The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-03-21 00:00:00

ao strong is ultimately found to be the good s

of th

English operative

ent condition

of those middle cla
held back from interference

ses in France, who rceentl,

hen a moveme

the slightest—on their part would have ensured
Europe and themselves from the evils which now
impend over both, is equally instructive. The
trading and commercial portion of the French

in every country,
suffer most grievously from the effects of popular
commotion and ill-considered political change—
have before them a prospect by no means to be
envied. We do not rejoice over it, however much
pusillanimity and blindness may be urged as the
direct causes of its production. But to the few of
the middle classes in this country, who may be
suspected of the weakness of following such an
example as that set them by their French brethren,

those who inevitibl

nation—

we say—look well at its consequences I vvatx,ii
the sure punishment of those who, though they
-may not foment treason and rebellion; neglect the
4uty of- ttudingsteadfmtly forward-in defence of

law and order ! Grievances you may have, in
common with the mass of mankind. Obstacles
there may be, a few which stand in the way of your
happiness and well-being. But toleration of an-
archy and a mob domination are unsafe paths
towards the redress of those grievances and the re-
moval of those obstacles. Upon the potency of the
calm voice of reason you have to depend. That voice
will not be heard amidst the crash and tumult which
arise whilst the framework of society is being riven
in pieces. We repeat, that to the attention of the
middle classes of this country we have little need
of recommending O. study of the effect of the had
example which their French brethren have-recently
set them. The totally opposite conduct—the reso-
lute determination to resist mob tyranny—displayed
in this country during the past week, is sufficiently
assuring. By the middle classes of Ireland, how-
ever, the lesson may be studied with advantage.
May we trust that it will be so studied ?

BY the steam-ship Sarah Sands, which reached
this port on Tuesday, we received the following
additional letter from Mr. Isaac Buchanan, which,
coming from a gentleman so practically conversant
with all the details of the subject of which it treats,
will be read with considerable interest :
" New York, 28th February, 1848.

" DEAR SlR,—By the steamer Hibernia, sailed two
days ago, I had only time to refer you to a communica-
tion of mine to a Currency Reformer' in this country.
" My object in sending this to you was to show, that
if the Committee of the House of Commons does not
confine itself to the consideration of ' the principles of
money,' but enters into the discussion of ' the subject of
banking,' it will prove an abortion.
" The moneyed aristocracy of England will thus con-
tinue to devour the substance, and even subsistence, of
the class who labour for their bread; and so aggravated
will free trade make the operation of this grinding and
inhuman system, that a revolution in England will be
the consequence.

" The distress of the working classes will become un-
bearably great; and though Government may deny that
this has been caused by the Government, it will be self-
evident that Government has not had the power or the
will to prevent the starvation of the thousands.
" To prevent a revolution in England, the great object
of all government—the independence from starvation of
the working classes—must not only be seen to be the
first object of the existing Government, but THAT OBJECT
MUST BE ATTAINED WITHOUT DELAY.

" For my own part, I firmly believe, and have no hesi-
tation in saying, that GOLD IN ENGLAND NOT BEING
ALLOWED TO RISE IN PRICE, and being by law made
necessary to her mercantile system of confidence or bank-
ing, has already directly caused the death of thousane.s in
Manchester and the other manufacturing districts, and
must necessarily be the cause of tens of thousands of
deaths, and of incalculable misery, among the working
classes generally.

" To force back gold into England, the price of labour
and all other property has to be crushed down to starva-
tion,_or beyond starvation, limits.

" In thii way the exchanges are got nominally turned
in favour of England ; but let us look at the direful effect
of this on the industry of England.
" The export of gold from England, by removing the
base of the inverted pyramid, brought the whole confi-
dence or banking (the means of manufacturing and ship-
ping manufactures) into the dust. *
" The failure of English merchants destroyed English
credit all over the world, and this gives the appearance
of the balance of trade being more and more in favour of
England, because few bill-drawers being undoubted, the
parties owing money in England prefer going to the most
expensive mode of remittance—gold.
" Now if gold had risen in England, there would have
been little or no export of the article from England, and
none from America.
" To the extent gold rose in England would bills of
exchange on England have depreciated in New York,
and the importers here of British manufactures would
have got money orders on England for a larger sum.
" To this extent the American importer could have
bought more goods, or (as would have been the case) he
could have given an additional price for his purchases in
England, for, if he did not pay an extra price, he would,
to the extent he got his money remitted at a lower rate
of exchange, have had an advantage over the American
manufacturer, while the greater the discount bills on
England got down to in the New York market, the
greater advantage the English agriculturist would have
h id ever the American wheat-grower.
" At present the artificial systems of England cause
the nominal rate of exchange to be 10 per cent. premium
f)r bills on Lcndon, when, if things were left to regulate
themselves, the rate would naturally be probably 10 per
cent. discount.

" The crushing effect of this on the labouring men in
England is, that it enables the English buyer of American
wheat to give 20 per cent. more to the American grower,
and that it gives a 20 per cent. advantage to American
manufactures sold in New York over British, which
latter could be sold 20 per cent. lower, unless (as would
be the case) the price of labour would rise to the extent
gold would rise in price, if England, returning to faith
in Mr. Pitt, would repeal Sir Robert Peel's gold bill of
1819.

" I am satisfied that the dreadful evils which, I antici-
pate, are about to afflict the working men in England,
may be prevented by adding to the present legal tender
in England twenty millions of paper, to represent whici'
(for the present at least) there may be kept an equal
amount of gold at its market price in the British trea-
sury, or the Bank of England, as explained in my letter
to the ' Currency f.eformer.'

" Your obedient, humble servant,

" ISAAC BUCHANAN
" To the Editor of the Liverpool Standard."

WE were the first amongst the press of Liver-
pool to take exception to Mr. Cardwell's vote
against Mr. Horsman's motion for a modification
of the Income Tax. We conceived that our
honourable member had made a false step; had
placed himself in opposition to the distinctly-
declared wishes of the majority of the electors of
this borough ; and, waiving all political predilec-
tions, we did not hesitate to express boldly our
opinion as to the offence which he had committed.
That opinion was echoed by most of our contem-
poraries; and the national confederation at once
took up the case, and in a tone, which certainly
seemed to us to to be, a little too severe, originated
.a memorial to Mr. Cardwell, to be signed by his
constituents, calling upon him at once to resign
his seat. At the same time that the honourable
gentleman was thus placed under a cloud, his
colleague, Sir Thomas Birch, who had voted in
favor of Mr. Horsman's motion, was gathering
golden opinions from all sorts of men." He
was favoured with notes of congratulation from
the confederation, and from many of our influen-
tial merchants ; and, in fact, had reached the acme
of popularity,
There was, however, to be another opportunity
afforded for testing the soundness of men's princi-
ples upon this vital question. On Monday last the
House decided upon a motion of Mr. Hume, by
which it was proposed to grant the Income Tax for
only one year, thus leaving to Government ample
time to effect such a modification of its provisions
as would render it fair for the whole of the com-
munity. That motion, like Mr. Horsman's, was
rejected ; and naturally we concluded that we were
still, with respect to it, an unrepresented commu-
nity—that one or two hon. members were, as pre-
viously, neutralizing each other's votes. To our
amazement however we read in the division list, the
names of Edward Cardwell and Sir Thomas Birch,
Bart. in the same category, as having voted for a
three year's infliction upon us of the present In-
come Tax.

la Naturally, we conned from that date with unusual
interest the columns of our Whig-Radical con-
temporaries. We anticipated—no we didn't, for
we knew the parties better—outpourings of the
vials of wrath upon the heads of both. But we
saw no such thing. Five Whig Radical prints have
we perused since Wednesday from title to imprint;
but not a word of Sir Thomas Birch's offence !
He is, of course, a privileged man. He may steal
a horse. Mr. Cardwell musn't look over the fence.
Only in yesterday's Albion do we find any hint
which may be converted into an impeachment of
the hon. baronet's conduct. We shall quote from
the first article of our contemporary on the sub-
ject—he has two :

- "We greatly regret the part—the mistaken part, we
may call it—which our representative, Mr. Cardwell, has
acted in the matter of the income tax. lie has not, it is
true, behaved with that duplicity which has marked the
conduct of so many in connexion with it, and to which
we have alluded in another article. He has not voted
against it one day to deceive the public, and for it the
next, to save a tottering ministry from their well-merited
downfal."

These are hard words, but point to no party very
Still more hard, however, are some
contained in the article pointed at. We are told of
" hollow individuals, who have no more claim to
seek political honor or honesty than the moon has
to being designated a manufactured article and en-
titled to the designation of a green cheese "; of
"vermin" less respectable than unblushing and
official Whigs ; of "would-be foxes"; of " bubble
patriots"; of men who, " without a spark of con-
science, unscrupulously voted black to be white, in
the face of their opposite votes of only the week
before"; and finally, (sic in origine) of "SnAms
and SHABBIES." But when we Ask who are these
parties, our prudent contemporary tells us that lie
has only " given us a hint," and bids us "go to
the division lista."

narticulariy

As we have said we have already been there, and
find amongst the majority one individual, Sir
Tboo. Birch, who voted one week that black was