The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-11-15 00:00:00

EMIGRANT SHIPS.

-We again, and we hope for the last time, notice this subject.
It is one which we.can with great sincerity say required atten-
tion from some quarter. 'lf our efforts have tended to bring
about the performance of an act of justice in the case of the
unfortunate passengers by the Cumberland, that result. abunds
antsy compensates us for whatever labour it may have cost.
To those who answered, by their contributions, the appeal
which we made on behalf of these poor people, their grateful
thanks are due and offered, as well as to the respectable profes-
sional house who gave their gratuitous assistance in effecting
the object which has been accomplished. By the means thus
supplied, the gentlemen who undertook to distribute the sub-
scription have been enabled to support the passengers whilst
tae arrangements were making for finally disposing of them;
they have als-o furnished such as bad lost their bedding with
mattresses and blankets ; together with provisions for sixty days
for between fifty and sixty of the people, who were embarked
on Wednesday, on board the Symmetry, a vessel belonging to
the same persons who had chartered the Cumberland, and who
have furnished a passage on board 'the former vessel for such
as chose to go in her. No less than eight of the original pas-
sengers by the Cumberland are dead ;—some, in despair, have
returned to their homes;—the remainder are provided for as
above stated. In accomplishing this object the committee have
incurred a responsibility exceeding the amount which has been
subscribed ; but they did so without hesitation, not doubting
that, on the- fact being made known, the difference would be
promptly contributed.
It is only fair, with respect to the charterers of the Symmetry,
to state that the accommodations -provided in that vessel are,
at least, as good as those originally appropriated in the Cumber-
land; and, in consideration of their having, in this respect,
done their duty, we shall abstain from any comments upon the
.misrepresentations contained in the placards or bills issued by
themselves or their agents—with reference to the capacity and
condition of the ships in which they have invited emigrants to
take their passage—further than to state, in this cantionary
way, that all such misrepresentations are anything but credit-
able, and expose them most clearly to legal proceedings for
breach of contract.

It may be expected that we should notice a letter on thiS sub-
ject, published by one of our contemporaries early in the week.
We will only do so to the extent of remarking, that the dis-
guise of a "Shipowner" is too flimsy to hide the writer of the
letter in question. His abuse of the authorities whoSe duty it
has been to keep a check upon the delinquencies of parties
whom we feel it altogether unnecessary further to designate, is
as gratuitous as it is unmerited. The parties referred to can
well afford to treat with perfect contempt such imputations as
are conveyed in that letter. And if the writer of it were to de-
vote half as much pains and talents to the protection of those
who come under his charge, as he is known to exercise in glos-
sing over his own proceedings, the necessity for severe Stric-
titres upon those proceedings would not have existed to the ex-
tent that we have shown it has done.

In conclusion, we are anxious to do justice to those whose
conduct has exhibited a marked distinction from that of others
whom we have felt it our duty publicly to condemn. In our
anxiety to do that justice we have put ourselves to the trouble
of personally visiting, and minutely inspecting the arrange-
ments of most of the ships now in this port taking in passen-
gers for emigration, both for America and Australia; and when
e see the arrangements made on board such vessels as the
Jessie, the Vestal, and the Bardavter for the latter, and the Cale-
donia and Great Britaikfor the former country, we record, with
pleasure, our conviction, that. they are as creditable to the char-
terers as they must be conducive to the comfort and health of
those who embark in them. So long as ships are fitted, and
conducted in the manner which those are that we have named,
and others which we have seen, so long will emigration be
divested of, at least, those inconveniences to which vessels
of inferior class expose their inmates. If the expatriation
of our fellow-subjects is to proceed, (a question which we
are not here called upon to discuss) then certainly such
vessels as those here referred to, and all that may be fitted up
like them, will be sought for as conveyances. In all such
cases the houses concerned manifest the strongest desire to
carry into effect the provisions which the law has made for
the protection.. of the emigrant whilst on board ship; and the
slightest intimation on the part of the proper authorities that a
remedy has to be applied to any defect, is met by its prompt and
willing correction. The establishment, therefore, of a public
authority to superintend the emigrants, and the notices which
we have, on public grounds, and on such grounds only, felt it
our duty to make upon the subject in our late numbers, so far
from tending to injure this port as a place of embarkation, which
we know has been contended for by some persons, must of ne-
cessity raise it in the estimation of all who are desirous of going
to any part of America or the Australian settlements; since, in
the absence of all such checks upon misconduct in other ports,
emigrants will flock here, under a conviction that the very ex-
istence of powers operating as a check will prevent the necessity
of their application; whilst, if needful, the remedy is, as it
ought to be, within their immediate reach. Considerably above
ten thousand persons have embarked at. this port since the spring
'of the present year; and as most of them are strangers to the
place, it is as touch for the interest of respectable houses en-
gaged in the business, as it is for that of the emigrants them-
selves, that they should be kept out of the hands of those dis-
reputable persons whose mal-practices we have, as we believe,
been instrumental in effectually exposing.