The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-09-14 00:00:00

ployed and un

farriine. The shopkeeper is contracting his opera-
tions, afraid to buy, and unable to get paid for
what he has already sold. Bankruptcy and insol-
vency is coming upon our commercial classes—
the prudent man suffering for, and ruined, by the
reckless speculator. Men of all classes, in fact,
snuff coming danger in the wind ; and the wise,

from conviction, and the thou

W here

ferent from that which we were told to look forwar

to as the immediate result of free trade measures ?
Prophets and philosophers of the Leag
Point us out the agency, or the agencies

tell us !
7 which

your predictions of prosperity have been falsified !
The potato rot—the Irish famine—the railways,"

vu vvlll Day. IJUL, ULL FuVrtuv wt.+ ziaa paaactt-etim-.
tress in Ireland is subsiding, and the expenditure in
railways is affording employment to the only portion
of our population who, are not immersed in the
general depression of the country. Stop the pro-
gress of every new railway; and what then ?—You
take the bread out of the mouths of the wives and
families of 250,000 able-bodied men engaged upon
them: the profits from the shopkeepers who supply
them with necessaries, and from the merchants who
import for them,—employment from the miner,
who gets coal and iron for them, andfrom a hundred
different classes of manufacturers-and aritizans who
are dependent upon them. These are not the
causes of the present state of things. If you still
maintain that they are so, you are bound to let us
see the precise mode in which they operate.
The manufacturing interest complain of restricted
demand, and of unremunerative prices. The cotton
manufacturer is only two-thirds employed ; is
working that two-thirds at a sacrifice, and contem-
plates a further restriction of working. The export
trade in goods has fallen off. India, China, most
of the states in Europe, our colonies, and many of
our most important neutral markets, are gradually

diminishing the amount of their purchases from 14.
How does free trade- account for this ? India and
China have nothing to do with potato rots, Irish
famine, or expenditure of English capital upon
English railways. We have taken our ordinary
supply of produce from these markets, and they
ought to have taken their accustomed quantity of
manufactured goods from us in return. From
Europe, the United States, and our corn-growing
colonies, we have imported vast quantities of grain.
We have trebled the money productiveness of their
last year's harvest. We have poured into these
countries a flood of a commodity, which they have
never before seen in anything like the same amount
—English gold. Yet where are their purchases of
manufactures in return ?: They are not to be traced.
With an English piece of gold in his pocket, the
Russian, the Polish, the Danish, or the American
farmer has found that he can buy either cotton
goods or cutlery, linens or woollens, without the
necessity of trafficking with the British manufac-

the Times a few days ago came turer.
__., to settle a controversy, which As an additional fact, we
,prung up between the factors and retailers of
capital which we have supplied to the foreigner as
,
anufactured cottons, woollens, &c., and the ma- the price of his grain, we have enabled him more
ifacturers of those articles with respect to the i advantageously to operate in the markets of the
umber of inches which ought to make up a yard's world as our competitors in various articles of manu,
facture. Not long ago to have hinted to any free
ength. The retailers and warehousemen complain
trader that the manufacturer, as well as the agricul-
lat the length of pieces of cloth has been of late
turist, required protection, would have drawn down
diminishing to such an extent that both are con-
tinually subjected to claims for remuneration for upon our heads a storm of ridicule. They only
short measure ; and they propose the adoption of 'wanted the removal of the bread tax—" a clear
a uniform standard of measure, to consist of 37 stage and no favour"—to enable them to compete
inches to the yard, thus allowing room for the with all the world. They are too late in discovering •
adoption of the old practice of measurement, by their error. The German, with his cutlery ; the
which a thumb's breadth or nearly an inch was
Swiss, with his watches and clocks ; the Russian
,
given with every yard. This claim the Times sets and German with linens ; the Hamburg artisan
w
down as unreasonable, arguing that 36 inches is with his cabinet furniture; and the artisans of
other countries, supplied, as they now are, with all
the imperial yard, and that 36 inches and no more
ought to be given. The material question however that .they have hitherto been short of—a good
market and capital—are teaching the free trader a
is with respect to uniformity of measurement. The
retailer or the warehouseman would be glad to find
different lesson. Birmingham confesses itself out-
every yard charged for in his bills of parcels by the done in cheapness—Sheffield is hard run, and the
manufacturer to consist of 36 inches ; to-morrow hitherto confident Manchester man, unwilling to
he may even have 37 inches ; but as a general rule confess his defeat, is fighting shadows, set up as
he has only 35 inches. And thus having calculated convenient recipients of the abuse and spleen which
ought, if directed properly, to be visited upon his
his profit upon the understanding that he was buy-
ing and selling goods of honest and full measure-
own overweening stupidity.
ment, he is continually being mulcted of that We are not at all desirous of convicting these
profit by deducting for short measure. self-satisfied gentlemen of their error. We shall
The Times is not content with placing his veto not trouble ourselves with the task of shewing them
the connexion of their present difficulties, and the
upon this attempt of the retailers and warehouse-
to place their transactions upon a footing of country's sufferings, with the working of their own
greater certainty, but, in his ignorance of the real mad and selfish policy. It is enough to point to
merits of the question, must of necessity throw the crisis which is now upon them,—which was to
dirt and impute dishonest motives. The promoters have been rendered for ever an impossible occur-
of this movement, he says, want to be enabled to rence, but which is here nevertheless. We prefer
buy 37 inches of manufactured goods for the price inquiring when, and how, the community are to
of 36 inches,—to compel the operative to manufac- emerge from its pressure. Is there any course
ture 37 inches for the wages of 36 inches. Unfor- which the wisdom of Liberalism can devise to miti-
tunately for the pertinence of our contemporary's gate the sufferings of the country ; or, is the harrow
charge, the operative is manufacturing already not to be driven over us all indiscriminately, leaving it
.to the chance of circumstances how large a portion
7 inches but 39 and even 40 inches; for the wages
of the mercantile community may escape being up-
What the retailers and consumers of
rooted by its teeth ? We have heard something of
- , not that pieces of calico, of ,
this kind maintained—that we shall not have a
mien, or of silk are woven too short, but that,
healthy state of things until this process of weeding
- ---1 or so each is filched
curer, the bleacher, the is effected. In the meantime, we suppose the poor
through whose hands operative, the labourer, and the artisan, must stand
A
hen they arrive at the retailer's by with empty bellies and idle hands, with their
naked wives and children by their side, watching
~p or warehouse, they are docked of their length
3 an extent almost inconceivable. Thus, a piece the progress of the cure. Perhaps by the time that
the commercial community have gone throughout
A printer's calico comes from the loom 30,!,-; to 31
yards in length (yards of 37 inches) ; the manufac-
the operation, we may be called upon to witness an
turer tears off a yard and-a-half or_ two yards as a agricultural crisis.

capacity

believe that, by the

orward unsolicite

36 inches

is complaid",„of is

fter they are woven.

)m them by tl

3ter, and othe

ass, until, v

" fent,"—often his only profit,—and these fents are
sold at a price less than they were manufactured
for, thus reducing, by competition, the market value
f the piece itself. The calico printer then converts
'tem into pieces of printed calico ; and, after hay-
)g done so, tears off another yard and-a-half, the
tbrie having been stretched in the process. It
the London or other
of 36 inches to the
if sold to the ex-

WE do not know that it is at all required from
us to notice the letter in which the Rev. Edward
Hull has attempted to reply to the Rev. Dr. M`Neile's
letter, published in our last.. It is painful to us to
have to place ourselves in collision with any mem-
ber of the establishment. It is doubtless still
more painful, however, to the Rev. Doctor to ap-
pear publicly in controversy with a brother clergy-
man; and this feeling, along with others, has pro-
bably deterred him from attempting the superfluous
task of a rejoinder to Mr. Hull's last communi-
cation ; superfluous, we say, because Mr. Hull has
wandered completely " out of the record ; " so
much so, indeed, as to threaten an interminable

hands o

into t

.elousemen, bare

..r, another ien

'1 is taken off, the piece, in
up only 35 inches to the

many instances, being m

ant. As the result, there is scarcely a piece of
;nods of British manufacture reaches the hands of
he foreign consumer which is not a yard or two
'holier than the measure marked upon it. This is
e of the greatest reproaches thrown upon the
ad of the British merchant in foreign markets.
It is not worth while arguing a question like this
i the London Times. Our contemporary never
t to meddle with such questions without en-
)uring to understand them. The errand boy
- ' -ix manufacturer's or packer's ware-
per of any fent shop, would find
r eating his own words
ould be painful, however,
) confess himself in
that the trouble of

continuation of the correspondence.
Mr. Hull reiterates his interpretation of Dr.
M‘Neile's language, that, by the latter, repudiation
of religion was charged against those who voted
for candidates favourable to the establishment
of Popery, and to the education of Papists in the
principles of Popery. Take the question, then, as
stated by Mr. Hull himself. What, then, is
that gentleman's opinions of the doctrines of the
Church of Rome—we say nothing of his having
sworn that he believes them to be " damnable and
idolatrous." He says in the letter before us—" I
still disapprove as strongly as he does of what I
consider the dangerous and unscriptural Doctrines,
which that Church has taught its members to be-
lieve." Yet Mr. Hull finds no difficulty in author-
ising the State to pay for the teaching of those
" dangerous and unscriptural Doctrines," either to
the priests or by the priests to the young. He
believes the Roman Catholic priesthood in Ireland
to be "the most ignorant priesthood in Christen-
dom." Yet Maynooth, and the system, which pro-
vides that their alumni shall be ignorant of every
kind of knOwledge which is not dangerous and

use, or tt

him abun

,on this subject

)r our great conter

wrong, we canna

elung correct information will be encountered.
But, really, a little less of assumption would, in the
ity of cases, become our contemporary. We
_knit the extent and variety of the talent engaged
upon the Times—his vast source of information,
and, upon. some points, his honesty and correct
views ; but, as an inducement to the adoption of
that modesty of demeanour, which is so becoming
even in the wisest of us, our contemporary might
do well to remember that " Aliquando dormitat
behlus Hotnerus."

" Neither true religion nor ehristianit_
Refer to the text ; and you will flu
M'Neile never made a distinction between true
religion and christianity, but between true religion
and fatse" religion—Christianity and anti-Christi-
anity.

Mr. Hull !
that Dr.

THE Albion of yesterday contained an article upon
dock affairs, the tone of which sufficiently betrays
its author. The writer says :—" A rumour is affoat,
which, we trust, is not correct, that the Dock Com-
mittee, true to the private influence to which that
body is supposed to owe its present composition,.
are getting up for Parliament a skeleton bill, in%
which no plan nor provision for the speedy exten--
sion of dock warehouses is to be found;" and he
goes on to talk about " gross dereliction of duty,"

"virtual betrayal of the interest of the dock estate
and the trade of the port," "barefaced hypocritical

places," &c.; all which imputations this anony-
mous writer flings at the Dock committee—a body
composed of gentlemen of quite as high standing
and honour as himself.

That any such rumour as that which is here said
to be "afloat" is, in reality so,. we cannot tell.
If there is such a rumour,• however, it can have no
foundation—in fact, it can only be based upon
mere surmise ; for, in the first place, the Sub-
committee, to whom the reparation of the Parlia-
mentary business of the Trust is confided, have as
yet made no report ; and; in the next place, any
bill presented to parliament must, in accordance
with the act of last year,. contain provisions for
the extension of dock warehouses. The Albion's
scribe urges that the merchants should " see that
the present Dock Bill takes plenary permanent
powers for building dock warehouses,according to
the spirit of the act of last year, on any or all the
dock quays of Liverpool; and for providing
.pe-
cuniary means, independent of =further applications
to parliament, for this purposeP We hope the
merchants of Liverpool will do no such thing; for
a project so absurd would be scouted by parlia-
ment, and not for a moment be-tolerated by either
the dock bondholders or the public. The Idea of
an application, with plans, specifications, &c., for
warehouses round "all" the dock quays of Liver-
pool, involving, as their erection would, an- expen-
diture of four or five millions eterling, and abso-
lutely unfitted as some of those dock gum

are, as

✓sites for warehouses, would be moonstruck mad-

If the gentleman who rides--this--warehouse
hobby in the Albion will have a little patience,
we dare say he will find the Dock Committee
quite as much alive to the interests and-the con-
venience of the port as himself:. They will,. no
doubt, in their next act, apply for ample powers
for all present wants in this respect, reserving to
themselves the privilege of further epplications•, to
be made as their plans are from time to, time
brought to maturity.

EXAMINATION OF

MASTERS AN

4t a
1—

meeting of the Board of Examiners,. held on Tiles,

the 7th instant, Captain Martin Massey Milward-, late
master of the ship John Dugdale, of Liverpool, was
examined, and found duly qualified.', for a- First-class

Master's certificate.
We understand that Mr. J. Atkins has received instruc-
tions from the Earl of Derby to prepare, for the festivities
on the occasion of the celebration of his grandson's ma-
jority, some beautiful fireworks on the same grand scale
as those furnished by the same gentleman during Prince
Albert's visit to this town.

The Queen Dowager has been grae

pleased to send to the Rev. Ralph Wilde the sum of .Zl6,
in answer to the reverend gentleman'o application for as-
sistance in aid of the fund now raising for building the
National Schools which Mr. Wilde is erecting, in a distant
part of his parish. The Earl of Derby has also-kindly
contributed the same amount to the reverend gentleman.
Sermons in aid of the Church Education. Society for
Ireland will be preached in several of the Liverpool
churches on Sunday next, and the annual meeting, over
which the Rev. Chancellor Raikes will preside, will be
held on the following evening. The public breakfast, at
which the Rev. Dr. M`Neile will take the chair, will take
place, at the Adelphi Hotel, on Tuesday morning.
THE YORKSHIRE PACKET SHIP.—The following is a
list of cabin passengers by the Yorkshire, Captain D. G.
Bailey, from New York :—Mr. Irving Wanwart, Mrs.
Irving Wanwart, Masters Irving and Ames Wanwart„ Mr.
W. W. Dallas, Mrs. W. W. Dallas, Miss Matilda Dallas,
America ; Mr. Wilson, Scotland ; Mrs.- Wilson, Miss
Phrager, Miss Wearum, England ;- Mr. W. Abraham,
Mrs. Quail and baby, Miss Quail, Ireland.
STEALING MONEY.-At the Police-court, yesterday, a
man, named Charles Edwards, was charged with stealing
9s. 10d. in the house of Mr. Robinson, an innkeeper.
Prisoner had gone in with a brother workman. Each of
them called for twopenny-worthof drink, and each tendered
a half-sovereign in payment. The prisoner took the
change that belonged to his comrade, and made off with
it, as well as his own change. He was committed for trial
at the sessions. _ _

D.EATII OF A BoY FROM A BLOW-RRCIVED IN FIGHT-
ING.—An inquest was held yesterday, on view of the body
of George O'Brien, aged ten and a half years. It ap-
peared that on Tuesday last he had been fighting with
another boy, Thomas Jackson, aged nine years, (who was
taken into custody,) in Greenland-street; that both went
down, and that deceased, who was afterwards attended by
a. surgeon from the Southern Dispensary, died from the
effects of a blow on the abdomen, which had caused a rup-
ture of some of the small vessels of the intestines—by
which inflamation was set up, and death ensued on Sun-
day night. The coroner took much pains in directing the
jury in this case, which appeared to border upon man-
slaughter. The boy accused said that " deceased put a
dirty bag in his mouth, and he did not like it." The jury
returned a verdict to the effect that death was caused by
misfortune.—The coroner, addressing the prisoner before
his discharge, said he had a narrow escape from being
tried for felony, and strongly recommended him not again
to lift his hands against any one.

WEST DERBY CHAPEL.—A writer in the Albion of
yesterday, affects to be extremely witty in an article with
this heading. It appears that on Sunday morning last,
there was no clergyman present, to take the usual morn-
ing service at the chapel, and the congregation departed
without knowing why no gentleman officiated. Injustice
to the respected rector of West Derby, the Rev. Mr.
Stewart, we feel it our_ duty to exculpate him from all

blame in the matter, as the following statement will show.
During the week before last Mr. Stewart, being in a bad
state of health, left for Nottinghamshire, to meet his
lady, who was herself far from convalescent. Previous
to leaving he made arrangements with a gentleman to
supply his place, for the two succeeding Sundays, who on.
Sunday week duly officiated, but we believe that the
gentleman in, question made arrangements for another
reverend brother to supply his place last Sunday morning,
and for some reason, which, we have not been able to
learn, the latter person did not make his. appearance.
We are informed however that Mr. Stewart's understand-
ing with his original substitute was, that no other pe
but himself was to take the duty during his (Mr. Ste\

absence, and why the arrangeinent was departed from we
have not heard. On Sunday afternoon the service took
place as usual. Of course no one who is at all acquainted
with the Rev. Mr. Stewart could for a moment imagine
that the unfortunate circumstance arose from any forget•
fulness on his part. He is a son of John Stewart, Esq.,
of this town.
OPENING OF THE NEW DAY SCHOOLS, IN CON-
NEXION WITH THE CRESCENT CHAPEL.—On Sunday
last these commodious schools, situated in Salisbury-
street, some distance behind the chapel, were opened.
The schools were opened with sermons preached in the
chapel, in the morning by the Rev. Mr. Birrell, of Pem-
broke Chapel ; and in the evening by the Rev. Mr. Kelly,
minister of the Crescent Chapel, and a collection made
after each sermon, towards defraying the expenses of the
erection of the schools. Last evening a tea-party was
held in the boys' school room, a large and very commo-
dious apartment. The room was quite filled with a
highly respectable party, in connection with the chapel,
including a great number of ladies. Several leading
ministers and other gentlemen were on the platform,
amongst whom we noticed the Rev. Dr. Halley, of Man-
chester ; the Rev. J. B. Brown, of London ; Rev. J.
Towers, Birkenhead ; Rev. Mr. La Contem, Rev. Mr.
Hewitt, Rochdale ; Rev, W. P. Appleford, Rev. J.
Kirkus, John Cropper, Esq., T. Blackburn, Esq., J. Stitt,
Esq., and A. King, sq., &c. &c. Tea being over, the
Rev. J. Kelly, minister of the chapel, took the chair, when
addresses were delivered by the Revs. Mr. La Contem,
Rev. Mr. Towers, J. 0. Jones, Esq., Rev. Dr. Halley,
Rev. J. Brown, and several other gentlemen, all of whom
dwelt with much force on the great importance of the
school which had been erected. The schools are for boys,
girls, and infants ; will accommodate 600 scholars, and
have cost upwards of £6OOO. The building has a, 'very
beautiful appearance,