The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-03-23 00:00:00

till he fairly gives up our case as desperate.

allow him all reasonable opp

lortunit

upon us

to try his skill

By the way, w must own that we paused over; some
of his yesterday'S :compounds, and after considering
them with tWoitmoSk.gravity and seriousness, as be-
came us, emir I not, after many efforts, by any means •
contrive to " take." There was one long affair—some-
thing about the " church," and the " boy Jones"—L
(the merriment of the combination was all our critic's
own)—which. must have been very good indeed, if its
wit bore any proportion to its length ; but the joke,
unfortunately, lay heavily at the bottom of the bottle,
and though we shook nnd shook, it would not come
up. Do, Mr. Albion, remedy this in your next dose ;
and either pea up a label to tell us where the point
lies, or be pleased to remember the value of brevity
and neatness in your preparations. We will not occupy
more space at present with the facetice or the inertie
of the Albion, but hope he will perceive by this, that
we are not insensible to the attention we receive at his
hands.

We must attribute the misfortune of having a New I,
Poor-law introduced into Liverpool, if such must be
our fate, to the circumstance of our having a Whig
town council. Had we a council really representing
the feelings and sentiments of the inhabitants, it would
have given them such aid in their remonstrances
against the infliction, as would have prevented any
government from daring to persevere in it, or to allow
their commissioners to force it upon such a city as this,
contrary to the expressed and almost unanimous wish
of the inhabitants. The people have petitioned against
it, but the council is silent. The council has not se-
conded their memorial, and the commissioners imme-
diately avail themselves of this seeming division in the
town, and proceed to put the law in force.
It is a great error, we admit, on the part of our Con-
servative members of parliament, that they have not
shewn themselves more attentive to the feelings of the
people out of doors on this question; but the odium
of driving the thing on, and of attempting to give the
Somerset House conclave a new ten years lease of their

supreme authority, -Must rest with the Whig adminis-

tration

The divisions which took place in the Commons on
Friday leave us without hope as to the final result of
the bill ; but many important improvements may be
made in it, and from all that has accrued, we, should
think that the terrible rigours of the system will be in
some degree mitigated or restrained. But do we owe
anything to the Whigs on this account ? Oh, nothing
in the world. It was all comfortable and smooth in
their eyes before. Their commissioners are all " second
Daniels come to judgment,"—and in the system itself,
which treats pauperism as the worst of crimes, they
can see no fault. All they wish is to renew it for ever,
and saddle themselves in perpetuity on the country

along with

The inquiry into the proceedings of the commission-
ers as to the appointment of a returning officer for
the Union of Clonmel has produced a nice skew-up of
their mode of conducting business. The whole of that
affair may be summed up in this—that the commis-
sioners selected, as a proper returning officer for that
union, a person who had been discharged as an insol-
vent, but who was the nephew of a popish bishop, and
violent political partisan, in preference to a gentleman
in every way eligible and qualified for the office; and

then having done this trick, the particulars of which

they were anxious to conceal, they stuck neither at
falsehood nor falsification, nor any other ingenious
device that seemed likely to mystify the deed
records," the Duke of 'Wellington observed, "were
kept in such a manner that it was impossible to trace
any act of the commissioners. The clause of the act
of parliament WilS little obeyed in Ireland; and he feared
as little in England. They were in the hands of this
board that possessed udimited authority to do what

" Their

they pleased, and who kept no regular record cf thei

transactions." And yet this is the board, it 'will be
remembered, whose authority our Town-council anc

the Whig party are so desirous of introducing into the
parish. Mark this, burgesses of Liverpool, we beseech

Sir Robert Peel, who has done much to stay the
tyranny of these shrouded invisibles, by re
coming term of their power, did not fail, in the debates
of Friday, to bestow upon them some salutary admo•
nition. In one of their official.papers, it seems, they
took upon them to declare, that " one principal object
of a compulsory proviSion for the relief of the destitute
poor is the prevention of alms giving." ! On this Sir
Robert Peel observed .

;lacing ti

• 4.-
" Why he heard the noble lord (J. Russell) himself state,
that the Poor Law would completely fail in effect if the afflu-
ent withheld their alms. That was perfectly true ; and he
should abominate the Poor Law if he thought it relieved the
rich from the duty of almsgiving. (Cheers.) He was per-
fectly certain the Poor Law would fail if the affluent, relying
upon its provisions alone, however improved the system of
administration might be, felt the moral obligation on them to
attend to the wants of their poorer neighbours was thereby
extinguished. It was no such thing. In point of fact, the
relief of the poor must mainly depend on the rich and afflu-
ent; and therefore it was unwise in the commissioners to
issue a public notice announcing that ' a principal object of
a compulsory provisioa for the relief of destitution was the
prevention of almsgiving.' One object might be the preven-
tion of mendicancy or vagrancy, certainly not of almsgiving.
It was a complete desecration of the precepts of the Divine
law—` Give alms to the poor,' Turn not your face from the
poor man.' (Hear, hear.) He only mentioned this as an
illustration of the great advantage and wisdom of weighing
the expressions which might be used, so as not to get up an
impression of unnecessary hardship. (Hear, hear.) Indeed,
he did think with respect to the public documents put forth
by the commissioners, independently of the use of particular
expressions, their general tone and character might be im-
proved, consistently with the maintenance of the principles
of the law." (Cheers from both sides of the house.)

This is, indeed, excellent, and what we should expect
froin the right honourable baronet; and it will, doubt-
less, do good. At the same time, we do fear that the
tyranny of these commissioners, and their mere crea-
tures, the guardians, will be felt where these Christian
sentiments, and the applause which they won, will have
little operation. However, it is well that so much has
appeared to shew who are, and who are not, the friends
of the poor, _ . .

LONGEVITY.—The following remarkable instances of lon-
gevity have been furnished us by a correspondent at Lich-
field :—Roger Brook died Oct. 8, 1568. aged 133. Mrs.
Cleen, near the Winter Pool, died Jan. 23, 1772, aged 138
years of age : she lived in one house 103 years, and walked
five miles, to pay her rent, only three weeks before her
death—(tell the wise doctor of Lichfield the pool was in a
good state then.) Thomas Damms, of Lighton, in Cheshire,
died in 1648, aged 154. William Edwards, of Carren, near
Cardiff, died in 1668, aged 168. Henry Fairbrother, of Wi-
gan, Lancashire, died May 10, 1770, aged 138. Squire Mac-
finley, of Tipperary, died June 15, 1773, aged 126. Thomas
Newman, of Brislington, died in 1542, aged 143. Frederick
Harper, of Fishall, Cumberland, died Feb. 8, 1792, aged 120.
Mr. T. Robertson, of Hope-hall, near Edinburgh, died July
8. 1793, aged 137. Jane Scrimshaw, died in Rosemary-lane
Workhouse, Dec. 6, 1711, aged 126; but the workhouses
then were not like the whig bastiles now.
A SPLENDID RELISH.—A BOLTON CANNIBAL.—AII in-
stance has been related to us this week, and for the truth of
which we can vouch, of a dog of a bull breed having been
hung for displeasing its master, a rope maker, and afterwards
interred, in a most blasphemous manner, in a field. Having
remained two days in the ground it was dug up, and skinned,
and having been cut into pieces, was sent to a beer shop in
the neighbourhorband ordered to be stewed. The landlady,
an excellent cook, prepared it in the evening, and seasoned it
well. About eight o'clock a fishmonger was passing with his
cart, and the rope maker called him into the house. Wirt
have a bit of this hash ?" enquired the roper, " for our Joe
and me has been up street an we'n joined at eighteen pen-
north of mutton." Jem replied, " I'd rather not, because
your Joe might not like it." But, however, a large basin
full of the soup, containing a full portion of the meat was
served up, and forthwith he commenced eating, declaring he
never " eat nowt better in his life," the rope makerl also swal-
lowing large spoonfuls from another dish. In a few minutes
Jem's father entered, and he was supplied with " a mess."
Having filled themselves to the brim, they declared they
could not manage the remainder of the meat, well take it
home with you," was the kind recommendation. Both did
as desired, and three ladies boiled some potatoes and made
an excellent supper. The old man, on his way home, was so
swollen that he had to unbutton his waistcoat', and was beard
to declare " eh ; but if I'd meat as I ought to have, I should
get fat I know." On the following day the dreadful truth
was revealed, and the bare idea of it threw them into a sickly
state, and with faces extended several inches beyond their
usual length, unusual Joses of medicine were swallowed, and,
having recovered from the effects of it, resumed their usual
cheerfulness. They attended at the court on Thursday. to
obtain redress, but were informed there was no Act of Par-
liament which would meet the qase.—Bolion Chronicle.