The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-03-01 00:00:00

that, whilst we persist in this absurd and suicidal
course, no mere lightening of the burdens which press
upon manufacturing industry, no reduction in the price
of food or even in the tariffs of other countries, can
afford more than temporary and very trifling relief.
It must not be supposed that the state of things
which we have just described, as the position of our
manufacturers, is peculiar to the markets of the United
States. The same features present themselves in every
market and under every tariff. We have nowhere any
reputation beyond that of cheapness ; we have no-
where a first-rate character ; we have nowhere the most
profitable portion of the supply of manufactured com-
modities ; and hence, in a great measure, our existing
manufacturing distress. Our entire manufacturing
system, in fact, is unsound to the core ! We speak
this deliberately and advisedly; and we challenge de- '
nial of the fact. Great Britain is not now " the
workshop of the world," but the slopsliop only ; the
disease which is preying upon her very existence as a
manufacturing nation is one, exclusively of internal
growth, which no mere legislation, no external appli-
ances can reach; and, with this fact before their eyes,
and it cannot be disproved, surely that statesman and
that party would be mad indeed who would consent to
unsettle the institutions of their country, who would
sacrifice its native agriculture, and thus peril the pros-
perity and strength , of this great empire, to prop up
merely,—to support and sustain, for a time, a thing so
inherently rotten and perishing.
• On a future occasion we shall endeavour to point
out, in detail, the seeds of the evil, whose operation we
have above described. At present, however, we must
be content with calling the attention of the advocates
of the manufacturing interest to the general features
which we here present to them. Can their truth be
denied ?

The division, on Thursday evening, upon the motion
of Mr. Villiers must, at least, if it have no other bene-
ficial result, effectually satisfy the country of the weak-
ness of the ultra free traders, in the present House of
Commons. After five nights' debate, the utmost force,
which the League could drum together, was the paltry
number of 92 in a house of 485 ! No fewer than 10S
"liberals" were amongst the " absent," declining to
march through Coventry, or into the lobby, with so
ragged a regiment.
On Friday evening, Mr. Christopher brought for-
ward his amendment upon the scale of Sir Robert Peel,
and proposed that the duty placed by Sir Robert at
205., when the price of Wheat was at 50s. and under
515., should Le 255. per quarter, and decrease progres-
sively, without the "rests" in Sir Robert's scale, to Is.
at 735., and upwards. To enable our readers to under-
stand, more readily, the working of this alteration, we
place the two scales in contrast together.

When Wheat is at

By Mr. Chris- By Sir Robert
I topher's scale. Peel's scale.

50s and under 51s, the duty would be 25s 20s
51s and under 52s
52s and under 53s
53s and under 54s
54s and under 55s 2ls
55s and under 565..
56s and under 57s
57s and under 58s lBs lss
58s and under 595.
59s and under 60s l6s l3s
60s and under 615....
61s and under G2s l3s..
62s and under 63s l2s lOs
63s and under 64s lls Os
64s and under 65s
65s and under 66s
66s and under 67s
67s and under 685..
68s anti under 69s 6s
69s and under 70s
70s and under 71s 4s 4s
71s and under 72s 3s 3s
72s and under 73s
73s
Upon the division the numbers were—

For the ministerial scale 306

For Mr. Christopher's scale lO4

Majority in favour of ministerial scale.. 202

Amongst the strange absurdities which occasionally
characterise the progress of party warfare, the most
absurd which we have ever noticed was apparent in the
division upon this occasion. The mover himself—
Mr. Christopher—voted against his own motion !—and
the bulk of the minority, voting in favour of tltra pro-
tection to the agriculturist, is composed of the members
of the ultra free trade party!! Perhaps some very
sagacious people can account for such a course of ac-
tion. We must confess, it is quite beyond our com-
prehension.

We cannot but think that the Conservative members
of the Council, who, on Tuesday last, expressed them-
selves in opposition to the proposed clause in the Im-
provement and Police Bill, about to be brought into
Parliament, by which publicans will be required to
close their houses from twelve o'clock on Saturday
night until one o'clock on Sunday afternoon, have not
looked fairly at the question, or expressed the feelings
by which it is regarded by the respectable portion of
the trade affected by it. It cannot be, we think, that
the publicans of Liverpool, as a body, are disposed to
object to an enactment so salutory and so well calcu-
lated as this is to promote the decent observance of the
Sabbath ; and if even any fear should be entertained
that its result would be prejudicial to the pecuniary
interests of this respectable class, we are quite sure
that, upon mature enquiry, it would be found that no
such result is to be feared.

It is well .known that a similar enactment in the
Metropolitan Police Bill met with the opposition of the
same body, (the licensed victuallers,)—upon the same
grounds put forward in the council—viz.; that in
practice it would either be evaded, or would drive
parties disposed to push intoxication into the morning
hours of the Sabbath to the distant outskirts. To a
very limited extent, this fear was realized. Some
evasions of the enactment were attempted; but these
were promptly suppressed, and at the present moment
they cannot be said to prevail to any sensible extent.
We can state from our own observation that the work-
ing of the clause throughout the metropolis is most
satisfactory. Drunkenness on the morning of the
Sabbath is rarely seen, even in the worst neighbour-
hoods. The working classes, whose earnings have,
hitherto, been too often dissipated by the debauch of
Saturday evenings extending through the whole of
Sunday, have, by its operation, been allowed that day,

hitherto spent in the tavern, for a return to sobriety

and comfort in their homes; and we believe firmly
that, notwithstanding their former opposition, the
publicans of the metropolis would now be the first to
cry out against a return to the old demoralizing sytsem.
It is quite true that it would be desirable that such
a measure, to be effectual, should be made general.
This objection, however, to a local enactment is, we
are satisfied, made too much of. The habitual, or the
casual drunkard, who will be debarred from pursuing
. his excess after twelve o'clock on Saturday night, will
rarely -be found at that hour resorting beyond the
limits of the borough for the purpose. In the
metropolis at least we know that this objection, in
practice, is not felt.

In. directing the attention of our readers to the an-
nouncement, in our advertising columns, of a series of
lectures at the Music Hall on the twelve novel articles
propounded in the creed of Pope Pius the Fourth, we
cannot too strongly impress upon them the instruction
which these lectures are calculated to afford. It will
probably be in the recollection of many of our Protes-
tant friends, that at a meeting in this town, held to-
wards the close of last year, the Rev. Hugh M‘Neile
impaled the Church of Rome on the horns of a di-
lemma, from which we feel convinced that all the in-
genuity of the papistry cannot extricate her. The rev.
gentleman then irrefragably proved that until the six-
teenth century the only authenticated Catholic docu-
ments of the church were the Nicena creed, with its
companions, the Apostles creed and the Athanasian
creed. In that century, at the close of the sittings of
the Council of Trent, a new form of faith was proposed
by Pope Pius, and the innovations introduced by that
pontiff will form the subjects of the twelve lectures
about to be delivered. From these novelties we, as
Protestants, have dissented for the last 300 years ; and
we still maintain our protest in defiance of open and
secret enemies. Do any of our friends, or even our
opponents, desire to know against what we protest ?
Let them attend these lectures. Are any in doubt
whether the essential doctrines of Popery are in accord-
ance with Scripture ? Give diligent heed to the in-
struction conveyed in these addresses. The first lec-
ture will take place on Friday evening next, and
amongst the gentlemen who have consented to deliver
the succeeding ones are the Revs. Hugh WlNTeile, Mor-

timer O'Sullivan, Hugh Stowell, Dr. Tottenham, J.
C. Barratt, and others almost equally well qualified.
We believe considerable credit is due to the active and
intelligent secretary of the Protestant Association for
the delivery of these well-timed addresses.