The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-06-03 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS,

" A Lover of the Drama" is a bad judge of the contents of
a theatre, During Mr. Macready's engagement, the re-
ceipts, with the exception of his benefit night, did not
average £7O. Although the house might have been
" crowded to the doors," as our correspondent states, on
that occasion, there was not £lBO in it. " A Lover of the
Drama" may now easily calculate the lessee's profits.
We have been favoured with a copy of the Guiana Times of
the 28th March, and our attention has been directed to an
article in it, on the subject of a sale of one of the Demerara
estates. Our correspondent will find the subject fully en-
tered into in our publication of Tuesday.

Ibt Eibtrpoot &tanbarb,

FRIDAY MORNING, JUNE 3, 1842

Verily—
" There are more things in heaven and earth,
Than are dreamt of in our philosophy ; "
and, amongst those unheard of, undreamt of things, is
the fact that a \Vhig member—a " liberal and free
trader par excellence—should be found hardy enough
to stand up, in his place in the British House of Com-
mons, in defence of that robbery of the working
classes, the iniquitous truck system ! Yet such a
man, such a " liberal," such a free trader, has been
found in the person of the honourable member for
Bolton,—the peripatetic negociator of commercial
treaties,—Dr. BOWRING Nay, more even than this
lusus naturm has been discovered in the person of the
same pure and patriotic worthy—this lover of com-
missions, inquiries, and the pounds, shillings, and
pence resulting therefrom—the fees per diem and per
mile ; for not only does the learned Polyglot avow him-
self the defender of the giant truck fraud, but he has
been figuring, as well, in the character of a peripatetic
missionary and getter up of petitions from the duped
sufferers themselves, in favour of this very system,
which robs every working man, woman, and child of
a huge portion of the wages of their toil, and forbids
them to call even that portion their own and to expend

it as they please !
On Monday night, we find from the reports of the
proceedings in the House of Commons that
" Mr. Ferrand presented a petition from eighty-four
labourers in Wales, stating their regret at hearing that an
hon. member of that house had been in their neighbourhood
getting signatures to a document which purported to be a
declaration of theirs in favour of the truck system. They
begged to inform the house that they had no market town
there, and yet they could buy their articles 15 per cent.
cheaper than at the truck shops; but even if they could not
do so, they wished to be allowed to purchase their articles
at the cheapest market. In conclusion, they begged the
house to take some strong measure to put down the truck
system for ever. He (Mr. Ferrand) begged leave to move
that this petition be referred to the Committee of Wages."
Who would conclude, after the indignant protesta-
tions of the entire league party of their innocence of
truck practices, that this member of the House of Com-
mons was any other than some Tory mine or mill-
owner, anxious to protect the system by which his ill-
got gains were wrung from the oppressed working
people ? And yet such is not the fact. The man in
question is no other than Dr. Bowring, the free trade
member for Bolton, as we discover by the following ad-
mission from his own lips :
" Dr. Bowring said, that on that motion he might be allowed
to say a few words. It was perfectly true that he had been
in the neighbourhood alluded to, and it was perfectly true
that he had been speaking to the workmen in the Campion
works. He asked them what was their opinion with respect
to the truck system. They said that from it some of them
experienced much benefit. They also said that several of
the workmen had been induced to sign a petition against the
system, but they had since expressed great regret at having
done so. They all believed that a small shop conducted on
the truck system was bad, but if it was conducted by a large
company, it contributed to the general happiness and com-
fort of the district."
Hear this, working men of Bolton ! \Vas this man
sent to parliament by your suffrages to become the
hired apologist (the doctor never works for nothing)
and the hired itinerant supporter of the truck system ?
Surely not! But listen to the doctrine which the learned
doctor puts into your mouths; for it is your affair as
well as that of the working men of Wales. " A small
shop conducted upon the truck system is had ; but if it
is conducted by a large company"—such a one, for in-
stance, as can afford to pay this eminent free trader his
guineas per diem and his travelling expenses—" then
the system of truck contributes to the general happiness
and comfort of the district" ! This, men of Bolton,
is your free trade member—this apologist of fraud—
this flagrant charlatan—this menial slave of the money-
ocracy of the factory and the mining districis As A
HUMBUG, we always knew him, gorging upon the
public purse, fattening upon plunder; a needy, seedy
fellow, whose patriotism was regulated in degree by the
guineas which he could screw from the purchaser of
his hireling pen. But that even Bowring could stoop
to falsify the recorded opinions of a lifetime, spent in
the advocacy of liberal principles of every kind and
extent, by this sale of himself to THE TRUCK MON-
STER, is one of those strange and unaccountable
things of which our philosophy never dreamt in its
wildest moods !
After this, in the mouth of every working man of
Bolton, let the impostor be TRUCK BONVR:NG to the
end of his days !

Once more the felon hand of an assassin has been
raised against the life of England's young and graci-
ous Queen ; and the heart of an entire nation is bowed
down in fervent gratitude to that all-seeing Providence
whose merciful intervention has protected her from the
death-dealing weapon. Thanks to that Providence,
the blood of a fond wife and mother—the daughter of
a long line of England's kings—has not stained the
soil of that free land which is blessed with her gentle
sway; and Englishmen cannot, as yet, be pointed at
by the finger of scorn as a nation of murderers !
We have given in another place the full details of
this attempted crime, the consummation of which
would have widowed the hearts of an affectionate and
loyal people. A blush may well be called into the
cheek at their perusal ; the blood may well rise with
indignation at the contemplation of an atrocity, so
heartless, directed against one so unoffending—so emi-
nently calculated to win affection and admiration—ra
ther than to move the baser passions of even the basest
heart. We may well wonder that in Great Britain
should be found a wretch in whose breast the thought,
even, of such a deed could find harbour; but the feel-
ing which will rise far above all these—the abiding
feeling, stirred up within us by the contemplation of the
whole circumstances connected with this occurrence—
is one of deep admiration of the calm courage, worthy
of the daughter and the mother of a race of England's
monarchs, evinced by her Majesty throughout this

trying occasion.
It was announced in the House of Lords by the
Duke of Wellington, and in the House of Commons
by Sir Robert Peel, that her Majesty had been pre-
pared for the meditated attack ; and that, in the true
spirit of her race, she had determined to meet and
brave its results, rather. than submit to be deprived of
the pleasure attendant upon her usual appearances
amongst her affectionate people ; and, more than this,
she would brave that attack alone, unattended by any
except the partner he
of r throne and the husband of
her choice. With that firmness and unshrinking con-
stancy displayed by WOMAN, in the hour of trial, more
triumphantly than by man himself, she presented her-
self in the bosom of her people, confiding in their love
and braving the assassin's weapon ; and although a
slight tremour might agitate her and the firmly strung
nerve relax itself, when the shock had passed by and
she found herself enabled to look back upon the dark
gulf she had passed over in safety, her bearing
throughout was one which no Englishman—no human
W
being—can contemplate, without his spirit being stirred
up to feelings
of enthusiastic admiration. Dear as
this noble an
and Queen has ever been to her loyal
people—deservedlym
that
dear—it is not until this hour of
danger and dread we have been permitted to mea-
sure the full nobility of her lofty nature.
We shall not now
attempt to give expression to the
reflections which this
mind. We will not aggravate
diabolical attempt is calculated to
excite in every thinking
the horror, which it has spread
supposition,
the empire,
by countenancing
the suppretched man, by whose hand li°t wn, even, that the
wretchedmade, was in
connection with any party in the countryas
that
or even with
any individual accomplices. We trust
no such
conclusions are warrantable. For the honour
of
Eng-
land we trust that KING-KILLING 18 not as yet a
por-
tion of the political weapons of any party or any
class
amongst us ; and that the present attempt has sprung
only from the perverted mind of the miscreant himself