The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-08-15 00:00:00

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Tilt iiiiiititioi iiiii,iiiiiii

It may be a private move on the part of our con-
temporary ;---a gasping effort to win back again the
subscriptions lost by a month's enforced advocacy
of the cause of peace and order. It is grievous to
find one's lucubrations rejected by the beer-houses
of Vauxhall-road and Mary bone, and our attempted
smartnesses no longer expand dolourously the faces
of wondering Paddies and Terences. It tells upon
the till; and the till is a sensitive monitor. We

shall, therefore, he more certain to place our hands
on the right offender if we direct the few remarks
which we have to make to the Mercury himself, as
the author of the article which has called them
forth.

Our contemporary informs ue, as a matter of
great enormity, that there exists at present " a
growing feeling of animosity between the English
and the Irish portion of our fellow-townsmen ;"
and that he receives, day after day, " letters fraught

with hostile expressions against Irish workmen
residing here." Two letters, of the kind referred
to, he gives us as specimens ; against the first of
which we have very little exception to make. The
other, however, a threatening letter, purporting to
be signed " true orangemen," is obviously a for-
gery; or, if really written by some bad member of
the order, is very disreputable, put forward to
throw disrepute upon a body of men, to whose
tried and active loyalty, which even the Mercury
dares not deny, the entire community is under
recent and deep obligations, and who would be
amongst the foremost to discountenance so vile a
production. Possibly there may exist in some
establishments, where numbers of workmen are
employed, a little soreness of feeling, such as that
complained of. It is only natural, when we witness
ingratitude so base as that which has been shown
by the rebellious in Ireland, and by too many of
their fellow countrymen here, that such a feeling
should be created. It was predicted that it would
be so. There is a limit to every man's forbearance.
The most pacific Englishman will feel repugnance
to working at the same bench, the same forge, or
the same table, with a fellow who, he knows, has a
pike at home ready, and every disposition to use
it, for an onslaught upon his life. But that it
ever has, or will be, pushed to the length of perse-
cution of the Irish workmen, or dictation towards
their employers, is—what the Journal calls it—

. .
" nonsense." The wish is only father to the
thought, on the part of a certain description of
people. Such oracles as the Mercury would only
be too glad to find our loyal Protestant working
classes so committing themselves.
We can assure the Mercury, however, that this
" feeling of animosity between the English and
Irish portion of our humbler townsmen," is no
great novelty after all—no surprising discovery.
For some time past it has existed; and, strange as
it may appear to our innocent contemporary, it is
his own innocent lambs—the Irish Repealers—by
whom the hand of aggression has been raised. For
months past the English and the Irish Protestant
labourer has been treated openly by his Roman
Catholic fellow workmen as a proscribed being—
one whose privileges and even life were only to be
tolerated until the signal was given by the O'Briens
and other rebellious incendiaries in the sister isle.
Wherever the ranks of disaffection was strong
enough, the Protestant labourer or artisan has been
a proscribed being; pointed at, threatened, and
even openly insulted. We have evidence before
us of men who have been living for months past in
constont expectation of outrage, either out of doors
or at home ; and yet who have rendered their un-
bought and unasked services to the cause of order,
These men look naturally for the return which is
their due—protection and encouragement; and
surely they are not unreasonable in so doing. It
map be " liberal" to deny him such a return ; to
say to discomfited traitors—" you have failed in
your hopes of cutting our throats, or destroying our
property, and you shall nevertheless remain our
bosom friends and most trusted companions ;" but
" liberalism" so extraordinarily confiding is, to
our minds, little short of insanity. It is unnatural
and wholly irrational.

Our contemporary appeals—ad misericordiam—
to the fact that there are "good and true" Irishmen
in such a town as this; and that the same measure
of punishment ought not to be entended to them
which we visit upon those of their fellow-country-
men who " evince ingratitude, indolence, filth, and
seditious tendencies." Of course not. But does
he suppose that the indolent and seditious amongst
the Irish of our town are not tolerably well known
to those with whom they come into daily contact ?
We never heard that Irish disaffection was particu-
larly close mouthed. On the contrary, we believe
that the pikemen and the clubbists among them
are tolerably well known, their own being the
tongues which have given information against
them.

But let us come to our contemporary's sugges-
tion of a new subject of agitation—the new compact
which is to re-unite Whig-Radical sympathy and
Irish bawling. The Mercury says that "it has
been wished by many of our townsmen," that the
Irish should get up a peaceable agitation for a do-
mestic council of representatives, in each of the
three kingdoms, for local purposes; and that such
an agitation would have " a large amount of sup-
port from the press, and from men who are always
good indicators of public opinion on constitutional
questions"—referring, of course, to himself as one
of those good indicators, Of course the idea of
such domestic councils of representatives is sheer
rubbish; and the suggestion is only worthy of so
very small a philosopher. Talking to Irishmen,
now, of a domestic council of repres-ntatives, for
the discussion of local questions is only a silly
attempt to reconstruct the old frail m Ichinery by
which Whig-Radicalism has for years made the
folly and the turbulence of Ireland its stepping-
stone to power. A people who were so lately
ready, or professedly ready, to fight for absolute
separation and a republic, are not likely to be tickled
with the notion of legislative powers, resembling
those of a parish vestry. The whole humbug of
separate government must be whipped out of them,
not resuscitated to please such good indicators of
public opinion as the conductors of the Liverpool
Mercury. For the future we must not tolerate
such storms even in so small a sphere as a teacup.
In conclusion, we would seriously advise our
contemporary to get rid of this excessive sympathy
manifested towards defected rebellion, and advise
him to be manly, as the authorities of our town
have proved themselves to he, in acknowledging
the claims of loyalty, and shaking off ancient pre-
judices against a valuable and persecuted portion of
their fellow townsmen. The Orange Protestants
of Liverpool were called upon, as a body, to perform
their duty in a serious emergency; and they ful-
filled to the letter the expectations of their friends
and the authorities. It• is not the time, yet, to
subject them again to the reproach of the commu-
nity, whom they have aided to preserve. They
shall not, if we can aid them, be offered up as a
holocaust to buy bark the lost circulation of the
Mercury amongst their disaffected fellow country-
men ; and, indeed, we don't think the sacrifice
would be accepted. Our contemporary refused to
hold the clothes of the would-be belligerent Paddies;
he would not march through Coventry with their
ragged pikemen ; and he will not succeed in win-
ning back their confidence by presenting himself,
now that the danger is over, with a plaster, a few
hebdomadal drops of soothing syrup, and a washy,
dirty, water-draught.

IWe u

FOUR MEN APPREHENDEIIS IN THE NIGHT
WITH TWO FOWLING-PIECES IN
THEIR
POSSESSION.

Yesterday, four respectable-looking workmen, Robert
Donaldson, William Garrie, George Burness, and John
Fuller, were placed at the bar of the Police-court, on the
charge of having been found with two guns and certain
ammunition in their possession, at the north end of the
town, on Saturday night last. Police officer 460 said that
about midnight he saw the four prisoners with the guns
produced (one a doubed barrelled, and the other a single
barrelled fowling-piece). He questioned them about car-
rying such weapons, and they at first offered no explana-
tion ' • but aferwards said they had been gull shooting at
Bootle, and then that they had been sparrow shooting.
A powder-flask and some percussion-caps were also found
upon them (produced), sc that he and other officers ap-
prehended them.
Mr. Owen, who appeared for the prisoners, said there
was no case against the prisoners at all, and complained
that they had been harshly sent from one bridewell to an-
other, and incarcerated from Saturday night until the pre-
sent time. I,The simple facts were, that the prisoners,
were respectable men employed at Messrs. Bury and Co.'s
foundry ' • and that on Saturday evening after their work
they had gone out to amuse themselves on Bootle sands;
had got into a public-house, where they sat some time,
and were on their road home quietly and peaceably, when
they were apprehended.

Mr. Rushton said (in effect), in reply to these and
other remarks, that inquiry should be made as to the al-
leged unnecessary removal of the prisoners from place to
place, and if a wrong had been done it would be redressed :
but he did not concur with Mr. Owen in thinking the offi-
cers had acted wrong in apprehending persons found with
fire-arms in their hands in the dead of night, at a time
when the public mind was so much excited, and the town
held in alarm by evil disposed persons. He knew of no
law here that prevented the possession of fowling pieces,
or the carrying of them in a quiet manner in pursuing
amusement ; but the authorities were in possession of in-
formation that rendered it necessary to adopt precautions ;
and the officers had received instructions to apprehend all
parties or bodies of persons carrying arms in the street,
especially at untimely hours. Hitherto the town, to its
honour, had been one of the most loyal and peaceful in the
United Kingdom, and he regretted much that the precau-
tions now taken to preserve the peace should be necessary.
It was not his business to state the nature of the informa-
tion which the magistrates had received, for it did not
bear upon this case. Addressing the prisoners, he said
the present case was a specimen of what might befal the
town, if working men were to carry arms about. Ile was
sorry, if they were of creditable character, as stated, that
they had been detained ; but what could they expect if
they were found armed at such hours ! He then dis-
charged them. Shortly afterwards Mr. Owen applied for
the restoration of the guns. Mr. Rushton said that they
would be given in the usual manner, if the Head Consta-
ble found, upon inquiry, that the characters of the men
were such as had been represented.—Mr. Owen expressed
his satisfaction.

THE WATER QUESTION.-DECISION OF THE
WATER COMMITTEE.

We understand that at ameetinr of the Water Committee
nn Friday, to consider the further prosecution of the
Rivington scheme, a resolution to the following effect was
passed :—" That, in the opinion of your committee, it is
essential for the public interest that no further delay
should take place in proceeding with the construction of
these works; and they, therefore, recommend that the
committee be authorised to take steps for that purpose."
It is clear that every effort will now be made to press
on this objectionable measure without further enquiry.
Whatever steps are taken to prevent this, should be prompt
and decisive. We have received a number of complaints
from parties who have had no water supplied to their pre-
mises since Friday. We hope some member of the
Council will try to ascertain to-morrow why the daily
sup-ay has been discontinued. We stated several weeks
since that there was abundance of water to give an ample
daily supply to all the inhabitants, and we asked, Why
was it withheld ? We can only repeat the question.
Surely our representatives in the Council-chamber will
not allow another meeting of that body to pass over with-
out insisting on a satisfactory answer to the complaint.