The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-12-23 00:00:00

DEC. 23, 1436.

scene—the choosing of mayors, with all its before and
after accompaniments—the monthly meetings of cor-
porate bodies, with their committees and sub committees
—the frequent, political, ward dinners, with all their pre-
parations and excitements—the quick succession of
public meetings, convened for no other purpose than to
stab, under the mask of law, the peace of the country, or . •
satiate some factious revenge—we should hardly leave the
Sabbaths unappropriated to pollution. We are become a
nation of demagogues, and reform is a saint that en-
grosses every day in the year of our political papists—
every hedge of every alley has its magpie; whilst it is
impossible to find half a dozen men gathered together,
drunk or sober, but they become a very rookery of state
jabbering. Thanks to the reform bill for this curse
upon the land. Like a vertical sun, it has shone upon
the mud of our Nile, and given life to the spawn existing
in it. If we cannot at once estimate these " half-formed
reptiles," which " we know not what to call," that dis-
turb the quiet of towns and endanger the safety of the
state, we may frighten them from doing some mischief
by exposing their haunts and watching their movements. ,
We have been drawn to make these reflections upon • .
the civil state of the country from having lately read
some reports of the proceedings of town councils—not
only in our own unprecedented " chaos-come-again" cor-
poration, but that of several other minor municipal
theatres in tire kingdom, in every one of which the same
principles, though not in the same extravagance, pre-
vail. Not one spot is there, where municipal reform has
set its foot, but the lovely flowers of peace, virtue, sub-
ordination, and good society have perished; and the
various weeds of anarchy, enmity, and political rage
,
luxuriantly flourish; whilst our ears ring with dull
prosing, speeches—pointless and inexplicable wit and •
sarcasm, which owes all its force to the venom of m'a-
lignity.
But let us fairly examine what are the consequences
of the municipal reform bill, irrespective of all politics;,
associations : whether conservatives or radical be mem-
bers of town councils, in every light, it is the evil genius •:.'
of England. Is a corporate town on the eve of changing
the puppets which have stiffened into importance during
the last year's drill in the council chamber, though the , :••
entire revolution of a moon is wanting, yet another
pride-stricken shopman, seeing the improved carriage or Asnrs‘'
his neighbours, and ambitious of like distinction, longs
to be invested with his motley, his friends flattering him
that he will make a good corporation man, and the head 3.,ealiff`r
.
of vanity drinks in the music of compliment till flatulent ttv
conceit, a judge always favourable to its decrees,
whispers in his ears that he is a " marvellous proper ,c.,iseaole
man" to represent a ward. He now brushes his coat qisoo
before he appears behind the counter, changes his liners ,o.t
once oftener than usual in the week, studies before his
glass to bow with more grace, and, even at his own fire-
„..7,hs';
side, smokes his pipe many degrees more elevated than ez-,591
before he saw such honours advancing towards him-
Some keen politico-economical observers declare that,
under this mental excitement, he knocks out the ashes of , •
three pipes where, before, he consumed but one ; that
every puff is a perfect cloud, and that, therefore, (dull,
rogues who only look at customhouse returns), this will
be a positive benefit to the revenue. Does a customer.
appear in his shop or his counting house, to ask the
price of a nightcap or a cork jacket ? as the eye is said to
receive no impression from certain rays, so the ear, in .
this case, is insensible to certain sounds—he answers, ;
" for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth
speaketh," Wednesday, sir, is fixed for the election
my friends—staunch friends, " approved, good friends," . •
have all promised to attend. lam quite sure of my suc-
cess—heavy duties, sir, will devolve upon me to perform
—but a man must. quietly submit to his fate, and become •
a bog or a fen ; but, save your presence, I hope to be
an .Etna in the map of my generation. There are many, -•• ••••,,•
very many, of these untalented and illiterate aspirants
after power who can unqualifiedly ask, " Where is he,
living, clipt in with the sea that chides the banks of
England, Wales, or Scotland, can call me pupil or bath
,-4,-,Tkest'
read to me?" for some actually subscribe themselves of
that pitiable family—" my mark." But this preliminary ,01 (e;.;
breach, made on the avocations of life, is not the only ,
..•
evil we have to deplore, as arising out of the reform.
bill. In order that his " new-made honours" may sit
the more gracefully upon him, he feels it indispensiblo
that his inauguration ti,•esqt he set eer,--- 4essi.A.
ws rerun-au ueriverect speeen ; and, though he never-
conceived a twin idea before, he suddenly becomes preg-
nant with muddy dreams and strange conceits, mutters. ,
disjointed periods behind his counter, and marshals
current phrases in his note-book, to "be learned by
rote;" but, in due time, the great, the important day •
arrives, up to which moment, from the first coup de lune,
his private affairs and his domestic comforts have all ••
been buried under the bright cloud of anticipated glories
—he is nominated—he makes his debut in all the
awkwardness of genteel vulgarity—talks loudly about •
what he understands, nothing—promises what he bas no
ability to perform—looks unutterable things—eomes„
••• •
like his own pipe, to the last whiff, and is dubbed a town
councillor—casts an oblivious cloak over his former s'
character in life, and, without one qualification beyond •
that conferred upon him by the reform hill, undertakes
the management of the business of the town. Does the
mischief stop here ? No; the new town councillor finds
that, instead of his shop or his counting-house, and the
demands of trade, Ire must plunge over head and ears
into the slough of politics—not his ledger, now, but a
newspaper—not writing letters to correspondents, but
composing speeches or framing resolutions for the
council chamber—not looking into the prices current or
the arrival and departure of ships, but how his last
speech appears in print; and, if we follow out the picture
in all its aspects through the year, we shall see that the
municipal reform bill has made a complete metamor-
phosis of a quiet man of business into a noisy declaimer
1:
at political dinners—has robbed society of a peaceable
neighbour.; a family of a prudent protector; and the c.•
state of a valuable subject.

It is not necessary for us to pursue this subject throtlet •
all its ramifications. It will suffice to observe, that thou...
sands are every year exposed to all these ludicrous but
fatal temptations—and a multitude of others of a kin-
dred nature—" qua nunc," &c.—and the country is at the
present moment suffering under them. Not only have
we to lament the departure of those social virtues which
gire every charm to life, and the disquietude which har7
rasses the inhabitants of every corporate town, but the
positive national, as well as individual evil, which ism
abundantly springing up, WhereCeilhe. rminiaiiiri4f6l6l
bill has sown its seeds of dissention. That confidence be--
tween man and man upon which the stability of trade de-
pends, is broken, and justly, and that from a twofold
cause : first, an apprehension that he who neglects his
proper business is hardly entitled to Pecuniary credit ;
and, secondly, though this is an uncharitable surmising,
that he whom we think unsound in politics, and whohap-
pens to be our opponent in the municipal chamber, is un-
sound in moral integrity also. The association is easy—
not unnatural—often, we fear,, too hastily made. We
need not press these circumstances to their conclusion—
every thinking man will he able to infer them for him- 01;
self. But, viewing these and other circumstances which
give another character to society, this we venture to pro-
,
pounce, as unanswerably true, that the municipal reform
bill has introduced more disorder into the country, and fir, i
occasioned more public mischief, without any counter- -1.;
vailing good, than all the worst acts of the legislature
put together during the last hundred years. We say
this without any reference to the predominance of any
party. We are Conservatives ; but if every corporation
in the kingdom could instantly become conservative--
and they are certainly looking that way—our opinion
would remain unchanged. The measure is ?nation in se.
0,1
We protest against it as a boon granted by folly to mad-
e j3.l°
ness.'

If we contrast the members of the old corporations
with the new municipal councillors, here the insignifi-
cance of the one exalts the dignity of the other. An
alderman was a title of honour then—a character from
his habits and association seldom seen ; now, to use an
expression of a great statesman, "you can hardly spit
out of a window without spitting upon" an alderman, and
for which accidental indignity a man would hardly think_
of making an apology. Then, the mayor, as chief ma-