The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-02-15 00:00:00

CORRESPONDENCE.

Letters addressed to the Editor should be accompanied by the
reanarne and address of the writer, not for publication, but
ava guarantee of good faith ; this is indispensably requisite
i 1 any statement of facts.
The Editor wishes it to be understood that he does not hold
himself responsible for the opinions or statements of his
correspondents.

SENTENCE ON THE ACHILLI CASE.

To the EDITOR of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD,

•Sta,—The sentence passed upon the Protestants concerned
in the Stockport riot last July, and that passed upon the erudite
-slanderer of Dr. Achilli the other day, with similar sentences,
for lighter offences. in other places, afford a handle to the
-working-men of this country to prefer charges of partiality
against the members of the judicial bench. At a large work-
shop, where my son is "a gentleman apprentice," the conver-
sation amongst the men is generally connected wirh the injus-
tice of judicial sentences such as those to which I have alluded.
Often it is said by them that Papistsmay violate any and every
law with comparative impunity from our Protestant judges;
but that Protestants, for far lighter offences, must undergo the
severest punishment which the law can inflict. It has been
asked frequently by these honest, out-spoken men, " Is this
British justice? Are our judges acting impartially, or through
fear? Is it their object to deal tenderly with the cruelties of
Popery, and to fix the iron grasp of the laws upon the indignant
outburst of Protestant feeling?" Let me assure you that a
spirit ,of growing dissatisfaction, at the conduct of some of our
judges, is extending far and wide, and that the discovery of the
existence of Ribbon Lodges in the manufacturing towns of Lan-
cashire, a few days ago, gave rise to remarks of the following
character:—" What deep villains those Papists are, to plot our
ruin, where they meet with nothing but kindness at our hands
What will ourjudges do? Screen them by some quibble of
law, or mistaken leniency, and lay the blame upon the Protes-
tants. No Protestant can be satisfied that Popish traitors be
caressed, and their schemes of treason winked at, while loyal
men are sentenced to fine and imprisonment for the most
trifling offences !" Allow me to say that there is but too much
truth in such remarks. I am, Sir, yours, &c.,
February 7, 1853. WATCHMAN.

[Our correspondent appears to have taken rather an extreme
view of the case, and relied rather upon the opinion of the work-
ing men to whom he refers than on his own better judgment.
While every good Christian condemns the perversion of Dr.
Newman, there are few who believe the character of Dr. Achilli,
while in the Romish Church, to be worth more than the sum
at which it was estimated.—En.3

TENANT RIGHT FOR ENGLAND.—No. IV.

To the EDITOR of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

SIR,—I resume the subject at the point I left off last week,
and shall in this letter bring it to a conclusion. The national
advantage which would accrue from a law to give a tenant-
farmer a right to the benefit of his improvement, is of so uni-
versal a character, that there is no class of the community who
would not in some degree share in it. The state would benefit,
because agricultural improvement would contribute materially
to the revenue, and the country would be rendered more inde-
pendent of foreign supplies. The landowners would benefit,
because their estates would be increased in value, and their
tenants would be rendered more able to pay their rents. The
mercantile interest would benefit, because the necessary in_
crease of home consumption would conduce materially to the
prosperity of commerce. The manufacturers would benefit,
because the agriculturists at home are their most profitable
customers, and every impetus given to agriculture at home
creates an additional demand for the products of the loom.
The monetary interest would benefit, because every impor-
tation of foreign corn leads to a drain of bullion and a disar-
rangement of the currency, which increased production at
home would tend to obviate. The labouring class would be-
nefit, because agricultural improvement would give increased
employment not only to agricultural labourers, but to those
engaged in the additional manufactures which would be re-
quired for them, and both by being relieved from that compe-
tition which would be the inevitable result of agricultural
decay. The capitalist would benefit, because a new field would
be opened to him for the profitable employment of his wealth
without resorting to hazardous speculations; and all the popu-
lation would benefit, because they would be enabled to obtain
an ample supply of food for their subsistence.
It will thus be seen that such a measure is fraught with prac-
tical and important advantage not only to the State, but to
every interest, and to every individual member of the com-
munity ; and it cannot be shown that it could by possibility be
productive of the slightest injury or injustice to any. The
only doubt that could be started is the right of the legislature
to interfere with private property, but numerous instances
may be stated where this right has been admitted and exer-
cised. The 4th of Henry VII, chap. 19, the sth of Elizabeth,
chap. 2, and the 31st of Elizabeth, chap. 10, compelled the
maintenance of necessary farm-buildings for every twenty
acres of land, under a penalty of half the profits. The 7th of
Henry VIII., chap. 1, enacted that all lands converted from
tillage to pasturage should be reconverted to tillage under the
same penalty. The sth of Elizabeth, chap. 2, and the 31st of
Elizabeth, chap. 10, imposed a penalty of ten shillings an acre
on all lands which having been four years in tillage were not
kept so, and enacted that no conversion of land from pasturage
to tillage should be held to be a breach or forfeiture of any
bond, covenant, or lease. In our own times we have the
instances of railway acts, all tending to show that the legisla-
ture has never scrupled to interfere with private property
whenever the public necessity required it. This necessity is
proved to have arisen in the case of agricultural improvement,
which can only be obtained by giving a legal security to the
tenant-farmer for the outlay which he must necessarily make
in effecting it ; and it now only remains to press the question
upon the attention of the legislature with as much zeal and
assiduity as was used in obtaining the measure which has
helped to render it so urgent. There is one point of the sub-
ject to which I have not alluded, but which should not be left
out of sight in any measure of legislation. I allude to the law
by which all improvements on entailed estates, by whomsoever
effected, become the property of the next possessor. It is this
which has operated so prejudicially,by preventing the landlord
doing that which both landlord and tenant agree in the neces-
sity of having done, but from doing which both are restrained
by the dictates of common prudence. The possessor of
entailed estates, having but a life interest, is naturally anxious
to devote all his surplus income to provision for his younger
children, and not to improve the land, which would but enrich
the eldest son. What•is wanted is an act to declare the capital
expended in the improvement of entailed estates to be personal
property, disposable by will or divisible in common with other
personal estate. We should then find the landowner not
unwilling to invest his spare capital in the substantial improve-
ment of his own estate, for the simple reason that while the
land went to the heir, the value of the improvements might be
left to the younger branches of the family.
I may sum up by briefly stating what is required of the
legislature. Firstly, a law to assimilate farm buildings to
those erected for manufacturing purposes. Secondly, a law to
give the outgoing tenant, when removed by his landlord, a
claim for improvements under certain restrictions, the value
to be ascertained by arbitration ; and thirdly, a law to declare
the value of all improvements effected by the tenant for life to
be personal property. The subject is one of too much import-
ance to be lost sight of, and I trust it will be taken up by abler
hands.—l am, Sir, AGRICOLA.

---No--_
EMIGRANT SURGEONS.

To the EDITOR of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD,

S a,—ln the " Local Gossip" in the Chronicle of to-day re-
ference is made to the system pursued at this port and else—
where in appointing surgeons to emigrant-ships. The infer-
ence to be drawn from the paragraph is, that hitherto inex-
perienced and incompetent surgeons have been put in charge
of such vessels. Now, the writer of " Local Gossip" must
assuredly be unacquainted with the provisions of the act of
Parliament regulating the appointment of medical-officers.
Clause 39 sets forth, "No medical practitioner shall be con-
sidered to be duly qualified for the purposes of this act unless
authorized by law to practise in the United Kingdom," which,
being interpreted, means, that the surgeon of every emigrant-
ship shall have a diploma from a college in the United Kingdom.

As to the case instanced of the owners of the Marco Polo
giving the high remuneration stated for the services of a sur-
geon, it is certainly very unusual, and requires confirmation
by the owners. We may just observe, that the houses engaged
in the Australian business here would, were no restrictions
put upon them by the act of Parliament, nevertheless, for
their own character as men of business, place only in charge
of emigrant-ships medical men in every respect worthy to be
entrusted with the important charge committed to their trust.
As the writer of the article in question does not exempt this
port from the generally defective system said to have hitherto
prevailed, we think he pays a poor compliment to the emigrant
trade of our port, which we consider, both on the part of those
interested in it and officially on the part of the Government, to
be the best-conducted in the kingdom, and with the most
rigid adherence to the requirements of the act of Parliament.
Yours, &c., PILKINGTON AND WILSON.
Water-street, February 12, 1853.

DOMESTIC POLITICS.—Home is a woman's empire, and
a large one it is. Domestics are as complicated as politics.
Our individual happiness is more immediately dependant
upon domestics than politics. How many happy chil-
dren are there in the world who know not the meaning
of politics, who cannot grasp even the idea of a political
question, but whose whole comfort is immediately derived
from good domestic arrangement, of w!lich they have some
idea. And when that arrangment is defective, how speedily
children perceive it—how soon they lose that fear and respect
for their parents which form the chief sources of domestic
order. How many keen and learned politicians, also, there
are who have forgotten, or neglected altogether the subject
of domestics, in the all-absorbing questions of national
politics—who have made their homes miserable to them-
selves and others, by a passionate and exclusive study of
one aspect of social life, as if there was only one aspect to
study. Judging from the size of their own houses, and
comparing a small house to a great nation, domestics
seem very trivial indeed ; but when we consider that
that small house is the poor man's home, from which
he receives the greatest amount of his pleasurable
sensations, it is a mere delusion, a logical sophism, to
call it small. It is the largest subject of all. A man
who is happy at home is comfortable anywhere, for the
idea of home accompanies him wherever he goes, like a
guardian angel, to protect him from ennui. And, after
all, what is the purport of all political agitation, of the
whole science of political economy, but merely to
make the homes of the people comfortable ? Domes.
tics, therefore, are greater than politics, inasmuch as pa-
litiCo arc only subservlp4 to domestic ends.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS.-THURSDAY, FEB. 10

• --- ---
Lord Chancellor Cranworth took his seat at five o'clock,
COMMON LAW.—Lord CAMPBELL laid upon the table
the set of rules and regulations framed by her Majesty's
Justices, for the purpose of carrying into effect the inten-
tions of the Legislature with reference to their respective
courts by the Common Law Procedure Act.

MAYNOOTH.—The Earl of WINCHELSEA gave notice,
that on an early day he should move for a committee to
inquire whether the social and moral principles inculcated
by the system of education pursued at the College of
Maynooth are not opposed to the great principles of civil
and religious liberty on which the Protestant Government
of this country has been based.