The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-01-31 00:00:00

SECOND EDITION.

Minister to Vienna to arrange the terms of settle-
ment ; and so the public mind is allowed, from
day to day, to alternate between hope and fear
while the power of forming any intelligible.opinion2
as to the course of events for the future appears as -
distant as ever. The long-expected event of the
entry of the combined fleets of England andPiance,
into the Black Sea has been accomplished, lift ur
such a manner that Russia has refused to consider
it a easus belli, without an express declaration.on
the part of the respective Governments, which
neither of them seem inclined to give. The pro-
fessions of the several parties who have interfered'
are all for peace, while the actions of the principals
in the quarrel are all warlike, and, in the mean-
time, the public, who may have the largest interest
in the settlement of the question, are left to look
on, and wait until the game of diplomacy be played
out. It must still be apparent that much, if not
all, the evil which has arisen from this long pro-
crastination is owing to the temporising policy
pursued by our own Government. France was
the first to blame, by giving cause for Russian in-
terference, but she has endeavoured to compensate
for her fault by taking the most prominent part
in subsequent negotiations ; while England, who
had the greatest claim to pre-eminence on every
consideration, allowed the opportunity for effective
interference to pass by, and is now driven to the
alternative of being, perhaps, involved in an ex-
pensive war or consenting to an ignominious with-
drawal from the affair, with consequences even
more disastrous. It is almost useless to reason on
the information contained in the daily accounts

received by telegraph, so little reliance is to be
placed on them ; and we must, therefore, be con-

tent to wait until we are in possession of more
authentic intelligence. We cannot, however, yet
believe that the EMPEROR of RUSSIA. will foolishly
venture on an encounter in which he is sure to be
worsted, whatever part Austria may ultimately
decide upon taking ; but we rather incline to the
opinion that the arts of diplomacy will be ex-
hausted, or driven to the verge of forbearance, in
order to gratify, if possible, the strong desire of
the EMPIROR to retain the possession of the
Danubian provinces.

The Address in answer to the Speech will
be moved, in the House of Lords, by the Earl of
CARNARVON, and seconded by Lord DUCIE, and in
the House of Commons it will be moved by LORD
CASTLETON, and seconded by Mr. THOMSON HAN-
KEY. In the subsequent debate the interest will,
of course, be centered on the Eastern question, but
the anticipated explanation from Lord PALMERS-
TON, as to the cause of his resignation and subse-
quent resumption of office, will necessarily excite
considerable attention. Indeed it is rarely that the
business of Parliament has been commenced so full
of important consequences to the well-being of the
State. The country is on the verge of being sud-
denly awakened from the long peace in which her
commerce has flourished, beyond any period of her
history, and should filo impending war prove dis-
astrous, the blame will rest upon the heads of the
Ministers whose dismissal from office is now so
earnestly desired. The great experiment of a coali-
tion nas proreu a Miltua c, aaal.
made of the surplus revenue, for which the Ministry
are really entitled to no credit ; the other side of
the account shows a fearful set-off in the Funds
fallen ten per cent., labour at war with capital, food
at high prices, and the prospects for'the future
more gloomy than ever. It will require a con-
siderable amount of official audacity for the QUEEN
to be instructed to congratulate her loyal subjects
on a state of prosperity which they do not expe-
rience, and the ingenuity required to gloss over a
confession of failure will render the Speech of 1854
a memorial document.

THE public mind has been appalled, within the
last few days, by the many frightful and disastrous
shipwrecks which have followed each other with
fearful rapidity. Scarcely had the news been
received of the wreck of the San Francisco steam
ship, with hundreds of human lives, than the John
o' Gaunt, a richly freighted ship, from India, was
totally lost near Holyhead ; and ere the rescued
seamen had reached their homes, came the still
more appalling news of the loss of the Tayleur, on
the coast of Dublin, and the sacrifice of nearly four
hundred of our fellow-creatures, who were sud-
denly snatched into eternity, with hardly a mo-
ment's warning of their awful fate. Two days
only had elapsed from their leaving this port, full
of hope and expectation, on board a ship of which
every one was loud in its praise for the qualities
which should ensure a safe and speedy voyage,
until the time when she was buried beneath the
waves over which she had floated so proudly, and
in which the majority of her living freight found a
premature death-bed. So horrible a catastrophe,
under such extraordinary circumstances, has natu-
rally excited considerable discussion as to the pro-
bable causes ; but, in the midst of conflicting
testimony from those imperfectly acquainted
with all the facts, it would be but justice to the
parties immediately concerned to withhold the
expression of any decisive opinion until the inquiry,
which has already been commenced by competent
' authority, shall have been brought to a conclusion.
Much has been said about the compasses not being
properly insulated, of the crew being inefficient, of
the new ropes not working easily, and of the ship
not being under control, but these are details
which will receive due investigation. It is, how-
ever, evident that the weather has been most
severe, and this was further proved by the loss of
the fine steam-ship Olinda almost immediately
after starting on her voyage to the Brazils. We
may remark that the complaint as to the crew of
the Tayleur being composed chiefly of Chinese and
Lascars affords another proof of the folly and
danger arising from the alteration in the Naviga-
tion-laws, by which the obligation that the crew of
a British ship should consist of at least three-
fourths British seamen was abolished. Some
check was also afforded by the conditions of Insur-
ance requiring a ship to be efficiently manned in
order to render her seaworthy, but this has been
taken away ; and now, so long as a ship has the
requisite number in her crew, it matters little as
to the quality of the men of which it allay be coin-

THE question of Peace or War, although the
one most often asked, appears still to be the most
difficult to be answered. Indeed, it may be said
to be in the same state that it was six months ago,
and the ultimate result equally as bard to be
solved. One day the tenour of the dispatches is
all for war, the EMPEROR of RUSSIA. is exulting in
his position as Champion- of the Cross, and will
hazard every thing to drive the Moslem from
rope. The intelligence of the next day speaks of
peaceful probatilitipi and the clispatvh of a %livid

THE reform.of the law has occupied a prominent
position in the public mind during the last few
years, and much has been done, not only to abate
the enormous expenditure which formerly was in-
evitable, but also to abridge the time employed,
and facilitate the arrival at a decision. Much,
however, remains, to be done, and not the least im-
portant to the welfare of the community will be
an improvement in the present tedious and expen-
sive process for the transfer of real property. A
step in this direction has been taken, and the Lon-
don. Gazette of last week announces the appoint-
ment of a committee of inquiry, with a view to an
alteration in the law. In the choice of the com-
missioners no fault can reasonably be found, and
it is to be hoped that the result of their labours
will be a measure to facilitate the sale and pur-
chase of land, so as to obviate those enormous ex-
penses which have hitherto operated to deter
investments in this description of property. It is
an injustice almost universally felt, that no sale of
land can take place without so large a payment for
law costs. as almost virtually to confiscate a small
estate ;- and, while this is chiefly rendered neces-
sary by the attempt to provide against future
difficulties from doubtful titles, there is little in
the boasted. skill of our lawyers if they cannot de-
vise some remedy for so obvious a defect. If the
transfer of land were rendered as little difficult, or
nearly so, as that of ordinary merchandise, or the
ownership in a vessel, it would not only enhance
the value of real property, but enable men of
moderate means to acquire a real stake in the
country by becoming proprietors, while full se-
curity might be given for retaining that system of
entail by which the heirs to estates are invested
with only a life interest in the property, in order
to maintain the families of the landed gentry
against improvidence and profligacy.

It will be observed that the issue of this com-
mission, though commented upon last session, has
been deferred to the eve of another session of Par-
liament, as though it were an unwilling duty,
which had been delayed as long as possible, and
performed at the last moment, in order to furnish
a paragraph for the Royal Speech. The Ministers
feel conscious of their many faults of omission and
commission, and may attempt to cover their de-
fects by allusions to the Royal Commission on the
transfer of land, and mighty promises of the great
things they intend to do for the improvement of
the law. We, however, cannot forget that it is to
the EARL of DERBY and his Chancellor, Lord ST.
LEONARD'S, that we are indebted for more legal
reforms, effected within a few months, than ever
the Whigs brought about within twice as many
years. These are facts which should not be lost
sight of, should the country again be called upon
to pronounce a verdict on political parties ; and
there must be complete obliviousness of past
events, it any reliance be placed on the promises
of the party now in office.

THE men of Manchester have pronounced upon
the subject of the new Reform Bill, and, if we may
measure the influence of the leaders of the party
by their consummate assurance, we are enabled
to form some idea of their projects Co frame the
representative system in order to suit their own
•
purposes. At the Reform Banquet, on Tuesday,
the ingredients of which were tea, coffee, and ac-
companiments, Messrs. COBDEN, BRIGHT, and Co.
indulged their hearers with much declamation on
their notions of Parliamentary Reform, diversified
with sneers against the rest of the people of Eng-
land for wishing the national honour to be vindi-
cated by resistance to Russian aggression. We
shall not now stop to comment on this phase of
COBDENIC policy, which, like the rest, is diluted
by unmitigated selfishness, but turn to those in-
sidious attacks on the Constitution which have
received the fiat of Manchester approval. The
chief point, as possessing at least a local interest,
is that which claims for Lancashire, on the simple
ground of population, an increase of representa-
tives from twenty-six, the present number, to at
least fifty. If the demand were confined to a re-
division of the county, so as to have two additional
county representatives, there would appear to be
no reasonable objection ; but to confer the electoral
franchise on the towns merely because they con-
..
tain a certain number of inhabitants, is not only
absurd, but plainly indicative of the ulterior de-
signs of the party. They would condemn to poli-
tical extinction the boroughs which now return
representatives, because the electors are so'few in
number, and yet confer the privilege on places
where, notwiinsialimus tam puitiauivu,
must be lowered to a miserable standard,
or the number of electors must be fewer still.
But, before the question of mere numbers be al-
lowed as an element in Parliamentary representa-
tion, some regard should be paid to the quality of
the individuals who swell the population returns.
It may suit the purposes of the Manchester party
to have the influence of a majority in Parliament,
but it would conform neither with the safety and
welfare of the kingdom, nor the character of the
House of Commons, for its members to be the
chosen of the manufacturing operatives of Lanca-
shire towns. The Radicals boast of their political
intelligence, but we should look in vain for intel-
ligence of any kind, even the simplest principles
which teach man to regard the interests of himself
and family, in the insane conduct of the dupes of
gitators who turned out in Preston, Wigan, and
other places, and endured months of privation and
suffering in order to gain an impossible object.
And, yet, upon such men, so destitute of morality
and common sense, these modern Reformers would
confer political privileges, for no ether motive than
that they might be easier tools of designing
knaves. It is the policy of the Romish Church to
govern through ignorance, and these political jesuits
seek to compass their means by the same ends.
Another point insisted upon as a measure of
reform is the adoption of voting by ballot, a system
SO utterly repugnant to all English notions of
honour, honesty, ,and fair dealing, that it would be
almost a waste of time to expose its enormity.
The pretence is a protection against bribery and
intimidation; but, in reality, it would offer a cloak AIISTRALIA.—The next mail will be forwarded by the
for wholesale bribery, without the means of detec- Bosphorus, from Southampton, on Saturday.
tion ; and against intimidation, where such could whose
FRIDItY, Jhn Feeniy, child two
.years of age,
scaldeds reside
byma 3
now be exercised, it would prove no defence what- accidentallyynpot Cofo urt,. Stang
wthsahte-rstraneetci
diedsva
ever. It would encourage a practice of knavery on Saturday last.
On Wednesday, the five o'clock
and dissimulation which ought to be foreign to li
expressWALtraAiTi ACCIDENT.—On I DEN .
Lime-street
reet met with an accident near
the open manliness of the English' character, and Wavertree.t A grain waggon had just been shunted into
sidinga
pointsman
estrain, go
havingin a neglectedt
to
of
fromreversen
the
under its baleful influence every species of cunning points,tit 1e
express
and chicanery would be fostered. Some excuse to eightean miles an hour, ran off the main line into the
might be found for it- under a system of tyranny jumped off
rihteliet.
to Asama, e
his whoewasToi,ne the waggon
and despotism ; but in England, where every man among whom were Mr. F. Hull, Mr. Thomas passengers,
rtongton received various injuries, but not of a
proudly boasts of his freedom and independence, it rr. Berton
would be a libel on the national character so ut- STEALING A BILL—At the Preston Police-court, on
Tuesday, John Isherwood, formerly in the firm of Isher-
terly degrading, that no man was ever yet found
wood, Foden, and Co., Preston, was charged, under re-
who professed to desire the ballot for himself. mind from this town, with stealing a bill for £BO from
It has been abundantly shown, in the total Joseph Ellis,
othis town. The prosecutor stated
that
Inn,Saturday week,
toan when
tohneenlisatontdinfrtne
absence of any agitation on the subject, that,what- Queen's henwasthe
him a bill for £BO, drawn upon the prosecutor's firm, and
ever may be the defects of our present representa-
tive system, no reform is called for ; and that the aoccent,patreJ by
ithte p.risn
for this
father-lawna; that
followed by
attempt now making by Lord Jowl RUSSELL to the next train, and succeed him giving him in charge 4?:f
do something, and endorsed by his• quondam poli- bil to a(Zsql,aegonindgttaollewsaiasdtohe he:dthtletkenhthe
tical allies at Manchester, is a mere trading on Monday. Mr. Godfrey, for the defence, called a sheriff";:
political capital to serve personal interests and sheriff's-
officer, wgihvoenstrde ellatt,t)sh prosecutor had told him that
Isherwood to get cashed. Corn-
party views, without the' slightest reference to the milted for trial, ball being allowed.
welfare of the country or the promotion of good exlteuftistr.L.t—Russil!
tis
_the greatest unbroken empire for
exilyedoupying vast regions of Europe
government. If any alteration be needed, the only and extent
aenvdern one-sixth of the habitable globe. It
way to make it beneficial is to carry out the spirit allsaifs,r
ja:si.bitinon onf talexargidte::;
41..tiTreest tthewsize of France, and 138 times that of Eng-
st
of Radical professions, and that would be to extend who is reporteduto have too sm
reaskasateaurvn, the Cdas?))ian for a bathing-place, the
itie electoral franchise in counties, and increase theßlack
chdedthoen
,NrorthryPaeifi
number of county representatives ; but to transfer Ocean as a fish-pond." " easnincroa, for. !lc
Foarstaure, on Persia and Georgia for a vintKnard, on Turkey
the privilege from the substantial householders in
small boroughs to the cotton spinners and weavers land
asgaradiein,
shunting-ground,
P.grolaonudn for a farm, on • land and Lap-
d and took part of North America
of Lancashire towns, would be not only a positive as a place of banishment for offenders.
Seidlitz RwLdQerstrAtoNDoA:Tca.-1)Ilp
01.113!•eltsttheonsigntatnt of
injustice, but such a retrograde step, that none
but a Manchester man would have the unblushing deeply interested in the accounts of theref:ensritagri)oxw.
was brought toto the king in court,. and the inter,
effrontery to make the proposal. If, however, the boxretewr
rshseulnddbehaus.edg.
demand be good for anything that Lancashire Into a goblet he put the twehevsetyblunewpalpet
adanddedthweateror,apeoe kingte drank. it off. This was the alkali,
should have fifty representatives, Liverpool should
have at least twenty representatives—ten, because tion. It was then expleeedextfaetssiedn the signo boifnastisnfacoi
she is one-fifth in point of population, and ten more the two powders lay the luxury ; and the twelve white
because she is nearly equal to all the rest in pro-swallowedpowders
were
ef)ey quicklyh .diesstsyolvNevcilthinawashn
water, and
„eafelye
perty, and gar superior in intelligence. But Li- remembered while TZlhi is numbered with the kingdom,
verpool would return twenty Conservatives, and, agoenTe°l, serearomseed,
stg edr,oeexiolodes and, in
rushing
sshfuullgl
therefore, Mr. COBDEN would only give additional from the throne, fell prostrate on the floor. There he lay
during the low continued effervescence of the compound,
representatives to places where ignorance conceives, spurting like ten thousand pennyworthsdeath, of irnyerla2_PZ
Manchester fustian to bc,. political wisdonl. and believing himself in the aix.na ern
Manchester and humiliating Prod that WO ar{ /319 P 4/

WAVE.RTREE.-ADJOURNED
VESTRY MEETING.

LAST, night an adjourned vestry meeting was held in
the large hall of the Lamb Inn, Wavertree, for the pur-
pose of determining whether a cemetery or burial ground
shall be formed under the provisions of the 15th and 16th
Vic. c. 85 ; and 16th and 17th Vic. c. 134. The meeting
was not numerously attended.
Mr. DAVIES moved that Mr. Picton be appointed chair-
man, which was carried.
Mr. PICTON explained that the present was an adjourned
meeting, and had been called for the purpose of receiving
a report from the committee which the law clerk would
read.
The Clerk then read the report, of which the following
is the substance :—" The Committee beg leave to report
to the adjourned vestry meeting, that the Marquis of
Salisbury and Mr. Potter were written to, and that the
Marquis of Salisbury replied, through Mr. George Whit-
ley, that he regretted that he must decline to sell any
land adjoining to the present churchyard at Childwall,
for the purpose of enlarging it, as the increasing popula- '
tion of the parish rendered any addition to the present
burying ground as objectionable to his property, as its
present situation was inconvenient to the different town-
ships. That Mr. Potter replied, that the price for the
-e 1-" A diwc.llincr lionize and
buildings, would be £5,500.
" The Committee, having received such replies, recom-
mends to the adjourned vestry meeting, that Mr. Potter's
land be not bought, in consequence of the high price he
asks for the same. Also, that it appearing to this Com-
mittee that a piece of land, containing about ten statute
acres, situate on the north side of the London and North-
western Railway, on Mill-lane, belonging to Hugh Hornby,
Esq., would be a very eligible piece of land for the purpose
of forming a cemetery thereon, this Committee recom-
mends that application be made to Mr. Hornby, to ascer-
tain whether he is willing to sell the land for such purpose."
Mr. FINGLAND said that, as there did not seem to be a
very great amount of public interest excited in the move-
ment, and as there was no very obvious or pressing neces-
sity for proceeding with the undertaking, he should, under
the circumstances, move that further consideration of the

_
subject be adjourned sine die. _____ _—
Mr. DAVIES seconded the motion, which, after a few
remarks from Mr. ANDREWS, assistant overseer, and from
the chairman, was carried nem. con.
The CHAIRMAN said, as the original object of the
movement was more with a view to procuring suitable
accommodation for the burial of the poor, than for pro-
curing additional burying ground for those in easy
circumstances, something ought still to be done to carry
that object into effect. That, he considered, would be
most suitably done by purchasing land in Wavertree
Church-yard, sufficient in quantity to provide burial ground
for those who would require to be buried at the expense
of the township. These, he was given to understand,
amounted in number to about twenty annually. For such
a purpose the public was bound morally and legally to
make provision.
Mr. MARRIN observed that any individual or body could
purchase in Wavertree Church-yard land at the rate of
Lo ss. for a burial breadth. This might be dug as deep
as was deemed necessary, and so one breadth might be
made to contain ten or twelve bodies.
Mr. DAVIES (after a few remarks from the chairman,
Mr. Coward, and others) moved that it be recommended
that, in the event of Childwall Churchyard being closed,
the Vestry purchase a sufficient number of burial breadths
of land in Wavertree Churchyard, or elsewhere, to
provide for the decent interment of the poor.
Mr. ANDREWS seconded the motion, which was carried
unanimously ; as was also a vote of thanks to the chairman,
after which the meeting separated.