The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-03-29 00:00:00

TUE_

SDAY

A WEEK, of which the great

cessation from labour, in order to mark the anni-
versary of the death and resurrection of the RE-
DEEMER, presents but few incidents on which to
The almanack tells us that the season
is Spring, but the weather has been as severe as in
the month of January,—a continuous frost, with
bitter cold winds from the North and East, and
slight falls of snow, only relieved by bright sun-
light. Vegetation is consequently kept back, the
buds are afraid to open, and the trees are as bare
of foliage as they were before Christmas. The
ground, however, is dry, and farming operations
have been carried on with some activity'; so that,
should a fine Summer succeed, we may reasonably
expect a fair average harvest, if not something more.
The Amusements in Liverpool have, of course,
been spare during the past week ; but yesterday,
being Easter Monday, they commenced in full
activity. At the Theatre Royal, the season was
opened with a series of French plays, by the prin-
cipal artistes of the St. James's Theatre in London.
At the Amphitheatre, the legitimate drama has
been restored, with " Hamlet," by Mr. GEORGE
VANDENHOFF; and "Henry V." is promised for
Monday next ; and a Grand Concert, by the Car-
penter Family, took place at the Concert-hall, Lord
Nelson-street. Several similar entertainments are
announced, so that music appears to hold its sway
amidst commercial activity.

comment

Some time since,

when the complaint was want of

employment, the only remedy that could be devised

was Emigration, and the Government was called
upon to expatriate the labouring class in order to
better the condition of those who remained. The
potato-disease and misgovernment in Ireland, as
well as the goad discoveries in the remotest regions of
the earth, have stimulated emigration to an extent
never dreamed of by those who were its warmest
advocates, and we are now beginning to reap some
of the fruits of this decimation of the industrious
population. We have as yet had no excessive high
prices of the necessaries of life, nor any apprehen-
sions of scarcity; the rise has been so gradual as
scarcely to be perceptible; and no man could prove
any substantial disadvantage from increased cost of
living. But the working man has discovered his
improved value in the scarcity of his competitors,
for emigration has thinned the ranks; and those
who formerly were content to get regular employ-
ment at the current rate of wages, now boldly
demand an advance, in most cases amounting to
three shillings a week. Liverpool, within the last
few days, has witnessed a series of strikes for the
higher remuneration of labour, to which the masters
have felt themselves compelled to submit; and this
movement has not been confined to skilled artisans,
who may be supposed to have less to dread from
competition, but has extended to the porters em-
ployed at the different railway stations, who have
succeeded in their object, owing to the necessity
of the case depriving their employers of a remedy.
It is gratifying to be able to report that there is
full employment in Liverpool for every man who is
willing to work; but we would caution those who
have been so ready to take advantage of the neces-
sity for their services, to beware of the consequences.
There are many thousands of able and industrious
men in this country to whom the rate of wages
weekly paid would have been a strong temptation
to migrate from their homes, had employment been
assured them. Changes, when avoidable, are
however to be condemned ; yet now the masters in
Liverpool have been, furnished with ample justifi-
cation for looking elsewhere for servants; and since
the facilities of railway communication are so great,
many of these will not be slow to avail themselves
of the opportunity. Another disadvantage attend-
ing such strikes is, that the enhancement of the
wages of labour, by rendering the work unprofitable
to the employer, often leads to its being done
without ; so that, by over-reaching, the workman
loses all.

On Wednesday a melancholy accident occurred
near Wigan, by an explosion in a colliery belonging
to the Ince Hall Coal Company. So fatal a dis-
aster is almost unparalleled in the annals of colliery
explosions, as many as forty-five lives having been
sacrificed. In such cases it is difficult to tell
where the blame rests; but in hazardous pursuits
the observance of rules for safety should be
despotically enforced, as men constantly exposed to
danger are usually the most reckless.

PURITY OF ELECTION.—That a flue should
have caught flee in Windsor Castle, to the im-
minent peril and partial injury of that noble build-
ing, is quite in the ordinary course of events.
Flues are made to catch fire. The mishaps of the
miserable steamer Australian, waterlogged ap-
parently by the weight of her own coal, are still
less surprising. Nor can we lift up our hands or
eyes at the disclosures which Mr. Duncombe's
pleasant malice has elicted from the Norwich
petition inquiry by simply letting several angry
men question each other to their hearts' content.
The substance of these disclosures is merely that
Colonel Forester has acquired (by occupancy, we
suppose) a sort of property in one of the dressing-
rooms at the Carlton, where he keeps (like Miss
Flite) his " documents," and sees Mr. Brown ;
that constituencies in want of candidates may be
accommodated by the same gentleman, with secrecy
and despatch; that petitions, good, bad, and in-
different, are sometimes got up, cancelled, com-
promised, and manipulated in all sorts of ways
" for the good of the party." Facts which can
scarcely astonish the most unsophisticated stranger
who strays along the pavement of Pall-mall.—
Guardian.

TIIE CLERGY RESERVES (CANADA) BILL
changes its hues as variously as a cameleon. The
effect of the vote obtained by-Lord JOIIN RUSSELL
on Friday is simply this. If the Canadian Legisla-
ture secularize the clergy funds, the people of Eng-
land will probably have to pay out of their own
pockets, by taxation, the clergy who give spiritual
instruction to the people of Canada. Oxford
University must surely blush for Mr. GLADSTONE'S
conduct and apology for it on this occasion. He
looks on with approbation at the confiscation of
Church property ; but acids, as by way of excuse,
that he will watch with anxiety as to what the
Canadian Parliament may do with the plunder.
This is as bad as the apology made by GEORGE
SE LWYN when a lady reproved him for his barba-
rity in being present at the execution of Lord
LOVAT. "It is true (said the wit) that I went in
the morning to see Lord LovAT's head cut off;
but I went also in the afternoon to see the surgeons
sew it on again !"—Church and State Gazette.

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. - What we are in
danger of forgetting is, that we cannot separate the
social and moral progress of the world from that
Christianity which is the basis of it all; and, there-
fore, that it is the more incumbent on us, on all,
to guard against a negation of positive Christianity,
by substituting an abstract theory of political
science ; and also, against taking all the good fruits
of Christianity and the Church without gratitude,
and without return. Let us see that, as we im-
prove in the arts of life, we are not careless of its
duties. As we multiply our railways that many
may run to and fro, let us also increase our schools,
that knowledge may be increased. If we build new
cities that men may prosper as to this world, let
provision be made for new_ churches that the next
world may not be unheeded. If, by the progress
of machinery, there is less demand for man's physi-
cal powers, let us seek to call into beneficial exercise
his intellectual gifts. If, in the progress of things,
there be a great refinement as to all that is of the
earth earthy, let those who enjoy it rise to the true
height of their moral dignity, as having destinies
that are heavenly. There is much to be done be-
fore any laudation of our progress in any intrinsic
good can be consistent. It is a poor progress that
looks no further than this life, and does not carry

• men forward to their full capacities. And yet it is
this poor progress which just now it is the fashion
to exalt and cry up. Men have pulled down their
barns and built greater, and multiplied their cities,
and magnified their resources. But our home
parishes, our colonies, and distant missionary
settlements, bear witness that there is a great lack
somewhere of the liberality and self.denying energy
which should characterise a prosperous Christian
country.—Morning Post.

EDUCATION IN INDIA.—Most of the crying
abominations of Indian mis-rule have been one by
one abolished, since the actual Government passed
away from Leadenhall-street to Cannon-row. The
practice of requiring soldiers to fire salutes in
honour of idols, is, we believe, not yet obsolete,
although Sir PEREGRINE MAITLAND'S resignation
of his command at Madras, was the means of call-
ing public attention to a practice which could not
bear the light of day. But it is in regard to
Christian education, that the Government in India
is now most worthy of censure. To give no educa-
tion at all was the object of the Company when
merchandise was its chief pursuit. Mr. WILBER-
FORCE'S efforts to surmount these prejudices were
at first circumscribed by the manoeuvres of the"
Directors ; and when after thirty years' continuance
of Mr. PITT'S double form of Government, Parlia-
ment interfered, it was only to compel the Govern-
ment to give £lO,OOO a-year for the education of a
people paying no less than fifteen millions in taxes.
We have no confidence in any scheme of education
likely to be proposed by Mr. BRIGHT, but it was
humiliating to hear him say, and say with truth,
before the House of Commons, that the City of
Manchester, with 400,000 inhabitants, expended
yearly twents, times as much, "in improvements
for the benefit of the people," as the India Company
had expended for the education of the millions and
millions of human beings committed to their care.
—Record.