The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-06-13 00:00:00

in the second—very nearly the figures given in my state-
ment.

" It would have been much better to have given us the
exact amounts in the published statements to have saved
us from guessing.
"Now the public will ask what does all this mean about
the condensing water. The explanation is a simple one.
" For perhaps forty years the Harrington Conlpany have
generally returned the water used for condensing the
steam of their engines back into the wells, and this has
been afterwards pumped up again (a great waste of power
by the bye) with the other water and thrown into the
mains.
" We have, however, discovered since the Rivington
Pike scheme was commenced that such water is very bad
for the public use, and therefore must be thrown to waste.
" During the late experiments the condensing water
was thrown into the sewers, but it is now again turned
into the wells. I have carefully examined the water
under both conditions and cannot perceive the slightest
difference.

"There is a great stress laid upon this condensing
water by the opponents to the local supply, but let us
learn on the other side how many engines are to return
their condensing water into the reservoits at Rivington
Pike, besides the various other deteriorating circumstances
to which that water will be subject.
•

4thly.—Having touched On the asserted impurity
of the supply from the Liverpool sand stone, let us
contrast it with what we are to get from Rivington
Pike, if that scheme is to be thrust upon us. The
testimony which we are about to offer is that of a
highly respectable professional gentleman—Mr. J.
B. West, C.E.,—and is taken from a pamphlet of
his, just published, on the subject. He says,—
" Now then for the quality of the water. In flood
time, or heavy rains, it comes down charged with bog
matter, sulphate of barytes, and iron. There is a streani
called Middle Brook, or Boundary Stream, which separates
the township of Rivington from Atherton • and a man
who lives just at this boundary, near the Black Boy, told
me, in answer to my inquiries, that they never used the
water from the stream for any purpose, but fetched it
from a well at some distance, and would rather go miles
than use it. He also stated that, at most times, if you
were-to J.v.ash a white shirt in it, after three or four times
washing, it would be as yellow as a sovereign. And now,
to cap all, and give the inhabitants of Liverpool a decided
relish for this water, they must understand that it re-
ceives the drainage of two graveyards, viz., Rivington
Church-yard, and the Chapel-yard. I do not pretend to
say but that it might tend to soften the water, but the
idea of drinking it is not very pleasant ; and, unfortu-
nately for the projectcrs, the yards are so situated that
they cannot be drained, excepting into the proposed re-
servoir."

sthly,—Now here is a fact which bears upon the
proposed supply which we are to have from Riving-
ton, and one which the Council should ponder on
before they sanction this scheme.
Mr. West says :—" The last day I was at Rivington
was on Tuesday, the 30th of May, and I should estimate
that, if it were possible to collect all the water that flowed
to the proposed reservoir, a 12-inch pipe would be more
than sufficient to carry it; but I have no doubt parties
who have an interest in carrying out this monster scheme
will state it differently. I found at the river Douglas a
person keeping an account of the quantity of water per
diem in that rivulet, and he told me, when he returned
from guaging it, that the stream was 4 feet wide and 3
inches deep. This I could not credit, having just looked
at it, therefore I borrowed his guage-rod and he followed
me. There could not have been more than five minutes
difference of time of guaging, and I found the depth of
water, instead of three inches, to be just a full inch ;
therefore, for that stream, and for that day, he has booked
three times as much water as there really was."
With these facts before the Council, we would
earnestly call upon them to pause before they adopt
this plan. Let the reportof the Water Committee be
received to-morrow, but at the same time allow the
members and their constituents some reasonable
time to digest its contents. Let them have time to
form an accurate opinion upon its justness, and, if
need be, embody that opinion in a memorial to his
worship on the subject. If this be done we fear
not for the consequences ; but if not, then we must
say that the mind of the ratepayers of Liverpool
has not been consulted on this very important
question.

Amongst the suffering people of England,
there is no body of men who have so fair a
case for commiseration as the planters and owners
of property in the West Indies. From first to last
our legislation towards them of late years has been
full of dishonest and hypocritical juggling. For
years they were made the object of insulting re-
proach and misrepresentation, from every conven-
ticle, and in every liberal journal ; held up to the
gaze of the world as monsters of inhumanity,
branded in every company as solely guilty of the
existence of an institution which the legislature it-
self set up and forced upon them. And when
malignity appeared to have done its utmost and
sham humanity achieved its triumph ; when the
slave was declared to be entitled to freedom, was
the solemn compact which had been made fulfilled?
It was violated most unblushingly. Even this,
however, was not sufficient. That slavery had
ceased to exist in the British colonies did not
change the course of the relentless persecutors of
the planters. They were subjected in their changed
circumstances to every species of harassing restric-
tion, to insulting interference with their affairs,
denied all chance of procuring a supply of labour;
and when at length struggling with ruin, without
hands to work their estates, borne down by heavy
imposts for the support of the very government
which had oppressed them, they were forced into
competition with the foreigner, with his ample
supply of slave labour. Our humanity had eva-
porated ; and the saintly people, who had canted
for years of their abomination of slavery, discovered
that slave raised sugar was cheap and would stay
upon their stomachs.
The result of this competition is now established
to the satisfaction of the whole world. We have
ruined our Sugar Colonies, sacrificed property to
the amount of millions, destroyed a valuable trade,
extensive markets for our manufactures, and shall
have shortly to buy the slave grown sugar of the
foreigner at his own advanced price. We have
given him, in fact, a monopoly; an incentive to
increased exertions in the unholy slave trade, and
an interest in goading his wretched bondsmen to
more toil and more suffering. We have perpetuated,
in fact, the institution of slavery.
The result of our policy towards this body, and
its effect upon the general interest of the country,
have at length been deemed sufficiently important
to attract the attention of the Legislature, and a
committee of the House of Commons has just con-
cluded an enquiry and in its report, on the motion
of one of the honourable members for Liverpool,
Sir Thomas Birch, made a recommendation as to
the mode of relief to be adopted. To deliberate
and to give expression to the opinion of the mer-
cantile public of Liverpool upon the recommenda-
tion in question, his Worship the Mayor, has con-
vened a meeting, which is to be held to-day, at the
Sessions House, at which it is most important that
every lover of right and justice, and every real
friend of humanity should give his countenance
and influence. This is the more necessary as we
observe that a very disingenuous attempt is making
by the free-trade party, to get up an opposition to
the views of the promoters of the movement. We
refer to a placard, which has been extensively
posted throughout the town, stating that the ob-
ject of the movement is to sacrifice the principle of
free-trade—to make sugar dear—for the exclusive
benefit of the East and West India proprietors.
This is a most unfair statement of the case. It is
proposed by Sir Thomas Birch's recommendation
to do justice to these parties certainly ; to extend
to them a moderate measure of protection until
they shall have had an opportunity of providing
themselves with a supply of labour. But it is far
from stopping here. The ground upon which such
a course will be advocated, will be the necessity
which exists, that there should be rendered certain
the prospect of permanent cheapness of such im-
portant articles as Tropical produce, which can
only be done by ensuring competition; that a fair
trial must be given to the experiment of raising
that produce by free labour; and that the sacri-
fices made by Great Britain to put down the slave
trade, and slavery itself should not have been made
in vain ; that we should not stultify ourselves in
the eyes of the world, or be branded for all time to
come, as a people so steeped in selfishness, that we
voluntarily threw away the professions of years, and
the result of the labour of years, for a paltry pocket
consideration of a farthing saving in a pound of
treacle.

ST. JUDE'S ScHooL.—The annual sermons in behalf
of these schools will, we perceive, be preached in St.
Jude's Church next Sunday, by the Rev. Drs. Car-
penter and M`Neile.
We are gratified to hear that the designs of our towns-
man, Mr. Hay, the architect, have been so generally ad-
mired that he has been called upon to prepare drawings of
a new church to be erected at Greenwich. This is no or-
dinary compliment to the provinces, seeing that three or
four metropolitan architects are engaged on different
works here.
PUBLIC MEETING ON THE SLAVE TRADE.—A meeting
of the merchants and others interested in the trade with
Africa, has been convened by his worship the mayor, for
Tuesday (to-day), to discuss this subject, and to consider
the propriety of supporting the measures relative thereto,
propounded by Sir Thomas Birch to the Houseof Commons.
The Rev. Dr. M'Neile will be one of the speakers.