The following letter from Lord Kiunaird, addressed to Mr. Edward
Baxter, is published in the Dundee Advertiser. His Lordship also sent a. subscription of 201. to the Dundee Anti-Corn-law movement.
" &rims. 14th January 1839. • " My dear Sir—I so cordially approve of the resolutions adopted at the highly respectable meeting of merchants and others held in Dundee on the 9th of January, that I would beg to be allowed to subscribe towards the expense of employing counsel, if, as 1 trust, the prayer to be heard by counsel at the bar of both Houses of Parliament is granted ; as I am satisfied that it is of the very utmost importance to agriculturists and manufacturers, and consequently to landowners, that those most pernicious restrictions on the importation of foreign grain should be abolished. I had hoped that the change might have been effected gradually; but I now consider the total abolition absolutely necessary to prevent the downfal of our commercial prosperity, and avert the more immediate calamities which would ensue should the harvest next year prove deficient. It gave me also the greatest satisfaction to see that the reso- lution proposed by you for the abolition of the protective duties on the im- portation of foreign manufactures was at the same time unanimously adopted by the meeting. " The passing of such resolutions does infinite honour your fellow towns- men ; and I have no doubt that such demonstrations on the part of those con- nected with the great commercial interests of this country will secure a triumph over the opposition which, I fear, they will meet with in both Houses of Parlia- ment.
[Lord Kinneird, it should be borne in mind, is the proprietor of a beautiful estate in the far-farmed Corse of Gowrie, and comprising some df the finest corn-land in Scotland.]
The steam-ship India was launched at Greenock on Saturday. The tonnage of this splendid vessel, which it is hoped will make the voyage round the Cape of Good Hope to Ceylon in from fifty to fifty- five days, is 1,206 tons, the length 183 feet, breadth 28fr, depth of hold 25. She is commanded by Lieutenant Kendall, R.N. On taking the water, every one exclaimed, " Why, she is as stiff as a church !" This," says the report of the launch, " was most gratifying, because persons had not been wanting who suggested that raising the deck would make her crank. They were, however, astonished to see, that with her masts a-taunto, and full 200 men on her deck, she did not careen at all."
Previous page
