The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-10-13 00:00:00

w an tin

on the 1
the children
the church of England. Children, however, of such parents
as dissent from the church of England, are allowed to attend

,rd's day, t

of the Bishop, and

fterwa

tructed in the formularies of

their own places of worst

bstsaitial benefit had already resulted
from the society's efforts, in proof of which he quoted the
testimony of the late Governor Sir J. Cochran, and of Judge
Des Barres, as well as of the Bishop of Montreal ; and let-
ters were read from the Bishop of Newfoundland, and from
the Rev. T. Bridge, Rector of St. John's, and Chaplain to
the Bishop of Newfoundland. Various inquiries were then
made, by some of the clergy-, with the view of obtaining dis-
tinct information with respect to particulars; after which, it
That it appears from the au-

It was stated also by Mr.

Codner, thitt linnet

was resolved

animously,.

thenticated statements of S. Codner, Esil, that the inhabit-
ants of Newfoundland and British North America, have a
strong claim on the sympathy and active benevolence of the
Christian public in general, and of the town and neighbour.
hood of Liverpool in pp-''

The secretaries d the Liverpool Auxiliary are the In-
cumbent and Curate of Christ Church, by either of whom
subscriptions will be gratefully received, for the purpose of
carrying out the laudable object of the society.

THE PERSECUTED .1

JEWS IN THE EAST

COMMUNICATION FROM SIR MOSES MONTETIORI TO THE

LORD MAYOR

The Lord Mayor has just received the following letter from
Sir Moses Montefiore, on the suhject of the hon. and highly
respected Knight's mission to Damascus :

" Alexandria, Sept. 9, 1840.
"My dear Lord Mayor,—The deep interest your lordship
has taken in the cause of my persecuted and suffering bre-
thren at Damascus, and the readiness with which your lord-
ship kindly granted the use of the Egyptian-hall for the
merchants on the subject, induce me to trouble your lordship
with this letter, to inform your lordship, that amidst much
opposition, many discouragements and fears, we have sue•
ceeded in obtaining from his highness the viceroy—
" A firman fur the unconditional discharge of the nine
unhappy persons confined at Damascus. on the accusation of
being parties to the murder of Father Thomaso.
" Permission for such of the Jews as had fled to return to
their homes unmolested.

" A general declaration that the Jews should have the
same protection as all other subjects.
" It will, I am certain, impart to your lordship much sa-
tisfaction to learn, that so far our mission has not been in
vain. More was anticipated when we left home, but the turn
political affairs have taken, the agitation that prevails here,
the disturbed state of Syria, and the opposition of the French
authorities, have hitherto prevented our proceeding to Da-
mascus, or obtaining a new trial, and thus daring our ac-
cusers to bring proof that my co-religionists were in any way
implicated in the murder.

The rise, progress, and end of the Rhodes affair afford
an useful lesson to persecutors, and demonstrate that where
cupidity is united to religious fanaticism, truth is altogether
shut out, guilt escapes, and innocence alone is sure to suffer.
" Notwithstanding our difficulties, it is not our intention
to quit the East without visiting Damascus, unless compelled
by actual hostilities.
I have the honour to be, my dear Lord Mayor,
" Yours most truly,
'• To the Right Hon. the" MOSES MO," &NTEFIORE.
Lord Mayorc.

DARING ROBBERY.—A most daring robbery was commit-
ted, on Friday evening last, about eight o'clock, by some
villain at present unknown. He thrust his hand through a
pane of glass in the window of Messrs. Madder and Syred,
pawnbrokers, Oldhall-street, and, grasping a small lot of
American gold coins, amounting in value to about £l2, im-
mediately decamped out of sight. A very great outrage,
particularly at such an hour, in a great thoroughfare, when
the moon and the gas rendered the street as light almost as
day.

ST. SIMON'S BRANCH OF THE LIVERPOOL OPERATIVE
PROTESTANT ASSOCIATION.—Last evening a very numerous
meeting of the members and friends of St. Simon's Branch
of the Operative Protestant Association was held in the
School-room, Moorfields. The meeting was one of a
monthly series, which are producing great and extensive
good. The Reverend J. R. Connor presided, and he
delivered an interesting speech, showing the grounds of the
Protestant cause, and the reasons why it was necessary for
the people of England to combine for its defence. A num-
ber of appropriate resolutions were afterwards moved and
seconded, and carried unanimously, and the meeting sepa-
rated about ten o'clock.
DIATH or MR. MAnsitALL.—The attack upon Mr. Mar-
shall of the county of Donegal, on the 9th ult. has eventuated
in death. The ruffian who 'med the deadly blow at the de-
ceased was admitted to bail twe take for granted that the
magistrate who took the gnizances for his appearance
will feel it his duty to resor to means of preventing his es-
cape, as death has. ensued. The deceased, we understand,
made a most

actors deposition of the circumstances of
the attack, and of the identity of his assailant. The magis-
trate who took the deposition should issue a warrant against
the person charged with the crime of murder.—DublinEven-
ing Post.

MTeon.--Between two and three o'clock on Friday after-
noon,-z
while a gentleman was proceeding to Grariton Pier,
and passing by Golden Acre he observed a brilliant meteor
shot from a hazy cloud, which floated at no great height in
the atmosphere, in the direction of Newhaven. The course
of the meteor was vertically down ; the length of it, as it ap-
peared to the eye, was about a yard, of a pear shape, and the
colour of the light that of burnished brass. Its meteor form
distinguished it at once from a thunder bolt ; besider, no
audible report accompanied the phenomenon. The sun shone
brilliantly at the time, and the clouds generally consisted of
isolated masses, with considerable spaces between them ; and
that from which the meteor darted seemed to occupy a lower
stratum of the atmosphere, and was of a less dense and more
hazy appearance.—Scoltish Standard.

pot trp.

STANZAS

' BY MRS. ALARIC WATTS.
(Feom the United Service Gazette.)
Can it be in anger thus
Britain's Genius bids adieu !
Snatching in her wrath from us
Trophies time can ne'er renew
Standards that o'er heroes waved
Wheresoe'er they swept the sea ;
Breeze and battle, that have braved,
Christian captives to set free'.
We have seen Old England's flag,
Famed in song, renowned in story,
Trailed beneath a rebel rag,
Soiled its folds, and dimmed its glory.
Better perish in its fame,
Requiemed by great and good,
Ere a single spot of shame
On its hallowed folds intrude.
England, from thy trance awake,
Fate herself bath challenged thee !
If not for the living's sake,
For thy dead, who left thee free!
Warnings from the nations came ;
Did we listen to the call ?
It was meet a" tongue of flame"
Should at length arouse us all!
September 30th.

CONTEMPORARY PRESS.

----
e6:A A
•"‘"" e ' ' • •
40.
f '

SUGGESTED BY THE DESTRUCTION, AT THE RECENT FIRE
AT DEVONPORT, OF THE FLAGS UNDER WHICH NELSON
AND EXMOUTH -FOUGHT THE BATTLES OF TRAFALGAR
AND ALGIERS.

NEW POOR LAW HUMANITY.
(From the Morning Herald.)
The Somerset House " Dictators" are beginning to
push the new poor law to its natural consequences.
They are beginning, in short, to exhibit, without dis-
guise, the atrocious character of that most revolution-
ary measure. For some time past these worthies have
affected exceeding moderation, pretending that they
had no other object than to act in the genuine spirit of
the 43d of Elizabeth, after purifying that celebrated
statute from the abuses which had crept into its admi-
nistration. These professions were obviously forced
upon them by public opinion. The poor law commis-
sioners felt that they were watched, as never public
functionaries were watched before, and they, accord-
ingly, affected exceeding moderation in the exercise of
their unconstitutional functions. Odious and revolting
as have been the results to vt bich the new poor law has
led, how much more odious and revolting would not
those results have proved, had public feeling been less
sensitive on the subject !
The Somerset House gentlemen are, however, we
repeat, beginning to press forward, a step or two, in
" carrying out" their favourite measure. The follow-
ing statement in the Newc"stle Journal may startle
some of the well-meaning amongst those who have,
hitherto, looked with favour on the great Malthusian
proscription of the poor :
" The triumvirate of Somerset House have just issued an
order, by the hand of their pliant understrapper, Mr. Edwin
Chadwick, that hereafter the poor of England—at least those
who, by dire necessity, are driven to the workhouse for
shelter—are to be deprived of the small measure of comfort
which the return of Christmas has never failed to bring to
the most unfortunate of our fellow creatures throughout
once ' merry England ; ' in other words, that those who
have especial claims upon our bounty and better feelings at
that festive season, are to be denied the slight indulgence of
roast-beef, plum pudding, and a tankard of ale."
The felons_ in our gaols are allowed beef and pudding
on Christmas-day :—beef and pudding are, hencefor-
ward, to be denied to the inmates of our workhouses—
many of whom are the victims of age and disease,
while many are no less the victims of a spirit of com-
mercial gambling in their former employers. This,
however, is the process by which the Malthusians pro-
pose to generate in the breasts of the class of labour-
ers that higher sense of morality from which the poli-
tical economists of the present day profess to expect so
much !
The new poor law is a-fraud in its character, and in
its tendencies. Its authors avowed their design in
framing it to be " t..) render the condition of the pau-
per worse than the condition of the worst-paid inde-
pendent labourer"—without bestowing the slightest
inquiry into the causes which may have induced each
individual inmate of a workhouse to a condition of
helplessness. The new poor law takes for granted,
that every man who is compelled to avail himself of his
(so to speak) patrimonial rights under the 43d of Eli-
zabeth, is an idle, improvident, or profligate person.
The new poor law professed to cure these habits " of
idleness, improvidence, and vice," by means at once
effective and inexpensive. As to the efficiency of the
new poor law, let the deep hatred which possesses the
minds of the class of labourers in regard to this sa-
vage enactment be taken into account, before deter.
mining how far the framers of the act have succeeded
in the object which they had in view. As to the " eco-
nomy of which the new poor law was vaunted as the
parent, let the cost of a "rural police," as well as of
highly-paid commissioners and sub-commissioners, be
kept in view before deciding the question of "cost."
Above all, it may be worth while to inquire, whether
any measure may be fairly pronounced to be inexpen-
sfitr, which leads to the violent disruption of old social
ties, and which tends to place the order of labourers in
a state of hostility towards all other classesi in the
community.
•

JOINT-STOCK COMPANIES.
(From the Times.)
The eager disposition of the public to embark in
joint-stock companies, notwithstanding their repeated
failures and embarrassments, demands from us some
observations. The mercantile world in particular re-
quire the superintendence and the warning voice of
one watching over their interests, and not embarrassed
and blinded and hurried round and round with them
in the vortex of business and self-interest, to remind
them of their actual course and the presence of dan-
gers, and in what direction the pole-star of real wisdom
and safety is pointed. We feel it our duty, as censors
of the public mind and morals, to warn people against
themselves. This task is not a gracious one ; but
nevertheless we pursue it constantly, regardless of
present consequences, and we have found our acconnt
in so doing.
" He that tells me of my faults is my friend; he who
tells me of my virtues is my enemy." When, in the
heyday of railroad and foreign loan speculations, we
warned men of their danger, and pointed out that it
was not the principle or the system, however good, but
the particular and judicious application of it, that was
the proper foundation of success and warrant of ex-
pectation, few persons regarded us. But there were
some few who did. If but one person was saved from
ruin, we had performed our duty. We earned the
thanks of that person; but we obtained the respect of
all, and it is thus that wisdom, being confessed in us
even by those who have not the courage and confidence
to practise it, we have checked, if not stopped, the
contagion of many a false fashion and opinion, by the
force of general respect and impression. The appro-
bation we have commanded from our readers is not
the result of one year's effort or of ten year's operation,
but of a constant and uniform course of determination
and action.
Burke has said that private persons may grow wiser
by e.xperisnce—the public never. Hence we have the
continual renewals of war and all its disasters, after
shortintervals of the blessings of peace ; hence we
have, at the interval of every ten years, as near as pos-
sible, a general burst of speculation, succeeded by a
national ruin and panic. We endeavour to combine
the wisdom and activity of individual action with the
power and weight of public opinion, and to bring both
to bear for good upon all points of general use and
interest. We confine ourselves at the present moment
to the general principle of joint-stock companies.
Joint-stock concerns are opposed to some of the first
principles of private partnerships and trading. . The
first principle in a private partnership is the choice of
your own partner, and the consequent power of dissolv-
ing partnership whenever this choice ceases or changes
on either side. This choice involves the character and
abilities of the partner, as well as his means and capi-
tal ; and, indeed, these are the general foundation and
bond of the connexion.
Of this account, and as essential to this principle,
no private partner may transfer his share, or introduce
by any means another fresh partner; but he may dis-
solve the partnership at any time, either wholly or in
part, by withdrawing his own particular share, accord-
ing to'the value of it.
But a public company cannot be dissolved at the
will of any one partner; and, as incident to this pecu-
liar character, each partner must be at liberty to trans-
fer his sy, re, when desirous of quitting business, and
thus to introduce a fresh partner of his own choosing,
not of the choice or goodf opinion of those with whom
he is to be associated. This, therefore, is the first ef-
fect of joint-stock associations—that persons engage in
them who are ignorant of business, who may be also
without ability and character, who may even be with-
out money or means beyond the particular value of
their shares, and this may be little or nothing. And
this connects itself with another principle, which is,
that the concern shall be carried on by a board of di-
rectors ; for, as there is no security that all the partners
shall be competent to the business, some choice must
be made of those who shall have the affairs confided to
them, in order that some degree of stability and know-
ledge of business may be secured to the management.
The rest of the partners lie idle; so that not only is
this a system of trading without a knowledge of trade,
without character or ability, sometimes almost without
any reserve of capital, but it is a means of making mo-
ney in idleness, in compulsory idleness : for, whereas
in a private concern every partner has a right to look
over the accounts, and to check at least, if he does not
assist, in the conduct of the business, in a public part-
nership the proprietors are excluded from this control,
and all intimate knowledge is kept back from them.
And on this hinges their merits in the eyes of most
of those who are the supporters of these concerns. To
be able to embark in business without being a man of
business; to be able to share in the profits of trade
without a knowledge of trade, or any education for it;
without abilities, without character, without any atten-
tion or exertion—this is so tempting a bait, that there
is sure to be a plentiful influx of adventurers into any
such concern that has the slightest promise in it, and
a supply of means beyond what private partnerships
will risk in proportion to the object. The very exclu-
sion from inspection is rather accepted as a privilege,

and operates only as an additional inducement to per-
sons determined to be idle, and not unwilling to be
blinded and deceived.
There is only one more quality wanting to make the
morsel wholesome as well as tempting, and this is, that
they should incur only a limited liability. There is a
strong power at work among the band of unsound
speculators to obtain this consummation of their
schemes—a system of limited liability as applicable to
companies. There is happily an antagonist force of
experience and good sense which is hitherto opposing
it; sometimes the one and sometimes the other is in
the ascendant. The Bubble Act was repealed in 1825,
which had been founded upon an experimental know-
ledge of the mischiefs and unprincipled trading pro-
duced by the unfettered transfer of shares, contrary to
all practice, among private traders. The same act of
1825, and another of 1834, enabled the Crown to grant
privileges to companies involving this among others of
a limited responsibility. But in November of the same
year the privy council refused the first application made
under the last act, and drew up minutes of discourage-
ment to such applications. And up to this time the
Crown has never thought fit to grant any one patent
conferring the privilege on a company of a limited lia-
bility. The last-named act made the members of com-
panies created by patent liable for three years in their
private fortunes for the debts of the company. This
is a wholesome restraint, and is necessary to give pro-
tection to private traders and the public in their com-
petition and dealings with public companies.
Though companies are in these points incompatible
with the true principles of partnership in commerce,
they are not on that account without their use and
place, though their proper place is peculiar and very
limited. Giants would be awkward intruders upon the
foot pavements in Cheapside, at foot-ball, or in a cricket-
ground. But they might he useful to lift a .heavily-
laden broad-wheeled waggon out of a ditch, if they hap-
pened to be passing at the exact moment, and could be
quiet till another such occasion called upon them. Many
a heavy-wheeled trade has been launched upon the
broad road, and set going by a company, which, but
for the help of such giant arm, might never have had
motion.
The proper occasions which call for and warrant the
establishment of a public company will require a separ-
ate and particular enumeration, together with the dis-
tinctive principles of each.
We have mentioned the chief points in which they
contradict the proper principles of partnerships. We
must exhibit those also in which they oppose them-
selves to the sound and solid basis and principles of
trade.

THE CORN LAWS.
(From Berrow's Worcester Journal.)
We admit in the abstract the justice of the opinion
that a man has a right to take his abilities to the best
market and get as much money as he can for the ex-
ercise of them : nay more, we allow that even if an in-
dividual has been convicted of libel, yet having purged
himself of the offence by undergoing the penalties of
the law, he is not thereby precluded from all future ex-
ercise of his literary or oratorical talents. It is not so
much to the system of paying lecturers that we object,
as to such persons, for the sake of gain, perverting ,
their powers by employing them in the most unfounded
assertions and unmeasured abuse against their op-
ponents. Thus when Mr. Acland declares that "the
Corn Laws are most oppressive and unnatural; that
they are blasphemous, inhuman, anti-social, and anti-
agricultural;"—when he represents the landowners of
Great Britain as individuals devoid of all patriotic feel-
ing, sordid, selfish, mean, and influenced solely by the
love of money, we tell him to his face that he is saving
that which is not true, and that he is perverting his
talents as a public speaker. It is the natural feeling of
man, whether he be a manufacturer or a land proprie-
tor, to acquire a fortune as rapidly as he can ; but what-
ever may be the cupidity of persons of the latter class,
it is clear that they have not generally succeeded in
amassing great wealth : Mr. Acland himself says that
four-fifths of the landed property of the kingdom is
mortgaged ; and how therefore can he have the auda-
city to assert that the Corn Laws have put immense
sums into the pockets of the owners of land ? It is a
circumstance not depending upon mere assertion, but
the unimpeachable evidence of facts and figures, that
real property, such as farms, does not pay its posses-
sors more than three or three and a half per cent.
Would Mr. Acland's employers think such a return
for their money a prodigious profit ? Would he him-
self consider that he was committing a robbery by re-
ceiving such a rate of interest upon his own capital ?
There are one or two other fallacies in these lectures,
for the refutation of which we must claim from the
reader a moment's indulgence.
The corn laws are neither blasphemous nor anti-
social. The landowners say to the government, "We
are British subjects, dependent upon the soil for our
support, and we claim your protection. All that we
require is, that as the cost of production and the amount
of taxation in foreign countries are less than in Eng-
land, we shall not be placed in a worse position than
our rivals in other nations." Is there any thing un-
reasonable in this ? We sometimes hear allusions made
to the dark ages; but surely the person must be la-
bouring under worse than Cimmerian darkness who
denies that it is the duty of every state to protect and
encourage its own subjects. This principle is adopted
with respect to manufactures, and the relaxation of it
even in a degree has, as we too well know, been pro-
ductive of the most direful consequences. But we are
more particularly desirous of exposing one absurdity
uttered by Mr. Acland, as it may produce a prejudicial
effect on the minds of the humbler classes, though it
is most creditable to the agricultural labourers that
they have hitherto been uninfluenced by the improper
attempts to cause discontent and resistance among
them. Mr. Acland instances the case of a poor man,
who worked for seven shillings a-week in an agricul-
tural district, and who, being taken ill, went to the
workhouse, where he died. The result he does not
hesitate to attribute to the corn laws ! Many heavy
charges have been brought against the supporters of
these protective duties, but we certainly did not antici-
pate that they would he accused of being liable for all
the diseases to which human nature is subject. But
what is the remedy which Mr. Acland proposes for low
wages ? Why, to reduce the incomes of the landowners
and farmers, and thus enable them to give more ! !
With respect to wages, a child in political economy
knows that they are wholly dependent upon the supply
of, and demand for, labour. In the accounts from the
colonies, we frequently read of labourers being scarce,
and that wages were in consequence high; and, vice
versa, there were plenty of labourers, and the remune-
ration was less.

The lecturer seems also to have considered that the
breaking up of the smaller farms has been productive
of great injury. We last week had a conversation with
an intelligent gentleman from Ireland, who dwelt much
upon the ill consequences which had resulted to that
country from the division of the land into very small
takings. The reason is obvious : the occupiers hav-
ing no capital to lay out are unable to adopt the most
improved modes of culture, and the produce therefore
is greatly diminished, or perhaps the crops altogether
fail.

We might go on showing the absurdities of these anti-
corn-law lecturers, but time and space admonish us
to stop. There is one illustration of the effect of free
trade which Mr. Acland had close at hand, but of which
he does not appear to have availed himself—that is, the
present state of the glove trade. We have read an
anecdote of a very respectable looking gentleman who
in disposing of a horse said he had but one fault, which
was, that he would not without much difficulty pass
an inn which he mentioned, and therefore it would be
advisable for the purchaser always to avoid the spot.
The secret of all this advice was at length found out :
the animal had been stolen from the inn for which he
had such strong predilections. To dwell much upon
the advantages of preferring the interests of foreigners
to our own, might in such a city as Worcester awaken
some awkward reminiscences of the wrong done to a
most important branch of its trade. We sincerely trust
that we shall never see the British farmers reduced to
the same condition of unmerited distress and difficulty.

BERKSHIRE.—GROSS NEGLECT ON THE PART OF THE
OVERSEERS.—Great loss of time has been occasioned to
the revising barristers, Mr. John Kemoson and Mr. John
George Phillimore (who are now making the circuit of the
county of Berks, for the revision of the list of voters), in
consequence of the gross neglect of the overseers of parishes
throughout the county generally. The county contains up-
wards of 140 parishes, and, out of this number, the over-
seers of only six made returns of the list of voters, &c., to
the clerks of the peace within the time prescribed by the
reform act. The consequence has been, that in many places
two and three days have been occupied by their revision,
when as many hours would have been sufficient. At Wind-
sor, for instance, on Saturday last, the revision of the county
lists did not occupy half an hour; but the revising bar-
risters, not having been made acquainted with the small ex-
tent of business to be got through, appointed (when the days
and places were fixed) the following Monday for the revision
of the borough lists. That occupied about an hour and a
half only. The whole of the business, which was thus
(through the neglect of the overseers) spun over two days,
could have been completed before one o'clock on Saturday.
HISTORICAL NOTICE OF BEYROUT.—Beyrout iS the an-
cient Beryta, which was originally colonized from Sidon. In
566 the town was destroyed by an earthquake. It was no
sooner rebuilt than it had to sustain a lengthened siege by
the Saracens, who finally obtained possession of it. It sub-
sequently fell into the power of Baldwin. King of Jerusalem ;
but in 1111 Saladin succeeded in driving all the Christians
out of it. After a frequent change of masters, Beyrout at
length became the residence of the Emir Fakir Eddyn,
Prince of the Danses, who perished there in defending his
dominons against the powerful Amurath IV. Since that
period, Beyrout has constantly belonged to the Ottoman
empire. Beyrout contained about 10,000 inhabitants—ac-
tawtc
irloohal rndi inhabitants—ac-
de
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aocimsnuf
ecceoaee
nnnudntertraste
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pdlaawt2lr
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Syria, and more especially the silks of the Lebanon, were
transmitted to Europe. The commerce of Beyrout amounted
annually to a sum of 4,000,000 or Tuscanys,ooo,ooof.
of
the first instance, and after her France, were in possession
the major part of this commerce. The exportations of
France to Beyrout amounted annually (says the Messager)
to about 2,000,000 f. ; the importations from Beyrout to
France to nearly 1,000,000 f. Asa military point (observes
the same paper) Beyrout was insignificant. It is true that the
harbour of Beyrout is the best harbour for merchant vessels
on the coast, but it is inaccessible to ships of war. The means
of defence of Beyrout seaward were a small fort, some bat-
teries constructed on the mole by which the port h sheltered,
a small bastion, and fortified gates. Landward the sole for-
tification is a wall flanked by towers, to which a few intrench.
I meats were recently added by the orders of Soliu