The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-01-18 00:00:00

and Mr. Evans ought to have known it

ill the

'emature s

ned into the fangs of d€

on and

n, though protected by a treaty
Out to have its hallowed sanctity

in4aded, as though the ruthless hands of aggress-
sign could not leave one spot of earth uncontami-
nated by their grasp. The power of the Diet is to
be destroyed, an& instead of being as hitherto a
free legislative body, it is to be placed under the
dominion of those states which have interfered in
its affairs. It will be deprived of the capability of
crushing and punishing rebellion, and, in fact, will
be no longer governed by the suffrages of the
people : the deliberative assembly will be a mock-
ery, destitute of reality, and only useful as the
semblance of liberty. This result may, however,
be prevented by the appearance of England in
defence of Switzerland; and it is unlikely that
our country will remain
in quiescent, while almost
the last vestige of liberty- Europe is demolished.
Whether, however, we shall 'have to engage in a
war on the account of Switzerland or not, it seems,
according to the present aspect of affairs, very
probable that one will break out in the course of a
few -years:

The rapid improvement which France has re-
iltly made in her naval equipment, the ext

,ensue

system of aggrandisement which she has for some
time steadily pursued, and the fact of her having at
Algiers, in the immediate neighbourhood of Gibral-
tar, a large army, seem to be indications of her ex-

pectation-of a war with this country. We would,
however, tender a word of advice to our neighbours
on the other side of the Channel, to be careful how
they heedlessly rush into a war with our country,
which will be scarcely less than exterminating to
one or other of the belligerent powers. Suppose
for a moment that France should be victorious, at
what a cost of treasure and life would the conquest
be achieved ; and if, on the other hand, England
should, as in former instances, be successful, the
dismemberment of the French empire would be the
inevitable result. It is, indeed, a pitiable thing to
old man like Louis Philippe, dropping as it
ipending his last days upon
oil the two greatest nations

were into the grave

arth in efforts t

3f the world, and in int

Dr power of which it is

impossible he can ever enjoy ti
be the final

ever, a war shoul

=motions of Rurope
robability of a French

ree in the

many of the 1

defence
iary. It

e country
trcely to I
hich the

s premature and ur

Pe credited that at the advanced age
French monarch has arrived that he
41 an extensive plan as the invasion
and still more unlikely that during
hich are sure to attend a regency
ople would wish to attempt
' I And however much

d form

county

in France, the Fre

nay be the desire of the French to do so, we are

11 awa:

ne most extensive preparations

would be needed to enable them even to transport
their troops across the channel, and we should
con-
shier it quite time enough to preps

any special
ents for an

lefences-when they con

Iced arrang,

!'he improbability of any attempt of the kind
Lnir made. derives additional strength from the

that both the Directory and the conqueror of

cooper

our read(

ertion of Mr. Evan

to complain of,

given in the Bill of Entry

Hogsheads of Sugar
Tierces ditto
Casks ditto
Barrels ditto
Cases ditto

623 I
561 '
6474 Sugar, packages
4995

Boxes ditto
Puncheons of Rum
Hogsheads ditto
Barrels
eason of repose,
. I Pipes of Wiz

0256 j
2483
1433 } Rum, ditto
9AR

1086 1, Molasses, ditto
2271 Oil
919

5886 Tallow ditto
1151 Rice ditto

is no one person exe
cooper in the dock; that there are only twenty-two
coopers in all employed in the dock, only one of
whom, the superintendent, has ever been a master

ising the trade of master

vans might have known, also, that
it is the very principle of his favourite dock ware-
that the Dock Comm

t are their own

ught the case of this body before
•e trust that, in opposition to the

at they have " nothing
on a future occasion we shall be

'es, but t

merchants and shipowners of the port, have much
to complain of in the unjust exclusion with which
the coopers are visited. At present, however, we
must confine ourselves to giving a detailed state-
ment of the extent of the business for which the
latter body are deprived of all chance of competition :

& LIST OF THE CASKS AND CASES DISCHARGED IN THE
DOCK FROM THE IST OF JANUARY TO THE 31ST OF
DECEMBER, 1847,—(besides about fifty vessels reported
in the river and not included, the name of the particu-
docks in which they subsequently discharged not being

Hogsheads of ditto
Quarter casks, &c.
Puncheons, Molasses
Hogsheads, ditto
Casks of Palm Oil
Casks of Olive Oil
Casks of Tallow
Tierces of Rice
Brls. Turpentine,
13581 Turpentine, &c., ditto 13581
Rosin and Pitch {
Barrels of Pork 3381 iiditto
Tierces of Beef 4165 J Provisions,
Barrels of Lard 1769 Lard,
Barrels of Flour 350,820 Four,

350,820

Total packages.. 416,115

IYe are certain it could never be the intention of
the legislature, in legalizing the dock warehouse
system, to band over to a public body a monopoly
of so large a share of one of the most important
trades of the port ; and, as little was it in the con•
templation of the merchants of Liverpool that,
whilst using the Committee's warehouses, they
should be debarred the liberty of .employing, in the
securing of their own property, those master trades-
men in whose skill they had the greatest confidence,
and, at the same time, be compelled to pay what-
ever charges the Committee may choose to impose.
Every man is aware that cheapness is seldom the
attribute of a public body's work, and that where
there is rio competition cheapness cannot be en-
forced froth such body.

As bearing upon this question of monopoly by
a public body, we may notice a remark which fell
from the Chairman of the Dock Committee, at its
meeting'on Thursday last. After speaking of the re-
jection of the dock bill by the Council, and the con-
sequent difficulty in which the Committee were
placed as to the disposal of the large mass of ware-
house and other property, which they had purchased
as the site of the new docks to be formed at Wap-
ping, the Chairman remarked—" There is another
important thing. We can appropriate these ware-
houses" (which, according to Mr. Eyre Evans, are
105 in number) " free of rent." The Mercury
holds out this fact as a warning to the warehouse
owners of the danger, to their own property, of
cantinued opposition to the increase of dock ware-
houses.. We cannot conceive, however, that Mr.
Bramley-Moore intended the remark which he
made to convey .the threat, which the Mercury
attributes to him. We believe that he would no
more use any powers which the Dock Committee
may have bad unwittingly given to them, to oppress
private individuals, or to coerce the judgment of
the public, than he would pick a pocket, or refuse
payment of an honest debt. There has been no
trickery recorded in Mr. Bramley-Moore's admi-
nistration of dock affairs .thus far ; and we are
perfectly certain that trickery is foreign to his cha-
racter: It is sufficiently alarming, however, to
contemplate the mere possibility of a public body
having the power of thus using property acquired
by them, not with a view to make from it a fair
profit, but to oppress and injure individuals. For
where is such a system to stop ? If the Dock
CommittQe because they have a number of ware-
houses which they cannot at present pull down,
and convert into the use intended to be made of
them, may set up business as cheap warehousemen,
in opposition to private individuals, or, as is hinted,

old have drawn doWn a storm of in

tion from every spectator. The case is that of John
Renihan, who was found guilty, on the 10th instant,

of the murder of a man named John M'Enirv, and

brought up for jud

zment on the follosvin

culprit is described as " a sturdy,
bout twenty years of age, well dies

youth, a

1, and

earing to belong in the better class of farm 1

bourers." This Jam Renihan, it appears, was one
of a party who attacked the house of his victim,
NlTniry; and, after robbing it of money and arms,
made a search for M'Eniry himself, who was con-
cealed on the premises. They found him ; and, to

judge, " as if to afford
some express indication of those fiends in huinan
shape by whom the deed of atrocity was perpetra-
ted—as if to show a rivalry in wickedness—the man
who finds him says, Give me a blunderbuss to
shoot him, as it was I that got him !' " The victim
was dragged from his place of concealment and

the words of the learned

beatentied back to his family,

beaten again

and was drat;

The family heard `

tinctly each successive blow the unhappy man re-
ceived, and the moaning that followed their inflic-

words o

tion." We quote, now, th
addressed to the convicted culprit

the judge,

"The door is again opened, and some of the party en-
ter, and you are one of them. You call for a candle ; you
oblige one of the inmates to hold it for you : you load a
gun in the presence of the family; you return with the
loaded gun to the scene in which you and your associates

y then retire

be unfortunate

the house; he is not yet dead, he breathes, but is sense-
less, and it is found that during the period in which he
was subjected to this process of lingering torture his jaw
was broken and his head fractured in two places. These
were not sufficient to produce his instant death. His
back is broken by a gun-shot wound, his hip is perforated
by another, and in the course of a few hours he dies, pre-
senting a mangled corpse, any one of those injuries proved
before us being sufficient to cause his death. When he
was brought into the house, in the simple but expressive
language of one of the witnesses, you could not know

Now what was the offence which this unfortunate
man had committed to draw down upon himself and
his family this cruel doom ? We give these again
in the words of the judge, addressed to the culprit,
in passing sentence of death

"Your stepfather, with whom you lived, was in posses-
sion of a farm adjoining that occupied by John M'Eniry.
J. Al'Eniry had a servant youth in his employment, a
young person hardly past the age of boyhood. You im-
pounded one of his cattle, as the law allowed You., for
trespassing on your stepfather's farm. This young lad
went to you to beg the restoration of the cattle, and rim
gave up the cattle; but you did more. You, a vigorous
and athletic man, armed with a stick that .might . have
been a weapon calculated to produce death, from some
animosity you entertained against that boy, struck him a
blow which felled him senseless to the earth ; and a man
of your strength, who could so employ it against a person
of his youth and feebleness, might well be expected to
have exercised it for the purpose of committing a worse
crime. The master of the boy did what was his duty—he
appealed to the law to protect his servant. He summoned
you before the bench of magistrates. That was his offence
against you. When you were dragging the man to his
dwelling door, where you sealed the doom of death you
had determined on committing, he asked you 'What have
I done ?' and one of the party replied 'Remember the last
court day.' Such was the cause for the perpetration of
this dreadful murder."

The above picture of the temper of an Irish
" athletic youth," and of his evident inclination to
sacrifice to his brutal passion a poor child, whose
only apparent offence was his being the bearer of
an entreaty for the release of his cattle from the
pound, is bad enough. It shows at least the trifling
value of human life in the estimation of these
"finest pisantry" on the earth. And the subsequently
accomplished murder of poor M'Eniry proves that
the protection, by law, of the life of a dependant is
a crime which renders deliberate assassination, by a
banded darty, a venial transgression, if, indeed, it
is not regarded as merit on the part of the assassin.
But let us come to a consideration of the state of
mind in which the convicted culprit received his
sentence. We give the scene in the words of the
report, premising that the sentence was, that his
execution should take place on the 11th February,
one month being given him for preparation for
eternity :

" The prisoner heard the sentence with the most per-
fect coolness. On retiring from the dock he took a piece
of bread from his pocket, and, laughing, said to the other
prisoners, ' By Car, boys, we must eat whilst we live at
any rate.' ! ! Such," the Report adds, "is the revolt-
ing indifference with which these wretched men regard
their awful situation."

A strange state of mind it must be in which
wretches like this are so callous—so apparently
confident—that they can eat whilst they live, and
have no fears of a hereafter. We shall no doubt
learn that this young man—who, under better
teaching, might have been an honest and a useful
member of society—met his fate boldly, confident
in the absolution given him by the priest. Perhaps
he will deny to the last his guilt ; and appeal suc-
cessfully to the sympathies of the spectators of his
fatal hour. But what an example will thus be set.
Will there be one in a dozen, of those who see this
young man ushered into eternity, who will not be
perfectly aware that the man who professes to have
prepared his soul for eternity, knows he is as crimi-
nal as the law has adjudged him to be, and that he
leaves the world with a lie, uttered in the face of an
avenging God, upon his soul ?

OUR contemporary, the Mercury, whose hos-
tility to the established religion is so notorious
that• its arguments are utterly unworthy of
notice, publishes, on Friday, a statement so disho-
nestly false that we cannot permit it to pass without
notice. After speaking of the arguments used by
the advocates of church extension as to spiritual
destitution, the Mercury says :

" This cant ought to be laid aside. It is, indeed, re-
sorted to by some who wish to proselytize the Dissenters
from conscientious motives ; but by far the greate-

~ mini•