The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-01-18 00:00:00

SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB,
OXFORD-STREET EAST.

FHE ANNUAL MEETING of the SUBSIRIBERS
for the ELECTION of the OFFICERS and COM-
MITTEE for the present year, and to rece. he Report and
the Treasurer's Statement of the Accoun ill he held in
the SCHOOL-ROOM, THIS DAY (TuesdaY) 18th January
instant, at One o'clock.
AUGUSTUS CAMPBELL, President.

THE OASTLER TESTIMONIAL.
Trustees.
The Rt.Hon.LordFeversham John Fielden, Esq., M.P.
Sir George Sinclair, Bart. W. Bastield Ferrand, Esq.,
John Walter, Esq. M.F.
Honorary Secretary—Mr. William Atkinson:

ril; HE object contemplated by-the supporters of this fund
is that of providing for the well-known advocate of
public rights, Mr. RICHARD OASTLER, and his family.
Having been impressed very early in life with the extreme
importance of those principles which conduce to the general
welfare of society, and encouraging constantly in his mind a
feeling hostile to every infraction of those principles, Mr.
Oastler became a strenuous supporter of ,the cause of the
weak and the oppressed, as well as an arcietzt opponent of all
who attempted to exercise injustice and Ot eltY.
The sphere of his private duties beinithe great manufac-
turing districts of England, Mr. Oastler's sympathies were
necessarily excited by the sufferings of children of tender
years who were employed in the manufactories, and the ener-
gies of his mind were directed to the great question of legis-
lative regulation of factory labour. To all who have exerted
themselves in this interesting and momentous question, Mr.:-
Oastler has given the most efficient support ; and those who
have watched the progress of the subject are gratified by
knowing that the question having obtained the sanction of
the legislature of Great Britain, has also been adopted in
France, Prussia, Austria, Russia, Switzerland, and a part of
the United States of America. Mr. Oastler, as is well known,
has also contended for a just and humane system of Poor
Laws ; and his advocacy of the great and sacred principle
upon which all Poor Laws should be founded, in contradis-
tinction to the modern attempt to innovate and encroach
upon the constitutional right of the poor to relief, may be
characterised as strenuous, constant, and most successful.
Although the advocacy of the great public questions before
mentioned has placed Mr. Oastler in the position of an in-
fluential supporter of popular rights, yet he has not attempt-
ed either to increase or to uphold his influence by appealing
or yielding to the selfish passions of any section of the com-
munity ; but he has boldly and emphatically, and often in
the midst of great personal danger, denounced oppression
and injustice in whatever quarter they appeared to him to
originate, whether it was in the case of the rich against the
poor, or in that of the poor against the rich, his object being
to instil into the minds of the whole people the great truth
of RELATIVE duties, and the paramount necessity of fulfil-
ling them ; the source from which he has derived his know-
ledge of those duties being the will of God, as revealed to
mankind in the Holy Scriptures. _ _

Thus Mr. Oastler's constant endeavour has been to main-
tain the principles upon which the British Constitution is
founded ; uniting the monarchy, the aristocracy, and the
entire body of the people in a mutual and just support of
each other, that bond of union being the Church of Christ.
It will not excite surprise, that, seeing systematic tyranny
and cruelty practised upon the most helpless of our race in
the extent to which Mr. Oastler has witnessed it, he should
have been driven, by the enthusiastic ardour of his nature,
to utter expressions which those who have not been similarly
circumstanced might well condemn ; but on this point he
has been the subject of much misrepresentation, and also of
much wilful detraction ; notwithstanding which he has con-
tinued in an undeviating course of public duty, not permit-
ting his exertions to sustain the least check on account of
opposition and difficulties which would have overwhelmed
most men. One very important fact, skewing the true and
valuable nature of his services, should here be mentioned,
which is, that those who have been so placed as to be best
acquainted with his motives and his proceedings, have proved
themselves to be his warmest and most constant public sup-
porters, as well as his private friends, amongst whom may
be reckoned proprietors of some of the largest factories in
the kingdom.
The great efforts which Mr. Oastler has made for his
country, have, however, cost him much. No considerations
of private interest have ever restrained him in his endeavours
to fulfil that which he conceived to be his public duty. This
great, benevolent, and patriotic man is now the inmate of a
debtors' prison ; debarred the full exercise of those admira-
ble faculties of mind and body which are so well adapted to
procure an ample provision for himself and family. A most
earnest appeal is made to those who are attached to the cause
of British Constitutional Government to contribute towards
raising a fund for the purpose of placing Mr. Oastler, his
wife, and their adopted daughter, in comfortable circum-
stances. The money which is raised will be under the con-
trol of the Trustees whose names are before mentioned, who
will decide on the best method of fulfilling the object in-
tended. _ _ . _

The projectors of this Testimonial beg to suggest to all
the friends and supporters of Mr. Oastler's principles, the
necessity of proceeding immediateiy to form themselves into
Committees for the purpose of canvassing their respective
neighbourhoods, and communicating the results to the Ho-
norary Secretary ; for it should be particularly remembered
that the wellbeing of all who obtain their living by their daily
labour is especially included in this cause, and that many of
them feel a warm interest in it, whose contributions, how-
ever small, will be equally esteemed as those of much larger
amount. . .

Subscriptions will be received by Messrs. DRUMMONDS,
Bankers, Charing-cross, London ; and by the Honorary Se-
cretary, Mr. WM. ATKINSON, No. 16, Doughty-street,
London, to whom all inquiries and communications are to
be addressed; and at the office of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

CONTRIBUTIONS ANNOUNCED

X. s. d
The Right Hon. Lord Feversham ......
Lord Ashley, M.P. ... 25 0 0
Sir George Sinclair, Bart•
Sir Alexander Hood, Bart., Compton Castle,
Somersetsbire
John Walter, Esc( ...... 25 0 0
W. B. Ferrand, Esq., M•P lO 10 0
The Rev. J. D. Schoenberg, Polesworth,

Tamworth ...
Mr. William Atkinson
A Rutlandshire Rector and his Wife
London, January 1, 1842.

5 5 0
5 5 0
5 5 0