The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-05-29 00:00:00

THEATRE-ROYAL, LIVERPOOL.

FOR THE BENEFIT OF MR. BUCKSTONE,
Being his Farewell Benefit in Liverpool, previous to his
departure for America.
The Last Night of Mr. BUCKSTONE and Mr. T. P.
COOKE, and the Last Night of Mr. Buckstone's new
Drama of POOR JACK.
THIS present FRIDAY, May 29, 1840, the Entertain-
ments will commence with Mr. Buckstone's Comedy of

WEAK POINTS.
Jemmy Wheedle
As originally performed by him in London.
Miss Penelope Pump . Mrs. Clarke.
Sally Pybus Mt. Tellet.
After which, for the last time, a new Drama, written by Mr.

Buckstone, called
Jttek Some OOR JA /
rton Mr. T. P. Cooke
Tim Twopenny Mr. BuckstonE,
As originally performed by them in London/
Sam Griffin Mr. Gray. .1
The Hon. Mr. Flummery .. Mr. Chisiffin.
Mrs. Colonel Fantod.... Miss Cleayer.
Eleanor.... Mrs. W. H. Bland. Becky.. MVlrs. Tellet.
To conclude with Mr. Buckstone's Farce, called
THE CHRISTENING.
Mr. Hopkins Twiddy Mr. Buckstone,
Ai originally performed by him in London.
Grum Mr. Baker.
Mrs. Dolly Lovechild Mrs. Clarke.
Mr. YATES, Proprietor and Manager of the Theatre-
Royal, Adelphi; Mr. and Mrs. KEELEY, of the Theatres-
Royal. Covent-garden and Adelphi ; and Mr. PAUL BED-
-I.°RD, of the Theatres-Royal, Covent-garden and Adelphi,
VI Commence an engagement at this Theatre, for Ten
Nights, on MONDAY NEXT, June Ist, when will be produced
the Popular Drama of JACK SHEPPARD, in which they
will sustain the principal characters.

WESLEYAN CENTENARY.
NOW ON VIEW. in the Vestry of Mou Pleasant
Chapel, the PICTURE, containing Port its, to the
'lumber of One Hundred, of the leading Minis 'rs and Lay-
lslen who were present at the FIRST GRA D CENTE-
L
AltY MEETING, held in Manchester m November,
1838.

'Po be Exhibited until Saturday, the 6th June, from Ten
to six o'clock each day.
Tickets of Admission, FREE, to be had, on application, at
all the 'Wesleyan Chapel Keepers in Liverpool.
29th May, 1840.

HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.
Mu. LACEY has the honour to announce, that he has
obtained permission to Exhibit, in Liverpool, for
Brx DA YA, thC noble and unrivalled whole Length PORTRAIT
of HIS GRACE, as MASTER of the TRINITY HOUSE,
Painted by JOHN Lucns, Esq., for the Honourable the
Corporation of the Trinity.
The Exhibition will continue until WEDNESDAY next, the
3d June. Tickets of Admission may be had on application
to Mr. LACEY, REPOSITORY OF ARTS, 100, Bold-street.

ZOOLOGICAL. GARDENS.
THEHE SECOND GRAND BOMBARDMENT OF
will take place Tins DAY, (Friday,) the 29th
instant; to be repeated every MONDAY and FiDAy. during
the Season. weather permitting.
An excellent BRASS BAND in attendance evelif
iy Day during
the Season.

ADMITTANCE, ONE SHILLING.

rbt ftitirrpool &tanbarb.

FRIDAY MORNING, MAY 29, 1840.

We have received a file of the Guiana Chronicle, and
a Copy of the Berbice Advertiser to the Bth of April,
Inclusive. They do not contain any news of impor-
tance that has not been anticipated by a previous
arrival. They are chiefly occupied with articles on the
subject of immigration, for several of which we hope
to find room in subsequent numbers. The accounts
from the colony are, on the whole, extremely favour-
able. The crop was likely to prove abundant, if the
labourers could be depended upon.

By her Majesty's packet Hope WE have received Ja-
maica papers (the Royal Gazette and Standard) to the
18th of April, inclusive. The adjourned session of
the Legislature had closed its proceedings. His Ex-
_ .

cellencv the Governor prorogued the House of Assem-
bly in a speech characterised as much by its independ-
ent and manly tone as by the sound sense which per-
vades every sentence. He congratulated the house on
the happy termination of a session during which they
had eminently manifested their approved loyalty to their
Sovereign, and their earnest desire to meet the views
of her Majesty's confidential advisers. He sssured the

Inembers of the house that their proceedings were
viewed with satisfaction by the Government at home.

With regard to the laws passed by the house, his Ex-

cellency remarked—" In the discharge of your arduous
duties, you have passed many wise and useful laws—

too numerous to be specified ; but I cannot refrain

from adverting to the Act for the Improvement of Jus-
tice, as well as to the Clergy Act, and the Act appoint-
jog a Committee to examine the laws, with a view to the.
rescinding of such as may he unsuitable to‘the present
state of society, all of which acts are .of the utmost im-
portance and most beneficial tendency." After thanking
the House for the supplies voted for the executive, he
Proceeded to dilate upon the cordial reception which
he had met with on his recent tour through the island.
He then remarked upon the comfortable state of the
peasantry, and the generally deteriorated condition of.
Properties in the island.
,He said that the easy and
independent condition of the labouring population, as
compared with that of the same classes in Great Bri-
tain, was very striking. So far, the great work of free-
dom had been accomplished with the most beneficial

results. In most respects, he observed, the labourers
deserved their good fortune. He understood that they
were generally orderly, sober, free from crime, and im-
proved in their moral habits. He especially noticed
their constant attendance at public worship, and their
solicitude for the education of their children. While,
however, he thus congratulated the House upon the
general good conduct of the negro population, he ex-
pressed his regret that the completion of the general
happiness and harmony, which might be expected to
flow from the promising state of the island, was inter-
rupted by ayitation and ferment. He trusted that the
leading parties in those proceedings would, on reflec-
tion, become sensible that nothing but mischief could
arise from the discord which they were spreading. He
said it was much more easy to excite than assauge the
passions of a multitude, and that it must more conduce
to the happiness of a people to inculcate charity and
Contentment, than to instigate distrust and dissatisfac-
tion against their employers and their rulers. He
touched on this feature in the condition of Jamaica
with reluctance; but it was too marked and prominent,
and too indicative of serious evil, to be passed over un-

noticed.
His Excellency very justly remarked, that the dete-
rioration of properties proceeded from want of conti-
nuous labour, which was the natural effect of an in- 1
NUfficient population, and of the means possessed by i
the peasantry of rendering themselves in a great degree
independent of going out to labour in the service of
employers. He did not blame the labourers for taking
advantage of a state of things favourable to themselves,
as the same thing would be done, under similar cir-
cumstances, in any country in the world, where the
same freedom was enjoyed. But he blamed them for
refusing to perform their engagements, and acting ca-
priciously and deserting their work, at the moment
when their doing so must be attended with great injury
to their employers. He proceeded to congratulate the
House of Assembly on their exertions for remedying
the evil alluded to, by passing an act to encourage im-
migration, with proper precautions for the health and
immediate accommodation of those who might be in-
duced to come to the island. He assured them of his
hearty co-operation in this very necessary measure ;
though he could not say that he entertained any san-
guine expectation that it would afford much immediate
relief to their difficulties. He added, that it was satis-
factory to reflect that whatever number of immigrants.
were likely to come to the island from any part of the
world; there was room for all, and spare land of the
greatest fertility in abundance, so that any probable
multitude can be provided for without diminution of
the present comforts of the people.
The Governor next alluded to the rent question—the
most important of all the questions which are now
agitating West India society. Having had many op-
portunities of witnessing the actual state of things,
during his recent tour through the island, he gave it
as his deliberate opinion that the principal source of
dissatisfaction amongst the labouring population was,
the arrangement of the terms of rent with a view to the
exaction of labour. He felt convinced that the existing
system was "injurious to properties, as well as liar-
rassing to tenants," and that it was almost the sole
cause of litigation between employers and labourers,
and the only vexation of which the latter complain.
He suggested the adoption of a different system, for the
purpose of generating a better feeling between all
classes of the community.
In the next place, his Excellency offered some very
judicious advice to the stipendiary magistrates, exhort-
ing them to observe the strictest moderation and im-
partiality in their adjudications. He then invited the
Members of the House of Assembly to co-operate with
him in his endeavours to put an end to the system Of
agitation which had been recommenced by the Baptist

missionaries in the island. He did .not specifically
mention them as the disturbers of. the public peace,
but there can be no doubt whatever as to the parties to
whom he alluded. He deprecated, in very forcible
terms, " the party spirit which still impedes the esta-
blishment of perfect harmony among all classes," and
suggested that " there are not now any real grounds of
difference." We would particularly request the atten-
tion of our readers to the following language, which
reflects equal credit to the head and the heart of Sir
Charles Metcalfe :—" There are many who cannot be-
lieve that those who have once been the owners of slaves
can be kind-hearted, humane men. .Your best inten-
tions and endeavours are consequently misunder-
stood and distrusted by a considerable portion of
the public in the mother country. While you
are conscientiously labouring for the public good,
you are deprived by prejudice of the honour and
credit due to your exertions. This is a hard fate; but
you will, I have no doubt, patiently and manfully bear
it, and finally overcome it. By perseverance in wise
legislation, and by steadiness in the paths of benevo-
lence and kindness, you will show that the reproaches
cast upon you by the ignorant or designing are un-
founded, and by winning the applause of the unpreju-
diced, you will eventually put to shame the prejudiced
and hostile."

The leprosy of Liberalism is hourly striving to extend
itself through every vein and fibre of the British Con-
stitution, wasting in its progress the healthy energies,
deforming the beauty, and destroying the vitality of
that admired and venerated Spirit which, under the
influence of a Divine Providence, human intellect has
been permitted to embody and materialize for the pro-
tection of the civil and religious liberties of mankind.
There is, however, one limb—one member—of that
embodied essence of liberty, which modern innovation,
however insidiously it may make the attempt, will not
be permitted to approach. There is a portal at which
pollution
.cannot and dare not enter. There is a por-
tion of the British Constitution upon which the hand
of the spoiler cannot and shall not be laid; for in that
portion is reared an altar from which has burned
amid centuries of darkness—amid centuries of blinding
superstition and deceiving error—the true and living
light of the only true faith.
Yet the attempt has been made within the present
week; and the hand which has levelled the insidious
weapon is that of a Bishop of the Church of England !
We are told that the Articles of that Church and the
Liturgy of that Church are not of that accommodating
nature which is necessary to enable Dissenters and
Latitudinarians to accept of her preferments without
detriment or inconvenience to their consciences ; and

is proposed forthwith to "expand" the interpreta-

tion of these Articles—to O'Connellize the discipline of
the Church of England, so that Whig, Atheist, So-
cinian, or Socialist may enter freely and partake of her
good things, pollute her altars, mislead the faith of her
communicants, and present the poisoned cup of heresy
and doubt to those who ask for the pure Water of
Life. Such an attempt has been made on Tuesday
last, in the House of Lords, by the Primate of Ireland,
and found support, we are happy to say, from only one
member of that house—the Whig-appointed Bishop of
Norwich. But we are not assured that the attempt
may not be repeated, in some other insidious form, and
we therefore wish to convey a warning to our readers
of its meaning and tendency. _ _

The complaint made by the Archbishop of Dublin,
on the part of " sixty persons, half of whom were
clergymen," is, that a portion of the Articles and of
the Liturgy of the Church is not in accordance with
the views and practice of some of its members ; and
the prayer of the petitioners is, that measures may be

taken to accommodate the Articles and the Liturgy to
the views of these members. Of course we are well
aware that a concession would be in accordance with

he true spirit 'of Whig-Radicalism, which delights in

inflicting " heavy blows" and " great discouragements"
upon the religion of the Established Church ; but we
thank heaven that it is not likely to be made until the
constitution of the House of Lords, as well as of the
Bench of Bishops, is a little more O'Connellised than
it is at present. The Church of England does not
ask for the ministry of those who do not believe her
doctrines. She is not reduced to the necessity of
having " open questions" amongst her priesthood ;
and she is not dependent upon the fickle and changing
opinions of the multitude for support. It is not, and
never has been, a question with the Church of Eng-
land, by what means the greatest number of pliable
consciences might be brought within her fold, or—to
use the words of the Bishop of Norwich—by what
means that church might be " raised in the estimation
of the public." The Church of England, we trust, is
not an expediency church ; and although there may, in
these days of Liberalism, be men whose consciences
are sufficiently tender to cause them to hesitate at sub-
scribing to her doctrines in their " literal, strict, and
stringent meaning," whilst they are ready, to enjoy her
temporalities and to usurp her dignities, we do not
think that the British Parliament is so much in love
with latitudinarianism and dissent as to take one step
in order to promote their convenience and we are
firmly convinced that the British public at least are,
with respect to the Established Church of England,
of the opinion, and ready to exclaim with their fore-
fathers, " Nolumus leges Anglia mutari !"
With regard to the Liturgy, in particular, of the
Established Church we are perfectly of the opinion of
the Bishop of London, whose remarks upon the ques-
tion throughout are a crushing condemnation of the
heterodox opinions of his brethren of Dublin and Nor-
wich. With him we believe that.the time has gone by
when the people of England will sanction an alteration
either of the Articles or the Liturgy; and we go even
further, and assert that the Church would lose one of
her chief ornaments, and one of her greatest holds upon
the affection and respect of her members, were one
word or one syllable to be obliterated from her beauti-
ful formulae.

It is seldom that we have to quote with satisfaction
the opinion of, and to advocate the course pursued by,
her Majesty's Attorney-General. We have, however,
to do this with respect to a bill brought in by Sir
Eardley Wilmot for the alteration of the law affecting
juvenile offenders, which went into committee on Wed-
nesday evening, by a majority of 13. We do not
pretend to any intimate acquaintance with the details
of the bill brought in by Sir Eardley Wilmot. We
know, in fact, nothing of them, and therefore cannot
complain of any opposition offered to them by mem-
bers, no matter of what party. But we admit the
magnitude of the evil which this bill, we belieVe, ho-
nestly intends to mitigate; and are perfectly ready to
entrust its details and its mode of working to the
judgment of parliament.
We do firmly believe that, in the abstract, it is better,
more consonant with justice, and more likely to produce
good results, that a summary power should be given to
the magistracy to deal with juvenile offenders. We
have no wish to depreciate the great principle of trial
by jury, and still less to throw fresh subjects into the
hands of those immaculate and enlightened gentlemen
who, by the grace of the Home Secretary, and by virtue
of their station as councillors or aldermen of whig-
radical boroughs, are invested with the power of mak-
ing supreme idiots of themselves upon every possible
occasion; but we are really of opinion that it is unne-
cessary for the ends of justice, and impolitic for the
purpose of amendment, that the strict forms of trial
by jury, accompanied as they are by imprisonment
before trial, should be insisted upon by the laws of
England—by prosecutors ?—when the parties offending
are mere children, upon whom the contamination of a
prison is a greater punishment than the law itself
would willingly inflict. It is, we admit with the Attor-
ney General, " frightful that these children should
be mixed up with felons before trial, and that after
they are tried they should be mixed up with other
felons, who would give them an education calculated
to make finished thieves." On these grounds we are
heartily glad that Sir Eardley Wilmot's bill, or any
other bill honestly framed to meet the evil, has gone
into committee ; and we trust that it will be returned
to the House in a shape which will secure its approval.

In the abstract we are not advocates of an increase of
power and responsibility being thrown into the hands
of the magistracy—a body of gentlemen, by the bye,
whom we are very far from depreciating ;—but in such
cases as those of juvenile offenders, we prefer the human
feeling and the summery jurisdiction of a magistrate, to
the severe justice, because the dilatory justice, of a jury,
A magistrate, whether Whig or Tory, is a father or a

brother—has sympathies and ties which an abstract
principle of law, however excellent, has not. By con-
signing a youthful offender to such a tribunal, we may
occasionally err; but we shall err on the side of mercy,
and shall not be liable to the imputation of breaking a
fly upon the wheel.

When a whig-radical, by some chance, manages to
creep into the representation of any constituency which
that pure and impartial measure, the reform bill, has
not left purposely and disgracefully rotten, what a
blowing of trumpets do we hear from the ministerial
press, metropolitan and provincial ! " Enlightened
constituency"—" patriotic electors"—" noble reform-
ers"—with a whole catalogue of similar laudatory epi-
thets, are dinned into our ears, until we could verily
imagine that the halcyon days of reform have returned,
and that the world is once more about to embrace and
idolize that empty phantom. But let a contrary result
occur. Let some shallow trickster, hungry and athirst
for the fleshpots of office, or for the droppings thereof,
be disappointed of his anticipated seat and contemptu-
ously kicked into the obscurity from which his igno-
rance and his cupidity have prompted the wish to
emerge ; and then with what a perfect storm of fury
the constituency of that borough or county is denounced
and defamed ! " Bribery"—" corruption"—" intimi-
dation" daggers blunders and blunderbuses !
Disfranchisement is the least punishment for a consti-
tuency so benighted as to have failed in perceiving the
transcendental talents and immense patriotism of the
would-be placeman ; so base as to have refused to be
tickled by Treasury fingers and lured by Treasury gold.
We have a striking instance of this feeling in the
outcry directed against the constituencies of Ludlow
and Cambridge, and the attempts which have been
made by certain of our contemporaries to depreciate
the importance of the late conservative triumphs in
these two boroughs. In the _case .of the latter it was
proved that at the election, when a conservative, Mr.
Manners Sutton, was returned, a few of the electors
had their breakfasts before going to poll—a shocking
instance of depravity !—and, of course, a fresh victory
in so corrupt a place is no victory at all. In the former
borough a whig partizan was returned, and then Lud-
low was a "pure and patriotic borough ;" but when a
petition was presented, and the whig aspirant to cele-
lebrity was unseated for gross and systematic bribery,
and, at a new election, a conservative triumphantly
seated, with what pious horror the pure and saintly
spirit of whig-radicalism was incontinently seized I
Avaunt, electors of Ludlow—Procul, oh procul este
profani! Henceforth be ye devoted to the infernal
gods and ranked amongst the corrupt and the rotten
constituencies which " stop their ears and refuse to
listen to the voice of the charmer of whig-radicalism—
charm he never so wisely !"

But turn we to the gross and despicable hypocrisy
of the party which is so ready to denounce an abuse of

the franchise when it has failed in promoting their own
dishonest purposes. A new writ was moved for Lud-
low a few days before the expected debate upon Lord
Stanley's registration bill. But it served the purpose
of the whig faction to retard the return to that writ
until after the division; and who, we ask, were the
parties whose meek and pure souls stood aghast at the
corruption which had been practised at Ludlow, and
advocated the disfranchisement of that borough ?
Why, Messrs. Wakley, Horsman, and 1-1 ume—me m-
bers of that pure and patriotic association of which
Mr. Coppock, the proved instrument of bribing the
electors of Ludlow, is the unclean and acknowledged
agent ! Let us hear Mr. Alcock, the gentleman in
whose behalf that bribery was practised, address the
electors from the hustings last week. "He (Mr.
Alcock) wished now most distinctly to state that what
did occur on that occasion was done entirely without
his knowledge or consent. (Hear.) He thought it
came with a very. bad grace from those members, Messrs.
Wakley, Warburton, Hume, and others, to speak of him
in parliament as they had done; in so much as they
were members of that association which had sent down
Mr. Coppock to conduct his election. (Hear.) Mr.
Coppock had been sent down by them and not retained
by him. (Loud cries of `Hear, hear!' and cries of What
brings him here now ?' to which Mr. Alcock replied
that he did not know.) What, indeed, we may well
ask, brought Mr. Coppock down again at the last elec-
' tion ? The bribe-distributOr-general of the Reform
Association (reform, indeed !) was, we dare say, freight-
ed with the necessary funds to enable him to purchase,
if possible, another vote for the venal whig faction.
He was endeavouring to realize the expectation of that
rare specimen of purity, Mr. Hume, and to convert the
majority of three into a minority ! Faugh ! the whole
business smells rankly of corruption ; and we may

thank the honesty of the electors of Ludlow that the
attempt was made in vain.

LORD NORMANBY AND FEARGUS O'CONNOR.

Poor Feargus O'Connor ! verily thou art an ill-used patriot.
The " pecuniary speculations" of other men are carried on
with both success and safety. The mendicant of Ireland
feeds and fattens upon his; the ministerial " speculators"

are sound and safe at each returning quarter day ; thy com-
patriot Sheil, of Peneden Heath notoriety, has been gorged
with a sinecure ; Walley has got a coronership, and Harvey
a place; but thy unlucky bones are doomed to imbibe the
rheumy vapours of a damp dungeon, and thy brilliant talents
to rest in the companionship of turnkeys and convicted felons !

Verily, thou art the most unfortunate Irishman that ever
conceived the idea of making political agitation the basis of a
" pecuniary speculation ;" and thy persecutor, the o:Con-
nellite Home Secretary, the most impudent charlatan that
ever displayed his antics within a show booth at Bartholomew '
or Donnybrook.
We quote from the pen of poor Feargus himself the follow-
ing description of the kind of treatment which a whig govern-
ment deals out to political offenders. " I was shut up,"
says Fergus, " in a dark stone cell, with a very narrow iron
door and a small iron-grated window. In the dark I knelt
down, and prayed to God that I might sleep soundly for ever.
I then stripped and laid me down, but my prayers were not
granted, as I never closed an eye. When I placed my rheu-
matic shoulder against the wall, the cold stone repulsed me ;
and when I moved I was almost out of bed, for its width is
not as broad as my shoulders." Comfortable sleeping apart-
ment this for an Irish gentleman I But let us proceed :
" Before seven o'clock a bell rung, when 1 dressed myself,
and shortly after my door was unlocked, previously to which
I had, according to the rules, folded my thin bed into a triple
roll, and my bed clothes, neatly folded, I placed over it. I
then followed the turnkey, carrying in my hand a black
chamber pot, which I was to empty in the sink in the yard,
and then wash the utensil at the pump." We should like to
see O'Connell, and the various joints of his tail, following so
dignified an employment. Let us, however, give, in his own
words, the poor fellow's pitiable condition. " Now for my
health," he proceeds. " I never was so much debilitated.
I have rheumatism in both legs and in my back ; I have a
pain in my chest and loins, and a cough. And, now, what
say you to a good man strugglinragainst adversity ? Perhaps
you are not aware that very strong affidavits were made by
Dr. Thomson, one of the ablest of the London faculty, and
another by Surgeon Jaque, who has attended me for five years,
in which they both deposed that confinement in York Castle
would lay the foundation of disease, which would certainly
shorten my life ; to which Lord Normanby replied, that he
saw nothing in them to cause any alteration in my place of
imprisonment. lam five years older than when you saw me
on Monday week ; but am still the same man. I thought it
wholly out of the nature of things that such punishment ever
could be intended forror inflicted upon, persons for a political

misdemeanour ; eighteen months is now more than ten years
under the usual treatment for similar offences. The man
from Huddersfield (for the murder of Duke) and myself are
precisely under the same rules. Need I say more—or have
you not yet heard enough ? Faithfully yours,
FEARGUS O'CONNOR.

" p.S.—I eat my meals with several under sentence of
transportation. There are no political offenders but myself.
At seven in the evening I am locked up again, and am now
standing at a hole in the wall while I am writing."
Seriously, reader, we cannot but think that severity of
treatment such as this towards a political offender is a little
inconsistent and unjust. It is inconsistent, because at
variance with the liberal and high-sounding professions of
whiggism ; and unjust, because applied partially, and with
a political bias. Feargus agitated against the ministry,
and is crushed. Daniel O'Connell agitates for, in their
behalf, and with their connivance, and is allowed to share
their plunder and to wield their patronage. We have no
sympathy with the projects of O'Connor, but we cannot see
why, in his case, greater rigour should be exercised than has
heretofore been put in force towards offenders of his class.
A ribbon murderer Lord Normanby would perhaps have
released altogether ; but poor Feargus has offended the
bloated head of which this mean and despicable administra-
tion has lately become the offensive tail.'

THEATRE ROYAL.—The engagement of Mr. T. P. Cooke
and Mr. Buckstone expires this evening, and we are glad to
perceive that they will be succeeded, next week, by a host of
genuine talent. There will be Mr. Yates, Mr. and Mrs.
Keeley, and Mr. Paul Bedford, a most attractive band. Jack
Sheppard will be produced, in which they will take the lead-
ing characters. This circumstance, combined with the ap-
plication of the ordinary means and resourses of the establish-
ment, must ensure success to that highly popular drama.