The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-09-23 00:00:00

Nor is this apparent discrepancy between the ave-
rages, upon which our contemporary founds his deduc-
tions, and the actual market price between the farmer
and the producer, at all a phenomenon, as he appears
to suppose. The superior quality of the wheats_
Principally fine English—now coming to market, and
tile comparative scarcity of the inferior Irish, by which
the average is ordinarily lowered, accounts sufficiently
for the circumstance that in September we have the
inspectors' return within 3s. or 4s. of the highest price
during the eighteen weeks which the table embraces.
The same wheat which in -April was worth 595., as
stated in the table, is not at all worth 61s. Ild. now,
as it must be to support the argument of the Times,
but is in reality worth at least ten shillings per quarter
less; and tile farmer is, therefore, by this amount, a
sufferer from the effect of Sir Robert Peel's measure.
But adopt, for the sake
.of' argument, the position
of the Times; adopt the mare's nest of this advocate
of more extensive reform ; say, that foreign importa-
tion does not reduce prices or diminish the protection

of the native grower :—where, we ask, is the benefit
to the public from this increased supply ? If we are
not to have cheaper bread, as the result of free trade
In corn, to whom, save the speculating capitalist, is
any advantage to accrue ? If increased supply does
not lower markets, what becomes of the whole system
of the political economist? Really, the Times draws

somewhat largely upon the credulity of the world, if
it expects us to gulp down such a farrago of absurdity
as is comprised in this very flimsy production of his,
in favour of the mad theories of the Anti-Corn-Law
Philosophers.

It ray of light has just been thrown upon the con-
duct of the Manchester magistracy during the recent
disturbances, by the publication of a letter addressed
by Captain A. W. Sleigh, the assistant commissioner
of police for that borough, to its head officer, Sir
Charles Shaw. The document is a somewhat curious
°Ile; and will assist the public, and we trust the
government as well, in estimating the amazing fitness
of the League millocracy for the office of conservators
of the public peace. Its lengthy character, however,
Will preclude us from giving it a place entire in our
Columns; but we shall endeavour to make room for a
summary of its general purport, and a few extracts.
The object of Captain Sleigh, in addressing Sir
Charles Shaw, may be briefly stated. It was simply
to Protest against being held responsible, by that
officer or by the government, for the performance of
duties, in which his efforts were, at every turn,
thwarted by the imbecility, or worse, of the magistracy
of the town. Captain Sleigh has, we presume, a
character to lose. He has not that " free-and-easy"
notion of things, which will enable him to feel com-
fortable whilst rampant ruffianism is playing its fantastic
tricks in the streets of a town whose peace he is sworn
to protect. The world is of opinion, and has expressed
that opinion, that the recent outbreaks in Manchester
Ought never to have been permitted to gain the head
which they did gain. Captain Sleigh submits to his
superior officer, that he, as subordinate to the shallow
Dogberries who occupy magisterial authority, will only
be responsible for so much of the duties required of
him as he is not obstructed in performing.
And that he is fully justified in so doing, we think
must be evident from the following statement of a
portion only of the conduct complained of.
".On the 13th instant," writes Captain Sleigh, " about
five o'clock in the afternoon, I received information that a
concourse of people were assembled at Brown-street, in and
around a chartist meeting-house, and I immediately pro-
ceeded to that neighbourhood with a body of 100 police ;
and finding the report correct, and that the assemblage that
crowded the surrounding ground and streets were addressed
by a man from the window of the chartist meeting-house,
who bade them. stand fast, and finding they would not be re-
moved without force, the police immediately dispersed them,
and succeeded in arresting 45. The prisoners were accord-
ingly escorted by two strong detatchments of police ; how-
ever, on the line of march to the Town-hall, when they ar-.
rived at Portland-street, I observed Mr. Walker, magistrate,
speaking to an inspector of police, who was on duty with the
escort detachment ; and on inquiring from that officer the
reason why Mr. Walker addressed him, he answered, that
the magistrate had asked what the prisoners were taken for ;
the officer explained the nature of the occurrence ; when the
magistrate replied, " What is the use of taking them prison-
ers, there is no case against them !"
Some time after, the same magistrate visited the lock-ups,
where the prisoners had been conveyed, accepted bail for
two, and suggested that bail ahould be taken for others ; and
finally said, that he " would be absent from town and the
court-house to-morrow, therefore he would be out of that
',tees."

" On the following morning, this circumstance was re-
Ported to me by a superintendent, to whom it had been com-
municated by the officer on duty at the time at the lock-ups ;
and during the day he found, by the official returns, that 43
PP:soners were all set at liberty by the stipendiary magis-
trate an their own recognizance: in £2O each to keep the'
Peace for three months, and the remaining two were bound
over in £4O each, and £2O from two sureties, to keep the
Peace for the same time; one of whom was foremost in
throwing
stones at the police, and the other in exciting the

We have here, then, verified the startling fact, that
Whilst the assistant commissioner of police, in strict
accordance with the proclamation of the Crown re-
quiring all meetings by which the public peace might
°e endangered to be peremptorily put down, was ac-
tively performing that duty and had already performed
It, a member of the magisterial bench was only anxious
t° be "out of the mess"—to use his own elegant ex-
pression ; that subsequently the same magistrate vi-
sited the lockups (a la Normanby), and accepted bail
or two of the prisoners, suggesting that the remainder
should be bailed; and that on the following day all
e:teept two of the remainder, 43 in number, were re-
leased by the stipendiary upon their own recognizances
of £2O each ! A playing at cross purposes this with a
tveogeance !—and that, too, when the town in which
bil,° game was played was in a condition almost resem-
llg a state of siege, and when its inhabitants owed
the little security they enjoyed to military law !
Take another case :

"At half-past ten o'clock on the morning of the 14th inst.
Information was brought to the magistrates, and conveyed to
e, that vast numbers of artisans and weavers were assem-
uhrig on the borders of this borough, beyond the township of
i,
—eswiek, that they were armed with bludgeons, and that
then' intentions at the time were unknown.
site Further information confirmatory of this arrived shortly
-r; 1, therefore, immediately concentrated 2%10 of the po-
ce in that quarter of the town, and awaited the order of the
magistrates. Further reports up to one o'clock were conti-
Ilt received by the magistrates, and transmitted to me,
to
effect that numbers were coming from Ashton to
t
—`,e With those who were meeting at the before-mentioned
Plae
e• Notwithstanding the information of these threaten-
th;elrelltilatatlCeS, I still remained without instructions from
''agistrates to proceed to the ground where the meeting
jas :ninit on ; but fearing, however, some evil consequences,
oi.
-"ered out a hundred of the special constables, who were
(In reserve at the Town-hall ; and, when in the act of doing
111:: I Was addressed bv the magistrate on duty, who told me
" would first go to consult the stipendiary magistrate (who
rwr,ll;3 then at the borough court) about the special constables
;o—ng nut to the meeting. I informed him, in reply, that it
48ht4,e4 two o'clock, and since eleven o'clock informations
Lej"egoing effect had arrived, and were communicated
1:?1,•:4; 4e, therefore, had had three hours to consult or de-
to; 44, UM that I should forthwith proceed with the force
the ground ; I would do my duty to protect property and
ePublic, he therefore might send his instructions after me.
haviOn arriving at the boundary of the borough ,near Beswick ,
°usig znY way united with the 200 reserve police prey. -
to aY stationed near that quarter, I found that the reports,
bq t very great extent, had been correct ; but on the approach
moved
different roads of the force under my command, they
Lnthe d off towards Ashton, many people having appeared on
roads,;r and crossing the country in considerable num-
bers
tone rode forward to Ashton, being anxious to satisfy
It, if Possible, of their intention, leaving the police sta-