The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-11-26 00:00:00

FUNERAL OF

THE LATE JOSHUA LACE, ESQ,

The funeral of this highly respected gentleman took place
on the morning of Wednesday. In compliance with the wish
of the deceased, expressed on various occasions, and more
particularly a few days before his death, the procession was
not marked by any extraordinary display—his immediate
relatives alone proceeding with the mournful train from

Woolton to Trinity Church, in the cemetery of which is the
family grave. There, however, a large and respectable body
of his townsmen had assembled, to pay a last tribute of re-

pect to his worth as a man, and his integrity

a practitioner,

throughout a life so prolonged as to render him the father of
the legal profession in Liverpool, The hearse, which was
drawn by four horses, was preceded by the Mayor's carriage,
and those of the deceased's family ; and was followed by two

family carriage closed the procession. On arriving at the
church, the gentlemen alluded to, comprising nearly the whole
of the members of the profession of the highest standing in
the town, and other individuals of the first respectability,
formed an avenue from the gate to the door of the church,
through which the coffin was borne. The burial service was
emphatically read by the Rev. Mr. Douglas, of Chi'dwell,
and the body was deposited in its final resting place (on the
south side of the church,) amidst a large concourse of atten-
dants, who appeared to be deeply affected on the solemn and
and mournful occasion.

FUNERAL OF EGERTON SMITH, ESQ.

The funeral of Mr. E. Smith took place yesterday, and
was attended by a large body of his fellow-townsmen attached
to the principles of which he was the advocate for so many

_ .
years. It was originally the intention of his family that the
interment should be private; but Mrs. Smith subsequently
yielded to the request of a number of his friends that it
should be public, to afford an opportunity to his admirers of
following him to the grave. Long before the hour appointed
for the train to move onwards, a great number of persons,
including many females, collected on the footwalks in Rod-
ney-street, particularly opposite and on each side of the de-
ceased's house.

Shortly before eleven o'clock, the procession, headed by
the hearse, with mutes in attendance, moved onwards. It was
followed by two mourning coaches, and 15 other vehicles of
various descriptions, including three or four private carriages.
After them walked, two and two, the compositors of the
Mercury office, headed by the overseer and one of the
reporters of the establishment—all in black. These were
followed by twenty of the deceased's more immediate friends,
wearing hat bands, and about a hundred more respectably
clad individuals, chiefly in black, and including many of the
trade, formed the rear. The whole occupied about half the
length of Rodney-street. The number of persons in the
procession might be about 200. The train moved along
Russell-street, Seymour-street, London-road, and Moss-
street, amidst numerous spectators, to the Necropolis, where
also a large concourse awaited their arrival. After the usual
service, in the small chapel, at the entrance, (which afforded
accommodation to comparatively few of those present,) the
remains of the deceased were deposited in the grave of the
family.

NDLEY'S LECTURES ON SOCIALISM

MR. BRI,.

On Tuesday evening, pursuant to notice, Mr. Brindley,
the celebrated opponent of socialism, commenced a series of
lectures at the Queen's Theatre, in Christian-street, in which
he had proposed to shew the declining state of tha•. pestilent
and abominable system, and to prove, in especial, the swin-
dling character of the community, established by the social-
ists of Liverpool, at Pant Glas, in Wales.
The proceedings commenced at eight o'clock, at which
time, notwithstanding a very insufficient notice of the lec-
ture, a considerable audience was collected. The Rev. Mr.
Connor, on the motion of Mr. Crisp, was called to the
chair ; and Mr. Brindley proceeded at once, in that rapid
and effective style for which he is distinguished, to lay before
his audience an account of the past and present condition of
the heresy of Owen and his fellow-atheists. In the midst,
however, of an eloquent and most cutting expose of the do-
ings of these profound and philosophic scamps, (Which was
listened to, we are glad for the honour of our town to say,
with unqualified disgust,) Mr. Brindley was interrupted by
the dissentient voices of two individuals—a Mr. Westwick,
formerly, it appeared, secretary of the socialist body in Li-
verpool, and a Mr. Stewart, of Whitechapel, a couple of
gentlemen for whose peculiar " organisation " and address
one would almost imagine was especially intended the ex-
pression of " old Will"—

" Hence, cream-faced loon !
Whence got'st thou that goose look ?"

and, after a short pause, the two socialists were introduced
upon the stage, to fulfil the purpose for which doubtless they
had conveyed their most sweet persons" to the place of
meeting, viz., to engage the lecturer to hold a discussion
with a notorious missionary of their dishonest craft, who is,
we believe, known to the socialist public under the eupho-
nious Welsh-sounding name of Lloyd Jones.
_ _

To the proposition made by Mr. Ve-stwiek in his behalf,
Mr. Brindley at once acceded—nay, he declared that he was
delighted to accede to it ; but he was anxious to know whe-
ther the worthy who made the proposition was fully autho-
rised to do so. Upon this point, however, he was satisfied,
by the production of a letter from the socialist missionary
himself; and, after a little shuffling (and much of this espe-
cial instrument in social tactics is not practicable where Mr.
Brindlcy is concerned), an arrangement was at length come
to for a discussion, to be held upon the following terms and
question, the latter of which was dictated by Mr. Brindley,
and committed to writing by the rev. chairman. Upon the
result of this discussion with their favourite oracle—for poor
Robert Owen appears to be shelved by his own dupes—the
two socialists pledged themselves, in behalf of their whole
body in Liverpool, to " sink or swim "—a pledge which it
is just possible that the " external circumstances " with
which they are surrounded, viz., the contempt drawn upon
them by Mr. Brindley's exposure of the fraudulent character
of their doings, and the impious and odious nature of their
principles, will not allow them to shuffle out of.
The following are the terms of the discussion agreed upon:
—" Mr. Brindley will prove, and Mr, Lloyd Jones will dis-
prcve, socialism to be a lying, strindling, fraudulent scheme,
which has robbed the working classes, and is now robbing
them, under false pretences ; and that it in theory denounces
all marriage and all religion, and denies the existence of a
personal intelligent God." The discussion is to take place
in the Queen's Theatre, on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
and Thursday, the 6th, 7th, Bth, and 9th of December,
under the management of a committee chosen on each side,
with a moderator chosen by the meeting. The proceeds to
be handed over to the mayor, for the benefit of the Infirmary
and Dispensary.
On Saturday evening the chartist question is to be dis-
cussed, when we feel sure it will meet with the same fate
that befals the other abominations of the day under Mr.
Brindley's searchinr, investigation. We rejoice to 'see the
staunch support afforded that gentleman by our working
men.

WEDNESDAY,EVENING'S LECTURE

EXPOSURE OF TIIE PANT GLAS COMMUNITY SWINDLE

After a few preliminary remarlcs—UTan;inusinideSCrip-
tion, with respect to a recent visit to London in search of
the husband of a female missionary, and reading to the audi-
ence some disgustingly abusive and threatening letters re-
cently addressed to himself by the socialists. Mr. Brindley
proceeded to his promised exposure of the swindling nature
of the community established by the Liverpool socialists at
Pant Glas in Wales, which he proved by a public examina-
tion of the wife of one of the victims of the fraud—a poor
woman of the name of Gregory.

The leading movers of this 'precious affair were a knot of
individuals—Liverpool socialists. The Mr. Westwick,
spoken of in a former lecture, was also a subscriber to its
funds. The place in question, Pant Glas, described to its
poor dupes, and in the pages of the New Moral World, as a
perfect Paradise,—where "nightingales sung on every tree"
—consisted of about 1,000 acres of Welsh mountain, which
is said not in reality to contain as much grass or any other
herbage "as would graze a goose," On their arrival at this
paradise, the misguided individuals, who had paid some £lO
eaph for the privilege of going into community, found pre-
pared for their residence only a miserable hovel, which had
been in use as a.cow-house, and in which the whole—men,
women, and children—pat, drank, lived, and slept together
on beds of straw in true social style—like pigs in a straw-
yard. - - -

Their supplies of food were forwarded them from Liver-
pool, from the parties who had swindled them out of their
money, and fooled them into this wild-goose scheme ; and
were, as might be expected, of the most wretched descrip-
tion. Thick stirabout, oatcake, coffee made of roasted corn,
and sometimes a little tea for the females, constituted their
luxurious breakfast. Potatoes and lard,—once or twice a
fowl amongst 16 of them, with boiled nettles—salt fish,
which, having been packed in the same box with soft soap,
required to be washed before eating, was their ordinary din-
ner; and their only other meal was one of chocolate, sent
from Liverpool, with oatbread and lard.
Fixed in this delightful spot, and luxuriating upon this
delightful fare, the community naturally became restive,
and wrote in savage terms to their defrauders, the Liverpool
socialists ; and they were directed, in order to keep up the
swindle and to get in subscriptions, to write two kinds of
letters—one for the public about nightingales, rural felicity,
and the rest which duly appeared in the New Moral World,
and the other containing the plain unvarnished truth. After
six months, however, of endurance, in which period they
literally eat up their farming stock, beds, bedding, and all,
the community broke up—one of the party running away
with the only portion of their locomotives remaining—a
donkey and cart—and another swindling his fellow dupes of
the remnant of their pots and pans.
A wretched attempt was made by a wretched
being in the
form of humanity during the progress of this exposure and
at its conclusion, to create a diverson in favour of the infa-
mous body with which he is associated ; hut it is gratifying
to state that his efforts were rewarded with only the most un-
qualified disgust. Indeed, we believe that but for the inter-
ference of Mr. Brindley, his doom would have been the
nearest pump. A. resolution was unanimously passed that
the community was a swindling scheme: and on the sugges-
tion of a person in the pit a subscription was got up on the
spot to relieve the poor woman who having, with her two
children, been reduced to wretchedness by it, and deserted
by her husband who had dragged her into it, had come for-
ward to expose its villany and that of its concoctors. The
amount realised by this spontaneous and creditable effort of
the audience was £3 13s. W.