The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-12-16 00:00:00

Di-C. 16, 1836.

t) its kennel, but it was whilst Mr. Hey worth was
digging him out, that he bolted.
Let it be toll to all England, that forty members of
our corporation, and every one of them radicals,
assembled, by stealth, at an Inn in Liverpol, and dis-
cussed, and determined upon a municipal question, of
the highest importance to the town, and which they
afterwards formally carried, at a meeting of the Town
Council !—unexampled turpitude! Who, we ask, are
the Town Council of Liverpool ?—These forty radical
members?—and where is public business transacted ?
At the Angel ? Is this not " deep dishonour," tothe
town of Liverpool ?—is this not defeating • the very, end
of " Council !"—making a mockery of deliberation!
converting public business into a.private affair, like the
purchase of a bale of cotton !—taking away all personal
responsibility! for in these secret cabals, fraternal
spirits may open their minds freely, for each casts over
the other an impenetrable veil to hide their proceedings
from the public eyes. We shall soon have silent Tor Pt
Councils, if these preliminary meetings, with closed
doors, are to despatch business. We shall never hear a
word about the reasons or the eligibility of corporation
measures—there will be but a stride between the
proposition and the resolution. But there is always
council of old, of kindred spirit, " stepped their ears,
and would gladly have run upon him, and stoned him" too
if they had not dreaded the retribution of law. And
could we have "a swallow taught to speak nothing"
but Bible—Protestant Bible—and give it to the mem-
bers of the School Committee, it would 90 harrass their
innocent souls that they would die of vexation.

We have one question to put to every dispassionate
man in Liverpool. Did the old corporation, whatever
imperfections there might be in their structure, or what-
ever corruption had grown up in them in the flux of time,
ever present such an example as this of political turpi-
tude If you anticipated the subversion of all sound
principles in the operation of the municipal corporation
reform bill, has not the reality exceeded all your fears ?
If this be reform, and England be cursed with a further
extension of it, she will only be fi► to be " peopled with
wolves, its old inhabitants."

We are doubtful whether there is not some sarcasm
upon monarchy intended in Mr. W.'s declaration, that
" he would not be lowered in their estimation to become
the highest prince in Europe." A republican Roman
could not more studiously have avoided the name of
king—no, not Collatinus himself. It might be that Mr.
W.'s mind was stretched almost to bursting to compass
the two extremes—royalty and radicalism. It certainly
is no ordinary grasp.
But Mr. W. has many other "graces, snatch'd beyond
the reach of art," to which we would earnestly direct the
student of eloquence. He may throw away his Vossius,
Quintillion, and Cicero wherever Mr. W. stands a model
before him. Mark the following exquisite simile—how
pictorial! how unutterably beautiful ! "Let each member
of the Radical Association," says Mr. W., " consider him-
self as a pivot, round which a large number (query,
pivots ?) should revolve." We tried to paint it, and
made, in the centre of a large sheet of paper, a huge
pivot, intending it to represent Mr. W.; we then painted
some small pivots round it, intended to represent the
Mayor and aldermen, all at respectful distances from the
centre of attraction; but we could raise no other idea in
our minds than that of so many tops spinning together.
Well thought we, if Mr. W. is too deep for us, be has at
least carried us back to the days of childhood ; and we
called Mr. W. a great hummer, and his satellites regular
Boxers. But we can " take a hint." We have a ahrevrd
guess what all this elaborate oratory means—" the ruling
principle will out"—men do not cultivate the flowers of
eloquence to strew them over a study in dull soliloquy*
or to adorn a table of after dinner talk. Mr. W., with-
out being put to the torture, confessed all. "If he ap-
prehended rightly, it was quite as difficult to manage
the local as the general government." Bravo
spoken, Mr. W. ! Why not step through the council
chamber, where you stand for one, into parliament,
where you will stand for— ? " Why look abroad for a
representative ?" adds Mr. W. Better spoken still !
Here I ant, might Mr. W. say, carved and gilded, and
ready to be set up in the Liverpool niche of the House
of Commons at a moment's notice.

Of Mr. W.'s qualification for the distinguished honour
to which he aspires, we have but one more observation
to make. Mr. W. is always a scholar. We do not mean
this sarcastically, as of one " who is ever learning, but
never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." No,
we fancy we can trace in his most obscure expression
great and various reading. "It was not," lie said, "the
first, second, or third time"—" iterum, ilerumque"—
always classical !—" that the ward had so honoured him."
How pure !—what pathos or bathos ! It was more than
he could bear—nature could net endure it ! Their meet-
ing, he said, was "social"---he must seek repose, and,
therefore, " he would sit down"—quite done up—" as
dry as the last biscuit after a voyage"—pumped to the
very dregs, dregs and all—the oil of his eloquence all
burnt out. He left us, as the suu himself would do if
extinguished, in original darkness.
Passing by Mr. W., which we may do without dis-
cow test' since he has "sale himself down," we must have a
glance at another curious figure in this group. The health
of Mr. Jones, the vice president, "was drunk with musical •
honours. We, who are very plain men, and not well
read in the "variorum" of drinking healths, have been
much perplexed to understand how this complimentary
ceremony was performed; for, according to the best in-
fortnation we can get among our very limited drinking
acquaintance, we are confidently assured it was intended'

Though we drank none of the wine and ato none of
the good things provided at the late dinners of the Scot-
land ward, we have still much for which to thank thent
many fine moral lessons have we learnt, and much mirth
have they afforded us. More modest and more plain-
speaking gentlefolks could not he culled out of all Eng;
land ; and if they had not wit themselves, that might be
the effect of climate; for we much question, maugre
the poetical authority, whether intellect, any more than
grapes, will ripen so far north. Still they will be the
occasion of many hearty sallies to their brethren in the
south ; and so abundant was this negative quality on
these occasions that out of the mere fragments afforded-
by a newspaper report we " can gather up twelve baskets
full," out of which we purpose to provide a kind of sup-
plemental feast that we think will not be much less
entertaining than the original.
After Mr. Jones, the vice-president, had " proposed
the healths of the Mayor, aldermen, and reform members
of the Town Council," Mr. Walinsley rose and said, " It
had been the determination of himself and the reform
members of the Town Council" to do—something. We
care not what—we only notice how radicalism overturns
the courtesies of life as well as overthrows the bulwarks
of the state. Mr. W. most unceremoniously thrust " the
Mayor and aldermen" of Liverpool out of the picture
presented to the company by Mr. Jones, and could only
see himself in the mirror of his mind—not even "ego, et
meus rex," though this cardinal virtue may be traced in
every act of a reformer. We would undertake to tell;:
whether a man were a radical or not, if we only met him up! 7.+
casually at an inn, and heard him order the waiter tcQ:l'7'
send in a pair of slippers, or the chambermaid to bring a' ,11
pan of coals, so much of self-importance is there in him.
Mr. W. added, " If the present councillors placed in'
,?I;Ja
lucrative offices, not merely their friends and supporters,
but their dependents, they (the community) have now A e.
the power and facilities for calling upon them to give an ,"
account of their stewardship." Does Mr. W. believe 0n4j99,J
word of this ? Suppose some of the " friends, supporter4:ol,B
and dependents" of the Town Council should deper(ti:„%
themselves with a little peccant infidelity of office, orla
even some of the Town Council themselves ShoUld be
guilty of a little malversation of the corporation funds--:..
as, for example, for questionable law purposes7—wguld,
they not all find ample protection under the aiis armour
of a Town Council vote? Who could successfully assail,'
them there ? Exposed, perhaps, they might be; but
men guilty of crime are little sensible of shame, especially
if secure from punishment. We apprehend that the com,
munity have no other means of redress now than the
old corporation remedy—a mandamus from tho King's
Bench.