The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-01-20 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

SIR ROBERT PEEL AND HIS MEASURES

" farmer's friends." Sir John Yarde Buller, at a
meeting at Exeter, says :
" My mind is now made up to this, that I will go no
further, that I will lend no assistance in the carrying of
any measure that will have a tendency to lower the pro-
tection which agriculture now enjoys. But, in so saying,
Ido not feel that I pledge myself so tightly to any mea-
sure, that ff anything more advantageous to agriculture
should be brought forward, I should not be at liberty to
support it."
Let Sir Robert, therefore, adduce any plausible
argument in favour of the measure, under which
Sir John can creep to the sunny side of ministerial
favour, and he is secure of him. His colleague,
Lord Courtenay, is equally pliant and open to con-
viction. He seeks for a measure or a mode of
protection "more tenable and less invidious with
respect to other classes of the community ;" and Sir
Robert will find him one. Lord Ingestrie, Lord
Hardwicke, Mr. Yorke, Mr. Allix, and a score of
other noblemen and gentlemen have given expression
to similar temporizing sentiments.
Lord Norreys, however, at a meeting held at
Oxford, let us more fully into the secret of the ap-
proaching conversions. After informing his' hearers,
on the best authority, that Lord Stanley had de-
clined, as impracticable, the attempt to form an
administration on ultra protectionist principles, he
quotes from a letter addressed to him by his infor-
mant, said to be Mr. G, W. Hope, under-secretary
for the Colonies, which concludes as follows :
" I may add, I know Lord Stanley deprecates more
than anything any party declaration on the part of the
agricultural body, arising out of feelings of personal re-
sentment, and that he would earnestly recommend a full
and impartial consideration of all the consequences which
may arise from the breaking up of the present govern-
ment, and all the responsiblity which must attach to
those who may be instrumental in breaking it up, before
they preclude themselves by making speches and pledges,
from a fair examination of such measures as the govern-

tnemt may be prepared
of parliament."

to subrc

;o them on the meeting

There is nothing here of "dying in the last ditch,"
or " sticking to the last plank." Sir Robert is to
threaten resignation; to intimate the probable
handing over of the landed and other interests to the

obstinacy of his quondam friends, and the thing will
be accomplished. No love of consistency will inter-
fere to prevent the representatives of agriculture
putting their own hands to the work :

It was necessary," remarked Mr. Vernon at the
same meeting, " to pause and to deliberate, and to

Sear wha

he used the latigua;

which had been fre

y used at

other places, where they taked of the perfidious mi-
nister and the infernal league. It was all very well to
make speeches spicy for public meetings, to draw forth
temporary and unworthy applause. He would not abuse
them in their absence ; if he chose to do so, he had the
opportunity in:their presence. * * He would not
pledge himself to this meeting, that he would stand by
every member of the present corn-law. Did they suppose
that a man no longer young, who had been forty years in
Parliament. and had had the misfortune to vot

/or se

vin or eight alterations in the corn-laws,—did they sup-
pose that he would be fool enough to pledge himself that
the last corn-law was the only one that was fit to endure
to all ettrnity 1"

Of course not. Men who have changed with such
Protean dexterity—who, with professions of love for
their Protestant Church still sounding in our ears,
can turn round and endow Popery—who pass a corn
bill this session and, at the mere bidding of the
Minister, repeal it in the next—such mere legislating
machines would " be fools" to pledge themselves to

any consistent course of action, and their constituents
still greater fools to believe them.
With such evidence before us, we cannot believe
that Sir Robert Peel will experience any difficulty
sufficiently great to drive him to a dissolution. He
will bring in his measure—gild it with plausible

From a highly influential quarter we have just re-
ceived the following information with respect to the
probable course of the ministry and of its opponents
in the approaching session. It is fully anticipated by
both parties that Sir Robert Peel is prepared to pro-
pose some measure, with respect to the Corn Laws,
which will have the effect of crippling the existing
agitation of the anti-corn law league, and be, in effect,
a final settlement of the question. The precise na-
ture of the measure—whether it will be one of total
and immediate repeal, or a fixed duty, rapidly di-
minishing to total repeal is not definitely ascertained,
or predicted by either party. The league partizans,
however, we learn, are in high spirits—not caused by
any expectation that their full demands will be con-
ceded by Sir Robert Peel, but rather that, something
short of these being proposed, they will be enabled,
by the votes of the ultra-protectionists, to overthrow
the ministry. A division on the address is fully re-
solved upon by the Whig and league members; and
they calculate that so many of the agricultural party
will vote with them as to render the victory of Sir
Robert Peel a very narrow one, if a victory at all.
This information, we may remark, receives confirmation
from the confident assertion of Mr. Bright, at the late
meeting at the Amphitheatre, that the question could
not be settled without a dissolution of Parliament.
Amongst the sedative propositions to be submitted
to the agricultural interest, to purchase their acquies-
cence in Sir Robert's further in-road upon the protec-
tion afforded them by the present law, will be, it is
said, one to charge the poor rates, and county rates,
and, it is also added, the tithes, upon the consolidated
fund, or upon the general income of the country,
instead of upon local property, landed, household, or
otherwise. This, it is thought, by equalizing the
burthens of the community, will be a course which
will win for the ministers the support of the most
ardent opponents of their proposed measure.

statements—accompany it with a few sops—and his
obedient friends, " the country gentlemen," like
obedient spaniels, will do his bidding.

lITANNIA —a paper usually
recognised as possessed of the best information on
political matters—coincides with us, in the main, as to
the probable policy of the government. Our con-
temporary, however, expresses his opinion that Sir
Robert Peel's measure will be " one of total repeal,
small duty of one shilling, or two

We regret that we have only space in our present
number to call attention to the able speech and the

excepting only

-pence per quarter, to afford a recorc
of the quantity imported." He agrees, however, with
our own sentiments, expressed elsewhere, that Sir
Robert Peel " will be able to carry his measures
against any opposition which may be offered to him."
We think so too, though still unaware what they will

elaborate and most encouraging statistics, brought
forward at the Council Meeting, yesterday, bearing
upon the progressing prosperity of our Dock
Estate, by its indefatigable chairman, Mr. J. Bram-
ley Moore. There are few men, so blinded by poli-
tical prejudices as to deny that the present chairman,
and his colleagues, have brought, and are con-
ducting, the affairs of the Trust reposed in them to
a state of prosperity, for which Liverpool will have
to be grateful, and by which her commerce will be
provided for, and stimulated, for years to come.

Mr. Wodehouse, M.P. for the county of Norfolk,
has given notice of an amendment to the address from
the throne, which declares that the house will agree
to any measures of government which " shall not in
any way compromise the broad principle of protection
to the native soil, from the heart of which the great

mass of th

blessing

,onulation have hitherto, under God's

There was some show of aptitude for the end, for
which it was doubtless got up, in the late meeting
of agricultural labourers, held at Goatacre, to show
to the world the extent to which the Corn Laws ex-
tend their protective shaddtv over that neglected
body. It was a well arranged melodrame—full of
telling points—too miserably true, we fear, in its
darker features—reminding us with considerable
force of that "happy peasantry " which we have
been accustomed to dream and to talk about,

as ap-

pended to the soil of Great Britain. The notion of
seven shillings a:week, with a grinding poor-law, for
men to live upon and bring up in honesty six or
seven children, was strongly presented to the na-
tional mind by this assemblage of labourers by
mixed candle light and moon light, with a cart for
their rostrum, and the cold of a January night for
their atmosphere. It told its tale more forcibly
than the eloquence of a hundred Anti-Corn-law
meetings or a score of monster subscriptions.
But you may farcify anything—even the evidence
of misery—; and the open-air meeting of the opera-
tives of Liverpool, got up on Thursday evening in
Clayton•square has farcified even the telling meeting
of the labourers of Wiltshire. The speakers at the
latter were men with whose startling details of their•
sufferings and neglected condition we could be
amazed and grieved ; the speakers at the former ex-
hibit nothing like the reality of suffering, by which
the poor agriculturists were prompted to place their
case before mankind. The one was the prompting
of those real and truthful feelings of wretchedness,
the expression of which is even eloquent ; the other
was the maudlin raving of similated suffering.

rouAgli strange vicissitudes, been abundantly

supplied, and from the decay of which they may be
hereafter thrown into wretchedness, want, and ruin."
The HERALD of yesterday in semi-ministerial lan-

.
But there is even more than this difference in the
character of the two meetings. .We ask of any of
our readers to refer to a report of the meeting at
Goatacre, and show us in what the poor men as-
sembled there deviated from the strict object for
which they were assembled. Which of the speak-
ers at this meeting indulged in harsh denunciation
of their superiors ? Which of them launched into
philippics against aristocracy, against the Church,
or against religion ? None. Yet our Clayton-
square spouters were not at all squeamish on such
points. Which of them came most to the real
question at issue? Undeniably the poor agricultu-
ral labourers. One speaker amongst them could
tell what his income had been for nearly two years
past—how he had expended it, and how he had la-
boured to husband it rightly, But where was the
plea of the Liverpool operative ? Where his argu-
ment or his proof that he is aggrieved by the agri-
cultural body ? The one has a direct case. He
can.point to the protection which the law gives to
native agriculture and remind his landlord that
such protection only allows him pauper's wages.
The others—the Simmondses of the Clayton-square
meeting—tell us that they have plenty of bread and
to spare ; and raving is the staff of their argument.
We arc ashamed of the contrast. It is disgraceful
to the boasted enlightenment of towns, and most
creditable to the better feeling and better temper of
the men, whom our modern Solons are accustomed
to treat as so many clods or stones.
But enough of the subject. A perusal of the re-
port of the meeting, as given and, no doubt, dressed
up to the utmost in the Mercury, is sufficient to sa-
tisfy any thinking man of its real character.

guage has the following :
"We have reason to believe that Sir Robert Peel will an-
nounce to the House of. Commons, on Thursday evening, that
it is his intention to lay before the house, on the ensuing
Monday, a full statement of his financial and other plans for
the session. The country will, therefore, soon be in possession
of the nature of the changes which Government contemplaces
with referenca to the tariff; and great practical convenience
will undoubtedly arise out of so early a revelation."

A " FEELER" FOR

THE CORPORATION

s contemporary, who sometimes picks up

from the frequenters

" the Fl

)ut forth last week an astonishing discovery
it been made by those quizzical people.
he arbitration going on between the Dock
*I

when they
it since ;

,
talk is, that the Corporation got into a blunder
the land on Wallasey Pool, and never got out of
tie-management was aggravated by a palpable
atertained towards the Birkenhead people; that
ich precipitated the sale, ought to have been

yet- too late ! f that the mer

ing to thyrospect before u

:1 that Docks irirWallasey Pool

icea'iont to the%rpo‘ra,ti(')n to bay back

again the property which they have so mistakenly parted
with, our contemporary's " talkers"iassure us that, with
a free trade in corn, Liverpool is to become not only

kenhead are to become successful rivals of Manchester,

even in manufacturing.

" What has beep. don'e on the banks of the canal, they say,
may be done o extended and unappropriated banks of
Wallasey Pool. ills may abound there, as well as on our
canal; coal can be brought from Wales to Birkenhead at a
price below that for which they are sold at Manchester;
and the Liverpool and Bury railway will, by and by, lay them
down at a charge equally moderate, at the extremity of Vaux-
hall-road. Our population is numerous; our facilities are
greater than those of any other place ; for the cotton is landed,
and when spun or woven, shipped here. We save the expense
of doubla transit, and, what is of greater value, time."
Factories in Wailasey Pool, as well as docks and
There's a chance for gentlemen who wish
upon the "unappropriated banks," which
the corporation, we have no doubt, would readily be
induced to sell. It puzzles our poor heads, certainly, b
tell where the supply of fresh water required for steam
and manufacturing purposes could be got; but such very
clever people could get over this or any other difficulty.
The. next generation will, no doubt, see reservoirs erected
down the sides of Bidston Hill and Bleach Crofts,
whitening the mud and bog of the unappropriated banks
of Wallasey Pool.

warehouses
to specul,,t,

THE MERCURY'S SLANDERS ON THI

MAYOR

The Mercury is, really, becoming too excruciating in
her character of the Mrs. Caudle of our local politics.
O❑ Friday last she perpetrated a piece of slander,
which amazed us, and really made us doubt whether
there was a spark of virtue left in mankind or in Mayor,
Mr. David Hodgson, she said, and we acquit the very
respectable Cook of the Town-hall of having prompted
her, that the present Mayor had reduced the wages of
the waiters at the Town-hall dinners from 6.4. a-week to
55., and thereupon she opened upon his unfortunate
Worship a volley of wliat, we suppose, she calls sarcasm,

which ought certainly to have anriihilated him,
"He has reduced their wages (said Mrs. Caudle, pathetically)
from fis. to 55., and not only so, but, in order to carry the eco-
comic movement a little further, he has reduced the number of
waiters from eleven (the usual number) to eight, and still fur-
ther, employs his own servants to keep a watch upon the other
waiters, lest they should be tempted to taste the good things
provided for the select few are now honoured with a seat at the
Mayor's dinner table."
Pooh ! pooh ! Mrs. Caudle. The Mayor has done
nothing of the sort. You have been dreaming, good old
lady. The waiters, how elderly females do sympathize
with the imaginary woes of flunkies ! are not reduced at
all, either in number or in price. And, as to employing
his own servants to wait at table every gentleman, and
every mayor, brings his own servants to wait at the
Town-hall, or any other public entertainment, and
thereby gives the guests the benefit of the services of the
hired waiters. Really, our poor Mercury must be
getting down in the world when she is compelled to
invent subjects, and of so paltry a sort, for her weekly
railings. Our contemporary ought to stick to the politi-
cal vein, in which she shines as luminously as a penny.
tallow. When she takes to the inventive vein, she sim-
ply makes herself ridiculous —and worse.
Seriously, and it is scarcely possible to be serious upon
such a subject—we pledge ourselves that the whole of
the improbable story of the Mercury is utterly untrue,
as it is preposterously unlikely to be so. Not a waiter
employed has received, or is likely to receive, a shillin g
less than in former mayoralties.

SOUTHERN II OSPITAL.—The annual meeting of this
excellent institution was held yesterday, and was nume-
rously attended. The Chair having been taken by J. B.
Yates, Esq., the president, the :report of the committee
was read, and was highly gratifying. It appeared from it,
that, the last January report alluded to the extended
usefulness of the hospital, and the probability of an en-
largement of the building becoming necessary. In c.n-
templation of this, the committee had prepared plans for
raising the wings, and south end, and proceeded to solicit
means to carry their views into effect. Their efforts were
not premature, for the number of patients bad since so
much increased, that it had been necessary to place a few
of them in beds on the floor. The number of patients
admitted from Ist January, 1845, to same date 1846, was
643, being an increase of 127 on the previous year. The
- - number of outpatients was about the same. Each year
The subject of this evening's lecture at St. Andrew's brought new proofs of the necessity of the establishment
Church will be " The Christian's Duty in Common Life." in the locality, and of the benefits it diffused. Had the
THE PROTESTANT ALLIANCE.—The new confedera- eight sufferers from the bursting of the tank in Rock-
tion, styling itself the "Protestant Alliance," which, street, been carried to either of the other two hospitals,
merging the name of " Orangeism," purposes to em- life would probably have become extinct in two of the
brace within its ranks all classes of Protestants, has put cases before they arrived. The committee had appointed
forth a strong manifesto or declaration of the principles a chaplain of the church of England, the Rev. T. Nolan,
on which it has been founded. It is adopted by some of who most zealously ministered to all whose condition
the best men in Ireland. would permit them to collect in one room, and he also
THE CENTRAL BUILDING SOCIETIES.—On Monday went round the wards offering spiritual consolation to
evening last the anniversary of these societies was over- those on beds of suffering. Every patient was, however,
brated by a dinner at the Brunswick Hotel, Hanover- at liberty to call in a minister of his own persuasion, and
street, at which about thirty of the members were present. clergymen of every denomination were invited to visit,
The dinner was served up in excellent style, and with a and as they best could to promote Chistian feeling
liberality which reflected the highest credit on the host, piety, and resignation. The committee concluded
Mr. Whiteman. The chair was occupied by Mr. F. F. by renewing their earnest appeal to their townsmen, as
Chinn. they are still in want of a considerable sum to enable
Trinity Church, Huddersfield, after having been tho- them to proceed with the new buildings, while the current
expenditure is yearly becoming greater. A vote of thanks
roughly repaired, painted, and beautified, was re-opened
on Thursday, the Bth instant, for public worship. Di- was passed to the president for his great services to the
vine service was read by the Rev. N. Manning, M.A. institution. Mr. Yates returned thanks, and spoke
the respectful incumbent. Rev. H. Stowell preached I strongly in behalf of benefits to arise from an extension
both morning and evening to crowded and attentive audi- 1 of the buildings. Thanks were also heartily voted to Mr.
ences. On the following Sunday three sermons were Platt, the treasurer, who feelingly replied. Other reso-
preached for the same purpose, those in the morning and lutions (which will be found in another column) were
evening by the Rev. T. Nolan, of this town ; and that in then passed, and the meeting dispersed.
the afternoon by the Rev. Mr. Haig, Incumbent of St. Peter Parley's name is Samuel Griswold Goodrich; he
Paul's, Huddersfield. The congregations, especially that is the son of a clergyman of Connecticut, a state which
in the evening, were numerous, and the amount of the , has sent forth more literary men than any other a
collections exceeded £l5O. 1 America.