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

in Liverpool, to believe, that for this sum a capable
and active officer will lace his cervices at the dis-
posal of the community. It is to the zeal and
energy with wjiich this sanatory question has been
pressed forward upon the attention of the legisla-
ture and the public, by the medical profession, that
we mainly owe the efforts making to improve the
health of our towns ; and the members of that pro-
fession will not withhold their assistance, now that
we have at length been induced to proceed in
earnest. But we ought not to expect that the phy-
sician or the surgeon is always to be a self-sacri-
ficing individual. We exact no such forgetfulness
of self from the members of other professions.
The lawyer and the engineer retained for the public
service stickle for their fees • and we cannot perceive
why the same amount of intellect and infinitely
more labour, and personal danger besides, which
pre required to make a a able doctor should not be
equally considered.
We should perhaps not have referred to this sub-
ject at all, but for a proposition made by our con-
temporary the Journal, who appears to think the
appointment of a sanatory medical officer unne-
cessary. Our contemporary asks :

'• Vl'hat has he to do ? To report upon the general
health. The local registrar does that, and the materials
of his report are not within individual means—they are
deposited in the fever ward, the dispensaries, and the sad
memorials presented at the record office of death's doings.
The ablest physicians of the town accept as an honour
the privilege of giving advice gratis at our charitable
institutions. 'Would it not, therefore, be desirable to
bestow the £3OO a-year on the dispensaries, and permit
the resident surgeon to fulfil the condi'ions of the law, by
being nominally the municipal medical officer. The
sanatory report, when wanted, would then be derived
from a larger inquiry and more numerous sources. In
fact, it would be better than could in all likelihood be
furnished by an individual physician.
" The police have a surgeon attached to the force.
Could not he discharge the duties of the new office ?—an
office which, after all, originated in legislative cant, and
an affectation of comprehensive humanity. In fact, a
doctor will not do, for the coroner needs a surgeon, not
a physician."
This is not in accordance with the Journal's usual

good sense. The ablest physicians of the town
have, in times past, " accepted as an honour the
privilege of giving advice gratis at our charitable
institutions ;" but they are tiring of such extreme
liberality, which they do not see imitated by mem-
bers of other professions. The resident surgeon of
the dispensaries have already sufficient to do ; and
are scarcely of the class best fitted for this new
office. A division of the labour attached to it
would, we admit, he very desirable. Some assis-
tance in performing it we can easily see will have to
be provided, if the act is to be made productive of
the utmost possible advantage. But all public ser-
vants who have to perform onerous public duties
ought to be paid liberally for their exertions, if their
efficiency is to be kept up. For a year or two par.
ties may remain satisfied with the mere honer of such
appointments ; but at length the appointments
themselves become honorary, and the duties attached
to them nominal only.

IMMENSE INFLUX OF SHIPPING INTO

LIV ERPOOL.

For some time past, owing to the prevalence of easterly
winds, some of our docks have been almost emptied, and
the labourers usually employed in them have been driven
to serious straits ; and many, doubtless, to actual want.
The worst feature of the case, however, has been the hold-
ing back in the Channel and in the Atlantic of those large
supplies of breadstuffs and raw materials, which it was
known were on their passage to this country : and the
consequent facilities afforded to the capitalist to exact
high prices from consumer,. A favourable change of the
wind, however, has happily taken place. Early on Satur-
day a vast fleet of vessels began to pour into our river ;
and by Sunday afterncon not less than 128 sail, many of
them large American and Canadian vessels, with cargoes
of breadstuffs, cotton, timber, &c., hid come up, and,
with the exception of 17, were safely docked.
Of the vessels docked 22 are from the United States,
with an aggregate registered tonnage amounting to 11,054
tons; 19 are from Canadian ports, aggregate burthen
10,019 tons ; 3 are East lndiamen, tonnage 1187 ; and the
remainder, other foreign and coasting vessels, tonnage
6280. Of the 17 vessels in the river, 7 are Canadian, 5
American, 2 East Indies, and 3 foreign, the tonnage of
which we may average at 500 each, or 37,000 tons in all
arrived from the Saturday morning's tide to the Sunday's
mid-day tide. We had fifteen foreign arrivals yester-
day, American, Canadian, &c., which, with another
fleet of coasters, will probably make up the whole to above
40.000 tons. This gratifying change is calculated to do
infinite service to our working poor, and all connected
with the shipping and docks of the port, whilst it may also
serve to arrest prices of the produce thus brought to our
shores.

DISHONEST FRAC ['ICES OF A LONDON
CUSTOMS LOCKER.

The London Times, in his city article, of Saturday
last, contains the following notice :

" We are authorised to state that the duty on sugar involved
in the dishonest practices of a locker in the service of the
Customs, alluded to in a paragraph from the London Mercantile
Journal of the 17th instant, and alleged to amount to between
£20,000 and £30,000, does not exceed .t 260. The locker is in
custody, and legal proceedings have been instituted against
him, together with his confederates. 'This man having certified
the discharge, the warehouse keeper is fully exonerated."

This is an instance of the rare occurrence of a respect-
able journal giving too ready an ear to anonymous rumour.
Shakespeare told us long ago how credulous rumour was,
and how she " gathers as she goes." The press ought
to be careful on the score of authority, before giving cur-
rency to statements such as that contradicted above.

The able pamphlet by the Rev. Hugh M'Neile entitled
" The State in danger," has already reached a second
edition.

Sir W. M. Stanley, Bart., has returned to Hooton from
town, and thence the hon. baronet is expected to proceed
to the Earl of Chesterfield's, Bretby Park.

- ,
DEATH FROM BURNlNG.—Yesterday, an inquest was
held on view of the body of Ann Jones, aged 3 years.
Deceased lived with her parents in Beau-street, and being
left with another child, aged six, her clothes took fire, and
she was so much burned that she died on Saturday.
THE WEATHER.—Since our last publication the wea-
ther has undergone a change, which will enable thousands
of our out-door labourers, many of whom were for a time
thrown out of work, to resume their avocations. The
severe frost gave way on Friday evening, and was suc-
ceeded by a rapid thaw, Much rain has daily fallen since,
chiefly in heavy showers.

ALLEGED ROBBERY.—A man, named Patrick M'llroy,
(or Hayes,) was yesterday charged, at the Police-court,
by James M'lntyre, with robbing him of £5 15s. It was
stated that, in the absence of Mrs. M'lntyre, wife of the
complainant, and sister-in-law of the prisoner, the latter
assaulted the complainant in his own house, Prince
Edward-street, and took the money from his pocket. The
evidence not being quite complete, that of a little boy who
witnessed the transaction, the prisoner was remanded
until to-day.
LIVERPOOL CHARITABLE SOCIETY.—Our readers re-
quire no lengthenedjstatement to prove that there is at pre-
sent the most distressing want among the poor in this town.
If they needed any proof of the truth of this, it would be
supplied by a fact which we publish elsewhere in the re-
port of a coroner's inquest, held yesterday, from which it
will be seen that a poor man has died in Liverpool chiefly
from want of food. Among the societies engaged in mi-
nistering to the necessities of the sick and destitute, we
know of none which deserves better the support of the
humane than the Liverpool Charitable Society, whose ap-
peal is inserted in our advertising columns. The poor
are visited at their dwellings by the benevolent and highly
respectable members of the committee prior to any relief
being given.
DESTITUTION IN THE HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS OF
SCOTLAND.—On Sabbath last, collections in aid of the
fund on behalf of the above object were made in the Pres-
byterian Church, Myrtle-street, and Canning-street, and
we are gratified to learn that Mr. Ferguson's congrega-
tion responded to his powerful appeal by contributing
£ll4 13s. 61d., and that amount independent of a sum
received from members of other communions; Mr.
Welsh's congregation also raised £looos. 4d. for the same
object; and we trust that the example set by these congrega-
tions who have been subject to so many calls in the rear-
ing of their places of worship, will not be lost sight of by
their more opulent countrymen ; and as the distribution
of the funds is to be wi' bout reference to sect or party,
that Scotchmen of every communion will see it their duty to
Do and do likewise.
DEATH FROM STARVATION.—An inquest was yester-
day held on the body of Martin Finnigan. Catherine
Freeman, a widow residing in Lace-street, said deceased
and his wife and three children came to lodge in her cellar
about a fortnight ago. They appeared to be in a very
destitute state, and got their living by begging. The wife
and children left the house on Friday morning about nine
o'clock. He went out along with them and did not return
until nine at night, when he was brought home by four
men. He then appeared very ill. He was put to bed and
died about two o'clock the next morning. No surgeon
saw him until after bis death. During the time he was
living in the cellar he had not sufficient food, and had
nothing but what he procured by begging. His wife had
applied at the Parish-office, and had been relieved twice
with bread, but the deceased had had no relief.—John
Connor, a police-officer, found deceased, on Friday night,
in Standish-street, about ten o'clock, standing against a
wall. Witness thought that he was drunk and went to
him, but found him sober, and hardly able to stand or to
speak. On the way to Bridewell witness ascertained
where he lived, and two men took him to convey him
home. Witness saw him dead on Saturday night. Wit-
ness asked him some questions, but could not understand
what he said. He appeared to be in a state of destitution
and starving.—Mr. Kilner, surgeon, when he was called,
found deceased dead. On a post mortem examination he
found that death had been caused by disease of the lungs.
and the want of sufficient food combined. The want of
food was the principal cause of death. The jury returned
a verdict to the effect stated—disease of the lungs, and
want of sufficient food. The cellar is a most miserable
place, and the body was stretched upon a litter of straw.
The mother (who is very ill) and the children have been
taken to the workhouse. In the same house in which the
poor creature died there are no fewer than eight sick
persons.