The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-01-21 00:00:00

THE NIERCLIA

REA

(From I,

'he Dublin Xvening Pae,kel,.)

Why, we would ask, do not the merchants of Landon or
Liverpool meet and take steps for founding a Marine College ?
Let such a school be formed, and make it matter of usage,
if not imperative, that every lad aspiring to the officer class
shall undergo a certain course of tuition. Let the practical
parts of seamanship, such as splicing and serving ropes, turn-
ing in blocks and dead-eves, reefing aed furling sails, the
marks of the lead lines, &c., be taught here. Masts might
be rigged in the ground ; or the college itself might be held
in some large old vessel moored in the river. Lads from
such a school would no longer go on board a vessel ignorapt
of every thing around them ; and, capable df being made im-
mediately useful in the actual navigation Of the vessel, the
temptation of employing-them in the menial service of the
ship would be less.
In any event, however, this latter practice should be
speedily and promptly abolished. if the masters of the ves-
sels do not admit these lads to their own tables—and we do
not see why they should not—let a mess be formed in the
after-part of the ship, or in some other part, bulk-headed off
from the crew, for the second or third mate and the young-
sters. Where one or two only of such lads are employed in
a vessel, we would make it imperative that they should mess
with the master, so as to be shut off from the influence of the
crew. If the lad be articled to the merchant, broker, or mas-
ter. it would be imperative on them, when the vessel arrives
in port, to send the lads to their friends, or to the Marine
College above contemplated, and not to let them run down
Wapping or Ratcliffe Highway, as is too often the case at
present. The commanders also should receive a special in-
junction to see to the conduct of the lads in foreign ports.
At present they get their " shore leave" indiscriminately with
the men, and are, consequently, led by them into every haunt
of vice with which all the seaports unfortunately abound.
These are crying evils—evils that come home to the bosom
of almost every family in these maritime kingdoms ; and it
is matter of surprise to us that they should have been so long
tolerated, without any attempt at remedy.
We would urge the necessity of some board of examiners,
to be appointed by Government or by Lloyd's, or by some
other competent authority—we care not how, so it be efficient
—for the examination of masters and mates of vessels. It is
astonishing how careful we are of little things, whilst we ut-
terly neglect those far more important. A man may not
presume to administer a doze of salts to an old woman in a
country village without his certificate of capability ; but he
may undertake the command of a vessel in which 300 or 400
lives are entirely dependant on his skill, without having been
subjected to any public test whatever! This should not be.
There is not a nautical man of any experience but could ad-
duce numerous instances of vessels and lives lost from the
sheer ignorance of those to whom they were intrusted. What
care the owners ? They are fidly insured—and you, if a pas-
senger, may insure your life, 'if you will, for the benefit of
your next of kin.

We do trust to see this state of things altered. The spirit
of the age—nay common humanity demands it. A young
gentleman, carefully nurtured and well educated, who may
choose the sea as a profession, should not be made the com-
mon drudge of every sailor in the vessel—nor should he, when
(with mind debased and principles perverted, under their re-
gimen,) arrived at man's estate, be allowed to assume the
command of a ship, when the lives of many valuable mem-
bers of society depend on his skill, without having undergone
some public test of his fitness for the important trust com-
mitted to him. _ _ _

The whole subject is one of such vital interest that it loudly
demands the attention of the legislature, and the interference
of all good men.

[Our contemporary will be glad to hear that the defect to
which he so forcibly alludes is about to be removed, by
the establishment, at the Collegiate Institution in this
town, of such a school as he recommends. It is deter-
mined to introduce there the Greenwich system of train-
ing, and periodically to grant certificates of proficiency.
upon the examination of experienced commanders, to de-
serving students. For want of such a desirable institu-
tion, our merchants have been in the habit of obtaining
apprentices from the Royal Nautical Schouis at Green-
wich ; but as the Collegiate Institution is supported by
the great shipping interest of the port, and directed by the
most wealthy and enterprising of the merchants of Liver-
pool, any such well-digested project emanating from it is
certain to be crowned with success. An outline of this
plan was given in the original prospectus, and, we are glad
to hear, has met with the greatest degree of enthusiasm.—
En. L. S.]

GERMAN NOTIONS OF ENGLISH POLICY.

(From a German paper.)

We read in the Allgemeine Zeituny of the 27th of Dec.,
a more favourable account of the state of the Niger expedi-
tion. We need not tell our readers that the pretended object
of this new and colossal enterprise of England is the aboli-
tion, or rather prevention, of the slave trade. But Europe
is not to be cheated any.longer by such pretexts. We are sur-
prised that the usually sharp and clearsighted writer in the
Allyemeine Zeitung did not immediately detect and hold up
to Germany the insidious and grasping projects which lie
concealed under this pretended philanthropy. For the ambi-
tion and cupidity of England it is well-known no aim is too
bast, and no means too corrupt. We have seen her progress
in Asia. The world is beginning to see clearly what are her
designs in that quarter of the globe. After having wasted
the treasures of India, amassed for ages, and exceeding all
that the imagination of the west could represent to itself ;
after exhausting the soil, reducing the formerly free and en-
lightened natives to the condition of slaves,and overthrowing
the peaceful and solid thrones of the rulers under which
they lived ; after having made this venerable seat of ancient
culture the victim of a grovelling industrial egotism, the En-
glish are now preparing to repeat the same process in China.
The gold of England will corrupt the fidelity of the servants
of the celestial empire, and it has before reduced enemies
whom her arms failed to subdue. It is indeed a feature in the
detestable machiavelism which characterises these insatiable
traders that their greediness assumes the air of boundless
profusion. This is one of the many singular appearances
which has imposed on the world. The whole of Asia, then,
with the exception of the provinces over which the Russian
eagle keeps guard, may be regarded as already within the
gripe of England. Very shortly the Chinese will see them-
selves compelled to take frOm England, not only her opium,
but her porcelain and hardware,-her cottons and woollens.
The exquisite manufactures of China will be suppressed
(verdriingt) to make way for the fabrics which England is
compelled, by a law of her existence to force upon the
world. The pretext that she receives other productions in
return, is too empty merit an answer. All who are not
blinded by the doctrines of her economists—men hired to
varnish over the act of a reckless egotism—can see that Eng-
land has no other view than that of forcing other nations to
take what she produces ; what they have to give does not
even occupy the attention of these selfish shopkeepers.
Asia being thus her doomed prey (and if any one doubts it
we refer him to a series of articles which have lately appeared
in the Ausland,) the wily traders are beginning to spread
their nets around the unsuspecting inhabitants and princes
of Africa. Already we see them exploring these new and
rich regions of the earth, forming treaties and winding their
insidious coils round the unfortunate sovereigns whom they
affect to protect. When events are ripe the mask will be
thrown off, and the manufactures of those betrayed people
will be immolated at the shrine -of the Moloch of English
commerce. . .

vv
Already the English are in possession of the southern ex-
tremity of Africa; for many yea's, in contemplation of this
gigantic conquest, has a settlement been maintained on the
western coast, where thousands of Englishmen have fallen
victims to the far-reaching ambition of which they were the
blind tools. It must be evident.to every reflecting mind
that Sierra Leone has been held solely as a stepping-stone to
the conquest of Africa. Here, too, we find the true key to
what is called the Eastern question. Mehemet Ali might
have proved a formidable antagonist in the north. It was
important to cripple him. There remains now only the
French power in Algiers. Abd-el-Kader is already in the
pay of England, and has had placed at his disposal large
funds with which to secure other Arab chiefs. We need say
no more. We have unveiled the secret and rapacious pro-
jects of the Queen of the Ocean, and our readers can easily
follow out the' details.

Asia and Africa having now become provinces of England
there remains only America. Here, however, the English
encounter a foe as crafty and as greedy as themselves ; in
short, their lineal descendants. In North America there is
little chance for them, except from the execution of an infer-
nal project already announced by their press—of arming the
blacks and exciting a servile war. Their eyes are therefore
tnrned to the south.

If our readers doubt what are the views of England on
this pOint, let them read in the Allgemeine Zeitun9 of the
28th of December the fearful account of " the net with which
England seeks to encircle the extra-European world " (to
use the author's expression) ; in other words, the lines of
steamers communicating with every part of the globe. That
these vessels are to be used as means of subjugating all those
regions there can be no doubt. Companies are formed,
money is poured out like water, incredible efforts of ac-
tivity and skill are made—and for what end? For the con-
veyance of passengers and goods? There was a time when
in our German simplicity and true heartedness we might
have believed this; but, Heaven be praised, we are grown
wiser. Our neighbours have awakened us by their insolent
aggressions from such dreams. The idea that these cumaing
and practised traders embark such enormous gums in these
enterprises with the mere view of getting a return for their
capital—in short, because, to use their characteristic phrase,
"it will answer," is too shallow to delude us. We see
deeper.

We have not alluded to the already constituted empire in
New Holland, nor to the infant, but robust, colony of New
Zealand. It may not be known to our readers that a consi-
derable number of young men of family are gone to the lat-
ter country, under the specious pretext of growing flax, and of
finding for the moderate capital of kyounger brother a more
productive employment than in the crowded mother-country.
These are the fables (nziiherehen) with which it is sought to
entertain us goodnatured children. As if young men trained
in the luxuries of an artificial civilization would abandon their
cherished " comforts" for such humble and commonplace
(alltaglich) reasons. Other young Englishmen are, under
the pretext of love of adventure or of antiquities, exploring
every corner of the earth. Such travellers as Lane, Fellows,
and many others do not, however, impose on us. Why
should young men who are not learned by profession
(gelehrten) consume their youth, their health, and their for-
tunes in hazardous expeditions, from which they can neither
derive nor expect personal benefit ? What has a young
hanker to do with ancient Syria? But in this respect you,
of all nations, may learn of these haughty islanders. Their
country's aggrandizement is an object they never lose sight
of. As missionaries, as archaeologists, as men of science
(naturforsehen), as sportsmen, or simply as ennuyes, all are
actuated by one spirit and tend to one point—" the drawing
this new net of conquest completely over the whole extra-
European world."

THE COFFEE TRADE.—A movement is just now beingmad
in the coffee trade for a modification of the duties levied on
the various descriptions ; and the promoters have, it is said,
already prepared a petition to the president of the board of
trade, embodying their wishes on the subject. The matters
discussed in the petition, which has gone the round and re-
ceived the signatures of all the leading houses in the trade,
are not new, but have before been broached, though without
without any practical success, and the reason they are again
renewed is the confident knowledge of the desire of the pre-
sent government to look into the various evils complained of
as existing in our commercial system, with the view of ren-
dering all necessary relief. The petitioners appear to consi-
der that the reduction of the present duties levied on coffee
are not only necessary to the existence and prosperity of the
trade, bat also that the revenue would be greatly increased by
the alteration, and show that the duty has been reduced frini
ls. per lb.to 6d. per lb. there has been an increase in the col-
lection by the customs and excise of nearly doable the amount
originally collected. The scale of duties proposed, and which
are stated to be sufficient for the protection of the various
interests indentified with the trade, if proper measures are
adopted to prevent the enormous adulteration now in practice
by disreputable dealers, is 3d. per lb, on certificated British
plantation coffee ; 3d. per lb. 011 Mysore, which is stated to
be in reality British plantation ; Vd. per lb. on coffee impor-
ted from British ports within the limits of the East India
Company's charter, without a certificate of growth ; and 71,d,
per lb. on all foreign coffee direct ; which. it will be observed,
is a reduction of one-half of the existing duties, except
it on
the
case of Mysore, which is reduced one-third, to bring on a
level with the admisSion of the produce of our colonies, and
for the reason before stated. There is every reasonable ex-
pectation, seeing the high respectability and character of the
parties who have taken the-matter up, of its receiving atten-
tion in the proper quarter.—London Times.