The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-08-22 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

EFFECT OF DISTURBANCES.

There is one class of society especially concerned in
putting down such knots of ruffians as those who have
been recently arrested by the police. Let the industrious
artizan and labourer, in whose names they profess to act,
show that they utterly disavow their proceedings. The
labouring classes may feel secure that the cause of tran-
quillity and public order is a poor man's question above
all. Alodern Chartism is a crusade against the savings-
bank, the cottage, and the shop. If all the towns in the
kingdom were burnt to ashes to-morrow, the Duke of
Buccleuch, Baron Rothschild, and Mr. Morison, could
make their escape and begin life again with favourable
prospects elsewhere. The United States disavow no one
in human form with dollars to pay his way. Australia
and New Zealand present excellent openings for those
who can get there. But what would the poor do in such
a case ? They must perish in the fiery ring with which
they had encircled themselves. For them there is no
escape. Cultivated to the top of its power, and with all
the resources of commercial credit at the command of its
inhabitants, England must yet import food ; and, that it
may import it, must pay for it in one way or another.
What, then, would be the fate of those who were left
behind, if the bonds that hold society together in England
were violently rent asunder and destroyed ? The example
of Paris, and the unprecedented sufferings endured by the
poor in that city since the revolution of February,—suf-
ferings which have driven them to cast themselves on the
bayonets of the soldiers, and before the fire of the artil-
lery, in utter recklessness of their miserable existence,—
should be a warning to all the humbler classes in this
country how they permit themselves to be deceived by
political adventurers, who are merely speculating on their
sufferings to attain their own base ends of gain or noto-
riety. Modern Chartism cannot succeed in spreading
universal conflagration over the country ; but, should the
measures adopted by the police and the Government not
prove sufficient to eradicate the pestilence, let the labour-
ing classes consider what will be the immediate conse-
quence to themselves in the shape of diminished employ-
ment and lower wages. As society stands at present in
England, if public confidence be shaken never so little,
and whether the apprehension arise from abroad or at
home, the first consequence is that workmen must be
thrown out of employment. This is no new discovery,
but a solemn truth, of which we have had but too recent
experience. At the present moment, happily, the mills
are beginning to work again, and, despite all the troubles
upon the continent of Europe, trade is recovering its
equilibrium. Artizans. are beginning to be employed,
poor-rates are beginning to be lightened. One week of
modern Chartism in Liverpool and Manchester, or even
should there be a well-grounded apprehension that such
a spirit had got abroad, and all this would be changed.
Let the labouring classes look to it in time. If they will
not help themselves, the power, if not the will, may be
deficient in others. We earnestly recommend all persons
in the great towns of the kingdom, who in any way may
have become informed of the haunts or proceedings of
these pothouse conspirators, to give timely warning to
the police. The rest may safely be left to the public
authorities.