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

THE FREEMEN OF NORWICH.

Monday last was announced as the day on which the free-
men
would place in the bands 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 bands 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 f 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 rand 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. You 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 Corporations 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 are 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
afiord 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
determined and persevering resolution, that no man shall
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.

TEE 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 ; bad 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 I —Blackburn Standard.