The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-07-08 00:00:00

FLEETWOOD COLLEGES

A meeting of the provisional committee of the Fleetwood
College Association, and of gentlemen interested in the pro-
jected educational establishments on the principle of life
assurance, was held, in the large Assembly Room of the
North Euston Hotel, Fleetwood-on-Wyre, on Friday, the
Ist instant. The attendance was exceedingly numerous and
respectable.

The Rev. St. Vincent Beechey, A.M., (incumbent of
Fleetwood, and chaplain to Lord Grantley,) was called to the
chair, when he called upon Mr. Vantini, who delivered the
following address explanatory of the proposed system :
I feel certain of your indulgence, particularly when I am
about to propose a thing which conscientiously I believe will
one day be a great boon to humanity, namely, a means of
enabling every one to obtain the best possible education at
the least possible cost. Permit me, gentlemen, briefly to
relate the manner in which the idea first originated in my
mind, and how time and experience have mad me to hope
that I have not greatly erred in my calculations. In 1835 it
struck me that the system of life insurance would be an ex-
cellent thing, if it could be adapted to education. From that
moment to this my mind has always been more or less occu-
pied on the subject; and, by speaking with talented men, I
have fou?id them generally of my opinion, particularly such
as had had something to do with dispensing education.
It has been clearly ascertained that in a large school where
no profit is sought beyond the payment of tuition, a child
may be boarded and educated in a first-rate manner for £3O
per annum, that is to say £l5 for board, washing, medical
attendance, and stationery (but no books), £8 for masters,
and £7 for interest on original outlay and risk. Even this
sum, however, which can only answer in very large schools
where very small profits are expected, often falls too heavily
on parents who have many children. But let us suppose an
establishment to exist in which the education of children is
paid on the principle of life insurance. Now this principle
is twofold. First, it diffuses the expenses of a certain cost
over the space of a much greater number of years, thereby
diminishing the immediate pressure on any one year, and
also the actual weight, because it accumulates at compound
interest. Secondly, it applies to the living the benefit of
those who die, before they become entitled to any annuity,
and consequently before they require it. In order to apply
this principle to education, I have had recourse to the calcu-
lations of the most eminent practical men, all of whom have
approved of the principle; and when I mention the
names of M. de Morgan, professor of mathematics at the
university college in London, and Mr. Coates, the secre-
tary of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge,
as the authors of that calculation, I hope I am not far out,
when I say that by the payment of £4 per annum from the
birth of any child intended to be sent to these establishments,
or by a proportionate payment at any subsequent age until
seven years; then from the age of seven to that of eighteen,
such child may, on a further annual payment of £2O
between those years inclusive, have the benefit of a first-rate
education, including every accomplishment necessary for the
scholar and the gentleman, conducted under the superin-
tendence of the most eminent masters in the kingdom. The
details I will not now enter into, being anxious to reserve
them for future deliberation, more especially as some modi-
fication of this plan must be, made in the case of a new es-
tablishment, in which many of the first pupils shall be al-
ready of age to enter. The principle of the plan I have looked
into most anxiously. Chance having brought me to Fleet-
wood, I saw all at once that it would be the best spot in
England to put in execution my grand object, as many of
the difficulties which I thought very great, appeared re-
moved ; therefore, with delight I embraced the opportunity
that offered itself to me ; and in all my arrangements here,
having bad this object in view, I prepared the ground work
for the model colleges, the trial of which I had in my mind
to offer to an enlightened public. We shall find ourselves
all at once receiving the maximum of our expenses, allowing
£25,000 for the entire establishment as before calculated,
£5,000 for the payment of the interest of the building, and
£3,000 surplus. These sums may be depended upon at the
opening of the establishment, together with the certainty of
their being immediately and considerably increased by the
births and deaths of children. The greatest effort to insure
our success in the first instance, you clearly see will be to
obtain the registration of 1,000 parents or heads of families,
and, as such registration binds them to nothing, if we do not
succeed to build our colleges, we hope to obtain, with facility,
such registration. As soon as we shall have registered the
first 300, we shall regularly organise ourselves; and we have
full confidence that when once our organization shall be es-
tablished, we have a right to expect that by the clear advan-
tages we are offering to the public, we shall accomplish our
object. Considering the many interests already attached to
our new place, the populous country that surrounds us, and
the object we have in hand, such circumstances give me con-
fidence in my appeal to a public that was always eminent
in supporting what they thought would be useful to their
country. I think it will be well to explain, that though in
every college there will be 500 scholars, arrangements are
so made that there will be only 25 or 30 scholars together;
because every college is divided into four divisions of 125
scholars each, every division being quite distinct and com-
pletely separated in every respect, and each division being
subdivided into classes of 25 or 30. Such arrangements
as those mentioned will materially conduce to the parents'
satisfaction, regarding their daughters, in a country where
the females education, well conferred, is very costly, and
a good school at a moderate price can scarcely be ob-
tained. Religion and education will be entrusted, the first
to the clergy of the Established Church, the second to the
most eminent men that can be procured ; it being one grand
object of this system to let the advantages be as perfect and
complete as possible. Once well organised and established,
we shall contrive to extend our establishments ; and on that
being the case, we shall reduce the rate of payment, as now
proposed. I have now explicitly and frankly explained to
you my views, and hope you will unite with us, and contrive,
by advising directly your friends, to induce them to register
their children as soon as possible ; and, as I have already
said, so soon as our register musters 300 signatures, we shall
unite ourselves here to choose amongst them the director,
directresses, trustees, &c. lam quite confident, as I can
promise you, that when our society shall be formed and
organised, several of the most talented and eminent men of
the country will join and assist us. With the extensiveness
of the proposed colleges, the well organised comfort of them,
with the minimum payment which at this present moment is
given for a very inferior education, when the parents shall
know that they are obtaining a degree of education and com-
fort that in any other establishment could not be obtained
under a £lOO or £l5O a-year, we shall be certain to see
springing from this place the most useful system of education
eft
clergymen
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es
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their children, at the same time we shall be happy to receive
any suggestion by which our object may be adn
ur advertising
columns, resolutions, which will be found in
ecaorlruimed.ns, were then put in several very able addresses, and

THE TARIFF.—The new tariff has found as much favour
in the upper as it did in the lower house ; for, on Lord
Stanhope dividing their lordships against the second reading
of the bill, the minority who voted against government was
only four, while the majority for ministers was 59.

Ebt iitherpoot &tanbarli.

FRIDAY MORNING, JULY 8, 1842

The Manchester Guardian of Wednesday contains
an article headed " Sir Robert Peel's Opinions on Ma-
nufacturing Distress," which is not quite of so discreet
a character as usually are the remarks of our contem-
porary. In the debate of Friday upon the subject of
the distress existing amongst the labouring and com-
mercial classes, the right honourable baronet alluded,
as one moving cause of that distress, to the constantly
increasing power of machinery, as applied to manu-
facturing purposes, by which a large quantity of adult
labour is displaced and thrown helpless upon the
world ; and at the same time expressed an opinion,
that, give the British manufacturer all the benefits—all
the additional markets—which he calculates upon, as
the result of a free trade in corn, the expansive power
of machinery will ultimately overtake the increased
demand created, and we must still " look forward to
occasional severe local distress."

- _
e quote entire the passage referred to by the
Guardian, which he characterizes as containing " the
Tory Luddite doctrines regarding machinery "; and,
if such be the case, then is Tory Luddism very much
like sound and reasonable doctrine.

" It is my belief," says the right hon. baronet, " that giv-
ing you the repeal of the corn laws,
i and giving you the con-
sequences you anticipate, yet such s the condition of the ma-
nufacturers (and particularly in this country), I am afraid
you must look forward to, occasionally, severe local distress.
At this moment, when distress is so severe in some parts of
the country. there are new mills in the course of erection.
(Hear, hear.) That is a fact. The command of capital in-
duces men, even during periods of severe distress, to con-
struct new mills, and to fill them with new machinery. Now,
what must be the consequence of this? Must there not al-
ways be in some localities men of small capital, and with im-
perfect machinery, yet still employing large masses cf the po-
pulation, who would find it difficult to enter into competi-
tion with those who could command capital, and apply it to
the construction of the best machinery, and thus ultimately
labour would be thrown out of employment ? To resist the
progress of these improvements is impossible ; and though
there might be a demand for cotton manufactures, yet there
might be, simultaneously with that demand, the existence
of severe distress, on account of the sudden application
of new machinery to meet the demand. Sir, I won't
dwell on this. I could prove it to be the case, and
could show that the immediate consequence of the
improvement of machinery, and the application of capital to
the construction of it, has been productive, in certain parts
of the country, of extraordinary results—that the tendency
of it was to drive out of employment adult male labour, and
to substitute for it the labour of females and children ; and
that the infallible consequence was, that the man of 25 or 30
years of age, who, up to that period of life, had been em-
ployed in a cotton manufactory, found it difficult to turn his
hand to any other employment. Now, you must not make
the corn-laws responsible for evils of that kind. It is no
impeachment of the invention—the invention may increase,
on the whole, the demand for labour, and may call into em-
ployment the mechanism and industry of other nations ; the
commercial prosperity may be great ; yet in certain districts
of the country, from which it is difficult to transfer a mar-
ried man and his large family, the progress of these improve-
ments may produce great distress, even in times when there
is a great demand for labour ; and in this state of things, even
with an increased demand for your manufactures, I could
not anticipate that absence of distress and suffering on which
some hon. gentlemen calculate."

Surely there is nothing here which it does not befit
a statesman to utter. Did the right honourable ba-
ronet go out of his way thus to point attention to the
known operation of machinery in producing " occa-
sional distress " amongst the labourers whom its pro-
gressive advance to greater perfectness displaces ?
Certainly not ! The operation of machinery has now
become an essential portion of that very subject which
was pressed upon the consideration of the House of
Commons, by the motion of Mr. Wallace to inquire
into the condition of the working people of Great Bri-
tain. No statesman has a right—no candid man is
able—to disconnect the question, as to the influence of
machinery, from the main question proposed by such
an inquiry—viz., the causes of the suffering complained
of, of which that is assuredly one. _

And yet we are gravely told by the Guardian, who
is ever beside himself' when the very word machinery,
as connected with manufacturing operations, is whis-
pered, and is at such times not overpolite in his chid.
ings of the offender, that " all this harangue about
the evils arising from the progress of mechanical im-
provements can be viewed in no other light than as a
mischievous appeal to the passions of the multitude."
The anti-corn-law agitators, and our contemporary
amongst the loudest, may rail and rave against the
"landed aristocracy " as the originators of all the ills
under which a suffering people labour, and still be
appeal to the passions of
guilty of no "mischievous
the multitude" ; but mention the mere fact that a
selfish millocracy, whilst professing its disinterested
and affectionate sympathy with the working classes, is
busily devising the means of dispensing with the la-
bour of those very classes, and we are incontinently
" Tory Luddites" and traitors of the deepest dye.
The Guardian has been indiscreet in reviving this
subject in his prosy columns, and we will tell him why.
He should have taken a hint from head quarters ! Mr.
Wallace's motion, notwithstanding the catching theme
which it furnished for Whig-Radical orators to de-
claim upon, was, on Monday night, permitted to
fall to the ground, by the common manoeuvre of
it 0
n house ;" and we suggest to our contemporary
porary
Whether the significant demonstration afforded in

the speech Of the Premier, (that in all future dis-
cussions upon that important subject, the deteriorated
condition of the industrious classes of Great Britain,

the operation of improvements in manufacturing
machinery, can no longer be passed by unnoticed,)
was not one, at least, of the inducements of \Vhiggery
to burke the inquiry which it had provoked. Depend
upon it, most cunning brother, that question must, be-
fore long, whether millocracy will it or not, claim the
full attention which it merits from the legislature and
the people of England !

By the way, we observe that our contemporary af-
fects to doubt the fact that new mills are building during
the existing distress of the manufacturing interest, and
asks to be informed where they are. Perhaps we may
be able to enlighten him if he really desirea it. In the
mean time he will surely not deny that the erection of
the improved machinery, alluded to by Sir Robert
Peel, is very generally going on. Sometime ago we
mentioned that in one particular district, as a boon to
the working classes no doubt, each spinner had been
enabled to manage two frames, thus dispensing with
half the adult hands in the factory. An inquiry from
any of his Blackburn friends will inform him that a
single spinner can now manage three frames, by which
only one third of the adult labour is employed which
was required three years ago ! And yet it is the corn
laws which are the causes of all the distress which we
see around us in the manufacturing districts ! !

The present depressed state of the commerce of this
country falls with peculiar and almost ruinous weight
upon our shipping interests, and upon every branch of
trade dependent upon its prosperity. In particular, the
shipwrights, a body of men second to none amongst
our industrious classes, are just now, even in our own
port, undergoing privations which call loudly upon us
for sympathy and aid ; and it therefore becomes us to
inquire whether some effort cannot be made to revive
the prosperity of a branch of trade, the extension of
which, in this locality, would be of such essential
benefit to the general welfare of the town.
The reduction of the timber duties by Sir Robert
Peel's government, is, without question, a measure
eminently calculated to afford vast advantages to Liver-
pool as a shipbuilding port. Already the character of
our builders ranks amongst the first in the kingdom ;
and the admission at a reduced duty of valuable foreign
woods, suitable for the construction of seagoing vessels,
will mitigate the only difficulty under which we have
hitherto laboured, as compared with some other ship-
building localities,—viz., our distance from the place of
growth of the best native timber. From this source,
therefore, we do anticipate some revival of the building
trade ; but we must express our conviction that the
boon conceded by government in the reduction of the
timber duties—a boon particularly dwelt upon by its
authors as calculated to affect beneficially this trade—
will be seriously neutralised unless a helping hand is
held out by the local authorities of the port, and the
greatest possible amount of facilities are afforded to the
builders, by the dock trustees. Upon more than one
occasion we have seen this valuable (lass of men most
cavalierly treated. The removal of a building yard to
the extreme north or south end of the town to make
room for piles of rubbish or materials required in the
construction of the the various dock works, for which
plenty of other suitable localities might have been dis-
covered, has been regarded as a light matter when
willed by a sub-committee, or demanded by a surveyor;
and the interruption of business, the loss of heavy out-
lay, the distress of hundreds of industrious artisans
thrown out of employment, with the loss of rental to
the estate itself, have been considered as amply ba-
lanced by the saving of a little extra cartage and extra
surveillance of a few bars of iron, or a few blocks of
granite.

But it is for the repairing of vessels,—a branch of
the trade of infinite value to the builders and workmen
employed, and to the port as well,—which the dock
trustees possess within themselves the power of render-
ing this the first locality in the kingdom. At present,
it is notorious that Liverpool is one of the dearest ports
for repairs in the kingdom. In addition to the other port
charges, which press most onerously upon the ship-
owner (and in such depressed times as the present, we
may say ruinously), the graving dock dues are, out of
all proportion, enormous. Let these dues, which come
exclusively out of the pockets of the shipping interest,
and act in many instances as an absolute bar to our
shipwrights and builders, be reduced. No serious in-
jury to the dock estate could result; and if made almost
nominal, we question whether the additional number of
vessels which would be brought to frequent the port,
would not more than cover the loss, by the additional
revenue derived from other charges.

No circumstance so greatly tends to promote the re-
sort of shipping to a port as cheapness and facility of
repairs ; and yet how absolutely overlooked by our
local authorities are both these important desiderata ?
Cheapness we have not ; large facilities of graving docks
we have not. Within the last few months numerous
vessels have left Liverpool, wanting necessary repairs,
and proceeded to Bristol and other places to procure
them, because they were not to be had here without
ruinous delay. Want of dock room, and the detention
and expense caused by it, have compelled others to de-
fer repairs not absolutely indispensible, because, with
those expenses deducted from their meagre freights,
they were unable to afford them. We see no adequate
attempts being made by the dock authorities to repair
this deficiency of graving dock accommodation. At the
Queen's Dock, alterations, imperatively required, were
ordered months ago,—and yet they are uncommenced ;
and whilst we can afford to build dock warehouses,
which the alteration of our commercial tariff is about
to render almost useless, these important and pressing
requirements of our commerce are permitted to be
wholly overlooked, or at the least, to remain in the
shade as matters of mere secondary interest.
We must press this subject upon the serious consi-
deration of the interests most materially affected by the
grievances complained of. Let the shipowners' and
shipbuilders' associations bestir themselves in the pro-
per quarter ; and by the aid of remedial measures on
the part of the authorities of our port, and the stimulus
afforded by the liberal commercial policy of the govern-
ment, the present ruinous condition of a large and im-
portant class of our fellow-townsmen may be exchanged
for one of revived prosperity and comfort.

The writer of a Conservative Journal, to whose scan-
dalous and unfounded remarks, upon the subject of
the recent retirement of the Rev. Mr. Wilson from the
incumbency of St. Thomas-in-the-Fields, we offered
on Tuesday a few words of refutation, has, in his yes-
terday's publication, bespattered the respected gentle-
man by whose munificence the church in question was
built and endowed, with a column and a half of that
peculiarly elegant vituperation in which he excels.
With this we quarrel not, although receiving a sprink-
ling of the dirty shower, and we are confident that
Mr. Gladstone is very far above being injured, or even
annoyed, by such an assailant. The rankling venom
of the writer's mind is too transparent to allow any
ebullition of his to excite pain or even notice ; and we
have only brought ourselves to bestow a few remarks
upon his present effusion in order to correct the misre-
presentations, and to point the reprobation of our fellow
townsmen to the insolence of tone, by which it is cha-
racterised throughout.

We had already, in our explanatory remarks upon
the real circumstances connected with the retirement
of Mr. Wilson from St. Thomas'-in-the-Fields, placed
the writer of the previous attack upon Mr. Gladstone
in the position of a convicted slanderer. That malig-
nant and unscrupulous authority had termed the
praiseworthy gift, by that gentleman to the town of
Liverpool, of a place of worship, and an endowment
for its minister, a " mercantile speculation." He had
directly insinuated that a pecuniary profit was to be
derived from it; that it was a pecuniary disappointment
to its founder that the church " did not draw ;" and
that lie had treated it " like a Liverpool ship—not
worth the fitting out if it did not pay itself in the first
three voyages." We shelved, and it was scarcely ne-
cessary to do so, that the entire circumstances of the
case were directly opposed to the mendacious repre-
sentations and insinuations of the journalist; that not
only was the church fully endowed; not only could no
profit whatever accrue to the founder; but that, in
addition to the interest of £2ooo—the stipend fund—
the pew rents became the absolute property of the in-
cumbent, after payment of the ordinary expenses at-
tendant upon the performance of divine worship.
Does this veracious scribe attempt, in his column ,

and a half of baideidash, to deny any of e of these •
facts ? No. He, scarcely approaches them, but crawls
off to batten upon the garbage raised up by his own
prurient imagination. Two thousand pounds and a
church are a paltry thing, he exclaims, for a clergyman
of eminent talents "in such an expensive town as
Liverpool !" Two thousand pounds, invested in the
three per cents, " cannot secure more than £65 per
annum"—(the £2OOO in question not being invested
in the public funds, produce, we are informed, £96
per annum)—and Mr. Gladstone, instead of £2OOO and
a church, should have made it " four thousand !"
But, in addition to the enormity of presenting to the
town of Liverpool a church, with an endowment of
two thousand pounds, or ninety-six pounds a year,
Mr. Gladstone's traducer, has discovered that that
gentleman has conducted himself in the matter " more
like the Lord Bishop of the diocese, than the simple
patron and the illiterate layman." He has " interfered "
with the doctrine preached in the church ; he has
" relieved the bishop of his duties, usurped his throne,
and enacted the part of bishop, merchant, trader, and
theologian himself ! " And what ground have we for
these assertions? Not any; and we would not hang
a cat upon the unsupported authority of the writer by
whom they are made.

For the information and amusement of our readers,
we give here the scribe's new version of his trumped .up

charge

" What we complained of at the first, and what we com-
plain of now, is, that Mr. Gladstone, by the showing of his
advocate, did not give fair play, or proper toleration, to Mr.
Wilson. Instead of six months, he did not give him more
than two or three. Mr. Gladstone officiously, cruelly, and
most vexatiously interposed ' several months' before Mr.
Wilson finally retired (!). He seems to have passed a sen-
tence of condemnation upon him before the patron's love was
six weeks old. Were his doctrines offensive to the theolo-
gian of Fasque ? Did his strict discipline, his conscientious
adherence to the fcrms and directions of the rubric, his mild-
ness of manners, orbis fidelity to Alma Mater, incur the dis-
approbation of the patron? Nothing is said on this point;
and hence we suspect that all the truth is not told, arid that
the real reasons for interfering with Mr. Wilso❑ are kept in
the back ground.

" It is not confessed who the person is to whom Mr. Wilson
was indebted for the preferment—whether to the elder Mr.
Gladstone, or to Mr. William Ewart Gladstone, is of no
consequence. The reverend gentleman was appointed—he
was inducted—he was in possession—and the patron's juris-
diction was at an end. No patron, no layman on earth, had
any right to question the purity of his doctrine, the merits
of his discipline, or the fruit of his works; and we hesitate
not to say that, on the score of delicacy, of respect, of re-
verence, towards a clergyman of the. Church of England, no
gentleman with a mind differently constituted from that of Mr.
Gladstone would have acted and interfered as Mr. Gladstone
has done. If he had had any complaint to make against
Mr. Wilson, it should have been made to his ordinary,
the Bishop of Chester. It is true that the munificent patron
could not well complain to the bishop that his appointee did
not fill the church fast enough—that only one-eighth part of
the pews had not been let in the first three months—that the
money received did not cover the ordinary expenditure. No,
Mr. Gladstone could not safely do this ; and yet he did much
more : he relieved the right reverend prelate of his duties,
usurped his throne, and enacted the part of bishop, merchant,
trader, and theologian himself! Oxford was removed to
Fasque ! Mr. Wilson quailed before the Presbyterian critic,
and doffed his surplice at St. Thomas's, in order to convince
the world what value ought to be placed on a ' FREE GIFT'
emanating from such a quarter !"
The real facts of the matter lie in a nutshell, and are
worth whole reams of such rubbish as is the staple of
the article under notice. Mr. Wilson was presented
to this living of £96 per annum, and some hundreds
additional in the shape of pew rents. His church did
not fill ; and his pew rents were less than the neces-
sary expenditure—not one-eighth of the pews being

let! Mr. Wilson resigned his living, and after three
months' postponement of Mr. Gladstone's acceptance of
that resignation—three months' further trial—at length
left the church. Mr. Wilson was never dismissed;
was never deprived of "fair play" or of " proper
toleration ;" never in any way "interfered with." On
the contrary, he resigned, simply because his church
wonld not fill ; and, although three months' additional
trial was afforded him, we have it now as a ground of
complaint, first, that " only two or three months"
toleration was given him from his first acceptance of
the living ; and next, that another three months being
afforded him before his resignation was accepted, was
" CRUEL AND MOST VEXATIOUS"

In fact, the entire hash of absurd railing and rhodo-
montade contained in the two paragraghs which we
have quoted, is pure fiction and stark nonsense,—the
emanation of a mind boiling over with rankling dis-
like to the object of his vituperation, and smarting
under the contempt with which he feels that his late
attacks upon the character of men, infinitely and in
every way his superiors, have surrounded him, and
the abortivenesi of his attempts to acquire even the
temporary notice which we bestow upon some " /uszts

nature," or literary monstrosity

But we are sick of the task which we have imposed
upon ourselves of convicting this self-convicted blun-
derer. Before parting from the subject, however, a
few words upon our own account. The journalist
under notice has chosen to apply to us the term
" hireling," and insinuated that we are hirelings of
Mr. Gladstone. We care little for his objurgations,
and the choicest words in his delicate vocabulary
would be lost upon us. We. must tell him, however,
to his teeth, that, in the sense in which he uses the
term, we are hirelings of no man ; and that we in-
finitely prefer being " the obscure or rather unknown
scribe," which he politely calls us, to being encum-
bered with his unenviable notoriety.