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

SECOND EDITION.

Standard-office, Eleven o'clock.

Through the attention of Mr. Willmer we were put
in possession of the Morning Herald at half-past

ten this morning

HOUSE OF COMMONS-

—Last Night.

The Earl of March, Mr. Halsey, Lord A. Cnurchill,
Mr. Buck, end Sir J. Tyrrell, sroke against the govern-
ment measure, and Mr. M. Gibson, Mr. Dickenson, Sir
W. Clay, Lord 11. Vane, and Mr. J:1111CS, in favour of it,
after which,

Sir R. PEEL said that two important questions had oc-
cupied the attention of the house during the last nights'
debate. The cme, the manner in which a great party
should be conducted ; the other, the mode of averting a
great national calamity, and the way in which the future
commercial policy of the country should be administered;
and of these the former had occupied considerably the lar-
ger share of attention. With respect to that one, he
would at once admit that he had no defence. These mea-
sures were the worst for party purposes that could have
been devised; but with respect to the latter, with a great
calamity impending, his duty to his S.s rig I and to his
country forbade that he should be influenced by party mo-
tives when the very existence was at stake of a great por-
tion of the population. The right hon. baronet then re-
stated all the circumstances connected with his retire-
ment from office in December, and his shortly afterwards
resuming it, expressing at the same time surprise that the
noble lord had not formed a ministry, and his belief that
if he had formed one he would have succeeded in carrying
the measure. He had nothing to complain of in the ex-
planation of the noble. lord on a former evening, and in-
deed in a long course of opposition to each other he be-
lieved that no ground was given on either side for any-
thicg like acrimonious feeling; but in order to prove the
sincerity of the support he proffered to the noble lord, he
quoted a letter written by himself at the time to her Ma-
jesty, in which he stated the measures he thought neces-
sary, and pledged himself to support his successor, know-
ing at the time from her Majesty that it wit.; her intention
to send for Lord John Russell. He also in the same let-
ter pledgei himself to support any increase which the
noble lord might think necessary to the army and navy
under the peculiar circumstances of the country. He
said that to show that he was not disposed to rob others
of the credit of measures which they had always advo-
cated, but that on the contrary he was prepared to give
the noble lord the some cordial support which the noble
lord made it his boast that he was about to give him.
With respect to those of his party who had now with-
drawn from him their confidence, he must say that in his
situation he must know men's motives, and he believed
no gentlemen were ever actuated by more honourable
motives than those which actuated them ; but he would
tell them that the month of May would not arrive without
convincing even them that he would have been guilty of
treachery to his Sovereign and to that house it he had
taken any other course than that which he had adopted.
He would not attempt to conciliate parties by any expres-
sion of rear-t for the course he had pursued. So far from
it, he most solemnly declared that ne looked back, as the
happiest moment of his life, to the day in which he had
proposed the opening of tire ports, feeling that the great
object of a Minister ought to be, under such circumstan-
ces, to increase the quantity of food in the country. The
right hon. baronet then, in order to show the extent of
the calamity to be anticipated in Ireland, read letters
which he had only that and the previous morning received
from Sir David tt che, Lord Stuart de Decies, arid others,
giving the most deplorable state of the potato crop, and
the consequent hazard of famine, if steps were trot taken
to ward it off. The Government was doing all iu its power
to meet the evil.by establishing granaries from whence
corn might he furnished at low prices in return for labour.
If, as May approached, the danger should increase, could
he come down to the house to ask for £300,000 or
.£4OOOO out of the public purse, withbut calling upon
the landed iuteret to abate one letter of their law of pro-
tection? It would be impossible. Under the pressure
of the Irish ease, it would be out of all character to talk
of hoisting the banner of protection, of rousing the Bri-
tish lion, or of maintaining the corn laws in all their in-
tegrity. The right hon. baronet then referred to the
course pursued in all former times of scarcity, and showed
that in those cases the invariable remedy was to admit
corn duty free. He had ample precedent, therefore, for
the measures he proposed ; and had he done otherwise,
he would only have thrown such odium on the protective
duty as to excite at ong public feeling against the landed
interests. It was true taat the most fitting times to hate
opened the ports would have been the first of November,
but not having been dune then, the necessity became
greater for doing so now. But parliament was sit-
sing, and while staing it would scarcely be proper for
the executive to do that which he had invited the house
by the measure before it to accomplish. The ports once
opened for a few months, he did not believe toey would
have ever been able to re-impose the duty. In the course
of the lost session notice was given of a motion to admit
maize free of duty, because it was useful for feeding cat-

tle. All were agreed that the duty on maize sliould be
abated or taken off, but how was it possible to propose to
parliament to take off the duty on maize, because it was
useful to the farmer to feed his cattle and his pigs, while
the duty was to remain on corn, which was the food for
human beings? The hon. baronet then proceeded to reply
to the arguments of Mr. T. Baring and Mr. Scott, inti-
mating that the latter hon. gentleman seemed likely to
rival knacharsis Cloots, who had described himself as
Attorney-General for the human race. He subsequently
referred to the speeches of Mr. Colquhoun, Mr. B. Elope,
Lord J. Manners (spoken in a former debate,) and Mr.
Miles, who, be said, ia most of his arguments was hand-
ling edged tools, as mischievous to himself as to his oppo-
nents. With respect to fl ix, to which the hon. member
had alluded, what were the facts ? Ten years ago the
duty o❑ flax was taken off; and at this time three fourths
of tne cambrics used in this country came from France
and one from Ireland. Now, however, these proportions
ware reversed, and in the absence of protection the ma-
nufac!ure in Ireland had so far progressed now that three
fourths of the cambric came from Ireland and only one-
fourth from France. Many of the agricultural members
bad said they preferred immediate repeal to the postpone-
ment for three years. lie intended to adhere to the
plan of the government, but should those hon. members,
in conjunction with hon. members on the other side of
the house, place him in a minority upon this point.
his only consideration then would be to give effect to the
opinion of the house thus expressed upon this point
against him, and to carry the immediate repeal of the
corn-laws in such a way as to create as little confusion as
possible in the country. The right hon baronet then
quoted some returns to show that agricultural prosperity
did not altogether depend upon the price of wheat. In the
five years ending i►► the year 1815, the rental of England
was thirty-two millions, and the average price of wheat
was 1025., while in the five years ending in 1842, the
average price of wheat fell to 615., and the rental of Eng-
land rose to thirty-seven milli. rF. The whole question
raised by the amendment was only whether in our com-

mercial polity we were to advance or recede. for to stand
still was in effect to recede. Ile was ashamed wh7n he
reed some of the petitions presented to the house, and
more particularly of that of the shipowners, which prayed
the house to check all further rash experiments and resist
the reduction of the duty on timber. And yet the aver-
age tonnage employed in the Canada trade with Liverpool
was 163,000 tons, but since the removal the tonnage em-
ployed has risen to 194,000. Notwithstanding this, the
shipowners, in their petition, spoke of hazardous experi-
ments. It was a fact that in Liverpool they had not a log
of timber that would build a ship which would last twelve
years, and yet it was shipowners that complained of
his lowering the discriminating duties so as to enable
them to obtain it. The right hon. baronet proceeded to
show that in every instance in which it had been proposed
to reduce protection, as in the case of potatoes, hops, silk,
&c., predictions of ruin invariably assailed the minister,
and yet in all tlio,.e cases the results had been most bene-
ficial. England, he contended, had nothing to fear from
competition, possessed, as she was, in addition to her
skill and capital, of so many natural advantages. Other
countries were waiting to follow her example. Sardinia
had already adopted the principles of free trade; Naples
would shortly follow ; Prussia was sha'sen ; and in France
public opinion was rapidly advancing in the right channel.
But whether they followed or not he called upn them, for
their own sakes, to go on in a course of wisdom and
sound police without reference to the proceedings of other
nations. The right hon. baronet resumed his seat

amidst loud cheering„ after which
Lord J. MANNERS moved the adjournment of the
debate.

MURDERS AND SUICIDE AT CAMBERWELI
YESTERDAY MORNING

Shortly after seven o'clock yesterday morninT., the
'neighbourhood of Southampton-street, Camberwell, was
thrown into consternation by the frantic screams of a wo-
man who had just made her escape, by the back duor of
No. 5, Wellington-place, a small cottage residence fly
one story high. The first person who repaired to the
spot was Mr. Pratt, a surgeon, who resided at No. 4,
and who, upon enter;ng, was horror-struck at the scene.
In an upper room, upon the flu r, lay the lifeh.ss body
of M. Philarete•Horeau, a Frenchman, aged 53, with his
throat cut from ear to ear ; on the bed, son, aged 13,
quite dead, shockingly mutilated about the throat; and in
the lower room, anther son, aged 11, with his throat cut.
a wound on the cheek, and his hand much lacerated, who
was at first supposed td be dead, but afterwards showed
some symptoms of life, though unable to articulate or give
the least account of the dreadful catastrophe; and in a
short time afterwards, a female child, aged eight months,
was found dead in a rain-butt which stood in the garden,
but having no wounds whatever about its person.
Upon investigation we find that the unfortunate man
had resided at No. 5 for nearly the last twelvemonth,
supporting his family as a teacher of languages; but this
mode of existence had been so precarious, that for some
time past they bad suffered extreme privation and great
pecuniary embarrassment. M lloreau had been in the
habit of rising about seven in the morning, and usually
took down stairs with him one of the twin infanta (a male.
and a female), who slept in the same bed as he and' the.
mother.

Yesterday morning, upon dressing himself, he did the
same thing, taking the female child with him, and leaving
the male infant in bed with the mother. In a few minutes
the mother was alarmed by a loud shrieking, which she at
first attributed to the two elder boys quarrelling, and
therefore took no farther notice of the matter for a few
moments, but the shrieking being continued, she went to
the room, and upon opening the door was met by the
younger boy, who immediately ran down stairs bleeding,
at the bottom of which be fell down apparently lifeless ;
and, on entering the room, Mrs. Horeau saw her unfortu.