The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-03-04 00:00:00

MARCII 4, 18.6

Our reporter, it would appear, committed a mistake
on Tuesday last with respect to some matter in which
Mr. THOMAS HARVEY was concerned. The report rune
thus :-- 0
"The Mayor announced that he had received a letter from
Mr. Thomas Harvey, solicitor, begging to withdraw his claim
for legal compensation."
Mr. THOMAS HARVEY requests us to state, that the
following were the words used by the chief magistrate :
"The Mayor announced that he had received a letter from
Mr. Thomas Harvey, solicitor, begging to withdraw HIS PRX-
TENSIONS to any legal appointment under the Corporation!"
This is certainly a distinction without much difference.
How far separate claims are from pretensions we do not
venture to decide, but when a gentleman seeks to be ap-
pointed to some lucrative situation it is generally sup-
posed he has claims of some kind, in talents, or in ser-
vices rendered. Mr. THOMAS HARVEY, solicitor, did not
claim compensation, he only sought for place. He was
willing, we do not say able, to serve the corporation in
some legal capacity, for so many pounds a year, and he
sent in his pretensions for that purpose to the Mayor.
We should like to see a copy of that application. What
had Mr. T/TOMAS HARVEY, solicitor, the humility to ask
for? Surely he did not aspire to fill the office of town-
clerk for less than Mr. RADCLIFFE valued himself at,
particularly after what Mr. RATHBONE has said of the
capacity of all the other attorneys of Liverpool. Perhaps
he only sought to be clerk to the magistrates, and finding
no chance of that honour and its emoluments being con-
ferred upon him, he had the good sense to hedge out. It
is important, therefore, that the community should know
that "Mr. THOMAS HARVEY, solicitor, has withdrawn his
pretensions!"

There was a fierce skirmish and something like a split
in the Town-council on Wednesday, about an affair of
money, in which Mr. WILLIAM RATIIBONE was cruelly
pummelled and beaten. At a former meeting Mr. RATH-
BONE proposed to fix the salary of his friend the town-
clerk at £2,500, and in order to induce the council to
agree to it, he stated that Mr. ItAncLiFFE's private busi-
ness was worth that income.' As a second inducement,
he asserted that Mr. RAdCLIFFE was the only attorney
in Liverpool competent to discharge in an able mannerthe
duties of town-clerk.

At the Meeting on Wednesday, when the salary was
finally disposed of Mr. RATHBONE forgot, or did not em-
ploy his first arguments in favour of his friend. He did
not say a word about Mr. RADCLIFFE'S professional in-
' come ; he enlarged upon his immense abilities and
superior integrity, his physical powers, and other ac-
quirements both of the sublime and the ridiculous, but
he did not reiterate that RICHARD was the only attorney.
He concluded by moving that his salary be £2,500 per
annum,

The council did not value the learned functionary of
such mental and physical powers so highly. Some of
the members contended that a respectable solicitor might
be had for £1,500 a-year. Others would have paid less,
A few were in favour of the larger salary, but the majo-
rity decided that Mr. RADCLIFFE was not worth, by 20
per cent., what Mr. RATIIBONE had valued him at, and
they accordingly cut off the £5OO and voted him £2,000
a-near!

How Mr. Town-clerk stomachs this, we cannot tell.
Either Mr. RATIIIIONE stated what was untrue, when he
asserted that Mr. RADCLIFFE made £2,500 by his private
business, or Mr. RADCLIFFE, by giving up £5OO for the
good of his country, is not the very wisest man in the
world. The town-clerk, however, has until to-day to
decide upon the offer. If he take it, we shall suspect
that Mr. RATHBONE committed a--mistake !
There is, as we said in our laSt, to be a deputy town-
clerk with £l,OOO a-year, but who the fortunate scribe is
to be has not been officially announced. The council,
however, seem determined to keep the appointment in
their own gift. This is far from being liberal towards
Mr. RADCLIFFE. Hite be a gentleman of such splendid
talents and such unspotted integrity as he is said to be,
and we have no donbt is, why not intrust him with the
privilege.of appointing his own deputy ?

the professions, the declarations, and the perjuries of the
papists since 1829. The principles of popery, as they
obtain in Ireland, have been made manifest. We have
the broadsheet of iniquity and falsehood spread wide and
glaringly before us. Where are the Whig advocates of
Ireland ? Where are the English patriots who con-
tended for the honour which has been abused and
for the integrity which has been defiled ? There is fraud
and " something more" written upon the face of it.
The Jesuit has stepped in between the conciliator and the
claimant. 'The power of the one is acknowledged; the
fidelity of the other is questioned. We have the secu-
rity of promises that are violated, and of oaths that are
broken ; but in no one article, in no one thing, have the
papists of Ireland kept faith with the protestants of Eng-
land. On being admitted to the British parliament they
swore they would take no part in any measure which
had for its object the impairing of the national church ;
but despite their oaths they have been engaged in a per-
petual warfare against the church, robbing it of its re-
venues, voting its bishops into oblivion, sapping and
undermining our sacred institutions in all directions.
And yet we are invoked in the name of Justice to confer
additional power upon these men ! They have got a
large portion of the representation of Ireland into their
hands, and yet they thirst for more influence. .Beggars
sit in the house, not worth a groat, while the indepen-
dent landowners of Ireland are excluded; but not con-
tent with this, they demand the corporations also. These
must not be surrendered or Ireland is LOST FOR
EVER i If in some towns trusts have been abused, let
these trusts be recalled, and the corporations destroyed ;
but for the sake of mercy and peace do not open them up
to the agents of the priests. Do not utterly destroy the
country by placing municipal patronage and power in
worse hands.