The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-01-25 00:00:00

ItOtrirt RebJs.

On Thursday, the Manchester Chamber of Commerce
resolved to petition parliament against•the resumption, in
March next, of the sliding scale of duties on foreign corn.
MILL HANDS BEGGING.—On Wednesday last a portion
of Messrs. Bashall and Co.'s hands, Farington. to the
number of some hundreds of men, women, and children,
went a-begging through the village of Leyland, accom-
panied with a cart drawn by three men.
POOR-RATES.--A large number of poor persons were
summoned before the magistrates, at Warrington, yester-
day week, for non-payment of their arrears. hi most of
the cases an extension of time was allowed. Ibis rumoured
that' there will be a supplementary rate, in addition to the
one just collected.

CONCERT.—On Wednesday last a concert was given at
the Athenieum Rooms, Manchester, at which Miss Whit-
nail and Mrs. W. H. Pardy, of Liverpool,- appeared ; as
also, Mr. Thomas, the celebrated harpist, of the Italian
Opera-house. The audience, though not extremely nu-
merous, was highly respectable. The debut of Mrs.
Pardy (a native of the town) was successful, while Miss
Whitnal received that acknowledgment that will ever be
awarded to her by a musical public. In the duet,. "Meet
again," they were both loudly encored. Mr. Thomas
gained a most enthusiastic reception.

The Manchester Commercial Association held their
annual meeting on Tuesday, for the purpose of receiving
a report from the retiring directors, and electing a new
body. The report referred to the suct;essrwhich attended
the efforts of the board in breaking up the salt monopoly
in India, in preventing the closing of the Birkenhead
docks, and to the attention which the association, with
other parties, had been the means of directing to the tea
duties, the bankruptcy laws—to the navigation laws and
the cultivation of cotton in India. Six months date, for
bills of exchange drawn from Calcutta upon England,
were recommended, in lieu of ten months, as at present.
Mr. Gibb, manager of the Manchester Bonding Ware-
house Company, suggested the saving and advantage of
establishing a cotton market in Manchester, in rivalry to
Liverpool. His remarks were, however,.discountenanced,
and the meeting broke up.
CHARGE OF STEALING COAL.—On Friday week, a
charge of felony was preferred before the magistrates of
Wigan, by the agents to the earl of Balcarres, against
Henry Bleasdale (nephew of Mr. John Bleasdale, coal
proprietor, and said to he manager at his colliery in the
Wallgate), and against Enoch Grimshawe, the overlooker
in the same pit. A warrant has. been also taken out
against the proprietor of the colliery, but he has at pre-
sent escaped apprehension. The charge arose from the
discovery that Mr. Bleasdale, or his manager, had tres-
passed upon and got large quantities of coal lying under
the adjoining property that he had taken for the purpose of
working the mines. The evidence for the prosecution
went to prove that mines belonging to twenty or thirty per-
sons had been pillaged ; and• that public buildings and
streets had been undermined to au alarming extent.
After a lengthened inquiry, the case was adjourned till
Tuesday (this day).
THE MANCHESTER CUSTOMS.—The duties received at
the Manchester Custom . House, for the quarter ending
the sth instant, were £41,190, against £38,823 in the
corresponding quarter of last year. In the entire year,
ending the sth instant, the amount of duties collected
was £177,417, against £187,352 in the year ending sth
January, 1847. This shows a decrease of £10,535, the
whole of which is due to the decreased import of corn
and sugar into Manchester. It seems that in the year
ended the sth instant, the amount of duty paid on tea at
the Manchester Custom House was within £34 of ninety-
one thousand wounds I Taking the four chief ports of
England, and counting Manchester as a fifth, it stands
third in amount of this duty paid on Tea. London, of
course, is first, and Liverpool, as may be supposed, is
second ; but who would have supposed that Manchester
stood third, taking precedence, in this respect, of both.
Bristol and Hull.

A monument to Captain John Moore Napier will shortly
be placed in Chester Cathedral. It is a mural tablet, of
neat design, supported upon a pair of trusses : at the foot
lie the sword, belt, and sash ; upon one side hangs a mili-
tary cloak, and within the pediment are sculptured the
arms of the deceased. It will bear the following inscrip-
tion :—" To the memory of John Moore Napier, captain
in her Majesty's 62nd regiment, who died of Asiatic cho-
lera, in Scinde, on the 7th July, 1846, aged 29 years. The
tomb is no record of high lineage : his may be traced by
his name. His race is one of soldiers; among soldiers he
lived, among them he died. A soldier falling, where num-
bers fell with him, in a barbarous land ; yet there none
died more generous, more daring, more gifted, or more
religious. On his early grave fell the tears of stern and
hardy men, as his had fallen on the graves of others. To
the memory of their comrade, the officers of the general
staff in Scinde erected this cenotaph."

HIGHWAY ROBBERIES NEAR MANCHESTER.—WhiIst
the people of Liverpool have been placed in so much ter-
ror through frequent and daring robberies in the outskirts
of that town, Manchester has been, up to very lately, en-
tirely free from such outrages. It appears, however, that
town is no longer to enjoy that pre-eminence. On Satur-
day, as the Rev. Mr. Germon, head-master of the Man-
chester Free Grammar School, and Mrs. Germon were
taking an airing in their carriage, about three miles dis-
tant from the town, and near to a village called Blackley,
two men stopped them, and, presenting pistols, demanded
Mr. Germon's money. The rev. gentleman, it is said,
made some slight effort at resistance, but the entreaties of
Mrs. Germon induced him at length to yield to the threats
of the robbers, and he handed over to them his gold watch
alstl ..ILL L 1.., a...-
camped, and have not been heard of since. This was in
the open daylight, at about one or two o'clock on Satur-
day week.

REDUCTION OF WAGES OF WORKERS IN FACTORIES.
—Notices having been given by several of the millowners
in various towns in this county to the effect that a general
reduction of the wages of their operatives will take place
early in February, the latter have held meetings to discuss
the steps they should take ; and the result has, in several
instances, been the posting on the walls of " an address to
the millowners," urging upon them the fact that they
gave their best exertions to the legislative sanction to free
trade, from which they promised cheap bread" to those
employed by them. They complain that the masters
knew of " foreign competition" (which they enumerate
amongst the grievances they have to endure) before the
corn laws were repealed, and ask them if they before cal-
culated on this reduction of wages ? For, if so, they
should first see that they (the operatives) should have the
cheap bread promised, and should also let the tax on tea
and coffee be reduced, and the rents of their cottages be
lowered in proportion to the decrease in their wages.
They add, that the repeal has been obtained, but as yet
they have not got the cheap bread, and therefore hope to
retain their present wages. This (as remarked by a Black.
burn contemporary) is slaying the free-traders with their
own weapons. At some of the meetings, the millowners
were handled in terms anything but polite, and a disposi-
tion was evinced to bring about a strike, at whatever sacri-
fice to the men. At others, it was counselled that it was
better to obtain reduced wages than none ; but it appears
on the whole that no final decision was come to. In the
event of a strike, the turn-outs need not, we think, antici-
pate support, as on former occasions, from shopkeepers
and others, for the general community of traders are now
themselves panting and gasping under the screw. On the
other hand, the masters (who may have been grossly mis-
taken in the free-trade policy in which they joined) are
themselves put to their utmost shifts to keep their heads
above water. The interests of men and masters are so
intimately connected that a breach between them would
be injurious to both, and the cotton manufacturer has but
the choice of two evils—that of working the mills at a
sacrifice of all profit, or closing them entirely. He finds
many of his heretofore best foreign markets all but closed
against him ; he sees that those who have been his best
customers are not only supplying themselves from their
own manufactures, but are becoming competitors with-
him in other markets ; he sees a reduction of his taxes to
be impossible, that his only hope of competing lies in a
reduction of the cost of production •, hence the necessity
of the fall in wages. Can the free-trade journals be sur-
prised that the men should feel themselves aggrieved at
the masters who allured them into the ranks of the league
by promises which cannot be fulfilled whilst we have such
an accumulation of taxes ?