The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-12-06 00:00:00

SPAIN.

BARCELONA Nov. 30.

The English ship•of-war Formidable was wrecked yester-
day, near the mouth of the Liobregat. The Gassendi was
sent this morning to take her off the sand-bank on which she
was fixed. The success is uncertain ; but a part of the ma-
terial will be saved.
Barcelona is about to capitulate with the regent. The
junta has ordered the free corps to lay down their arms at
Atarrazanas.

CnrivA.—lt is a striking and even gratifying circumstance
in the late victories that they have been divided between the
two great branches of service with almost an honourable
equality. In India the trophies belonged exclusively to the
soldier. In China the fleet was the great arm ; for, though
the soldier largely was and effectually employed, the campaign,
in its especial sense, was naval. The consequences, too, are
equally characteristic; for, if the Indian victories are to reap
anything, it will be territory • while, if the Chinese successes
are to be substantiated, it will be in the shape of an extended
commerce and navigation.—Britannia.
The ex-ministers, as was expected, lay claim to all the
merit of the success in China!! Lord Palmerston's organs
have held an almost daily controversy with the Conservative
press on this topic since the overland mail arrived ; and
though signally beaten in detail at all points, still press for-
ward to " the fray"-willimatchless assurance. The subject
is too bulky to handle this week ; but we must return to it
in our next, in order to give our readers a fresh and amusing
sample of the hollowness and coolness of the pretensions of
the supporters of the defuntt administration. When the
wretched mismanagement of the Chinese war by the Whigs
is borne in mind—mismanagement extendin., over two years
—one would have thought that China was the last ground in
the world on which they would have attempted to make a
stand ; but the very fact exposes the weakness of their posi-
tion more exclusively than columns of argument.
TALES OF HORROR.—We find the following horrid details
in an lowa paper, and it strikes us as it does one of our con-
temporaries, as the " most extraordinary and cruel relation
of circumstances that ever went forth in type :"—" An old
man lived alone, and had forbidden a daughter, who lived
near, and her husband, or even their children, ever to ap-
proach his place, on account merely of some whimsical pique
that the old man bad taken against his child. One morning
the inhuman being found his grandchild, under three years
of age, climbing upon his garden rail, and he deliberatedly
went for a rifle and. shot the boy dead. The victim fell inside
the fence. The old man reloaded and sat watching. Not
long after, the mother came seeking the child, and the minute
she touched her father's garden rail, as she did with a shriek
the instant she perceived her dead child, the old brute shot
her in the temple and killed her stone dead on the spot. The
hoary maniac (as he is now accounted) shot the father also
when he came, and he is now in prison to answer for the three
murders.

A FLIGHT OF JUDICIAL FANCY.—Some months ago Ho-
race Pagaud, clerk in the Comptroller's-office at Mississippi,
decamped from Jackson, after having forged certain warrants
on the treasury to the amount of 70.000 dollars, and was af-
terwards arrested at Buffalo, New York. Governor Tucker
demanded the fugitive, and sent an agent to receive him, who
visited Buffalo and took the prisoner in charge. On his re-
turn down the Mississippi river, a writ of habeas corpus was
granted at St. Louis, commanding the agent of the state to
produce the prisoner before the court, together with the cause
of his detention. It seems that the agent had no warrant
against the prisoner, nor any evidence to hold him in custody,
except what was called a " sheriff's receipt." When this
was exhibited, on the return of the writ, the judge of the
Criminal Court of St. Louis became quite fanciful, and is
said to have spoken thus :—" No flower of competent proof
nor oasis of legal suspicion gladdens the bewildered eye, but
over the immense plain the bleakness of idle conjecture in
silence reigns. A sheriff's receipt ! Tell it not in Westminster
Hall, breathe it not in the Court of Correction of Errors in
New York, but thunder it the streets of St. Petersburgh
and Constantinople—that congenial atmosphere of despotism
—that a free citizen of the United States is sought to be hur-
ried from one extremity of the Union to the other, by the
questionable authority of a sheriff's receipt in one of the ob-
scure counties of New York. Posterity will not believe it ;
and the court, therefore, orders the clerk to record it at once,
and will pause until it is done."—American paper.

ebe Ribtrnoot gilanDarb.

TUESDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 6, 1842.

In another column will be found as full details as
we have found it practicable to publish, of the intelli-
gence brought by the overland mail from China and
India. Fresh successes have been obtained in Affgha-
nistan, and his Imperial Majesty of China has paid the
first instalment of 6,000,000 dollars, and proposes, it is
said, to " send an Ambassador to London." This will
no doubt have an important effect in preserving friendly
relations with England.. The Emperor, as will be seen,
has consented to ratify the treaty so soon as he is in-
formed it has received the ratification of her Majesty
Queen Victoria.

It was not our intention to return to the subject of
the Corporation Schools until after the meeting of the
Council to-morrow, nor e"en then, unless that move-
ment had taken place, which we deprecated on Friday,
and which since that we have good reason to expect
will not now be attempted. For the sake, however, of
our contemporary of the Journal, we are induced to
forego our intention, in order to enlighten him as to
the meaning of those words in our article on which he
comments, and which he honestly declares are incom-
prehensible to him. Thus speaks the Journal:—

"So much for Fidus Achates'—now for the Standard
itself :

" As the report has reached us, the object in view is to
admit the children of Romish parents to the benefit of an
education purely secular, throwing religious instruction over-
board altogether, and not requiring of them to read the Bible
either in the authorised or the Douay version. Against this
or any similar proposal, wholly irrespective of details, (and
details are also hinted at, on which the Radical party, in and
out of the Council, and their conservative supporters, are not
likely to agree,) we enter at once a strenuous and uncompro-
mising protest. Our duty to God, towards our neighbours
and ourselves, demands this protest at our hands. We must
magnify God's Holy Word ourselves, and teach it diligently
to our own children. And this forbids us, for ever, to be
consenting parties to the exclusion of any other child, or
adult, from the hopes and blessings with which that Word
abounds. 'Tis not that we grudge to the Roman Catholic
child (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that
we do) the utmost benefits of a secular education—but, in
order to that, we cannot become partakers of the sin of his
priest, by consenting to the barter of the child's birthright
for a mess of pottage. The hardship to which the child is
exposed is not fairly chargeable upon us, who are eager to
give him both scriptural and secular instruction, but lies en-
tirely at the door of the priest, who compels his victim to
refuse both, because he fears and hates the Word of God.
And they do not affect to conceal that their hostility is, to
the free use of the Holy Scriptures, even in their own
Douay version of them, without note or comment. This is
the avowed cause of the absence of such Romish children as
have been withdrawn from the schools. 'Tis not that we
have turned them out, but that the priests would not allow
them to come in.' "

" What the Standard means by the words we have put in
Italic type, we honestly declare is incomprehensible to us.
If he does not " grudge to the Roman Catholic child the
utmost benefits of a secular education," why does he refuse
to give it? If he imposes, as the condition of education,
that it must cease to be a Catholic, which it must if it come
to be instructed as a Protestant, how can he say that it is a
slander to say that he refuses secular education to a Catho-
lic? How can he be said fairly to offer that which he couples
with an impossible condition ? How can he " partake of the
sin of the priest," if he takes no notice of the priest? Will
the child be more a Catholic if he comes to the school than
if he does not ? The logic, if logic it may be called, is this—
he will give them no education but such as he knows they
will not take ; and that he calls not grudging them educa-
tion."

We have quoted the passage in full, with our con-
temporary's comment, the rather that it contains the
turning point of the whole controversy on the subject
of national religion in the general, and national educa-
tion in particular, between Romanism and ourselves.
Our principles as Protestants, and our duty as
Christians, oblige us, at all hazards, to promote, by
every means in our power, the knowledge of God's
revealed Will, as contained in the Scripttires of Truth.
The second article of the Popish creed (to which every
beneficed ecclesiastic in the Romish Church is bound by
oath) effectually opposes this, by annexing what it
knows to be an impossible condition (we thank the
Journal for the phrase) to the interpretation or recep-
tion of them—viz., the unanimous consent of the fa-
thers. We cannot, then, lower in our own children,
their estimation of the word of God, as would be the
case if they saw us aiding and abetting the sworn ene-
mies of that Word, in withholding it from the children
their own subjects and slaves. The authority of God's
holy Word we maintain to be paramount and supreme ;
by no power on earth, whether of Church, Pope, or
Potentate can it be superseded or set aside. For this
we contend,—on this we insist. It is not a matter of
choice or opinion with us, it is a sacred deposit held in
trust for the children of the country, of all sorts and
conditions, and we dare not surrender it without a
struggle and a protest. The law of the land makes
the highest court of judicature in the realm the
guardian of the minor, to secure to him his rights and
privileges intact, and in due time to make him
acquainted with, and put him in possession of them.
In obedience to a higher law, and in connexion with a
more enduring inheritance, we insist on the use of
the Bible in our schools, and must continue to do so,
without regard to consequences. .But where it can be
done without .compromise of duty, or surrender of
truth, we are prepared to go to the utmost to meet the
prejudices of such as differ from us; indeed, we have
done so, by waiving our preferences for the catechism
and formularies of our Church, to gratify, where we
can do so, thole who object. Where, however, the
Word of God is concerned, we have no arbitration
given to us; our duty is plain and peremptory. We
have no choice, but discharge it. This the Journal
calls an impossible condition. Who has made it im-
possible ? God, on the one side, has made it impos-
sible for us to surrender the use of his Word. While
the Romish priest, on the other, opposing and exalting
himself against God, forbids his poor victims to ap-
proach or taste it, and compels them to forego the
benefits even of a good secular education, fearing the
power of that very Truth—for it is the truth that
makes men free. This is the meaning of our words ;
and we are persuaded that many of our readers, of
less acuteness than the writer in the Journal, were at
no loss in arriving at it. But it did not suit our con-
temporary to understand us, his object being to defend
the enormity which we would expose : hence he is so
dim-sighted. And truly the defence is worthy and
characteristic of the tactique of Romanism, whose
policy it is adroitly to transfer to her opponent the
imputation of practices and crimes, that are wholly and
exclusively chargeable upon herself.

So much for ourselves. And now, a word upon the
Journal's strictures on the letter of our correspondent,
Fidus Achates," since we scarcely think he will put
forth a finger himself to touch the flimsy frostwork of
transparent sophistry by which he has been assailed.

" Fidus Achates" must perceive that his letter has
told, and done good service, even by the uneasiness
our contemporary displays to get rid of it. The
quotation, especially, from the charge of his Grace the
Archbishop of Canterbury, with the emphatic andorse-
ment of Rector Brooks, is singularly felicitous and
appropriate, and must be considered as decisive of the

question with all sound churchmen. We refer. and' t
candid reader to the extract copied into the Journal,
and venture to say he will not find in it the least

warrant for the explanation appended. The truth is,
the weight of the argument was felt—its application
by " Fidus Achates," to the case at issue, was obvious—
and therefore the endeavour to explain it away. The
Journal remarks, after making the citation from the

letter Now, observe, the expedient' against
which the Archbishop arid Rector are arguing, is the

universal severance of religious from secular instruct
tion, and particularly as involving their own flock:

The words of the Rector are as follows :—" He (the

Archbishop) was speaking of the difficulty of finding
any system which might be introduced into a school

so that the children of all denominations of Christians
might be led to approve of it." Where, then, is the
ground of the qualifying limit assigned in the comment
of our contemporary, and particularly in the words
which we have taken the liberty to print in Italics ?
Of Mr. M`Neile the Journal writes, "The former
person we may safely leave." In this we fully concur.
It is much the safer plan (we say nothing of its candour
or honesty) for the Journal and his friends to leave
Mr. M'Neile alone, than to attempt either to gainsaY
his facts, or to rebut his arguments. Why did he not
give in full Mr. M`Neile's words from the letter of
" Fidus Achates," or the extract from the Judge's
Charge to the Grand Jury of the county of Leicester?
Doubtless, he had good reasons for the suppression.
But our article is already too long, and so, for the
present, we will, after our contemporary's example,
though for a different reason, take leave of him.

In' our publication of Tuesday last, we invited the
Liverpool Journal to point out to us, in a definite and
practical shape, " the source and mode of working Of
the promised increased demand for our manufactured
goods, consequent upon a free trade in corn ; the
probable extent to which we shall exchange mane'
factured goods for such corn; and whether this new
state of-things is to be accompanied by any reduction
in the wages of the manufacturing producer." It will
be admitted, we think, that these questions embrace
the heart of the mystery which is just now agitating
the minds of men. Our contemporary admits the
fairness with which they are put ; and we, therefore,
at once proceed to examine the solution with which he
has furnished us, preserving the division which he has
made of the subject into three points.
First, then, with respect to " the source and mode of
working of the promised increased demand for our
manufactured goods consequent upon a free trade in
corn." We fully anticipated, in an explanation upon
this point, that an advocate of concession to the
foreign grower of corn would be prepared to spew that
concessions in return would be made in the tariffs of
foreign countries—that they would receive our manu-
factured goods on terms which would enable us to
meet the native manufacturer in his own markets.
This plea of the free trader, however, the Journal
throws overboard, at all events so far as the corn-
growing countries of Europe are concerned. These
countries will not now exchange with us upon such
terms ; and we are told, therefore, that it is to America
that we must chiefly look for our supplies of corn, and
our increased demand for manufactured goods.
Turn, then, to America, who, we are told by the
Journal, would reduce her tariff and prostrate her own
manufactures to receive ours in exchange for her corn.
We regard such a conclusion as one not yet proved;
but let that pass. "We should," says the Journal,
" look to the United States for a greatly augmented
demand for our manufactures," as the result of a free
trade in corn. "If we freely received the flour of the
United States, whenever the difference in price was such
as to pay the charge of transporting it to a place of
shipment, and thence across the Atlantic, a very great
importation of flour, and a very great exportation uf
manufactured goods to pay for it, would take place in
ordinary years." Undoubtedly, we should receive such
great importations, and precisely as here pointed out,
and only as here pointed out. We should receive then
when the corn growing countries of Europe could not
supply us cheaper. And when would that event hap'
pen ? The continent of Europe can, we believe, in
average years, raise corn at a much lower rate than the
United States; and it surely never entered into the
imagination of a froo trader, that Great Britain could
discriminate in favour of any particular country, whilst
legislating upon this great question.
Nor would America discriminate in favour of British
manufacturers whilst reducing her tariff. We must
compete in her markets, too, with the European manu-
facturer, as she competes with the European grower in
ours. The profitable character of both the export and
import transactions must depend, therefore, upon
cheapness of production somewhere cheapness of
manufacturing production at home, and of agricultural
production in the corn countries of Europe ; and thus
we come at once to the instrument by which alone
cheapness of production can be arrived at,—via''
reduced wages to the labourer.
But then it is said we enable the merchant to receive
corn at all times, as a safe remittance. We place the
trade in foreign corn in the hands of " general wet'
chants," to be carried on, as a regular trade, accord-
ing to the only safe rule of commerce—the judicious
apportionment of calculable supply to calculable de-
mand." Admitted that such a state of things, and,
above all, the absence of gambling speculation, would
be an advantage worthy of risking something to arrive
at. But is not this almost beside the point which we
have in hand ? for we are not now arguing the question
as to the comparative merits of a fixed duty and a
sliding scale. Let us see, however, how far the nu'
portation of corn can be placed upon this safe footing.
The first effect of the opening of the British ports'
as proposed by the free traders, would undoubtedly he'
as predicted by the Journal, large exportations of
manufactures, and large importations of corn. pro-
bably the next would be the glutting of foreign markets
with goods, and of British markets with breadstuffs;
for the foreign agriculturist can no more wear all Ike
clothing which we send him for his produce than the
manufacturer can eat all the corn he receives for his
calicoes and woollens. Under ordinary circumstances,
such a state of things would. correct itself, and tile
apportionment, in both articles, of "calculable suPPIY
to calculable demand " take place. But corn is not all
ordinary article. Harvests fluctuate constantly,--are
one year good in one country and deficient in another'
or good in all and deficient in all ; and unless we call
speculate upon such an absurdity as the probability of
merchants sending out assorted cargoes of goods t°
barter with whatever nation chanced to have a surplus
of corn, we can have no such safe trade in that article
as theorists dream about. There always has bee°
gambling and uncertainty in the corn trade—periods
of glut and of comparative scarcity,—and there always
will be, whether with a sliding scale, a fixed duty, °r
no duty.
But to return to the question more immediately i°
hand, and from which the Journal has, somewhat
adroitly led us, let ns see what are his conclusions es
to the mode in which the manufacturer is to be affected.
He is to have multiplied " nearly all the extant modes
of disposing of his manufactures ;" but he anticipates
no reduction of duties in his favour except in the
United States. He will receive, however, some access
sion of demand from the markets of Europe, create'
by the prosperity which the opening of the British
corn markets has conferred upon the agriculture a
Europe, but measured by his ability to compete Wit,
the protected industry of the native manufacturer; an
that demand will most probably be confined, or nearly
so, to the raw materials of manufacture—yarns, twist'
&c., our least profitable articles of export. And with
respect to America, conceding the possibility that she
may meet us with some mitigation of the stringencY
her tariff, it is obvious that any greatiy increased coin'
merce with her is contingent upon her ability to 0°1"
pete, as a corn-grower, with Europe ; the extent t°
which she may be willing to depress her native man"'
factures, and our own ability to compete with :
manufacturers of other countries. In Europe, which
will principally supply us with corn, we have only the
worst possible trade in return—a trade in raw materials,
carried on in the face of competition, aided by highly
protective duties ; and in America, which may supply us
with a portion of our wants, we receive only a market
shared by and subject to competition with the saute
countries who now meet us there, and in many articles
are our successful opponents.
And what does the manufacturer give up for these
?
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