The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-11-05 00:00:00

BIRKENHEAD AND LIVE ['trout. —Many will, doubtless, be the
lets and hindrances Birkenhead will have to encounter, but it is
and must continue to be a rising place. Whether that rising
will be to the prejudice of Liverpool is another matter. Few
think it will • but many think that London will suffer by it. I
have heard that London merchants have already prepared for
making Birkenhead their headCquarters. The Wallasey Pool is
a place which nature seems to have formed for docks. It is a
long narrow lake, of 150 acres of water, which, besides wharfs
and warehouses, requires little to render it one of the finest
floating docks upon one of the noblest rivers in England, and in
the very heart of our manufactures. Birkenhead, therefore,
can hardly fail to rise, and rapidly; and it appears tome, that,
instead of Liverpool being jealous of its prosperity, it should re-
joice and foster it. as it will be the means of concentrating on
this spot, more and more of the export and import trade of
England. If any parties should feel alarm it is London. Bristol,
&c. These places may suffer, but Liverpool hardly can.
This is almost too provocative of mirth to be withstood.
The London merchants "already prepared for making
Birkenhead their head-quarters!' The Trinity House,
the new Royal Exchange, the East India House, Lloyd's
Coffee House, the Goldsmith's Company, and all the
other companies, migrating to Wallasey Pool ! Why the
whole peninsula of Wirral will shortly become worth its
weight in gold!
Setiously this is sad stuff. The parties who have been
beguiling Mr. Herapath have much to answer for.

THE LIVERPOOL MERCURY v. THE MEMORY
OF THE LATE RICHARD RADCLIFFE, ESQ.

When, last week, in common with others of our brother
journalists, we had imposed upon us the task of paying
our humble tribute to the memory of the late town-clerk,
we certainly did not conceive that we were in danger of
drawing down upon ourselves, or upon them, the censure
of one individual in this community. We spoke of Mr.
Radcliffe's talents and manly honesty of character in terms
which our feelings, as well as our observation, dictated to
us as just and well warranted. We had, occasionally, had
to express our objections against some of his public acts
and opinions ; and we never hesitated to do so freely, but
without acerbity. The hand of death, however, had just
sunk alike the public officer and the man in the lot of our
common humanity ; and we thought we could, at such a
moment, afford to sum up the excellencies of both, with-
out an imputation upon our motives, or being compelled
to search with too prying a gaze for frailties by which they
might have been obscured.

We erred, however, it would seem, in common with our
contemporaries, as the following rebuke, administered to
us by the editor of the Liverpool Mercury, and to which
we beg to direct the attention of our readers, will show :
" DEATH OF THU, TOWN-CLERIC-It will be seen from our
obituary that Air. Radcl ffe, whose health had, for some time
past, been visibly declining, departed this life on Friday night
last, at Leamington. The important offices he held under the
Corporation of this town, at a salary of £2ooo a year, are now
vacant, and will probably be filled up on the 9th of November.
The deceased had the reputation, in the minds of many persons,
of being a sound and ready lawyer, and is described by some of
our contemporaries as being possessed of many excellent quali-
ties in all the relations of life —indeed, of all the virtues that can
adorn a human being. We are sorry that we should have been
compelled, by the indiscriminate and somewhat injudicious en-
logiums, confounding all distinctions of the real characteristics
of our fellow-men, which they have lavished on the memory of
Mr. Radcliffe, to intimate, even thus vaguely, our dissent fr.sm
their opinions. So far as private feelings are concerned, the
maxim de mortuis nil nisi bonum may be a good one, but for the
public good and the gel eral welfare of society, we must say that
we consider its counterpart, de mortuis nil nisi VE RUM, infinit ly
preferable."

Upon the charity and amiability of heart (.9 which
prompted this most uncalled-fur paragraph, we will not
trust ourselves to remark. Let it speak for itself. We
are bound, however, to say a few words in vindication of
our own course in this matter ; and to enable us to do so,
we beg of the Mercury to point to that portion of our
notice of the deceased against which be so strenuously
" dissents." We do not conceive that it is any part of
the duty of the journalist to drag from the newly-closed
grave, and to hold;up to the contemplation of the world,
the private frantic s_of any man. Ours shrill never be the
hand thus wantonly and unnecessarily to lacerate the
grieving heart and flood the weeping eyes of the widow
and the fatherless. The Mercury thinks differently;
and, as the question is only one of taste, we leave him
to follo.v his path, and shall keep to our own. But, so
far as regards the truth and justice of what we have writ-
ten of Mr. Radcliffe, we challenge him to show' how we
have offended, and have little fear of the result.

Nearly £26,000 has now been subscribed for the Man-
chester public walks and parks.

EMBEZZLEMENT.—On Tuesday, at one of the Metro-
politan police-offices, a young man named Whitton was
charged, upon his own confession, with having embezzled
'he !property of a butter factor at Liverpool, in whose
service he had been as confidential clerk. He had gone
up to a policeman, and delivered himself into custody.
He was remanded for inquiry. When he was again brought
up, a letter from Mr Powell, of this town, (the gentle-
man whose money the prisoner had embezzled,) was read,
in which Mr. P. stated that he declined to prosecute, and
the young man was therefore discharged.
RIBBONISM IN LIVERPOOL.—At the meeting of the
Repeal Association, on Monday, Mr. M. O'Connell was
obliged to confess that ribbonism was " but too prevalent
in Liverpool, and Manchester,under the names of Friendly
Brothers, Hibernian Societies," 84 c. Perhaps it is not
out of place to call the attention of the magistracy to this
lamentable avowal from one not likely to confess too
much as to the existence and spread of this frightful con-
federacy amongst us, a participation with which, as Mr.
O'Connell added,." was criminal and. dangerous, and
likely to bring those guilty of it to Norfolk Island or
Van Diemans Land.

LIVERPOOL GUANO MARKET.—During the past week,
several large parcels of lchaboe on the spot are currently
reported to have changed hands at £6. Tbat price has
been offered and refused for several cargoes deliverable in
January and February next; 100 tons have been taken
for export to Hamburg. A new feature in the market is
the receipt of orders from France for the vineyards there,
at limits, however, a shade below present prices. On
Thursday last, the cargo per Sphynx, in the hands of
Messrs. Priestley Griffith and Cox, and the cargo per
Tantivy, in the hands of Mr. Richardson Part, were both
offered at public auction ; £5 15s. being the highest bid
for each, both shipments were taken in by the selling
brokers at £6 ss. The cargo per " Aurora" held by Mr.
Vincent Wanostrocht, North John-street, is by far the
best yet imported from Ichaboe. It very much resem-
bles the Peruvian in colour and dryness and possesses,
according to Mr. Huson's analysis 78 2- 5 per cent. of rich,
available fertilising matter. The first contract was ef-
fected from the quay, on Thursday last, at £6 fis., but
the bulk has gone into the bonded warehouse, originally
the station of a Customs locker, who was immediately
compelled to quit his quarters, owing to the noxious efflu-
via threatening his health. It has just come out that
several crops manure d with guano have been utterly de-
stroyed in Scotland, and on tracing the affair it turns out
to have been imported from here, where the article was
artificially manufactured last year to a great extent from
sea sand, the refuse of hide cargoes, and all sorts of rub-
bish. From this it is evident how essential it is to have
it either out of the bonded stores, from the ship's side, or
from parties of the first standing, whose character is a
gum antee against all frauds.
SATURDAY EVENING CONCERTS.—On Saturday even-
ing last, the first of the concerts for the winter, (with lite-
rary and other recreations,) for the working classes took
place at the Nelson-street Assambly-rooms, under the
patronage of his worship the mayor. The room, which is
admirably adapted for the purpose, whether as regards ac-
commodation for visitors, or facility for hearing, was well,
and, we may add, respectably attended, the body being
well filled with honest men and bonnie lasses of the indus-
trial order, and the reserved seats and gallery above, by a
concourse of well-dressed persons of both sexes, anxious
to partake and contribute to the general enjoyment. The
entertainment went off throughout with the greatest eclat.
Miss Whitnall, Mr. Ryalis, Mr. Armstrong, and Mr.
Crank, kindly contributed their undoubted talents, as vo-
calists on the occasion ; and the excellent selection of
songs, duette, glees, &c., was only equalled by the taste
and precision with which they were accomplished—many
of them being loudly encored. Where all was so good,
we shall not attempt to particularise, especially as we have
but little time to spare, and hope to hear the same talented
singers again, on a similar occasion. The mayor honoured
presence—having come from Aigburth
to
ohe countenancerneetingbv his
these rational recreations for the mechanic
and his wife and children, at the close of their weekly
toil. He was enthusiastically received, and more than
once addressed the meeting, in a facetious and agreeable
manner, dwelling on the advantages of such amusements
to all, in preference to the wasteful and demoralizing se-
ductions and indulgencies of the tavern. Those present
were also addressed, at intervals, by Mr. W. Rathbone,
Mr. John Smith, and others, to a like effect. Mr. H. y.
Lewis presided at the piano, and favoured the company
with a splendid " Fantasia" on that instrument. At the
close, thanks were heartily voted to Miss Whitnall—and
also, separately to the gentlemen vocalists, who bad so
handsomely come forward to gratify those present ; the
treat closed by " God save the Queen," as a grand finale—
and three hearty cheers for the mayor, who enjoyed the
concert to the end. The greatest order was preserved
throughout, and it is confidently hoped that other musical
individuals, as well as literary and scientific gentlemen,
will come forward to lend their aid on future occasions,
and thus realise for their less fortunate townsmen and
their " sweethearts and wives" the delights of " Saturday
night a-shore."