The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-02-04 00:00:00

ntly waited upon the Minister

tant subject

address was presented
graciously re-

by whom it was most

nister may lean. With respect, then, to financial
matters alone, there is abundant ground for public
ty, ‘vithout glancing at all at the other impor-
s by which it is excited.

Such subjects there are, however, which even more
than the probable direction of our financial or com-
mercial policy are just now agitating the public mind.
A large mass of the people of England are asking
whether any, or what, steps will he taken by gov-
ernment to allay the dissensions which have intro-
duced themselves into the bosom of our Established
Church. The position of the same establishment in
Ireland, and the degree of increased rapport to be
afforded by the state to popery in that country, ex-
cite equal curiosity and no small amount of doubt
and dread in the minds of the Protestant people of
both countries. The fate of the University of Ire-
land, regarded as doomed—the obstinate adherence
of government to the national system of education
in that country, in total disregard to the remonstran-
ces of the majority of the Irish bishops and clergy
—the scarcely disguised leaning of some of the
conservative friends of government to an acknow-
ledgement of the spiritual authority of the Pope,
and to a national provision for the Irish preisthood
—all these things, and the memory of the past, are
justly agitating the protestant people of the empire
with respect to the corning policy of Sir Robert Peel
and his colleagues, with a degree of intensity which
is painful and well nigh insupportable.
We cannot bring ourselves to think that the posi-
tion, thus occupied by Sir Robert, is one which a
British minister ought to hold. It is not a safe
position, either for himself or for the country whose
destinies lie holds, almost absolutely, in his hands.
There is too much of finesse in all this studied con-
cealment--too much evidence of an intention to
hurry the country into the adoption of measures,
which its fully awakened sense would recoil
from. We doubt nothing of the premier's ability
to carry into effect any policy upon which
he may have set his mind, standing as he
does in a position between the agricultural body
and these who seek their ruin—coercing the
former into the adoption of unpalatable measures
by the threat of cohesion with the latter ;—but we
doubt if a government so placed, and thus using its
position, is one by which the true interests of the
people are the most likely to he served. That such
an impression is not a solitary one, the feeling of
anxiety and fear with which the coming measures of
government are regarded, by some even amongst
his most ardent admirers, may go far to prove. Con-
fidence in the just use of the vast power which the
premier wields, we look for in vain ; the reverse is
the prevailing feeling. A few hours, however, will,
in part, solve all doubts.

We have ever argued, in reply to the clamour
raised against the introduction of the Bible into our
Corporation schools, that the objection to the read-
ing of that sacred volume was not the objection of
the children of Roman Catholics, or of their pa-
rents, but emphatically that of their priesthood.
The experience of the working of the Church of
England Schools, in Ireland and in England, has
proved beyond dispute that, wherever educational
facilities, combining Scriptural teaching, are offered
to the children of the working classes, Roman Ca-
tholic parents are ever found ready to grasp at the
boon, when the strong hand of spiritual authority
is not put forth to prevent them. An exemplifica-
tion of the fact is at this moment before us, to which
we beg the attention of the exclusively " liberal"
amongst our fellow-townsmen, and the waverers, if
there are any, amongst the friends of Scriptural

. _
education.
The Wolverton Station on the London and Bir-
mingham Railway, like that of Crewe upon the
Grand Junction, has, within the last few years, ra-
pidly grown into a town, chiefly inhabited by the
servants, workmen, and othei dependants of the
company, and contains at present a population of
about 1,000 persons. A church, with a parsonage
house, has been built for their accomodation, by the
trustees of Dr. Radcliffe, capable of seating about
850, including a gallery for 200 children • and the
proprietors and friends of the company (lave pro-
vided an endowment. The company have also
erected Day and Sunday Schools, of which we take
the following description from a local contemporary,
the Midland Counties Herald,—

" The company's day and Sunday schools are entirely
under the charge of the clergyman; they educate about
250 children, under the care of active and efficient teach-
ers. All the expenses of salaries, books, &e. are defrayed
by the company. Connected with these schools there is
a large lending library, to which the children and their
parents have gratuitous admission. Other persons have
the use of all the books and magazines by paying hi.
weekly. The directors; with a wise liberality, have sup-
plied these schools with various large maps, a fine globe,
a box of geological specimens, an extensive apparatus for
explaining the mechanical powers, numerous drawings of
animals, &c. In short, nothing Khich the clergyman re-
commends for the good of the schools is ever refused ; nn
the contrary, it is granted as soon as mentioned. The
schools are open to childre❑ whose parents are of any or
of no religious denomination ; children from all the neigh-
bouring parishes are also admitted. Children of the Pro-
testant and the Catholic, the Churchman and the Dissen-
ter, sit together, and no difference is made between them.
They learn the same lessons and read the same Bible."

It must be borne in mind, as giving increased
importance to the fact noted, that these are not the
children of Roman Catholics of the wretchedly ig-
norant and pauper class to be found in the courts
and cellars of Liverpool, and whose consciences
have been represented to us as so sensitive upon this
point; but of well-informed, industrious and steady
men—artizans of the highest class. We find them
frequently using the school-rooms "for scientific,
benevolent, and temperance lectures, or else for pur-
poses of mutual instruction." They are most of
them members of clubs and benefit societies, use
extensively the library and reading-rooms provided
for them by the company, and not a few of them are
depositors in the local Savings' Bank.
We are not able to state with certainty whether
the little town of Wolverton has as yet attained suf-
ficient importance in the eyes of the Romish hier-
archy to draw to it a resident priest. We con-
clude, however, that such is not the case. When
it attains such importance, or comes to he blessed
with a " liberal" corporation, we shall no doubt see
the picture of religious concord, which it now pre-
sents, replaced by one of vastly changed aspect and
of infinitely less attractiveness and utility.

The retirement of Mr. W. E. Gladstone from the
Presidency of the Board of Trade has been received
by the community at large with feelings of a very
mingled character, and will continue to he so re-
garded until the precise ground of his differences
with the rest of his colleagues is fully made known.
At present, however, we know of no section of the
community—unless, perhaps, it he amongst an im-
practicable section of the agricultural party, who
attribute to him the chief onus of the Tariff's Regu-
lation Bill—by whom the loss of that gentleman's
valuable services in the Ministry is not regretted.
By all parties his business qualifications and his
integrity of mind and action are acknowledged; and
by few, indeed, is his absence from the Cabinet con-
sidered to have infused increased strength into that
body, or to have afforded it a claim to increased
confidence, on the score of talent or of character, in
the eyes of the country. On the contrary, it is
viewed by many as likely to weaken the Premier
seriously in the House of Commons, whilst it al-
mo-t affords a suspicion of too great an inclination,
on his part, to absorb in his own person, and uncon-
trolled by other commanding talent in that house,
too great a share in directing the functions of the
Administrative.

Of course we state only 'the impressions of the
community with which we are connected, so far as
we have been able to ascertain them—impressions
formed in the absence of any accurate knowledge,
or even conjecture, of the cause of this change.
Two questions indeed have been mentioned upon
which it was conceive] that differences might have
arisen, sufficient to make Mr. Gladstone's retire-
ment necessary. Sbculd either of these, however,
be the real ground, the necessity for the step may
be conceded, but the loss which it has occasioned
will still be deplored.

We have some pleasure in adding our opinion,
fre4uently expressed, to that of the London 'limes,
that the present Session of Parliament ought not to
pass over, and cannot pass over, without some
modification of the Game Laws. Far be it from us
to claim for any portion of the public the right of
trespass, or to deny to the landholder the property
which he undoubtedly possesses, and ought to pos-
sess, -in the game located upon his estate. But as
far are we from justifying, although the right under
the existing law is indubitable, the practice of those
proprietors, who preserve such game until its very
abundance becomes provocative of crime to the ill-
fed and half-employed peasantry around. Game is

food. It is now, moreover, marketable ; and pro-
vides the means of buying clothing as well as food.
Have we any right, then, to throw this property,
which is both food and money, in the way of the
poor, unless we assimilate the penalty for its ab-
straction to that provided for the abstraction of
other property similarly exposed.
We maintain not. We say that the appropriators
of an exposed partridge and of an exposed pair of
shoes are not now on a par. We fine a shopkeeper,
who exposes his wares beyond his shop-window,
and thus tempts the pilfering fraternity; but we
make more stringent our laws in favour of the
nobleman or the squire, who chooses to allow his
game to perambulate the footroads, or to flutter
their wings in the face of a starving man or a lover
of the chase. This is not fair dealing. English-
men are, par excellence, lovers of the chase, and of
field sport.; in general. They are not lovers of
stealing. We have no right to make a propensity,

once a national characteristic, into a heinous crime,
and to tempt it besides ; whilst we punish crime
itself with less, or even with equal, severity.
And for what a paltry end is all this done ! That
noblemen and gentlemen may massacre game which
their forefathers used to hunt. That we may have
our "battues!" That the Honourable Mr. H. and
the Right Honourable Mr. 8., or Prince Albert
himself, may be able to announce to the world that
he has killed so many hundred head of game within
a given number of hours ! Why the feat so an-
nounced is only after all like the achievement of a
man whq shoots as many barn door fowls tethered to
their perch ; and yet for the furtherance of this sport
we are to imprison, to transport, and to hang !

Impossible ! such a law—so redolent of injustice—
so provocative of crime—so fertile an aid to the
hulks d the gallows—cannot possibly be per-
mitted to remain longer, unamended, upon our sta-
tute book.

THE WOODSIDE FERRY.—Acknowledging fully the
excellent management and the first-rate character of the
boats of this ferry, there is one suggestion which we wish
to make to the Commissioners. The first bell is rung
five minutes before the hour—a signal of course to parties
intending to cross to get on board. A second bell how-
ever rines ; and now begins a scene of scampering, by
parties a little belated, or by those who have wilfully de-
layed leaving their cosy firesides, or other attractions
needless to mention, until the last moment. Some of
these may perhaps get on board ; but at periods of low
water many are left. What we wish to suggest is this.
It is a long run at periods of low water, from the gate to
the boat ; and when parties, relying upon the present prac-
tice of taking all who arrive down in time, get heated in
the attempt, and are disappointed, it is no joke to be left
to kick your heels at the bottom of the pier for another
half hour, or until by the arrival of the Liverpool boat,
you are enabled to creep down shivering ito the cabin
Can it not be arranged that

he last bell should be the
signal for closing the gates entirely, in preference to sub-
jecting parties to the consequence of unnecessarily over
exerting themselves, and the risk of severe cold is the
consequence. We make the suggestion from recent ex-
perience of the tendency of the existing practice.
THE FUNDS.—SATURDAY NIGHT.—The Engles
were rather better to-day, although business was not
particularly active. A purchase in one case of £lOO,OOO
stock gave increased confidence to the dealers. Consols
for money leg off this afternoon 100 to k, and for the
account 100 to k buyers ; Exchequer-bills were 625. to
61s. premium ; Bank Stock, 214 to 2151 ; India Stock,
286 to 287 ; Three per Cents. Reduced, 1001 to I; Three-
and-a• Quarter per Cents., 104 k to -4-; Long Annuities,
12 3-16; South Sea Stock, 117; and ditto Old Annuities,
100 k. In the fore'gn market there was also more firmness,
and the leadii g speculative securities showed an upward
tendency. Spanish Three per Cents. were finally quoted
411 to / ; the Five per Cents., 281 to 29 ; Russian, 119
to 120 ; Peruvian, 28 to 29 ; Mexican, 36 to 1 ; the
Deferred, 161 to 2; Dutch Two-and.a-Half per Cents.,
63] to ; the Five per Cents„ 99 to ; Danish, 89 to
to 90; Colombian, 1-18 to 8; Chilian. 100 to 102; Buenos
Ayres, 40 to 41 ; Brazilian, 891 to 901 ; and Belgian, 101
to 102. The further report of the Board of Trade con-
nected with railways, which was published in the Gazette
of last night, has made the market quite active, and
speculation is as rife as ever. The shares of the Churnet
Valley Company were most extensively dealt in, and the
consequence is that they have advanced to 91 premium.
Manchester and Leeds were also done at an advance ;
and Eastern Counties and Trent Valley exhibited a firm
and improving appearance. The shares of the rejected
Irish lines were depressed. For a Saturday, anal consi-
dering the early hour the markets close, a large amount
of business has been transacted in shares

h funds

HYPERCRITICISM AND MODESTY.—We hive been
not a little amused with an article in last week's Courier,
entitled "Analytical Lecture on Gray's Elegy, by Dr.
H. W. Dewhurst, F.R.A.S., Edin., Surgeon," in which
the writer endeavours to prove that the author of the
inimitable "Elegy written in a Country Church Yard" was
a sadly over-rated personage, the said ele4y full of faults,
and, in short, that it could be very considerably improved,
by attending to his own suggestions. Who Dr. Dewhurst
is, of course, we know not; but what he is, viz. a very
presuming person, about as capable of appreciating the
beauties of Gray's ode, as he is of writing another such
poem, a specimen of the production before us will suffi-
ciently show. We regret, by the bve, that we have not at
this moment by us a copy of his first "lecture" on the
same subject, which we are informed is even more pomp-
ous and absurd than the present. Here is the specimen
in question :

xx"-.
For thee. who mindful of the unlionoured dead
Dost in these lines their artless tale relate,
If chance by lonely contemplat on led
Some kindred spirit shat' inquire thy fate.

" That a ' kindred spirit' should he more interested in the
fate of the writer, than one of a different temperament, is
natural ; but how this kindred spirit, should, in his lonely
contemplations, stumble into the same churchyard in
which this elegy was written, we search in vain for a pro-
bable account. I am inclined to imagine Gray to have
sometimes figured this elegy as fixed up in the country
churchyard, as well as originally penned in it." Wretched
cavilling this. assuredly ! The most sublime strains of
Milton or Shakspere would not stand the test of such
microscopic examination. But, another epecimen of the
writer's profundity in his remarks upon " the epitaph":

Here rests his head upon the 'ap of earth,
A youth to fortune and to fame unknown ;
Fair science frown'd not on his humble birth,
And melancholy marked him for her own.

•
Upon this the profound Doctor says, " The head of him
who is immersed in the earth can with little propriety he
said to he on her lap,"—a most sagacious observation!
Upon the line, " He gave to misery (all he had) a tear,"
the Doctor becomes witty, remarking, that he who so
gives, " when that all is a tei.r, may be free from the
charge of hard-he9rtedness, but will be affectedly deno-
minated bountiful, as his giving this kind of all will be
with quaintness called giving largely." Of the character
of the poem, as a whole, the following is a portion of his
summing up :—" Of perfections no doubt it contains
some; hut it also has its blemishes, and, if criticism grant
it nothing but its merit, what will be its praise ?"—mean-
ing to intimate, no doubt, that such praise should be a
very small, if not a negative, quantity ! The world, how-
ever, think differently, and will not be driven from its
opinion by the carping criticism of " Dr. Dewhurst,
F.R.A.S(S)., Edin. Professor," &c. Will the Doctor,
some of these days, favour us with a specimen of his own
poetical compositions ? We should not anatomatize it,
as our surgeon has done the ode of poor Gray.

DR. COOKE, OF BELFAST, is expected in Liverpool
this week, to attend at the induction of the Rev. V. M.
White to the 6arge of the new Presbyterian congregation
meeting in the Commercial-hall, Gloucester-street. The
Presbytery of Lincashire meets in the Commercial-hall
on Thursday forenoon, for the induction; and it is under-
stood that Dr. Cooke has been invited by the Presbytery
to prt.ach, and to take a leading part in the services of the
clay. We doubt not that the fame of this distinguished
divine will tnsure a large audience.

LANDING PI.AC
shown t,vo models of proposed landing places at our prin-
cipal pier, which appear to us to exhibit great ingenuity
and perseverance in the inventor, Mr. Isaacs, of Castle-
street. The prineple of each is different, though in some
of the details somewhat analagous. We cannot take
upon ourselves to pronounce upon their respective merits,
not being practically au fait to the subj!-ct ; but we under-
stand that a model of one of them has been forwarded to
the Dock Committee, who will no doubt exercise their
best judgment in deciding upon it. But we must express
our own crude opinion that the machinery would prove to
complicated, and, consequently, liable to get out of order
by being frequently used, or during the buffets of a gale,
notwithstanding the great facility with which, we are told,
it may be work -:d by a very few hands. We should pre-
fer something combining greater strength and solidity
outwardly; something that would approach more nearly
to a fixed or strong pier, if that can te, accomplished in
our strong river current, without impeding the navigation.
That these are great impediments in the way, will be
readily acknowledged. We are not circumstanced, in
locality and ship traffic, as are our neighbours at Birken-
head, who may run out an ordinary pier or slip to almost
any distance into the bed of the river, without much in:
terruption to vessels, /Ivies being, in most cases, a
weather shore during our prevailing gales. We " reckoe"
nothing, therefore, of the eternal co:nplaints and com-
parisons made by the Birkenhead people of the compara-
tive inferiority of our landing accommodation to theirs.
Clever engineers and nautical men have been brought to a
pause in endeavouring to deal with our deeper side of the
river, which is not only more abrupt and liable to acci-
dents, but, moreover, from its proximity to numerous
docks, necessarily, at all times, studded with numerous
craft, large and small. The object of Mr. Isaacs is,
therefore, to say the least of it, highly praiseworthy, and
should either of his plans be decided upon, we shall be
glad to see it fairly put to the test. The public are, how-
ever, deeply interested in the question, not only as
their own safety and accommodation, but as regards
the expense ; and we bully concur with a correspondent
that before any step be taken precipitately, the corpora.
tion should offer a prize for models (of such amount as
shall ensure the exertions of scientific and practical men)
to be handed in within a given day, and maturely delib-
erated upon. By this plan the Liverpool and Manchester
Railway Company first called into existence the locomo-
tive engine for travelling railways, even before it was deci-
ded whether the tractive power should be horses, statiorery
engines, or other means of traction or propulsion, on their
then original and then considered splendid line.

ES AT LIVERPOOL

—We bare been