The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-05-12 00:00:00

TO MERCHANTS, BROKERS, AND OTHERS

The largely increased and most respectable circulation
which the Tuesday's Edition of the LIVERPOOL
STANDARD has now obtained amongst the mercantile
body in Manchester affords its proprietors the gratify-
ing power of urging this, wongst the other undeniable
claims which it possesses, upon the favor of that portion
of the mercantile community of Liverpool who desire to
bring their advertisements before the notice of buyers in
the neighbouring manufacturing districts. In most of
the surrounding towns of Lancashire the circulation of
the STANDARD is steadily increasing. In Manchester,
however, the centre of the manufacturing district, our
publication of Tuesday—occurring upon the most im-
portant market ,day of the Cotton Trade, when its
Exchange and Hotels are thronged with country manu-
facturers, spinners, and calico printers—is firmly es-
tablished in circulation, and is perused with increased

and increasing interest.
Under these encouraging circumstances, we trust to
receive an increased measure of support from the mer-
chants and brokers of the town generally ; and it affords
us great pleasure to assure those of our friends amongst
those classes, who have hitherto bestowed their adver-
tising favours liberally upon us, of our increased ability
to do justice to the interests committed to their care.

FRIDAY MORNING, MAY 12, 1843.

We have not as yet thought it prudent, or fair, to
hazard an opinion as to the step just taken by the
Governor-General of India, in the annexation of the
territories of the Ameers of Scinde to our Indian
empire ; and, even with the information brought by
the last India mail before us, we feel scarcely justified
in expressing ourselves decisively as to its policy. So
far, however, as we are able to form a judgment, that
policy partakes too much of an aggressive character,
on the part of the government of India, to merit the
approbation of the British people. It is not on light
grounds that we are willing to see our already exten-
sive Indian possessions permanently extended ; and
unless there have been grounds much more convincing
than any which we have as yet seen, to induce to the
step taken by Lord Ellenborough, we are afraid that
we must withhold from his lordship much of that
meed of praise, which the nation so freely accorded to
him, for his promptness in retracing the disastrous
steps of his predecessor in the struggle with Aff-
ghanistan.

It may be true that the treachery of the chieftains
of Scinde, Manifested in the unprovoked attack upon a
British officer accredited to treat with them upon im-
portant international affairs, most fully justified the
punishment meted out to them by Sir Charles Napier
and his gallant army ; but surely, unless there were
some additional motives to actuate Lord Ellenborough
—some imperious and overruling necessity--there
ought to have existed a middle course—one which- at
least stopped short of this otherwise unjustifiable
seizure of their country. We had treated with the
ameers, as independent sovereigns, for increased faci-
lities for the navigation of the Indus through their
territories. We were met by the jealous fears of the
people living under their rules; and what wonder?
When has the approach of the British power in India
to the confidence of any of the native powers been
succeeded by any other result than their speedy sub-
jugation to our yoke ? The subjects and the chieftains
of Scinde feared, and too justly feared, our approaches,
and true to the Indian character, sought to ward them
off by an act of treachery. But when we had punished
that act, and vindicated the,supremacy of British arms,
by one of the noblest triumphs ever achieved even by
a British force, had we no resource left but the too
prompt decision that the territory of these offending
people was to be henceforth our own ? Was au op-
portunity ever offered them for expiation and submis-
sion ? We have heard of none such as yet ; and we
greatly fear that no more satisfactory vindication of
this act of national aggrandisement at the expense of
a fallen enemy can be offered than has existed for any
other of the splendid crimes which have contributed'
to render our Indian empire at once a fertile source of
the national power, and a monument of the inex-
haustible rapacity of the British people.
It may be that the end of the aggression may he the
opening of vast markets to the enterprise of British
industry—and hence the eagerness with which we have
rushed to the commission of this crime against the law
of nations ! It may be that its result may be the pro-
gressive advancement in wealth and in civilisation of
the people themselves over whom we have extended
our sway. But similar arguments might have been
offered, and were offered, in vindication of that criminal
invasion of Affghanistan, which has been, by the per-
mission of an overruling Providence, so awfully avenged
in blood; and we cannot with satisfaction contemplate
even the spread of civilisation and Christianity, (which
God will work out in his own time,) by means which
will not stand the test of a judgment by his laws. At
present we much fear that such are the means by
which the territory of Scinde has been annexed to the
British empire in India.

The somewhat unsatisfactory result of the financial
year has not by any means taken us by surprise, how-
ever greatly it may have excited our regrets. The
prostration of the resources of the country—the result
of ten years of whig misrule—has been much more se-
rious than it was ever imagined to be ; and, instead of
at once putting forth its wonted elasticity, so soon as it
had thrown off the incubus which pressed it to the
earth, the national industry has been able only to re-
cover itself so slowly, that the effect produced upon the
revenue has scarcely as yet been perceptible. Had it
not been, indeed, for the very timely aid derived from
the large sum paid into the exchequer as duty upon
foreign corn, and the excess, over previous anticipa-
tions, of the amount derived from the income tax, we
might probably have had now to lament over as great
a deficiency as that which t.hN adroiniktriiiion of Sir
Robert Peel set itself to repair.

There is, however, in this result little to create
despondence as to our future financial prospects, and,
most assuredly, there is little over which "liberalistn"
ought to chuckle overmuch. The national expendi-
ture,—thanks to that wise measure of the present mi-
nistry by which the industry of the country was re-
lieved of its too pressing burden of taxation, and the
load placed upou the national income,—is provided
for ; and with the brightening prospects which are
daily developing themselves we have no right to enter-
tain a fear, that in the course of another year the orii-
nary sources of revenue will not be ample for the wants
of government. If they have not been so already, the
cause is very legibly traceable to the disabling influ-
ence of their past mal-administration. To those flip-
pant philosophers, who may be disposed to be merry
over what doubtless they will call a financial failure on
the part of Sir Robert Peel, we would recommend a
calm examination of the probable effect of such a
budget as was proposed, as the expiring effort of the
Melbourne administration, of which an income tax was
not a part ; and although the almost superhuman cox-
combry of Lord John Russell displayed itself, during
the debate on Monday evening, in an assertion that
that budget, if adopted, would have provided for the
government of the country within a million sterling,
we apprehend his lordship will find few men quite so
hardy as himself to propound with a grave face an ab-
surdity so glaring.

That two or three instances of failure in the finan-
cial scheme of last year have displayed themselves we
are far from denying. The tax upon coals is a failure,
as we anticipated that it would be; and, failure or no
failure, we must continue to maintain its impniicy, and
to pray for its removal. The tax on Irish spirits ap-
I be any
pears also to be a failure, as, indeed, mil