The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-02-17 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

A " Shareholder" will find in another part of our paper the poli-
tic n iu which the lines of railway, to which he refers, are at
present.
We had five reporters present at the meeting of the Church
Pastoral Aid Society, but in consequence of the accommoda-
tion for them being very unsuitable—the speakers addressing
the meeting right over the reporters heads—we fear the report
will not be found so accurate as we could have wished.
We have received a copy of a paragraph congratulating pew-
owners upon the fact, that the trustees of St. Mark's Church
have resolved " upon submitting the incumbency to competi-
tion for the purpose of securing an efficient minister as suc-
cessor to the Rev. Mr. Blacow " We regret much to see such
a course adopted. It is not at all consonant with the princi-
ples of the establishment, or ea'culated to advance the in-
terests of religion. although the selection of a popular
preacher may possibly improve, for a time, the property of
the pew-ow. ers. We do not think that the mode about to be
adopted is at all likely to secure t r the church and district the
best qualified minister, as many really valuable men would
shrink from any such competition, accompanied, as it possibly
may be, with a personal canvas of the trust es. It would
be a point of wisdom to re-consider he matter. NN e have
received several communications on this subject, one of
which we insert elsewhere.
A correspondent, who we regret has not furnished us with his
name, which compels us to omit material portions of his com-
munication, conveys to us the following as the opinions of
eminent counsel with respect to the legality of directors of
railways dealing in the shares of the c, mpanies over which
they preside. "It is stated that all purchases made by a di-
rector of a railway, bank or other company, of shares in such
company'is illegal, and an application to the Court of Chan-
cery would compel a restitution of profits. Tt:is opinion is
founded upon the fact that These directors are only trustees.
and consequently under those rules and laws of equity which
govern such parties. No assignee to a bankrupt's estate can
purchase any of the eir cts without going through certain
forms of publicity, nor can any executor or guardian buy any
of the property entrusted to his care. Now a director elected
by a body of sharetrldcrs is a trustee for each and every one
of his constituents, and of every share ; and it is unjust that
be, knowing from his peculiar situation what arrangements
may be making for the sate, lease, or amalgamation of the
company's property, should avail himself of that information,
—withheld, of course, from his principal—and purchase from
him that property."

Ebt tiberpool Altanbarb.

TUESDAY MORNING, FEB. 17, 1846.

We are far from entertaining the absurd notion
that a statesman is not to be allowed to change his
opinions without being taunted with unworthy mo-
tives. The legislator, as well as the man, has his
childhood, his youth, and his mature age; and he
who can pass through these stages without having
his perceptions enlarged and corrected, is little bet-
ter than an idiot. Experience is, indeed, lost upon
the man who, with the realities of life before his
eyes, which prove his early opinions to have been
based upon a foundation of sand, adheres doggedly
to their advocacy, and even prides himself upon his
mingled obstinacy and stupidity. In the man, there-
fore, we can pardon a change from the opinions of
the youth. It is a change which not only added
experience but altered temperament warrants.
We cannot, however, carry our tolerance upon
this point so far as to excuse the glaring apostacy
which we witness amongst statesmen in the present
day ; and of which such startling instances have
been exhibited in the proceedings of the House of
Commons during the past week. It is seldom that
real convictions come so suddenly upon men as to
allow of their boxing
.the compass in so short. a

period as has elapsed since the Conservative Minis-
try of Sir Robert Peel—now advocating and intro-
ducing ultra free trade measures—were advocates

of protection to native industry. The change is too
sudden, too violent, to avoid leaving behind its
avowal the suspicion that the abandoned opinion
has never been very firmly entertained. There is
too much of strategy about it—something too much
resembling the military manoeuvre of turning the
guns of a captured stronghold upon the flying and
defcatel foe, whose hands erected it as their defence
against aggression, and who looked to reap from it
protection, not slaughter.
Besides, we expect to see in the avowal of changed
opinions the semblance, at least, of modesty, and
regard for appearances. It is not enough for a mi-
nister, in whom his fellow countrymen have placed
a certain degree of confidence, to state, in brusque
terms, that he has changed his opinions. Men
want to know the process of that change—when the
early faith began to waver, at what time it ceased
to operate, and how it came at last to cling to the
point from which, through life, it had turned away
with loathing and horror. Something like this sort
of explanation we looked for, especially from such a
man as Sir James Graham. Starting, as he did, in
early life, from ultra-radicalism, and progressing
gradually through moderate whiggism to conserva-
tism, there was apparently afforded a guarantee that
conviction, on his part, was gradual. The wild
theories of youth were forsaken for more moderate
opinions in manhood, and conservative opinions in
mature years. Certainly from such a man we were
warranted in expecting something better than the

meagre and reasonless avowal of change, which is
contained in the following paragraph of his speech
on Tuesday night last :
" I cannot at all blame my noble friend who has just
sat down for the reference he has made to my former
declarations on this subject. I admit that the past de-
clarations of opinion made by a member of this House,
who either leads, or aspires to lead a party, and declara-
tions made by a first Minister of the Crown, if at variance
with the course he now adopts, are subjects not unworthy
of reference, and which call for explanation. The hon.
member for Northamptonshire made a direct appeal to
the Government, and challenges us if we had changed
our opinions, manfully to own it. I answer that challenge.
I do frankly avow my change of opinion, and by that
avowal I dispose of all the speeches." (Loud cheers
from the Opposition, with counter-cheers from the Protec-
tion benches, rendered inaudible the rest of the sentence.
When a man thus cavalierly " disposes of all)
speeches" and principles of past years, we are na-
turally disposed to ask, " when will he begin to be
sincere and consistent," and how do we know that
he is now sincere and not disposed to veer round
again at the first change of the political wind, or
whatever influence it is which directs his conduct ?"
His own language, in the course of the same night's
debate, affords us a criterion from which to form
our own deductions. In June last, Sir James Gra-
ham reminds the house the following were his opi-
nions upon the subject of protection :
" On Vie occasion when the hon. member for Wolver-
hampton (Mr. Villiers) moved for going into committee
on the corn laws in June last, I said, `lt is decidedly my
opinion, that the prosperity of agriculture must always
depend on the prosperity of the other branches of the
native industry of this country. and that the public pros-
perity is on the whole best promoted by giving a fair and

uninterrupted current to the natural flow of national in-
dustry. I will go further, and say, that it is my opinion
that, by safe, gradual, and cautious measures, it is ex-

pedieni to bring our laws, with reference to the trade in
corn, into a nearer relation with the sound principle?
which regulate our commercial policy with respect to
every other branch of inditstry: "
Clearly, Sir James Graham, whilst uttering this
speech, was paving the way for the vindication of
his present change of opinions. If such references
be all the use of the record of opinions of public
men which the pag.?s of Hansard furnish us
with, such records might be burnt with great ad-
vantage to the national morality. Statesmen could
then more conveniently " dispose of all their
speeches ;" and we should less ominously be re-
minded of the necessity of rendering the text,
" put not your trust in princes," into an equally
appropriate one, put no trust in statesmen.

The following paragraphs, which we find in the
colums of a local contemporary, suggest matter for
the serious consideration of that pertion of the com-
munity which is not in name and profession alone,
but in reality, Conservative.
"Up to last Saturday, sufficient transfers of property in
Preston alone bad been made to place one thousand addi-
tional free-trade votes on the register. As similar exer-
tions had been made in other places, there is little doubt
but there will be, after the next revision, a majority of
free-trade votes for this division of the county.—Prealon
South Cheshire is safe on the next registry, 726 new
free trade votes having been secured."
What steps, we ask, are being taken to neutralise
• the effect of these most unconstitutional proceedings
—this wholesale manufacture of qualifications ? Not
any. We see around us in this great commercial
locality—why should we conceal the fact ?—men
whom the dream of some vast benefit to arise from
the free-trade policy of government has blinded
altogether to the operations by which that policy has
been precipitated. The League they regard merely
as a free-trade "great fact." The organisation
which has broken up the old commercial policy of
the country—which rules supreme in a majority of
our boroughs, and is already stretching out its arms
to grasp our counties—can, they imagine, be carried
to no further end ; but, its ostensible and original
object being achieved, it is to die a natural death.
The Cobdens and Brights are to sink from dema-
gogues into mere calico-printers and cotton-spin-
ners. We are to have a political elysium—no agi-
tation—no difficulty save that of estimating the
hugeness of the tide of prosperity which is advancing
'to our shores.
Most strongly we would warn every lover of the
Constitution and the monarchy of the danger of
thus allowing themselves to be misled. They do
not, apparently, care to battle very strongly in be-
half of protection to native agriculture. They► have
the excuse for their lethargy, that the class most

nearly interested in securing such protection have
shewn little inclination to do their own duty to-
wards the community, and even towards their own
dependents. They point to the lamentable instances
of defection from the straightforward path of con-
sistency and principle on the part of the lords of the
soil—to votes on Factory bills and Maynooth bills
—to their Poor Law legislation and practice—and
then ask the question, " Why should we hurry now
to the rescue of those who failed to answer our call,
when objects dear to us were assailed."
Alas, there is but too much reason and justice in
such a mode of arguing. But it must not he in-
dulged in. It is dangerous. The question at issue
now with the League is not one of Free Trade only.
They have never built up their vast fabric of un-
constitutional influence for that object alone. The
fullest realization of the principle of Free Trade will
not cause the withdrawal from the registries of the
thousands of votes which they have foisted upon
them. and with which they would control the repre-
sentation. Having found out their power, and per-
fected their organization and their machinery, they
are not likely to be cajoled into the folly of laying
them down or of stopping half-way upon the road
to the achievement of their ulterior objects. We
have therefore seriously to inquire what are those
objects.

The answer will at once present itself to us when
we consider who and what are the bulk of the men
of whom the League is composed. We know that
in religion they are sectarian ; in politics they are
scarcely a remove from republicanism. In this
crusade against the Corn Laws they have exhibited
the bitterest hatred of aristocratical institutions, and
no great love for the monarchy itself. What, then,
must be the position of this empire, if we permit
such a body of men to go on increasing their orga-
nization and strength, and absorbing more and more
of the representation ? In a League parliament—
and how rapidly we are approaching to the return
of such a parliament the community does not at
present suspect—we would not give many years'
purchase fora Church establishment, in its integrity,
or for the security of any of the institutions of the
country, which have offended ultra-liberalism by
standing in the way of its progress towards supre-
macy. With such a parliament, running riot with
the excitement of the novelty of power, we would
not give much for the prerogative of Royalty itself.

. .
We would entreat of the 'friends of the Constitu-
tion to give this subject their earnest consideration,
—to be wise in time, and take some vigorous steps
in self defence. It cannot surely be that the Con-
servative gentry of England will tamely sit by, and
submit to the domination of any combined and
irresponsiLle body, composed of materials so dan-
gerous to the security of liberty and property as is
this Anti-Corn Law League. If such a body is to
be permitted thus to manufacture qualifications in
every borough and county, the Conservatives must
see if they cannot better their instructions, and foil
them at their own weapons.

Mr. Sydney Herbert, who was placed in the
ministerial van in the debate upon Mr. Miles's
amendment, on Monday night, is evidently destined
to be a trump card in Sir Robert Peel's hand. We
do not argue this from the selection itself, or from
the intuitive perception which the Premier has
ever shewn in detecting the existence of talent, and
we may add pliability, in those around him. We
form our conclusion from the speech itself, which
is certainly an able one, and calculated to raise the
speaker at once to a very prominent position in the
ranks of his party, aid in the estimation of the
house. The most consummate talent, however,
may err at times. Many an excellent advocate and
shrewd witness have lost the cause entrusted to
them by " proving too much " ; and in somewhat
of this position Mr. Sydney Herbert may some day
find that he has placed himself, when, after addu-
cing, as one of the strongest of his reasons for
advocating the repeal of the corn-laws, the wretched
condition to which the agricultural labourers, for
whose protection those laws had been devised, were
at present reduced, he clenched the statement, as to
their condition, by the following reference to a recent
meeting in Wiltshire :
" In his own county, a meeting was lately held at night,
at a place called Goatacre, which had since been the sub.
ject of much comment. It was very possible, and he
thought that it was obvious from the force of the reason-
ing, that they were not drawn up by working men. This
meeting, he believed, was pre-arranged and concerted by
orders ; but he was, in truth, bound to say that the state-
ments of the working men as to the difficalty with which
they lived were true. (Hear, hear.)"
We shall not ask who were the parties to whom
Mr. Sydney Herbert refers as having ordered and
preconcerted the meeting in question, and drawn
up the resolutions adopted. Probably it was the
same party which preconcerted two or three similar
meetings in this town. But we may ask the Ho-
nourable Gentleman, who appears willing enough
to bring forward the statements of the agricultural
labourers of Goatacre, " as to the difficulty with
which they lived," as an argument in favour of free
trade, if he is willing to carry out that argument to
its full extent, and especially to its bearing upon
another great question connected with the supply of
food. Is he willing to tell us how much of the
destitution of these miserable agricultural labourers
is attributable to that inhuman law, which delivers
them up as bound and fettered slaves into the hands
of the farmer and the landowner, by holding up
before their eyes, as the alternative of refusal to
submit to hard toil and insufficient remuneration,
the " coarser kind of food " and the equally hard
toil of the Union workhouse ? " They could not
be worse off under any system of corn-laws," was
the burthen of the song of dole, uttered to the moon
and the wintry midnight air, by these half-fed and
half-clothed mockeries of men—these wretched
caricatures of " a bold peasantry, their country's
pride." Will Mr. Sydney Herbert, or any one for
him, inform us how much better off they will be
made by the measures, which he hints at as afford-
ing all that is requisite to place them in that posi-
tion of social comfort, which every accountable
being, willing to work, ought to occupy in a civi-
lised and a Christian country ?
We suspect much that the operation of the New
Poor Laws has infinitely more to do with the present
degraded and suffering condition of the agricul-
tural labourer than any question of protection or
non-protection. The whole of the despotic ma-
chinery of Somerset House, with its Bastiles and
its dietaries, its cruel and unholy severing of the
most sacred ties of life, as the punishment of po-
verty, disease, or old age—its workhouse tests and
its heart tests—were set up, ostensibly, to raise the
standard of character in the labourer, but, in reality,
to reduce the cost of labour. And admirably it
has served such real object, as the meeting at
Goatacre proved ; and ruthlessly it is worked, as
the disgusting revelations of the Andover inquiry
have placed beyond the possibility of dispute. Re-
duce the price of the food of the labourer and his
family you may—give him a bushel of wheat, or a
bushel and a half of oats or rye, in exchange for his
six shillings weekly dole, you may ; but you reduce,
at the same time, the cost of keeping him and them
immured in your pauper prisons. It is the cost of
the " coarser kind of food," to which you submit
him as the punishment of compulsory or wilful
idleness, which is the real test of the price of his
labour out of doors. The new Poor Law is the
screw, whose energetic and heartless application has
brought the poor labourers at Goatacre and else-
where to that desperate condition, in which they
are willing to try any experiment of legislation, or
even of violence,—" for they cannot be worse off
than they are !"
We shall be told, no doubt, that employment will
be rendered more abundant by the measure in pro-
' gress. The farmer is to drain more, to pursue an
improved system of husbandry, in order to enable
him to compete with the foreign grower to do
this, he must employ more labour on his land,
and hence will arise demand for such labour, and
advanced wages. We believe, firmly, that no such
result can arise, in the agricultural districts at least,
whatever may be the case in the manufacturing dis-
tricts. In the first place, we cannot see how the
farmer is to afford the required outlay of capital ; or
how his landlord, with a reduced rental, is to help
him. And, in the next place, we are reminded by
the speeches and writings of the agricultural advo-
cates of the measure—the model-farm people—that
the secret of improved cultivation is improved ma-
chinery and, implements, which are to save human
labour. There will be no increased demand suffi-
cient to advance the rate of wages, or to counteract
the operation of the new Poor Law,—that pet in-
strument of the landowner, which enables him to
regulate the weekly dole of the labourer by the cost
of that coarser kind of food upon which he can be
supported within the walls of the Union Work-
house.

Another anticipation is doubtless indulged in,
that the surplus labour of the agricultural districts

—the poor unfortunates whom no change can ren-
der worse off—will be drafted away to supply the
increased demand for hands to arise in the manufac-
turing districts. We shall have the talents of ;a
score or two of Muggeridges employed in selecting,
for removal to spinning and weaving paradises,
' " widows with large families, or orphan children'"
the commodity which, according to the amial\e
suggestion of an eminent whig-radical mill owner
in the West Riding, is the most profitable to grind
down into yarns and calicoes. But, then, what will
become of the pleasing picture, painted by Sir James
Graham, with respect to the improved condition of
the manufacturing operatives, with whose labour
this pauper supply is to come into competitioO ?
" I can very welt understand," remarked Sir Jamtis,
on Tuesday night, " how those working men should
overtax their industry, and even call upon their
wives and daughters to work, that they may obtain
subsistence. Necessity might drive them to such
resources. But if they can understand that by a
change of your law they may be able, without re-
quiring their wives and daughters to work as they
do now, to live in greater comfort than they have ever
known CI), I have not the smallest doubt that ar-
rangements will be made between masters and men
as to the period of labour, and so every ground or
pretext for legislative interference will be taken
away." We have the greatest doubt of the realiza-
tion of this delightful consummation. The Com-
missioners of Somerset House will soon daub over
the bright sky, which Sir James Graham spreads
over the manufacturing elysium, with a few of the
gloomy tints, and introduce a few of the ragged
and half famished figures of the Goatacre meeting,
or of the mothers and children who sat huddled to-
gether by the cheerless firesides of their miserable
cottages, whilst their husbands and fathers did the
work of the League by exhibiting their wretched-
ness to the midnight moon.
Clever as he undoubtedly is, Mr. Sydney Herbert
touched upon dangerous ground when he paraded
this solitary demonstration of agricultural labourers,
with its " pre-arranged resolutions," in favor of
free trade, and the declaration of the speakers that
" they could not be worse off," in the face of the
hundreds of meetings of the same wretched class,
at which their sufferings have been attributed to
Boards of Guardians and Assistant Commissioners.
Goatacre is dangerously near to Andover, of bone-
crushing notoriety; and it was rather impolitic
even to risk suggesting the enquiry, which will be
made, how far the destitution of the labouring
masses employed in agriculture is attributable to the
cruel bondage in which they are held by the new
Poor Law ; and, moreover, how far the blow levelled
by Sir Robert Peel against the agricultural interests
of the kingdom is compatible with the maintenance
of that law and its grinding machinery. The British
farmer may, pos.ibly, by increased science and im-
provements in cultivation, along with reduced rents,
be enabled to compete with the foreign grower of
corn ; but the British labourer must be fed,—not in
Union workhouses, or upon wages regulated by the
cost of workhouse dietaries, but in comfort and
upon sufficient food ;—and when they are promised
such improvement of their condition, as the result
of free trade, they will not allow that promise to be
broken. A disappointed man, we may remind him,
is a dangerous man.

The resolution of the Highway Board on Thurs-
day, to negotiate the purchase of the Harrington
Waterworks, in addition to the purchase already
made of the Bootle Works, will, we suspect be re-
garded by the rate-payers with no slight alarm. It
is, no doubt, highly desirable that some strenuous
effort should be made to secure for the inhabitants
an efficient and ample supply of water; and most
desirable it would have been if such effort had been
made long ago, before the existing monopolies had
grown to their present large extent and value, and
the task of affording such supply had been placed
in the hands of some of our public bodies. To re-
pair the error now, however,—to resolve upon pur-
chases which will require such a serious amount of
money to be raised and charged upon the rate-
payers—is a matter which calls for very mature
consideration, both with respect to the price to be
given, and the mode in which it is to he effected.
In our haste to secure a benefit we may rashly
inflict upon the town a permanent burden.
We cannot see, either, that the Highway Board
is the best public body to undertake the manage-
ment of these purchases, if determined upon, or
the carrying on of the works when purchased.
Readily we admit the ability and great experience in
local affairs of many of the members of that body.
With Mr. Gladstone, however, we should prefer
seeing the Corporation undertake the supply of the
town with water. In their hands there could be no
financial mistakes,—no risk of oppre:sive rates to
outweigh the value of the boon to the rate-payers.
The Highway Board has, already, ample work be-
fore it, more immediately within its own province,
in the paving, sewering, and efficient cleansing of
our growing extent of streets and public thorough-
fares; and what that body ought to stipulate for is
the privilege of taking, from whatever body may
undertake the supply of water, sufficient for the
proper and effectual discharge of their own duties.
Before, however, taking any step, we should
strongly urge the adoption of the suggestion of Mr.
Tinne, viz.: that we should first have some com-
prehensive report from a competent engineer, as to
the best means of supplying the town with water.
Do not let us now enter into any patchwork scheme,
when we may hereafter find we might have had a
perfect and comprehensive scheme for half the
the money. Perhaps, after all, we may not have to
purchase the Water Companies. We cannot see
that it is at all imperative upon us to pay these
companies the exorbitant prices to which their stock
has been run up, for the right to enjoy, in a town
of the importance of Liverpool, an abundant sup-
ply of one of the cheapest necessaries of life. We
should, of course, prefer an equitable and reasona-
ble agreement with the companies, to any step
which could inflict injustice on individuals; bat,
certainly, we should be sorry to find that the town
is to be taxed in perpetuo by any extravagant bar-
gain, such, as it appears to us, would be the purchase
of these companies at the present price of their
stock. Time for deliberation, however, is what we
now contend for. Let us not go too fast.