The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-06-26 00:00:00

DUST! DUST! OH!

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
SlR,—The peculiarities of climate incident to " our good
old town of Liverpool" are well worthy of the attention of
oculists in all parts of the kingdom. Could they only view
our principal thoroughfares in the months of -March, April,
and May, and see (as well as feel) the enormous clouds of
dust flying in all directions, and filling the eyes of all who
keep them open, they would surely be induced to settle here,
in the hopes of making a good living by their profession.
Now, Mr. Editor, I have called these clouds, which fly about
the streets of " the modern Tyre," DUST ; but it is a misno-
mer. 'Would to heaven it were DUST! As far as I can
ascertain, it is a mixture of sand, gravel, and manure, toge-
ther with numerous particles of chopped hay and straw. It
is, in fact, town dust.

The corporation, as it appears to me, knowing Liverpool
to be blessed with a weeping climate, wait for the heavens to
perform the office of their water-carts ! But they do not
consider that, in the course of six or seven hours after vio-
lent rains, the streets are in a whirlwind again. That same
wind, which is no very agreeable guest in itself, after having
brought the rain' dries it up again, and raises the dust.
And if, when the water-carts do go their rounds, they could
take in Dale-street, Water-street, Tithebarn-street, Chapel-
street, Strand-street, and all the paved way along the docks,
it would" do no harm ; and if they could contrive to throw
some water into the channel on either side of the street, and
so lay the chopped straw, sand, and manure which collect
there, it would be all for the better, and would save the eyes
of many a passer-by. The thoroughfare in the principal
streets of Liverpool is so great, the number of coaches, cars,
carts, and vehicles of every description, so enormous, that,
adding to this the circumstance of many of the roads being
macadamised, the natural sandiness of the soil, and the vio-
lence of the wind, we may well expect dust. But the cor-
poration ought to provide against this, and keep a constant
supply of water-carts going in all the principal thoroughfares
of the town. Hoping you will have the kindness to insert
this in your paper, believe me to remain, Sir, your obedient
servant, A WELL-WISHER TO LIVERPOOL.

BRANDY AND SALT.

TO rHE EDITORS OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

GENTLEMEN,—A very few hours before I left Leeds, a
friend of mine, having purchased a pamphlet at Liverpool,
the preface of which is said to be wrote by a clergyman of
the Church of England, containing a statement which is
quite incorrect, as I never had the honour of the inspection
of the papers of any eminent French physician, or of any
other medical man ; neither is it an invention, but a disco-
very. Even he (the clergyman) or any other person might
have discovered it ; but would they have brought it into
notice, at great expense, without any remuneration, or any
hope of it? I leave them to answer that question.; and I
should not have noticed it had he not thought proper to
speak of me in allusion to my fortune, in order that he might
speak of the purity of his motives. I do not understand that
he gave those pamphlets away, but that they were sold;
therefore profit was made of them, by publishing what of
right belorged to another.
There was no necessity for this gentleman to say that the
remedy was the invention of. a French physician, for no per-
son but myself had the least right to pretend that they had
anything to do in its invention, composition, or discovery.
They are ready enough to pretend to all the tliscoveries of
the age, without the aid of a respectable man to so far forget
the high office whiCh he fills, as, by misrepresentation, to
seek to give that to them to which they have not the least
right. If to be my discovery makes it be a quack medicine,
then it is a quack medicine ; and, on the contrary, if it saves
it from that imputation by being the invention of a French
physician, I beg leave to say that no one had anything to do
with it but myself. It was discovered in France, at La
Ferte Imbault, not by a Frenchman, but by an Englishman.
I hope the British public will never lose sight of this. lam
very jealous that my country should not lose the merit of
this great good ; and I have now a pamphlet nearly ready for
publication at Leeds, as it will be put in circulation on Mon-
day, the 29th of June • therefore I hope that no gentleman,
or any other individual, will publish any more pamphlets.
I shall feel, Gentlemen, much obliged if you would have
the kindness to publish these remarks in your next issue of
your valuable paper, as I think it is nothing but justice that
the whole truth should be known.

I am, Gentlemen, yours sincerely,

WILLIAM LEE.
London, June 22, 1840.
[We have struck out the concluding paragraph in Mr.
Lee's letter to avoid the advertisement duty.—E. L. S.]

TO THE CONSERVATIVE TRADESMEN OF LI-

VERPOOL.

Whilst I perfectly coincide in most of the positions con-
tained in a letter written by one of your body, and published
in the LIVERPOOL STANDARD last Friday, I for one cannot
plead guilty to the charge which it implies. The firm to
which I belong have always supported, to the utmost of our
power, by advertising and otherwise, the conservative press
of our town ; and I am only sorry that the example is not so
generally followed as it ought to be.
I am firmly of opinion that it is in the power of the con-
servative party in Liverpool, by a proper direction of their
strength, to establish for themselves and for the protection
of the institutions of our town and of our common country,
a strong, a talented, and, above all, a respectable press. The
" Conservative Tradesman," whose letter in the STANDARD
is before me, is also of this opinion, in which I have no doubt
that most of your body coincide. But how is this to be
done? I answer, by union and common concert amongst all
classes of conservatives. The merchant must do his part,
the tradesman his part, and the loyal operative must also do
his part. United we are powerful, Gentlemen; disunited we
are. weak. Let us try then if we can pull together.
You complain that the merchants do not advertise exten-
sively in conservative papers. Why is this ? you ask. I
will endeavour to furnish an answer. As merchants, they
have commodities to sell, ships to freight, &c., and to enable
them to do this, they appeal to you through the medium of
an advertisement, and for that advertisement they seek the
most extensive circulation—not numerical, not a circulation
amongst beer-houses and cellars, but a respectable circula-
tion. Do you, I ask, as a body, confer this requisite upon
your conservative press ? Is that press seen in your shops,
in the hotels or taverns which you frequent? To no great
extent, I think, is that the case, and you must make it so be-
fore the great portion of conservative merchants will adver-
tise extensively in conservative papers. There are black
sheep in every community, and, I am sorry to admit, too
many amongst the body to which I belong.
Consider, too, Gentlemen, that in many of our transac-
tions, as merchants or as brokers, we are the agents of other
parties. Could we, by a joint effort with you, raise the cir-
culation of our press, contemporaneously with its advertising
strength, we would willingly do so ; but until this is the case
to a greater extent than it appears to be at present—l say ap-
pears, for the deficiency of the circulation of conservative
papers is almost compensated for, as respects usefulness, by
its influential character--we shall scarcely, lam afraid, be
considered as doing our full duty to our principals, in follow-
ing out, as you require, our own political predilections in
choosing the organs through which we advertise.
The question, then, resolves itself into this —which
amongst us shall throw the first stone ? who shall first make
the required push ? Let us, Gentlemen, I say, go hand in
hand. Let us act simultaneously. Exert your interest in
your several spheres, and the conservative merchants of Li-
verpool, depend upon it, will not be behind hand in doing
their duty. Let every tradesman have a conservative paper
in his family, or, at all events, in the newsroom which he
frequents. Certainly his interest is, or ought to be, strong
enough to effect the latter object, if his purse or his parsi-
mony will not allow the former.
A CONSERVATIVE MERCHANT.
Liverpool, 22nd June 1840.