The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-10-17 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

THE PC

3R AND THE NEW POOR LAW

(From the

Times.)

irrespectively of the Poor L w and its collateral questions,
must ever excite the attention of thinking men. Above
it should he in London, where the condition of the
poor is must strikingly appalling.
It appears from the report of the proceedings at Marl-
borough-street Police-office, in our columns of yesterday,
that there is an average number of 50 human beings, of
all ages, who huddle together in the parks every night,
having no other shelter than what is supplied by the trees
and hollows of the embankment. Of these the maj,rity
are young girls, who have been seduced from the country
by the soldiers, and turned loose on the world in all the
destitution of friendless penury, and all the recklessness
of early vice.
This is truly horrible. Poor there must be everywhere.
Indigence will find its way and set up its hideous state in
the heart of a great and luxurious city. Amid the thou-
sand narrow lanes and by-streets of a populous metro-
polis there must always, we fear, be much suffering—
much that offends the eye—much that lurks unseen.
But that within the precincts of wealth, gaiety, and
fashion, nigh the regal grandeur of St. James's, close on
the palatial splendour of Bayswater, on the confines of
the old and the new aristocratic quarters, in a district
where the cautious refinement of modern design has ab-
stained from erecting one single tenement for poverty;
which seems, as it were, dedicated to the exclusive en-
joyments of wealth,—that there want, famine, and dis-
ease, and vice should stalk in all their kindred horrors,
consuming body by body, and soul by soul !
It is, indeed, a monstrous state of things. Enjoyment
the most absolute, that bodily ease, intellectual excite-
men, or the more innocent pleasures of sense can supply
to man's craving, brought in close contact with the most
unmitigated misery ! Wealth from its bright saloons
laughing—an insolently heedless laugh, at the unknown
wounds of want! Pleasure, cruelly but unconsciously
mocking the the pain that moans below i All contrary
things jostling one another—all contrary, save the vice
which tempts and the vice which is tempted I
It is a sickening theme. It brings home to the heart
the utter weakness—the utter hardness of our nature.
There is wealth, there is skill, there is art, there is
science, there is theory,—all these enough, and more than
enough, in England. Most abundant are they in the
heart of England. Yet does the life blood rush in a more
healthy stream ? Does the pulse of the nation beat with
a more generous rapture? Whom bath its wealth made
happier ? Whom has its skill taught to shun the moral
pestilence that consumes its tens of thousands? Whom
has its theory taught the high and paramount duty which
man owes to the infirmities of his brother man ?
There are men of many theories abroad. Some would
build in the human race within parallelograms, and bid
them go and practise virtue intuitively. Others would
amputate tariffs and navigation laws, crying to all, the
halt, and the blind, and the penniless, " Go trade, and be
rich." Some there are who, believing that society is
hollow, false, and tottering, would restore long-forgotten
rules, and bring the vague and casual charity of men under
the cognizance and direction of the church. But these
men are laughed at by the age. For is not the age utili-
tarian, and therefore wise ?
But let all men, whether of theory or of practice, re-
member this—that within the most courtly precincts of
the richest city on God s earth there may be found, night
after night, winter after winter, women—young in years
—old in sin and suffering—outcasts from society—ROT-
TlNG FROM FAMINE, FILTH AND DISEASE. Let them
remember this, and learn not to theorize, but to act. God
knows, there is much room for action now-a-days.

To EMIGKANTS.—The Montreal Gazette, 22d of Au-
gust, notices a report published by a committee
.of the
Niagara District Council, which may prove of interest to
persons intrnding to emigrate to British North America.
The committee state that there are no labourers required
in the district, but that one or two hundred male and fe-
male farm servants understanding agricultural work would
find employment. They ^onsider that very faaourable
opportunities are offered for the settlement of farmers
bringing a capital of from £2OO to £5OO with them, but
that a further importation of mere labour or skill, with-
out capital, would be injurious, and increase, not the
means of employment, but the calls upon local charity.
They attribute this state of things, so different to what
prevails in Canada West generally, to local causes, namely,
the very easy access to the district by river and canal n
every direction, and the great works in progress in the
district, which have attracted to it an undue proportion
of the spare population. not only of British America, but
of the United States, and to the unfitness of those who
come to seek permanent settlement, for the agricultural
tabours of the country, and their unwillingness to adapt
themselves to its circumstances.

DESTRUCTIVE FIRE AND Lois OF LIFE.—An out-
break of fire took place in St. Martin's-court, St. Mar-
tin's-lane, on Wednesday, which has proved destructive
in its consequences and been attended with the loss of
three lives. The premises were in the occupation of Mr.
James Labram, a boot and shoemaker, occupying the
houses Nos. 28 and 36. The first intimation of the fire
was given by the police constable on duty, and a soldier
who happened to be passing at the time, who both per-
ceived a very strong smell of burning. They had no
sooner given the alarm than the inmates of Mr. Labram's
house discovered that the back and lower part of the pre-
mises were in flames, and that all escape, except by the
windows or roof, was cut off. Mr. Labram and his family
escaped at the windows, and by scrambling along the
leads. In the upper part of the house were Mr. and Mrs.
Pollock, who, with their two children and Mrs. Pollock's
brother; lodged on the second floor. As soon as they
were made aware of their danger, Mr. Pollock and his
brother-in-law got upon the roof, in order to ascertain
the best means of effecting an escape with Mrs. Pollock
and the children, but in the meantime the fire had made
such rapid progress that the bed-room was already en-
veloped in the flames, and they could not get back ; al-

though they were horrified by bearing the heart-rending
screams of the Door mother and her children tor assistance,
which it was impossible for them even to attempt to ren-
der without sharing their fate. Most of the property de-
stroyed was insured.

MEETINGS OF DISTRESSED COLLIERS.-Yesterday
week, there was a meeting of colliers and others at Moor
Flat, St. Helen's, for the purpose of taking into consid-
eration the present state of the trade, and electing dele-
gates to the general meeting of colliers about to be held
at

Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The weather was extremely
unfavourable to an open air weetine, but they were pre-
sent from 1500 to 2000 persons. The chair was taken,
shortly after eleven o'clock. by Mr. Henry Tindal.—The
first resolution was to the following effect :—" That it is
the opinion of this meeting that the present rate of wages
is not sufficient to maintain thecolliers and their families."
It appears that the rate of wages in that district was only
2s. per day, for which the men had to work from twelve
to fourteen hours a-day. The men, according to one of

number of speeches were made, and the proceedings were
arrested by a torrent of rain.—Upwards of one hundred
of the delegates who had attended from various parts of
Lancashire, and some few from Cheshire, adjourned,
after the open air meeting, to the house of Mr. George
Huyton, Bridge-street, to transact business and adopt
measures for the carrying into effect the objects of the
Miner's Association of Great Britain and Ireland. They
sat during Monday afternoon and Tuesday forenoon.
The subscriptions received from various delegates
amounted to £96 18s. A delegate meeting was agreed to,
and was held yesterday at Chorley. Another general
meeting will be held on Monday next, in the open a'r, at
Hurstbrook,near Ashton, when the election of delegates
to attend the Neional Conference of colliers, at Newcas-
tle, on the 13th November, will take place.
FATAL ACCIDENT ON THE RIVER. DEE.—On Saturday
boats. the Albert and the Britan-

by some means broke loose, near the ship-yard at
Chester, and the weather being tempestuous and a strong
tide rolling against them, they began to lurch and fill with.
water. There was on board of the Albert a family named
Vaughan—consisting of the man, his wife, two children,
and an infant—who, together with a young man, were
washed into the river. The fearful cries of the agonised
mother to save her babe, as she saw the helpless child
floating down the tide, were heart-rending in the extreme.
The captain of the Cestrian sloop, of Chester, with most
praiseworthy and prompt alacrity, put out with his boat,
and succeeded after some difficulty in rescuing the dis-
tracted woman from a watery grave. The others were,
picked up by the boat of the Rose of June, which unfor-
tunately capsized, and again precipitated the hapless fa-
mily into the water. The elder son swam ashore with his
younger brother in his arms, and then returned to attempt
the rescue of his little sister ; but the tide was too strong
for him, and the child was swept away down the river,
nor has its body yet been found. The accident was said
to have arisen from the gross and cruel conduct of the
captain of a vessel called the Peggy, to which the flats
were made fast, and who let go a rope which held the
Albert, though requested, for God's sake, not to do so.
This man was afterwards taken into custody, when the
facts were stated before the magistrates; and the mariner,
who gave his name as Owen Evans, was committed to take
his trial on a charge of manslaughter. He was afterwards
admitted to bail in a bond of £lOO, to appear at the next
assizes.

A W RONG PORT.—Last week a curious circumstance
happened in Brigend, which created a good deal of alarm
and excitement in the district of Perth, until the true
state of the matter was discovered. A female servant in
a respectable family in Brigend, after she was in bed on
Thursday night, heard a noise in the coal cellar, which
made her believe that some person was carrying the coals
away ; but not wishing to disturb the family in case she
might be mistaken, she determined not to say anything
about it until the morning, and until she herself had ex-
amined the cellar to see if her suspicions were correct.
Accordingly, about six o'clock, she got up and went into
the cellar, when the first thing she came upon was a man's
bonnet, on which were several spots of blood. Looking
about a little further, she discovered a waistcoat, a pair of
trousers, a jacket, a stocking, and a shoe ; several of these
also marked with blood. She immediately alarmed the
family, who, after examining carefully the various articles
came to the conclusion that some foul play had been going
on over night, and went and gave the necessary informa-
tion to the police. During the course of the day it ap-
peared that an individual, a sailor, belonging to that side
of the water, hail got himself so many "sheets in the
wind," that he had " luffed" too soon on his homeward-
bound tack, and struck into the wrong port (the cellar),
where, no doubt, imagining all was right, he " hove to,"
cast off his habiliments, and stowed himself away among
the coals. He had slept for some hours, and on awaken-
ing, it being still dark, which prevented him from finding
his clothes, he boxed his way home as he stood. The poor
fellow was very much cut—the effects of his uncamfort-
able berth—which accounts for blood upon the articles of
dress.—Perthshire Courier.

COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS

A meeting of the Council, both a special meeting of

that body, and as an adjourned monthly, for the transac-
tion of the business lett undisposed of at the Council of
the 4th instant, was held on Saturday. The Mayor took
the chair soon after eleven o'clock, at which time there
were thirty members present.

ELECTION OF AN ALDERMAN

The Council proceeded to elect an Alderman for Ex-
change Ward in the room of Wm. Earle, Esq., resigned.
Mr. ASPINALL proposed Mr. James Lawrence, and
Mr. WooD seconded the motion.
Mr. HODGSON said there was not a more staunch or
sound member than Mr. Lawrence on all the great prin-
ciples that influenced the majority of the Council.
Mr. SHEPPARD and Mr. SANDS expreseed their ap-
probation and that of their constituents of the proposition.
The voting papers having been filled up and banded in,
_ _ . .

The MAYOR announced, that the following thirty-six
members (all who were in the Council at the time) bad
voted in favour of Mr. Lawrence—namely, Messrs.
Toulmin, Griffith, Preston, Alderman Houghton, Plump-
ton, Crooke, Moon, R.gby, Thornhill, Kilshaw, Thomp-
son, George Hall Lawrence, Royden, H. Holmes,
Copeland, Platt, Chilton, Molyneux, North. Bramley-
Moore, Trotman, Shaw, Aspinall, J. Holmes, Procter,
Cooper, Hodgson, Birkett, Sheppard, Parker, Brancker,
Wood, Edwards, Bushell, Sands, and the Mayor.