The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-01-02 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We have received from James Parker, EQq., the coun-
cillor for St. Anne's ward, one guinea for the Oastler
Liberation Fund.
A letter from one of the sufferers by the fire in Harring-
ton-street, has been sent to us, but we think the object
of the writer will be best effected by forwarding his
letter to the gentlemen who are interesting themselves
in behalf of those who have received damage through
that distressing calamity.
A correspondent wishes us to state, that a man named
named Duncan Campbell was extremely active in sup-
pressing the fire in the ship Meg of Meldon, and in
getting the cargo out.
Mr. James Owen has requested us to say, that the article
beaded " Police Court Attorneys and Half-crowns,"
in the Journal of Saturday, a brief notice of which ap
pears elsewhere, is as far as he is concerned, wholly
untrue. He denies any participation in the practice
there alluded to_

Ely' Eiberpool A)tantari).

TUESDAY MORA/NG, JAN. 2, 1843.

We have never shrunk from the task—a painful one
—of bringing before our readers, in their full de-
formity, the evils, the cruelties, the GUILT, with
which the factory system of this country is full to
overflowing. For the remedy of those evils—the
alleviation of infant and female toil, and the shorten-
ing of the hours of labour, to the adult male even—
we trust to see a powerful and a successful effort
made in the coming session of Parliament. The
mind of Me nation is now ripe for a measure which
shall unclasp the gripe which manufacturing avarice
has fastened upon its victims. The nation is pre-
pared to record its resolve that human beings shall
no longer he sacrificed in body and soul, that a few
selfish men may add hoard to hoard, and be enabled
to riot in the luxury which blood has purchased.
The legislature may not, as yet, have arrived at a
consciousness of its duty, with respect to this ques-
tion. The cold abstractions of a heartless philoso-
phy may still have charms for a majority in both
houses. But an entire people, demanding that the
fetters he stricken from the limbs and the souls of
its suffering poor, speaks louder than philosophy,
and must be heard—must triumph.

We ought not to deceive ourselves, however, by
the vain hope that legislation can do all which is re-
quired to raise the condition, physical and moral, of
the working population around us. Legislation can
do much. It can withdraw the infant and the
female workers from their toil in the factory, and
restore them to their proper avocations, and fitting
duties and privileges in society. But legislation
cannot do all which is required. There are sores
eating deeply into the social fabric, which legisla-
tion cannot reach—cannot cure. These a great
national effort must deal with. A Christian people
must resolve,—of itself—without the coercion of
the law—acting only up to the plain directions of the
Word of God,—to do justice to the poor who are
amongst them, and permit man, as was ordained for
him, "to live"—to LIVE, not merely to crawl, from
his cradle to his grave—" by the sweat of his brow."
We must cast from us that wretched selfishness
which so fatally prevails throughout the entire
framework of society. We must strive, in fact, to
adopt in all our dealings with our poorer brethren,
that homely but just principle—" live and let live !"
And in the first instance, let us see if something
cannot be done to raise the condition of the female
population of our country. We refer not at present
to our factory population. Their case we would
deal with by legislative means. We refer now to
the females, in our towns and villages, who are com-
pelled to toil for their subsistence.

The time was—and we are old enough to remem-
ber it—when the widow and orphan children of the
reduced tradesman could depend for, at the least, a
decent, thonwh it might be a hardly-earned support,
upon their labour with the needle or the embroidery
frame. The humblest, the least-educated, of our
poor had then some fitting occupation to which they
could resort. There was a feeling of sympathy in
the classes above them, which would not suffer them
to endure want ; and when all other ties were
broken, all other aids withdrawn, there was their
claim upon the land as a last resource. How fatally
for the welfare of our suffering female population
have we declined from this state of things ! One-
half—aye, two-thirds—of the occupations by which
English women in past days could maintain them-
. selves in their own homes, are engrossed by the sel-
fish encroachments of capital. The spinning-wheel
is plied no more by the cottage fire or on the village
green. The embroidering frame is seen no more,
. except as an instrument for the display of the shewy
accomplishments of the breakfast-room or the bou-
doir. The classes, who once eked out a scanty sub-
sistence by their use, must seek it now in the
crowded f ctory, or the pestilential workroom, in
which, for sixteen hours a-day of toil, they may
earn a grave without the reproach of premeditated
suicide to taint their memories. These occupations,
peculiarly female, are gone for ever.
But there is still the needle, we may be told, by
which toiling woman may earn her bread. Aye, but
there is the slop.shop, too, and the fashionable repo-
sitary, which fix the reward of her labour at the
starvation minimum ! The selfishness of modern
times runs only after cheapness. Mothers of fami-
lies—kind-hearted, professing charity and benevo-
lence—resort for those necessary articles of raiment
which formerly employed the neecles of the indus-
trious poor, not to their dependent neighbours—not
to the family of the decayed tradesman—not to the
virtuous children of some former cherished servant,
and perhaps playfellow, —but to the fashionable
shop, with its plate-glass windows, paid for in or-
phans' tears, and its shewy embellishments, whose '
_price has been the sacrifice of woman's virtue—to
' the London or Parisian " depot," where "bargains"
are to be had of every thing ! We have broken, by
our encouragement of this fell mania for cheapness,
one of the strongest ties which bound the women of
our land to their suffering fellow-women. We have
taught them to exchange that constant and kindly
contact with the humbler of their sex, by which the
latter might have been so vastly benefitted, for a
traffic in cheap trash with its knavish fabricators.
And what has been the consequence ? Precisely
that which might have been anticipated from a po-
licy so selfish. There is no longer afforded, for any
avocation by which women may subsist, a reward
which is not wretchedly insufficient.

Search the records of our police-offices, and how
revolting to human nature ought to be the lessons '
which they disclose ! What crimes—what murders
—are daily perpetrated by us, in our folly, or our
selfishness, for the paltry saving of a few pence in
the price of a cap or collar ! Let any of our female
readers picture to themselves for a moment the con-
dition of the unhappy being who is condemned, by
the fear of famine before her eyes, to make a shirt
for three halfpence, and a fine shirt—a linen shirt—
for little above sixpence ! Why the slavery of the
factory is ease compared with the unintermitting toil
and sleepless watching, which must be endured be-
fore enough has been done to purchase the unhappy
sernpstress a meal for herself and for her children.
And then follow her, as, with feeble steps and red,
aching eyes, she enters the work-room of the em-
ployer—suffers the rude rebukes of putters-out and
shopmen—submits, after all her toil, to some petty
deduction, or for some trifling omission or mistake
is sent back to her foodless dwelling, to return after

another hour's toil, to receive the stipulated mite,
which her enfeebled mind scarcely suffers her to
know how to expend most profitably, to provide for
her many necessities. What wonder if the dram-
shop have temptations for such a one, and if, to
raise for the moment her own sinking strength, she
rushes into the madness of intoxication ?
How large a portion of these evils—these suffer-
ings—might we not avert, if we would resolve to be
just to our fellow-beings,--if we would throw off
the selfishness, with which we have closed our hearts
and ears against the calls of humanity Ladies of
England !—to you we appeal on behalf of the
suffering women of England. We will endeavour
to bring before you, in detail, the working of the
system by which these women have been trodden to
the earth, and for the erection of which you have
much to answer for ! We will endeavour to point
out, in detail, the course which you have to pursue
to repair the wrong which you hare inflicted. In
the mean time, what we have already said may be
sufficient to show the direction in which your efforts
must be made, and to induce reflection—earnest
reflection—upon the entire subject. It must be
handled, promptly and wisely, unless we wish to
draw down a curse upon our land.

The speech of Mr. Ferrand at the meeting held
on Wednesday last, at the Commercial Hall, ap-
pears to have set one of our Whig-Radical contem-
poraries—the Popish Journal—well nigh frantic.
That very extraordinary luminary—ambitious, no
doubt, of the patronage of the Anti•Corn-Law
League—devoted, on Saturday last, a full half-
column of railing—to which the language of Ther-
cites was mere milk and water—to the purpose of
overwhelming the honourable member for Knares-
borough ; and, if that gentleman was so shaky in
his nerves, and so weak in reputation, as to be
affected by such a shower of muddy trash as the
Journal has strung together, he must by this time
be far on his voyage to political extinction. Our
contemporary, however, though he may talk
loud, is harmless; and we therefore gladly pass
by his innoceous ravings. Upon one portion,
however, of the speech in question, we feel bound
to offer a brief comment. And first, with respect
to that portion which fixes upon the Anti-Corn-
Law League the atrocity of having countenanced,
as a part of their tactics, personal violence towards,
and even the assassination of, political opponents
who dare to stand in the way of the measures
which they advocate. It was objected to Mr.
Ferran'], by tha Manchester Guardian, that the
remarks of Mr. Abel Heywood—a member of the
League—to the effect that he had been assured by
some party that he would be willing to subscribe to
a fund for procuring the assassination o Sir Robert
Peel, were not uttered at a meeting of the Anti-
Corn-Law League, and that that body was not,
therefore, responsible for language so atrocious.
Mr. Ferrand informed the meeting, that he was
prepared to prove that the language in question was
made use of by Mr. Heywood, at a meeting got up
by the League, and sanctioned by the presence of
two leading members of its body—two members of
the council of that body. The public were told fur-
ther that such language was received with applause
—with applause (!) by a meeting of Englishmen (I !);
and that the two members of the Council of the
League who heard it never attempted to utter one
syllable of reprobation. The inference, which must
inevitably be drawn from these facts, the parties who
compose the confederacy, will have some difficulty
in escaping from. They cannot " rail the seal from
the bond," with which they thus bound themselves
to the murderous scoundrel who made use of lan-
guage so atrocious. They know—Mr. Abel Hey-
wood knows—a would-be murderer: and it is their
duty to denounce him to the just execration of the
world.

The shuffle, that the meeting at which this " anec-
dote" was told was not a League meeting, will not
do! We happen to remember something of the
past tactics of that body—its useful subdivision
into League Councillors, Leaguers, Anti-Corn-Law
Operatives, Precursors, and Advocates of Complete
Suffrage. The meeting in question was a meeting
of shopkeepers, got together by the League's in.
fluence, addressed by members of the League, and
with two members of the council of the League pre-
sent. It was de facto a League meeting. We dare
venture to say that the League paid for the placards
which called it together, and for the room in which
it was held ; and we appeal to any candid man
whether the League is not responsible for its pro-
ceedings.
But was this the only occasion in which a diabo-
lical suggestion of murder was given to the world
by members of this confederacy ? Surely, if we re-
member right, there was a certain Rev. Mr.
Bailey, who, at a meeting of delegates, held in
Palace-yard, gave utterance to a similar " anecdote."
He, too, knew a man—pleasant acquaintance
who would not only subscribe to a fund to procure
the assassination of Sir Robert Peel, but would cast
lots to determine who should do the deed ! 'I his con-
vension of delegates was certainly a League
meeting Was it, or was it not ?
It matters little who was the original author of
either of the atrocious sentiments referred to—
whether he was a Leaguer or only a common scoun-
drel. It was the public utterance of that senti-
ment—for a party purpose—the public suggestion
of murder as a political weapon—which is to be
visited with condemnation. That suggestion, un-
reproved by either of the meetings before which it
was made—unreproved by the League press—nay,
the feeling which it showed to exist paraded before
the world as an unanswerable reason why repeal of
the corn laws should be conceded—was followed by
a ranrder ! Who can pry deeply enough into the
MN sterious labyrinth of a maniac's mind to tell us
with any certainty that it did not cause that murder?

And now a word or two as to this " Calum-
niator Ferrand's" speech. That speech is before
our readers. May we ask them is it not the speech
of an Anylishman—of a loyal man It is so. It
will bear reading. It will bear criticism. It is the
speech of a man who has at heart the welfare of his
country—the happiness of his countrymen and of
his countrywomen. It is the speech of an honest and
a humane man, who cares, for party, nothing, but
who cares, for outraged humanity, everything; and
as such we identify ourselves with its, sentiments
for " let the galled jade wince, our withers are un-
wrung."

The election of a member of the Dock Committee,
in lieu of Mr. Horsfall, who has resigned, is to take
place at the Dock-office, on Friday next, at one
o'clock. Mr. Josias Booker and Mr. Kendal are
the candidates. They are both Conservatives, so
that no question of politics is involved in the de-
cision. We trust, therefore, that the contest will be
conducted in such a manner as shall not engender
any unkindly feeling. With respect to Mr. Booker,
we believe no misapprehension exists; he is under-
stood to be in favour of the erection of warehouses
on the dock quays, and of the general policy pursued
by Mr. Horsfall whilst a member of the Dock Com-
mittee. Mr. Kendal is, we beli eve, to a considerable
extent, of the some opinions; he has been, however,
strangely misrepresented by our contemporary of

the Albion, as an opponent of dock warehouses,
whilst he entertains, as we are informed by himself,
and as the following letter testifies, very opposite
sentiments. We have no wish at present to enter
into the merits of this much agitated question ; but
it is only an act of justice to allow Mr. Kendal to
speak for himself, which he does very plainly and
emphatically in the subjoined communication :