The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-04-19 00:00:00

STATISTICS OP VAUXHALL WARD

Our liberal contemporaries are in extasies of delight sith
a pamphlet just published, under this title, by the Anti-
monopoly Society of Liverpool, professing to show, in vari-
ous statistical tables, the actual condition of more than five
thousand families within the ward. The enquiries by
which the necessary data have been ascertained are said to
have been made by a number of tradesmen who have
visited personally the dwellings of every family ; and the
whole has been compiled by Mr. John Finch, jun., of Social-
ist celebrity. and is ushered into the world along with a dedi-
catory address, from that eminent individual, to Thomas
Thornley, Esq., M.P. for Wolverhampton.

We have no wish to impeach the correctness of the tables
themselves, which constitute the only valuable portion of this
publication; but we must guard our readers anti the public
who are unacquainted with the localities of our town against
the supposition that VAUXHALL WARD, which the society
have chosen upon which to exercise their statistical labours,
affords a fair average of the condition of the people of Liver-
pool, or even of the condition of the labouring classes of the
town. Mr. Finch informs us, that "from the large number
of superior mechanics living in the ward, it is probable the
average condition shown there is superior to what a general
average might be found to be for the whole borough." But he
forgets to inform us, that whilst it does comprise amongst
its inhabitants a number of respectable mechanics, it con-
tains, as well, the most dissolute, depraved, and wretched
portion of our population. Vauxhall Ward may be deemed,
in fact, the St. Giles's of Liverpool ; and comprises within
itself, any day in the year, more vice, misery, and destitution
than all the other wards of the borough could furnish if put
together.

So far as they relate, however, to the classes of our popu-
lation, whose habits and condition they describe, these tables,
if prepared accurately—(and we have no reason to doubt the
fact, although, if they had been unaccompanied with the party
views with which the anti-monopoly people have interlarded
them, they would have been infinitely less liable to suspi-
cion)—are documents which might be turned to valuable and
important uses. It is painful to contemplate the mass of
moral and physical evil which they develope, as existing in
the midst of a community such as this ; it is certain that, al-
though perhaps a little exaggerated, something nearly ap-
proaching to the state of things here exhibited does exist; and
it is, indeed, time that it should receive the serious considera-
tion of our local and national legislatures, and, if possible,
that remedial measures should be devised for its removal.
The bulk of the population of the ward, which is shewn to
be thus plunged in degradation and penury, consists of
strangers from various portions of the United Kingdom. Of
4,977 families visited, 3,651 are of this class. 2,243, or nearly
half, are Irish ! Amongst this portion may be found almost
the whole of the suffering noticed, and of the vice by which
it is accompanied ; and it might well become an object of se-
rious consideration by what means the condition of this class,
which exists in every large town throughout the empire,—a
nucleus for crime—a fertile source of want and wretchedness,
and from amongst which our prisons, our workhouses, and
our infirmaries are filled to overflowing,—can be alleviated.
It is idle to take such spectacles as here present themselves
as arguments in favour of this or that political theory. It is
folly to lay to the operation of the corn and provision laws
their present existence. The great bulk of the individuals
who constitute them are mere squatters upon the skirts of
civilization and comfort; and we are perfectly satisfied that,
unaided by other measures, the direct effect of the adoption
of the free trade measures contended for by Mr. Finch and
his fellow-anti-monopolists, would be to increase the numbers,
and the consequent wretchedness of the class in question.
On some future occasion we shall probably make use of a
portion of the details here furnished, to aid us in an inquiry
into the real source of the evil, and the course to be pursued
for its mitigation,—which we much fear, however, is too
deeply seated to be reached by any mere legislative effort.
For this purpose, however, the inquiry of Mr. Finch has not
gone so far as it might, with great usefulness, have been
carried. and as it would have been, had the truth and the whole
truth, irrespective of the strength to be imparted by it to a
party outcry, been the object before him. We knew that this
mass of wretchedness existed amongst us although we have
not before been furnished with its details ; but how came it
there? How has it grown there ? These are questions upon
which we are left perfectly in the dark by our statistical in-
quirers. What are the habits—the degree of education—the
religion of those whose condition presents so lamentable a
contrast to that which ought to exist in the midst of an
industrious, moral, and intelligent community ? Such
questions ought surely to have entered into the consideration
of persons instituting an enquiry, like this, whose result is
now before us ; yet they are precisely those upon which we
can expect no satisfaction from Mr. John Finch.

So far, however, as they go we must give the society and
Mr. Finch credit for the pains which appears to have been
taken, and the lucid arrangement which has been pursued in
getting up these tables ; but we cannot give them equal credit
for the ability of the documentary and argumentative matter of
a political nhturc with which they are aceompanied. More
inconsequential trash than the remarks of John Finch him-
self we never met with, unless it be contained in the preface
of Mr. Charles Edward Rawlins, jun., or in the letters ap-

pended to the pamphlet from the various gentlemen who
have assisted in the enquiry. It would be a waste of time to
attempt dissecting such rubbish ;.,and we, therefore, heartily
make a present of it to our Radical and Whig contemporaries.