The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-07-25 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, JULY 25, 1843.

" Had the rate of mortality in Liverpool been
thus reduced to that in Birmingham, nearly 40,00-)
lives would have been saved in the parish of Liver-
pool during the interval which has elapsed since
these recommendations were offered to the notice of
the Common Council (in 1802). Could the rate of
mortality Now be reduced to that of Birmingham,
1250 lives would be ANNUALLY saved"!

In this closing sentence of Dr. Duncan's able
pamphlet is our ample excuse for returning to the
subject which we agitated in our last publication ;
viz. the adoption, at once, of some sweeping and
copious measures for the improvement of the sani-
tory condition of our town. Twelve hundred and
fifty perishing human beings annually warn us, by
their premature deaths, to put forth our energies to
stay that pestilence which is generated so fearfully
in our streets. We cannot look on with folded
hands ; we cannot stand by and calmly contemplate
the progress of this awful mortality. We can no
longer delegate our duty, with respect to it, to the
Council, or to any body, public or private. It is
the affair of the community; and to the community
we now address ourselves upon the subject of the
remedy or remedies to be adopted.
We have already referred to the importance of the
formation of spacious thoroughfares through the
crowded parts of the town ; and we now turn to the
consideration of another remedial course, viz. the
better sewering of the whole town. Within the
past twelve years, under the existing sewerage act,
considerable progress has been made in this impor-
tant branch of sanitory regulation. Dr. Duncan
states it as his conclusion, arrived at by examination
of a recent map published by the Commissioners of
Sewers, that of the 57 miles of inhabited streets within
the parish of Liverpool, 25 are either wholly or
partially severed. There are therefore 32 miles of
streets or courts for which no underground drainage
is prepared, and the state of which must, in conse-
quence, be extremely offensive and unhealthy. Of
these the bulk, of course, will be the narrow and
confined localities inhabited by the working poor;
for of the sewering which has been already com-
pleted, we find that only four miles consist of streets
inh :bited by the working classes, whilst 21L- miles

are in the spacious and airy parts of the town inha-
bited by the middle and superior classes. The
cause of this is sufficiently obvious. The outlines
of a complete system must first be formed. The
main arteries of underground communication must
be laid down, before the branches can be at all at-
tempted. Hence our wide streets are already
severed, whilst the densely-packed localities adja-
cent have yet to be acted upon. In many cases,
too, it has been found impracticable to drain, from
the want of such spacious severed thoroughfares as
those whose formation we have advocated, and with
which the adjacent streets and courts could be made
to communicate.

We know not what may be the precise extent of
the powers, or the means at the disposal of the
Commissioners of Sewers, to r pair the existing de-
ficiency. We greatly suspect, however, that they
are not large—that they are not equal to the emer-
gency in which we are placed; for in no other way
can we account for, much less justify, the very in-
complete condition of the drainage of the town.
There is no subject upon which the opinion of com-
petent parties has been more strongly expressed
than upon the importance, as conducive to health,
of proper severing ; and if the rate, allowed by the
existing act to be le ied for the purpos , will only
permit its accomplishment by a gradual progress
which, it is evident, must be years before it overtakes
the growing evil, our conviction is decided that in-
creased powers ought forthwith to be sought, either
in the shape of an authority to anticipate the rate

by mortgage, as in the case of the " Watering Bill"
of the present session, or by some aid from the
Corporate Estate. An effort must be made, and
promptly made ; and there is scarcely any direction
in which it could be more advantageously made
than in this.

There are no doubt many auxiliary measures of 1
police and sanitorial regulation, by which the health
of the entire town might he materially improved.
By the powers vested in the Health Committee of
the Town Council much may be achieved, and we
trust will be achieved. We hope to be assured of a
thorough reformation of those dens of infamy and
filth—the common lodging-houses—which exist,
and constitute fertile sources of disease and crime,
throughout the town. A more comprehensive sys-
tem of scavenging and cleansing the streets inha-
bited by the lower classes of our population must
be adopted ; and attention must be directed to
an evil which has hitherto escaped that prominent
notice which it demands, as a fertile originator
of disease—viz., the state and locality of the schools
frequented by the children of our poor. The fol-
lowing passage on this particular subject, from
Dr. Duncan's pamphlet, presents a picture which
we believe few indeed pf our readers could have be.

lieved was to be witnessed in the town of Liver-

pool :

"Mr. Riddall Wood, who spent some time in Liver-
pool, about seven years ago, in investigating the state of
education in the borough, eound that there were, at that
time, 24 1 dame schools with 5210 scholars, and 194 corn-
mon day schools with 6096 scholars. In his Report to
the Manchester Statistical Society, he says, the condi-
tion of most of the schools in an extensive and populous
district, stretching upwards from the North Shore to
Scotland-road, is wretched in the extreme, corresponding
in a remarkable manner with that of the population.
With few exceptions the dame schools are dark and con-
fined ; many are damp and dirty ; more than one-half of
them are used as dwelling, dormitory, and school-room,
accommodating, in many cases, a family of seven or eight
persons ; above 40 of them are cellars." Of the common
day schools in the poorer districts,' he states in another
part of his Report,) ' it is difficult to convey an adequate
idea; so close and offensive is the atmosphere in many of
them as to be intolerable to a person entering from the
open air, more especially as the hour of quitting school
approaches. The dimensions of the schools rarely exceed
those of the dame schools, while frequently the number
of scholars is more than double. Bad as this is, it is
much aggravated by filth and offensive odour arising from
other causes.' [' See Report of a Committee of the Man-
chester Statistical Society, on the State of Education in
the Borough of Liverpool, in 1835-3G.'] Mr. Wood
states that the masters and mistresses are generally ig-
norant of the depressing and unhealthy effects of the at-
mosphere which surrounds them, and he mentions the
case of the mistress of a dame school who replied, when
he pointed this out to her, that the children thrived best
in dirt.' He notices particularly a school in a garret up
three pair of dark, broken stairs, with forty children in
the compass of 10 feet by 9 ; and where, ' on a perch
forming a triangle with the corner of the room, sat a cock
and two hens; under a stump bed immediately beneath
was a dog-kennel, in the occupation of three black ter-
riers, whose barking, added to the noise of the children
and the cackling of fowls on the approach of a stranger,
was almost deafening. There was only one small window,
at
which obstructing
sat the master, three-fourths of the
light it was capable of admitting.' In Manchester, so far
as I can judge from the Report of the Committee of the
Statistical Society, the schools for the
.working-classes,

especially the day schools, are somewhat better than those
in Liverpool, although the day schools are described as
being ' deplorably bad.' ' Neither in Manchester nor
Liverpool was there a common day or dame school, where
there was a play-ground, where the children could get the
change necessary for young persona.' (2231.) In Bir-
mingham, Mr. Wood stated to the Committee on the
Health of Towns that, taken as a whole, the state of the
dame schools was much better than in Liverpool and Man-
chester.' They were " small rooms, but generally on the
ground floor, and not, as in Liverpool and Manchester,
frequently in cellars or garrets.'

The most efficacious remedies, however, for the
existing evil, we are confident are to be found in the
measures to which we have chiefly addressed our-
selves—viz. ventilation of our most unhealthy loca-
lities, by the formation of spacious thoroughfares,
and a thorough and complete sewerage of the town.
Without these, all other measures are mere tin-
kering—mere trifling with the vast difficulty to be
subdued.

We have again to draw attention to the highly
indecent and improper spirit in which the duties of
the gentlemen—or some of them—who fill the office
of " visitors " of the 'Workhouse schools, are per-
formed; and, whilst doing so, we cannot but express
our regret at the unfortunate selection, by the Select
Vestry, of the parties to whom this office is con-
fided, There were, surely, amongst that body,
gentlemen who could have watched the course of
instruction pursued in these schools, in a spirit less
offensively impertinent towards the officials engaged
in them than that displayed by Mr. Urquhart.
There were gentlemen quite as fitted by their acquire-
ments and their principles to give an opinion upon
an educational system as this individual. There
were gentlemen who would have used his office for
a more worthy purpose than that of pandering to the
appetites of an anti-church, and, indeed, popish,
newspaper; and a colleague, or colleagues, who would
not have permited themselves to be dragged at his
heels in a crusade for the re-establishment, in the
schools in question, of that infidel system of edu-
cation which we have, happily, got rid of in the
schools of the corporation, and which is evidently
the pet system of Mr. Urquhart. Upon these
grounds, we deeply regret—and so must the Select
'Vestry—that such a duty as that of "visitor" should
have been placed in such hands.
We pass over for the present, because they are
evidently given in a garbled, and, we fear, an unfair
manner, the details of the conversation which took
place at the Workhouse on Tuesday last, on the
subject of the schools ; and which was, of course,
furbished up for the Mercury by Mr. Urquhart, or
some other of his " liberal" colleagues. We pass
over, for tly: present, any discussion of the question
whether " the Protestant Catechism"—one of those
Catechisms which are supplied and taught to the
children of Church of England parents, and to them
alone—is a most "unbecoming book," or whether
Mr. Urquhart is a judge of what is becoming or un-
becoming to be taught to the children of such
parents. Mr. Urquhart is, we believe, not a member
of the Church of England; and we would, therefore,
much rather place confidence in the opinion, or
practice; of the Chaplain of the Workhouse than in
his. We are told indeed, in his exparte and highly-
coloured report, that the Catechism in question was
discountenanced by Mr. Rector Brooks ; hut we
have to set against this statement the fact that it has,
until detected by this searching and judicious
" visitor," been used for some years in the school,
without any authoritative declaration against its
propriety.

We proceed, therefore, to the report, as signed by
the visitors Messrs. Urquhart, Molyneux, and
Henderson, and which is as follows :

" We refer the Poor Law Commissioners to our obser-
vations of the 17th June, and the 3rd July instant, on the
state of the schools and other matters connected with the
Workhouse ; and we are sorry to find that no steps have
been taken to improve the training of the children, nor
the adopt.on or any of the suggestions therein made, ex-
cept the surgeon removing the sick from Low-hill school."
Splendid grammar this passage!

" When we consider the past and the present condition of
the human beings brought up in this Workhouse, and the
heavy expense to the parish in building an industrial
school, we consider it imperative that no time shonld be
lost in adopting a system of moral, physical, and had.
lectual training, as a preventive of vice and crime,—an
elevation of character to usefulness and virtue, and a
saving to the parish."
Grammar almost equally splendid!

Now, what was the substance of those reports, to
which the visitors here refer the poor law commis-
sioners. We have them not at present before us ;
but we remember they alleged something like in-
competence in the masters—or rather the master
and his " two ignorant paupers;" ignorance in the
children ; the want of "moral training," &c. But
have those statements been proved to be true? The

" ignorant paupers," at least, have vindicated them-
selves from the charge of incapacity, to the satisfac-
tion of most men. We would place their acquire-
ments any day in the scale against those of Mr. Urq-
uhart himself; and especially we would do so, in gram-
matical acquirements! They are " paupers ;" and this
is "the head and front of their offending"—the reason
why "liberal" charity looks down from its eminence
and despises and slanders them ! An examination
of the children, in the presence of a great portion of
the select vestry—which Mr. Urquhart and his co-
visitors did not attend—has proved that neither were
they ignorant nor their teachers incompetent or
neglectful. The repetition of the wholesale charges
against the school management and its effects, by
the visitors, is, therefore, almost as great a violation
of propriety as can be imagined.
But it is insisted upon that "no time should be
lost in adopting a system of moral, physical, (!) and
intellectual training,"—Scotch moral philosophy,
gymnastics, and logic or mathematics, we presume !
These poor children are only taught the precepts
inculcated in their Bible, and the doctrines of their
church; they have no " moral, physical, and intel-
lectual training." Pray, what are Mr. Urquhart's
notions of moral training ? What new and happy
system of morals does he possess, which is not to
be found in the Ten Commandments and the New
Testament ? In the " physical " training of little
workhouse lads, would he substitute calisthenics for
taw and handball ? " Intellectual training," too !
We suppose such would be a short cut—by way of
the Penny Magazine, or Dr. Lardner's Cyclopedia—
to universal knowledge ; and this short cut "as a
prevention of vice and crime—an elevation of cha-
racter to usefulness (!) and virtue,—and—a saving to
the parish !" Alas ! when men wade beyond their
depth, what awful foundering and beating of air and
water do we see I

But these poor children have their acquisition of
useful knowledge, their " moral, physical, and in-
tellectual training," impeded by four catechisms;
one of them the obnoxious " Protestant catechism"
complained of. We may briefly explain away this
grievance—this great waste of time and training !
The first catechism is Dr. Watts' Catechism for
Children ; the second is the Church of England
Catechism; the third "an Explanation of the Church
of England Catechism ;" and the fourth " the Pro-
testant Catechism." These books are placed before
Church of England, or Protestant, children alone,
and at the hours when Roman Catholic children are
withdrawn by their priest to he instructed in the
doctrines of their religion. That class of children,
too, have no less than four catechisms, in which,
generally speaking, they are thoroughly drilled.
Yet Mr. Urquhart makes no objection to the waste of
time in the education of the Popish children. Their
thorough training in a belief of the doctrines of real

presence and sacramental confession, is of course

perfectly proper and liberal; but the instruction of
Protestant children in the doctrines of the Holy
Scriptures is a practice to be reprehended with all
the vehemence of " Liberal " reprehension !
A word, in conclusion, with respect to this Pro-
testant catechism, which we have carefully gone
through. We must confess that it is not, in all
respects, a compilation which we admire; but we
must also acknowledge that it appears to us almost
necessary under the circumstances in which these
poor Protestant children are placed, and when viewed
by the side of the manuals of Popery in which the
Romish children, with so many of whom they are
brought into contact, are sedulously drilled. It is
an evil, perhaps, that controversial subjects should
be introduced at all amongst mere children ; but the
greater evil is the necessity—the cons' ant contact
with the insidious teaching of Rome—which re-
quires it as a protection from error.

EDITORIAL CREDULITY.-1S this the 19th cen-
tury? Our almanack tells us that it is; and yet,
with the following paragraph before us, in the
Liverpool Times of Tuesday last, we might almost
doubt that we lived in any other than the dark ages.
Superstition, in an ignorant peasant located in the
heart of an Irish hog, is natural enough ; but that
anything so gross as is here shewn could have
existed in Liverpool, or that a journalist could have
been found in any corner of England to record it,
and place faith in it, is what we really could not
have believed to be possible. Here it is, for the
!‘ liberalism" of Liverpool to contemplate!

FATIIER MATHEW A MIRACLE-WORKER.--Many
persons will willingly admit that the moral revolution which
Father Mathew has wrought in Ireland is, from its cha-
racter and magnitude, more entitled to the appellation of
a miracle than many other things which have been dubbed
with the title. Until yesterday, however, we never heard
that the wonder-working " apostle of temperance" was
gifted with really miraculous powers. Whilst the admi-
nistration of the pledge was going on in the grounds of
St. Anthony's Chapel, it was confidently rumoured that
the respected Father had in the morning restored to a
child, about 14 years of age, the use of its limbs, of which
it had been deprived for several months. The mother of
the boy (so the story went) brought it in her arms to Fa-
ther Mathew, who, after having inquired into the nature
of its ailments, made upon it the sign of the cross, and re-
peated a few words, whereupon its limbs suddenly acquired
their long-lost vigour, and the boy actually walked home !
This story might have been looked upon as the clumsy
invention of some superstitious and ardent admirer of the
Father, anxious to add to his well-earned renown, and as
such it might have been smiled at, had it obtained cre-
dence only amongst the poor and uneducated ; but it was
actually repeated as indubitably true by persons in the
middle class of life ; and one individual, who ought not
easily to be deceived and much less lend himself to a de-
ceit, declared that he himself was a witness of the per-
formance of the miracle. .0"

We dare say, after this, that " persons in the mid-
dle class of life," (l) individuals who " ought not
easily to be deceived," and a journalist ready to gulp
down any cock-and-bull story which comes in his
way, will be found, some of these days, to assure
us that the miraculous father has walked on the
sea, converted water into wine, or that his head is
encircled with a crown of glory; in which latter
case we hope, for the credit of the imposture, that
there will be no prying heretic present to suggest to
the gaping worshippers of the miracle-worker, that
" 'Tis only the sunshine reflected, I judge,
From that big pail of water behind Father Fudge."
By the way, will the Times inform us who is this
" one individual who ought not easily to be de-
ceived," and who witnessed this miracle. His
phrenological developments would be a curious sub-
ject of investigation.

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD

b
u-) 2

STATE AND PROSPECTS OF OUR COMMERCE
WITH BRITISH INDIA.

The Foreign and Colonial Quarterly Review„ in an
article " on the commerce and prospects of the British
Empire in India," furnishes us with some statistical and
practical details which, at the present crisis of our coin.
mercial affairs, are of infinite importance. We have,
again and again, in the columns of the LIVERPOOL
STANDARD, pointed attention to the efforts making by
the advocates of ultra free trade, to cut asunder the ties
—protecting and discriminating duties—which bind our
noble colonial possessions to the mother country ;—to
exchange the secure and remuneratinc, markets which
they afford to our manufacturers and merchants for a
scrambling competition with the foreigner in the markets
of the world. Our opinion has ever been that a far wiser
policy would be that which should direct and devote the
energies of Great Britain to the task of developing the
resources of those colonial possessions. We have main-
tained that in these possessions, exhaustless alike in their
productive powers and in their ability to consume the
productions of Great Britain ; highly capable of civiliza-
tion, and certain, as their civilization progresses, to in-
crease largely the adoption by their vast population of the
habits, and the use of the products, of civilized nations ;
we possess a field for the operation of British industry,
ingenuity, and capital, which ought to render us indepen-
dent of the commerce of the world besides, and to place
far removed from us the necessity, said to exist, of pur-
chasing that commerce by concessions, whose declare-
effects are the discouragement of the agriculture of our
country, and the reduction of the position of the indus-
trial portion of its population, to, at least an approach
to, the miserable position occupied by the labourers of
most other nations. These have ever been our distinctly
avowed opinions ; and in the article referred to we have
ttatistical data which place their truth and justice beyond
he possibility of dispute.
Turning to the East alone we find that—
" In 1832, the extent of territory in India under the
British Government was 553,000 square miles, the popu-
lation of which was 83,000,000.
" At the same period the extent of territory in India
under the British Governmena, and including the allies
and tributaries to Great Britain, was 1,280,000 square
miles, the population of which was 134,000,000.
" At the same period, India beyond the Ganges ex-
tended to 77,000 square miles, the population of which
was 301,000.

" The total imports from India to Great Britain, east-
ward of the Cape and excluding China, in 1832, were
£6,337,098.

" The total exports from Great Britain to India at the
same date, were £3,750,286.

,
" Both the population and the trade of India have very
considerably increased during the last ten years. And to
territory we have now to add the extensive region of
Scinde.

" Taking into account its situation, and the great
veriety and value of its productions and manufactures,
there is perhaps no part of the world better adapted for
engaging in extensive and profitable trade than British
India. It comprises 250,000 square miles, of the richest
and most fertile portions of the globe, with at least an
equal extent of productive soil in the tropical and tem-
perate zones. The sea coast extends 1,500 miles, and
possesses various excellent harbours, while the country is
intersected with the magnificent rivers, Ganges, Burram-
pooter, and Indus. This vast empire is surrounded by
the extensive and fertile countries of China, Birmah,
Siam, Persia, Arabia, and the Eastern Archipelago.
" The amount of maratime trade connected with British
India has baen recently estimated as follows :
Total exports of merchandize and treasures
from Bengal, Madras, and Bombay, to
Great Britain, Continential Europe, North
and South America, annually £12000,000
Total imports to ditto from ditto, annual ,

average....
Maratime trade of India with China, Bir-
mah, Siam, Eastern Islands, Persia,
Arabia, Australasia, &c., annual average 4,000,000
Ditto of Singapore and China 6,000,000

Total annual trade
" Large as this total value of the annual trade of Bri-
tish India, appears to be, the trade with England is com-
paratively still in its infancy. The consumption of the
manufactures of England does not amount to sixpence per
head of the population, while in the West India colonies
the consumption of onr manufactures among the negroes
amounts to five pounds sterling per head ; and among the
colonists of Australia, to £l5 sterling per head. The
whole amount of our manufactures exported to India
does not at present exceed £5,000,000, while it has been
calculated, that, if each inhabitant of British India used
annually a single turban or gown of Manchester manu-
fecture, there would be an annual export of cotton goods
rlone, exceeding £50,000,000 sterling. In our Asiatic
dominions, a large amount of woollens, silks, pottery,
glass, plated wares, cutlery, iron, brass, and copper im-
plements, and a variety of articles for domestic use, would
find a profitable and ready market, and could be easily
paid for in the different articles of production formerly
enumerated, and which are so largely consumed in Bri-
tain. In the article of sugar, it is calculated that the
valley of the Ganges alone would produce a sufficient
supply for the whole world. One half of the quantity
now consumed in the United Kingdom is obtained from
British India.

" From the great extent and fertility of British India it
must be clear, that a much more extensive and valuable
trade could be conducted between England and the East,
than now exists, nr than is, pPrhaps, imagined by a large
class of our inhabitants. At present we import from
British India annually 6,000,000 lbs. of Indigo, valued at
£2,000,000.

" Cotton wool, annually increasing in quantity.
Sheep's wool, about 3,000,000 lbs. weight.
Pepper, 5,000,000 lbs.
" Rice, exported from Calcutta alone, 20,000 tons.
Wheat, a rapidly increasing trade ; the cargoes that
have arrived have been valued at 608. to 645. per quarter.
Untanned hides, upwards of 50,000 cwt.
Linseed, 200,000 bushels.
" Castor oil, upwards of 1,000,000 ;19s. weight.
Other articles, such as coffee, rum, saltpetre, silk,
tea, dyes, drugs, timber, &c., it is unnecessary to specify.
" Sugar, one half of the present consumption of the
United Kingdom.
" In all these articles a greatly increased consumption
could be effected in Great Britain, and a corresponding
increase made in the exports of our various manufactures.
We now pay Russia annually upwards of 5,000,000 ster-
ling, chiefly in the precious mails for the following ar-
ticles, which can be supplied from 'British India :
Tallow, 51,938 tons, at £4O
Flax, 54,478 .. 40
Hemp, 29,059 .. 35

X 5,273,705

" The whole amount of British manufactures, exported
from the United Kingdom to all parts of the world, is
about £50,000,000 sterling, anndally. If the population
of our territories in the East were enabled to consume
only one tenth of the quantity consumed by our negro
subjects in the West Indies, there would, it is presumed,
be an annual export trade of £72,000,000 sterling, added
to the present total exports of £50,000,000.
" According to the calculation made in 1839, the follow-
ing would be the amount of our exports to one hundred
million British subjects in India, if they consumed in pro-
portion to the undermentioned countries :