The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-07-18 00:00:00

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~ves to b-uild a workhouse, a fever hospital, a
unatic asylum, and ample space to erect wards in the event
" any contagion breaking out. To provide air—instead of
'iealthy and the sick, the idiotic and the imbecile
constantly confined in the stagnant atmosphere
'lw-hill, and the afflicted under restraint, and
's over whom the Select Vestry had no con-
may all inhale the vital food of a mire
g and purifying the functions of
, 6,ying energy to their minds, by bringing
the whole animal machinery of respiration, giving
carbon to the blood and vivacity to the spirits. To pro-
cure earth, instead of the confined paved yards in which
the paupers walk about, that they may, by exercise,
strengthen the muscles of their bodies, by walking on
that which "is the Lord's, and beholding the fulness
thereof."

only m

atmosphere, circulattr

Our readers will admit this to be very beautiful
and most sentimental; encouraging to our unfor-
tunate paupers and gratifying in every respect, if it
can be accomplished. The idea is more than beau-
tiful : it is comprehensive and grand. A Work-
house, a Fever Hospital, and Lunatic Asylum, all
in one, with ample space in which "all may inhale
the vital food of a pure atmosphere," and "have
earth (!) instead of the paved yards to walk upon,"
are really delightful objects to contemplate, and, if
secured, will immortalize the Select Vestry, and
Tender Liverpool a mark and an authority, as hav-
ing succeeded in reaching the perfect idea of a
pauper Bastile. But we see a few objections to it,
and one of them an insuperable one—viz., the fact
that we have neither any necessity for pattern
workhouse building, nor the money to throw away
n the attempt.

We are told, in reply to the money question,
that we shall have none to pay; that we shall save
by the adoption of this great scheme. The esti-
mates furnished us are so loose that we attach not
the slightest weight to them. For instance, we
are told that we shall be able to keep lunatics, for
which we are paying at present from Bs. to 10s. per
week each, for the same sum per head which we
now pay for the keep of paupers—viz., three shil-
lings. The reply of the Rev. Rector Brooks, the
Chairman of the Vestry, to this calculation, that
the lunatics in the Lancaster Asylum cost Bs. 9d.
per head, and that " no profit whatever is realized
by them," is a fact worth a hundred opinions and
tes. Again, we have no faith in the alleged
value of the site of the existing workhouse. Con-
tiguous, as it is now, to a number of n.i+ry back

estimat

eets, and the prestige of the neighbourhood for
respectability entirely gone, we doubt if twelve

shillings a yard could be got for it within any
reasonable time; and even then, as Mr. Earle re-
minded the Vestry, we must bear in mind that in

oduct of a plot of building land we
ltion the space to be set
rmation of streets. We doubt too
her, as is assumed, twenty-seven acres of
e quantity required in an eligible site, can
red in West Derby, or any other place
our or five miles of Liverpool, for £B,OOO,
han three hundred pounds per acre ; and
we dislike the disinuenuousness of parties who, in
making

must take into consic

apart for the fo:

Wt
land, t

or less

eh an estimate of comparative cost, put
ten per cent. as the allowance for the excess over
estimate upon a matured plan, and allow for no
the estimate of their own plan, which is

altogether in nubibus

Supposing, however, that a trifling saving could
be effected, there still remain insuperable objections
to the project. We object to the transporting of
our unfortunate poor to a distance so far from the
every-day inspection of the Vestry, their legitimate
protectors, and from the visits of their immediate
friends. We have some idea, too, that these un-
fortunate beings are allowed occasionally a day out

little value if they had to enjoy it at the expense
of a walk of four or five miles. Then there are
cases in which proximity to the workhouse is

essential to the charitable- purpose of such an in-
stitution; and we are not inclined to " extend our
views," with Mr. Poole, "to one hundred years
or one hundred and fifty years hence ;" and, were
we ever so inclined, we are not so sanguine as to
expect to find West Derby village or its vicinity
the centre of the parish of Liverpool, or " as near
to it as the workhouse in Brownlow-hill when
originally built." Under all circumstances, we
protest most decidedly against this wild proposal;
and, especially, we wonder with what face gen-
tlemen can make themselves prominent in their
opposition to an expenditure for water for sanatory
purposes, who are prepared to hurry us into an ex-
penditure whose necessity nobody ever dreamt of.

" Lord Clarendon has taken the bull by the
horns," exclaims a Whig contemporary of Satur-
day—the Journal ;—and some timid and deluded
Conservatives are congratulating themselves upon
the fact of his lordship's tardy energy, A few of
the most prominent bullies of the Repeal press have
succeeded, by the loudness and rabidness of their
bawling, in attracting the notice of her Majesty's
Irish Government. Messrs. Duffy and Meagher of
the sword, with a few more gentry of similar kidney,
whose trade is furious writing and spouting—who
live by the sale of sedition, and cry for pikes and
pennies in a breath—are about to be submitted to
the not very dangerous chance of not having a
Papist on the jury, sworn to "give a true verdict
according to the evidence" produced against them.
This is energetic government ! This paltering with
a few of the blown bladders of agitation is to put
down an extensively organised conspiracy ; to blunt
the pikes, and render innocuous the muskets of
some tens of thousands of rebels, avowedly pre-
pared to level them, at the first convenient oppor-
tunity, against the breasts of her Majesty's loyal
Irish subjects, and to embark in a struggle to the
death for the subversion of her Majesty's rule and
authority in that distracted land. With the rebels
themselves, their clubs, and their arming, Lord
Clarendon hesitates to interfere. The trumpeters of
the rebel army are dealt with by the arm of autho-
rity; but the army itself is left to strengthen and
intrench its force unmolested.
We have hope, however, left yet of safety for
Ireland, let her Majesty's Government neglect their
duty as they may. There is -a loyal Protestant
strength in Ireland, which exhibited itself on the
glorious twelfth of this month of July, throughout
the province of Ulster, against which treason
directs menace and hyrocritical wheedling equally
in vain. The much-maligned Orange body in
Ireland, faithful still throughout half a century of
misrepresentation and actual persecution, stands
forward now, with the old spirit of 1688 glowing
yet in the breasts of its members, to act as the
barrier against the demon, raised by Popish in-
trigues and fostered by Protestant concession. On
that loyal body, and on those actuated by the same
loyal and Protestant feelings, Lord Clarendon
might just now rely in safety, if he would throw
himself upon it for support, and treat its members
with the consideration which is due to them.
But the moral courage, we fear, is not in Whiggery
to treat disaffection as it deserves to be treated.
It will be allowed to smoulder, unchecked, until at
length it blazes forth, and spreads bloodshed and
desolation over the land. In that last disastrous
crisis, our faithful, though abused, Orange bre-
thren will have to save, and will save, the empire
which has trampled upon them.
Are we in England, aye, in Liverpool, under no
obligation to this body, which has so admirably
conducted itself during the past week ? The
magistracy of our town could answer the
question. The feeling of hostility is rife even
here, amongst our Irish population, against the
country which has received and fostered them, to
the neglect of the claims of its own suffering in-
dustry. We have Irishmen here providing pikes
for our destruction, organizing themselves in clubs,
and in their secret conclaves talking of fire and
outrage to come. And who are they, amongst our
working population, upon whom our authorities
are depending at the present moment for protec-
tion ? We answer, the loyal Orangemen of Liver-
pool—the men whose forefathers bled at Aughrim
and the Boyne—the men whom smooth, sleek,
and oily Protestants have for years been treating
with the cold shoulder, whilst Papists and infidels
have been denouncing them as nuisances and
bloodthirsty miscreants. Yet even now, with the
knowledge of their loyalty patent before all the
world, what is the reward with which they are
their

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