The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-06-20 00:00:00

DEFENCE OF THE NAVIGATION LAWS.

Sir John Gladstone, in his 84th year, has dictated, from
his bed, tohis son, the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P.,
a long letter on the Navigation Laws. The venerable
writer contends that the boasted principle of reciprocity
cannot be worked out in this country. He says :—" We
have very extensive colonies and foreign possessions
(many of them earned at the cost of British blood and
treasure, and thus considered to be achieved by conquest,
though now, I lament to think, likely to be rendered
valueless to us by the present measures of our rulers,)
with which an intimate and constant intercourse is main-
tained and carried on in British shipping, productive of
important advantages to Britain and British ship-owners.
If I understand you right, you propose to lay open this
carrying trade to the shipping of other countries—for
instance, to the United States. Now, it does happen that
the United States possess neither colonies nor foreign
possessions, and, therefore, have no such privilege to offer
to us in return or to concede ; it, therefore, follows there
can be no reciprocity in such a course of conduct, no quid
pro quo, but all the advantages, whatever they may be,
are to be given up by us without a consideration. You
contend that, in such a case, our colonists have a choice
of conveyances, some of them, perhaps, on lower terms
than by British shipping, are willing to adopt them, and
would reap the advantage. If this principle is to be re-
cognised and acted upon, do you not at once lay the axe
to the root of the tree out of which have grown the
sources of our commerce, our wealth, and our maritime
greatness ? By laying them open, you propose to abandon
to others the sources which support the superiority we
have hitherto possessed' in our ships, our colonies, and
commerce, the sources of envy and jealousy to other
countries. You say that, if you do so, in return we shall
confer advantages on our colonies ; as, for instance, you
suppose a German ship carries emigrants from Germany
to Australia, and on her arrival there the colonists should
have the power of loading their wool, or other produce,
and through such a foreign channel conveying it to a
British market. If such a concession were to be made,
the benefit to the colonist would only be incidental and
unimportant. But whilst the transport of their produce
is restricted to British shipping, the certainty of their
finding employment secures the necessary supply on
which the colonist may depend ; but if laid equally upon
the foreigner, who. with such competition, can have no
dependence on finding employment—thus, between the
two stools, whilst you propose to benefit the colonist, you
risk his being left without the means of sending his wool
to market. But this is only a secondary consideration.
We have at great expense, established and settled our
colonies ; we have given them privilegesrprotection, and
admission to our markets of consumption for their pro-
duce on conditions advantageous to them—concessions
all calculated to promote a union and intercourse alike
beneficial to both, but which, under your propositions,
are to be abandoned and thrown open to the world,—
whilst that world, caring only for itself, makes no optional
contribution in return towards raising our enormous
revenue—defraying or providing for our sources of
taxation, local and general—supporting• our sys-
tems, institutions, our habits of industry, labour,
expenditure, and consumption. These are wholly
local, and depend upon ourselves ; whilst you pro-
pose, with a hand of vast and liberal profusion, to lay
open every source we possess, or advantage we enjoy,
to the free and open competition of others, who, as far as
I can discover, while we are to part with substantial good,
have nothing to give or even to offer to us in return. If
I understand you right you are also disposed to lay open
our coasting trade to the foreigner, which certainly, in
many instances, would be not only gratuitous, but with-
out a pretence to reciprocity. The principle of reciprocity'
might be urged by the United States, if
she proposed to
us to admit British shipping to participate in carrying on
their coasting trade, provided the same privilege were
conceded by us to American shipping in the coastingttrade
of the United Kingdom. If such an uncalled for, un-
natural, and inconvenient concession, with a sacrifice of
local feeling, was to be made, I can discover no serious
advantage it would be productive of to the interests of
either, whilst-it would be found to prove a source of great
jealousy and risk of misunderstanding. But come nearer
home, and let us suppose that the excess of shipping be-
longing to the ports of Hamburgh and Bremen, built and
fitted equally well with British shipping, though at a much
lower cost, navigated and provisioned on more favourable
terms, and now spread over the ocean, and advantageously
employed in the commerce of the world, which seems
rather a favourite object of yours—l say that if these
bottoms from the opposite coast were to be employed in
our coasting trade—let us suppose that great branch of it
carrying the supply of coals from Newcastle and its neigh-
bourhood, to supply the consumption of fuel by neartwo
millions of oar population residing in London and its
vicinity, employing many hundred sail of British ships,
and many thousands of British seamen—suppose this trade
laid equally open to the shipping of Hamburgh and Bre-
men, what have they to give us in return ? I answer,--
nothing, literally nothing ; for they have neither coast
nor coasting trade of any kind or description. Yet, in
this mania of liberality you, with others, appear disposed
to make such vast and uncalled for sacrifices. You, may
say that what we give up is to be occupied by others,. and
that the general trade and commerce of the world is to be
extended and increased by it. That may be true, but the
concessions and sacrifices are to be ours—the gains and
advantages are to be given to others, whilst this country,
raised to power and eminence by the advantages of situ-
ation united with well-regulated liberality in our inter-
course with others, but with a due regard to our own in-
terests, supported by the wisdom of our laws and insti-
tutions, has gained a pre-eminence in the affairs of the
world which these new-fangled doctrines and theories are
calculated to undermine, and ultimately to break down
and overthrow, but which I would fain hope, by hasten-
ing a change of both men and measures, may be pre-
served to us unchanged. * * * Once lay open our
colonial possessions and coasting trade to the shipping
and seamen of other powers, I ask, where is your boasted
nursery that has hitherto manned your navy and pro-
tected your shores? If they are to be laid open, and
passed into the hands of foreigners, who, in place of being
our friends, may prove to be our inveterate enemies, and
if we shall taus be cultivating and promoting the means
and engines for our future destruction, what then is to
become of your justly-boasted wooden walls ?"

EFFECT OF FREE TRADE MEASURES. UPON
OUR COFFEE-PLANTING COLONIES.

It will be known to our commercial readers that up to
1836 the duties upon coffee were 6d. on West Indian, 9d.
on East India and Ceylon, and ls. 3d. per lb. on foreign.
In 1836 the duty on Ceylon Coffee was equalised with that
upon West Indian; in 1842, by Sir Robert Peel's famous
tariff, the duty on foreign was reduced to Bd., and that on
West Indian to 4d. ; and in 1844 a further reduction was
made on foreign, which brings us down to the present
scale of 4d. per lb. on British and 6d. on foreign.
The effect of these several concessions to the foreigner
may be traced from the following statement of the prices,
in bond, of Ceylon coffee in the month of March in each
year, beginning at 1838 :—ln the March of that year, the
price per ton was £BO ; in 1839, £lO2 ; in 1840, £99 ; in
1841 (with free trade in perspective), £6l; in 1842, £7B ;
in 1843, £55 ; in 1844, £6B ; n 1845, when a further di-
minution of protection was made, £i6 ; in 1846, £46 ; in
1847, £43 ; and in March, this year, only £3O to £32.

Some of the large houses which failed in the autumn of
last year are declaring dividends. Reid, Irving, and Co.,
in announcing a first dividend of is in the pound, have
issued a circular disclosing a further considerable reduc-
tion in their assets occasioned by depreciation in the West
India and Mauritius estates, and the failure of their cor-
respondents, H. Adams and Co. Upon the revised
estimates, 10s. in the pound, instead of 205., is the limit
calculated. Barclay, Brothers' first dividend, is fixed at
2s. 6d. in the pound. A second dividend is on the eve of
declaration under the estate of Rougemont, Brothers,
which will be from 2s. to 2s. fid. in the pound.
THE WEATHER AND THE CROPS.—We have had ano-
ther week of fine feeding, but rather rainy weather; and
the crops, both in field and garden are luxuriant and, on
the whole, highly promising. Early potatoes are of large
size, and from dry soils almost ripe and flowery. The
wheats, generally, look well, though we regret to say that
we have observed, in some fields in the neighbourhood, a
decided appearance of smut,—which, however, we hope
will not proceed far, especially if the weather takes up,
and becomes dry and sunny. The oats this year are truly
tha thick on the ground, the seed not perhaps being
depended upon end sown boo larrisltty, -hewing sprung up
almost to the suffocation of the plant. The turnips and
mangles,so far, give great promise, and the country, gene-
rally, never presented a more luxuriant clothing of ver-
dure. With regard to fruit, (a secondary consideration),
we may say, from present appearances, that there will be
much more than an average crop of apples, pears, currants,
gooseberries, strawberries, &c. A good deal of hay-grass
has already been cut ; but owing to th repeated showers
has not yet been gathered, and is in some degree: in
jeopardy. That portion which is yet on its legs (perhaps
two-thirds of the whole), will, we hope, be entirely secured.
There is abundance of feed for cattle of all kinds, and
the prospect. is cheapness for the housekeeper.
IDOLATRY OF CHEAPNESS. "It is in the retributive
justice of the Great Being who sways the universe," said
the Rev. Dr. M'Neile, at Liverpool, on Tuesday last,
" that an idol unduly worshipped shall be turned to the
punishment of the idolaters ; and if there be an idol ever
unduly worshipped on the face of the earth, I believe that
cheapness is that idol now, and that God will smite it, and
cause the men who are worshipping it to buy dear." We
recommend the words to the serious attention of Mr.
Richard Cobden. That gentleman is evidently in danger
of selling his soul to the fiend, if the bargain be not already
contracted. The disclosures made by the hon. member
for the West Riding in the House of Commons as
recently as a week ago strike painfully on all well-
regulated minds. He lives to buy cheap. This is his
mission. All men have their work to do in life. Old
Chapman thought he might die when he had trans-
lated Homer. Schiller s heroine loved, and then
prayed her Father to remove her from the earth. Mr.
Cobden will have done his work, his very ignoble work,
when he shall have brought his weekly expenses down to
the lowest point hitherto attained by mortal stinginess.
He tells us so himself. He hates every thing but buying
cheap. He cannot bear to hear men talking Rule Bri-
tannia : he grumbles when lie sees a noble-hearted middy
not four foot high clapping his hands and delighting him-
self with the thought of England's naval supremacy. He
is only happy when he sees a bankrupt's stock advertised
for sale, or when haberdashers announce their attention
to dispose of their goods fifty per cent. under cost price.
Then he lives : at other times he is dead. High-
spirited gentleman ! Englishman thorough-bred to the
backbone !—John Bull.