The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-01-04 00:00:00

le me

pro per

been covered with terraced cottages, in which one
family is made to live in a ground floor of two

apartinents, and another to occupy the terrace por-
tion above. But a further desecration awaits the
street. Plans, we learn, have last week been sent
in, which the health committee have been com-
pelled to. pass, for the erection of terrace cottages,
in the front of the street, at the Islington end,
opposite the new Baptist chapel, and nearly oppo-
site the Collegiate Institution. Nearer to the
Everton road, and opposite to the land laid out
with walks as gardens, it is proposed to form a,
court of houses, with an entrance to the front of
the street, with cellars constructed to be let off
separately. The effect of these erections upon the
value of the property in the locality, and the respec•
tability of the street, as a place of residence for
our gentry and merchants, must be very apparent.
We are not at all about to question the perfect right
of the owners of the plots of land, proposed to be
built upon as above, to deal with their property as
they may think proper, keeping, however, within
the regulations of the building act. We are not
cognizant of any engagement entered into by them
to conform their erections to the character of the
remainder of the street. But we may suggest the
existence of a moral obligation upon them to ab-
stain as much as possible from any course calculated
directly to injure the property of their neighbours.
They might for a moment place themselves in the
position of some of the owners of the property,
which their buildings will depreciate, and ask
themselves what would be their own feelings in
such a case—whether they would not regard it as a
piece of cruelty on the part of a neighbour to per-
severe in the execution of a project calculated to
inflict such widely-spread and serious injury. We
trust that these gentlemen will reconsider the pro-
priety of proceeding with the buildings proposed
and that should the owners of property and the
residents in Shaw-street approach them, as we
urge them to do, with proposals for an arrange-
ment of any difficulties which may exist between
them, such proposals will be met in a proper and
conciliatory spirit.

That such it collision of interests should be per-
mitted to occur at all, or that property to so large
an amount as is sunk in Shaw-street should be
exposed to the peril with which it is threatened
by the proposal to erect these low class build=
ings in its neighbourhood, is much to be deplo-
red ; and we would strongly urge upon the Health
Committee, since it is plain they do not now pos-
sess the necessary powers to protect such property,
and at the same time the health of respectable lo-
calities, from depreciation, that they ought to seek
to strengthen their hands. It strikes us most
forcibly that the erection of more cellar residences
in any part of the town should not be permitted.
Medical men,"we are assured, would equally con-
demn as unwholesome and dangerous such terrace
cottages as we observe springing up in various
parts of the town, Let the Health Committee put
a stop to any further buildings of the two descrip-
tions, and it will soon be found that the land in
those streets which we would preserve respectable,
is worth too much to enable any builder, who seeks
a profit on his outlay, to cover it with cottages or
courts. If such a course cannot be adopted, we
must seek for powers to secure uniformity of
building in the new streets, or the town will never
rise from its present unhealthy condition and rag-
ged irregular appearance.

THERE are occasions in which the wisest of us
must humble ourselves to receive instruction from
parties, whose capacity to judge of our position we
are usually inclined to set down as much inferior
to our own. This great commercial country appears
just now to have fallen upon one of those occasions.
We have for twelve months past been growing in
fancied greatness. We have been dictating to the
world a new commercial policy. We have arrogated
to ourselves the possession of the only substantial
basis of sound commercial operations—a perfect
metallic currency. Yet with these two boasted
specifics in operation, we behold ourselves pros-
trated in credit, sunk in insolvency and ruin, with
the realized fruits of years of enterprise slipping
from within our grasp, not by solitary thousands,
but by hundreds of millions at one fell swoop.
The idol Gold, which we have set up as our god,
has turned out a veritable King Stork, which is
devouring its worshippers and subjects, and trampl-
ing beneath its feet those statesmen and the trading
and industrious classes, for the security of whose
monuments of thought and toil it was set up as
the only protector.
The following remarks on our position, which
we extract from the New York Morning Express,
of Nov. 19th, possess a force and originality, which
render them most worthy of the attentive perusal
of Englishmen. We give the article entire:—
"The part that Gold and Silver are playing, just now,
in this world's affairs, would be ludicrous if it was not so
serious in its effects upon the trade and commerce of the
world. England, just now, it is presumable, and it can
hardly be denied, owes the United States. It is very
certain that she has on hand large amounts of our produce
and cotton, and that in the face of starvation in Ireland,
if not in her own manufacturing districts, she has nearly
annihilated the money-value of our corn, grain, and pro-
duce in general, and more particularly of cotton. But,
notwithstanding all this, two millions of our specie have
just gone from us to that England, and, in consequence
of it, stocks fall in value here, and all sorts of property
and of labour are also threatened with a corresponding
fall. The extraordinary spectacle is presented of our peo-
ple stripping themselves of the precious metals to put in
the possession of a people that owe us, or have our pro-
ductions on hand, and productions necessary to them, for
a large amount.
" The way this extraordinary state of things is brought
about ip clear enough,—but there is none the less of the
extraordinary in it, because we know how it is done. To
bring back the specie England has lost, England breaks
her own merchants, and annihilates the value of all other
property save that of the precious metals. Gold and sil-
ver have been set up in England as the only thing need-
ful,—of more value, even than beef, pork, corn or wheat,
or cotton to clothe the people with. England having
about annihilated all other property save that of the pre-
cious metals, these metals of course rush there, where
they are in such extraordinary demand. It is but of little
avail that we have on hand English obligations, or credits,
or everything that the people of England want to eat,
because the precious metals have been made the only
thing really in demand.
" Now such a spectacle is, to a certain extent, ludicrous,
—for of what real abstract value the precious metals are,
save as trinkets or as metals, it will puzzle even the most
profound political economists to define. Nobody, when
hungry, has any doubt of the value of a bushel of wheat,
or when cold, of a cotton shirt or jacket. The world is
convulsed, however, in the march and counter march of
these precious metals. Millions come over here in the
steam-ships, and millions are now going back, without
any real bona fide reason, thoughfor well-known apparent
• cause. All property and labour, of course are effected by
these extraordinary peregrinations of eagles, and sover-
eigns. and Spanish dollars,—and there is hardly a being in
the United States that will not suffer by these marches of
their majesties. It is well, perhaps, then, that they are
called Sovereigns and Eagles

"But what is the use of all this talk ? What do you
propose as a remedy ? What would you do, if you had
the power, to save mankind from these afflicting fluctua-
tions ? Well ! these are very hard questions, and when
we are wiser we will try to solve them. Meanwhile, we
have about come to the conclusion that in this world we
too much idolize and deify these precious metals, in mak-
ing them the basis of all business, and of all credit and
confidence."

Is there any exaggeration here of our position,
or indeed of that of the two countries ? We have im-
ported more largely of American produce during the
past year than in any within memory. America
has in return imported largely of our own manu-
factures. Yet the industry of both countries is
being paralysed by the process in which their
mutual indebtedness is being discharged. We
have had to send specie—the King Stork which we
have set up—to the United States to pay for the
corn and cotton which we have bought; and now
we have to " break our merchants, and annihilate
the value of all other property save that of the
precious metals," to get it back again ! With our
three per cents. at 95 to 100, and our railway stocks
at 50 per cent. premium, we contracted responsi-
bilities, which we are sacrificing three per cents. at
85, and railway stock at 50 per cent. discount to
pay off. We are buying back every sovereign we
shipped for corn at thirty or forty shillings each in
our depreciated securities and manufactures.
It is true enough, as hinted by our transatlantic
contemporary, that the converse of the operation
will have to, take place. America will be called
upon to protect herself and her citizens from the
effects of this, " march and countermarch of the
precious metals." Amerip is importing from us
just now more largely than she is exporting to our
markets; and such a course must shortly impover-
ish her very seriously. What then must be the
alternative of America ? We give it in the striking
language of another transatlantic contemporary,
the Boston Courier

`• We are now (he remarks) brought into this position ;
the bulk of our exports are diminished one-third, at least,
in price, from what they were a year since; while imports
are increasing, without a corresponding diminution in

we import tbi; year than what it kit year, and that
in the face of a decreasing demand and a falling in prices
of what we have to export
" Now, this state of things cannot long endure. We
cannot pay for imports with exports of anything but
specie, and our banks must contract and our currency. be
reduced, in order to bring down prices low enough to save
our specie and to send our wheat, cotton, &c., abroad in
place of it.
" We have, then, before us a very plain and easily-
understood state of things. We must contract at once
until prices fall. Wages must fall—every article excep#
money must become cheaper, and that must become dearer•
until we are reduced to the scale of foreign prices. Eng-
land is contracting, in order to turn the specie tide in her
favour; and we must contract, to prevent the drain fall-
ing too severely upon us. We are now coming to a trial
of strength, to see which nation can gripe the hardest,
and in many respects the odds are in our favour; but
we shall not long keep our vantage ground, unless we
begin and persevere in this necessary but disagreeable
course."

A most consoling sort of process for the produc-
ing classes of both countries must be this "trial of
strength to see which nation can gripe the hardest"
—this battle for the possession of the precious
metals, in which " wages must fall, and every article
except money must become cheaper," The British
artizan will doubtless be grateful for the cheap loaf
thus purchased from the American farmer; the
British agriculturist, too, must make up his mind
to bear his share of the result of the contest. The
manufacturer and the manufacturing operative
must also take their part in.this mutual " griping"
between the two countries.

After all, however, this doctrine of our American
brother journalist is only remarkable, inasmuch as
it is candidly enunciated. The same views as to
the effect of Free Trade, carried on with a contracted
convertible currency, has been again and again pro-

claimed in our own columns. It is well urged by
the apologists of our new system that as yet the
circumstances under which we have been placed
have prevented its full operation from being made
known. The cultivators, of our soil have been
saved from suffering, which would otherwise have
been their lot, by a bounteous harvest and the
griping exaction of the foreign grower, who has
sought and been enabled to reap, in the general
calamity of Europe, high• prices for his surplus
supply. But this is not to last for another season.
America cannot hold back both her produce and the
precious metals. She must part with one to bring
back the other; and we venture to predict a slight
surprise to those who are just now flattering the
British agriculturist upon Itikk 4‘ atinkkg" prkfaitiork in
this first year of Free Trade, at the result of next
year's working of their boasted system. Most
emphatically we admit that the system in question
has not had a fair trial. It will have one, however,
before we are all a year older ; and we shall he most
agreeably surprised if the result is not a startling
one to all classes.

WE beg to call the serious attention of our
readers to a very able statistical statement, in
another column,. of the moral and spiritual con-
dition of the inhabitants of Vauxhall district in
this town. The table has been compiled by the
Rev. Dr. Hume, the newly-appointed incumbent
of the district, and reflects the very highest credit
on his patient labours, and painstaking solicitude.
The results which may be gathered from the docu-
ment, as regards the neglect of the means of
grace and of education, are truly appalling, whilst
many other facts relating to the people are equally
distressing.

We hope that no other district in the town would:
present so unfavourable an aspect.

A numerous and highly respectable meeting of
the members of the late Conservative Association
met at the Clarendon Rooms yesterday at 12 o'clock,
when the report of the committee appointed on the
3d ult. was unanimously adopted, and the associa-
tion reorganized under the name of the Liverpool
Constitutional Association, on the principles sub-
mitted, a copy of which we subjoin.

LIVERPOOL CONSTITUTIONAL ASSOCIATION.
"THE CHURCH, THE THRONE, AND THE PEOPLE."
" SHIPS, COLONIES, AND COMMERCE."
The objects of the association are—
" To uphold all the great interests of the empire, whe-
ther in the United Kingdom, or in the Colonies..
" To vindicate the principles of the British Constitu-
tion, as generally held by William Pitt and George
Canning,' securing for commerce, agriculture, manu-
factures, shipping, and railways, due encouragement,
thereby procuring for the artizan, the peasant, the opera-
tive, and the merchant seaman, that fair reward for his
labour which Englishmen have been used to enjoy.
" To advocate the adoption of a sound and equal sys-
tem of taxation which shall combine the greatest return
to the national exchequer, with the least pressure upon
the English producer and consumer.
" To promote national education based on religion, and
to resist undue state interference with the educational
rights of the church, as by law established.
To uphold church principles, and defend the rights
and liberties of the church, while respecting the just claims
of all who dissent from her communion.

" To promote, by all legal means, the election of mem-
bers of parliament for the borough, who will subscribe to,
and uphold the principles of, the association, and conform
to its rules and regulations in the prosecution of a canvass.
"To promote by all legal means the election of such
candidates for the Town Council as are members of the
association, and to protect the welfare of the burgesses
generally.
"To watch the registration, and protect those entitled
to the franchise from frivolous and vexatious objections.
" The committee of the association to be chosen by the
members, the same to consist of 24,—four to retire an-
nually, and not to be re-eligible for one year.
" The chairman and secretary of the ward committees
to be ex officio members of the general committee.
" The general committee to draw up a code of rules and
regulations for the guidance, and appoint the necessary
officers required to conduct the business, of the assciation."
We find that persons desirous to enrol their
names as members are requested to notify the same
to the secretary, in writing, or to the chairman or
secretary of the ward in which they are resident,
accompanied by a request that the same may be
forwarded to the secretary of the general com-
mittee.

Mr. Henry Buckmaster was appointed secretary,
and we anticipate the best results from his election
to so important an office.

WE observe that a notice has been put upon the
Council paper, by Mr. Samuel Holme, and will
come on for discussion to-mb rrow, proposing to
raise the salary of the stipendiary magistrate, Mr.
Rushton, from its present amount of £l3OO, to
£l6OO per annum. Of course we are at present
unaware of the grounds upon which Mr. Holme
will endeavour to justify this increase. The same
objections which we and others have formerly urged
against a similar proposition exist now ; and we
know of nothing which has occurred to weaken
their force in the slightest degree. On the con-
trary, we conceive that the present state of affairs
in the borough, and especially the increased expense
to which we shall shortly be put, by the increase in
the police force, rendered necessary to repress out-

rage in the outskirts of the town, and even in
some of our least frequented streets, render the pre-
sent a very unfit period to entertain any proposition,
by which a further drain upon the public purse will
be created.
Perhaps, however, Mr. Holme may have some-
thing to urge, with which the public are as yet
unacquainted; and we shall therefore wait patiently
for an exposition of his views, before further com-
mitting ourselves to any decided course. If we
could for a moment believe that public interest
would be served by any change which would per-
sonally serve Mr. Rushton, no one would be more
happy than ourselves to see it adopted.

THE LT

VERPOOL POLYTECHNIC SOCIETY,

Yesterday evening the general monthly meeting of this
society took place at the Royal Institution. The private
business, namely, the receiving of the report of the re-
tiring council, and the election of officers for the ensuing
season, occupied some time.
In the theatre of the institution, after these preliminary
matters, the chairman for:the year, W. Bennett, Esq., was
duly introduced, and announced the names of the other
officers.

The following officers were declared elected :—Presi-
dent : Wm. Bennett, Esq. Vice-Presidents the Rev.
A. Hume, L.L.D., and the Rev. Thomas Dwyer. Trea-
surer : Mr. C. J. Smith. Secretary : Mr. Salt. Council :
Messrs. Boult, Clay, Forrest, Hobson, F. Horner, H. P.
Herner, R. Mather, W. Milner, W. H. Peak, Thos.
Spencer.