The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-08-30 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

We shall enquire into the statement of " Nemo."
THE PRICE OF BREAD.—We have received several com-
plaints from correspondents and others, that the bakers in
different parts of the town withhold from the public, and
especially from the poor, the advantage which they ought,
by this time, to be deriving from the large reduction which
has taken place in the price of flour. We have no means
ourselves of testing the justice of the complaints in ques-
tion ; but we take the opportunity here of suggesting to
the public the best mode of defeating any effort at mono
poly on the part of the baker. The price of the best
household flour is now not more than 425. per sack of
280 lbs. This flour can be afforded at six lbs. for a shil-
ling, and leave a small profit to the retailer. A coarser
description of excellent bread flour can he bought at the
principal flour shops at seven lbs. for a shilling; arid we
ourselves tasted, on Saturday, excellent bread—not black
rubbish as the reader may suppose—but bread of good
quality and colour, made from flour retailed at eight lbs.
for a shilling! If the baker, therefore, will not sell the
best bread at fild. the 4. lb. loaf, and seconds at s>d., we
advise our readers to Lake for themselves, by doing which
they will secure sound and wholesome bread at a cost
Proportionate to the reduction in the price of flour. Such
bread would not cost more than three halfpence per lb .'

(T,be Ritnrpooi &tanbarTi.

TUESDAY MORNING, AUGUST 30, 1842.

The most dangerous feature of our present factory
Eystem is, clearly, its tendency to gather together large
masses of population in particular districts, during pe-
riods of prosperity, without the requisite guarantee
bung provided for their moral culture or even for
their permanent maintenance in the comforts or the
necessaries of life. We build a factory in some fa-
vourable spot, hitherto unoccupied by a labouring po-
pulation, or we increase, during some temporary
stimulation of manufacturing prosperity, our existing
means of production, and draw towards some already
overgrown town or village a large additional popula-
ti". Have we provided for that population the means
of elementary, of moral or religious instruction? Have
we an assurance that—the temporary stimulus by
which they were congregated, gone, or some new
adaptation of machinery invented, by which their la-
bour is rendered valueless—those masses of popula-
tion will not be thrown back, demoralized and useless,
upon the society out of which we have drawn them.
We maintain that to both of these questions the
answer must be returned in the negative. We pro-
yule for the population, which we crowd together in
reeking masses, no instruction, secular or religious, or
none at least which is better than a mere mockery of
the name. We congregate crowds of human beings
to toil for us—the infant, the young, and the adult ;
and we leave them to fester into impurity and crime,—
to' lose themselves in the wildest mazes of Chartism or
Socialism, or to wander into the most absurd and
noxious religious error. And when we have at length
fixed these blotches upon the face of society—when we
have strewn the land with communities of disaffected
and desperate men, and demoralized females and chil-
dren—when we have wrung vast wealth from their toil
—when we have ground them to the dust, or goaded
them to despair,—the shock descends upon our com-
merce, manufacturing. enterprise becomes profitless,
the manufacturer buttons up his pocket, shuts up his
factory, and all at once the stream from which thou-
sands have been fed is dammed up at its source. The
Wealth which has been realized from their toil, or a
large portion of it, is safe. The manufacturer—so
lately a mere adventurer—is a millionaire. But the
human instruments, who have made him so, are pining
In their cottages, or have become houseless wanderers
through the land !

Nov, it is a security against such a double abandon-
ment of our working population—an abandonment of
their moral culture in prosperity, and the withdrawal
of the means of subsistence in adversity—that we re-
quire, and which the Legislature must provide. But
how to arrive at that security is the difficulty which is
before us. We have no means to compel the manu-
facturer to support his work people, when their labour
is no longer valuable. It would be unjust to compel
him to do so if we were even able. The principle of
the poor-law, it is true, teaches that the realised pro-
perty of the land must support its destitute population.
We Can levy contributions upon the closed factory,
andl the mansion of the millowner ; upon the humble
dwelling of the shopkeeper and the farmer. But this
resource is, at best, a temporary one. The destitute
factory labourer will not, with the terrors of the union
workhouse before his eyes, remain long to taste of the
tender mercies of the poor-law. It is a known fact,
indeed, established on the authority of a recent parlia-
Mentary report, that the communities thrown into dis-
tress by the stoppage of any mill absolutely seem to
melt away from before the eyes of the relieving officer;
and Speedily distribute themselves to swell the surplus
labour of other communities—to toil for a mere pit•
tarlce or to starve at a distance from the view of those
who have known them in their better days !
The poor-law then, however liberally administered
1° the manufacturing districts—and we insist that it
'must be so administered—can furnish only a merely
tbyetnporary relief for such appalling distress as is created
the alternate stimulation and revulsion of manufac-
turing employment. Neither do we see the way to
any remedial measures which can operate directly upon
the evil which periodically threatens us, and has lately
Visited.r us with extensive outrage and disturbance.
1
e can see no hope in ex post facto legislation; hut
are We therefore to decline to legislate at all ? De-
cidedly not. We must legislate, if we would save the
fisttry from .
cony..avinn ana Luc cop.rbo -which au,
Presents itself to us is a measure, or measures, to
compel
an improved condition of the labourer, even at
the risk of
interfering with that cheapness of produc-
tion about which the manufacturer appears at present
to be so entirely solicitous. We must be able to say
to the manufacturer, when increasing his powers of
produCtion, adding mill to mill, and loom to loom,—
when in the act of withdrawing additional thousands
of our population from the healthy occupations of
agriculture—" you shall do this ; but we will not per-
mit you to hive up children and women in your mills
whilst the male adult is left to wander in our streets—
you shall not wear down infant health and strength by
continuous labour unseasonably„ protracted. We ask
of you guarantees for the health, and, above all, the
moral culture of the population which you bring around
You,—that the order of nature shall not be inverted,
that you shall not create on the face of the land masses
of human life which at any hour you may choose or
UaY be compelled to convert into labouring volcanoes
on this the Legislature is resolved ; and it purposes
t attain its object by the enactment of a stringent
7ne,Q:ure for the regulation of factories."
We may be told that such a measure cannot be
endured by the millowner ;—that it will sweep his pro-
fits into nothing ;—that it will check seriously the pro-
gress and extension of the national industry ;—that it
I."
even diminish the incomes of the labouring poor.
It 6
Possible that to some extent all these objections
are
founded upon solid grounds ; but the same might
have been offered, and were offered,
against the recent
enactment to regulate the labour employed in the mines
of Great Britain. The manufacturer who has been
Working his mill by
the labour of children will feel the
inconvenience of being compelled to employ
men ; the
dissolute father of a family, who will be compelled to
send his children to be instructed in the truths of h
istianity—to be taug their GOD, their duty to OD, to
heir country, and to their fellow-creatures—will feel

the inconvenience of being driven from the tap-room or
the beer-shop—from the perusal of the infamous pub-
lications of Chartism or Socialism—to their place at the
loom or the spinning frame. But what are these con-
siderations when set against the fact, that our pre-
sent system is, in its progress, rapidly accumulating in
the heart of the land the elements of national anarchy,
without shedding a blessing upon one amongst the
thousands whom it drags down to the level of the
beasts that perish ? If the manufacturing system of
Great Britain cannot flourish unattended by the degra-
tion of those whom it feeds—without the sacrifice of
the health, the strength, and the morals of our infant
population—without unsexing the daughters and the
wives of our labouring poor—in GOD'S name, we say,
let us spurn from us a prosperity which is to be bought
only at so hideous a price !
'We deny utterly, however, that such a measure will
have a seriously detrimental effect upon the manufac-
turer—that it will check the production of the national
industry (properly so called) ; or that it will, ulti-
mately, diminish sensibly the incomes of the labouring
poor. By the honest manufacturer we believe that the
necessity of such a measure has latterly become more
and more acknowledged. The frauds practised under
the present inefficient act tend to produce a great por-
tion of that struggle for cheap production by which
the manufacturer often, in spite of his better feelings,
is compelled to diminish the wages of his operatives—
to improve his machinery to the exclusion of human
labour—and to become the exacting tyrant when he
would gladly he the kind and humane protector of his
workpeople. The millowner, who can best evade the
restrictions of the present loose measure, and smuggle
into his factory the greatest number of infant labourers,
can, in ordinary times, command the market : such a
man it is whose frauds produce the mass of demo-
ralization and suffering which is to be witnessed
throughout our manufacturing districts—who is the
fertile author of turn-outs for wages and the dis-
turbances which attend them. And by a stringent
bill for the protection of the labourer from his acts,
the never-ceasing agitation of the labour market can
alone be prevented.
It may be quite true that, by shortening the hours
of labour in factories, production would be checked,
and the cost of goods increased. We are prepared,
however, to risk these consequences in consideration of
the benefits to be otherwise produced. Manufacturers
would be eventually benefitted by a compulsory limi-
tation of production, when meted out to all alike ;
when one mill-owner is not stimulating his works to
fill up the void in production which his neighbours,
by working short time and other modes, are creating.
And although a trifling addition may be made to the
cost of the goods produced—and how trifling it must
be !—we apprehend that addition will not be one to im-
pede us materially in our operations, or, at all events,
in legitimate operations, in Foreign Markets. Our
competition, so far as price is concerned, is not with
the foreign manufacturer, but with each other. An ad-
ditional cost of an eighth of a penny per yard or per
pound, caused by limitation in production, will be
abundantly made up for by the check produced from
the same caust in that over-supply and reckless com-
petition which at present render every market in the
world a slaughter-house for British goods.
But we must pause for the present. On a future
occasion, we shall touch upon another portion of the
subject.

A piece of more consummate IMPUDENCE we have
rarely met with than is contained in an article which
appeared in the Manchester Guardian on Saturday.
The public is extensively acquainted with the fact that,
last week, this erratic luminary chose to enlighten the
world as to the proceedings which had been adopted,
or, rather, which had not been adopted, by the autho-
rities of Manchester, to suppress the riotous proceed-
ings of the manufacturing population. Our contem-
porary showed that the purpose of the insubordinate
workmen of Stalybridge to march upon Manchester
and turn out the factories and works in that town was
known in Manchester by twelve o'clock on Monday,
the Bth instant; that he, the Guardian (a Councillor of
the borough, we believe), knew of it by three o'clock
in the afternoon of that day; that the invaders might
have been encountered upon the road and turned back,
and the peace of Manchester thus preserved; but that,
notwithstanding an ample force was at the disposal of
the Magistracy, no measures were taken, nothing was
done ;—in fact, remarked the Guardian, "THE MA-
GISTRATES, THE MILITARY, AND THE POLICE
MIGHT JUST AS WELL HAVE BEEN IN LIVER-
POOL !"

We read this damning condemnation of the autho-
rities—many of them, most of them, indeed, the fast
friends of the Guardian—with perfect amazement.
The public did the same. We read, however, in the
same column which contained this violent attack, an
announcement that "a Mr. Gregory, (a barrister,)"
had been sent down to Manchester by Government to
enquire into the origin of the disturbances in that
town, and the measures adopted by the magistrates to
put them down. Here was a solution of the apparent
enigma ! The authorities of Manchester were about to
be arraigned before the tribunal of the executive and of
public opinion ; the pitchforked were about to be pulled
down from their stools ; and their " good-natured
friend" the Guardian, kindly volunteered them a lift
on their downward progress ! Here was the whole
matter explained. The borough authorities were about
to be put upon their trial; and the Guardian had seized
upon the office of "public accuser !"
The move, however, circumstances proved to be a
false one. Mr. Gregory (" the barrister") proved to
be merely a solicitor, of the eminent firm of Gregory,
Faulkner, and Follett, sent down to examine the depo-
sitions.cf the various prisoners ; and the Guardian was
left to fight, unaided by the government official, the
battle which he had provoked ! He had armed against
himself the entire borough magistracy,—mayor, sti-
pendiary, aldermen and all ;—and the question became
imminent—" What was to be done ?" And what does
the reader suppose was the device of the baffled Jesuit?
Simply this—to hand over our unfortunate selves as a
kind of scapegoat, for the passion of his offended mas-
ters to expend itself upon ! To submit the LIVER-
POOL STANDARD to the borough magistrates of Man-
chester as a fit subject to be gnawed or chopped into
morsels by the law, for the crime which he himself had
committed !

Convenient indeed such a sacrifice may be for the
leading organ of the League, to purchase withal the
favour of its offended masters ! Such a course may,
indeed, save the Guardian all that abject crawling—
thu' 11.1,;.-ef -t rho feet of " liberal"
millocracy—that tortuous servility by which such a
man is accustomed to wind his way back again to the
fostering breast which, serpent-like, he stung when he
thought it was defenceless; but we must, really, our-
selves demur to the justice or the decency of so plea-
sant (!) an arrangement. Our own sins we are at all
times ready to expiate when called upon ; we will nei-
ther, however, consent to have those sins misrepre-
sented and magnified by a political opponent, nor allow
that opponent to transfer the weight of his own upon
our poor shoulders !
_ _

We shall dispatch very briefly the charge which the
Guardian brings against us, and which he endeavours
to fortify by partial quotations. The offence is alleged
to have been committed in an article in our last, in
which we referred, amongst other things, to his own
indiscreet remarks of Wednesday. After quoting one
passage from that article, our contemporary thus pro-
ceeds to put his own interpretation upon it.

" The editor of the Liverpool Standard alleges, in sub-
stane, that the Manchester borough magistrates, or some of
them, were duly warned of the outbreak at Stalybridge, and
of the approach of danger to the town of Manchester; but
that, instead of taking any measures to resist it, ' they waited
for the sacking of the town which they were sworn to pro-
tect, in the hope of being able to convert such a calamity
into an argument for the repeal of the corn-laws.'"
Now, in the whole of the passage of which the
Guardian gives this as the substance—in the entire
article, in fact—there is not a solitary mention of the
Manchester borough magistroaes t There is not, either,
a mention of any body of " magistrates" more than
another. In fact, whilst writing this article we
guardedly abstained from any expression which could
even be tortured into such a "serious and, specific accu-
sation" of the magistrates of the borough of Manches-
ter, or of the bench at all, as that which the Guardian
alleges us to have preferred I We did not even know
anything to the contrary btu that the majority of the
borough magistrates were Inen who are strongly in

favour of the existing corn laws; but whilst we attri-
buted no such crime as is alleged against us to the
parties whose attention the Guardian has called to the
article in question, we did most expressly accuse the
league millocracy of Manchester of a wretched tolera-
tion of the various outbreaks !

Lest there should be any doubt of this, we beg to
call the attention of the Guardian and our readers to
the following passage, which that dishonest journalist
has not thought proper to quote :
" This damning inertness"—on the part of the League
millocracy, &c.—" this wicked tampering with outrage and
disorder—will be established by the inquiry now pend-
ing ; and the punishment which ought to be meted out
by a government determined to protect the lives, the li-
berties, and the property of Englishmen, we need not even
hint at. But can inquiry stop here ? It can not The go-
vernment are bound, we say, to carry their investigation into
the character, the political connexions, and the past history,
even, of some of the gentlemen (!) who adorn the magisterial
bench in Manehester. If there are men upon that bench
who are avowed agitators of the worst class, can a Conserva-
tive Government permit such men for a moment longer to
remain on that bench to which a venal Government, for pur-
poses of its own, advanced them ? We answer fearlessly,
No ; and we are convinced that such will be the answer of
the Government under whose judgment the conduct of these
men will shortly be placed."

Now if we had already charged all that the Guardian
alleges upon the borough magistracy of Manchester,
what could possibly be the meaning of the passage,
commencing, " Can enquiry stop here?" Why start
the succeeding " If," when we had already declared
the fact to which it refers to be established ? The
whole, in fact, of this, the concluding paragraph of the
article in question, would have been stark nonsense ;
or worse, for it would have absolutely nullified all that
we had previously advanced !

But we must conclude these remarks,—already far
longer than the subject demands ;—and we do so, ex-
pressing our confident belief that the borough magis-
trates of Manchester will neither be betrayed into the
course which the Guardian points out to them, nor be
grateful to that dishonest and indiscreet journalist for
having dragged their conduct thus prominently before
the world. That some members of that body have
felt the odium of their position, we doubt not. That
some of them may be angry with ourselves we can
imagine. But, if there is one prayer which, above all
others, they have offered up with fervency during the
past few days, we are assured it is this one—" Defend
us from our Friends (7) Defend us, in especial, from
the COWARDLY MALIGNITY, as well as from the
BLUNDERING ADVOCACY of the Manchester Guar-
dian !"

The Christian parent, who has observed with anxious
pride the gradual progress of the handsome edifice
now erected in Shaw-street, will hail with unaffected joy
the approaching period of its opening. The directors
have announced that this will take place in January
next, and have accordingly advertised that the appoint-
ment of a Principal will be made in November. Judg-
ing from the intimations which we have casually heard
from a number of individuals, (including many of the
most wealthy and influential of our merchants,) that
they will send their children to the Institution, we
have not a doubt that the schools will be well attended
at the commencement of their expected career of use-
fulness ; and there can be as little doubt that the elec-
tion of a Principal with a high reputation as a scholar
and a divine, will attract from the surrounding manu-
facturing and agricultural districts the children of the
gentry and wealthy farmers. Under these circum-
stances, the Principal will be soon in the enjoyment of
emoluments little inferior to those accruing from the
leading grammar schools. Certain it is,—conducted
as the Liverpool Collegiate Institution is, and will be
by a board comprising amongst others the Bishop of
Chester, the Rev. Rectors of Liverpool, and the
wealthiest merchants, bankers, and tradesmen in the
town,—that no similar Institution in the country could
offer greater inducements to either parent or teacher.
The exertions now making by the directors to pro-
cure additional subscriptions are proving suecessful,
although the state of commercial affairs (as yet but
little improved) is undoubtedly a strong antagonist
force to be encountered. Within the past fortnight,
no fewer than eleven eminent merchants and ship-
owners have qualified themselves as life governors by
individual donations of £lOO ; and should the times
continue to mend, promises of support to a consider-
able extent will be realized. But by far the most
gratifying indication which could he manifested of the
estimation in which the College is held by the com-
mercial classes, has been afforded by the handsome
free will offering unanimously awarded to it by the
Shipowners' Association, a body of gentlemen to whose
indefatigable exertions for its prosperity the town is
under the greatest obligation. Other mercantile asso-
ciations will, doubtless, imitate such a laudable exam-
ple. But although the acquisition of fresh subscriptions
is a matter of grave importance to the welfare of the
Institution, it must not be for a moment forgotten by
its friends, that the most important essential of success
will be the number of students wherewith the schools
will open ; and the exertions of every one well dis-
posed to it cannot be better directed than towards the
increase of this number. Let the schools succeed, and
an endowment fund, aye, and a Royal Charter, will
not long be wanting.