The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-08-03 00:00:00

Hy as 40s

thought proper. But a serious question arises, whether,
by so doing, they would be acting in the spirit of the Con-
Mr. Cobden and Sir Joshua Walmsley are
great Reformers ; but what would they say if the Land-
own

stitution

ers of Great Britain were to set about such a move-
ment as would effectually swamp the trading constituen-
cies in such counties as Lancashire, the West Riding of
Yorkshire, Middlesex, &c. ? We should have at once
such a storm in every liberal puddle as would " fright the
isle from its propriety." Messrs. Cobden and Walmsley
may depend upon it, that the proper constitutional pro-
ceeding is to allow every individual in the community to
acquire the franchise, or omit doing so, in a natural way.

THE DERBY CONSPIRACY.

THE view which we took last week of the attempt to impli-
cate Mr. Horsfall and the Government in the doings of the
" mysterious" bricklayer, Morgan, at Derby, hasbeen fully

borne out by subsequent revelations. It is becoming
more and more evident that the whole affair has been a
conspiracy ; and even the proceedings before the magis-
trates, which in a free country like this ought to have
been open, and accessible to all, seem to have been con-
ducted more like those of an inquisition than of a consti-
tutional tribunal. The Derby Mercury of Wednesday

says: --

"The course adopted by the local authorities, up to the
liberation of Morgan on Thursday, has effectually pre-
vented any steps being taken to come at the truth. He
was incarcerated in gaol, he was subject to repeated secret
examinations, and even his legal adviser was denied all
access to him ; while every facility for holding converse
with the accused, was afforded to the police, who, in their
eagerness to advance the interests of the prosecution,
have evidently treasured up every scrap of information
which their practised skill has enabled them to wring from
him. Barring the rack and thumb-screw, the whole affair
bears more strongly the impress of the inquisition, than
anything we have known in modern times."
Such was the indecent eagerness of the radical magis-
tracy of Derby, who were des?ribed by Mr. Smallwood,
the solicitor employed to defend the prisoner, as having
" one and all taken an active part in the late struggle,
and being partizans of one side or the other, and many
of them warm friends of the defeated candidate," to get
up a case. Then with respect to Mr. Keogh, the gentle-
man who was so remarkably discovered for the purpose
of swearing that the handwriting of the letter signed
W. 8., and of the envelope, was that of Major Beresford.
where is he ? Our contemporary says :
" That individual is wanted again in Derby. He made
a somewhat hasty exit from the police-court, without
having signed his deposition, and we believe that
finishing stroke to his performance is still needed. It is
also strange that the letter which he was called to iden-
tify bears no date; nor is there any post-mark on the
envelope."

Again, Messrs. Cox, Brothers, and Company, from
whom Morgan declares that he received the money found
upon his person, deny all knowledge of the man ; and it
is remarkable that neither they, nor the clerk of the
course at ShreFsbury, Mr. Frail, although stated to be
implicated in the offence committed, have ever had a ques-
tion put to them. The crowning evidence of the utter
falsehood of the charges made against Mr. Horsfall's
friends and Major Beresford is contained, however, in the
following extract from the speech delivered by that gen-
tleman to his constituents in North Essex. The gallant
major, after alluding to the slanders which were
being published against him by the radical press, proceed.