The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-08-15 00:00:00

DIED.

-
Lately, at Rochdale, aged 35, CHARLES ALEXANDER,
surviving son of the late Mr. David Alexander,of Ruddersbefik
and brother-in-law to Mr. Wm. Crook, of the Dublin and
pool Stearn-packet Company's offices, in this town. •on the 17th March. at Cam2r oons, aged 38, Captain JAMES.
LAMB, of the ship Regina.
On the 17th June, at Demerara, after an illness oforrlrtwas
days and a half, aged 30, HENRY. son of the late Sir MICTJAIZIL.
M‘TURK, of that colony.
On the 25th ultimo, at Belmont-cottage, Matlock, Bath,
ngre
79, JAMES RAWLINSON, Esq., artist. Deceased was a papl,
of the late celebrated Geerge Romney, and one of the fey- ra..
'paining artists who were contemporary with Sir Joshua Rey--
nolds.
On the 2Cth ultimo. at Stanab, St. John's, near Keswick,agsdf
100, GRACE, relict of Mr. JOHN GASKARTH.
Same day, aged 31, Mr. EDWARD WALKER of Clieetliams,-
bill, near Manchester, second son of Mr. Thomas WalkerAtak--
ner, Present.
On the 28th ultimo, at Keswick. aged 44, ISABELLA, rift al
Mr. S. LADY MAN, pencil-manufactiwer.
On the 31st ultimo, at Dublin, aged 25, Mr. B. ROYSTON-, a,
this town.

On the 2nd instant, aged v. Mrs. SARAH HOWARD, wi3isr..-
coat-maker, youngest daughter of the late Mr John Clttrit4.
writer.

Same day, aged 66, MARY, wife of Mr. PETER: tr.r.tw
shipwright, Lower Tranmero.
Same day, aged 38, Mr.ROBERT HUGHES, of her Majeltrk•
Customs.

On the 3rd instant, in Laurel-road, Fairfield, Mr. J. R 0111
cattle-salesman.

Same day, at Newcastle, Mrs. E. JOHNSON, the Last ante--
female bricklayers' labourers in that neighbondiood. Decrerstai
had followed her laborious occupation forty years. lfssnalile
bricklayers' labourers were very common in the towns of•NAlp--
castle, Shields, and Sunderland. some time back.
Same day, at the residence of his father, Mr. Peter Stritb,
weolicad, near. Orrnskirk, suddenly, aged 23, Mr. THarita.3=
SMITH.
Same day, at Carnarvon, MARY, wife of Mr. J. GRIFFITIA...
police-officer, of this town.
Same day, at Ackworth, aged 82, ROBERT WHITAKER, st
member of the Society of Friends. For upWards of thirty yam,
he filled the important office of superintendent of the Frissl4Y"
School at Ackworth, from which he retired into private! Ile-
about the year 1815.
On the 4th instant, nt Norton-lodge, near Runcorn, in
55th year, ALFRED THOMAS, Esq., late of Spring itevi...
Stand.

On the sth instant, nt his seat, Belmont, Cheshire, after-2(
protracted illness, used 52, .IA/1/ES HEATH LEIGH. E'sq..
Same day, suddenly, aged 59, Mr. HENRY DATESCRIc
weigher,Creyen-street.

Same flay. in Devon-R;reet, aged 22, CATIIERINE MORRISi,
wife of Mr. P.A.MILLER.

Same day, of disease of the liver, aged 22, SARAH, daughtmr
of Mr. JAI',IES M`KENNA, of ('roeshall-street.
Same day, aged 35, Mr. WM. HARRIS, second' engineer e.e
the steam tug President.
On the sth instant, at Chorlton-hall, aged $3, MARTHA,
lict of JAMES SWA V, I,sq.,late of Olive Mount, WrivertteeL
Same day, aged 37. CATHERINE, wife of Mr.
SON, of the Wellington Inn, St. Helens.
Same day. aged 7 years and 6 months, AMELIA,. youtt„,mst
daghter of Mr. GEORGEENSOR, tookhinder.

On the 9th instant, in Chatham-street, SARAH, wife ef-KIN-
WARD SENIOR, Es9-___

Same day. in Edge-hill, in his 17th year, HENRY, son &Wm.
H. W. HA'YMAN.
Same day, at Lower Tranmere, in his 50th year, Mr. RIM-SIN
TANGTON.

Same day, after a protracted illness of eighteen months, az
56, Mr. WILLIAM. GRIFFITHS, formerly of William's.lino--
square.

Game (lay, in lievington-Inish, Mr. JOSEPH MARTIN; hue.-
ter, for many years chief Tyler to the Provincial Gran 4 ate.
several private Lodges of Ancient Free and Accepted limsoissi
in this town.

On the Bth instant, after an illness of five days. aged
ROBERT lIILL, car-proprietor.
Same day, ANNIE BRUCE, infant daughter of 'W.
SANGSTER, Esq.
On the 9th instant, ELIZABETH, infant tronghter of etsitc.
JAMES TURNER, of Beau-street.
, Same day, at Northwieh, aged 11, MARY EMIL-W.dan74/Itr,
of the late Mr. THOMAS BANKS, of this town.

Same day, at A irfielTdottage, New Ferry, ELEANOR; t •
I beloved wife of Mr. THOMAS PARR, of this town, and darcpz-
ter of the late Captain Hodson.
Same day, aged 7 years, JANE, daughter of Mr. O'BRPFX"„
Watchmaker.
WILKINSON, of Pilling, near Garstsrr, and brother to Ms-
Same day, at Manchester, suddenly, need 27, Mr. .10.1-11117
late Mr. «'m. Wilkinson, publican, %Vhechap
Same day, at his seat Langliam. Norfolk, after a lon?:anl.i-
-it' r..h-
painful illness, caused by the bursting of a succession of Waal-
vessels, in his Nth year, Captain MARRYAT, M.../c„,,_
F.E.S. second son of the late J. Marryat, M.P.,of
house, Deceased married Catharine, daughter cxf tile-
lateSir S. Shitirp. Bart, N. 8., by whom he leaves- a fatuity-et
six children. When at Hastings. in the month of l'ebt-rasxs
Captain Marryat read in The Times the account a the tetair
loss of her Majesty's ship Avenger, in which Lis eldest sort pe,--
rished. For some Vine it was feared the shock would:ham-
been fatal. Captain. Marryta's talents as ii writer am,a-tiD
known. His services in the navy are tiros recorded by !Wm,.
irAa'telocnAlrfly i7ll Lthiset s-ohni t"11-11: coastf tohi Giant?! o's irliiaTrustiert
vohpe,
Lord Cochrane ; served in the attack on tie French fleet i.AAI-5,
Roads, and in the Wa'rheron expedition,
in iS:{); lieutenant or
the Newcastle, and in her barge cut (nit your vesscqs front •roz--
ton Day, 1814; commandcd the 'Larne in the ll!irrnete war,.
being part of the time senior oflicer. Chrzetted 18); may, • •
death a good service pension falls into the gift of Cie Ailtairaltc.tin ..
t I,e 10th instant, JOHN WOLSEY, infant son
BLEVIN.

Same day, atWillow-green,LittleLeigli,Cheshire,llANNVEt.,.
eldest daughter of the late Mr. J. SAM/BACH, surgreal..
Chester.

Sane day, aged 10 months, JANET M`LEAN, dantilibir
Captiiin GEORGE WIIINFIELD.
On the 11th instant, after a few days' Elness, ELIZA JAN-Ig_
danghter of Mr. JAMES MARTINDALE, of Whitergehl,roa4.-
Everton.

On the 12th instant, at Rirehfield, Edge-lane, aged
HEIX,N, wife of C. S. LEMON, Emilvikt•tvh •
On the 13th instant, at Rose Mdblit, is
CHARLES WOODHOUSE, younlifirtAiN CAW+,
CRAE, Esq.
• . •
v"`

A '

TUESDAY MORNING. AUG. 15, 1848.

THE division which took place in the Council
on Monday last, negativing the Report of the Spe-
cial Committee on the subject of local rates, has
not surprised us. The great question, involved in
the Committee's recommendations—the propriety
of rating the Dock and Corporate estate—is a new
one. Its advocates have had a large amount of
prejudice to contend with, whilst its opponents
have a strong ad captandum case, in favour of the
exemption of these estates from any contribution
towards the public burthens, in which they are,
and will be, backed by a large portion of the pub-
lic out of the borough of Liverpool. Under all the
circumstances, we regard the defeat as a most en-
couraging one ; and venture to predict that the
next, or a very early appeal to the Council, will be
triumphantly successful, so far as that body has
power to effect the required object. We shall take the
liberty of canvassing a few of the objections raised
by various speakers ; and first, with respect to the
proposal to rate the Dock Estate.
It is urged that this estate is a public property,
held on trust by the Dock Trustees for the bene-
fit of the commerce of the whole empire; and, as
such, ought to be exempt from contributing to the
burthens of the locality in which it is situated ;
that, by so rating it, we shall, in fact, be levying a
tax upon the trade and consumption of the entire
kingdom. The argument is certainly plausible;
but no more. The Dock Trustees are neither
bound, nor permitted, to exercise their trust for the
benefit of the public, solely. There is no power in
the legislature to compel them to reduce their
rates, for instance ; and all past reductions have
been made on local grounds, viz., to attract com-
merce to the port. The estate has invariably been
treated by parliament as a local estate, bound to
contribute as much as possible to the convenience
and comfort of the local population ; and the ap-
plication of the question of locality has even been
extended in favour of the opposite strand, as wit-
ness our spacious marine parades, our noble land-
ing steps, and, more recently, an expenditure of
sixty thousand pounds, for the accommodation of
the river steamers. As a constitutional question,
too, all precedent is in favour of the rating. We
make all other bodies, drawing a revenue from any
locality, contribute to the support of the poor, whom
they attract to that locality ; and, in the case of
railways, we levy the tax, not upon the original ,
value of the land occupied, but upon the increased
value given to it by the outlay of immense capital.
On the ground of justice to the ratepayers of the
town, the case for rating the Dock Estate is very
strong—is, in fact, unassailable. Trace the parish
of Liverpool upon the map, and what is it ? A ,
narrow strip of land running parallel with the river,
in no place much above a mile from what was once I
the strand. Yet upon the population located
within this limited area is saddled the whole of the
pauperism inevitable wherever there is a large and
fluctuating market for labour; whilst, year by
year, we are encroaching upon that area with our
dock works, and thus decreasing the number of the
population so rated, and the consequent pressure of j
the burthen upon each. To form the Albert Dock
and Warehouses we swept away a mass of valuable
warehouse and other property. We have occupied
a large space of building ground with the canal
docks at the north end of the town, which would
ultimately have been built upon and contributed to
our local funds. We are about to pull down a ,
mass of streets and warehouses at Wapping, by the
conversion of which into non-ratepaying docks the I
parish will become serious losers; and contempo-
raneously with, and as a result of this gradual ap-
sorption of the area of the town, we see our mer-
chants and tradesmen—all classes, in fact, except
our shopkeepers, and those who are bound to their
several business localities—getting beyond the
parish boundaries, whilst their former residences
are converted into dwellings, or apartments, for the
working classes. Moreover, Liverpool, to the ex-
clusion of the out-townships, has to contend sin-
gle-handed with the increasing shoals of pauperism
which Ireland casts upon our shores, and which
we must either pay for keeping until drawn off by
the demand for labour in the manufacturing dis-
tricts, or be at the expense of sending back to their
own country. Certainly, in justice, the Dock Es-
tate, take it even as a strictly public property, ought
to bear some portion of the burthen which it thus
creates. Parliament, however powerfully appealed
to, could never vindicate that public selfishness
which would crush a community so situated. At
least, if our docks are to be worked as for the na-
tion alone, exclusively of local considerations and
claims, the nation, and not the parish of Liverpool,
ought to support the burthens which they entail
upon us.
We are quite aware how advisable it is that the
dock accommodation of Liverpool should be pro-'
vided at as low a price as possible; but we cannot
entertain the slightest alarm on this score. Al-
ready Liverpool is the cheapest port in the empire;
and considering its great convenience of loading,
unloading, warehousing, &c„ it is the cheapest in
the world. By the course proposed, of making the
docks contribute to the support of the burthens of
the parish in which they are situated, it is possible
that we may have to postpone for a year or two any
further reductions of dock rates. The productive-
ness of the estate, however, and the attractions
which it presents to the shipping and commerce of
the world, are being continually increased by the
mechanical and other arrangements brought into
practice by the Dock Committee; and were this,
even, not the case, our preeminence is too well esta-
blished to be lightly shaken, or at all events to be
shaken by the mere postponement of a boon which
has not yet been demanded of us. Besides, what
other port in the empire is in a position to outbid
us in the race for cheapness of dock and general
accommodation ?
We believe firmly that amongst nine-tenths of
the community, this portion of the Select Com-
mittee's recommendation is a settled question, as
being an act of justice towards the overburthened
ratepayers of Liverpool, conferred at a sacrifice to
the whole community of consumers of foreign pro-
duce so small as to be almost inappreciable. The
question as to rating the Corporation property is a
slightly different one. It does seem, at first sight,
slightly to savour of the absurdity of taking money
out of one pocket to put it in the other ; and we
were almost staggered ourselves by the following
pitious picture of the consequences of the step,
drawn by a Thursday's contemporary—the Liver-
pool Times :

"The question then is this, is it more for the interest
of the town that the Council should have its present Sur-
plus Fund available for the purpose of widening streets,
removing obstructions and nuisances, erecting public
buildings, as baths and wash-houses, providing schools,
gardens, and museums for the people, and applying a
couple of thousands a year to civic hospitality, or the' a
portion of that surplus should be taken for poor-rates ?
Considering that Liverpool is the unhealthiest town in
England, it would be desirable rather to increase than
diminish the fund applicable to the widening of streets,
which is only anotller name for giving fresh air and health-
to the public ; and though there is no doubt that a
exteriorbuilding, with an iterior like a barn. might be made to

~;

arswer all the purposes of St. George's Hall, and that his
Worship might entertain the public on sandwiches and
ginger beer, yet we really think that the good old town
would lose more than it would gain by such meanness.
Whatever may have been the cost of St. George's Hall,
we have at length a building n hich Liverpool may well be
proud of ; and though two thousand a-year spent in good
dinners at the town-hall may appear to some rigid Utili-
tarians to be thrown away, we cannot help thinking that
the town has obtained its equivalent in the conciliatory
and friendly spirit which the impartial civic Hospitalities
of the town-hall have diffused through society, which has
not only rendered the intercourse of private life agreeable,
but has greatly facilitated public business, by bringing
together men of every religion and political party. who
would never have met elsewhere except in angry conflict."
On mature consideration, however, our contem-
porary has been, we think, far from proving his
case. " Considering that Liverpool is the un-
healthiest town in England," it occurs to us that
its deficient sewerage—for which we are now paying
rather heavily—and its uncleanliness ought to have
been considered before the want of St. George's
Hall, " a building," he says, " which Liverpool may
well be proud of," but of which, with all submis-
sion to him, we are rather ashamed than proud. It
would have been infinitely more creditable to us, as
a community, to have attended to the wants of our
poorer brethren, brutalized and perishing by thou-
sands in filthy cellars and courts, before proceeding
to gratify our vanity at a cost of nearly two hundred
thousand pounds. We are not rigid utilitarians
either. We have no wish, for instance, to see his
Worship the Mayor, " entertaining the public on
sandwiches anci ginger beer"—there is, hbwever, a
Whig precedent for a diet little better, that £2OOO
per annum notwithstanding;—and we should be
the last in the world to wish to see him deprived of
the means of providing that good cheer, which our
contemporary describes as having such a remark-
able effect, in bringing about harmony amongst
people, who would otherwise be disposed to be cut-
ting each other's throats.

We are also quite agreed with the views of the
Special Committee, as to the rating of the owners
of all property, whether large or small, within the
borough. There may be abundant reasons given
for omitting to tax the occupiers of cottage pro-
perty, the most irresistible of which is the difficulty
of collecting and apportioning the rates. But there
is no valid reason why a mass of property, amount-
ing to one-fourth of the entire yearly rental of the
rateable property within the borough, and noto-
riously the best tenanted, and yielding the best
return, should be permitted to escape taxation. It
is not true that the payment, if insisted upon; would
fall upon the poorer classes of our population, and
thus be productive of hardship upon those who are
the least able to pay, unless, by reducing the return
for capital invested in such property, we withdraw
the inducement to build it. We have no fear of
this, however. There is an ample margin at pre-
sent between the return made by cottage houses
and those of a better class; and from present ap-
pearances we should much rather expect to see the
small portion of vacant land remaining within the
borough appropriated for cottages than for any
other species of property. It is not at all unlikely
either that, in a few years, we may see a large por-
tion of the household property of the better class in
some of our streets either pulled down and replaced
with cottage property, or converted into smaller
tenements for our working classes.
For the present the Council, by an unexpectedly
small majority, and in a very small meeting—it
seems by the way as if some gentlemen were not
over much disposed to commit themselves on the
question—have decided against the recommenda-
tions of the Select Committee. There are some
good names, however, both Whig and Conservative,
in the minority; and, sooner or later, the voice of
public opinion will carry the question. To Mr.
Parker, its zealous advocate in the Council, and to
those who have supported his efforts, we recom-
mend a little further pressure, and the constituen-
cies as well must do their duty on the first of
November.

WE regret much to learn that a misapprehen-
sion has prevailed in some quarters, with respect
to a paragraph which appeared in our publication
of this day fortnight. We stated, in the paragraph
in question, what had come to our ears from trust-
worthy sources, that in some wards, in which the
present Conservative members had displeased their
constituencies by their proceedings with respect to
the water question, it would he attempted to make
use of the strong feeling existing in opposition to
the Rivington scheme, for the purpose of procuring
the return of candidates opposed to it, hut, in
other respects, of Whig-Radical politics. In short,
a party manceuvre was to be attempted, against
which we conceived it to be our duty, as Conser-
vative journalists, to warn our readers.
It has been imagined, on what grounds we can-
not at all conceive, that our remarks were pointed
at a public body in our town—the National Con-
federation. Nothing certainly could be further
from our intention. We have, from the first day
of its formation, expressed our decided approval of
the objects of that body; and up to this hour we
are not aware that they have deviated from a
straightforward pursuit of that object—the revision,
equalization, and, were it possible, the economiza-
tion of our local imposts. Already the fruits of
their exertions are manifesting themselves in the
increased attention bestowed by the rate-paying
public upon their own interests, and in the efforts
making by them to assert their just claims to the
consideration of the authorities. Under such cir-
cumstances, we could never have dreamt of im-
parting to that body the degradation of lending
their deserved influence to any mean party trick,
or of mixing themselves up with the petty machi-
nations of ward juntas. We cannot consent to
recognise party politics as affecting the proceedings
of such a body, knowing, as they must themselves
know, that the instant they diverge from the path
of duty which they have marked out, they must
cease to merit the respect and confidence of their
fellow-townsmen.

BUT a few days ago, Whig-Radicalism was in an
extacy of thankfulness. We had escaped the hor-
rors of a rebellion in Ireland, of which this feeble
party had sown the seeds and watered them by
years of pandering to agitation, and of trafficking
for place with its incendiary leaders. An outbreak
among the disaffected Irish in our own town bad
also been repressed by the foresight and firmness
of the magistracy, aided by the loyal portion of our
population ; and our local " Liberals" and their
organs, in the exuberance of their happiness, could
almost afford to be honest, and to give honour
where honour was due. We imagined, indeed,
that byegones were to remain byegones; that the
ban was now to be taken off a class of our fellow-
countrymen who, reviled though they have been,
and persecuted for their steady maintenance of
Protestantism and of loyalty to the throne and the
constitution, had proved themselves our best reli-
ance in the hour of danger, both in Ireland and in
our own town ; that, in short, to be an Irish or an
Orange Protestant was no longer to be treated as a
crime or a reproach.
We might almost be excused if we were even
sanguine enough to hope for a further result of the
lesson which had been taught us. We imagined
that Liberalism, even, would henceforth be slow in
bestowing its sympathies upon the bleatings of
Irish grievance mongers ; that it would be some
time before its oracles would proclaim themselves
the champions of men whose hands were so recently
prepared to fill our town—the town which received
them in their nakedness, and has so largely re-
warded their unworthiness—with bloodshed and
conflagration. We conceived that, even in the
eyes of this excessively enlightened party, it would
no longer be an act of bigotry and intolerance to
confide the custody of our property, and to give a
fair day's wages for a fair day's work, to our own
English-born fellow-townsman, instead of bestow-
ing a preference upon the alien and the rebel in
intention and in heart. We were mistaken, how-
ever. The hour of danger past, Whig-Radicalism,
like the dog returning to its vomit, has again gone
back to its old alliance with the scum of rebellion,
and would fain clothe the crushed limbs of dis-
affection with the robes of martyrdom. The labour-
ing Irish amongst us are held up as persecuted
lambs in the eyes of mankind. The old tactics of
"enormous lying" are resorted to in their behalf;
and, an agitation put down which threatened to
involve the empire in slaughter and crime, another
—a milder, meeker sort of thing—is suggested in
its stead. Whig-Radicalism finds itself weak when
loyal. It cannot get on, or make a decent show of
strength, without a blatant mob of Irish hod-car-
riers, navies, translators, and oratorical tailors, to
shout at its heels.

Perhaps we may be doing injustice to the Whig-
Radicals, as a party, in attributing to them the con-
duct and the feelings which we have described, and
of which the Liverpool Mercury is the exponent.