The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-06-22 00:00:00

THE CASE OF MR. MATHER.

THE newspapers have been much occupied of late
in commenting on the case of Mr. MATHER, the
young Englishman who was wounded some time
ago by an Austrian officer in Florence. The indig-
nant letters of the father of the sufferer—the expla-
nations in the House of Lords—the attack of Lord
JOHN RUSSELL on Monday night last, to which
the CHANCELLOR Of the EXCHEQUER ably
replied—the recent letter of Mr. SCARLETT—and
even the cartoon of Punch the week before last—all
show that it has occupied, and is still occupying, a
due portion of public attention. We could not
avoid contrasting the whole affair with the simple,
unostentatious, and satisfactory manner in which
justice is dispensed in our criminal courts. Our
stipendiary magistrate commits the representative
of half a dozen nations in a tingle morning, and
there is no diplomacy on the subject. Each feels
that he is fairly treated, and that he might easily

" go farther and fare worse."
The case of II AYNAU is in some respects parallel,
and may serve for a comparison. It was alleged
that he had transgressed against the last s of hu-
manity, but no one supposed that he had violated
those of England. He was attacked by private
individuals who had no official standing, and who,
instead of preserving the peace, openly and exult-
ingly violated it. However they may have acted
as men, their conduct as citizens was quite indefen-
sible ; yet the Austrian government were quietly
told that the law courts were open, if they chose to

prosecute. The government itself, in this country,
had no connexion with the affair. In Mr.
MATHER'S case, it was supposed that he was
trespassing on marching soldiers ; he was first
warned and afterwards punished by the officer in

command, whose duty it was to preserve order ;
and it is obvious from the circumstances, that
neither the Tuscan nor the Austrian government
had anything to do with the fact. The complain-
ants are told to appeal to the laws of the country ;
and after hesitating and calculating as to whether
the grievance should be made a national or a per-
sonal one, this resource is declined. The officer
preserved discipline somewhat rudely, but we do
not know the exact nature of the young gentleman's
reply to the first remonstrance. This might make
a wide difference in the degree of culpability. The
error of the officer is at once admitted, but the
question of degree remains open ; and some are
greatly dissatisfied with the way in which it has
been settled.

It is needless now to enter more minutely on
this vexed question. There was a national difficulty
in the case, which must have puzzled either Whig
or Tory diplomatist, viz. : that the Austrians possess
the country in fact but not in law. To this there
was a personal difficulty added in the serious illness
of the Hon. Mr. SCARLETT, so that the negotiations
were in a great degree left to a subordinate. It is
also very apparent that political reasons influence
much of the opposition which the government have
received on this subject, and many of the criticisms
with which they have been assailed.

DROWNING.—Last Friday, a boy belonging to the river
flat Sarah Jane. named Joseph Goulden, fell overboard
near Ellesmere Port, and was drowned. On Saturday his
body was picked up by the flat Jane, and conveyed to his
father's house in St. Martin-street.

CONVERTS FROM POPERY,—Nine persons publicly re-
nounced the errors of Popery on Sunday evening, the
20th instant, in the Church of St. James, Latchford,
near Warrington, and were received into communion
with the Church of England, by the Rev. James Wright.
SCALDING.—On Sunday week, a boy, only thirteen
months old, the son of a labouring man named John
Manly, living in this town, pulled a basin of boiling gruel
off the table, where it had been placed for dinner. The
contents covered his face and neck, and he was so severely
scalded that he died from the effects yesterday morning.
Curtious MISTAKE..—On Saturday last a female con-
veyed to the police-office two hands which she believed to
be those of a human being, and which, she stated, she had
found in a midden in Olive-street. information was con-
veyed to the coroner, but upon the hands being examined
by a surgeon, itwas discovered they were mere bear's paws.
WRITING.---WC understand that several parties, about
to proceed to Australia, have applied to Messrs. Thomp-
son for lessons in writing, book-keeping, &e. No doubt
they intend, should the diggings fail, to turn the know-
ledge acquired to account when they get to that promising
colony. The usual classes for Juveniles, during the sum-
mer recess, will be resumed.—See adv.
THE LIVERPOOL ELECTORS RESIDING IN CHESHIRE.
—A committee, consisting of five gentlemen, has been
appointed to canvass the electors of Liverpool residing in
Cheshire, in favour of Messrs. Cardwell and Ewart. This
committee have engaged a room at the Park Hotel, and
have issued circulars to the electors, asking them to meet
Wednesday evening. Wednesday
nnouneed for the first meeting, but, although

the cam

ittea every

here are a goodly number of voters,
Lad only four members of the comet

ttce cor

ed the

aged fourteen years, n
Iff circumstances :—TI

a railwa

THE MERCURY'S UNSCRUPULOUS
FABRICATIONS.

WHEN the Mercury undertakes to do the dirty
work of any party, he usually applies himself to
the task with the gusto of one used to raking in
the kennel. Reckless assertion, wilful distortion of
facts, and glaring slander, flow as naturally from
his pen as mud from the scoop of a scavenger. No
matter what may be the source from which the
poison is furnished, the Mercury is ever ready to
direct it against the political, or other opponent,
for whose injury it was provided. Such being the
known propensities of our contemporary, we do
not wonder that we have ourselves received a por-
tion of his attentions ; and that, as a specimen of
his peculiar political morality, he has chosen to
fabricate a charge against us, which is As DESPI-
CABLE IN ITS MOTIVE AS IT IS FALSE IN FACT.

The Mercury says, in reply to our remarks last
week upon the alleged letter addressed by Mr.
BOLD to the Rev. D. JAMES, a reference to which
matter will be found in another column, that, "if
our contemporary is agreeable, we will compromise
with him by publishing the name of the party who,
after two other tradesmen had refused the job,
forged the tickets for the meeting of the Protestant
Free Traders."

Before a public writer deliberately makes a
charge of this description, we conceive that he is
bound in common honesty to have sure grounds
for it. Concluding that we are the party referred
to, we challenge him to the proof. Let him pub-
lish the name ! If, as he says, two other trades-
men " had refused the job," those tradesmen will
probably assist him in proving who was ultimately
the delinquent. The Mercury himself published a
document last week, which one honourable man
had refused. We have never imitated the Mercury's
example, and know nothing whatever of the alleged
forgery of tickets.
Our contemporary repeats the assertion in an
anonymous letter, alleged to have been written by

some member of the Conservative committee, and
to have been procured by the Mercury's" familiar,"
who must be, of course, an adroit pickpocket, or a
violator of desks and safes. In the same letter, a
gentleman is offensively referred to by name, as con-
nected with this paper—a thing which is quite con-
trary to the usual etiquette observed by all conduc-
tors of respectable journals—and charged with a
matter of which he knew nothing whatever. The
Mercury may imagine that by this sort of ribaldry
he is serving the cause of his party. He is only

pandering, however, to the tastes of its very lowest
classes, and introducing into a struggle, which ought
to be fought upon principle alone, the bitterness of
odious personality.

THOMAS B. HORSFALL, ESQ., AND THE

REPRESENTATION OF DERBY.

IT is a matter of congratulation to learn that our much-
esteemed and highly-talented townsman, Mr. I'. B.
HORSFALL, has so far recovered from the accident which
Occurred to him some months ago, that he ha consented,
in compliance with the urgent solicitation of a most re-
spectable deputation from Derby, to allow himself to be
put in nomination as a candidate for the honour of repre-
senting that town in Parliament. None of our public
men occupy a more favourable or a more prominent posi-
tion in the estimation of his fellow-townsmen than Mr.
HORSFALL, and we are convinced, from the respect en-
tertained for him by men of all political shades of opinion,
that they will rejoice to know that a gentleman so distin-
guished for his worth and talent has acceded to the invi-
tation given him. Mr. HORSFALL has been long known
and appreciated ; and it will be in the recollection of our
readers with what ability and decision of character, during
a period of popular excitement and threatened disturb-
ances, when he occupied the important position of chief
magistrate of this town, he performed his arduous duties.
The manner in which he conducted himself during that
memorable period of his mayoralty, called forth universal
approbation, and not only was an address of thanks pre-
sented to him by the town, but his public spirit elicited
an expression of gratitude from the Government, through
Sir GEORGE GREY, who offered to suggest to her Majesty
the propriety of conferring upon Mr. HORSFALL the
honour of knighthood, which, however, he deemed it
right to refuse. But the merchants and others of this
town are ready to acknowledge how much they are in-
debted to Mr. HORSFALL for the services rendered by
him, when President of the Chamber of Commerce, to
the different mercantile bodies, by his determined oppo-
sition to the abuses which had crept into our commercial
code. Mr. HORSFALL, it is well known, was invited to
come forward as a candidate at the coming election, to
I represent his native town in Parliament ; and although
the assurances were unquestionable that he would be re-
turned by a large and triumphant majority, yet,with a de-
gree of modesty so characteristic of him, he considered
it right to decline the distinguished honour. We may
well, then, congratulate the electors of Derby on the choice
they have made of a candidate of sound constitutional
principles ; and we most heartily wish Mr. HORSFALL
success, because we feel persuaded that, whatever he
undertakes, he will be guided by a high tone of principle,
which cannot fail to secure to him universal respect.