The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-05-04 00:00:00

SELECT VESTRY.-TUESDAY.

The first business before the Vestry, at their fortnightly
meeting on Tuesday, was a memorial, signed by more
than 200 inhabitants of Abercromby Ward, representing
the serious evils likely to arise from the fever sheds, and
asking whether they could not be removed to a better
locality, or whether such alterations could not be made
as would allay the apprehensions of the memorialists.
After several members of the Board had expressed them-
selves to the effect, that the parish could not have found
a more eligible. site, the Chairman expressed his pain and
regret at one xpregFion used by Mr. Neil, the surgeon,
wherein he had accused the parish authorities of " heart-
lessness." That was not a word that ought to have been
used even in the heat of controversial debate, still less
should it have been used deliberately by a medical man,
in writing upon such a subject as the present. Almighty
God had brought upon us a calamity, and instead of ac-
cusing the authorities of heartlessness, far better would
it be to aid those authorities in rendering the application
as little onerous to the inhabitants as it possibly could be.
He denied, upon the authority of some medical men, and
bis own experience, that there was that intense danger
from typhus fever which some people supposed. He could
not conceive it possible, with fever pressing on them in
the manner it was, to take down the sheds and remove
them elsewhere ; but alterations might be made, the
privies might be removed, and the walls might be raised,
so as to do away with any really existing grievance.—Mr.
Bennett said the privies would now be converted into
water-closets, the floors of the sheds would be perforated
so as to admit ventilation, the foul air would be carried off
at the highest possible point of the building, and the pro-
bability was, that the windows would never be opened.
The deputation having withdrawn, the following motion
was unanimously adopted :—That we have the most
anxious desire to meet the wishes of the memorialists, but
cannot hold out any expectation that it will be in our
power to take down the sheds, the plan of which was sub-
mitted to Dr. Duncan prior to the erection, and which
cannot be removed to a more eligible site ; but that we
shall do all we can to allay the apprehensions of the in-
habitants ; the privies will be made into water closets,
the walls will be raised, and the ventilation will be so
managed as to prevent danger.
The daily number of paupers relieved during the last
fortnight has been as follows :
Monday, the 12th ..
Tuesday. the 13th
Wednesday, the 14th
Thursday, the 15th
Friday, the 16th
Saturday, the 17th

The cost of out-door relief this week. was in money
£583 IGs., -being an increase of £730 over the correspond-
ing- week last year.
Monday, the 19th
Tuesday, the 20th 12,080
Wednesday, the 21st 12,201
Thursday, the 22nd
Friday, the 23rd 10,630
Saturday the 24th

The cost of out-door relief this week was in money
£593 16s. being an increase over the corresponding week
of last year of £745 12s.

Mr. 'Evans, the governor of the Workhouse, sought
for advice as to how he was to act with reterence to ad-
missions when the house was overcrowded.—lnstructions
were given to the governor to provide all the accommoda-
tion in his power, and when that was full to admit no
more ; and a committee, consisting of Messrs. Hand,
Chesney, Cafferata, and Townsend, were appointed to
ascertain what additional room could be provided in the
newly-built addition to the workhouse. _ _ _

The Chairman said that he had recently written a let-
ter to Sir George Grey, relative to the conduct of the
mayor and inhabitants of Wexford. The circumstances
of the case were briefly these :-250 Irish emigrants, by
the Rochester, had been wrecked on the coast of Wex-
ford. The Mayor and inhabitants of that town had sub-
scribed to pay their passage back to Liverpool, and on
their arrival here. 130 of them had become chargeable to
the parish. The question put to Sir George Grey was,—
Whether the Mayor and inhabitants could legally act in
this manner, and, if not, what measures were to be
adopted ? In reply, Sir George, stated that be was not
aware of any law by which the course pursued by the
mayor and inhabitants of Wexford was prohibited ; but
he added that the proper way to remedy the grievance
appeared to be by the removal of so many of these per-
sons as were described in the act, an amendment of which
was now under the consideration of the House of Com-
mons. He (the chairman) should like to ask, whether,
if the Mayor and the inhabitants of Liverpool were to
subscribe to send 10,000 Irish paupers up to London, that
would be lawful ?. (Hear and a laugh.) He did not mean
to advise such a project, neither did he mean to say it
would be lawful ; but he knew that if they, the parochial
authorities, were to attempt to do such a thing, it would
be a misdemeanour. llowever, this was the fact, and it
was likewise an important fact for the people of Ireland
to know, that they might subscribe to send over 100,600
intro.
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ducgt. the law were hear.)rawn up for pe Grey was
resentation
atitanitiia.
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e it.—The
both louses of Parliament, setting forth that the immense
fl inux of Irish paupers into Liverpool ;vas a grievous injur
to the parishioners, not only in a pecuniary, but also in
a sanitary point of view, for many of
the immigrants
were labouring under infectious diseases, and thus
brought illness and death amongst the inhabitants. The
petitioners therefore pray, that a clause may be in-
serted in the intended Irish Vagrant Act, restricting
pauper vagrants from leaving the Irish ports in order
to pass into England, and only permitting those to
leave Ireland for England who leave it for the bona fide
lawful purposes of emigrating to foreign parts or seeking
work in England : and that the expense of relieving
sick and distfesscd Irish casual poor, and burying such as
die of fever, may be removed from the parochial rate in
England, and paid out of the Irish relief fund. It was
stated in the course of the petition, with reference to the
spread of disease in the town, that " three of the relieving
officers have already died of typhus fever, and one now
lies dangerously ill. One of the medical officers is dead;
another is dangerously ill. One of the nurses of the
Lying-in Hospital is dead ; another ill. 654 paupers have
been buried in the Workhouse Cemetery during the last
month, the average number of interments during the last
twelve years being only 1,367 annually ; so that in one
month the interments have nearly equalled half the num-
ber which they usually amount to in one whole year."—
Upon the motion of Mr. Riding, the petition was adopted,
and it was ordered that a copy of it should be sent to
Lord Sandon, for presentation to the House of Commons,
and another copy of it to Lord Brougham, for presenta-
tion to the House of Lords; and that a thousand copies
of it be printed, and sent to every member of both houses
of the legislature.—Mr. Haigh thought a great public
meeting of the parishioners ought to be convened, either
by the Mayor or the Select Vestry, with the view of con-
sidering the most advisable steps to be taken in the pre-
sent alarming exigencies in which the town was placed by
the increased and increasing influx of Irish paupers.—
Mr. Chesney said it was the more necessary now to act
with promptitude, as the Irish were threatening to send
over, not 40,000, but a million of their countrymen before
the harvest was reaped. (Hear, hear.)—The Chairman
then gave an account of his interview with Sir Geo. Grey.
The result of the interview was, that the people of Liver-
pool were now entirely upon their own resources ; that
they must put their own shoulders to the wheel, and do
all they‘could to provide for the burden.
Upon the motion of Mr. Avison, Mr. Hugh Mullineux
,was elected a member of the select vestry, in the room of
Mr. Raymond Houghton, who was appointed an overseer.
The medical board recommended that four surgeons—
two in addition to the present two—be appointed. The
board, in reply to the recommendation, appointed an as-
sistant dispenser to Mr. Lingley, the apothecary, at a
salary of 20s, a week. They also appointed Drs. Steel,