Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-06-25 00:00:00

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS—FRIDAY.
Several private bills were passed a stage, and the house
adjourned till Monday, eleven o'clock.

POLITICAL AFFAIRS.

The Conservatives have determined to oppose Lord Bury
at Norwich.

The Post says that in Oxford, on Thursday, the impression
was that great exertions will be necessary to ensure Mr.
Gladstone's return.

Lord Palmerston has issued his address to the electors of
Tiverton. He hopes the ministry he has formed will prove
satisfactory to parliament and the country. Only two
political topics are introduced. The address says it will be
one of the great objects of the government to preserve for
their country the blessings of peace, and to take advantage
of any favourable opportunity that may present itself to
exert the moral influence of Great Britain to assist in
restoring peace to Europe. On Reform, Lord Pal-
merston says :—" I trust that we may be able so to deal
with that subject as to strengthen the institutions of the
country by placing them on a broader and firmer foundation.
Mr. Jas. Wilson will probably be opposed at Devonport
by Mr. Busfield Ferrand.
The talk about opposing Lord John Russell in the city
appears to have come to an end.
The Herald emphatically denies that Lord Derby has
stated that he would never again accept office. The
Herald asserts that at no period since 1841 has the
Conservative party been so formidable to its opponents.
The greatest enthusiasm prevails in all ranks, and the fullest
confidence is reposed in its leaders.

The Times says it is reported that the Chancellor of the
Exchequer will retrench largely on the naval expenditure,
and regrets that the extraordinary efforts made within the
last twelve months, to give this country a fleet able to
defend its shores, are to cease.

A POPULAR HISTORY

Or 1111

WORKING CLASSES.

ADDRESSED TO THE WORKING CLASSES
THEMSELVES.

THEIR El 3 3 AND PROGRESS---bOCIAL AND POLITICAL

PART SIXTH

CHAPTER SECOND.

MANNERS, HABITS, AND CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE IN
THE EIGIITEENTH CENTURY- CONTINUED.

It would have been well if the London gallants
had been content to confine their follies to the
metropolis • but, fond of variety, they sought the
country, where they astonished fox-hunting squires,
and made love to their unsophisticated daughters.
It was thus that many a youth whose chief hope
of triumph was confined to a fox-brush, and whose
gayest party was a country wake, was converted
into a London beau. As soon as his father had
broke his neck over a five-barred gate, or drunk
himself out of the world (the chase and hard
drinking were the chief pastimes of the country
squires in those days), the rustic aspirant turned
his back upon the old mansion of his forefathers
and hied to London, dressed in his leathern breeches
tied at the knee with red taffetta, his blue jacket,
and his great coat with buttons no bigger than
nutmegs.(l) Although his entry was so uncouth
as this, however, he took care to announce that he
was somebody, in which case he was very soon
surrounded by those who took care to lick him into
shape and make a man of him. Bullys, beaus, and
sharpers took him into training ; his levee was soon
thronged with tailors, silk-mercers, and cabinet-
makers; with fiddlers and dancing-masters ; with

prize-fighters, horse-racers, pimps, and parasites ;
and thus in an incredibly short space of time he was
translated from a raw bumpkin into a finished
gentleman of the town. He was now ready to run
the well-known ." rake's progress ;" and his new
instructors teok care that he should lose no time.
They first led him into all kinds of dissipation,
generally treating him at their own proper cost,
and when they had thus secured his confidence
they gradually led him to the gaming table, where
he was soon brought to fell his forests and mortgage
his paternal acres. Hogarth has shown us what
followed,—the dilapidation • of fortune—the hated
marriage to retrieve it—the fresh course of riot
ending in after beggary—and the closing scene of
all in a madhouse.
At the period I am 'speaking of, London was full
of the most dangerous characters—a kind of brutal
swell-mob, by whose turbulent conduct the peace of
society was outraged. There was a class, for
instance, styled " Darby
,captains;" who attended
gaming houses ; " Lash captains," who were
champions to women of the town ; and " cock and
bottle captains," who frequented ale-houses, and
whose peculiar vocation consisted in bullying
timorous persons; and doing other such exploits, for
hire. But the worst of. all were the .class called the
"Mohawks." Those fellows, who • assumed the
name, and out-did the atrocities, of a tribe of Indian
savages, acted under a President, whom they styled
" Emperor of the Mohawks," and their aim was to
excel each other iu wanton outrages. (2.) An attack
upon the watchmen was a favourite exploit. But
what they chiefly aimed at was to mingle wit and
originality with their mischief ; and a few of their
practical jokes will give a full idea of their character,
as Well as of the barbarism and insecurity that still
reigned in London in the eighteenth century. One
favourite practice of theirs was what was called
" tipping the lion" on their victim—that is, they
squeezed his nose fiat, and gouged his eyes out with
their fingers ! Some of them, again, were called
dancing. masters, because they made people cut
capers by thrusting swords into their legs ; others
tumblers, because they placed the women they
caught topsy-turvey upon their heads. Another
choice device of those wretches was to tumble a
woman into an empty barrel, and then send it
rolling down Snow-hill. (3.)
While London was infested with such desperadoes
as these in the eighteenth century, the Scottish
metropolis was no less free from the same choice
specimens of character. The Scottish." hell fire club"
in Edinburgh, in fact, seems even to have been more
daring in impieties and indecencies than any of the
notorious clubs of London. It abounded with
associations also similar to those of the mohawks,
which I-have just referred. to. One of these .was
called the " sweating club," from .the practice of
chasing the people through the streets at midnight,
and almost sweating them to death. Street mischief
and misrule, however, were not by any means con-
fined to those infamous associations. Judges • and
advocates, we are told, might be seen reeling through
the streets at midnight, laughing to scorn the laws
which they administered by day, roaring ba.chana-
lian catches, and hailing every raganinffin they met ;
while the lawyers clerks imitated their example.
From time immemorial it appears the Edinburgh
houses had had a pin at the door, instead of a
knocker. This was a notched or twisted bar of iron,
standing perpendicular from the door, and bearing a
small ring of the same metal, which was drawn along
the bar when the person sought admission—an
operation familiarly called " tirling the pin." When
the knocker superseded this primitive accommodation,
the innovation displeased those nocturnal swaggerers,
and they were . not scrupulous in testifying their
resentment. Sometimes a whole street of houses
had its knockers wrenched off in a single night. (4.)
But the great object of hatred on the part of the
Edinburgh brawlers was the town guard, composed
chiefly of highlanders a body which was originally
established by the Regent Murray. These town
guard formed a sort of terror to the inhabitants at
this time, from their rude and savage conduct when
in the least.provoked ;.and the poet Fergusson, whose
wild kind of life often brought him in contact with
them, has celebrated them in many a rhyming_
malediction. I cannot resist the temptation here of
quoting from his poems the following sarcastic
account he gives of their march to Leith races :

" To whisky plonks that'brunt for -ouks,
On town-guard sodger's faces,
Their barber bauld his whittle crooks,
An' scrapes them for the races.
Their stumps erst us'd to philabegs,
Are dight in spatter dashes,
Whose barken'd hides scarce fend their legs
Frae weet an' weary plashes
0' dirt that day.
" ' Come hafe a care,' the captain cries, .
On guns your bagnets thraw ;
Now mind your manual exercise,
An' marsh down raw by raw.
An' as they march, he'll glow'r about,
Tent a' their cuts an' scars ;
'Mang them full many a gausy snout
Has gush't in birth-day wars,
Wi' blude that day.
" ' Her nainser maun be carefu' now,
Nor mann she be mislear'd,
Sin' baiter lads bae seal'd a vow,
To skelp an' clout the guard.'
I'm sure auld reekie kens o' nane
That wad be sorry at it,
Though they shou'd dearly pay the kain,
An' get their tails weel sautit,
An' sair thir days."

The guard of Edinburgh, like that of London, was
not a match for a city mob in those days. It will be
remembered how resistlessly they carried everything
before them in the Porteous affair. (5.) The poems of
Ramsay and Fergusson plainly show us that hard
drinking was carried on to a great extent amongst
the Edinburgh burghers throughout the principal
part of the eighteenth century, and, in spite of the
severe censure of the Church, the time was spcnt
more in the tavern than at their own firesides. Nor

21..
IS:leeeanT- Tatter ii
'f' sntttrsecttoakiella. -,
3. Hone's Every-day Book.
4. Chamber's Traditions of Edinburgh.
(6. Vide Sir Walter Scott's "Heart of Midlothian.,,

are the Edinburgh ladies presented to us in a very
amiable light. A certain bluntness and licentious-
ness, we learn from the literature of the period,
pervaded their conversation ; and even the youngest
and fairest of them could sing, with wonderful
complacency, such songs as are now to be found
only in virtuosos and cabinais. The eldest daughter
of the Earl of Royston, a lady of wit, beauty, and
accomplishments, used to di,guise herself in male
attire, and scour the streets at midnight in quest of
adventure ; and in one of these sallies, _we are
informed, she fell into the hards of the town-guard,
and was confined for a whole night in the guard-
house. The plaid, in fact, which they wore so
gracefully disposed over the head and shoulders, like
a Spanish mantilla, served to conceal a multitude of
sins in the shape of assignations and intrigues, a
;circumstance which brought upon it the law of both
'town council and Kirk session. Dressed in this garb,
they frequented taverns and oyster suppers, nor does
it appear that on these occasions they stinted them-
selves in drinking to the measure of feminine
capacity. In domestic economy the Scotch made
but slow
.progress up to the end of the eighteenth
century. Edinburgh enjoyed the unenviable distinc-
tion of being the filthiest city in Europe. As for the
dwellings of the labouring classes, they were filthy
in the extreme, and badly provided with everything
in the shape of accommodation. The Royal palaces
of Holyrood and Falkland were covered with thatch
till about the middle of the seventeenth century.
Such a condition of licentious manners among the
people as I have been describing formed a fruitful
source naturally for great superstition and credulity,
so that fortune-tellers and astrologers were even
more numerous at this period than in the previous
century. But the greatest amount of credulity was
displayed in the faith which they now put in
medical quarks, These persons became numerous,
and many of them realised immense sums of money.
One of them, of the name of Smith, used to ride
his circuits in a coach drawn by six bay horses,
attended by three other coaches bearing his Merry
Andrew, apothecary, and speech-maker. This
person professed to cure every human disease that,
"flesh is heir to," and sold his packets for sixpence.
And such was the unblushing effrontery of those
charlatans, that the foot of the mountebank's stage
was often covered with medals and certificates
purporting to have come from the King of Egypt,
the Emperor of Persia, and other remote potentates
in attestation of his wonder-working cures. Their
mode of advertising was curious, and in perfect
keeping with their character. Sometimes the doctor
advertised that he had studied thirty years by
candle light ; others that they had not studied at
all, but had received their knowledge by a Divine
intuition. But quackery was not confined to the
charlatans ; respecctable chemists and druggists
indulged in it in announcing the miracles of their
laboratory. The same thing, however, may still
be said of some of those of the present day, for
credulity has not yet departed from among us ; and
the following few specimens of their announcements
in the last century may be compared with those of
our own "Holloways," "Rolands," "Morrisons," and
"Du Barry's." Amongst the lot we find " Angelic
snuff," which cured all diseases of the head, besides
palsy, apoplexy, and gout : another medicine which
cured the vapours in ladies with a single application ;
and so effectually that they would never return. A
third professed to cure leanness, and to make the
most attenuated frame expand into the dimensions of
a civic dignitary. By a fourth electuary, weak
memories were completely renovated, so that the
whole past was vividly recalled before the minds'
eye in an instant ; and by a few drops of another,
hypochondriasm was banished—and all these blessed
effects were produced upon the mind for which
Macbeth's physician would have received a kingly
fee. Then there were lotions to remove warts and
pimples, soften the skin, whiten parts of it that
were red, redden parts that were white, and trans-
form the whole complexion at pleasure, so that the
homeliest face might assume the beauty of an angel!

Competition in trade in fact at this period was so
great that puffing among the shopkeepers was well
understood and practised. One ingenious plan was
for a shopkeeper to advertise in the public prints.
that a pure containing bank notes to a large amount
had been dropped in his shop, and would be returned
to the proper person on describing its contents. Of
course every person was eager to deal with so honest
a tradesman, and his visionary purse soon became a
reality. Great ingenuity and expense likewise were
expended by them on their signboards. The rage
for these indeed resembled that which now prevails
among the shopkeepers for plate-glass windows and
mahogany counters. It is mentioned in the Gentle-
man's Magazine, ten years after this period, that
there were signboards in Ludgate-hill which, with
their iron supporters, had cost several hundred
pounds. (6.)
Besides the regular tradesmen, London abounded
with hawkers whose occupations and modes of
dealing would be indicted as nuisances at the present
day. One class of a most pernicious kind were those
who vended strong liquors in the streets upon stalls
and wheelbarrows. These were independent of
drinking houses, which numbered at this period no
fewer than 6,817 houses and shops wherein, remarks
a writer, " Geneva and other strong
.drinks were
sold by retail." The city likewise retained much of
the rudeness and discomfort of earlier years. The
streets were, for the most part, unpaved; and, in the
early part of the century, it could boast of no more
than 1,000 lamps, which were kept burning only
till midnight, and that for only one half of the
year. Indeed, if it had not been for the numerous
link boys in every public street, a night walk in the
metropolis would have been out of the question.
We who are accustomed to the quiet and security
of modern thoroughfares, can scarcely conceive the
danger and inconvenience of that state of things
I have endeavoured to describe. It is only by retro-
spection that we can obtain a conception of the
annoyances from which we have escaped, and the
benefits derived from salutary laws, order, science,
and opulence. The existence of so many gin-
palaces—estimated at ablut one for every seven
houses—is a fearful proof of the great intemperance
of the age. Even painted boards, Smollet tells us,
" were put up, inviting people to be drunk for a
penny, and dead drunk for twopence ;" while cellars
were provided with straw, to which they conveyed
the wretches overwhelmed with intoxication, and in
which they lay until they had recovered some use of
their faculties, when they had recourse to the same
mischievous poison. National demoralisation
fact, was never so great either before or since, as
throughout the, period of the eighteenth century.
Robberies, assassinations, incencharism, intemper-
ance, riots, and debauchery, disfigured the whole

period. 4V
[These articles being Copyright, the Author reserves to himself
the privilege of further publication or translation.]

(6) Knight's London,

EARLY CLOSING.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE NORTHERN TIMES.
Sir,—l have just received from a friend, an invita_
tion to attend a meeting to be held at half-past eight
on the evening of Monday, the 27th instant, at the
Young Men's Christian Association Rooms, in
Renshaw-street, to assist in the formation, of an
early closing association, and from what I hear, there
is every prospect of a permanent and efficient society
being formed ; in most undertakings of this sort, it
is, however, of paramount importance that the first
start should be a good One, and in this instance of all
others, it would seem to be expedient that the system
of " private treaty "in getting members, should
at once be discontinued, and at as early a period as
possible the greatest attainable publicity be given to
the society, and the objects the promoters thereof
have in view.

Many of your readers are doubtless fellow-sufferers
with the writer, from the present system of unneces-
sarily protracted labour, and once known to them
that such a society exists, they will not be backward
in enrolling themselves and working hard in the
good cause. —I am, &p. J. L. D.
Liverpool, June 24, 1859..
•

CASE UNDER THE PAWNBROKERS' ACT.--PROMPTING
WITNESS.—Frances Serat, the keeper of a licensed broker's
shop, in Greetham-street, was summoned for acting as a
pawnbroker without license. Mr. Tyndall appeared, on be-
half of the Inland Revenue, to prosecute ; and Mr. Gray
defended. Mr. Tyndall said, in November, of 1858, the
husband of the defendant took out a broker's license for the
house No. 10, Greetham.street, and the name was painted
over the door since that time. Soon after, he joined the
11AITV And woe rent L n . _ _

moue 'learn or, so that he bad to proceed
against the wife, who has carried on the business since. lie
then stated that the defendant was in the habit of lending
money on pledges, and charging 4d in the shilling
interest for it. To prove the case he called Mary
Anne. Faulkner, who said : I know the shop of
defendant; it is a "dolly shop." What is that? Mr
Gray (who appeared in band and gown), here jumped up
and said : I object to this line of examination. It is before
the court that the husband of this defendant is a licensed
broker. The witness was examined by Mr. Tyndall, and
she said, on the 21st January, she left a cloak for a shilling
with the defendant, and on the 24th, she left a brooch for
sixpence, but subsequently she released them, paying 25.,
and this was interest at the rate of fourpence in the shilling.
The cross-examination of. Mr. Gray was directed to show
that there was a sale and re-sale between the parties, and
not a pledging. A girl named Alice Moore was called
to corroborate the statement, when Mr. Gray asked her how
long it was since the transaction happened ? He repeated
the question several times, but the girl did not give
any reply. At last, a person named Fitzpatrick, who stood
behind the reporters,, near the witness box, said to the girl,
"Say about four months ago." This he repeated twice,
when one of the reporters informed Mr. Garnett of the fact.
Mr. Garnett ordered the man to be brought forward, but he
had disappeared in a second. Mr. Campbell, one of the
Bridewell • keepers, however, soon brought him forward,
when Mr. Gray said : Oh, that's Fitzpatrick, who has
got up this case out of Spite, and now he comes here to
prompt the witness; he is at the bottom of the whole case.
Mr. Mansfield desired that the man should be put out of
court. Mr. Gray then asked the girl how long since the •
transaction happened ? and she replied, Eight or nine months
ago. Mr. Gray : Oh then, it was before you had your
Christmas pudding ? (Laughter.) Mr. Tyndall :In conse-
qnence of the turn this case has taken—l had something to
say to that man before, and from the unsatisfactory manner
he acted, and his prompting the witness, I now feel it my
duty, on the part of the Crown, to withdraw the information
in this case. Mr. Mansfield : I think you act very properly,
and I must say you deserve great credit for so doing.

PUBLICANS AND BEERSELLERS' CASES
BEFORE MESSRS. T. BOLTON AND L. PEEL.

Bryan Holme Shaw, publican, Mill-street, Park, was
summoned for permitting drunkenness. Inspector Tobin
stated, at ten minutes to eleven o'clock on Sunday night
last, he heard a great noise in the defendant's house and
the door standing partly open ; he found about fourteen
persons inside, four of whom were drunk, and one of them
In the act of drinking. Mr. Cobb appeared for the defen-
dant, and urged, in defence, that the people who were drunk,
had been so when they came into the house, and that the
ale, which the man was drinking, had been served to another
person. He submitted that the honse was respectable, and
that this was the first information. The case was dismissed.
Nathan Cannce, publican, Madox-street was summoned
for Sunday trading. The defendant's wife denied that the
drink was sold. The case was dismissed.
Philip Duggan, beerseller, Edgar-street, was summoned
for Sunday trading. The defendant stated that the parties
who were found in the house were friends and relatives. A
fine of 5s and costs was imposed.
Henry Rimmell, beerseller, Beau-street, was summoned
for Sunday trading, and fined 20s, and costs.
Bridget Finnegan, beerseller, Adlington-street, for Sunday
trading. Fined 20s. and costs,heino• the fifth information.
John M.Gowan, beerseller, Denbigh-street, summoned
for Sunday trading. Acquitted.
James Leighton, beerseller, Peter-street, Whitechapel,
summoned for Sunday trading. Mr. Cobb defended. Fined
20s. and costs.

George Lyon, beerseller, Bronte-street, summoned for
Sunday trading. Fined IN. and costs.

Seiered Jac-obis, beerseller, Bolton-street, summoned for
Sunday trading, Fined ss. and costs,
N. Jameson, beerseller, Lord-street, summoned for Sun-
day trading, acquitted.
Henry Handbrd, beerseller, Wolfe-street, summoned for
Sunday trading, fined 10s. and costs.

John Shonh'art, beerseller, Bedford-street, Park, sum-
moned for Sunday trading, fined 2s. 6d. and 2s. 6d. costs.
Thomas Mercer, beerseller, Harrington-street, summoned
for trading during illegal hours, fined ss. and costs.
Jane Cross, beerseller, Lord-street, Edge-hill, summoned
for Sunday trading, fined ss. and costs.
Thomas Peacock, beerseller, Luther-street, for permitting
drunkenness, fined ss. and costs.
Ann Derbyshire, beerseller, flughe-street, summoned for
pe,,rmitting drunkenness and disorderly conduct, fined 40s.
and costs.

It is a well known maxim that 4,timeis money"—the
terms are relative ;so to save one ie to save the other. We
save both time. and economise patience, and present. good
tempers, whets we have a good PEN—a Imd one upsetspati-
ence and temper. Preserve all, tnen, by purchasing
g your
steel pens and other stationery, at E. T. Rail's
whole-
sale kteel pen warehouse. 23, ou th John-street. J
Gillott's, Thomas Lowe's, G. W. Hughes, and other maker's
dens at. is per gross. Good Pen Holders 2d per dozen,
S. HELLEWELL, 2 and 3, Quadrant, and 53, Castle-street,
Liverpool, gratefully acknowledges the entensive patronage
he has received from his friends and the public generally,
during the eleven years he has been engaged in the Indian
Rubber and Gutta Percha trade, both as a manufacturer
and dealer. His success in the introduction of everyvarietyof waterproof and airproof fabrics, and their application in
the manufacture of garments, life belts, beds, deck, sea,
and fishing boats, &c. ; and the equally important adapta-
tion of the same materials to mechanical purposes. He,
therefore, deems it due to himself, and to those who may
intrust him with their orders, either for export or home use,
to state, that he is prepared to afford them every advantage
he enjoys from long experience —a thorough acquaintance
with the market—and the preference he has established
with the best manufacturers, both as to terms, and the
prompt execution of his orders, either here or else-
where ; and for large wholesale orders he is open to treat
with eonsamers, or exporters, on the most liberal terms.—
Sts General Ildvirlisemott. 1

LIVERPOOL POLICE INTELLIGENCE.—Yesterday.
BEFORE MR. MANSFIELD.
A BILL OF SALE AND if BROKEN HEAD.—Richard
Hulme, -a blacksmith, in Hygeia-street, and Jane, his
daughter, were brought up on a charge of having assaulted
Police-officer James Davidson, 310, under the following
circumstances. Mr. Cobb said he appeared for Messrs.
Reed and Jones, brewers, for the prosecution; and Mr.
Black defended the prisoners. From the statement of Mr.
Cobb, it appeared that Messrs. Reed and Jones had a bill of
sale on the prisoners property, and bailiffs were sent on
Thursday, when the male prisoner took a shovel-full of red-
hot coal and ran at them, swearing he would burn them.
They had then to retreat, but they subsequently got
possession of the house and yard. In the latter there was
some timber. At twelve o'clock at night, the male prisoner
went in among the timber, and the bailiff could not get him
out of it. He called the police-officer, and told him he
feared something wrong. The officer went to the gate of the
yard, which was open, and called two or three times, who
was there ? but not getting any reply, we went into the
yard, when he was knocked down by a blow of a stick by
the male prisoner. A scuffle followed, when the girl came
to her father's assistance, and pulled the belt off the officer
and beat him with it; but he (Mr. Cobb) did not wish to
press the case, as against her. He then called
the officer, who proved the case as opened.
Cross-examined by Mr. Bluck : I was called to the place Ly
the bailiff, who told me there was some one in the yard,
and he feared something wrong was going on. Did he tell
you there was murder being committed there ? No. The
fall I got from the blow cut my head. The bailiff told me
he had a bill of sale. Police-officer 358, and a bailiff named
Harrison, were called up to sustain the case. The latter
was severely cross-examined by Mr. Muck, who denounced
his courage in no measured terms. Mr Bluck then ad-
dressed the court, and contended that the most destructire
of all instruments to Liverpool tradesmen was a hill of sale.
The moment a man made a bill of sale, particularly to a
brewer, that moment was that mnn ruined beyond all
equity of redemption. Hundreds of men, some of whom he
knew himself, who could, in a few days, pay 20s. in the
pound, were ruined in an infinitisimal period, by being
unfortunately reduced to give a bill of sale. He went on
to denounce bills of sale in a manner that was suggestive of I
a society for the suppression of such legal artillery, and
contended that if the bailiff's head had been broken,
instead of the skull of the policeman, that public
sympathy would not be very much in favour of
the bailiff. He argued that the policeman had no right
whatever to go into the yard, for when he did he became a
trespasser. The goods might be in keeping of the bailiffs,
but the possession of the premises remained in the owner,
and therefore be had no right to be ill-treated on his own
premises. His Worship took a view to the effect that the
policeman had a right to go there when called by the
bailiff, no matter how improper it was for the latter to call
him. lie fined the man £2, and the girl .£1 and costs, in
each case.