The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-09-19 00:00:00

PLAGIARISMS OF THE MERCURY,

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
SIR,—So those mean and senseless twaddlers who make
" bad hash" for their gullible readers every Friday, are
down upon you again with their sq,,irt. Not content
with having pilfered one of your articles without the slight-
est acknowledgment, they now turn round and impugn the
veracity of the facts set forth, stating their sore ow at not
having been more careful in not appending the authority,
they having lost caste with the public in having neglected
to do so. The conductors of the " rag," you will per-
ceive, also promise to be more careful in future, and that
the next time they rob your columns you shall have the
full benefit of the authorship.
What a pity it is these snarling pettifoggers should be
troubled with so treacherous a memory, for, on looking
over their columns last Friday, I see they have taken a
paragraph from your last publication relating to the ex-
traordinary power and peculiarity of construction of the
" Loodiana steamer." The only difference to be seen is
the paragraph first given by you, and the one published
by the Mercury that they have changed its "side-
head," calling it a " singular steamer," and curtailing it
of its fair proportions. The main facts are the same as
stated by you, and the phraseology word for word. Per-
haps, should you complain of this to-morrow, you will be
informed by these veritable chroniclers, that there is not a
word of truth in the statement, that no such steamer has
an existence, and that your reporter's description of it was
merely the effects of a dream.
I also perceive that your HONEST contemporary, who
would " neither beg, borrow, nor steal," even did such
conduct confer immortality, appropriated the Times' ac-
count of the Liverpool licensing sessions, but, as usual,
endeavoured to disguise the theft by the transposition of
paragraphs.
I hope you will lay it on thick to-morrow, reminding
these querulous sticklers for copyright, that " what is
sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander," and that
" those who live in glass houses should he the last to
throw stones."—t'our's, &c. TIT-FOR-TAT.
Liverpool, Sept. 18, 1813.

[We are tired of noticing the deceptive dishonesty of
the Mercury, or we night have complied with our cor-
respondent's request.]

THE FREE CHURCH

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
SlR,—Having seen a succession of placards and adver-
tisements of sermons to be preached and collections made
for a body calling itself the Free Church of Scotland, I
made my arrangements and went yesterday afternoon in
the expectation of hearing the Rev. Dr. Cooke, of Belfast,
but was surprised to find he was not the preacher. Dis-
appointment and dissatisfaction were expressed by many
around me, who had gone as I did, to hear Dr. Cooke,
and. on inquiry, I have every reason to believe a wilful
deception was practised, which I think ought to be ex-
posed. On Thursday night, at the Amphitheatre, Dr.
Cooke's name was given out to preach at Oldhall street,
on Sunday, but I learn he left town the next morning.
Besides this departure from their public notice it turned
out also that they had advertised a sermon and collection
at another church, without any authority. From these
things put together is it wrong to presume that deception
has been intentionally resorted to by these Scotch agita-
tors and their abettors. Like many others whose mis-
conduct has brought them into beggary, they have recourse
to misrepresentations and tricks that are likely to extract
a halfpenny from wayfarers like myself. Instead of Dr.
Cooke, a Scotch minister preached, and on the subject of
their schism he made statements, which, although I ant
not acquainted with the subject, I could plainly perceive
were inconsistent with each other. I was unprepared to
find that reading the Scriptures forms no part of the ser-
vice with these people : not one passage of Scripture was
read, nor was the Lord's Prayer used at all. All was ex-
tempore, and the whole strain of the proceedings was dis-
play of the man who officiated, rather than worship of
God. I am, Sir,
Your obedient Servant,
R. R.