The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-11-21 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, NOV. 21, 1848.

THE news by the mail steamer, Europa, which
arrived yesterday morning in our river, contain lit-
tle of importance, beyond the announcement that
the election of General Taylor to the Presidency
was almost reduced to a certainty. So far, in a
national point of view, and as assuring us of the
continuance of pacific relations between the two
countries they are satisfactory. General Taylor is
pledged to base his policy upon industrial progress
within his own country; General Cass would be
for progress in the acquisition of territory. Com-
mercially, however, the former is the advocate of
the maintenance of protection by a restrictive tariff
—a policy adverse to the British manufacturer, but
much less so in its permanent consequences, than
one which might lead to a collision between the
two countries. The occurrence of the elections
during the week previously to the sailing of the
packet had led to a dearth of market intelligence,
and mercantile activity generally. The news of
this description, however, which we have received,
will be found under the usual head. The belief of
General Taylor's election bad given great con-
fidence to the mercantile community of New York.
The views of the American journalists, as to the
effect of the disturbances in Europe upon the posi-
tion and stability of British institutions, are some-
what curious; and, as usual, incorrect in many
points, although conveying a few useful monitions.
We give a few of the views in question, contained
in the commercial articles of the New York Morn-
ing Herald, the most cleverly written, if not the
only valuable portion of that paper. Under date
of Nov. 6th, our contemporary, after remarking
upon the commercial pre-eminence of Great
Britain, says :
" These things have passed away. The times have,
within the past year, been thoroughly revolutionized,
and England finds her supremacy on the decline.—Other
nations are awaking from their lethargy, and in the United
States she finds a rival difficult to cope with, even in its
infancy. Great Britain never has had, until within the
past ten or fifteen years, a competitor in the same
branches of industry which have given her so much wealth
and power; and our ability to compete with her in the
markets of the world is daily becoming more apparent.
If we have thus far been able to draw away from England
any of her customers, what must be our success when our
capital and population, our industry and our facilities.
have reached a point which will compare more favourably
with those of Great Britain ? It has thus far been more
like a pigmy struggling with a giant for a prize. _ _

" When we conside-r the relative resources of the two
countries—Great Britain and the United States—it is by
no means strange that their relative positions should be
undergoing such a rapid change. As a manufacturing
nation we have advantages immeasurably superior to Eng-
land, or any other country on the surface of the globe.
As an agricultural nation, our resources are unlimited,
and we can produce enough to feed the population of the
world. We raise the raw material for all manufacturing
purposes ; our mines of gold, silver, copper, iron, coal,
and lead, are inexhaustible ; our climates are suitable for
the growth of all the luxuries and necessaries of life; our
ports are numerous, and afford the safest ingress and
egress; our magnificent rivers,drain every portion of our
territories, and are navigable for our splendid steamers
thousands upon thousands of miles into the uninhabited
and uncultivated portion of the country; our people are
enterprising, industrious, well fed, well clothed, well
housed, contented and happy, untaxed, untrammelled
by any restrictions of the government, and in the enjoy-
ment of the largest liberty. What is, then, to arrest or
check the progress of such a country ?—what to prevent
its being the wealthiest and most powerful nation in
creation ?"

There is unquestionably much truth in these re-
marks, and as unquestionably much error. There
is no question as to the fact that America has been
treading upon our heels as a manufacturing nation;
and as Little question that she possesses many faci-
lities which we do not. The same facts have been
urged by ourselves frequently, as shewing the
suicidal policy, recently adopted by us in our fiscal
relations with America and other nations. We
give up to America everything; and she gives us
back nothing. We give her all that she requires—
our capital—and she taunts us with the above
glance at the prospective consequences of our folly.
But we doubt whether Great Britain is likely to
persevere in her give-all and receive-nothing policy.
We doubt, especially, whether "the giant," in his
struggle with " a pigmy," is likely to hug much
longer his present fetters. Give him fair play; un-
bind his arms; lop away the "swaddling clothes,"
with which Samuel Jones Loyd once represented
him as fettered,—and although that astute gentleman
told us that those swaddling clothes were "protec-
tion," none knew better than himself what they
were—and we fear not the American pigmy, or a
full-grown man of any other nation.
Another extract from the same journal, of the
7th inst., enlarges upon our dangerous position,
and points out its source. After remarking upon
our decreased exports to Europe, he says :
" In the event of a general war in Europe, there will
be a drain of specie from England, that will affect her
financial system more than an export of bullion in pay-
ment for bread-stuffs, or by any ordinary derangement
in commercial affairs. The scarcity of gold and silver
which would be experienced soon after the commencement
of a general war on the Continent, would tend very much,
not only to a further depreciation in prices for manu-
factures and products of all kinds, but to a further re-
duction in the demandfor consumption, and consequently
in the exports from Great Britain."
Such would undoubtedly be the case. We could
not ourselves better state our danger, in the event
of a European war, under our present monetary
system. Fortunately, however, for us, the very first
movement towards a general war in Europe, in
which we were likely to be involved, would release
us from the golden and silver fetters, in which we
have madly bound ourselves. We accept, however,
the testimony of our well-informed contemporary
that a drain of the commodities, gold and silver,
would tend very much "tc• a depreciation in prices
for manufactures and products of all kinds." Our
transatlantic friends have experience of the fact—
to us a bitter experience.

IRISH patriotism is certainly one of the most
incomprehensible things in the universe; and Mr.
Meagher, one of the convicted of the Young Ireland
rebellion, is certainly one of its brightest embodi-
ments. The world at large—out of England—no
doubtimagined that this young hero of "the shining
sword" was very much in earnest in his denuncia-
tions of the hated Saxon, and his vows to found a
Republic in " the first gem of the sea." We all
remember, however, how all the world was disap-
pointed—how the bright sword was sheathed after
the encounter with a few police at the Widow
M'Cormack's house, and its owner betook himself
to that very appropriately named refuge for gentle-
men, whose valour is all in their tongue—the
"keeper" mountain. A narrative of the adventures
of him and some of his companions there—of their
sufferings "by flood and field,"—their "sleeping
in haylofts and bundles of straw," "in miserable
cabins," and "once or twice by the ditch side,"—
has just appeared in some of the Irish papers, and
contains some of the richest specimens of rhodo-
montade and shameless braggadocio we ever re-
member meeting with. One or two extracts are
most characteristic of the species to which the gen-
tleman belongs. After describing the adventures
referred to, the narrative proceeds :
" Late in the evening, the Rev. Mr. having
heard that Mr. Meagher and his friends were in the
neighbourhood, came over and visited them. His words
and manner, upon meeting them, were most affectionate.
He begged and entreated of them to think no longer of
rallying the country : that it was a wild and giddy dream.
The country was too poor, too weak, too hungry, to do
anything. Mr. Meagher replied that he would never
leave the country—that he felt bound in honour to remain
and see the matter out, to the last act, whatever that
might be.' The Rev. Mr. argued with him upon
the folly of thinking that his honour would be compro-
mised by flight, now that everything looked so hopeless.
'What do you gain ?" I may gain nothing'— Mr.
Meagher replied—' gain nothing for myself or for the
cause ; but I shall save myself from suspicion—from any
and every accusation of treachery. of desertion, of fear;
thus I may still serve the country, by proving that the
leaders were faithful to it, even to its fall—that when the
ship struck, and the sea was rushing in, they stood to it,
and preferred to sink with it, rather than abandon it.' "
Fine words these ! Most beautifully melo-dra-
niatic and sentimentally patriotic ! It is singular,
however, that Mr. Meagher never reflected, whilst