The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-06-02 00:00:00

sound of the sabbath bell is a mockery, or is un-
heard, because it cannot pierce their densely peopled
streets and unwholesome dwellings ; who never
enter, and could not find room if they would enter, the
church of their fathers. This must be amended.
For a nation blest with prosperity and abundance
above all the nations of the earth, it is a scandal
and a disgrace to have one human being of its po-
pulation, who can say with truth,---" I have no
temple in which publicly to return to God thanks
for the blessings which he has showered upon my
head."

But upon other grounds—upon the ground of
mere economy—for, al's ! this is the age in which
religious and moral incentives to legislation are
viewed as nothing in comparison with those of tem-
porary expediency—upon this very ground of ex-
pediency the Chancellor of the Exchequer gives us
evidence himself of the prudence of government aid
to the national movement in favour of church ex-
tension. He says—and we shall be perhaps ex-
cused if we quote a second time the most important
part of his remarks—" The ardour with which this
object is parsued, and the equal ardour with which
congregations rush to them for instruction, is, I
think, conclusive evidence of the improvement of
the moral and religions habits of the people. Nor
is it a transient improvement ; I believe it to be of
a permanent character."
Surely if it is true, and we believe it is, that " con-
gregations rush" into the churches as soon as they
are opened—rush from Sabbath desecration to Sab-
bath observance, and consequent improvement of
their habits as social beings, consequent diminution
of crime and increased industry and attendance up-
on their duties as Christians and members of a great
community—it is true that a government, from hu•
man and economical considerations merely, ought
to advance by all the means in their power such a
blessed consummation. We tax ourselves for the
erection or enlargement of prisons, we tax ourselves
for the transport of offenders to our penal colonies ;
we devise new systems of punishment for offenders
against our laws. At what a vast expense in county
rates and sums paid by government all these devices
are carried out ! Yet Mr. Gold burn's language, and
all human experience, warrant us in the conclusion
that our offending fellow-creatures, who are now
drawn under the lash of the law, would willingly
" rush "—we thank him for the word—into
churches, to listen to the word of God and to be
made thereby better men and better citizens, if we
would provide for them churches to go to, and
faithful ministers to preach that word ! After this
admission what more need we have ? The true
course of a Christian government is laid down by
its own Chancellor of the Exchequer. You have
money to bestow upon prisons and transport ships ;
but you have shown that churches are the most ef-
fective and the cheapest preventatives of crime, and
the Christian people of England acknowledge the
truth of your assertion.

It has all along been one of the most telling
replies of the millowners to the demand of their
workpeople for shortened hours of labour, that
they could not, coexistently with a high rate of duty
upon foreign corn and provisions, relax their pre-
sent pressure upon the time of their operatives. A
large number of the advocates of a Ten Hours Bill
looked to the repeal of the corn laws as an event wi: ich
was to hasten the achievement of their object. There
can be no doubt of this. They were promised the
support of the Anti-Corn Law League to procure
such a bill, if they would co-operate with that body
in its agitation. Mr. John Bright denies this fact;
but, if we mistake not, we ourselves heard it given.
At all events, if not authoritatively promised, such
a course was very distinctly shadowed forth to the
working classes. Well, the Corn Bill has passed
the Commons ; and see how differently the measure
which was to follow is treated by two statesmen—

one in favour of short time, the other against, and
both Free-traders. Sir Robert Peel, in the debate
on Friday night on the Factory Bill, says :
. .

" You liave—passed a law also, the object of which is to
insure the public against a sudden and extraordinary rise
in the price of corn, and to give them an opportunity of
obtaining a freer access to the necessaries of life. But ob-
serve that this law does not come into full effect for three
years, supposing the bill passed in its present form by the
House of Lords. Not until the Ist of February, 1849,
will there be a free trade in corn; for the intervening
period some restrictions will still remain. At the same
time you have removed protection to domestic manu-
factures ; and upon this ground, because of the period at
which this is fixed, it would be good policy to give a
longer trial to that experiment w; ich you have already
made. By that which you have already done, you pre-
vent the employment of any children under eight years of
age, or under thirteen years of age, for more than six
hours and a half a day. On the ground, therefore, of the
period which it interposed, in addition to the other
grounds to which I have referred, do I respectfully entreat
this house to refuse to give its assent to the bill of the hon.
gentleman ; to permit a fair opportunity of effecting this
desirab!e arrangement by voluntary agreement between
the masters and the employed—(hear, hear)—and, above
all, to postpone this irrevocable step, for irrevocable I
think it will be, until you can, with more certainty than
at present, draw a conclusion as to the effect of your
measure."

Manufacturing capital has had its interests
attended to, at what risk to the interests of the
nation at large we shall not stop to enquire ; but
poor humanity must wait to see the working of the
great measure of expediency. The experiment de-
vised to aggrandize the millowner was hurried on

with all speed ; but the experiment to raise the
social condition of the toiling many is to be ap-
proached with hesitation. Contrast this language
of the Premier with the following manly and just
expression of opinion which fell on the same evening
from Mr. T. B. Nlacauley

" My noble friend near me seemed to think that the
time was ill chosen. I must say that I am of a different
opinion. (Hear, hear.) We carried up on Monday to
the House of Lords a bill which, if our expectations are
answered, will have the effect of raising the condition of
the labouring classes, and of giving to the people of this
country a very great advantage they have not hitherto pos-
sessed in their competition with foreign countries. It does
seem to me that there could be no time more favourable
for the transition we are now discussing than the present.
I must add that I think it would be highly honourable to
this house to make in one week, as far as in our power, a
reparation for two great errors of two different kinds ; for
Sir, as lawgivers, we have errors of two different kinds to
confess and repair. We have done that which we ought
not to have done ; we have left undone that which we
ought to have done. We have regulated that which we
ought to have left to regulate itself ; we have left unregu-
lated that which it was our especial business to have
regulated. We have given to certain branches of indus-
try a protection which was their bane. (Hear, hear.) We
have withheld from public health, and from public mo-
rality, a protection which it was our duty to have given.
We have prevented the labourer from getting his loaf
where he could get it cheapest, but we have not prevented
him from prematurely destroying the health of his body
and mind by inordinate toil. I hope and believe that we
are approaching the end of a vicious system of interfe-
rence, and of a vicious system of non-interference. We
have just done what was in our power for the purpose of
repairing the greatest of all the errors we have com-
mitted in the way of inteference, and I hope we shall to-
night take a step toward repairing another error into
which we have been led,—that of great neglect. (Loud
cheers.)" _

Which of these men ought to have the credit, if
any, of repealing the corn laws ? The reply will be
almost unanimous in favour of him who would
accompany it with a concession to the working
man which has been too long withheld.

There is nothing for which the Parliamentary
proceedings of the last two months will be more
vividly remembered in after years, than for the an-
nouncement, which they have conveyed to us, of the
creation of a new and powerful element in our con-
stitution. Hitherto, we have been accustomed to
regard that constitution as based, on the one hand,
upon the landed property and the aristocracy of the
empire, and, on the other, upon the voice of public
opinion amongst the middle and industrial classes.
Upon all questions, in which the two elements
seemed to clash for a time, there was an appeal to
the people for their decision. It is now, however,
admitted, tacitly, that we have in our social fa-
bric a power which must be permitted to override
the ancient constitutional tests. We have just
been told, upon the question of the corn and Cus-
toms bill, that we dare not appeal to the people.
The legislature dare not even debate any measure
which may be forced upon them by an arbitrary
minister, because, forsooth, it is thereby producing
stagnation in our commerce, by prolonging the
feeling of uncertainty which its proposition has
created amongst mercantile men. Touch any great
article of consumption; propose an alteration in
the duties upon timber, upon sugar, upon coffee,
or upon corn, and you are not allowed breathing
time to consider its probable effects upon the pros-
perity of the country. You must press it forward
at all hazards, or a deputation from Manchester or
Leeds, or Liverpool, will be reminding you that,
whilst you hesitate, orders are being withheld, ships
and looms are idle, and weavers are starving in
their empty cottages. The stream of trade must
flow on. It has drawn into its eddy so large a
share of the interests and influence of the nation—.