The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-02-25 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We observe in a radical contemporary an advertisement an-
nouncing the sale of Providence Chapel, Pleasant-street.
Places of this description have been wofully at a discount.
When the Liverpool Times next copies an article from our
columns, perhaps the editor had better persue it : in his
last Tuesday's publication appears the announcement of
the Caledonia's return, in which that vessel is said to
have arrived at this port on the evening previous, and
the Acadia is said to have been hauled out of dock the
day before, and to sail the day following, when in fact
she had left on the previous Saturday.

Ebe Ziberpool gPtantiarb.

FRIDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 25, 1842

The world at large and the ladies of Liverpool—the
liberal ladies at least—are by this time tolerably ac-
quainted with the person and pursuits of the itinerant
anti-corn-law spouter, George Thomson. For twelve
or fifteen years this excellent specimen of the class
" Humbug" has contrived to shamble through life by
the exercise of a libellous tongue, an unblushing face,
and a stock of well-rounded sentences, plentifully in-
terspersed with trope and metaphor, and larded toge-
ther with a substratum of disgusting and hypocritical
As the paid advocate of the Anti-Slavery So-
ciety and the traducer of our West Indian fellow-sub-
jects, who has drawn forth more sympathetic sighs
from the tender hearts of male and female auditors, as
he painted the amiabilities and the sufferings of ebony
Appolos and Venuses than "sweet George Thomson ?"
Who has moistened more cambric pocket-handker-
chiefs, with the tears drawn from fair eyes by•his
"touching eloquence," than this flagrant charlatan ?
same time, take the hheity of hinting to the world, and
to our fair readers in particular, that few vulgar strol-
lers—few hunters of penny, sixpenny, or half-crown
subscriptions—have made a better trade of it than has
George Thomson.
The anti-slavery vein was, however, not fated to en-
dure for all time. The emancipation bill was passed;
and some people may have been shortsighted enough
to say of this sordid retailer of hypocritical grimaces
and maudlin sentimentally, " Othello's occupation 's
gone !" A few, indeed, we know, there were, who
said, " surely this lover of the human race—this man
of large sympathies—this universal philanthropist—
will, now that the negro slave is free, at once step for-
ward to throw the shield of his eloquence over the
poor factory child, the white slave of the manufactu-
ring districts. But these people knew not George
Thomson ! An abundant field, it is true, was here for
eloquence ; but it was one which was poor in the pro-
ducts which the itinerant loved to reap. No well-filled
purse—no sets of shirts, made by sympathetic hands,
reward the advocate who pleads the cause of these de-
fenceless little ones. Their sufferings, their wrongs
cried for redress from earth to Heaven. The pale
cheek, the mutilated limb, the dwarfed, distorted frame,
were living and harrowing evidence of their need of a
protector ; but they had no gold to chink in the ear of
the hired spouter, and the voluble tongue of George
Thomson moved not in their behalf. The millocrat of
the league, he knew, had a well-filled pocket—filled
from the proceeds of the misery which he saw around
him—and the eyes of the charlatan glistened at the
sight ; his greedy ears drunk in the sound ; his itching
palm clutched at the bait; and he became the well-
paid, the venal and sordid instrument of anti-corn-law
agitation.

In this capacity he has recently presented himself
before the public of Liverpool. In this capacity he
has, no later than last night, had the measureless au-
dacity to address an assembly of the ladies of Liver-
pool (!) and to teach them what he calls " the respon-
sibilities and t he duties which devolve upon them with
respect to the corn and provision laws." We know
not what absurd trash he may have uttered on the oc-
casion ; but, lest any of our fair readers should have
allowed their minds to be swayed by the half-blasphe-
my and half-blackguardism which form the staple of
his hireling orations, we shall take the liberty of placing
before them a sample of the unblushing falsehoods
which he is capable of uttering, on these and similar
occasions, and which, having relation to an assumed
occurrence in Liverpool, can easily be tested, if, indeed,
it is not too gross to admit of a moment's hesitation.

On the 4th of the present month the itinerant held
forth to a meeting of free traders in the town of South-
ampton, in the course of which he delivered himself of
the following statement, which we quote from a Whig-
Radical journal published in that locality :

"I recently attended :a great 'anti-corn-law tea party in
the town of Bolton, in Lancashire, where fyou are aware
there is a large amount of distress. On entering the spacious
Temperance-hall, where this meeting was held, I saw before
me, in the front of the orchestra, two rows of fresh meat—
one to the left, and the other to the right—a short row, and
a long row, much beef and little beef. As soon as I reached
the platform, I inquired what the spectacle meant; and was
told that was cheap meat and dear meat—the roast beef of
Old England, and the roast beef of New England. (Loud
cheers) An esteemed friend, Henry Ashworth, (a thorough
repealer,) said to me, ' I went to Liverpool yesterday, where
I found a packet just in from the United States. I enquired
if they had any fresh meat on board. They answered, they
had. I asked them if they would sell the same. They said
yes. I said, at what price? They said l jd. a lb. I said, give
me 255. worth. I brought it to Bolton, and then went into
a butcher's shop and said, what do you charge for good cuts
of beef? The man said 7d. a pound. I said give me 255.
worth. I brought both lots here, and had them hung up
where you see them.' And there they were, 200 lbs. of
Yankee beef, fresh and fine and tempting, fat and lean beau-
tifully mixed; and 43 lbs. of English beef, in two sorry pieces,
looking askance at their well-fed neighbours from the other
side of the water! (loud laughter)

Now we think it is scarcely necessary to state to a
Liverpool public that this ridiculous story is, from first
to last, in all its essential parts, a gross and impudent
fabrication. No one will believe, we think, that the
Mr. Henry Ashworth, (here referred to,) who is one
of those truth-loving people called Quakers, could ut-
ter so palpable and deliberate a falsehood. From the
teeming brain of Dir. George Thompson alone it can
have emanated; and if the impostor is this day within
the reach of our remarks, as we know he is, we call
upon him to come forward and to prove, if he can, the
truth of his monstrous assertion.

Mr, tionry Abilwor Lb,

tinerita purchana
bs. of

fresh beef at threehalfpence a pound ! What ship ?
It must have had 4 'panne, and we ask to have that

name produced ; for we are satisfied that no American
packet would, or could sell such a quantity of beef at
such a price ; in the first place, because it could not be
purchased in America for three times tbreehallpence a
pound, and, in the next place, because, being a strictly
prohibited article, it would never have been permitted
to be openly landed in Liverpool ; and however capa.
cious.may be the pockets of Friend Ashworth, we
should imagine that a gentleman belonging to so cau-
6w:a a fraternity would not readily have undertaken to
smuggle ashore so bulky a parcel as 200 lbs. of beef.
The whole story is incredible; and although amongst
the gobemouches of Hampshire, where its probability
could not be tested, it might be swallowed easily
enough, yet in Liverpool, we imagine, even amongst
the blindest and silliest of his followers, it will with
some difficulty pass muster.

We call, then, upon this flagrant impostor, on the next
occasion of his delivering an oration in Liverpool, to
clear up this strange story. But we do not believe
that he can; for our firm conviction is, that of all the
unprincipled pretenders which this age of agitation has
produced, the greatest is this very gentleman—this
adored of the ladies—Mr. George Thompson !

* We have made some inquiries upon this subject, and are
informed upon perfectly competent authority, that the gene-
ral prices of American mess beef (the best quality for ship-
ment, in pickle) have been 12 or 13 dollars per barrel of
200 lbs. Last year, however, they were much lower, being
about nine dollars. The latest accounts from New York
state that they had neverprevi9usly been known so low as
at that time, the best quality being worth only eight dollars,
or a little under 24-d. per lb. To this, however, in order to
estimate the cost here, must be added the freight from New
York, 4s. 6d. per barrel, charges at New York, including
cartage, lighterage, cooperage, ships' charges, commission,
&c., in all about 10 per cent. upon the cost, together with
similar charges in Liverpool, which would make another 10
per cent. ; and the *lee' would
.then reach 50s. per barrel,
without duty, in Livtirpool, 3d. per lb. The duty of 255.
per barrel would raise the price to 755., or Q.& per lb. And
this for salted beef only ! With respect to fresh beef, it is,
as we have stated above, a prohibited article: and in a very
recent New York paper we noticed it quoted from 6 to 123
cents per pound, the latter of which prices is as high as that
of friend Ashworth's " prime cuts," 12i cents being equal to
about 7d. English.

We hive elsewhere noticed the efforts making by the
Manchester League-men to retard legislation upon
the corn laws ; and we beg now to refer our readers
to the abstract, in our columns, of the speech delivered
on Wednesday evening, in the House of Commons, by
Lord John Russell, as an evidence of the perfectly good
understanding which exists between the Leaguers and
his lordship. There are few who do not remember the
perfect storm of indignation which was similuted by
the "liberals" one and all, when Sir Robert Peel re-
fused to prolong the sittings of parliament during the
winter, in order to legislate impromptu upon this ques-
tion. The Right Hon. Baronet was then " cold-
blooded," " hard-hearted," " cruel," and we know
not what besides. He was accused of despising alike
the demands and the miseries of a suffering people.
And yet now, after five months spent in maturing, in
its details, a measure for the settlement of the question,
and after that measure has received the support of a
majority of 123, against the combined efforts of fac-
tion in the House of Commons, we are told by Lord
John Russell that there is no hurry!—no necessity to
proceed to legislation !—no necessity to lighten at once
the burthen which, it was urged, was depressing
the industry of the nation; and that parliament must
only "ponder" and "deliberate" and discuss, and thus
prolong indefinitely the existing unsettled state of the
public mind, and the suspense which deranges every
branch of our commercial and social system.

Upon what ground, we should like to know, can
such a proposition be defended, except upon that of
faction ? If the necessity for legislation was urgent
five months ago, it is equally urgent now; and we
venture to assure his little lordship that the great mass
of the public—and that body is not composed of the
mob gatherings of the manufacturing towns—is not

disposed to wait his convenience for the settlement of
this question. The people of England are heartily
sick of Whig agitation. They look upon Whig men
and Whig policy with a perfect loathing; and what-
ever his lordship's friends of the League may say, that
people will not, to prevent the passing of Sir Robert
Peel's just and satisfactory measure, allow themselves
Lord John and his fellow place-hunters may ride back
into the position from which the deliberate voice of
public opinion so lately ejected them. It will not do,
my lord. It will not, indeed !

When we last addressed our readers upon the sub-
ject of West Indian affairs, the result of the endeavour,
on the part of the planters of British Guiana, to reduce
the cost of sugar cultivation to the level, rendered ne-
cessary by existing prices, by means of internal regu-
lations with the labourers, had not been ascertained.
It will be remembered, however, that we anticipated no
benefit to arise from those regulations; but feared
rather that the attempt to carry them into execution
would lead to heart-burnings and between the
planters and the labouring classes. The arrival of the
West India mail, with dates from Jamaica to the 17th,
and from British Guiana to the Bth ult., has, we regret
to say, affirmed the correctness of our fears. On the
latter date cultivation in Guiana was almost entirely
suspended, the population refusing to work at any other
than prices which have been proved to be ruinous to
the planter, and treating every overture and attempt to
reason with them with contemptuous, and in some in-
stances, even riotous insolence. "To such a pitch,"
writes the Guiana Times, "have matters gone, that on
one estate within our -.knowledge, and wry probably
upon several which he have not heard of, the young
gentlemen employed as overseers and under managers
have been obliged to cut grass for the sustenance of
the estate's horses, the humane, virtuous; and religious
labourers sitting idle in the cottages, the costly pro-
perty of their employers, and doggedly refusing to per-
form even that most necessary service." The same
journal remarks—" the gentlemen of the Anti-Slavery
Society boast of the moral influence they are exerting
in Spain, France, Holland, and so forth ; but if a
foreigner were to witness such scenes as have been rife
in this colony during the past week, he would recom-
mend his fellow countrymen to expunge the word
" emancipation" from their language.
Now we do earnestly entreat the serious attention,
not only of every friend to colonial interests, but also
of every friend to the true interests of the negro race,
tothe state of things here described. We have here
the great experiment of the cultivation of our West
Indian possessions by means of free labour, the
result of which is watched with anxious eyes by every
nation of Europe, and by countless millions of the
African race, in the very crisis of its determination.
The planter has declared and proved that, even with
the protection which the home market of Great Britain
affords him, he cannot mature his produce, with his
existing means, except at a cost greater than the price
which it returns him. The vast capital embarked in
this, the noblest and most fertile of our West Indian
possessions, is at this moment threatened with utter
destruction ; the germ, which has here been planted,
of the liberty of a countless race, is about to be blighted
for ever, and the heart rending fact proclaimed to the
world—proclaimed to the slave-owners and slave-
traders of other nations—that the prosperity of West
Indian cultivation is incompatible with the free agency
of Ike African Zabonret!

The entire ruin, we repeat, of this and of other colo-
nies, is inevitable unless the helping hand of the go-
vernment at home is stretched forth for their relief.
The promotion—and the extensive promotion, too—of
Immigration, by which the planter may be enabled to
carry on profitably and energetically the cultivation of
his estates, can alone ward off this dreaded calamity;
and we do trust that the present government will no
longer avert their eyes from the contemplation of the
duty which is before them, but step forward at once
with a large and liberal measure of relief. Already the
boon which we ask for British Guiana and for our
other West Indian possessions has been accorded by
Lord Stanley to the planters of the Mauritius, who
have been labouring under similar but far less pressing
difficulties. Immigration from amongst the supera-
bundant population of the continent of India is about
to he promoted, under the sanction of the government,
to supply the deficiency of labour in that colony. And,
we ask now, is it just, is it politic, is it safe, that the
same boon should be withheld from the planters of the
British West Indies ? Can any government, and least
of all, can any Conservative government defend so par-

o utiwiso, svickod it count) Bel lliNt kyllich, by

turning a deaf par to their •reasonable wants, must
doom these fair and fertile lands to be abandoned to
progressive decay and ultimate barbarism, with all the
glorious promise which
.they hold forth, under a sys-
tem of proper encouragement and protection, of be-
coming, at no distant period, the stepping stone to
African civilization,—the fulcrum by which that un-
happy and degraded continent may be elevated and
brought within the light of Christianity and the enjoy-
ment of the blessings of rational freedom ?

We are quite prepared to admit, with Lora Stanley
and Mr. W. E. Gladstone, that the system by which

our 13ritisli West Indian possessions are managed

vicious, and to some extent is calculated to create a'
portion of the evils, complained of, viz., exorbitant cost
of production. Malversations, we are aware, must
always be practisecTto some extent, and expensive ma-
nagement ensue, where the evil of non-resident pro-
prietorship exists.; and the complete success of free
labour cultivation will, perhaps, never be attained until,
from amongse present emancipated negroes of the
West Indies, a class is created who, as tenants of the
soil, shall occupy a middle station between the absentee
proprietors and the working labourers. For the pro-
motion of such a system these colonies at present pos-
sess important and valuable facilities. The capital of
the proprietors is ready to be abundantly embarked in
the development of the vast resources of the soil. The
material forla midale class, composed of intelligent and
moderately educated negroes is already created ; but the
working labourer is not to be found. Immigration alone
can supply this important desideratum ; and can any sin-
cere friend of the cause of humanity, we ask, refuse to
accord a measure which must be productive of such
vast advantages ? Can the abolitionist even, with ail
the bitterness, with all the jealousy with which he re-
gards the planters and the very cultivation itself of
those possessions, advanCe one argument to show that,
protected as is everyinhabitaut of the British West In-
dies, enjoying as-he does the blessings of a free consti-
tution, receiving as he may the light of progressive
civilization and Christianity, the degraded native of
the shores of Africa may not safely, and with perfect
consistency and humanity, be encouraged by a British
and a Christian government to exchange the wretch-
edness of his own home for the amelioration of his
condition, which immigration to our West Indian colo-
nies is calculated to secure to him ?

Whatever may be the prejudice of the professing
abolitionist against such a measure these important
facts press seriously upon our attention. The produc-
tion of the British West Indies is rapidly decreasing ;
the profit of the cultivation of those possessions has
ceased to exist, and capital is daily being withdrawn
from them. The effort has been made by the planters
themselves to induce immigration as their most effica-
cious remedy; and that effort has failed,—we fear from
the impediments thrown in the way by the meddling
and prejudiced spirit actuating the professed friends
of the African in those settlements from which
the supply of labourers was with most confidence anti-
cipated. Immigration from Sierra Leone has ceased
almost entirely, owing solely to such interference, aided
by misrepresentation of the most unscrupulous descrip-
tion as to the views of the planters, and the condition
of those immigrants who have already left that colony.
The effort to reduce the cost of cultivation, by internal
regulations between the labourers and the planters, has
produced only the effect which might have been ex-
pected from it, (in a country where the free labourer
is surrounded by injudicious friends, inveterately inimi-
cal to the planting body and equally so to the real in-
terests of those whose welfare they profess to have at
heart,) viz., exasperation on the part of the negro and
the almost total suspension of cultivation, And, coin-
cident with this untoward and indeed disastrous state
of things, we have before our eyes the moral certainty
that no administration, however strong, however well
disposed to foster to the utmost the beneficial working,
during its infancy, of the great experiment of negro
emancipation and the cultivation of our tropical pos-
sessions by means of free labour, can for any length-
ened period keep up the existing protection in the home
market by which West Indian produce is enabled to
compete at all with foreign slave-raised produce...,
Something, then, must, it is evident, be done, and
that immediately ; and, from the government of the

.ask for.no unreasonable boon. We ask for no large
expenditure bf the public funds, although those funds
have already been readily and lavishly devoted to the
advancement of the wild and impracticable schemes of
those who profess to have in view the same ends at
which, above all other ends, we aim. We ask only the
active co-operation and the countenance of the govern-
ment to the endeavours of the planters to procure a
supply of labourers for the British West Indies. We
ask for such aid as will enable them to neutralize the
efforts of their enemies to withhold that supply ; and we
trust that, from a statesman endowed with the high
moral courage which distinguishes the present Secre-
tary for Colonial affairs, we shall riot ask in vain. Let
Lord Stanley, trusting to no merely official representa-
tions as to the state of the West Indies, and of British
Guiana especially, calmly and intently, and for himself,
examine the present condition and prospects of those
noble dependencies; let him examine their bearing
upon that great measure, in the securing of which he
was the honoured instrument ; let him examine their
bearing, above all, upon the future civilization and the
future liberties and happiness of the African race; and
we feel satisfied as to the judgment to which he must
come, and confide unhesitatingly in the known firm-
ness and decision of his character for the adoption of
those prompt and efficacious measures which alone can
avert from our West Indian possessions the doom
which otherwise we cannot but dread.

The anti-corn-law agitators of Manchester appear
resolved to draw down upon themselves and upon their
cause the indignation and disgust of the entire com-
munity. Yesterday, we are informed by our reporter,
a meeting was held of the merchants and manufac-
turers of the league in that town, for the purpose of
agreeing upon a memorial to be presented to the liberal
members of the House of Commons, praying them,
not merely to vote against the first, second, or third
reading of Sir Robert Peel's modification of the corn-
laws ; not merely to gain for the advocates of free
trade in corn, the greatest amount of advantage of
which that measure was capable; but to stop all
legislation, whatever upon the subject, to obstruct, by
every practicable means the passing of that bill, to
move amendment after amendment, to take up the
time of Parliament, in order that no settlement of the
corn question should be arrived at during the present
session.

Now we do not hesitate to characterise this as one
of the most wicked propositions which was ever put
forward by a party, containing even the merest sprink-
ling of respectability aniongst its ranks. Confessedly,
at the present moment the commerce of the country is
almost suspended, until the government shall have had
time and opportunity to develope their financial plans
before Parliament. The proposed modification of the
corn-laws is viewed as one only of a series of amelio-
rations of our present restrictive policy; and the great
industrial interests of t'he nation look forward with
anxious expectation for their full developement, to
enable them to put forth freely their energies, and to
restore employment, plenty, and contentment to a
suffering population. And yet these unprincipled
" leaguers" deliberately propose that no such amelio-
ration of the condition of the people shall be permitted ;
that the invigorating stream of commerce shall remain
dammed up by torturing suspense and uncertainty ;
that prostrate industry shall remain prostrate; that
suffering and despair shall still be in the house and in
the heart of the working man, unless the majority of
the legislature and of the nation will concede to their
threatening agitation a measure which, in their own
secret souls, the agitators know to be fraught with
widely spread and irrevocable destruction to every in-
terest and every class which comes not within the
circle of their own selfish and sordid contemplation !
Can wickedness, we ask, he greater than the wick-
edness of such a proposition? Can faction, by any
possibility, plunge into " a lower deep" of unmitigaud
infamy ? Surely it cannot ; and we do trust that there
will be found very, very few amongst the " liberal"
members of the House of Commons who will be dis-
posed to listen to a proposition so mischievous and
degrading. At the same time we are quite ready to
meet the attempt. Nay—but for the present injury
which it must inflict .upop, large suffering masses of

the people—w 6 could almost be disposed to bid it
welcome; for certain, we are, that no step on the part
of these frantic agitators would be more effectual in
rousing a united and discerning nation to contemplate
the utter worthlessness and want of principle which
lurk at the bottom of this ft ee trade agitation, that an
effort so purely factious, so insufferably impudent, and
so recklessly dishonest.

We have pleasure in referring our readers to the
very satisfactory proceedings at the half-yearly meeting
of the Sheffield and Manchester Railway Company,
held on -Wednesday last, which will be found reported

in another column. It was our intention to have offered,
in this publication, a few remarks upon the present
position and future prospects of this much-maligned,
though important, undertaking. By some mistake,
however, for which we cannot account, the reports of
the directors and of the engineer have not reached us;
and we are, therefore, compelled to defer our observa-
tions until these documents are received.

The long-expected general meeting of the share-
holders of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway took
place on Tuesday last, at Glasgow, and col . inued,
without adjournment, from eleven o'clock in the fore-
noon till twenty minutes to nine in the evening. After
the reading of the report, which stated that the com-
pany are about to apply to parliament for powers to
raise an additional sum of £300,000 for the comple-
tion of the line, the much agitated question of running
the Sunday trains was brought forward, Sir Andrew
Agnew addressed the meeting with much warmth and
animation, and eventually, when a vote was come to,
there appeared—

Shares. Votes.
For running a morning and evening train 7589.. 1219
Against it .. • •

Majority ..

....4113 571