The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-05-20 00:00:00

FRIDAY MORNING, MAY 20, 1842

If we have been amazed, in past time, by the min-
gled mendacity and ignorance displayed by the Liver-
pool Times, his last publication has actually petrified us
with astonishment ! The best of journalists may, oc-
casionally, blunder; dishonest journalists do, occasion-
ally, deal in misstatements—shrewdly concealed, how-
ever, amongst specious arguments and unimpeachable
truths ; but our Tuesday's contemporary, with a lavish-
ness and profligacy unparalleled in the world of jour-
nalism, heaps misstatement upon misstatement, blun-
der upon blunder,—nay, absolutely runs riot in una-
dulterated folly, and palpable, glaring, inexcusable
falsehood !

In an article entitled "The Working of the New
Corn Bill," in which this measure of a Conservative
government is sought to be mumbled to pieces by its
rabid and toothless opponent, our contemporary re-
marks in the following style

" During the discussions on the New Corn Bill we were
told by Sir Robert Peel and other advocates of the sliding
scale, that large quantities of foreign corn would no longer
be kept out of the market until the duty sank to a few shil-
lings a quarter, as it would not be worth while to incur the
loss of interest of money and the expenses of bonding for the
chance of such a reduction of duty as would be attainable
under the new scale. The fact that there are at the present
moment eight hundred thousand quarters of foreign wheat
in bond in this country, and that, of all the quantity that was
in bond when the 13s. duty came into operation, there has
not been as much liberated as would furnish the population
of Liverpool with one morning's breakfast, is a sufficient an-
swer to this assertion."

Now, at the very moment when this brazen assertion
was made, that there had not been as much corn libe-
rated in Great Britain "as would furnish the popula-
tion of Liverpool with one morning's breakfast," the
new duties had been paid upon the following quantities
in Liverpool alone,—viz., in the week ending May sth,
upon 9,470 quarters of wheat and 28,272 barrels of
flour; and, in the week ending May 12th, upon 9,251
quarters of wheat and 23,619 barrels of flour : in all,
during the fortnight, upon 19,721 quarters of wheat
and 51,891 barrels of flour ! We have not at hand the
necessary data for ascertaining the amount paid in
other ports throughout the kingdom; but it will be
admitted that 20,000 quarters and 51,000 barrels, the
quantity paid upon in Liverpool, would form a tolera-
ble breakfast for the population of that town ! It
would be wasteful to throw away upon the stolid in-
tellect of our contemporary the satisfactory reasons
which exist, to account for the circumstance that a
greater quantity has not been paid upon. It may be
desirable, however, that he should know that nearly
the entire consumption of this port and neighbour-
hood, since the new law came into operation, has been
taken from bond—a fact which is clear from the returns
to the corn inspectors during the past week having in-
cluded sales of British wheat to the trifling amount of
889 quarters only !

Our contemporary continues—(we give the whole of
this article as an editorial curiosity)—to reason upon
the facts (!) in the paragraph just quoted, as fol-
lows :

" So far from a fluctuation of nineteen shillings a quarter
in the duty not being sufficient to induce holders of foreign
wheat to keep out of the market, a fluctuation which cannot
be equal to more than eleven shillings under any circum-
cumstances, which is not generally expected to be more than
seven, is found to be quite sufficient to produce that effect.
Had we had a fixed duty of eight or ten shillings, there
would have been no inducement to postpone the payment of
duty on the grain now in bond, and had the whole, or a con-
siderable part of it, been liberated, it would have checked the
advance of prices, at the same time that it would have fur-
nished nearly half a million to the treasury. The evil does
not, however, end here, for if prices should go up in this
country, they will go up at least as much on the continent,
so that by keeping the present stock of bonded corn out of
the market, the law is adding several shillings a quarter to
the price of all the grain that may be bought abroad during
the next three months."

The first sentence above we would be obliged to any
kind friend or to the writer himself (if capable) to ren-
der for us into intelligible English. We have at pre-
sent only a confused notion of its meaning, and there-
fore pass it by. The next sentence we take to imply,
in substance, that had we now an Bs. or 10s. duty, the
whole of the stock of foreign grain in the country
would have been at once liberated and thrown upon the
market—depressing prices and " contributing nearly
half-a-million to the treasury." Now this, we must
maintain, does not at all follow. Had we a fixed duty,
at present, no more grain would be liberated than was
required for consumption ! Corn-dealers are not such
perfect madmen as our contemporary supposes ; for,
had it even been their inclination to throw their entire
stock upon the market, they could do that without
paying the duty. In fact, the entire stock is so far in
the market at present that a very trifling advance upon
the prices of this week would induce them to enter it
at the present rate of duty ! The law therefore is not
either "keeping the present stock of bonded corn out
of the market," or "adding several shillings a quarter
to the price of all the grain that may be bought abroad
during the next three months."
Our contemporary proceeds :

" The following fact, which may be relied upon, shows
how fallacious the present mode of taking the averages is as
a test of the price at which good grain is selling. The Li-
verpool average for the last week was only 465. 9d. owing
to the inferior quality of the Irish and English wheat sold
here, but it is within our own knowledge that some thousand
quarters of free foreign wheat were sold in Liverpool last
week at from 10s. 9d. to lls. the 701b5., that is, at from 775.
to 795. per quarter. The real average of the week was thus
much nearer 70s. than 465. 9d., but as foreign grain does not
count in the returns, it goes forth to the country that we are
buying wheat at Liverpool at from five-and-twenty to thirty
shillings less than the real price of good grain."
And what, we ask, is the real value of this " fact
which may be relied upon " to show "how fallacious
the present mode of taking the averages is as a test of
the price at which good grain is selling" ? Why, that
the Liverpool average for the last week was only 465.
9d.; and why ? Because the sale of only 889 quar-
ters of Irish wheat was returned to the inspector. It
was never intended that any particular return from any
particular town was to be the test at which " good
grain is selling," even in that town. If last 'week only
low Irish wheat at 6s. to 7s. per 701bs. was returned
to the inspector as sold, next week only prime samples
of English at 9s. to 10s. may be returned, and the
average will thus be adjusted. Again, what effect can
the sale of 889 quarters have upon the general average
of the kingdom ?—for it is that which the act purposes
to arrive at. The general average last week was 595,
Bd., which is a fair average for the price of even fo-
reign grain, in Liverpool or elsewhere. That circum-
stance, however, our contemporary prudently sup-
presses, as he suppresses as well the fact that whilst
the best foreign wheat (not, however, to the amount of

" some thousands of quarters") has been sold at los.
9d. to 11s. per 701b5., inferior Baltic has not been
saleable at more than 6s. to 7s.—the price of the infe-

rior Irish, upon which the inspector's average is
founded.

Our readers, we dare say, will be ready to exclaim—
" Enough, enough !" We ourselves are tired of treat-
ing seriously such irredeemably mendacious and absurd
trash as is the whole of the article from which we have
quoted. When we see, however, the public judgment
upon the merits of a great measure, which ought to
have a fair trial and an honest report, even from its
opponents, misled by the statements of a journalist
who obviously can neither comprehend it nor adhere
to the truth in speaking of it, we are compelled to ex-
pose his ignorance and his dishonesty. Will no kind
contemporary take him off our hands ? We are heart-
ily sick of him, and should imagine that his own party
are not over-enamoured of his bungling advocacy.

The Manchester Guardian—semper mutabile !—after
six weeks' apparent alienation from the Anti-Corn-Law
League, has returned at length to the support of that
factious body. Whilst the league itself is commencing
a fresh career of seditious agitation, and, so far as in it
lies, preparing the stage, the " properties," and per-
formers (who are to be the " famishing millions") for
the enactment of, what it very plainly tells us is to be,
" a national tragedy," the Guardian steps forward to
denounce untried, and upon false premises, the new
system of corn laws; and to %throw in a furtive pallia-
tion of the mischievous and almost treasonable course
resolved upon by its more rabid and daring allies.

" Every day's observation," writes the Guardian, " ren-
ders it more and more evident that the new edition of the
sliding scale which has just come into operation will serve, at
any rate for the present, almost as well as the old one for
juggling the farmer and injuring the manufacturer, by pre-
venting a regular and steady trade in grain. Sir Robert Peel,
in his late speech on the reduction of the import duties, took
great credit to himself and his colleagues for having ' reduced,
in a very material degree, the price of the necessaries of life ;'
in proof of which reduction, be referred to the alteration he
had made on the duty on wheat. At the time he was speak-
ing, the six weeks' average, which regulates the duty, was
595. 3d. ; and, if the old law had been then in operation, the
duty payable on foreign wheat would have been 275. Bd. ;
whereas by the new law it was only 13s. per quarter. Now
here was an apparent reduction of 14s. Bd. on every quarter
of wheat imported into this country, but, so far as the con-
sumer is concerned, a real reduction of not one farthing."

We cannot set down any portion of this loose rea-
soning, or, rather, these assertions of the Guardian to
ignorance, such as that displayed by a flimsy writer
upon the same subject, noticed above. Our Manches-
ter contemporary may fairly be taken as one of the
most able and well-informed of the opponents of the
corn laws ; and, therefore, when we find him tripping,
we are fully justified in concluding that the cause it-
self, and not the advocate, has broken down from in-
trinsic weakness.

The consumer, our contemporary says, has not de-
rived from the alteration in the corn law " a real re-
duction of one farthing. Does the Guardian mean to
assert that if the old scale had existed, unaltered, the
price of wheat would have been what it is at the pre-
sent moment ? If he does, we can tell him that he was
never more mistaken. From the ascertained insufficiency
of the stock of free wheat in Great Britain, it is mo-
rally certain that, under the old law, the average would
have been just now, if not at the summit of the scale,
at least rapidly approaching it. The stock in the mar-
ket would just now have been withheld from the con-
sumer, except at nearly famine prices ; and, with har-
vest approaching, the revenue and the farmer would
both have been " juggled" by a large importation at a
nominal rate of duty. The consumer, therefore, has
been benefitrd thus far, that ruinously high prices have
been averted ; and it is only owing to the limited stocks
of home-grown wheat remaining in the farmer's hands,
together with more than average prices abroad, that an
actual reduction has not taken place. Prices, too, it is
well known, have, since the passing of the act, accom-
modated themselves so far to the rate of duty antici-
pated that no material change could reasonably be
looked for upon its coming into operation.
Our contemporary proceeds—

" From the London papers of yesterday, we learn that in
Mark-lane an advance of 2s. per quarter had taken place on
English wheat, and that the holders of foreign corn, of which
there is a considerable quantity in bond, are holding it back
in expectation of such a rise in the averages as will reduce
the duty to Bs. per quarter."
Admitting, for argment's sake, the correctness of this
statement—admitting that circumstances may warrant
such an anticipation, on the part of holders---still the
improvement of the new over the old system is obvi-
ous, To procure a reduction of the present duty of
13s. to Bs.—the point fixed upon by the most sanguine
of the Mark-lane speculators—the average, at present
595. Bd., must reach 645. To procure the introduc-
tion of wheat at los. Bd. even, under the old system,
the average must have been 705., whilst speculation
for a further rise to 71s. was invited by a further re-
mission of 4s. in the duty, for the one shilling advance
in price ! Upon the Guardian's own showing, there-
fore, the consumer is here benefitted between six and
seven shillings a quarter.
In addition, however, to the superiority here shown,
it must be borne in mind that such a rise as is con-
templated by the Mark-lane dealers can never take
place except from strong inducing circumstances, other
than the combination of capitalists for selfish advan-
tage. At the present moment, if grain could be pur-
chased abroad to leave a profit upon a fixed duty of Bs.
or los. per quarter, a demand for consumption with a
slight advance in price would at once procure its re-
release from bond at the existing duty, in preference to
the risk, on the part of holders, of waiting for lowered
duties. There is not now the same inducement, which
existed under the old law, to invite combination ; there
is no rapid jumping from a high duty to nominal rates ;
and as experience has already shown, in an advancing
market even, the consumer will always be sufficiently
supplied.

In conclusion the Guardian informs us, on the au-
thority of a statement in the London Times, that " the
highest price of white wheat of the first quality in Paris
is now 435. 6d. the quarter, the highest price of simi-
lar wheat in London being 70s. per quarter ; " and re-
marks that it is not likely that the agitation of the Anti-
Corn-law League will cease while the sliding scale thus
tends to maintain the price of wheat in England sixty
per cent. above what it is in France." We object both
the statement and the argument founded upon it. We
doubt much that wheat of such quality can be pur-
chased in Paris for 435. 6d. If it can, however, de-
ducting the Parisian city dues, it can be sold much
lower than this in French ports ; and it is certainly not
a 13s. duty which prevents its profitable importation
into Great Britain.

In drawing the attention of our readers to the ap-
proaching meetings of the Liverpool and West Lan-
cashire Church Missionary Association, whose annual
report will be found in our advertising columns, there
are one or two passages in that document upon which
we feel impelled to offer a few observations. Deeply
gratifying it must be to the Christian public of Great
Britain—and we trust not otherwise to the public of
Liverpool—to learn that the labours of this association
are being abundantly rewarded; that its sphere of use-
fulness is being largely extended; that, day by day,
not individuals only, not: tribes even, but nations are
supplicating the privilege of coming within the reach
of its benificent arms; and; deeply pained will that pub-
lic be to learn that the duty and the will of the asso-
ciation to concede the privilege affectionately suppli-
cated, are crippled by the want of the
,pecuniary means
to support its efforts in the good work.
" So inadequate," observe the committee of the
Branch Society in their report, " was• the supply to
meet the demands, that the expenditure of the past
year exceeded its income £19,000. Not: that the re-
ceipts of the society were less in the List than in the
preceding year,—on. the contrary, they vere somewhat
more ; but the growing expenses of the, missions, in
consequence of enlarged success, have of itrun the libe-
rality of our friends at home. In this NI ray the society
has incurred a considerable debt in th e past year.,,
It is painful to cont emplate such a state of things, and
the result to which it must lead, if pen nitted to con-
tinue. We trust., however, to the Chris:tian spirit of
Englishmen and of English women—ever foremost in
works of beneficence—that suer a result, which we
shrink from co' atemplating, will yet be averted. Cha-
rity amongst v s—and that is charity which distributes
the bread of life to all who hunger for it—" is not
dead, but slee peth."

By the people of Liverpool the appeal about to be
made to thee a will, we trust, not be made in vain. _Last
year we find by the same report, that the amount re-

ceived by the Liverpool Bratich was £2174 IGs. lid:
—a falling off, as compared with the receipts of the
preceding year, of about L7O. We venture, however,
to express our earnest hope that, with the circumstances
of the parent society before them, our fellow4ownsmen
will now make an effort worthy of them and worthy of
the cause in which their aid is solicited.