The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-09-14 00:00:00

AWFUL IMPENDING CATASTROPHE!

It will really be surprising if, near as we are to that very
combustible place Manchester, we are not some of these days
blown up,—town. docks, shipping, river, and all,—or demo-
lished in some other equally marvellous and appalling man-

ner. We are not naturally deficient in courage; but really
the consciousness that we live and breathe in the immediate
neighbourhood of a volcano, and that we enjoy the pleasure
of walking about only by virtue of its forbearance, is enough
to unbrace the strongest nerves, and to visit with qualms the
stoutest heart.

What a whole host of frights we have had during the past
year even ! First, we were within an ace of seeing our good
old town conveyed away from the mouth of the Mersey, or
the Mersey conveyed away from the town—we could never
rightly determine which. Certain it is, however, that, by
some necromancy or other, Manchester was to become the
great western port—an honour which is now enjoyed by Li-
verpool ; whilst Liverpool was to become once more a little
fishing hamlet, which the great Manchestrian and his lady,
with their little progeny, might occasionally honour with a
visit, for the sake of its soles and shrimps, or to enjoy the
contemplation of its picturesque ruins. Again, this dread
doom averted, we were threatened with the loss of our bond-
ing warehouses, merchants, brokers, carters, porters, and
all the rest, which were to be transported forthwith to Man-
chester ; and again we were saved by a miracle. At this
moment we are threatened with the loss of our law courts,
judges, javelin-men, and all, to, satisfy the inordinate craving
of our cotton-spinning neighbours ; and what will be next
we are at a loss to guess. Perhaps our friends would like to
appropriate a few of our public buildings, our Exchange, the
Town-hall, a slice of our corporate estate—(we could spare
them a portion of the corporation itself)—or, in this broiling
weather, they might fancy the Baths from our Pierhead ;
but we really do trust that they will not bring upon us any
such overwhelming deprivation as we have but too just rea-
son to dread from their present inflammable mood.
Our readers may have observed that some dark and omi-

nous threats have been levelled within the last week against
our conservative merchants and brokers, who are to
be made the victims of au exclusive dealing system. At

this, however, we are not seriously alarmed. But we muss
confess we do not with equal stoicism contemplate the ap.

proaching martyrdom to which the dissenting, ministers of
Manchester arc about to submit their mahogany tables and
chairs, in their virtuous and patriotic refusal—for the sake
of the poor—to pay taxes ; for we do seriously fear that "if
ministers of religion, whose hearts bleed for the oppresbion
of their brethren," and who are of course dissenting minis-
ters only, should allow themselves to be " dragged to prison,
or their property confiscated for the maintenance of an un-
righteous system," without having in view an ample reward
in person and in purse, for so much Christian yielding ups of
furniture and crockery, that the Mersey itself might per-
haps flow back to its source, or some other equally astound.
ing and dangerous miracle take place, which would far exceed
in its disastrous effects any previous calamity with which we
have been threatened. Spare us, do spare us, in mercy's
name—at least until we have time to remove ourselves from
so dangerous a neighbourhood !