The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-05-23 00:00:00

SOCIETY FOR IMPROVING THE CONDITION

OF THE LABOURING CLASSES.

The annual meeting of this society, in London, was
held on Thursday in the large hall of the Freemasons'
Tavern. Long before the hour for which the meeting
was called (12 o'clock), the hall was crowded by a large
number of ladies, among whom were the Duchess of
Sutherland, and many other ladies of high rank.
On the platform were Lord John Russell, the Duke of
Argyll, Earl Fortescue, the Marquis of Westminster,
Lord Ashley, Lord Ebrington, the Bishops of London,
Salisbury, and St. David's; Dr. M'Neile, of .Liverpool;
Professor Whewell, Sir T. Acland, S. M. Peto, Esq.,
M.P., &c., &c. His Royal Highness Prince Albert oc-
cupied the chair.
Prayers having been offered by the Bishop of London,
Prince Albert rose, and was received with loud cheers.
When they had subsided, he said—Ladies and gentlemen,
when four years since this Society for the Improvement of
the Condition of the Labouring Classes was first established
on its present footing, I accepted, with pleasure, the offer
made me of becoming its President. (Loud cheers.) I
saw in this offer a proof of the appreciation the society en-
tertained of my feelings, my sympathy, and my interest
for the class of our community which has most of the toil
and least of the enjoyments of the world. (Hear, hear,
and cheers.) I conceived that great advantage would ac-
crue to it from the endeavours of influential people, who
were wholly disinterested, to act the part of friends to
those who required advice and assistance, which only a
friend could tender with advantage. (Loud cheers.) This
society has always held this object before its eyes, and has
ever been labouring in that direction. You are all aware
that it was established to erect model lodging-houses, loan
funds, and the allotment of land in different parts of the
country ; but it has been careful only to establish exam-
ples and models, mindful that any real improvement which
was to take place must be the result of the exertions of
the working people themselves. (Cheers.) I have just
come from the model lodging-house, the opening of which
we celebrate this day--(cheers)—and I feel convinced that
its existence will by degrees lead to the erection of others,
and that it will lead to a complete change in the domestic
comforts of the working classes, as it will exhibit to them,
that with real economy can be combined advantages and
comforts to which tey have hitherto been strangers,
whilst it will, at the game time, show those who possess
capital which they are desirous to invest, that they may do
so in connexion with this institution with great advantage
and profit to themselves, dispensing, at the same time,
those comforts which I have enumerated to their poorer
brethren. (Cheers.) Depend upon it, it is to the interest
of those classes who are so often contrasted. but whose
interests are identical, to unite, and it is only ignorance
which prevents them from uniting for each others advan-
tage. To dispel that ignorance, and to show the means
how man can help man, notwithstanding the compli-
cated state of civilized society, ought to be the aim of every
philanthropic person. But it is most peculiarly the duty
of those who, under the blessing of Divine Providence,
enjoy station, wealth, and education. (Cheers.) Let
them be careful how to avoid any dictatorial interference
with labour and employment, which frightens away
capital, destroys that freedom of thought and independ-
ence of action which must remain to every one if he is to
work out his own happiness—(Loud cheers)—and to
repose that confidence in each other, on which alone the
enjoyment rnd mutual benefit of mankind rests. After
some further remarks appropriate to the subject, his Royal
Highness resumed his seat amid loud cheers.
Lord Ashley, who was received with cheers, explained
the progress which had been made in prosecution of the
society's objects. and the further measures which it was
hoped shortly to accomplish. Little had yet been done
in respect to the Loan-fund, but it was expected that by
the next meeting much will have been effected. In
the allotment of land a good deal had been effected ; but
the greatest progress had been made in that part of the
society's scheme which related to the erection of an im-
proved kind of lodging-houses for the working classes
and the poor, affording comfortable and wholesale ac-
commodation at rents which are ordinarily paid for the
most wretched and filthy rooms. The next step ',pro-
posed to be taken is that of building houses for females.
The Duke of Argyle moved the adoption of the report,
which was seconded by the Rev. Hugh M'Neile in a very
brilliant and eloquent speech, which we regret to find has
not been reported in the London papers.
The second resolution, inviting the cordial co-operation
of the clergy to give efficiency to the various plans for im-
proving the condition of the working classes, was moved
by the Bishop of Oxford, seconded by Sir Thos. Acland.
M.P., and adopted.
A subscription of £lOO from Mr. S. M. Peto, M.P., was
here announced by Lord Ashley. The announcement
was received with loud cheers.
A resolution calling upon the wealthy to aid the society
was proposed by the Bishop of St. David's, and seconded
by Mr. Colquhoun, and was carried.
A committee, headed by Lord Ashley, was then ap-
pointed for the ensuing year.
On the motion of Earl Fortescue, seconded by J.
Labouchere, Esq., a vote of grateful and respectful thanks
of the meeting was passed to the Prince for his conde-
scension in taking the chair.
Prince Albert briefly returned thanks, and the meeting
separated, chaunting the national anthem.
A number of the inmates of the model lodging and
dwelling-houses then partook of a generous repast,, pro-
vided for them by the society.

THE REVUE RETROSPECTIVE.

The sixth number of the Rbvue Retrospective. continues
its extracts from the private papers found at the Tuileries.
The editor precedes thera,b37 the following remarks :
" We publish to-day the first portion of a correspond-
ence which will be read with great interest on both sides
of the Channel. The affectionate language of this corres-
pondence increases gradually. to professions of devotion
until the moment of rupture arrives, It is precisely on
New Year's-day that Louis-Philippe for the first time, at
the moment that he sends New. Year's gifts to the Royal;
children, places himself open to an accusation of the
Queen of England of double-dealing.
" A very formal letter from Queen Victoria to Queen
Amelie, which will close the series of these letters, is the
letter which gave rise to the lengthened justification which
Louis Philippe addressed to the Queen of the Belgians, to
be communicated by her to the Queen of England, and
which appears in the second number of the Revue."
The first letter of this series is dated Chateau d'Eu,
October 15, 1844. It informs her Majesty, who is ad-
dressed as " Madame, ma Bien bonne et tres there sceur,"
of the safe arrival of the writer (Louis-Philippe) at d'Eu,
after his recent visit to England.
No. 2 is from her Majesty to the ex-king, acknowledg-
ing the receipt of his letter. It contains the following
passage :
" I need not repeat how much we desire to see strength-
ened between the two countries thatentente cordiale
which- already exists between us personally."
Another letter, dated St. Cloud, December 4, 1844, is
in reference to the projected visit of her Majesty to the
French capital.
" Above all things (says this letter), I beg of you both
(Prince Albert) to be convinced that I should never con-
sent ,to your undertaking this journey without having
first assured myself that your reception would be such as
I received in England. That assurance is mine to-day."
A prophetic spirit then seems to come over the fallen
monarch, for he adds in the very next line—
" But I am too well acquainted with the men and the
times I live in, ever to speak with certainty of the future ;
and my advice is never to engage ourselves until that fu-
ture shall nave approached nearer to the present, so as to
enable us to form a correct judgment of what we may and
what we may not undertake."
After alluding to the beneficial effect produced in France
by tie reciprocal visits of the two sovereigns to their re-
specti,ve countries, the ex-king pourtrays the enthusiastic
reception her Majesty would find in Paris, which he
says--:
" Will be the most efficacious means for popularising
that entente cordiale, the happy results of which are each
day more manifest."
The next letter is dated Paris, Feb. 14, 1845, from
Louis-Philippe to her Majesty. In alluding to her Ma-
jesty's speech on the opening of parliament, the royal
writer says :
" I was deeply touched by the words of your Majesty
which related to myself. I rejoice to be able to add that
your speech was hailed with joy in France, the effect of
which was increased by the debate which ensued, and es-
pecially by the excellent speeches of Sir R. Peel and Lord
Aberdeen."
The following letter, addressed by Louis-Philip to the
Count de Jarnac, (godson of the ex-King,) is dated 14th
Dec., 1845 :
" My dear Philippe' —I thank you for the information
you have sent me. I beg of you to be my interpreter to
your uncle, the Duke of Leinster, and to tell him how
sensible lam of his kind message. But I have another
commission for you to execute, which I have already in-
trusted to M. Guizot, but which I wish to.repeat in every
possible manner ; it is to express to Sir R. Peel and to
Lord Aberdeen, how afflicted I am at their resignation,
the more so, as I had hoped to see their ministry co-
operate with mine in entertaining and perpetuating that
entente cordiale which they so efficaciously contributed to
form, and which has been so well cemented by the per-
sonal and friendly relations it enabled us to carry on."
In another letter to Her Majesty, dated the 17th Dec.,
1845, Louis-Philip again alludes to the resignment of the
ministry as follows :
" I was in hope that this ministry, which always so well
agreed with mine in establishing between the two govern-
ments that entente cordiale which is the basis of the peace
of the world, and of the prosperity of the two countries,
would long continue to consolidate it more and more.
This hope has been deceived. We must resign ourselves
to it."

On the 28th of December, on the reinstallation of the
former ministry, the King writes to Her Majesty to ex-
press his joy :
" Allow me to congratulate you on the maintenance of
the ministry of Sir R. Peel and Lord Aberdeen, and I
hope also of the Duke of Wellington. It is with sincere
satisfaction that I behold the happy termination of the
ministerial crisis, and of the anxiety it must have caused
you. No one is more capable than myself, who have suf-
fered so often, to appreciate what your
.Majesty must
have suffered."
The last letter in the present number of the Revue is
an affectionate letter to his bien chere petite cousine' the
Princess Victoria, and the other Royal children. It is
dated January 27, 1846.
The present number also contains a remarkable docu-
ment. It is a Report of M. Delessert, the Prefect of
Police, to the minister, on the state of the political and
social pulsations of the Paris public. It is dated January
19, 1847. This Report foretells a great Communist move-
ment, and draws the attention of the government to the
pamphlets published by Cabet, Desamy, Pierre Leroux,
Prolulhom, and other of Fourier's school. This Report
gives a list of, and passes in review the different publica-
tions hostile to the government.