The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-03-18 00:00:00

with Canadian timber iinported under the
nominal duty of is. a load.

With respect to the operation of the measure upon
colonial interests and the prosperity of the mass of
shipping which the trade from Canada employs, w
should be very reluctant to become its advocate, how-
ever great may be the benefits which it holds out to
the community, if we thought that it would be attend-
ed st ith any great amount of injury to these important
interests. We admit, readily, the fact that, to some
extent, the lowest description of American timber will
be unable to meet competition from the European
grower, and Will probably cease to he imported ; but

the really valuable timber 9f our colonies v".'e do not
think will he seriously injured by this competition.
We are fully warranted in believing that a considerable
rise in price will take place, in consequence of the in-
creased demand for this market, in all the ports of the
Baltic, thus bringing Baltic and Canadian timber to a
fair level in our markets ; and we have that confidence
in the discretion with which Sir Robert Peel has framed
his proposed duties, to believe that whilst they will en-
sure to consumers a supply, at a moderate rate, of a
description of timber which has long been much want-
ed, they will not drive out of the market that equally
valuable article, for general purposes, which we derive
from our own colonies. Sir Robert has expressly re-
pudiated any intention of inflicting injury upon these
colonies ; and from the best information which we can
meet with, we are satisfied that the operation of his
measure will have no more prejudicial effect than a ne-
cessity to consult the interests of consumers impera-
tively demands.

With respect to the injury which it is argued must
be sustained by the holders of duty-paid Canadian
timber, by the reduction of the duty upon that article
from the sth of April next, we are informed that a de-
putation of the parties interested are now in London,
prepared to make, strong remonstrances to the govern-
meat, and to urge that the operation of the measure
be postponed for twelve months, or, at the least, that
the excess of duty upon" stock in hand be remitted to
them. Notwithstanding the circumstance, however,
that the gentlemen originating this movement are, po-
litically, our own friends, we really do not think that ,
they can make out a case which ought to induce go
vernment to grant a concession in their favour. It is
true, we believe, that the stock of Canadian timber at
present on hand in the various ports of Great Britain
is considerably above a usual stock; a greater portion
of it, too, is duty-paid ; and the injury, therefore, to
individual holders, from the immediate admission of
an additional supply at the reduced duty, is, taking
these facts only into consideration, necessarily greater
than it might have been in ordinary years. We must
bear in mind, however, the fact, which cannot be con-
troverted, that last year the importations were at an
unusually low price to the merchant. The trade was
unprofitable alike to the importer and to the ship-
owner; and we are assured, upon competent authority,
that the importer, under the reduced rate of duty,
could not profitably bring Canadian timber into the
market at a price materially below that at which the
present holders could afford to sell their stocks on.
hand. The latter would certainly have to compete upon
unfavourable terms with those parties who hold last
year's importations in bond, and who will be enabled
to avail themselves both of the low freights then paid,
and of the reduced duty. Such parties, however, for
what reason the gentlemen who are now moving in the
matter can best explain, are few compared with those
who have released their stocks and paid the existing
duty, some of them within the last fortnight ; and we
really do think that, upon the ground of any injury
to them, the Government would not be warranted in
conceding either a postponement of the period at which
the proposed measure is to come into operation, or a
remission of the duty upon stock in hand. The latter
concession, especially, would be opening a door which
it would be difficult to close against others who would
put in similar claims.
Upon the whole, we are convinced, and the opinion
of the bulk of the trade is with us, that the proposition
of Sir Robert Peel, with respect to these duties, is one
admirably calculated to meet the public wants, without
unnecessary injury, to colonial interests. Compared
with the measure of Lord John Russell, its superiority
upon every ground is manifest ; and we cannot but
express our conviction that the light in which it is
viewed by a portion of the,,timber trade, consisting,
although it does, of parties with whose opinions, in
general, we perfectly coincide, is one of exaggerated
•
alarm.

We shall endeavour, on a future occasion, to go
more at length into-
this subject, the importance of
which, to this great commercial and maritime commu-
nity, cannot be over estimated. At present, however,
we must he content with expressing thus generally the
views, with respect to it, which we conscientiously
entertain.

We took up originally the question involved in the
disagreement between the directors of the Liverpool
and Manchester and Manchester and Leeds Railways,
with respect to the proposed junction line through
the town of Manchester, upon our own de'iberate con-
viction that the course pursued by our fellow-towns-
men was not only just and reasonable, but that it was
the only course which they could pursue, consistently
with the maintenance of the great interests which were
committed to their management. In this advocacy
we had only our own knowledge of the various details
connected with the subject to guide us, although it was
again and again objected to us that we spoke merely
as the instructed organ of the Liverpool and Manches-
ter board. We have been convicted of no errors of
statement or of argument ; and it is, therefore, a sa-
tisfaction to us to find that the views which we put
forward, solely upon our own. udgment, of the merits
of the points in controversy, are corroborated by the
facts which have at length been placed before the pub-
lic, and which, we are satisfied, will be received by al
impartial men as not only just but conclusive.
'We have pleasure in referring such of our readers as
are int erested in the subject under discussion to the able
and convincing report of the Liverpool and Manchester
board, which will be found in our advertising columns,
and to the report of the proceedings at the recent
meeting, which accompanies it. We believe we are
fully warranted in saying that the statements and the
course of proceedings, recommendeil in the former
document, have given perfect satisfaction, not only to
the shareholders of the Liverpool and Manchester line
but to those also who have hitherto been misled by the
stream of obloquy which has been unceasingly directed
against them, with respect to the perfect honour and

prudence which have actuated the conduct of the Li-
verpool board towards their. Manchester _and .Leeds
'detractors. The able fOiarks- of: Mr. Boothby at the
meeting in question must, considering the views previ-
ously entertained by that gentleman, be highly flatter-
ing to the Liverpool board, as we feel them to. be to
ourselves; and when we contrast with the tone of those
remarks that which is displayed by Mr. Gill, the mana-
ging director of the Leeds line, we -are more than ever
satisfied with respect to the unfair spirit which has
from first to last characterised the conduct of the Leeds
board upon this subject.
It is distinctly stated by Mr. Boothby, who, be it
remembered, came to this meeting predisposed in fa-
vour of, and fully informed with respect to, the
views entertained by the Leeds and Manchester direc-
tors upon the question in dispute, that " the Leeds
and Manchester Railway Company objected to this
company's line by the south," which we have proved
to be at once the best and cheapest line, " lest by a
connexion with the Sheffield line they might open a
communication that would be prejudicial to the inte-
rests of the Leeds company." A notice.of this hostility
to the line in question was also made by Mr. Theodore
Rathbone. We have, ourselves, in previous notices of
the subject, exposed the working of this feeling; and
'We ask is it not a monstrous thing that the directors of
the Liverpool and Manchester Railway should be called
upon to adopt the worst and most expensive communi-
cation with the railways proceeding eastwards and
southwards through the town of Manchester, merely
because the directors of the Leeds line are impressed
with a feeling of jealousy towards a competing line,
and are not ashamed to pervert facts, even, for the gra-
tification of that feeling ?

As an instance of this perversion we need not go
further than to the pages of a pamphlet recently issued
by the Leeds company, to some of the statements in
which the report advertised in our columns is a reply.
Iri that pamphlet the directors of the Leeds Railway
through their.seeretary, Mr. Jellicorse, assert, amongst