The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-03-18 00:00:00

right of interfer-

y or the Poor Law C.

sioners, or even the General Vestry ;
than insinuated that the money is us

jobbing, for expenditure of an-impro

Poor Law Board
by the Rev

1 fine, that it has been termed

Rector Campbell

t service

money

pplied to purposes which the
e not bring openly before the

church

public,

We will br'

fly state the facts of the case. When
placing in the hands of the churchwardens and

overseers of parishes the collection of the income
and property and assessed taxes, Government did
grant them a poundage (31 in the pound) as a
remuneration for the extra labour imposed upon the
parish functionaries ; and in the parish of Liverpool
such poundage has amounted to a large sum, being
last year, we are informed on the authority of Mr.
Samuel Thornely, who, we presume, has taken his
data from the parish books, to which every pa-
rishioner has access—so much, by-the-by, for the
charge of secrecy !—no less than £3582 13s. Id.
Of this sum £2406 1 Is. sd.—the itcms of which
the same very clever gentleman has published in
the Mercury—have been expended, leaving a balance
in hand on the 25th of February of £1476 ls. Bd.
Of the expenditure in question, the who e, with the
exception of two or three items (which are them-
selves strictly connected with parish business), has
been devoted to the payment of the additional clerks
required to enable the officials of the parish to get
through the large additional duty imposed upon
them, and to th payment of a small per tentage
to the collectors and treasurer, previously agreed
upon as a remuneration for their own extra labour.
It is urged that the management of this fund
ought to be in the Select Vestry ; that " the money
collectors, for whose services the poundage is al-
lowed, are paid in chief "—(what does that mean ?)
—" out of the general fund ; and into that fund,
therefore, the poundage ought to go." The facts
here are not exactly as stated. The collectors are
paid by the parish for doing parish business ; they
are not paid for doing the business of Government.
They have extra clerks to engage to assist them in
these increased duties, whose salaries are not paid " in
chief " or otherwise out of the general fund.

At any rate, what claim can the Select Vestry or
the Poor Law Commissioners have over the dis-
posal of this money? The Select Vestry are, under
another name, a Board of Guardians of the poor.
The Commissioners have only too much power al-
ready over the purse of the Rate Payers of Liver•
pool, whose money is squandered by thousands
yearly for the payment of officials which their new-
fangled system has created. The Churchwardens
and Overseers are alone responsible that the business
for which this poundage is allowed by Government
is efficiently performed ; and they are the only proper
parties to have its custody and distribution. The
parishioners do not fear that it will be fully and
honestly accounted for.
We cannot conclude without expressing our strong
reprobation of one insinuation put forth by the
Mercury, which is truly infamous, and if coming
from any other quarter would be so regarded. As
it is, the silliness of the source takes away materially
from the injurious character of the slanderer. Hav-
ing stated that Mr. Thornely had " asked" whether
the payment to Mr. Nightingall was paid out of this
fund, the scribe goes on to declaim—
" And we will ask our readers whether, if this strange
work be allowed to go on, they can possibly he surprised
should parties get into office who will actually b. ibe their
hirelings to " doctor" the electoral register itself?"

We ask if such language is not insulting to the
majority of our fellow-parishioners, and degrading
to the journalist by whom it is propounded. Fie
poor Mercury ! if Dickey Sam has been roused from
his comfortable nap to listen to such insulting trash
as this, he had better go to sleep again over half a
column of one of thy leaders,—a whole column
would be an over-dose, except for a very lively
patient.

" One of the most remarkable circumstance or fea-
ture of our age is the energy with which the principle
of combination, or of action by joint forces and associated
numbers, is manifesting itself. It may be said without ex-
aggeration that everything is done by societies."—Chon-
ning.

The recent Act of Parliament for the regulation of
Joint Stock Companies, together with the immense
demand and general want of the town, has induced
a most respectable body of gentlemen here to form
themselves in' o a company for the insurance
against loss by fire. The one already established in
this town, before the statute, regulating Joint
Stock Companies, passed last Session, has done
well; and, we entertain no doubt, that will' proper
management, and the known respectability of the
parties connected with the formation of it, we may
augur the most favourable result to the subscribers
and to the public. It may not be generally known
that by the 7 c. 8 Vic., c. 110, (under which the
proposed Company will be incorporated) Compa-
nies founded under that statute assume the position
of a limited corporation. They may sue and be
sued in their corporate name. Moreover, a salu-
tory alteration is made as to the liability of share-
holders : previously to this statute an execution
might issue against any partner of the Company
for its liabilities, although there might be funds be-
longing to it, and a most expensive a d tedious
course was left for the unfortunate individual to
seek redress from his copartner. By this new Act,
and which is only applicable to companies founded
upon it, we find that an execution must go against
the property of the company until it is exhausted,
and then the property of the shareholder, but the
execution creditor must exercise due diligence
against the effects of the company. With respect
to a former shareholder, he is not liable, unless ha

fur which the ju 'gment was obta'

,d, and

case can he be made responsible after the lapse of
three years from the date of his mnifer.
We have long thought that Liverpool should
have more than one Fire-office, and are glad :a see
some of our enterprising mercantile men starting
one under wholesome auspices. During the last
few years the amount of premiums abstracted, as it
were, out of the town, has been immense. We
believe that during the last year the enormous sum

of one million has been paid for premiums on fire-
insurances alone in this town. This large amount
arises as well from the rapid increase of Liverpool
as from the high rates of insurances, in our opinion
amounting almost to a prohibition to insure. The
rate of premium on commercial floating policies
was, up to the year 1825, charged only at 2s. 6d.;

to the early part of

.t 7s. ; 1836, 12

; and

now, or until a few day
do hope, however,

ago, 355. per cent

_
*hat this new Company will re-
tax, and fix

lieve the town from this pon

We therefore wish it a hearty success

)een pu

Monopoly Association, addressed to the journeymen
shipwrights of Liverpool, on the subject of the re-
cent advance in their wages, which we notice, as af-
fording an excellent specimen of the kind of fallacies
with which the gentlemen who compose that wise
body have bewildered themselves and are endea-
vouring to deceive others. For the sake of perspi-
cuity we shall remark upon the different paragraphs
of this laboured production seriatim. It commences
as follows :