The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-10-15 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL
STANDARD.

Sin,—The circumstance of the death of the poor unfortu.
nate woman yesterday, in this place, has filled the minds of
every person of proper feeling with concern.

. .
The cause, as of many other crimes, may be traced to the
practice of drunkenness, which abounds here to an alarming
extent, and to which the party now in power in the Town-
hall have, in a great measure, contributed.

They have contributed by a practice which, since the pass-
ing of the reform bill, has been common here, of treating the
poorer voters with drink throughout the year, to a certain
extent, but especially on the eve of the elections, and which,
at this very time, is going on to a frightful extent. In ano-
ther way, by the great increase of licenses to pfiblicans.
Four years ago there were only three public-houses in the
township : there are now fourteen ; and, in most instances,
these additional licenses have been pandered for votes, which
is not the least disgraceful part of it.
Last year a man, who was a Conservative, and who usual-
ly not only voted for, but was active as a canvasser on that
side, applied for a license, but was refused. During the day
of the election last year, when Mr. John Holmes was run
hard for votes, a magistrate called upon this man, and was
seen in conversation with him a full half hour. The man
absented himself for the remainder of the day, and did not
vote. This year he has got a license.
Now this fact, with others of a similar nature, is well
known here, and if any one will take the trouble, he will
have no difficulty in getting the names of the parties, but
which, for obvious reasons, I refrain from giving here.
It behoves respectable men, like Mr. Hodgson, Mr. Crop-
per, Mr. Birch, and others, to go into these matters, and
purge the body of magistrates from such accusations, by hav-
ing these delinquencies laid at the door of the real offenders.
How can they expect the bench to be respected when such
practices are not only common, but are well known to exist
amongst them. D.
Kirkdale, 1•lth October, 18391,

MEETING OF THE BURGESSES OP LIME-
STREET WARD.

On Friday evening last, a large meeting of the burgesses of
Lime-street Ward took place at the Operative News-room,
Houghton-street, to select a candidate to represent them in
the Town Council. The room was densely crowded, and
numbers were unable to gain admittance. The meeting
ought to have been held in the large room of the York Hotel,
to have accommodated all who were desirous of attending.
The greatest enthusiasm prevailed, and a determined spirit
was manifested to get rid of Mr. Higgins, which we hope
will be followed up on the day of election. Mr. OWEN
occupied the chair, and was surrounded by a number of in-
fluential individuals residents of the ward.

The entrance of Mr. Rigby and his friends was announced
by loud and prolonged cheering. On the cheers subsiding,
The CHAIRMAN said, that he could assure them it was
with great delight he saw so numerous and influential an
assembly. They had come together to wipe away the dis-
grace which attached itself to Lime-street Ward, and which
was looked upon by the whig-radical party as their own
favourite pocket borough, in which they could dictate as they
chose. He would confess that some time ago, he had no
confidence in their being able to return a conservative can-
didate, and he had urged many of his friends to abandon all
hope of doing so. Their opponents had always set engines
at work, which he hoped every conservative would scorn to
use ; but their duplicity and treachery had now begun to tell
against them, in the disgust created by their acts ; and he
had now every confidence, that if strenuous exertions were
made, their principles—the principles of order and good
government—would reign triumphant. (Cheers.) True,
they had been unsuccessful in returning Mr. Lace, a man of
unimpeachable character, and the highest integrity ; and,
although Mr. Lace's address was couched in terms that did
honour, both to his head and heart, the remarks made by
his antagonists were of such a disgraceful and dastard charac-
ter, tha t h friends of that gentleman were stung to the
quick, tnd resolved to make an effort to turn the scales.
(Applause.) A band of men, determined to persevere, and
persevere they would on every occasion, trusting that there
was spirit enough in the ward to visit, with discomfiture, the
men whose triumph was soiled by their conduct. To two of
their fellow burgesses, Mr. Ellis and Mr. Holt—(cheers—
they were especially indebted for their activity ; and he
trusted that they would all prove by their actions that the
town is sound at the bottom, and that their representatives
in the Town Council would shortly assume the complexion
of honest men. (Laughter.) The chairman here read a
note from Mr. Ambrose Lace, stating, that he had made
arrangements to attend the meeting; but that the serious,
if not dangerous illness of his sister, Mrs. Roscoe, obliged
him to be absent. The chairman concluded by an energetic
appeal to all present to buckle on their armour, and be ready
for the day. of combat, and then called on Mr. Rigby to
state his principles to the meeting.
Mr. Mein, presented himself amidst tumultuous applause.
He said, Gentlemen, 1 come before you to redeem a pledge
I made some time ago, namely, that if there was any difficulty
in procuring a candidate, rather than the ward should remain

uncontested, I would contest it myself. I now stand before
you, therefore, to redeem that pledge. (Loud cheers.)
Should you honour me by electing me as your representative.
I will do my best, not only to serve you faithfully, but to pro-
mote every measure that will promote the welfare of the town
at large. Both my political principles and my general opi-
nions are known to you all. I have been a resident in the
ward for 27 years, and will yield to no man in a desire for its
prosperity. (Cheers.) I am, as you all know, a member of
the Church es-. E igland, and to my dying day will support
that char, h to the extent of my power, because our national
happiness dep3nds on her efficiency and prosperity. (Ap-
plause.) Ot my political views you are certain, and these
are not days to timidly shrink from avowing them. (Hear,
hear.) I am acquainted with the local wants and interests of
the town, having had some years acquaintance with the ship-
ping'and docks of the port, and my experience, which I have ,
acquired from the active pursuits of trade and commerce,
shall be at your service, to be employed for the general be-
nefits and interests of the port. Gentlemen, I hate pledges,
and will be fettered by no man. If you elect me, I trust I '
shall serve you honestly and faithfully. It is as much as you
will ask of me, and my future conduct will be the best proof '
of my sincerity. I have been more accustomed to act than
speak, and therefore I place myself in your hands, convinced
that, not for my sake, but for your own, you will fearlessly
and unflinchingly do your duty. (Loud cheering.)
Mr. JAMES TATLOCK said, that it cheered his heart to
witness such an assemblage, and it inspired him with hope
that, in the day of battle, they would gain a splendid victory. '
If they wanted the town governed in a straight-forward man-
ly manner, they must get rid of numbers out of the present
council, and send in such men as could be trusted. Hear.)
The town had been carried away by nostrums, and he, for
one, must say that he had found reform to be anything but
improvement. (Loud cheers.) The reform bill had failed
to give us good government, and had elevated the most unfit
men to power, who had abused that power for their own pur-
poses, instead of using it for the public good. (Cheers.)
We want men of single minds, and believing Mr. Rigby's
character above the reach of slander, and, from his ability
and station, admirably fitted to represent a ward, principally
a ward of tradesmen, he had great pleasure in moving that
Mr. Rigby was a fit and proper person to represent them in
the Town Council. (Loud cheering.)
Mr. FRANCE briefly seconded the resolution, which was
unanimously adopted.
Mr. FITZJOHN had had the advantage of knowing Mr.
Rigby for many years as a most valuable and public spirited
inhabitant of the ward, and called on every man who wished
to honour integrity of character, to pledge themselves to use
every exertion to secure his election. (Cheers.)
Mr. BARTON had pleasure in seconding the resolution,
which was passed, and carried unanimously.
JOHN FORMBY, Esq. said, that his friend on his right
(Mr. Churchwarden Kilshaw,) his noble friend he might call
him, for he was noble in appearance as well as in character—
(cheers and laughter)—had intended to move the next reso-
lution ; but he was so oppressed with his various public
duties, and the room was so intensely hot, that he had re-
quested him to act as his substitute. (Laughter.) Although
he was not an inhabitant of the ward, he wished it prosperity
—and he could assure them that that prosperity would not be
diminished, if they secured the services of such a man as Mr.
Rigby, whom he had long known and highly esteemed.
(Cheers.)
Mr. JOHN SANDARS felt it a privilege to second Mr.
Formby's resolution, and he hoped that all conservatives
would do their utmost in the good cause. He had little doubt
if proper exertions were made, that Mr. Rigby would be
declared duly elected. He would prove the consistent friends
of his fellow burgesses, and of their best interests, and would
be found an advocate for the preservation of property, which
he could tell them was, by the acts of one portlOn of the
council, placed in considerable jeopardy—(hear, hear)—many
of the ruling body were almost strangers in the town, and
sought by their measures to forward their own interests
rather than to preserve the property of numbers of the old
inhabitants. (Hear.) He must be permitted to entertain
his own opinion, that persons having a real stake in the town
would legislate most beneficially for all classes, the poor as
well as the rich ; and he trusted all conservatives would join
heart and hand in sending men of standing into the Town-
council. He would enlarge on this subject if it were not for
the crowded state of the room. (Go on, go on.) Let every
conservative be at his post, and prove to our opponents the
real situation in which they stand, and the opinion enter-
tained of them by men of intelligence. Every single voter
may do a great deal if he is resolute and zealous ; and if
every ward in the town were strongly and zealously con-
tested, the majority of the wards would undoubtedly be won.
(Cheers.) He thanked the meeting for their attention, and
concluded by seconding the resolution.
The CHAIRMAN, in putting the motion, observed that
Lime-street ward contained nearly 1,000 votes, it was almost
a borough in itself, and had always been a pet ward with the
council. He hoped it would become a pet ward to others,
and for a better reason. (Cheers.)
Mr. SAMUEL HOLME, who was near the chairman, was
loudly called for, and presented himself amidst loud cheering.
He said, that notwithstanding he had considered it his duty
on many occasions to take part in the public affairs of the
town, he had never yet deemed it fitting to step out of the
ward with which he was more immediately connected, as he
considered it more respectful to his fellow-burgesses in other
wards to leave the choice of their municipal representatives
to themselves, without obtruding himself or his opinions on
their better judgment. (Hear.) True, he had abundant
precedents for doing so, for he scarcely took up a newspaper
but he found several gentlemen, with whom he had the mis-
fortune to differ on many points, itinerating from ward to
ward, propagating their opinions with a zeal worthy of a
better cause, and with an alacrity that conservatives would
do well to imitate. (Hear.) The gentlemen to whom he
more particularly alluded were almost übiquitous, and were
the Curatii of the council, if, indeed, the whole power of the
council was not vested in their triune dignity. (Cheers.)
Mr. Walmsley, Mr. Shiel, anti Mr. Blackburn met us at
every turn, the industrious orators of every crowd, and re-
minded him of the story of the Dutch Skipper, who embo-
died in his own portly frame the various and conflicting cha-
racters of offender, advocate, magistrate, and judge. (Loud
laughter and cheers.) In this instance he must make an ex-
ception to his general rule, for he was bound, not only' by the
general wish for his friend's success, in which he was assured
all who heard him partook, but he had other reasons ; for he
was bound by the ties of personal attachment, the result of
an acquaintance that commenced in his childhood, when at-
tachments are the most durable, because the most sincere.
His first acquaintance with Mr. Rigby commenced 35 years
ago, when he was the valued and confidential assistant of his
father ; and Mr. Rigby's conduct in early life gave presage
of his success in after days. Every person must admire the
man who is the architect of his own fortune, who, by a long
career of honest industry, raises himself to honour and to
wealth (hear) ; against whose character the whisper of slan-
der is hushed ; whose word is his bond, passable among all
men, and whose integrity and uprightness is only exceeded
by his unbounded benevolence, whenever the institutions of
his country demanded his aid. (Great cheering.) Such he
believed Mr. Rigby to be; and he envied him the spirit which.
caused him to scatter gifts with a munificence that might
well put many men of almost princely fortunes to the blush.
It was such men we wanted in the present day to manage our
public affairs ; for he held that the man who could not ma-
nage his own affairs, was not fit to be entrusted with the
more complicated affairs of the public. (Hear.) If, there-
fore, such qualifications as he believed Mr. Rigby possessed,
were a passport to public confidence, he trusted they would
mark their sense of them by returning a man to the council
who had been for 27 years a resident in the ward, who was
the possessor of considerable property within it, and who
would serve them with honour and independence. (Cheers.)
He would not go into council an emaciated mute, to register
the secret decrees of any coterie, who, clamorous in public
for the advantages of publicity, can yet strangely compromise
their avowed opinions and consult their own security, by
firing into the council chamber from the masked battery of
the ANGEL (Loud laughter and cheers.) Nor n ould he, he
might venture to promise if they, in the exercise of their un-
doubted right, should see fit to reject his claims, consent to
enter the council, invested with the questionable dignity of a
pitchforked alderman. (Loud cheers.) It seemed to be an
, established maxim in the present day of liberal things, that
the surest mode of arriving at aldermanic honours, was to
creep in through the loop-hole of popular rejection. (Loud
cheering.) He would freely confess, he lamented, that poli-
tical opinions should be made the test of municipal qualifica-
tion, because it deprived us of many of the best and most
valuable men. He quarrelled with no man for his opinions.
, He has a right to enjoy them as he pleases, provided he does
not prevent others the free exercise of their own. A differ-
, ence of opinion purifies the political atmosphere, prevents
stagnation, and tends to preserve the national health. (Hear)
But it did come with an ill grace from those who, for so
many years, cried out against what they termed the exclu-
siveness of the old councils, that they now seek to rivet the
' fetters of exclusiveness on the neck of the town, and slam
the doors of the Town-hall in the face of any man, however
high his character, however great his qualifications, unless
, his political opinions square with their own. (Loud cheerins.)
Was this freedom of opinion ? (Cries of " No !") Vi, as
this true liberality ? (No !) He admired not such slavish free-
, dom. He loved not such modern liberality. Party spirit too
often blinded men's sight, and prevented their recognising
t real merit, and they were too apt to be satisfied with empty
profession, habited in a garb to which the wearer had no earthly
pretension. It enabled Birmingham counterfeits to pass for
i current coin,& converted our municipal elections into a species
i of political Fancy Ball, where men were found assurning the to-
ga of senators whose acting was a burlesque, and who possessed
few if any qualifications for the character they had selected.
, (Applause.) Among the sins laid to the charge of the old
[ magistrates, that of granting licenses by the batch was not in
, the catalogue. (Hear, hear.) They were of opinion that
, the town needed no more public-houses, and if ever they
t anted a single license it was under peculiar circumstances.
But now we have them scattered on all sides with such pro-
fusion, that, unless there is some abject in view with which
we are to remain unacquainted, he could only ascribe if to a

wayward opposition to the temperance societief;—(laughter)
—but as he understood the grand master of the temperance
associations was to sit for Great George's-Ward, he might
safely leave the matter in the hands of a gentleman of such
prodigious sagacity that he had discovered every man, how-
ever poor, to be worth £l6OO ; and he trusted that when Mr.
Heyworth took his seat he would do all in his power to put
an end to the shameful abuse. (Cheers.) It was not his in-
tention to detain them by any remarks on the general course
pursued by the council. He freely admitted that that body
contained many estimable individuals, for whom he entertained
high respect ; but like all popular assemblies it contained
others who, for the interests of the public, would be better
out of it; and believing that they of Lime-street would be
benefitted by the substitution of Mr. Rigby for the self-suffici-
ent and inflated personage who was again a candidate for their
suffrages, and who, as far as he knew, had no establishment
in the ward to identify him with its particular interests, he
trusted they would strain every nerve to convert that person-
age into an alderman,—(loud cheering)—and that Mr.
Rigby would succeed in wresting this forlorn hope of the
town from the grasp of those who are the bitter_ ene-
mies of those national institutions under which IN elson
triumphed at Trafalgar and Wellington at Waterloo, and un-
der which our beloved country had risen to unexampled
eminence and prosperity. Mr. Holme sat down amidst loud
applause.
Mr. GLADSTONE, Jun., being called on, addressed the
meeting in an animated speech. He spoke of the professions
of the whig candidates as reforming balderdash. He hoped
the leading merchants of the town would put themselves for-
ward, generals, not troops, being wanted. The reformers dis-
played great energy, and lost no opportunity of pouring in
fresh poison. They had, so far, beaten us municipally, by,
means not very creditable, and which he hoped no conserva- •
tives would stoop to adopt. They ought to contest every
ward. Mr. Gladstone then took a review of the proceedings
of the Popish Protector Society, and drew an animated pic-
ture of the way in which certain Protestants are made to do
the work of Popery, whose extension he described as fatal to
the extension of real liberty of conscience. Popery cringed
where she could not strike, but strikes to the death where
she has the power. (Cheers.) The conservative party slum-
ber till they are shamefully defeated. It was their duty to
look after their votes ; and they ought to recollect that during
the late contest for parish collector, the conservative candi-
date had more single votes than his opponent, and which
would now be the case had not the radicals swamped several
wards by paying the taxes and placing on the registry num-
bers of Roman Catholics, who were little better than paupers,
and who, from this discreditable circumstance, obtained a
settlement in the parish ; and it was highly probable the pa-
rich might sooner or later be burthened with their main-
tenance. (Hear.) Mr. Gladstone concluded by calling on
all conservatives to use every exertion ; and even if defeated
to persevere, as perseverance and intrepidity would be sure
in the end to prove victorious.
The above is a mere outline of Mr. Gladstone's remarks.
The crowded state of the room, and the intense heat, ren-
dered it a matter of no small difficulty to take notes of the
proceedings, and it was utterly impossible for those who
came in late to force their way up to the platform. Mr.
M'lSTeile's name being mentioned by Mr. Gladstone, in the
course of his address, a gentleman proposed three cheers for
him, which were given with a heartiness seldom witnessed.
A gentleman, whose name we could not learn, proposed
the thanks of the meeting to the chairman, which was
seconded by Mr. James Copple. The chairman briefly
returned thanks ; and after three cheers for Mr. Rigby, the
meeting separated a little before ten o'clock.