The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-05-27 00:00:00

til LIVEIZPOOL .sAiA.&brii.ftb.

has been that they should not only be pure, but above
suspicion, and without th'e,slighteSt taint of proved or even
suspected guilt. Why this salutary estimate of fitness
for office has been 'so frecittently forgotten in the election
of members of parliament and of town council'S of late
we can only account for by the supposition that the con-
stituent bodies in these instances have adopted the opinion
that the men who have risen to opulence or eminence by
doing others, are not to be done. This is, in truth, the
only conjecture we can hazard on the subject.

Our excellent contemporary, the Stockport Advertiser,
makes the following sensible observations upon the ter-
mination of his own case, the KING v. LOMAX :
"We have on this occasion escaped the severer penalties,
which the malignant passions of certain individuals intended to
have inflicted, though it has not been found practicable to mulct
us in a heavy fine to the King or to compel us to pass the
autumn in one of his Majesty's prisons, the public must not
suppose that we go entirely scot-free. The rule having bees
dismissed without costs, •the payment of a heavy law-bill is
entailed upon us, whilst the supposed prosecutor is either com-
pletely indemnified by the subscription which it was understood
was raised for this pious purpose, or, from the nature of his
calling, has his law much cheaper than we are able to procure
it. Perhaps the court acted wisely in this instance; but we
venture to predict that the next person who brings a trifling
case before it will not be so fortunate. If he is lucky enough to
obtain a rule in the first instance, which we very much doubt,
the court, after the fair warning they have given last term, if no
stronger case can be made out than was to be established
against us, will certainly, as in duty bound, saddle the thin-
skinned and waspish applicant with all the costs. Considered
in this point of view, the case of the Mayor of Scarborough, and
that of the King v. Lomax, will have a salutary influence On
the public, and perhaps save many a poor conservative editor
from similar expensive prosecutions."

The unwashed of Dublin were ordered out to revive
agitation in that city on Monday last. The priests struck
the gong, and their slaves came forth to hear and obey ;
but it does not appear to us that the ,meeting produce'd
the effect which was intended. Every man went "armed
with a bludgeon or some other missile," - but although a
.fight was expected none took place. Perhaps the fear of
retaliation preserved the peace, for the agitators well
know that if they begin with any such work in earnest
the protestants are fully prepared to give them as warm
a reception as they have met with since the battle of the
Boyne. ,
The Dublin. Evening 4Vail says—

" The only novelty which the scene presents is to find the
government itself, through the persons of its law officers, taking
an active anti leading part in the concert of agitation. Mr.
Sergeant Woulfe, Mr. Ball, Mr. Pigott, Mr. Everybody and
Mr. Nobody, all whom the possession or prospect of govern-
ment patronage could engage, were here united with Mr. Sbeil
and Mr. Power, and Mr. Finn, and all the parliamentary sup-
portets whom the government could influence, set in array
against an essential portion of the constitution—against a co-
equal and co-ordinate branch of the legislature, which it is the
bounden duty of the government to uphold in the free use of its
prerogatives—against the encroachment of the other branches
—yea, against the revolutionary designs of all or any portion of
the world. The novelty of the present agitation we say is this
—that the government of the country now sets on its officers
and friends to agitate and excite the pOpulace against a funda-
mental institution of the state—against an essential portion of
the balance and limited monarchy of the realm. They may
succeed for a moment; they may excite that temporary mad-
ness which will produce a short-lived collision amongst the three
estates. But this, with other acts of the same tendency, does
but hasten their own ruin. The storm is at hand which will
purify the political atmosphere."

It is pitiful to see the government of any country in so
humiliating a plight. What! reviving the agitation
which they themselves, only a few months ago, con-
demned in the King's speech, and the chief promoter of
which they denounced in the same document ! This may
be policy, and it may be " justice to Ireland," but he.is
a desperate man who resorts to the one. or defends the
other. The whigs are fallen indeed when their only
chance of holding office depends upon the servility of
their adherence to the popish projects of the basest poli-
tical scamp which this or any nation ever produced, and
the willingness with which they abet him in his seditious
attacks upon the House of Lords. What do the whig
nobility think of this levelling principle ?—where is •
Lord GREY and his "order ?"—what is JOHN Duke of
BEDFORD dreaming of, and why does not he talk of

"stopping the supplies ?"—in short, we cannot conceive''
what the proud and aristocratic Whigs are doing, or say-
ing, or imagining, while they are menaced with extinc-
tion by one of themselves. Perhaps a few days will
solve the mystery.

THE REFORM SYSTEM

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STAND,IRD.

St rt,—At the present time, when every man makes it his busi-
ness to criticise the public conduct of public men, it will not be
deemed nut of order to offer a comment on the doings or de-.
cisions of Our new muuicipal governors.' In the Mercury
,of
yesterday, (May 20.) a girl of the town is reported to have been
brought up on a charge of stabbing a policeman in • the breast,
and so severely that •t require:!a week for him to recoverso far as
tir give evidence against. her. It appeals that previously " she'
a
swore she would stick knife. into him," and she acted ac-
cordingly. Is a fine of £5 and costs, or imprisonment for two
thouth:3, the highest penalty that the law allowed for such a
ctimo? I
read also in the STANDARD of yesterday that a fero-
cious-looking fellow " was charged with stabbing the first and
second mate of the ship Virginiao," it states that fie stabbed the
first mate in the thigh, and cut the second mate across the face
and right hand, and that his conduct was of the most violent
.description. The magistrates ordered him to be fined 4)s. or
to be imprisoned to hard labour for one month! Are these the
highest.perialties that the law allows for offences so daring and
violent ? If they are, then the law is extremely defective; if
they are not, then such decisions, it they are not rank injustice,
ate at least culpable lenity. The three persons had a hair-
breadth escape for their lives; since they have escaped from
death, thanks are due to Providence, not to the assailants.
Snchpunishments will never °pet ate in the way of preventing
regardless viliams from committing assaults so vibleut and out-
rageous as those I have mentioned.-

The. magistrates presiding, according to the newspapers, were
William Earle, jun., Esq., and Edward Cropper, Esq.,

. • - . -
-A word or two about Pownall-square Market, and I shall
finish. The former vilified corporation, when they permitted
this market to be held, allowed it to be conducted in a proper
manner. But what has the present immaculate' corporation
done ? They have sent a few plain forms, lit tint), for a
school for children; there is nut a single standing for a butcher;
1 have w•a ked through the market on a market-day without
seeing an ounce of butcher's meat in the whole market. If a
botcher goes there to sell his meat, it must be placed on a form,
posed.alike to the .sun and the rain. Verily, the market
ciumnitte -are doing, wonders. NNThat objections have they
to allow Pownall-square the same liberties and privileges
that are conceded to the market in Cleveland-square? Philo-
sophers say that there is a cause for every thing. Then what is
the cause of thiS partial conduct on the part of liberal men?
Perhaps Mr. Thornhill and Mr. Francis Jordan, who are on ;he
market committee, will be able to solve the quest ion.—l a,n, Sze.,
INQUIRER.