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

Ivaa 39e. 7d. ; up to the preset time the average of 1842
has been 38s 2d., and last week it was 375. 3d. And
" justly observed the right hon. baronet, " was
not a mere fluctuation, but a continuous reduction in
price 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.
_____ 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-
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 would
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 Colonies, 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. _ _ _

this,

•
The bare mention of the following facts, should alone
suffice to encourage us to go on in the course which
we are at prssent 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-lourththe number which had been
imported six years previously. In Brazil the importa-
tion in 1888 was 94,000 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
Thursday 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 heavie.
a penalty than that provided for the robbery of a hen
.00st; and prescribe " a month upon the treadmill"
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 cack-
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, endeavouring 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
)e accorded to the perpetrator of an attempt upon the
.ife 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 kept 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 course, 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 mor-
tem honour" of punishment upon the person of the
would-be assassin ? Is the life of the Queen of Eng-
land to be valued at a less price than that of the mean-
est of her subjects ? Is she alone to be the target at
which every
thisevery disaffected scoundrel throughout her
i
do-
minions may shoot, with impunity ? What, in fine, is
ultra-Whig—this
every honest constituency of Liverpool
ra-Whig—this ex-mayor, ex-councillor,
and rejected
o designates by the name of " martyrdom" ? Perhaps
he or some
of his friends can enlighten us.
We are certainly. as hostile as can be the gentleman
in question to that disposition, too common of late in
England and elsewhere, to exalt every ruffian who takes