The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-04-07 00:00:00

FAMINE AND FEVER

LOSS OF THE COLONIES OF ENGLAND.

[We are requested to insert the following letter to the
Board of Trade at Hamilton, Canada West, from Mr.
Isaac Buchanan, who is, or has up till this time been,
its president.]

Glasgow, 2d April, 1846.
MACNAB, ESQ•, VICE•PRESIDENT, BOARD OF
TRADE, HAMILTON.
DEAR SlR,—Since I wrote you, indeed, since the end
of January, try brother and 1 have continually been in
London (either the one or the other of us), endeavouring
to bring the Ministers, the Legislators, and the public,
to a sense of the critical position into which free trade will
undoubtedly bring all the colonies, but Canada in parti-
cular.

I think I may say that, in awakening the people in this
country to their own danger. we have been more success-
ful than we could possibly have expected, considering the
gross ignorance that pervades English society on the sub-
ject 4-1 the colonies, and the consequent reluctance with
which any colonist is listened to.
And I may safely say that the CASE OF CANADA- was
entirely overlooked by Lord John Russell when he wrote
his ill-judged letter to the city of London, nor has it been
any more CONS DERED by Sir Robert Peel, in framing his
present measure.
In fact, the present system of managing, (or managing
to retard, to speak more correctly) the colonies, seems to
me so farcical, that I see no hope of England retaining
her colonies (even if free trade is not introduced into the
empire) without the introduction of an im proved machi-
nery in Downing-street.
You will observe, in my printed correspondence, that I
propose that Government have two private secretaries for
Canada, each to be three years at Montreal and three in
London alternately.
The general opinion in London (as to the way PEEL'S
MEASURE will be shown to have been received in the col-
ony) is that the Canadian, like the Home INDUSTRY, will
have its vital interests betrayed by the Judas kiss of its
professing friends.
" Keen were his pangs: but keener far to feel,
He nursed the pinion which impelled the steel;
While the same plumage that had warmed his nest
Drank the last lite-drop of his bleeding breast."
But at present I am far too serious to have any reference
to Sir Robert Peel's allusion to the trade in feathers;
himself, alas, now only a political feather, and used for
Lord John Russell and O'Connell's purpose.
It seems to have leaked out, or to be guessed at, that
the Colonial Minister has been made to write out so
strongly to the Colonial government to GET UP a demon-
stration in favour of, or at all events, to KEEP BACK any
demonstration against, Free Trade, that the accounts per
Ist April steamer will rather strengthen Sir Robert Peel's
hands than otherwise! for the people of England will go no
further into the matter than just to say—" Why the Parlia-
ment of Canada says so and so." Yon and I know that no
member will be returned again who betrays " native indus-
try," but his present vote will be viewed as constitutional
public opinion in the meantime, just as the votes of Sir
Robert Peel's hundred and twelve apostates count none
the worse for their not agreeing with the strongly-expressed
wishes,.and the most vital interests of their constituents.
If the Canadian legislature, and the Montreal mercan-
tile interest, prove true to the body-politic of Canada—the
agriculturists—some protection to the home and colonial
grower and mechanic, could still be got, I feel assured,
for the public here are beginning to have some idea of the
value to the empire, directly and indirectly, of the colonies,
and of the fact, that THEY ARE THE ONLY COUNTRIES IN
THE WORLD WHERE BRITISH MANUFACTURES HAVE
PROTECTION YIELDED TO THEM—a privilege which the
adoption of Free Trade here must withdraw, as a matter
of course, even during the short period of their remaining
colonies.

—.—...
I am-scarcely believed here when I assure people how
strait-laced protectionists the Americans are in their
own country, for in England the Americans array them-
selves, AS ONE MAN, for Free Trade, which I should think
might be viewed as proof that they suppose it will not
prove for the benefit of England, or for the permanency
of her institutions.

The Irish papers of last week more strongly than
ever deny that there is any ground for the wide-spread
apprehensions of the desolating effects of famine and
fever. With respect to the former, the Dublin Mad—
an excellent authority—confidently asserts that the "cry
is conceived in faction and is attempted to be sustained
by fabrication." In the County Down the country in
general is free from fever, and the districts are much
more healthy than usual. In King's County there is
much less of sickness, and especially of fever, than
there has been for several years. The same accounts
are received from other quarters. As regards the fa-
mine cry, we give the following brief summary of facts,
premising that the Irish journals give long statistical
tables on the subject. In thirteen of the principal mar-
ket towns of Ireland, including Dublin, Cork, Wa-
terford, Limerick, and Belfast, potatoes are now
selling at the average price of 4id. per stone. Oat-
meal in the same towns is selling at the average
price of 14s. 9d.per cwt., and the Belfast Mer-
cantile Journal—a purely commercial paper—in re-
cording the fact, adds this pregnant observation, " This
is far from the price in times rf scarcity." The whole
county of Armagh, first by the resolution of its Grand
Jury, and then by the proceedings of a general meet-
ing convened on the subject, has rejected the idea of
scarcity or the necessity of having recourse to the pre-
cautions of Government, one of the resolutions stating
that there are sufficient provisions for the county and
ample employment for the people. The great counties
of Down and Antrim had already come to the same
decision. In Cork county we find, on the authority of
the Cork Relief Committee, that the alarm is artificial.
At a meeting of the committee it was stated that there
was an abundance of potatoes in the neighbourhood,
but the people were keeping them in the hope of get-
ting large prices, and one woman, who holds a large
quantity, has been heard to say she will keep them
until she gets a farthing a piece. The large arrivals of
Indian corn meal are, however, now driving the farmers
to market with their potatoes, and last week potatoes
were shipping at Cork for England. At Waterford the
price of potatoes is an average one, and last market-
day there was a supply equal to three weeks' consump-
tion, and on an average of good qUality. At Dungannon
market there was a large supply. At Dublin there are
vessels now lying laden with potatoes sound and good
as ever were eaten. At Aberayon, Cardiganshire, North
Wales, placards are posted that a ship load of excellent
potatoes, from Ireland, are on sale at that town, and
it has been pertinently asked, " How is the exportation
of a ship load of potatoes from Ireland at this time of
the year reconcileable with the failure of more than
two-thirds of the crop ?" We do not, then, see any just
grounds of apprehending a famine in Ireland ; and had
we space for the insertion of the carefully compiled
statistics from which we have condensed these few par-
ticulars, they would absolutely negative the assertion
of even a scarcity.

In making out the patriotic selfishness of the Ameri-
cans, and in illustrating their notions of Free Trade, I
have been not a little served by the fact, that the other
year, (1842), when timber became scarce on the south
side of our Lakes, and rose in the United States two or
three dollars the thousand feet of plank, the Americans
raised the duty to 30 per cent., thus giving the rise to
THEIR custom-house, and not to the Canadian lumberer.*
Mr. Macgregor, of the Board of Trade, is the arch=
enemy of the British American colonies. Having himself
failed of success in our trade, be seems to grudge pros-
perity in- it to every one else; aad the whole object of
his ambition seems to be to strip the timber trade of its
remaining, and far from adequate protection (but for the
present spurt from railways), as if his own bad success
was from too great, and not from too small, profits!
This official, having injured, verifies the adage, and
now hates the Canadas and New Brunswick ; and goes
very little, if any, short of saying that England would be
better without them! although she; has no other supply
of timber that he or any one else can point out.
There is no doubt that, when Canada is lost to the em-
pire, the price of timber will be double what it is now, but
this will suit the iron-masters; so you see how involved
are the interests of England.
I hope and trust that your Board has done its duty, or
will immediately do so, in standing up for those who are
your real constituents—the farmers and mechanics of
Canada. . . . . .

THE ELEVEN HOURS' (FACTORY) EXPERI-

Al ENT,

Even if homely and sound principles are banished from
England, it can only be FOR A TIME, till the political
quack doctors destroy a few of their more prominent
patients.
Let it never be forgotten, then, that the originating
principle both of the Toronto and of the Hamilton Board
of Trade was, that OUR OWN LAND IS THE BASIS UPON
WHICH COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE CAN ALONE SE-
CURELY AND PERMANENTLY REST.

Even if mere commerce had been open to the province
of Upper Canada, as a source of national wealth, we would
have valued it, as permanent, only to the extent that it
flowed from the cultivation of our own lands.
Before us we had the example of Holland, whose com-
merce has sunk into the comparatively insignificant dimen-
sions of her own home and colonial territory, ALTHOUGH
SHE WAS, DURING THE LAST CENTURY, THE MOST

Messrs. Horrockses, Miller, and Co., the highly re-
spectable mill-owners, of Preston, who have adopted the
eleven hours' experiment, have, in order to gratify the
public, published the following statistical account of the
result in one of their establishments (the Moss Factory),
for the month during which it has been in operation:—

COMMERCIAL COUNTRY IN THE WORLD.
Indeed, had Lord Castlereagh retained Java as a❑
English colony, the commerce of Holland would have
been all but annihilated.
So much for the permanency of foreign trade !
The United States Transit Bill allowing Upper Canada
to send ler flour to England via New York in bond, is
an immense boon to you. . _

Counts of Yarn Spun, 30's to 40's

. .
Quantity spun in 69 hours, Hand Self-acting Thros-
average of 4 weeks, ending Mules. Mules. ties.
February 21
Quantity spun in 64 hours,
average of 4 weeks, ending 287,016 do. 658 lb. 665 lb.
March 27....
The proportionate quantity
for 64 hours, as against 69 285,210 do. 662 lb. 668 i lb,
hours, should be

Thus, it appears, there has been a slight proportional
gain in hand mules, to the amount of 24 minutes per
week, and a loss in the self-acting mules and throstles of
about 20 minutes per week. The latter, Messrs. Hor-
rockses and Co. say, arises from the machinery requiring
the same daily cleaning, whatever may be the hours of
working. During the time the experiment has been going
on, the speeds have not been altered, nor any change
made in the quality or fineness of the yarns.
A contemporary remaiks upon this statement:—

" This result is more unfavourable to a reduction of time than
we should have expected, especially upon hand mules, where, it
might reasonably have been supposed that the increased exer-
tions of the hands would have made up a much larger portion
of the loss. It seems to us quite clear that, subject to such
results, workpeople in factories, who are paid according to the
quantity which they produce, would not willingly consent to a
diminution of the hours of labour, except under an augmented
rate of payment for their work."

We are, however, not at all convinced that this state-
ment is conclusive, or that the workpeople or the public
will think thatthe only matters to be considered are the
amount of production and the relative amount of wages
earned. The comforts, the health-, the increased oppor-
tunities for moral culture gained by the working classes
from this relaxation of an hour in t.ieir hours of labour,
are material considerations which our contemporary ap-
pears to leave entirely out of sight. Nor are we told
whether it is not the fact, that the yarn spun has been
more equal, and the deductions for spoilt work less.
Besides, it is difficult to see how twelve hours' work is
to be got from either mules or thro3tles in eleven hours,
without some slight intrease in the speed of the machi-
nery.

DIVINE SERVICE ON EASTER EVE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD

----
SIR,—I was glad to see a correspondent in your paper,
last week, pointing out the propriety (in my opinion, the
duty) of having divine service in our churches on Satur-
day evening next (Easter Eve).
A strong argument in its favour is, that in the Prayer
Book there is a special service for the day, namely, Col-
lect, Epistle, and Gospel—an argument which ought to
have much weight with many of our clergy.•
I am glad to find that the hint was not altogether in
vain, as at the church I attend notice was yesterday given
of a service every evening this week.—Yours. &c.

April 6.
P.S.—lt is not too late for notice of a service on Satur-
day evening, as the same can be given on Good Friday.

You will save a dollar per barrel of the immense ex- - .-----.
pense of transport hitherto incurred via Montreal. COLLEGIATE INSTITUTION•-0G Friday last, C. Cragie
This is a great blow to English shipping; yet the Go- Halket, Esq., of Fifeshire, commenced a course of six
vernment here (too much occupied by its own struggles lectures on Landscape Gardening, The attendance was
for existence) gives no indication of throwing the St. not numerous, and before the close of the lecture it had
Lawrence Canal open, toll free, the cnly measure that become extremely reduced, the greater part of the audience
can save our inland and Atlantic shipping. having proved themselves equally deficient in reli3h for
The canal alluded to will, I presume, be finished in the subject, and knowledge of good breeding. We must
September next, but unless Government makes some allow that the lecturer himself was not wholly free from
grand movement SHOWING A DETERMINATION TO RE- blame in the matter. An enthusiast in his art, he forgot
TAIN THE TR,asE OF CANADA WEST TO THE ST. LAW- his audience ; and while his discourse evinced a perfect
RENCE, no prudent man will prepare craft for its improved knowledge of the subject, together with the most correct
navigation ; and the trade, once diverted to New York, principles, and the most cultivated taste, it could not
will never be regained. but prove anything but entertaining to persons having no
As a house we would be glad to join with the great previous acquaintance with the study, and no inducement
shippers and shipowners, and pay is. per foot outward to enter upon it beyond the immediate justification of
freight (like the shippers to New York by the liners) hearing it explained to them, and the advantage which a
instead of 7d., as at present, so as to enable the Canada knowledge of' its general principles might afford. After a
traders to bring flour as cheap from Montreal as New plea for indulgence, which we do think ought to have been
York, more generously responded to, the lecturer made some
However, in the firm conviction that we have, that severe remarks upon country gentlemen who insist upon
FREE TRADE LOSES CANADA TO THE EMPIRE, there being "their own landscape gardeners," and only afford
seems no use in the merchants making any efforts dic-
tated by any patriotic or British considerations; and from proof that wealth cannot confer taste, but that opulence
and ignorance may go hand in hand. He then showed
the inactivity of Government, it looks very much like as the distinction between landscape gardening, and land-
if they were now of the same mind. scape painting, which by some were thought to be
I remain, dear Sir, identical in their principles and requirements. A good
Your obedient humble servant, landscape painter, might make a good landscape gar-
ISAAC BUCHANAN. dener, if the landscape were to be looked at only from
* This shows that the Yankees are wise in their gene- one point of view • but this was not the case. The guiding
ration, and that theirs is the political economy of the principles were the same, but there was a marked dif-
nineteenth and not of the eighteenth century, or, in other ference in the execution. The task of the gardener was
words, theirs is the economy of COMMON SENSE. by far the most difficult. He was confined to certain
Never let us forget tbat the Americans are a GREAT objects, and within a certain scope; he had-only the rude
PEOPLE (because individually intelligent and comfortable) materials of nature to work with ;;he must combine orna-
although a WEAR GOVERNMENT. They are too wise a merit with utility, and his work must bear inspection
people to believe Sir Robert Peel, that, by any legislation from every point of view. What he had chiefly to aim at
of theirs, they can permanently affect the extent of the was, the judicious combination of the several parts of the
imports or :exports of foreign countries ;or control the landscape into an effective, well-connected, congruous
prices of these, which the foreign country's own circura- whole. From these general observations the lecturer pro-
stances and legislation can alone effect. ceeded to an enumeration of the various objects to be
Their object was, and they attained it (as they always attended to in properly laying out a piece of ground. He
do their just objects), to retain for their own people the described the different styles of architecture, and the sort
employment of sawing the timber. They admit the logs of country to which they were respectively adapted, the
or raw material FREE, but they HEAVILY TAX the manu- Grecian being most suited to tame and Level scenery, the
factured article. Gothic to the wild and rugged, &c. In determining the
At the period I allude to, they saw that, IF THEY HAD position of the house, climate was entitled to consideration;
THROWN OPEN THEIR PORTS to Canadian lumber, THEIR the principal rooms should front the south or southeast:
OWN MILLING INTEREST WOULD HAVE BEEN EXTIR- the worst exposure in this country was the southwest.
PATED, by inadequate remuneration, on the first occasion The retaining of much wood about a house was decidedly
of money becoming scarcer (more valuable) in Canada objectionable, rendering the air damp and stagnant, and
than the United States. consequently unwholesome. An artistical connexion.
They saw, in fact, that their millers, in the first instance, between the house and the grounds was indispensable, a
and their consumers in the second, would have had to handsome house rising in naked grandeur from the middle
suffer in the flesh, whenever (through bad legislation or of a lawn resembling nothing so ouch as a pork steak
otherwise) Canada becomes distressed on the one hand, or stuck upon spinage. An intermediate link of architec-
artificially prosperous on the other, as having, by the ruin tural terraces, &c., should always be maintained. The
of the American miller, a temporary monopoly of the choice of plants, their arrangement and distances, next
United States market for boards, in addition to her usual occupied attention ; after which, fountains and vases,
. permanent or home demand. pleasure-grounds, gardens, rockeries, bridges, lakes, ap-
The Americans, in fact, know that they cannot regulate proaches, and lodges, were successively treated of, and
prices by legislation; and the:sole object of theirbatriotic errors of taste in respect to them unsparingly lashed. In
legislation is what ours ought to be, to LEGISL %TE ONLY speaking of rockeries, Mr. Halket observed, that they
FOR THOSE WHO ARE LABOURERS AS WELL AS CONSU- were seldom beauties, and could only be allowed in pe-
MERS ; securing the consumer the greatest amount of culiar localities. The celebrated roekery at Chatsworth,
competition, consistent with the GREATEST AMOUNT OF however weiheeecuted as a monstrosity, was egregiously
EMPLOYMENT TO THEIR OWN MANUFACTURING OR LA- out of plae between the mansion and the conservatory,
DOERING POPULATION. and could only be regarded as a regular-built deformity.
The Americans don't take England for their model, a EFFECT OF THE WEATHER ON CRIME IN A LARGE
country so proud of its masses of gold in the hands of a Towee.—We have frequently remarked that if the weather
few, as not to be ashamed of the proportionate masses of be severe over night, the number of prisoners brought
distress in the homes of the many ; but, with wisdom and before our stipendiary magistrate on the following day is
humanity, prefer to form themselves upon the model of almost invariably below the average. This is to be ac-
such countries as Switzerland, which, though small in a counted for by the fact that in very bad weather parties
national point of view, are great in the only true wealth, after the hours of business keep as much as possible
THE HAPPINESS AND PERFECT INDEPENDENCE OF within doors, and evil doers, street walkers, and pick-
EVERY MAN WHO CHOOSES TO BE INDUSTRIOUS. pockets, so far follow their example, not only from
Ic. B. motives of comfort, but from being aware that their
chances of prey will be but scanty. This was exemplified
by the returns of prisoners from the several police stations
yesterday and Sunday. It is not unusual for Mr. Rush-
ton to have from 150 to 160 cases of one kind or other to
dispose of on the Monday—the accumulation of two nights
and a day. It rained incessantly during Saturday night,
Sunday and Sunday night, and the total number of pri-
soners brought up yesterday was only 68 ! Sunday night
was extremely cold, wet, and windy, and it is an unpa-
ralleled fact that only four prisoners were taken on that
night to all the out police stations, to be brought up yes-
terday foreboon for examination.

Mr. P. Buchanan and Major Fagan had interviews
yesterday with Mr. Secretary Gladstone, at the Colonial-
office.—London papers of 7 hursday.
The Cork Cinstitution denies that Sir Harry Smith is
an Irishman, and after admitting that he is an English-
man, says, "We are sorry for it." Why?
Sir R. H. Inglis, M.P. for Oxford, attended divine
service on Sunday morning at St. Bride's church. The
hon. bart. was at St. Andrew's church in the evening,
when the Rev. Hugh M'Neile preached for the schools in
connection with that church.

THE EASTER VESTRY-ATTEMPT TO BRING
THE PA:IISH UNDER THE DOMINATION OF
THE POOR LAW COMMISSIONERS.

The inhabitants and the unfortunate poor of our town
are already beginning to reap the fruits of the admission
of " liberalism" into the management of their affairs.
Amongst the forthcoming movements of the party who
have "fair play" for their motto, the most astounding is
announced in the following handbill :

PARISH OF LIVERPOOL.

April 4th, 1846.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN,

That at the Annual General Vestry to be held' on Easter Tues-
day next, a Motion will be submitted to the Inhabitants to the
following effect : .

That application be made to Parliament to Repeal the Act of
the sth and 6th Victoria, intituled, "An Act for the better
Adtninistration of the Laws for the Relief and Management of
the Poor of the Parish of Liverpool."

WILLIAM EARLE, }Overseers,
THOS. URQUHART,

It will be seen that this announcement bears the stamp
of authority. The public would suppose that it expresses
he views of the parochial authorities. It is headed.
" Parish of Liverpool." It is printed by the tradesman
who, for some reason which we cannot divine, executes
nearly all the Select Vestry's printing ; and, in every
respect bears, upon the face of it, the appearance of an
official document. Yet, the public who know nothing of
our local politics, will be surprised to learn that the two
gentlemen, who have thus usurped the authority of the body
to which they belong, are merely a miserable minority of
that body. The churchwardens refused to sanction the
project which Messrs. Earle and Urquhart have in view ;
and of the remaining overseers, one is unwell and the
other out of town—neither were consulted, we believe,
previously to the placard being issued. There is trickery
therefore in the announcement of this movement, in the
first instance.

And now let us see what is the benefit which these two
" liberal" gentlemen propose, by taking out of the hands
of the parishioners the management of their own affairs.
Can the central commissioners manage our affairs be: ter
than we can ourselves ? We will give a little of our recent
experience in reply. Over and over again the reports of
our Vestry meetings show that letters requesting instruc-
tion upon particular matters of emergency, have been left
unanswered, until the emergency has passed. The whole
machinery has been shown to be utterly incapable of being
applied to the direction of poor-law matters in this town.
The most recent and flagrant case was connected with the
application of the Vestry to the commissioners, as to the
course to be taken for the purpose of making the ware-
houses round the new docks liable to the local rates. A
reply was received, virtually referring the matter to the
discretion of the local body ; but that reply was not re-
ceived, and, in fact, was not sent off until the whole offair
was settled in Parliament So much for centralization.

We are threatened, at the approaching Easter Vestry,
with a further infusion of that " liberal" material, of
which the movement above noticed is one of the first
fruits. What, however, has been the experience of last
year's " fair play ?" Why, of the gentlemen of " liberal"
politics placed upon the Vestry, three have forfeited their
seats for non-attendance to their duties. A party triumph
they might be willing enough to lend themselves to ; but
in the vulgar matter of pauper and parish registration,
such refined spirits refused to interfere! Mr. John Smith,
we suspect, will find little sympathy with his cry for " fair
play," if this year he proposes at the annual Vestry men
who won't work at all. With the Andover bone-crushing
affair fresh in the minds of our fellow townsmen, perhaps
even they may not be so enamoured of "liberal" vestry-
men, as he imagines.