The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-06-06 00:00:00

TO ADVERTISERS.

We beg respectfully to call the attention of
Merchants, Brokers, Auctioneers, and others,
to the important fact that the
LIVERPOOL STANDARD
IS NOW THE

ONLY NEWSPAPER
PUBLISHED WEEKLY ON TUESDAY,

which can be read on that day by the thousands
of Manufacturers and others attending
THE TUESDAY'S MARKET IN
MANCHESTER.
The STANDARD is taken at all the Newsrooms
and respectable Inns in that town and the
surrounding manufacturing district.
A SECOND EDI 7 lON is published at Half-past
Two, in time for the North Mails, containing the
MARKETS, and any news of importance that
may arrive in the course of the morning.

Eig ilibtrpoot &tantart.

TUESDAY MORNING, JUNE 6, 1848.

ON Thursday evening, with the usual stage ef-
fect no doubt, the Premier, Lord John Russell,
rose in the House of Commons, and delivered him-
self of the following announcement :

" I wish to give two notices of motion. One is,
that I propose on Monday next to ask for leave to
bring in a bill to alter the form of oath to be re-
quired of members on taking their seats in parlia-
ment." There was, of course, the usual " Hear,
bear" in resporise to this weighty communication.
" The other is, that on Friday I shall move for
leave to bring in a bill to repeal so much of the
existing law as makes it necessary to pay the as-
sessed taxes in order to be on the register as an
elector in cities and boroughs." The same equi-
vocal response-followed; and the Premier sat down,
big in the consciousness of having astounded the
house and the country—done something to redeem
the former from the contempt intowhich it is falling,
and the latter from the suffering in which it is
steeped to the very lips.
What feelings, however, save those of indigna-
tion and contempt, ought to be excited amongst a
thoughtful people by this idle trifling with the
time of the legislature—this attempted mockery of
their wants—this astounding feebleness and blind-
ness in the midst of the present crisis of the na-
tion's and the world's affairs ? We stand upon a
heaving volcano ; the elements of disorder surround
us on every side • pauPerism, bankruptcy, and ruin
are spread over the face of the land ; and the go-
vernment—if such a thing can be called a govern-
ment—to whom every eye ought to be turned for
succour and protection, think to cheer our hearts
by allowing a Jew representative for the city of
London to creep into the House of Commons by
the back stairs. Unemployed and exasperated
thousands, in the manufacturing districts, are arm-
ing and assembling for outrage and destruction of
property; rebellion in Ireland has thrown away its
mask, and is about to throw down the gauntlet to
the British government; and that government, in
the feeble hands of Whiggery barely able to main-
tala itself against the scamps and pickpockets of.
London, thinks to calm the gathering tumults by
a petty modification of the ratepaying clauses of
the Reform Bill—by declaring it unnecessary to
pay, in order to secure a vote, what four-fifths of
the electors in cities and boroughs have never been
under any liability to pay. What a mighty weapon
is this with which to but down the Chartist rioters
of Bradford and Manchester ! What hungry
mouths it will fill! What shuttles and looms it
will set in motion. The Roman Emperor fiddling
amidst the flames of burning Rome, must for a
time be regarded as a pigmy in heartless absur-
dity, compared with Lord John advancing with
his smuggled. Jew, and his mite of parliamentary
reform, to right the affairs of a nation, never before
so hopelessly tangled, and to heal the sufferings of
a people, never before so intense and appalling.
We appeal to that people, and ask them here—
is it not time that, this miserable farce of Whig
Government should be put an end to ? Are they
willing—are they in a position—to endure a com-
bination of the mingled trifling and recklessness of
these men? The answer of every loyal and sensible
man, who has life and property at stake, must be
"No." It cannot go on. We must have a Go-
vernment, not a mockery of the name ; and there
never was a time when it was more vitally im-
portant that the Government should be a strong
one. There is not an interest in the country, not
an institution, which is not disorganized, and
loudly demanding the intervention of wise, ex-
perienced, and, above all, of firm statesmanship.
This is no time for peddling paltry attempts to get
rid of the solemn decision of any branch of the
legislature by a side wind, or for entering upon the
debateable ground of Parliamentary Reform, with
trumpery concessions such as this of Lord John
Russell, When the captain of a vessel, driven
before a gale, sees sheet after sheet stripped away
by the tempest, and breakers rolling beneath her
bows, we should be amazed at his insanity if we
found him seizing such a moment to call upon his
crew to discuss a proposed alteration in the ship's
rig, or the effect of an extra button upon a regu-
lation jacket. Yet this very insanity, in a worse
form, we are now tolerating, by the lethargy with
Which we permit the most incompetent ministry
ever placed at the head of the affairs of this great
nation to grimace and mouthe and meddle with
every settled institution of the country, at a crisis
like the present. We must tolerate it no longer.
Endurance is now becoming sinful. It is disloyalty
to the sovereign, whose crown these wretched
tricksters are perilling, dishonesty to the nation,
whose best interests they are jeopardising, and
heartless cruelty to our suffering working masses
whom they are sinking, by their dogged worship
of theory, and their incapacity, deeper and deeper
every day into misery and discontent and crime.
The country must make an effort to release itself
from its present position, and to get rid of these
men, who are an incubus upon its energies, and a
reproach in the eyes of the world to its intelligence.
We may be asked, with whom do we seek to re-
place them ? Our answer is that we cannot by any
possibility get worse men, and that we must, there-
fore, benefit by a change. Give us a pilot whom
we know to be hostile and bent upon running us
upon the rocks, and we can watch him, and per-
haps save the ship. Leave us to the guidance of a
fool, and, worse than all, a crotchetty fool, and
nothing but a direct interposition of Providence in
our behalf can snatch us from wreck. _

We call then upon the merchants, the trades-
men, the shopkeepers, the working classes ; we call
upon the intelligence of Liverpool to come forward
in this emergency, and to make their voice heard
in a demand for the dismissal of these incompe-
tent men from the councils of her Majesty. There
ought not to be two opinions with respect to our
duty in this matter. Some of us are confederation
reformers—reformers of our system of local tax-
ation. Do we hope for any efficient aid from Lord
John Russell's ministry ? We have no such hope.
Some of us—most of us—desire reductions in the
national expenditure, equalization in the pressure
of taxation, and judicious alterations in the mode
of levying the revenue of the country. Do the
most sanguine expect such boons from these
wretched and selfish incapables ? No. Some of
us are sick with changes and theprospect of con-
tinual change, A ministry, which seeks such
change, without the slightest notion of the result
to which it will lead ; which is ever bent experi-
mentalising, yet without experience to direct them ;
whose legislative principle is the thimble-rig-
ger's art, and whose only consistent and abiding
idea is the rule to be continually pulling down, or
pulling to pieces, gives us little assurance of that
abiding state of things, upon which alone commer-
cial men can base their confidence, and in which
alone they dare to put forth their speculative ener-
gies. Many of us are working men, depressed by
the times, heart-sick and hungry, with wives
and children at home, and no bread to giveron tL
them.d
Do any such men hope for anything f
John Russell's ministry? No. He has just Lord
them his backstairs entrance for the Jews, and
his modification of -..e rate-paying clauses of the
Reform Bill He has not offered them even a
stone :- cried for bread, but a bubble.
You cann,,.. ‘,lol* street in any town
in the ). • er any company, go
upon any exchange, or attt,,,i any fair or market,

in which nine men out of ten that you meet, and
the tenth is some hungry expectant of place, or a
place man already—do not scout the notion of any
good thing being derived from such a set. They
are recorded failures—admitted humbugs of the
first water, and even worse.
We call therefore upon the intelligence of Liver-
pool to bestir itself to get rid of Lord John and
his colleagues. Worse, we have already said, can-
not be found. Better, we trust, are .within the
reach of this people. Let a public meeting be
called; let an agitation be set on foot, and vigor-
ously conducted ; and a memorial laid at the foot
of throne praying for the removal. of the incubus
which is now oppressing us; and we shall be doing
five thousand times as much for our own preserva-
tion as all the confederations and associations
united could effect. Let her Majesty offer to the
premier a dukedom, the command of the channel
fleet, or anything else he likes ; pension . off, no
matter at what price, Lord Palmerston, Sir Charles
Wood, and the rest; only spare the nation the
'dreadful infliction of their presence in Downing-
street.

COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH.—FRIDAY.
(Sittings in Banco.)
NORRIS V. FRESH, _ _

This was an action of trespass, to which the defendant

pleaded a justification. The question turned on the con-
struction of the Liverpool Improvement Act, 5 and 6
Vict., c. 106, by the 94th section of which it is provided
that " when any house or building, any part of which
now projects beyond the regular line of the street, or
beyond the front of the houses or buildings on either side
thereof, in any street within the borough, shall be taken
down to be rebuilt or altered, the same shall be set back
to the line of the street. or to the line of the adjoining
house or building, in such manner and according to such
elevation as the council shall approve of for the improve-
ment of such street ; and when the said house or building
shall not adjoin the house and building to be so taken
down, but shall be separated therefrom, then the same
shall be set back to the line of such street; provided
always, that the council shall make compensation to any
such owner for any loss or damage he may sustain in con-
sequence of his house being set back according to the pro-
visions herein contained." The plaintiff was owner of
some houses, with areas in front of them, in a street
called Islington, at Liverpool, and after the passing of
the act the plaintiff pulled down the corner house and
commenced rebuilding it somewhat in advance of the
other houses, but not beyond the limits of the areas. The
corporation of Liverpool interfered to prevent this, and in
so doing committed the trespass for which the plaintiff
brought his action. The learned judge (Mr. Justice
Wightman) at the trial construed the line of street to
mean that along which the public had a right to pass, and
not the line of houses, and therefore the jury found a
verdict for the plaintiff. A rule having been obtained for
a new trial on the ground of misdirection,
Mr. Watson, Q.C., and Mr. Cowling appeared to show
cause against this rule, and Mr. Knowles, Q.C., Mr.
Martin, Q.C., and Mr. Crompton, in support of it.' A.
model of the street, comprising the house, areas, gar-
dens, &c., was exhibited in court, and used by counse to
illustrate their arguments.
The Court said there was great difficulty in compre-
hending the meaning of the act in question, in consequence
of the obscure, ambiguous, and doubtful mode in which
the sections were framed. They were, however, unani-
mously of opinion that the learned judge's construction
was right, and that the rule must be discharged.

THE BIRKENHEAD DOCK BILLS.-DECISION
OF THE COMMITTEE.

At a quarter-past one on Monday afternoon, the Par-
iamentary Committee gave their decision in the case of
:he Birkenhead Dock Completion Bill.

The Chairman, after the parties had been out nearly an
hour, announced that the preamble of the bill, empower-
ing the Woods and Forests to advance £150,000 to com-
plete the dock works at Birkenhead, had not been proved.
The promoters then prayed Tor a few days adjournment,
to consider what course they should take with the other
bills.

The application was granted.
The division in the committee upon the preamble was
—ayes, 4 ; noes, 5 ; majority, 1. The chairman did not
vote.