The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-04-07 00:00:00

brace the tea(

ban one hating

view the exten-

sion of religious training, per se ! Virtually these pe-

titioners declare that they wquld prefer seeing the
neglected childrm of the factory districts grovelling in
midnight darkness; than see them drawn towards the
light of scriptural truth by any path which does not
lead to their own particular conventicles ! It is not,
h this bill, that the dissenting bodies are to be re-

stricted in their duties. It is not that the dissenting
conscience is to he invaded. But the Church's sphere
of usefulness is to be increased ; and hint illce irre
It is with sorrow, by the bye, that we learn, from
an article in the Liverpool limes—(written most pro-
bably by Mr. Blackburn, of anti-church-education no-
toriety, for it contains the worthy doctor's view of the
case as put forth in some resolutions adopted by the

Dissenters of ,Liverpool,) that the Wesleyan •Metho-
dists, firm friends as they are of a similar system of
education in our Corporation Schools, are vehemently
opposed to the bill of Sir Jomes Graham. We disbe-
lieve the assertion ; or, at all events, if such opposition
exists, we are firmly persuaded that it is based upon a
similar want of knowledge as to the provisions of the
bill which is displayed by our wise contemporary him-
self. The Times says, " They, (the Wesleyans,) have
no idea of submitting to have the schools which they
have supported for so many years, closed by act of Par-
liament; of having the children, for whom they have
done so much, driven from them by that clause of the
act of Parliament which prescribes that no child edu-
cated in any schools, except those mentioned in the bill,
shall be allowed to work in any factory." Perhaps our

contemporary will be kind enough to point our atten-
tion to "that claare in the act of Parliament" which so

the life of us, discover it in the printed bill

,nnot, for

We had prepared some remarks upon the debate in
House of Commons, on Tuesday, on the motion
Ashl.ey, upon the subject of the traffic in
weep our East Indian possessions and China.

opium

The deficiency of our space, however, entirely pre-
cludes us from giving them at length; and we regret
it the less, inasmuch as it would•be out of our power

to convey to our-readers more than a very faint idea of
e out by Lord Ashley and his supporters,

the case mac

Indian revenue

of some million of money, debauches the natives en-
gaged in the opium culture, and cuts off every hope of
a peaceful extension of our more legitimate commerce
with the people of China.

Upon one feature of the debate, however, we cannot
forbear remarking. Our noble representative, Lord
Sandon, it will be observed, most emphatically and in
a tone worthy of a Christian senator, denounced this
unholy traffic ; and never, in all that we have seen of
his parliamentary career, was the speech of Sir Robert
Peel, addressed, with something almost approaching to
personality, to his lordship, less worthy of -a great
statesman than on this occasion. It would have served
every useful purpose,• towards a member, so little given
to initiate or entertain motions embarrassing to govern-
ment as in Lord Sandon, to have simply stated the
grounds upon which her Majesty's ministers objected
to the motion of Lord Ashley. It is seldom, by the
bye, that motions merely declaratory' of abstract prin-
ciples are other 'than embarrassing; and snore seldom
still that they are useful. There was something, how-
ever, peevish and pettish in the tone of the premier on
this occasion, which must grieve his most sincere friends
to observe, especially directed to a member of the high
standing deservedly possessed by the noble member for
Liverpool ; and certain we are, that a perusal of the
speech in question is anything but calculated to advance
the cause in behalf of which it appears to have been
made. As a whole it is, in sentiment and in argument,
perhaps the most utter failure ever made by Sir Robert
Peel or any other- ininister

The boon, for which our good neighbours in Man-
chester have been praying for years past, is at length
about to be conceded. The government of Sir Robert
Peel, less hard-hearted than previous governments,
has consented to the privilege of bonding foreign pro-
duce being extended to Manchester; and, from hence-
forth, the metropolis of the cotton _trade will have its
custom-house, :with a collector, controller, clerks,
searchers, landing:waiters, and other officers, and be-
come in fact A. ronT, in every thing except the pos-
session of, what have always been considered indii-
pensible requisites, viz.—the contiguity of water and
of shipping. Questionless, such a. trivial deficiency
can easily be got over.

As a condition,, however, we observe that it is stipu-
lated by government—much to the dissatisfaction of
our friends in Manchester—that they must themselves
disburse to the revenue the cost of their hobby. It
will require. five thousand pounds sterling, per annum,
to furnish even a " skeleton" establishment—to start
them, as it were, in their career as an importing and
bonding people; and this sum (which the "Manchester
Guardian considers an extravagant one, but which, if
bonding to any extent is to be practised, will have to
be doubled and trebled) .the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer, very reasonably, requires to be furnished by the
people of Manchester themselves. Of course, there
can be no difficulty on this score, when we look at the
magnitude of the benefit to be derived—whew we con-
sider the hundreds of thousands of pounds, (in the
shape of expenses of cartage, porterage, commission,
&c.) to be snatched from the devouring maw of the
community of Liverpool. A people, who possess pub-
lic spirit enough to volunteer the supply of some four
or five tons of waste paper weekly, in the shape of
anti-corn-law tracts, to the public, of the empire, can
scarcely be stayed in the realisation of a project, so'
important as that of converting their town into a depot
for the entire produce consumed in the manufacturing
districts, for want of the paltry matter of five thousand
pounds.

The circumstance which puzzles us, in connexion
with the subject, is this. It is so long ago as Thurs-
day last that the meeting, at which the success of the
deputation from Manchester, which has been in coin-
munication with government, was announced. to the
world; and yet we can thus far discover none of those
awful signs which might have been expected to mark
the conversion of this great mart of commerce into " a
paltry fishing village!" Yesterday, indeed, we ima-
gined the face of the figure of Britannia upon our
town-hall to be a little elongated, as she gazed down
upon the " lads of the flags" beneath her. This, how-
ever, must have been fancy. We have heard of —no
nettles growing around our docks ; no grass springing
in that "place where merchants most do congregate ;"
nothing, in fact, newer than the comet or the nebulous
tail which astronomers suppose erroneously must have
a head " thereby to hang." We have heard of none
of our brokers transporting theinselves to the mudfog
metropolis, nor of any carters, porters, coopers, " et id
genus omne," on the move. The world of Liverpool
still goes on, if not " merry as a marriage bell," yet
merry as usual; and we ourselves have seldom felt in
more excellent humour with all mankind.

Perhaps, however, the latter circumstance may arise
from the fact that, most unfortunately for us, we are
not shareholders in the Liverpool and Manchester
Railway—an undertaking .which most undoubtedly is
to be ruined outright by the change which is about
taking place! The Chancellor of the Exchequer; we
observe, has not the slightest objection to bonding in
Manchester; but, as a sine qua non, the goods to be
bonded must be transhipped into Old Quay Pas, in
the same way, Mr. Lingard, the agent of the said Old
Quay Company, observes, as they were transhipped
before the Liverpool and Manchester Railway had its
being ; and, of course, if we were so fortunate as to be
railway proprietors, we should be infinitely alarmed
for our property !