The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-05-30 00:00:00

were ern po

y faces,

poor la

thatch

DoCk i

pros p

the ru,

ne of our fath
We are aware

and Colonial Co

n is a

free, or at a ligh

We "war

d artizans to carry their labour 'to a

country in which it is wanted. The most unskilled
labour is eagerly bought up in Australia; herders
of sheep and bullocks, men who can drive a team,
or hew down a tree are valuable. The pauper
peasantry of Ireland even, who become worse than
valueless to us, when we have allowed them to
transfe
to squat in the forests

our to our Canadian colonies

.rmer of

would he an acquisition to the (
Australia. So lately as on Friday evening, we were
told by Sir James Graham, in the House of Com-
mons, that numbers of juvenile offenders from the
Parkhurst prison—the refuse of our large towns,
trained up to various trades: had been sent there,
and good accounts received of their behaviour; and
it is surely not wise on the part of the government
that, whilst those whose first qualification was the
commission of crime, are conveyed to a new
country at the national expense, our own virtuous
poor should be left to starve unaided at home.
Again, however, we find that we have exceeded
our limits, whilst we have far from exhausted our
subject. We shall, therefore, make no apology for
returning to it next week.

THERE is a duty, imposed upon us as journalists,
to give to the world all the information within our
reach; with respect to affairs of great national
import. In the performance of this duty we cannot
do better than quote the remarks of our contem-
porary, the Mercury, upon the subject of the Naviga-
tion Laws ; premising that this said contemporary
professes to be the especial leader of free trade
opinion in our town. We shall not do him the
injustice of garbling his lucubration s. Our readers
shall have the benefit of them in full, the only
liberty we take with them being the few remarks
, which we append to each paragraph.
f I •;ti

in accordance wita our contemporary's usual
practice, his observations have a text, drawn from
his own columns, and sufficiently pointing out the
authorship of the article. " Fair play is a jewel."

is the texi in question

The article.itelf is headed
' and thus our contempo-

lon Laws

rary discours
" These law

)f late

very injurious to the people of this country, and require
amendment ; but this does not prove thalf..ll the altera-
tions now proposed by Government, and the restrictions

the highest d

intit foreign-built

by British

rs abroad,

while t

British builder at home has to pay a duty of 15s. 9d. per
load on the foreign timber he may use in ship} uilding.
And it is equally absurd not to admit foreigners to trade
with their vessels from one port to another in these king-
...

to port in their dominions. We ought either to "open
our shop to all the world," saying nothing about recipro-
city, or we ought to make the reciprocity tell for what it is

According to Mr. Labouchere's proposal, an
American vessel may trade between our home dominions
and our colonies. The Americans naveno coloniesbetween
which and the parent states our ships can enjoy any trade
in compensation for that advantage. Where, then, is the

reciprocity
A

tv e should really like to be present at an interview
between the enlightened writer of the above para-
graph, and Mr. Labouchere, her Majesty's President
of the Board of Trade. We should like to hear
the Mercury prove the absurdity of Mr. Labouchere's
doing what he proposes to do, and leaving undone
what he proposes to leave undone. Our contem-
porary ought to be summoned to parliament to
give the nation the benefit of his rare wisdom.
We proceed however with the article, merely
reminding the reader that the first sentence is a
reply to the question asked in the opening para-
graph—" Where then is reciprocity."
"It is clearly at Parkgate. But, supposing our coast-
ing trade were thrown open, as well as the rest, while it
would be of little or no value to Jonathan. he would be

bound to open his coasting trade to us, and that would
compensate for all the freedom of navigation we would
award him ; for, while he would be entitled to bring sugar
from Jamaica to Liverpool, we should be entitled to carry

to Savannah, and return thence With cotton to Liverpool.
We could take calico and cutlery to China, thence tea to
Philadelphia, and thence a general cargo to Liverpool.
By opening our coast trade we should gain enormous ad-

fide secu

Committee, in I

....crviews, we learn, were held durin,
; but no arrangement of a satisfactory character, or
the basis of one, was arrived at. An endeavour was made
-"Pv-Moore to procure from the bond-
' but the only reply

Mr. J. B

holders an offer of a definitive nature , ti.,
was a declaration from Sir J. L. Goldsmidt that he, a
the principal bondholder, must be paid off in full, _
the pound, with interest—a proportion of which, hOwever,

uonds, reneweu ae .
..,nmittee at a lower rate of interest than those
~n now represent his claim upon Birkenhead. As this
was stubbornly adhered to as the basis of the negociations,
and of course could not be assented to, nothing was done
up to the departure of the Dock Chairman to attend the
meeting held in Liverpool on Friday, or seemed likely to
be effected at all, up to the last accounts received. The
bonded debt of t' ,lead Dock Commissioners

_. Lee Thrkenlit_
amounts at present to £423,000 ; of this only a portion
has been expended upon the construction of the works to
be purchased, and that portion not very jndiciously, in
the opinion of the proposed purchasers. Of the remainder
some has been lent, invested in the necessary plant, or
otherwise got rid of. The Dock Committee can, of
course, only treat for the purchase of an actual and bona
7. security; and, until the bondholders have such to offer,
-,ecially so long as they hold out for the full r•-'

with a view to profit upon other transactions, there can be
no prospect of a negociation being even commenced.
It appears, we understand, very doubtful that Mr.
Goldsmidt can be induced to recede from his present
position ; and, should this be the case, the proposed pur-
chase must fall to the ground, as the Commons committee
have only given until to-day for an arrangement to he
concluded ; and, even should they be induced to grant a
further adjournment for a few days, there will be scant
time for procuring the consent of the Dock Trustees here
America, upon a matter which demands to be maturely weighed.-

There are other difficulties, too, in the way, and some of a
rather intricate character. As the basis of any purchase
of the property by the Liverpool Dock Committee, they
require that all the acts of parliament binding them, with
respect to its application, should be swept away. Now,
this would at once bring us into collision with the Woods
and Forests, who claim the northern strand of the pool,
and who have a claim upon the Dock Commissioners of
Birkenhead, who have undertaken to make a large portion
of it into land for their use. Again, it brings us into col-
lision with the Railway Company, who, having expended
a large amount of money for a branch and wharfage land,
demand the completion of the scheme as originally planned.
We should have, besides the Dock Warehouse Company,
the Warehouse Commissioners, the owners of frontages on
the pool, the Commissioners of Birkenhead, and others to
settle with—the whole of whose demands would be quite
incompatible with the application of the estate for any
save purely Birkenhead purposes.
We think we have said enough to show that there is
V to probal

iitti, —Nifty of any progress being made in a pur-
chase during the present session of parliament at all events;
and if it fall to the ground now, we entertain little expec-
tation of a renewal of the proposition from this side of the
water. It is clear that in the present state of affairs, the
ownership of these docks would involve the Liverpool.
Dock Committee in endless contests with our neighbours,
as any attempt on their part to apply them merely as an
adjunct to their own dock estate, for beaching ground,
building yards, foundries, and other purposes for which
they might be made useful, would raise up against them,
from a host of different interests, a cry that they were
destroying Birkenhead entirely.

THE SUGAR DUTIES

To-day the Committee appointed by the House of Com-
mons, on the sugar duties, are to come to their resolution
upon what shall be their recommendation to the House,
with reference to the degree of protection to be afforded
to the West Indian planters for some years to come.
Three several plans have been proposed to the committee
—a very elaborate one, by Lord George Bentinck. This
was rejected. There was a second scheme, of Mr. Wil-
son's, with which the planters were tolerably satisfied,—
this also was discarded. Tnere was a third, attributed to
Mr. Goulburn and Mr. Cardwell, which would, we be-
lieve. have been still more agreeable to the West Indian
interest, but of which a vital clause was thrown out by the

influence of Lord George Bentinck
bnvn nn nn n nrl.l

Thus the committee

mendation in fiivoiir of protection at all, unless the pro-
position of Sir Thomas Birch be accepted. This is to the
effect, that the duties on foreign sugars shall for the next
six years be 20s. per cwt., and on British sugars 10s. per
t cwt.
' it fa

)s. per cwt. The recommendation is to be ac-
companied by another for a large increase in the supply of

free-negro labour,

This would appear to be the last effort that can be made
in the committee, and we would call the attention of all
who do not desire to witness the abandonment of a great
line of national policy to this most important subject. We
would have it considered upon "slavery" grounds. The
West India', --' " us,

planters ten .ad common sense would
appear to confirm the statement, that in time—in a few
years—they will be able to bear the competition with the
foreign sugar-grower upon equal terms. If this be so, the
question of slavery is favourably solved. After all we
have done, this last experiment is surely worth trying.

PETITION FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE
NAVIGATION LAWS.

We were not a little surprised yesterday afternoon on
learning that a document to the above purport was lying
for signature at our Exchange News-room. After the
opinion of the town had been so unequivocally recorded
against any such measure, at the meeting in the Sessions
House on Friday, we might have expected that the good
sense of the promoters of repeal would have prevented
such a display of their weakness and obstinacy. We
found our information, however, strictly correct. The
placard, also lying on the desk, was to the following
effect :

" A Petition for Repealing the Navigation Laws, and
removing at the same time all restrictions on the
construction and employment of British Shipping,

This is doubtless an endeavour to give effect to the un-
successful amendment proposed by Mr. Wylie at the
meeting last week; and however little we maybe inclined
to attach importance to this proceeding, we still conceive
it necessary that the shipping interest of this town should
not suffer any thing which may appear, however meagrely
support-' '-stnntiw. -.t- -,ta Dr-

ed, M a stios,antive form, to pass witnot erompt
contradiction. We therefore earnestly call upon our
fellow-townsmen to lose no time in getting up a counter-
petition, when they will shortly be able to demonstrate
that the supporters of the Navigation Laws are in an
overwhelming majority in the borough of Liverpool.
At four o'clock yesterday afternoon only 24 names had
been appended, consisting of those parties who had spoken
at the meeting in favour of repeal, in addition to whom
we noticed, at the head of the list Mr. Eyre Evans,
lower down Mr. William Rathbone, et hoc genus omne,
to the number before stated ; and at five o'clock they had
only raised 11 more.

COMMITMENTS FOR TRIAL AT THE SESSIONS FROM
THE POLICE COURT YESTERDAY.—John Kelly, a boy,
for breaking into the house of Michael Connolly, in Peter
street, on Saturday, and stealing therefrom a quantity of
wearing apparel. Mary Curry, for stealing in Tarleton
street from Jane Wright, 4s. 6d. and an apron. Eliza
Healey, for stealing from Richard Simon a person from
London, in a house in Beau street. a watch and handker-
chief worth £2 2
PRESENT

- _ TO THE EXCHANGE NEWS-ROOM. Mr.
Forrester, of the house of Oifiey, Webber, Forrester, and
Co., of Oporto and this town, has presented to the com-
mittee of our Exchange Buildings a proof copy of his beau-
tiful surveys of the river Douro. This work has been
considered of such importance that it has been adopted by
the Portuguese Gnvernrnent as a nalinnal work! and Mr