The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-04-25 00:00:00

ad they s'ponaneously came 'forward to prove the

stence of that

by an endeavour to secure the

;macy of that law over any new form of irresponsi-

The cases, we maintain, of the coalwhippers of
the Tharmes, previously to legislation in their be-
" and the working porters of the Mersey, were
precisely analogous. The former were
under the thrall of a set of middlemen ;" the
are subject to a similar, although not so
less a condition of bondage. The cord is not
cite so tight ; the master porters, as a class,
Are nr of the same character as the metropolitan
: but they are middlemen not-

hame

maste
withsi

,sp a portion of the hard;

there is here

the same dist

pr,hts and du-

ties of employers and employed,—
on the one hand and the la'

A' the merchant

latter has not t

ment of the porterage business of large firms,
whilst he has himself, perhaps in the full vigour
of his life, to return home day after day to his
pining wife and family, with the same unvarying
tale of bitter disappointment. What wonder if he
is discontented with his lot ! 'What wonder would
it be if be were to take refuge in the wild doctrines
of Chartism ! For him " the times are out of
joint." What wonder if, when no change can
much lower his position, he embraces the first
which is offered to his acceptance !
Now, what would be the result, so far as regards
the improvement of their temper, of an effort on
the part of our merchants and the dock trustees to
restore to the working porters of Liverpool the
system of which we unwisely and unjustly deprived
them ?—for let it be borne in mind that we directly
framed for that body the system of which they
complain, whereas that under which the coal-whip-
pers of the Thames suffered bad grown up, in
despite of both the working man and the merchant.
The effect would be two-fold. The old relations
restored between the real owners of the produce
which we import and store up in our warehouses,
and the working porters, such owners would pos-
sess in those men a powerful body, bound to them
alike by interest and gratitude, and ready at all
times to protect the shipping and the property of
the port from outrage. The authorities, and the
merchants of Liverpool might laugh alike at the
threats of Chartism and Repeal, with those men
ready at a moment's notice to garrison their ware-
houses and to guard our docks. We durst
guarantee that such would be the feelings of the
great mass of the working porters. Restore these
men to their former position as independent la-
bourers; take away the class of middle men, who
stand so injuriously between the merchant and the
working man ; cease to hold out facilities for exact-
ing from the latter by unworthy devices a portion
of wage which he earns; and you have them at
once ready and anxious to wield a truncheon when-
ever called upon, to repress disturbance of the
peace and the commerce of the town. _ _

By the same course you would check the immi-
gration of unskilled pauper labour from Ireland,
which so many of the middlemen porters and
Jumpers employ in preference to that of trained
and skilled men, because the possessors of that
labour are ready to submit to reduced wages, and
to the numerous exactions practised by them. A
wholesome competition there would always remain.
But the over influx which at present operates to
threw hundreds of honest and skilled workmen
and their families upon the parish funds, whilst
their place is filled with raw and turbulent recruits
from the soil of Ireland, would cease to exist. We
should thus get rid of a continual source of tumult,
disease, and filth, and at the same time be enabled
to lighten the burdens of the already suffering
ratepayers of the town.