Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-08-15 00:00:00

And this is a fact which cannot be too closely and

carefully considered, in connection with the whole

question out of whiCh
,so mischie.vous and untenable

an accusation as that we refer to arose

If, there-

fore, the matter alluded to were to furnish a case for
accusation at all, the positions of the parties re-

spectively ought to be completely reversed. There

is no ground whatever,

as has been so clearly

shown, for any accusation of even indifference

to the interests of the town, let alone of opposition
to them, on the part of Mr. TURNER. The declara-
tion of the MAYOR, which we may be excused for
repeating here, that " he had no doubt Mr. TURNER'S

explanation was satisfactory—at all events that it

" was so to his own mind, and no doubt would be to
" the town,"—a declaration in which the great body
of the Council tacitly, yet truly, acquiesced—

-were

quite.sufficient to exonerate Mr. TURNER, had any

exoneration been required under the circumstances

We have returned to this subject, though very

briefly, because it is really important that our
townsmen should have a correct impression of the

real merits of a case which was brought forward.

with such a flourish

of trumpets in the Town

Council, and which was evidently got" up for a very
paltry political and party purpose. " Vaulting
" ambition," as we all know,- " doth o'erleap itself,
" and falls on t'other side." Very generally,
at least, does it happen so ; and on this

occasion the proverb is true to the letter

Mr. JEFFERY, even with the aid of the brother

Dromio whom he called forth to bolster up the
charge, has undoubtedly " fallen on t'- other side,"

by the vault he ventured to take on this occasion

For, we repeat, if any persons are to be accused of

having injured the interests of Liverpool, in the

matter in question, it is Mr. JEFFERY and Mr.
ROBERTSON GLADSTONE ; and this by their officious

interference,—

by their indulgence of that dangerous
busy-bodyism to which it is only too well known
they are so fatally addicted. "Busy-bodies and
intermeddlers," says another great philosopher, "are.
a dangerous sort of people to have to do withal ;" and
our townsmen, in this instance undoubtedly, found
it to be so. Let us hope, then, that the case will
read a valuable lesson to the town ; and that the con-
viction will be general, among the great body of
our townsmen, that it may be said to Liverpool, as

APEMANTUS said to TIMON of Athens, "an' thou
" hadst hated meddlers sooner, thou shouldst have

" loved thyself better now

IF Election petitions were a mere game of battledore
and shuttlecock, we might be disposed to. congratulate
the Liberals that the long and painful singularity of
their recent, misfortunes, has been at last diversified.
We will admit that they had become deserving of

our compassion, if we could at the same time have

been compassionate and just. The very silence of
their humiliation would have been a claim on our
pity, if they had not so confidently provoked inquiry
into their pretensions by charging us with their worst

vices, by anticipation. Some, of us were fairly stag-
gered by the audacity with which they contrived to
gain credit for their suspicions three months ago. It
was said by WARREN HASTINGS on. listening to
BURKE'S fierce denunciation of his Indian rule, that

the confident eloquence of his accuser
.lent such an

air of truth to his charges, as to confuse in him his
own sense of personal identity, and before the wit C-
hing spell was off him, to lead him to sit in harsh
judgment upon himself as though he were a third
person. He was beginning to look from the orator's
point of view, and to :think himself, if he really was
himself, the villain he was painted. Just, so three
months ago, Conservatiyies were beginning to wonder
whether they were all that the adversary said. , Whe-
ther they had mistaken themselves. Whether they
had not cast off their skin and come out 'in -a new
form. Whether they had not been passing through
a new state of being, and suffered a sort of metem-

psychosis. Whether in. shor ttheywere themselves or not

They were seriouslyarousiug themselves to a process of

introspection, and askirig9ne oftinother " Are we really

. .
so reckless, untruthful, and corrupt ? -Are we really

"He unseirupulous and so astute in the choice' of mean;

"by which to gain
.a temporary lease of power and
"place ? Did we really dissolve the House for the
. _

"purpose of carrying the constituencies by corruption;
"and are there really such fabulous amounts laid by
"in. some strong box for the purpose ? Amid this
"universal buzz of accusation even our consciences
"either falter and stammer, or are frightened out of