The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-02-15 00:00:00

HE WORE HIS CHAIN OF OFFICE

Hail ! tailless bully, Dublin's great Lord Mayor,
As senator rejected and disdained,—
Thy friends have raised thee to the civic chair,
But don't forget, great brnte, to send thee chained !
Feb. 11. R. J

The Irish papers generally assert that Dr. O'Brien, Dean
of Cork, and son-in-law of the Chief Justice of the Queen's
Bench, will be the new Bishop of Ossory.

EXTENSIVE EMBEZZLEMENT.—Information has been re-
ceived by the police of an extensive robbery committed by
two lads in the employ of Mr. Salmon, a linendraper, of
London, whose service they absconded from on Wednesday
evening, carrying off with them cash in gold and silver to the
amount nearly of £4OO, besides four £lO Bank of Englat.d
notes. The number of the notes are fortunately known, and
will, it is hoped, lead to the deteption of the culprits; but
hitherto no clue has been obtained of their destination. The
oldest boy, named John Ogilvie Martin, is only 17 years of
age; the name of the other boy is Jones. 4 reward of -€.7)0
has been offered for their apPrelOnsi"'

. -
DEPARTURE OF LORE ASFPVE.TQW• PERT§MOUTII,
THURSDAYENeeIIency the Right Hon.
Lord Ashburton embarked this afternoon on board the War-
spite frigate at Spithead. He left the harbour between two
and three o'clock, accompanied by Lord John Hay, in the
admiral's tender, and was saluted by the forts with nineteen
guns as he passed. When he arrived on board the Warspite,
the yards were manned, and he was received with another
salute of nineteen guns. Shortly after the frigate was hove
short, and at four o'clock got under weigh, with a light
breeze from about which will just enable-her to lay
her course down channel.

ANTI-CORN-L4W TAt A GUI

(Prom Yesterday's Timis.)

We have not thought. it hitherto necessary to pay wugh
attention to the various meetings which: have been got, up in
connexion with that very seditious set of personages calling
itself the Great AntiXorn-Law Conference—a body which,
as may be supposed, has been in its glory, now that Sir Ro-
bert Peel has. given it something definite to quarrel with.
Their debates on the Occasion fairly put to shame, in quan-
tity, Sir Robert's speech itself, and in quality, we will do
them the justice to say, quite equal those of their past or
present parliamentary eepresentatives. Indeed, two of these
gentlemen, Colonel Thompson and Mr. O'Connell, who took
a part in the morning's amusement, were by no means the
lions of the occasion, but seem to have been fairly thrown
into•the shade, judging at least by the relative proportions of
" tremendous cheering," " renewed laughter," and such like
tributes of admiration, to a very vivacious-gentleman, of
whose speech, the most effective morsels, judging from the
aforesaid symptoms, seem to have been of the following pe-
culiar character :

" A sliding scale ! What was a sliding scale ? A key to turn
the lock on the door of the storehouse of the Universal Fa-
ther of the World—(great cheering,)—n law that took away
the bounty of God freely sent for the support of his children,
sent them into prison, placed them under bondage, and pro-
hibited the thousands and tens of thousands from that which
they had already earned. Cursed law! doubling the primeval
curse, turning the warm sweat of industry into the chill damp
of starvation. (Tremendous cheers.) He denounced that law.
(Cheers.) It was an impious law. (Cheers )

(Cheers.) If they persevered thus to the end, and did not
remain waiting for three months, they would succeed. Saul
at Tarsus acknowledged his Master on one day, and the next
he was preaching to the Gentiles. (Loud cheers.) Display
the zeal of new converts. (Cheers.) Rejoice that you did
not see the iniquity before. (Cheers.) Redeem the time.
Take your arms from the skies, and light this Goliath of the
Philistines. (Loud cheers.) He wanted to get their fee
upon a rock. (Cheers.) If they departed from principle,
and made the question one of time, or place, or circumstance,
or harvest, or averages, or prices, they committed themselves
to a sliding scale. (Cheers.) There were other sliding scales
than those of Sir Robert's. (Hear, hear.) While they de-
nounced his they should not adopt one of their own. (Hear,
hear.)"

One scarce knows which to wonder at most, the liveliness
and exertions of the speaker, or of the audience, in this re-
markable and very offensive speciinen of half pulpit, half
hustings oratory. There is scarcely anything which more
moves our indignation, or is more disagreeably characteristic
of real dissenting sedition, than this fashion of scriptural
garnish which our orator so freely adopts ; especially when
such passages are introduced and succeeded before their
lines are over by " renewed laughter." Indeed this alter-
nation is to rapid, and inexplicable, that we• cannot help
thinking that there must have been something very facetious
in the speaker's physiognomy—he must have had the power
of exhibing some peculiar Listonian contortions of face or
body—indescribable, and therefore unreported—to produce
such results on the nerves of the audience. For example,
he takes on him to speak in " Cambyses' vein" of one of
the miracles recorded in the gospel—the multiplication of
the five loaves " rather than the poor should go hungry
away." (Cheers.) Now for " Sir Robert Peel's speech,"
he proceeds,—(" laughter"—adds the reporter.) We may
be very stupid, but for the life of us we cannot see the joke,
either of the words or of the transition ; and can only fancy
this sudden emotion excited by one of those grimaces with
which it is easy to imagine that such a speech might be
accompanied.
" lie was glad," he shortly proceeded, " that a gentleman
on the right of the chair severed the speech of the minister
from the Sovereign " (whose head, another orator insists,
shall not be cut off). " The ministers were for (qu. against ?)
them—the Sovereign was not. What ! a Sovereign—a wo-
man—a wife—a mother—a patriot Queen, sanction that ini-
quitous mockery of the wrongs of the people! " (Great
cheering, and cries of ' No, no.') No. Not then for their
Queen,

" Now 's the day and now 's the hour—
. See the front of battle lour,
See approach proud faction's power,
Peel and Buckingham,' " &c.
However, we are spending too much time in introducing
our readers to a.specimen of great anti-corn-law conference
oratory. We should say a word or two on the substance of
their proceedings. In the first place, like the leaders of the
masons' strike, and the Lord Mayor of Dublin, the great
conference finds it necessary in the person of its chairman to
remind " gentlemen" that they must " have for the struggle
the sinews of war,"—(hear)— and that they must open
their purse-strings." And this, although he has "got in-
telligence that the Manchester Bazaar has already realized
£10,000." Now this we are always glad to see. When men
of this kind begin pulling at one auother's pockets it is a
symptom of the beginning of an end. Nothing has such a
disabusing power over Englishmen as an attack in that
quarter; and nothing, of course, so certain to betray a rogue
as the command of funds. If there is money flying about,
we may safely calculate on the speedy absconding of a secre-
trry or two—events which will have more effect on the sub-
scribing members' politics than a library of pamphlets, or a
whole menagerie of members of parliament.
Next, it is to be observed who it is they choose as their
parliamentary leader—as the representative of the people's
interests, who, in opposition both to Sir R. Peel and to Lord
John Russell, is to move for the total abolition of the " bread
tax." Mr. Villiers, the quondam employ‘ of the Poor Law
Commissioners. Truly if these gentlemen were really so
anxious that the spare diet of the poor should be increased,
their comforts multiplied, their independence secured, it
might have been expected that they would have betaken
themselves to some party rather less identified with their
gruel, close cells, galling restrictions, and all the other enor-
mities of the red-brick bastiles, than the hon. member whom
they have selected, or who has selected himself, to be their
advocate. Nor in that case would they make them-
selves, what in fact they are, though they try to dis-
guise it by a few hard words, the tools and supporters
of these would-be ministers, to whose ut ; ~g theories, and
hard mechanical practice, so touch misery and oppression is
to. be traced. This, if nothing else, would prevent our be-
ing deluded into any sympathy with these demagogues—that
while they are blustering and labouring to invest a desired
commercial reform with a popular character which is not its
own, and which can only be fastened on it by the most false
pretences, they overlook a plain system of practical.oppres-
sion, which does not depend for its proof on extended exami-
nations, intricate calculations, and nice deductions, but stares
them in the face as a fact which may be grappled with, not in
its supposed causes, but in itself tangibly and immediately.

THE AFFGHANISTAN WAR AND RUSSIAN
INTRIGUE.

The Times of yesterday notices at some length the occur-
rences which induced Lord Auckland to plan, and the home
government to approve, our great expedition beyond the
Indus. Our contemporary first quotes largely from the
the despatches to Lord Palmerston and from the communi-
cations of his lordship, and proves from these, as well as from
other circumstances, that the war of Affghanistan was un-
undertaken against Russian influence, and then proceeds as
follows:—We feared not the Aflghans, we feared not the
Persians, but we had irrefragable proof that the policy of
Russia was sufficiently formidable to demand " a prompt,
active, and decided counteraction." On this point there can
be no difference of opinion between any people who have
taken the trouble to read the evidence laid before Parlia-
ment. But the question as to the nature of that counterac-
tion, and as to the best measures to be adopted for the pur-
pose, is quite a distinct matter. Was it wise for us, a mara-
time power, to select the deserts of Central Asia for the
scene of operations intended to repel the aggression of Rus-
sia ? Was it politic for us to act as a belligerent power,
incurring all the outlay, and (as the result has proved) much
of the danger of distant warfare, when the power we really
meant to cope with was not in the field at all, and, in fact, no
military resistance was opposed to us ?
But the dates of these transactions are still more extraor-
dinary, for it appears from them that at the very time our
armies crossed the Indus to establish Schah Sojah in Cabul,
and to quell the alarming progress of Russian influence
amongst the Affghan septa or clans, Russia had not only to-
tally disavowed 411 her emissaries and intrigues in that quar-
ter, but Lord Palmerston had accepted M. de Ncsselrode's
explanations as " entirely satisfactory," in his despatch of
the 20th December, 1838. The siege of Herat had been
raised, the Sphah had retreated, the Russian government dis-
owned all its acts—nevertheless the expedition proceeded.
The ease then appears to us to stand thus : if the explana-
tions of Russia were believed to be " entirely satisfactory."
the whole case for the war falls to the ground, for it is only
as a war of defence against the intrigues of a great power that
it can be justified ; but if those explanations were false—if
Russia was convicted, by numerous and unquestionable
proofs, of having carried on a grand system of policy hostile
to British interest; and the security of British India (a sys-
tem which her subsequent disavowal only renders more sus-
picious)—if, in short, war was believed to be the only means
of protecting our empire and checking these encroachments,
then, in such a case, the war should not have been a " little"
war, without an avowed enemy or a fair field, hut the really
" prompt, active, and decided counteraction" should have
been applied by British men of war in the Black Sea or the
Baltic.

These retrospective considerations are not without a direct
application to the present state of affairs in Affghanistan.
The military demonstration, which began with the defeat of
Dost Mahomed and the capture of Ghuznee, and has ended
with the insurrection of Cabul, was intended to eradicate the
influence which Russia had acquired over the Sirdars and
native chiefs. We encounter no enemy in the field; the
Sirdars are abandoned by Russia to their fate; all the known
emissaries of St. Petersburgh are disavowed, some are re,
called, some perish in strange ways ; we occupy the country
in comparative security, when a sudden but general insur-
rection breaks out on various points, at the season of the
year most disastrous to our troops. The first victim is Sir
Alexander Ournesi, well known (and denounCed in M.
M. Vicovich's despatches) as the most vigilant servant of
great Britain, and the keenest antagonist of the Russian
agents. The operations of the natives bear marks of a good
understanding amongst the rival tribes and great uniformity
of combination. They must be attributable to some efficient
cause, beyond the mere irritatipn of an ill-used tribe, Is
there any other cause so efficient or so probable as that
power whose growing influence amongst those tribes first
called for our interference?

We throw out these remarks as conjectures; they can be
no more. But the point is reducible to this very clear pro-
position ;--It was demonstrated, in 1938, that Russia hud
made considerable progress in extending her influence by
emissaries throughout Central Asia, and that a treaty had
been signed by the rulers of Candahar, under her Minister's
guarantee, containing stipulations " injurious and offensive
to Great Britain ;" such are Lord Palmerston's just epithets
applied to it. It must now, therefore, either be supposed
that Russia has entirely relinquished the objects she had then
in view, which is not her usual practice ; or that she has
availed herself of the earliest opportunity to turn the forces
of the country against us.

MODES OF LIVING.—The clergy live by our sins, the
medical faculty by our diseases, and the law gentry by our
misfortunes.

A. very serious accident by misadventure happened on Sa-
turday morning at the shop of Mr. Allen, a butcher in South
Audley-street, London. Two lads were playing together in
the shop, when one of them put the head of the other on the
block, and jokingly said, " Now, I'll cut your head off," at
the same time drawing, as he supposed, the back.of the knife
across his throat. Unfortunately, however, the edge was di-
rected to the boy's neck, and being very sharp it cut through
the handkerchief, and inflicted a wound of considerable depth
in the throat. The boy, whose name was James Gibbs, was
removed to the Middlesex Hospital, where he is going on
well.

MYSTERIOUS AND SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCE.-00
Thursday week, as some labourers were removing some ha-
ring from the limestone quarries, in property belonging tp
Walker Smith, Esq, of Brotherton, ;leer Ferrybridge, they
discovered a human skeleton, buried little more than two
feet below the surface, and about thirty yards from the great
north turnpike road, which, from the accompanying circum-
stances, gives ground for suspicion that the body
must have
been murdered. The circumstance of a reaping sickle and a
pocket knife having been found together with the hones, as
well.as fragments of leather, and a coarse kind of greenish-
coloured cloth, gives rise to strong suspicion that the indi-
vidual met with an untimely end. There is evidently an
appearance:of a fracture in the skull, and all the teeth are in
a perfect state which may lead to supposition that it has been
a young corpse. The remains must have been in the ground
for a great number of years, and most probably are those of
some Irish reaper, perhaps murdered by his comrades when
returning home with his harvest labours.—Leeds Mercury.

TO CORRESPONDENTg

in the eiyilt of an equality of votes for a common cons, tl•
man, the alderman of the ward has the waiting vote.
The poetry of "J ML" cannot appear until Friday.

7.l..ibrrpoot

TUESDAY

MORNING, FEBRUARY 15, 1842

We endeavoured, in our publication of Friday, to
convey to the public the feeling with which the pro-
posed measure of Sir Robert Peel had been received
by the commercial people of Liverpool. We took
every pains, which our opportunities of observation
afforded, to arrive at the truth ; and, having done so,
however disagreeable to us it might be to notice that
the first impression created was of an unfavourable
nature, we did not hesitate fully and unequivocally to
admit the fact,—accompanying, however, the admis-
sion with an expression of our belief that, upon mature
consideration and a better acquaintance with the details
of the government plan, it would receive eventually the
cordial approbation of a majority amongst onr best-
informed mercantile men. In this anticipation we are
happy to say that we have not been disppointed; and
we trust that the candour, with which we recorded the
unfavourable impression at first evinced, will bespeak
for us the confidence of our readers whilst describing
the feeling which time and consideration have contri-
buted to produce.

The prevailing opinion amongst all classes, and
especially amongst those of the greatest standing and
weight in this important mercantile community, is
now, we can state without hesitation, unequivocally
favourable to the ministerial .measure, as one admirably
calculated to reconcile conflicting interests, and to effect
a settlement, 'at least for some tune to come, of this
Much-agitated question. As a matter of course, the
opponents Of all restrleliOns upon the importation of
food—the ultra free-trade party—it has not satisfied.
In fact, it is not too much to assume that the very
reasonableness of its nature; and its tendency to con-
ciliate the support of moderate men of all parties, is its
greatest fault in the.e'stimatiOn of these violent politi-
cians. The very fact that it is based upon the princi-
ple of protection to the home agriculturist, is sufficient
of itself to ensure the hitter hostility of men in whose
jaundiced eye the owners 'and the cultivators of the
soil are objects of unrelenting hatred, and who would
gladly witness their utter proStration, in order to erect
an overriding tyranny of capital and " liberalism"
upon their ruins.

There are some, too, we are ready to acknowledge,
amongst our moderate men, who, although favourable
to the degree of protection which this measure is cal-
culated to afford to the agricultural interest of the
country, are yet predisposed in favour of a fixed duty
to effect that object. With such a duty, fixed even as
high as 10s. or 125., it is argued that foreign grain
might be made a safe vehicle of remittance in return
for British exports ; whilst the principle of a sliding
scale, however regulated, is considered as one unfa-
vourable to regular investments by merchants gene-
rally, and as leading to hazardous speculation. These
views, however, we believe that consideration has
greatly and favourably modified ; and the impression
has gained ground that, by the proposed measure, the
hazard, which has hitherto attended operations under a
sliding scale of duties and averages, will be much less-
ened, and that in practice the scale will seldom vary
further than from 12s. per quarter down to 65., be-
tween which limits the great portion of foreign corn
required for consumption in Great Britain will be im-
ported. Substantially, therefore, the measure of Sir
Robert Peel is regarded by them as imposing a fixed
duty between these limits, the gradations of the scale
only operating when the pressure for food would other-
wise render necessary the resort to an order in council
for its admission duty7free.

By the manufacturing interest of MancheSter, we
need scarcely intimate that it has been received with
very general dissatisfaction—so far at least as we have
had an opportunity of ascertaining. We are satisfied,
however, that the public at large have been quite pre-
pared for this feeling ; and, at all events, we are confi-
dent that the merchants of Liverpool will not be de.
terred from awarding their cordial approbation of the
measure which is now, offered for their acceptance, by
all the ravings of the Manchester inonomaniacs. There
are very, very few men to be found upon our Exchange
or in our streets, disposed to barter this chance of a
fair and reasonable settlement of this great question for
the prospect of a total repeal:of all protection upon na•
tive agriculture, which the league-men hold out as the
only measure to which they, in their high mightiness,
will condescend to listen. We have noticed the freaks
and the temper of these gentlemen in another article,
to which we refer our readers.

We have nothing to add to the gratifying report
which we are this day enabled to present to our read-
ers upon this subject, except that the extension of the
number of towns, from which returns are to be made
for the purpose of regulating the averages, and by
which it was feared by some of our best informed corn
merchants that the measure might be impaired in va-
lue to the consumer, has been received with perfect
satisfaction. No indirect attempt has been made; in
the selection of those towns, to act prejudicially upon
the justice and fairness of the general plan. That our
readers may upon this point he enabled to form a
judgment fur themselves, we give here the list for
Cheshire and Lancashire, with which, we are confident,
they will be fully satisfied. For Cheshire the returns
have been made hitherto from Chester, Nantwich,
Middlewich, Four Lane Ends, and Knutsford. To
these towns Sir Robert Peel has added Congleton,
Macclesfield, and Stockport. For Lancashire the re-
turns have been hitherto made from Liverpool, Ulver-
ston, Lancaster, Preston, Wigan, Warrington, Man-
chester and Bolton. To these are now to be added,
Ashton-under-Lyne, Blackburn, Bury, Oldham, Orms •
kirk, and Rochdale.

There is one feature in the proposed corn-law mea-
sure of Sir Robert Peel which we do not think has
attracted the not ice which its importance demands. We

have been told, again and again, by the free-trade agi-

tators that, as applied to the corn growers of the United
States, the very principle of a sliding scale is, per se,
an effectual bar to importation from that country into
Great Britain. Now what, let us inquire, is likely to
be the operation of the proposed scale with respect to
shipments from the United States ?
For some time, it is well .known that a contraband
trade in wheat has been carried on, along the Canadian
frontier, by which 2anerican wheat has been intro-

duced into thB British pb§seision-i, and thence found
its way into British markets, in the manufactured state,
as flour, the produce of a British colony,—paying a
duty at the rate of ss. per quarter when the average

price in Great Britain was under 675., and at the rate
of Gd. per quarter when the average exceeded 675.
The necessarily hazardous and expensive nature of this
trade has to some extent operated as a check upon it;
yot it is notorious that considerable quantities of grain
have for some time been forwarded down the great
rivers and lakes in the interior, and have been tran-
shipped from the River St. Lawrence to this country.
The effect of the measure introduced on Tuesday
last by the Vice-President of the Board of Trade, for
the first time legalises the introduction of American
grain into Canada, upon payment of a duty at the rate
of 3s. per quarter, the corresponding duty upon the
admission of Canadian wheat into the United States
being 10s. per quarter. The measure, however, of
Sir Robert Peel reduces the scale, at which the ex-
treme duty of ss. upon Canadian grain into Great
Britain is charged, from 675. to 545., from which it
gradually descends to ls. on the average reaching
58s. Upon the present average, therefore, of 61s. 3d.,
the duty upon American wheat, transported through
Canada, or shipped at a Canadian port for Great Bri-
tain, would be 4s. per quarter (3s. for the import duty
into Canada, and Is. as the duty upon Canadian pro-
duce on importation into this country); and in no case
could the exports from the United States, if shipped
from a Canadian port, exceed Bs. per quarter. The
only condition which would be required on the part of
the American grower, to enable him to avail himself
of this boon, would be that his grain should be ma-
nufactured into flour within the British possessions.
Undoubtedly we have here a large concession to the
corn growers of the United States, and one which
effectually neutralizes any disadvantage, which on the
score of distance from the British market, they can
sustain from the existence of a sliding scale; 'l'o the

Northern States of America this maritst is always
open, at a duty never•..troecdiay ; and, although
some additional expense of freight will of course be
incurred, it is unquestionable that the agriculturists of
those States must be very largely benefitted. It may
perhaps be a question how far this change may be for
the advantage of the Canadian or the British farmer.
Looking, however, at all the circumstances—bearing
in mind that by this means the employment of British
shipping from Canadian ports will be greatly pro-
moted—considering, too, the beneficial results which
may be created, by the impression to be established in
the minds of our American neighbours, that the ex-
istence of Canada as a British colony is essential to the
preservation, to them, of Great Britain as a market for
their surplus produce, we are not disposed to offer any
serious objections upon the subject.
As a great boon to the people of the United States,
the proposed arrangement is viewed, we understand,
by those of our American merchants who have turned
their attention to the subject; and when added to the
concessions which are made to them by the measure
of Mr. Gladstone, ought surely to induce them to
listen in a kindly spirit to a modification of their own
tariff in our favour. But will they do so, we ask ?
We fear much, notwithstanding the predictions of
the anti-corn law league, that no such result will flow
from any liberality of ours.

The measure introduced on Wednesday evening by
Mr. W. E. Gladstone, the Vice-President of the Board
of Trade, to reduce the duties upon foreign produce
imported into our colonies, was received with the
strongly marked approbation of both sides of the
house ; and whether we look at the judicious or well-
considered nature of the proposition itself, or at -aid
admirable manner in which it was introduced to the
house, we cannot withhold from the honourable gen-
tleman, or from the government of which he is an effi-
cient and valuable member, the expression of our sin-
cere thankfulness. By the colonies to which Mr.
Gladstone's measure applies we have no doubt that it
will be received as a boon of very beneficial nature,
and as an earnest, as well, of the careful attention
which colonial interests are about to receive from the
government of Sir Robert Peel. As such only they
can view it with any great satisfaction ; for it cannot
be disguised now that the position of some of our co-
lonies is one of far too great difficulty and peril to be
seriously benefitted by any measure of this descrip-
tion, however intrinsically excellent.

We called attention recently to the state of things
by which the prosperity of the West Indies is retard-
ed, and which threatens ultimately to effect their utter
destruction as valuable producing colonies. In Bri-
tish Guiana and in others of those noble possessions
the cultivation of the soil with a view to the supply of
the markets of the mother country with tropical pro-
duce must shortly cease, unless some efficacious mea-
sure by which a large supply of labour can be afforded
to the planters is devised by the home legislature. By
the recent advices, brought by the arrival of the West
India mail, the views which we hare previously held
with respect to the condition and prospects of these
colonies are fully confirmed ; and we cannot but de-
spair of any remedy being adopted by the colonists
themselves which can do more than protract for a few
seasons the entire abandonment of the attempt to com-
pete by free labour against the produce of foreign slave
states. This great experiment must be given up, and
with it must be dashed to the earth the fond hopes of
millions of the human race, whose liberties are in-
volved in its successful issue. It is painful to contem-
plate such a lamentable contingency. To the people
of Great Britain—to the humane and good of every
clime—it will be a subject of inexpressible grief and
disappointment if that experiment, in which they have
embarked so large an amount of money and of sym-
pathy, should result only in failure. And yet, advisedly
and deliberately, we must express our sincere and sor-
rowful conviction that to such a result it is at this mo-

went rapidly verging.
So far as the supply of labour, the great desideratum
in the West Indies, can he increased by the efforts of
the planters themselves, we are informed by the last
advices that there is no longer ground for hope. Im-
migration from Sierra Leone, and the migration of la-
bourers from other plaCes to 13ritiaih Guiana, where
their aid is most needed, appear to' have ceased. An
attempt is indeed being made to reduce the exorbitant
rate of wages, and to provide for continuous cultiva-
tion, by internal arrangements between the planters and
their workpeople ; but from this attempt we must con-
fess that we anticipate no permanent benefit to arise,
and we are rather inclined to fear that it may terminate
in the production of ill-feeling and bickerings on the
part of the negro population towards the proprietors of
the soil. We are satisfied that there can be no effec-
tual cure for the evil which presses upon the prosperity
of West India cultivation, except in a measure to pro-
mote extensive immigration into those colonies ; and
we have hoped, and still hope, for such a measure at
the hands of the present government.
So far as it goes, we are quite ready to acknowledge:
that the measure of the Vice-President of the Board
of Trade will alleviate the severe pressure at present.
existing upon the West Indian planters. To some ex-
tent it may decrease the expense of cultivation, and al-
low, perhaps, a small margin of profit upon their ship-
meats of produce to Great Britain. But whilst the
giant evil prevails—so long as the present scarcity and
costliness of labour remains—we can see no hope of
their being enabled to compete with the Brazilian or
the Cuban planter. This, if the noble effort of Bri-
tish humanity is not to be made in vain, is the object
to which the measures of a wise government ought to.
be directed. To effect this the West India proprietor
must not only be relieved from every impost which
presses upon the cost of production, but, above all, he
must be relieved from the jealous suspicions of the in-
judicious friends of the negro race, who, in their dread
of promoting any system the most remotely resembling
that of slavery in those colonies, do not hesitate to cast
every impediment in the way of those supplies of free
labour being procured, without which it is perfectly
evident that cultivation can go on no longer.

Notwithstanding the declaration of Lord Stanley'
that he is unprepared with any large measure to pro-•
mote emigration, generally, from great Britain, we.
trust that neither he nor the government of which he•
is a member will overlook the urgent nature of the.
difficulties under which these colonies are fast sinking:
into ruin. Lord Stanley is deeply pledged to the suc—
cess of the measure of emancipation. lie is well aware,
how vast are the interests which depend upon that suc-
cess; and he cannot be blind to the fact that unless;
an effort is made now; and that effort an effectual one,.
to arrest a disaster which humanity shudders to con-.
template, the great cause of negro emancipation, so far-
as it can be affected by the issue of the experiment to.
raise the products of the tropics by means of free la—
bour, will be lost beyond the possibility of redemp-
tion.

We shall return to this subject upon an early ocea)-
sion, in order to point out the kind of measure with
which the proprietors of the West Indies will be sa-

tisfied

The receipt in Manchester of the details of Sir Ro-
bert Peel's modification of the corn laws appears to
have driven the good people of that town to a state of
mind which calls more loudly for a prompt supply of
strait jackets than for the sympathy and respect of
their fellow-countrymen. Stark frenzy has seized upon
the cottonocracy, one and all; and, from Thursday
morning until the hour at which we write, denuncia-
tions the most violent and furious, against the govern-
ment and the aristocracy of the country, have unceas-
ingly disturbed the • " air serene " of the land of spin-
ning and weaving. Meetings have been held and
speeches spoken; last night the anti-corn-law ladies
danced destruction to the sliding scale; this day a great
gathering, underthe patronage of his worshipful the
mayor of Manchester, is to strike terror into the hearts
of monopolists and landlords ; and were it not that the-
people—the working classes—are most provokingly
apathetic, and have a
very low opinion of the disinte-
rested patriotism of the gentlemen who are enacting
this storm in a teacup, we should be led to anticipate
an insurrection, if not some more dreadful calamity.
Amongst the loudest of the agitators upon this oc-
casion is our friend the Manchester Guardian. He,
good man, is perfectly shocked, and " cannot read
without disgust the almost heartless allusions which
Sir
made Robert
obe the
P in his speech of Wednesday evening,
epeaeltience, with which the great body of the
to
people have encluved the sufferings, to which the us-