The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-11-14 00:00:00

THE tIVERPO,OL STANDARD.

TUESDAY MORNING, NOV. 14, 1848.

WE are not aware that it is very necessary to
reply to an article in the Albion of yesterday, in
which our contemporary takes up the cudgels for
Mr. Eyre Evans in his absence. We shall only
say, therefore, that we adhere fully to what we have
stated ; and shall be perfectly prepared to maintain
our position should Mr. Evans, on his return, chose
to assail us.

WE are glad to perceive that we are drawing
towards a satisfactory conclusion of our controversy
with the Manchester Guardian, upon the subject of
the Liverpool Association's proposed scheme of
currency. His comparison of a system of paper
money, based upon' Consols, to the depreciated and
inconvertible paper money of Buenos Ayres, was
given up by him in his previous article. The
French assignats, to which he referred so triumph-
antly, and the foreign exchanges are abandoned in
his last article ; and the question between us, he
says, now, is" narrowed to a single point," viz., the
liability to fluctuation of the proposed basis, as
compared with that of the present basis. " If,"
says the Guardian, "it can be shewn that the
scheme in question is founded upon a real measure
of value, which can be relied upon as more stable
and unvarying than gold, we shall feel disposed to
admit that it may he an improvement on the
present system of currency." We hold him, there-
fore, to this point.
Now we know of no "real measure of value"—
we believe there can be none, unless by' the arbi-
trary adoption of one particular description of
property. This under the present system is gold,
the very property of all others most liable to fluc-
tuations from its portability, uncertain quantity,
and other causes, which we conclude, by his con-
tinued silence upon this point, our contemporary
admits to be the case ; whilst the property proposed
by the association can only be subject to one
disturbing cause, viz., a political commotion, by
which all property would be affected alike. But
the Guardian appears to object to this property as
being " a mass of debt," overlooking the fact that
it is nevertheless considered the best, and safest,
property in the kingdom ; and that people are wil-
ling to give even their gold for it. This property
riot being an "assumed," but an admitted and
definite amount, it follows that it is as divisible
into any number of parts for a measure of value as
an ounce of gold. The Guardian's illustration of
a "man assumed to be six feet high," cannot, there-
fore, apply to the case, for if the man's height were
as well defined as is the amount of the funded pro-
perty, there can be no doubt that he would then
afford a satisfactory measure for a standard foot."
In our last we directed the attention of the
Guardian to the fact that, so recently as October
last year, Exchequer Bills were not convertible;
and asked him " whether this arose from a depre-
ciation in the Government Securities or from an
appreciation of the gold." The question is shirked
altogether in his attempted reply. He says :

" There might possibly have been some apparent
foundation for the allegation that the low price of the
funds arose from 'an appreciation of gold ;' but, then, un-
fortunately for the argument, there was no gold in circu-
lation at the time when the price was the lowest. There
was nothing in circulation but depreciated paper, and it
was in that paper that £lOO consols sold for £57, and, we
believe, even lower. As, therefore, gold had nothing to
do with the transaction, directly or indirectly, it seems to
us to require something more than a bare assertion to
prove that the low price was caused by 'an appreciation
of gold.'"

Not a word about the inconvertible Exchequer
Bills ! It was too notorious, we presume, that in
October last year gold had appreciated, and the
bank was only saved from stoppage by being per-
mitted to pay in paper. Gold had certainly some-
thing "to do with that transaction." What, how-
ever, does our contemporary mean by £lOO Consols
being worth only £57 "in depreciated paper ?" It
could not be much depreciated when £57 returned
£3 per annum; or 51 per cent. interest, except as
compared with that gold, of which our contem-
porary says " there was none in circulation." Such
a state of things, moreover, could never occur under
the system proposed ; for fifty-seven hundredth
parts of a thing could never be equal to the whole.
We can see easily enough how consols could fluc-
tuate, and have fluctuated as compared either with
gold, or with a paper based upon private credit or
property; but they could never depreciate or appre-
ciate in the relation of the whole to its own
component parts, except at times of under or over
issues, which we have shewn would be self correc-
tive by the rate of interest.
But upon what was the currency based, and
what was the measure of value at the period
referred to by our contemporary, when "there was
no gold in circulation," and CGnsols were bought
and sold, though "gold had nothing to do with the
transaction, directly or indirectly ?" Obviously the
country was left without a standard measure of
value. Besides any fluctuations which may have
taken place under such a wild and confused state
of things. afford no criterion by which to form a
sound judgment upon the system of currency pro-
posed by the association.
In considering the tendency of the proposed
currency to vary in value, we must ask the Guar-
dian to dismiss gold from his mind altogether, ex-
cept as a commodity; and to make no deductions
from the relation which its basis, Consols, has
borne at any past period to a pound, either in gold
or paper. Having done this, let him apply himself
to the consideration of the point as to whether it
would not be possible to obtain a steady value for
money by a definite rate of interest ; and then in-
form us under what circumstances, save the one
we have alluded to, such currency could vary in
value.

The Guardian concludes with the old bullionist
inquiry,—" after all, what is a pound i " We shall
not, ourselves, be drawn by this manoeuvre from
the particular point, to which he says, " the
question is now narrowed." We shall refer him
instead to the following answer to it, by a very
able writer, whose views approach nearly to those
of the association, and who is the author of a work
recently published by Longmans', entitled "The
National Distress, its Origin and Remedy," which
the Guardian might find it worth his while to
,peruse. It would save him hereafter the necessity
of his continued attempts to trace the existing
monetary distress to railway investments or com-
mercial imprudence.
" If it now be asked, 'What,' under the proposed mo-
dification of the currency standard and basis, 'is themean-
af a pound 1' the answer is,—`A pound is a fixed
standard and measure of value, secured ty the State to
yield the owner an annual return or increase equal to the
average increase or return of gold, or 3 per cent. per
annum, and consequently of definite interest or money
value and purchasing power.'—As with the present basis
and standard, the answer to the same question would be,
that,—'A pound is a substance of intrinsic value, limited
at present to be a certain quantity and fineness of gold ;
but of indefinite, because ever variable, interest or money
value and purchasing power.' "

MR. WEBSTER has published a second letter on
Dock natters, addressed to Mr. Bramley-Moore,
wherein he plunges and flounders, if possible, more
than in the first, and establishes the fact of his
gross ignorance about the Liverpool Dock Estate.
Mr. Webster is evidently wishing to obtain noto-
riety, and to fill up vacant time caused by the cessa-
tion of briefs from his clients at Birkenhead. We
might very safely leave him and his letters in the
bands of the public ; but we shall, nevertheless,
give the second, like the first, a passing notice, to
show how little reliance can be placed on Mr. Web-
ster's statements. _ _ _ _

The real object which Mr. Webster appears to
have in view is to persuade people to lend their
money to Birkenhead ; but this effort, we are
apprehensive, will be " love's labour lost ;" and,
could he even write like Cicero, employ le per-
suasive eloquence of Demosthenes, or warble as
melodiously as Saint Cecilia, he will never induce
money lenders into the delusion of burying more
sovereigns in the slob on the Cheshire shore.
At page 2, Mr. Webster says—

" It is no part of my object to dispute the sufficiency of
such security, (the Liverpool Docks), or to deny the large
margin that exists for raising the rates. It is enough for
me to show that money can be better laid out at Birken-
head than at Liverpool ;' that such expenditure at Birken-

head, instead of at Liverpool, would improve that very
decurity, and that •it is for the interest of the annuitant
and of the bondholder of the Liverpool Dock Estate that
the commerce of the Mersey should be provided with the
required accommodation, by profitable expenditure at
Birkenhead, rather than by unprofitable expenditure at
Liverpool."

We give this extract to show that we are not
misrepresenting Mr. Webster in his vain endeavours
to persuade the public to lend their money to a
scheine which has wholly failed, and which now, to
borrow an expression, " lies dead and putrid."
Mr. Webster admits the blunder in his former
letter, of having debited the Dock Estate with
nearly a million of money for the cost of the Albert
Dock and Warehouses, and omitting to give any
credit for the income arising from this immense
structure. He excuses himself on the ground that
he took the dues on goods;jtonnage, and lights, as
audited in the published annual accounts ; but
this is no excuse for Mr. Webster, a barrister who
professes to he so intimately acquainted with the
Liverpool Dock Acts; for he must, or ought to,
know that the Albert accounts are obliged, by Act
of Parliament, to be kept separate, and that the
incomings from the establishment do not appear at
all in the accounts to which he alludes. Every
body knows this except Mr. Webster, who ought
to be the first to know the fact, according to his
pretended knowledge of Liverpool affairs.
One more proof of Mr. Webster's want of know-
ledge of the affairs of the Liverpool Dock Estate";
and, by-the-bye, how should he he otherwise than
ill-informed ? Are we to go to London for correct
information about our own local affairs, and is that
information to find its way to London through
Birkenhead Dock Commissioners and Birkenhead
jobbers ? We must certainly look to some other
source for correct information.
At page 3, Mr. Webster says—

" That the accounts of the Corporation At Liverpool,
just published, show £250,879 to be due from the Dock
Trustees, for land at the North Shore, by which latter
amount the existing bond debt should be increased."

Here, again, Mr. Webster is entirely wrong ; and
he must excuse us if we tender to him some whole-
some advice, to confine himself to matters for
which he may have some aptitude, for he certainly
possesses none for unravelling accounts, whatever
may be his talent for mystifying, and rendering
obscure, that which most people considered pretty
clear and easy to be understood. If Mr. Webster
had examined into the Dock accounts he would
have discovered that this sum formed part of the
bond debt three or four years ago ; and, on the
other hand, if he had searched in the proper quarter
he would have found the Corporation gave credit
for this amount in Dock bonds, redeemable some
six or seven years hence. According to Mr. Web-
ster's sheaving, this sum of £250,879 is owing, in
open account, to the Corporation, and has still to
be added to the bond debt of the Dock Estate. It
is not so. The bonds were given at the time of the
purchase, and from that moment formed part of
the bond debt.

the Standard have been accustomed to meet the
mere possibility of any cordial action between the
Protectionists and their former leader, Sir Robert
Peel. We find the former journal, however, speak-
ing now in a very changed strain, and urgently
advocating an oblivion of the past and a cordial
reunion of the two sections of the Conservative
party. In a recent publication, he thus urges the
necessity of such a course :
" Is there no one point," he asks, " upon which both
sections of Conservatism can find themselves agreed ? Is
there no common ground upon which all may assemble—
we address ourselves, be it remembered, to Conservatives,
and not to Radicals, open or disguised—shake hands, and
re-unite for the prosecution of a common end, and the
achievement of a national good ? It is difficult to take
even a passing glance at the condition of affairs, and to
conclude that there is no such common ground of action.
The followers of Sir Robert Peel, for instance, may be
convinced that in 1846 the time had come for the repeal of
the corn laws, whilst Protectionists may still retain their
original opinion that no time could possibly arrive when it
would be lawful for Sir Robert Peel to renounce the entire
policy of his life ; but neither Peelites nor Protectionists
can continue in the conviction that it is wholesome to
carry on the business of the country with a deficient reve•
nue, with the balance of exports and imports continually
against us, and with dependencies a clog to the mother
country and a burden to themselves. The friends of Sir
Robert may be pardoned for standing by their leader in
the hour of his difficulty, as the seceders from his side
may be excused for not co-operating with their chief at
the period of his shame ; but neither friend nor seceder
can derive comfort from the support or toleration of a
ministry who are at once the abettors of treason and the
prosecutors of criminals, the actors of the offences which
they' pretend to abhor, and the representatives of the
Sovereign, whose prerogatives end rights they are the first
to call in question and affront."
We would go even further than this, and ask—
is there no common ground upon which moderate
Whigs, as well as Conservatives, may meet to legis-
late, for the purpose of arresting the tide of evil
which is desolating the country, and introducing
agony and shame to so many once happy hearths ?
We contend that there is; and are prepared, in•our
earnestness to see such a common ground occu-
pied, to say with our contemporary—
" We do not care to inquire now whether Mr. Cobden
was right or wrong, whether free trade be a panacea for
all the evils of the day, or whether the wars of the conti-
nent have or have not retarded the operation of principles
in themselves beyond criticism or cavil. It is quite enough
for us to know that a screw is loose somewhere—that the
machinery will not work—that the promised results do
not come. We are hard up. The expression is familiar
and intelligible to the humblest capacity. When indivi-
duals are in that disagreeable extremity they must draw
upon their legitimate resources, beg, borrow, or steal. A
nation has no royal road to competence. It can no more
extract sovereigns from abstract theories than a silk pm-se
can be wrought from a sow's ear. Hit has not the means
of living it must find them, as the distressed have found
them before, and will find them again."
Even stronger, however, is the appeal of one,
who has ever proved himself the sound-hearted
advocate of true Conservative policy—the editor of
Blackwood's Magazine—in an able article in his
publication of this month, and to which we refer
our readers, in preference to weakening its effect by
any quotation from it here. The writer thinks with
us that honourable men, however far committed to
theories, will not refuse at such a crisis as the present
to re-examine their tendency, and even "to acknow-
ledge an error when its consequences are made so
palpably manifest, or persist to gloss it over for
the sake of an egotistical consistency." With re-
spect to one particular question we have hopes even
of .the great Conservative leader, Sir Robert Peel
himself. The Right Honourable Baronet has ac-
knowledged that his pet act of Statesmanship, the
Currency Laws, have failed to produce the effects
which it was devised to bring about, He has seen
it tested in concurrence with two opposite condi-
tions of our fiscal policy—with protection and with
Free Trade—and failing equally under both. Surely
a statesman, whose pride has ever been in expedi-
ency rather than in the maintenance of any fixed
principle, and who has seen fit to change in every
portion of his past policy, can never be expected to
adhere with pertinacity to that particular measure
only, from which the results to his country's inter-
ests have been the most signally disastrous !

THEFT FROM A SHOP.—At the Police-court, yesterday,
a young woman, named Elizabeth Henry, was charged
with having stolen a piece of ribbon, twelve yards in
length, from a shop in Scotland-place, on Saturday last.
She had entered the shop with another woman on pre-
tence of making purchases, and was detected with the
stolen article concealed under her cloak. The other
female made her escape. The prisoner was committed
for trial.
SCRIPTURAL EDUCATION v. POLITICAL CONVULSIONS.
—On Sunday evening last the Rev. Mr. White delivered
an excellent sermon, in St. Mary's Church, Birkenhead,
on the practical character of the Christian religion ; and
last night he gave, in the National School-room, a lucid
address on the recent distressing events in the various
nations of the continent as resulting from the infidel prin-
ciples so sedulously propagated there. The Rev. A. Knox
occupied the chair.

LIVERPOOL AND WEST DERBY.—We have been as-
sured on good authority that one or two points in a report,
published in our last, of the parish appeal cases between
these unions, were rather too strongly worded. The
two unions have come to an amicable arrangement to
abandon merely technical objections in disputed pauper
settlements, and to decide before a judicial tribunal, those
only in which the merits are not agreed on. It was con-
sidered by the overseers of Liverpool that the cases alluded
to in the report rested on formal objections, and thence
they were abandoned, and the costs, we are told, were not
incurred with the consent of the overseers. The arrange-
ment will be honestly carried out by both parties. We
may mention that several circumstances stated to have
transpired in, court were arranged privately, and the cases
were decided on that private arrangement.
THE POTATOE CROP OF THE PRESENT YEAR.—We are,
glad to state that we have learned that the disease in po-
tatoes has not turned out to be nearly so destructive,
after the gathering of the rest, as was apprehended, espe-
cially in this neighbourhood, both in Lancashire and Che-
shire. In some fields and gardens, nearly the entire
crops have proved to be of excellent quality ; and we have
a constant and good supply of this popular vegetable in
all of our markets. The general opinion now is that the
crop will keep, and will last until the middle, if not the
end, of May ; allowing for the usual consumption. An
excellent article was attainable at Birkenhead market on
Saturday last, at ls. 2d. to Is. 3d. per peck : the price is
certainly comparatively high, but a fall is anticipated,
when the farmers begin to open their reserved hogs. It
is also hoped that the quality will be better than that of
those hurried into towns for immediate sale, during the
prevalence of the alarm as to the general crop. The ac-
counts from Ireland as to the potatoes7are considerably
better.

THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER.—The annual supper in
commemoration of the Gunpowder Treason, and the happy
arrival of King William 111. in England, was celebrated
by the members and friends of Lodge 143 of Loyal
Orangemen, at the Black Bog, Bridge-street, Warrington,
on Monday evening, when upwards of 60 sat down. After
justice had been done to the good things provided by the
worthy host, Bro. Woods, non nobis domine was sung,
and the chair was taken by Bro. Henry Gorst, W.M.,
supported on the right by G. Greenall, Esq. M.P., and on
the left by Joseph Perrin, Esq. ; the vice-chair was filled
by Bro. John Houghton, D.M. After the usual toasts
of " The Queen," Prince Albert and the rest of the
Royal Family," " Protestant Ascendancy in Church and
State," the health of the worthy member was proposed
in a most able speech by the vice-chairman, in which he
alluded to the many acts of kindness performed by him
for both friends and political opponents, and especially
towards the working classes. Mr. Greenall, in returning
thanks, said that on receiving their invitation he deter-
mined that nothing should prevent him from being present
that evening. Several other toasts followed.
BEAUTIFUL MARBLE STATUARY.—On Saturday we
had the pleasure of seeing, at 26, Bold-street, two
beautiful statues and four busts, all in marble, executed in
Rome, by Mr. Robert Ormerod Smith, for gentlemen of
this town. The busts are of Edward Rushton, Esq.,
magistrate, (to be presented to that gentleman) ; of John
Bramley Moore, Esq., (our present Mayor) ; the Rev.
Thomas Bold ; and Christopher Bushell, Esq. The
sculptor has been highly felicitous in producing in all of
these, marked and undeniable likenesses of the parties.
They are all cut in the finest Parian marble, with a
minuteness and delicacy of finish which is rarely attained
and has seldom been surpassed by the most celebrated
masters. The bust of the Rev. Mr. Bold will be instantly
recognised by any visitor who has seen and listened to that
venerable divine. That of Mr. Rushton exhibits equal
vrais-semblance, in every point, the Roman acquiline nose
and the whole centour of the manly face and person are
unmistakeably defined. The same may be said of the
I bust of Mr. Bramley-Moore—if possible, indeed, even
more striking, and we are almost devising a fault when we
opine that the hair on the head and visage is rather too
voluminous ; but this portion of the bust is probably un-
finished, and if over-raised may be readily reduced by the
chisel of the artist. The bust of Mr. Bushell is a fine
piece of sculpture, but appears to us to be a slighty flatter-
ing likeness of assuredly, a handsome gentleman. The
drapery throughout is graceful and natural. Perhaps,
however, the most beautiful specimens are the two statues,
which appear to us to be fancy pieces, or studies. They
form a pair, and are exquisite full length representations
of a boy and a young maiden ; the former holding a rabbit
to his breast with one arm, and another in his garment by
the other ; the latter in a stooping position on one knee
with a butterfly perched on her delicate shoulder, upon
which she is gazing. We consider both of these to be
exquisite likenesses of juvenile beauties of " the human
form divine,"—the perfection, indeed, of the beau-ideal
in shape and symmetry. The finish is superior, and con-
sidering the posture and position of the figures and limbs,
must have been accomplished with extreme labour and
care. The female figure reminds us of the passage in
Shakspere :--
"What fine chisel could ever yet cut breath !
Let no one mock me i for I will kiss her."

From these specimens alone we augur highly of the
forthcoming mastery of Mr. Smith as a pursuer of an art
even more noble than that of the limner. We know not
the gentleman personally, and visited the productions no-
ticed during his absence from the room.

IMPORTANT PARLIAMENTARY NOTICE.-PRO-
POSED CHANGE IN THE CONSTITUTION OF
THE LIVERPOOL DOCK TRUST.

We beg to direct our readers to a notice, in our adver-
tising columns, of an application to be made for an act of
parliament next session, which will affect a change in the
powers of the Council and burgesses, more important, in
our opinion, than the Municipal Reform Bill itsell. The
object of the promoters of the measure, stript of the legal
technicalities in which it is expressed, is simply to divest
the corporation and the burgesses of Liverpool of all con-
trol over the management and the property of the Dock Es-
tate; and to vest that control in an independent body,
which is, by the act, to be constituted " a body politic and
corporate, under the name and style of ' the Trustees of
the Liverpool Docks.' " Provisions are proposed for the
purpose of altering the mode of electing such Trustees,
with their Chairman and Deputy-chairman, of regulating
the period of office of the two latter, and of altering and
extending the powers of the whole. In a word, a power-
ful body is to be formed, under the name and style men-
tioned, and with our vast Dock Estate as their realm,
which will certainly not be second in local importance to
our municipal body itself.
We are not prepared to state what are the pressing in-
ducements, at the present moment, for this important
movement. We believe, however, that we may state ex-
plicitly that its promoters are the merchants, the
shipowners, and the dock ratepayers of the port ; and our
readers would probably have been able to see, without our
saying more, what are likely to be the motives of these
gentlemen. It has for some time appeared to several par-
ties of influence, that the Dock Estate of this port was
one of magnitude sufficient to require for its management
the undivided energies of a distinct body ; and that its ex-
isting constitution was of an anomalous character. It has
been thought that the check or veto of the Council was
more of the nature of a harassing than of a beneficial con-
trolling power over the proceedings of the Dock Com-
mittee; and that important improvements and measures,
calculated to be conducive to the prosperity of the port,
and of the commerce of the country at large, were fre-
quently retarded by the necessity of submitting them to
the decision of a body, necessarily not so well conversant
with their merits as the body by whom, on the 'evidence
of practical experience daily before their eyes, they had
been determined upon. We fancy that amongst the most
pressing inducements for the change being sought, just
now is the very serious change which is being made in the
constitution of the Council itself, from amongst whose
body a portion of the members of the Dock Committee
have to be chosen, before whom the proceedings of that
committee have to come as before a final tribunal, and
without whose assent they cannot advance a step in any
important matter. We have ever advocated the presence
in the council chamber of a fair admixture of men of
every class in the town. There are questions daily coming
before the attention of the corporate body upon which the
tradesman's or the shopkeeper's experience and local
knowledge is as valuable, and his voice ought tobe as poten-
tial, as those of the merchant or shipowner. But, with
respect to dock management, the range of fitness is not so
wide ; and we dare say that with the not very discriminating
course pursued at the recent elections, when the test was
more the opinions of the candidates upon a particular,
though a most important question • and with the boasts
of a certain confederated body of their ability to turn the
elections in favour of their nominees on future occasions
ringing in their ears, it may have occurred to our mer-
cantile body, and to the dock ratepayers generally, that
two great estates, requiring such different kinds of men of
such different capabilities, for their satisfactory manage-
ment, should be confided to totally distinct bodies.
We can at present see nothing to object against in this
arrangement. We are satisfied that there will be busi-
ness ample to employ two independent bodies. Our great
fear is lest, by the action of the Council upon the Dock
Committee being withdrawn, we should not be able to
realise, what we still contend to be most desirable—the
rating of the Dock Estate. Should this unfortunately
be the case, it may probably occur to those, whose head-
long haste in this matter has, we suspect, urged on the
separation of the two bodies, whether they will not them-
selves have to bear the burthen of their own and their
fellow-townsmen's regret and disappointment.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

Ma. EDITOR,—In the recent discussions arising out of
the annual meetino, of the Jews' Society, in this town, we
have heard mu ch ofOne-sided views, millen nariani sm,Jewi sh
restorationism, &c. Now it appears to me, that if any
clergyman thinks Dr. M`Neile's statements on those sub-
jects to be one-sided, so as to be unscriptural, his best
course would be to answer the doctor's books, The doc-
tor has published two volumes, one on Jewish Prophecy,
and one on the Second Advent. They have gone through
six or seven editions. It would be more in character with
a scholar and a divine to publish a fair and full reply, than
to force discussion -on a meeting convened for the tran-
saction of the yearly business of the society.—l am, sir,
your constant reader, SPECTATOR.