The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-06-12 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

entered the church at the age of nineteen. He then be-
came attached to the Pope as librarian, and for 15 years
he never set foot outside the Vatican, living entirely in
the section of theology, belonging to the library of the
little closet close beside it, where he slept. His whole
time was thus devoted to the research of ancient authors ;
and he has been known to spend three days and nights
without sleep in poring over some half-defaced manus-
cript, or in interpreting some correspondence in cyphers,
in which science he has become a perfect adept. It was
thus that he became acquainted with all the secret machi-
nations of the Church, and with all the intrigues by which
she has maintained to this hour such unbounded influence
over the kingdoms of Europe which still own her sway.
The Abbate became terrified at the discovery of the vast
system of corruption of which Fate had made him an
abettor—he hastened to abjure his vows and toffy from
Rome. He next took up his abode at Turin, in order to
examine with attention the system upon which rue Jesuits
were then acting. Two attempts to murder him by poison
caused him to come to Paris about six months ago. He
has ever since that• time been employed in 'finishing the
work which is to lay the foundation of a new form of re-
ligion, or rather of a practical theory by which the gospel
is to be displayed in action as well as in words. His new
religion is to be called Catholic Democratique, and already
has his Catechism been submitted to many men of learn-
ing and piety, who declare it without fault, and are ready
to assist him in his efforts to obtain a complete reforma-
tion in the system of church law as now practised in
France. The Abbate is about five-and-thirty years of
age, of a calm ascetic countenance and thin attenuated
figure. His eyes are large and dark and very wide apart,
and he wears his hair and beard long and flowing. He
possesses the gift of eloquence in an extraordinary degree,
and his erudition is unbounded. He pretends to no visions,
to no inspiration, but merely argues upon facts, and brings
the proofs of what he asserts in the correspondence of
which I have spoken, and which are in course of publica-
tion, and in the history of the Secret Conferences of the
Cardinals, of which he has copied out the substance and
upon which he means to comment in his very first dis-
course on Saturday.—Paris correspondent of The Atlas.

IRELAND.

The Rev. W. Hall, the newly-elected incumbent of
inig,• 0 ovlc, Lao ..rioa of &mar

The Duke of Devonshire has made a reduction of fifty
per cent. on the half-year due the 29th of September last,
to all his tenants (except noblemen) in the counties of
Cork and Waterford.

Notwithstanding the reported stagnation of trade in
Ireland, it is curious that there has been no new bank-
ruptcies declared in the three late numbers of the Duklin
Gazette; and even the number of insolvents is not more
than the usual average.
The Duke of Norfolk's famous speech about curry
powder has almost been equalled by an oration delivered
at the Fermoy board of guardians, in which Lord Clanri-
carde said that the workhouse was much too comfortable.
The Evening Post of last night handles his lordship's
speech with much severity, and recommends him to try the
experiment of living on twopence a half-farthing a day.
THE STATE PRISONERS.—The prison authorities were
under orders on Tuesday, to have the convicts O'Brien,
Meagher, &c., in readiness for embarkation that evening,
for Van Dieman's Land, and there is therefore no more
doubt about their present destiny. A memorial, very
numerously signed, on their behalf, was presented to the
Lord Lieutenant, on Tuesday, imploring a further mitiga-
tion of their sentence, with which, however, he felt it
impossible to•comply.
. .

IRISH EMIGRATION MOVEMENT.—A meeting was held
in Carlow on Thursday, for the purpose of promoting a
wholesale system of emigration to America. The move-
ment owes its paternity to the Rev. Mr. Maher, a Roman
Catholic clergyman, of, it is said, considerable influence
in the county of Carlow. The assemblage which responded
to his summons was almost wholly composed of small
proprietors and tenant-farmers. The meeting ended in
the appointment of a committee to carry out the proposed
object.
MR. W. S. O'BRIEN.—This gentleman has instructed
counsel to apply to the judges of the Queen's Bench for a
habeas corpus the moment the officers of justice arrive at
Richmond Bridewell to convey him nn board the vessel
which is to bring him to Cove. The infatuated and un-
happy gentleman means, proforma, to resist his removal,
on the ground that he cannot legally be transported for
the crime of high treason. He admits, of course, that he
may be legally hanged, quartered, &c., but he holds to the
notion that he must be dealt with according to the judg-
ment passed upon him or discharged.
FREE TRADE IN FLOUR.—Free trade is already telling
upin that great body, to whose enterprise, capital, and
industry Ireland owed much of her agricultural prosperity
since the Union—we mean the Irish millers. The French
millers are now supplying the Dublin market with flour
of different qualities—some of a superior and some of a
coarse quality—which makes good bread. We learn that
some of the latter quality has been purchased by Carlow
bakers for the use of the workhouse; and thus, bread
made of French flour is now consumed by the paupers of
the Union. Here is another blow aimed at the only trade
we possess in Ireland ! ! !
THE BUCKINGHAM AND CHANDOS IRISH FEE SIMPLE
ESTATES.-011 Thursday Mr. Uttledale offered for sale
by auction, at the Commercial Buildings, Dublin, the
Buckingham and Chandos Irish estates, situate in the
county Westmeath, consisting of 4,270 acres of land, pro-
ducing a rental of upwards of £2,000 a year. The pro-
perty consists of four lots, which were severally submitted
to competition, but in no instance was a buyer to be found,
Offers were made ; nut they all tell short of the upset
prices. For the first lot £4,000 was offered, and for the
last £9,000. The auctioneer stated that a short time
since, £6,100 was offered for the former, and nearly
£ll,OOO for the latter. The sale was then adjourned sine
die.

THE CASE Ole CANNIBALISM.—The Rev. Mr. Ander-
son has addressed a second letter to the premier, in which
he says that the man he previously alluded to did not ac-
tually eat the portion of a human body, simply because he
was prevented by parties near ; but that he deliberately
and manifestly intended to do so. M. Anderson pro-
ceeds to mention several other cases of the most awful
destitution. Among them he tells of two aged women,
sisters, killing their own dog, boiling it, and partaking of
the flesh, one of whom died the day after she partook of
this horrid repast. " The police themselves," he adds,
"can attest it (the destitution), for they are discovering
dead bodies amongst the walls of ruined habitations, or
rather hovels, and find them the frightful prey of rats and
scarecrows !"

LANDLORD PROSPECTS IN CLARE.—The Ennis Board
of Guardians owe the Messrs. Russell of Limerick more
than £12,000. At a special meeting on Monday, the
Guardians accepted of Mr. Russell's tender for Indian
meal at £lO 103. per ton, to be conveyed to the various
depots of the union, and distributed at the expense of the
contractor—he giving six months' credit for the payment.
This unfortunate union is fast sinking into utter ruin !
The rate lately struck, and which is now in course of
collection, will not be sufficient to meet the requirements
of the union. The Board are at present indebted to their
contractors in the sum of seventeen thousand five hundred
pounds; and for the payment of which they are totally
unable to make any provision ! ! The number of paupers
at present relieved, including both in-door and out-door
recipients, amounts to twenty-six thousand seven hundred
and thin ,' in other words to one-half the present popu-
lation of the entire union ! The Guardians appear bewil-
dered, and have applied to the Poor Law Commissioners
for pecuniary assistance.
THE POTATO CROP IN IRELAND.—Sir Robert Bate-
son has addressed a letter to the Derry papers, in which
he announces the appearance of the blight in a field of
early potatoes, part of them planted about the middle of
February. The hon. baronet says,—" Three or four days
ago, when I last noticed them, they were luxuriant and
thriving, this evening nearly half the tops were blighted
and dying, and the remainder seem likely to follow. I
speak of that portion of the field first planted, above half
an acre; though symptoms of disease appear in some of
the later set. To alarm the public by repeating rumours,
is not only wrong, but leads many to neglect those pre-
cautions which, if persons were certain that the disease
had commenc.d, might tend to alleviate some of the
misery and distress, the loss of another year's potato crop
cannot fail to augment. Farmers may judge by their
own observation of what I have now stated ; and if this
early notice will lead to the adoption of other crops, and
of all holding themselves ready to substitute turnips,
cabbage, &c., for any failures that may arise from disease
within any reasonable time from the present, they may
have occasion to thank you for giving them this early
advice."

CONVERSIONS FROM POPERY. Eight families,
amounting altogether to forty-two individuals, were ad-
mitted into communion with the Protestant Established
Church, in the schoolhouse of Creagh parish, diocese of
Limerick, during divine service on Trinity Sunday. At
their own earnest solicitation the heads, and several of
the members of those families, were allowed to read their
recantation, expressing their desire by this public act to
deprive their late clergy of all pretext for visiting them
with the cruel penalties of the Church of Rome. Ano-
ther family of eight persons who have been in the habit
of attending Divine service, have deferred reading their
recantation till they see whether the Roman Catholic
clergyman of the parish can disprove the unscriptural
charges which have been made against some of the doc-
trines of their church. When this family joins the num-
ber will be fifty.—On the same day four respectable con-
verts from Romanism partook of the holy communion in
St. Thomas's Church, Dublin, under the spiritual direc-
tion of the Rev. Thomas Scott, and subsequently abjured
the errors of popery. They each received from the com-
mittee of the Priests' Protection Society a copy of the
Book of Common Prayer, and of the Holy Scriptures.
ENCUMBERED IRISH ESTATES' BILL.— This bill, of
a class so important to Ireland, was on Monday read a
third time in the House of Commons, by a majority of
117 to 12. By this act, which is of a temporary nature,
commissioners will be appointed, invested with summary
Powers to deal with encumbered estates, and bring them
into the market. The difficulty with a large mass of pro-
perty in Ireland, is the almost impossibility of making
out a title, and one of the reasons why the bill of last
year empowering the Court of Chancery to act in the
case of encumbered estates failed was that any sale under
a Master in Chancery was clogged with conditions that
subjected to future litigation. The sale under the com-
missioners will be itself a title, and thus give a security
to purchasers which, under the previous system, they
could not obtain. In all undisputed cases, the commis-
sioners will have no difficulty in distributing the proceeds
of the sale among the claimants on the estate, but where
there is doubt, they can either pay the money into the
Court of Chancery, or call upon any of the Courts of Law
for an opinion whenever 'they think it needful so to do.
It seems to be the general impression in Ireland that this
bill, which has grown out of Sir Robert Peel's able sug-
gestions, will have a most beneficial effect, by giving over
to capital and enterprise, much valuable land that is DOW
locked up, and utterly neglected.

NOTES FROM THE WEST.—Under this head an intel-
ligent writer thus continues his sketches of the condition
of the province of Connaught:—" In my last paper 1
observed that a retributive Providence was punishing the
parties that had contributed to the poverty and degrada-
tion of these countries. The improvident proprietor has
to pay up by rack-rates what he formerly took away as
rack-rents, and is made to support the poor he helped to
impoverish. The bigot priest, who lived upon the super-
stition of the people, feels his system of the dark ages
unsuitable for the age of light, and is frowned upon as
the adherent of a sinking and hopeless cause. As light
prevails, the men of beads and crosses, and relics, are
deserted. I fear you will not believe me when I state a
few facts concerning the social state of the country. One
union boasts of a staff of paupers to the amount of 27,000.
The Union of Ballina has on out and indoor relief not
less at present than 32,000. A gentleman writes me from
anotlier place, ' We have 19,000 on outdoor relief, and
2,000 in the workhouse-21,000 in all, and our union
£15,000 in debt, and an execution this moment in the
house for £9o.' The High Sheriff of the county
is missing; so is the county treasurer. Society is tho-
roughly dissolved, and the Government even in the admi-
nistration of their relief do not know whom to trust or
employ. Strangers have to come in to support the people,
and grangers have to administer the support. The right-
eousness which exalteth a nation,' teaching mutual de-
pendence, and leading to the discharge of respective du-
ties, is wanting. In the midst of this dreary state of
things evictions go forward, and if the poor creatures do
not clear off as soon as ordered they arc denied relief.
Wherever God has designed they should live, it is clear
the proprietors do not design that they should encumber
e
their property ; so they drive them off in hordes to the
fever-shed, the workhouse, or America. On the road
from Ballycastle to Killala I counted from one eminence
37 unroofed houses. The number of these is rapidly
increasing."
WHAT IS TO BE DONE FOR IRELAND ?—The Times
ask, and reiterates the question—" What is to be done
for Ireland ? " The answer had been given by anticipa-
tion in the plans of the Society for Church Missions to
the Roman Catholics of Ireland. This society, hereto-
fore known as the Special Fund for Ireland, has taken the
field with the following avowed objects, being the result
of experience of Ireland's necessity acquired during the
operations of the society in the last two years :—" 1. At
the request of incumbents, they will support assistant
ministers in paribhe, containing a large Roman Catholic
population : the nomination and appointment of these
ministers to be subject to rules similar to those of the
Chu-ch Pastoral Aid Society, with the understanding that
ministration to the Roman Catholics shall be their dis-
tinct and peculiar object. 2. Assistant ministers may also
be appointed, under the direction of the bishop, for the
Roman Catholics of a whole diocese. 3. In parishes
where the incumbent would be favourable to such efforts,
the temporary services of able and experienced clergy-
men, in visiting districts, giving lectures, and preaching
to the Roman Catholics, may be engaged. 4. Courses of
lectures, by competent lecturers, on the great subjects in
controversy between the Churches of England and Rome,
will be encouraged and upheld in the principal towns in
Ireland." This looks like work in earnest ; and already
has the plan been responded to by upwards of two hundred
of the Protestant clergy, assembled in Dublin in April
last, and in the following expressive terms :—" That they
have been struck with the gracious providence of God,
which, making openings that did not before exist for the
introduction of the Gospel to the Roman Catholics of
Ireland, and disposing their own minds to take a deeper
interest in that great duty which lies upon them as
ministers of our united church has, at the same time, dis-
posed the hearts of their English brethren to aid them,
and concur with them in further efforts to fulfil that duty.
That they will joyfully, in their several localities, render
all the aid God shall enable them to this blessed work of
faithfulness and love to which God is now calling them,
and trust that the English Church will largely assist an
effort so important to the national welfare of the empire,
the true honour of our church, and the advancement of
the glorious Gospel of Christ, directly at borne, and in-
directly in its effects through the whole earth."

POLITICAL MIS CE LLANY.

Sir David Dundas, the new Judge-Advocate General,
will be re-elected for Sutherlandshire without opposition ;
and, on Thursday last, Lord Guernsey was elected for
South Warwickshire without a contest, in the room of
E. J. Shirley, Esq.
UNIVERSAL. SUFFRAGE.—The following were amongst
the members who voted in favour of Mr. liume's motion
for universal suffrige, vote by ballot, and three-year par-
liaments :—W. Jackson, Sir J. Walmsley, T. Thorneley,
J. Bright, J. Brotherton, R. Cobden, W. Evart, T. M.
Gibson, J. Greene, A. Henry, L. Heywortb, and lIon.G.
Villiers.

SMOKE.—In the majority of 72 for the second reading
of the Smoke Prohibition Bill, were only four of the Lan-
cashire members, viz. :—J. Brotherton, J. Greene, J.
W. Patten, end R. A. Thicknesse. In the minority of
37, we find the names of W. Brown, R. Cobden, John
Bright, Thomas Thorneley, T. M. Gibson, G. Greenall,
S. Blair. J. Thornley. J. Kershaw, and G. F. '_Mintz.
THE SMOKE PROHIBITION BlLL.—This hill, which has
already passed the House of Lords, is progressing favour-
ably in the lower house. On Wednesday the second
reading was carried in a thin house by a majority of 35.
Tts opponents were, of course, the old Free-Trade Anti-
Ten Hours'Bill men. With the exception of Mr. Brown,
however, not one of the speakers against the bill dared to
state that the smoke nuisance could not be prevented.
Mr_ Winirma nn th..th., h.nd deeleeed the hill unneces-
sary ! And Mr. Bright said the same of the exception as
to the kindling of furnaces ; and ridiculed the entire bill
as a piece of " sentimental legislation."
The sincerity of some of our professing economists was
put to the test on Friday night in the House of Commons.
We all know that there has been a good deal of paring
down in the public offices. Some clerks have been dis-
missed ; and others, slaving hard for £l5O a-year, have
bad their salaries docked. The pretence was that free
trade bad made everything cheaper, and so the clerk's
Sunday and walking shoes would cost him less than they
used to do. Well, thought Mr. Henley ; " what's sauce
for the goose is sauce for the gander;" let us carry out
the principle, and deduct 10 per cent. from the high sala-
ries of ministers, who, being men of fortune, can bear it
far better than the poor clerk. This was not to be en-
dured : our economical and consistent ministers stuck
like leeches to their own salaries of £6OOO a-year, and
succeeded in securing them by a majority of 84 to 33.
In the House of Commons Mr. Cobden has again dis-
playkl a little of his habitual candour and love of truth.
He denounced the settlement of Labuan, and the expenses
incurred thereby, and seasoned his denunciation with a
little ridicule of Rajah Brooke." " You talk," said he,
in his financial reformer's vein, "of the distress of the
people of this country, and yet you give your sanction to
such proceedings as these." Frightful depravity ! But
at whose instigation was it committed ? At that of the
Manchester men, who in a memorial from the Chamber
of Commerce " implored the government not to suffer any
delay in securing a position so important, and in every
point of view so desirable, for the convenience and pro-
tection of our China trade." Fie, Mr. Cobden ! Can
you tell us the difference between a suggestio falsi and a
suppressio veri Perhaps they don't pay much attention
to these matters at Manchester.
MOVEMENT FOR THE REPEAL OF THE BEER SHOP ACT.
—Petitions to parliament are being got up in various parts
of England, from the inhabitants or Christian congrega-
tions of towns, villages, &c., for a gradual repeal of the
Beer Bill, eighteen years experience of which has incon-
testibly proved the demoralising and debasing influence
of the system upon the lower classes, including not only
adults but children! A large body of evidence is already
published from highly respectable authorities, shewing
that the beer shops,, with scarcely an exception, are the
haunts of gambling and vice ; the meeting places for the
concoction of crime, and in many instances the nurseries
of prostitution. A form of a petition to the House of
Lords, and another to the Commons, is in circulation,
praying for a gradual repeal of the act, by prohibiting the
granting of new beer-house licenses to any but present
holders, and to refuse new licenses to holders of them at
present in respect to any other houses than those which
they now occupy. This, it is considered, will tend to re-
strain the evil, and by final measures to bring about its
total suppression. The Earl of Harrowby has promised,
if supported by petitions, to bring in a bill for the gradual
repeal of the act, and it is to be hoped that the friends of
order and sobriety will exert themselves to obtain nu-
merous well-signed petitions to that effect. These should
be sent for presentation as soon as possible. In order to
pass post free, it is requisite they should be open at both
ends, with the word petition " written outside, and that
the address be simply the name of the member who is to
present it, and net his residence, as for example,—
PETITION,
To the Right Honourable the Earl of Ellesmere,
House of Lords.
. __ _

A SEVERE TEST—THE DUKE'S ALTERNATIVE.—Mr.
Bennett having declared, at Willis's rooms the other day,
that " a Free-trade Parliament had blasted his every
fourth field of grain, and robbed him of his every fourth
bullock," or words to that effect, his landlord, the Duke
of Bedford, at once offered to accept a surrender of the
lease, granted to him, at his own request, some years ago.
His Grace said, " Now, as this sentiment must have been
spoken advisedly, on full conviction of its truth, the im-
pression it produces on me is that it would be hard to
hold you to the lease, which at your earnest request I
consented to give you a few years ago, at a time when you
may have not anticipated Corn-law repeal, which, accord-
ing to your view of the change, has so seriously injured
your farming prospects, and, with them, your property,
as to give you cause to complain of great injustice. 1
therefore, propose, if agreeable to you, to release you
from the obligations you have contracted by that engage-
ment; and I hope you will avail yourselt of my offer,
since it must be as distressing to you as it is unpleasant
to me, that we should continue our relations of landlord
and tenant under such a strong persuasion, on your part,
of future loss and injury to yourself, and announced in so
deliberate and public a manner."—Mr. Bennett in reply
said, " Your Grace has more than once assured me that
you do not wish to exercise any controul over my public
opinions, and you will perceive that my observations in
Willis's room applied to the farming community in gene-
ral, and not to me individually ; and therefore, if I were
to avail myself of your offer, the evil would not be got rid
of. I should not hope for the present to hire a farm on
such terms as would enable me, under our present bur-
dens of taxation, to grapple with free-trade."—The Duke
repeated his offer; but 3lr. Bennett has not accepted it.
In a debate in the House of Lords on this affair, it was
stated that the tenant's hesitation was caused by his hav-
ing " recently expended £lBOO in improving the property,
and he would therefore have to make a very great sacrifice
if he gave up his tenancy."—On this point Mr. Bennett's
noble antagonist replies, " If you quit your farm, we must
endeavour to make the best arrangements, and on the
most equitable terms, the circumstances of the case admit
of."—Mr. Bennett has since decided upon giving up the
farm as soon as ho can provide himself with another

home.—[On reading this correspondence two things will
strike the reader—first, that it is no slight matter to offer
a conscientious opinion, even though encouraged to do so
by a " liberal" landlord; and next, although you may be
told to quit the homestead and the scenes where you have
long dwelt, yet it is not so easy to break the ties which
bind you to such a spot, although you may only be able
just to make your income agree with your expenditure.]