The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-07-18 00:00:00

gentlemen who presume to call thems

Conservative members ; but,

.1-1 the who:

find a paragJaphOnr eci die de's- ins In ono: experience of the occasional inconsistency of public of the Council. We are convinced that it may be
ther column. men, we do not remember to have noticed a display successfully achieved, and without the necessity of
in
fullest p consequencearticulars in of the
connexion eat interwithest fe
the launch t o
of the y tain the of that quality so outrageous as the speech of Capt. an vast pecuniary sacrifice. At all events, at any
Great Britain steam-ship, at Bristol, on Wednesday, Rous, the Conservative (?) member for Westminster, cost, it ought to be attempted, if we do our duty to
we have despatched to that port a reporter well versed on Monday night. The honourable and crotchetty our fellow-beings or to ourselves. We are not
in nat,',:cll matters, for the purpose of obtaining an ori-
ginal and authentic narrative of the whole proceedings. gentleman declared it as his opinion that "in all placed in the position of men who know only the
legislation with regard to Ireland, her Majesty's evil and are ignorant of its cause. We do know
'Conservative) government was tied by the leg by the cause, or rather the causes of the evil.
the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, And it is perfectly within our reach to do much to
and the bigotry of the Protestant Church in Eng- remove those causes. As we have already remarked,
land." .1 Of course no tie of the sort would prevent we have already done much to remove those causes.
the worthy and intelligent captain from giving up As far as remedial legislation can effect our object,
to Popery in Ireland all that she demands. He is we have perhaps done almost all that is within our
further of opinion that " the common sense" of the power; but there is still, we maintain, something
which, as a united and public-spirited and humane
community, it is within our means to effect ; there
is something which a wealthy corporation has abun-
dant means to effect; and that something it is our
object now to bring before our readers and the

Efir Rtherpoot ki-tanDarD.

the bigotry

TUESDAY 310 RIVING, JULY 18, 1843

We must acknowledge that we perused the recent
speech of Sir Robert Peel, upon the subject of his
Irish policy, with pain and dissatisfaction. It was

an able speech, as are all the great forensic efforts
of that statesman. It was most damaging to the

question at issue between the repeal agitators in
Ireland and the British people, is the position of
the Established Church in Ireland ; and he would

opponents of Conservative Government, both in
England and in Ireland; but we could gather from
its cold and measured tone not a line, not a word

solve the question by giving up the Established
Church to pillage ! The worthy captain deprecates
the cry of " Protestant ascendancy" in Ireland ;
and, of course, would have little difficulty in dis-
countenancing the same principle as applied to

to cheer the spirits or gratify the feelings of the
friends of British connection in the latter countr

public

The most prominent causes of the insalubrity of
our town are crowded dwellings, want of ventilation,

not an expression to indicate that the sympathies of
a Conservative Government were with them in their
present hour of tribulation and suffering, or that
such sympathies would reach them in the hour of
struggle and more imminent peril. "The peace" of
Ireland would be maintained ; " the supremacy of
the law" would be vindicated ; " the church would
be kept inviolate ;" " the entireness of the empire"
would be defended :—these and similar assurances
were delivered to us in the freezing tone of a judge
or of an oracle, as if they flowed from the lips of
passionless marble, rather than emanated from the
heart of a living and sentient human being. But
not a word of encouragement to the loyal and peace-
able was mingled with the frigid denunciation of the
disloyal and rebellious !

Great Britain

The religion of the state is with

want of proper sewerage, want of sufficient cleans-
ing, with, perhaps, that immorality and intemperance
which the physical causes already enumerated con-
tribute to engender or to increase. Amongst the
ce lar population, and the inhabitants of crowded
and ill-ventilated courts, disease and death in Liver-
pool are most rife. From one of the valuable tables
presented to us by Dr. Duncan, we find that in
Vauxhall Ward, which contains an average popula-
tion of 25,000 inhabitants, of whom 14,838 live in

him a question of figures ; and were the majority of
the people in any portion of the empire Mahomme-
dans or worshippers of Juggernaut, he would have
no hesitation in endowing Illahommedanism or brutal
idolatry with a portion, or the whole, of the funds
devoted to the worship of the God of Christians !

A strange species of Conservatism is this ; and
really its unblushing avowal ought to furnish to

s a warning of the dan-

courts and cellars, the number of fever cases upon
an average of 5 years was 4346 ; whilst in Rodney-
street Ward, containing an average population of
about 14,000, of whom only 900 live in courts and
cellars, the annual number of fever cases diminish
to 265 ! In Vauxhall Ward, by another table, we
find the number of fever cases to be 1 in 27 of the
whole population, and the deaths 1 in 23 ; whilst in
Rodney-street and Abercromby, the fever cases are
only 1 in 237, and the deaths lin4l ! The same
ratio of pestilence would, on examination, be found
to exist between those parts of the town in which
the streets are narrow, and those in which they are
wide and airy ; and also between those in which
proper sewering has been attended to, and those in
which it has not.

Why will Sir Robert Peel, by the cold impassive
spirit which he throws into his public actions, de-

prive his countrymen of the power to love the man,
whilst he compels them to respect and admire the
minister p We believe him sincere in his desire to
preserve unhappy Ireland from the fate with which
her madness threatens to visit her. We believe him

sincere in his desire now to maintain inviolate the
Protestant Church of Ireland. Nay, by the tone of
disappointment and evident soreness in which, upon
the present occasion, he referred to the result of past
yielding upon this subject, we can almost hope that
the warning conveyed by that result has not been
lost. But why will he throw from him the revived
confidence and the love of those loyal subjects of his
sovereign in Ireland—almost alone in their loyalty !
—which would so powerfully aid and strengthen
him in a position of resistance to aggression ? Why
tell them of the intention of his government to "ful-
fil the principle of the Relief Bill ?" Why hint to
them his intention to maintain the present inopera•
and unjust education scheme ? Why talk of
maintaining " justice and perfect equality between
Protestant and Catholic," in the administration of
the affairs of Ireland, when the fact is palpably be-
fore him that mere equality will not satisfy the latter,
and that the fatal attempt to conciliate by submission
to dictation—the fatal and absurd attempt to con-
ciliate by treating with equal favour the disaffected
and the loyal—has already brought the empire to the
verge of dismemberment ?

For the removal of a portion of these evils, we
have already stated that a remedy, gradual however
in its operation, has been provided by the "Health
of the Town Bill ;" and something has been done
towards this object by the judicious exertions of the
Health Committee of *the Council. But more still
remains to be done, for which we must resort to
measures of a more sweeping character. The re-

moval of our whole cellar population into more
commodious dwellings—the better construction and
ventilation of our courts—the thorough cleansing of
our narrow streets—may do much; but we want
still further improvements to render this great com-
mercial town, what from its position it ought to be,
a town whose streets we may tread, and whose air
we may inhale without the risk of infection.
The first measure to which we shall call the at-
tention of the Council and the communityat large, is
the ventilation of those dense masses of narrow
streets, which exist in some parts of the town, by
driving through them wide and spacious thorough-
fares. In no great town that we know is the con-
struction of the streets more faulty than in this.. In
no town are great arteries, to facilitate communica-
tion and promote health, more wanting. For years
past all other towns have been devoting their at-
tention to such an object; whilst Liverpool, with a
noble corporate estate and an enterprising popula-
tion, has absolutely stood still, or at least done so
little that it is scarcely perceptible. Glance for a
mome4t at any map of the town. See the masses
of wretched and and pestilential streets occupying
its very centre. Look, for instance, at the streets
between Castle-street, Dale-street, and Whitechapel ;
and say whether the opening of a spacious street of
shops, or warehouses, or offices through the heart
of such a locality is not an object in every respect
desirable. By such a measure healthy ventilation
of the entire locality would be promoted ; and at
the same time an important facility attained for the
purposes of commerce.

To the debate in the House of Lords on Friday
night we can turn, however, with somewhat more of
satisfaction. Not that anything which fell from
ministers in that house can warrant the confi-
dent expectation that a better policy—more just to
the loyal portion of the people of Ireland—is in
immediate contemplation ; but because we conceive,
from the expressions of more than one of the mem-
bers of government in that house, that in the even
of being driven, by circumstances, beyond their
present policy, they are prepared to take their further
steps in the right direction. The following tribute
to the loyal Protestant body in Ireland, which fell
from Lord Wharncliffe, will, we are certain, be re-
ceived by them with cordial satisfaction ; and may
serve to prove the existence of a growing, though
rather tardy, conviction in the mind of government,
that the true strength of that distracted land is ITS
PROTESTANT STRENGTH !

" The country owed much to the Protestants of Ire-
land, who had conducted themselves with so much good
sense under circumstances of great excitement, in the state
of the law especially, by which they were not allowed to
state their grievances; while the other parties were al-
lowed to have processions, though they were not of pre-
cisely the same character, because the person who was at
the head of the repeal movement managed to keep within,
the law. He was sorry to tell the noble earl that the Go-
vernment would not be driven from their principle of for-
bearance, though they were prepared to take every mea-
sure which might be necessary to maintain the peace of the
country."

Nor perhaps will the following, coming as it does
from a " Liberal"—Lord Brougham—be much less

gratifying :

" When he mentioned the word " orange," he felt called
on, in justice to that, the Protestant, party of Ireland, to
express his heartfelt gratitude to them for the manner in
which they conducted themselves on the present occasion.
If there were a party with which he most differed, and
with which he had been most constantly in conflict, it was
that high Protestant party ; but this did not blind him to
their. great, their transcendant merits on this occasion.

They were placed in a situation which it was truly lamenta-
ble to think of. Whilst they were prevented by a penal
statute from giving vent to their honest, though mistaken,
opinions in a particular way (he meant by their old accus-
tomed processions), they saw their adversaries allowed to
bold meetings, suffered to have processions to any extent,
accompanied by banners and martial mnsic, in military
array, and to boast that the discipline was so perfect that
they were as well trained and drilled under repeal wardens
as the Queen's troops under serjeants and corporals.
(Hear, hear.) Whilst the law did not prevent all this,
the orangemen were not allowed to hoist a single colour
or have the semblance of a procession." (Cheers.)
We ask of Sir Robert Peel—we ask of the go-
vernment—is it justice to treat with only equal
favour and confidence loyal men, and men who are
aeting in daring and open defiance of the law ? Is
it "vindicating the -powers of the law" to permit
the monster gatherings of O'Connell and his priestly
confederates to intimidate the peaceful and encourage
the violent, whilst loyal and orderly subjects, who
submit to the law, are met by the cold shoulder of
the governing authorities ? Is it " maintaining in-
violate" the church in Ireland when a state of society
is permitted to exist, the result of which, as affecting
loyal churchmen, is thus described by the Lord
Chancellor of England from the woolsack ?

" We find, however," remarked Lord Lyndhurst, "that
In some places where the Protestants are few they dare
not show themselves; and this we know, that in Mallow,
where a great meeting was held on a Sunday, THE PRO-
TESTANTS DARED NOT ATTEND DIVINE SERVICE ! !"

It is with pain that we put these questions. It is
with pain that we see the illegality and danger of
the repeal gatherings in Ireland admitted by the
Duke of Wellington, and denounced as even trea-
sonable by the highest authority of the empire—
Lord Lyndhurst; and yet are told that government
will maintain towards them "their principle of for-
bearance" ! and wait to put them down until they
have precipitated the empire into convulsion and
open rebellion. Sir Robert Peel doubtless esteems
this a prudent and a humane policy; with the past
before us—with the exposed and defenceless position
of our Protestant brethren in Ireland before us—we
fear it is. the contrary; that it displays timidity ra-
ther than prudence—that it is humane only to the dis-
loyal and rebellious, if even it have that meagre vir-