The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-09-22 00:00:00

FREE TRADE PROSPECTS

(From the Halifax Guardian.)
The Manchester Guardian, on Saturday, prepared the
minds of the factory operatives of that neighbourhood for
a similar event, by an article, the lugubriousness of which
demands a passing notice. That Free Trade editor
observes : 4

" Experience has taught us that there is no branch of
industry which so rapidly sympathises with the reduced
condition of the public, in any part of this country, or
even the world at large, as that carried on in this imme-
diate neighbourhood. Defective crops, which darken the
prospects and blight the hopes of the husbandman, and
high prices, which absorb the whole of the labourer's
reduced pittance when employment is scarce, make in-
roads upon the demand for articles of clothing and
manufactures, which vibrate from the most distant ex-
tremities of consumption in this centre of supply."
And the proipect for the coming year is therefore
painted in dark colours :
" If we turn from our prospects abroad to those at home,
we do not find matters very much improved. The wheat
crop, though not so abundant as was expected, is, no
doubt, the best in Europe; but it is the only crop which,
taking all parts of the United Kingdom, must not be pro-
nounced
a failure. The spring crops of grain, oats, barley,
beans, and peas, as a whole, are deficient to a considerable
extent ; the potato may be called a total failure, and es-
pecially
in Ireland and Scotland. It is impossible, then,
as regards a large portion of the populatian, but that great
suffering must be experienced, and much difficulty in
obtaining the bare necessaries of life, which must, as a
matter of course, materially limit the demand for other
articles of less urgent necessity. With these facts before
us, it would not be wise to overlook the necessary influ-
ence which they must exercise over our trade for the next
year; and, as regards the staple trade of the neighbour-
hood, it is a matter also greatly to be regretted, that there
are some well-grounded apprehensions of a higher price of
the raw material, which will seriously aggravate any dif-
ficulty which may arise from the causes we have enume-
rated. We are not alarmists, but at such a moment,
with so many indications of danger ahead, we should neg-
lect a grave duty, if we did not place them before our
readers in the true light in which they present themselves
to us, in the hope that timely precaution may mitigate
the evil."
Not a word be it observed in all this about the bless-
ings of Free Trade. The wheat crop is admitted to be a
good one ; but it is not added that the American grain
districts are open to supply any other deficiencies. Those
deficiencies are also most dishonestly exaggerated. Wheat
is not so dear now as it was last year by 6s. a quarter, yet
the Manchester editor speaks of " the reduced condition of
the public." And if, as he would have us believe, and as
Lord G. Bentinck asserts, the home trade has been cut off
since the repeal of the Corn-laws, has there been no open-
ing made for our foreign trade by the alteration of the su-
gar duties and the new American Tariff. Such is the
change of tone since the object of the League has been ac-
complished ! Such the results which unluckily.follow the
Repeal of the Corn-laws.