The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-01-22 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS,

THE LION QUEEN.—A correspondent at Windsor, writing
to us on the frightful death of this unfortunate female, says,
—" I saw the same performance, with my children, when a
woman of the name of Miss Chapman went into the den of
the lion and tiger. The caravans were afterwards drawn up
in the quadrangle of the Castle, and her Majesty and Prince
Albert, with the young Princes and Princesses, walked from
the private entrance to the central tent. I saw them, and
heard afterwards with much pleasure a fact which I wish you
to record, viz., that her Majesty commanded that Miss
Chapman should not go into the den during that exhibition.
The correct judgment and humanity of our Sovereign are a
remarkable contrast to the manners and feelings of Spanish
queens."
We have received several suggestions on the subject of the
locality of tie proposed new Corn Exchange, which is excit-
ing considerable interest in the town. It is asked—why not
extend the present building. from Ilrunswick-street to James-
street? A more feasible proposition, however, appears to us
to be made by another correspondent,—viz., to take the
waste land adjoining the Railway Station in James-street,
anti extending to Redcross-street, which, it is believed,
would be sold by the company at a considerable sacrifice on
the price originally paid for it. A fine building in that
locality would be a great ornament to a great thoroughfare,
and would open out to profitable use a considerable amount
of back property, at present yielding a very small return.

Elie Etbrrpool AlanbarD.

TUESDAY

MORNING, JAN.

22, 1850.

MR. ROBERT STEPHENSON very justly reminded
us, on Tuesday last, that we had been for full five
years discussing the question of water supply; and
he left it as the unmistakeable inference that the
advocates of a home source ought to have been
prepared with some evidence, in support of their
case, to offer:before the tribunal which themselves
had invited. We perfectly agree with him ; and,
in common with nine-tenths of the community, we
were both amazed and disappointed by the abortive
proceedings on the occasion. In conducting such
an enquiry, a gentleman of practical business habits,
like Mr. Stephenson, must have expected that a
Parochial Committee, appointed to express the
views of a majority of their fellow-townsmen, and
possessed of ample funds to carry out its object,
would have been placed above the necessity of re-
sorting to such an appeal ad misericordiam as that
put forward on the occasion; and been able at once
to lay before him a case with facts both oral and
documentary in its support. The Committee,
however, appeared altogether at sea, unprovided
either with a plan of proceeding, or a tittle of
evidence. And it is greatly to be feared that a
most unfavourable impression must have been left
upon the mind of the arbitrator.
There ought surely to be no difficulty in com-
plying with the very simple requirements, which
Mr. Stephenson has laid down for his guidance.
He asks for facts to be placed before him, unvar-
nished by professional advocacy; and he is willing
to receive them either in a written or in an oral
form. The parochial committee have a *large store
of such facts within their reach. The reports of
Messrs. Simpson and Newlands, the recent offer of
Mr. Houseley, and the evidence of Mr. Macdonald,
might readily have been produced. The commit-
tee inform us that they are inundated with commu-
nications upon the subject. Why not then have
laid the most important of these before Mr. Ste-
phenson ? There have been doubts thrown upon
the correctness of Mr. Hawksley's estimates which
require to be cleared up; and we certainly cannot
see upon what grounds the Parochial Committee
need to fear that gentleman's presence in the court
to solve those doubts. From the very announce-
ment of Tuesday's proceedings, it was manifest
that party bitterness was about to be introduced
into the discussion.

We trust that this kind of spirit will be laid aside
to-day; and that the advocates of local supply
and their opponents will agree upon a mode of pro-
eeeding such as will lead to a practical result.
There ought to be no serious difficulty in arrang-
ing such facts as are required, whatever there may
be in forming a satisfactory judgment upon them.
An important portion of the inquiry—the boring of
the strata around the town—will have to be con-
ducted under the superintendence of Mr. Stephen-
son himself. Other circumstances bearing upon
the capabilities of the district may very readily be
Placed before him.

It would be well if both the friends and the op-
ponents of the Rivington scheme would take into
consideration during this inquiry the very respon-
sible position which Mr. Stephenson occupies. In
deciding the question submitted to him, he very
justly reminds us that he has a well-established re-
putation to maintain; and no other consideration,
we feel assured, would be permitted by him to warp
his judgment on either side. His is no trial of
professional gladiatorship. He sits to decide the
question at issue strictly as a judge of facts and, a
scientific man. No skill of pleading—no cunning
of fence will be allowed to influence him. Such
instrumentalities might influence a jury or a par-
liamentary committee ; but Mr. Stephenson has
seen sufficient of such contests of engineering
plausibility and forensic skill to know that the best
arranged case is not always that which deserves
best to be successful,

WE are glad to observe that the harassing in-
terference of the Poor-law Commissioners with the
local affairs of the large towns and cities of the
empire is beginning to stir up an amount of public
indignation, which may ultimately lead to the
breaking up of that system of tyranny; and it is
not unworthy of remark, that the case of our own
town, which, in defiance of the protestation of
nine-tenths of its inhabitants, was forced under
the Somerset-house dictation, is operating as a
beacon to warn other towns from submitting to the
same fate. The Commissioners are just now calling
upon the Corporation of the poor of Bristol to sub-
mit their accounts to a Poor-law audit ; and a
public meeting, called by the Mayor of that city,
was held on Wednesday week upon the subject.
Before that meeting the Governor of the Corpora-
tion of the poor brought the experience of Liver-
pool, as shown in the statements which we gave
from the last published report of our Select Vestry ;
and triumphantly carried a resolution, authorising
the local authorities to resist the Commissioners
even before a court of law.
The facts, by which the Governor, Mr. J. G.
Shaw, and other speakers substantiated the denial
of any necessity existing for the interference of the
Commissioners with the management of the local
affairs of Bristol, are so striking, and are so closely
on all fours with those which existed in this town
before we were brought under subjection to them,
that we cannot resist giving their substance. Under
a local body, for a century and a half, " the Cor-
poration of the poor carried on, uninterruptedly,
the important trust committed to its charge without
any expression of desire on the part of the rate-payers
for a change." Such was their liberal conduct to-
wards their poor fellow-beings, who were brought
down to the condition of pauperism, that we are told
that it was considered a privilege to belong to the
city. The Corporation possessed the power of re-
laxing, in emergencies, the iron rigidity of the law.

If temporary misfortune befel the working man,
they granted him temporary outdoor relief, rather
than degrade and convert him into a confirmed
pauper, by the application of the workhouse test.
They gave such a man a chance of redeeming him-
self in the world, and becoming once more an in-
dustrious and self-supporting person, instead of a
burthen upon his industrious neighbours. This
was precisely the system upon which the affairs of
this parish were conducted prior to our being sub-
mitted to the caprices of a Poor•law auditor, and
the dictation of the Board and its officers in Lon-
don. Our parochial body was composed of men
possessed of an intimate acquaintance with local
circumstances, and the ebb and flow of employment
in the port ; yet they were deeply and personally
interested in studying a just economy. Like the
Corporation of Bristol, they were enabled to do
this, because they could act independently of an
arbitrary Board, who were glaringly ignorant of
the wants and dispositions of our population, and
insist upon submitting the worthy and the un-
worthy alike to the operation of the same unbend-

ing law.
Let us see what has been the result of the past
few years upon the relative positions of the two
places. Nearly ten years ago Liverpool was placed
under the rule of the Commissioners. The poor's-
rate at that time was Is, 7d. in the pound ; it is
now 3s. 2d. Bristol has as yet maintained its in-
dependence; and in 1819 the total cost of main-
taining its Poor was £20,108. The population has
more than doubled since that time, and pauperism
increased. The city is like our own town, exposed
to invasions from Ireland; yet in 1848 the total
cost of maintaining its poor had only increased to
£21,500 odd, or about one-eighteenth, while the
general expenditure in England and Wales had in
creased from
£5,000,000 to-£8,000,000,. or three-
fifths Fortunate Bristol, to have been thus far
so favoured !

And wbat is it that the Poor•law Commissioners

wish to achieve by the introduction of an auditor to
pass the accounts of the Corporation of the poor of
Bristol ? Precisely the same which they have
achieved in doing so here. They seek to be enabled
to overthrow the powers of the Corporation by a
sidewind, and to place that body, as the Vestry of
Liverpool has been placed—under the dictation of
its own officers. This was admirably explained by
Mr. Herapath

" There were circumstances connected with the Cor-
poration of the Poor of Bristol quite separate and distinct
from any other part of the kingdom. In the first place
there were two honorary and unpaid officers at the head
of the body, mild they had a master whom they did pay;
but if they admitted a government auditor, what would
be the effect of it ? Why substantially to put the master
at the head of the body. The Committee of Relief would
perhaps order certain relief to he given ; the master would
reply, I cannot give it.' Why not ?" Because the
auditor will not permit it.' The consequence would be
that the Committee of Relief would be a nullity—not of
the least use, and the master would be put at the head of
the governor, deputy-governor, and the whole corpora-

tion. in point of fact the whole system must be broken
up. (Cheers.) There was another consideration—under
the present system, the workhouse and lunatic asylum
were together, and under the same management; when
the government auditor came to audit the accounts, he
would perhaps disallow items connected with the lunatic
asylum, and the consequence would be that the conatris-
sinners of lunacy would immediately interfere, and a new
building, at the cost of £40,000 or £50,000, would have to
be erected, because they would not allow them to remain
together. (Hear, and cheers)."
Precisely so ; and the rate-payers of Bristol would
have to pay, as we are paying, for this harassing in-
terfsrence of an auditor, who may be nobody knows
who; but if any portion of the Corporation should
propose to establish a pet hobby of that worthy
official's superiors—an Industrial School like our
own, for instance—there will be no demur to pass
any of the various items of its cost, or even to swallow
bandmasters, drillmasters, model ships and all. By
the by, whilst upon the subject of this establish-
ment, the accounts of which the Poor-law auditor
is probably engaged upon whilst we write, our own
fellow-townsmen will understand the extravagant
scale upon which it is carried on when we state,
that, at as near an estimate as we can form, every
scholar within its walls costs the parish for educa-
tion from £l4 to £l6, whilst our Blue Coat scholars
cost only £l2, and our Orphan Asylum children
only £9 per head ! The quality of the training in
the two latter establishments, we need not say, is
of the best description.
We trust that our Bristol friends will persevere
to the last in their resistance to the encroachments
of the Board. They may depend upon it that, with
the exception of a few captious spirits amongst
themselves, the feeling of the country is with them;
and that when they submit to the interference of
an auditor of the Commissioners, they will find few
independent gentlemen very anxious to remain on
the Board.

THE amendment, shown to be required in the
provisions of the Sanitary Bill, affords a striking
instance of the haity and loose manner in which
modern legislation is conducted. Amongst the
objects, for which the existing Act of Parliament
was obtained, was one to put down the practice off`
inhabiting badly-ventilated cellars, to which was
attributed a large share in producing the great
mortality in this town. Immediately cn the pass-
ing of the act, the Health Committee set vigour-
ously to work to clear out these dens.-ef filth and
pestilence ; but it was soon discovered that their
efforts were neutralized by the imperfect nature of
the powers given. The active inspector of nuisan-
ces, Mr. Fresh, explained very clearly at the meet-
ing of the sub-committee, last week, the nature of
the obstacle to its proper working. A ten days'
notice to the. occupant of a condemned cellar is
required to be served upon the tenant; and when,
at the expiry of such notice, the officers proceed to
see that it is vacated, they find, in the majority of
cases, a new party in occupation ; that the John
Jones, or Paddy Murphy, who had been served
with notice, had given place to some Thomas Jones
or Dennis Murphy, who, of course, must be pro-
ceeded against de novo. To add to the difficulty
of carrying out the objects of the act, no penalty
was enacted upon parties offending against its pro-
visions. The same was the case as respects parties
not complying with the provisions of the Building
Act : there was no penalty imposed upon parties
offending.
Another grievous oversight was committed in
dealing with common lodging-houses. The exist-
ing law interferes only with those houses in which
parties shelter merely for a night. Its provisions
were evaded by the occupants of such houses re-
sorting to similar habitations as weekly lodgers, in
which they are crowded together in filth and vice,
as many as fifty in a single small house. Another
mode in which the act is invaded is by the occu-
pants of cellars not having on the premises proper
bedding to impart to them the character of a per-
manent
habitation. The officers of the Health
Committee find themselves utterly unable, under
their present act, to put down the nuisance. The
means provided for the regulation of marine stores
are equally inoperative. We have no security, be- I
yond the fact of parties keeping such establish-
ments not having previously been convicted for an
offence against the law, to guard the public from
the licensing of thorough scoundrels; and it is a
well known fact that in very many cases these
places offer a direct premium upon crime. The
Health Committee we trust will take powers to ,
exact from all parties engaged in the business a
security, by bond or otherwise.
With respect to the most important portion of
the bill—the clause imposing liability for the local
rates upon owners of all descriptions of property—
there will, no doubt, be conflicting opinions; and
the owners of cottages especially, who conceive
that it has been expressly framed to catch them-
selves, will, no doubt, oppose it strongly. We can,
however, see no very valid reason why these parties
should be permitted to offer their tenants an immu- ,
nity from the burthens, which should be borne by
all. It may be perfectly true, as urged, that the
rents of a large portion of the cottage buildings
throughout the town are very difficult to collect,
and that many of the tenants are very little removed
from pauperism. But in what condition, as to
repairs, &c., is the bulk of such property ? It is a
disgraceful one, notwithstanding all the efforts
made to effect an improvement. If men will endea-
vour to extort rents for such hovels as are to be
found in the streets and courts between Vauxhall-
road and Marybone, for example, which are not fit
for human beings to live in, they may expect to get
tenants of the lowest grade both as to means and
morals. 'Wherever good cottage property has been
erected and kept in good condition, we believe that
it pays a very fair interest to the owner ; very much
more than is returned by property in streets which
used to constitute the best portion of the town.
There will, of course, be cases, as suggested by
Mr. James Holme, in which houseowners will expe-
rience difficulty in getting from their tenants a rent
increased in proportion to the amount of taxes paid.
It is only natural that it should be so. The ten-
dency of all descriptions of property is downwards;
and houseowners will not be allowed to claim an
immunity which owners of other property do not
enjoy. The case put by Mr. Holme himself, that
" he could go on the Bury Railway, and buy land
for a tenth of the price in Liverpool, yet be as near
the Exchange as if he was at Edge-hill," points at
one striking cause of the deterioration. Another is
our enormous parochial and other local expenditure.
If the heavy ratepayers of Liverpool—and Mr.
Holme is one—would exert themselves to keep
down such expenditure, their property would be
infinitely benefitted by the result of their exertions.

WE have been authoritatively told by the leading
members of the Free Trade party that a return to a
protective policy is an impossibility; that the Corn
Laws once repealed, the agriculturist must submit
even to ruin, without an effort being made by the
legislature to save him. In the present state of
parties perhaps this is so. A direct return to pro-
tection is not just now likely ; but it may be worth
while enquiring whether some modification of the
existing laws affecting native industry may not be
made with advantage, and in accordance with strict
justice. Few statesmen can arrogate for themselves
legislative infallibility; and we think if it can be
shewn that the policy of the last few years has
operated to confer a direct advantage upon the
foreigner in the race of competition with British
industry, a case will have been established in favor
of the interposition of Parliament.
We have not fai4o go in order to discover
anomalies in many tiir our recent measures. Take
first the Navigation Laws' Repeal Bill of last
session. Is it just to the British shipbuilder that
he should pay duty on the timber which he uses,
whilst the foreigner imports his ships without
paying a farthing of duty upon either his timber or
materials; Surely not, The most bigoted tidy°.

cate of Free Trade cannot maintain this to be just,
or to have been the deliberate intention of Parlia-
ment; and unless some modification of the law is
submitted to, its effect must he to drive ship-
building from this country to the shores of the
Baltic, or to other timber-growing countries._

A similar anomaly is to be foUnd in Sir Robert
Peel's Bill for the Repeal of the Corn-laws. It
was intended by that bill only to attack the posi-
tion of the owners and cultivators of the soil ; but
what is its present operation? A large increasing
'portion of the imports comes here in the manufac-
tured state, thus depriving some thousands of mil-
lers of their occupation. It is brought over in
sacks, which pay no duty, whilst the British grower
is subjected to a heavy impost ; and in barrels also
duty free, depriving the cooper of this country of a
large amount of employment. A good American
barrel can now be bought for sixpence ; and is used
in nearly every dwelling in the kingdom, instead of
the vessels which the native artizan has hitherto
supplied. Turn to the effect of the same measure
in destroying the chief source of prosperity in our
colonies. It was surely never intended to place the
Canadas. as corn-growing countries, in a position
less favourable than the United States; yet such is
the result. The Canadian farmer receives thirty
per cent. less for his produce than the American
farmer. He ships his produce in American ships
from American ports ; and uses American canals,
instead of his own, for its transfer to the seaboard,
whilst the very country thus benefitted refuses to
admit a single article of his for consumption with-
out exacting an enormous duty. Surely it would
have been but just to have given our own fellow-
countrymen in these colonies a protection sufficient
to have enabled him to meet on equal terms his non-
reciprocating neighbour. We have done this in favor
of other branches of our native industry, We tax
highly every description of manufactured foreign
produce. The tailor, the shoemaker, the tobacco
manufacturer, the machine maker, and numerous
other trades, are strictly protected ; and why not
the miller, the sackmaker and the cooper?

Even more hard is the case of the West Indian
sugar grower. We told him a few years ago that
free labour was cheaper than slave labour ; that he
would be enabled to compete successfully with
Brazil and Cuba ; and that our navy would prevent
these countries importing Africans to carry on their
cultivation. Every one of these promises has been
broken. Free labour is now admitted to be dear
labour; Brazil and Cuba have doubled their pro-
duction, and are enabled to exact double prices for
their produce ; and the slave trade has trebled in
its extent, Our colonies are ruined ; and we are
about to abandon our blockade of the African
coast as utterly abortive. Is a policy thus ad-
mitted to be founded on error to be regarded as
incapable of being retraced or modified.

We venture to.._ assure Sir Robert Peel and his
supporters that-the country is not disposed to re-
gard any one of their measures as settled beyond
recal. It cannot be denied that their whole policy
has been based upon lying promises. The labourer
was to have a large loaf and better wages ; the
'landowner was to have his usual rents, and the
farmer increased profits on his cultivation. Yet
Sir Robert Peel himself is compelled to lop away
20 per cent. from his rent roll ; and that, without
the certainty that his tenant will be enabled to
live. Fifty-six shillings were to have been the price
of the quarter of wheat; yet, with the first year of
a good harvest we have it down at 40s. Universal
prosperity was to have been diffused amongst our
consuming classes ; we have instead almost univer-
sal prostration ; money stored up in our banks,
because it cannot be profitably put into circulation,
and one half of the community driven to resort to
every available means of reducing expenditure and
employing labour. What matter, however, exclaim
our philosophers ! Manchester is flourishing, and
the West Riding in full activity. Every shuttle
and spindle is in motion ; and all must therefore
do well. Perish aristocracy ! Perish industry !
Let ships and colonies go ! Manchester and the
West Riding must govern the country.
But how long, we ask, can this game be kept
up ? With one-fifth of the rental of the entire
empire swept away, with the nett income of every
cultivator of the soil reduced one-half, how is im-
ported produce to be consumed, or the manufac-
turing interest itself to be supported ? Common
sense would say that they cannot. Every man's
experience will tell him that with a diminished in-
come he must diminish his expenditure. Servants
must he decreased in number, and become non-
consumers. Luxuries must be cut down, and even
ordinary comforts more sparingly enjoyed. If we
cannot import as usual, what becomes of our ex-
ports ? We shall be placed in the same position
with respect to the other markets of the world as
that which we at present occupy with respect to
China, the trade with which, as stated by the de-
putation to the Premier on Wednesday last, is
declining rapidly, from our inability to consume
sufficient of her only article of export—Tea. The
result is inevitable; and whenever it arrives we
may probably have our free traders themselves
stepping forward to reconstruct the domestic mar-
ket, which they are now madly destroying.

THE present posture of parties in the Council
Chamber becomes, at every meeting, more difficult
to understand. The questions of water supply,
dock rating, and sanatory measures, have dislo-
cated all previous arrangements ; and we see gen-
tlemen, working hand in hand upon one of these,
become bitter and almost personal opponents so
soon as another is brought upon the carpet. Of
course we can have no wish to see a perfect unani-
mity of opinion prevail amongst any body of gen-
tlemen upon questions affecting so differently va-
rious interests, and capable of being regarded in so
many different lights. It is perfectly natural that
there may be perfect agreement as to the object
to be attained, and as complete difference of opinion
as to the mode of proceeding towards its attain-
ment. Still one would imagine that such differ-
ences could be so treated as to cause nothing like
bickering, and so displayed as to lead neither to ill
feeling nor to apparently violent inconsistencies.
The proceedings of Saturday's special meeting
exhibit a remarkable exemplification of:this state of
things, First comes the appointment of an alder-
man ; and when a gentleman, in every respect de-
serving of the honour from his public services, was
proposed, another, the successful candidate, equally
eligible, and holding the same opinions on most
subjects, is proposed by a member of the same
party. A third, proposed by a Conservative, is a
Roman Catholic in religion, and a Whig-Radical
in politics; and a fourth is a Conservative, pro-
posed also by a Conservative. The voting takes
place only between them, and is ultimately
decided in favour of the second gentleman on the
list, partly in consequence of whispered hints spread
through the chamber that his only real opponent
would adopt a certain course upon the next
question to be decided.
A similar appearance of disunited councils was
displayed in the election of Dock Chairman. We
See gentlemen, usually acting together upon
main questions, at issue—for in reality the election
of Mr. Harbord as a member of the Dock Com-
mittee was carried with a view to Mr. Horsfall's
exclusion from the chair. The whole proceedings
were, in fact, of a most extraordinary character,
and displayed a want of unanimity amongst the
members of the Council, the consequences of which,
as influencing their success in carrying out the
ohj ects which they have in view, are greatly to be
feared. We should explain, however, that we do
not at all impugn the correctness of the selections
made for the appointments to be filled up. We
only regret the spirit in which the proceedings
were conducted.

ANOTHER CASE OF TOO STRINGENT DOCK INGULA-
TIONS.—A striking instance of the want of a relaxing
power in our dock regulations occurred on Tuesday night
last, on the occasion of hauling the Guy Mannering from
her position upon the Prince's Dock sill. It was found
that although the ship's keel had never touched the
ground, owing to her having been held by the sides, she
had taken in water, and had to be pumped out. For this
purpose application was made for the use of the fire-
engine, which is kept in the dock ; but it was found that
neither the harbour-master nor any of the police had
power to order it out. The result was that a party had
to proceed to the Central Fire-office, to get permission
from Mr. Hewitt ; and a delay was created which, had the
engine been wanted to suppress a fire, might have been
attended with very serious consequences. When the ma-
chine was at length got out it took nearly two hours before
it could be rigged out for effective work. If an engine is
stationed at all in our docks, certainly some authority
likely to be found on the spot in a case of emergency,
ought to be enabled to afford access to it ; and its capacity
ought to:be of the best description. Considerable difficulty
was also experienced in getting men to work it, although
numbers of labourers were upon the spot. They manage
these matters very differently in foreign ports. In New
York, we are told, a powerful engine could have been had
in full working order within five minutes.