The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-04-26 00:00:00

THE "RAILWAY TIMES" AND OURSELVES

The Railway Times, of Saturday, in a long article com-
menting upon our report of a meeting, recently heldtin this
town, makes some allusions to us which we cannot allow to
pass uncontradicted. If we understand our contemporary's
somewhat obscure wit, we are suspected to have had some
unworthy motive in noticing as we did the proceedings of the
Thames Haven shareholders and their secretary, Lieutenant
Amsinck. We are said to be " deeply in the confidence of
the Directors of the Thames Haven Dock and Railway Com-
pany," and to have " suppressed" the name of the chairman
of the late meeting, to oblige our " friend" Mr. Amsinck.
Now, we can assure our railway contemporary, however sin-
gular to him it may appear, that in any part which we take
in the advocacy of public undertakings, we consult only, so
far as our judgment enables us to do so, the interests of the
public and of the community to which we belong. Ours is,
upon all occasions, however foolish the confession may make
us appear to the Railway Times, unpaid labour. We look
for no business favours and no remuneration in any other
shape, as the reward for the course which we take towards
any company ; and we most certainly look for none, and have
deserved none, at the hands of the Thames Haven Company.
We reported their late meeting for the information of our
readers and as a matter of course ; and we beg, with all pro-
per respect, to decline the honour, doubtless intended us,
when we are said to be deeply in the confidence of the gen-
tlemen who compose its direction, and the personal friend
of its secretary, Mr. Amsinck.

FIRST FRUITS OF MAGISTERIAL REFORM.—The sore-
ness with which the recent conservative appointments to the
bench have been viewed by the whig-radical party through-
out the country, is not without ample and touching reason.
Many a snug job—many a pleasant preferment—have thus
been withdrawn from the expectant lips of its subservient
tools. Many a longing gaze for the promised sop—many a
hankering for the sweet lickings of office—are doomed from
henceforth to blank and bitter disappointment. The reign
of the Walmsleys and Rathbones, the Potters and Walkers,
is at an end. Melancholy consummation ! Why does the
world still go round, when the whig revel in jobbery is no
more ?

We have this day to record the first manifestation which
has come before us of this awfully changed state of affairs.
A particular friend of the Rev. Joseph Brotherton, Mr.
Wakefield, ejected once from the office of overseer of Salford
with cruel precipitancy, and nominated subsequently by Sir
Thomas Potter and his tail to the snug office of inspector of
weights and measures for the hundred of Salford, has just
been discharged by the newly-appointed conservative magi-
strates, for the very venial offence of making his situation
a trifle too expensive to the public! The best electioneering
tactician which the borough of Salford ever knew—a Social-
ist, too, or a Muggletonian, we know not which—has thus
been deprived of his bone before he had half picked it clean,
and when the chances are few that whiggery can afford to
throw him another. No wonder, if such be the cruel results
of the magistracy being more equally balanced in political
opinions, that whig expectants are in utter despair, and the
very possessors of place shake in their shoes!

DISTRESSED CONDITION OF THE TOWN OF MANCHES-
TER.—Destitution amongst the population of this once
flourishing CAPITAL of the manufacturing districts goes on
increasing, whilst the Russell opposition appears resolved
that the efforts of the legislature to bring about that revival
of our commerce, by which alone it can be materially lessen-
ed, shall be retarded by every impediment which faction can
throw in their way. A friend of our own, writing yesterday
from Manchester, states, amongst other distressing facts—
" The soup kitchens still remain open ; indeed, but for the
relief which they afford, I do not know how our poor people
could subsist. I have lately given out fifty tickets per day,
for which I have had at least 250 or 300 applicants ! The
respectability of some would surprise you."
The prolongation of the existing embarrassments in every
branch of industry is, we know, rapidly dragging down the
small tradesman and the shopkeeper to be thus dependent
upon charity for a meal ; but what cares whiggery for the
sufferings of these or any classes of the community, when
engaged in the selfish pursuit of office, or in the patriotic ob-
ject of obstructing the measures of a conservative govern-
ment ?

A CASE FOR A COLLEGE OF CARDINALS.—The Guiana
Times of the 28th February informs us of some curious cir-
cumstances illustrative of the condition of the church of
Rome in that colony. The titular bishop of Oriense, and
vicar-apostolic of British Guiana has involved himself, it ap-
pears, so seriously with his congregations, as to be sum-
moned to Rome to answer for or explain his conduct. The
grounds of offence are thus detailed by our West Indian
contemporary :

" The Roman Catholics, to whom Dr. Clancy's conduct
appears objectionable, accuse him, First, of an unwillingness
to account, satisfactorily, for the large sums of money en-
trusted to him on the account of the faith ; he is going away,
and they are anxious to know how the pecuniary affairs of
their church stand, in case he should never return. Se-
condly, of causing two popular, talented, and useful priests,
to quit the vicariate, and ordaining an ignorant man. Thirdly,
of occasioning the abrupt departure, from the Georgetown
nunnery, of one of the nuns, whose further stay was incon-
sistent with her ideas of propriety. Fourthly, of giving rise
to scandalous remark, by the violation of those precautions
for the separation of the sexes usually observed in all Ro-
man Catholic convents. (!)
" Last week the parties most thoroughly convinced of the
justness of these accusations, issued a short circular, of which
we have seen a copy :
" Georgetown, 20th:Feb., 1812.—A variety of circum-
stances having occurred in this vicariate, highly painful to the
feelings of the members, and prejudicial to the interests of
the Catholic Church, it is deemed expedient, that a meeting
of the Catholic body should be convened, with the view of
taking into consideration whether any, and what measures
should be adopted by them to allay present evils, and, if
possible, guard against their recurrence. Your presence
at Mr. Waddell's house, opposite C. Conyers and Co.,
Water-street, Georgetown, immediately after mass on Sunday
next 27th, to assist with your advice, is earnestly requested.'
" Yesterday, which was Sunday, the Vicar-apostolic read
this circular at the altar, denounced two of the authors of it
as having names which it was an abomination to mention in
that place, threatened them, if they did not recant and do
penance, with excommunication, and their wives and chil-
dren with a curse, and also pledged himself to excommuni-
cate all who should dare to attend the proposed meeting.
The consequence was, that the meeting did not take place,
and that the parties, feeling themselves deeply aggrieved, re-
solved on going to the Pope himself. "
A very pretty squabble this, so far, and one for which his
holiness, we imagine, will not thank the rev. vicar-apostolic
and titular bishop for originating !