The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-02-17 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD

—the poor unfortunates whom no change can ren-
der worse off—will be drafted away to supply the
increased demand for hands to arise in the manufac-
turing districts. We shall have the talents of a
score or two of Muggeridges employed in selecting,
for removal to spinning and weaving paradises,
"widows with large families, or orphan children."
the commodity which, according to the amiable
suggestion of an eminent Whig-radical mill owner
in the West Riding, is the most profitable to grind
down into yarns and calicoes. But, then, what will
become of the pleasing picture, painted by Sir James
Graham, with respect to the improved condition of
the manufacturing operatives, with whose labour
this pauper supply is to come into competition ?
" I can very welt understand," remarked Sir James,
on Tuesday night, " how those working men should
overtax their industry, and even call upon their
wives and daughters to work, that they may obtain
subsistence. Necessity might drive them to such
resources. But if they can understand that by a
change of your law they may be able, without re-
quiring their wives and daughters to work as they
do now, to live in greater comfort than they have ever
knows 69, I have not the smallest doubt that ar-
rangements will be made between masters and men
as to the period of labour, and so every ground or
pretext for legislative interference will be taken
away." We have the greatest doubt of the realiza-
tion of this delightful consummation. The Com-
missioners of Somerset House will soon daub over
the bright sky, which Sir James Graham spreads
over the manufacturing elysium, with a few of the
gloomy tints, and introduce a few of the ragged
and half famished figures of the Goatacre meeting,
or of the mothers and children who sat huddled to-
gether by the cheerless firesides of their miserable
cottages, whilst their husbands and fathers did the
work of the League by exhibiting their wretched-
ness to the midnight moon.
Clever as he undoubtedly is, Mr. Sydney Herbert
touched upon dangerous ground when he paraded
this solitary demonstration of agricultural labourers,
with its " pre-arranged resolutions," in favor of
free trade, and the declaration of the speakers that
" they could not be worse off," in the face of the
hundreds of meetings of the same wretched class,
at which their sufferings have been attributed to
Boards of Guardians and Assistant Commissioners.
Goatacre is dangerously near to Andover, of bone-
crushing notoriety ; and it was rather impolitic
even to risk suggesting the enquiry, which will be
made, how far the destitution of the labouring
masses employed in agriculture is attributable to the
cruel bondage in which they are held by the new
Poor Law ; and, moreover, how far the blow levelled
by Sir Robert Peel against the agricultural interests
of the kingdom is compatible with the maintenance
of that law and its grinding machinery. The British
farmer may, pos,ibly, by increased science and im-
provements in cultivation, along with reduced rents,
be enabled to compete with the foreign grower of
corn ; but the British labourer must be fed,—not in
Union workhouses, or upon wages regulated by the
cost of workhouse dietaries, but in comfort and
upon sufficient food ;—and when they are promised
such improvement of their condition, as the result
of free trade, they will not allow that promise to be
broken. A disappointed man, we may remind him,
is a dangerous man.

The resolution of the Highway Board on Thurs-
day, to negotiate the purchase of the Harrington
Waterworks, in addition to the purchase already
made of the Bootle Works, will, we suspect be re-
garded by the rate-payers with no slight alarm. It
is, no doubt, highly desirable that some strenuous
effort should be made to secure for the inhabitants
an effect and ample supply of water; and most
desirable it would have been if such effort had been
made long ago, before the existing monopolies had
grown to their present large extent and value, and
the task of affording such supply had been placed
in the hands of some of our public bodies. To re-
pair the error now., however,—to resolve upon pur-
chases which will require such a serious amount of
money to be raised and charged upon the rate-
payers—is a matter which calls for very mature
consideration, both with respect to the price to be
given, and the mode in which it is to be effected.
In our haste to secure a benefit we may rashly
inflict upon the town a permanent burden.
We cannot see, either, that the Highway Board
is the best public body to undertake the manage-
ment of these purchases, if determined upon, or
the carrying on of the works when purchased.
Readily we admit the ability and great experience in
local affairs of many of the members of that body.
With Mr. Gladstone, however, we should prefer
seeing the Corporation undertake the supply of the
town with water. In their hands there could be no
financial mistakes,—no risk of oppressive rates to
outweigh the value of the boon to the rate-payers.
The Highway Board has, already, ample work be-
fore it, more immediately within its own province,
in the paving, sewering, and efficient cleansing of
our growing extent of streets and public thorough-
fares ; and what that body ought to stipulate for is
the privilege of taking, from whatever body may
undertake the supply of water, sufficient for the
proper and effectual discharge of their own duties.
Before, however, taking any step, we should
strongly urge the adoption of the suggestion of Mr.
Tinne, viz.: that we should first have some com-
prehensive report from a competent engineer, as to
the best means of supplying the town with water.
Do not let us now enter into any patchwork scheme,
when we may hereafter find we might have had a
perfect and comprehensive scheme for half the
the money. Perhaps, after all, we may not have to
purchase the Water Companies. We cannot see
that it is at all imperative upon us to pay these
companies the exorbitant prices to which their stock
has been run up, for the right to enjoy, in a town
of the importance of Liverpool, an abundant sup-
ply of one of the cheapest necessaries of life. We
should, of course, prefer an equitable and reasona-
ble agreement with the companies, to any step
which could inflict injustice on individuals; but,
certainly, we should be sorry to find that the town
is to be taxed in perpetuo by any extravagant bar-
gain, such, as it appears to us, would be the purchase
of these companies at the present price of their
stock. Time for deliberation, however, is what we
now contend for. Let us not go too fast.

LOCAL BILLS.

Petitions complaining of non-compliance with the
standing orders have been presented and referred to the
Select committee on Petitions in the following cases

Birkenhead, Lancashire, and Cheshire Junction Rail-
way.
Birkenhead and Holyhead Junction Railway.
Birkenhead, Lancashire, and Cheshire Junction Rail-
way (two petitions).
Birkenhead and Llangollen Railway.
Chester and Manchester Direct Railway (three pe-
titions).
Liverpool and Bury Railway.
Liverpool and Leeds Direct Railway.
Liverpool Paving. Sewering, and Watering.
Liverpool Sanatory regulations.
Liverpool Improvement.
Manchester, Bolton, and Bury Canal Navigation and
Railway Extensions.
Toxteth Park Improvement.
Tient Valley Midland and Grand Junction Railway.

West Lanenshire Railway.
Northumberland and Lancashire Junction Railway.
The following petitions for Bills have been severally re-
ported, and Bills ordered to be brought in :
Manchester, Buxton, Matlock, and Midland Junction
Railway.
Mold Junction Railway.
Liverpool, Manchester, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Junction Railway.
St. Helen's Canal and Railway.
Liverpool Docks.
Ellesmere and Chester Canal.
The Black burn, *Chorley, and Liverpool Railway.
Liverpool, Ormskirk, and Preston Railway.
Manchester, Sheffield, and Midland Junction Railway.
Bills read a first time, and ordered to be read a
second :
Grand Junction Railway—Huyton and Aston ; Huy-
ton, Prescot, and St. Helen's ; Warrington and Park-
side ; Showhill and Portobello, and Edgehill and Huy-
ton branches.
North Union Railway Bill—For vesting in the Grand
Junction Railway Company, and the Manchester and
Leeds Railway Company, the North Union Railway, and
all the works, property, and effects appertaining thereto.
Lancaster and Carlisle Railway, (Extension to Caledo-
nian Railway), and Lancaster and Preston Junction Rail-
way Amalgamation Bill.
The Committee have dispensed with compliance with
certain standing orders in the Liverpool, Manchester, and
Newcastle Junction Railway. Since which the bill has
been read a first time, and ordcred to be read a second
time.

The subject of this evening's lecture at St. Andrew's
Church is " The Communion of Saints."
Private letters from Calcutta to the 23d of December
have been received. They contain the important fact
that the government had sent round a circular, stating
that their advances on hypothecated goods have for the
present ceased. The exchange is expected to advance
considerably upon this circumstance.