The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-05-04 00:00:00

THE LIVERFO*OI STANDARD.

LOCAL MEETING&

DOCK COMMITTEE.—The arms of the- Holyhead tele-
graph were ordered to be covered with galvanized wire,
and some repairs were ordered for Leasowe lighthouse.—
The receipts of dock and light dues on vessels entering the
port of Runcorn for the month ending the 24th April,
were stated as follows :—Vessels, 278, tons, 13,762, amount,
£72 2s. 11d., being £3 9s. 6d. less than at the corres-
ponding period of last year.—On the application of Mr.
John Wilson Greene, permission was granted to the go-
vernment surveyors of steam-vessels to use lights at any
time when necessary for the examination of vessels.—A
communication was read as to the laying down of the
electric telegraph from Crosby lighthouse. The Chair-
man said there had been no proceedings taken to warrant
the application, unless the person offering chose to lay it
down at his own expense. The subject was at present
under the consideration of the sub-committee.
THE FEMALE PENITENTIARY.—The annual meeting
of the friends to this charity was held on Thursday. The
chair was occupied by John Cropper, Esq. The report,
which was read by the secretary, Mr. Michael Ashton,
commenced with an expression of gratification at the suc-
cess which had attended the labours of the committee
during the past year. The number of applicants for ad-
mission was 95 ; of these there were refused, as unsuit-
able, 41 •, taken into the probationary ward, 54 ' • in the
house, 52: total in the house during the year, 106 ; of
these there had been placed out to service, or restored to
their friends, 15 ; left at their own 'suggestion, or from
disobedience of rule, 22; not returned from the hospitals,
5 ; remaining in the house, 64 ; admitted, 50 ;. on proba-
tion, 14 ; making the average during the year, 56. The
total number since the commencement of the institution,
thirty-five years ago, was 1425; of these there were expel-
led, 167 ; eloped 54 ; left at their own suggestion, or from
dislike of rules, 560 ; restored to their friends, or placed
in service, 470; removed to other institutions, 93 ; dead,
17. The report then went on to state that the number of
applications for admission during the year had increased,
and the committee entertained a hope that such circum-
stance arose from the desire of the females to escape froth
a life of ignominy and sin, rather than from an increase of
those individuals who were the objects of the society's at-
tention and care. It was a gratifying fact, that fifteen of
the penitents who had concluded their two years' proba-
tion had been restored to their friends, or placed out in
respectable situations as domestic servants. Two others
had left the institution from impatience of the discipline
of the house, or disobedience of the rules ; but there was
reason to hope that even one of those had avoided a re-
turn to a life of vice and ignominy. The number in the
house had been greater than during any former year, hav-
ing been as high as 68, and there were now 64 receiving
the benefit of the instution. Notwithstanding that the
most rigid economy had been exercised in every depart-
ment of the expenditure, the amount expended had been
greater than the income, on an average of the last few
years, by £2OO per annum ; and last year, notwithstanding
the earnings of the penitents, which amounted to £331,
the deficiences had reached the sum of £254.

SELECT VESTRY.-TUESDAY.

The first business before the Vestry, at their fortnightly
meeting on Tuesday, was a memorial, signed by more
than 200 inhabitants of Abercromby Ward, representing
the serious evils likely to arise from the fever sheds, and
asking whether they could not be removed to a better
locality, or whether such alterations could not be made
as would allay the apprehensions of the memorialists.
After several members of the Board had expressed them-
selves to the effect, that the parish could not have found
a more eligible site, the Chairman expressed his pain and
regret at one expression used by Mr. Neill, the surgeon,
wherein he had accused the parish authorities of " heart-
lessness." That was not a word that ought to have been
used even in the heat of controversial debate, still less
should it have been used deliberately by a medical man,
in writing upon such a subject as the present. Almighty
God had brought upon us a calamity, and instead of ac-
cusing the authorities of heartlessness, far better would
it be to aid those authorities in rendering the application
as little onerous to the inhabitants as it possibly could be.
He denied, upon the authority of some medical men, and
his own experience, that there was that intense danger
from typhus fever which some people supposed. He could
not conceive it possible, with fever pressing on them in
the manner it was, to take down the sheds and remove
them elsewhere ; but alterations might be made, the
privies might be removed, and the walls might be raised,
so as to do away with any really existing grievance.—Mr.
Bennett said the privies would now be converted into
water-closets, the floors of the sheds would be perforated
so as to admit ventilation, the foul air would be carried off
at the highest possible point of the building, and the pro-
bability was, that the windows would never be opened.
The deputation having withdrawn, the following motion
was unanimously adopted :—That we have the most
anxious desire to meet the wishes of the memorialists, but
cannot hold out any expectation that it will be in our
power to take down the sheds, the plan of which was sub-
mitted to Dr. Duncan prior to the erection, and which
cannot be removed to a more eligible site ; but that we
shall do all we can to allay the apprehensions of the in-
habitants ; the privies will be made into water closets,
the walls will be raised, and the ventilation will be so
managed as to prevent danger.
The daily number of paupers relieved during the last
fortnight has been as follows :
Monday, the 12th
Tuesday. the 13th
Wednesday, the 14th . .
Thursday, the 15th
Friday, the 16th
Saturday, the 17th
The cost of out-door relief this week was in money
£583 165., being an increase of £730 over the correspond-
ing week last year.
Monday, the 19th
Tuesday, the 20th..
Wednesday, the 21st 12,201
Thursday, the 22nd
Friday, the 23rd 10,630
Saturday the 24th

The cost of out-door relia this week was in money
£593 16s. being an increase over the corresponding week
of last year of £745 12s.

Mr. Evans, the governor of the Workhouse, sought
for advice as to how he was to act with reference to ad-
missions when the house was overcrowded.—lnstructions
were given to the governor to provide all the accommoda-
tion in his power, and when that was full to admit no
more ; and a committee, consisting of Messrs. Hand,
Chesney, Cafferata, and Townsend, were appointed to
ascertain what additional room could be provided in the
newly-built addition to the workhouse.

The Chairman said that he had recently written a let-
ter to Sir George Grey, relative to the conduct of the
mayor and inhabitants of Wexford. The circumstances
of the case were briefly these :-250 Irish emigrants, by
the Rochester, had been wrecked on the coast of Wex-
ford. The Mayor and inhabitants of that town had sub-
scribed to pay their passage back to Liverpool, and on
their arrival here, 130 of them had become chargeable to
the parish. The question put to Sir George Grey was,—
Whether the Mayor and inhabitants could legally act in
this manner, and, if not, what measures were to be
adopted ? In reply, Sir George stated that he was not
aware of any law by which the course pursued by the
mayor and inhabitants of Wexford was prohibited ; but
he added that the proper way to remedy the grievance
appeared to be by the removal, of so many of these per-
sons as were described-in the act, an amendment of which
was now under the consideration of the House of Com-
mons. He (the chairman) should like to ask, whether,
if the Mayor and the inhabitants of Liverpool were to
subscribe to send 10,000 Irish paupers up to London, that
would be lawful ? (Hear and a laugh.) He did not mean
to advise such a project, neither did he mean to say it
would be lawful ; but he knew that if they, the parochial
authorities, were to attempt to do such a thing, it would
be a misdemeanour. However, this was the fact, and it
was likewise an important fact for' the people of • .nd
to know, that they might subscribe to send ov• ii I
or 200,000 paupers to this country. (Hear, h ..e
remedy proposed by Sir George Grey was almost • • c-
ticable ; and the difficulties of the law were such that the
magistrates could not enforce it.—The Chairman then
ro
euooanttduhl
xeaHoof
ulsrpetitioneissiiopfawpuhp
parishioners,irecrihns.
omhi
tneetnoolitnaLldsyi drawnsetting
ogon
a pfloeuwrcitt)a:ins
tiforaaiiragpytir:ifeeisbivecuonitumt
saatiilninsocoj
injury
t
n
a sanitary point of view, for many of the immigrants
were labouring under infectious diseases, and thus
brought illness and death amongst the inhabitants. The
petitioners therefore pray, that a clause may be in-
serted in the intended Irish Vagrant Act, restricting ,
pauper vagrants from leaving the Irish ports in order
to pass into England, and only permitting those to
leave Ireland for England who-leave it for the bona fide
lawful purposes of emigrating to foreign parts or seeking
work in England : and that the expense of relieving
sick and distressed Irish casual poor, and burying such as
die of fever, may be removed from the. parochial rate in
England, and paid out of the Irish relief fund. It was
stated in the course of the petition, with reference to the
spread of disease in the town, that three of the relieving
officers have already died of typhus fever, and one now
lies dangerously ill. One of the medical officers is dead ;
another is dangerously ill. One of the nurses of the
Lying-in Hospital is dead ; another ill. 654 paupers have
been buried in the Workhouse Cemetery during the last
month, the average number of interments during the last
twelve years being only 1,367 annually ; so that in one
month the interments have nearly equalled half the num-
ber which they usually amount to in one whole year."—
Upon the motion of Mr. Riding, the petition was adopted,
and it was ordered that a copy of it should be sent to
Lord Sandon, for presentation to the House of Commons,
and another copy of it to Lord Brougham, for presenta-
tion to the House of Lords ; and that a thousand copies
of it be printed, and sent to every member of both houses
of the legislature.—Mr. Haigh thought a great public
meeting of the parishioners ought to be convened, either
by the Mayor or the Select Vestry, with the view of con-
sidering the most advisable steps to be taken in the pre-
sent alarming exigencies in which the town was placed by
the increased and increasing influx of Irish paupers.—
Mr. Chesney said it was the more necessary now to act
with promptitude, as the Irish were threatening to send
over, not 40,000, but a million of their countrymen before
the harvest was reaped. (Hear, hear.)—The Chairman
then gave an account of his interview with Sir Geo. Grey.
The result of the interview was, that the people of Liver-
pool were now entirely upon their own resources ; that
they must put their own shoulders to the wheel, and do
all they could to provide for the burden.
Upon the motion of Mr. Avison, Mr. Hugh Mullineux
was elected a member of the select vestry, in the room of
Mr. Raymond Houghton, who was appointed au overseer.
The medical board recommended that four surgeons—
two in addition to the present two—be appointed. The
board, in reply to the recommendation, appointed an as-
sistant dispenser to Mr. Lingley, the apothecary, at a
salary of 205.. a week. They also appointed Drs. Steel,

Horn, of Birkenhead, Fell, and others ; and they further
appointed assistants to the district medical officers.
Mr. Austin, assistant poor-law commissioner, suggested
that'the confined parish-offices in Fenwick-street be never
again occupied ; and the committee agreed to provide
offices elsewhere.

CORRESPONDENCE.

HEALTH OF THE TOWN.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
Several friends have requested me to address a letter to the
Public, through the Press, on the subject of the present alarm-
ing sanitary crisis ; they sav that as 1 have hitherto been the
first to sound the tosciii of -alarm on the approach of danger,
I should also be among the first to allay undue apprehension
when it exists. In deference to their wishes, no less than in
accordance with my own feelings, I have determined to write.
When I found dysentery, gastric fever, and other disorders,'
raging during the last summer, and at the same time ascer-
tained the deficiency of water, the overflowing condition of
the privies of the town, the quantity of diseased potatoes and
meat permitted to be sold; in our markets, the practice of carry-
ing to the grave the bodiesof persons dying of infectious anti
contagions disorders, in.the cars and vehicles licensed for pro-
miscuous hire, and these tacitly permitted as things that ought
to be, I considered it to be my duty, distinctly recognising as
I did the cause and effect in this matter, to apprise the authori-
ties of the town of- my.strong convictions, first privately and
then publicly through the Press, and at the same time urged
the adoption of certain measures as preventives—l advised,
inter alia, that the infected districts should be supplied once if
not twice a day with water, that the sewers should be flushed,
that the sale of diseased thud should be restricted, and that the
authorities should at once proceed to the removal of the con-
tents of the middens all over the town, but especially in the
worst districts. What then have the authorities done? After
a lapse of nearly seven months, when the Water Companies
! were going to Parliament for further powers they. were induced
as a remedial measure, to increase their previously stinted
supply. In a few weeks after my application, a few cart-loads
of filth were removed from the worst courts; but at the time
when the cumbrous machinery of the new sanatory act began
to be slowly set in motion four months afterwards, the accumu-
lation was so areat that, under the present system, it rill be
impossible to keep the atmosphere of the town sufficiently free
from malaria, to be "raider low" fever "mark." The diseased
potatoes are now nearly all gone—some few rotten—most of
them eaten. "Jigged beef" being certified by some medical
men, who were consulted, as quite fit for human food, the filthy
stuff is still permitted to be sold, but, thanks to Providence,
the "Cattle Epidemic" has much abated, so that the amount
of the certified carrion is not nearly so great as it was.
Under a wise provision of the new hanatory Act, a large
number of cellars and other dwellings, unfit for human habi-
tation, were shut up, but as soon as disease became more rife,
—as soon as Ireland began to pour her hordes of half-starved,
filthy, fever pre-disposed, ievaders into our town, at a time
when (if, sanatory regulations are of any avail), the utmost
precautions should have been used.—then did those who ought
to have prevented it, wilfully shut their eyes and their ears,
and as a yAremiuni for more fever-bearers to come over to us,
permitted those who chose to appropriate as habitations these
dens of disease and filth, to close up which our local legisla-
ture had been at considerable pains and expense in obtaining
the powers. When the numbers arriving had considerably in-
creased, it was then deemed better openly to permit mendieancy,
and so inducement after inducement has been held out for fresh
artivals—,as "the cry is still they come."
Having now taken a review of the past, let us contemplate
the present, and the means of providing for the future. Liver--
pool is just now looked upon with dread from a distance, and
no wonder, as much which has gone forth to the world has been
exaggerated. In the first place, then, the disease which is now
so prevalent in Liverpool, viz., typhus fever, is almost entirely
confined to the districts where the poor Irish vegetate, or to
persons whose duties call them frequently into these districts,
and consequently who are subjected to many of the causes
which induce it among the poor Irish and their neighbours.
Next, TYPHUS FEVER IS NOT CONTAGIOUS. This assertion,
though strong, I am prepared to defend ; but, for the sake of
allaying the over-anxiety of the public mind on the subject, I
consider it no less my duty than my pleasure to state that, if
required, I am prepared to prove it. Next, that the causes
which have induced it to so great an extent at present are com-
pletely removable. Ex gr.,Let the " powers that be" imme-
diately make arrangements to evacuate the cellars, and other
dens of disease, which have been so improperly re-tenanted ;
let them build vast tents or sheds for those so deprived of lodg-
ing;—let them, backed by their fellow-townsmen, insist upon
government at once preventing the further importation of Irish '
paupers ;—let the cleansing staff, until the whole town is tho-
roughly cleansed of its abominations, be increased at least ten-
fold;—let the supply of water be still further increased;—let
the animated bundles of rags be prevented from obtruding
their disgusting peculiarities upon the passers-by in our streets;
—let the public mind be re-assured ;—and while all this is be-
ing done, let one and all join " heart, pocket, and hand," in
petitioning government to dispense with the standing orders,
and pass at once into a law the two bills now before the house
on the subject, which will prevent, for the future, such almost
unbearable burthens being foisted on the inhabitants of Liver-
pool. Let all this, I say, be done, and Liverpool will, in a few
weeks, be a cleaner and a healthier town than she has been
since the commencement of the nineteenth century.
In conclusion, I say to government—to our paternal govern-
ment—if you do not immediately take measures to prevent the
further importation of Irish paupers, you are (now that you are
made aware cf the real facts of the case) morally guilty of the
death of all who may hereafter come and perish from fever in
Liverpool. A vast proportion of these misguided creatures
come to certain death, as the only places in which they can be
put are already in the undisputed possession of the desttover.
H. G. HARBORD.
4, Upper Parliament-street,
May 3d., 1847.