The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-06-07 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS

The letter of Robert Rose, Esq. (the bard of colour), has
been received. It is very funny. Does he wish us to pub-
lish it ? We have not the least objection.
LIVERPOOL INFIRMARY.—We have received several com-
munications from subscribers to this charity; complaining
(and we think justly) of the interference and dictation of
certain influential parties, in sending lithographed circulars
in order to induce them to vote for their favourite at the
ensuing election for the office of physician. Though ad-
mirers of fair play, we cannot interfere. The subscribers
are the best judges of the merits and claims of the respeC-
tive candidates, and we cannot suppose that the preference
of any gentleman, however influential, for his own friend,
will induce the trustees, &c., to overlook or reject the su-
perior claims of any other individual.

EIR Etbrrpoot &tanbart.

TUESDAY

MORNING, JUNE 7, 1842

The debate upon the renewal of the sugar duties on
Friday night we cannot but regard as one of the most
interesting of the session, whether as regards the im-
portant subjects which it embraced or the talent which
it developed. In particular, we cannot help pointing
with admiration to the masterly offort of the Vice-
President of the Board of Trade—Mr. W. E. Glad-
stone. By that gentleman a mass of statistical and
other information was brought to bear upon the sub-
ject, which, added to the strong considerations of 'a
different eharacter which exist, to take the article of
sugar out of the category of those articles to which free
trade principles can, at the present moment, with con-
sistency be applied, ought to satisfy, and we are sure
will satisfy, every candid man that the policy of her
Majesty's government, with respect to it, is the only
honest and honourable course which they can pursue.
It was not proposed on Friday, by the great body of
the self-styled friends of the consuming classes, that
by the alteration of the differential duty between foreign
and colonial sugar any additional revenue was to be
derived. In this respect, the notice of Mr. Labouchere
was essentially different from the proposition of the
Whig Chancellor of the Exchequer last year. Mr.
Baring proposed—(we are far from admitting that it
would have had that effect)—to raise an additional re-
venue amounting to £600,000 from this source. The
proposition of Mr. Labouchere, on the contrary, is to
throw away a revenue of something between £400,000
and £BOO,OOO, for which of course some substitute must
be provided. It was urged, indeed, that Sir Robert
Peel would have a surplus available, from the amount
prodnced by his income tax ; but even supposing this
to be the case, of which we are certainly not sanguine,
still it can only fill the place of some other reductions
of the tariff which were to be effected from the same
source, and is thus no boon, in the way of conceded
taxation at least, to the consuming classes.
That this sacrifice of revenue would take place was
clearly proved by Mr. Gladstone. It was shown by
that gentleman, upon the data furnished by Mr. Labou-
chere himself, that the average duty-paid price of sugar
under the proposed new duties would be 545. 6d. per
cwt. The average price of the three years 1830, 1831,
and 1832 was 50s. 3d.—or 3s. 6d. per cwt. less. It
was fair, therefore, to take the consumption per head
of those three years of cheapness as the standard per
head of consumption, under the system of reduced
duties and reduced price. The consumption per head
in those years was 25-1- lbs. per annum ; in 1840 it had
fallen to 241. Giving, therefore, an additional pound
per head, to raise the consumption to the standard of
1830 to 1832, and calculating the population by the
new census, there would be an increase of 18,656,000
lbs., or 8,328 tons,'as the probable additional consump-
tion of 1841-2. If half of this were foreign sugar, the
duty would be paid on this additional quantity to the
amount of £218,714 against £852,400 deficiency,
leaving a nett sacrifice of revenue, from the change, of
£633,700. If the increase of consumption here as-
suured were even to be doubled, there would still re-
main a nett deficit of £417,000.

And what is the amount of the reduction in the cost
of sugar to the consumer to compensate for b
tehirseplolassceodf
revenue,—which, be it remembered, must
by taxation in some other shape ? Why, at the utmost,
the reduction from the present price to that whichMr
Labouchere calculates upon, as the future price, would
be 7s. iod. per cwt., or less than Id. per lb. Calcu-
lating, however, upon the advance which would ne-
cessarily take place in the price of foreign sugar upon
its admission into the British market, the saving to
the consumer would probably not reach three farthings
per lb., or about eighteenpence a year upon his consump-
tion. For this paltry amount we are called upon to
inflict certainly " a heavy blow," if not utterly to ruin
our sugar produciug colonies, and to hold out the
strongest bonus which can be given for the perpetua-
tion of slavery throughout the world. We are called
upon to do this, too, at a time when it is becoming more
and more certain that the consumption of the British
market can he supplied by the produce of our own free
labour colonies, at prices which are steadily decreasing
from year to year. In 1840, according to statements
furnished by Sir Robert Peel, the average price of Bri-
tish plantation sugar was 495. id. per cwt.; in 1841 it

was 395. 7d. ; IT to the preset time the average of 1842
has been 38s 2d., and last week it was 375. 3d. And
" this," justly observed the right hon. baronet, " was
not a mere fluctuation, but a continuous reduction in
przee from 1840 to the present time."
Upon the ground of revenue, therefore, and upon
the ground of expediency even, there is no great
inducement to enter upon this Whig Radical cru-
sade against the Colonial interests, except, perhaps,
in the minds of these few individuals, who may be
ready to exclaim with Mr. Roebuck—" Jamaica to the
bottom of the sea, and all the Antilles after it !" But
the main objection, after all, is the affect of any flinch-
ing, on the part of Great Brityin, from the maintenance
of her attitude of protestation against the continuation
of slavery, and the slave trade throughout the world.
Can it, for a moment, be denied, that the admission of
the slave sugars of Cuba and Brazil into the British
market, must have an effect prejudicial to the dignified
maintenance of that position? Will not slavery there-1
by in Cuba and the Brazils, receive a direct stimulus
even by cultivation in these colonies being rendered
more profitable ? There can be no question of the
fact; and a melancholy subject of consolation it trotild)
be, if Great Britain, after signalizing herself amongst
the nations of the world by her exertions—aye, and her
sacrifices too,—to put down that monster evil, slavery,
in her own OiSlonies, and those of other countries ;
at a time, too, when it is an established fact that those
exertions are fast progressing towards success—should
turn back from her noble work, actuated by the most
mercenary and paltry motives which can degrade hu-
man nature.

The bare mention of the following facts, should alone
suffice to encourage us to go on in the course which
we are at present pursuing. In 1835, the importation
of slaves into the island of Cuba, was to the number
of 40,000. In 1840 the number was reduced to
14,470, or only one-fourth the number which had been
imported six years previously. In Brazil the importa-
tion in 1888 was 94,000 f in 1839 it had fallen to
56,000; and in 1840 to 14,224, being only one-fourth
of the importation of 1839, and one-sixth of that of
1831 ! Still it must be borne in mind, however, that
much of this diminution must be attributed to the
active surveillance exercised by our cruizers on the
African coast. To such an extent in fact has this been
carried that, at the present moment the insurance
upon slaving adventures to the coast of Cuba, is
40 per cent. upon the value of the cargo. Give, how-
ever, to Cuba a profitable trade in sugar cultivation,
and, despite of this heavy risk, the slave trade must be
stimulated ; and in that case, with the admitted vigi-
lance of our cruisers, we ask the anti-slavery party to
contemplate what must be the increased horrors of the
middle passage ?—what must be the added horrors of
this horrible trade ?

Sir James Graham has certainly a strange mode of
protecting the community, and possibly the person of
the Sovereign herself, from the result of incendiary

agitation. In answer to a question, put to him on
Friday evening, by Mr. Ferrand, as to the course
which the Government were prepared to pursue with
respect to the circulation of a placard, recently posted
upon the walls of this town, the atrocious nature of
which we alluded to in our last publication, is re-
ported to have said, that although he admitted that the
placard in question was "couched in terms of great
violence," and that " the,language was inflammatory,"
yet "he had to state, with much pleasure that, on the
whole, the great body of the people, though in severe
distress, had conducted themselves with exemplary
patience, and that no breach of the law of any conse-
quence had taken place, and the Government would
certainly therefore take no step in the matter."

Does Sir James Graham mean to say that the Go-
vernment will "take no step" to put down the circula-
tion of an agitation, admitted to be " inflammatory"
and to be " couched in terms of great violence," until
" the great body of the people" cease to " conduct
themselves with exemplary patience," or until some
" breach of the law of some consequence" takes place ?
Is this, or ought this to be, the language of a Secretary
of State, at a moment, too, when the Sovereign has so
nearly fallen a victim to the disaffection of one of her
subjects ? We really must say it is not ; and, with
every possible respect for Sir James Graham, we must
add, that should such an event, which he declares will
alone vindicate the interference of Government, unfor-
tunately take place, he and they will, morally, be as
guilty of the offence committed.—as liable for the sacri-
fice of life and of the peace of the realm which may be
involved in it—as the criminal, whoever he may be,
and whatever may be his crime.

The proceedings of such a meeting as that held on

bursday last, in our Sessions-house, to give expres-

sion to the thanks of the community in which we live
at the late fortunate escape of our Sovereign from the
pistol of the assassin, we gladly permitted to go forth
to the public, unaccompanied by a word of comment
which could mar the unanimity which ought to prevail
upon such an occasion. Degrading indeed it would be
to the great commercial town of Liverpool if her mer-
chants and tradesmen, however various may be their
political opinions, could not meet on such an occasion
upon neutral ground—could not lay aside, at the stir-
ring of such an event as the threatened murder of
their young and gracious Queen, even the appearance
of party difference. The incitement, however, to our
silence is now past. The loyal expression of the heart
of this loyal town has now gone forth, and is by this
time before the throne of the Sovereign ; and we have
no longer a motive for withholding an opinion with re-
spect to the feeling manifested by a small section of
the meeting towards the criminal himself, whose atro-
cious act it was called to denounce in language befit-
ting Englishmen to utter and the world to hear from
their lips.
We have no wish to remark upon the expression of
the silly individual, who would visit an attempt upon
the life of the Queen of these realms with no heavier
a penalty than that provided for the robbery of a hen-
roost; and prescribe " a month upon the treadmill"
or •" a sound flogging" as the preventive of so heinous
a crime. Such an aspirant to the reputation of origi-
nality will, we presume, be appreciated when the
" Middlesex goose," who at present represents the
Scotch borough of Montrose, is esteemed of equal
wisdom with those sagacious birds whose timely cock-
..

ling preserved the Roman capitol. But we cannot pass
over the sentiments expressed by so prominent a per-
sonage as Mr. William Rathbone,—a gentleman who,
under the late Whig millenium, held the, office of Mayor
of Liverpool,—without, at the least, e ndeavouring to
arrive at the meaning of the unhappy Radical in ques-
tion, which certainly does, to us, seem to savour of
something of rather questionable loyalty.
Although, at the time of giving vent to the piece of
absurdity which we feel called upon to notice, this atra-
bitious Socinian was moving a resolution, which ex-
pressly admitted that the offence of the would-be mur-
derer of his Queen had been attempted on the preced-
ing day, Mr. William Rathbone could not avoid ex-

pressing his coincidence in opinion with the silly being
we have before alluded to,—viz., that no greater noto•
riety than that of the treadmill or a whipping ought to
be accorded to the perpetrator of an attempt upon the
life of her Majesty. Such criminals, argued Mr. Rath-
bone, should not be " martyrized ;" they should not
have a "post mortem honour conferred upon them."
It is not a question with him " whether this criminal
is to be hung, or put to the treadmill, or ke pt in soli-
tary confinement" ; but " let it not," argued Mr. Wil-
liam Rathbone, " be with a martyr's name " ! Min-
gled with all this pure humbug is, of tour se, a vast
quantity of professed deprecation of the attack of the
miscreant upon the life of her Majesty ; but what on
earth, we ask, is the meaning of the deprecation of the
just visitation of outraged loyalty upon the person of
the would-be murderer ? What on earth does William
Rathbone mean by his deprecation of the "post nzor-
tem honour" of punishment upon the person of tl:e
would-be assassin ? Is the life of the Queen of Eng-.
vland to be valued at a less price than that of the mean-
est of her subjects ? Is size alone to be the target at
which every disaffected scoundrel throughout her do-
minions may shoot, with impunity ? What, in fine, is
it that this ultra-W
hig—this ex-mayor, ex-councillor,
and rejected of every honest constituency of Liverpool
designates by the name
he or some of his friendsocfan" enlighten
lairgtinedbnoemutsh' Perhaps
::
gentleman
We are certainly as hostile asi can "martyrdom"
in question to that disposition, too common of late in
England and elsewhere, to exalt every ruffian who takes

the life of a fellow-creature into a hero ;—which leads
even females, and those respectable ones too, to luxu-
riate in the hearing of condemned sermons, and even
to buy finery to dress up the murderer upon the gal-
lows. But we can see no parallel between such a feel-
ling and the expression of loyalty and thankfulness of
a meeting such as that to which Mr. William Rath-
bone addressed the language under notice. We can
see nothing in the calling of such a meeting, upon such
an occasion, which bears evidence of a design to inflict
either " posthumous " or any other " honour " (1)
or what Mr. Rathbone called "martyrdom" upon the
miscreant whose attempted crime had been the occa-
sion of its being called together. Why then should
such a meeting be deprecated as calculated to confer
undue importance upon the crime and the criminal ?
Is it lest the world, following llThig example, set them
in the case of a similar occurrence two years ago, should
set about the task of tracing that crime to the agitation
which denounces the law of the land as MURDEROUS
and the legislators of the land as MURDERERS ? Is it
to hush up inquiry into the connection between agita-
tion and such attempted crime ? Is it lest Conserva-
tive loyalty should seize upon such an occurrence to
break forth into that frantic and howling denunciation
of its political opponents which disgraced the Whig
press two years ago, and turned even a meeting called
for the same purpose and in the same spot as that held
on Thursday last into a bear-garden ?
If any of these are the motives of Mr. Rathbone's
anxiety that the attempt upon her Majesty's life just
made should not be elevated into an affair of impor-
tance, he may, we can assure him, allay his fears. We
shall not imitate the unworthy example set us, even to
put a stop to the agitation which we cannot, neverthe-
less, view as any other than one calculated to lead to
time worst and most fatal results.

The world was just emerging from the cloud of ill
in which ten years of Whig misgovernment had
plunged it ; the shock occasioned by an attack even
upon the life of our beloved Sovereign was fast sub-
siding ; when the entire Conservative body of the em-
pire are once more submerged in dismay and grief—a
grief, too, from which there is apparently no escape,
and which, as loyal men, we must endure in unrepin-
ing silence. The astounding fact has just been re-
vealed to us; and visions of bedchamber plots and
apron-string conspiracies flit before our bewildered
gaze. Bright faces, formed to dazzle and delight,
frown horribly upon us. Curl papers and eau-de-
Cologne, cambric caps and robes-de-nuit, rudely dashed
in our faces, have hurled us back from the pinnacle
of renewed hope and strength into the " slough of
despond," if not into the pit of Acheron itself.
Listen, reader, to the narration of this heart-rending
calamity, and then " to breakfast with what appetite
you may." But first let us premise that, on the ho-
nour of the Liverpool Albion, it is strictly true—

" As true as truth has ever been of late ;"
that that veracious oracle has derived the information
" from one who himself moves in the circles of which
he speaks, and who is well acquainted with all that
passes therein."

Sic loquitur Albion

In plain words, then, THE QUEEN, on compulsion, tolerates
the tories as her ministers, but she will not acknowledge
them as her friends ; and bitter are the lamentations occa-
sioned by this marked dislike and distaste to them on the
part of royalty. In the language of our informant, " great
dissatisfaction prevails amongst the tories at the marked pre-
ference shown by her majesty to those who were about her
during Lord Melbourne's premiership; and Peel is never
asked to dine, if it can possibly be avoided. Another source
of disappointment is, so many whigs are asked to the parties
at the palace. The Queen corrects the list herself, and the
Lord Chamberlain has been obliged to tell many of his nu-
merous applicants, who are tories, that he has no power, the
Queen herself choosing whom she shall invite."

There's for you, gentlemen and Conservatives ! The
Queen only tolerates you " upon compulsion "—a
thing, by-the-bye, which the immortal Sir John Fal-
staff would never have stooped to do. " Peel is never
asked to dine." Poor man ! There is a consolation
for him that, unlike some ministers we could name, he
has his mutton chop and pint of port at home. "So
many Whigs", too, " are asked to the parties at the
palace." Lucky dogs ! Again : "the Queen corrects
the list herself," and the Lord Chamberlain (poor
functionary !) " has no power." Heart-rending pic-
ture ! At this moment it is presented in all its bitter-
ness to our mind's eye. There stands her Majesty,
late the object of the affectionate fears and the devoted
admiration of her loyal subjects; and there the Cham-
berlain, with " list" and pen in hand. " Strike me
out the name of that peer !" exclaims the Queen;
" he's a Peelite." The Chamberlain " looks and
sighs" ; and the aspiring hopes of an heir to an earl-
dom, a marquisite, or a dukedom, are dashed to earth
for ever ! Again : "put me down that Whig for. my
next party." The tailors at the west end forthwith
stand two inches higher in their pumps at the distant
prospect of a cheque upon the Treasury for a debt hi-
therto deemed hopeless; or some Sir Timothy APDid-
dle, from the manufacturing districts, adds another
blazoning to the forged coat of arms upon the panel
of his chariot !

But proceed we with our worthy Albion ; and be
grave, reader, whilst you peruse the following philoso-
phical and truly poetical remarks :

" Such are the sorrows and the griefs of those who are
struggling for the highest places in the fashionable world.
We, in the distance, may smile"—(much in the fashion of a
fox smiling at a bunch of grapes, or a monkey grinning
through the bars of his cage at a nut-vender's basket)—" and
think that such things are of marvellously small consequence,
but we are much mistaken." (Very !) " These trifles are all,
are everything. the summum bonum of happiness and of life
itself, to the gay and giddy throng who flutter in the precincts
of courts, and, like motes dancing In the sunbeams"—(beau-
tiful and original!)—" find no pleasure except in mingling
in the most brilliant circle of fashion which royalty patronizes.
Exclusion from this is misery to them. The poor creatures,
then, are much to be pitied. It certainly must be very horri-
ble for them to feel that they are considered as not " pre-
sentable" by the most exalted personage in the realm."

Melancholy picture this, reader ! and "pity 'tis 'tis
true"; for the Albion informs you that you " may de-
pend upon the truth of this piece of COURT CHIT
CHAT ! His authority is of the HIGHEST ORDER !!"
It is moreover that of one *ho MOVES IN THE CIR-
CLES WHICH HE DESCRIBES ! ! !

Naughty tell-tale ! Who, we wonder, can he be,—
this being who moves in the circles which he describes,
and is hand-and-glove with our friends of the Albion-
office ? The editor of the Liverpool Times would, we
should imagine, give his ears—a bargain they would
be—for such a palace correspondent ! Wig wouldn't
give a button for a dozen such.