The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-08-08 00:00:00

worst features of Rornanism been the result of tha
depraved longing of a few withered anatomies for
the gloom and retirement of the cloister; had it
been the prompting only of a few minds wearied of
the world—of diseased imaginations and debilitated
frames—we should have thought the circumstance
scarcely worth even a passing observation. But
such is not the source from which it emanates. Its
proposer is a young nobleman of high character and
talent ; its supporters are the representatives of no
small amount of the youthful intellect of the empire
—of " young England"—and it excites in us,
therefore, serious and strong misgivings with re-
spect to the extent to which a body of men, upon
whose Conservative faithfulness may one day de-
pend much of the stability of the Protestant institu-
tions of their country, have been corrupted by false
doctrines, and urged towards the adoption of those
insidious practices and opinions, which lead ulti-
mately to the setting up once more of popery in
this realm.

Lord John proposed that the restrictions which
the statute of Mortmain places in the way of testa-
mentary endowments of religion should be with-
drawn ; and he urges this as the remedy to be
applied for the relief of the existing distress and dis-
satisfaction throughout the country ! Rebellion is
rife in one portion of the empire. A physical force
movement is defying the power of the executive in
another. Religious controversy is agitating Scot-
land, whilst in England commerce and manufactures
are languishing, and a large portion of our working
population are threatened with deprivation-of em-
ployment for their labour. The remedy for these
evils is the establishment of monastic institutions
throughout the land ! Unfetter, exclaims his lord-
ship, private benevolence ! Allow enthusiasts and
idiots to found nunneries and build abbeys and
priories, in the building of which the labour of the
working classes may be absorbed, and in which
pious men and women may devote themselves to the
task of telling their beads, worshipping the saints,
adoring the Virgin, and inoculating the minds of the
surrounding population with the novelties and phan-
tasies of the new Rome which is springing up at Ox-
ford, and which has already succeeded in deluding
so large a portion of " young England."
'We repeat, we should treat such a proposition
with unqualified ridicule, if it emanated from feeble-
minded women, or from men who had survived the
power of usefulness or enjoyment in the world. But
when we see it advanced by men in the vigour of in-
tellect—by men upon whose minds the lessons of
history cannot have fallen unobserved—by men upon
whose minds the fruits of travel, and the experience
of such institutions in other lands, cannot reasonably
be supposed to have exercised no effect—we are
compelled to believe that it is deliberately designer',
and designed with method too, as a means to an
end.; and that such end is the restoration of this
country, by the gradually inclining path of Tracta-
rianism, to the embrace of Rome herself. We see
in it all the cunning of the serpent, and all the danger
of too close an approach within the sphere of his
fascination.
For what serious fetters does the law of Mortmain
now impose upon private benevolence ? If such be-
nevolence wishes to endow an hospital, a college, or
a church, the way is open to do so. The statute of
Mortmain checks no such effort more than is ne-
cessary to prevent religious delusion. It will not
permit monastic institutions, in possession of lands,
to grow up amongst us. It interferes with the work-
ing of the confessional. It protects deluded peni-
tents in their last hours from the machinations of
their priestly tyrants and deluders; hut it does no
more : and no churchman—none at least who wishes
to see his church any other than a reflection of
Rome—can wish for its erasure from the statute
book. And if men or women, in their Tractarian
zeal, wish to devote themselves to seclusion or to
works of charity, they can do so. The law of Mort-
main does not stay them. It does this, however.
It checks the growth of selfish, and desiging, and
aggrandisement-seeking monasticism. It is an es-
toppal to the march of popery ; and on this plea,
we fear, it is that "young England," which perhaps
might be more appropriately designated " YOUNG
ROME," seeks its removal from her path to supre-
macy !

The public will have perceived within the last
week, upon the walls of our town, a placard put for-
ward by the working classes, affected under the pro-
visions of the Fire Prevention Bill, complaining,
amongst other matters, of the provision which com-
pels every porter employed in any of the warehouses
of Liverpool to wear a distinctive badge, as the evi-
dence of his having been licensed according to the
act. In the radical papers of the week are to be
found also reports of a meeting of the same body of
men upon the subject, by the speakers at which very
strong language appears to have been used, and the
imputation directly conveyed that the clauses re-
lating to such " badges" are the prompting of certain
occupiers of warehouse property, and have been de-
liberately designed by them to affix a mark of slavery
upon the working classes of the town.
A reference to the file of the Liverpool Mercury for
the past month will leave no doubt with respect to the
origin of the delusion in question; and especially with
respect to the origin of the venemous spirit manifested
upon the subject of the regulations affecting the
working classes towards their employers. Our con-
temporary entertains a bitter spite against his real
or imagined opponents; and is not extremely par-
ticular as to the mode which he takes of displaying
it. Against TWO of the warehouse-keepers of Liver-
pool, who happen to occupy seats in the council, the
Mercury has on many recent occasions (which will
be remembered) manifested viciousness ; and not
more than a month ago, in an article characterized
by an amount of ill feeling, and worse language, than
is ordinary even with our contemporary, these gen-
tlemen were distinctly pointed out as having imposed
upon the council the obnoxious clauses in question !
The slightest enquiry would have assured the Mer-
cury that such had not been the case. Messrs.
Birkett and Harbord had no hand in the suggestion
of these clauses, which, in fact, were imposed upon
the merchants of the town by the insurance offices,
and arose entirely out of the feeling of alarm created
by the recent fires in this locality. But a paltry, poli-
tical, or personal spleen was to be gratified; and,
without hesitation as to the worthiness, or the dan-
gerous nature, of the mode of its gratification, the
assertion is at once hazarded which directs against
those two gentlemen—the largest warehouse occu-
piers and employers in Liverpool—the odium of
having deliberately endeavoured to insult and en-
slave the working classes employed by them !

Upon the wickedness of such a suggestion we
shall not remark. We shall not say to what disas-
trous results, in the present dangerously excited
state of a portion of our working population, it
might lead. But with a view of disabusing the
minds of that population of the erroneous ideas
which have been so sedulously infused into them,
and created an evidently large amount of ill feeling,
we shall briefly point to the real origin of these
clauses. We have before us a tariff of rates, hearing
date the Ist of June, 1543, agreed upon by the in-
surance companies to be charged upon property
warehoused in the port of Liverpool. These rates
are respectively 285., 325., and 358. per cent., ac..

THE LIN-FRP°

cording to the natu e and classification of the goods
stored. But a provision is made that a reduction of Bs.
per cent. will be allowed upon fireproof warehouses of
a certain construction ; and a further reduction of
75., upon, a system of registration of porters being
enforced. In this latter proposition of the insurance
companies is the real origin of the registration clauses
in the Fire Prevention Bill, and not in the dictation—
if even two members of the council could possibly
have dictated to the whole council !—of Messrs.
Birkett and Harbord.

In corroboration of the fact of the warehouse occu-
piers not having originated the clauses in question,
we refer our readers to a letter advertised in our co-
lumns this day.

ARRIVAL OF THE DUKE OF PALMELLA IN
ENGLAND.—COMMERCIAL TREATY WITH POR-
TUGAL.—We have for some days been in possession
of the fact, from an undoubted source, that this dis-
tfnguished member of the Portuguese government
was on the way to this country, for the purpose of
concluding with our government the long agitated
commercial treaty between the two nations. It will
be remembered that the terms proposed by Great
Britain were, after a long negociation, refused to be
submitted to by Portugal, who demanded much
more from us that we could possibly grant, in ex-
change for the limited concessions which she offered
us ; and that all further treaty upon the subject was
in consequence broken off. It would appear, how.
ever, from the information which has reached us,
and which we consider almost amounting to the
certainty of official information, that the present em-
broiled position of Spain has prompted the Portu-
guese government to seize this as a favourable op•
portunity to make a step in advance ; and that Pal-
mella visits Great Britain prepared to settle a treaty
upon the terms originally offered by this country.
By this arrangement, important advantages will be
gained by Portugal, her wines, which are at present
subject to a uniform duty of ss. 6d. per gallon, being
rendered admissible into consumption here at the
respective duties of 3s. for Port, 2s. 6d. for Lisbon,
and 2s. 9d. for Madeira; whilst it will relieve " the
trade" in this country from their present state of
uncertainty, and no doubt open, in addition, in-
creased markets in Portugal for the manufactured
goods in Oreat Britain.
Nor is this all the benefit which must accrue to
us from a satisfactory conclusion of this long pro-
tracted negociation. The admission of Portuguese
wines into more extensive consumption in this coun-
try must, by its operation upon the sherry trade of
Spain, stimulate that country, so soon as her inter-
nal affairs become sufficiently settled, to the neces-
sity of an effort of concession, to prevent her grow-
ers being driven entirely out of the British market ;
impelled,
by even France herself may find herself
by necessity, to be a little more yielding in the set-
tlement of her commercial relations with this coun-
try.
By the London Times of yesterday, we find that
the Duke of Palmella arrived at Mivart's Hotel on
Sunday.

A PRIEST OR A PUNCHINELLO ?—Who has not
heard of Father Tom Maguire ? No one save a
man who is ignorant of the existence of whiskey,
and its effect upon the priestly character. For the
enlightenment of such a man—to enable him to
form an idea of the " fantastic tricks" which potheen
will inspire the most holy and learned theologist to
perform—we give a specimen of Father Tom's exhi-
bition at the recent repeal gathering at Mayo. Here
it is, undiluted and genuine !
" The Irish people were ready to fight—they were
ready to fight against the ministry, but not against the
Queen. For her they would do battle to the death.
(Cheers.) Let the people persevere and repeal was cer-
tain. It was with them the consideration next in impor-
tance to eternity itself. He had come 100 miles to attend
that meeting. (Cheers.) He had thrown up his hat in
the air and shouted ' Hurrah for repeal!' and he never
would desist dancing until he had kicked the bottom, not
out of his hat, but out of the union. (Laughter.)"

There's a specimen of Maynooth teaching, reader.
" The Irish people are ready to fight ;" and Father
Tom will "never desist dancing until he has kicked
the bottom (not of his hat, but) out of the union ! !"
Amiable and amusing process this of carrying the
repeal

THE COMMISSION OF A MURDER BOASTED
OF !-At a repeal gathering held last week in Man-
chester, a Mr. W. R. O'Connell, Captain General of
Repeal Wardens, or some such thing, delivered
himself of the following pretty effncinn
" Adverting to the services of Mr. Daniel O'Connell,
the basest portion of the English press had, day after day,
called their own experienced general a coward. Called
the man a coward who left his amiable and accomplished
wife and young children upon a fine morning, and did
not let her know where he was going to. Where was he
going ? He was going to fight for the nationality and the
liberty of Ireland (!) and to sustain his honour as a gen-
tleman. And who was he going to fight? He was going
to fight a celebrated fire-eater, that was put upon him by
the rotten corporation of Dublin,—a man who fought four
duels before meeting with the liberator of Ireland ; but
oh! how futile was it for them to place their bully before
him! for though they now called him a coward, HE
SHOT THAT DULLY DEAD THE FIRST SHOT !"

The speaker, of course, imagines that he has sue.
cessfully vindicated his protogee from the charge of
cowardice. A man who "leaves his amiable and
accomplished wife and young children" in a morn-
ing, with the determination either to make her a
widow, and her children fatherless, or himself a mur-
derer, may be no coward. But he sufficiently proves
himself to be a criminal. The deed of death referred
to is surely not one to glory over ; and the world at
large, under all the circumstances by which it was
attended, will be very much disposed to think that
its mention was not in the best of taste.

DRAWBACK ON COTTON.—The merchants of Liverpool
are making a most important movement just now, and are
likely to induce the Government to acr&de to the adop-
tion of a measure which will be highly ilsjantageous to
the commerce of the port, namely, to allow a drawback
of the duty paid upon imported cotton whenever it may
be required for export.

STATE OF TRADE, MANUFACTURES, &C.-4)W cotton
market during the past week has been freely supplied by
holders of American at firm prices, which have been met
with a good demand. Sea Island maintains full prices,
and a fair business is doing in Egyptian. Surat, though
in demand, is more freely offered, especially of ordinary
qualities. The sales of the week are 31,610 bales, in-
cluding 3,500 American on speculation, and 400 American,
and 450 Surat for export. We have before us a copy of
the circular for July, published by an extensive mercan-
tile firm in Manchester, from which we extract a few
facts bearing upon the state of the market in the cotton
manufacturing districts. The demand for printing cloths
has been considerable during the past fortnight, and large
purchases of other descriptions have been made for the
Levant. Our own printers, too, have taken somewhat
freely for the autumn dark styles. As an assuring fact,
accounting in part for the complaints which we have heard
of declining consumption of this description of cloth, it is
remarked by the writers of the circular that if the con-
sumption of 7.Bth cambrics and 9-Bth jaconets "have not
of late kept pace with the extent of our commerce, it is to
be borne in mind that the printing of de laines, velvets,
and other fabrics, have supplied the difference. The pro-
duction of these latter descriptions of goods is finding in-
creased employment for the workpeople of this district,
and the demand for mousselines-de-laine and velvets is
likely to be good for autumn and winter consumption."
A decline has taken place in some descriptions of shirt-
ings ; but as the weavers of many of these are just now
fully engaged in field labonr, the production is but scanty,
and stocks do not press upon the market. The yarn
market exhibits no appearance of activity, yet prices re-
main without alteration from our last. Several qualities
and numbers are very bare. The diminished consump-
tion for the Hanse Towns alone keeps the market de-
pressed. As soon as the orders for Germany comes again
in their usual extent to the market, prices will quickly get
up, as there are literally no stocks. Owing to the favour-
able reports of the autumn of 1842, the spring exports of
1843 to Germany, more than doubled those of the cor-
responding period of the antecedent year, and these, too,
were at the high prices then prevalent. Until the mar-
kets abroad shall have been somewhat cleared of those
stocks, we eannot expect other than a decline of demand
here : the falling off during the past three months very
much more than counterpoises the increased exports of
yarn on India and China account. Contracts for Russia
account will keep several of our spinners fully engaged to
October. Operations for Turkey, the Levant, and the
Austrian ports, are a little more spirited this month. Re-
ferring to the prospects of the harvest and its effect upon
markets, the Circnlar remarks—" Should the fruition of
the season be as expected, we may calculate that in the
present plethoric state of the money-market, speculation
will be entered into by the capitalists both in cotton and
manufactures (the bullion in the Bank of England being
neatly twelve millions, or nearly as large an amount as
ever has been held by this establishment, and discounts
at only V, per cent.) ; in which case, as stocks of almost
all descriptions of yarns and goods are uncommonly hare,
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arrricultural and iron districts, our spinners, weavers, and
printers ale tolerably well employed at full wages—this,
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