The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-05-22 00:00:00

amount of the franchise bo diminished, and the vote would
be of less value, and the temptation to perjury less. The
noble lord who had introduced this bill bad had some4ock's
luck beside his own. (Cries of " Name, name." The learn-
ed member, however, did not take that liberty with his

friend.)
Sir ROBERT PEEL said be would en*.er into none of the
details, the discussion whereof had been desultory and use-
less. He would inquire only into that material. question,
whether the house, having great abuses proved before it,
should make an attempt to cure them—not to carry the par-
ticular clauses of this bill, but to apply some remedy to a
clear evil. He trusted to the right feeling of those who had
before absented themselves from the resistance against the
second reading, and to the honourable example set by Lord
Howick and Mr. Wood, in despite of their own preposses-
sions. Lord Stanley had beer, most unjustly assailed : his
principle was to aid the legitimate franchise, and discourage
unjust objections. Where was the danger of the committee ?
The majority.of the house had ample power to prevent any
undue restriction, even if any such had been contemplated.
In 1835, so convinced had Mr. O'Connell been of the fitness
of the main principles embodied in this bill, that he had sup-
ported in this house both the annual revision and the ap-
peal both ways. Yet now these very proposals were evi-
dence of national antipathy and religious bigotry ! If par-
ticular clauses were objectionable, let them be altered in
committee : but let not the abuses of the registration he
perpetuated by a total rejection of the subject • matter.
The ministers promised a bill of their own ; hilt they had
promised it in most equivalent terms, and not at.fill nntil
they had been defeated on the second reading of this measure.
Then it was that Mr. O'Connell had expressed his gratitude
to Lord John Russell, not for having advanced a salutary
amendment, but for having furnished the. English members
with an excuse to vote against the further progress of the
bill now in debate. This bill was censured for containing no
clause to define the franchise ; yet Lord John admitted that
his own bill was to contain no such definition. But when
was Lord John's bill to pass the House of Lords ? The So-
licitor-General had said it would pass when the present
bigoted race of peers should have been succeeded by their
More liberal heirs, now sitting in the House of Commons.
A long time to wait; and what, meanwhile, was to become
of the abuses of Irish registration? Seven years the minis-
ters had talked of a remedy ; and if this bill were rejected,
seven more would elapse before that remedy would be com-
pleted. All the arguments about the proportions of voters
in England and in Ireland were here irrelevant. If the fran-
chise ought to be lowered, let a bill be introduced to lower
it ; but that subject should not be mixed with the question of
fair or unfair registration. It was not true kindness or con-
ciliation to Ireland to let the bond fide voter be overborne by
false claims of franchise. when fictitious voters were sus-
pected in Scotland, adverse to your party interests, when
corporations were attacked which it would profit you to abo-
lish, you were eager for reform ; do not now oppose the re-
dress of proved abuse and corruption, because you find it
would be unpalatable to your own supporters.
Lord MORPETR likened Sir Robert Peel to Ulysses coming
in aid of Ajax. His next illustration was a whirlpool, from
the vortex whereof he did not himself escape without a woful
draggling. His third allusion was to the painter who com-
bined in his picture the charms of all the bPauties of Rhodes ' •
and his fourth, to a fowler catching small birds with chaff.
These displays of imagination seemed to the house a little
inapplicable, but the noble lord corrected their impatience by
telling them, that if they would not hear him they should
have another adjournment. He admitted that it would have
been desirable to produce, somewhat earlier, the bill prepared
by the Irish Solicitor-General ; but he said it was actually
drawn, and had been held back only in hopes of making it
more perfect. As to the present measure, he had the satis-
faction to feel convinced, that even if it should go into com-
mittee, it must be eventually defeated. For the present, at
least, that satisfaction was postponed, inasmuch as, on a di-
vision, the conservatives carried their motion by a majority
of 301 against 298, striking dismay into the ministers, and
despair into the " Tail."
The house then went into committee ; but the chairman
was immediately ordered to report prozress and to ask leave
to sit again on Friday pro forma, when Lord Stanley will fix
a day on which the proCeedings in committee will really com-
mence.—The house then adjourned at a quarter-past two
o'clock.

COURT CIRCULAR.-TUESDAY.

Viscount,,Melbourne had an audience yesterday of the
Queen. • -'•
The Royal dinner party at the Palace last evening included
the Marquis of Hertford, Marquis and Marchioness of West-
minster, Earl of Uxbridge, Earl of Surrey, Earl and Countess
of Clanwillian, Earl of Morley, Viscount Melbourne, Lord
and Lady Norreys, Colonel and Lady Isabella Wemyss, and
Sir 'William Lumley.
The band of the Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards was
in attendance at the Palace during the evening.
Her Majesty the Queen Dowager rode out yesterday after-
noon in the parks, attended by Frances Lady Clinton, Hon.
Miss Anne Gore, Sir Horace Seymour, Earl Howe, and the
Rev. J. R. Wood.
The Duchess and the Princess Augusta of Cambridge
visited the Princess Augusta yesterday at Clarence-house,
St. James's.
The Duchess Ida, with the Princes and Princesses of Saxe
Weimar, took an airing yesterday afternoon, in a pony phaeton
and four.
Sir Robert Peel, Lord Stanley, Lord Ashburton, and Sir
Robert Inglis, a deputation from the Trustees of the British
Museum, had an interview with the Chancellor of the Exche-
quer yesterday, in Downing-street.
The Marquis of Downshire had an interview with Viscount
Melbourne yesterday, in Downing-street.
Sir John Guest and Lieut. Littlehales, of her Majesty's
brig Dolphin, had interviews with Lord John Russell yes-
ter,ilia:4 ,t
Earl of,e
theolto.ainial:offie e.
I d Dr. Bailey, Mr. Gibson Craig, M.P.
and Mr. Price, had interviews yesterday with the Marquis of
Normanby, at the Home-office.
Despatches from Governor Light, at British Guiana, were
received yesterday, at tWhe
EDColonial-office.
NESDAY.
Viscount Melbourne and Lord J. Russell had audience of
the Queen yesterday.
Her Majesty and Prince Albert, attended by the Countess
of Sandwich, Hon. Miss Cocks, 'Viscount Torrington, Hon.
Major Keppel, Hon. Colonel Grey. Col. Wylde, and Mr. F.
Seymour, honoured the Italian Opera with their presence last

evening.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent has been for
some days much indisposed from a rheumatic affection,
which prevented her being present at the great ball at Buck-
ingham palace, and the last drawing-room.
Her Majesty the Queen Dowager and the Duchess Ida of
Saxe Weimar visited the. Princess Augusta yesterday, at
Gloucester-house.
The Duchess and the Princess Augusta of Cambridge
visited her Majesty the Queen Dowager yesterday.
Prince Edward of Saxe Weimar arrived at Marlborough
House yesterday morning, from the Royal Military College
at Sandhurst.
The Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Sussex, and the
Duke of Cambridge visited the Princess Augusta yesterday.
His Royal Highness Prince Albert inspected, yesterday,
Mr. G. E. Hering's Sketches of the Tyrol, at Buckingham
Palace, which were submitted to his Royal Highness by the
artist.
Her Majesty the Queen Dowager and the Duchess Ida of
Saxe Weimar visited the Duchess of Kent yesterday, at In-
gestrie House, Belgrave-square.
The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Princess
Augusta of Cambridge honoured Mrs. Cox with their com-
pany on Monday evening, in Grosvenor-place.
Sir George Strickland, Mr. Chester, M.P. and Mr. Turn-
bull had interviews with Lord John Russell yesterday, at the
Colonial-offiee.
Lord De Lisle had an interview with Viscount Melbourne
yesterday, in Downing-street.

THE FREEMEN OF NORWICH.

Monday last was announced as the day on which the free-
men would place in the hands of the Marquis of Douro, their
petition to parliament, agreed to at a Common-hall, and pray-
ing to be restored to their ancient right of voting at munici-
pal elections. It will hardly be believed that the mayor re-
fused the use of St. Andrew's Hall for this purpose. We
scarcely dare trust ourselves to advert to this refusal, for fear
we should express too strongly the contempt which we feel
at an act so outrageously insulting to the great body of free-
men, and bearing the impress of such petty, peevish, party
spite. But it occasions us no surprise. No ! Authority
confided to such hands is sure to be used with unkindness,
and, when it can safely be done, with despotic severity.
Stephens, Julian Harney, and other chartist leaders ; O'Con-
nell, any other political ruffian, if he has but radicalism in
his soul, may spout trash, breathing of rebellion, within the
walls of St. Andrew's Hall. But if the freemen desire pub-
licly to place in the hands of a conservative nobleman—that
nobleman being the son of the Duke of Wellington—if a de-
sire is shown by the poor freemen, to place in his hands a
petition to parliament for a restitution of their rights, the
doors of their own ancient hall are shut against them. Is it
to be supposed that this refusal will not remind freemen of
those times when they themselves had a voice in the election
of the mayor of the city ; of days gone by, ere a new con-
stituency had built up town-councils, and such political hot-
beds spawned forth your robeless civic dignitaries ; when the
chief magistrate of the day was indeed the head and leading
personage of the town ; doing some good to its trade • looked
up to with respect from the office which he held ; and, after
his year of duty, retiring to the bench of justice, raised to a
post of honour by the good opinion and regard of a majority
of his fellow-citizens. Is the change for the better ? Will
not men, freemen especially. henceforth at the name of
liberal turn up their noses and say " Bah !"
The committee of the operative freemen were not to be
diverted from their object by the impediment thus thrown
in their way, and the use of the Greyhound-yard having been
granted to-them, they immediately announced that as the
place of meeting, for presenting the petition to the Marquis
of Douro; - -
Lieutenant-ColOnel Harvey was called to the chair, and
the petition having been presented to the Marquis of Douro,
his lordship addressed the meeting in an appropriate speech,
in which he took occasion to express his conviction that
" the freemen are as ancient as any other class in the coun-
try, and were equally entitled to protection ; and if privileged
classes, it should be said, are not necessary to the prosperity
of the country, it cannot be denied that they are co-existent
with that prosperity. (Hear.) Consistently with cowardly
and revolutionary principles, the first attack is made upon
the privileged class of freemen—a class the least protected
and the least prepared for defence, and the least suspicious
of the injury intended. I will not proceed round the world
with the most ancient freemen of Norwich, for charges
against the government, but will at once come to this point,
the injustice done to the freemen, and the way in which they
have it in their power to resent it. Yon are.aware that the
strength of the administration is in the borough towns ; in
the counties they are in a minority. But a large proportion
of the constituency in the borough towns is still composed of
freemen, and yet, in the elections of 1837, no ministry had
less reason to be dissatisfied with the support of the freemen
than the present administration. This, too, was after the
Municipal Ccrporations Bill had passed, and after the injury
had been inflicted on the freemen. (Hear.) Nor have the
freemen- themselves given the administration reason to sup-
pose that they were dissatisfied. Half the freemen arc con-
servatives, but as a body the freemen have never evinced
towards those who deprived them of their rights the distrust
they deserved. (Hear.). You have to blame yourselves,
then, for that; and if it be true that you are to blame, you
have the remedy in your own hands. (Loud cheers.) No
one can give you the assistance which it is in your power to
afford yourselves. lam satisfied that there is a strong feel-
ing amongst those who are injured in favour of the restora-
tion of their rights. But an ebullition of the moment is not
sufficient. (Hear.) Nothing can procure your rights but a
resolution, that no man shall
determined and persevering
obtain your assistance and support but by the advocacy of
your ancient rights."
S. Bignold, Esq., and several other gentlemen, also ad-
dressed the meeting ; and a resolution of approbation of the
conduct of the noble marquis having been passed, the meet-
ing separated.—Abridged from the Norfolk Chronicle.

THE WEATHER AND THE CROPS.—Accounts from all
parts of the kingdom concur in representing the prospect of
abundance, which the recent seasonable weather has opened
upon us, as being most gratifying. A more promising season
is scarcely in the memory of man, and its fruits are already
shown in a considerable decline in the price of wheat. This
is a sad work for the anti-corn-law agitators ; had crops,
high prices, and starvation constitute their stock in trade,
and a-golden harvest is a visitation of Providence which
they ought, in consistency, to endeavour to avert by humilia-
tion and prayer !—Blackburn Standard.