The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-04-23 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

A portion of the ohjeclitin of " Nictollis" (what a sig-
nature !) to requiring th attendance of the police at church
or some other placebf worship is pii,uF.lsle enough. A man,
for instance, who has been on duty a;t night could scarcely
be expected, with any reason, to attend morning service; but
even if required to go on duty again in the evening, it is
surely not necessary that he should he all the day in bed, or
Preparing for such duty,— and there is afternoon or evening
service which he might attend. Besides, it is not. always the
case that he has to take night duty two days_ together. We
see plenty of the force who can spare time when off duty, in
the week days, to take recreation; and they have the same
opportunities of commanding their time on Sundays. We
should be sorryto think our correspondent correct in his argu-
ments; for they go the length of proving that, once a olice-
man, attendance upon a place of worship becomes impossible..
Our correspondent's letter is left at our office.
A correspondent complains of a pint of a very improper nature
exhibited in one of the shop windows in Castle-street. We
are quite unaware of the shop to which our correspondent
alludes.
We will attend to the suggestion of " A Ten Years Subscriber."

tfi Eiberpool &tanDarti.

TUESDAY MORNING, APRIL 23, 1844.

Surely, surely, the events of the past fortnight—
the multitudinous meetings, in Leeds, Halifax, Brad-
ford, Manchester, Stockport, Oldham, and other
manufacturing towns,—these calm, but hopeful and
.Confident assemblages of working men, led on and
marshalled by their clergy, of all denominations,'
united in one noble effort to enfranchise the
factory slave,—ought to convince Sir James Graham
and Sir Robert Peel that a restriction of the hours
of labour, for infants and women, can no longer be
refused by a constitutional legislature. Where are
'now the pleas put forward by cold-hearted political
economists, and, we regret to say, adopted too
readily as conclusive, by Conservative and humane
men, that such a measure is not desired by the
'manufacturing operatives themselves, and is re-
pudiated by the majority of the employers of manu-
facturing labour ? Are they substantiated by the
result of the appeals made to either of these classes ?
.Have the operatives put their veto upon the effort
making for the amelioration of their condition ?
Have the mothers of little factory children protested
against the boon offered them of being permitted
to make comfortable their homes and their fire-
sides ? Have the fathers of little factory children
protested against a measure which promises an ex-
change of their present compulsory idleness for
permission to toil for the support of those whom
' God and nature ordained to be dependent upon
them for subsistence ? Have any of these refused
to submit to possible reduction of wages as the
result of the change which they seek ? None of
these evidences of repugnance to such change have
been made apparent. The employers of labour
have protested—where they have protested at all—
feebly indeed ; and from the labourers themselves
has arisen a voice of deep resolve to do all—to dare
all—to sacrifice all—for a relief from their present
oppressive toil, and for restoration to their allotted
,place in the ranks of the great human family.
• A noble—an honourable—a proud resolve it is !
Say then that these poor children—say that their
fathers, their mothers, their brothers and sisters—
are content to barter the paltry good of a few shil-
lings more or less of wages, for permission to see
them breathe freely the breath of God's air and
grow up in his image, instead of the stunted and
distorted things which avarice would have them be :
—say that the loss of a few hundred thousands of
consumers of the blood-stained products of white
slavery may be•the result of a measure called for by
the voice of humanity and the dictates of religion :—,
can a Conservative government stand in the way of
a movement having such objects in view, and whose
success is ready to be cheerfully bought at such a
price ? Forbid it, Heaven ! Stiff-necked must be
that government which can stand in the way of
such a movement—which can forfeit voluntarily the
blessings of thousands—which can forfeit the bless-
ings of enfranchised infancy, of enfranchised woman-
hood, of unsexed and degraded manhood,—to earn
for itself only the paltry, the degrading, the hollow
friendship of cold-blooded philosophers and heart-
less worshippers of Gold ! Such a Government—
we say not what is its fitting and condemnatory ap-
pellation—such a Government, so deaf to the
voice of Reason, of Truth, of Justice and humanity,
we trust is not the Government of Sir Robert Peel.

How we have toiled for that government ! What
sacrifices of past and just dislikes we have made for
the sake of the head of that government I What
memories we have been willing to lay down, in
order to be able to afford it and to entreat for it
confidence and support! Let not its members bid
us sacrifice more—forget more—for we cannot.
Upon this question Sir Robert Peel cannot betray
his Conservative supporters. His favourite "ex-
pediency" ought to be an insuperable bar to such
betrayal. The humanity, the virtue, the sense of
justice of the nation is embarked in this cause of
the factory people, in opposition to which Sir James
Graham has lured him to hazard his popularity and
his very existence as a Minister of the Crown of the
Christian Sovereign of a Christian people ; and we
tell Sir Robert Peel, he cannot, he dare not disap-
point the hopes and the trust which a vast majority
of the British people have rested upon his rule.
From him we look for no blind obstinacy, when
public opinion has once pointed out the path which
it would have him follow. From him, who has
already sacrificed principle to the will of the masses,
.we cannot tolerate obstinate refusal to concede,
where a mere theoretical dogma, of doubtful truth, is
opposed to the will of those masses. And we ask him,
therefore, only to examine his position upon this
.question—to contemplate the evidence of public
opinion—to listen with the ear of a Christian minis-
ter to the pleading of hundreds of thousands of his
over-toiled and suffering fellow-countrymen—and
to say then whether he is content to sacrifice the
love and the respect of an almost united people, by
clinging to the teachings and fables of a false phi-
losophy, in opposition to the dictates of humanity
and, we trust, the spontaneous promptings of his
own heart.

Let him look abroad throughout society, and tell
us what is the prevailing direction of opinion, what
the characteristic feeling, of the present day. It
requires no deep searching to discover this. It lies
upon the surface and beneath the surface. The
feeling uppermost in the minds of the present gene-
ration is a deep resolve, at all hazards, to do some-
thing for the amelioration of the social condition of
the people. Englishmen are throwing from them
the dazzling lures of the political economy of the past
generation; and returning to the opinion of their
fathers, that a moral, a contented, and a happy la-
bouring population is a surer guarantee of a country's
strength than hoarded wealth in the hands of the
few, whilats,wretchedness is the lot of the many.
They have discovered the price which is paid for
" the wealth of nations ;". the sacrifices of virtue,
integrity, manhood's strength, and woman's purity,
which must be made at the shrine of the idol set up
by political economists : and they are resolved to
proceed no further in satisfying its exactions. Al-
ready they have raised the crippled infant and the
unsexed and degraded female from the slavery of
the mine; and the spirit has been raised, and the
voice gone forth, which will drag the factory child
and the factory woman from the clutch of the
avarice that feeds and fattens upon their sweat-
drops,—which will drag the wretched sempstress
from the endless toil which consumes her,—and

not cease their warnings and their efforts until it
can no longer be said of this great country that her
imposing fabric of strength is rotten at the founda-
tion, and that her very existence amongst the nations
of the earth is purchased at the cost of the misery and
the degradation of the great mass of her people.
Such a spirit is abroad. It prevades all ranks,
all classes of men. It has spoken in Parliament,
intelligibly and loudly, its resolves. It has spoken
in these multitudinous meetings throughout the
factory districts; and its voice must not be disre-
garded, its will may not safely be thwarted. It
cares not for parties or for ministers, it values not
relationships or friendships; for it feels that the
righteousness, the justice, and the necessity of the
end which it has in view—the physical and moral
regeneration of an'entire people—are paramount to
all these. We ask of Sir Robert Peel, can it be a
slight movement, a mere political or party whim,
which brings the peer and the labourer, the beneficed
clergyman and the Romish priest, the millowner
and the factory drudge upon the same platform to-
gether ? It cannot be such. It is a movement
which must go on ; which, if yielded to, in time, and
guided aright, may go on peacefully and safely,
spreading gladness and happiness along its path;
but which, if madly and obstinately resisted, may be-
come a torrent, tracking its course with desolation.
Surely Sir Robert Peel is not the statesman by
whom such a movement would be resisted I

We have given in another column the proceedings
before the Parliamentary Committee of the House
of Commons upon the Liverpool Dock Bill; and
may now with some degree of confidence congratu-
late our readers that, notwithstanding the ques-
tionable manoeuvres by which it has been opposed
by certain gentlemen on the other side of the water,
the success of the bill is now placed beyond a
doubt. The evidence, and the address of counsel
for the opposition, were concluded on Friday, and at
about, a quarter to four o'clock the committee was
cleared of strangers, and proceeded to consider the
question of the preamble. At four, however, 'the
speaker was announced to be at prayers, and an ad-
journment was carried until yesterday, when, no
doubt, the decision would be given. We are in-
formed, on.good authority, that the principle of the
bill to its fullest extent is already acknowledged by
the committee; and that the adjournment was only
for the purpose of settling some details, not affecting
at all the measure itself.

We might have here offered a few remarks with
respect to the proceedings of the party who have
constituted the opposition to this bill ; but the sub-
ject is so ably treated elsewhere by a gentleman who
was present during the proceedings, and who has
given us* his impressions, under the head of " A
Scene in a Parliamentary. Committee," that we refer
the curious reader to the article in question,. the
faithfulness of which we believe will be acknow-
ledged.

THE MANCHESTER GUARDIAN AND THE LONDON
REPORTERS.—Our Manchester contemporary has taken
to task the reporters of the Mnrning Post and the Times
for what he asserts to be the " dishonesty" of their reports
of the various meetings which have recently been held in
the manufacturing districts upon the subject of the Ten
Hours' Bill ; and with respect to one of those meetings,
held on Thursday in Manchester, adduces a few alleged
"exaggerations," unimportant if they are exaggerations,
and gives by way of contrast to the report in the London
papers a garbled and one-sided report of his own, which,
if he had wished to prove his• own utter unworthiness of
trust as a faithful reflector of men and opinions in his own
locality, could not have been better framed for bringing
about such a conviction. We do not suppose, however,
that the Guardian had any such object in view. He
aimed mainly, no doubt, to strike, by a sidewind, at the
advocates of humanity to the poor—to furnish something
which the utilitarians of the House of Commons could
lay hold of to advance their views ;—and possibly he might
be influenced by a slight. feeling of spleen at observing
that, by the presence of competent reporters, of known
reputation, who could not be supposed to be warped by
local ties or party interests, his occupation, as a distorter
of facts and opinions in the manufacturing districts, was
interfered with. Our contemporary, however, surely for-
gets, though the public do not, how poor is the general
estimation of his accuracy and fairness as a reporter ; and,
that whilst it is quite reasonable that such journals as the
Times and the Post should prefer sending their own re-
porters to receiving the proceedings of important public
meetings from second-hand sources, the public will not
believe an impeachment of their accuracy from such a
witness. It is not so very long since the Guardian, for his
grossly unfair, and dishonest reporting, was refused ad-
mission at all meetings of Conservatives in his district;
and.we are not aware that he is much improved at present.
His report of this Manchester:meeting is, at all events,
no proof of such improvement.
ADULTERATION OF EXCISEABLE ARTICLES.—III con-
sequence of the adulteration of various exciseable com-
modities having been carried on to a serious extent, the
commissioners of excise have issued bills calling the
attention of the public to the existing legal enactments on
the subject, and notifying their intention to enforce the
penalties upon manufacturers and dealers in every case in
which they may be detected in infringing the law. For
this purpose the several acts of parliament on the subject
are quoted, and from these it appears that the articles
are tobacco and snuff, beer, tea, coffee, chocolate and
pepper, all of which, it seems, are frequently so seriously
adulterated, or made up with other ingredients, as to de-
fraud the revenue, and to cheat if not to poison the con-
sumers. The following are the heads :—ln manufacturing
tobacco no other material or liquid is to be used than
water, or water and salt, or alkaline salts only, or lime
water in Welsh or Irish snnffs, under a penalty of £lOO.
In manufacturing tobacco water only, or in roll tobacco
water and oil only are to be used, under the same penalty.
No person shall cut, grind, pound, colour, stain, dye, or
manufacture any 'leaves, herbs, or plants, moss, weed, or
wood, chicory, commings, or roots of malt, &c., to be
mixed with tobacco and snuff so as to resemble them,
under a penalty of two hundred pounds and the forfeiture
of all tools and utensils used for that purpose. Beer and
worts it appears are adulterated with molasses, honey,
liquorice, vitriol, quassia, coculus indiae, grains of paradise,
Guinea pepper, opium, calx, &c., as a substitute for malt
and hops. The penalty here is £lOO with forfeiture of
the casks or vessels. The selling of these articles to any
brewer renders the party liable to a fine of £5OO, and the
penalties extend to beer retailers. Adulterating tea with
terra japonica, or any oilier drug or substance other than
leaves of tea, £lOO. Using in tea sloe leaves, liquoirice
leaves, leaves of tea that have been used, &c., or dying or
colouring any leaves for that purpose, £lO. Using burnt,
scorched, or roasted peas, beans, or other grain or vege-
table substance to mix with or resemble coffee or cocoa,
£lOO. Manufacturing substances in imitation of pepper,
and mixing the same with pepper, penalty £lOO. .

MEETING OF THE -SHOPKEEPERS ASSISTANTS.—On
Wednesday last, at the early hour of six o'clock—the par-
ties being unable to attend during the day or evening—a
numerous meeting of the shopkeeper's assistants was held
in the Music-hall. Mr. Flower was called to the chair,
and after referring to the proceedings in the same place in
the last week, and urging those present to maintain the
best feelings towards their employers, and to give them
their best services—no injury to them being contemplated
by the assistants.—lle said that resolutions would be sub-
mitted to them ; one was a vote of thanks to a long list of
powerful friends, by whose means their cause had been
made to occupy its present proud position. The next is a
vote of thanks to the gentlemen who had been appointed
by the inhabitants to act as a committee to promote the
closing of all shops at seven o'clock on every evening, and
throughout the year. (Cheers.) The last was to agree to
a memorial to the employers. The first resolution was
proposed in an able address by Mr. T. A. Jackson, and be-
ing seconded by Mr. Reynolds, was carried unanimously.
The second was proposed by Mr. Mirams, seconded by
Mr. W. B. Jones and also carried. Mr. Murphey moved
a memorial to the employers, in doing which he toot oc-
casion to eulogize, in very eloquent terms, the persevering
and unwearied labours of the chairman in the cause of the
oppressed assistants. His remarks, drew forth loud and
long-continued cheering. The resolution was seconded
by Mr. J. B. Jackson, and was similarly carried, (These
resolutions will be found in an advertizement in another
column.) The chairman then read a list of subscriptions
collected on the platform at the last meeting, and which
amounted to a considerable sum. (Each name was re-
ceived with considerable cheering.) He added that he
'had called on the mayor in company with Mr. John
Smith of the Mercury, and that his Worship has kind-
ly consented that the meetings of the committee should he
held at the Town-hall. This announcement was heard
with loud cheers. A collection was then made, and
amounted to a considerable sum. Mr. H. M, Addey
then exhibited a list of forty booksellers, who had signed
an agreement to close at seven in the evening, throughout
the year. A vote of thanks was then passed to the chair-
man, and the meeting separated at a quarter before eight
o'clock.

SUDDEN DEATH.—An inquest was held before Mr.
Curry yesterday on view of the body of Thomas Mc
Mahon, aged 21. He bad for the last fortnight com-
plained of a pain in his head, and on Saturday morning
when he was in the act of going to, shave himself, he
put his hands to his head and said, " God bless me!"
and was about to fall, when he was caught hold of. He
immediately became quite insensible. A surgeon was
sent for but he never rallied, and died in about five
hours afterwards. Verdict " Death from natural causes."