The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-05-11 00:00:00

Ebt Ziberpool

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TUESDAY MORNING, MAY 11, 1847.

The result of the proceedings in the House of
*Lords during the past week has been such as to
place the ministry of Lord John Russell in a some-
what precarious position, and to suggest the ques-
tion whether or not a dissolution of Parliament
must be immediately resorted to. On Tuesday
last, an amendment to that portion of the Irish
Poor Relief Bill by which out-door relief was pro-
posed to be given to the able-bodied poor, and
restricting the operation of the clause to the Ist
August, 1848, was moved by Lord Monteagle, and
carried on a division by a majority of 13 against
the proposition of Government. On Friday. another
blow was inflicted upon them by Lord Stanley—
and we think with great reason—by the defeat of
Clause No. 11, which enacted that, whenever the
rite on an electoral division should exceed 2s. 6d.
in the pound, any surplus rate should fall upon the
union at large. The noble lord argued that it was
unjust that where a landlord owning. as in his own
ease, half of such an electoral division, had done
his utmost to enable his tenantry to support them-
selves by the proceeds of their own holdings and
industry, the property of such landlord should be
burthened with the support of other landlords, who
had made no such efforts; and, on a division,
Government were left in a minority of 19.
. .

Another onslaught on the measure was to have
been made last night, of a character fatal to the
principle upon which it is founded, as will be seen
from the following extract which we give from a
leading article in the London Times of yesterday:—
It may be as well to recapitulate the successive steps of
mutilation devised by the landowners. The first was to
reduce all the clauses relating to the relief of the able-
bodied poor from,a permanent to a temporary measure of
♦ery brief duration. The second was to confine the whole
of the rating to the narrow limits of the electoral division,
and thus enable landowners commanding quch divisions
to drive out all their poor of all descriptions, into towns,
the rates of which being insufficient to their maintenance,
they must speedily perish or become a burden on the
British public. The value of this alteration in the land-
lord's eyes, will appear from the fact that the 150,000
poor creatures recently cast upon Liverpool had all been
immediately before ejected by the landlords, and driven
upon the towns, which, in their turn, passed on to our
shore the current of misery. The third step is that which
is to be moved, and doubtless carried, by Lord Stanley
this evening. Its object is to secure for the landowner a
perfect immunity from rating, and to leave that disagree-
able burden to a class which, in Ireland, is notori-
ously neither willing nor able to endure it. It will pre-
vent a poor-rate from offering any interruption to the old
order of things so painfully familiar to all who know
anything of Ireland. The wretched cottars will still bid
for land ; the landlord wiil still get extravagant rents ; the
tenants will pay their rents with tolerable punctuality,
m order to keep their land,—but they will refuse to pay
their rate, even if their exorbitant rents should leave it in
their power ; if the rate is enforced. they will combine
and offer a successful resistance. The rate will not be
collected. The poor will be left to perish. The British
public will have to pay, and the landlord, as usual, escape
scot free. Such is the game. Lord Stanley; who has
never omitted any opportunity of parading his contempt
for the great industrial interests of this country, and his
desire to increase their burdens beyond their utmost
powers of endurance, is very properly selected for a mo-
tion which has the inevitable consequence of transferring
the whole poor-rate of Ireland from the Irish landlord,
and the Irish tenant also, to the industrious tax-payers
of this country.

a What course ministers will adopt in case of a
defeat here, is a matter to speculate upon. We
observe, however, that the Morning Chronicle and
other papers, supposed to have their confidence,
look forward to an immediate appeal to the country
as the result.

Possibly a post or two will decide this question:
It is certain, however, as we are informed upon the
iirst authority, that under any circumstances, a
dissolution was previously contemplated by govern-
ment to take place not later than the 11th of next
month.

WE are inexpressibly rejoiced that at length go-
vernment have seen fit to adopt the steps which we
were the first to propose, for mitigating the danger
of contagion from the masses of paupers daily ar-
riving from Ireland in a state of incipient, if not of
confirmed fever. There were two objects which
we sought to secure, when recommending that the
Lazarettoe, in the Sloyne, should be made use of
for the reception of fever patients, and thatsvessels
bringing pauper emigrants from Ireland should be
submitted to inspection, and, if found necessary,
to the discipline of quarantine regulations. The
chief object was to prevent the direct transmission
of disease, to be circulated, by contact, amongst
our resident poor in the filthy lodging houses re-
sorted to by the Irish ; and the next was to impose
a check upon the importation of Irish poor at all,
by subjecting the owners of steamers to a necessary
detention, which may have the effect of diminish-
ing the inducement to take such cargoes at the
nominal price for which they were at present
brought over. Both these ends will now be
achieved. The selfishness of landlords and others
in Ireland, who it is well known are sending over
their poor here and paying their passage, to escape
the burthen of keeping them at home, will be sen-
sibly checked ; and we may have a chance left us
of dealing with 'the pauperism which meets us at
our own doors.

We'know that it has been said " Wait until the
operation of the Irish Poor-Law Bill gives you the j
power of removing the Irish immigrants to their !
, own parishes." But it is clearly.a great hardship
that the expense of this removal, and of affording I
• support in the meantime to such large masses of
people, should be saddled upon Liverpool and a
few other ports, which happen to be the resort of
. steamers from the sister country. Better far throw
the difficulty which the quarantine regulations will
-create in the way of the importation of such por-
tion of them as do not come for the purpose of
emigration, or with some slight chance—and, in
the present state of our market for labour, there
can be very slight chance indeed—of procuring
employment, and supporting themselves, without
becoming a hu►then upon our own industrious
population. It is well known that throughout
Ireland, the delusion prevails amongst the pea-

santry that they have only once to set their feet
upon our shores, in whatever state of wretchedness
they may be, and however incapable or unwilling
to strive for themselves, and their comfort is
secured. They have only, they imagine, to land
and commence their importunate solicitations to
be fed at our expense. Bread and meat are sup-
, posed to be given in our streets, and money to be
in our pockets in inexhaustible supply. It is only
common justice to ourselves to be permitted to
stipulate that, in thus unreasonably taxing our
bounty, they do 'not bring fever and disease
amongst our population.
We trust sincerely that it will be found that the
vessels allowed us will be found sufficient to accom-

modate not only all the cases of sickness which
may hereafter arrive, but also to enable the autho-
• rities to reduce materially the number of those ac-
. commodated in the present injudiciously located
hospitals. Perhaps it may be found that the new
erections in Mount Pleasant need not be used at
all ; and the annoyance caused -to the neighbour-
hood may be got rid of altogether.

WE may now rest assured of th fact that a ge-
neral election is at hand.indispensablegioit busi-
ness of the country has already been through.
The ministry are in possession of fu power to
. deal with the wants of Ireland, and it is annoii
upon all but official authority, that a dissolnuteieodn,
will take place in the middle of June. The
ques-
tions which most naturally suggest themselves in
such a crisis are, first, " Upon what principles is
the battle of the constitution to be fought ?" and
next, " What is our state of preparation for the
struggle ?" .
Certainly there has seldom been an occasion
when the first of these was so difficult to solve.
There is no great public question agitating the
public mind,. or, creating a distinctive division of
parties. The education question is no longer such
. - a one ; Ireland cannot furnish either the minute-

rialist or the conservative with a war cry, if, indeed,
there remains any longer a difference of opinion
worth speaking of between these two parties. Free
trade is a settled question, and a protectionist fight
is hopeless now. The church is clearly as safe in
the hands of a whig ministry as in those of either
conservative or protectionist, and the few questions
upon which a division can be got up in parliament
are not of weight sufficient to agitate the public
mind to any exertion, or worth the trouble or ex-
pense of contesting about on the hustings. To
parliamentary men, indeed, and to a few hangers-
on and expectants out of doors,it may be an object
who is in or who is out of office—whether a whig
or a tory ministry occupy Downing-street ; but by
the mass of the people the issue is viewed with
utter and disgusted indifference. The prestige of
names—the trust in professions, and almost in in-
dividual honour—was buried in the wreck of the
Feel ministry, and the desertions and apostacies
which preceded its fall.
Under such circumstances, and with such feel-
ing of apathy weighing upon the public mind, it
is not likely that any very great excitement will
mark the elections, or that any material change in
the position of parties will be the result. A few
of the most prominent of the Peel renegades will
probably be driven into retirement by the indigna-
tion of county constituencies, thus strengthening
the hands of the protectionist party. But the pro-
bability is great that the loss of conservative seats
in the boroughs will balance the gain in the coun-
ties. The registers, it is ascertained, have been
well worked under the auspices of the league and
its local offshoots, whilst conservatism has been
making no corresponding efforts. In addition to
these circumstances, operating to depress the ex-
citement usually attending a general election, the
circumstances of individuals, the cramped and
precarious position of commercial men, and of
tradesmen of every class, contribute to deprive al-
most of all interest those political questions which
ordinarily decide such struggles.
Upon one question alone a stand might be made,
and ought to be made, by men who love and wish
to protect the church and the constitution of their
country. That question is the firm maintenance
of PROTESTANTISM, and its protection, at all ha-
zards, from the open assaults of popery and infide-
lity on the one hand, and of expediency-mongers
and apostacy on the other. There is something
intelligible in such a ground for conservative exer-
tion. We may differ amongst ourselves in our
views upon questions of protection, of finance, of
commercial or general policy ; but 'here we might
combine, and form a powerful body, whom neither
whig, radical, nor ultra-protectionist could safely
outrage in the pursuit of their selfish interests.
With a purely Protestant party in the House of
of Commons—say of but a hundred good men and
true—we should hear of no such bills as that of
Mr. Watson, and have little to dread from the
combined assaults of whigs, trimming conserva-
tives, and that class of protectionists who are will-
ing to throw into the ditch every other interest,
however valued and however solemnly committed
to their keeping, provided by the sacrifice they can
save their own.

MASTER AND MATES.—At a meeting of the Board of
Examiners, held on the 7th inst., Captain Andrew Young
Marshall, late master of the Lerwick, of Dundalk, was
examined and found duly qualified, for a first-class certi-
ficate as a master.

PACKET .SHIP YORKSHIRE, CAPTAIN BAILEY.—This
noble ship arrived here on the Sth instant, after a passage
of 19 days from New York, she having previously landed
her letter-bags at Cork on the Gth instant, fearing that
the easterly winds would detain her longer in the Channel.
She sails again for New York on the Ist of June. The
following is a list of the cabin passengers :—Mr. George
Vandenhoff; Miss Marshall; Dr. Boardman, lady and
servant ; Miss Holland ; Mr. R. Sherwell and lady ; Mr.
Francis Hall ; Mr. Francis A. Hall ; Mrs. M`Donough ;
Mr. M'Cue ; Mrs. Tobias and Miss Tobias ; Mrs. Henry
Tobias, child, and 3 servants ; Mr. Lyford ; Dr. Paine ;
Mr. Clifton Augrave • Mrs. Berkley and servant ; Mr. W.
Currell ; Mr. G. Holmes ; Mr. John F. Lowndes ; Miss
M. Mortimer; Mr. J. H. Gourlie ; Mr. R. Albrubt ; Mr.
B. R. Lummis ; Mr. George Wood ; Mr. G. T. Hills ;
Miss Ellen Thaxter.

BODY OF A CHILD LEFT AT A DOOR.—Yesterday, at the
Police-court, a gentleman named Hughes, complained of
annoyance from mendicants, and also that the dead body
of a child had been left at the door of his house in West
Derby-road. He thought the police might be somewhat
more active. Mr. Rushton said it was certainly disgrace-
ful to leave a body at any one's door, but (as we under-
stood him) that the laws relating to mendicancy were,
from their limited powers and the state of the town
rendered almost unavailing, except as related to the legiti-
mate expenditure of money. If the bill now before par-
liament should pass, the magistrates hoped to be enabled
to find means of overcoming many of the difficulties that
now pressed upon the town, and of adopting remedial
Measures. In the meantime the authorities and the inhabi-
tants of the town must do the best they could under the
circumstances. The cases for relief were so numerous,
that even the Borough gaol contained 688 persons, while
it ought never to have more than 408 occupants.

RECENT CASUALTIES.—SUDDEN DEATHS.—On the
28th of last month, a man named William Giles, aged 42,
in the employ of Messrs. Maxwell and Co., King-street,
got his fingers hurt. in rolling a cask. Medical attendance
was procured, but he died of lock-jaw on Sunday last, the
effect of the injuries.—William Lock, aged six years, who
lived with his parents in Hornbv-street, was at play in
the kitchen, a fortnight ago, when he accidentally fell
into a mug of hot water, and was so much scalded that
notwithstanding every medical appliance, he died on
Saturday last.—A man, name unknown, was, on Sun-
day morning, at one o'clock, found in a petty in Lace-
street, in a destitute and weak state. He was taken into
a neighbouring house, and died soon afterwards.—Cathe-
rine Griffin, a child three months old, who, with her
parents, had left Drogheda for this port on Saturday, by
the Fair Trader steamer, died on board the same night..
The body was landed on Sunday for interment.—John
M`Kenna, aged 46, who had for some time been ailing,
recovered to a considerable extent, and resumed his work
at the docks. He was employed at a vessel in the King's
Dock on Saturday, when he was taken suddenly ill. He
was taken to the Southern Hospital; but, though every
possible assistance was given, he died in a very short time.
—John Valentine, aged six years, was playing close to
the pit in St. Domingo-lane, Everton, when he acciden-
tally fell into the water, and was drowned.—A man was,
yesterday, found dead in a house in Lace-street, supposed
to have died from want of the necessaries of life.
FEVER.—APPLICATION TO THE POLICE MAGISTRATE.
—At the Police-court, yesterday, Mr. Parkinson, keeper
of the main bridewell, addressing Mr. Rushton, said that
an officer (467) had, on the previous night, (Sunday),
found, in Newhall-street, two persons lying in the street,
and afflicted with fever. They were, conveyed to the
workhouse, but were not received, the establishment being
full. They were thence sent to the infirmary, but from a
like cause were not admitted, and he was obliged, finally,
to receive them into the bridewell, in which there were
fifty-five prisoners. He had. that (yesterday) morning
sent them to the parish receiving-house for patients in St.
Anne's-street, in a fever van, and believed they were now
there. lie wished to know whether the bridewell was to
be made use -of as a fever hospital, to the endangerment of
all within it. Mr. Newman, the sexton of the Roman
Catholic Chapel, Copperas-hill, had said that hundreds of
wretched and diseased persons came to Dr. Ewing's place
' of worship soliciting alms, and that much alarm was
thereby caused. The smell from their clothing was per-
ceptible for two hours after they left, and he himself was
apprehensive of fatal consequences. To Mr. Rushton's
inquiry it appeared that no application had been made to
the police to keep them away. Mr. Rushton said that,
though disease was in the town, much unnecessary alarm
had been excited by exaggerated statements respectinc,6 it.
If he applied to the police they would prevent the parties
complained of from assembling at the chapel, as stated.
He might state generally that places for the reception of
fever patients had been prepared by the parish authorities,
and that more would be constructed as soon as possible.
They must do as well as they could.

THE NEW BIRKENHEAD FERRY STEAMER " BRI-
TANNIA."—On Saturday afternoon, the new Birkenhead
ferry boat, Britannia, belonging to Messrs. Edward ana
Seymour Willoughby, of the Birkenhead :Hotel, was
tried on the river, and proved herself superior in speed to
boatsany of the river afloat. She is an iron vessel, built
by Messrs. J. Hodgson and Co., from a model by Mr.
John Grantham. Her length is 114 feet, and her breadth
of hull 17+ feet. She is propelled by a capital engine of
sixty-horse power. Mr. S. Willoughby, and several of
his friends, including Mr. Grantham and Mr. T. Baker,
the manager at Messrs. Fawcett and Co.'s works, who
erected the engines, were amongst the company on
board at the time. She steamed up and down the
river for about four hours, and went away with amazing
speed, beating every vessel that she neared. In a run
with The Queen of Beauty, from opposite the pier to New
Brighton, she was the winner by about half a mile. She
afterwards equally surpassed in speed the James Ather-
ton. She 'afterwards heat "the Ayrshire Lassie, a very
powerful vessel. Both .boats run to and from New Brigh-
ton, and were hitherto considered the fastest of the ferry
boats. She made 34 strokes per minute, with pistons
moving three feet. She has tubular boilers, and all
modern improvements are introduced. The vessel is di-
vided into compartments by water-tight bulkheads, which
ensures safety in case of collision, or other accident.
The " Birkenhead" is a fast boat, but this is still faster.
Her cabins aro Very roomy, and when finished will command
admiration from the elegance of the whole arrangements.
This is the fifth boat which the enterprise of Messrs.
Willoughby have added 'to their fleet, in return for the
liberality of the public towards thein, and we know of no
ferry where the boats are more regularly and efficiently
worked, or where greater civility and attention are paid
to passengers. They may now claim to have three of
the smartest steamers plying on the river, namely, the
Mersey, the Birkenhead, and the Britannia. The com-
pany on board the latter, at the trial, were regaled with
winos, &c., and were highly delighted by the excursion
and the extraordinary performances of the vessel. She
actually ran from Birkenhead to Georgo'e Pier, • with the
tide, in five minutes.