The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-02-19 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD,

millowners themselves more nearly upon the same emolument will readily he believed, when we state
footing as to the rate of production the man who that, for an ordinary and easy case of midwifery, the
had consideration for his workpeople, and who charge to the parish is 10s. No more would be
wished to see their social condition ameliorated, charged by most doctors for the wife of a working
would he protected against the constant encroach- man in moderate circumstances. If the case is one,
ments of his less considerate neighbour, who however, in which instruments are used, the parish
thought more of a farthing added to the profit of is made to pay two guineas; and, in some very
a hundred pounds worth of manufactures than an difficult cases, even three pounds. We may remark
hour added to the short span of a factory operative's that in private practice the instruments are used
life. A certain portion of our Free Traders, how- very seldom. In parish practice there is a motive
ever, think differently. They like not a continuous to make them frequent. What may be the scale of
stream of steady industry : they rather like pro- charges in other cases, we know not ; but so good
duction to ebb and flow,—to be at its maximum a thing is it generally thought, by some of the pro-
one day, and to be restricted with limits of their fession, to have got an appointment, that more
own choosing the next. By the latter system they. than one has immediately set up a gig and groom.
hold in their hands the fate of the working man : Let any of our readers take a walk as far as the
they have the screw constantly within their reach ; Parish-office, on a medical hoard day, and he will
and we need not doubt that they will use it see a tolerably long line of these evidences of
inexorably to dictate their own terms to their flourishing medical practice.
helpless serfs. In addition to a change in the mode of paying
We would warn these men, however, and we these gentlemen, the dispensaries provided for them
would warn, at the same time, her Majesty's Govern- by the parish, at so large an expense, ought to be
ment, who !nave shewn an unmistakeable disposi- discontinued. In the first place, their distance
tion to sneak out of their duty to maintain intact from the locality in which a case may occur is some-
the Ten Hours' Bill, after it has already received times such as to cause danger to patients, who may
the solemn sanction of an Act of Parliament, that be in emergency, whilst a druggist's shop might
there are limits beyond which human patience probably be found within a few yards; and thus
cannot be stretched. The manufacturing opera- they also interfere injuriously with the business of
tives have, since this decision was made public, the great body of the private druggists of the town.
displayed their fixed resolve to have this bill. The In the second place, this mode of supplying rnedi-
most enlightened and humane amongst the mill- tines increases considerably the business of the
owners acknowledge that it has thus far, during clerks in the Parish-office. Moreover, these parish
its short trial, worked well for all parties. Mr. dispensaries tend to supersede_ the voluntary dis-
Hume's report on the subject is conclusive. That pensaries of the town, the benefits conferred by
gentleman states that, whilst the difference of wages which upon its workingpoor are gratefully and
to an operative between working ten hours and universally acknowledged, p
eleven or twelve is very trifling, the product of the We feel satisfied that- many other important
two hours lost being made up, in part by the reforms might be effected in the administration of
increased speed of the machinery, but chiefly by our parochial affairs; but one essential step has
the ability of such operative to bestow a closer at- first to be taken. The composition of the Vestry
tention upon his work, the master loses an equally itself must be reformed, by the infusion amongst
smaller money amount, the quality of his goods its members of a few of the large ratepayers of the
being generally improved by the change. The bad town, interested in economising expenditure, and
work, in factories and all other workshops, has conversant with parochial management .and the
long ago been acknowledged to be produced during social condition of the inhabitants. Many - such
the concluding hours of the day's toil, when the might, no doubt, be found, willing to devote a poi-
, frame has been worn out and the attention tion of their time to advance the interests of their
wearied. If the millowners wish to drive their 'fellow-townsmen. We have no wish to see any
operatives to insubordination and outrage, they class excluded—no wish to pack the Vestry with a
cannot do better than oppose the. re-enactment of majority of any class. We only wish to see the
the Ten Hours' Bill, and insist upon maintaining ratepayers fairly represented, and a.voice afforded
the relay system. We believe, however, most especially to those who contribute most largely. It
firmly, that the immediate object which they have is becoming • apparent that the movement of the
in view in its maintenance, viz.,—an extensive past few years, by which the constitution of the
reduction of wages,—once achieved, they will body has been changed, has been one in a wrong
themselves be the first to call for protection from direction. It was commenced by a party cry, and
its injurious operation upon their own interests. pressed forward, confessedly, on party grounds.
We appeal to their own experience of the past It has resulted in the introduction to the board of
whether or not we are correct in prophesying that, a number of gentlemen, perfectly respectable in
whatever combination they may enter into amongst position and character, but crotchetty, unacquainted
themselves to work short time, for the purpose, as with business so extended as the management of a
at present alleged, of prevailing accumulation of large parish ; and, after the newness of office has
stocks, the first man amongst them who can get worn off, unwilling to devote the required attention
an extensive order at paying price, will break the to the duties imposed upon them. We submit
compact with as little remorse as an ox would that the time has now come when, the alleged.
break a tether of rotten twine, in his eagerness to grounds of the change having disappeared, the
get to a fat pasture. influential ratepayers of Liverpool will awake from
their lethargy, and return a body of men to the
Vestry able and willing to devote their energies
to the task of rescuing the property of the town
from the injurious pressure of its present onerous
burthens.

THE Mercury of Friday, in a prominent portion
of his paper, and still more prominently in his pla-
card on the walls, announces to the public the
welcome intelligence of an approaching reduction
of our local burthens. The parochial authorities
are about to lay a two-shilling poor's rate only for
the coming year; and we are left by our contem-
porary to infer that this is to be the extent of our
expenditure. It is a little disheartening, however,
to remember that we commenced the year before
the last with a rate of the same amount; and
that we were driven last year, by the heavy balance
against the parish, to raise it to three shillings and
twopence.
Notwithstanding this fact, we are fully of opinion
that, under the present improved condition of the
town, the increased healthiness of our population,
the great cheapness of food, and other favouring
circumstances—the rate of 2s. now proposed would,
if collected early, and expended with strict economy,
be amply sufficient to supply the legitimate wants
of the parish. But if the extravagant expenditure
of the industrial schools is to go on, and the medi-
cal department of the parish is to be maintained at
its present extent, and upon the present system,
we much fear that, notwithstanding our improved
position, and the decreased price of all articles of
necessity and comfort, such rate will not last out
the year. Retrenchment, not only in these items,
but in many others, must be insisted upon with
firmness by the vestry, in justice to the suffering
ratepayers of ;he parish ; and we are satisfied that
this can be accomplished without, in the slightest
degree, affecting injuriously the condition of the
unfortunate poor of our town.
We have already expressed our opinion pretty
distinctly upon the subject of the present manage-
ment of the industrial school. Regarded as a
model educational establishment it may be excel-
lent in its system, although its drillmasters, its
bandmasters, its model ship, and other adjuncts,
are somewhat too fanciful for the tastes and com-
prehension of plain men. But a pauper educational
establishment it is not. On the contrary, it is one,
the superior advantages of which thousands of our
industrious working classes, and not a few of our
ratepaying middle classes, would gladly see their
own children enjoying. But, independently of the
manifest evil policy of thus holding out a premium
to parents to pauperize their offspring, in order to
enable them to receive the benefits of the education
bestowed at these industrial schools, we are under
the impression that the expenditure upon them is
not sufficiently controlled; and that they might be
economised without decreasing their efficiency.
Their distance from the business locality of the
town prevents their being visited with frequency
enough to afford a proper supervision of the details
of their management and daily expenditure, or
visited at all by the few parties in the present
vestry most largely interested in economising the
funds of the ratepayers.
Another item, in which important saving might
be effected, is the medical department of the parish.
The medical staff costs, on the present scale, and
under the present system, upwards of £5,000 per
annum in average years; and it will be found to
have been raised this year, on account of the
cholera, to nearly £lO,OOO. This expenditure we
conceive to be greatly too high ; and the system
itself is radically wrong—unjust to the great body
of the medical practitioners of the town, and most
demoralising to the poor themselves. To demon-
strate this, we need only give the outlines of such
system. In the first place, the parish doctors, of
whom there are thirteen, instead of being paid a
stated salary—and we should not object to its
being a liberal one—are paid for each separate case.
By law, all parish doctors should supply their own
medicines. Instead of doing this, however, the
parish doctors of Liverpool allow £l3O, or £lO
each, to the parish to supply them, from dispen-
saries established for the purpose in convenient
Parts of the town, the cost of which is upwards of
£l,OOO a year.

THE congratulation of her Majesty's Ministers
upon the increased comforts and improved condi-
tion of the people, caused by free trade, has
scarcely ceased to vibrate in our ears when it is
mocked by an appeal from the leading organ of
those Ministers, warning the country of the press-
ing necessity of a wholesale resort to emigration,
as the only means of preventing its resources being
drained by pauperism. "In the year ending Lady
Day, 1849," says the Times, " England and Wales
spent £5,792,973 in the relief of the poor; and
this in addition to the large provision made for
them in endowed alms-houses, hospitals, &c." Nine
hundred and ninety-seven thousand persons were
in July last receiving relief, in or out of the work-
house, at a cost of £5 16s. a head per annum.
" Every sixteenth person," our contemporary con-
tinues, "or one person in every three households,
is a pauper, hanging like a dead weight on the
industry of the other fifteen;" and as, a remedy
for this lamentable state of things, he proposes
that parishes should set on foot an extensive sys-
tem of emigration to relieve themselves of the
burthen. " Kill pauperism at once," he exclaims,
" by sending it to our colonies ;"„and he appeals
to the prevailing sins of the nation—avarice and
selfishness—by sheaving that such is the cheapest
mode of throwing the burthen off our own
shoulders. " One year's maintenance of one million
paupers would place them with a sovereign a-piece
in Upper Canada. Two years' maintenance would
land them in Natal. Three years' maintenance
would distribute them over Australia, Van Dieman's
Land, and New Zealand."

Has the Times just discovered the existence of
this mass of pauperism, and its alarming pressure
upon the industry of the people ? With only two
years' experience of the working of free trade are
we to set about the transportation of a million of
paupers ? Why, we were told in the palmy days
of the League agitation that, with a repeal of the
corn-laws we should have no surplus labour—no
pauperism; Manchester and the West Riding
would absorb the surplus hands of the agricultural
towns; and improved farming—deep draining,
sub-soiling, and other operations—give full em-
ployment to the agricultural labourers. The bubble
seems, however, to have burst. The Times him-
self sees in prospect diminished employment for
labour and increasing pauperism. The manufac-
turer, with increased demands for his goods, in-
creases his machinery, not his hands. The agri-
culturist, in order to meet the competition, with
which he is met, and to accommodate his expendi-
ture to his reduced means, is seeking to diminish
the number of those whom he has, hitherto, fed.
We shall not remark at length upon the practi-
cability of the scheme or its tendency, further than
to suggest to our contemporary, that, as hundreds
of our population commit crime in the hope of
being transported at the public expense, those
desirous of,trying their fortunes in a foreign land
can be accommodated, if his plan is largely adopted,
by the now simple step of throwing themselves
upon their parishes. It is to be presumed that the
able-bodied paupers alone could be got rid of in
the mode pointed out by the Times': for most
assuredly our colonists would be little disposed to
welcome to their shores the lame, the aged, the
lunatic, or the infant paupers of our parishes,
even if landed among them with a sovereign each
in their pockets. It is our adult labourers whom
we are to get rid of—the bones and sinews of the
nation's strength. Alas for England, if such is
her dire necessity ! Wisely wrote her poet of such
a state of things as is to be found in our manu-
facturing districts—

" 11l fares the land, to hastening woes a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay."

The tendency of the plan of paying by the case,
instead of by a salary, is obviously bad, as holding
out to the doctors a premium upon the creation of
patients, and to the working classes an inducement
to pauperise themselves, in order to obtain, at the
expense of the parish, the medical aid of the very
men whom, or their brethren of the same standing,
they would otherwise be led to employ and to pay.
It is hinted—but we cannot, of course, believe that
such a practice could be pursued by any respectable
medical man, holding an important public trust—
that runners may be employed by some of the body
to seek out cases. A system ought not to exist
which could allow of so injurious an insinuation
being listened to for a moment, or of the possibility
of its being true; for, only conceive an under-
standing between a relieving officer and a parish
doctor, and what might not be the extent to which
patients might be created, and the ratepaying
public hurthened ! Besides, what is to ensure us
that, in each case for which he charges, the doctor
himself, and not an assistant, or an apprentice, sees
the patient ?

The climax of its fate may well be said to be
drawing nigh when
"A bold peasantry, the nation's pride,"
has to be transported to foreign climes because
their native soil no longer yields them food and
affords them remuneration for their labour.

ST. PETER'S CHURCH, SACKVILLE,STREET..---The
collections at the four services, as announced in our last,
at this church amounted to £llO.

EMIGRATION.-At the commencement of the spring
trade, the time at which emigration is in the bud, we are
glad to find that shipping agents are endeavouring to
abolish the iniquitous system of commissions on passen-
gers. A meeting was held on Friday evening, at the
Angel Hotel, at which such resolutions were passed as
will, we trust, lead to the consummation of this desirable
object. If the proposals of the meeting (and representa-
tives of all the leading houses in town were present) are
carried into effect, we shall find this extending business
regarded as it ought to be, one purely mercantile, and
hear no more of the shameful tricks of man-catchers
alleged aaainst firms of respectability.

THE FESTIVITIES AT POYNTON--Mr. Feeny has re-
ceived many tokens of the estimation in which his services
were held, for having so efficiently provided for the com-
fort and entertainment of the guests, during the late
festivities to celebrate the majority of Lord Vernon's
eldest son. But probably the most gratifying proof of
that satisfaction was conveyed to him in the following
letter,
.which was handed to him most unexpectedly, and
in the most delicate and handsome manner by Lord Ver-
non's agent :

We must repeat that we do not insinuate that
any such practices do exist amongst such a body of
men as those performing the duties of parish doc-
tors in this town, many of whom we know to be of
the highest respectability and personal honour. It
is the system alone with which we find fault. We
complain of it as affording to the parish practi-
tioner, in addition to inducements to the evils which
we have moticed, emoluments not enjoyed by their
less fortunate brethren in the profession, of equal,
and many of even superior, standing. It is known
that some of the thirteen gentlemen at present en-
gaged on the staff have received from the parish
upwards of £350 per annum, and are also in the
enjoyment of private practice. This extent of the

" The celebration of the coming of age of the Hon. Augustus
Henry Vernon, at Poyn ton, Cheshire, Feb. 1, 1850.
"It affords me much gratification to express my entire lip-
probation, and that of the Hon. A. H. Vernon, of the zeal,
untiring activity, and valuable services of Mr. Joseph teeny,
of the Merchants' Dining Rooms, Li verpool, in providing anal
arranging a dinner for 2,500 person s, and tea for a party of
'6OO persons, at Poynton, in celebration of the coming of age of
the Hon. A, H. Vernon. And I beg to present him with a
cheque for 41IN for his o,v,rn.Prinite

aI:DIAS ASHWORTH,
te Agent to Lord Vernott2l

PETTY MEDDLING OF THE CUSTOMS'
OFFICIALS.

A few weeks ago we noticed the conduct of some of the
customs' runners in our docks, who took upon themselves
to stop a couple of small hams, which were being sent
ashore by the captains of two American packet-ships, to
be cooked for use on board. Since doing so, one or two
additional seizures of similar articles, under the same cir-
cumstances ; and, of course, if the articles in question
have not been deposited in the Queen's warehouse, or
lodged in the depot, the very natural conclusion is, that
they have gone into the pots or the gridirons of the worthies
who seized them. We have now had a case brought be-
fore our notice, which certainly is characterised by a more
pettifogging spirit than we could have believed any but
some underpaid, but uplifted, member:of the body could
have been guilty of ; for in this case an inspector was privy
to the outrage. The facts of the case, as detailed to us
by the master of a first-rate American ship, now lying in
this port, are briefly these.

The gentleman in question, some three years ago, bought
an accordion for his own use, being a proficient upon that
instrument and a musical amateur. During this period
he has invariably brought the instrument ashore, his wife
having been residing chiefly in Liverpool. He never pre-
viously experienced any difficulty in so doing. On the
evening of the 13th instant, being shortly about to proceed
to sea, the captain sent one of his apprentices ashore with
the instrument, to leave it with his wife to get repaired,
one of the keys having been injured. The lad, however,
was stopped by the officer on the station, and the instru-
ment seized. The chief mate of the ship came up at the
time, and hearing of the seizure, requested that the ac-
cordion should be allowed to be taken back to the ship ;
but even this reasonable request was refused. The in-
strument was subsequently taken, not to the depot, from
which it might have been easily released on explanation
of the circumstances to the respected collector of the port,
but to the Queen's warehouse, from which it cannot be
released without an especial application to the board in
London. And all this for a three years' old instrument,
worth, possibly, about a guinea, if so much.
It is really time, for the credit of Great Britain, that
such petty annoyances should be put an end to, as they
would if the Board of Customs would place in authority
men of common sense and discrimination, instead of the
hungry and insolent fellows who at present disgrace alike
the service and*their country. The gentleman upon whom
this glaring official outrage was perpetrated has sailed for
seventeen years as first-mate and as captain between the
United States and this port ; and the very idea of petty
smuggling is foreign alike to his character and his position
in life.