The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-06-27 00:00:00

RUIN BY ACT OF PARLIAMENT.

The coolness with which the theoretical legislators of
the present day sport with the property of individuals in
the effort to carry out their crude crotchets is truly as-
tounding. It is nothing to such gentlemen as Mr. James
Wilson, the new ministerial guide and authority, that
fortunes have been invested in particular pursuits on the
faith of the legislature of Great Britain. A column or
two in the Economist', and a few garbled returns from the
Board of Trade or the Colonial Office, dispose at once of
the guarantee ; and a British minister, without a blush on
his face, dooms the unfortunate dupes who have trusted
in such a slippery guarantee to ruin. An instructive in-
stance of this nefarious conduct is to be found in the case
of Messrs. Reid, Irving, and Co., as stated by Mr. Blyth,
a co-inspector with Mr. Baring and Mr. McChlery of the
affairs of that house.

Messrs. Reid, Irving and Company possessed five es-
tates in the Mauritius, and were the consignees of 18 others.
The crop of 1846-47 grown upon these estates was 8,800
tons, and the capital invested £815,000 ; the loss upon the
years produce was £40,000. Taking only £lO of tae fall
of £l3 per ton, which took place in sugar between Jan.
1847 and January 1848, as caused by the competition with
slave labour sugar, under the act of 1846, their loss of
profit and capital upon 8,800 tons may be set down at
£BB,OOO. The estimate for the crop of 1847-48 is 8,500
tons, besides contract sugars to the amount of £i,200
tons—in all 9,700 tons ; upon which a fall of £lO per ton
amounts to £97,000. The average annual, loss upon the
two years is thus £92,500 ; and assuming their property
previous to the act of 1846 to be worth ten years purchase,
we have a depreciation of the property of this single firm,
of £925,000 ! Thus, it would appear, that Messrs. Reid,
Irving and Co., and the other parties connected with them
in the original investment of £815,000 might, but for the
depreciation of their property by an act of th.) legislature,
have been still the owners of valuable estates instead of
being ruined. By the same mode of calculation and the
same agency, the property of Messrs. Gower, Nephews
and Company, in the Mauritius, was depreciated £411,000,
and that of Messrs. Barclay and Brothers £soo,ooo—a los3
by three firms alone of nearly two millions sterling I Yet,
the complaint of the British planter against the perfidy of
parliament is an unreasonable one, and may be sneered
and mocked at by such popinjays as Mr. Benjamin Hawes,
soap-boiler, and Mr. James Wilson, editor of the Econo-
mist, and collator of distorted figures and facts for her
Majesty's Whig government !

FREE TRADE THE CAUSE OF OUR SHORT

SUPPLY OF COTTON.

The manufacturing interest attribute a large amount of
their sufferings to last year's short supply of cotton; yet
they entirely forget that one of the earliest results pre-
dicted to arise from the opening of our ports to the grain
of America was the application of a large portion of the
soil, previously devoted to the growth of Cotton, to the
raising of grain crops. It appears, however, that not only
has this change taken place, but that sugar as well as
grain has been substituted for cotton by the American
planters. The following evidence upon this point was
given by Mr. S. B. Moody, a most intelligent witness
before the Select Committee on Sugar and Coffee Plant-
ing. " I find from returns that, in 1844, there were 70
new estates put into sugar in Louisana; in several of the
lower parts of Louisana the cotton cultivation has been
converted into sugar. The receipts of the sugar, from
the Ist of September, 1846, to the Ist September, 1847,
were 80,000 tons, though that was a crop which suffered
very much in that year by an early frost, against 90,000
in 1845-46, which was a good crop, and against a good
crop of 50,000 tons in 1841-42 ; so shat it had very nearly
doubled between 1841 and 1847. The crop received from
the interior, from the Ist September, 1847, up to January,
19th, 1848, was 45,679 hogsheads, against 38,961 hogs_
heads the previous year, being an increase of about 20
per cent. The receipt of cotton from the interior into
Louisana fell off very much. In 1845-6 the receipt of
cotton from the interior was altogether 453,000 bales ; and
in 1846-47, 374,000 bales. A great deal of the short
crop was also owing to the uplands of Alabama and
Tennesee being put into Indian corn. The receipts have
fallen off, from the Ist September, 1847, to January, 1848,
from 86,000 to 39,000 bales, which was attributed to the
change in the cultivation of the upland districts into
corn ; and in the lower districts the falling of was attri-
butable to the conversion of cotton into sugar. The price
of growing the produce in Louisana is about three dollars,
or about 12s. 6d. per cwt."
This evidence is well worthy of the attention of the
manufacturing free trader, as proving that, unless we
adopt prompt measures for securing a supply of cotton
from elsewhere, the American farmer will -be enabled to
make us pay tolerably dear for our cheap loaf and cheap
sugar in the enhanced price we must put upon that im-
portant raw material, and the suffering entailed by that
high price by our manufacturing population.

New potatoes were sold at one shilling per score, at
Manchester, on Saturday.
Large arrivals of potatoes, cucumbers, carrots, &c., are
now taking place at London from the continental states.
A pension of £2OO per annum has been granted to Mr.
James Sheridan Knowles ; and the same sum annually to
Mr. J. C. Adams, the astronomer and discoverer of the
planet._

THE WALLASEY MIDSUMMER FESTIVAL.—The annual
club meeting of the Wallasey Benefit Society, of which
the members are very numerous, together with all the
. usual festivities of the anniversary occasion, took place
yesterday, and afforded much entertainment to the work-
ing classes, young and old, male and female, as well as no
little gratification to their wealthier friends and neigh-
bours. The members of the club met at Seacombe at
nine o'clock, and shortly afterwards proceeded in impos-
ing array through Liscard to Wallasey village, with flags
flying and bands playing. They were all very respectably
attired, wearing red favours, and made a fine display.
The village was all on the qui wive, and flags were dis-
played fiom the venerable church, the inns, and many of
the houses. The club and their friends attended Divine
service, and heard an excellent and appropriate sermon
delivered by the Rev. Dr. Byrth, the rector. The usual
procession took place through the village, and all was
gaiety. The school children formed an interesting part
of the train. In the afternoon the club and many of their
friends, including a number of the most respectable gen-
tlemen of Wallasey, Seacombe, &c., sat down to an excel-
lent dinner in their marquee, provided by Mr. Meadows,
of Poulton-cum-Seacombe. Toasts and speeches followed,
and all was harmony and good humour. The south end
of the village presented the appearance of a fair, with all
the usual rustic amusements. The inns, throughout the
day, were crowded to excess. The rain in the afternoon
was certainly a damper; but the whole went off with
much eclat. The lasses of the village, the children, and
all around and about, appeared in their best attire, and in
the evening dancing, singing, &c., wound up the festi-
vities. .

FOREIGN AID SOCIETY.—On Tuesday evening, the
annual meeting of the Liverpool Auxiliary of the Foreign
Aid Society was held at the Concert-hall, Lord Nelson-
street. The chair was occupied by the Rev. Dr. AVNeile.
The deputation consisted of the Rev. R. Burgess, Rector
of Upper Chelsea, and hon. secretary of the society, Ma-
jor S. Thorpe, secretary, and the Rev. Professor De La
Harpe,platform fm ro
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Rev. Thomas Nolan, the Rev. Mr. Hughes, the Rev.
Mr. Birrell (Baptist minister), &c. The proceedings were
opened with prayer by the Rev. Thomas Nolan. The
Chairman, in opening the proceedings, explained the ob-
jects of the society, which were to give assistance to the
evangelical societies on the continent, but not to send out
missionaries. With the exception of an occasional visit,
by way of courtesy, from the honorary secretary, who was
a sort of itinerant bishop, they did not send missionaries
to the continent at all. Professor De La Harpe may go
to Geneva and tell his friends and the Parisians en pas-
sant what England responds to. On the continent, where
these protestant churches are at woric, there are many
enemies to contend against, and our old inveterate enemy
the chief—l mean the Papacy. There is no weapon which
can successfully combat against such enemies but the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. Nothing else, And he therefore
urged the expediency and duty of giving all possible aid
to the continental Protestants. After an address from
Major Thorpe, Professor De La Harpe spoke at length of
the field in which the society was called on to labour.
There was, he said, now full liberty in France, and this
he maintained was consequently the fit time for exertion
against the Roman Catholic priests. The Rev. R. Bur-
gess and the Rev. T. Nolan also delivered addresses.
THE SPLENDID NEW YORK PACKET-SHIP "DE
WITT CLINTON."—On Sunday morning last, a beautiful
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She was built by Messrs. Perine, Patterson, and Stack,
of New York, and launched on the Bth of April. The
following are her dimensions :—Length on deck, 165 feet ;
length of keel 157 feet ; breadth of beam 381 feet ; depth
of hold 221 feet, and measurement rather above 1000 tons.
The writer of this had an opportunity of cursorily inspect-
ing her yesterday afternoon, and has no hesitation in pro-
nouncing her to be a noble, strong, and highly-finished
specimen of naval architecture. She is faithfully built of
the best materials—live oak, locust, and cedar, and, as a
proof of her strength, it need but be stated that she is
thickly kneed and bolted, and that her hull is two feet in
thickness. Her bow is ornamented by a full-length
figure of De Witt Clinton, who was formerly a highly-
popular governor of New York. Her stern is richly and
beautifully carved, with appropriate emblems. The
accommodations for passengers are at once roomy and
elegant. The large cabin is lined with beautiful polished
veneered woods, in panels, including fine-feathered ma-
ple, zebrawood, and rosewood, the panels divided by
pilasters delicately touched with gold, with ?dine gilded
capitals supporting a neat cornice, also gilded. There are
six stained glass stern windows, and a large deck-light.
The sleeping-rooms are large and fitted up with every con-
venience. The whole of these rooms are under a lofty
poop. There is a fire-proof cooking-house for steerage
passengers, entirely covered in, 15 feet by 5 feet, and 6
feet high, with two long cooking ranges on an entirely
novel plan. The accommodations between decks for
steerage passengers are quite equal to any we have yet
seen, the height being 8 feet 9 inches and the berths all
moveable. The vessel is commanded by Captain Funk,
who formerly sailed the fine ship Enterprise, belonging to
the same line, and is much esteemed as a skilful transat-
lantic navigator, as well as a generous and hearty com-
panion.