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

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We have received from a correspondent. " Oxoniensis,"
a note pointing our attention, and that of the authori-
ties, to the exposure of indecent prints and books of
an immoral tendency in a shop-window in Manchester-
street.

In a recent article, referring to some proceedings of the
visitors of the workhouse, Messrs. Urquhart and Mo-
lyneux, we committed an error which, as we understand
it has pained the latter gentleman, we hasten to correct
and explain. We alluded to these two gentlemen, erro-
neously with respect to the latter, as dissenters.
THE EXHIBITION AT THE COLLEGIATE INSTITUTION.—
"J. D.," who, in a note, expresses his anxious desire
for the prosperity of the institution, says :—* * *
" I regret extremely to find that the directors, from,
perhaps, a well meaning, but certainly mistaken motive,
have fixed the price of admission at one shilling for all
classes (excepting children), and for all times of the day ;
and have, in my opinion, prematurely announced that
no alteration will take place, so that decent artisans and
working men and their families, who can ill spare that
sum, and who can, moreover, spare only a short time
in an evening to hurry through the rooms, are virtually
excluded. I have myself many men and youths in my
employment (and no doubt there are many others in
large and small establishments throughout the town,
who entertain the same laudable desire), who are
anxious to see the exhibition, for the purpose of in-
formation as well as amusement, but who are thus
precluded from visiting it. They think the admission
during the day reasonable, and even moderate, from
what they have heard of the great extent and excellence
of the collection, for parties who move in the higher
circles, and have abundance of leisure on their hands;
but they complain that, as their time would not permit
them to view the whole, even cursorily, in one visit, in
order to obtain a satisfactory inspection, they would
have to go again and again ; so that, as individuals of
humble means, the charge would be much greater for
them than for the rich, for the same gratification.
Surely it was never the intention of the founders of the
institution, or of the projectors of, or the contributors
to, the exhibition that such a system of partiality, and
of exclusion of the industrial classes should be adopted.
I may add, that I feel convinced that the working
classes of Liverpool, if admitted at a lower price after
four or five o'clock in the afternoon (as at the Mechanics'
institution), would conduct themselves in quite as
orderly a manner, and refrain from wanton damage to
the articles on view, as even the younger branches of
wealthy families,—some of whom, I am informed, have
already shown a disposition to do mischief. On con-
sidering the subject in the light in which I have put it,
the committee will, I trust, see that they overlooked
the circumstances under which the industrial, and even
many of the middle orders, are placed, and be induced
to make the requisite alteration, which I do not think
would amount to any breach of faith ;—the announce-
ment they have put forth having been made at a time
when the facts stated were accidently overlooked."
[We quite concur in the opinion of our considerate
correspondent, and think his suggestion worthy of the
serious consideration of the committee, with a view to
some alteration, every day, or on the afternoons and
evenings of certain days of the week, that may conduce
to the greater popularity of the exhibition, and, con-
sequently, to the advancement of the funds of the
institution; the prosperity of which, we believe, the
mass of our townsmen, rich and poor, have warmly at
heart.—En. STAND.]

Erie 71.therpool BttanDan.

TUESDAY MORNING, JULY 4, 1843.

Another of those rebel gatherings—those displays
of physical force—by which the agitator of Ireland
trusts to win, from the fears of England, the conces-
sions which he demands—would be held yesterday
in Dublin. Of the proceedings, of course, we can
know nothing as vet. The thousands of ignorant
beings there assembled, after listening for five or six
hours to the revolutionary appeals of their great apos-
tle—after having been wrought up to desperation by
vividly drawn pictures of their wrongs, and stimu-

lated to a fiercer hatred of the English nation—'
SAXON"—by the violent and lying denunciations o
that demagogue priesthood, whose avocation seems
to be to point out to their duped flocks the path of
outrage and bloodshed, rather than the path of peace,
may, possibly, have returned to their homes without
precipitating the crises which every man feels is
approaching. No sword may, as yet, have been
drawn ;no life may have fallen a sacrifice. An
overruling providence may have prevented a col-
lision between these maddened and inflamed
crowds, and their victims ; but it is morally and
physically impossible that, in the absence of po-
sitive information, we can, at any time, now, con-
gratulate ourselves upon the assurance, that Ireland
is not, from north to south, one wide scene of
massacre and outrage ! A day may bring it ; the
occurrence of an hour may tear from before her fate
the veil, under which Great Britain is sleeping, un-
conscious of the storm which is gathering, or per-
haps is fully gathered and ready, to descend in ruin
upon her head !
When, we ask, will that weak and timorous policy
be laid aside which hesitates to put down, at once,
an agitation so fiercely menacing—an agitation whose
issue is so clearly to be foreseen ? When will the
British nation be permitted to know the fact that
their sovereign and the law are more powerful in

Ireland than a ruffian demagogue or his priestly auxi.

liaries ? We are waiting—for what ? We are wait.
ing until rebellion gains strength and daring suffici.

ent to strike the first blow ; —for we cannot be so
mad as to imagine that, whatever may have been his
past course, with minor crotchets, its leader can ever
be induced to lay aside the agitation of repeal ;
he cannot if he would ! He is chained to it. Like
the German student, he is hunted by the monster
of his own creation. He must go on with it, though
it lead to the scaffold or the gallows,—though he

knows it to lead to the desolation of that land
which he professes to love so well! To an issue—
a trial of strength between the powers of the law

and the passions of the people of Ireland—it muse

come at last; and we are waiting,—blindly, timidly,
madly waiting—until the time approaches, or is
precipitated upon us, when the power of the con-
stitution and the law can only be vindicated by the
sword or the bayonet.
This is, unquestionably, the position and the po-
licy of the conservative government of this country
in the present imminent crisis of affairs in Ireland.
We might have crushed this agitation in the egg.
We might crush it, at more hazard and with greater
difficulty, even now. But we are hanging back until
our opponent shall he full grown, fully armed, and,
perhaps, aided by confederates in the struggle ! We
are hesitating to put forth our energies, until a period
arrive when their exertion must be destructive and
fatal to Ireland, and at the same time weakening in
effect, and full of peril and disaster, to Great Britain
herself !

We may be told that the first step made to put
down the repeal agitation will be the signal for the
commencement of a fierce and bloody insurrection in
that unhappy land. So threatens the arch traitor,
Daniel O'Connell. So howl, in echo, the priesthood
of Ireland. So proclaim the sympathizers of the
American continent and of France. But do they
offer us an alternative less dangerous, short of con-
cession to the most violent and insolent of their de-
mands ? Glance, for a moment, at the language in
which they paint the future position of Great Britain
and Ireland. Take, as a specimen of their feeling.
the following which fell from the lips of a priest, the
Rev. Mr. Murray, at a recent repeal gathering in the
county of Cork :
" Suppose England to-morrow at war with France or
Russia, a circumstance not perhaps so unlikely or remote
as may appear to some (hear, hear), and that their grand
differences were to be decided on the banks of the Rhine
or the Danube, would they not rejoice at the blindness
which should retain one of the armies of England at so
great a distance from the theatre of war, and would not
the disaffection of Ireland be to them a subsidy of 6,000
men ? It is not wisdom, then, on the part of England not
to reconcile Ireland, her right arm, and her most faithful
and powerful illy. It would be better to be wise in time
—concessions'alay come too late."
They would betray us in our extremity. They would
deliver us up, bound and shorn of our strength and
union, into the hands of the first foreign power,
which might be willing, in return, to aid the esta-
blishment of a popish supremacy in their own land.

They are husbanding their strength until England is
weak ; until her armies are occupied on a foreign
shore, her navy in a distant sea, when the yell of onset
would be given, the beacon fires be lighted from hill
to hill, and myriads of drilled and organized rebels
rush at once to the work of destruction and massa-
cre, for which the spirit of popery in Ireland longs
with the wild longing of a wolf for blood ! and we
are to wait until this crisis has arrived ! We trust
not. We trust that such fatal blindness—such utter
madness—will not be persisted in by the government
of Sir Robert Peel !

We ask of that government to cast their glance
upon the position of the protestants of Ireland at the
present moment. Let them look within the solitary
hovel or the low farm-house, at nightfall, where some
poor protestant family lies down, in ignorance whe-
ther their waking will be amidst conflagration and out-
rage. Let them look, even, at the better protected,
because more populated towns of Ireland, where
protestants are compelled to band thamselves for se-
curity against the malignant hostility by which they
are surrounded on every side- Let them ask, what
must be the feelings of these men, of their wives, of
their daughters, when, from some neighbouring hill
or plain, they hear the howl of five hundred thousand
voices proclaiming,—swearing,—eternal hostility to
their race and their faith, and remember with what
bloody zeal that hostility has been wreaked upon
their fathers in times of old ! Does the government
of England—a conservative government too—owe
no protection to these men—no gratitude for past
deeds and old and well-tried loyalty ? Are these
men to be left trembling, beneath their present feel-
ing of insecurity, because a traitor bullies us or a
coward entreats forbearance ? Such should not be;
such must not be, unless we are prepared to submit
tamely to the utmost and the worst which rebellion,
armed or unarmed, can accomplish !
If it is, indeed, the resolve of the prescnt cabinet
to maintain the integrity of the empire, the integrity
of our national church, and the lives and liberties of
our protestant brethren in Ireland, the effort must
be made firmly, and at once ! We cannot bring our-
selves to contemplate, as probable, those fearful re-
sults of such an effort, with which we are threatened.
We believe on the contrary, that a resolved position
on the part of government—a prompt step in the
right direction—is all that is wanted to disarm the
insolent ruffian who is now betraying, and beggaring
the suffering and excitable population of his country.
Declare the agitation for the repeal of the union,
TREASON ! Declare those vast gatherings,—by
which loyal and peaceable men are awed into subjec-
tion to the dictation of midnight plunderers and as-
sassins—to constitute armed rebellion ! Make the
collection of rent for a treasonable purpose illegal !
Put down the seditious assemblages, of repeal war-
dens and other similar fuctionaries, held weekly at
the corn-exchange. Above all, let the government
rally to its side the tried friends of protestantism and
loyalty to the British throne, in Ireland ; and they
may laugh at O'Connell's threats, at the blustering
of his priesthood, or at the ribald menaces and insults
of the enemies of the integrity of the empire, whether
they are to be found in the mass-houses of Ireland,
or amongst the bankrupt ruffians, who squirt tobacco
juice and bluster bobadilism in the taverns of
New York or Baltimore !

We have always maintained that the agitation, by
which the effort of government to procure scrip-
tural education for the children of our factory popu-
lation has been defeated, was not so much based
upon sectarian grounds—was not so much a reli-
gious movement—as it was a movement of " libe-
ralism" amongst the manufacturing body. The
measure of Sir James Graham enfranchised the
suffering factory child. It took him from his long
and dreary toil, at the loom or the spinning frame ;
and sought to raise him from the moral darkness
attendant upon his enforced position. And it was
opposed, with all the organised and concentrated
virulence which dissent can bring into antagonism
to any measure against which its services are
retained, not so much because its provisions were
offensive to voluntaryism in religion and education,
as because it crippled the power of the manufac-
turing capitalist to overtask his human machinery—
because it added a farthing or a penny to the cost
of a piece of his calico or a pound of his yarn !
Confirmation of this fact was scarcely necessary,
in this part of the empire. However great may
have been the amount of delusion, spread from dis-
senting pulpits and platforms, elsewhere, here, at
least, the real animus of the agitation was perfectly
well known. We have, however, that confirmation
before us, in the report of a meeting of dissenting
ministers and others, held in Manchester on
Wednesday last, with the avowed object of defeat-
ing, not the educational clauses of the Factory Bill,
but the emasculated Bill itself—stript as it is of all
that can by any possibility excite religious, or
quasi-religious, animosity. It is not now the edu-
cational clauses which are attacked, as injurious to
dissenting interests, or oppressive to dissenting
consciences, but the regulation of the hours of
labour of infant children in factories, and the prin-
ciple laid down, that such children shall be edu-
cated !

We shall give a few specimens of the sayings of
these reverends at the meeting in question ; and
first we notice the following passage from the
speech of the reverend Mr. Massie. This worthy
firebrand, after giving a garbled and grossly unfair,
nay false, edition of the 33d clause of the amended
bill, which defines the'powers given to inspectors to
enable them to ascertain that education is given to
the children employed in factories, proceeded to
argue that such clause

" Brought to bear all the arbitrary principles of
Prussian despotism, and all the violent intrusion of in-
justice, caprice, and arbitrary government, not upon our
factories merely, but upon the schools where our children
were to be educated, and who were to be taught as slaves
to crouch before the lash, or to bear the yoke in their
youth to despotism. He held that this clause in the
present bill was as objectionable as any thing that ap-
peared in the previous editions of it. But Sir James
Graham had placed in this bill, after telling you that he
had withdrawn the educational clauses, 12 clauses upon
the education of factory children ; the first of which re-
quires that no child shall be employed in a factory without
a certificate of attending a school. He then proceeded to
direct, that, if a school did not please an inspector, the
inspector reporting upon it, that schoolmaster should not
be able to give a certificate; and if any child should be
employed in a school not having such a certificate, he or
his parents should be subject to penalty, the child for not
attending, or his parents for not sending him,—the penalty
being ss. and from that to a pound; while the master of
the mill should be subject to a penalty of from £5 to £lO
for such employment of the child. There was something
like despotism in requiring school attendance from chil-
dren, while the bill intended to provide schools; but here
they don't provide schools, and yet require attendance,
and the certificate may be withdrawn at the caprice of the
inspector, and the child working at a milli after ,that is
subject to a penalty, and the master also for employing
him. If this bill were not a conspiracy against the
liberty of manufacturers, a combination of oppressors
against the feelings, wishes, and enterprise of the people,
he (Mr. Massie) knew neither what a conspiracy was,
nor what a combination of oppressors could be."

Now what is the meaning of this furious raving,
if it be not hostility to education, as a condition of the
employment of children in factories ? It is not hos-
tility to this bill, for any particular defect or fault in
it capable of being remedied, but a deliberate desire
to sacrifice the minds and the morals of the rising ge-
neration of Englishmen upon the shrine of manufac-
turing cupidity ! his " despotism" to compel chil-
dren to attend school—despotism to place the Bible
in their hands—despotism to teach them that they
have souls to be saved, minds to be cultivated, pas-

sions to be subdued ; and interference by the legis-
lature to regulate their condition, at all, is " a con-
spiracy against the liberty of manufacturers!" Liber-
ty—what to do ? We need not suggest the answer.
But another speaker, the Rev. W. 111`lierrow, was
still more explicit with respect to the motives of hos-
tility to factory legislation. This gentleman, at least,
has in him more of the spirit of a leaguer than of a
christian minister. We give here a portion of his
delirious trash :

" Would any man of sense expect any sound, liberal, or
beneficial mode of education from those now at the head
of public affairs? What did they care for the physical,
intellectual, moral, and religious improvement of the peo-
ple, the men who kept up the sugar monopoly and the
corn monopoly,—(applause)—who extracted from the poor
bard-working classes ten times the amount by their prin-
ciples of unjust legislation that would enable them to edu-
cate their own children?—(Applause.) Yet these men,
forsooth, were weeping and lamenting over the ignorance
and degradation of the millions ! Out upon such cant and
hypocrisy !—(Applause.) They had obstructed the chan-
nels of commerce, paralyzed trade, raised the price of
bread, and yet they professed to be exceedingly desirous
to ameliorate the condition of the poor. They had degra-
ded and pauperised the people, and yet they were so gene-
rous as to offer to provide for them a particular kind of
religious instruction ; they were so kind as to furnish them
with workhouses and prisons, and with schools where the
attention of the children might be directed to any other
world than the the present.—(Hear.)"

Surely, there can be no doubt, after this, with re-
spect to the influences which drive such men as this
M`Kerrow and his coadjutors. to agitation in oppo-
sition of government schemes of education ! Humi-
liating, indeed, is the position, of professing mini-
sters of the gospel, who can thus lend themselves, if
not sell themselves, to the advocacy of any cause,
however unrighteous and dishonest, by which they
can win mob applause or the favour of selfish pa-
trons ! This is the working of "the voluntary prin-
ciple !"

It has been objected to us, by some of our
readers and friends, that, in the course which we
have pursued, with respect to the movement of the
various mercantile associations to procure the repeal
of those clauses of the dock act which restrict the
power of the trustees to erect warehouses on the
dock quays, we have been acting injuriously to the
interests of the commerce of the port. But what
has, in reality, been our position ? Not, certainly,
one of hostility to any well-considered plan for pro-
moting the security of that commerce. Not, cer-
tainly, one intended to retard the adoption of any
well-considered steps of precaution or regulation, by
which the safety from fire, and the cheap and secure
stowage, of produce warehoused in our port can be
effected. We have placed ourselves in antagonism
only against the headlong resort to measures, which
we conscientiously believe to be prejudicial to the ob-
jects which the mercantile associations have in view.
We have said, and we repeat it now, that in the ex-
tension of the powers of the dock trustees, and the
headlong prosecution of what is at present only an
experiment, of very doubtful success, is not the
remedy, most proper to be applied to the evil which,
as deeply as the mercantile bodies, we deplore.
The argument of the parties, who object to the
course which we have taken, resolves itself into this.
The establishment of warehouses on the dock
quays, to be managed by the dock trustees, will
operate as a spur upon warehouse owners and
warehouse keepers to adopt, in self-defence, the
very best system of warehouse regulation. It is
taken for granted, here, that with warehouse
keepers rest all the faults of the present system;
but is this so ? Again, it is taken for granted
that dock warehouse management will be perfect;
but that remains to he proved. The evils of the
present system of stowage and regulation of the
warehouses of the town are not to be attributed
exclusively to warehouse owners. The porterage
in those warehouses is not, in the majority of cases,
conducted by them ; but by the brokers and the
owners of the produce warehoused. The irregulari-
ties which are constantly occurring are attributable,
in a great measure, to the fact that warehouse
keepers are actually not allowed to perform the
duties which are obviously a part of their business!
That such is the case is not our supposition only,
but that of other parties as well, is evidenced by the
fact that, where warehouse keepers conduct their
own porterage, the insurance offices are willing to
insure at very materially reduced rates!

Again, we are told, or it is to be taken for granted,
that the warehouses erecting upon our dock quays
are, from their position and construction, to possess
an immunity from calamity by fire, which does not
belong to similar erections in other localities. We
have said, on the contrary, that the principle, upon
which those warehouses are being erected, is so
radically bad, that the produce warehoused in them
will not be insured except at extravagantly high
rates of premium ; and we are at length borne out
in our assertions, by the admission of the chairman
of those mercantile associations, whose views we
have been warned to regard as those of absolute
wisdom. Upon this point we take leave to quote
the following remarks of Mr. Wm. Brown, delivered
at a meeting of the commercial associations on
Monday the 26th ult. :--

Mr. Brown stated that "he that morning met a gentle-
man belonging to one of the offices, who told him that six
of the principal offices in London had declined altogether
to insure goods in the St. Katherine's warehouses, except
to the extent of £lOOO each, and this on condition that
the goods were placed in their vaults. As to two other
offices, he could not speak officially ; but, if the merchants
here wished for private information, he had no doubt that
they might obtain it by writing up to London. He (the
Chairman) thought it was very desirable to consider the
way in which warehouses were about to be erected in this
town, inasmuch as, after the receipt of the information
which he had communicated, this subject became very
important. By the Act of Parliament, the Dock Com-
mittee were empowered to erect warehouses round the
Albert Dock, and, unfortunately, on the verge of the quay,
where, it was said, they would not be insured. He fear-
ed that, as considerable expense had already been incurred
in sinking the foundations, it might now be too late for
the committee to make any alteration in the site, so as to
throw the warehouses farther back. This, however, was
the case with only about two-thirds, and it was for the
meeting to consider Whether it was necessary for them to
address any communication on the subject to the Dock
Committee."

These are precisely the views which we have ad-
vanced with respect to the warehouses in question,
and which have been met with denial the most
positive from the advocates of the dominant body in
the dock management ; and we need not say how
flattering to us is their confirmation by such an
authority as Mr. Brown.
Our impression has been that, in their anxiety to
advance the favourite project of dock warehouses,
the commercial associations have rushed to the
adoption of most hasty and ill-considered resolu-
tions. For example, at a recent meeting it was
resolved to press the erection of a pile of ware-
houses, on the land at the west side of the Prince's
Dock, at present occupied by the transit sheds.
Let us see how decisively this plan is now scouted
as impracticable by their chairman. At the meeting
above referred to, Mr. Brown remarked that

" He went that morning to look at the sheds at the
Prince's Dock, and be must confess that he was astonished
at the position in which they were placed. The sheds had
a continuous roof from one end to the other, not fire-
proof ; and they were at such a short distance from the
dock, and were of such a height, that if one of them took
fire, it would be out of any human power to save the ship-
ping from fire. If they were built higher, the flames might
ascend ; but even then the rigging of the vessels would be
likely to be ignited, and the danger not at all lessened."
With respect to the same project, another speaker,
Mr. T. S. Gladstone, remarked that
" In the resolution which was passed at their previous
meeting, was not the opinion expressed, that the transit
sheds should be concerted into fire-proof warehouses ?"
Mr. TODD—Decidedly.
The CHAIRMAN said that that resolution placed then

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD

in a very awkward position. He had it from the same
authority to which he had previously referred, that if there
were introduced into the Fire Bill any clause to prevent
the passing of the bill, the insurance offices would not in-
sure property at all, and it therefore behoved the meeting,
in trying to get that bill, not to upset any arrangement
with the warehouse proprietors.

A very awkward position, indeed, for gentlemen
to have one day to record the impracticability of a
scheme which, on the preceding day, they have
paraded as the extremity of wisdom ! From such a
position we, at least, have guarded ourselves.
It is contended, however, in extenuation, by a
gentleman—Mr. Todd—who appears to have pushed
himself into a prominence upon this question, for
which he is apparently very unfit, that " when the
meeting passed that resolution, they did not pledge
themselves to any particular construction of ware-
house. They did not assert that the warehouses
were to be on the edge of the docks, but merely
that they were to be on the dock quays. Although
the foundation of the warehouses on the Albert
Dock had been laid, surely they were open to an
amended mode of building, if that were found to be
necessary or desirable." Of course, Mr. Todd and
his friends did not pledge themselves to any parti-
cular construction of warehouses ; but they did what
was equally as bad, or even worse. They took for
granted the infallibility of dock management ! This
assumption runs through their entire proceedings.
Dock warehouses managed by the very gentlemen
who are now erecting warehouses so objectionable
in conetruction, are assumed to be the only resource
within our reach. All the intellect—all the virtue—
all the excellence of arrangement and regulation of
which our warehousing business is capable, is
assumed to belong exclusively to the warehouse
party who rule the sayings and doings of the Dock
Committee !

But Mr. Todd is somewhat hasty in assuming that
it is so very easy now to resort to that " amended
mode of building" the Albert warehouses which
would do away with the objections urged by the In-
surance companies or the mercantile body. The
foundations of these warehouses, with their expen-
sive piling, &c., are already completed ; and to throw
them back to anything like such a distance as would
ensure safety to the shipping in the docks, would
leave, we fear, such mere shells, and expensive shells
too, as would be well nigh useless to the commerce
of the port. We are quite willing, however, to go
with Mr. Todd and the mercantile body at large for
such' alterations ss may render these costly play-
things of Mr. Alderman Evans and his coadjutors
capable of being worked with profit to the dock
estate and the town. We have been directing atten-
tion to this very subject, whilst the merchants of the
port have been sleeping at their posts ; and if they
will now come forward and examine it in all its bear-
ings and details, they will perhaps be lees anxious to
throw additional power into the hands of parties who
have shown such little aptitude in the task of direct-
ing those which they already possess for the public
good.

We have given in another column a brief report
of a meeting of the Commercial Association, held
on Saturday last, at which a memorial to the Mayor
was agreed upon, requesting him to convene a pub-
lic meeting for the purpose of petitioning Parliament
for the insertion, in the proposed Fire Prevention
Bill, of a clause releasing the Dock Commufee from
the restrictions imposed upon them in the last dock
act with respect to the power of erecting additional
warehouses upon the dock quays. We are enabled
to announce, upon authority on which we place every
confidence, that his worship has declined to comply
with the prayer of the memorialists. In the pro.
priety of this step we quite agree. Ihe provision,
so obnoxious to the gentlemen who, for the past
week or two, have been agitating this question, was
one of compromise, deliberately adopted by the
Council and sanctioned by the Legislature. It was
a compact, not entered into with the warehouse
owners alone, but with with the people of Liverpool,
who felt as strongly upon the subject of dock ware-
houses as the body in question. As such, it ought
not to be disturbed, for the allaying of a merely
temporary outcry, except upon much stronger
grounds than any which we have ever heard urged
in behalf such a course.