which
was once governed by statesmen 'such as Burleigh and
Walsingham, Bolingbroke and Walpole, Chatham and
Canning,—will he appeal to England on a fantastic
scheme of some:presumptuous pedant ? I will not believe
it. (Cheers.) I have that confidence in the common
sense and common spirit of my countrymen to believe
that they will no longer endure the huckstering tyranny of
the Treasury bench, or of the political pedlar who bought
his party in the cheapest market and sold them in the
dearest. (Laughter and cheers.) I know that there are
men who tell me that the time is gone by when we may
appeal to the high and honourable impulses that were once
the mainstay and main element of the English character.
I know that we appeal to a people who have been de-
bauched by public gambling, and who have been stimu-
lated and encouraged by an inefficient and shortsighted
Ministry. 1 know that the public mind has been filled to
intoxication with schemes by which the people might be-
come rich, without-the interference of industry and toil.
I know, too, that all confidence in public men is lost.
( Hear, hear.),:,But I:havelaithfin:the primitive enduring
element of English character. (Cheers.) It may be that
now, in the midnight of their intoxication, they will not
heed me, but I tell them that there will be an awakening,
and in the spring-tide of their frenzy I warn them of the
end of trouble. That dark and inevitable hour will ar-
rive, and perhaps they will then recur to those principles
which mede England great, and which, in my opinion,
alone can keep England great ; and it may chance that
they will remember, not with unkindness those who, be-
trayed and deserted themselves, were neither ashamed nor
afraid to struggle for the good old cause ; the cause asso-
ciated with principles the most popular, sentiments the
most entirely national; the cause of labour, the cause of
the people, the cause of England. (The hon. member re-
sumed his seat amidst applause which lasted fully two
minutes.)"—Mr. D'lsraeli's speech.

PROBABLE PRICE OF WHEAT UNDER THE OPERATION

OF FREE TRADE

I have had returns sent me of the quantity of grain
grown in Hungary the year before last ; and I may men-
tion that in Croatia there were raised a million and a-half
of quarters. Then, it maybe said, how are we to get corn
from Hungary ? Why, Sir, I received a letter, not long
ago, from one of the greatest corn merchants at Sissek,
the first corn market hi Fungary, and he says, that on an
average of the last five years, the price of the finest Hun-
garian corn, which I must remind you, is the finest in the
world, which in the Dantzic market ranks with the finest
Dantzic wheat, was 18s. 6d., and that you may send it
from this town of Sissek to Carlstadt, by the river Save,
at a cost of 4d. the English quarter, and from Carlstadt
to the port of Fiume for Is. Bd. a quarter. The person
who gives me this information is a practical man at Sis-
sek, and be is ready to prove the accuracy of his opinions
by acting upon the,i. He says, " Only give me a regular
trade with England, and I ' will send you, from Sissek,
500,000 quarters the first year." That is the report of a
merchant of Hungary. But do you mean to say that
that would not exercise the greatest influence on your
market ? When the 'demand is steady the market is
steady ; but I can show you what the effect would be with
an increased demand and an increased supply. Now, I
would take the markets of the Danube. The corn might be
sent from the two chief ports of the Danube, and here I
might observe that it is a very curious circumstance that
in the year 1842, as appears by a return I hold in my
hand, there were 1,350 vessels laden in those two ports
with the prod ace of the Danubian provinces, but only
eight of them were English. It is a remarkable fact that
while commerce was thriving and free trade was advocated,
this, the greatest commercial country in the world, had
only eight vessels laden at those ports. But a gentleman
writing to a house in England,—l will give his name to
the right lion. gentleman, and I think it will astound him,
for it is Mr. Sa-►ders, of Liverpool (hear), says,—" I
will undertake, by my correspondents, to s cure wheat
from Hungary. at the price of IS. a-quarter, free on
board ; and I will lay down this year, in an English
port, 200,000 quarters, at from 28s. to 305.,: and if you
71'.3'7,1;rtirnyonnelrpelnr.,q warCaTel-gerntieltiitatiz,ltt
same Mr. Sanders, who has given in his adhesion to the
right hon. baronet, to-night, in the manuscript letter
which I have read—but which I trust the right hon. baro-
net bas not read.. because, immediately after he gives in
his adhesion to the agricultural policy of the right hon.
baronet, I find be says that the banking bill of last year
must ruin the country (hear, hear),—that same Mr. San-
ders then offers to enter into a contract to supply 1,000,000
quarters of wheat at 18s. a quarter, and if the measures
of the Government pass, he will undertake at the end of
this year that that 1,000,000 of quarters shall be doubled
and sent to England at reduced prices. (Hear.)—Mr.
D'lsraeli's speech.