The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-01-26 00:00:00

THE 1,1VP,3- POOl, STANDAI:D.

which we have so often alluded, they are rare cases, and there
is sufficient authority in the hands of the magistrates to put an
immediate stop 10 them. No magistrate can be doing his duty
in any 'district where i llenesy, insubordination, and thieving
characterise the labourers, or-where savage, unnecessary, and
unrelenting cruelty is-practiced.• by masters and drivers, and
where each or any of these is known to exist, we humbly con-
ceive that by a strict vigilance on•the part of governors and
sheriffs, they 'night soon -be put a stop to.
If a man has been a few. times deceived by rogues, it makes
him that he will scarcely trust honest men ; just.so it is with the
people of England. They have heard several appalling ac-
counts of horrid cruelty in Jamaica and some other of the
islands, and so the whole apprenticeship.must he abolished in all.
one West Indian territories. If these. ladies and gentlemeu
would allow their reelecting powers to keep pace with their be.-
nevole-nce they would pause before they would be instrumental
in effecting a measure which, although it might gratify one
part of their desire for doing good, would throw a great ob-
stacle in the way of that mental enlightenment, in comparison
with - which, these very individuals esteem all earthly gains as
nothing. •
"Some means that would cause careless and partial magis-
trates to perform their duty faithfully to both, parties—that
would check cruelty and unnecessary afflictions by the master,
and subdue the disposition to disobedience and idleness in the
servant, would gradually effect a greater good than could pus-
sibly be done by the immediate abolition of the apprenticeship."

ROYAL AMP H EATRE,
•
GREAT CHARLOTTE-STREET, LIVERPOOL.

rinH IS EVENING, FRIDAY, Jan. 26, and following night,
will be perfermed a grand Military Drama, founded on
Anecdotes during the present struggle, called
WARS IN SPAIN ;
OR, CARLISTS AND ctittisziNos!
Aided by the appearance and varied evolutions of the Regular
- • 11lilitary. •
Scenes in the Circle—Arab and Bedouin Exercises.
After which an Equestrian Nursery Tale, called Jack the
Giant Killer.
The whole to conclude with the Laughable Burletta, called
A FLIGHT TO AM ERICA.

The public are respectfully informed that a BENEFIT will
be given to the
SUFFERING POOR, on THURSDAY NEXT,

February 1, 10, on whiCh occasion the Profits that may arise
froni the libera.lity of the visitors will be given for that benevo-
lent purpose.

Prices of admission—Dress Boxes, 3s. '; Pit, 25.; Lower
Gallery, ls.; Upper. Gallery, Gl. Children, half price, from
the commencement, to the. Boxes awl Pit only. Second Price
at Half-past Eight 'o'clock.: Boxes, ls. 6d. ; 'Pit, Is.; Galleries,
6d.—Box Office open every day from Eleven till Three o'clock,
when Mr. 1-lAl,s will he in attendance. Doors open at Six
o'clock, and the Performance begins at half-past. Private
Boxes may be had nightly for Parties, at 21s. and 425. •
Instructions in the Art Riding Given. Rid,ng Master, Mr.
Ginn ett. Terms may be knounzon application at the Amphitheatre.
• • - Proprietor, Mr. BATES.
Stage
.M..wnager, Mr. NEVILLE.

appeals of common sense, or he would have long since
acknnWledged the justice and propriety of our original
remarks on the subject.
But whilst we despair of effectinz any change in the
opinions of the. " simple swain" that does the slop-iyork
of the' Telegraph, we derive great satisfaction from the.
reflection that the public of Liverpool agree with us in
the be 14.1 that the meeting of the Reform Association
was a private one. The silence of 'all the radical papers
in town, with the solitary exception of the Telegraph,
affords a strong proof that the liberals themselves are
generally of otlr opinion in reference to this question.
Before we dismiss the subject we may as well indulge
in a remark or two on the distinction between a public
and a private meeting. The former we conceive to be one
to which every class of the public is admissible, without
any previous qualification, whether convened for an in-
definite or a specific object. We should, therefore, de-
signate the meetings of the Birmingham Political
Union, if none but members were allowed to attend, as
private cabals. The mere circumstance of one thousand,
or ten thousand, or even a hundred thousand persons
being in attendance on any occasion, would make no
differ e nee, if all were excluded who had not the qualifi-
cation of membership. The Ribbonmen of Ireland have
on various occasions assembled in thousands; but no one
surely would call a meeting of a secret society a public
meeting. The meeting in the Sessions'-house, to which
the Telegraph alludes, was a public meeting. The de.
feat of the radicals on that occasion only proves that the
public of Liverpool,. who were invited to attend, dis-
played better generalship than the faction with whom
the invitation originated.. The meetings of the Trades-
men's Conservative Association are private meetings.
We never maintained the contrary. The meeting in the
Clarendon-rooms, in 1834, was a public meeting. The
gatherings in Clayton-snuare were also, all of them,
public 'meetings; but they would 'not have been so if no
one had been admitted into that area but on presentation
of a ticket, purporting that those who were admissible
were menibers of a political club.
The next time. the Telegraph magnifies the meetings
of the, Reform Association into public assemblages, we
shall put: the accuracy of the definition to the test by ap-
plying 1.4 itdmissqm ourselves.

BIRKENEIEAD.—In our paper of Friday last we in-
serted the proceedings of the Vestry held on the preced-
ing day at the Church in Birkenhead. The polling was
resiuned the next morning, and at its final close the
numbers were,—for the bill, 132 persons-286 votes;
against it, 66 persontir-84 votes. Application will,
therefore, be made to Parliament—a measure at which
the great majority of the more respectable inhabitants
seen) much pleased.

Tue. EmiGnATtoisr AGENTS.—We had intended, if our
s,,ace had permitted, to have followed up our remarks of
Tuesday last;by some further animadversions on the in-
famous system of fraud to which the poorer classes of
emigrants from this port hare been for many years past
liable. We find, however, that the length of our re-
ports will preclude us from entering at present into the
details of the question. We are in possession of a mass
of evidence upon the subject which has fully convinced
us of the immediate necessity for adopting some active
measures to put down the nefarious practices which cer-
tain unprincipled characters have resorted to, in their
transactions with emigrants from the agricultural dis-
tricts. Hereafter we may deem it incumbent upon us
to giVe publicity to the facts to which we have just al-
luded.

In the meantime we are glad to find that the attention
of Sri George Grey has been drawn to this important
subject, on the representation of the. Town Council. It
is to be hoped that a bill may be shortly introduced into
Parliament for the purpose of redressing the grievances
under which emigrants have so long suffered, and of ef-
fectually preventing the frauds which have been suffered
for so long a period to disgrace the town of Liverpool.
Humanity demands the interference of the legislature
on behalf of those poor persons who are the habitual
dupes of the_ harpies who assume the title of emigrant
brokers ; whilst justice requires that the latter should be
placed under the strict surveillance of the law, and liable
to its severest penalties. Our sense of duty will lead us
to discuss this matter more minutely hereafter.

.11I,PORTANT. APPEAL AGAINST A POOR RATE ON
THE GRAND JUNCTION RAILWAY.

•• Ati appeal, involving the very important question as to the
extent to which railway companies may be liable to be taxed to
the poor-rates in the different townships along the lines, came
on. for hearing at the quarter Sessions at Kirkdale on Saturday

last. • .
The rate appealed against was for the township of Newton,
through which the company were obliged to admit (indeed
their own books showed) that there was much more traffic than
through any other township along the line, there being
sides —be-
passengers, horses, and carriages—goods, coal, lime, &c.,
to and from Warrington; they were therefore rated upon an
assumed "nett value to let" of £l,BOO per utile per annum.
Hulton. first put in certain admissions agreed upon by
both parties, (Mr. Wagstaff on behalf of the respondents and
Messrs. Clay and Swift on behalf of the appellants; arid then
the learned gentleman proceeded to open the case of the re-
spondents. He said he had to admit on their behalf that the
company had behaved fairly to them, having, since the notice
Of appeal was given, allowed an accountant on behalf of the
township to inspect and examine alt their books and accounts.
That the township had in this way obtained such information
as enabled them (though not absolutely to support the rate to
the full extent of the £l,BOO per mile,) to sentry themselves,
-and they hoped to satisfy the court also, that the full annual
value to let of the tolls earned in (that is to say, of the railway
thrriugh) Newton was £1,234 per mile, after deducting £2O per
cont. for tenants' profits and fur maintaining the railway in
Newton. and £7O for parochial charges in that township; the
gross annual produce being shown by the company's hooks, and
being stated in the admissions, to be £1,659 per mile in the
township.
Mr. Hulton then called as his witness a gentleman who
formerly had a lease of the 'Warrington and Newton Railway,
who proved that it had only cost him £57 per mile to maintam
it, the.gross tolls on the business carried on by him then being
£6ao per mile; and that hefiire he had the lease time line was
kept in repair by another party under a contract of £l5O per
mile. • Upon this evidence Mr. Hulton proposed to allow a de-
duction of twice as much per mile, for maintaining the -way, as
the witness proved that he had spent upon. it; but- Dr. Brown,
for the appellants, objected to this, and cross-examined the
witness, who admitted that he bad spent as little as possible on
the railway, because he was liable to have his lease determined
by three months' notice at any time.
Dr. 'Brown then opened the case of the appellants, who, he
said, relied entirely on the cases decided by the King's Bench,
awl ill particular on the Duke of Bridgewater's case, 9 Barrie-
wall and Cresswelt, and the Oxfiird canal case, 10 Barnewall
and Cresswell. Applying these decisions to the present case,
he claimed to deduct from the admitted gross produce, first, £2l)
per cent. as the profits ofa proposed lease, then £7O (as agreed)
for•parochial charges, and then £450 per mile for the expenses
of Maintaining the railway, police, point-men, engineers, and
the other necessary payments of such a tenant; and in this
way the learned doctor made it appear that the "An annual
value to let" of the tolls earned in Newton was only £827 per
mile, He contended thatthe witness for the township had fully
entitled him to most, if not all, of the £450 per mile for the one
•single item of maintaining the railway, because if it had cost
£l5O per mile when there was only a intik of £640 per mile,
it was almost reduced to a rule-of-three question, now when the
beingi(latmere
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etr
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eohtii(
fth. ot
htaeh e%lveqas
ysue,aeinhtw.ei
ifp
et
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traffic was, three times as great (the expense of maintenance
claimed
subject) e
wales
tuh,cletf
anni7dn t thee .the
ee rssweint
employed
anded pno
superintendingt n ts in
i lace,
&c., t
stateh e P.
of itehee'
way;, repairs, &c.; and it was in respect of all these, together
With the maintenance of the way, that the £450 per. mile was
• c laird ed. The learned doctor then called his witness, and Mr.
11uliOn replied ; after wh c the magistrates had a long conhi-
sottation;and, we understand, a protracted discussion as to the
different . facts; and at a late
hour they gave their decision-
-E2G.per cent. for profits of a supposed lessee. £3OO (instead of
'. £450 per mile). for maintenance of the
for parochial charges. The result of the appeal thus being, in
figures, that the- appellants will have to pay £l4 17$. instead of
' £27.75. 6d. (the amount of the rate at 4d, in the pound, on two-
thirds "the nett annual value to let"—the rates ou all other
• property in this township being only ou two-thirds.)