The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-04-25 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS,

nfortunate tyr

.aphical error in oar last, we
by the committee for the new

a at Aintree, to be .e 10:
hope this stun will soon be
The dance called the Cushi

ye been .tlOO,

iiiiderably re
Dance, or Si

I old English fa

many years; and if w•e do not mistake it was danced recently
at one of the balls at the Palace. It was danced regularly
amongst the courtiers in the time of Charles the Second and

ebt Eibtrpool &taitbarti.

TUESDAY MORNING, APRIL 25, 1848

ME claims of communities, as of individuals,
to have an influential voice in the direction of
public affairs are seldom conceded as a matter of
course; and still more seldom is it that the amount
of weight to be attached to each is accurately pro-
portioned. On the contrary, we see the noisy and
pretensions bust!e themselves into importance, and
exercise a sway over the national mind, whilst
more sober worth and intelligence are powerless,
because silent. ' This great mercantile community
has ever been in the latter predicament. Man-
chester has rarely been without its agitation ; and
more than once has dictated measures to the
government. A demonstration from the mercantile
body of London is all-potential with the Treasury.
Even the city and its companies and corporate
body are listened to with deference; hut the mer-
cantile and trading community of the greatest port
in the world have scarcely the ear of a third-rate
official. A deputation from our town may now
and then be listened to upon some local matter,
and come hack again much as they went ; but a
general political influence, proportioned to her
importance in the social scale, Liverpool has never
yet exercised, or attempted to exercise.
We trust that we are about to witness an end
to such a state of things; that our town is at
length about to put forth its claim to be listened to
upon the subject of national, as well as local,
legislation. The merchants and tradesmen of

Liverpool have too long acted upon the 'laissez
faire" principle—too long stood silently by, im-
mersed only in their vast speculations, whilst it has
been left to unimportant busy-bodies to act as the
expositors of their opinions—too long been content
with seeing the conclusions • deduced from their
great experience in commercial and ordinary affairs
smothered in blue books, or cushioned in reports
of parliamentary committees, destined never to be
acted upon. To be respected, to be listened to
with deference, they must speak out; they must
address themselves to the legislature in the hearing
of the people. They possess a moral power equal,
if exerted, to that of any community in the king-
dom. They have intelligence and character equal
to that of any community in the world; and they
have only to give that power a right direction to
render it effectual in securing for themselves and
their fellow-countrymen vast and important
benefits.

The formation amongst our mercantile body of
an association, having for its object the securing of
a general retrenchment in the national expenditure
and a more equitable and politic system of raising
the national revenue, we may regard as the first
overt act of the desired change; and we rejoice that
the promoters of the association have chosen for
their exertions a direction at once so appropriate
and so justifiable. For years past, the question, as
to the imposition and the disposal of the national
burthens, has been left too much to the direction of
successive administrations, as a matter upon which
the community at large were not in a position to
form an opinion ; and, if an outcry against over-
taxation and national extravagance has been raised,
it has generally come from parties, with whom the
respectable portion of the community were not
disposed to associate themselves. The promulga-
tion of views of economy has either been regarded
as allied with the indulgence of democratic feeling,
or it has come from members of the Hume and
Cobden school, who could see no other mode of
effecting a saving than by crippling one or both
arms of the national strength. To strip the crown
of a portion of its dignity has been the specific of
one class of financial reformers, whilst the other
would have us rush into dependence upon a dream
of universal peace and national brotherhood, aban-
don our colonies, dismantle our fleets, and sink
down into the position of a third-rate power. The
financial association just formed, composed as it is
intended to be of some of the leading merchants
and tradesmen of this great mart of commerce, of
every shade of political opinion, with, as its chair-
man, Mr. Robertson Gladstone, a gentleman
whose name and connexions carry with them an
important influence, independently of his admitted
high intellectual and personal character, will
exercise a materially different influence, and com-
mand the attention of the legislature. It will no
longer be in the power of the hangers on of party,
or of the government, to urge that the cry for
reform emanates from the ignorant democrat or the
dreaming theorist. The country.can no longer be
taken on its weak side by an appeal to the loyalty
and the love of order of its people. There can be
no suspicion that such a body seeks to weaken the
defences of the crown, to expose our foreign com-
merce to danger, or to peril the safety of property
The large stake which its members hold
welfare of the country will effectually protect
them from these imputations.

at home
in the NI

The time too, as well as the men, is most apropos
for the movement. On the one hand, we have
g the last twelve years, a progres-
in the national expenditure, amounting
at present to nearly seven millions sterling of yearly
excess over the expenditure of 1835. To meet this,
and to fill up the vacuum created by the remission
of various import duties, we have been compelled
to submit to an inquisitorial and oppressive income
tax ; and we have the prospect, besides, of a serious
deficiency at the close of the present financial year.
Yet we have a government which tells us that it is
alike impossible to effect reductions, and to render
our system of taxation equable in its pressure.
Again, we are surrounded on every side by com-
mercial and industrial suffering►. The merchant,
the shipowner, the shopkeeper, the manufacturer,
and the labourer, are alike plunged into difficulties,
and some of them into almost unbearable distress
We have,

tnessed, durin

sive increas

moreover, large masses of our population
iv to rush into extensive political changes, for
sufferings,—ready to imitate the
lican phrenzy set them in the
nent of Europe. Who then, at

from their

:h a crisis, ar

so fit to approach the discussion
)f reform in our financial

D. auestion as ti

as the mercantile bodies of Liverpool and

to be

point out where the shoe ,cinches ? Who are more
likely to discover where the fetter galls them, than

nd most severely feel its pres-
ard, therefore, this move-
traders of Liverpool as

and we re

:hants

aieb, whatever may 1

we know that the tradesmen and the merchants of
the town, the former of whom mainly compose the
confederation, regard the local question in some-
what different lights. In most associations for the
promotion of a great object, unanimity is desirable.

Considerable attention has been, drawn during
the last ten days to two letters, on the subject of
Chartism, which appeared in the Morning Herald
of the 14th and 15th instant, signed " A Liverpool
Operative," and addressed to Fergus O'Connor,
Esq., M. P., in reply to a printed missive, circu-
lated by some of that gentleman's followers,
amongst the operative classes here, inciting them
to disturbance, and containing avowals of princi-
ples entirely subversive of all social order. In
combating and exposing those principles the writer
has displayed great acumen and vigour of style,
combined with a happy adaptation of language and
illustration to the general capacity of the class
which he addresses ; and running through the
whole is to be found a view of sound Christian
morality, which adds tenfold to their value and
impressiveness.

Our object in referring to them here is to urge
upon the employers of labour in our town the ad-
vantage which might be gained by their circulation
in a cheap form amongst their workpeople, and to
recommend to the latter to possess themselves of
copies. We have the kind permission of the writer
to print them ; and shall be able to sell single copies
of the two letters for a halfpenny. For a quantity
for circulation, of course we should charge some-
what less.

As a specimen of the tone and style of the writer.
we append the following extracts, showing the real
nature of that equality for which Chartists and
Levellers contend :

" Fellow-countrymen, ask yourselves at what link of
the social chain does pulling down end ? Tom, and Dick,
and Harry complain of the inequalities of society, and of
the restraints imposed upon them by law, as an infringe-
ment of their natural liberty. Park walls, gatekeepers,
and gamekeepers are not to be endured. Agents and
bailiffs are the ensigns of tyranny, the strongholds of an
intolerable monopoly. Well, let all legal restraints be
removed, and what then ? Why, then, they are removed
from Bill, and Ned, and Jem, as well as from Tom, Dick,
and Harry. And Bill has a fancy for Tom's pig, and Ned
has a fancy for Dick's coat, and Jem has a fancy for
Harry's wife. No restraint ! No infringement of natural
liberty!! Down with the duke's park wall, says Tom : and
down it goes. Down with Tom's pig-stye, says Bill ; and
down it goes. Seize the marquis's steward, and divide his
rents, says Harry. Good. Seize upon Harry's wife, says
Jem,—l'll have her. Why not ? No restraint ! Oh,
glorious natural liberty !

" No, no, no, vociferates the infuriated revolutionist,
swallowing back liberty, equality, and fraternity at a
mouthful. No, no ' • that is not what I mean by liberty.
" Probably not ; but it is . ell and right that your
neighbours should know what you do mean. You mean
that you should be able to take the law of every man who
injures you, and no man be able to take the law of you.
You mean that you should pull down without restraint
everything above you, but that no man should be per-
mitted to pull you down. But you must remember that
"no restraint" is a game for two to play at—a knife with
two edges—and that if Tom be above the law which pro-
tects the duke or the marquis, Bill must be above the law
which protects Tom."

Or the following sensible advice to the working
classes as to their conduct under their sufferings :
" There may be, doubtless there often are, just causes
of complaint. A rapidly-increasing population, inde-
pendent of a bad harvest or a potatoe-blight, may involve
districts or even the whole kingdom in difficulty. An
enormously-producing, and, at the same time, a non-
consuming power, such as machinery now is, may, I
believe I might say must, lead to periodical returns of
manufacturing and commercial difficulty. But difficulties
are inseparable from all human conditions. Wisdom de-
vises -remedies and repairs for the injured house : it is
madness to say that because the rain begins to drop
through the roof, therefore we will destroy the whole
fabric. Such remedies and repairs have been devised and
applied, and will be now again, by the wisest and most
independent statesmen the country can supply.
" Fellow-countrymen, make known your real distresses
and privations by all lawful means ; but as you value the
inestimable blessing of subordinated liberty, be persuaded
not to forget your duty to God, your neighbour, and your-
self, so far as to take into your own hands the punishment
of those who oppress and those who despise you.
" Many of you really suffer, I doubt not, and bitterly
too. I feel with you and for you, and am filled with a
mixture of indignation and grief at the personal brutality
and political stupidity of those men in your neighbourhoods
who could, but will not relieve you.',

We had prepared for insertion in our last publi-
cation a notice of the proceedings of the very deco-
rous and orderly meeting of the working porters of
Liverpool, held at the Concert Hall, in Lord Nelson-
street, which, however, we were compelled by a
press of advertizing and other matter, to withdraw.
Our readers have by this time most probably pe-
rused the report of the proceedings in question in the
columns of some of our contemporaries ; and we
shall not therefore further refer to them, inasmuch
as we have already expressed our conviction of the
justice of the claims of these poor men, and the
impolitic character of the system of which they com-
plain as oppressive and injurious to their own in-
terests, whilst they show that it is equally so to the
importer and the merchant. Our object in recur-
ring to the subject is rather to impress upon the
authorities, who possess the power of providing a
remedy, the valuable effect which would be secured
if by a prompt and vigorous effort they could snatch
this industrious body of men from the temptations
by which they are surrounded, and bind them by
the ties of gratitude to the property of the town,
and the capital and enterprise which alone afford
them the means to live. We have never concealed
our impressions of the danger of permitting a feel-
ing that they are isolated from the consideration of
their superiors in station to grow up among any
class of our working population. We have shewn
that such a feeling does exist ; and that there are
grounds for its being entertained. Altogether
apart from the ravings of Chartism, a spirit of dis-
content with their position is abroad, and is spread-
ing amongst these classes ; and we would direct
the attention of our mercantile body to what would
be the probable and advantageous result of a manly
effort to allay that spirit, to act justly, as instanced
in the recent conduct of a body of men of the same
description as our working porters. We quote the
lesson from a leading article in the London Times,
of Saturday, the tone and spirit of which are con-
genial with remarks which we have previously
offered on the subject generally of the condition and
conduct of our own labourers :

" Casting," says our contemporary, " a glance over the
events in England of the last few weeks, we have one
fact which attracted attention both in and out of Parlia-
ment, and deserves not to be forgotten or overlooked.
When the Trafalgar-square mobs produced among the
idlers in the clubs and the busybodies in the shops the
plate-glass-Window panic, and again, when a more real
danger threatened the nation, the coalwhippers on the
Thames offered their services voluntarily as special con-
stables, to assist in the preservation of the Queen's peace.
There is much to be learned from this. A few years

_ -
since the Thames coal-whippers were a much-injured,
oppressed class of men, under the thrall of a set of
middlemen, who plundered them shamelessly of a large
portion of their hard-earned wages, and so completely
enthralled them that they had not the power to extricate
themselves from the bondage to which they had by degrees
become subjected. Parliament, with great judgment,
interfered for their relief, and, without any improper dis-
turbance of the relative rights and duties of employers
and employed, afforded to those coal-whippers the means
of disposing to good advantage of their labour. It may
not have been with any very distinct consciousness of re-
paying the paternal care which Parliament had bestowed
on them that the coal-whippers offered themselves as
guardians of the public peace; but it must be evident
to all who have paid any attention to the wants and feel-
ings of the working classes, that the offer of those ser-
vices was a consequence of that care having been taken.
The condition of the men had, through parliamentary
interference, been essentially bettered, and they
_felt that

the law embraced their interests within its beneficial
operation. They had daily and hourly reason, in the
improved condition of themselves and their families, to
know that they were underabetter government than that