The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-01-26 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

INCREASED RATE OF DISCOUNT.—The following no-
tice was posted in the discount office at the Bank of Eng-
land on. Thursday :—" The minimum rate of interest on
bills discounted at the Bank of England, not having more
than 95 days to run, is 4 per cent.—Jan. 21, 1847."
The ready-shelled green peas now selling in the London
market, and represented as an arrival from Holland, are
but a small species of our common grey; pea, dyed with a
preparation of verdigris and brine, in which they are
partly boiled to render them a little mellow.
The Committee appointed to investigate into the case
of the boys at Heriot's Hospital have now ended their
labours, and the decision they have come to is, that all
the boys be admitted to the hospital with the exception
of four

Experiments have recently been made at the Excise
Office, under orders issued by the government, to test the
-.8 a substitute for malt in the manufacture

fitness of sugar
- 4

The experiments are described to be

uccessful

Wm. Duckett, who had been remanded since the 4th
inst. for an attempt upon the life of his wife, by cutting
her throat, at Middlewich, was last week committed to
take his trial at the assizes, the poor woman having so far
recovered as to be able to give evidence against him.
A boy named William Wood, living at Onibersley,
Worcestershire, and employed by Mr. It. Amphlett, of
Lineholt Common, to shoot birds upon the farm, was
killed last week by an accidental discharge of his gun, the
. contents of whichlodged in his head.
H. M.'s steam-sloop Sphynx was run aground on Sa-
turday, at Chilton :five miles ahead of the Needles : the
last reports state her to be breaking up, and fast sinking
in the sands. Mr. Harris and six men of the Scourge
were drowned on Monday in trying to board her.
SUDDEN DEATH.—Lord Charles Stuart, son of the
Earl of Murray, went to bed on Wednesday night in good
health, and was found by his servant, on entering his
room shortly after nine on Thursday morning, lying on
the floor on his face, apparently senseless. Two doctors
were in immediate attendance, but life was extinct.
EXCISE DUTY ON PAPER.—A meeting of the paper
makers of Scotland was held on Wednesday, in the ware-
house of Mr. Cameron, Bank-street, for the purpose of
adopting resolutions deprecatory of the 'excise duty on
paper, and for petitioning the government for its repeal.
The various resolutions were unanimously agreed to.
On Thursday the Common Council of London voted
£2,000, with acclamation, for the relief of the distressed
Irish and Scotch. The Lord Mayor said he would hand
over the money that night, and he expressed a fervent
hope that the example would be followed by every corpo.
ration in England.

Mr. Thomas Newport, farmer, of Clavering, has beer
taken into custody, as being implicated in the poisoning
cases at Manuden and Clavering, for which Sarah Ches.
ham awaits her trial at the ensuing assizes, and the cas(
stood remanded to Monday, at the Police Station, New.

- The Duke of Manchester has written to the Times to
say, that the reason for his grace not replying to Arch-
deacon Saurin's application for the relief of the destitute
Irish, was of a private nature. It appears that during
the last four years three-sevenths of the duke's disposable
income have been expended in labour and charities on
his Irish property.

THE PRICE OF BEER.—We are requested to state that
the London brewers have not raised the price of porter
One penny per quart, or 12s. a barrel, as was stated by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, but ,only ss. a barrel, or
rather less than one halfpenny • a quart. The additional
advance has, no doubt, in many.instances, been made by
the retailers.—Times.
The Morning Herald says that in the town of Notting-
ham there as many as eight-and-twenty different sects ;
and of the Methodists alone, seven separate and dis-
tinct bodies. Besides which there is the perpetual change
which is ever going on amidst these fluctuating sects or
parties. A man is a Baptist in January, a Kilhamite in
July, and a Romanist in December.
A young man was found dead in• his bed, at Notting-
ham, on Saturday, from suffocation produced by the car-
bonic acid gas evolved from a chafing-dish filled with
burning embers. Before he' retired to rest, he had care-
fully stopped up the window and fireplace, and, indeed,
every other crevice, so that it was impossible for the
noxious vapour to escape from the room.

Since the recent excitement caused by the death of a
girl who was imprisoned by a proctor at Cambridge, there
have been several disturbances at night ; the mob rescuing
females who haVe been arrested by the order of the-proc-
tors. Twice last week these riotous proceedings were
renewed ; the mob succeeding in their object on both
occasions, and hooting at the proctor and his men.
PRISON REroumAzioN..--Seven offenders were libera-
ted from Gloucester county gaol a few- days ago. • In thd
course of the same day two of them succeeded in perpe-
trating a fresh felony and effecting their escape, and the
other five fell into the hands of the police as drunk and
disorderly, having squandered in intoxication the money
which the magistrates had given them to provide for pre-
sent necessities.

PAINFUL DISCOVERY.—On the night of Sunday, the
27th ult., Mrs. Elizabeth Smith, who resided with her
husband at Pope's Villa, Twickenham, disappeared from
her home. She had dressed up the pilldw and placed it
by the side of her partner, and he did not miss her till
the morning. Nothing was heard of her till Saturday,
when her dead body was picked up in the river Thames,
off Lambeth.

A SINGULAR CHARACTER.—An old woman named
Sarah Valiant, who resided in Wye-bridge-street, Mon-
mouth, died on Tuesday week. She had for many years
gained her livelihood by carrying pails of water to the
houses in the neighbourhood, and was apparently in very
poor circumstances. After her death, however, seventy
guineas were found in various parts of the house, wrapped
up in pieces of linen. These she had by will bequeathed
to her niece. She was about 73 years old.
Mr. David Bevan, banker, of London, who. died on
the 24th ultimo, has left personal property valued at
£250,000. He has bequeathed to his son, R. L. Bevan,
X 40,000; to his son, the Rev. D. B. Bevan, Rector of
Burton Latimer, £40,000; to his four daughters, (among
whom is the wife of the Rev. T. Mortimer, B.D:, minis-
ter of Gray's Irn-lane Chapel, London,) £20,000 each.
The whole of his real property he leaves to his son, R. C.
L. Bevan.

EARLY GENIUS.—The price of bread was raised on
Tuesday last. A boy went into one of our baker's shops
the same afternoon, and asked for an oblong piece of sub-
stance of yesterday's baking. . The towel round it, he
tendered the old price, when another halfpenny was de-
manded, on the ground that the price had risen that day.
" Oh !" said young hopeful, that's sure enough, but this
loaf is of yesterday's baking !" The baker laughed for
his halfpenny. The boy might do for Go-a-head land.—
Ayr Advertiser.

PUBLIC INCOME AND EXPENDITURE.—The official
document of the public income and expenditure for the
year ending the sth of January last., laid before parlia-,
ment on Wednesday, was issued on Saturday. The total
income for the year was £53,790,138 75., 5d., and the ex-
penditure £50,943,830 Bs. 3d., leaving an excess of-in-
come over the expenditure of £2,846,307 19s. 2d. The
balances in the Exchequer, on the sth of January, 1846,
amounted to £8,452,090 Os. Old., and on the 'sth of the
present month they were £9,131,282 7s. 101 d.

The third subscription list of the British Association for
the relief of the distress in Ireland and Scotland, has been
published. It amounts to £48,825, and is followed by ad-
ditional subscriptions which carry the above sum to at
least £60,000. To this must be added the fund raising by
the National Club, which may be estimated at nearly
£lO,OOO, and the " Ladies Relief Association" for Ireland
only, at the head of which is the Queen Dowager. All,
therefore, that mere charity can do to alleviate this ter-
rible calamity, is being done.
• A SOLDIER FROZEN TO DEATH.—On Thursday morn-
ing, the dead body of a soldier was found on a part of the
moor above Glossop Low. It appears that his intention
was to go from Burnley to Sheffield to visit his friends.
There is little doubt the unfortunate man missed his way,
and, becoming bewildered amid the darkness, was frozen
to death. The deceased's name was Samuel Burgin, of
the 69th Regiment, new stationed at Burnley ; he was a
very fine athletic man, about thirty-four years of age.
When found, he was completely glazed over with ice, and
frozen fast to the ground. It is supposed he was in li-
quor, but he received an excellent character for sobriety.
CONNUBIAL CODIPLICATION.—III the parish of Cruwys
Merchard, there is a remarkable lady, who is now near
her 70th year, and is the mother of ten children, who
y

aave all given their hands in wedlock, and who has up-
wards of forty grandchildren. This venerable dame hath
now for the third time been led to the altar by a young
farmer of the parish aforesaid, and who is about the age
of her ninth child by a former husband, in order that she
may enjoy the solace of a marriage life in the sweet
society- of a young and tender consort. The old lady's
niece has been married to her sister's husband's father,
and consequently has become grandmother to
,an older
sister's children.—Exeter Times.
ACCIDENTALLYrriAdaMy,oTthnev.u;..
o o Tazewell, SHOTnear BY HRR ‘t
Glastonbury, having been shooting small birds, brought
home his gun' loaded, and hung it up in its usual place,
first taking off the cap. He then went out, and another
son, at boy about ten years of age, in the absence of his
mother, having taken down the gun and placed another
cap on it, on his mother's return said, ,t Mother, I am
going to pop the candle out," and immediately fired.
The whole of the charge lodged in the body of his unfor-
tunate parent, just below the breast; she uttered one
moan, and died, leaving eight orphan children to deplore
her loss.—Somerset Gazette. •
BURIAL PLACES OUT OF LARGE TOWNS.—We are glad
to observe that the Metropolitan and Suburban Ceme-
tery Society have been so. successful in the great support
they have received, that they have not only purchased
large plots of ground near the metropolis, but have also
formed themselves into another company to effect the
same object for the great cities and populous districts of
the country. The estimates prepared by one of the four
surveyors of the Lord Mayor and Corporation of London,
show a clear dividend of 20 per cent. on the capital of
250 years, and it is expected that large towns, by the same
economical principles being applied, will yield similar
returns. The deposit being only 2s. per share, may,
however, lead to a great deal of speculation for immediate
profits, which is to be regretted.—Mark Lane Express.
DESTRUCTION OF HORSES.—The Essex Herald says,—
" We are credibly informed that, within a circle of about
three miles, not fewer than twenty horses, Which were to
all appearance in previous good health, have died within
the last twelve months suddenly, post mortem examina-
tions exhibiting no ostensible cause for their deaths. One
of them was a fine animal, valued at forty guineas. Nor
has the system been confined to the destruction of that
noble animal, the hone ; a cow, in the same vicinity,
worth £lB, was not long since found dead, and-no doubt
is entertained, the recently-made footmarks of persons
being evident around the carcass, that it was suffocated.
It is imagined that the animals thus killed in fine con-
dition, have been taken to a more lucrative market than
that offered by the kennel or the boiler; and it is even
stated that joints have been salted down in firkins, and
sold as foreign beef so imported."

A CROW !—The Times of Friday has a note of triumph
over the approaching fall of the poor-law Commfssioners :
—" The day of retribution for the Somerset-house trium-
virate is at hand.

• 'All three of them are desperate ; their great guilt,
Like poison given to work a great time after,
Now 'gins to bite the spirits '
No rats ever ran from a falling house more rapidly than
they have turned tail upon their own system since there
has been an end of all doubt of its speedy downfall.
Their eitinctien, announced last night, has been inevit-
able ever since the report of the Andover committee, and
their endeavours to pick up a good character in the inter-
val have been miserably unsuccessful."
A GREAT FALL OF BARLEY.-011 Sunday, the men
working in the gas-house heard a tremendous crash in the
direction of the three newly-erected maltings of Messrs.
Taylor and Son, at Bishops Stortford. It was soon after
discovered to have been occasioned by the whole floor
of one of the barley chambers giving way, with the
immense quantity of grain (upwards of 1,000 quarters)
above it. A number of Messrs. Taylor's men endea-

voured to secure as much as possible of what had been
forced out into the yard. While this was going on, at-
tention was directed to .the barley chamber of the malt-
ing adjoining, which was found to be givipg way under
about the same quantity of grain, but by prompt applica-
tion of some strong timber it was prevented from bulging
out. A hole was cut in the end the next morning, and
about 100 quafters taken out

IGHWAY ROBBERY AND MIIRDER.-0/1 Monday
night, between the hours of ten and eleven o'clock, as Mr.
John Riley, tobacconist, in Waingate, was on his way to
his residence, in the Occupation-road, and had proceeded
as far as the top of Tom Cross-lane, near Burgin's-gar-
dens, three men suddenly rushed upon him from the
opposite side of the road to that on which he was walking,
one of whom struck him a blow•across the forehead with
a bludgeon, or life-preserver, by which he was at once
rendered insensible, and he fell to the ground bleeding
profusely from the wound. The villains stole about 30s.
in silver, and having secured Mr. Riley's watch (a silver
lever, without maker's name, and numbered 3,260,) and
also his hat and stick, they left him insensible and bleed-
ing on the ground. Mr. Riley has since died.—Sheffield
Times.

THE POOS.-LAW CASE AT WORCESTER. We recently
gave the particulars of a wretched case at Worcester,
where a woman was confined in an empty house, during
the late frost, without coal, clothing, or food, and where
her infant died, as it was alleged, through the indifference

and neglect of the relieving officer of the union, a person
named Crisp. Official inquiries have been made into
the circumstances, by order of the Poor-law Commis-
sioners, who have sent down to the Worcester Guardians
their decision, which is, that the Guardians are to at once
" call for and accept Crisp's resignation." The guardians
have, however, positively refused to carry out the com-
missioners' intention, and are, therefore, placed a second
time in antagonism with the commissioners, having pre-
viously declined to dismiss, at the command of the com-
missioners, . the governor f the workhouse. It remains,
therefore, to be seen what steps the commissioners will
take in consequence. The guardians are satisfied with
the conduct of their officers.

RAGGED ScHooLs,—A writer (said to be Lord Ashley)
in the last Quarterly Review, endeavours to make the
community understand something of the nature and ob-
ject of, and necessity for, those " Ragged Schools," which
have Sprung up, within the last four years, in many dis-
tricts of the metropolis. He says, that, though unable to
obtain minute returns from every school, "We have ex-
amined fifteen schools, and find an amount of 2,345
children and young persons between the ages of five and
seventeen, with some few even older. The number of
average attenaants will be less by at least one-third, and
will be therefore about 1,600. Now of these 162 confess
that they have been in prison-116 have run away from
their homes-170 sleep in their lodging-houses (the chief
sinks of iniquity in the metropolis)-253 live by begging
—216 have no shoes or stockings-280 have no hat, cap,
or bonnet-191 have no body linen-249 never sleep in
beds-69 are the children of convicts-125 have stepmo-
thers—and 306 have lost one or both parents, a large pro-
portion 'having lost both.

POOR-LAW ACCOMMODATION. The parish of St.
George-the-Martyr, Southwark, has become crowded to
excess by the fearful increase in the number of candidates
for admission. Such has been the amount of deititution
prevailing in the district alluded to, that the only asylum
open to the poor has been crowded to a degree which
threatened to engender disease and pestilence. An Assist-
ant Commissioner having visited the abode which the law
has provided for poverty in the parish of St. George-the-
Martyr, gives a frightful picture of the condition of that
establishment. He found 43 persons packed together in
a room containing 12 beds, and in the wards called infec-
' tious, and receiving. wards,. 22 men and 14 boys were
crammed, with only 15 beds for the whole number to lie
upon. In another small apartment, which seemed to the
Assistant-Commissioner not more than 12 feet square, no
less than eight-and-twenty female trampers and children
passed the night of the Bth of the present month, and the
room being on the basement, is one which the medical
officer has declared it impossible to warm or ventilate.
Every paragraph of the communication addressed by the
subordinate functionary to his chiefs contains information
of .the, discomfort and danger to which the poor have
been exposed by the over-crowding of the workhouse.
The recent discovery of a new planet (an event entirely
new in the history of astronomy, and equalled only by the
extraordinary prediction of Sir Isaac Newton, that the
hardest and most valuable of our gems was vegetablesub-
stance) has been succeeded by another, and perhaps more
extraordinary' discovery in astronomy by Professor Mid-
ler, of Dorpat. By an extensive and laborious compari-
son of the quantities and directions of the proper motions
of the stars in various parts of the heavens, combined
with indications afforded by the parallexes hitherto deter-
mined, and with the theory of universal gravitation, Pro-
fessor Midler has arrived at the conclusion that the
Pleiades for the central group of our whole astral or side-
ral system, including the Milky Way and all the brighter
stars, but exclusive of the more distant nebulte, and of the
stars of which those nebulae may be compOsed, and within
this central group itself he has been led to fix on the star
Alcoyne (otherwise known by the name of Eta Tauri), as
occupying exactly or nearly the position of the centre of
gravity, and as entitled to be called the central sun. As-
suming Bessel's parallax of the star sixty-one Cygni, long
since remarkable for its large proper motion, to be cor-
rectly determined, Midler proceeds to form a first ap-
proximate estimate of the distance of this central body
from the planetary or solar system ; and arrives at the
(provisional) conclusion, that Alcoyne is about 34,000,000
times as far removed from us, or .from our own sun, as
the latter luminary is from us. It would therefore, ac-
cording to this estimation, be at least a million times as
distant as the new planet, of which the theoretical or de-
ductive discovery has been so. great and beautiful a tri-
umph of modern astronomy, and so striking a confirma-
tion of the law of Newton. The revolution of our system
in its orbit is said to occupy 18,000,000 of years, travel-
ling at the rate of eight miles in a second ; the plane of
this orbit is said to be inclined to the eliptic at about 84
degrees ; and the longitude of the ascending node of the
former orbit on the latter is concluded to be nearly 237
degrees.

DEATH FROM IMPURE AIR IN A COMMON LODGING
HOUSE.—An inquest was held recently before Mr. Payne,
the City
.of London Coroner, upon the body of a man
unknown, who died suddenly in a common lodging house,
in Shoe Lane. The deceased, it appeared, had been in
better circumstances, and got his living by working occa-
sionally at the docks and wharfs. On Friday night he
came home to his lodging 'about six o'clock, and com-
plained of a pain in his loins. He went early to bed, and
during the night was heard to laugh hysterically. In the
morning he was found a corpse. Dr. J. Lynch said, that
on going into the room he found a very offensive smell, as
if there had been several persons sleeping in it. He
stooped down at the first bed, arid foimd the body of the
ri of...nat.-1 M. Li_ • • . • _

wen nim, ana vca, .11,411 quantity of
blood flowed. On looking around the room he saw quite
sufficient to account for the death : the room could, not
give, under any circumstances, healthful accommodation
to one individual, much less to four, who had been sleep-
ing in the same apartment, The fireplace was blocked up,
and every means had been taken to prevent a free current
of air in the apartment. Many of these lodging-houses
were built over cesspools, and the impure air breathed in
the confined apartment had the same effect upon the vital
parts as inhaling the noxious vapour of burning, charcoal.
The man might probably have been affected with lumbago,
but he died in a fit, no doubt caused by breathing impure
air. He had no hesitation in saying that death in the
present ease was accelerated by want of proper• ventikl-
tion. A man required for the purposes of life 1000 cubic
feet of pure air, and should not inhabit a room less
b
ten feet high and eight feet wide ; but the roomn which
the deceased, with three other persons, 'slept, wasl neither
so wide nor so high. Dr. Lynch, at considerable length,
gave a most painful description of the wretched hovels
whera thu poor creatures paid for nights' lodgings in the
vicinity of Smithfield and Field Lane. In some of them
eight or nine persons slept, whilst accommodation was
afforded for only two. Referring to the health of the
people inhabiting courts, the doctor said that it was a well-
known fact, that out of 100,0(10 children born, 50,000 died
solely from inhaling impure air, The jury returned a
verdict, " That the deceased died from natural causes, ac-
celerated by the want of pure ventilation, the jury at the
sainc time requesting that the attention of the authorities
be drawn to the subject, so that there be a proper super-
sion over lodging houses."

A SUBJECT FOR FARMERS
PROVISIONS.

IMPORTED

The following extract from the accounts relating to
trade and navigation just published will show what the
British farmer has to expect from the tariff and free

IMPOR
1844. .
Oxen 3,663 151846,740
Cows • 1,102 21,238
Sheep
Wheat, qrs 6,077,273 094 1,316,547
Barlel 277487
W. Meal, 92
cwt. 952,,441 2,831,,279
India Meal
It will be seen there is a large progressive increase in
live stock and corn, save in the article of barley, in which
there Is a considerable falling off in the supply.

1845.
9,088
5,891
11,866
671,231
333,266
762;285

DR. BINNS AND HOLLOWAY'S OINTMENT.--Dr.
Binns, who was one of the principal physicians in the
island of Jamaica, has expressed himself in the following
manner respecting the surprising healing properties of
Holloway's Ointment :—" I hate made many trials of
this ointment in cases of chronic ulcers which several
years' experience in the West Indies taught me to consider
as incurable. I am now happy to say that in all cases it
was really and truly efficacious.—Signed, E. Binne,
F.S.A., Sco." Holloway's Ointment will cure bad legs
however long standing, likewise the most obstinate cases
of king's evil or scrofula,

CORRESPONDENCE.

£40,000 PER ANNUM LOST TO THE PARISH

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
SIR,—Mr. Bramley-Moore, in his letter to Sir G. Grey
on national education, says, that " there are in Liverpool
65,471 houses, assessed for £1,368,652, which, at 2d. in
the pound, would produce £14,255 for the purposes of
education, but of which £9,540 only can be realised."
• Now, sir, to extend these figures to the purposes of the
pooi-rates, let us suppose the assessed property of the
town 'to be £1.368,652, this, at 2s. ld. in the pound, (the
poor-rate for last year,) Would bring £142,567 18s. 4d.,
of which the sum of £95,400 only is, or can, be realised,
according to Mr. Moore's statement, leaving a balance
of £47,167 18s. 4d. not accounted for, but from which de-
duct £7,167 18s. 4d., the maximum amount due from un-
occupied tenements, would still leave the enormous sum
of £40,000 due to the parish on last ygar's assessment.
Why is this ? Are the Collectors not able to get this
money ? If they are, let them see to it ; if not, let others
be appointed—and the overseers must adopt effective
measures to obtain the outstanding debts before they at-
tempt to impose a rate to meet their present exigencies.
If this money (and the rate in future years) is properly
collected, there will be no occasion for any additional rate
to meet the wants of the parish, either for education or
feeding Irish mendicants ; and if the Collectors were paid

a commission instead of a fixed salary, I ,think greater ex
ertions would be made to obtain the outstanding rates.

I am, Sir, yours respectfully,

Liverpool, January 22, 18

The data upon which the above calculation is made, a

perfectly correct ; but it would be difficult to realise the
writer's views with respect to the collection of the addi-
tional forty thousand pounds of rate, for reasons which we
shall briefly state. In the first place, our correspondent
does not sufficiently bear in mind the source from which
the defalcation complained of originates. 'We have in this
town upwards of 2'0,000 tenements—small cottage and
court houses—inhabited chiefly by weekly tenants, which
are included in the rated value above mentioned. From
the occupiers of these tenements, mostly of a migratory
class, and many not far removed from paupers, it is found
that the rates can only be compulsorily levied ; and the
expense of attempting so to levy them would be a loss ra-
ther than, a gain to the parish. A summons would cost
•

43. 11l earn ease ; men mere would be the loss of time of
officers attending to prove the amount due, afterwards the
cost of a warrant and levy ; and, even could this expense
be borne, the magistrates would decline to enforce the
rate against such parties, who, if deprived of their few
household articles, must become recipients of parish relief.
Besides, it is physically impossible that the mere routine
of compelling payment upon the entire assessment could
be got through. A hundred summonses would be the
utmost that Wire
be heard in a day, or 600 a week. It
would thus Wire 33 weeks to get through the list.
Taking into consideration, however, the additional time
which would be consumed by the bench in granting war-
rants, the whole business would occupy 40 weeks, before
the expiration of which a new rate would be laid. •
Suppose, however, by way of example to the defaulters,
the attempt were made for a few years, regardless of the
certainty that only loss would accrue to the parish. What
would be the result ? We should have an overwhelming
number of the ignorant and half-pauper portion of our
population placed upon the municipal and borough regis-
ters, who would have it in their power effectually to swamp
the registration, and to do as they listed with the property
of the burgesses. We cannot, however, enforce the pay-
ment from such parties ; and in whatever light we look at
our position, we are in a cleft stick.

We might, indeed, as in some other large towns, impose
the onus of the rates upon the owners of property so te-
nanted. But here again we are met by a difficulty, which
we have already found to be insurmountable. The cot-
tagc-owners are a sufficiently numerous body to defeat any
attempt to procure a local act to render them liable.
Looking, therefore, at the fact, that year by year fresh
cottage erections are rising up within the borough, and that
property, once respectably tenanted, is becoming virtually
good cottage property, whilst the former occupiers Of such
good property are getting into the suburbs, the heavy im-
posts, now hanging over our heads, threaten to fall, at no
_distant period, principally upon the tradesmen and shop-
-keepers, whose avocations do not permit the same ready
escape which is open to the wealthy merchant.
This is surely a state of things which calls upon the le-
gislature itself to take the initiative in remedying. A go-
vernment measure to enforce upon the owners of every
species of property a fulfilment of their public duties is
the only resource left us. Last year the poor's rate col-
lected was 71 per cent. upon the gross assessment. With a
double, or treble rate; which will be called for, we should
not be greatly surprised if 50 per cent. was the utmost
collected next year. The whole subject is well.worthy of
the attention of the authorities and of the public ; and it
must receive such attention if the property of the borough
is not to be confiscated, and a large numbex of its trades-
men and respectable inhabitants ruined. We believe that
remCdial measures are already under discussion by the
parish authorities.] '