The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-06-18 00:00:00

TO ?NE IFORKPROPLE OF ENGLAND

Fellow Operatives,—Until recently we allowed ourselves
to be humbugged by the most hollow set of hypocrites in the
empire ; I mean the whig or milloerat faction. Experience,
however, has taught us the utter faithlessness of these people
—we have found out the secret of all their mock philan-
thropy, and that is, the attainment of wealth at the expense
of our bonus and sinews—that is all they want.
See the game they are playing now in their attempt (vain
attempt, I trust,) to delude us by their hideous and malig-
nant outcry against the corn laws : why, it is for the selfsame
object they try to ruin the agriculturists, (better men a mil-
lion times over than themselves) in order that the labourers
may come down to the manufacturing towns by thousands,
so that they (the millowners) may have their work done for
whatever they choose to give for it—and you can guess pretty
nearly what that will be, when you are left to their tender
mercy; already they cast you away at middle age, when you
are the most able and willing to work, and fill your places
with females and children ; because you will not work for
the next thing to nothing ; this statement is most conclu-
sively proved by that real philanthropist and patriot, Dr.
Holland, of Sheffield. In his sixth letter to Mr. Mar-
shall, spinner, of Leeds, he proves, among many other im-
portant facts,—that the flax spinners of the United Kingdom
in 1835, were 33,283, of whom only 4564 were adults above
18 years of age—the remaining 28,719 being females and
children !! Think of that.

Again, in the silk manufactories, the proportion of children
under 18 years old is 60 per cent., and of females 70 per cent.,
and many thousands of able-bodied men can only earn 4s. 6di
to 6s. 6d. per week ; and multitudes of women and children
for six days hard labour, receive only half that slim ! ! Think
of that.
The result of this system of employing women and children
in place of men, is, that in the silk trade alone, the number
of surplus hands created annually is 10,153, and in five years,
50,767 ! ! Ponder deeply on that also.
Mr. Marshall's mill alone shows the following horrible re-
sults, as proved by his own evidence :
Number of hands employed in one of his mi 115.... 1229
Number under 21 years of age of the above . ..... 1025
Leaving only ............................ 204
above the age of 21, and of which small number of 204, the
to
greater number are under 30! The average wages paid
the above 1025 workpeople is just ss. 6d. per week !! nk
of this too.
Mr. Holland adds with commendable indignity, "you are
either killing or throwing upon society, as twit", from hav-
ing reached 21 years of age, at least 100 persons annually.'
So much then for these kind-hearted millocrats, who want
cheap bread for us, just as they want cheap oil for their ma-
chinery ; but let us not be quelled by the tyrants who them -
selves reside in palaces, and wallow in wealth and luxury,
while they degrade us beneath the level of their beasts.
They think that we have no sense to• pee, that, so long as
they can get their work done by children, and STEAM MA-
CHINERY, there will be no use in am' appealing to them for
work, unless we do it for children' pay
Now let ns see the effects of this sytern (of turning men
out of employ to make room for the " free labour" of
children) on the state of crime in this country.
The committals for crime in England and Wales
in 1825 were .............................. 4606
The same under the present system, in 1838, were 22,000
Again, the number who have been in custody in the Leeds
Borough Gaol, in 1816, was 364 ; and in 1836, 3202! ! Coe-
sides- this well. Se teach then for the inert:My of their
systems.

Let us next see its effects ee the duration of human life.
Tke proportion out of every 1000 persons who reach 70 years
of age and upwards, are—
In the agricultural districts of Durham and Devonshire 20.5
In the manufactnri mg districts of Manchester and Leeds 604
Here is a picture for your study, consider these things well,
and then ask yourselves, what might be the objects of the
reillocrats in asking our aid to ruin ourselves. I might go
on enlarging on the villainy and hypocrisy of these brawlers
for cheap bread, which we all know by this time means low
wages, or no wages at all. But this much may suffice for the
present. I am, &c.,
A FELLOW-OPEHATIV

ANTI-CORN-LAW AGITATION AT PRESCOT.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STAVDARD.

I have no doubt it will be gratifying to the friends of order
and the protectors of tke rights of property to learn the na-
ture of a meeting, or pretence for a meeting, on anti-corn-
law principles, which was convened, or rather conveyed here
from Liverpool on yesterday evening, and which was intended
to be-called a meeting of the inhabitants of Present. I at-
tended, amongst the mob (for there was no other description
of persons present), when, to my utter disappointment, I
found it was only a few of those teetotal preachers from
Liverpool, hired by the whigs, and one of whom 1 imme-
diately recognised, wearing an old white hat, and may be
seen on a Sunday mounted on an old cart, or something like
it, in that waste ground near the Custom-house, announcing
himself as a reclaimed drunkard and vagabond : as for a
Present gentleman, there was no such amongst them, except
a few who came down to chew their detestation of the pro-
ceedings. They were headed by a Mr. Heyworth, from near
Knotty Ash, an old teetotal preacher, and a raving whig.
radical of the O'Connell and Melbourne minority. On their
entering Prescot, I only pronounced the name of Lord Stan-
ley, whe❑ several cheers were heard from various parts of the
throng, which shewed they were not all whig fools and
dupes. I think they aelopted certain resolutions, prepared
before starting from Liverpool, and seconded by a few of the
above description of persons, whom they brought with them
for the purpose in something like a dung cart, with small
flags, a loaf, &c. They got up a bit of music in the nature of
a band, which, of course, attracted considerable numbers of
the ignorant mob, chiefly Irish. Their text was followed by
the doctrines of spoliation of property, and preached to
those who had none, who, instead of supporting a set of
such impostors, ought to be found with something like em-
ployment, for, if we had any means of getting reasonable em-
ployment, bread is cheap enough at present, and it will be
poor consolation to see the number of our poor unemployed
people increased by millions ; this will he a desperate sight
to behold, and a very unwise accompaniment with cheap
bread, but I believe people of property in every place are
opposed to this foolish experiment; they are boned to pro-
tect themselves, and whilst thus protected, all Britain is then
protected, and with them the labourer is protected in his
wages, and every other tradesmen thereby enabled to live.
What the O'Connell party call monopoly is only the mono-
poly of every Englishman in our land over the foreigner and
barbarian, to whose market we are bound as Engltshmen not
to resort for the produce which our own English neighbours
can supply us with, and, with a repeal of the corn laws, they
must repeal every other tax to enable us to purchase every
thing than with ss. the same as we do now with 15s. Then
who will defend the national independence? Tne whigs
would just allow such a state of things so long as it suited
their party purposes, brit we could not rely on them to give
us always cheap bread. It is no grant at all, if our wages
are to be reduced along with it. In fact, if the cup of sweet
cannot be given without a mixture of sour and bitter things,
there is not the slightest confidence to be placed in the
givers ; besides it is quite a new invention, a last expedient
trick of the poor•-law bill supporters. We mast not put the
slightest eonfidence in whigs.—l remain, sir,

AN ADVOCATE FOR HIGH WAGES.
Pregeot, 17th June, 1841.

SANDON v. PALMERSTON ! !

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIT'ERPOOL STANDARD.

Stu,—A report is current that some conservatives intend
recording their votes at the ensuing election for Lord Pal-
merston in conjunction with Lord Sandon. Let no man
call himself a conser%ative who, at this important election,
commits this fatal error.

There must be no mistake about the matter. This battle
will decide the fate of England—whether the institutions of
the country and society aro to be preserved, or gradually, but
surely, fall under the tyranny of democracy and licentious-
ness.

Lord Palmerston is the representative of everything tais.
ehievous belonging to whig doctrines, the most michievons
because the most talented of the party. Personally, he might
effectually discharge the practical business of a representa-
tive, but any conservative who may vote for him, will not
only betray the sacred principles he professes, bat tacitly
admits be has no very strong objection to the measures of
the movement. The disguise the whigs are attempting to
assume of " anti-monopolists " is an electioneering trick,
and nothing can equal its impudence except its shallow ab-
surdity. Ihe object of the svhigs is not free trade. The
object of the tories is not monopoly. Those who assert that
this is the matter in dispute, assert what they know to be a
falsehood, and do so to mask intentions, that, even in this
their hour of extremity, they will net venture to express.
The whig government have never yet proposed free trade.
The tories never yet insisted on monopoly.
Let the conservative electors then oppose whig-radicalism
under whatever polished guise he may make his appearance,
and not sacrifice their constitutional monarchy by linking it
to the putrid carcass of unlicensed democracy.-1 am, sir,
yours obediently, CONSERVATOR.
[We hope there are few conservatives who require the
warning:of our correspondent, or they deserve not the name.
—Ed. L. S.]