The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-04-22 00:00:00

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If we entertained a spite against any statesman, we
could not pray for a severer infliction upon him than
the advocacy of the Liverpool limes; and, if we want-
ed to advance the reputation of any public man, give
us, above all other things, the blundering hostility of
that journal ! Upon this principle, we are delighted to
observe, upon every occasion when either of our ex-
cellent representatives addresses the House of Com-
mons, the heels of our contemporary elevated in an
abortive attempt to kick ; and the constituency of Li-
verpool, we are sure, turn with an infinitely increased
delight to the speeches of the honourable members in
question after enduring the senseless bray of their
feeble traducer.

Our contemporary, on Tuesday last, falls athwart
the senior member for this borough because his lord-
ship had expressed a doubt that the fixed duty of Bs.
upon the importation of foreign wheat, proposed by
Lord John Russell, could be depended upon as a source
of revenue. When the harvest of Great Britain was a
plentiful one, Lord Sandon maintained that no revenue
from an Bs. duty would accrue; when it was a defici-
ent one, it could not be collected. Both these posi-
tions, says the Liverpool Times, are absurd and mons-
trous. Be it so ! Then is Lord John Russell, our
contemporary's chosen philosopher, a charlatan and a
false prophet. With the most abundant harvest, the
Times maintains, the prices of English grain would
not be reduced to within 15s. or 20s. of the continen-
tal prices. An Bs. duty, Lord John maintained, was
a protection to the British farmer ! Again, it is ab-
surd, argues the Times, that in dear seasons an Bs. duty
would be inoperative. In such seasons, however, Lord
John maintains that the duty must, perforce, be remit-
ted by an order in Council.

" Strange that such difference should be
'Twixt Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee !"

With respect to sugar, too, our contemporary assures
us that his lordship is equally in the wrong. "An
immense importation would take place if the discrimi-
nating duty was reduced to 12s. a cwt., as proposed in
the budget of last year." This may be so, and we
dare say it is; yet we sympathise, nevertheless, with
the noble statesman who is cursed with so indiscreet an
advocate. If we mistake not, Lord John Russell, in
bringing forward his notable budget, calculated upon
a saving of ls. 6d. per cwt., only, in the price of this ar-
ticle of sugar ; and it is cruel of the Times thus to tear
his lordship's laboured sophistries into " fiery tatters."
But, with respect to the income tax—oh, John Tay-
lor, above all other men do we pity thee ! It was bad
enough that John Taylor opposed this cruel tax; but
John Taylor and the Liverpool Times together will do
more than all the thunders of all the "forcible feebles"
who rave and rant against it to satisfy the world that,
thanks to Whiggery,

" To this complexion we must come at last !"

We received yesterday the following paragraph,
which we were requested to insert in the STANDARD

" At a meeting of the Commissioners of Taxes, held on
Wednesday, Mr. J. F. Anderson, solicitor, of this town, was
appointed their clerk for the year ending sth April, 1843."
We know not, who. Mr. J. F. Anderson is, or what
are his claims upon the commissioners, beyond the
circumstance that he has within the past few days
washed his hands of any connection with the gentle-
man who recently held the situation, and that he is a
comparative stranger to the town and to its interests.
We must, however, confess that we do not at all ap-
prove of the way in which, if we are rightly informed,
the appointment, which must soon become a valuable
one, has been conferred.
It was only on Wednesday that the vacancy was
created. On the same day Mr. Anderson was ap-
pointed to fill it, that gentleman being the only appli-
cant, and having only on the previous day advertised
the cessation of his connection with the party dispos-
sessed of it. Surely there is here some hole-and-cor-
ner practice. How came it that, in a community con-
taining some scores of respectable professional men,
quite capable of efficiently performing its duties, an
office worth soave hundreds a year was conferred upon
the first aspirant. who was lucky enough to arrive at
the knowledge of its being in the market ? How came
that lucky individual to possess such timely knowledge
of the opportunity that was opened to him ? What
were his especial claims ? In what consists his espe-
cial fitness ? All these inquiries suggest themselves,
and must be ansl.vered ; and we greatly fear that to the
gentlemen in whose hands the appointment rested it
will be a matter of some trifling difficulty to answer
them satisfactorily.
We believe it is a fact that in conservative hands,
mainly, this appointment rested. We do not, however,
on that account argue that a Conservative should have

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Our contemporary the London Times remarks of Sir
Robert Peel's corn bill—

" The debate in the House of Lords on 'Monday night sug-
gests a recurrence to that now somewhat trite topic—the new
corn bill. Never, certainly was there a subject on which
such a variety of contradictory facts were asserted, and when
asserted put to such a variety of purposes. Supporters of
the bill tell us that it will bring down the price of food, and,
therefore, the consuming population are to demand it ; sup-
porters of the bill tell us it will not bring down the price of
food, and, therefore, the farmers are not to oppose it. Op-
ponents of the bill tell us it wit/ bring down the price of food,
and, therefore, the farmers are to withstand it to the death :
opponents of the bill tell us that it will not bring down the
price of food, and, therefore, it is not worth having. Sup-
porters and opponents of the bill, each for their respective
Purposes, tell us that it will encourage foreign countries to
grow corn for our supply. Supporters and opponents of the
bill tell us, each again for their respective purposes, that it
will so raise the price of corn in the foreign markets as to
make the change neither formidable to the farmer nor bene-
ficial to the consumer. What is a plain man to make out of
this concordia discors, this agreement to differ on facts and
applications by which he finds himself stunned and bewil-
dered?"

If he had made use of his ordinary judgment, the
Times would have, perhaps, arrived atithe obvious con-
clusion that a bill, thus opposed by the ultra of both
parties in the House of Commons and throughout the
country, must contain a tolerably fair settlement of the
question at issue. The corn law measure of Sir Ro-
bert Peel, we must conclude, is a moderate and just
measure, which ought to content all moderate and just

We refer with considerable disappointment to the
report in our columns this day by which it will be seen
that the directors of the Liverpool and Manchester
Railway have decided at length upon the adoption of
the proposed junction with the Leeds and Manchester
Railway by way of Hunt's Bank, thus reversing their
previously expressed determination in favour of the
southern junction at Store-street. By this decision the
Liverpool board affirms the proposition to unite their
undertaking with one only of the lines to the south and
south-east of Manchester. By this decision the lines
to Sheffield and to Stockport, Macclesfield, &c., are
virtually disconnected from the Liverpool line, and left
to seek, for their merchandise traffic, a water commu-
nication from their terminus in Store-street to and from
Liverpool, their port of import and export. By this de-
cision the passenger traffic of the Liverpool line is, we
are afraid permanently, shut out from the best commu-
nication with the centre of the town of Manchester,
and coerced into the adoption of a terminus little bet-
ter than their present one,—a terminus from the
neighbourhood of which the business of the town is
rapidly removing itself, and which possesses only one
recommendation that we can perceive, namely, that it
will advance the value of the unsaleable and unoccu-
pied property at Hunt's Bank, owned by that hot•
headed advocate of this junction and salaried director
of the Leeds Company, Mr. Gill.
We repeat that we are grieved by this decision
are confident that it has been come to upon totally in-
defensible grounds. The majority of the Liverpool
board have been entrapped, if not bullied, out of the
exercise of that calm judgment with which they have
ever hitherto conducted the important undertaking
committed to their charge. With respect to the feel-
ing of the town of Manchester they are entirely de-
ceived; and we cannot, therefore, but entreat of them
to pause before they commit themselves to the hasty
course which, on Wednesday, was decided upon.
On Tuesday we shall return to this subject, and we
pledge ourselves to prove every position which we have
here advanced. At present, both our space and the
demands upon our time forbid our going at length into
the subject