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

?Ire ea

pebbles, or shells
fruits, whilst plat

.ruction,

can d

homes.
To what are we to attribute this strange fatuity
which has come over the nation ? We have said
that we dale its commencement from the accession
to power of the present ministry ; and we think we
have said so justly. The very questions, with re-
spect to which we have now to deplore such apathy
and total neglect, are those upon .vhich Conserva-
tives, before that event, felt, or affected to feel, the
most strongly. How earnestly they contended
then against those concessions to Papery, to secta-
rianism, and to infidel liberalism, which they now
see carried without a murmur, and even are the first
Ives ! How loudly they denounced

to propose them

every s

utional or religious princi-

cle upon th

y and worldly expe-
diency ! We blush at the recollection. We blush
to compare the professions of the men, who were
then our idolised and, alas, our trusted leaders, with
their subsequent acts; and to feel ourselves corn-
peiled to admit how ready, in the case of other men,
our political opponents, we should have been to jump
to the conclusion that, whilst making those profes-
uld not have been sincere—that they

sions the

ns only r

stepping
But can we complain if
Have the Conservative

ut forth as the

such has been the ca

people of England
upon their superioi

ht to plume themselves
ency ? Ha 3 one man in

among

st us

(ration,
Conser'
hnup se

any ri
me m 1

r than thou

ht to say to Sir
r of his adminis-
' As a mass, the

ies, to

Nay, we

4gltatlO

u our o

Do we

he measures

antagonism to his
our own. We

and, having done so,
that was required of

he turmoil of political
armour, and devoted
ate pursuits. We laid
whilst our leaders as

rid of their principles; and ever since
ahmitted unmurmuring to the tyranny

Is ministry, in thus

may so

on the con-
he darker in

Sir- "R

f our own confident
'sable, too, from the

er in the

h called for no compro-

Lion an

perpetua-

I to pick his
e straightfor-

and to neutralise

Peel was, from the

iirect path, and the
h a man, is the more

.rtv in

But, a

the kingdon
n Sir Prober

They wer

bad no necessity

any remonstrance which

.ainat any I

their sin of omiii•

sucti re

lonstrasce I
_ _

point from which w

set out—to the- naked, unaccountable, startling "To the ShiyearpPnters of Liverpool—lncrease of
fact, of that apathy which has taken fast hold of the Wage: to Five shillingsper day.
public mind. Whence does it spring ? To what "On the 13th May last your wages were reduced from
can we attribute its existence and its growth, unless ss.vetotw4so.
rfied. per day. For your
p employers
rces
1 ' the great reduction
tio
it he that, for some unseen and wise, although la- of the necessaries of life ;' and 2nd, ' the ruinously de-
nuntable, purpose, we are blinded, as a nation, to pressed state of the shipping interest.' The first of these

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

, reasons we believe to be fallacious, and founded on mis- to help me, `striving together with me in your prayers to
taken views of the laws which re,uiat,, the value of la- God for me, that the word of the Lord may have fret
therefore addressed you, showing that if the course and be glorified, even as it is among you.'
od really recuhited wages, you should have " I am yours,
in the year 1839, whet. the average price of " With

n yak

wheat was itos. Sd. per quarter—Se. Id. per day. As you
only reetived 5s per day, you had consequently been de-
frauded of 3s. ld. pe: day."

Detical argument this

but unfortunately it is thrown away. The " reasons,"
themselves, upon which it is founded, do not assert
that the price of food alone should govern the price
of labour. With good trade the cheapness of food,
when that cheapness, as at present, is the
result of abundant harvests, has no prejudi-
cial effect upon wages. With a depressed trade,
the fact of food being cheap ought to be, and was,
regarded by the journeymen shipwrights, as a fair
reason why they should submit to a slight reduction
of wages ; and thus lighten, by their participation
in it, the pressure of the difficulties experienced by

their employers. The total suppression, in their ar-
gument, of all consideration of the second reason for

—is, on the part of our anti-mo-
nopoly sages, jesuitical and studiously dishonest.
The next paragraph we need not quote entire, for
it is upon all fours with the preceding. "If the
price of wheat governs wages," it says, they ought
at such a period to have been so and so; and. as
they were not, " you were defrauded," &C. &C.

Nobody ever said that, abstractedly and singly, the
price of wheat did govern wages ; and therefore,
again our philosophers are fighting a shadow.
The writers of the placard proceed to give some
statistical facts and calculations of the prices of corn,
rates of wages, and comparative corn-value of the
latter, which may he all very correct for anything
we know or care; and then convey to our ship-•
wrights the very important information, that neither
combination nor anything save improved trade could
have enabled them to obtain their present ad-
vorced rate of wages. As we perfectly coincide with
them here, we need offer no remark, in reply or•
comment. But at the conclusion of the paragraph
they rather cut the throat of their previous statis-
tics; and we must gently intimate to them how
this is effected. To secure the present improve-
ment in the wages of shipwrights they say, " Free-
trade" is the only specific. They had previously
told us that in 1839, when wheat was 70s. Bd. per
quarter, shipwrights wages were ss. per day; and
in 1844 they were, with wheat at 555. Bd., only
4s. 6d. per day. Now, we rather fancy that we had
a fair slice of Free-trade between 1839 and 1844 ;
and yet we had wages reduced ! flow is this, gen-
tlemen ? If Free-trade is the grand secret of com-
mercial prosperity and good wages, the remunera-
tion of the shipwrights of Liverpool ought to have
been better in 1844 than in 1839. It was worse !

But to return to the bearing of cheap food upon
wages—the fallacy upon whi h the Anti-monopoly
advocates are so fond of entrenching themselves
when addressing the operative classes. We have
ever contended that one of the principal objects of
the agitation for free trade in corn was the reduction
of the cost of labour. The most candid amongst
them have openly admitted the fact. By implica-
tion it is every day admitted. Mr. Charles Holland
admitted it at the last meeting of the Anti-monopoly
Association, when he told his audience that food
was " a main ingredient in manufactures." We
are met, however, by free traders with arrays of
figures, showing that when bread has been cheap
in this country, trade has been prosperous and
labour well remunerated. The Anti-monopoly As-
sociation show us now, that, with wheat at 455. per
quarter, the wages of our shipwrights have risen
this year to ss. per day. But these gentlemen
never remember to tell us, that the cheapness which
we at present enjoy arises from the abundant pro-
duce of our own soil, not from foreign importation;
that it is cheapness, combined with the proper re-
muneration of the British farmer, and abundant
employment for the farm labourer—not that cheap-
ness which will drive the former to abandon his
culture in despair, and drive the latter to seek em-
ployment in the labour market of the large towns.
There is a wide and an easily understood difference
between the effects of cheapness derived from the
one source and from the other; and this difference
the Anti-monopoly gentlemen do not find it conve-
nient to acknowledge. The shipwrights of Liver-
pool, however, will be able to comprehend it for
themselves.

We need not ask why the Association takes such
infinite pains to throw dust in the eyes of this im-
portant class of our fellow-townsmen. It is one of
their electioneering manoeuvres, and of a piece with
their efforts to swamp the registry of voters. 'We
would urge, however, upon the shipwrights, before
they surrender their judgments and their oft-tried
principles to the men who have ever been foremost
to malign them, whether they suppose that this
vaunted free trade—this infallible specific for the
production of good trade and high wages—is to
stop in its progress precisely at the point where it
begins to affect themselves. The free trade philo-
sophy says, that we ought to " buy in the cheapest
market and sell in the dearest," irrespective of all
other considerations. If we can build ships cheaper
abroad than at home, free trade says, " Build them
abroad." If English shipwrights, coopers, ropers,
blockmakers, sailmakers, and other artizans, require
ss. per day, and foreigners will work for 18d. or
Bd., free trade says, " Employ the foreigner." The
shipwrights may depend upon it, that, when these
men have succeeded in getting their food, building
timber, and other materials, duty free, the very
next sacrifice which will be demanded, to enable us
to compete with the foreigner, will be the reduction
of wages to the foreign level. Let the shipwrights
remember this.

A paragraph appeared in the Liverpool Albion of
yesterday, headed " Departure of the Rev. H.
from Liverpool," which excited, in the
mind of the Liverpool public, feelings of a varied
character. Amongst those who had watched and
admired the career of the rev. gentleman, since
this town was made the sphere of his ministerial
duties, and of his noble exertions in behalf of con-
stitutional liberty, the announcement of his intended
departure from amongst u, was regarded with deep
sorrow ; whilst Liberalism and Popery exulted in
the thought that they might henceforth slander
behind his back the tried champion of Protestant
loyalty and truth, whom they never yet dared to
meet face to face before any intelligent tribunal.
There were not wanting, too, some parties—
Churchmen, Protestants, men who had stood side
by side with the Incumbent of St. Jude's in the
struggles of past days, or cheered that fearless elo-
quence which contributed so great'y to stir up this
cmmuni t y, and the entire kingdom, to the effort
which shook the incubus of \Vhiggery from off
their breasts, and raised to power a Conservative
Government—who bad given too ready an ear to
the vile aspersions with which, of late, the organs
of Popery have assailed his character and consis-
t I tencv, to whom this announcement seemed to afford

a confirmation of the justice of such aspersions.
'Co the latter class we propose offering a few obser-
vations by-and-by. To the fast friends of the rev.
gentleman, the following letter, which has just been
addre sed to the members of his congregation, will
afford delight, when we tell them, in explanation,
that, although about leaving St. Jude's, Mr. M'Neile
is not about leaving Liverpool ; and to his bitter
enemies it will nerhans not he (mite so palatable :

"TO THE CONGREG.4.TION OF ST. JUDE'S CHURCH
"My dear Friends and Brethren, _

" With feelings which it is utterly vain for me to at-
tempt to express in words, I sit down to write these few

lines to you

Circumstances, with some of which you will be ac-
nted in due time, and others of which you may pro-

ly never know; have induced me to accept t

of a new church, and thus to consent to a separation from

you. in the course of another year.
" I have been very happy among you. Your treatment
of me, in every respect, has been such as to justify the
assurance, that, in compliance with the exhortation !,f
Saint Paul, you have been `esteeming me very highly in

love for my work's sake '-' and I trust that through the
grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, my uninistra-

-Hui aft-cet:on,
" t4UGEI iiI`NILILE
" St. Jude's Vestry, 14th March, 1845."
And now to the detractors of Mr.__ --
those of our fellow-Protestants who have too rea-
dily listened to their fabrications. The rev. gentle-
man has been taunted by the Radical organs with
his silence of late. It has been said, How lamb-
like is the lion of St. Jude's since the accession to

continue those ministrat

be presen

M‘Neile, and

with all affectionati

power of a Conservative ministry ! During the
past week he has been twitted with entertaining a
disgraceful motive for his silence. How far the
mind of the rev. gentleman is estranged from those
principles which he has advocated in past days,—
days of difficulty and danger, when even to espouse
publicly the cause of Conservatism was to become
subject to the fierce hate of a predominant faction
and its unreflecting and unprincipled tools,—let the
manly and dignified letter of Mr. M`Neile to Lord
Sandon, which appears in another column, and
which wilt be felt in quarters where the most elo-
quent speech which could he delivered at any public
meeting would be disregarded, testify. The Incum-
bent of St. Jude's has, by that letter, given a con-
vincing proof that he has not deserted his Protestant
friends. He has not agitated in public, it is true ;
and why ? He never professed to be a mere agita-
tor, although it served the purpose of his enemies,
and of some who envied his superior eloquence and
influence, to represent him as such. But if it be
asked, why has he been still ? we fear the true
answer will be, not that he has deserted the col-
leagues and friends who battled by his side, but
that they have deserted him. Not that he feared,
even if he had stood alone to record publicly his
protest against anti-Protestant measures and fatal
concessions—he has already done that—but be-
cause the raising of his voice alone, or of a few
voicea, whilst the wealth, the station, the influence
of the town hung back, would not have afforded
due support to the cause which wasand is as
dear to him then and now, as when these men
fought with him for its advancement.
No—No. To Liverpool be the shame, it her
voice, and the voice of her faithful pastors, have
been unheeded in the crisis which has recently been,
and is now, rapidly coming upon us. Let Liver-
pool resume her old and lionourable place in the
van of Protestantism ; let her merchants and her
gentry be themselves ; and their old and tried cham-
pion will be with them !

earnestness

,ut I cannot

you should learn, through any other channel than a direct
communication from myself, the important step, to your
feelings and my own, which I have consented to take.
" I have laid the circumstances before our valued Dio-
cesan, and have the sanction of his Lordship's approba-
tion in the course I now adopt.
" My very dear friends, a connexion such as that which
now exists between you and me, is not easily formed, and
ought not to be lightly dissolved. I feel this—deeply.
Whatever judgment you may be led to form, however, of
my present conduct, I feel quite assured that you will
give me credit in it, for both a conscientious regard t
my own high responsibilities, and an undiminished affec-
tion towards von.
" I can truly say with the Apostle, that I thank my
God upon every remembrance of you,' and with the Pro-
phet, the Lord forbid that I should sin against Him, in
ceasing to pray for you." And I entreat you to continue