The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-11-25 00:00:00

or adventures. As sensible men, we may also pre- '
sume that they exercised some small amount of dis-
cretion in selecting the particular undertaking into
which they entered. Perhaps, they are also satisfied
as to its ultimate value as an investment, and its
prospect of getting through Parliament. Yet A and
B are pressing to sell at any price and any sacrifice.
Why ? " Oh, the market is down; everything is
down ; every one is selling and nobody is buying."
What a time to sell! We should say that such was
a time in which above all others sensible men ought
not to sell. Yet an indefinite fear presses upon their
minds and they do sell, or rather they throw away
property, of whose ultimate value they are confident.
Now, surely a moment's calm reflection might
convince such men that they are acting as suicides,
in the course they are pursuing—that they are actu-
ally creating the very depression by which they are
themselves the sufferers, and playing into the hands
of the cunning people behind the scenes, who work
the wires, or shuffle the cards, and will ultimately
profit by and laugh at their dupes. A moment's
reflection will tell them that every holder of shares,
who abstains from forcing them upon the market,
relieves the pressure by which prices are forced
down. In the meantime many influences are in
operation, by which the value of legitimate under-
takings will be advanced. The thirtieth of Novem-
ber will test the condition of a great portion of the
new and worthless schemes, and, by showing their
want of preparation for Parliament, sweep them, for
a time, from the market. The thirty-first of De-
cember will weed them out still further. Then
comes, most likely early in January, the payment of
the ten per cent. deposit into the hands of the Ac-
countant-General—an operation which a whole host
of schemes will find themselves unable to accom-
plish. In the meantime, scrips eat no corn or hay ;
they are subject to no further calls ; and, relieved
from the mass of lumber with which they are now
surrounded, any man of ordinary judgment or
discretion must see that they will rally in price—not
perhaps to the height which imprudent speculation
recently raised them, but, at all events, to such an
extent as to enable them to he marketed, if not at a
profit, at all events at something very materially less
than the ruinous loss which would attend a sale at
the present moment.
With respect to the holders of shares in under-
takings which are, unfortunately, not of such bond
,fide character, we say to them also—be prudent, and
not overhasty. It is a great question whether the
bulk of such undertakings ever come before Parlia-
ment at all; and we should not wonder, as soon as
the lawyers, engineers, secretaries, and provisional
committeemen, have got all that they can out of the
money of the shareholders, to see those very parties
the first to propose a division of the funds unex-
pended. But they will first get hold of as many
shares as they can at a nominal price for frightening
their owners into selling. Be on the watch for this
" rig." It has been practised before, and will be
again.
In conclusion, caution, forbearance towards those
whose eagerness has led them too far, and patience,
are the only means to bring the country through its
temporary difficulties, and to avert a vast amount of
individual ruin.

We have given, in another column, our reasons
for coinciding with his worship the Mayor, in de-
clining, at the present moment, to act upon the re-
quisition presented to him last week; but we feel
hound to add a few remarks as to the object of the
parties who originated the proceeding. The Ra-
dical press, one and all, declared that e movement
was to be one altogether apart from politics or party,
one of pure and disinterested humanity, in which
Conservative and Radical could alike join. Many

influential Conservatives. it was said, had signed the
requisition. Yet how singular that the deputation
to the Mayor consisted of " Liberals" exclusively—
corn-law repealers exclusively—members of the
league exclusively ! Sure one of the respectable
Conservatives, wno are stated to have signed the re-
quisition, could have been won over to go a little
further, and assist at its presentation. This, of it-
self, was suspicious, and his Worship must have
thought it so, had no concurrent evidence offered to
strengthen his doubts of the absence of political mo-
tives and views on the part of the requisitionists,
. .

We are, ourselves, however, in a position to prove
that, at the very time when the requisitionists were
protesting to the public that their object was one of
pure philanthropy— one which all parties could
join in promoting—whilst declaring that the meeting
was to be held for the purpose only of " discussing"
and " considering" the steps to he taken, the result
of all this discussion and consideration had already
been settled to be a petition to government for the
immediate opening of the ports ! Let the following
narration of facts prove the truth of our statement.
On the evening preceding our last publication, at
a very late hour, we were waited upon by a party,
bringing with him an advertisement, dated from the
aristocratic region of Royal Bank uildings, of the
requisition to the Mayor, for which, as he declined
stating the quarter from which it emanated, he paid
at the counter. He requested, moreover, the in-
sertion in our columns of a leading article which he
brought with him, ready cut and dried, by some
would be amateur editor. Of course, we could not
permit any amateur to pass off his own opinions as
ours, but we agreed to read over the production in
question, and it was accordingly left with us. We
found it, as we might have anticipated, full of very
plausible professions as to the object of the meeting
—its absence of all party motives and other similar
clap-traps—but what was our amazement to find it
wind up with the following admission of a foregone
conclusion, as to the result to which the meeting
was to come ! The public may judge for itself :
"This, we repeat, is a question of humanity, and does
not involve the principle of the corn-law—the events which
have called for its temporary suspension being themselves
evanescent—and therefore, forming no argument for its
total repeal."
The meeting was called to "discuss" what steps
shoutd be taken to alleviate the alleged distress; but
here it is plainly stated that " events"—what events ?
" have called for"—what do our readers think—for
liberal and immediate contribution—oh ! no such
thing, but for the "temporary suspension of the corn
laws."

The parties knew well that the Standard is always
the first to render its influential aid in furthering the
cause of bond fide humanity ; but they sadly mistook
our penetration when they imagined that, thro' the
plausible pretext of forwarding the interests of hu-
manity, they could make our columns the vehicle of
advocating a virtual repeal of these laws.
The trap, then, was here set for us to fall into ;
and we can well imagine the chuckling and
tittering of the anti-monopoly association, if, by
any oversight, we had become the victims of such
a manoeuvre. Happily, we knew the character
of the party with whom we had to deal, and, when-
ever the proposed meeting may take place, and un-
der what ever professions its object may be sought
to be veiled, we trust that nor Conservative fellow-
townsmen will be equally on their guard.
If our excellent friends of the " Liberal" party
have any real feeling of compassion towards the
poor, for whom they prophesy a famine during the
approaching winter, let them come forward with
some honest measure, in which their fellow towns-
men, of all classes and shades of opinion, can join
them, without forfeiting their consistency—a sub-
scription for instance. The following may be an
example for them :
" Among the contributors to the subscriptions, raised
by the landlords of Kerry for the relief of the peasantry,
are Lord Kenmare, who heads the list with the munifi-
cent donation of £3,000 ; Mr. Herbert, of Muckross,
£1,500; Mr. John O'Connell, of Grena, (brother to the
" Liberator," who has not as yet subscribed sixpence,)
£5OO ; Sir Thomas Herbert, K.C.8., £5OO ; Mr. Galway,
the high sheriff of the county, £5OO ; and several gentle-
men for sums varying from £3OO to £100."
Whether they will pursue this course we are not
as yet advised. A whole column of the Albion, of
yesterday, devoted to the subject, full of professions
of " humanity" and " charity," and deploring the
coming " famine," winds up with the very meagre
information that, if a meeting should be resolved to
be called by the requisitionists themselves, " they will
leave no room"—for famine ? for extensive suffer-
ings of the poor ? not at all—" they will leave no
room to doubt what are the opinions of the people of
Liverpool, on the responsibility of her Majesty's ad-
visers, at this awful crisis !" We learn, however,
that at a meeting held yesterday, the question of
meeting, or no meeting, was finally settled. The
would-be exclusively philanthropic of Liverpool are
to meet on Friday, when, we trust, they will do them-
selves and the town immortal honour, and shine
forth to the world as patterns of munificence towards
their poorer fellow-creatures, not by passing me-
morials to the government to open the ports, or to
suspend the operation of the corn-laws, but by con-
tributing liberally to alleviate the alleged distressing
famine. How rejoiced we shall be when we see the
subscription, which, notwithstanding the Albion's