The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-03-07 00:00:00

THE MERCURY'S ANTI-CORN-LAW ADVOCACY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD

SlR,—Some time back you kindly permitted me to expose
through your columns a little of the Aiercury'sjesuitry ; that my
letter told on the obdurateness of its editors is evidenced from
their excusing the insertion of the paragraph in question, on
the plea of its having gone the round of the most respectable
papers, meaning, I suppose, the organs of popery and free-
trade in every thing calculated, however remotely, to degrade
"church principles" to " social and papistical impurities,"
and
our high-principled and spirited yeomanry to factory
slaves. 'Tis true they called me a " snarler ;" but consi-
dering the extent of their "Billingsgate" vocabulary, I do
not think I have had reason to complain, and should not in
all probability have again troubled myself to disturb their
complacent inanity had they not again ventured, in the cal-
lousness of " Anti-Corn-Law Leagueism," on the awful
impiety of assuming to know the mind of God, (" who giveth
not account of any of his matters"—Job 33-13,) and to pre-
sume on that assumption to warp the dealings of God with
His chosen people into the service of the Anti-Corn-Law
League. Under these circumstances, I hope you will again
give me a place in your valuable paper for a few remarks on
the following extract from the Mercury of last Friday :
" THE NATIONAL EISTRESS.—' An Old Churchman,'
observing on the order for a thanksgiving, on account of our
successes in the east, expresses a hope that there will be a day
of fasting and humiliation appointed, when the nation may
implore the Almighty to mitigate the present great distress.
To the piety of this wish we cordially respond, but against its
propriety there is this objection : the electors of England,
exercising a sacred trust for all the people, have appointed
six hundred and fifty-eight law-makers, a great majority of
whom wilfully keep the people on this side the ocean starv-
ing, and on the other side ill clothed, because they will not
allow nations freely to exchange their surplus produce with
each other ; this is, therefore, a wilful national fault of our
own, and there is no warrant, either in Scripture or in the
visible arrangements of Providence, for believing that relief
will be granted by miracle, when we perversely continue an
evil of our own creating. Manna would not have been
showered down upon the Israelites in the wilderness, if they
had obstinately maintained a corn law, keepin,g out supplies
from fruitful lands around them."
It is not my intention to offer any observations on the
object of "An Old Churchman," said to be a correspondent
of the Mercury's, but I would in all seriousness ask him how
he reconciles it with church principles to figure in the co-
lumns of the Mercury? Neither do I intend to waste time
and paper on the PROPRIETIES of the Mercury. though it is
very true they must hold very curious notions of propriety,
as well as of the gullibility of their readers, when they expect
them to digest such a mass of absurdity as the aforegoiunting.
My business at present is with the last paragraph; for, l
the editors of the Mercury can show that we have prevented
and do prevent other " nations freely to exchange their sur-
plus produce with each other," all his amalgamations of ab-
surd assumptions can only be considered as one great Anti-
Corn-Law BOUNCE, and nothing more: but when they so
audaciously tell us " manna would not have been showered
down upon the Israelites in the wilderness, if they
had obsti-
nately maintained a corn law, keeping out supplies from
fruitful lands around them," they deserve whipping ;—=1:1
come forth you hypocritical editors of tbeMercury—pub-
fishers of Blackburn's iligant speech against Bible education
—and let us know in your next publication (as you assume
to know the will of the Almighty therein) how it came to
pass that the Israelites had need of " manna," since they
had (and did not keep out) " supplies from fruitful lands
around them ?" Call on your " gods" of the Anti-Corn-Law
and Repeal Associations to help you in the dilemma in which
you have placed yourself, if they can—your Evans s, Earle s,
Blackburn's, Bright's and Rathbone's—you are welcome to
all; for in the name of common sense I defy them to prove
otherwise than that you have been guilty of impious block-
headism. What an example do you afford of the necessity
of the Bible education ? What a triumph base you now
afforded to the advocates of the evil of education not based
on religious principles? Henceforth keep your friends of
the town-council from agitating the education question, for
the apt illlustration you will afford the conservative members
would render the " pillory" a comparative comfort to whet
at
you would have to undergo. Should you find yourselv
unable to account on Scriptural elucidation for God's dealing
with his people, I will endeavour, if the editor of
he
tthe
STANDARD will allow me, to enlighten you thereon ; in
mean time, I wduld earnestly can your attention to the fact.
" that plenty of corn and wine" is throughout all Scripture
mentioned as the direct blessing of God on his obedient peo-
ple, totally unconnected with earthly commerce or feelings.
" When he giveth quietness,
d him )
and when he hideth his face, who th can en behol
whether it be done against a nation, or anst a man on y. '
gai
—Job 34-29. who then can make trouble ?
ant,
Eloping you will be kind enough
your next, I remain, dear sir,
Your obedient sery to make a place for this in
LOOK-OUT.

DREADFUL COACH ACCIDENT.---OH Thursday evening
1 last,
a as the day coach from London was coming towards
T sburgb, when it reached the hill eear the bridge the coach
overtook a brewer's dray, tae a
the cart and upset,
turning over a deep place by the side of the road. The dray-
man drove on as if nothing had happened, leaving word at
off against a tree
_heiapdsfittriseth,
the public-house respecting tbe accident. Mr. Scott, one of
nthune o. utTsihdee
dpraisyseerngwearss,
twharsowthnrown off and fixed between the
, .coach
. and a tree, which was cut down in order to extricate
The two inside pas-
,'andhead
was very much hurt. The guard wiiikgihrta.slsssoicloottwhtriwonwgasnyteoiriftye
little.
iitgataihdeht.efibarde,sritnbhgaueiczytahl
egionrryssl cue
ithe c stump
u u i
p,
at
eolfy a
perttreeea,. an d killed
outside passe
sengers escaped unhurt, though much frightened. We
understand no blame can be attached to the coachman,. the
e.and guard.
dans
passenger
keerraehnedvseifrdoyeg gt little
hY e, ad trthidyoetrhrt
1 only •
I Express.
t
THE PERILOUS SITUATION OF THE STEAMER —W
• happy • e are
to be enabled to state that tha steam vessel, supposed
to be the Rhadamanthus, which we reported in our last
paper as being in danger of going place
paper
ashore near the
rovidentially escaped. It fi'''.
pears that Mr. Galway, who lives near the Rennies, espied
where the Killarney was log, p
steam-vessel with a white chimney, about ten o'clock, a
. la-
bouring to get towards Cove harbour, the sea
.making
breaches over her, as it was blowing a storm at the
, time.
After some time' she was blown in, broadside, towards
'Barry's head, the next point west of Rennies bay.
, she neared the land she appeared to drop both bow hen
chors, as her head came round to the wind, which waser an-
the S.P
—., and though her engines continued to wo k from
neared the land until she got within her own lent• 1. she
, rock at Barry's head ears
ago. buoy, laid hof the
down where a
frigate was lost some years ago. Here she held
the hundreds who crowded the cliffs around ex on, though
moment that she would strike on the rock, and expected every
if she did that she must have gone to pie es it was feared
es, while it is
doubtful whether am, of those on board could have
saved. Mr. Whitconabe, officer of coast-guard, been
at Robert's
cove, sent an express to Sir Robert Hagan, and
everything
y was done to secure assistance, but fortunately at half-past
; two o'clock the wind veered and the tide ebbecl, which en-
abled the vessel to weigh anchors and get off.—
tution. Cork Coma-
ESCAPE FROM PRISON.—In the early part of
a man named George Hawes, a native of Che last month
(and connected with an extensive gang
of
sbeep.stealers),shunt. Bucks
• who had been apprehended with five othe
stealing upwards of 30 sheep from thehe
ri, rs, charged with
i Amersham, broke through the roof of Windsor gaol,
of
clear away. At the time of his escape he had
and got
cover him but his night shirt and the rug he nothing to
off his bed, the whole of his clothes having had taken from
from him by the gaoler, for the better been taken away
upon his being locked up for the ni h
security of the prisoner
i he was brought before the bench ofg t.
Yesterday morning
Larkins, an active local constable of that
at Eton by
that district, who had
appeared apprehended him at Plymouth. It
upon his escape first made his way peared that the fellow
to Slough, where be was
assisted by some notorious characters
, with clothes and
which enabled him to proceed the money,
; same night by the luggua
train to London. The next morning ge-
he enlisted, in his own
name, in the 67th Regiment of Foot, in the metropolis, and
after remaining there four days
was sent to join the regiment
at Plymouth, where he was taken into custody by the consta-
stable on Sunday morning last, just as the troops were leaving
the church to proceed to the barracks. He was yesterday
I sent by the Eton bench of magistrates in custody to Amers-
ham, whence he will be fully committed to Aylesbury gaol
, to take his trial with the rest of the gang at the ensuing as-
. sizes forty county of Bucks. He was attired yesterday is
his militaruniform, and appears about 20 years of age.
which
SAVAGE SUPERSTITION.—Of all the superstitions
still linger in the Highlands, there is none so heartless, cruel,
barbarous, and degrading—none so baneful and distressing
in its consequences, none so insulting to humanity,. and none
so disgraceful to professing Christians, as that which relates
to suicide, actual or supposed. A very striking instance of
this sort of superstition was lately displayed at the farmstead
of Hilton, near Tain. A poor, sickly, unattended, helpless
woman, went out to fetch water from a neighbouring well,
or pool, for her children, wbo were lying ill of a fever ; while
at the pool, which is quite shallow, she was suddenly seized
with vertigo, or a fit of fainting; she unfortunately fell for-
ward into the water. and, there being no help at band, she
was either suffocated or drowned. This, according to the
most trustworthy report, would be the conclusion arrived at
by any jury of intelligent men. Now, instead ofsympathising
with the distracted husband, his aged and bedridden fatherd
,
and his sick and motherless children, then eighbours stood
shrinking and loathingly aloof from them in their agony.
Mr. Munro, the farmer of Hilton,
whose conduct with re-
to his bead and
spect to this sad case was honourable alike
his heart, used all his influence to obtain a decent Christian
burial for the unfortunate deceased, but in vain. Ignorance
and prejudice at once decided that she was a suicide; and
superstition and bigotry cared "Away with her to the Mor-
y, and dismal border of the
rich Morl"—the damp, ar
Tain Frith, where, on the day of judgment, a multitude of
so-called suicides may start u humanityto give their testimony as to
of the '
the intelligence, chaity, andHoly Land
'
of Ross." This disgraceful affair, however, having conic to
the knowledge of the Tam authorities, they very
ordered the body to be disintered and examined b
operly
died of all
men, who, after a careful considerationy two
me-
the cir-
cumstances, reported that, in their opinion this
of "accidental death by drowning." , was a case
The
decently cotfined, and interred in th corpse was then
e cemetery
the rWied chapel of St. Duthus.—
Jaetery attached to
hn o' Groat Journal.