The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1848-02-15 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

ELECT VESTRY.—On Tuesday, a special meeting of this body was held to consider a motion submitted by. Mr. Thornely, and the necessity for which he enforced by a very able and lengthy address. The motion was for the appointment of a committee for effecting a reduction in the expense of sending Irish paupers to their own country—the magistrates' fees forming so large a portion of such items—and for memorialising the Town Council and the House of Commons, relative to the injustice done to the parish in this respect by recent legislative measures. Prior to 1845, said Mr. Thornely, the expense of sending Irish paupers over was borne by the county, but since then the parish has paid the expense. The cost of sending over the paupers to Ireland, from Liverpool, for the quarter ending 23d Docember last (2,685 families) was £l6lB, of which £276 was paid for magistrates' clerks' fees. The families consisted of 4,448 persons, and among these were only 478 from the hospitals, the rest being vagrants. None of these persons had any claim on the parish, and the expense of sending them home ought to be paid out of the consolidated fund,: and the Vestry ought to petition parliament for a redress of the grievance. Mr. Thornely next alluded to the " Five Years Assessment Act," the operation of which was, he contended, in this parish and several others partial and prejudicial to the interests of the poor themselves. The fees paid were 2s. for each summons, 4s. for a warrant, and 2s. for eachpass. The sum paid for passes for the half-year ending March last, was £252, and for the following half-year £459, the fees for the former period amounted to £445, and during the latter to £Bl3. The charge for these things was lower in Manchester and Stockport, though much less bu.imtss was done. Mr. Thornely then alluded to the enormous expenses which the parish had lately been called on to pay, and mentioned as instances : £7,000 a-year to the Corporation, £lO,OOO for the erection of schools, £6OOO for carrying recent acts of parliament, a large amount for new buildings, besides the cost of the late Irish influx, and the wonder was, under such circumstances, that a 3s. rate saw us through the exigencies. The Water Works ceased to be liable to rates the moment they became the property of the Corportion, doubtless because they were then the property of the burgesses, and on the same ground he (Mr. Thornely) claimed exemption for the -parish from the payment of Ttn hae eg i bss uut rrmag t eeossfs' e£s clerks' ,6,a9n4 fees, dBht hathed bfees burgesses been n p paid d fbeingbeingorthese e stheteh fees eesratepayersspropertynee t ho the act came into operation. Mr. Thornely concluded by recommending that the clerks of the select vestry should fill up the passes. Mr. Ferguson seconded the motion. He said that Mr. Thornely's speech had proved that the present system of assessing and levying the rates was radically bad—that the parishioners were called upon to pay what they had no right to pay, and that until a national poor-rate were adopted, justice would not be done to the people of England. An equalization of taxes was absolutely necessary, and until the Vestry went to parliament with a very strong hand, and showed that the people of Liverpool were exceedingly ill-used in this matter, they would not have themselves righted. The motion was carried unanimously, and the following gentlemen were appointed a committee to carry it into effect : The Rev. Rector Brooks, Mr. Ferguson,Mr. Urquhart, Mr. Lewin, Mr. Poole, and Mr. Thornely.  Distritt  H. Brooke, Esq., of the Grange, is the sheriff for Cheshire for the present year. Sir Robert Peel has subscribed £lO towards repairing the Independent Chapel at Bellshorn near Blackburn. The assizes commence at Lancaster, on Saturday, whence the Judges proceed to Appleby, &c., and finish at Liverpool.  The Chester Courant mentions that on Sunday last two butterflies were taken, one in a garden at Chester, and the other at Plas-yn-Yale. A Preston paper mentions that, on Friday, a kingfisher was found dead in Cadiley Brook, where it bad been choked in attempting to swallow a roach, which was found in its mouth.  Mr. Paul Dyson, of Manchester, well known in the betting circles, wiz found drowned in a brook near the Reservoir, on Sunday week. There is no doubt that his death was accidental, his watch and money having been found on his person. The operatives in Blackburn who recently turned out on the proposed reduction of ten per cent. on their wages, have gone to work again. on the understanding that when better times male, the wasters will make up the reduction,:  PA. 15, 184 S.  E. R. Harris, Esq., of Preston, has been appointed deputy prothonotary for this county, in the place of the late Mr. Forrest, who committed suicide. The poor-rates in Walton-le-Dale .re now after the rate of eight shillings in the pound per year. Even that high assessment is scarcely equal to the demand upon the parish through want of employment by the factory open' tives.