The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-09-17 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL ST.IND,IRD.

SIR,—On returning to my native town, after an absence of
many years, I strolled down to the Customhouse, and was much
pleased to recognize so many of my old friends in the long room
still at their post. After the usual salutations I naturally in-
quired after their welfare and advancement, and was much
grieved to hear that, since 'inv departure, they had been de-
prived of every privilege they then enjoyed; but, what was still
more distressing to them, they had recently received an order
which they proved to me would reduce many of their salaries
from £2O to £4O per cent. I asked what reason had been as-
signed, and to my astonishment they informed me that none
whatever had been given, and they likewise told me they were
not allowed either to inquire. or to remonstrate!
• Can it be !possible that, in this our land of freedom, any class
of men can be deprived of what I have always understood was
a Briton's birth-right, viz., that of petition? I was sorry to be
convinced that such was the fact. As I have in former and by-
gone days experienced many .acts of kindness; and have reason
highly to esteem many of them, I shall feel greatlyobliged for
a corner in your valuable paper, in order that this circumstance
may be known in the proper quarter, which, for the honour of
my country, I still think they are not acquainted with.
However desirable it may be to reduce our expenditure to the
lowest
.possible scale, I can never think that any reduction can
be desirable or expedient which is felt to be oppressive, and
which I consider this essentially to be, inasmuch as the reduc-
tion is beyond all reason, and also, inasmuch as the reduction
is not general, but confined to one class, and that a class of in-
dividuals who have already suffered severely. Many of these
persons have been nearly half a century in their present situa-
tions, and their salaries are under the amount which, on a re-
cent debate, was admitted by all, even the most rigid economist,
as unfair to reduce. I repeat, this cannot be the reduction re-
quired by the country. Again, did not the Chancellor of the
Exchequer contend against reduction to the present possessors
on the score of the impolicy of having unwilling servants ? Now,
if there be any weight in such arguments, this is exactly a case
in point; for on these men devolve the collecting of the duties,
and much of the most important business of this great and still
increasing port. •

Had it been deemed necessary for the welfare of the country,
and had a similar 'reduction been made throughout every de-
partment, these individuals, I feel
.persuaded, would have been
among the last to complain. The injustice is, that they should
be singled out, as I conceive, contrary to the wishes of the le-
gislature and the country general.y. This being my impres-
sion I deem it my duty to take every means in my power to
procure them redress, and as I don't know a more effectual me-
dium than the one furnished by the press, I beg to repeat that
I shall feel greatly obliged by a compliance with my request.—
Yours, &c., A LIVERPOOL MEECIIANT.