The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-02-15 00:00:00

STIPENDIARY MAGISTRATES

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVE

RPOOL STANDARD,

SlR,—When a gentleman of high legal acquirements, who
draws annually on our townspeople for fifteen hundred
pounds, condescends to feel himself aggrieved at a supposed
imputation of partisanship, it is a matter of difficulty, as well
as of danger, to express publicly certain feelings of dislike to
his occupancy of the first form in the school of'the new po-
lice, though such dislike separates itself from anything per-
sonal.

If stipendiary magistrates are such a blessing, suppose,
Mr. Editor, that you or I were appointed to the chair of
our public office to-morrow : suppose that, being vested with
all the powers belonging to such an office, the chief of which
would be to administer the law as it is, and, where the law
provides not, to do justice to all men, according to the best
of our judgment, one of us entered on its duties : would
there be anything in the principles we carried with us into
our new situation, for the profession and practice of which
the common council selected us for it, that our situation
would make us ashamed of ? Truly I think not. if as
conscientious Roman Catholics we had been selected, and
as such entered on our duties, considering, in the true spirit
of the papacy, that no oath was binding that was against the
interests of our church ; should we for a moment relinquish
what we conscientiously believed, though, in the same spirit
of the papacy, for the furtherance of the same interests, we
might feel it prudent to conceal, yea occasionally to deny it?
Or, would not our consciences revolt against us, if, where it
might be done with safety, we forbore to let our belief influ-
ence our decisions ? I trow not. If as sincere Socinians we
had been selected, with an avowed disbelief of a fallen spirit
as the chief agent of wickedness, a natural proneness in every
man to evil, a hell for the reception of the workers of ini-
quity, or a Saviour who is God and man in one Christ ;
could we throw off our disbelief for the sake of our office,
and act in a manner contrary thereto—that is, by letting our
disbelief sway our decisions against our consciences? Could
we so act without insincerity ? Surely not. And if as con-
scientious Protestant churchmen, who reverence the Bible,
and all laws resting in their better parts on the infallible
Word of God, differing in our belief and in our disbelief
from the Roman Catholic and the Socinian in the particulars
already named, we had been selected for the place ; would
we give up our convictions for any man, or be ashamed to
let them dictate to our judgment in our public capacity ?

Never—nay, God forbid I
With our convictions as conscientious Protestant church-
men, we believe in such things as false witnesses and fallible
magistrates. As to both of these, numerous intimations
abide in the Book of God : there, indeed, we read of corrupt
magistrates, of unjust judges, of men whose office it was to
administer the law acting contrary to the law ; and all his-
tory since Scripture times reiterates the same truths. Air
Christians, we believe that there is not a man upon earth
that doeth good and sinneth not; neither magistrates nor
kings are exempted from this propensity ; a natural prone-
ness to evil abides with them as well as the rest of mankind.
With the appointment of stipendiary magistrates in our hands,
then, our selection should be made from such whose qualifi-
cations of grace to execute justice and to maintain truth,
respond to our consciences ; as it is plain such appointments,
affecting in a high degree the happiness and the misery of
thousands, involve awful responsibilities.
If we believe that true repentance, whereby men forsake
sin, is the gift of the Almighty—as we must believe if we
believe in Christianity at all—it will appear that no punish-
ment, in those flagrant cases of iniquity which, from the si-
lence of the Bible or our own laws, are left to magisterial
discretion, can avail to work that permanent cure by which
alone society can be henefitted, or tyranny excluded from a
severe infliction .respecting them. A. magistrate ought in all
such cases to instruct before he inflicts, or to give opportu-
nity for instruction before he punishes; yet there seems an
absence of this disposition to instruct about our public office,
and a presence of a disposition to punish, which cannot but
force painful reflections into exercise in every feeling mind.
There is no law respecting the punishment of a drunkard
in the Bible, and it is difficult to say if the laws of England
provide a punishment for drunkenness, beyond the infliction
of a fine, or, in the event of its not being paid, a putting in
the stocks for six hours. Now the latter, considered as a
substitute for an unpaid fine—where a payment of it, or an
imprisonment of three days, has a tendency, by emptying
their cupboard, to punish a poor drunkard's unoffending
an excellent provision ; and, I must say, would have
availed quite as much to the suppression of drunkenness, if
not much more, than the introduction of an imprisonment
of half a week in the Borough. Gaol : especially as, at the
time of its introduction, the conduct of the then governor
and chaplain thereto rendered any prospect of amendment
under their discipline truly ridiculous. I believe this impri-
sonment is still inflicted. I nmst farther say, that if I were
a common-councilman, I would do all iri my power to unseat
the person who persisted in it ; not but that I hate drunken-
ness, but because its suppression in this way does not appear
to me to be either merciful, politic, or altogether legal.

As Christian Englishmen,• we are free to think that if a
magistrate gives not a prisoner at the bar, or *a. defendant un-
der a summons, every opportunity of eliciting the truth from
an accuser or a witness, that magistrate acts most unfairly.
It is not merely because it is fairplay such persons ought to
have this privilege ;—it is because that the histories of Jo-
seph, of Moses, and of others, speak of.false witness—it is
because the reading of the ninth commandment in the deca-
logue every Sabbath, supposes the continuance of it day by
day—it is because the wisest judge that ever graced a judg•
ment seat, made frequent mention of it in his proverbs—it is
because the history of modern times assures us that, under
certain circumstances, no oath can be considered binding on
a Papist—it is because a Socinian witness can perjure him-
self without the troublesome contemplation of the burning
lake before his eyes—and it is because it was a privilege writ-
ten in the statute book with the blood of reformers—that
such persons ought to have it. I say this much by way of
introduction to an illustration, contained in the following
case, which, for certain reasons, I put in the subjunctive
mood. If it occurred in Liverpool, a notice of it here will
only serve to show what serious injustice may be done to an
innocent person's reputation when their legal privileges are
withheld, and how persons, who choose to tell falsehoods
upon oath, may escape.
A certain wife, whose subsequent conduct proved her not
the rnost truth-telling woman in existence, summoned her
husband before a certain stipendiary magistrate, ostensibly
for an assault, but in reality with a view to obtain a separate
maintenance, on the plea of ill-usage. She bore not the
slightest mark of violence that was apparent ; but her state-
ment, on oath, was to the effect that her " back was black"
from some blows inflicted upon her. The husband, in his
defence, insisted that she should show her back to the court
—(this might have been done privately).—but the magistrate
refused, fined him, and held him to bail, and, as may be sup-
posed, tbe, complainant's object was accomplished. Now,
had there been no blackness, or traces of blackness, on the
person sworn, her complaint would in some degree have been
shewn to be a conspiracy, and the case ought to have been
dismissed : but the decision being contrary to a dismissal,
what a wound was given to the defendant's character ! If it
might be true that Mr. Rushton was the magistrate, who, it
appears, is as sensitive of his own character as anybody else,
let him think that he will never retain his place on the bench
he now occupies with that man's good will. But then this
case may be, after all, supposititious.
I have little more to add now. lam a conservative, and,
as I do not know that conservatism contains anything wrong,
would, if electei to the stipendiary magistrate's place by a
majority of conservatives, carry my conservatism with me as
my proudest badge. I am confident that, if so elected, my
liberal,friends would never give me credit for one impartial
decision, nor should I expect it. On the contrary, if I was
elected as a conscientious radical, and knew radicalism to
contain nothing wrong, I should never be ashamed of the
principles derived from it being apparent in everything I did:
but if, being a radical, I knew radicalism contained some-
thing wrong, I would either disavow it altogether, or resign
my situation. Therefore, with ,these views of the subject,
giving him every credit for distinguished abilities, for private
worth, for decisions in which I agree—(yet disagreeing with
him in many of his decisions),—for an excellent judgment in
the general—(though in some particulars there appears to me
to be errors in judgment),—and, on the whole, feeling to-
wards him as I would feel towards a parliamentary or local
candidate of opposite opinions, where the difference was too
great to allow of a conscientious assent of support, even in
the best arranged matters, I should like to see a successor
to our present stipendiary magistrate. I remain, sir, your's
respectfully, C.
February 7th, 1842.

THE PROTESTANT OPERATIVES

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD,

SIR,—I trust a few words from a humble operative will
not be refused admission into your valuable paper, or deemed
impertinent to ears polite, for our objects must, I think, be
the same, although there may be some differences between
us in the mode of going about it. We must all wish to pre-
serve entire our glorious constitution in church and state,
and, although our high mercantile conservatives may place
ships, colonies, and commerce as their motto, I trust we
humble men, although quite as much interested in the pre-
servation of them as any others can be, are not out of order
in looking higher, and taking " the preservation of our glo-
rious constitution in church and state," and " the Protestant
religion and the liberties of England," as our mottoes. A
little injustice is done to us when it is surmised that we would
not care for creating a split in the camp to carry our point.
Undoubtedly, if a bad Protestant was brought forward, we'
should not consider we were stepping beyond our Christian
privilege in withholding our votes from such a man ; but in
minor matters, of course, we feel bound to submit to those
more competent to judge, and who, from their standing in
society, we would look up to as our superiors. I, for one,
would frankly admit that, in the late case, I was not for some
time aware of the Soundneis of our present worthy member's
views as a Protestant ; •but,imraediately that this was known,
any attempt at opposition ceased. Although the Protestant
operatives, as a body, would like to see something more done
than to " preserve that which remains," they would like to
correct our past errors, and put right what we have done
wrong. For instance, the Maynooth grant is wrong in prin-
ciple, and it has failed in its proposed objects ; therefore
would we say, " stop the grant, or, at any rate, move for
" a committee of inquiry." The Irish education scheme,
we see, has worked badly : the same plan we so dislike in
our own town, that we have, thank God, got. rid of it, and the
men upholding it • therefore we would say of the scheme in
Ireland, get rid of it, give the people the Bible, the whole
Bible. Again, churches, we see, are wanting, and public
money can be granted for other less important matters;
therefore we would say, encourage those who are so liberally
subscribing to build churches, by meeting them with a grant
of public money. These are, I think I may say, the views
of a very large body of the operatives of Liverpool, and I do
think while their objects and desires, so holy and so just, are
properly and respectfully addressed, they are fairly entitled
to some consideration, and should not be treated with that
disparagement, and, I must say, contempt, which some few
of our conservatives are inclined to treat them. We ask no-
thing of these gentlemen; we labour for our earnings, and
are content to receive the earnings for our labour; and, al-
though we do think that we might expect to have the advan-
tage of the business of our conservative leaders, in preference
to the hordes of papists now employed by them, we do not
even urge this point ; but we do hope to be treated with some
degree of respect. Worse conduct than we have experienced
from a few of our great conservatives we never received from
gur radical leaders, even when we were ourselves blind lead-
ers of the blind ; and I must, with humility, give my opinion
that such conduct is doing, and will do, serious injury to the
cause which we have all so much at heart. I beg to remain,
gentlemen, your obedient,
AN OPERATIVE PROTESTANT.
P.S.—I must, in conclusion, thank you, Mr. Editor, in
the name of my brother operatives, for your noble article in
the STANDARD of Friday last, and I really think it would be
found, upon examination, that the operatives are not the worst
amongst the supporters of your truly Protestant paper.

MAIL TO LANCASTFR.—Arrangements are in course of
being made for establishing a daily mail coach from Newcas-
tle-upon-Tyne to Lancaster, by Durham, the Aucklands,
Staindrop, Barnard Castle, Bowes, Stainmore, Brough, Kir-
by Stephen, Sedbergh, and Kirkby Lonsdale, and so opening
out an important communication with Liverpool, Manches-
ter, and all parts of the west and south of England, as well
as Ireland and Wales. The Lord Exmouth coach has long
been the only conveyance through this district, and save the
Newcastle and Carlisle Railwry, the only means of crossing
the country between the east and west coasts. The Post-
ofilce authorities have made arrangements with the proprie-
tors for converting the coach into a mail, and it will leave
Newcastle about mid-day and Lancaster on the arrival of the
London train at eight in the morning.

TIME AND TIDE WILL STAY FOR NO MAN!

0, YE MORTALS!

After the late great storm was husbed and finished, I came
on the sea shores of Liverpool, and took an hour's view of
that old place !! Your town-hall be very, very handsome,
truly ! If good old "King Foster" be alive, give my love to
him, for he had a hand in that nice, fine building, as well as
in my docks, and other property along the strand.
But why cannot ye agree, according unto right, in plan s
for my new docks ? Ali I want there be this : plenty, plenty
of good sea room, and great despatch in completing the work.
For do ye think I can spare those old possessions for a tedious
course of years? Nay ! Nay ! 1 consent but to one or two
summers, and no longer. Take heed, and agree amongst ye,
speedily. Forty old merchants meet together, and each have
two votes who has lived for sixty years. Then will I he in
good humour again, and your ships shall sail in safely from
sea to sea, and unto the world's end !

Your right trusty benefactor,
NEPTE

Old Ocean's Billows, anno 1842