The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-06-23 00:00:00

Vit TAMPOOL sis'ANIJARtI.

removes at once all suspicion of the policy contended
for being of a party nature. It is exclusively a question
of trade in which the interests of the nation are deeply

concerned.
The petition states, and. states truly, that the present
trade in the colonial timber of North America employs
annually 450.000 tons of British shipping and 20,000
British sailors. Any change, therefore, which should
affect this important trade could not fail to inflict a
grievous injury upon the native shipowner and the native
sailor; and in proportion to the injury inflicted a corres-
ponding benefit would be conferred upon foreigners.
For instance, the quantity of timber imported from his
Majesty's colonies in North America amounts at present
to about 600,000 loads annually. The value of this
timber is paid in British manufactures exclusively.
Every artizan, every tradesman, every manufacturer in
Great Britain, is consequently interested in preserving
and extending to the uttermost this valuable trade.
Every ship engaged in the trade is built, rigged,
coppered, painted, and repaired by British subjects. The
twenty thousand seamen spend their wages in England.
There are consequently thousands of families dependent
upon them. The profits of the trade are also spent at
home. Not one single shilling is remitted to Canada ;
we pay for their produce in goods; we give labour for
labour; we find employment for thousands of emigrants,
and they in return furnish employment for weavers,
spinners, stocking workers, cutlers, tinmen, potters,
glass-blowers, tanners, shoemakers, ship-carpenters, and
every description of artizan.
It is well known that for many years the British ship-
ping interest has been in a declining and ruinous state.
We have at this moment more ships, calculated for the
timber trade, than we can profitably employ. Would it
not then be rash and injudicious policy to impair the ac-
tivity of the colonial trade, by bringing it more closely
and unfairly into competition with the ship and forest
owners of the Baltic,, who neither use our ships in the
transit of their timber, nor take our manufactures in ex-
change for it ?
If by lowering the present protective duty on Baltic
timber, which a few ',interested persons are naturally-
enough anxious to do, we were to give a preference to
the foreigner, what would become of our 600,000 tons of
shipping and our 20,000 sailors? Most unquestionably
the, greater number of the ships would have to be sold
for firewood, while the majority of the sailors would be
thrown out of employment and consigned to destitution
Canada would in that case be ruined.
Then, again, supposing that it were the interest o

the consumer to use Baltic timber, which we deny, what
benefit would the foreigner obtain at our expense ? In
the first place, he would speedily possess himself of the
whole carrying trade. There would not be a single
plank, or spar, or deal, or log, brought from the Baltic
in a British vessel. The foreign ship-owner, being en-
abled to build his vessels at a much lower rate, and man
and navigate them at less expense, would speedily
and inevitably drive us out of the trade. He would se-
cure the entire monopoly of the timber trade. At
present he takes few of our manufactures, and he
would not . take more under. other circumstances,

for he can procure the few that he consumes cheaper and
more conveniently elsewhere. Why, then, should we
confer such advantages upon the ship and forest owners
of Prussia, Norway, and Sweden, without receiving some
equivalent benefits ? We should be absoltitely throwing
away our trade, ruining our shipowners, injuring our
manufacturers, and reducing to beggary thousands of
hardy seamen, without receiving or securing one single
corresponding advantage. It is absurd to tell us that the
northern states of Europe would make up for the loss we
should sustain in Canada by an increased consumption Of
British manufactures. They would do no such thing.
We have positive proof of this in the value of the manufac-

tures which they at present receive for the vastly dispro-
portioned value of the Baltic timber we consume. Every
advantage is on the side of the foreigner, and against
the British and colonial merchant and shipowner. We
hear no complaintS on the part of the consumers of colo-

nial timber. Its price is not asserted to be a grievance ;
its quality is not questioned, for the red pine of Canada
is quite equal to that of the Baltic; and in many respects
the Canadian timber is preferred in the construction of
machinery, &c.

But let us view the subject in a still more important
and national point of view. Tile navy of England is the
strength of England. :Take that away and she is a de-
fenceless island. Destroy the navy and England would
be completely at the mercy of the confederated nations of

Europe. It is not many years since the whole of the
continent was banded against us—its whole power
wielded by one tyrant—all its policy directed by one
head—and the bond of union was open and undisguised

lostility to the people and the institutions of this coup=
;Ty. What should we have done then if we had not been
;he masters of the seas ? A similar crisis may come

again; and instead, therefore, of frittering away our

naval strength by foolish concessions to foreigners, we

ought rather to be recruiting our resources, and pre-
paring for the storm and the evil day.
But how can we maintain our naval superiority with-
out the nursery of a mercantile marine ? We have

already stated that there are twenty thousand sailors
employed in the Canada timber trade. These men

would be like a right arm to England in case of ano

ther war. Destroy that trade, or even injure it, by giv-
ing a large portion of it to the northern states, and you
will strike a blow at our naval preponderance, and our
naval resources, which it will be difficult, if not impos-

sible to recover. We shall, perhaps, return to this

subject.

We hinted, but with some reluctance, that Lord STAN-
LEY would probably have cause to regret the obtrusive
and rather dictatorial letter-which he fired off against the
North Lancashire Conservative Association. It has

turned out just as we expected. When his lordship is
made acquainted with the spirit which pervades the con-
servatives of that part of the country, and the angry
feelings which his letter has excited, he will perhaps
wish that he had acted a more discreet part. They ask
—" who is Lord STANLEY that plays the lord so loftily
over us ? We did not ask his opinion—we did not seek
his advice—we did not consult his feelings or his me-
dium politics, or his convenience in the formation of our
association. It is time enough to decline connecting
himself with the society when he is asked to join it ;and

, .
it would have evinced better taste, and would have been
more befitting the dignity of Lord STANLEY if he had re-
frained from expressing his sentiments towards a body
of men who.do, not recognise him as one of their mem-
bers, -until called upon to do so as one of the represehta-
Jives of the county." '
Stich is the courageous language of the conseryatives
of North 'Lancashire. Had Lord STANLEY kept his
spleen in subjection, and not thrust himself so ostenta-

tiously and unnecessarily before the public, it is quite
possible that the conservative electors of the northern
division never would have troubled themselves to inquire
what were th:e • opinions of his Icrdship in the matter.
But they now know him ; be has unveiled himself; lie
has written himself down, somewhat like DOGBERIiY, in
their good opinion, by a most unceremonious attack
upon their conduct, and the noble lord must therefore.
be content to abide the consequences. -
We are not, however, the enemies of Lord STANLEY,
and in proof of this we shall leave him in the hands of
Sir THOMAS HESKETII. The honourable baronet has
completely given the coup de grace to the epistolary
pretensions and the laboured arguments of the noble
lord, and it would be cruel to slay the slain. As we only
copied the pith, such as it was, of Lord STANLEY'S letter
from the Preston• Pilot, we shall treat that of Sir Tao-
MAS HESKETH in a similar manner. What follows will
suffice :

Rugbrd Hull, Preston, June 15, 1835.
MY DEAR LORD STANLEY,— *

* * * Though we may differ in opinion
as to the means and measures by which the political constitution
of Great Britain in church and in state may be best maintained
and secured unimpaired, no man, I am sure, can more cordially
concur in the spirit of the " Declaration" on which the prin-
ciples of the North Lancashire conservative association are
founded than your lordship must do, having, as you have done,
given such noble and disinterested proof of your attachment for,

adherence to, and support of the vested rights of that most im-
portant branch of that constitution, " The protestant church as
by law established." •
It is not my intention, indeed it would be impertinent in me
to do so, to enter the lists of controversy with your lordship, as
the champion of the merits or demerits of conservative associa-
tions ; but, individually, I feel, and believe I speak the senti-
ments of all who were present at the meeting in question, when
I say, that they all felt and feel that such associations have been
necessarily and unavoidably forced upon the country; Ist, by
the baneful effects of the reform bill, constituted as the elective
franchise by that measure is, a measure which I must differ
from your lordship in believing " was called for by the deliber-
ate opinion of the country;" and, 2dly, by the measures of the
present administration as now proposed, to despoil the rights of
property both of church and state, in addition tothose encroach-
ments already effected by that administration, when last in
office, upon the institutions of the country.

I must be permitted to say that I feel it to be a somewhat ex-
traordinary degree of inconsistency that they who, in the time of
excitement, caused by the progress of that measure, invited and
encouraged the nation at large to foam " political unions" to
carry by popular clamour and by threats of physical force, their
measures, should declaim against those who associate together
to regain that legitimate influence in the great council of the state
which has been for a time wrested from them, but which influence
is, I thank God, returning to them as the public mind becomes
gradually disabused of the fallacy of those doctrines, which, as
your lordship justly observes, " the sophistries of ignorant or
mischievous quack doctors in politics impose upon the ill-in-
formed ;" and while we assert our legitimate right to associate

together to regain that influence and that just and fair repre-
sentation in the senate, ace would also exert that influence in
endeavouring sto stem the torrent of those innovations with
which the most sacred as well as civil institutions of our coun-
try are threatened.—WE UPHOLD NOT ABUSES, NOR BLINDLY
RESIST IMPROVEMENT!

Your lordship asks, " And with regard to North Lancashire
especially, where is the cogent necessity which calls for the
formatiott of such a society? Are your objects general or
local ? If local, I ask, to which of us, to my honourable col-
league or myself, is this hint addressed?'-' Our objects, I reply,
are general ; I disclaim on my own part, and I take upon
myself to disclaim on the part of the conservatives of North
Lancashire in general, any the most remote design or desire of
,injuring or weakening, even if we had the power, that popu-
larity which has placed you in that honourable post which you
deservedly hold as one of the representatives of Nprth Lanca-
shire ; ectually do I'disclaitn, if it can by possibility be re.
:qiiialteiliat I should-do so, any other feeling than those-of ad-
miration and respect for your excellent and honourable col-
league.

I must stand excused if I decline to enter into any argument
upon the farther general questions contained, in •our lordship's
letter ; it is foreign to my habits of private life and retirement
to obtrude myself in public controversy on the public notice,
farther than the necessity of the case in the present instance
demands of me.

With all due deference and respect for the motives which
have dictated your lordship's letter to me as chairman of the
permanent general committee of the North Lancashire conser-
vative association, but which is, through me, intended of course
to apply to all who compose that association, I will only add
further, and I do so in justification of that vast body of highly
honourable, enlightened, and respectable men of whom it is
composed, that the North Lancashire association has for its ob-
ject the very reverse of those political unions to which I 'have
alluded, and the very reverse also of those results which you
fear. Our object is—

Not that of " weakening," but of protecting "the prerogatives
of the crown ;" .
Not of " undermining," but of maintaining " the indepen-
dence of the House of Lords;" •
Not of "controlling," but of restoring and securing "the
freedom of the House of Commons," enslaved as it now is
under the domination of THE IRISH AGITATOR and his
SATELLITES.

Believe me, my dear Lord Stanley,
Your's very faithfully and sincerely,
Tilos. D. HESE:ET/I

The Right Hon. the Lord Stanley, 4T. arc.

WILLIAM COBBETT is dead. That extraordinary man
bath concluded his eccentric course, he bath ceased his
'turmoils, and he is now where the weary are at rest.
As a nervous, animated, and powerful political writer,
Mr. COBBETT was unquestionably the first man of his
day—as a politician he was one of the worst. His style
was simple, correct, but rustic and colloquial. His
language was the home-made wholesome language of an
Englishman, who hated all foreign finery, who despised
the jargon of the French and Cockney schools, who
spoke as he thought of his country, and for his country,
fearing God and honouring the King. He was a re-
former to a certain extent, but he was not a sickly and
malignant leveller; he was attached to all the institu-
tions of bis country, and particularly to the church. He
sometimes laid his flail over the backs of the " par-
sons," and they, frequently deserved it; but he loved to
look upon the tapering spire among the green woods of
his native land ; he listened to the sabbath bell with filial
fondness; lieVas-delighted-to see the white-smock clad
labourer climbing a style in the fields on his way to the
house of prayer; in short, no man would sooner have
taken up arms in defence of our venerable establishment
than WILLIAM COBBETT.

Mr. COBBETT'S nature was averse to republicanism.
He had lived in America, and knew what a lank-haired
greasy and cheating Yankee was. He did not like
" parson justices," but he abhorred " butcher and shoe-
maker judges." He suffered persecution, and often
spoke harshly of his country, but he still loved merry
England. Despite adversity, it was ever to him—

Dear as the light that visits these saleyes,
Dear as the ruddy drops that warm the heart.

No man ever Wrote so much, or toiled so much as Mr.
CORBETT ; and yet, as we have said, though a great
political writer, he was no politician. He could handle
a subject better than any other man ; he was happy and
expert in reaching the marrow of details; but lie failed
in convincing, because he never fully understood his sub-
ject. He was invariably wrong on every question lie
discussed, and on every theory he encountered. No
man ever rose from the perusal of even a single page of
his voluminous works without being instructed or
amused; but we defy those who have read the whole, or
have studied him most intensely, to tell what were
CORBETT'S principles or opinions.

It was here he failed. There is a pervading absence
of consistency in all his works. He evidently did not
write for mankind but for himself. He seems to have
been impressed with an idea that the world of his readers
' did not reason upon his views, but took for granted
what WM. COBBETT said. His dogmatism, therefore,
was only exceeded by his egotism. Had he been a man
of higher powers of mind, he would have reached the
most distinguished place in moral and political society.
He wanted temper ; he was sadly deficient in judgment.
Perhaps he was not devoid of sincerity ; but he had no
respect for principle, simply because he never formed an
opinion which he did not abandon, and never possessed a
real friend whom he knew how to appreciate.
He is now however silent. The hand that guided the
master pen is, cold, and we only say, PEACE TO HIS
ASHES !

The4lrish steamers which arrived in this port on Sun•
day brnught over upwards of two thousand of the most
wretched apologies for
.human beings on which the sun
ever shone. The passage money, we are told, was only
threepence per head. It is needless to add that the very,
moment they were landed they began to beg. -The lead-
ing thoroughfares of the town were infested with them
the 4reater part of the day, and towards evening they
betook themselves to the fields to sleep—perchance to
steal.

. It is very' bard upon this community that it, should be
exposed to the nuisance which these beggars bring with

them,, merely because the owners of steam boats can af-
ford to' carry them for threepence. Whether they beg
or steal, the biirthen upon us is the same. If they are re-
moved it must be at the expense of the parish. If they
steal, the county is saddled with the burthen of imprison
ing, trying, and transporting them. What a pity that
the traders who bring them cannot be compelled to carry
them back, and maintain them until they do so.

SEATS IN CHURCH.—On Tuesday last the Archdeacon of Co-
ventry held his visitation in that city, when an important ques-
tion was put to the Archdeacon (Spooner) by a churchwarden
elect, which was, whether a parishioner paying church or vicar's
rates could demand to be furnished with a seat in the church,
without paying rent for it? The archdeacon's answer was in
the affirmative. The question was put again and again, in va;
rious forms, and the answer was that evey parishioner was en-
titled to a seat, and that the churchwardens had no legal power
to charge even the amount of one farthing for it to them. It
was urged that it was regularly done, and the difficulty of keep-
ing order without was pointed out; to which the archdeacon re-
plied he was aware of all that, but still the.e was no law to justi-
fy a money charge. It was then asked, how were certain ex-
pences to "be met I' 'I he answer ivas, by church-rates.— Bir-
miriyh ant Journal.

THE MUNICIPAL CORPORATION BILL.-THE
YOUNG FREEMEN OF LIVERPOOL.

In another part of our paper will be,found the resolutions
passed by the young freemen of this borough at a meeting held
at the dolden Lion on Friday, and their petitions to the House
of Commons founded thereon.
It will be seen by a reference to Lord John Russell's muni-

pal corporation bill, that one of its clauses, operating retrospec-
tively, excludes froth the enjoyment of their rights and privileges
all persons who shall not have been admitted freemen before
the sth day of this present month of June. Against this arbi-
trary and unjust exclusion from the enjoyment of an inchoate
right, as clearly theirs, whether gained by inheritance or by
servitude, as the succession to the throne of these realms in the
next heir to the crown can be, the young freemen of Liver pool
complain as an act of the most abominable injustice and op-
pression. Here we see an attempt making to deprive a great
many persons of an undisputable right who have done no wrong
—an attempt to inflict "pains and penalties" upon those who
are innocent; for it cannot be alleged that they have abused a
right of which they are not in the aetual possession.
It will, perhaps, be thought by some that the number of free-
men who are about to be summarily robbed of the rights and
privileges to which they were looking forward to the enjoy-
ment of is but trifling. This, however, is not the case; but,
were it so, were the number only three instead of three thousand
two hundred, the injustice would not be the less on that account.
The sons of freemen and apprentices to' freemen affected by
Lord John Russell's corporations' bill are abottt 3,200. A
considerable number of these have completed their appren-
ticeships, or are-of full age, and were, excepting the formal act
of admission as burgesses, free on the sth of June, and would,
if such an enactment could have been contemplated, have taken
up their freedom. Others are absent as sailors, or 'in the pur-
suit of other avocations; another class, and by no means incon-
siderable in number, have completed their servitude within two
or three months, and is several instances within as many days.
Surely it cannot'be deniedahat these are all aggrieved persons,
and that their case is worthy of consideration.
The petition agreed to on Saturdaywas signed, between the
hours of two o'clock on that day and seven last evening, b y
12555 young freemen directly interested in its prayer. It was
forwarded by the mail last night to London, for the purpose of
being presented to the Hause of Commons by Lord Sandon.
The county members and Mr. Bwart have been requested to
join that noble lord in supporting it. We shall be curious
to see what sort of an advocate they will •find in Mr. Ewart.
We have great pleasure in informing the young free Men of
-12iverpool that their case will have an able supporter
Praed, one of the members for Yarmouth. This gentlethap
gained' high honours at Cambridge, and although he only en.
tered Parliament at the last general election, has already dis-
tinguished himself as a young man of great ability.