The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-02-12 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS

We have been requested
ledge the receipt of an

a church was erected

e Vicar of Skipton to acknow-
rmous donation for the proposed
ipton. In this distant township
54, and near the old foundation

(now marked only by a few tombstones) a site has been
given by the gentleman who recently purchased the property,
and there is now a curate placed there among a population of
1000 souls. There are six mills, but no church. In aid of
this object a X2O Bank of England note has been sent from
this neighbourhood, and we trust that this acknowledgment
will meet the eye of the unknown giver. _

Pe are sorry to receive so many complaints of the non-delivery
of our papers by post ; but we must have a thorough reform
of our postal arrangements before the mischief will be
thoroughly remedied. We have daily causes of complaint ;
. .

and, as One instance, we may mention that the Prestwi
Chronicle of Saturday week did not reach us until Friday

Mr. Edwdrd Roberts, of Rhyl, who for fifteen years commanded
the steamer plying between that port and this, has written
s of having a life-boat sta-
about 6 miles S.W. of that
ir: correspondent mentions
ssels in distress have been
been assisted much sooner
ere. He also says that he
the Point of Ayr life-boat
_ arses, to get far enough to
en in distress on the west end of
mds that such a boat would be
trying for Chester river. Our
.onsideration.

at FOryd, near Rhyl, and
.ous bank, West Hoyle. 0

nstances

correspondent's hint

a, of t

an to scatter such indiscriminate
red by " Morality." We gave as
ieeting to which he refers as our
1 arrangements would admit of;
publish the proceedings which are
moment when our papers must be
London press publishes verbatim
tary speeches up to midnight, it
those journals are not published

clock in the miming, whilst the Liverpool
n o'clock, p.m. ; and
Le-horse gig, at the
ngton, to meet the

papers must be printed soon after
they are then conveyed in a lumb
rate of five or six miles an hour, I

train to the North. Is it not insufferable that the valuable
letters and other documents of the merchants, bankers, and
tradesmen of such a town as this, should every night be
liable to many hours' detention, through the loss of a linch-
pin or a horse shoe ?
The lines on " Music" are superior to those last forwarded b

it correspondent ; and, if lie cultivates his talents, he will
icceed, ere long, in writing something which would be very
.ceptable to the public.

Ebt Eibtrpool •&tanbarri.

lESDAY

MORNING, FEB. 12, 1850.

WE referred briefly in our last publication to the
nt of union, and of a settled policy, apparent in
the proceedings of the Protectionist party in both
, during the debate upon the address. The
amendment moved asserted a mere truism, and
uld lead to nothing. A far bolder and more
use would better have become so por-
- evil as that in which this once
is at the present moment
wowed, and which, we do not hesitate to say, can
only in social convulsion and ruin. The
n, to which we would have had the attention
sovereign and the nation drawn, is not one
cultural suffering merely. It is neither a
nants' question nor a landlords' question. It is
ther the vessel of the state is to be
- -ft headlong amongst breakers,
steered by an incompetent helmsman, and a crew
blinded by their own ignorant and obstinate
vanity; whether the landmarks of property are to
be removed, and class arrayed against class, to
promote the purposes, and to feed the rapacity, of
one of the most selfish factions which ever suc-
ceeded in gaining an influence over the national

house

energetic co

result

I happy count

estion ivt
fitted to dr

out a de..

I be denied by few that, divided and with-
finite purpose, as the Protectionists chewed
'es to be on this occasion, her Majesty's
re still more helplessly the slaves of cir-
cumstances, and utterly incapable of comprehend-
ing the true position and danger of the country.
No set of men, not thus incapable, and unscrupulous
besides, would have dared to put into the mouth of
the Sovereign that passage of the Royal speech, in
she is made to say that "it is a source of
gratification to her Majesty to witness the
Increased enjoyment of the comforts and necessaries
- - 'mid plenty have bestowed
Fur, ine great body' of the people;"(!) and this, too,
obviously expressed as a consolation for agricultural
distress, which she is made to "regret." The
property of the landowner and the capital of the
farmer are being confiscated; "but," her Majesty
is made to assure us, commerce and manufactures
are "in an improved condition !" No government,
we repeat, save one besotted in its blindness and
nicked in its want of truth and principle, could
have dared to foist these mendacious statements
either upon their Sovereign or her people.
Let us examine what is the nature of the " dis-
tress"—mild word !—which is "regretted" in the
speech, and which is obviously to be left by
`Ave to cure itself. It is the permanent
-enty per cent., and in some in-
d even fifty per cent., of the rental
at the united kingdom, and of an equally large
amount of the capital and the income of the farmer.
The entire yearly produce of the soil has been
` 250 millions sterling. It is the con-
, to fifty per cent. of the
money price of this mass of property, whilst the
local and public burthens borne by it are left un-
it all, would be bad enough.
-,norted, if the loss could
'ies affected could be
made to bear their Just proportion—the landowner
to receive a less rent, the farmer a less profit, and
the labourer less wages. But we know that this
cannot be; that, in fact, the result must be, in
hundreds of cases, absolute ruin to a class who
have done nothing whatever to merit such a visita-
tion at the hands of the legislature. We will state
the case of this class, as put by an excellent land.
lord—Lord Drumlanrig—in a letter recently ad-
dressed by him to his Tinwald tenantry :

minist

winch

annihilation of t

thirty and eve

estimated al

fiscation of fzom twent

touched.
It might, for

'This, were

steel, so

time, be s

be the nominal possessor only of
as come into his possession mortgaged one-
-3s one-half of its real value. The pro-
prietOr of an estate of £5,000 a year may have bad, even
in the palmy days of protection, only 4'3,000, or perhaps
not so much, to spend himself. The capitallst, the manu-
facturer, may be the person who in reality possesses the
irget share of this same property. In the days of corn
laws and of high

state : i

the money in trade was
Now free trade is made
are insisted upon ; lower
If this be necessary, it
luestion I would ask, and I
Is allowable, by way of an
asked
.for as a boon to the
‘ the broad principles
spite of one class against
—,itanls, are the mortgagees who
large share of every estate, to be included among
those who are to lower their rents ? or is the nominal
,•oprietor to pay them in full, and, having done so, then
-educe the pittance which remains bun for income,
`hus bear the whole burden of the altered state of the
Mr. Bright has never explained himself on this
It appears to me that those landlords who are
wives, and attempting to delude
that protection will never again be
restored, would be more profitably employed, and would
have surer ground to work upon, were they busy in pre-
paung for the worst, and in arranging whose duty it was
which we are told must

The or

acribee9
right.

nswer—is this

:e, co oe earned
sic only the pet

Are the a-nnt

thew

rhare the reduction of

our fati

Here, then, is one c

^*nmunity, whose

interest in the soil is deliberately consigned to
destruction. Here is the first blow—a heavy one
it is !—dealt by the Blights and Cobdens against

the ai.vitocu r,y of the country
proprietor of the fee simple
the whole blunt of the free-1
the mortgagee and annuita
Assuredly it is not.
on would be
1r of the

t just that the
of the land should hear
lde experiment, whilst
are bettered in posi-
The correct term for
)ery," But let us see
is placed. He must,
arrangement and a
emedies suggested--
w n as gross delusions,
by their immediate
s, as fresh arrange-
reach of the farmer,
ng contracts, such
ministers bring
affc: this desidera-
upport such a bill ?
°net, in particular,
He makes no
em until they
rience, during•
dually to the

the open
how tha

,ye are told

The other

decreased rent.
high fPvrning, &c.—we put c
s)iready abandoned as unteri:
authors. But before such my
men Ls, are regarded as u itbn

will have to get rid of existi.
lea'3l3, &e. W;11 her Majest
a bill t•-1 cr,rtble the finaler to
a 2 WOLiiti Sir Robert Peel si

Not th,* . honorable
holds bis tenants to their
Perm net feesh arranzerne,

1 workhouse or the

Ll labourer—

s to ire his conditio

,4 now, we are
to assume—

ainongst tl.at great body of the people whose com-
foi ',a are increased by cheapness and plenty. His
nine or ten shillings a week buys him more bread
than it has done in dearer times'. But is it possible
tbrtf this can continue ? Oh\ ic,..7sly not; fur there
can be no increased demand for bis labour, result-
ing policy which is rendering farming opera-
tions less profitable, and all soils, except the best,
incapable of being cultivated with advantage to the
fanner. Ths labourer must come down to the level
of the foreign serf, with whom he has to compete.
Maebineiy, besides, is clamouring at his heels,
ready to push hica aside, as the cheapest agency.

Emigration, or the union workhouse, is his last
resort.
The great body of the agricultural population
then is immersed in distress, and hurrying towards
ruin, as the result of the free-trade policy of the
present and the preceding administrations. Let us
endeavour then to discover where is that "improved
condition of trade and commerce," and "the in-
creased enjoyment of the comforts and necessaries
of life which cheapness and plenty have bestowed
upon the great body of the people ?" We can find
some evidence of the former, it is true, in the form
of statistical tables ; in the increase of exports over
imports, and in increased tonnage entering our
ports. But even these evidences are far from
satisfying us that commerce and manufacture,
generally, are in the improved condition asserted;
and still less so that such result is attributable to
our free-trade policy. After a year of continental
disturbances, and stoppage of continental industry,
an increase of exports was to be looked for. But
it is very questionable whether its profitable result
has not been hindered by causes beyond the reach
of the manufacturing classes to remove. The
spinners of Lancashire are at this moment com-
plaining that the raw material—cotton—advances
in price more rapidly than the market price of the
manufactured commodity ; and there is every pros-
pect of a dearth of that raw material, sufficient to
prohibit any expansion of operations which will
enable the present machinery to be materially in-
creased. The home consumption of the country is
undeniably declining; and our tradesmen and shop-
keepers in a suffering and very precarious position.
A jury, or a commission, composed of these classes,
or of their collectors and bookkeepers, would tell
her Majesty's ministers a very different story from
that which they have attempted to palm upon the
nation ; of Christmas and midsummer accounts
unsettled long after due, and of profits beat down
year by year, until they barely suffice to cover
reasonable expenditure of housekeeping and taxes.
With 20,000 sempstresses, in the metropolis alone,
about to be sent abroad by the hand of charity,
because unable to subsist without the aid of prosti-
tution, can a country's commerce or industry be
said to be in a flourishing condition ? With vice
and want abounding throughout our large towns,
can it be said that our working classes are enjoying
the benefits of cheapness and plenty ? Of course
it cannot. Boards of trade and statists may tell us
of abounding prosperity and increased comforts ;
but men who walk through the world with their
eyes open, and look a little below the surface of
society, know better.

To this extent it is a fact, that the working
classes are benefitted by the cheapness of food
resulting from foreign importations. Manufacturing
and other operatives, who are employed at former
wages, are able to procure more of the necessaries
and comforts of life. But how long will they be
permitted to do so ? But a few days ago these
classes were reminded by that consistent journal,
the London Times, that "food is the raw material
of labour;" and the same oracle asked how they
could expect to compete with the foreign manufac-
turer with wheat at 60s. per bushel. The obvious
conclusion is, that the raw material of labour being
reduced to 405., or below, wages are to come down
in the like proportion. Mr. John Bright, the
quaker member for Manchester, has just affixed his
seal to the conclusion in question, by reducing the
wages of his operatives ten per cent.—a reduction
of wages with flourishing prospects for the manu-
facturing interest ! The two facts are incompatible;
but more, in the way of reduction of wages, is to
follow. Friend John has only been indiscreet, and
thrown off the mask of consideration for the poor
man a little too soon.

We must approach, however, the end of all this;
and here again the Times, in its blundering indis-
cretion, assists us. The farmer, he says, has at his
command, to enable him to grow wheat at 40s. a
quarter—he had better have said 30s.—the follow-
ing aids :—He can reduce the wages of his labourers,
his rent, and other outgoings, in proportion to the
reduced price of his leading product —wheat.
Granted. He can do all this, with what results we
need not say. Pauperism, he continues, will be
reduced in proportion with the food upon which
paupers are fed. We doubt it. Pauper mouths,
we fear, will increase, in agricultural districts at all
events, more rapidly than the price of their food
decreases. But there is a burthen which the Times
admits will not decrease—the debt. Rent, wages,
poor rates, &c., may accommodate themselves to
the altered circumstances of society; but the debt
is a stubborn fact, and the Times points to it as
such. We leave to his readers to determine whether
or not he points at the same time to the sponge.
That potent remedy, however, of the difficulties
into which the industry of the country is being
plunged is not far in the distance.

- PUBLIC companies and public bodies are pro-
verbially devoid of consciences. An instance of
this is before us,—a glaring instance,—in the
treatment of the property once known as the
Wallasey Pool. It is almost heart-rending to look
at the unfinished works attempted to be formed in
this locality, and to know, at the same time, that
they are thus unfinished because a government
board—the Woods and Forests—has been endea-
vouring to outwit a public company, whilst that
public company—the Birkenhead Dock Commis-
sioners—have been deluding themselves and those
who placed confidence in their foresight and inte-
grity. Nearly four millions of money have been
expended in the prosecution of these works, or
upon the faith of their completion. Yet it is evi-
dent that all this money has been thrown away,—
that impediments have been systematically, and
from first to last, placed before the Dock Commis-
sioners in pursuing their works,—and that the end
will be that the property of all, bondholders, share-
holders, and others, who have embarked their
money in the undertaking, will, in all human pro-
bability, revert to the Woods and Forests, whose
sanction to it was the security upon which credu-
lous people mainly relied. The following startling
fact has been made public by a party who signs
himself "A Mortgagee and a Bondholder," in a
pamphlet recently published :
" The present position, then, of the Birkenhead Docks
is this :—On the 22nd of July next all vessels above the
burthen of 200 tons will be excludc.l from the Morpeth
Dock ; and on the 19th of July, 1854, the whole of the
works will revert to the Crown absolutely,—the object
which the Board of Works seam to have had in view for
several years past."

Such is the case of the Birkenhead Dock Corn-
missioners,—a public body juggled by a govern-
ment board. We cannot but pity them in the
cruel dilemma in which they have been involved
by the chicanery or the grasping selfishness of the
Woods and Forests, end regret that the expecta-
tions once indulged in as to the success of docks in
this locality have not been realised. More espe-
cially we deplore the position of the unfortunate
mortgagees and bondholders, many of whom must
be ruined unless Lord Morpeth and his colleagues
are driven by the voice of public indignation from
the prey which they are seeking to clutch. There
is another class of the community, however, com-
posed neither of shareholders nor bondholders,
who have much reason to regret that either the
docks of Birkenhead or their projectors ever had
being. We refer to the proprietors of land and
property on the northern side of the proposed
works. A few months ago, we had to animadvert
upon the loss of a steam-packet belonging to the
proprietors of Seacombe Ferry, attributable entirely
to the effect upon the foreshore there of the walling
in of the Pool. This, however, was not the first of
the inflictions upon this locality of the abortive
attempts to render the docks in the Pool rivals to
those on the Liverpool side of the Mersey: A row
of excellent houses facing the river had been pre-
viously deprived of more than half their value.
They looked once upon a healthy strand, and now
they have before them only a collection of pesti-
lential mud, deposited at every tide to swelter in
the sun and taint the atmosphere. The bathing
facilities, for the enjoyment of which Seacombe was
once a favourite summer resort, had been destroyed,
and a first rate hotel, and other property dependent
upon the marine character of the locality, incal-
culably depreciated in value. The slip of the ferry
itself had been nearly silted up, and, indeed, had
for the past two or three years been only kept open
by lavish expenditure on the part of the lessees in
labour, dredging, &c., not one farthing of the cost
of which has as yet been recovered from the Bir-
kenhead Dock Commissioners. Last week the
climax was put to this series of injuries by the
destruction of the moveable stage, which alone
enabled passengers to embark and land with any
degree of security and comfort.

That this serious loss to the lessees of the ferry,
Messrs. Parry, is directly attributable to the opera-
tion of the dock mite upon the navigation, io

MMWMW4

undeniable. The tide was flowing at the time,
and, had the storm solely been the cause, the stage
would, in the natural course of things, have been
thrown over to the southern side of the stone slip;
it was thrown, however, on the northern side, by a
back-set from the adjoining dock wall. And the
same injurious operation must occur on all similar
occasions, doubling the ordinary casualties and
expense of working the ferry. Were such an injury
as this inflicted by any private individual upon his
neighbour, the law would give redress; but a great
company and a government board may sin with
impunity, unless the voice of an indignant public
be exerted to shame them into an award of com-
pensation. We trust that such voice will make
itself heard ; for the fact is an indisputable one,
that without some prompt remedy is provided, this
once favourite ferry must fall into disuse, and the
property of the entire neighbourhood be further
and ruinously depreciated.

THE complaints of the Manchester Guardian,
and other papers of the district, against the mer-
chants and brokers of Liverpool for the alleged
offence of forcing up the price of the raw material,
cotton, by speculative means, appear to us to be
based upon most fallacious grounds, and, in fact,
are glaringly puerile and absurd. The probable
yield of the cotton crop, like that of grain and other
crops, has always been a point upon which im-
porters and consumers have entertained conflicting
opinions, and supported them in the usual modes.
If consumption by the spinner has shewn a ten-
dency to outstrip the available supply, the article
has advanced in price ; if the contrary has been the
case, a corresponding result has followed. When
the grower and the importer cease to avail them-
selves of their power to command higher rates with
decreased crops and increased consumption, it will
be when human nature has changed, and the love
of gain has ceased to be the mainspring of all
commercial dealings. _

We do not propOse here to enter into a discussion
of the vexed question of short crop or abundant
crop. At present all the evidence, according to the
latest advices, is in favour of the opinions of those
who insist upon a short supply. We shall not even
dwell upon the fact—an undoubted one—that the
capitalists of Manchester itself are, and have been,
as deep in cotton speculations as the merchants and
brokers of Liverpool. But we must take the liberty
of asking the Manchester Guardian how, under the
present circumstances of this country and America,
speculation in such an article as cotton was not to
be naturally expected ? We have at this momen
in Great Britain a plethora of money seeking profi
table investment, and naturally tempting to specu-
lation. The only question with us has been towards
what article such investment should be directed.
In the United States money is also abundant. The
recent discoveries in California have given to those
states an abundant supply of the precious metals,
wherewith to liquidate the adverse balances of ex-
change with other countries. America can afford
to hold back her supplies of cotton and other com-
modities. The market which we have given her
for her grain and provisions has increased her abi-
lity to hold back her cotton, even supposing her
to possess abundance, which is doubtful. The
obvious result is what our manufacturing classes
are now feeling. She can insist upon her price.
She can demand her pound of flesh with the tena-
city of a usurer ; and she will increase her power
to do this more and more, as her yield of the pre-
cious metals becomes more and more developed.
If the Guardian would have the manufacturing
interest of this country afforded for the future a
fair chance of protecting itself from the operations
of speculators in America and at home, he must
allow us to return to a more common sense system of
currency. California now threatens to inundate us
with its golden deposits. A single day's digging
affords to each member of its population the value
of a month's hard toil of the British artizan. In a
short time operations of a different description
promise a still more abundant and permanent yield.
If the last advices from this quarter be confirmed,
the inhabitants of the American Continent may
afford to buy up the products of the spindles and
looms of Great Britain without growing a pound of
cotton, or a quarter of corn, more than is sufficient
for their own consumption ; and, without the ex-
istence of the speculation alleged to be going on
amongst us, Manchester, Stockport, Bolton, and
other localities, may be converted into howling
deserts. The remedy is an easy one, and will ulti-
mately have to be acknowledged by the Manchester
economists. They have the evidence clearly before
them that their boasted measure of value has
failed them ; and that their best and proper
resort is, to adopt another, and the only true
one—a measure upon which a system of currency
can be founded such as will afford to producers and
consumers, by means of an unfiuctuating rate of in-
terest,
a just protection against undue speculation,
caused by redundant money, on the one hand, and
panic, caused by its contraction, on the other.

IN the London Times of Wednesday week, under
the head of " City Intelligence," we observe a
paragraph very similar in character to that respect-
ing the unfortunate ship Caleb Grimshaw, upon
which we recently commented ; and showing the
unscrupulous eagerness with which that Journal
adopts any anonymous slander calculated to wound
the feelings, or injure the property, of parties
against whom its conductors entertain a pique.
We give the paragraph in question, together with
the statements of the real facts of the case.—
" In the Philadelphia papers received by the last packet
details are given of a series of calamities in an English
emigrant ship cllled the Robert Burton, from Liverpool
to that port, which taken in connexion with the recent
statements regarding the Caleb Grimshaw, will tend to
excite the greatest distrust on the part of the poor who
desire to reach America. The vessel contained 150 pas-
sengers, and the names are given of 25 who era alleged to
have died of sheer want of ventilation. On the facts
becomine known at Philadelphia the case had been put
into the hands of the district attorney."

We may remark that a more len.g' thened statement
had already appeared in that most moral and truth-
ful paper, the Weekly Dispatch, from which most
probably the writer of the city article culled his
venom.

What is the true history of the alleged " series
of calamities," which are, in the opinion of the
writer, so calculated "to excite the greatest dis-
trust on the part of the poor who desire to reach
America ?" The ship Robert Burton is a fine
American vessel—and not English, as stated by the
Times-800 tons burthen, forming one of Mr.
James M'Henry's line of packets, sailing on the
first of every month between this port and Phila-
delphia. On the very day on which this unfounded
slander reached us she was lying in one of the
docks of Liverpool, preparing to go to sea in her
usual csiir6,;, on the Ist orFebruary. We took
the opportunity of inspecting her; and can state
from our own observation that a more eligible ship
for the trade, better found, or better officered,
there cannot be. In her last voyage out, consider-
able sickness prevailed amongst her emigrant pas-
sengers, attended by a mortality to about the
amount stated, chiefly however amongst the child-
ren, who were attacked with dysentery of a severe
character, arising possibly from change of diet,
combined with the filthy habits of their parents.
It is a well-known fact to every one acquainted with
emigration that the utmost difficulty is experienced
in inducing the lower classes of the Irish to attend
to personal cleanliness on shipboard. In the case
of the Robert Burton every effort was made by'
officers and crew to preserve health, the steerage
being regularly cleaned by them daily, and proper
ventilation insisted upon. The mortality was
solely attributable to the epidemic which prevailed
amongst the passengers. 'This statement, made
by the captain, the mate, and the. consignee in
Liverpool, is confirmed by a lei,l;:r lecei-red by a
gentleman here from his sor;

senger to Philaaelphia, and who speaks in the
highest terms of praise of the conduct both of The
captain, officers, and crew, under these trying cir-
cumstances.

Let us see, however, when, how, and by whom,
the statements which have found their way to En-
gland, were put forth. In almost every collection
of human beings there is one liNck sheep to he
found ; and such existed on board the Robert Bur-
ton, in the shape of a litigious and quarrelsome
passenger in the second cabin. This person, dur-
ing the voyage, charged the chief mate with hav-
ing robbed a fellow-passenger of £lOOO. On
the arrival of the ship at Philadelphia this charge
was examined before the authorities, and dismissed,
an opinion being expressed that no robbery, ae at.
leged, had taken place, or that if it had, some other
party on board had committed the offence. On
enquiry in Liverpool, as to the probability of the
passenger having £lOOO in his possession, it is not
believed that he was likely to have anything like it.
It would have been expected that, if any ground had

existed for the More serious charges contained in
the statements, referred to by the Times, and given
at length in the Dispatch, they would forthwith
have been preferred. Not a word, however, was
heard of them until three weeks after the Robert
Burton had sailed from Philadelphia; and then
they appeared for the first time in an obscure print,
published in New York, under the title of the
Emigrants' Advocate, and whose claim to the title
consists in its pandering to the bad passions of the
most worthless and grumbling of the emigrant
classes, by acting as the defamer-general of ships,
consignees, captains, mates, and all parties con-
nected with the emigration trade.
There is every reason to believe that the source
of the slander has been the second cabin passenger
above referred to, who was of course not in very
good humour, after the summary dismissal of his
trumped-up charge against the chief mate. A
further ground of offence was a refusal, on the part
of the captain, to give him a homeward passage,
gratis, or on credit, and another, on the part of the
consignee in Philadelphia to lend him 50 dollars.
We may add that, beyond the enquiry into the
alleged robbery by the mate, no case is known, up
to the latest date from America, to have been " put
into the hands of the district attorney." As a
proof of the little confidence placed in the word,
or oath, of the author of the slanders adopted by
the Times, the mate,—a most respectable and in-
telligent officer—is still on board the ship, and
enjoys the fullest confidence of the captain and
owners.

SCHOOLS FOR ST. JOHN'S CHURCH AND

DISTRICT.

Amongst the most densely-populated districts in this
town, and one requiring all the aid, which Christian
benevolence can afford, for the moral and religious im-
provement of its poor, is the district of St. John's.
Happily for the public, and for its inhabitants, the minis-
trations of the church here under the incumbency of the
Rev. Wm. Falloon, have of late been singularly efficient.
It would be difficult to find a congregation more regular
in the attention of its members to the Church's ordinan-
ces, and containing a larger proportion of sincere uphold-
ers of the Church's doctrines and precepts, than the
tradesmen, shopkeepers, and artizans who sit under the
ministration of the beloved incumbent of St. John's.
We observe with pleasure that this congregation has
recently shown their disposition to extend their Christian
duties a little beyond the care for their own spiritual wel-
fare merely. Looking around them into the streets and
courts, in which their poorer neighbours are located, they
have been startled by the amount of ignorance and vice
in which another generation of human beings are being
cast upon the world; and have set themselves to work in
earnest to stay the plague thus threatened to be let loose
upon the district. A proposal was a short time ago set
on foot for the establishment of Scriptural Schools in the
district, capable of providing an education for 500 of its
poor children; and we are happy to learn that the pro-
posal to which we lent our humble advocacy has been
seconded by the congregation of St. John's, and by the
merchants and others in the town, with a spirit which
ensures its successful accomplishment. A sum of £953
4s. 51d. has been raised amongst the congregation them-
selves, and no less a sum than £521 15s. 91d. has been
principally collected by occupants of free seats, in small
sums, by means of collecting cards. The total amount
subscribed up to the Ist of February instant is £l7ll
6s. sid., of which £1662 10s. Bd. has been received and
paid into the hands of the treasurers. A site for the
proposed schools has been secured in Great Crosshall-
street, at a cost of £1365, which has been conveyed to
the minister and churchwardens of St. John's in perpe-
tuity. The cost of a plain and substantial building, as
estimated by the talented architect consulted on the
subject, Mr. Hay, will not exceed £l5OO, which, however,
will demand a further contribution of £l2OO ; and the
treasurers have very properly determined not to build
until this sum, for which they appeal to the benevolence
of the public, is secured.

Most fervently do we trust that no difficulty will be
experienced in raising this comparatively small additional
amount. Surely the example set by the working classes
occupying free seats in the church, by whose exertions
a sum nearly half the amount was raised, in shillings, in
sixpences, in pennies, saved from the hard earnings of,
toil, will stimulate our merchant princes and our trades-
men to an effort worthy of the more exalted worldly
position in which Providence has placed them. Let those
who ever and anon remind us of oppressive poor rates
and the increasing cost of crime,—whose talk is of emi-
gration as the means of purging the country of its pau-
perism and vice,—reflect whether, other considerations
apart, it is not a cheaper mode of decreasing the burdens
thus caused. to educate the children of their poor in the
fear of God, in the love of virtue, and the practice of
industry.

WHEAT AT FORTY SHILLINGS-THE LAND-
LORD MUST FOREGO HIS RENT.

I beg your readers' ertention to the following data, and
to the argument I build upon them. I readily admit that
if the data ere wrong, the argument falls to the ground :
Average rent of land per acre, 24 shillings.
Average produce of land per acre, 3 quarters.
If this is correct, and I challenge inquiry, then the rent
on a quarter of corn is 8 shillings.
But corn has fallen from 50s. to 40s.
How is the farmer then to pay his rent ?
Answer :—Out of his capital.
But this cannot last long, and the landlord must forego
his rent.

But is Lord John Russell or Sir Robert Peel prepared
for this ?

We shall have either paper money :or protection in less
than three years.

THE BURGLARY AT TRANMERE AND OTHER
ROBBERIES.

An application having been made to her Majesty's
Secretary of State on the subject of the robbery at Captain
Prowse's, an answer has been received offering a sum of
£5O, in addition to £lOO raised by private subscription,
principally in Oxton, Tranmere, and Claughton, as a
reward, on the conviction of the offenders, and also her
Majesty's pardon to any accomplice (not the principal
aggressor) who shall give the necessary information.
This, it is hoped, may lead to the apprehension of the
offenders. We may add that additional constables have
been put on in Birkenhead, Tranmere, and Oxton; and in
the Clifton-park and Holt-hill districts five special consta-
bles have also been sworn. Some of the papers have
conveyed an impression abroad, that Brook-lane, in which
Mr. Prowse's house is situate, is not watched or lighted.
This is erroneous, so far as Tranmere is concerned, in
which most of it is situate. There is a lamp at Mr.
Prowse's front door, one right and left at about sixty
yards distance, and ono at the back. The part of Brook-
lane which is in Birkenhead is unlighted ; there are two
lamp-posts, but no lamps. This ought to be looked to,
as it affords a good lurking place for thieves. Among the
gentlemen who took a leading part in subscribing were
Mr. Walter Scott, architect, and Mr. Carr, the barrister,
who, by soliciting their friends for the requisite pecuniary
aid obtained, almost casually, no less a sum than about
£so.—Mr. P. F. Curry, coroner of this borough, who
resides at Oxton, was amongst others solicited, and sug-
gested as another feasible means of obtaining further
funds, the calling of a public meeting. This was ap-
proved of, but it was left to himself to move in this
matter. He accordingly called a meeting, which was
held at the Shrewsbury Arms, in Oxton, on Saturday, he
himself presiding. The meeting, on the motion of Mr.
Warden, pledged itself to co-operate with the townships
in the neighbourhood of Oxton, in consequence of the
daring robberies that had taken place, and agreed that a
subscription be set on foot, to be added to the sums
collected in the other townships, with a view to prevent
the repetition of such outrages. It was also resolved that
P. F. Curry, Wm. Moon, H. Denson, and John Crow-
ther, Esqrs., should be appointed to manage the funds
contributed by the meeting,—it being understood that the
subscriptions should not be called for, unless a conviction
of the offenders took place ; and should a certain amount
only be required, the funds to be raised according to the
amount of each individual subscription. The sum of
£5O was immediately subscribed in the room. The names
included many of the most distinguished residents in
Oxton and the neighbouring districts.

The Rev. Dr. M`Neiie is announced to speak at Oxford
cn Tuesday, at a meeting in behalf of the Society for
Church Missions to the Roman Catholics of Ireland.

The Rev. George Aspinall has been licensed to the
assistant-stipendiary curacy of St. lVfatthiss's Church,
Liverpool.
MARINERS' CHURCH READING Room AND SCHOOLS.
—At St. Saviour's Church on Sunday morning, after a
sermon by the Rev. W. Maynard, the sum of £l7 was
collected in aid of these very useful institutions.

.
A few weeks ego th' Rey: Dr. Hume, honorary curator
"Monvic. Sr‘eiptv of T.aTwashire and aleShin', was
elected an F.S.A. at- Somerset House, London. A few
days ago, a similar honour was conferred on the trea-
surer, 'o homas Avison, Esq. of ibis town.
St. JULL s CHURCH.—We understand that the Rev.

appo'e^ti to the incirrilsen,y of
a new church at Greenheys, Manchester. We believe
that the trustees of the church have now only one more
presentation to the living ; after which, we are informed,
the right of presentation will revert to the Marquis of
Salisbury. A meeting of the pewholderg of the church
was held yesterday morning, at which a memorial to the
trusty cq was pgroed to, suggesting the names of two
clergymen, the selection of either of whom would be ex-
tremely acceptable to the congregation. No doubt the
suggestion will meet with every consideration front the
trustees, who have a very responsible duty to perform.
SALVAGE OF AN ABANDONED VESSEL BY THE MAGA-
ZINE BOATMEN.—A statement has been forwarded to us
der-iili”ing the particulars of the salvage of a sloop—the
Liberty, of Wexford—on Sunday last, aground on the
Burho Bank, which is extremely creditable to the Maga.
zines Life-boatmen engaged.. The schooner, in question,
it ispetaZhiz wci; rolling heavily at anchor c:n t'i bank,
Liz.::.rt:l by her crew, and would most likely bare gone to
pieces unless promptly rescued. She was boarded, how-
ever, about 11 o'clock on Sunday night by Captain Evans
and a picked crew of sivteen, and safely brought into port.
The Hoylake boatmen are reported to have previously
abandoned her. The Magazine men manifested unusual
comp and tact through the whole of the dangerous
taplat.