The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-05-27 00:00:00

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•• ••••QII ITU dwellings and and better drainage and
tilatio n in the localities inhabited by our working
,ses, we must endeavour, as well, to introduce
amongst them improved habits. Whilst. we en-
deavour to procure for them an abundant supply of
water, we must impress upon them the importance
to health and comfort of a free use of it—the value
of cleanliness. And to effect this we know of no
more efficacious way than by the delivery in various
districts of the town of a course of popular lectures,
upon the effect of improved habits of cleanliness and
order upon health, addressed to the understanding
of the working classes. Any gentleman of adequate
capability, who would undertake such a duty, would
confer upon his humble fellow townsmen a boon,
the importance of which can scarcely be estimated.

e improvec

We have such a gentleman in our eye at this 'mo-
ment—one who has ably treated the subject of sana-
tory regulations and grappled boldly with the de-
plorable want of those conducives to health in Li-

verpool, through our own columns. We refer to
Mr. H. G. Harbord, whose valuable letters published
I in. the LIVERPOOL STANDARD four years ago,
under the signature of lifedicus Achates, first drew
attention to the subject, and pointed out, the neces-
•' of some decided steps being taken to improve
'th and the comfort of our suffering working
We know that Dr. Harbord is intimately
acquainted with all the details necessary for an effi-
cient treatment of the question ; that he has be-
stowed upon it earnest attention; that he has
watched closely the workings of the evil ; and, if he
could be induced to spare a little time from his pro-
fessional- pursuits for such an object, he would
be able to effect infinite benefit, and commence a

classes

reform, where after all it must commence to be of
real utility,in the habits of the people themselves.
Once convince the intelligent working man and his
family that pestilence and death flow from habits of
dkor

isoru and uncleanliness—from open cess-pools,
ill-cleansed channels, dirty apartments, want of air
and light—and one half of the battle will be fought
and won. Even the very poor, with such a convic-
tion firmly established in their minds, will not wil-
lingly incur the dpnger and the suffering insepar-
able from a neglect of precautions, which involve so

little either of trouble or cost; and will recoil from
the occupancy of some of the wretched hovels in
which they now submit to shelter.

We have thrown out this suggestion for the con-
sideration of the Health Committee recently ap-
pointed, of which we are glad to observe that Dr.
Harbord is a member. We hope that if his col-
leagues request from him the sacrifice of time which
would be required for the efficient performance of
the task, he would not hesitate to waive any con-
sideration of his private convenience for the attain-.
ment of so great a good to his humble fellow towns-
men.

The same headlong precipitation which marked
the progress of the Maynooth Bill in the House of
Commons, from its first introduction by Sir Robert
Peel, is being followed up by the Duke of Welling-
ton in the other house. The bill was read a first
time on Friday night, and notwithstanding the
strong remonstrances of Lord Charleville, and the
understood wishes of several noble lords that time
'should be allowed for the feelings of the country to
be made known to the house by petition, the second
reading is to be moved on the 2d of June (Monday
next), thus leaving barely one week for the presen-
tation of petitions. Nor is this one week available
for such a purpose. To-day is the Queen's birth-
day, and therefore the house will not assemble. To-
morrow is ordinarily a parliamentary dies non, and
Thursday is a holiday. There will, therefore, be
only two days—Friday and Monday next—during
which the petitions of the people for or against the
measure can be presented to the house.
We suspect greatly that there is a motive for this
unseemly haste—a motive which we cannot call
honest or constitutional. The Duke of Wellington,
indeed, tells us of the ample time which has been
allowed during the discussion of the bill in the
House of Commons ; but that fact has nothing to
do with the sufficiency of the time allowed for re-
cording the opinions of the people by petition to
their lordships, inasmuch as, by a rule of the Upper
House, no petition against a measure can he brought
before it until such measure is definitively introdu-
ced. It was also urged by the same noble duke,
that petitions might be presented during every part
of the discussion ; but his grace forgot to remind
us that, this being a money bill, the second reading
is decisive of its fate, the house not having power
to alter a syllable of it in its subsequent stages.
The conclusion is, therefore, clear that the country
is refused the opportunity of influencing the House
of Lords, with respect to this measure, by a legiti-
mate and constitutional expression of its opinion.
The right of petition—one of the most sacred rights
secured to us by the great charter of our liberties—
is virtually suspended, and the ministerial majority
is about to ride roughshod over the majority of the
British people.
What is the motive of this haste ? what is the mo-
tive of this virtual infringement of the constitution ?
We can only arrive at it by an examination of the
bearing of coincident circumstances. The petitions
against the measure, presented to the House of
Commons, were, in number, 8753, hearing the sig-
natures of 1,106,772 persons, whilst the petitions in
its favour were only 61, and those not at all of an
influential character, either as regards the places
from which they emanated, or the number of signa-
tures attached to them. With this deliberate ex-
pression of public opinion against the measure, Sir
Robert Peened, on a recent occasion, the hardi-
hood—it is a mild term, for which he ought to thank
our charity—to say that the excitement of the Pro.
testants of the nation had exhausted itself—that
such excitement was a merely passing phrenzy, and
not the result of a deeply-rooted conviction. We
were twitted, moreover, at the last hour, with the
paucity of the petitions from Ireland herself, whose
Protestants were represented almost in the light of
consenting parties to this outrage upon their reli-
gious feelings. The Protestants of England and of
Scotland were, and are now, anxious to refute this
unfounded—this false representation of their feel-
ings. They are prepared to show, by petitions to
the House of Lords, that they have not been actu-
ated thus far, in their opposition to the bill for the
endowment of Maynobth, by a passing frenzy. And
the Protestants of Ireland, in especial, are indignant
at the gross misrepresentation of their feelings which
has issued from the lips of the Prime Minister, and
been echoed by his supporters. On the evening of
the introduction of the bill into the House of Lords,
no less than 65 petitions against the bill, from pa-
rishes and places in Ireland (more than the total
number in its favour from the whole of the empire),
were presented by one noble lord ; and if time were
allowed, we are confident that our fellow Protestants
of Ireland would nobly wipe off the stain which it is
attempted to fasten upon them.
Now, it must be borne in mind that these men,
so unscrupulous in their assertions, so—(we dare not
trust ourselves to characterize their conduct)—have
the ear of our most gracious Sovereign. The same
misrepresentation of the feelings of her Protestant
subjects, which has been hazarded in the House of
Commons, will go up to the throne, asseverated by
the same lips; and we are denied a fair opportunity
of shewing, by petition to the second branch of the
legislature, that the opinions already expressed in
the House of Commons are abiding opinions,
formed upon conviction of their truth. Ministers
dare not place the issue of this question in the hands
of the nation they dare not leave its decision to the

constituencies. They have already admitted this
fact, and they 'dare not place this bill before her
Majesty, for her acceptance, accompanied by a legi-
timate expression of her people's repugnance to it
and its pr• • -

.inciPlei. No ; the Throne is
to be approached with Sir Robert Peel's misrepre-
sentation of the feelings of her loyal people, as the
plea for assenting to this Anti-Protestant measure.
There is, however, still a constitutional mode—
alas ! the only constitutional one—of defeating this
prOcedure. We have still the privilege of approach-
ing the Throne itself, although its constitutional
avenue—tbe House of Lords—is closed against us.
We can still lay our petitions at the feet of our most
gracious Sovereign, and to that last resource we are
now imperatively driven. It is the only mode in
which the opinions and feelings of her Majesty's
loyal people can now reach her ear.
w. _ -

throughout•the empire—PETITION THE THRONE
There is no other course left to us.

DIRICZNHEAD AND MANCHESTER RAILWAY.--)
paragraph has been going the round of the papers, statin
that this bill has been thrown out by the Standin

he decision of the committee is not
yet made known, and the promoters of the measure are

uomeatt

now anxiously awai

- -
RECEXPT STAMPS—IMPORTANT
• - tnrday. it WAQ Mem

—ln the Court of
A ... --I,e -1-1-4- -

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.