The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-11-23 00:00:00

THE LFYERPOOL STANDARD.

LOCAL MEETINGS.

WEST DERBY GDARDIANS.—At the meeting on Wed-
nesday Mr. Smith, in accordance with his notice of last
week, moved that a memorial be presented to the poor-
law commissioners, praying that a separation might be
made between Toxteth-park and the rest of the union.
Mr. Lloyd seconded the motion, which was negatived.
Mr. Appleby gave notice that he would, on Wednesday
next, move that an application be made to the poor-law
commissioners, for the purpose of erecting a workhouse,
fever hospital, &c., in the township of Toxteth-park.
The Rev. Mr. Badnall gave notice that he would move,
at the next meeting, that a committee be appointed to
consider the propriety of purchasing land at the back of
the workhouse, for the purpose of erecting an hospital.
BIRKENHAD DOCK COMMISSIONERS.—A special meet-
ing was held on Thursday morning, for the purpose of
hearing the result of the interview with the dock bond-
holders upon the subject of the proposed transfer of the
trust to the crown. W. Potter, Esq., was called to the
chair. The bondholders (Baron Goldsmidt, Mr. Garnett,
and Mr. Bailey,) stated that they considered the arrange-
ment to be a desirable one with some few modifications.
They could not, however, give a decided answer at present,
until the question had been submitted to a general meet-
ing of their body on the 23d instant. They also desired
to have the power of nominating six of the new commis-
sioners, and they have applied to the Commissioners of
Woods and Forests on the subject. Upon the motion of
Mr. W. Laird, seconded by the chairman, the report was
received, and the bondholders were requested to take all
necessary steps for forwarding the arrangements.
BIRKENHEAD COMMISSIONERS.—On Tuesday evening
an adjourned meeting was held. The object of the meet-
ing was to consider the following questions :—" Ist. Are
the Commissioners, as a body, favourable to the principle
of a tax upon property in Birkenhead, Claughton-cum-
Grange, and part of Oxton, for the payment of the interest
on the bonded debt ?" " 2d. Will they prosecute the
measure, if indemnified the expense, in the event of the
act not being obtained ?" A proposition was made by
Mr. Hicklin, seconded by Mr. Nicholls, to the effect that
the first question be answered in the affirmative, on which
a long discussion arose, and it was ultimately resolved,
that before any answer be returned to the committee of
the rate-payers, the Law-clerk be requested to see Messrs.
North and Potts, as agents for a large number of the
bondholders, and ascertain their sentiments on the sub-
ject, reporting to this Board at an adjourned meeting, to
be held that day week. A general statement of the affairs
of the township was presented by the chairman. It Wad
been prepared by the treasurer, and examined by the
Finance Committee. Some objections were taken by
Mr. Thompson, but it was ultimately agreed that an
abstract of the same be prepared by the treasurer and
submitted to the Finance Committee at their next meet-
ing, and on their approval that it be furnished to the com-
mittee appointed at the public meeting of the Bth inst.
THE MAGISTRATES AND THE SELECT VESTRY.—On
Thursday a meeting of the magistrates was held at the
Sessions House, to receive a deputation from the Select
Vestry, and to confer relative to the best mode of re-
lieving the town from the immense influx of Irish mendi-
cants—the Mayor in the Chair. The deputation con-
sisted of the Rev. Rector Campbell, Mr. Ferguson,
(churchwarden) Mr. Riding, Mr. Steins, Mr. Poole, Mr.
Watson, and the 1, estry Clerk. Mr. Poole represented
the difficulty of removing the Irish paupers, notwith-
standing the Poor Removals Act of last Session. There
was a large class of Irish poor over whom they had no
control, for they did not apply for relief, and could not
therefore be sent back to their own country. They con-
sequently; infested the lodging-houses and subsisted by,
begging,—engendering disease. It was under the im-
pression that the magistrates and the Health Committee
would adopt stringent measures, that the present inter-
view was sought. As but two instances of the facts, it was
stated that 49 persons occupied one house in Frederick-st.,
and 461 in another in Breck-street.—The Mayor alluded
to some observations made by Mr. Poole, as reported in
the Mercury, to the effect that the magistrates had not
afforded the necessary relief. Mr. Poole said he had so
expressed himself. but his remarks had a retrospective
effect. He had said that the Vagrant Act had not been
put in force when the Irish influx was at its height.—Mr.
Rushton explained why the law was not put in force
at the time. There were 11,000 persons on the list of the
Select Vestry : the streets were filled with paupers ; and
278,000 persons had come over from Ireland from Jan. to
November ; and it was utterly impossible to deal with an
evil of such magnitude. The magistrates, however, had
dealt with it in the most energetic manner : the vagrant
laws were enforced with severity at present ; and there
were more persons in the gaol of Liverpool now than ever
were in it before within his remembrance. The evil was
a national one ; it would have to be met in the best man-
ner possible : and so tar as lodging-houses were concerned,
they must be dealt with by the Council. The magis-
trates had, invariably, co-operated heartily with the
Vestry in seeking to devise remedies.—ln consequence of
this explanation, Mr. Poole withdrew any offensive ex-
pressions he might have used. Mr. Ferguson recom-
mended a separate temporary prison for vagrants.—Mr.
Rushton explained the difficulties in the way, and said
that the police now took all vagrants to Bridewell, so that
mendicancy was much reduced. He promised, on the
part of the magistrateQ, to re-issue strict orders to the
police to take up all vagrants.—Rector Campbell said the
Vestry were anxious to co-operate with the magistracy
and the Council in every possible way. He spoke highly
of Mr. Rushton's exertions during the past year, and the

. ,
town was much indebted to the laie Mayor--Mr. G. H.
Lawrence, to rid the town of the evils that surrounded
it, arising from the influx of Irish paupers.—The Mayor
assured the deputation that the magistrates would
afford every assistance in their power (as they had hitherto
done) to the Select Vestry. The deputation then with-
drew, gratified by the result of the interview.

THE LATE ABERCROMBY WARD -ELECTION.

TO WILLIAM EARLE, ESU.

North John-street, 20th Nov., 1837.
SlR,—Had any one but yourself originated the factious
and fruitless opposition to Mr. R. C. Gardner in Aber-
cromby Ward, it would have been considered as a most
extraordinary proceeding ; but you, Sir, are a most ex.
traordinary character, and any act of yours, however excen-
tric or absurd it may be, will never excite the smallest
particle of astonishment in any one.
The two letters E. X. seem to be peculiarly your own ;
you are, (as I have just observed), a most extraordinary
character, you are also an ex-Alderman, and will be on
the Ist of November, an ex-town councillor; on that day
you will be fully entitled to the appellation of " Treble X
Earle," a soubriquet which will stick to you whilst you
remain on this side the grave, and possibly not be removed
when you " sleep in dull cold marble."
I feel much pleasure on being able to inform you that
I had some small share in defeating you on Wednesday,
I call it your defeat, because you evidently were the
Radical :champion upon that occasion ; the name of
your respectable candidate being used only upon the prin-
ciple of " divide et impera " but this machiavelian policy
proved wholly unsuccessful; the ruse was too apparent, and
its planner received from the " good and true" men of Aber-
cromby Ward a most severe and richly deserved castigation.
- I will now, Sir, conclude with a piece of advice ; forego
in future such crooked and tortuous policy, if you wish to
gain a point, attempt it in an open, manly, and straight-
forward manner ; you will then rise, not only in the esti-
mation of your own partisans, but also of your political
opponents ; such an alteration for the better would give
pleasure to all, and to none more than to
AN ELECTOR OF EVERTON WARD.

ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE INSTITUTION
FOR IDIOT CHILDREN, OR THOSE OF WEAK

INTELLECT, BATH.
It may not be generally known that establishments for
the care and instruction of that class of children usually
called idiots, have for some time existed in Switzerland.
Dr. Guggenbuhl was the first who successfully drew the
attention of the public to the state of those imbeciles re-
siding in the valleys of the Alps, and known by the name
of Cretins. Equally afflicted both in body and mind,
many of these unfortunate beings have, by God's bless-
ing on the skill and perseverance of their benefactor,
been restored to the enjoyment of health and understand-
ing. It would occupy too much space here to do more
than advert to the numerous cases mentioned in the
Report of the Society of Abendberg, but so satisfactory
were they known to be, that the King of Prussia, the
municipal authorities of the Canton of Berne, and many
well known men, both in Germany and England, came
forward with contributions. The work at Abendberg was
necessarily a slow one : many of the inmates beng ex-
tremely unhealthy in body, and giving no signs of intelli-
gence for many months after their admission. Some
failures of course occurred, but the general results were
of so encouraging a nature. that some benevolent indi-
viduals established an Asylum in another part of Switzer-
land, for the reception of idiots, whether Cretins or
otherwise. A Society in Paris, convinced by these vic-
tories over the double infirmity of mind and body, that
the education of children of weak intellect was not im-
possible, has within the last year opened an institution
for the instruction of so-called idiots. _ _

Under the impression that what has been done else-
where might be tried in England, and fully alive to the
melancholy state of those children whose claims they now
advocate, a committee of ladies was formed in Bath,
at the commencement of the present year, to endeavour
to carry into effect some plan for ameliorating the condi-
tion of these children. In April last, a matron was en-
gaged, and four children placed under her charge. The
utter helplessness of these afflicted creatures prohibited a
large number being received at once. Two of the girls
were nearly fourteen years of age, yet they could not on
entering the institution even feed themselves, far less
employ themselves in any way. It is satisfactory to be
able to state that, owing to the unwearying care and at-
tention of the matron, this apparent incapacity for exer-
tion has been in a great degree overcome. The number
of inmates might now well be increased, and many pa-
rents, too poor to pay for their children themselves, are
anxiously waiting the time when the funds of the institu-
tion will allow of their being received gratuitously. The
time of trial has been almost too short to admit of de-
cided mental improvement, yet the efforts of the teachers
have not been wholly unfruitful. At the last committee
meeting the children were examined by some of the
friends present, who knew their state on first entering
the institution, and who afterwards declared that the pro-
gress made was beyond their expectation. Having then
some solid prospect of success, the committee are embol-
dened to lay the case before the public, in the hope that
assistance will be given for the support and increase of
this establishment. The helpless and destitute condition
of these children proves, more powerfully than words can
do, the necessity of the present undertaking. An addi-
tional motive is to be found in the fact of English children
having been sent to Abendberg, in default of any institu-
tion of the kind in this country.
The institution is open to visitors at stated periods.
[A meeting was recently held to establish a similar in-
stitution in London. We are glad to hear that the suc-
cess of the Bath establishment has given satisfaction to
the benevolent promoters.—En.l

BlOtritt Rttvg.

On Wednesday the Conservatives of Lancaster presented
to E. D. Salisbury, Esq., the late candidate for the borough,
with a superb silver epergne.
DESTRUCTIVE FIRE.--On Wednesday/ the silk mill of
Messrs.. Hobson and Taylor at Eccles was destroyed by fire.
The damage is estimated at £3,000.
The conservatives of Stockport have determined to
bring forward Major Marsland for that town, if Mr. Cob-
den retires.

MILDNESS OF THE SEASON.—There is now growing in
the grounds of Hugh Hornby, Esq., Ribby, near Kirk-
ham, an ornamental hawthorn in flower, although for-
saken by most of the leaves. .. rare circumstance, for a
deciduous plant like the hawthorn to bloom in the
"gloomy month of November."
PARADING THE STREETS.—On Wednesday the un-
employed and " short time'? operatives, males and females,
to the number of several hundreds, paraded the streets of
Blackburn, dragging some hand-carts as they went, to
excite compassion, and to contain the bread, Bz-c., which
might be given them. The appearance of the males was
much the worst, the females, for the most part, looking
more comfortably, or at least more decently, clad. The
" demonstration" appeared, to a certain extent, to have
its effect ;, and the hand-carts were, we believe, well filled
before the tour of the town had been made. At Darwen
a similar demonstration took place. The parties forming
this hungry procession in Blackburn, behaved with strict
propriety-.
THE CHARITY OF CHURCHMEN.—The Pl-eston Pilot
of Saturday says, referring to the establishment of soup
dispensaries in that town :—The sum already subscribed
exceeds £5OO, which must be allowed to be an excellent
beginning, and we take very great pride in observing that
every donor to the fund is a member of the Church of
England. Now we do not desire to hint' an invidious
insinuation against the followers of other faiths, but we do
wish the lower classes to be enabled rightly to distinguish
on whom they have to rely in times of need, and to place
them on their guard against listening to or being governed
by those individuals who always parade, themselves on
those occasions when ignorance may be abused, as the
friends of the working classes par excellence. We had '
some precious specimens of the lip philanthropy humbug
at the late borough election ; let the same parties then now
give some equally capital displays of breeches pocket elo- '
quence. An excellent opportunity is offered, and it really
should not be allowed to pass by unimproved.
THE MANUFACTURING DISTRICTS.—At Manchester
the aggregate of mills working full time, has been increased
by nine since the 9th instant, the whole number being
now 90, of which 63 are working with the full complement
of hands, and 27 with a portion only. The same number
of mills, namely, 60, are working short time; and the
number of those which had altogether stopped has been
reduced from 34 to 23. With regard to the work-people,
the present and past returns differ in the numbers, possibly
from the cause already suggested ; for in the last they were
stated at 41,055, whereas in the present they are put down
at 40,955. The difference is only sixty, an amount which
may also be ascribed to the fluctuations always going on in
a large operative population. Nearly 4,000 persons appear
to have been added to those previously in full employment;
those working only short time, have been diminished by
2,000, within a fraction ; and there are about 1,000 fewer
persons who are destitute of employment. On the whole,
the present return is the most favourable that has been
published for many weeks ; and in its improved form it
will afford an accurate index to the social comfort of the
principal trades which make up the vast hive of industry.
There has not been as yet any resumption of work atAshton-
under-Lyne ; but we learn that numerous applications have
been made by the workpeople to be permitted to resume
their employment on the masters' terms. A meeting of
the masters' association was held on Friday evening, when
we believe it was resolved that the mills should be opened
for work on Monday (yesterday) morning ; and we trust
the strike, which has now lasted a month, will then ter-
minate.—As respects Blackburn, we learn that, out of 35
concerns, employing 14,826 hands, only two, employing
570 hands, are in full work ; that 14, heretofore employing
3,726 hands, are entirely closed ; and that the remaining
19, employing 10,530 hands, are working short time to a
greater or smaller extent, averaging rather more than three
days per week.
MR. EMERSON AND THE BIBLE.—The thirty-seventh
annual meeting of the Manchester and Salford Auxiliary
Bible Society was held in the Free-trade Hall on Tuesday
night, and was attended by between 3,000 and 4,000 per-
sons. Mr. Samuel Fletcher occupied the chair, and the
Rev. Hugh Stowell, in the course of his address, referred
to the Guardian's report of Mr. Emerson's lecture on
Swedenborg, wherein the lecturer said, " Man, wheresoe'er
thou seest him, in brothels, gaols, or gibbets, is upon his
way upward to all that is good and true." He trembled,
he said, to read, these words. Were our young men to go
to brothels to learn morals ? It was as unphilosophical
as it was unscriptural to talk of a man soaring by sinking,
or of going up to heaven by going down to hell. What
did the lecturer mean by such a monstrous paradox, such
utter absurdity ? Was it the ravings of an idiot, or the
sober language of a philosopher, or -a man of sound
judgment. He did not object to literary institutions
engaging whoever they thought proper to lecture to them ;
but he protested against the violation of that neutrality
on religious subjects which they professed to owe to their
subscribers. Let them leave Christianity alone, and
Christians would leave them alone; but so long as they
attacked Christianity under the neutrality and the
guise of science, there were men in Manchester who
would rather go to the flames than hold their peace. The
clergy and ministers of Manchester would warn their
Sunday school teachers and all Christian parents against
the subtle and disguised iniquity of such sentiments ; they
would lift up their voices against the poison being cir-
culated under the veil of literature. He did not find fault
with the lecturer for giving to his lectures the garb of
science and art; but he did for interlarding them with
sneers at religion, and disparaging remarks upon the
Word of God. He rejoiced to see himself surrounded by
such a multitude of young men ; and he asked them if
they were prepared to say it was atheism to believe there
was a devil, or go to a brothel as the high road to heaven
(loud cheers, and cries of "No"). Their common sense
revolted at the idea ; and he recommended them, the next
time they heard any lecturer, upon what ought to be a
neutral platform, give utterance to such sentiments, to
cry out in a body, " Question, question, question," until
they silenced him. They would be violating no rule of
courtesy,—breaking no canon of the institution ; but they
would be acquitting their own conscience;—be doing
justice to their country, their parents, their cnurch, their
Bible, and their God. Let them not allow insidious
attacks, from a neutral platform, against religion, to drive
them from the field of controversy ; but let them look
infidelity in the face, and it would be defeated. The
auditory greatly cheered this part of Mr. Stowell's speech.

A SALUTARY ADMONITION.
(From Blackwood's Magazine)
The characteristics of our times are wholly unshared
with the past. In calling up the recollections of the great
ages of English change, we can discover but slight evi-
dence of their connexion with our own. To the stately,
but religious, aspect of the Republic of 1641, we find no
resemblance in the general features of our religious
tolerance. To the ardent zeal for liberty which marked
the Revolution of 1688, we can find no counterpart in the
constitutional quietude of the present day. The fiery
ferocity of Continental Revolution has certainly furnished
no model to the professors of national regeneration, since
the reform of 1830. And yet, a determination, a power
and a progress of public change, is now the acknowledged
principle of the most active, indefatigable, and unscrupu-
lous portion of the mind of England.
And among the most remarkable and most menacing
adjuncts of the crisis, is the singular sense of inadequacy
to resist its career which seems to paralyse the habitual
defenders of the right cause.—The consecrated guardians
of the church seem only to wait the final blow. The
great landowners in the peerage are contented with mak-
ing protests. The agricultural interest, the boast of
England, and the vital interest of the empire, has aban-
doned a resistance, too feeble to deserve the praise of
fortitude, and too irregular to deserve the fruits of victory.
The moneyed interest sees its gigantic opulence threatened
by a hundred-handed grasp ; but makes no defence, or
makes that most dangerous of all defences, which calls in
the invader as the auxiliary, bribes him with a portion of
the spoils, and only provokes his appetite for the posses-
sion of the whole.
This condition of things cannot last. A few years,
perhaps a few. months, will ripen the bitter fruit, which
the meekness of undecided' governments has suffered to
grow before their eyes. The Ballot, which offers a sub_
terfuge for every fraud ; Extended Suffrage, which offers
a force for every aggression ; the overthrow of all religious
endowments, which offers a bribe to every desire of
avarice—above all that turning of religion into a political
tool, that indifference to the true, and that welcoming of
the false, in whatever shape it may approach, however
fierce and foul ; however coldly contemptuous, or furiously
fanatical, however grim or grotesque, whose first act must
be to trample all principle under foot, and place on its
altar the worship of the passions ;—those are the demands
which are already made, and those will be the trophies
which the hands of political zealotry and personal rapine,
in the first hour of their triumph, will raise on the grave
where lies buried the Constitution.
Yet nothing is done by the natural defenders of the
rights of Englishmen. No leader comes forward ;no
new followers are to be found ; no new banner is raised
as the rallying point for the fugitives, already broken.
We see the approach of the evil, as the men of the old
world might have seen the approach of the deluge ; await-
ing with folded hands, and feet rooted to the ground, the
surges which nothing could resist ; looking with an indo-
lent despair at the mighty inundation, before which the
plain and the mountain alike began to disappear ; and
sullenly submitting to an extinction, of which they had
been long offered the means of escape, and perishing,
with the pledge of security floating before their eyes.
We are by no means desirous of being prophets of
public misfortune ; but, with the tenets publicly avowed,
in the elections which have just closed, with the strong
popularity attached to the most daring opinions, with
thirty pledged Repealers from Ireland, with the wildest
doctrines of trade advocated by the popular representa-
tives in England, with sixty subjects of the Pope sitting
in a Protestant legislature, and with the evident determi-
nation to bring into that legislature individuals (and who
shall limit their numbers, when its doors are once thrown
open to their wealth ?) who pronounce Christianity itself
to be an imposture—we can conjecture no consequences,
however hazardous, which ought not to present them-
selves to the soberest friend of his country. That the
worst consequences may not be inevitable, is only to hope
in a higher protection ; that even out of the evil good
may come, is not unconformable to the ways of Provi-
dence ; but that times are at hand in which the noblest
energy of English statesmanship will be required to meet
the conflict, we have no more doubt, than that the pilot
who, in a storm, uses neither compass nor sail, must run
his ship on shore ; or that the man who walks about in
clothes dipped in pestilence, will leave his corpse as a
testimony to the fact of the contagion,