The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-02-27 00:00:00

TRANSPORT CHARGES ON CORN.

One of the fallacies set forth by the League is that the
cost of bringing corn to this country is alone a sufficient
protection to the home grower; that this cost they esti-
mate at from 10s. 6d. to 1-is per quarter; but in this they
have included those charges to which English wheat,
shipped from our own ports, is also subject, namely, port
dues, freight, insurance, delivery, metage, waterage, fac-
tor's commission, rent, turning, screening, &c. But if
we take the actual charge for freightage alona, at those
ports from which corn is usually imported into this coun-
try, we shall find (as may be seen by the reports of the
British consuls, officially made to government,) the cost
of freightage per quarter is as follows :—From St. Peters-
bnrg, free of all charges, 4s. sd. to Gs. sd. ; from [tiga,
4s. 9d. ; from Dantzic, including the Sound Dues of Gd.
per quarter, 3s. 4d. to 3s. 9d. ; from Hamburg, 2s. Gd. to
ss. ; and from Antwerp, 2s. ; from Odessa, where the
route is more circuitous, and there are probably no home-
made vessels, it is 10s. The quantity which the port of
Danzic could supply, if required, is estimated at 3,500,000
quarters, and El am burgh, 5,000,000 quarters. Repeal the
corn laws, and how long could the British farmer, even if
he lived rent free, continue to cultivate the soil, or find
work for the 1,400,000 and odd labourers now employed?
Would the manufacturer take them off his hands, and put
them to help the women and children he now almost ex-
clusively employs? This is hardly probable, as even for
the services of these, in consequence of the invention of
self-acting mules, and other improvements in machinery,
he has daily less and less need. For what purpose, then,
shall we make the " experiment," the chance of adding to
the already enormous wealth of a few factory lords who
aspire to monopolize the corn trade as well as the labour
market? The awful risk involved is surely not worth ha-
zarding for such an end.

A great agricultural meeting has been held at Durham.
Nearly 1,800 persons of the greatest respectability and in-
telligence among the tenant-farmers and labourers of the
county were in the room, and some thousands were ex-
chided from mere want of space to accommodate them.
Mr. Crofton, a tenant-farmer, was voted to the chair, on
the motion of the Duke of Cleveland, who was subse-
quently elected president, of the "Durham Agricultural
Protection Society ;" and upwards of £5OO was subscribed
before the meeting separated.
CENTRAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.-Our readers are
aware that a society is now formed in London under this
title, for the purpose of exposing the misrepresentations
of the Anti-Cora Law League. To avoid any step which
might trench on the provisions of the law, a case has
been submitted for the opinion of Mr. Platt, containing
the following questions, " Whether there is anything il-
legal in affiliating the different country or other local
societies on the proposed central society ? And whether
there is anything illegal in forming corresponding societies ?
The opinion of Mr. Platt is as follows The 39 Geo.
111. c. 79, which I suppose has raised a doubt as to the
legality of the associations in question, has not any appli-
cation to the subject. The Agricultural Protection
Society contemplates a legal object, and seeks to obtain it
by legal means. Its object is, to protect the most impor-
tant interests in the country, and its means are, the con-
cent:ation of agricultural intelligence, the diffusion of
agricultural information, and the constitutional appeal to
the Legislature, by petition, in protection of the civil
and political interest of the petitioners. lam of opinion
that it is the undoubted right of any number of her Ma-
jesty's subjects to combine for the purpose of attaining
such an object by such means; and if, for the purpose of
giving vitality and energy to such a combination, they
form local and central corresponding societies, such so-
cieties are, in my judgment, legal.

DEATH FROM EXCESSIVE DRINKING.—On Wednes-
day, two young men, of respectable appearance, were
charged, at the Lambeth police-office, London, with caus-
ing the death of Ellen Goodlad, an unfortunate girl, 18
years of age, by inducing her to take a large quantity of
gin. One of the witnesses stated that she saw the de-
ceased and a young woman named Sophia Bevan on the
Friday previous in a public•house, and observed them
drink gin and brandy frequently, and with different per-
sons, in front' of the bar. She (witness) had frequently
asked the deceased to come home, as it was getting late,
but both she and Bevan said they were waiting for two
gentlemen who were in the parlour, and by whose orders,
as she understood, they had had two glasses of brandy.
The prisoners came out of the parlour and were about to
leave the house, when Bevan caught hold of Mr. Eccles
and asked him to treat her to some gin. The deceased
asked the other gentleman to treat her, and something
was said about backing the one to drink more gin than
the other, and each drank two half pints of gin. They
subsequently had some sodawater, and were taken home
in a cab. The deceased was placed on a piece of carpet-
ing on the floor with a pillow under her head, and about
six o'clock in the morning Bevan, who it appeared had
been locked out from her lodging, was found by a lamp-
lighter lying in a court clue by, and being in a state of
insensibility he (the lamplighter) carried her on his back
into the kitchen, and placed her alongside the deceased.
A policeman, entered the place immediately after,
pronounced the deceased to be dead, and instantly has-
tened for a stirgeDu to attend the other, end she recovered.