The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-05-09 00:00:00

MARRIED

On the 24th ultimo, at St. Nlary's Church, Manchester, Mr.
SAMUEL PEARSON, of Manchester, to Miss MARGARET
KENNEDY, of Mastreet.

On the 27th ultimo, at Maldon, by the Rev. A. R. Harrison,
A. P. MAY, Esq. surgeon, Great Crosby, to ELIZABETH,
daughter of E. BII'IGHT, Esq., magistrate of Ma!don.
On the 30th ultimo, at St. Paul's Church,'Mr. JOHN HALE-
WOOD, to Miss ELEANOR BOARDMAN, both of Club-moor.
Same day, at St. John the Baptist's Church, HUGH, eldest
son of Mr. H. HEYES, to ALICE, daughter of Mr. J. PI%
THLAN, of Bedford-street, Toxteth-park.
Same day, at St. John the Baptist's Church, Mr. THOMAS
'MEDDLE, to Miss RACHEL SCOTT.
SaMe day, at St. Michael's Church, Parliament-street, by the
ltev: H. Carpenter, A. 8., Mr. JOHN ELLIS, to Miss AGNES
WYLLIE,.

Same dav, at St. Peter's Church, Mr. SAMUEL ELLIOTT,
to Miss EI:IZA HOLLMAN.
Saine day, At St. James's Church, Parliament-street. by the
Rev: H. Hampton, MA., Mr. GEORGE EATON to Miss
MARGARET EAION, both of Bedford-street, Toxteth P.
Oa the Ist instant at St. Luke's Church, by the Rev. 'Sim.
Pollock, GEORGE JAMES, eldest son of GEORGE ASPI.
NALL, Esq., chemist, St. -James's-street, to EMMA, youngest
daughter ofWM. GREGORY, Etoi., of Grove-park, Toxteth-
nark

11:1
NT, I,
itnetoi
day,

t fit. J

1, Air. HENRY BOARD
(

'..*.atr.e any. at St. 'AI ichael's (
I'ELT NIA ltltm, to MAIM.II.{ET dELLA
of Mr. `FBI. 1.1110(7(ift.

Same day, at Trinity Church, by the Rev. J. H. Stafford, W.
H. HAI DoCK, Esq., winner, to ELIZA, daughter of the late
WILLIAM DEWHURST, Esq., of Chorley.
Same day, at St. Oswald's Church Old Swan, by the Rev. .1..
Maddocks, Mr. NATHANIEL TROTTER, of Oakhill, to
MARY ANN, daughter of Mr. JOHN BALLANCE, of Tox-
teth-park.
Same day, at St. James's Church, by the Rev. H. Hampton,
M.A., Mr. THOMAS GORSTIGE, to Miss MARGARET
NORRIS, both of Formby.
On the 2nd instant, at Altcar Church, by the Rev. C. For-
shaw, Mr. JAMES BAINES, of this town, to ANNE, eldest
daughter of the late JOHN BItOWNE, Esq., of Netherton.
Same (lay, at St. Bride's Church, by the Rev. G. W. Warre,
JOSEPH IVILSON, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, to MELITA
JOSEPHt.INE, youngest daughter of Mr. THOS. RINKS, tea-
merchan

Same day, at St. Michael's Church, by the Rev. H. Carpen-
ter, Mr. ABRAHAM LEYLAND to Miss JANE MARTLE W.
Same day, at the Parish Church, Churchtown, by the Rey..
C. Hesketh, M.A., Mr. DODDS, laud agent, of Newton-le. Wil-
lows, Warrington, to Miss TOWERS, late of Preston.
Same day, at Northallerton, JOHN SMYTH, E
chant, of this town, to ANNE, daughter of the la;
SHITH, Esq., of Northallerton.

.sq., mer
,te JOHN

On the 3rd instant, at St. Michael's Church, Toxteth Park,
by the Rev. W. Hesketh, FItEDERICK, youngest son of WM.
M`MURDO DUNCAN, Esq., of the Villa, Park-road, to SA-
BRINA MARY, daughter of WM. CLAXTON, Esq., of South-
hill-grove.

same day, at St. Philip's Church, Hardman-street, by the
L. Bowman, 8.A., Mr. JOSEPH HASSALL. to Miss
"vv. PRICE.

Rev. F.
CATH ERIN i.
On the 4th instant, at St. George's Church, Everton, by the
Rev. W. W. Ewbank, A.M., Mr. CHAS. R. CLARKE, of Man-
chester, only son of the late John Clarke, Esq., of Bowdon, to
MARIA, second daughter of GEORGE MILLARD, Esq., of
Everton.

Same day, at St. Philip's Church, Mr. SAMUEL ROWE,
coachmakcr, to Miss LOUISA ROPER, of this town.
swas's Church, Mr. WM. FOSTER to Miss

NOWDEN

I)?Listrpool &tanbatt.

TUESDAY MORNING, MAY 9, 1848.

MR. John Mitchell, the redoubtable patriot, has
turned out only dunghill after all. He has cut the
repeal concern, pikes, pistols and all, for reasons
which he promises to explain in good time; but
which, it is tolerably plain, consist in a strong dis-
like to the sort of physical force recently adminis-
tered to Mr. Smith O'Brien, at Limerick, or to any
other sort of physical force than that which ex-
pends itself in rivers of printer's ink and braggart
phillippics. Mr. Mitchell, for the second time, has
pleaded, it is surmised successfully, to the criminal
information levelled against him by the Irish
Attorney-General. His fellow martyrs may stand
the brunt if they choose; may make the trial whe-
ther the Irish people will permit their sacred
persons to be defiled by the touch of the law's
officials. The patriot, par excellence, is anxious only
to be befriended-by the law's delay. He is ready
to accept of any loop-hole of escape, to creep
through any lucky chink left open for him, to
dodge from hedge to hedge, from cover to cover,
from quibble to quibble; and, in the mean time,
he is bent upon earning the lenient consideration
of government towards his past offences by a staid
and orderly demeanour, and by keeping good com-
pany for the future.
Of course, we have always, in common with the
bulk of the public, rated this man as more of the
Bohadil than the hero, more of the charlatan than
the patriot. He was making a good thing of the
doughty performances of his tongue and his pen.
The United Irishman was a flourishing concern. Its
ravings were eagerly devoured by gulled thousands;
it was the general instructor in pike making and
pike practice, vitriol throwing, the use of hand
granades, and broken soda water bottles—until
danger threatened its bragging proprietor. For
the first time the adage was then remembered that
discretion is the better part part of valour. Pleas
were safer weapons, in Mr. Mitchell's more pacific
view of things, than pikes; and the atmosphere
of any part of Ireland was preferable to that of
Newgate, or even Kilmainham, not to mention the
trouble of a trip to New Holland, and the unplea-
sant adjunct of a chain round one's leg during the
requisite period of the sojourn there. Hence, pri-
marily, the patriot's present determination to eschew
any further prating about physical force, and to
escape from the company which he has so lately
been keeping.
We have said that " primarily" such were Mr.
Mitchell's motives for his changed course; and
such prudence is adopted better late than never.
But, alas ! a sad revelation has oozed out, which is
calculated materially to lower the gentleman in our
estimation. If there is any truth in the following
letter,just made public, the patriot must henceforth
occupy a position in the estimation of society very
low indeed :
" TO JOHN MITCHEL, ESQ., EDITOR OF THE UNITED
IRISHMAN. _ _ _

" Tipperary Vindicator Office, Armagh, May 2, 1848,
Three o'clock, p.m.
Stit,—Permit me to ask, is it a fact that you have
transmitted, or, as we say, ' given up,' to the Right Rev.
Dr. Kennedy, a private letter, written in the confidence
of editorial duty by me, some time ago, to you, enclosing
you, for publication, a slip, containing an article which
appeared in the Tipperary Vindicator, relative to his
lordship's suspension of the Rev. Mr. Nolan, P.P. of
Monsea ? It is singularly fortunate that the letter in
question was one which contained nothing of which I am
either ashamed or which I can regret, and which might
Lave been ;osted on every wall in Dublin for aught I
cared; but this only aggravates the crime against editorial
security, of which lam assured you have been guilty. It
was the first I ever addressed to you, and with this excep-
tion it will, I believe, be the last I ever shall. I wrote
the same to other journals. It related to what I deemed
an infringement on the legitimate privileges of the public
press, and requested you to use your discretion, if you
thought proper, on the subject. I have heard this fact
this moment, with dismay and surprise I cannot possibly
describe. You, the hero,' par excellence, to do this!
I can scarcely believe that the editor of any public journal
in Ireland could be guilty of such abandoned traitorism.
Baseness of the kind has been hitherto unknown among
us of the ' Fourth Estate' in the country. But if this be
really the fact, it is time that the people of Ireland should
know you well, and that they should act towards you and
your teachers, and towards those also who aid and abet
this indescribable turpitude, as such conduct pre-eminently
merits.

" The letter, I am told, was this day read at a meeting
of the clergy of Killaloe, by the Right -Rev. Dr. Kennedy.
Of course, I repeat, it contains not one word which I
should not have written under the circumstances. It may
be new to you to learn that I had already sent a copy of
the article which accompanied it to his lordship himself.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
" MAURICE LENIHAN, _

" Editor and Proprietor of the Tippertiry Vindicator."

John Mitchell, the chivalrous—Mitchell who was
ready to rush upon the Saxon bayonets—Mitchell
who promised to "crash through the castle of
Dublin"—Mitchell who denounced George Earl of
Clarendon as her Majesty's butcher-general—a
pitiful. sneaking informer after all ! We can
scarcely believe it. We can scarcely believe in such
gratuitous turpitude; and must perforce wait for
an explanation of conduct so much called for under
the circumstance of the utter absence of any tie
which the Right Reverend Dr. Kennedy could
have over the actions of a man not itnder spiritual
subjection to the Church to which he belongs.
In any case, we cannot but rejoice over the evi-
dent break up of the Faction, of which this worthy
Las been for some months past a prominent mem-
ber. After the doings at Limerick, and the sorry
spectacle displayed by his brother conspirators—
after the beautiful specimen afforded us of the har-
mony which is to succeed the sundering of the
Saxon and the Celt in Ireland —they must possess
a large amount of credulity who can entertain the
idea of such a people being fit to be entrusted with
the management of their own affairs, or fit for any-
thing else but a wholesale imitation of the cele-
brated contest of the two Kilkenny cats.

THERE was a delightful unanimity in the Council
on Wednesday, as to the propriety of the course
taken by the Finance Committee, in asking an
increased rental for their property. at Birkenhead ;
and so far we cannot offer the slightest objection.
Like any other owner, or steward, of a property,
the committee had a perfect right to endeavour to
improve their rental, if, on cool reflection, they
were satisfied that there was a prospect of success;
but we greatly question the wisdom of pressing
that demand to the extremity of a breach with
their tenants; and we cannot say that we are al-
together satisfied with the argument upon which
that step was sought to be defended. It is per-
fectly true that there has been a large increase in
population of Birkenhead since the period, eleven
years- ago, at which Messrs. Willoughby entered
upon their first lease at a rental of £9OO per annum ;
but before arriving at the conclusion that the value
of the ferry and hotel has increased in the ratio of
the increase of population, there are a few circum-
stances to be taken into our calculation. Eleven
years ago, a large and valuable traffic was carried
on with the mining and agricultural districts of
North Wales by way of. Birkenhead Ferry. At
that time, too, an extensive posting business was
carried on at the hotel, to and from North Wales
and Chester. The opening of the Chester and
Birkenhead Railway destroyed both these sources
of profit to the lessees of the property, which was
additionally injured by the refusal of the railway
company, in defiance of their agreements, and even
of a clause in their original act of parliament, to
carry a branch to the ferry.
Again, it must be borne in mind that, when the
population of Birkenhead was only 000 persons,
ther6 were only two ferries in operation,—Messrs.
Willoughby's and the Woodside. There was at
that' time a fair division of the business of the
locality between the two ; and the rates both for
casual passengers and for contractors were re-
munerative. There are now- three ferries, and both
the Monks' and Woodside are in the hands of
powerful public bodies, who, for purposes of their
own, have reduced the rates until they have almost
ceased to be remunerative.

With respect to the Woodside Ferry, it is very
doubtful whether it is not at this moment a losing
concern. At all events it is certain that the receipts
of last year show a large falling off, as compared
with those of the preceding year; whilst, as com-
pared with those of 1845, there is a deficiency
which is stated at more than £3.000 per annum.
We may remind the public, too, that the increase
in the population of the locality is chiefly at the
north end, which is accommodated by the Wood-
side Ferry; and also that the value of the Birken-

head estate has been allowed to be materially
injured by the formation of a canal, which has
completely destroyed an ancient and convenient
road to the ferry for carts, cattle, &c., along the
margin of Tranmere pool.
It is too late however, now, to canvas the pru-
dence of the grounds, upon which the Finance
Committee have acted in this matter. It is tolera-
bly certain that a false step has been made, an
excellent tenant been lost to the corporation, and
their property materially damaged in the estimation
of the public. The Tranmere Ferry must, for the
future, in the hands of the Messrs. Willoughby,.
abstract a large portion of the traffic from Birken-
head. The only question remaining to be solved
is—what is to be done with the latter ferry ? It
would be madness for the Liverpool Corporation
to attempt carrying it on themselves. That body
has already quite sufficient on their hands, without
distracting themselves with the comparatively petty
details of a ferry. The public would not like to
see the chairman of the Finance Committee, or any
other member of the council, superintending in
person the transit of loads of furniture, milk cans,
pigs, sheep, calves, barrels of flour, cheeses, &e.,
and without personal superintendence, few concerns
are profitably conducted. The hotel, too, is de-
pendent upon the ferry, and ought to be in the
same hands ; and we should not like to see the
corporation surveyor gauging the spirit casks once
a week, counting the bedroom towels, or looking
after the knives and forks and spoons, or the
treasurer's clerk .making out dinner bills. The en-
tire property must be let at once to the best tenant
that can be found; or, if we may judge from what
we have observed so far, it is likely to be a serious
drain upon the corporate estate, instead of a source
of income.

FACT upon fact—disaster upon disaster—crowd
upon us to show the enormous price which we
have paid for the bubble, Free Trade. Last week,
we had to record the progress of ruin in our West
India colonies, and to point to the approaching
issue of our suicidal legislation—the abandonment
of their cultivation as British possessions, or their
absorption, by the consent of the owners of their
soil, by the first nation which shall offer them that
paternal treatment which we have withdrawn from
them. We have this day an additional evidence to
offer, in the failure of the house of Messrs. Eccles,
Burnley, and Co., of Glasgow, one of the oldest,
most respectable, and steady firms connected with
our colonial trade. The circular addressed by these
gentlemen to their friends, will be perused by a
large portion of the public with feelings of indigna-
tion, mingled with sorrow, whilst the puritanical
and sweet-lipped lovers of cheap sugar will doubt-
less regard the reverse which it records as a grate-
ful offering at the shrine of their pet "principle"—
should we not rather say their all-engrossing self-
ishness ? We give the circular in question :
" Glasgow, 3rd May, 1848.
" Sir,—lt is with deep regret we inform you that we
are under the necessity of suspending payments. A se-
questration has been sent for with our concurrence, and
in a few days you will be requested to attend a meeting of
our creditors. For upwards of half a century we have
steadily followed our business of West India merchants,
never engaging in speculations of any kind. Our assets
chiefly consist of sugar estates in Trinidad and Demerara.
These estates are in excellent condition, capable of mak-
ing large crops ; but they have been rendered worse than
unprofitable, and of no value, by acts of parliament—the
worst of which being the Sugar Duty Act of 18-46
whereby slave-trade sugar was admitted to consumption
in this country on terms which the British colonies are
altogether unprepared to compete with.
" We are, sir, your most obedient servants,
" ECCLES, BURNLEY AND CO.
Wits. AND JAMES ECCLES AND CO."

Thus fares it with the merchant capitalist, who
has engaged in the cultivation of our West Indian
possessions, relying upon that long proverbial good
faith and honesty which the British government
have abandoned to appease the hypocritical cla-
mours of saints in drab and " Liberals" of every
other shade.

Is the case any better with respect to the condi-
tion and prospects of our East Indian cultivators ?
It is not. Our commercial experience is telling us,
day by day, that our magnificent East Indian em-
pire is fast becoming worthless to us, under the
blighting influence of our newly adopted policy.
A few years ago, we well remember a statement of
Mr. Bramley-Moore, the Dock Chairman, a Bra-
zilian merchant, that, if we would take the article
free of duty, the Brazils could afford to supply us
with sugar, which could he economically applied as
manure for our fields. The remark was true; hut
it has been proved so, with respect to an article
which Mr. Bramley-Moore never contemplated, and
which he would have been amongst the last to have
submitted to the depreciation in value, at which it
has arrived: East India sugar—free labour sugar—
the excellent commodity which pseudo philanthro-
pists vowed should alone sweeten their puddings,
and pass down their delicate gullets, is purchase-
able at this moment at two shillings less per cent.
than Peruvian guano! So much for that portion
of our question, which is affected by the humanity
cant, in the first instance, and by the act of 1846
in the next.

We have not been much more fortunate, how-
ever, in that other portion of our policy which has
not been so greatly—so glaringly— dictated by
hypocrisy and selfishness. We persecuted to his
ruin the West India sugar planter; we held him
up as a sort of ogre to fright our babes. We painted
him as a monster unfit to breathe the air of a free
country; taught our housekeepers to eschew the
purchase of his commodities, and to rejoice in the
privilege of being able to procure our sweets and
candiments from countries untainted with slavery,
even although at a somewhat higher cost. We
tired, however, of our virtue. We found our
humanity oozing out at our finger ends, in
the precise ratio at which the extra cost of
our pounds of free labour sugar mounted
up in our house-keeping accounts. We gave
up, in fine, our pretence of virtue; and admitted
the slaver to be our provider of sweets. The issue
we have already seen in the ruin of the sugar cul-
tivators of both the Indies. Look, however, at the
present state and the prospects of our commerce,
in other commodities, with these countries. Rice
is a staple of our East Indian possessions. Yet we
have heard of a recent purchase of that article in
Liverpool, where the price paid does not reach
within eighteen pence per cwt. of the freight.
Nearly every other commodity of India is similarly
depressed. The raw material of cotton is lower
than it has ever been known ; and the recent sales
of indigo in London were made at prices notoriously
unremunerative to the cultivator.

And now, let us glance at the effect of this state
of things upon the people of the Manufacturing
Districts—the most prominent advocates of the
policy by which it has been produced. It is a well
known fact that India, for example, has no precious
metals, in which to pay us for her imports of
British manufactures. She has her produce as her
only means of payment. It is preposterous there-
fore, to expect her to buy, when her exports in
return only arrive in the British market to be sac-
rificed. And she will not buy from us under present
circumstances. We have the assurance of one of
the first East India agents in this country that the
interchange of commodities, between the East
Indies and Great Britain, must absolutely cease,
for so long as the present range of prices of pro-
duce is preserved. No man in his senses can
believe anything else—can believe, for instance,
that the proprietor of a Rice plantation can buy
British goods, with his rice only worth the cost of
freight ; or that the sugar planter can buy goods
with his sugar rated lower than manure. There is but
one result to come, as the alternative between the
retention and loss of India as a consumer ; and that is
the realisation of a great reduction in the cost of
British manufacture, to bring them to a level with
the cost of the produce, which is now available as
an exchange. Are our manufacturing neighbours,
in Manchester and elsewhere, prepared to submit
to the pruning process which will be required for
this purpose? If they are not, tbey ought to be;
or they must give up the trade of India, for the
present at least. They must be prepared to give as
much capital and labour in the shape of manufactured
goods, and to deliver those goods in India, for the
same amount as the East Indian cultivator netts for
his sugar, his rice, and his indigo, sold in our mar-
kets ;. or give up the trade. How much will the
duped population of this country, and by the
manufacturing operatives especially, be thus made
to pay for their pound of sugar ?—their " cheap
sugar" forsooth !

NAUTILUS SCREW STEAM-SHIP.—The Nautilus, which
sailed from hence on the afternoon of the liih ultimo for
Constantinople, arrived at Gibraltar at three o'clock on
the morning of the 25th same month, thus making her
passage to Gibraltar in 7 days 12 hours, and after encoun-
tering very bad weather, with contrary winds for the first
three days.