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

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meal omcer to the Toxteth-park district, vacant by the
resignation of Mr. Harbord. The former was elected by
a majority of 9to 4. It was decided that the medical officers
in each district should be appointed vaccinators in their re-
spective districts. Mr. Rowlands was appointedvro teen,
relieving officer of the West Derby district, (No. 2,) until
some communication was had with the Poor-law Commis-
sioners, when the appointment will be again brought be-
fore the board.

INSTITUTION FOR THE INDIGENT BLIND.—The annual
meeting of the subscribers was held on Friday ; Henry
Lawrence, Esq., occupied the chair. Mr. R.W. Houghton
(lie treasurer) read a statement of the accounts for the
previous year. They began by stating a balance in hand.
of £217 10s. 4d. ; by subscriptions £546 10s. 6d. ; pa-
rishes' allowance £303 ; received for pupils' necessaries,
&c., .£l4l 3s. 2d ; found in the poors' boxes £l5 is. 10d. ;
by interest £B4 9s. 4d. ; by legacies £245 ; by donations
£33 2s. ; making a total of £1586 ss. 2d. Deducting
£925 7s. 4d., would leave a balance in favour of the In-
stitution of £561 17s. Bd. ; to which sum add £404 as
debt received, making a total balance of £965 17s Bd. ;
against which sum there was a set-off of one year, amount-
ing to £1062, leaving the institution in debt £lO3. The
report stated that the number of pupils at present in the
school was 88. During the year 23 boys had been ad-
• mitted into, and 35 had departed from the institution.
The candidates for admission were five males and four
females. The resolutions passed will be found advertised
in another column. Mr. R. W. Houghton laid on the
table a notice which had been served upon the trustees by
the London and North Western Railway Company,
stating that they were going to Parliament for powers to
take from the trustees a portion of the property of the in-
stitution, vested in their hands, namely the church. Mr.
Harmood Banner thought that such notice should be
placed in the hands of their solicitor, in order that the
matter might be watched. Were the church to be taken
from them it would be the ruin of the inaliftifinn IT.

um we . tie
thought that if such powers Wereus grantedinsinution to the rail ay
company, they ought to take the whole and not a portion
of the property. The chairman thought it unnecessary,
under the circumstances, to take any step in the matter ;
but if Mr. Banner would move a resolution on the question,
he would put it to to the meeting. Mr. Banner did so,
and the resolution will be found along with the others.
Mr. John Smith (one of the wardens) rendered in a state-
ment of the chapel accounts, which showed a balance in
the hands of the banker of £336 9s. 4d., notwithstanding
£231 2s. 7d. had been incurred for extra expenses.

LIVERPOOL POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

CRIMINALITY V. SNOW
influence over criminalit

-That the weather exercises an

court can doubt. Thanks 'to the heavy fall of snow, the
number of felonies to be heard on Thursday morning did
not exceed three.

THE GAOL NO CIIRE.—On Friday, a female, named
Margaret Burns, who was only released from prison on
Tuesday, was again committed for trial, for stealing a
petticoat. She had upon her when ariested, 12 lbs. of
meat, some loaves, and herrings, all of which had proba-
bly been stolen.

-YOUNG THIEVES.—A boy, named William Hunt, was
charged at the Police-court, on Thursday, with having
robbed the shop of Mr. William Hignett, tobacconist, of
Dale-street. Mr. Hignett stated that he had observed
the lad lurking about his shop for several we eks past,
that he frequently came into his shop, when, if observed,
he would ask for a halfpenny worth of tobacco, or some
similar purchase. About six o clock on Wednesday even-
ing, he caused him to be apprehended, and subsequently
the house in which the boy lives was searched, when a
quantity of cigars was foundwhich proved to be com-
plainant's property. Mr. Hignett considered that the
value of the cigars thus taken from his shop amounted to
thirty shillings. Constable 545 deposed to searching the
boy's house and finding the cigars in question. The lad
was committed for fourteen days. Another lad, named
Edmund Rurgess, was committed for fourteen days, for
stealing a bar of iron in Ford-street.

ILLICIT DISTILLATION.—On Saturday an elderly man,
named Charles Connerty, and a little boy, named John
M`Lean, were brought before Mr. Rushton on a charge
of having been found at work at an illicit still, in St.
Martin's-street. Mr. Rushton remarked how pitiable it
was to see children engaged in such illicit occupations,
and ordered each of the prisoners to pay a fine of £3O, or,
in default, to be imprisoned three months.—Frank Camp-
bell, Jeremiah Maher, Patrick Brady, and Hannah Maher,
were next brought up on a charge of having been working
an illicit still. It appeared that the Custom-house officers
went about five o'clock that morning to a court in
Maguire-street, and knocked at the door. The female,
who answered from inside, refused to admit them ; and

finding that the inmates• were destroying some of the
barrels and utensils used in their unlawful calling, the
officers . proceeded to the rearvof the -premises and forced
open the door. On entering they foiind the still at full
work, and the prisoners in bed in another apartment.
He ordered each of these prisoners• also• to pay a fine of
£3O, or, in default, to be imprisone.dihree months.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF HEALTH
OF TOWN MEDICAL OFFICERS.

[We had no room for the following article last week.]
Edwin Chadwick, Esq., registrar-general, having been
requested to give a testimonial to the fitness of Dr. Dun-
can to act as officer of health for Liverpool, on the sub-
ject of sanatory arrangements,. has addressed a letter
(dated Somerset-house, Jan. 8,) to .Mr. Shuttleworth,
the town-clerk, to be submitted:to the corpoiation.
He commences by a warm eulogium on the talents and
zeal in the cause of public health already disinterestedly
exerted by Dr. Duncan, as evinced especially by his able
report on the causes of the unhealthy, condition of Liver-
pool, which he ranks with the reports of the most eminent
men-who have devoted their attention to the same philan-
thropic object in other large towns, and proceeds to say
that the arrangements of our -council in relation to the
appointment of a health officer, have been made under a
misconception of the onerous duties to be performed. He
remarks upon the impolicy of fixing,the salary at so low
an amount as very little more than the annual payment of
£1 per thousand of the persons whose general health it is
proposed to watch over, while-the impending loss on each
adult person's premature death is, at least, £325. *lf, he
says, the' services required had been fairly examined, it
would have been seen that not one, nor two, professional
men giving their whole time to the performance of pro-
per duties, could execute them. He estimates, taking the
authentic statistics of diseases . and their causes in this
town, that in order to initiate measures of prevention,
" three or four officers of health at the least, giving their
whole time to the service, at an expense of £2,200 per an-
num, would belt very economical expenditure, as power-
fully tending to reduce the annual charge of £lB,OOO for
the excess of funerals alone ;" but, he adds, " that the
intended compensation for the services of one officer, that
he may take private practice, is entirely destructive of all
efficiency,*even if a full number of officers were appointed,
and the remuneration were adequate." This opinion is
grounded on past experience in analagous cases, for, as
the writer of the letter justly, we believe, states, "regular
private practice not only acts constantly as an inducement
to the neglect of regular public duties, but often as a se-
vere penalty for the proper performance of them." He
is, in fine, of opinion that officers of health should be in-
dependent of all such influences ; should be responsible
only for adequate attention to the public service ;, and that
the requisite expenditure lie proposes would result in a
vast pecuniary economy.

The only passage of Mr. Chadwick's intelligent letter
which we have room, to quote verbatim, is the close :

" I am not aware in what stage the question as to the appoint-
ment may be ; but I hope it may not be too late to submit
these grounds for revising the arrangements under which it is
proposed to be made. Dr. Duncan, after his reports, and the
demonstration of their truth, can really have stood in no need
of any testimonial from me; and should the considerations I
have submitted be deemed too late to alter the arrangements, I
would beg to present this as a personal testimonial in the way
of protest against the precedent of allowing private practice on
the part of an officer of health to come in conflict with his pub-
lic duties."

We doubt not but the suggestion thrown out from such
an authority will receive due consideration by our local
authorities, and if they find they have erred in judgment,
they will not hesitate to adopt it, or some approximation
toward it, for the public good.
There is but one point of omission in Mr. Chadwick's
letter, which, we feel assured, had he known the fact, he
would cheerfully have supplied. " He has bornt due testi-
mony to the nolie exertions of Dr. Duncan in the cause
of public health, but makes no mention of the long and
equally honourable services of Dr. Harbord and Dr.
Watson, whose able and undeniable expositions of the
nuisances, want of sewerage, &c. throughout every dis-
trict of Liverpool, have appeared in the columns of this
journal,--forming a mass of valuable evidence on the sub-
ject, which has fully opened the eyes of our thinking com-
munity, who were before comparatively ignorant of dan-
gers that surround them on all sides, and who, however
they may lament, cannot controvert their existence.