The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-12-29 00:00:00

FROM THE SAME

December 10th

"By the relief you sent me several have been kept alive;
some sick also have been recovered, and several now lying
down are receiving relief. Scarcely a house in which there is
not some one sick; the prevailing complaints are pain in the
stomach and dysentery,—some become swelled from their
feet to their head, and are lingering in that state not expected
to recover."

FROM REV. W. A. FISHER, RECTOR OF KILMORE, CROOK-

HAVEN, 24 MILES WEST OF SKIBBEREEN

"The want is'inereasing fearfully. There are over 2400
(young and old) at this moment without any means of support.

" With such a mass of misery before us we do not know
which way to turn. We raised nearly £lOO in this parish for
the relief of the poor, besides vast sums given in other ways.
We can scarcely sit down to our meals without two or three
hungry faces thrust in at our low little windows craving some
thing for God's sake."

FROM REV. DR. TRAILL, RECTOR OE SKULL, 12 MILES

Dated 15th December, 1846.
"In this large
.parish, the poor are in a state of great dis-
traction ; the misery here will soon be beyond description
We shall be swept with the besom of destruction."

FROM THE REV. RCIIIVIRT OLIVER, CITRATE CIF mVunct,
FOUR MILES EAST OF SKIBBEREEN.

Dated 21

oth December, 1846.

"Indeed no language can convey an adequate idea of the
state in which the people are here : feeding them is out of the
question. We can only endeavour to keep them alive, and
prevent them from falling at our doors.

`• We have a soup-boiler, and are doing every thing we can
to meet the present awful visitation."

He need not :delay the proceedings by reading letters of
this kind, for the details from every locality were sub-
stantially identical. They all told of real physical desti-
tution, leading to starvation and death. It remained
therefore for him to proceed to the second branch of the
subject, the relief to be supplied ; on which he would ask
some of his practical friends, who understood details of
business, to make some practical suggestions both as to
the mode of arranging the committee among themselves
for obtaining relief, and as to the mode of transmitting it
when so obtained.

MR. COTESWORTH said, that on Friday, after hearing
the address of the Rev. Chairman, the congregation of St.
Jude's held a meeting, in order to consider the best mode
of affording relief to the destitute poor in Ireland. Two
modes were suggested. The first was to request that a
towns meeting might be convened, and the other to call
upon their own congregation alone. After mature consi-
deration the opinion was unanimous that it would be bet-
ter to have a congregational subscription, because, by that
means, they would have an opportunity of satisfactorily
directing its distribution. He therefore thought they
could not do better than to have a congregational sub-
scription, in the hope that the example would be followed
by others.
Mr. WNEILE said the observations of Mr. Cotes-
worth were most important. There were always people
in this evil world ready to take advantage of the distress
of others ; and there had been abuses in the administra-
tion of public money. which it was desirable to avoid in
the application of private funds. The only way to do so
was to employ parties in the various localities, upon
whom dependence could be placed—real Christian men
who would feel it a blessed privilege to administer what
might be sent to them. This would be better done by a
congregational collection than by a towns meeting. At
the same time, he hoped that, althongh the present was
to be a congregational collection, it would not end there,
and that, without any exultation, they would be the means
of provoking others to emulation in this good work.
Yesterday (Sunday) £3OO was collected in Dr. Rafoes's
chapel. He was glad of it. He had himself just received
a £5O note from a friend who was unable to attend the
meeting, and also an interesting communication from
Messrs. Milner and Son. It was as follows :

" Our workmen have foregone their Christmas supper this
year, and by this sacrifice upon their part, they enable us to
place in your hands 50 towards any fund that may be raised
for the relief of our poor Irish brethren ; and they heartily

join us in an invitation to every trading and mantifacturin,
establishment to take the same course."

The reading of this passage elicited much applause.
Mr. W JONES read a letter from the Rev. Dennis
Brown, of Enniskillen, suggestive of the utility of confid-
ing the subscriptions to individual direction.
Mr. M'NEILE here stated that Mr. Pinnington had
handed him a £5O note, accompanied with one important
observation. Mr. Pinnington hoped no distinction would
he made, either of creed or party, in the distribution of
the funds. Of course there would be no distinction
made; and it was in order to prevent this evil they were
so cautious into whose hands they placed the money.
Thei, friends in Ireland would make no such distinctions,
neither would they themselves ; but whilst making no
distinctions of creed or party, they wished to guard against
abuse. Unfortunately, they had all heard distressing ac-
counts of what had occurred in the way of abuse. In
one instance labouring men were furnished with work by
the Relief Committee of the district by means of tickets.
The members of the Relief Committee were each supplied
with a number of tickets, which they gave to the poor
men, who, on presenting them, received employment. It
turned out that the priest of a parish, who was a member
of a relief committee, sold the tickets he had received to
poor men for Id. each, and securing one penny for him.
self. This bras an abuse of which he believed no minister
of the Church of England, or any dissenting minister
would have been guilty. He did not mention the fact in
the way of volunteering a charge ; but, as arising from
the observation of Mr. Pinnington, he thought it impor-
tant to say the care of the committee would he to send
the money collected to parties whom they knew would
make no difference on account of creed or party. (Hear.)
Mr. PINNINGTON—If the people are hungry let them
all be fed. (Hear.)
Mr. M'NEILE—That is our own practice. (Hear.) It
is painful to be obliged to mingle the object we have in
view with such considerations; but painful things are
oftentimes forced upon us by unkind observations in other
quarters. Some of us are characterised as harsh and un-
kind towards our Roman Catholic fellow-creatures,
whereas, in truth, there is no harshness or unkindness in us
towards them. You have all, perhaps, seen a paragraph
in the papers with regard to my brother and myself in
our conduct towards our tenants. I would add to that
paragranh this fact, that every one of those tenants of
mine is Roman Catholic—every one of them. (Hear,
hear.)

A GENTLEMAN suggested that clothing should be con-
tributed as far as possible, as it was next, in point of
necessity, to food. If gentlemen would give of their
clothing it might readily be made up and sent off to Ire-
land, where it would be found exceedingly useful.
This suggestion was warmly received.
The following acting committee was then appointed
Mr. C. Bell, Mr. Wm. Jones, Mr. Coteswortb, Mr.

Preston, Mr. Webster (treasurer,) with the Rev. Hugh
M'Neile, and the Rev. Drummond Anderson.
Mr. STEWART KER suggested that whilst subscriptions
were being received for the destitute in Ireland, sub-
scriptions should also be received for the destitute in
Scotland, who were undergoing eival privations. He was
sure that, if this suggestion were adopted, there would not
be a shilling less contributed for the poor Irish.
The suggestion was agreed to unanimously, contributors
being requested to state what portion, if any, of their
gifts they wished to be sent to Scotland ; and as this ex-
tension of the original object would cause additional
labour. Mr. Stewart Key and Mr. Keightley were added to
the committee.

Mr. COTESWORTH recommended gentlemen to induce
the ladies of the congregation to use their influence in this
good work.
Mr. M'NEILE added that, although the present was a
congregational collection, the committee would receive the
subscriptions of any other persons who might wish to
avail themselves of their means of distribution.

The contributions sent in during the proceedings were
then cast up, and the amount was found to be a few
shillings more than £4BO.
At the close of business hours yesterday afternoon, the
amount contributed by members of St. Jude's congrega-
tion had reached to within a fraction of £5OO.

MR. WILLIAM EARLE, OURSELVES, AND

STARVATION IN LIVERPOOL

On Tuesday last we had the painful task to record the
death of a poor fellow creature from starvation, in this
wealthy town. We did more than that. We proclaimed
the fact in letters such as " he who runs may read," in
our placard of the day. Mr. William Earle appears to
be one of these running readers of every matter which
does not happen to square with his own notions of fitness,
social or political; and at the 'Vestry meeting of Tuesday
he complained of such a statement being made ; said it
was unworthy of any respectable newspaper to circulate
it, and admitted that he had only read the account in our
placard. It was however stated to him, that accordine
to clear medical testimony the fact was as we had stated ;
and he was then silent on that particular case. With res-
pect to another case, however, in which it bad been re-
ported that a man had died in bridewell from starvation,
Mr. Earle was very jocular upon the fact that the poor
victim, at the time of his death, had five shillings in his
pocket.
Now we happen to know something of this same five
shillings, from a correspondent, upon whose word we can
place implicit reliance. The poor man in question was
found by our correspondent in a dying state in Tithebarn-
street, surrounded by a crowd of people. With the assis-
tance of two policemen, he was taken with his children to
a neighbouring cook-shop, and soup was ordered to be
administered to him immediately. His children eagerly
grasped the offered meal ; but the poor man himself wa
too weak to raise it to his mouth; and, in the expressiv
language of our correspondent, " had to be assisted to
like a helpless child." Some little nourishment was
thus given him ; after which our correspondent, having
pressing engagement, left two shillings and sixpence with
the woman of the cook-shop for his relief, and received
the promise of the two policemen that they would see him
attended to. He was conveyed to bridewell as the only
available place ; and there he was found dead the fol-
lowing morning ! He had five shillings in his pocket,
Mr. Earle says, at the time of his death. Half-a-crown
we have accounted for; and our correspondent suggests
that he may have received more from other wi'nesses of
his weakened state. There is nothing wonderful, however,
in a man dying with five shillings in his pocket, who is so
near death as to be unable to lift to his mouth the food
that five shillings will purchase.
Mr. Earle could indulge in his flippant incredulity of
the truth of a statement of this poor man's death on
Tuesday ; yet, possibly, at the very moment he was doing
so another human being was breathing her last, whose
death, from starvation on Tuesday, is recorded in our
columns this day. Mr. Earle--a vestryman—a liberal—
cannot believe that people die from want of food in a town
where there is wealth, and—a workhouse/ Facts, how-
ever, are stubborn things, against which Mr. Earle'sjokes
even rebound, and strike their utterer. Would that they
could awaken in him a greater regard for manliness of
character, and a little more kindliness of feeling!
In concluding our remarks upon this sad case, we must
state that we regard very lightly Mr. Earle's attack upon
ourselves, for having performed our duty by giving it
publicity. In matters like these we shall never study Mr.
Earle's peculiar tastes.

Pictures at the exhibition of the Liverpool Academy
have been sold this year to the amount of £l7OO.

HANDSOME COLLECTION.—On Sunday morning last,
after a sermon by the Rev. Dr. Reifies, the munificent
sum of £3OO was collected at Great George-street Chapel
for the rtlief of the distressed Irish.

SCREW STEAM SHIP.—The second steam ship be-
longing to the line of vessels between this port and Cork
which are propelled on the screw principle, will be on the
station e,rlv in January.

THE GREAT BRITAIN.—The Londonderry papers of
Saturday state confidently that Captain Coppin of that
town has, after all, been engaged by the directors to get
off this noble steam-ship. The Bristol Mirror, however,
Bays, that final arrangements have been made by the di-
rectors with Mr. Brunel, the eminent engineer.
ST. MATTHEW'S CHURCH.—The Rev. George Cuth-
bert, who recently held the curacy of Christ Church, in
this town, has resigned the incumbency of the church at
Ducktnfield, to which he was appointed by the Bishop.
and has accepted the incumbency of St. Matthew's
Church, Key-street. This will be gratifying intelligence
to the poor of that densely-crowded locality.

SUDDEN DEATH.—Yesterday, an inquest was held on
view of the body of Maria Wood, of Back Kensington,
Kirkdale, aged 70. She was found in her bedroom on
Saturday, lying on her back on the floor, quite dead. A
post mortem examination was made, when it appeared that
she had died from disease of the lungs, the result of natural
causes.

IMPORTS OF FOREIGN GRAIN, &C., REPORTED AT
THE LIVERPOOL CUSTOM-HOUSE, FROM THE 19TH TO
THE 26TH INSTANT. INCLUSIVE : - Wheat, 78,921
bushels ; Flour, 68,122 barrels : Indian corn, 195,317
bushels; Indian Corn, 2.261 quarters; Indian corn, 9,880
sacks ; Indian meal, 4,862 barrels. In addition, the ar-
rivals of other food, principally American, is very large.
On Sunday morning last, the sum of £4B was collected
at St. Jude's Church in aid of the fund for maintaining
the schools in connection with the church. This collec-
tion, in addition to the annual sermons, has been rendered
necessary in consequence of the indispensably large ex-
penditure for the efficient working of the schools, which
are found to be of the very greatest benefit to the increas-
ing number of poor in this populous district. _ _

. .
THE CORPORATIONWATER BILL.--RUMOUTSareabrolld
that the plans prepared by the Corporation to obtain a
supply of water from the source suggested by Mr.
Hawkesley, are, or will be abandoned, The difficulties
in the way of a cheap and constant supply from the dis-
trict described in the parliamentary notices, and in the
deposited plans, are said to be impracticable in reference
to the town of Liverpool.

ACCIDENT AT THE NORTH DOCK WORKS.—Yester-
day, an inquest was held on view of the body of William
Turner, a driver o' one of the waggons employed at the
new docks. About eight weeks ago, deceased was crushed
between two waggons, one of which was running fast. He
was taken to the Nothern Hospital, and afterwards to his
house in Lightbody-street, where he died, from the inju-
ries, on Sunday last. Verdict, " Accidental death."
BRAZILIAN ORANGES.—Mr. Fletcher, fruit broker,
offered for sale on Wednesday last, a quantity of oranges,
the production of the Brazils, part of the cargo of the
steam-ship Antelope. This was the first offer, in this
port, of this delicious fruit from the continent of South
America, and there was a numerous attendance. There-
serve of the importers prevented a sale at auction, but we
understand that the importation was disposed of pri-
vately. Further importations will follow ; and those who
know the quality of the fruit have sanguine expectations
of a considerable trade in it.

THE WEATHER.—On Sunday the weather continued
severe, but scarcely so cold as on previous days. The
roads, however, in our various outskirts were very slip-
pery, and the horses in many of our omnibuses, not be-
ing sharped, came down. At twelve on Sunday night we
had the commencement of a shower of rain and hail,
which lasted for a few hours, and then froze again ; and
on Monday morning the whole town and its approaches
were covered with a sheet of ice. To state the casualties
which occurred at the early part of the day from falls—
some of them serious ones, attended with severe injuries
—is quite beyond our power, though we give a few else-
where. In the afternoon of yesterday a drizzling shower
of moisture came down, which has continued up to the
time at which we write ; and although we can scarcely
say with certainty that the frost has gone, our roads and
streets have become safe to traverse. During nearly tile
whole of the two days the river has been enveloped in fog.
THE STEAMER ANTELOPE.—This splendid steamer,
constructed on the screw principle, whose passages to and
from the Brazils within a shorter period than the govern-
ment packet, were amply noticed in our last, is now in
the graving dock, having parts of her machinery strength-
ened. This vessel is the nucleus of a line of steamers
between Liverpool and Rio, which will tend materially to
consolidate our commercial intercourse with the empire of
Brazil. The Emperor, who visited the ship, instead of
merely taking a glass of water on board, as represented in
some of the accounts, partook of a splendid luncheon.
His Majesty expressed the greatest admiration at the
feat of the Antelope turning in a space of water equal to
little more than her own length. A paddle steamer
which preceded her in part of the excursion round the
bay, was totally unable to accomplish a similar object,
and had to steam some distance stern foremost. The
principle of the screw in steam navigation may now be
pronounced established.
A POLICEMAN FINED AND DISCHARGED.—At the
police court yesterday, police officer No. 100, named
Skillicorn, was placed in the bar, charged by Inspector
Gregg with being drunk while on duty and assaulting him.
Mr. Gregg said that early that (Monday) morning he met
the prisoner in Pembroke place, and observing that he was
in liquor said he would report him, and told him to go to
the station in Hotham-street. The prisoner before he
complied (said witness) aimed a blow at the witness,
which he avoided, and fell duwn in doing so, the street
being remarkably slippy. Prisoner afterwards went to the
station and saw Mr. Superintendent Leverett, who also
was of the same opinion—that he was drunk. Mr. Gregg
afterwards went to the station, and when he entered the
prisoner took up a large inkstand that was on the desk,
and flung it at him with great violence, but it missed him.
The prisoner denied that he lifted the stick to Mr. Gregg
to strike him, but that it was accidentally done, and that
he too fell from the ice at the time. It did appear that
they had both fallen. An inspector stated that the pri-
soner bad been six years in the force, and was a good offi-
cer, but sometimes addicted to drink. Mr. Rushton said
he could not be.a good officer if he were so addicted, and
for assault with the inkstand and getting drunk, he was
dismissed the force, and fined 40s. and costs, or in de- ,
fault of payment to be imprisoned one month.

Dec. 29, 1846.

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

(BY EXPRESS)

LONDON CORN EXCFIAN3E.-YESTERDAY,

At this day's maket the supply of English Wheat was only
moderate, and met a brisk sale at a further advance of 2s. to
3s. per quarter over the currency of this day week.
The foreign is held for a similar improvement, and there is
still a good demand for shipment to Ireland, but the rapid ad-
vance has somewhat checked business.
Barley, M alt, Peas, and Beans are all Is. to 2s. dearer.

On r arrivals' of o'ats keep pace with our consumptive de-
mand, and, although an improvement of Is. per quarter was
generally required, the trade was inactive and slow at the ad-
vance, which mostly applies to foreign.