The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-01-28 00:00:00

THE IRON TRADE

(From the Wolverhampton Chronicle.)
The condition and prospects of the iron trade still con-
tinue subjects of discussion in this neighbourhood, and
this, we are afraid, among some parties in a spirit inimi-
cal alike to the real i ,terests of the workman as well as
those of the employer. Notions of enormous profits
accruing tee the ironmasters in consequence of the recent
advance of 10s. per ton have been assiduously inculcated,
and inconsiderately sanctioned by glowing accounts pub-
lished by uninformed or foolish persons in newspapers.
The natural consequence has followed—agitation among
the workmen—causing trouble and anxiety to themselves
and their employers, and casting its unsenial influence
throughout an extended circle. An advance of 10s. per
ton has taken place in the price of iron, and a correspond-
ing addition has, we think we may say generally, been
made to wages. It is clear that this addition cannot be
very large ; and, to prevent discontent, we call attention
to the fact—a fact within the knowledge of every one
connected with the iron trade—that, although there have
recently been two advances of 10s. each, these advances
have only replaced prices in the position they held in
October last. We give the current prices, and a reference
will prove what we state to be the exact fact. The prices
now are :

Pigs ..
Bar Iron 6 10 to 7 0
Hoops 7 oto 7 10
Sheets 8 oto 8 10
As to the state of the trade there cannot be a question
that it is sound and healthy, and promises a continuance
of active and steady employment. It is this position
which we are anxious to see maintained, undisturbed by
strikes or speculative production; and that it will be
maintained, if trade is allowed to proceed, unconvulsed,
there exists no doubt whatever. The spring orders for
manufactured goods for Canada and the United St, tes
have begun to arrive, and promise to be liberal, yielding
fair employment not only to the producers of iron, but to
the hundreds of artisans engaged in its manipulation.
We would not have such prospects blighted. The years
1a26, 1836, and 1812 3 have not passed from recollection,
and the instruction they afford will not, we hope, be
thrown away.

SATURDAY EVENING CONCERTS.—On Saturday last,
a crowded audience attended to hear a short lecture on the
faculty of imitation, by W. B. Hodgson, Esq., principal of
the Mechanics' Institution, which was admirably illus-
trated by Mr. John Sibbald, a Scotch ventriloquist, who
astonished all parties by the exhibition of his unrivalled
powers of vocal illusion. Mr. Sibbald appears again this
week.

EMBEZZLEMENT.—Yesterday, at the Police Court, a
man named John Gilderday, who was in the employ of a
Mr. Dean, a cowkeeper in the Park, was charged with
this offence. It appeared that the prisoner, in making his
rounds, was authorised to receive some money from his
master's customers, and had received 7s. a month for the
last six months from a female, who appeared in court, and
which he had appropriated to his own use.!

. .
RINGING PEOPLES' BELLS.—A little boy was yester-
day charged with ringing the bell of Mr. Bradley's house
in St. Jude's-terrace, at midnight, a practice of which
some of the urchins in the neighbourhood had of late fre-
quently been guilty, to the annoyance of the inmates. He
was caught and given into custody, but on stating that it
was the first time he had rung a bell, he was handed over
to his parents, with an admonition to them to take care
of him.

NOVEL EXPEDIENT IN PUFFING.—We have no wish
to stand in the way of any of our contemporaries to puff
themselves into notoriety ; and we should have been
amused by the following specimen of self laudatory, just
perpetrated by our servile contemporary of Lord-street,
(the Mercury,) had we not felt it was at the expense of
the party, in the programme of whose concert it is put
forth. We refer to the programme of the Musical and
Literary Evening's of the Fraser family, printed at our
contemporary's shpp, and at the foot of which is the fol-
lowing extract, from the Liverpool Mercury, of Friday,
January 17 :—" CONCERT AT ST. HELEN'S.—On Tues-
day we had the delightful Fraser family here, and, owing
to what had been said of their concerts by the editors of
the Mercury, a few gentlemen interested themselves on
the occasion, and the Town-hall was crowded to receive
them. The company, were Mr. Greenall, M.P., and
family," &c., &c. This, we take it, is a little too bad.
First, we have the St. Helen's correspondent of the Mer-
cury puffing his employers, and exaggerating, their influ-
ence amongst the good people of St. Helen s ; next, the
Mercury greedily swallowing the offered plastering, paid
for at " per line ." and kindly cramiug it down the throat
of the unsuspecting Scotchman, Mr. Frazer, foisting it
into his bill, at the cost to him of disgusting five out of
nine of the audiences into whose hands it comes, and,
moreoveri of running the risk of depriving himself of the
support of that portion of the press of uur town whose
conductors are above adoptidg.such clap-trap practices,
and might naturally resent the insult involved in the re-
presentation that a stupid and sinking paper could thus
insure the success of whomsoever it thought fit to daub
over with its fulsome praise. This, we repeat, is too bad.
It is paltry in the Mercury, and cruel to Mr. Fraser and
his talented family. The next thing, we presume, we
shall find poor Mercury enlarging, in foot notes to his
placards of sales by auction, upon the extra prices realised
by vendors of crockery, and other household articles,
owing to the catalogues having been printed at the Mer-
cury office.