The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1849-08-14 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD,

Sir,—ln the Mail of Saturday there appeared a letter
signed "An Enquirer after Truth," giving publicity to
certain rumours said to be current as to the stability of
the new Concert Hall.

Prompted by a laudable solicitude, as well to disabuse
the public mind as to counteract the evil influence of
reports which, however unfounded, might, if left uncon-
tradicted, seriously compromise the interests of the body
to whom the town is indebted for the erection of this
splendid edifice, the Chairman of the Philharmonic
Society immediately addressed the following letter to the
editor of the Mail :
"TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL MAIL.
"Sir,—As Chairman of the Committee of the Philharmonic
Musical Society, 1 feel it to be my duty to call upon you for
the name of the writer of the letter which appears In your
paper to-day, reflecting upon the safety of the Concert Hall,
in Hope-street, as, if he is really what he professes to be, An
Enquirer after Truth,' I am sure the committee will have
great pleasure in showing him the report of some of the first
architects in England, which would at once convince him of
the groundlessness of his alarm, and the undoubted safety of
the building

" I am, Sir,
"Your obedient servant.
" J. H. TURNER

(Signed)
" Exchange-court, 11th August, 1849."

The reply is as follows :
"TO J. 11. TURNER. ESQ., CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE
OF THE PHILHARMONIC MUSICAL SOCIETY.

" The editor of the Liverpool Mail informs Mr. J. H.
Turner, in reply to his note of the 11th current, that it is not
customary for the press to give up the names of correspondents
on the call of parties who may feel aggrieved at their communi-
cations, particularly when those communications have regard
to the public safety.
"The editor is surprised that such a request should be made
of him in.the present instance, and especially in the tone con-
veyed in Mr. Turner's note.
"If the committee are, as Mr. Turner says, in possession of
the report of sonic of the first architects in England, which
would at once convince the `Enquirer after Truth' of the
groundlessness of his alarm and the undoubted safety of the
building, it seems strange to the editor of the Mail that they
have not ere this felt it to be their duty to publish it, as that
course would have restored the public confidence, now for
some time greatly shaken on the subject."
It is not the intention of the committee to enter into
controversy with the editor of the Mail, or any anonymous
correspondents ; but, lest the total silence of the com-
mittee upon the letter of Saturday might be construed
into an admission of the truth of the rumours to which
it refers, I am instructed formally to invite any one who
feels an interest in the subject to the perusal of a
minute and elaborate report of two of the most distin-
guished architects of the day, Messrs. Smirke and 'rite,
which lies op- n for inspection at the office of the society,
Exchange-court, Exchange-street East.
I am, Sir,
Your obedient servant,
WM. SUDLOW, Hon. Sec.
Liverpool Philharmonic Society,
August 13th, 1849.

We need not, of course, offer a word in addition
to this very sensible mode of putting to the test
the very foolish rumour, which should never have
been publicly noticed ; but we may give the fol-
lowing remark of a contemporary, which is tolerably
pointed and. convincing :—" The framework of the
interior is an entirely independent structure, and
would stand firmly, however loaded with people,
even if all the masonry and brickwork were
removed away from it. It is of immense strength,
and would, we are assured, bear to have its com-
partments filled with masses of lead, and then
would not yield an inch."

A consideration of the dreadful frequency with
which- accounts of crimes of blood are compelled
to be narrated by public journalists naturally in-
duces one to seek for some predisposing cause in
the present state of society tending to so horrible
a result. The task is a difficult one, nor is it pos-
sible to enter upon the investigation without paus-
ing in utter horror on the variety of atrocities
which crowd on the imagination, and present them-
selves with all the freshness of recent events to the
recollection. Parricide, matricide, the slaughter
of defenceless women and inoffensive babes, with
a host of other similar excesses of monster wicked-
ness demand attention. In the majority of instances
the absence of any adequate motive is remarkable.
One day we hear of a ruffian beating out the brains
of two women and the same number of children,
without knowing really whether his object were
plunder or not, so ill concerted are his measures
for such an end, and to so small an extent does he
• avail himself of the advantages, in this respect,

that actually present themselves. Another occa-
sion of horror is the cool immolation of her off-:'
spring by a mother in order to possess herself of
some miserable sum which is to revert to her in
the event of her children's demise for their decent
interment; a bounty supplied by a public economic
society for such a purpose cannot be supposed to
yield a very considerable balance after the necessary
expenses are defrayed, yet this paltry premium has,
in more than one instance, served to bring about
the enactment of the dark crime prefigured. To
diversify the character of these tragedies, we have
at our own doors a man imbruing !is hands in his
brother's blood for an attempt to dispose of pro-
perty of no very considerable amount, and pro- '
fesSedly, in part at least, his own.
The weight of such motives is truly insignificant
when poised against the deeds of blood which ap-
parently have sprung from them. In considering
the important question, and important no one can
deny it has become, the causes inducing such a state
of things seem to he various, principally perhaps
arising out of the artificial system under which we
subsist. Everything is resolved into system—our
labouring poor are first demoralised by being
worked in immense numbers, and with as little re-
gard to personal convenience or individual self-
respect as though they were so many parts of a
vast material machine, and then incapacitated
either for appreciating themselves the comforts and
happiness of the domestic fireside, or applying it as
the shrine at which they are to inculcate lessons of
virtue and morality to their offspring, these same
children are submitted, untaught, to the same
grinding ordeal, perhaps after a noviciate in the
streets, where, unguarded or uncared for, they have
precociously matriculated in vice on entering on
the scene of their permanent employment. At
best these children have been sent to some school
where, because the numbers of recipients are so
great, and that of the imparters of instruction so
limited, it would be hopeless to attempt to set
about the proposed object except by system, the
principle of which may be faultless, but owing to
its deficiency in practice as applied to children of
dissimilar disposition, together with the brief period
which is allon4d to numbers to remain under its
Dower, often leaves the unfortunates submitted to
its teaching with at most a little parrot-like cate-
chetical proficiency, but with not one grain of that
principle which ought to be the end of all instruc-
tion—that submission of the will to the behests of
reason, honesty, and truth. Everything we do is
on the grand scale, from pin-making to cotton-
spinning, and in these subordinate duties of man
our whole faculties are absorbed : in the pursuit of
wealth we too often neither regard the social desti-
tution of the wretches by whose sweat we amass the
coveted dross, nor the moral requirements of the
growing population. Utterly selfish, gain has
become the great Moloch of every man's adoration,
none are without this spirit; the wealthy sacri-
fice peace and happiness to amass still greater
hoards, and the untutored and neglected, not under
the influence even of a moral reflex in such a state
of society, scruple not to follow out the same
spirit in even less objectionable modes—the daily
exigencies of a refined state of society are para-
mount to all other considerations—rather than his
partner should appropriate an inordinate share of
stock, we see a man deliberately commit an act in
all possibility calculated to destroy life, and that,
too, the life of a brother. In these days of pro-
perty supremacy, we can understand a man assert-
ing that he "would defend his property ;" aye, at
any risk of blood guiltiness. To the morbid love
of money, if only to he possessed during the space
which intervenes between the slaughter of the vic-
tim and his consignment to the tomb, are to be
traced the several murders for burial society money.
In some instances this horrid crime has been com-
mitted only to effect the transfer of articles of
wearing apparel from the possession of the victim
to that of his slayer; but the principle is still borne
out—a universal sighing after either the substan-
tials or the symbols of property, with a total dis-
regard as to the means of accomplishing this, owing
, to the absence of early moral culture in the masses
1 of the people, and the consequent daily spreading
of atheistical and infidel opinions.

We have given elsewhere as authentic an account
of the great Fete, which was last week held in our
town, as a very numerous corps of reporters could
accomplish. If it is in any particular deficient, it
is solely because these gentlemen could not be in
every place, and because we strictly forbade them
from drawing upon imagination for a description
of scenes and occurrences, which required no such
adventitious aid to render -them remarkable and
striking. Our readers who were present on the
occasion will readily admit 'that we are below the
mark in our narrative of every portion of the week's
occurrences, which would have required the pen of
the historiographer of the Arabian Nights to do
them strict justice.
In this place we had hoped to have been enabled
to give the precise results—a kind of balance-sheet,
in fact—skewing the amount netted for the charities.
Vain hope Up to yesterday those results were
not by any means accurately known. Carpet-bags
and boxes of gold and silver, taken at the various
gates, booths, and other places of receipts, had
tired the active fingers of the Committee in the
task of counting their contents. Returns of tickets
sold at many of the places of sale remained to be
examined and checked ; bills of expenditure had
yet to come in ; and we can only therefore give an
approximation to the amount netted for the cha-
rities. The gross receipts, however, we believe we
are authorized in stating, on good authority, at
over £9ooo—a sum far over the most sanguine
anticipations of the promoters of the festival ; and
it is not at -all improbable that they will ultimately
reach £lO,OOO. From the fact that most of what
would, in ordinary cases, have been expenditure,
has in reality been contributed in labour and mate-
rials, the deductions to be made on this head will
be small. At all events, we feel assured that we
are not over the mark in setting down £B,OOO as
the nett amount realized for the charities.

We may remark that the contributions in money
alone amount to about £1,300. The sums given,
and the names of the donors, appear at length in
another part of our paper. No doubt many parties
have yet to add their contributions to the list.