The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-04-05 00:00:00

lowing facts

He (Gambell) stated, that for the last month or six weeks
a soft chalky substance was observed to drop freely from the
roof of the tunnel (the largest on the line, being upwards of
500 feet) and particularly about 30 feet from the mouth or
entrance, on the Winchester, side, and, within the last fort-
night the surface of the earth over this particular place was
found to be giving way.or slightly sinking, and it was then
ascertained that previous to the formation of the tunnel, a bor-
ing had been made in this precise spot, to ascertain the depth
of soil, and this caused a fissure, which being filled in, was of
Course by no means, so firm as that around it, and to this was
attributed the sinking at the top and the dropping at the bot-
tom above referred to. The attention of the engineer having
been drawn towards it, eight or ten men were set to work to
remove the pressure from above, and from that period until
yesterday morning, when the melancholy accident happened,
they were so employed. At the usual hour James Wpat-
more, aged 58'years, his two sons, the one one 30 years and
the other 18, Charles Nyas, aged 20, James Allet, James
Batchetoryl9, Thomas Batchelor,2?, Daniel Laws, 23,William
Knight, 24, and John Gambell, went to work, and nothing.
particular was observable in the cutting until ten minutes to

eight o'clock, when they were talking about going to break-
fast. At this moment, as poor Gambell describes it, the
pace about them began to close in like a whirlpool, and \V at-
more, Nyas, Allett, and James Batchelor, were hurled into
an abyss beneath, of from 40 to 50 feet, the tunnel underneath
giving way to a distance of two lengths, as he describes it, or
about 30 feet, and burying them in the immense mass of falling
material. Lows, T. Bachelor, Knight, and a son of \Vat-
more, fell from a considerable height, and the two former
were so severely injured as to be obliged to be removed to
Winchester Hospital, where they were promptly attended to
by Mr. Lightfoot, the surgeon. Gamhell states that he must
have immediately shared the fate of the four unfortunate men
who bad been crushed to death, had he not fortunately
grasped hold of a piece of rope which hung from the scaffold-
ing ; but this giving way, he fell a depth of 40 feet, and re-
ceived a severe hurt in the spine, had his right cheek, arms,
and hands severely lacerated by the rough material or chalk
stone in his fall, and was carried to his home, at Mitchel Be- I
von, where he at present lies.

UNIVERSITY AND CLERICAL INTELLIGENCE

(From the Herald.)

The Rev. E. H.' Sawbridge, 8.A.: formerly of Ballio
College. Rector of Thelnetham, Suffolk; has been appointed
by the High Sheriff of Devon to be his Chaplain.
The Rev. G. H. Somerset, M.A., of St. Mary Hall, Rec-
tor of St. Mellion, Cornwall, has been presented to the Rec-
tory of St. Mabyn, in the same county ; patron, the Earl of

Falmouth. . . . ,
The Rev. Stanlake Lee, 8.A., of Queen's College, has
been appointed to the Rectory of Broughton with Bossing-
ton, Hants; patron, H. Lee, Esq.
The Rev. J. P. Munby, 8.A., formerly of Lincoln Col-

lege, has been presented to the Perpetual Curacy of Roving_
ham, Yorkshire, vacant by the death of the Rev. R. Prowde ;
patron, the Earl of Carlisle.

PROMOTION

Rev. Thomas Walker, M.A., Fellow of Christ's College,
Cambridge, to the Mastership of Clipstone School, North-
amptonshire, lately held by the Rev. Edward Baines.
Rev. H. C. Smith, Lecturer of Kingsbridge, Devon, to the
Perpetual Curacy of Trinity Church, Plymouth ; patron, the
Vicar of St. Andrew's.

Rev. C. Bullen, M.A., of Corpus Cbristi College, Cam-
bridge, to the Perpetual Curacy of St. George's, Chorley,
Lancashire, vacant by the death of the Rev. T. Todhunter ;
patron, the Rev. J. W. Master.
Rev. R. Hildyard, M.A., of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, to
the Rectory of Winestead, Yorkshire, vacant by the death of
the Rev. W. Hildyard ; patroness, Mrs. Hildyard, of Wine-
stead Hall.

Rev. R. Leeder, M.A., formerly of St. John's College,
Cambridge, to the Vicarage of West Barsham, Norfolk ;
patron, C. W. M. Balders, Esq.,
The Bishop of Chichester will hold his first Ordination in
the Cathedral of that city, on Sunday, the 19th of June
COLONIAL BISHOPRICS

—The success which has attended
the appeal on behalf of the fund for the endowment of addi-
tional bishoprics in the colonies and dependencies of the Bri-
tish empire, in compliance with the pastoral letter of the
Bishop of London, will induce the committee to nominate
another clergyman for consecration without delay. He will
have charge of the cong,rezations in connection with the esta-
blished chtirili of England in the islands of the Mediterranean,
and in the countries borderingupon that sea. The position of
Malta, it•is thought,is such as will render it thena9st contve-
nient point of communication with them, as well as with the
ancient churches of the East. It is intended that the see shall
be fixed at Valetta, the residence of the English governinent,
and that its jurisdiction extend tp all the clergy Of our church
residing within the specified limits. Someof the bishops are
of opinion that it would be more advisable to found the new
see at Gibraltar. A report has been extensively circulated
that the Rev. Dr. Robinson, late Archdeacon of Madras,
would be appointed to the next colonial bishopric ; but there
does not appear to be any satisfactory ground for the rumour.
When a bishop for the islands of the Mediterranean shall
have been appointed, measures will be taken, it is laid, as
soon as the funds permit, for establishing sees at New Bruns-
wick, the Cape of Good Hope, Van Diemen's Land, and
Ceylon

The Bishop of Worcester has subscribed £50., and Joseph
Bailey, Esq., M. P. a like sum, towards the restoration of
Hereford Cathedral. The total amount at present collected
is £12,000.
THE INSTALLATION.—We believe it is finally arranged
that the Installation of the Duke of Northumberland, as
Chancellor of this University, should take place at the en-
suing Commencement. Amongst the distinguished visitors
named as likely to be present are His Royal Highness-Prince
Albert and His Grace the Duke of Wellington.—Cambridge
Advertiser.

DREADFUL SUICIDE.—A melancholy case of self-destruc-
tion occurred, on Thursday evening, in Ordnance-place,
Chatham. The Rev., J. Porter, head-master of the Pro-
prietary-school, after attending to his scholastic duties, as
usual, throughout the day, and without evincing any appear-
ance that would indicate the premeditation of the rash act,
returned to his apartments in Ordnance-place, and having
retired to bed, he with a penknife opened an artery of the
thigh, and is supposed to have died in the short space of two
or three minutes.

istlie I WEST INDIA STEAM SH IFS.--The Royal
Southampton West India Mail
Company's steam-ship Medina arrived atFriday morning, about a quarter past eight o'clocon
Me-
dina brought home three passengers only, one of whom wa
the Hon. Capt. Cadogan, of the guards. The Medina The
second vessel only belonging to this company that has yet
brought the mails from the West India Islands, and had she
not been detained at Nassau on the 3d, would have been here
ten days earlier. She left Havana on the Ist March, and ar-
rived at Nassau on the 3d, where she was detained in conse-
quence of the non-arrival of the inter-colonial mails. Left
Nassau on the 13th, and arrived at Bermuda on the 19th,
which she left on the same day, and was 14 days home to
Southampton. She did not call at Fayal. When the Medina
left Havana, it was reported that the Dee,• another of the
company's steamers, was on shore at Turk's Island, but the
rumour was not creditecf.. . .. ,

*EST MIDDLESEX INSURANCE COMPANI
EXTRAORDINARY DISCLOSURES.

TUESDAY MORNING, APRIL 5, 1842

Our contemporary the Journal has some remarks
upon a manifesto which has just been issued to the elec-
tors of the united kingdom by the council of the Anti-
Corn Law League, in one portion of which, at least, we

cordially coincide. Amongst other insolencies, this
patriotic body, which " claims to be heard as the ac-
credited representative of all the great trading and ma-
nufacturing interests of the kingdom," (?) maintains
that " a small minority of earnest men in the House
of Commons can prevent the imposition of new taxes,
however powerless they may be, in the face of a mo-
nopolist majority, to remove existing abuses;" and
urges upon the various constituencies throughout the
country 'to instruct their representatives to discharge
this " patriotic duty," (!) or, in other words, to ob-
struct, by every factious manoeuvre which the forms of
the House of Commons allow, and in defiance of the
majority of the representatives of the national will, the
progress of public business, unless their own particu-
lar nostrums be adopted by government. With re-
spect to this advice, put forward by the league, we per-
fectly agree with our contemporary, that it is " irra-
tional and contemptible;" and we would even go a
little further, and designate it as disgustingly factious
and incorrigibly wicked."
With respect to the policy of the income tax, how-
eber, our contemporary expresses an opinion of perfect
accordance with that of the league; and it is to this
portion of his remarks that we wish to direct the atten-_
_
tioti of our readers

We fully agree," observes the Journal, with the league
in thinking everything bad of the income tax. It is impos-
sible to speak worse of it than it deserves. It is the very
wickedest and most vexatious of taxes which the ingenuity
of man ever conceived. Yet in its' very badness lies our
consolation. We sae only astonished at the folly which pro-
poses it. It is the very thing that was wanted to bring all
the inhabitants of the towns, and especially those of the
metropolis, to a full sense of the nature of Toryism, of its
eternal alliance with oppression, and of their duty to them-
selves and their country, which so many of them so shame-
fully forgot at the last election."

We are afraid that our contemporary is a little out
in his calculations, with respect to the tendency of the
proposed tax upon income to effect the restoration of
the defeated and despised Whig faction to the confi-
dence of the people of Great Britain. The Journal
urges that such a tax is " the very thing which is
wanted to bring all the inhabitants of the towns to a
full sense of the nature of -Toryism," and, at the same
time, of course, to a proper appreciation of the ex-
ceeding wisdom and purity of Whig-Radicalism ; but
we look around us in vain for any manifestation of
such a feeling. We hear of no great convulsions in
society, no overpowering demonstrations of hostility
towards the government measures, and of returning
affection towards Whig rule. " All the inhabitants of
the towns" have maintained, thus far, a most provok-
ing quiescence ; and, although a few small people have
exhibited a little restiveness upon the subject of the
proposed tariff—although the boot and shoemakers
have waxed hot upon the subject of their own particu-
lar trade, the building-club people worked themselves
into an awful perspiration, the timber trade exhibited
symptoms of having played a wrong card, and several
other branches of industry prophesied their own speedy
extinction,--the country exhibits, upon the whole, a

surprising and gratifying desire to submit to any tem-

porary inconveniences rend!red necessary for the car-

rying out entire of the policy of the government.

It is not a little instructive to watch the proceedings
of the Manchester free-trade cottonocracy at the pre-
sent moment. But a few months ago, in their ardent

appeals to the working classes, these gentlemen were
loud in their protestations that the reductions which
they contemplated in the price of food were not sought

for to enable them to lower wages to a corresponding
extent, and that they would not be attended with that
"The price of food has no connexion with the
price of labour" was reiterated, again and again, by the
organs of the league, in parliament and throughout the
country. "We shall give to the working man the full
benefit of the cheap loaf," was their constant rejoinder
to those who, acquainted with their selfish and grasp-
ing avarice, maintained that the benefit in question
would•be transferred at once into the breeches pockets
of the millowners. And what do we see going on
around us now in the cotton manufacturing districts ?

result

Let us examine.
A bill is before the House of Commons which, al-
though not that "total and immediate repeal of the
corn laws," which has been the object of the frantic
quest of the leaguers, it is acknowledged, will be at-
tended by a considerable reduction in the price of
bread. A new commercial tariff has also been intro-
duced, which will lower the cost of beef, mutton, ba-
con, timber, coffee, and a number of other necessaries
of life to the working classes. And what is the course
which the free-trade millocracy are pursuing with re,
spect to these measures and to the wages of their ope-
ratives ? Are they endeavouring to secure to the
working classes the benefits which they hold out ? No.
They are, on the contrary, endeavouring, by every fac-
tious opposition, to retard the passing of these mea-
sures and 'to prolong the existing commercial disorga-
nization, whilst, in the mean time, they are eagerly and
actively engaged in an effort to appropriate to them-
selves the full measure of benefit which ought to ac-
crue, from them, to the depressed and wretched labour-
ers whom they employ.
A Manchester contemporary (the Courier) of last
week informs us that "the reduction in wages proceeds
at a humming rate, and must be highly gratifying to
the liberal heart of every corn-law repealer. Indeed it
should appear we shall very soon rival our continental
neighbours in the matter of lowness of wages. We
have heard of large spinning and manufacturing con-
cerns, here and elsewhere, in which, during the last
fortnight or so, a saving of nearly 25 per cent. has
been effected in the cost of production."

A reduction of 25 per cent, in the wages of the fac-
tory operative and the starving hand-loom weaver! We
knew that it would do so. We told the wretched
dupes, who were clamouring for cheap bread and cheap
beef, that not a penny of the saving would be permit-
ted to come into their pockets; and not a penny will
they receive from these measures ! The millowner has
the working classes at this moment completely at his
mercy. The limit between subsistence and starvation,
and below which the working man cannot be depressed
without becoining dangerous, is the present regulator
of manufacturing wages. Reduce that limit by de-
creasing the cost of food, and the working man must
descend too, and occupy that debateable ground be-
tween mere existence and famine, in which, by a few
days' or weeks' privation, he may be reduced into the
condition of an abject and dispirited slave, an incendi-
ary or a frantic rebel.

It will be said, we know, by the millowner—
have no other resource except a reduction of wages at
the present moment. We -are not resorting to that
step on account of the reduction by Sir Robert Peel's
tariff in the price of food, but on account of the depre-
ciation in the price of our goods and of the embrrassed
state of commerce." The world, however, knows you
better, gentlemen, than to credit your asseverations.
And when your organs in the House of Commons—
the Cobdens, Gibsons, and Bowrings of your tribe—
get up, night after night, to retard, by every factious
motion within their reach, the progress of the govern-
ment measures, we trust that some public-spirited
member will rise and tell them that these dishonest and
disgraceful proceedings are only resorted to in order to
retard the returning prosperity of the country, and to
give a colour to the efforts of the millocracy to grind
down the working man and to divert from his expect-
ant lips the good which a wise and beneficent govern-
ment offers to his acceptance.

•" We

In the notice paper of the council we perceive that
on Wednesday next Mr. Alderman Evans will move
" that the inspectors, appointed by the Council of
Education acting under government authority, be in-
vited, at their own convenience, to inspect the Schools
of the Corporation." Why, what Jesuit proceeding is
this, Mr. Alderman ? What earthly business has " the
Council of Education, acting under government autho-
rity," with the schools supported by the Corporation
of Liverpool ? None ! And at this moment, notwith-
standing the lofty opinion which we entertain of the

plausibility and cunning which are the distinguishing
characteristics of Mr. Alderman Evans, we have not
the most remote expectation that he can establish any
tenable ground for an interference so impertinent and
uncalled for.

If we remember. right it was but a few months ago
since this same enlightened gentleman was loud in his
complaints, that to municipal constituencies, such as
ours, much larger powers of legislation than they at
present possess were not committed. " Why trouble
the state legislature"—was the exclamation of the
Alderman—" with matters upon which the local legis-

latures are equally, or even better calculated to de-
cide ?" And, in the abstract. there was much reason
in the question. If municipal bodies could be per-
suaded to lay aside their petty personal squabbles—to
legislate for the welfare of the population around them,
and not for the indulgence of party spleen ;—we might
admit that they were perfectly fitted to deal with ques-
tions far more important than those which at present
belong to them. But though we cannot admit that
greater powers than they already possess may be safely
entrusted to local bodies, constituted like our own, we
were scarcely prepared to find Mr. Alderman Evans—
the advocate of local legislation—conceding, as by this
motion he does concede, that the collective wisdom of
the borough of Liverpool is unequal to the management
of a charity school ! Hide your diminished beads,
aldermen and councillors of Liverpool—fellow-towns-
men of a Ewan and a Thornely—of men who would
experience no difficulties, which their consummate
modesty would not enable them to overcome, in un-
dertaking the professorships of poetry, rhetoric, moral
philosophy, or political economy at Oxford, Cam-
bridge, Glasgow, or the modern Athens itself—hide
your diminished heads, for you are unfit—(Evans
seipse testante)—to direct even the initiation of little
boys and girls into the mysteries of A. B. C., the Horn
Book, the Multiplication Table, and the Rule of
Three ! You are incapable of directing the charity
schools of the corporation, without the distinguished
supervision of Doctor J. P. Kay, and the paid com-
missioners of the Council of Education !

quite agree with the journal that the impoSition
of an income tax is one of "the very wickedest's acts
of which Sir Robert Peel could have been guilty, al-
though scarcely for the reasons urged by our contem-
porary; for nothing, we are satisfied, could have been
devised which is calculated more effectually to impress
upon the minds of the liberal middle classes—the
shopocracy of the large towns—the tendency of Whig
rule, than a direct appeal to their pockets for the cost
of that expensive plaything ; and hinc dice lachryme
Raise money by taxes upon consumption; raise it in-
directly to as great an amount as you please, and let
Whiggery fatten upon the vitals of the community,
squander the resources, peril the safety, and sacrifice
the honour of the country; but it is wicked—" very
wicked" and very "vexatious"—to compel the pure
and patriotic gentlemen, for whose exclusive amuse-
ment and profit the play has been enacted, to contri-
bute directly to the expenses, when they could so easily
be extracted, without a disclosure of their amount,
from the pockets of the hardworking and industrious,
who have no participation in the pleasure or the profit
of the scene. An income tax is very wicked, not,
however, however, because it will "bring all the inha-
bitants of the towns to a full sense of the nature of
Toryism," but because it will drive these sensible and
sensitive people to an examination of the exact cost to
the community and to the individuals of which it is
composed, at which a dishonest and imbecile Whig
faction may be permitted to riot in place and pay, and
exhaust alike the patience and the resources of an
abused country.

There is soinething so supremely ridiculous ire this
proposition, that we should be fully inclined to treat it

as only a contemptible atten:

ft to throw dirt at the

present School Committee, were it not that the astute
cunning of the gentleman who brings it forward will
not permit us to treat as harmless a missile directed by
his hand. Mr. Alderman Evans would, we have no
doubt, gladly take the initiatory in any step calculated
to obstruct the proceedings of, or to overthrow alto-
gether the Conservative Education Committee of the
council. Such we confidently believe is the object
which this eminent utilitarian has in view ; and we
would therefore impress upon the Conservative body
in the council, to offer their most strenuous opposition
to the present motion. It will not he sufficient on this
occasion for Conservatives to argue that no danger can
ensue, because they cannot see the wires which the
alderman has within his fingers. The proposition, in
itself, is one which no body of men, with the slightest
portion of self respect, can entertain ; and we trust
that no absurd and disgraceful concession, on the part
of Conservatives, will permit its jesuitical author to
chuckle over the success by which it will thus have
been attended.

By the same paper we observe that Mr. Councillor
Platt will move, on Wednesday, " that a special com-
mittee be appointed to take into consideration the pro-
priety, or rather the necessity, of having two additional
schools, one in the south and the other in the north
district of the town, for the accommodation of the
lower classes, (of which the Catholics form a consider-
able part,) and to give them a good secular and moral
education but no religious instruction." (!) Excellent,
Mr. Councillor Platt) A somewhat different kind of
personage are you to the redoubtable Alderman ; and,
therefore, we little fear your assault upon the principle
of Scriptural education ;,—seconded, although doubtless
it will be, by that eminent -arid enlightened Conserva-
tive, Mr. John Smith ! MORAL EDUCATION BUT
NO RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION." Will there be no
Romish catechism taught in these schools, Mr. Platt ?
If not, we greitly fear' that their reverences, although
the council should be willing to play "the Prince of
Denmark, with the part of Hamlet omitted," for their
amusement, will scarcely thank them for the perfor-
mance. We may he in error, however. The next
good tiling to being a Roman Catholic, in the estima-
tion of the priesthood of that schism, is to be of no
religion at all ; and, therefore, "moral education" with
"no religious instruction" may be the next best thing
to being educated under the immediate tutelage and in
the creed of Rome.

A mind trained up—educated—morally educated (!)
—without a knowledge of religion, of a Supreme
Being, or of a future state of rewards and punishment—
what a scroll will there be presented for superstition to
trace her dark imagery upon ! What a society would
that form whose youth were cursed with such a system
of education ! Reflect upon it—think of it—good
Liberal gentlemen of the council. What fruits could
you possibly anticipate from this moral education with-
out religion ? Is not that charity worthy of being ac-
cursed which would take into its keeping the children
of the poor and deny them the knowledge of the God
who made them;—which would impress upon the
youthful mind merely secular knowledge, and leave
the fair table, which it presents for receiving religious
instruction, A BLANK, to be impressed in after life
with the hideous falsehoods of Infidelity, of Deism, or
of Socialism ? Oh ! gentlemen, discard this odious,
destroying, soul-debasing attempt to reconcile possi-
bility and impossibility, truth and falsehood, right and
wrong ; discard it ! That every true Conservative in
the council will do so we trust; and we entertain a
sanguine anticipation that, with the exception of a few
gentlemen, of the peculiar mental conformation of Mr.
Councillor Platt, there will not be found many, even
of the Liberal portion of that body, who will stultify
and degrade themselves by giving such a proposition

their support.
We have heard much, of late, from liberal lips with
respect to the " symptoms of repentance" which have
been displayed by some Conservatives upon this ques-
tion of scriptural education; and more than one ru-
mour has reached us, pointing out the course which
will be pursued by certain gentlemen, whose defection
we should be sorry to see, upon one or both of these
We trust sincerely that calumny has misre-
presented the ,opinions of those to whom we allude ;
and that they will not, on trial, be found wanting to
those great principles, the undeviating maintenance of
which has contributed so mainly to their present posi-
tion in the confidence of their fellow-townsmen. Should
it be, however, that the cunning plausibilities, by which
they are insidiously surrounded, have shaken the mind
of any Conservative members of the council, we implore.
of them to tear from before their eyes the film of error
throug:i which they have been seduced to view this
question, and to look at it boldly, and exercise upon it
their native good sense and integrity of judgment. Let
them do this only, and we are confident that we shall
not have to regret the loss of one voice with whose
support Conservatism may not readily dispense.

motions