The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1832-12-14 00:00:00

FREE TRADE AND RECIPROCITY.

Whig ingennity, has brought to light, in these inven-
tive days,.that the ,friendship and alliance will gain us
boundless commercial intercourse with France. It is full
time, for the wretched snare thus laid for national cupidity
to receive due exposure. In bungling telly and impu-
dent deception, it is perfectly unique. Men like Sir H.
Parnell and Dr. Bowring are exported, not, alas ! for
foreign consumption, but to negotiate a commercial trea-
ty, or,something similar, with France. What English
iiiterests do such men conceive they have under their
protection ? None whatever. Stuffed to bursting with
the warring dogmas and shallow.sophistries of such pub-
lications as the Wes*rainster Review, they are convinced
that every demand:France can by possibility make, -Eng-
landought to satisfy-for her own benefit. Speak of
'pro-
tecting your silk and glove trades, distilleries, or any
thing else 1 Absurd ; they know you ought to proteet
n )thing; theirs is the love of negotiation made easy ;
they can only comply, and sacrifice. Casting behind
Clem yotarmagnifying, concealing, coqueting, and other
old-fashioned means of bargain-making, their ingenious
reply-to every-thing craved by the .Frenchman,-is,---0,
yes, kind sir, you ought to 'have it as a gift, for the sake
Qf enriching the country we act for. flow-prodigiously
have difficult matters been simplified ! Nevertheless, the
sage negotiators—baronet and. doctor, book-makers, and
political economy tutors, though they be,—find difficulties.
Trey are unhappily shipped without their bale of eqniYa-
lents. 'Why ? Because their sage masters have giverlaway
all beforehand. French silks,—French all things, even
down to French verdigris, are already admitted, and no
such bale can be manufactured. Anxious to concede
every thing, theirs is the cruel fate of having nothing to
concede- They knock at Monsei.u.e.s gate in the.hamble;
Ch trader of beggars ; and he is not to be mystified by
them, even'if they ply him with the.baronet's ponderoms
figares, or the doctor's melodious stanzas. Impenetrable as
adamant to-both arithmetic and rhyme,.he gives them the
yithering answer,—You have nothing to • offer in ,ex-
change ; and I.sell, but never give. Beseeched, he thus,
with characteristic dexterity, addresses the suppliants,—
You have still duties on Prench brandy and silks, anti
until .they are reduced I shall withheld my alms; then you
may possibly taste my bounty. The inendicants-send
-this home, and of course matters are put in train for com-
plia lee. .It is gravely announced, that the silk traske.will.
be nagely benefitted
.by a ofluction. of protecting duty;
arid tuat a retitle -ion of the duty on brandy will gain an
immense trade with. France. NQW, in vvhatis.this boasted
trade to consist ? Will France take our cottons, . wool-
lenA, and' hardware, or our leading colonial-productions.?
Both ,the negotiators and their masters own that, she will
pot ; .she is still .confessedly to exclude almost .all our
principal artielel cf export. • After the most-laborious ex-
a,ion of kyr own interests, she May pessibly.admit
iron and cot-to-4 twist, for the improvement of her,hard-
ware and-cotton trades; but she cannot go beyond this
and similar admission. There is to be no sacrifice for sa-
eritiee,--nogiving in one commodity to take in another;
froin beginning to end, all is to be done for her own ex-
clusive profit. On the article or two which she pretends
04e may admit, the duties are to be in a great measure
prohibitory; and the object is to cheapen some of her
productions, that she may be the better able to compete
;tti us in others. she avows ; and she avows far-
ther, that in so far as
_she cannot compete. with us, she
)01411 adeere to. her system of prohibition.—Frans at{ ar-
ticle inEntivi's enittlei'Whig Pqrcian

CORRESPONDENCE.
DELUSIVE EXPECTATIONS.

Beforra instant or gradual,”" That's the Question."

TO TIIR EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL ST✓INDARD.

Sta,-7-The sequel of the story will show the reason of the
title. Finding this morning, from a conversation had with one
of the members of our society, that an impression has been
made, by, a gentleman in Mr. Thornely's interest as a canvas-
ser, that by voting for Mr. Thornely all the reforms requisite
and necessary are to be accomplished " at one fell swoop;"
and when I came to ,inquire of the person if he had considered
the matter over, and marked the distance in the three follow-
ing particulars, he confessed his amazement at himself that he
could have been so easily hood Winked.
,said I, you do not mean by reform the destruction of
your country's constitution, bct only an amended Administra-
tion, because there would'be just as much sanity in that, as if,
on the discovery of some delinquences in your servant, you
were to throw up housekeeping and turn yourself and family
into the streets, instead of dismissing the servant. Therefore
reform must be gradual. " Yes, certainly," exclaimed the
astonished man.

Then, as to slavery, you say he is to be instantly freed,
and what then is to be the constitution under which he is to be
placed? will you tell me ? for he knows.little or nothing of the
relations of social life; he knows little or nothing of the laws
-of God, and still less of the constitution or laws of his country.
Would yOu, now, like him, fora neighbour ?" " Certainly
not." " Then reform 'mist be gradual?" " Yes."
" Then, as to the reform of the church : Because all its mi-
nisters, you think, are neither so holy themselves„ nor as use-
ful to the community as is to be wished, would you turn them,
then, instantly to the right about, aud shut up all the churches?"
The reply, as before, "No." "Then reform must be gradual?"
" Yes."

I will not swell the account with additional particulars, all
of the same kind, though it were easy. The above are as good
as a thousand, to show you what a little covert obsequiousness
can do, especially when clad in the habiliments of a Quaker,
and operating upon winds, too, totallyunused to politics; nay,
upon whose uniform obedience the injunction is passed,—
" Study to be quiet and do your own business."
Now, as the poor man's mind was quite changed as to the
misty phantom of instant reform, which is really arrant non-
sense ; and he was thankful_ at being saved from subsequent
pain of mind, in being thus carried away with guile, if you can
find a corner in the Standard, and agree with me in thinking
that perhaps it may be the means of saving others, it is at your
service. I have, however, done my duty. I will not add one
single comment.—Yours, &c.
Monday evening. A WESLE YAN METHODIST.