The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-03-11 00:00:00

FRIDAY MORNING, MARCH 11, 1842

The afflicting duty is imposed upon us of laying
before our readers the intelligence brought by the last
overland mail from India. The particulars will be
found fully detailed in our columns ; and upon the
heart of every Englishman this awful legacy of Whig
misgovernment—whether viewed in relation to the
bloodshed which has already occurred, the stain which
it has fastened upon the British arms, or the calamities
of which it may, with too great certainty, be looked
upon as a forerunner—must fall with crushing and
paralyzing weight. Upon the, faction, whose insane
and selfish policy has drawn down upon the security
of our Indian empire so disastrous a shock, and which
has sacrificed the lives of so many of its gallant defen-
ders, the universal voice of Great Britain will surely be
raised in a tone of indignation, which ought to compel
every thing which bears the name of a Whig statesman
to hide his head fOr ever from the sight of men to
whom the honour of their country, and the blood of
their fellow countrymen, are not as dust in the balance,
when weighed against the paltry considerations of
place and pay I.

The Morning lieraid,.the Chronicle, and the Post,
we must state,- dive- far more gloom/ particulars ; and
report the massacre of the whole of the Cabool army,
amounting to nearly 6,000 men, and the capture of 14
ladies—the wives of British officers,—a calamity, how-
ever, which we fervently pray has not occurred. There
can be no question, however, with respect to the cha-
racter of the policy of the government which, confes-
edly, has placed our East Indian possessions in a po-
sition of unexampled difficulty. The Conservative
statesmen and the Conservative press of the country
have denounced, throughout, the iniquitous course pur-
sued by Lord Auckland and the India Board, with
respect to this Affghanistan war ; and, even so late as
on Tuesday evening last, in the House of Commons,
the very disasters wltich have since been made known,
and the mis-government which has led to them, were
touched upon with a distinctness, almost prophetic, by
our valued representative Sir Howard Douglas. These
disasters, we repeat, may be exaggerated. We trust
they are ; but if they be so—if our gallant army in
Affghanistan is not as yet annihilated—the thanks of
Great Britain are due to the undaunted courage of our
soldiers, and to the protection of an overruling Provi-
dence, but not to any virtue nr care of the selfish faction
which has wantonly and madly placed them in peril.

In accordance with our promise, we now proceed to
point out a few of those injurious practices to which,
we maintain, is to be attributed, in part, the deterio-
rated reputation of British manufactured goods in fo-
reign markets. And, first, we will take—as one, in the
production and export of which, from the quantity of
manual labour which enters into its competition, it is
of essential importance that the manufacturers of Great
Britain should maintain a high position—the article of
PRINTED CALICOES. Of this description of goods,
and of dyed calicoes, to which our remarks will also
apply, we exported last year, as will be seen by a re-
ference to Burn's Commercial Glance, 278,748,275
yards; and by a comparison of this quantity with the
export of plain calicoes for the same year, which was
366,946,452 yards, it will be seen that printed goods
are perhaps the most valuable of all our exports of
manufactured cottons. To enable us to bring the sub-
ject clearly before our readers, it will be necessary to
trace this manufacture through its entire process—
from the loom into the hands of the foreign consu-

The first operation which we shall notice is the pro-
duction of,the piece of cloth in the gray state. The
length of the piece of 7-Bth printing cloth should he
281 to 29 yards, and of 9-Bths 24,12- to 25 yards ; these
goods, when printed, requiring to measure, respec-
tively, "281 and 241 yards. By practices, however,
which we need not describe, they are made to come
from the loom 30 and 31, and 25 to 26t yards long ;
and the manufacturer is enabled to take " a fent "
from each piece, varying in length from 1 to 21 yards.
In the operations of bleaching and printing the pieces
are considerably stretched, and the printer is enabled
to take off an additional "printed fent," still deliver-
ing the article to the shipper about 29 yards long. By
the shipper these goods are frequently calendered, in
which operation they are further lengthened and the
width consequently decreased ;by the maker-up they
are stretched in "hooking," and very frequently are only
made up in yards of 36 instead of 37 inches, stretched
measure, the result of all which processes enables ano-
ther printed fent to be taken off, whilst the goods, in
nine cases out of ten, go out to the foreign consumer
short of the measure which is marked upon them !
Let us examine the effect of these tricky practices.
In the first place the gray "fent" is brought into
competition in the home market, at a reduced price,
with the cloth in the piece. In the same way the
printed " fent" is brought into competition with the
printed piece. It is well known that the sale of both
plain and printed calicoes, in the home retail market, is
seriously injured by this competition ; and we have a
right to ask from what motives does the manufactu-
rer pursue so baneful a course ? Why, in the name of
common sense, manufacture a piece of goods two or
three yards longer than it is required to be, and sell
the " fent " torn off for less than it ought to be worth
if attached to the piece ? We can divine no reason for
this strange anomaly, unless it be that the weaver re-
ceives no additional wages on account of the additional
length of the piece that comes from his loom ; that the
" job printer" receives no additional price for printing;
and that the exporter pursues the suicidal course of
imagining that the fraud practised upon the foreign
consumer will not rebound in injury to the general
trade of the kingdom, in his time. Unless some one,
or all these motives exist, this mutilation of goods is
manifestly a piece of aownright folly on the part of the
manufacturer, the printer, and the exporter.
It cannot, we may remark, be urged that the prac-
tice in question, to the extent to which it is at present
carried on, is an indispensible one to the trade. We
can remember when it was comparatively unknown.
When the duty upon,,milited- calicoes existed every
piece exported went out its full measure, the excise not
allowing more than ten inches to be torn off for a pat-
tern. The home trade in printed,. goods was then, we
have no hesitation in saying, a more satisfactory one,
and the foreign trade more honestly conducted,—ex-
cept to the extent that both were affected by the frauds
which were practised by the printer upon the excise.
Passing over this part of the subject, however, which
is of comparatively trifling consideration, let us come
to the more general view of the subject. We will
suppose, then, that an exporter receives an order for
a few thousand pieces of printed calicoes of some
given style, in the best colours and upon the best cloth,
for any foreign market—say a three or four-coloured
print, at 16s. or 18s the piece. '['o execute this order
the printer has rollers engraved and blocks cut; and
at the end of a month or six weeks the goods are upon
their way to the foreign market. Having despatched
these, however, he sets his machinery and blocks to
the production of the same patterns, originally in per-
manent colours, in fleeting or otherwise inferior co-
lours, and upon an inferior cloth, which are sent into
the same foreign market to which his former order
was despatched, to compete with those goods, at a re-
diction of two to five shillings the piece ; and here it
must be borne in mind that the difference in appear-
ance between permanent and fleeting colours is not one
which the foreign consumer can readily detect, being,
in fact, often to the advantage of the latter. It may
be urged, however, that the exporter will secure his
patterns, by binding the printer to forward no similar
or lower-priced goods to the same market ; and that the
calico printer who exports on his own account will not
conduct his business on so suicidal a principle. Be it
so ; but then, within six weeks after the original order
has been executed, the "pirate"' has got hold of the
same patterns•; has got his rollers and his blocks ready ;
or, dispensing with the latter more expensive proCess,

111131 pmaticed..tut sFoot Itnit4tion, tintiroly cif marline
work, and is preparod, to &Inge every..ioreign m ar4t
with the very abode which were originally ini6l6ed
16s. to 18s. at:,los. or 12s. Is this, we ask, an over-
strained case ? Is it not every day practice? Has not
a Manchester calico printer—a member of the Anti-
Corn-Law League, Mr. John Brooks—declared, be-
fore a committee of the House of Commons, that the
bulk of his fortune was made " by pirating other men's
patterns " in the way we have described ? And what,
we ask, is the natural effect of such a system ? Why,
manifestly, that the foreign consumer, having no secu.
rity that, when he buys our best fabrics, his market
will not in a few weeks be inundated with spurious imi-
tations, prefers the goods of other manufacturers whose
business is conducted upon a more healthy and honest
principle !
That this is the case in most foreign markets is not,
as the apologists of the. manufacturing system would
have the world suppose, a mere assertion of ours or of
any man's. It is proved by the experience of every
foreign merchant, of every intelligent traveller, of our
own calico printers, even. It has been proved before
a committee of parliament; and the remedy has been
again and again pointed out, and as often refused, by
the free traders of the League. Upon this point Mr.
Richard Cobden, of Stockport, is at issue with Mr.
John Brooks,' of Manchester the scientific calico
printer with the wholesale "pirate;" and whilst both
these gentlemen, who represent classes of the trade,
join cordially in the common object of cheapening pro-
duction, by means of a reduction of the price of food
and of wages, both, in their secret souls, are ready to
acknOwledge that, without some corrective measure on
the part of the legislature, however cheaply we may
produce, we shall never be .able to aspire to the excel-
lence
and to share the reputation of the foreign calk!)
printer in the markets of the world.
We could easily, detail a geat.many of the:.practicet
by which the honest manufacturer of this commodity,
primarily, and the entire trade, ultimately, is preju-
diced; but we prefer confining ourselves to the really
useful and remediable points in- which the subject may
be viewed. We have no wish to raise an outcry against
the manufacturing interest—to draw upon a body the
odium which properly attaches only to 'individual
classes of its members. For the malpractices which
injure the trade of calico printing, and the repUta-
tion of British calico printers in foreign markets, we
do not blame printers exclusively; for we know that
those malpractices are rife amongst merchants and ex-
porters as well; that they are, in fact, evils of the sys-
tem, and as such only can be effectually dealt with.
To those who are acquainted with the history of " job
printing" in Manchester. during the last ten years,
(and there are few who have more reason to know it
thoroughly than the drysalters of Liverpool,) the fact
is tolerably well known that to the mercantile capitalist,
who- has for years past rough-ridden the trade and
fleeced the tradesman at pleasure, is to be attributed
one-half, at least, of the evils of which we complain.
But what, it may be asked, is the remedy which we
would provide, if not a repeal of the corn laws ? In
the first instance, we say, 'encourage the art of design
as applied to calico printing. Extend the duration of
the copyright. Diminish the temptation to introduce
fleeting colours for permanent ones, by untaxing, as
far as possible, the materials required by the honest
printer. And in addition to these measures, we would
say also, if practicable, fix, by a stringent enactment,
the minimum length of the piece of printed calico. By
the present copyright act we believe that the practice
of "fenting" is in part, although, it would seem, in-
effectually, attempted to be prevented. It would per-
haps operate advantageously if it was provided that no
copyright whatever should attach to goods which did
not bear upon both ends of the piece the usual imprint
of publication... Upon this and similar points, how-
ever, we must defer to the opinion of those more prac-
tically acquainted with the subject. .

In our publication of the 25th ultimo, we called the
attention of our readers to a statement put forward at
an anti-corn-law meeting in Southampton, by the
itinerant lecturer George Thompson, which we then
denounced as a gross and impudent fabrication. We
have since been favoured, by a friend to whom they
have been forwarded by the charlatan himself, with
copies of letters from tfie Itr. Henry Ashworth, upon
whose authority the statement was made; and we now
proceed to prove, from these documents, that such
statement was, on the part of Thompson, not only
gross and impudent, but something very much worse !
For the sake of perspicuity we quote again the origi-
nal statement copied from the Hampshire Independent,
a Radical paper, published in Southampton, and dated
the 12th of February :

" I recently attended a great anti-corn-law tea party in
the town of Bolton, in Lancashire, where, you 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 inquired
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, 11d. 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, fesh and fine and tempting, fat and lean beauti-
fully 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.)"
Before proceeding, we ask the reader to mark the
circumstantial nature of the above statement through-
out. First, the "two, rows of fresh meat—one to the
left, and the other to the right—a short row and a long
row," &c. ; and again, " the ,roast beef of Old Eng-
land, and the roast beef of New England." Then the
detailed conversation of my "esteemed friend, Henry
Ashworth"—his journey to Liverpool—his discovery
of " a packet just in from the United States"—his
enquiries, " had they any fresh meat on board ?"
" would they sell the same ?"—and the subsequent pur-
chase of 44 255. worth." Then mark the exclamation
of the itinerant : "There they were, 200 lbs. of Yankee
beef, fresh and fine and tempting, fat and lean beauti-
fully 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 !"
We now 'turn to a letter addressed to Mr. George
Thompson by his,‘‘ esteemed fsipa Henry Ashworth"
gentleman, we may premise, who is high in the
councils of the Ariti-Corn-Lawl League—a member of
the Society of Friends—the correspondent, formerly,
of Mr. Edwin Chadwick, of the new poor law com-
mission, upon the subject of the migration of pauper
families from the southern districts of England to enjoy
the high wages paid in the manufacturing towns—and
who figured more recently as a member of a deputation
to London from that unfortunate body, the Manchester
Chamber of Commerce, upon which occasion our
readers will remember that the unhappy Quaker cut a
very unhappy figure. The letter in question is dated
" Turton; Ist mo., 18, 1842,"—(we entreat our readers
to pay attention to this date)—anct commences in the
proper epistolary style of the society :

" Respected Friend,
" Geo. Thompson."
After sorrbe notice of the said George's lecturing ex-
ploits, Mr.. Henry Ashworth proceeds
" The American beef and pork which .I exhibited was in-
voiced as follows : • £s. d.

- -
barls., weighing 12001b5., at 255. per barl., or 1 „ 10 0
1;t1. per 110. in bond
Duty 12s. per cwt. and 5 per cent. over

7 2 0
0 3 3

Cartage and porterage,.

" Thus it cost me 2.0. per lb."

£l4 15 3

By the above it N Pill be seen, then, that the " fine
fresh beef," " fresh ; Ind fine and tempting," " fat and
lean beautifully mix, ;d," &c., was barrelled salt beef
and pork ; and the 1 reader, who has ever seen any of
the dirty-looking stun T in questi on, will wonder where
were Mr. George Th 'ompson's eyes when he mistook
it for the commodity so magni loquently described to
the gobemouches of S louthampt on.
To this business-like 3 statemer ►t, however, is appended
what is, for Mr. Gec ;rge Tho; mpson's reputation for
veracity, a very mat a propos tu )te, as folloWs :
" I bought it frons a vgular :I)roker on 'Change, and not
off a packet."

tho whole of the dramatic di-Magna betwe6r.

Quaker and tba Yankee—," Haet-thou any fresh beef

Wilt.thou sell the same ?" &c.—is a pure invention--
an lie ! and we beg to ask the anti-corn-
law ladies of Liverpool and elsewhere, what they think
of the man who could be guilty of so barefaced a fraud
upon the credulity of the public ?
But it will be said, " Surely George Thompson has
been misled 'in this matter by his esteemed friend,
Henry Ashworth." Let us see how this is, then. On
the 7th of March the charlatan writes, to the friend who
has banded us the letter from which we have just
quoted, as follows :—" I beg to. enclose you a letter
from Mr. Ashworth addressed to me at Carlisle, in
answer to the enquiries respecting the meat I saw at
Bolton. I had previously, however, related the facts
as I caught them on the platform in Bolton, and they
had gone into print with the error of fresh, instead of
salt, provisions." This is the apology offered by Mr.
Thompson to his friend for the misstatement in ques-
tion ; and to Mr. George Thompson we must say we
are very, very sorry to contemplate the position in
which his own apology places him. Stand up, most
miserable of detected itinerants, and answer the few
questions which we shalt put to you!

"What was the day upon which you uttered the state-
ment above quoted to the people of Southampton ?

Ans. The 4th of• February

What is the date of the letter of Mr. Henry Ash-
worth, in which you were put in possession of. the real
facts with respect to the beef in question ?
Ans. The 18th of January preceding ! -

And yet, Mr. George Thompson, you have the
brazen hardihood to say that previously to the 18th of
January you had given to the world this false state-
ment, by misadvertence, as you " caught it on the plat-
form in Bolton ;" you have the impudence to tell us
that your statement had gone into print, with the error
of fresh, instead of salt, provisions," thereby intending
us to infer. that this is the, only error in it, when your
correspondent's letter clearly proves that the statement
is a fabrication 'from first to last; and as the date of
that letter proves a deliberate fabrication !
You. Went, sir, to Southampton and knowingly,
with the letter which we have•. quoted from in •your
pocket, you uttered there a deliberate misstatement;
you received. there a piece of .plate of the value of 50
guineas frorn the' people whom your untruthful tongue
had gulled;. in extenuation of your fault you have
written to your friend, as a comparison of dates, will
show, an additional, deliberate untruth; and, once for
all, we ask you, George Thompson, what do you think
of yourself ? . what do you call yourself ? for we shall
not sully our judgment-seat. with the only name which
is your desert. Go down, unhappy man, go down—
you stand committed !
Having done with Mr. George Thomson, we shall
enlighten the world with a few passages from'the cor-
reSpOndence of the anti-corn-law Quaker. And first,
with respect to the quality of the " fine, fresh, and
*tempt ing, fat and learr,beautifully mixed beef," which
can be bought at lid. a pound as food for our manu-
facturing operatives, Mr.. Henry Ashworth, of " Tur-
ton, near Bolton," writes,—

" The Americans appear to possess this class of meat in
great abundance, and I find by the New York Herald of the
Ist January, that although good beef is 3id. per lb., they
quote barrelling beef at lid."

Again :

" It is stated that 500 tons of beef and pork, now lying in

Liverpool, have been invoiced from America at various rates
from 25s to 425. per barrel of 2001bs. ; but there is a feeling
of prejudice prevails—the English taste has not become used
to it, though it has long partaken salted herrings and other
fish. The pickled beef loses a large portion, of its saltness
by steeping in water for 24 or 36 hours, and Col. Thompson
says that boiling with potatoes extracts the salt, and improves
the patatoes to some extent ; but all these little appliances
require studying, and, with attention, I think the introduc-
tion of such foreign food would be profitable, adding physical
energy to our dilapidated population " !
Amiable leaguer ! Philanthropic reducer of the
poor of England to a coarser kind of food ! What a
pity that the "dilapidated population" of the manu-
facturing districts, who have long partaken salted
herrings," are not condemned to exercise their teeth
and "improve their potatoes" with this yankee car-
rion!

Another specimen we shall quote in full. It is a

gem 1-

" Respected Friend,

" Geo. Thompson,—

" A relative of mine has recently exported to America a
quantity of British manufactures, and received returns in
lard, of excellent quality for household uses. He ascertained
from the Customs, that if he released it as ' lard,' the duty
would be Bs. per cwt. ; but as ',grease' for wheels, &c., it
would be Is. Sd. only.

" Upon trying the market, he found it was worth more
money to him as grease,' and applied for it upon lower
terms, but was informed that he must first 'petition to spoil
it,' after which an appointment would be made for an officer
to accompany him in performing the following process.
" The Customs officer takes a long instrument, about an
inch in diameter, and bores holes through the casks in every
direction. A' tarred stick' is then introduced into each of
the holes; but if tar should be objected to as injurious to the
' grease,' especially in candle-making, the owner is allowed
to inject, instead of tar, a quantity of what in Custom-house
phraseology is termed ' mare's liquor,' a bucket of which is
procured at the nearest dunghill. (! !) The officer thus be-
comes prepared to attest, that it has been ' spoilt as human
food.

" I understand that butter imported from abroad is ' spoilt'

is the same way

" I am, respectfully, thy friend,
" HENRY ASHWORTH

" Turton, near Bolton, Ist month 18, 1842

" P.S.—My kinsman sold his lard in bond. I presume
he felt either the indelicacy or moral responsibility of such

an act."

We make no comment on the above, although, as a
specimen of free-trade morality, it is superb. The
postscript, especially, beats " cockfighting" !

We are reluctantly compelled to postpone, until our
next, a notice of the two articles which the Manchester
Guardian addressed to us on 'Wednesday. Our con-
temporary views as "important admissions" the re-
marks in our last publication, with respect to our ina-
bility to compete with the cheap labour of the fo-
reigner; and although.he takes some pains to torture
the admission in question into something beyond its
fair application, we'are willing to allow him to make
the most of it, until we have leisure and space to re-
turn to the subject.