The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-04-23 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

SlR,—The editor of the Montrose Standard, whose lucu-
brations on the subject of teetotalism you have transferred
to your columns on Tuesday last, commences his observa-
tions on what he considers the objections to total abstinence
societies, by declaring that he is not a teetotaler, because he
has never read anything which convinces him that it is his '
duty to abstain from the temperate use of wine and spirits.
To this I would say, that the reason is not that sufficiently
conclusive arguments have been wanting to convince any
one open to conviction, but that it requires a species of logic
not yet discovered by the learned to convince (to any prac-
tical purpose) a man against his will.
That I am right in this respect, will, I think, scarcely be
doubted by any one who will take the trouble to read a few
lines further in the article in question, where the writer as-
serts that the more a man acts on total-abstinence principles,
he takes the SAFEST and the WISEST course—a proposition,
if capable of proof (and there is nothing easier), sufficient in
itself to decide every man who will candidly consider it,
having any pretensions to be governed by the dictates of
wisdom. If total abstinence be the safest course, it follows
as a natural consequence that the man who acts not upon its
principles is voluntarily subjecting . himself to temptation,
and all the quibbling in the world will not free him from the
charge of presumption; and if it be the wisest course, it
follows also that the man who adopts not this wise course
must plead guilty to the charge of folly: The editor of the
Montrose Standard, therefore, must
either become a tee-
totaller, or recant the proposition which immediately follows
the announcement of his not being one. Unless he adopt
one or other of these alternatives, I must arrest him in the
name of consistency, and fearlessly exclaim that he stands
self-convicted of presumption and folly.
As you have given publicity to the opinions of the editor
of the Montrose Standard, I hope you will do teetotalism
the justice to insert the above reply; and if I thought you
would allow me as much space in your next paper as his
objections have occupied in your last, I think I should have
no difficulty in disposing of them.—Yours, &C.,
A LOVER OF CONSISTENCY.
Prescot, 21st April, 1841.
[We should be glad to comply with our correspondent's re-
quest, but we have not room for such a controversy as
would inevitably result from it. We hope the insertion
of this communication will satisfy him and his brethren.]

PUBLIC MEETING ON BEHALF OF THE SHOP.

KEEPERS' ASSISTANTS

A public meeting of the inhabitants of Liverpool, con-
vened by a requisition to the mayor, numerously and respec-
tably signed, was held in the Sessions House yesterday, for
the purpose of " inquiring into the complaints of the assis-
tants and clerks in the employment of reta►l traders ; and in
case such complaints appear reasonable, to consider and de-
termine on any recommendation to the public and the
employers for a curtailment of the hours of labour." The
meeting was very numerously attended. Among those pre-
sent we observed the mayor, the town-clerk, the Rey. Hugh
Nl`Neile, the Rev. Fielding Ould, the Rev. F. Barker, Sir
J. Walmsley, William Brown, Esq., Adam Hodgson, Esq.,
William Rathbone, Esq., James Mulleneux, Esq., J. B.
Yates, Esq., and many others of equal respectability.
The MAYOR, on taking the chair, said that in compliance
with a requisition very numerously and highly respectably
signed, he had called this public meeting to consider the situ-
ation of the assistant shopkeepers whose times of attendance
in their respective occupations he believed in many cases ex-
cessively inconvenient and unhealthy, as well as depressing
to the spirits and comfort of those engaged in many such
pursuits. (Hear, hear.) The town-clerk would read the re-
quisition, which he might now state was very numerously
signed—by clergymen of all denominations, several medical
gentlemen, members of the law, and other professions, as well
as merchants and bankers, and also he believed by many
who took a distinguished part in improving the condition and
ameliorating the hardships of many of their friends, who were
less favourably situated. (Cheers. The number of signa-
tures attached to the requisition exceeded 1800. (Hear.)
The TOWN-CLERK then read the requisition. It was
headed by the Earl of Sefton, and appended to it were the
names of a vast number of the principal inhabitants of the

borough.
The MAYOR said he had received the following letter from
the Earl of Sefton, who was unable to attend the meeting :
" 38, Belgrave-square, April 21st, 1841.
"SIR,-Having put my name to a requisition to you to
call a pulic meeting. for the purpose of inquiring into the
complaint of the Tradesmen's Assistants, and not being able
to attend at the meeting, which I understand you have been
pleased to appoint for to-morrow, I think it right to trouble
you with a line to express my approval of the intended con-
sideration of the question, and my sincere hope that some
general system may be recommended and adopted by the
tradesmen, which will tend to ameliorate the moral, religious,
and physical condition of that deserving class of men.
" Yours, &c.,
" The Mayor of Liverpool. " SEFTON."
Mr. ADAM HODGSON rose to move the first resolution,
which, with the others, will be found in our advertising co-
lumns. He had great pleasure in moving this resolution,
because be concurred very cordially with the sentiments it
expressed, and because he thought the subject very well de-
serving of consideration. The question involved the com-
forts and improvement—the moral, intellectual, and religious
improvement, of a very large and a very important class of
the community—(hear)--a class who were more especially
entitled to our sympathies and our efforts, because from their
age, and their peculiar position, they were probably less
qualified than any other class to protect themselves. It was
on the consciousness of their own inability to protect them-
selves that they had forwarded their request to the Mayor to
call this public meeting—not that a public meeting could
have the smallest degree of power to control, or the smallest
right to interfere in the least degree with the contracts volun-
tarily entered into by the complainants with their masters,
or with the terms and conditions upon which they had chosen
to sell their services. He (Mr. Hodgson) altogether dis-
claimed upon his part, and upon the part of the complainants,
any idea of expressing the slightest reflection whatever upon
the highly respectable class who were shopkeepers in this
town. (Hear.) But since the public was a party to the present
system, and since it was for the accommodation of the
public that this system had been especially sustained, be
thought the public was called upon to come forward and say
—" we do not want this accommodation, and we will not
purchase it at the expence of such inconvenience and suffering
and privation of any class whatever of our fellow-country-
men," (Hear.) He should best state the case and convey
the feelings of the complainants, if the meeting would allow
him to read very shortly a few extracts from a paper which he
had had put into his hands, and which might be considered the
brief of the shopkeepers' assistants. (Hear.) It began by
stating the hours of business kept by a few shops, but he
would mention no names. One particular shop, it stated,
was opened at half-past six o'clock in the morning, and shut
at nine in the evening, making fourteen and a half hours a
day, and the work after closing, occupied from one to two
hours, making a daily labour of from 151 hours to 16
hours ; on Saturdays the shop remained open till ten o'clock.
At another shop the hours were about the same. There was
also another shop which opened at seven o'clock and closed
at nine, making 14 hours—and the work after closing occu-
pied from one to two hours, making 15 or 16 hours daily ;
on Saturdays the shop remained open till ten o'clock. At
another shop the same hours were kept, except that it was
not closed on Saturday nights till half-past eleven, so that it
was generally one or two o'clock on Sunday morning before
the assistants were released from their labour. Many small
shops in Paradise-street, Whitechapel, Ranelagh-street, St.
James's-street, Park-lane, Byrom-street, Scotland-road,
Dale-street, London-road, Tithebarn-street, &c., were
opened at half-past six in the morning and closed at ten,
making seventeen hours, and the labour after closing occu-
pied two hours, thus making nineteen hours daily
work. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) Most of these shops
did not close on Saturdays till the clock struck twelve;
and in the same class of shops there were occasional instances
of their being open after twelve. (Hear.) The foregoing,
the document he read from stated, were instances of regu-
lations among the drapers during the six months in the year
commencing with April, and ceasing with September.
During the other six months the attendance in some instances
were one hour, and in others one hour and a half less daily,
except on Saturdays, when the hour of closing was the same
in winter as in summer. The grocers of Liverpool, it went
on, opened their shops in the summer at six, and closed at
half-past nine, making fifteen hours and a half daily ; on
Saturdays they closed at twelve, making eighteen hours.
In winter their daily labour was one hour and a half,
except Saturday. In this trade there was no labour after
the shop had closed. With the higher class of tildes, such
as jewellers, printsellers, booksellers, &c., &c., the general
rule was to open their shops from seven till nine in summer,
making fourteen hours daily, and in winter from seven to
eight, making twelve and a half hours. During the hours of
business the assistants are reqcired to stand behind the coun-
ter, which was a greater fatigue than walking. For each of
their meals the assistants were allowed fifteen minutes. This
was the general rule ; but there were exceptions, where
twenty-five minutes were allowed for dinner. (Hear, hear.)
He would read one short passage more :—" The few who are
struggling to amend the system, are they who have
found light enough to perceive their own utter igno-
rance, who are depressed by a degraded feeling of
their mental condition, as compared with that of men
in other occupations, who have discovered that fustian
gets and paper caps cover better hearts and wiser heads
than are to be found in their own class decked in the finer
textures, and whose ambition soars no higher than to claim
equal advantage with the mechanic, the once despised but
now universally respected mechanic." " The remedy for
this," they said, " lies only in the good feeling of the pub-
lic." (Hear.) Such were their complaints, and we could
not perhaps estimate the case without having some such
feelings for them ourselves. Such were the facts and feel-
ings with which the complainants came before the meeting
this day. If these facts were proved—and they were capable
of proof, for they were matters of notoriety—he for one was
not ashamed to say that he sympathised warmly and cordi-
ally with the feelings of the assistants. (Hear.) For a very
long period great efforts had been made to stimulate intellec-
tual activity in every class of the community ; great efforts
had been made to provide opportunities for diffusing informa-
tion through every class ; and could we wonder if this one
class, feeling themselves precluded by the circumstances of
their condition from enjoying the advantages held out to
other classes, should come forward and desire to express
their grievances? (Hear hear.) It was morally impossi-
ble, if these facts were true, that the assistants could avail
themselves of the opportunities for acquiring knowledge
which other classes enjoyed (hear, hear) ; it was morally im-
possible that any person, with a mind jaded and exhausted,
and almost consumed by this toil, should be able to give any
vigorous exertion to intellectual cultivation. (Hear.) Men
of extraordinary genius and energy might occasionally spring
up who would break through such obstacles ; but any class
depressed by severe toil, deprived of the chance of mental
cultivation, and limited in the opportunities of improving their
intellectual capacity, must become a degraded class. (Hear.)
The shopkeepers' assistants saw and felt this—they felt the
light around them made into darkness, and they came for-
ward with the feelings of Englishmen ,andsaid , we cannot stand
this, we cannot stand still while other c!asses of our coun-
trymen are moving onwards ; we will use every legitimate
exertion in our power to endeavour to remove the grievances
of which we complain ; but if we cannot remove them, our
employers must seek (if they can find them anywhere) for a
lower class of men who will submit to the conditions that we
have been obliged to submit to. He (Mr. Hodgson) did not
regret taking this course. Lord Chatham said, when Ame-
rica began to urge her claims upon this country, that it was
impossible so many hundred thousands of men would be
willing to be slaves to this country. In like manner
he (Mr. Hodgson) was glad the assistants had come
forward in this way, not in a disrespectful or con-
temptuous manner, but respectfully, to express their sense
of their condition, and to say they could not bear to be
permanently dry, whilst the dews of heaven were permanently
falling around them. (Hear, hear.) He rejoiced they had
shown themselves sensible of the obstructions which the
present system caused in the way of religious improvement.
Upon that subject, however, he should not say a word, be-
cause he saw so many of his reverend friends present ; but,
before he sat down, he would remind the meeting who were
the class whose intellectual growth and religious improve-
ments they were thus stunting. They were the middle
classes of this community ; they were the future tradesmen and
shopkeepers who were to choose our representatives in parlia-
ment, and who were to represent us in the common council ;
they were a class to whom the constitution had recently given
a very large share of political power. It was, therefore, no
longer a question whether you should give them intelligence ;
you have given them power, and you must give them intelli-
gence. (Cheers.) Whether, therefore, we considered this
question as affecting the interests of the individuals who caine
before the meeting, or that large class throughout the king-
dom at large to which those individuals belonged, or in con-
nexion with the interests of the community, he thought the
meeting would feel the subject to be one deserving of their
interference, and one calling for the serious consideration of
every gentleman there assembled. (Hear, hear, and loud
cheers.) He did not presume—he had no information
to justify him doing so—to suggest any specific number of
hours by which this end might be accomplished. He would
only say, let it be such as should meet the entire convenience
of the lower classes, who were most to be considered; but at
the same time, let it not be such as would degrade a rational
and immortal being into an automaton or a servile drudge.
(Hear, hear.) Let it be not such as would close the temple
pen to others, where
of science to this class, whilst it was o
they might investigate the wonders of nature and the bene-
ficence of the Creator; let it not be such as would consume
all their energies of heart, of body, of mind, and unfit
them for those sacred duties which alone could fit them
for time and eternity. (Hear.) They were aware that man
must eat bread by the sweat of his brow, and therefore they
wanted not to shrink from the hardships of their condition ;
but they said, " Relieve us from this incessant work—from
this position which we feel to be degrading." (Hear.) With
these feelings they came before the meeting this day, and
submitted their case to the consideration of the public—not
wishing to show any bad feeling towards their masters, but
to co-operate with them. (
Hear.) If lie might adopt the
words so often used by the learned gentlemen who frequently
sat on the seats below, be would say to the meeting, " Gen-
tlemen, this is their case, and I sit down confident that you
will give a verdict in their favour. (Loud cheers.)
The Rev. Huoir WNEILE then rose, amid renewed
cheers, to second the resolution. He had had very great
pleasure in signing the requisition calling this meeting,
when it was first presented to him. The subject was not
new, though a requisition for a public meeting was a new
step. The subject had occupied much consideration ; and it
must, he thought, occupy the consideration of every person
who had become acquainted in detail with the circumstances
of the parties concerned, .and who was also concerned for
their best interests, both in this world and in the world to
come. But the subject was attended with difficulty. It was
difficult to effect a substantial remedy in any long standing
and fostered custom, even though upon enquiry it should
prove to be an abuse, and an abuse of so palpable a character
that it could not be defended by the arguments of reason
or justice even by those who continued in the practice of it.
It was difficult to convince men who seemed to be profiting
would, in fact, eventually profit still
by an abuse that they
) To see and feel this
more by its abolition. (Hear, hear.

so confidently as to act upon it required thought, and the
bulk of mankind were so mechanically engaged in the routine
of their daily and accustomed business, that it required a
stimulus of more than ordinary power to make them think.
A degree of thought was of course necessary for the accom-
plishment of their daily business, but a much more enlarged
and comprehensive sagacity was required to enable men to
detect, and detecting to remedy, the fundamental evils which
formed part and parcel of the system under which they
lived. (Hear, hear.)
To follow foolish precedent, and to wink
With both eyes is easier than to think.

So said one of our poets in an age not so celebrated for
thinking as the present, but the saying had not lost
its application now. We lived in what was called a
thinking age—when every subject was agitated, and when
the needful stimulus was applied to men's minds to cause
them to consider not only the antiquity but the reason of
existing customs. Happy would it be for us, and our children
afterwards, if, during this inquiry, the high, unchanged, and
eternal difference between right and wrong was observed, as it
stood revealed in the word of the living God, and kept in
view as the regulating standard for mankind. (Hear, hear.)
Otherwise without a regulating standard the human mind was
so naturally vagrant, and the human heart sonaturally deceit-
ful, that men in the progress of social improvement, and in the
eager pursuit of it, might rush headlong into the midst of wild
and disastrous experiment. Changes from proved abuses
were duties ; but wisdom, discretion, judgment, forbearance,
patience, and a consideration of the various collateral inter-
ests involved were necessary to make those changes im-
provements ; for it was not every change that could
be dignified with the name of improvement. The change
they proposed on the present occasion they thought
would be an improvement, and they adopted this course
in aiming at the change, in order that the merits of the case
might be fairly and sufficiently examined. The facts of the
case—some of them—had been already briefly laid before
the public from the paper which Mr. Hodgson,,had read.
The parties concerned were a numerous class; the assist-
ants in shops in this town, together with the porters and
messengers connected with those shops, amounted to no
smaller number than 15,000 persons. He had had sup-
plied to him a statistical account, which he had no doubt
contained as great an approximation to the truth and to the
real state of the case, as statistical accounts generally did.
This account estimated the number of drapers' shops in this
town at 2.so—the average number of assistants employed in
those shops was eight, making a total number of assistants
employed in drapers' shops at 2,000 persons ; the number of
grocers' shops in the town was five hundred—the average
number of assistants employed in each two, making the
number of assistants in grocers' shops 1000 ; the number
of provision shops in Liverpool was 500—the average num-
ber of assistants employed in each 2, making the gross num-
ber of assistants 1000 ; of chemists and druggists there were
150—the average number of assistants employed in each 2,
making 300 in all ; boot and shoemakers there were 612
the average number of assistants 11, or 3 to two shops, mak-
ing 918 ; and so the list went on showing that the aggregate
number of 9000 were actually employed as assistants in shops.
To these there were to be added porters and errand boys—
an average allowance of 11 to each shop, which would give
6000, or altogether about 15,000 persons. Now, with regard
to those in the shops, the meeting had already heard, from
the paper read by Mr. Hodgson, that they were required
to be in attendance fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, and in some
instances seventeen hours a-day, and in one or two cases men-
tioned in the list, upon Saturday the whole amount of their
time realized 18 hours. This the resolution the meeting were
called upon to adopt, called " an unnatural amount of la-
bour." He thought, however, that a very general impres-
sion was abroad that the young men in shops were not over-
laboured, that the work they had to perform was light, and
that the time they were occupied in it should not therefore
be so rigidly scrutinised. But recollect, it had been stated
in the paper which Mr. Hodgson had read, that during the
whole time of their employment in the shops they were
obliged to stand. (Hear.) No sitting down was allowed
behind the counter. (Hear, hear.) Those who had never
tried it might imagine that standing a long time pro-
duced little fatigue ; but he (Mr. M`Neile) could answer
from experience that they were very greatly mistaken.
(Hear, hear.) Standing for a long time induced very serious
lassitude, more, he sincerely believed, than walking at a mo-
derate pace for the same number of hours. (Cheers.) Con-
nected with this was another feature—they were not allowed
to read during that period ; no book must appear in the shop,
so that during the intervals, and there must be intervals be-
tween the visits of customers, these young men were absolutely
and inevitably idle. (Hear, hear.) Nay, even their private
letters were not delivered to them, so that they should not
read them behind the counter. (Hear, hear.) It was here
stated, " instances could be given of letters for the assistants
delivered in the morning being detained by the employers till
after the long hours of business, lest five minutes should be
lost in the perusal, or the assistant's attention diverted for a
moment from his master's business ; letters had even been
kept back for days to be given to their owners on the Sunday."
He mentioned this, not to create any such feeling with re-
gard to the masters as had produced the cry which had invo-
luntarily burst from a few individuals in the meeting, but
simply to put the public in possession of the facts of the
case. He believed this was the first thing to be done—the
public must be put in possession of the existing hardships of
the case, and there were hardships in the case. (Hear.)
When it was understood that these young men were em-
ployed from fifteen to seventeen hours a-day, that during
that time they could not sit down for one moment, that they
might not open a book, that even private letters were kept
back from them,—it must he admitted that there was a degree
of exaction which the business of the master in no way re-
required. (Hear.) There was a tyrant somewhere. It
was not in the disposition of the masters, for they were
kind men, and willing to ameliorate the condition of their
assistants in every way consistent with their own business.
Where was it then but in custom ? The tyrant was custom,
and they wanted to have that custom examined, in order to
its being changed. (Hear.) Their appeal was to the public,
but not against the masters. (Loud cheers.) An objection
would be urged, and urged very seriously, against such a
proceeding as this, which his own mind would at once recog-
nize, and prevent him from joining in that meeting, namely,
if this were a party movement of the assistants against their
masters—if there was any attempt at coercion of the masters.
(Hear, hear.) It required considerable caution and great
delicacy to interfere with regulations and contracts formed
between employers and the employed in any branch of trade
in our great commercial community. Where interference
was called for was where the employed were under-aged, or
were unable themselves to form contracts, and who
might be made subservient to the cupidity of parents and
guardians who did not feel for the necessities of their children,
and who allowed them to be taken into factories and compelled
to a description of labonr, which was injurious both to body
and mind. These cases admitted interference between the
children and the employers, because they could not make
contracts of themselves; but he should shrink exceedingly
from being a party to interfere with contracts between man
and man voluntarily entered into. (Hear, hear.) What
they were now desirous of doing was, not to interfere be-
tween employers and their servants, but to appeal to the pub-
lic for the accomplishment of an object in which they con-
templated the masters as willing to co-operate. (Cheers.)
He looked upon the masters as willing to co-operate, if they
could ; but how was combination to be attained ? How was
an universal and simultaneous movement to be accomplished ?
And without such combination and simultaneous movement,
how was fairness of competition to be kept up ? Hear,
hear.) If some shops closed at seven o'clock and
others at ten, how was the man who trafficked only
ten hours a day to compete with the man who trafficked for
fifteen hours ? The masters might very fairly say, " lam
willing to enter into this arrangement provided it is univer-
sally made, but can you expect me to do it whilst my neigh-
bour does it not, and so expose myself to the mortification and
loss of seeing my door shut to customers three or four hours

night, and an open door to them at my neighbours ?
dear.) If customers would persevere in frequenting shop:
chat remained open a long time at night, the thing could not
be done by any such movement as the present ;—(hear)---
their appeal then was to the customers and to the public.
They appealed to them thus—" here is a case of hardship on
the assistants, a case of willingness in the masters, and if the
evil be continued, you are to blame. What we want you to
do is, that you should give a decided preference to those
shops that shut up at seven o'clock in the evening." (Cheers.)
They were in a condition to commence this experiment well,
because there were some high-spirited, honourable shop-
keepers in Liverpool, who, in the face of all difficulty, in the
face of all unfairness in competition, had boldly taken the
step of shutting their shop doors at seven o'clock. (Hear.)
It was a privilege to mention their names : he would, there-
fore, read their names, and implore the public of Liverpool
to give them their best and earnest support. (Cheers.)
They were Messrs. Bright and Co., drapers, Bold-street;
Mr. T. Wilson, draper, Bold-street; Messrs. Howarth
and Co. drapers, Bold-street; Mr. Townsend, stationer,
Bold-street; Mr. Wood, carpet warehouse, Bold-street;
Messrs. Williams and Whitby, Bold-street; Mr. Seaton,
paper-hanger, Bold-street; Mr. Bardon, tailor, &c., Bold-
street; Mrs. Wood, bookseller, Bold-street; Mr. Anderson,
linen-warehouse, Bold-street. (Hear.) The paper then
said, " and some others." He regretted exceedingly that any
one who had a title to the distinction should be omitted.
(Hear.) He would not willingly omit one, and if any were
omitted in the list, it was because it was not furnished in the
instructions, and he was not aware of them from his own
personal knowledge. (Cheers.) Here was a list of shops
that agreed with the object of the meeting, which were willin
to accede to the desires of the chief magistrate and th
clergy •, and the magistrates of the town who co-operated
with them ; they should at once be made to feel in every in-
stance, not only that they would lose nothing by shuttin
their shops at seven o'clock, but that absolutely the
would gain. (Hear.) The way to carry this measure was
for the public of Liverpool to crowd those shops to suffocae
tion all day long. (Cheers.) He did not say this to injur-
the shops that did not enter into the arrangement, but to
induce combination in order that all shops might be shut at
seven, and all be entitled to support. (Loud cheers.)
There was one special feature in this case, which he thought
it important to notice before he passed from the subject of
time, and that was the special claim which some persons felt
Saturday had for an enlarged number of hours to work.
(Hear.) Here again came in the tyrant custom. Satur-
day was the market-day ; idle people generally went about
the streets on Saturday evenings ; and if the fine, and rich,
and glittering shops, with large panes of plate glass, and
blazing gas-lights were kept till eleven at night to get custom,
those idle people would walk the streets till that hour. What
was the consequence ? There was in most of the shops, espe-
cially the draper's, the work of an hour, sometimes two
hours, for the assistants after the outside door was closed.
This almost invariably drove those young men into the com-
pulsion of working upon the Sabbath morning. (Hear,
hear.) He felt satisfied, however, that the majority of the
public of Liverpool would not sanction any system, when
they knew that it systematically violated the sabbath
by such works as these (hear, hear) ; therefore the meeting
should claim the same period for terminating the labour of
the assistants upon Saturdays as upon other days. He had
heard an objection against all this, grounded, it was said,
upon experiment, and upon certain facts alleged against the
conduct of the young men themselves. The experiment he
alluded to was the " Tradesmen's Association," which was
subscribed to, and supported by, the masters, in order that
their young men might improve themselves by reading. It
was not, however, supported by the assistants. He believed
it was attended only by 150 of them out of 9000. (Hear.)
That fact was appealed to as a proof that there was no use in
giving them more leisure, for they had abused the time already
given them. Another statement was made, into the truth of
which, or rather the extent of the truth of which, he was not
prepared to enter ; but into the nature of it he was. it was
alleged concerning them that even now, in the short intervals
allowed for their meals, or in short snatches of time taken
by stealth, they ran to public-houses and drank. This was
alleged as a reason why there should be no mitigation of their
permanent period of labour. He pleaded these facts as upon
his side of the argument, because they shewed that the pre-
sent system had debased the character of these men
from the self control of human intelligence down to a mix-
ture of mechanism in business and animal indulgence in
enjoyment. (Loud applause.) It required some time to
recover from the ill effects of such a stupefying system
as this: It reminded him of some of the arguments
he had the misfortune to hear often urged many years ago by
the anti-abolitionists, respecting the negro slaves. They
told us the poor negroes were so degraded that they did not
care for liberty, that they preferred theirbondabgaec,katnodtthehairt
if you made them free they would sigh to go
bonds. (Hear.) He heard an instance of one who
mwhoabdyefreeland-
ing;
upon our happy shore, had ipso facto
that notwithstanding he had
.been made free by landing in
Eneand, he preferred a life of slavery, and returned
as such to the West Indies. What did that prove ?
It proved that the state of slavery had deprived him of
the feelings and principles of a man—(cheers) ; and if
this shopkeeping system had so degraded a set of young

men that when time was afforded them they made a bad use
of it, he protested he thought it one of the strongest argu-
ments in favour of a change—an additional argument for a
well-regulated and judiciously-managed change. (Cheers.)
He was not advocating any rash, intemperate measure, but
one that would give an opportunity to improve the habits and
condition of these young men—and he was sorry to say that
there was too good reason for calling them young men, for
the injury done by the system to their health prevented many
of them from living to an advanced age. It was a grievous
fact in their history, as set forth in a pamphlet published
under the name of John Tompkins, and he did not know
the slightest reason for doubting the truth of the statement,
that few of them attained the age of 40 years, and that most
of them died ender the age of 30. (Hear.) It was morally
impossible for them to emerge from the effects of a system
under which they had been long living, and at once to Mani-
fest what could only be the produce of long and patient
culture. He claimed then time for them. (Hear, hear.)
How else could their minds be enlarged ? How could their
responsibilities as immortal beings be felt and realised ? How
could their position, with regard to Almighty God, be felt
by themselves ? How could they feel their privileges as Chris-
tians under the light of revealed religion, in the glory of the
Father who had given his dear Son for them ? How could
the privileges of Christians be realised without time ? (Hear,
hear.) They must have time to think otherwise. In vain
would their parents inculcate upon them to be good and affec-
tionate sons ; in vain their masters inculcate honesty in the
discharge of their business ; in vain their pastors inculcate
upon them, when chance gave them time to call upon them,
to search the scriptures,,to read the word of God, and to
pray. It was mockery to tell them all this if they had no time
to do it. (Hear.) It was calling upon them with the voice
of an Egyptian taskmaster to go make brick, when
the materials for making them were witheld. (Hear.)
Upon these grounds it was that they made their appeal to
the public ; and a good opportunity was now offered for bring-
ing unanimity among the masters, which they were willing
to act upon, lie was willing to believe, provided it could be
done with fairness to themselves. With regard to this, and
in conclusion, he would mention a circumstance which,
though upon a small scale, shewed what could be done by
combination—still leaving the difficulty of combining such a
town as this. He recollected a circumstance which occurred
some years ago in a country parish in the south of England.
The clergyman found there were four grocers who kept their
shops open upon Sundays. They kept them open half the day,
and the poor people were in the habit of making their purchases.
He was anxious to put an end to this desecration of the Sab-
bath, and he called upon each of them for that purpose.
They each professed the greatest possible willingness to close
their shops, provided the other three would. Having got
this promise severally from each of them, he appointed a
time for them to meet at his house, without informing one
that he:had invited the other ; and to their great surpise they
found themselves, at the appointed time, face to face, in the
parson's study. (Hear.) " Now," said he to them, " gen-
tlemen, you have each promised me that if the other three
will close their shops on the Sunday, you will each shut up
yours." They could not deny it. " Here," said he, "is a
paper I have drawn up, pledging you to keep your
shops closed on the Sunday ; I tell you honestly I
want to get your four signatures to it, and to fix
it upon the church-doors next Sunday." They looked
upon the paper rather suspiciously, as to who should
sign first. He said to them, " You need not mind that, for
I will give you my word, unless :the whole four sign it,
it shall not be signed at all." One then stepped forward,
and signed the paper ; eventually they all signed it ; it was
put upon the church-door the next Sunday, and no one was
injured by it, but everyone was benefitted. (Cheers.) The story
was not yet finished. There was temporary inconvenience aris-
ing to the poor people from the farmers paying their labourers
upon the Saturday night: this was brought into obser-
vation; an immediate appeal was made to the public of the
parish; the farmers were gathered together with the small
shopkeepers at a public meeting, and every farmer in the
parish, except one little cantankerous fellow—for such there
always would be--agreed to pay their labourers upon the
Friday evening. (Cheers.) They were paid upon the Fri-
day—their wives went to the shops on Saturday—the shops
were all shut on Sunday—and the parish wore an aspect of
moral improvement and religious attention, such as never
would have been but for the combination among the grocers
to begin with. (Loud cheering, during which the rev. gen-
tleman sat down.)
The resolution was then put, and carried unanimously.
Mr. JAMES MULLENEUX moved the next resolution, ob-
serving that the grievances and the patience of the shop-
keepers' assistants had been long familiar to his mind and
long deplored. He had been connected the greater portion
of his existence with an institution which, after exertions and
efforts of no ordinary nature, had attained a degree of pros-
perity which enabled it to diffuse the blessings of education,
of knowledge, and of rational improvement, among every
class of the community. He alluded to the Mechanics' In-
stitution. (Hear, hear.) The only portion of his fellow-
townsmen who could not claim those advantages were the
class whose interests they had met to serve, and this arose
from causes which they were endeavouring to remove. He
was aware of the formidable difficulties which surrounded the
question ; but lie sincerely hoped and trusted that the
truly public-spirited, liberal and enlightened shopkeepers
of Liverpool would surmount these difficulties, and place
their assistants upon an equality of comfort and advantages
with the rest of their fellow-citizens. (Loud cheers.)
The Rev. F. BARKER, in seconding the resolution said he
should have felt ashamed of himself as an Englishman and
a minister, if he bad refused to come forward in such a cause
as this. It was a movement only in accordance with much
more that had already been done, and with much that was
still doing in the empire. We had liberated tens of thou-
sands of the sons of Africa; the legislature had been occu-
pied for a considerable portion of time in enacting laws
for the better regulation of factory children, and when
those laws were found to be not sufficiently stringent
because they did not embrace the children employed in silk
factories they were amended ; the chimney sweepers had not
escaped notice; the boatmen employed on our canals had
had their case examined, and the difficulties in the way of
their moral improvement removed; and now another class
of our fellow-countrymen stepped forward. From the strong
justice of their case, he felt assured of a ready, patient, and
impartial hearing, under the auspices of the chief magistrate,
when they claimed to be set free from the bonds of this op-
pressive system. He should deem it almost an intrusion it
he were to attempt to enter upon the resolution in a practical
manner ; but he deemed it not an intrusion in a minister o
the gracious gospel of God to advance such a cause as thi
by advocating those high and holy grounds whose force could
overcome every difficulty. The resolution spoke of the labour
of the assistants being limited to ten hours a-day.—The rev.
gentleman then contended that ten hours a-day was amply
sufficient for all the purposes of business, and that the only
question was the public convenience. The only sufferers by
the change, as it seemed to him, would be the labouring
classes. This consideration brought him to the other abuse,
which was the payment of wages by employers upon Satur-
day night. Let that question, too, be agitated ; let mfor-
mition upon it be placed before the public mind, in order
that they might see how intimately this was connected with
the abuse which concerned this meeting. He knew it to be
the custom of many large and influential tradesmen to pay
their weekly wages on the Friday evening ;no inconvenience
arose from the practice, and he was acquainted with the fa-
milies of several labourers who regularly attended divine
worship on the Sunday, which they could not have done if
their wages had been paid upon Saturday night. This
question, then, might fairly be brought before the public.
He was requested to say that the Mayor's and several other
houses paid their wages upon Friday night.—The reverend
gentleman then proceeded to argue the question of giving
additional time to the shopkeepers' assistants, upon religious
' grounds, and he concluded an impressive speech by second-
ing the resolution.
The MAYOR then put the resolution, and it was adopted
unanimously.

An ASSISTANT here recited some verses, in which the whole
case of his coadjutors was described with considerable spirit.
Mr. W. B. HODGSON moved the third resolution. There
were three parties in this question—the assistants, the shop-
keepers, and the public. He considered the two first as
willing to co operate for the alteration of a system which was
injurious to both; but the chief difficulty lay in securing the
co-operation of the public. If that were accomplished the
object could be attained. To effect it, that meeting as indi-
viduals must pledge themselves not to support the present
system, but keep up that which was but now begun—a con-
stant system of agitation against it.
The Rev. FIELDING OULD observed that the subject had
now been discussed in every possible way ; it had been dis-
cussed in sober prose, and in some beautiful poetry; and the
cause had been advocated by Englishmen, Irishmen, and
Scotchmen. Every thing had thus been said to make out an
exceedingly strong case ; and, therefore, it was by no means
necessary that he should trespass upon the meeting except
for a very few moments. He could not do justice to his
feelings in this matter if he did not distinctly say that he
deeply sympathised with those persons whose interests they
were assembled to promote, and no one could feel more
anxious than he did, or more disposed to use every exertion,
to accomplish the very reasonable objects of the assistants.
He had taken some pains to make enquiries and to instruct
his mind upon this subject by speaking to several em-
ployers, and he had met with none who did not deeply
sympathise with the assistants, and express most earnest
anxiety to obtain relief for them. The rev. gent. laid down
the following as their grievances :—first, that the present
system was a serious injury to their health ; second,
that it prevented them from employing their time in mental
improvement ; third, that in many instances it prevented
them from seeing and enjoying the society of their own fami-
lies ; and fourth, that it prevented them from attending di-
vine worship upon the Lord's Day. Having dwelt with great
eloquence upon these positions, Mr. Ould next replied to
the following objections :—first, that if more time were
granted to the assistants, it would certainly be mis-spent ;
secondly, that the only way to accomplish the end was, by a
legislative enactment; third, that the convenience of many
persons required late hours to be kept by shopkeepers ;
and fourth, that the assistants generally did not care for the
relief now sought as only a few of them had asked for it.
As to this last objection, he had been told that many had
been restrained from interfering by fear, and from a convic-
tion that success was hopeless. At this day that was impos-
sible. Napoleon Bonapare said that in his dictionary there
was no such word as impossible—and there was nothing he
(Mr. Odd) held, which it was right and proper to be done
which it was impossible to do. He was far from thinking
success was impossible. They were making a beginning
under favourable circumstances ; they had the countenance of
the mayor and magistrates of the town which was a very impor-
tant consideration ; they had the support of the humane, cha-
ritable,and religious, and no cause so backed had ever yet been
found impossible of attainment. It was unnecessary for
him to say another word. He hoped there would other meet-
ings on the subject, for the present would not be sufficient to
leaven the public mind. Let the mayor call them together
again and again, and he for one would come. (Loud cheers).
It was the cause of Christian charity. They wanted a ten
hours' bill, and after alittle wholesome agitation—as agita-
tion seemed to be fashionable in these times—they would
gain it. (Cheers.) The reverend gentleman concluded by
seconding the resolution.
After a few words from a Mr. WINTYRE, the resolution
was put and carried.
Mr. J. B. YATES, after expressing his hearty concurrence
in the general objects of the meeting, and suggesting that in
order to enable the shopkeepers to close at an earlier hour
on Saturday nights, the markets should be closed sooner,
(which could be done by the town-council) moved the fol-
lowing as the next resolution :
" That, in the opinion of this meeting, ten hours each day
(Sundays excepted) are amply sufficient for trausacting the
necessary business of the shopkeepers, and their release from
further labour would greatly promote the moral, religious,
and social improvement of the assistants ; that the persons
now present pledge themselves cheerfully to submit to any
trifling inconvenience that may arise from the proposed re-
laxation, and to support and encourage those tradesmen who
conform to the wishes of the inhabitants, expressed through
the present meeting publicly convened for the purpose.
That the resolutions be signed by the Mayor, on behalf of
the Meeting, and advertised in each of the public journals."
Mr. WILLIAM BROWN said he had not intended to take
any part in the proceedings, but from the arguments he had
heard, and the facts stated, he did not see how it was possible
for any man to dissent from the resolution proposed by Mr.
Yates. He had therefore great pleasure in seconding it.
Sir JosnvA WALMSLEY said he had declined signing the
requisition, because he wished first to understand the subject,
and to know whether the meeting was to be . an attempt at
coercion by :the assistants against the masters. He had
heard that disclaimed in all hands, and that there was not
the slightest opposition but the contrary, on the part
of the shopkeepers to improve the present systeii.
If that was the case, it was for the public to work
it out. No man could feel more strongly than he di
the necessity of releasing the assistants of shopkeepers from
their employment at au hour sufficiently early to enable them

to go to some place for instruction, and their masters bel'
willing, it only remained for the inhabitants to express their
opinion with determination, and to carry it out by all the
means in their power. With this view he should move an
amendment, which would place the onus of not carrying the
wishes of the meeting into effect,_ not upon the shopkeepers,
but upon the public. He expressed a wish that the clerks
in merchants counting houses and attorneys' offices should
also have their hours of labour reduced.
Mr. CHESNEY seconded the amendment.

Mr. ADAM HODGSON opposed the amendment, on the
ground that it was in the Mature of a threat.
Mr. JAMES OWEN thought the meeting had gone too far
in deciding that the shops should be closed at seven in the
evening. He was sure that would never be attained ; and
he would suggest that eight should be fixed.
An ASSISTANT supported the amendment.
Mr. TURNER, shoemaker, opposed it. . . .

Mr. WM. RATHBONE requested the mover to withdraw
the amendment, as it pledged the meeting to a principle which
could scarcely be expected to be kept. He approved of what
had fallen from Sir J. Walmsley vespecting the shortening of
the hours of clerks in countinz-houses, and would mention
that their's (Rathbone Brothers) had been, for twenty years,
closed at six o'clock.
Mr. WILLIAM BROWN' said, from what had fallen from
Sir Joshua Walmsley it might be inferred that merchants'
clerks were as badly off as shopkeepers' assistants. That
was not the case. Mr. Brown then described how his clerks
were treated, from which it appeared that they commenced
their duties at nine or half-past nine in the morning, and
closed at seven, or earlier if there was no business going on,
and that in the day they were supplied with newspapers and
periodicals.

Mr. BATESON supported the amendment.
An AsstsTANTalso supported it in. an address which caus,

considerable amusement

Sir J. WA LMSLEY and Mr. YATES having each explained
their proposition.
The MAYOR then took a show of hands on the amend-
ment and the original motion, and declared the amendment
to have been carried. It appears in the advertisement as one
of the resolutions.
On the motion of the Rev. F. BARKER, seconded by the
Rev. FIELDING OULD, a vote of thanks was presented to

.
the mayor for his able and courteous conduct in the chair.
The MAYOR returned thanks very briefly, and at three
o'clock the meeting separated.

A. shower of hail fell over this city yesterday. Some of
the hail-stones were nearly an inch in diameter.—Durham
Chronicle of Friday.
The loss sustained by the Bank of England on discount-
ing acceptances amounting to forty millions sterling, does
not e=xceed twopence-halfpenny per cent.
The Queen Dowager, with her accustomed liberality, has
subscribed 410 towards the erection of the new parish church
of Portsea. Her Majesty has also given £2O towards the
erection of a new church in Stokes Bay, near Gosport.—
Hampshire Telegraph.

A RESEMBLANCE.—" Colonel W. is a fine-looking man,
ain't he?" said a friend of ours the other day. " Yes,"
replied another; " I was taken for him once." " You!
why, you're as ugly as sin !" " I don't care for that : I was
taken for him ; I endorsed his note, and was taken for him
—by the sheriff."—American paper.
DEPLORABLE ACCIDENT BY FIRE-ARMS.---A fine youth,
named Jones, a grandson of Mrs: Humphreys, of Trepenal,
near Llanymynech, was at a neighbouring blacksmith's shop,
on the sth inst., when one of the men proceeded to clean an
old gun. Not being able to unscrew the breech when placed
in a vyse, the thoughtless fellow thrust the barrel into the fire
without first examining it, and the consequences were dread-
ful. The piece was heavily charged with large shot ;—it im-
mediately exploded, and the poor boy received the greatest
part of the contents in his left breast and shoulder. The
sufferer was carried to the nearest house, when surgical as-
sistance obtained as early as possible; in a day or two, a
somewhat favourable opinion was pronounced on the case,
and it gives us much pleasure to hear that the boy is going
on well.

CONGLETON CONSERVATIVE DINNER TO SIR P. EGER.
TON, M.P., AND JOHN TOLLEMACHE, ESQ.—This meeting
took place on Wednesday week last, and went off in a style
and spirit that surpassed the most sanguine expectations of
its warmest promoters, and no one who had the gratification
of witnessing the proud display it afforded to the conserva-
tive strength of the once radical town of Congleton can fail
to regard this festival as an omen of the approaching eman-
cipation of South Cheshire from whiggery. The chair
was most worthily filled by Gibbs Crawford Antrobus, of
Eaton Hall, Esq., ably supported by Randle Wilbraham,
Jun., Esq., and James Bateman. Esq., and the meeting was
ably addressed by Sir Philip Egerton, Mr. Samuel Holme,
Mr. Tollemache and others.

It ought to be generally known, that members of town-
councils are not only exempt from, but absolutely disqualified
for, serving on juries. In a recent case tried in the Sheriff's
Court at Devonport, a Mr. Liscombe, one of the town-
council of that borough, having objected to serve on a jury,
on the ground of his being a member of the town-council,
the objection was over-ruled by the under-sheriff. After the
trial had proceeded for some time, a copy of the act of par-
liament was obtained, and the disqualification discovered.
Mr. Liscombe was therefore directed to leave the jury-box,
and another gentleman, who had been summoned as a juror,
and had remained in court, although not called, was sworn in
his stead.

EXTRAORDINARY TRAVELLING. —Some time since

gentleman in York undertook to perform a journey from
York to the metropolis, and arrive again in York in twenty-
four hours. The attempt was made during the last week.
The party aUuded to started from the railway station at York
on Thursday morning week, at forty-five minutes past eight
o'clock, and arrived in London precisely at half-past seven
o'clock the same evening. He transacted business with one
or two parties in London, and availed himself of an opportu-
nity of visiting Covent Garden Theatre, where he remained
upwards of a quarter of an hour ; and after taking a sti.oll
through the market, and purchasing sundry early produc-
tions, returned by the mail train to York, where he arrived,
with comparatively no fatigue, the following morning, at ten
minutes before eight o'clock—thus completing the whole
journey in twenty-three hours and five minutes, a total dis-
-1 tance of 450 miles.—Hull Advertiser.

We understand that arrangements are now in progress for
raising and organising an additional number of veteran com-
panies, for exclusive and permanent service in Canada, where
they are to be employed upon garrison duty. Their princi-
pal strength in rank and file will consist of volunteers from
the regiments at present stationed in America, more espe-
cially from such of them as are under orders to return home.
The officers and non-commissioned officers will, we believe,
be taken from the full pay of the line ; and we hope that the
General Commanding in Chief will not, in filling up the
various appointments, lose sight of the merits and strong
claims for promotion of the numerous old and deserving, but
unfortunate, subalterns. who after having for a long period of
their lives devoted their best energies to the service, are
now, comparatively, unfit for any save garrison duty ; and if
not kindly patronised by Lord Hill upon the forthcoming
occasion, must necessarily soon be reduced to the distress-
ing alternative of going upon half-pay.—United Service
Gazette.

THE WIDOW OF THE GRAND ARMY.—About the close of
the last year an old woman, with all the confident air of one
who had passed her life in camps, went to a retired officer,
and, after reviving his recollections of many battles, and hi
military terms, some of them not the most refined, bore tes-
timony to his feats of arms, informed him that, being the
oldest female follower of the troops of Napoleon, she had
been invested with the title of the widow of the Grand Army ;
and, in consequence of this distinction, had been allowed to
accompany the expedition to St. Helena, was present at the
exhumation of the remains of the Emperor, which she ac-
companied all the way back to France, and followed to their
last deposit at the Invalides. She concluded her boastful

narrative, by stating that the government had granted her a
donation of 5000 f, which she was to receive in a few days ;
but, in the meantime, her finances were reduced by her long
journeyings, and therefore requested him to lend her 125 f,
which she would faithfully repay. The worthy old officer,
giving too easy credit to her tale, advanced her the money.
A considerable time having elapsed without the re-appear-
ance of the plausible widow, he made inquiries, and soon as-
certained that the whole tale was pure invention ; but all
efforts to discover her have hitherto been ineffectual. Having
lodged a complaint, she was yesterday condemned in default,
by the Correctional Tribunal, to 12 months' imprisonment.
—Galignani.

Sister Sainte Gabrielli, the sister of charity,

and acquittal upon an indictment for homicide by impru-
dence, in administering to a patient at the Hotel Dieu a
a quantity of corrosive sublimate instead of Glauber's salts,
from which death ensued, we gave a short time since, made
her appearance yesterday before the Cour Royale, the Pro-
cureur du Roi having lodged an appeal against the judgment
of the court below. She was again attended by the superior
of her order, and by another sister. She had only been that
morning informed of her having to undergo this new ordeal,
and was much cast down, and bathed in tears. The presi-
dent ordered a chair to be placed for her, near her counsel,
M. Charles Ledru, and every attention was paid her. The
advocate-general confined himself to a simple statement of