The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-05-28 00:00:00

laottrp.

Oh ! thou art the maid that my soul still adores,
Though widely thou'rt parted from me ;
Though lost to my sight, my heart it still pours
The prayet's that are offered for thee.
The fieme that had risen of old by thy charms,
Ey absence is rendered more bright;
And I f„ el in my dreams loves softest alarms
o'cr my bosOm at night.

Eat ti,c-a:flits that corrode and embitter
NV ill rise to darken my brain,
And silently whisper that hope must depart,
Arill echo we meet not again.
And should we not meet in life's rapid tide,
One bliss is left to me yet :
In the storms of wild fate, whatever betide,
Thy image I can never forget
,11. q May, 1839.

.....,,.........t0..........-,-.

C. J. C.

THE COCKNEY-BOY'S ALPHABET.

A vos as 'At, vich ye yearS on our 'ead ;
D ye:; a Beak, of offenders the dread ;
C vos nCad, as 'ii weedle the Sky ens ;
11 yes eid Drury, ,vot's new got the Lions ;
E yes the '2113, vere they does the green squires;
Y.. yes the Foeuix, an hingin for fires •
fl vo grm.G'og of Guildhall, a gruicaitiff ;
II *cc's an Eroister a werry nice native;
,
111, not an high tin, but little ;-
vey, tot's just lost his little;
K yes our.Konntry, yot's ruled by a spinster;
L -vox a Lawyer, as chaffs at Vest—minster ;
M yes ,Lord Mayor, vot commits prigs to Bridevell ;
N vos-'"the Nat, by Jack Ketch that is tied yell ;
0 'yo's the were they makes all the taxes;
P ,Vcs Ebb Peel, as suck sharp questions axes;
0 vox Queer-street, a rum place, 'tis agreed on ;
II vos a 'Rit, vich you'd better take heed on ;
Swjl, sich a cove for Newmarket ;
T vos Old Tow, vot has made a few lark it;
U. ties: tho4e prkne Uns, vot flare up like rockets ;
V yes a.Vipe, as ve years in our pockets;
yes Wauxhall, sick a nice place, I'm thinkin ;
Ex change, were they chaffers like winkin ;
Y Z are no go, so I'm sure have said many—
ve daae.tlic4i all now; sir—please give me a penny.

I N'lt.: D

SONG
t.7.D TO HAVE I3EEN SUNG BY THE LADIES OF THE
.Cl 2. (;:c Tun 'RETIREMENT OF LORD MELBOURNE.

Tun,?—" The charming Woman."

Lord IMelbotirne is gone in a hurry, ' -
- What a number of hearts he will break !
s. the f?-----n and her grace and Miss M—y,
ter.r,,; of regret for his sake.- •
Tis a chaw.T. which each lady bemoans,
Let Sir itohcrt do all that he can—
The.palabe re-echoes with groans
For the loss of so charming a man.
. „ Tha palace re-echoes with groans
• For the loss of so charming a man.

He was present at morning and eve,
And at dinner he always would stay—
Then, 01 could you ever believe -
That Jamaica could tear h in away ?
• it is true that tins: premiers of yore
Seldom tasted a royal ragout;
Buti.thank Melbourne, 'tis not as before—
A has been made in that now.
.But, than alelbourrie, 'tis not as before—
A
In the days of old Burleigh and Pitt,
Though their names were a dread to the foc,
They were niggard enough of '-heir wit
• lit amusing the ladies, you know.
But they laboured by day and by night,
the•dolts! in the cause of the state ;
Arid lost by that'Work the delight.
Which my lord has been tasting of late.
-And lost -by', that work the delight
Which, sac.

But 0, he's a charnaing fellow,
The pride of the radical'clan ;
Let thelories their loyalty bellow,
He will stick to the tail and to Dan.
ThEse; these are the friends whom he worships,
The prop of the Queen and her crown ;
Lord Stanley, the duke, and Sir Robert,
Would soon, if they could, pull them down.
Lord Stanley, the duke, and Sir Robert,
• Would soon, &c.

Then adieu, 0 ye parties and plays,
,Ye ballets and dances, and shows !
We shall ne'er see the like of those days
if our gallant Lothario goes.
The Czarowitch now in our land
Deeply- pities both us and the Queen,
And describes in a speech (now at hand),
What a,father to her he hath been ! -
And deScribes in a speech (now at hand),
• Whdi a father, &c.

But cheer up, ye papists and raps,
Ye ladies and waiting-maids, all! -
He again inay,re;,roaarsnal our. squads,
And reign paraineunt in the hall.
Then-his presence will,b-anish those ilk
• - Which, alas !=now torment us full sore;
He will swallow tile doctor's three pills,*
And Sir RObert shall tease us no more ;
He will sivallovr.the doctor's three pills,
And Sir Robert,-&c.•

-" Short parliaments, cote by ballot, and an extension of the suf-
frage— grand spoeitie proposed by Dr. Wakley.

CONTEMPORARY PRESS.

CONDITION OF THE LAIAOURING CLASSES.
. . (n•gra the Morrzia' g He'ritid.) . •
Our contempt .I..ry, the Globe, adverted,- in the fol.=
lowing strain, laat rueglit, to.the condition of the labour-
ing classes. in this country : .
The gross igneranee which envelops the poorer class es of
Ehgland is no longer matter of controversy. It is admitted
• 14y,, those who were, until the proofs of its existence were sup-
' '-'4led, sceptical of the fact. The population of bur rural dis-
:Tr'tlicts bear special and incontrovertible marks of its sad ef-
*lV, Our tials an! cll;:vated by a race re'embling in their
`',.:,%1A )i3r, ;-:ant
, f ~ :.,1.. ', x.icl independence, the serfs of a
,",,,,r,i, avd...e.ri y ,--: „,„ of a fanatical; superstition alone ap-
-4 Ap”ar, i_c, c,,, ii,,,-.-i:;g the moral prostration of too large a
;,:!:.; 'i' Of the ' a.grarian population. Within sight of the
"-- , o 'lc `..pl`,'.(inte"..roury Cathedral we have lamentable proof
..3,1- ' „
,e ,4,:h4ncies-erriployed to protect the people from the most
,' • !atgtif:tclettaiisi,odifnS•d—i taeo.i.,,recifs.ecrhveritsltirearnaitfyrowmhiiemhpocsotuuirde
rteosoisgtrtohses
14 I, t 4 -; ~ .
,4 4 e 0 , korere 1 not recorded on: indisputable proof-
03,'6ill'OraliiiiA16—have utterly and notoriously failed.
4, i
"..iPif?`l3'6 iithtioiiii at 'the mercy of mad Thorns
throughout
lw
°l2 "tt'e` Mc Kbf-tliglind !
' tfeat•se•ats of our manufactures and commerce we
7s "-a have erected 'the store-houses and deposited the
'T'''''vealth .Of .the nation in the crater of a volcano, beneath the
, Crust of which lie the elements of revolt and revolution. At
."'is moment thousands of our Manufacturing population are
''iretf,fred With deadly Weapons at the suggestion of men who
''',openly. avcivi Robespicre as their model—who counsel the
• Working men to obtain Political 'poiver by physical force—
,*O- ihiblicly state that if a town could beheld for a single
?' 'ilk.s7 against the police and military,: the armed-masses would
''' be in a-position to seize on the government of the country.
The leaders who offer these counsels are men of desperate
•-fefttimeSevetal of them without any character for private
orAmblie'worth—outcasts from every other circle of society—
,." Whom the ignorant masses have fitly chosen to represent the
frightful passiohs which are in rebellion against the laws of
=the nation, as a punishment upon it for having permitted so-
vast-upOpulation to accumulate without providing means for
it, moral and religions improvement, and neglected to rear
---,z the surest safeguafds of its institutions in the intelligence
and virtue of an instructed people. - -
The. delusions practiSed in our manufacturing and rural
. ..... .
. ••. districts, although differing in their form and Operation, have
- ; the same source."
.. .

• These observations constitute the introduction to an
- -neulOgium on the government plan of education.
If we were disposed to admit the literal truth of our
conternporary's description of the state of the lahour-
ing population throughout this country, we still should
deny that he has indicated the true causes of the results
that meet our view; or that he has recommended the
propriate remedies,
Our contemporary appears to think, that for the re-
moval of the. diserses which deface our social system,
" knowledge"—or what our political illuminati style
• e ie.lt—tvkifild be found an agent absolutely efficient.
deny this proposition: We deny that "ignorance"
, (19 "te 0137)e's sense. of
,the phrase) has led to those
.1-rf,,:114..11 results; which` our contemporary describes.
cons;;quence, that " knowledge," such as
- • tire margin-of-mind; champions boast of disseminating,
ilkviate the complained of.
L'et fin' the sake of argument, that
.
440 A-30 'guftii,ted'by; a race resembling in their
aPatliy; . enterprise., and independence, the serfs
of,a4eudal,.age.", ~Then let us ask, how the clergy of
•• -the Chuicir of England may be fairly blamed for such
a` state of' things ? Oefforts
,I.7liali=66;ninterac-ted the influences which have, in truth,
led Wit ?,
,If the clergy of the Established Church had ever
•ilrofessed to render their flocks more virtuous or more
happy, by 'the agency of-mechanics' institutes, or of
" useful knowledge" in any of its forms,—if the clergy
of the Established Church had yielded to the influence
of that cant, which has prevailed during the last forty
Tears, on the subject of " popular education ;"—if, in
short, the clergy of the Established Church had ever,
taught, that the regeneration of the world was to be
effected by means of secular instruction, placed in
equal abundance at the service of all classes of the
community—then, indeed, might the pastors of the
Church of England be fairly blamed for their back-
wardness in diffusing march-oflintellect doctrines. But
such has not been their course ; such have never been
their professions. They have held and taught that the
tenets of Christianity may be easily understood by men
in all conceivable stages of progression as to secular
knowledge. TO diffuse secular knowledge has not, in
short, been their duty.
If, however, the clergy of the Church of England
might be fairly blamed for "the ignorance" of the
people of England, would not the argument have an
awkward application in the case of the Irish Roman
Catholic priests, and the Irish Roman Catholic popula-
tion ?

In order, however, to discover the unfounded nature
of the Globe's charge against the clergy of the Church
of England, it is only necessary to turn to the other
• portion of the Globe's statement of " facts." " In the
great seats of our manufactures and commerce," ob-
.. 'serves our Contemporary, "we appear to have erected
tie store-houses, and deposited the wealth of the na-
the crater of a volcano, beneath the crust of
'lie the elements of revolt and revolution." As-
: t; description to be accurate, are the clergy
"I.ll?futher.,Establislied Church,, let us ask, to be held re-
for,the -evils here depicted ? inc pastors of
of England did not, at all events, construct
„aig
..Oufact,..tring system, nor does that inanufactur-
,.: itnlusogin owe its hideousness simply to the-"igno-
E,.tz,L-,rancre' -of _the population by whose sufferings it is sus-
tained. The manufacturing-population possesses, (as
the Globe and other journals inculcating the same prin-
ciplee are accustomed somewhat boastfully to proclaim)

a far larger measure of "knowledge," than may be
claimed by the cultivators of the soil. The manufac-
turing system ought, therefore, in conformity with the
Globe's principles, to have created a race of men much
more virtuous, much more useful, than those immedi-
ately connected with the land. The fact, however, (if
our contemporary's description may be trusted) is
otherwise. A somewhat remarkable commentary, this,
on the value of that " knowledge" so much vaunted
by the " liberals" of the present day !
The evils of which the labouring classes of this
country are the prey, have, in truth, no connection
whatever with what our contemporary denominates
" knowledge" or " ignorance." Those evils have all
sprung from our modern manufacturing system—from
that -system which has brutalised and pauperised the
agricultural, as well as the manufacturing population
of England. Are our fields cultivated, as the Globe
maintains, by " a race resembling in their apathy, want
of enterprise, and independence, the serfs of a feudal
age?" Look to the legislative influences which have
led to such results I Look to our agricultural popula-
tion exposed to unbounded competition with labourers
from Ireland, half-starved and desperate for employ-
ment Look at the bounties offered to the employ-
ment of capital in manufactures, rather than in land
—bounties that have taken the form of exemption from
taxation ! Look at the irresponsibility in regard to the
permanent well-being of the labourers in their employ-
ment, with which manufacturing capitalists have been
invested by law ! Look at the modes, in which the
pauperising and brutalising influences of our manufac-
turing system have diffused themselves over the whole
sphere of action which is open to English labourers !
How, let us ask, may the horrors of that system be al-
leviated, by adding, in any conceivable proportions to
the " knowledge" of the labouring poor ?
How, for instance, may any improvement in the la-
bourer's education enable him to endure, better than
he does now, the cruelties inflicted on him by the new
poor law ? That law " throws him on his own re-
sources"—provides him with no employment, yet
punishes him for being unemployed. No increase of
"knowledge" on the labourer's part can be expected,
generally, to increase his command over the labour-
market ;—whilst no increase of " knowledge" can be
expected (in the event of his failure to procure employ-
ment) to reconcile him to expulsion from his cottage,
and to severance from his wife and children !

So, in regard to the factory system ? How can edu-
cation be expected to reconcile children to an unnatu-
ral amount of toil in an unwholesome atmosphere ?
How can "knowledge," in any of its varieties, render
destructive competition with machinery, other than an
object of just horror to the unfortunate victims of our
modern manufacturing system ? _

If government can bring into operation for the re-
moval of the evils described by the Globe no other
measures than those connected with this education
scheme, the result will be a miserable, and most mis-
chievous failure.