The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-05-06 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS

A correspondent—who seems, by-the-bye, to have designed
his communication for the Albion—informs us that the
name of her Majesty, " Alexandrina Victoria," may be
anagrammatized as follows, viz.:—" I ran to a radical
vixen." Not very complimentary this to her Majesty,
and scarcely reconcilable with the anagram which may be
made from the name 'Victoria alone, which has been ren-
dered Civi Orta—born for the citizen.
An " English Sailor's" observations ought to have been sent
some weeks since.
The poetry of " J. C." does not possess sufficient merit for
insertion in the columns of the STANDARD.
" Mesmer" will perceive that we have altered the signature
of his letter. We have done so in order to say that we
shall be glad to hear from him again.
The promised letter of the gentleman who has recently
adopted the signature of " Pensatore" is anxiously looked
for, and we have no doubt, from our experience of his
communications, that it will be well worthy of perusal,
especially on suchl a subject, and in reply to such a writer
as those alluded to.
" MR. POPJOY'S LIFE IN LIVERPOOL."—We are happy
to announce to our readers, that this distinguished stranger
is about to furnish us with a series of sketches under the
above title, in which he purposes expressing, unreservedly,
his opinion of men and manners in Liverpool.

Elie 9Lthtrpool &tanbarb.

FRIDAY MORNING, MAY 6, 1842

The Manchester Guardian of Wednesday, in noticing
the proposed motion of Dr. Bowring for a repeal of
the duty on cotton, expresses a hope " that the extra-
ordinary and most unaccountable apathy, which has
recently been displayed upon this subject, in Manches-
ter and its neighbourhood, will at length be laid
aside ;" and adds, " if the present most promising
opportunity of getting rid of this most impolitic and
obnoxious tax be now lost, the trade will probably be
burdened with the impost for many years to come."
We are sincerely glad to see the Manchester Guardian
taking up, in earnest, the advocacy of a repeal of this
most " impolitic and obnoxious tax," against which
we have frequently protested, whilst our contemporary
was immersed in the " extraordinary and most unac-
countable apathy" respecting it, which he now bewails.
We must confess, however, our serious fears, that, by
the very apathy in question in time past, and not by the
omission of any " present opportunity" of agitating
for its repeal, we shall, in all likelihood, be condemned
to endure it awhile longer ; for whilst the manufactu-
ring interest and their organs have been busily en-
gaged in the task of rendering office to the Whig-radi-
cal party a bed of roses, and, more recently, whilst di-
recting their energies exclusively to the repeal of the
corn laws, the produce of the duty on cotton has in-
creased so as to form a very important item in the re-
venue. In 1840—we have not a later return at band—
its amount had reached £648,935; and we have little
expectation, however impolitic in our opinion it may
be to tax a raw material of this description, that go-
vernment will be induced, at such a time as the pre-
sent, to strike this large sum from the national in-
come, when the demand for its remission has never
been earnestly put forward by the class which its pres-
sure most affects.

We are quite prepared, however, to second, by all
the assistance in our power, any effort which may be
made by the manufacturing interest to procure a relief
which must be so beneficial to our native industry.
But we almost incline to the opinion, which has been
expressed by some authorities well entitled to be heard
upon the subject, that a total repeal is not to be de-
sired unless we can, by some regulations, preserve the
machinery, which the existence of a duty affords,
for ascertaining accurately the amount of our imports
of the article. Upon this subject Mr. JOHN BURN,
the author of "The Commercial Glance," expressed
himself so long ago as in 1837, in a letter to the Man-
chester Chamber of Commerce, in the following

" The duty Lupon cotton] is four-pence per cwt. upon the
produce of British Colonies, and two shillings and eleven-
pence upon all others. lam inclined to think that it would
be injurious to take off the whole duty. The four-pence per
cwt. could not have been imposed for the purpose of belie-
fitting the revenue, but merely to enable government to as-
certain the quantity imported from our colonies ; and I am
of opinion, that without such a knowledge of the quantity
imported, the trade would be subject to greater fluctuations,
arising from speculations on the quantities imported and
stock in hand. It would, therefore, be worth while to con-
sider whether a duty sufficient to pay expenses would not be
more for the interest of the trade than an entire repeal."
With respect to 'no other branch of our manufactures
do we possess such accurate statistical data as the cot-
ton manufacture ; and we repeat, that unless we could
by other means preserve this accuracy, however much
we dislike the continuance of unproductive duties upon
any article, we should prefer a nominal duty upon cot-
ton to an entire repeal, with the uncertainty as to im-
ports and stock on hand and the consequent gambling
in the article by which it must be accompanied.

Sir George Stephen—a gentleman well known to
that unfortunate class of our fellow-subjects who con-
stitute the West India body, if not to the world at large
—has just published, in the columns of the London
Times, his views as to the measures to be adopted in
the present disastrous state of West Indian affairs.
Well would it have been for the people of Great Bri-
tain ; well would it have been for our colonial interests ;
well would it have been for the cause of freedom and
for the permanent happiness of the African race—the
especial objects of the philanthropy of gentlemen of
his class—if the crude theories of Sir George Stephen
and his fellows had on all past occasions been treated
as our metropolitan contemporary has treated the pro-
position before us, by subjecting it to charge as an or-
dinary advertisement ! Traders in pseudo philanthro-
pic projects, to be carried out at other people's expense,
had they been thus taxed, might possibly have been
more careful than they have hitherto been with respect
to the ultimate tendency of the pet projects which they
have submitted to the world.

The object of Sir George Stephen, in the communi-
cation at present under our notice, is to suggest a
scheme for the immigration of labourers into our West
Indian possessions, "for the consideration of the West
Indians, on the one hand, and of the anti-slavery body
on the other—a scheme which seems to promise fa-
vourably for the views of both parties.l IWe will not
pause to ask what right the self-styled " anti-slavery
body" have to obtrude themselves into the dictation,
or direction even, of the means by which immigration
is to be promoted into any free British colony. Our
intention is, at present, merely to lay before our read-
ers the nature of the scheme in question, and the ad-
missions by which, on the part of this anti-slavery
leader, it is accompanied ; and we do not conceal the
fact that the important nature of the latter is our prin-
cipal incentive to enter upon the task which we have
undertaken.

And first then, with respect to the scheme itself, Sir
George Stephen thus explains the motives to subserve
which it is intended :

" It is well understood that at the present moment the po-
sition of the West Indian colonies is most critical from the
high price of negro labour; it is equally notorious that the
anti-slavery party is intent upon the discovery of some prin-
ciple for the civilization of Africa of a less hazardous cha-
racter that that of which we are now lamenting the failure
and its fatal consequences."