The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-02-22 00:00:00

THE STANDARD AND THE MERCURY.

In his publication -of Tuesday last, the Mercury, con-
siderably to our surprise—for we were not at all aware
that to anything that we had been doing could be attri-
buted that " wastyne sicknesse" under which his bulk,
strength, and lively spirits have been recently falling
away—fell foul of us in the following paragraph of his
notices to correspondents:—
"STANDARD MORALITY.—Oar Crescent contemporary has
adopted a mode of advertising, and especially of placarding the
town, which has for its object the vain attempt to palm off his
publication as the only Tuesday paper published ; the only one
that can be read in Manchester that day; in short, to perpe
trate a practical hoax upon the pubiic, under cover of a pitiftil
quibble. The salvo to his very flexible conscience is, that he
uses the word " weekly"--as a distinction for fact's sake, but
not for the sake of the intended impression, as his typography
on the walls decidedly shows."
We dare say we should have foregone making any
reply to so trumpery an imputation as is here attempted
to be conveyed—set i c down as an ebullition of old womanly
spleen—and forgot all in an
_hour after its perusal. On
Friday, however, we found him reiterating his censure on
most immoral conduct ; and even resorting to very myste-
rious threats of punishment. Then, and not till then, we
felt ourselves bound to say a word or two in self defence.
Our contemporary says—so far as we can understand
him—that " as our typography on the walls decidedly
shews," it was our intention to have conveyed the idea
that he himself was defunct; that there was no Tuesday's
Mercury published. Our readers, if any of them are too
elderly to discern moderately-sized type, will perhaps put
on their spectacles, and give us their opinion of the size
of the type in which this word " weekly" was given.
We only give one letter, for the word itself would not
come within the column—

We think there could be little mistake as to such letter
being perfectly legible, upon a placard of very moderate
size.

Our contemporary is the very last person in the world
who ought to have ventured to accuse another of tricky
practices, inasmuch as he is himself a sinner in such gag-
gery and a constant practitioner of the art of humbugging
the unreflecting public. At this moment the walls of our
town, and of the neighbouring outskirts, are plentifully
posted with a large placard, of which the following is a
copy :

LIVERPOOL MERCURY,

PUBLISHED EVERY
TUESDAY AND FRIDAY.

AVERAGE CIRCULATION,
Of Fridays,
8,950 COPIES.
Now, when we state that w'•ilst the whole of the placard
is in most imposing letter, ,o type in which "Average
circulation" is printed is 11 inches in height, and that is
which " 8950 copies" is printed is 8 inches, what do our
readers suppose is the size of the intervening qualifying
size "of Friday's." Why just a third of an inch, and the
type stuck in a corner so as to escape observation as much
as possible.

Of course so virtuous a personage could never wish to
convey the impression that the average circulation' of
Tuesday's and Friday's Mercury is 8950 copies each.
There are more than oue in a million, however, who
glancing at the placard in question arrive at that coaclu-
sion ; if indeed it were not intended that they should do
so.

We would seriously advise our contemporary, whilst in
his present distempered state, not to strike out at so much
random ; for random blows are seldom wisely dealt, and
often provoke unpleasant returns. If he has made his
moves clumsily ; if he has benefitted little from the wan-
ton and unprovoked injury which he inflicted upon his
brother Whig journalist when he usurped his day of pub-
lication ; if his poor six columns of Advertisements in his
Tuesday's issue remain just six columns ; he ought not to
blame us or any other competitor, but rather to take to
his heart the lesson which disappointment conveys, that
the public, however well disposed to reward well-deserved
merit and energy, will not tolerate attempted monopoly,
which seeks to advance itself upon the weakness of a
neighbour.

THE BUDGET-INCOME TAX-MILITIA.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

SlR,—Well might Mr. Hume say, at its conclusion,
that " he had never heard with such pain any budget
brought forward as he had heard the present. He pro-
tested against the idea of the probability of any war with
France." _ _ _

The continuance of the income tax for a period of five
years, and an increase of it from 3 to 5 per cent. for a
period of two years, is almost insupportable, considering
the depressed state of the times ; but not satisfied with
this, we are again to be saddled with that most grievous
scourge the militia. Lord J. Russell, in his announce-
ment of it, said, that " if they took substitutes, (the plan
hitherto allowed and adopted,) they might not be forth-
coming," inferring, of course, that whoever should have
the misfortune of being balloted,--no matter in what
sphere he might move, • or whatever situation he might
hold, so that it did not happen to be a government one,—
should be compelled to serve his term.
Now, Sir, I ask, is this reasonable ? Is it not intolera-
ble, that a man must sacrifice a good situation for the
scanty sum of thirteen pence halfpenny a-day, to say
nothing of the degradation ? I think that every man who
studies his own interest should resist this odious impost
by every constitutional means in his power; for a man's
prospects in life might be for ever blighted by having to
submit to this mode of maintaining our " national de-
fences." If the government were to offer a larger bounty
they could, I have no doubt, secure any number of men
for the regular forces, if such a course were deemed neces-
sary.
_ _

I would recommend that the inhabitants of "the good
old town" immediately set about getting up numerously-
signed petitions against the establishment of the militia,
force, in order to show their disapproval of such a mea-
sure.—Your's, &c. A LOVER OF PEACE.