The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-03-21 00:00:00

pitals. The gaols throughout the country are well pr o
vided for in this respect ; not only are there resident chap-
lains appointed, but the public too, in mast cases, take an
interest in them ; ladies are not ashamed to go round and
visit the poor wretches in their dungeons, and this is as
it should be ; and although I do not think it to be expected
that ladies could give the same attention to hospitals, yet
some other means ought to be devised. " This ought ye
to have done, and not to leave the other undone." When
is the time at which the mind of man is so ready to receive
the gospel seed, judiciously, kindly, and affectionately
sown, as on a bed of sickness ? Ido not now refer to the
case of poor wretches who are stunned, and almost un-
conscious, from accidents, where only a few hours at most
can intervene before death puts an end to their sufferings
here. in too many instances to be exchanged for greater
suffering hereafter, though even in the eleventh hour we
know the balm is frequently applied to the wounded but
repentant conscience • and though the power of utterance
is almost gone, and die glazed eye proclaims the swift ap-
proi.ch of the king of tenors, yet God by His spirit can
perform a work which all around are unconscious of. His
gracious promises are gently whispered in the sinners
half-closed ear by His faithful minister; they find a rest-
ing-place within the now scarcely-heaving breast ; a faint
prayer for forgiveness, though unheard by man, reaches his
God, " who seeth in secret," and an immortal soul is
saved. But these instances are rare, at least we have not
the proof that we have in those cases which recover, and
consequently cannot see the fruits of our labours in them,
but must trust, as we have one instance given for our en-
couragement in the Scriptures, that it is sometimes the
case. But when a man has been taught through a severe
illness, or is recovering from a serious operation, when he
has been in the very jaws of death, is he not led to con-
trast his condition with others alike afflicted in the same
ward, who have been summoned away ? When he has
lain for weeks, perhaps months, With nothing to excite his
mind to throw off serious thoughts—the word of God
sounding in his ears day after day—the calm and stillness
of all around, save at times the heavy moan of one fellow-
sufferer, or the muttering delirium of another, just chang-
ing time for eternity—the agonizing prayers for mercy of
others from the hands of a God whose laws their whole
lives have set at nought, and earnest cries for life and time
for repentance when death is glaring upon them and mercy
can no longer be found—all conspire to prepare the lately
obdurate but now softened heart to look to Him without
whom all the physician's science or the surgeon's skill
were powerless. No Langer can the newly-sown grain be
uprooted by the levity and ridicule of worldly and sinful
companions ; the drunken oath is changed for the silent
Prayer, the public-house where he was wont to repair to
find an anodyne to lull the aching of a terrified conscience,
is changed for the Bible-promises where is found the true
anodyne—the Balm of Gilead. Is he an English or fo-
reign sailor, who visits distant climes and mixes with the
lowest and most vicious of mankind? Is he a workman
in one of our large foundries, or in the factories of our
neighbouring towns, or whatever may be his occupation,
may we not anticipate almost with certainty that the gos-
pel fruit will assuredly increase and bring forth abundantly?
Yes, sir, here is an opportunity such as we can rarely meet
with for extending the light of religion, and are we, who
profess christianity, to suffer so many immortal souls to
perish for lack of knowledge, without a single effort in the
cause ? Are we to satisfy ourselves with the exertions of
our foreign and home missionaries, when there is one cor-
ner of the Lord's vineyard left almost without a labourer,
and that too in the very centre of a christian community ?
Shall we shrink from our plain duty for fear of being
thought meddlers or busy-bodies, when we know that these
things are so ? Shall we withhold a trifle of our worldly
riches, which flow bountifully when the suffering body is
concerned, and refuse to subscribe a paltry sum to further
this noble cause ? No, sir. I trust that more need not
be said, but that the subject will be warmly responded to,
that universal attention will be directed to it, and that we
shall soon see resident house chaplains in these noble
buildings as well as house surgeons.

I am, sir, yours,-&c.,
Liverpool, March 161 h, 1848.

MEDICUS

THE CURRENCY—FREE TRADE—THE LOSS OF
THE COLONIES OF ENGLAND, &c. &c.

Our readers are aware that our friend Mr. Buchanan is
not a currency reformer and protectionist of yesterday.
It has always been our object to get the public made
aware that this gentleman is no theorist, being a mer-
chant, and long extensively engaged in large transactions
with Canada and the United States.

For the same purpose we think it not inapropos to pub-
lish the following from the LIVERPOOL STANDARD of the
24th March, 1846, and we desire to call attention to a

more recent communication from the same gentleman,
which appears in another column :

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD

Sir,—l am very much gratified by your notice of my
humble efforts to awaken the mechanics of this country to
a sense of the fatal blow about to be struck at their pros-
perity by Sir Robert Peel's measure.
Even the cotton trade will, I sincerely believe, be in-
jured from the first, although as the employment in that
trade at Manchester, is chiefly to machines, girls, and
children, the consequences of failure or depression in it
would not be so fearful or heartbreaking as would flow
from want of employment for the MEN, the hard-working
men of Birmingham, Sheffield, Glasgow, &c.
I have no direct interest in agriculture or timber, either
in this country or in Canada, and, as I do not return to
that colony, I may, perhaps, be permitted to escape from
the imputation of what Mr. Cobden calls colonial selfish-
ness.

My interest, as a shipper of British goods, is, in fact.
identical with that of the maker of these goods ; for if his
manufacture is beaten out of Canada, (either through
foreign goods, while it remains a colony, or by American
tariffs, after it shall have become a state of the Union,)
my trade as an importer of British goods is also extin-
guished.
Now as free trade in England means also free trade in
the colony with all the world, and as the extra or pro-
tective duties in the Canadian frontier in favour of Eng-
glish manufactures is what alone prevents Canada now
receiving her cotton and coarse woollen fabrics, loaf sugar,
&c. &c. from America, and many other manufactures and
productions of continental countries, including cutlery and
other German hardware, it follows that, as merchants, we
must either be driven by Sir Robert Peel's measure to buy
in America, Germany, &c., or be driven out of the trade.
The latter is an alternative which, as an individual, I
shall adopt, because the moment I see free trade intro-
duced into the mother country, I shall see danger to life
and property, before very long, in reserve for Canada in
achieving her independence, (which I have no confidence
that the good sense of England would allov4` to be brought
about peaceably, although no man can show any, the
slightest interest British America will have in continued
connection with this country, but quite the reverse, after
the colonial or protective system is broken down.)
When Canada is lost to England we shall have to pay
for our timber in gold, (instead of manufactures as at pre-
sent,) just as we now pay for three-fourths of our raw
cotton from the United States ; but who can assure us
that, EVEN FOR CASH, we could always get a supply of
timber from foreign countries !
It is now well ascertained that the Baltic alone could
not furnish the supply now required, say two millions of
loads, (although we were always at peace with these con-
tinental powers), so that we must depend upon North
America for a large share of the timber wanted in Eng-
land.

But Sir Robert Peel forgets that, in 1809, the public
mind of England was convulsed on the subject of timber.

The enmity of the governments of the Baltic cut off our
supply, and the price rose from £5 to £l6 10s. per load.

Parliament was called, but instead of following Sir R.
Peel's free-trade course, the statesman of that day raised
the protection to colonial timber from 20s. 9d. to 575. 4d.
per load, and gradually British timber was prepared,
through the erection of immense saw-mills and other
lumbering establishments, at a vast outlay of British
capital in Canada and New Brunswick, and imported in
sufficient quantity to regulate the trade (say two-thirds of
the whole). The price was thus permanently reduced, as
low as Over it was when the entire supply was foreign,
paying only a duty of 10s. 11d. per load ! before the day of
England's necessity drove her to raise up, by protection
to British labour, in the forests of British America, that
great national interest which is now being given to the
Americans by our adoption of the anti-British theory of
free-trade.
The effect of free-trade and its consequences (on the
currency, &c.) on Manchester, Birmingham, Sheffield,
Glasgow, &c., will be UTTER RUIN to tens of thousands of
the most deserving and hardworking men in the world,
which I view as afar more serious consequence than the
loss to the British empire, and the gain to the American
republic, of three thousand ships and sixty thousand
sailors.

The free-trader may tell us that gold does not go to
America, but he is too intelligent not to know that it goes
to the continent to pay for luxuries sent to America, and
for which America cannot pay by any other possible
means than through drafts on England, or English gold.

America draws These drafts on us to more Than double
as great an amount as we send her goods, so that there is
at least two-thirds the nominal amount of the American
trade, WHICH YIELDS NO EMPLOYMENT OR PROFIT TO
THE English artisan.

If, .through the loss of Canada and the West Indies,
two other great staples, timber and sugar, were put in
this position, there would be no safety (even as a matter
of simple existence) for our over-supply of English arti-
zans, but in their transferring themselves to the United
States, to get under shelter of the protection of the Ame-
rican tariff.

It is my sincere belief, that time is all that is required
to show that FREE TRADE IS SUICIDE ON THE PART OF
BRITISH ARTIZ ANS, and that by not preferring a mode-
rate protection to out-and-out free trade, the liberal party
will become very unpopular in this country.
There is no man on either side of party politics who
understands the practical interests of the empire better
than Sir Howard Douglas, and no one expresses them so
well. In his speech on the late debate, Sir Howard
Douglas explains the true policy of England :

" The whole amount of manufactures exported to India does
not at present exceed 48,000,000 ; in 1844, 47,995,666, inclu-
ding Ceylon. If we were to encourage, as we might, the natu-
ral productions of British India, to enable her the better to pay
for British goods, THERE IS SCARCELY ANY ASSIGNABLE
LIMIT TO THE INCREASE OF THAT VAST MARKET OF CON-
SUMPTION FOR THE PRODUCTIONS OF BRITISH INDUSTRY;
THE DEMAND FOR BRITISH COTTON GOODS IN PARTICULAR,
if the population took but at the rate of 10s. per head, would
amount to 450,000,000 sterling; and the demand for woollens,
silks, pottery, glass, plated wares, cutlery, iron, brass, and
copper implements., and an infinity of articles for domestic
use, would be prodigiously increased."
Let us take Sir Howard Douglas's advice, and endea-
vour to give employment to British subjects instead of
foreigners. Let us reorganise the Coionial
is. the Wise of England's greatness) PR the principle' Of
moderate protection.