The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-11-21 00:00:00

defendants

r plea is to

athority here which might in-

that, were th

t is resolved to forf

Surely not. Experience of the motives attributed
to him for past concessions ought to convince him
that a concession in the present crisis must be fatal
to the country, whose interests, and to a Protestant
people whose very lives, are in his keeping.
A few hours, however, may solve for us the ques-
tion, whether we are to look to Sir Robert Peel for
a firm administration of the authority of the Govern-
ment to put down the machinations of traitors, or
we are not. Our advices from Ireland this morning
will, in all probability, inform us whether Mr. O'Con-
nell and his fellow conspirators have adopted the sug-
gestion of the Government paper, or have resorted
to further motions of an obstructive character. In
the meantime it is impossible to contemplate without
anxiety the growing danger of our position with
respect to Ireland. Without doubt it is in contem-
plation that a fair trial of the parties now accused
should be prevented, by an effort to swamp the jury
panel by the admission upon it of a mob of pledged
repealers ; and, should such an outrageous measure
be successful,—should the giving of " a true ver-
dict according to the evidence" be resisted by the
same means which have enabled murderers of the
deepest dye to escape the punishment due to out-
raged humanity—what, we ask, must be the next
step of a Government determined to vindicate at all
hazards the supremacy of the law, and to maintain
the integrity of the empire ?

We are not here

about to enter into any enquiry

with respect to the singularly inopportune time
chosen by Mr. Corrie for bringing forward his
charge against the house of Messrs. Sands, Turner,
and Co., or the motives which induced such choice
of time

These questions will form a subject o
grave enquiry before the proper authorities. There
are, however, one or two features in the letters of
Mr. Corrie, read at the last Council Meeting, to
which we may here, without impropriety, direct the
attention of that body under whom the receiver of
town duties holds his very responsible position.
In one of the communications in question, Mr.
Corrie intimated to the Council and the commercial
world that the criterion of honesty on the part of a
shipper of goods, as applied at the town dues office,
was a faithful adherence to the description of such
goods, as given to him by the consignor in his
advice note. What the Manchester exporter chooses
to denominate a truss or a box, is only to be de-
scribed as such by the forwarding agent here; and
all is en regle. This would be almost to dispense
with our consciences, our common sense, and our
honesty,. and use only those of the public, whose
goods are daily passing through our hands. We
cannot agree with this ; and we much question if
the Town-clerk, or any other legal authority, views
our position in the same light as Mr. Corrie, or is
prepared to say that we hold our right to the levy-
ing of town dues subject to the amount of
honesty to be found in Manchester, Leeds, or else-
where, amongst the shippers who forward their
goods from our port.
,We have a distinct right to
certain specified rates, or we have not. If we have,
Mr. Corrie's suggestion of the most orthodox mode
of escaping the payment of those rates—a sugges-
tion which will be pretty extensively acted upon—
is very indiscreet ; and if we have not, it is disho-
nest in us to levy them from those conscientious
people who do not resort to subterfuge to save their
pockets.

a "truss

the peo

learned in thes

somewh2

deeply inter

portion of th

enable

gainst ! MALICIOUS SLANDERS OF THE LIVERPOOL
he put I TIMES.

this da

et the attention of our readers

to an attack upon the character of the proprietors of the
Liverpool Standard, which, had the writer's ability to
and has induced some, to believe injure been equal to his mean and malicious eagerness to
event to occur which the Standard make the attempt, they must, in justice to themselves,
contemplates—were O'Connell and his confederates have been driven to notice before another tribunal.

to plead guilty to the present informations—the
malttiewainll
ebflsorstu.ffi
ancidenwtley
arreemehma beretd, thata tloastthweeeekntiwree
Government are prepared to walk into the trap set satisfaction of our friends, to
placeppy before the public, ac-
for them, and to accept security (!) that seditious cduemtaFlaanained
probable
nerVnanantrtyned!gerimp.tioan alsantoof thet
practices and agitation are to be laid aside for ever docks proposes, to be constrgucted upon the"sitepof Walla-
by men who live by them, and are pledged before- reYadP )norl .i n
fTO ensureroma . correctnessct) we whentaTr•hoef
A fountainr
hand to proceed with them. We repeat our con- head, were favoured:n' weinth, permission by
.e John Laird
publish, litheo--
viction, founded, however, only upon general graphed, the . planlB designed by his late father, William
grounds, that such a course cannot be that which a the few psaci:t'ilcnular3s7ingiwtcgia i tilt ogirffere explanatory
from
that r•em
sainkose,
Conservative Government can adopt, unless indeed, I adopted by the Commissioners of Birkenhead, and sanc-
tioned by the Admiralty. An obstruction to the working
:eit the respect of its supporters, off of our plan was, in the course of Monday. attempted
and to earn the contempt of the whole world. by a party to whose conduct in the matter and the motives
of such conduct we shall refer by -and-b 5-e This, how-
Mr. O'Connell can give no security for the cessa- ever, was at once removed by the
kindness .of the gentle-
tion of the mischievous and dangerous agitation man, Mr. Laird, from whom our permission to use such
btained ;
an dwe then that we were which he has originated in Ireland—no security for perfectly ;:) so order, and that no imputationconcluded upon us of any
the peace of that unhappy country. Already we kind could arise from any quarter.
were here,the
t te
littleness
however,mind i
aenrdrosrp.iteNfVlehaaad of(1 ano .
have had experience of the non-effect of his en- under-
estimatedlew
treaties to the Irish people to abstain from outrage. sition of a contemporary, to whom it seems to give offence
The reply to them has been the attempted murder, that
favourourin
the
ee as reoi
ourweek
faefitleorwwteoewk ,n
sfindingfellow-townsmen,
e nw
additionallst
the
within the past week, of a whole family in Tipperary, amount of stupidity contained in his own columns is
and the lighting of bale fires throughout the country, I:;rceohmai-
Tgo'vewrloaokkearthe week
fact week, more
displaying the complete organisation of the disaffec- h?rtrewcotlwy
were rapidly
increasing in circulation and influence, a contemporary
ted peasantry for any movement of violence and notfuss fifty.m yardsortao
importance
d usfro had dwindled
t . fromle ( asyoonsistion intooaf
bloodsh‘Can Sir Robert Peel contemplate such spacyelsopsmall, that he cman rbeespsueeffiectientlymaecncommodated
a monstrous absurdity as would be the letting out
abil. a little table
u in
.a hat-shop. Wef hadLf9rgottein,pimfaect,
upon the world of a man whose mere hint would, at and ourtsuergeer
was,
mg
tle existencerefo
therefore,
noto the
unaccoeurnptuable on our
any moment, serve to fan into an outbreak the mass atitlenitiion being. called to a pp•agraph_in that
_jour_nal, in
icau
of excitable feeling at present existing throughout
our reawdeesrsi Illop uhaving
o giTv
oar)
,doirref,teinagndatorooststof
givde,uapsona
Ireland ? Can he for a moment imagine that such plan of the proposed new docks, something totally differ-
injudicious clemency would be attributed by the Wttliebyy had übho utghlftyawpolualnd
01r
th"eatimveur°llpooir rclecsd iunplB23s
Irish people to an) other motive than cowardice ? instead of the same docks in 1843."

Of course, the object of our contemporary in thus
misrepresenting us is sufficiently obvious and disgraceful
to him as a man and as a tradesman. He sought to in-
jure the sale of our paper, and deprive us of the reward
of our exertions. His assumed regard for the welfare of
" the poor ignorant people who take our paper," was in
reality a splenetic and regretful remembrance of the fast
diminishing number of the exclusively enlightened who
take his own ! To enable the world, however, to arrive
at the full amount of baseness which has characterized
this incident in our contemporary's career, we must ex-
plain by what means he derived the information upon
which he proceeded to attack us. For this information we
thought it our duty to apply by letter to Mr. Thomas
Baines, the proprietor and editor of the Times, from
whom we received a letter in reply, stating that their
authority was Mr. Samuel Stansfield, one of the commis-
sioners of Birkenhead.
The first thing, of course, which must present itself
to an intelligent reader, is this inquiry,—" What interest
could this Mr. Samuel Stansfield have in the circum-
stance that the 'proprietors of the Liverpool Standard
were about to present their readers with this or any other
plan of the proposed Docks at Wallasey ? What busi-
ness had this meddling quaker to obtrude what the Rev.
Sydney Smith would term his ' drab' physiognomy into
our affairs ?" Some grand consideration it must have
been which took him, with one of our unpublished and
unfinished plans in his fingers, to furnish to our friend in
Castle-street the materials for his clumsily executed at-
tack ,upon us. What was that consideration ? We will
inform the world. Be it known, then, to all and sundry,
that Mr. Samuel Stansfield is, in his old days, about to
rush into notoriety as an author !—that Samuel Stans-
field is writing a book !—a History of Birkenhead from
the time of the Deluge, or a description, from explora-
tory surveys made by himself, of its sewers, illustrated
with various plans, maps, and in all probab:!;'with his
own portrait as a frontispiece. In the Book c,aestion
is to appear, or was td have appeared, a copy of the very
plan which we gave to our readers on Tuesday last ; and
hence the assumed humane and virtuous consideration of
Samuel for the pockets of our readers. We were antici-
pating by a full month the Quaker's book ! We were
consigning the literary labours of Samuel to the trunk-
maker before their time!
Leaving, however, as beneath our notice, this person
and his book, we must say that it was the duty of the
Times to examine well into the truth of his statements
before founding upon them the injurious comments to
which we have referred above,—and especially so, after
having been satisfied by Mr. John Laird of their total
inapplicability and injustice; and that he did not do so
stamps his conduct, in our opinion, as anything but re-
putable.
A few words of advice to the Times, in conclusion. if
the feelings of our contemporary will not permit him to
contemplate the deserved success of a rival newspaper,
without impelling him to such displays of vindictiveness
as that upon which we have had this day to remark, we
would strongly advise bim to retire from his present po-
sition. There are pursuits sufficient which are much
more congenial to his habits, and fitted for his talents,
than that of journalism, for which be possesses about as
much aptitude as the Swede turnips and mangel-wurzel
which he nurses with such parental solicitude.

FIRE AT AIGBURTR.—On Wednesday evening a fire
was discovered in the stable of Mr. John Fletcher, Aig-
burth. Information was sent to the Fire-police Station
in this town, and engines were immediately despatched.
One stable was destroyed, and another partially burnt be-
fore the flames were extinguished.

INCENDIARY FIRES AT ROSY.—Oa Wednesday last a
man of unsound mind, was brought up at the Court-
house, Kirkdale, supposed to have been implicated in this
affair. Under the circumstances of the case, however, no
evidence was offered, and he was given in charge of his
friends to be taken care of.

FATAL ACCIDENT AT PRESCOT.-011 Thursday evening
a melancholy accident occurred at Mr. Yates's coal-pit,
Snig-lane, Prescot. It appears that a poor Irishman,
named Dennis Stall, on the eve of his departure for Ire-
land, had gone to the pit to take leave of some of his
friends, who were employed at the colliery. After being
engaged in conversation in a little cabin at the mouth of
the pit, Stall got up and took his leave of his friends, but
had scarcely got out of the cabin when, not knowing his
way, he fell into the pit, and was dashed to pieces by the
fall. His remains were got out by his companions, and
carried into the town, where an inquest was held on the
following day, before Mr. Heyes, the coroner, and a ver-
dict of " accidental death" returned. The poor man had
returned from the harvest with his little savings, and was
on the next day to have sailed for Ireland.

PRESBYTERIAN MEETING.—On Thursday evening
last a numerous and respectable meeting of the Irish
Presbyterians resident in this town was held at the Bible
Society's Room, Slater-street, for the purpose of adopting
measures to raise a congregation in Liverpool in connexion
with the Presbyterian General Assembly of Ireland. The
chair was occupied by Mr. Samuel Bingham, who opened
the meeting with prayer. A great deal of valuable sta-
tistical information respecting this body of people in Li-
verpool was laid before the meeting, all of a very satisfac-
tory nature, and several resolutions unanamiously adopted.
The Commercial Hall, in Gloucester-street, over the
Railway Station, has been secured for the performance of
divine worship, which is expected to commence on the
second Sabbath in December. An eminent minister from
Ireland is expected to attend.

THEFT OF A VALUABLE Box FROM THE QUAY.—In
the begining of the present month, a large box, belonging
to a passenger by one of the Glasgow steamers, was
landed at the quay near the Prince's pierhead, and soon
after disappeared. Information was given to the police,
and enquiry being set on foot, and bills printed, a clue
was found to a part of the property, and a young man,
named Hugh Frazer, was yesterday brought up at the
police-court for examination. It appeared that on Satur-
day last the prisoner had offered several silver spoons and
a pair of sugar tongs in pledge, at the shop of Mr.
M`Pherson, Tithebarn-street, and, as they answered the
description given, he was detained, and an officer was
sent for. Mrs. Isabella said that she arrived from
Greenock a few weeks ago, and had the box landed. It
contained the spoons. some trinckets, beads, two Bibles,
and a variety of other articles, worth in all about £2O.
She identified the spoons, &c., both by their appearance
and the initials upon them. Three pawn-tickets, from
different shops, were also found upon the prisoner for
other parts of the property, which was also produced and
identified. About the value of £5 out of the £2O is all
that is yet recovered. The prisoner told an improbable
story of having found the articles in " George's-square,"
which he afterwards changed to " Wolstenholm-square."
He was committed for trial.

MANOR LEET OF SEA COMBE.—On Wednesday last,
according to usual custom, the Manor Leet of Seacombe
was held at Parry's hotel, for the purpose of adjusting any
differences between Richard Smith, Esq., of Bankfield-
house. Ulverston, the Lord of the Manor, of Poulton-
cum-Seacombe, and the tenantry. A jury was empan-
elled, and the general formalities of the court gone through ;
after which about twenty-six gentlemen sat down to a
sumptuous dinner, prepared in the well known style of
Mrs. Parry, whose name is a sufficient guarantee for all
that is good in the culinary department.—Amongst the
gentlemen present were—T. K. Hassall, Esq., solicitor,
in the chair, Henry Meadows, Esq., Manor-house, Pout.
ton, vice-chairman ; Major Fletcher, Dr. Halliday, Dr.
Ellis, John Parry, Esq., Richard Parry, Esq., John Twi-
name, Esq., John Crump, Esq., William Haselden,
Esq., Clarkson, Esq., Murphy, Esq., &c., &c.
After dinner many loyal and appropriate toasts were given,
and all responded to in neat and pithy addresses. The
reply of Mr. Richard Parry, when the town and trade of
Seacombe was drunk, was exceedingly sarcastic and face-
tious. He said, that in consequence of what was going
on at this side of the water (Cheshire), he supposed the
people on the other side (Liverpool) would be stirring all
the powers in the world to keep their preeminence ; but
do what they could they would never arrive at what the
town of Seacombe then was !—Mr. Hendrick, the " poet
laureate" of Seacombe, favoured the company with an
amusing song written expressly for the occasion, which
was received with roars of laughter. Suffice it to say, the
evening was concluded in the most pleasant and convivial
way, and the company separated at a late hour, highly de-
lighted with the entertainment.