The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-10-23 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

As we anticipated that the speeches at the Jews meeting last
night wou'd possess unusual importance, we made arrange-
ments for giving as full a report as possible of the chief ar-
guments broußht forward, and we are persuaded that our
readers will not be disappointed, after perusing the speechos,
that they occupy so much space in our columns.
llittorlrs EU It IV H L r.—We have been requested to correct a
mistake of a contemporary, who, in the notice of the con-
versazione at the Roscoe Club, referring to this gentleman's
performances on the piano-torte, uses the prefix Mrs. in-
stead of Mons.
A voter in Everton Ward complains bitterly of the proposed
removal of the polling-booth to the extreme south end of the
ward as most inconvenient to the voters.
BIBLE Soci Kr Y.—We understand that a person signing him-
self " A Churchman," has written to a clergyman in this
town, requesting some information respecting this society.
We presume that the correspondent is a friend of thesociety,
and he can obtain, we believe, ail the information lie requires
by a personal interview with the rev. gentleman, or by fur-
nishing his name privately.

Riberpool &taitharti.

TUESDAY MORNING, OCT. 23, 1849.

TUE commercial advices by the American steamer
are most favourable; the demand for British manu-
factures continued good, and the orders for which
by her are very extensive. The advices respecting
the cotton crop are as usual conflicting, one party
says • that it is likely to prove larger than was
expected. A respectable cotton broker in New
Orleans having made a tour through the cotton
regions, and surveyed the crops, found the reports
of injury which the crops bad sustained much
exaggerated, and the season was too far advanced
for the boll-worms, &c., to do mischief. Planters
were taking advantage of the fine weather, engaged
all hands at picking, which accounts for the small
receipts, there being none to give ; he estimates
the crop at 2,350,000 to 2,400,000. An account,
in another column, is, however, very much opposed
to this.

IT will he seen that a meeting of the clergy
gentry, merchants, and others, of the borough,
of Liverpool, will be held this day, at the
Amphitheatre, with a view to give expression to
their opinions in opposition to the proposed in-
crease of Sunday labour in the Post-office. We
trust, for the credit of our community, that it will
be so influentially and numerously attended, as to
give full weight to the protest to be made against
the step. That the merchants and traders of
Liverpool estimate at very little their facilities for
receiving their correspondence on the sabbath is
notorious. Not one firm in ten, as a general rule,
ever calls at his Post-ofice box on that day. The
great hulk of our fellow townsmen would gladly
witness the total closing of the establishment dur-
ing the sabbath, and the opportunity afforded to
its numerous clerks and carriers to attend divine
worship, and enjoy God's allotted day of rest.
We feel sure that our readers will acknowledge
with us, that this measure is a most unprovoked
insult to the religious feelings of the nation. Not
one great class can he pointed to as having called
for any change. We have heard of no agitation
for it out of doors; not even a private petition can
be produced in its favour. On the other hand, we
have seen a most overwhelming amount of public
opinion from all classes and all sects, in reprobation
of the outrage. Men regard it, almost universally,
as a step towards the systematic desecration of the
sabbath, and they are fully borne out in this belief
by the way in which, throughout, the enquiry was
conducted by the Post-office officials. Every ques-
tion put to the various witnesses examined, be-
trayed a wish to make out a case. And in almost
every instance, the idea of any grievance existing,
,was repudiated. We hope, in conclusion, that the
people of Liverpool will not show themselves be-
.bind their brethren in other towns, in their repug-
laance to this hateful innovation ; but that the
meeting will be crowded, and its expression of
opinion decided.

WE are not as yet in a position to ascertain how
• far the constitution of our Town Council is likely
to be altered by the result of the approaching No-
vember elections. Although we may assume that
an additional amount of the popular or anti-Pike
elements will he infused into the body, it is not as
yet ascertained in how many wards the seats will
. be contested ; and for some, candidates have yet
to be sought. We cannot therefore attempt, this
week. any comparison of the respective merits of
the various gentlemen by whom appeals will he
.-made to the constituencies, and shall reserve the
performance of that task until next week. We
feel, however, that, without laying ourselves open
to any charge of inconsistency, we may deviate
from that course in the case of one particular ward
—Rodney-street—in which the rival claimants have
teen fairly pitted together, and the sentiments of
both have been, with distinctness, laid before their
friends and the public.
At the outset we may remark that we view the
contest in Rodney-street with feelings of consider-
able pain, The gentlemen about to enter upon a
struggle in which much bitterness will be engen-
dered, are on private, as well as public grounds,
highly estimable. We have already expressed the
pleasure which we should have had in seeing Mr.
Algernon Jones possessed of a seat in the council,
for which he is in every respect well fitted ; and we
should be equally sorry to lose the valuable ser-
. vices of Mr. Samuel Holme in that body. It is
- painful in such a contest to see ranged in opposing
ranks the private friends of both parties equally—
: men who in past years have fought shoulder to
. shoulder together in behalf of the same cause.
alig We -know that "divide et impera !"is a favorite por-
tion of the tactics of the Radical party in our
toAn ; that breaches such as these struggles cause
are always difficult to hear; and we fear that a
time may come when this exciting question of
water supply having been settled, we may need all
- the unanimity which we may accomplish, in order
to carry out other measures equally vital to the best
interests of this town and the entire community.
It must he borne in mind, that upon one local
question alone—that of the Rivington scheme—
does Mr. Holme differ from Mr. Jones, and a con-
siderable number of his friends. Upon the two
other important questions—for as such we find
that they are regarded by the Equitable Rating
Committee, in their report which will he found in
Our advertising columns, Mr. Holmc and his oppo-
nent are perfectly agreed. The present member for
• Rodney-street Ward has been uniformly a promi-
nent advocate of rating the Corporate estate,
the efforts made to accomplish which, it will be
- -seen from the report in question, have resulted in a
concession, made by the Corporation, by which
'- nearly £lO,OOO per annum will accrue to relieve
the burthens of the ratepayers. He is an equally
strenuous advocate of the project for rating the
_dock estate for the same object. It may appear to
some a desirable thing to get rid, in the person of
Mr. Ilolme, of one of the most powerful supporters
of the Rivington scheme; but it must be borne in
mind that, in doing so, we lose one of the most
influential supporters of dock rating, and at the
same time a gentleman who brings to bear upon
all local questions an amount of information,
- business knowledge, and energy, and an ability to
present his views intelligibly before the public,
which very few of his contemporaries possess.
Nor can it be said that Mr. Holme's social '
position falls within the ground of exception urged
• by those who would make the struggle upon this
question one which is to determine the future pre-
ponderance in the Council of the tradesmen's or
the merchants class. Mr. Holme is himself a
tradesman, and an extensive one; and is further
bound to the cause of that class, and interested
deeply in promoting the best interests of the town
by the possession within it of a large property,
incapable, like the capital of the merchant, of being
removed beyond the reach of the tax collector.
A blow struck at the welfare of Liverpool falls
heavily upon his back. He is, moreover, a large
employer of labour ; and as such bound, as we
always see him inclined, to promote the comforts,
the social and moral amelioration, and best interest
of the working man.
There is another ground on which we regret to
see the contest in this ward fought a l'outrance.
There is a probability, we believe, of the question
of water supply, being, after all, settled, upon an
impartial consideration of the intrinsic facts of the
case, by a competent tribunal beyond the walls of
the Council-chamber. An arrangement to hear
-evidence afresh, before eminent engineers to he
• agreed upon between the contending parties, and
whose decision is to be final, is in course of being
concluded;
.and the preliminary difficulties are, it
is hoped, already removed. If this is carried
• out with periect good faith; if the advocates of
both sides of the question will allow it to be dealt
• with impartially, and in a spirit of good temper;
the particular views of Mr. Holme can have no
influence in the decision.