The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-12-22 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

THE LIVERPOOL HEBREW PHILANTHROPIC SOCIETY.
—On Wednesday evening last, the anniversary of this
society was celebrated by a public dinner at the Royal
A.sernbly-rooms, Great George-street. Mr. Edward S.
Samuel occupied the chair, and Mr. Frederick Jackson
the vice-chair. About sixty-three gentlemen sat down.
To the right and left of the chairman we noticed the Rev.
Dr. Raphael, of Birmingham, Thomas Thornely, Esq ,
M.P., James Aikin, 14_;yre Evans, Thomas Bolton, Tindal
Atkinson, John Hamilton Parr, Esqrs., and several of
the Jewish persuasion. There was a numerous attendance
of handsome and fashionably-attired ladies, as spectators,
in the gallery. Most of the gentlemen named delivered
addresses, but the speech of the evening was that of the
Rev. Dr. Raphael, who spoke long and eloquently in reply
to the toast of " The land we live in," The continued
prosperity of the society was drunk amid great enthusiasm.
EXTREME DESTITUTION AT DUCKENFIELD —On Fri-
day, a coroner's inquest was held at Duckenfield on the
body of a poor man's child named Pagett. The Rev.
John Leeson said :—I am minister of the New St.
George's District, Stalybiidge. I visited the house of Pa.
gett or Friday last, in consequence of an application from
Pagett himself the day previously. He represented him-
self as being in great distress, and that he had a child
dying. When I went into the house, I found Pagett sit_
sing on a stone before the fire with the child in his arms.
I enquired if that was the only room they bad, and if the
shavings were the only bed they were possessed of. All
the covering they had was a piece of old woollen carpet,
which lay on the top of the shavings. There was not any
artic'e of furniture in the place. He told me be had no
food for his child excepting a little bread in a cup with
water. I asked if he had applied for relief since the day
before, or sent for a surgeon. He replied that his wife
had gone off to find some relief. I have seen hundreds
of cases, but I never saw one of greater destitution."—
The relieving officer was severely censured for neglect of
duty. The verdict was—" Died from bowel complaint,
aggravated by cold."

-HIGHWAY BOARD, THURSDAY.—There were twelve
members present. Mr. Higgins handed in a bill from
Mr. Deane, the law-cicrk, all of which was regular except
a charge of 2s. per folio for drawing out parliamentary no-
tices,—the usual charge being, he said, Is. He complained
of the great expense unnecessarily gone to by the Board
on the Water Bill, amounting in all to £2,695. The
Chairman said the parishioners ordered them to go to
p,rliament : he thought the money was well laid out.
Mr. Deane said the real charge for drawing up the papers
was 2s. a folio, and he had no objection to refer it to Mr.
Lloyd. Finally the bill was ordered to be paid. It was
stated that the tower at the Green-lane Waterworks had
now attained its full height, and that the boilers were
nearly fixed, &e. Out of doors, the work had been sus-
pended by the frost. A committee was appointed to in-
spect the works. A letter from Mr. Johnson was read,
claiming .:C3llO for the use of land in Hardman-street.
This it was agreed to resist. Mr. Deane said he had
received notice from the North-Western Railway of their
intention to apply for powers to take certain streets in
their line, to enlarge their Lime-street station. It was
agreed that the Board should remain neutral on the sub-
ject.

BRUTALITY AND AVARICE.—A. disgusting occurrence
has transpired in the village of Horwich, between Bolton
and Chorley. It appears that for some years past a
farmer, named John Heaton, had resided at a lonely farm
near the village. He is known as being extremely avari-
cious. His wife had had a paralytic stroke, and had been
in bed helpless for upwards of two years. The husband
was so penurious that he provided no person to attend
her, and he left her without food for days, in a condition
too shocking to be described. A woman who called upon
her on Friday found her dead and cold. The husband
had gone to bed the previous night, without knowing or
caring whether she was dead or alive. No assistance was
called in after her death, and portions of her body were
eaten away by a half-starved cat ! The villagers talked
the matter over, and the circumstance reached the ears of
the coroner. The inquiry concluded nn Friday, when the
following verdict was returned :—" We believe that the
death of the deceased has been accelerated through want
of proper medical aid, and care and attention on the part
of ber husband, John Heaton." This was a verdict of
manslaughter, and Heaton was taken into custody. The
inhuman husband has been twice convicted of cruelty to
animals.

SELECT VESTRY.—Several members made bitter corn-
phints of the rapidily increasing charge to this parish oc-
casioned by the immigration of poor Irish in a state of
destitution. The relief paid last week was £l6 more than
in the corresponding week of last year; this week it was
1.:128 18s. 2d., in excess of the same week in 1845. The
increase was attributed to the numbers of poor Irish,
many of whom, one member said, were sent over to Li-
verpool for no other purpose than to be relieved. The
proportions of this week's relief were, to resident Irish
poor, £75 ; to casual Irish poor, £25; to resident English
paupers, £lB, and that very morning (Tuesday) out of 10
applicants for relief, no less than 39 were Irish. If this
state of things continued the rates must be doubled. Air.

Ferguson suggested that these facts should be represented
to the Government, who would probably do something.
The rev. chairman replied that the Government would,
no doubt, feel much obliged to the vestry for the infor-
mation, but their answer would be, they had enough, and
too much, on their hands of Ireland, to pay attention to
the Irish grievances of that ward. A voluminous report
was read from Mr. Weightman, upon the extensive alter-
ations and additions to the workhouse. The patients in
the fever hospital were reported to be 102. Mr. Steins
was elected a vestryman iu the place of Mr. W. P.
Bushby resigned.
INQUESTS HELD BEFORE MR. CURRY, ON SATURDAY.
—On view of the budy of Hugh Henry Waggett, a boy,
aged 11 years. He complained of a pain in his head, and
said a policeman ;had struck him with his hand, a week
before, while he was w heeling a barrow on the footpath.
A surgeon was called to him on Thursday, but he died
next day. A post mortem examination showed that he
had died from an abscess in the brain, the result of natural
causes. Verdict accordingly.--On the body of Alexander
Smith, aged 13. Deceased fell from a cart in Little How-
ard•street, on Saturday week, and one of the bales of cot-
ton, with which it was loaded, fell upon his head. He
was taken to the hospital, where he died on Friday last.
Verdict, " concussion of the brain."— On the body of
Elizabeth King, aged nine months. Verdict, died from
suffocation by the bed clothes.—On the body of Susan
Quin, aged 56. Deceased left Ireland by the steamer
Rover, on Wednesday, and while on the passage to this
port, became suddenly ill, and died in a few minutes.
On post mortem examination, lit appeared she had died
from congestion of the lungs, the result of natural
causes. Verdict accordingly.--On the body of
Thomas Lee, aged 76. Deceased, who lived in Rimmer-
street, was found, on Friday night, by a police-officer,
lying groaning in Lancelot's-hey. He was taken to the
main bridewell for safety, and attended to. A surgeon
was also called, but the deceased did not rally, and died on
the following morning. From the evidence, the jury re-
turned a verdict, that death was caused by exposure to
cold.—On the body of Patrick Moffat, Oriel-street, ten
months old, who was taken out of bed in a dying state, on
Tuesday, and expired soon after, from a disease of the
bowels. Verdict, " Natural death".—On the body of
William Wheeler, Pellew-street, aged 70. Deceased, it
appeared, died from apoplexy.—On the body of Margaret
Unwin, a child eleven months old, living in Lambert-
street. Deceased was left, three weeks ago, with her bro-
ther, two and a-half years old, in a kitchen, when her
clothes took fire, and she was so much burnt, that she
died on Thursday last. Verdict, death front fire ; but how
her clothes became ignited, no evidence.

THE CH APLAIN'SREPORT ON THE PRESTON HOUSE
OF CORRECTION.—The report of the Rev, John Clay on
this important subject has just been published. It is a
document of great length, the 23rd handed in by the

writer, and exhibits great 'research and attention on his
part on the question of prison discipline. He announces

a still further decrease of crime, arising chiefly from the
system of discipline adopted in the House of Correction
there. The general decrease of commitments in the last
year was more than seven per cent. as compared with
those of the previous year, though the last had been less
favourable than the former with regard to employ and
wages. Time was when prisoners came out of gaol worse
than they went in. Now, happily, under the improved
discipline of the gaol, many of them were redemed from
the error of their ways, and rendered useful members of
society. Mr. Clay supplies a variety of statistics, show-
ing the gradual amendment produced, but we have not
room for details, and must therefore, refer those inter-
ested to the report itself, which will no doubt 13.1 pub-
lished in a separate form. The means adopted comprise
the separation of prisoners as a means of their reforma-

_ -
tion, religious instrlction, and kindness, so far as it can
be consistently exercised, and also a strict enforcement as

regards the principal culprits, of the " silent system."

. .
Many of these have, after leaving the gaol, vol'untarily
acknowledged with gratitude the blessings they have de-
rived from the moral and physical training to which they
have been subjected; and we think the system should be

well weighed by our own authorities and the govern-
ment before a definite plan for our new gaol be decided
upon, as much, no doubt, depends upon the internal adap-
tation of the building for separation, or classification. Mr.
Clay strongly recommends the modeso successfully adopted
by Mr. Wright, of Manchester, a benevolent gentleman,
who by comparatively small private means, has done incal-
culable good, by finding employment for discharged pri-
soners who have determined to lead amended lives. On
this point, Mr. Clay remarks :—" A prisoner, before li-

beration, gives satisfactory evidence of his wish to lead an

honest life

He is recommended to the favourable notice

of Mr. Wright, or of the Prisoners' Relief Society

tisfied of hi; sincerity, efforts are made to interest some
benevolent employer in his behalf, and a small sum of
money is assigned for his support until some employ may
be found. The two things chiefly required in the recovery
°Ca culprit to respectability, are, I trust, both attainable ;
the reformatory discipline of the prison, and the confi.
deuce of employers in the effects of that discipline The

latter will not. be wanting when the former is established."
It appears that a society, having a similar object, has been
established in Preston, and has been highly successful.
Mr. Clay dwells at some length on " public education"
of the right kind, as a strong preventative of crime, and he
thus concludes :—" The legislature may without much
difficulty provide for the improvement of prison discipline
and for the reformation of offenders. May they be ena-
bled to frame, with the cordial concurrence of all parties,
wise and comprehensive measures for promoting sound
religious education. In proportion as that moves vigor-
ously forward, disorder and crime must recede. The po-
verty caused by ignorance and low sensuality will be di-
minished. The religious and well-informed workman will

shun, from inclination as well as from principle, the gro:
veiling pleasures of the beer-shop; and the appetite of the
younger operative for reading and amusement will revolt
from the literary garbage on which thousands are now

feeding." Mr. Clay deserves well of his country (or-1;i;
exertions, and the pains he has taken to introduce a re-
formation in the treatment of prisoners, which is found to

be highly conducive to their redemption from evil ways,
and with it, to the security and advantage of society at
large.

CORKILSPONDEA

" PROTESTANTISM. PUSEYISM, & POPERY."

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD,

SlR,—The assize intelligence interposing, I could not
expect the most indulgent editorial courtesy to open the
columns of the STANDARD for the reprehension of a lea-
der with the above prefix, which appeared in the supple-
ment of the Liverpool Mercury of the 4th iust.—a leader
that demands the condemnation of every honest Protestant
in the empire.
That the Old Lady of Lord-street should turn religious
monitress is, if not instructive, at least amusing; but
when she undertakes the protection of abstract Protes-
tantism, this is more than can be endured, and calls for
the repudiation of the kindness, and the suppression of
the impertinence. Her hugs become so much akin to
those of the " blessed Virgin" in the Inquisition, which
tore off the flesh and ripped up all who courted her " holy
embrace," that all who eschew hatred and malice and
mischief to the Church of England, will also eschew the
Mercury's proffered kindness towards Prutestent interests
and true religion.
A mass of more contradictory inferences, from real or
supposed facts and data, could not well be compressed into
the same space as his leader. If he would confine him-
self to salt-box logic, bylining tops, swimming feats, and
kindred trifles, he might be permitted to pass at least un-
censured, it not unread. But when he ventures on theo-
logy, writes lectures on Christianity, and strictures on
Protestantism, we may indeed open our eyes in astonish-
ment at a pundit so learned in the Scriptures, which he
quotes with all the facility of a Cambridge professor or an
Oxford D.D. This, doubtless, is to prove his familiarity
with that musty old volume, the Bible, and to establish
his qualifications and pretensions to instruct. A facili!y
in quotation, however—apposite though it be—is but a
sorry and equivocal proof of general, and none of saving,
knowledge. The devil himself could quote, and most ap-
positely too, if not c erectly ; but who, except your Mer-
curys, your Carliles, and your Tom Paines, will receive
him as an expositor of Holy Wiit. Tnat Ido the writer
of that article no wrong, 1 appeal to his censure of the
law's suppression of Tom Paine's infidel works. My
readings of the Mercury, short and occasional though they
be, are yet sufficient to bring to my recollection his stric-
tures and conclemation of the law (when reporting an un-
fortunate inquest) for not prohibiting the dispensation of
physical poisons from the druggist's shops. But that is
quite another thing. Poison the soul as much as you like,
but touch not the body. The effect of the one is only fu-
ture, though eternal; that of the other is proximate,
though temporal only, therefore protect it at all hazards,
and at any sacrifice of either liberty or profit : the happi-
ness and pleasures of life certain are not to be superseded
by those of merely lite possible. So faintly does the
Mercury's divinity stir within him.
lie says—" it is in this land of religious freedom that
death was declared to be the punishment of denying the
doctrine of the Trinity." Instead of being thankful that
this is no longer the case, instead of eu:ogising " this land
of religious freedom" for its abandonment of such perse-
cution and excess, he endeavours to lead the mi'.ds of his
readers into the impression that the crime is still ob-
noxious to the penalty, stating in aggravation, " that a
poor young college student was actually hanged at the
Grassmarket of Edinburgh by the particular requisition
of the Clergy." For the sake of the argument, admitting
the imputed fact, who, 1 would ask, originated such bloody
persecutions and tragedies as that here denouticed ? Who
openly sled oceans of blood, and secretly perpetrated the
most refitted cruelties and the most atrocious tortures in
the vaults of that Pandemonium, the internal Inquisition?
Why
that very Papacy with which he so deeply sympa-
thises. Yet not one word has he to utter in It, condem-
nation, while the phials of his unmitigated wrath are filled
to the brim against Protestantism, for what took place, if
at all, ages ago. Any reader of that article, unacquainted
with the fact, would suppose him to be an uncompromis-
ing and rabid Papist ; but is he such ? on the contrary, he
is, credal Jurieus ! a professing member of the Reformed
Church of England. and has affection for Rom nism only
as it is so formidable and stabbing an antagonist of our
National Church, furnishing a weapon for its discomfiture
and a wedge for its overthrow.

Again he says—" Here, too, (that is, i❑ England,) the
Jews for their religion alone have been the objects of con-
stant persecution; and whilst not even yet admitted to the
ordinary right of peaceable citizens and loyal subjects, are
compelled to observe the Sabbath of the Christian, while
the Christian refuses to pay the slightest respect to theirs."
Any foreigner reading which would arrive at no other
conclusio❑ than that the Jews are now persecuted for their
religion. This is the same ignoratii elenchi appeal to our
partially-educated young Radical readers of the Mercury
that runs throughout the entire leader, containing, as it
does, base (and, to perpetrate a jeu de rnot, 1 may add
baseless) charges against both the religion and the laws of
this happy laud. None knows better than himself, that
in no country is :be Jew less persecuted, nor more hue-
rally treated and respected, than in this. In proof, look
at the list of high sheriffs for the current year ; is the ele-
vation of a Jew to the high honour e f the shrievaity a proof
of persecution ? Is conferring the aldernianie gown of the
mightiest and most intelligent city in the v, orld a proof ?
Away, then, with the dishonest and unprincipled imputa-
tion, and away with the childish objection, that no respect
is paid to the Jews' Sabbath, an objection too puerile for
a rebuke, too contemptible for the dignity of a rejoinder.
He lauds and holds up to imitation the present Pipe, for
relaxing some of the rigid laws against this wonderful race
of God's sons, censuring by implication and contrast the
severity of our own. Now a more damning t harge against
Popery could not have been introduced, nor one more
damaging his own general knowledge and historical read-
ing. Is he so ignorant, then, of the Jews having been ex-
cluded from all rights of citizenship in the fitly City—
that at a certain hour each night they have been driven,
like dogs to a kennel, into a certain quarter, and that, too,
the most obnoxious, of the town, and there locked up for
the night, without the power of either ingress for others
or egress for themselves, except in the urgent case of fire ?
Transfer this system and state of things to liberal Eng-
land—town, Liverpool—time, ten o'clock at night—loca-
lity, the poorest, the filthiest, the most immoral, and in
every sense the worst part of, say Vauxhall-road; inclose
this pestilent district with high walls—drive the noble race
of Abraham within its confines, and luck them therein
each night,—do all or any portion of this, and into what
an ebullition of fury would the Mercury lash himself,
bristling with weekly leaders of fiery indignation. What
requiems would he not perform over the dead bodies of
each pestilentially-slain Israelite 1 what anathemas viould
he not evoke against the" bigotry" of Protestantism! To
find a Radical half advocating the observance of the Jews'
Sabbath, by way of reciprocating religious civility, is a no-
velty worthy the refined politeness of a Beau Nash. No,

no ; one day in the week is enough for any liberal, and too
much for some. Whatever others may have forgotten, he
must remember well the time when his intimate friend
ar.d co-labourer in the same Radical vineyard was habi-
tually accustomed to spend the Christian's Sabbath in
playing billiards. Those who can claim such liberty as
this, without incurring the visits of an inquisitor-general
and the punishment of the thumbscrew, have little reason

to complain of the restraint of the seventh day. The liberty
sought for is, the liberty to level all distinctions of days—

to open P bops, offices, and theatres, as in France and other

Roman Catholic countries—to make the Sabbath a day of
pleasure, drunkenness, and licentiousness—to break down
the barriers that now interpose between monarchy and
democracy, between religion and infidelity. This is the
liberty dearer to the clan Mercury than any and all reli-
gion

The profession of the latter is desirable only so far

as it will contribute towards the aecomplishment.of this

ullima thule of Whigs and Radicals ; for this it is that
they patronise that great " conspiracy against property,
liberty, and life," Popery—for this they offer the right
hand of fellowship to those" incomprehensible vagabonds"
the Jesuits, who hunt in couples, compassing the destruc-
tion of your domestic happiness; sowing the seeds of ha-

tred between husband and wife, brother and sister ; la-
bouring to topple down our sacred institutions, and involve
in one common ruin both liberty of conscit nee and perso-
nal liberty. History is prolific of such fell intentions and
remit! s as these, but then we are forbidden to appeal to
such al old almanack as history. Well, but let us turn
to the Morning Herald of the Bth of the present month,
and we shall find that " a journeyman blacksmith, from
Wirtemberg, employed at Lucerne, has been tried and
condemned to banishment from the canton for ten years,
and to pay the costs of his prosecution, for having, while
drinking at a public-house cast reflections upon the Je-
suits." Is this fact of October, 1846, to be classed in the
category of the old almanack. Sur:pose that to have taken
place here, what then? But I need not describe the in-
sulted Roman dignity of your contemporary. But why
lend himself to that party and those principles which aim
at nothing less than the accomplishment of such a luxated
state of society as shall result in the destruction of civil
and religious liberty, and leave us nothing in exchange
but the caput morluum of the body-burning, soul-destroy-
ing Romanism. He cannot be ignorant that the Society
of Jesuits are so dangerous, desperate, and intriguing, as
to, have been kicked out of the very countries which not

only gave them birth, but which professes their religion
also ; nor ought he to be ignorant that Popery and igno-
rance, Popery and slavery, Popery and idleness, Popery
and filth, and Popery and crime, are synonymous; in
proof, let him take those Italian states the most proximate
to the " Holy City." No right-minded Englishman can
have any sympathy with the Mercury in his malignant at-
tacks on the citadel and bulwark of our liberty, and the
happiness of our homes—Protestantism. None can jus-
...

ttl3' his patronage of the great apostacy. There is some-
thing to wonder at, Mr. Editor, when we find a professed
member of our own Church maligning the brightest and
the best of that Church's ministers, and yet throwing a

mantle of protection over Tom Paini. Such is the fact in
the article I am criticising..The opportunity of dragging

that-ministerl3efore the public, again presented itselt,-ana
we find Mr. M'lsleile recommended to imitate the present
Pope Let that reverend gentleman imitate an angel,
still, like the flogging drummer, he will never please the
Mercury.
There is not a paragraph in that leader, Mr. Editor,
that does not call for analysis and demand rebuke. I have

no right, however, to trespass further on your columns
with an article already too long to find grace in the eyes of
one pressed, if not oppressed with the difficulty of finding
space for matter craving insertion ; but I cannot conclude
without observing, that it is to the countenance and sup-
port given to Romanism and Jesuitism by the writers of
such articles as that on " Protestantism, Puseyism, and
Popery," that we' are indebted for the present state of
Ireland, where murder is the hourly crime of each day,
perpetrated, too, under circumstances more revolting
than are to be traced in the most barbarous of the savage
tribes.—l am, sir, &c. VINDEX.

THE COLLEGIATE INSTITUTION.

TO THE EDITORS OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD,

GENTLEDINN,—WouId it not be an improvement to the
Collegiate Institution if there were more lectures on music
delivered during the season. In an age when music is so