The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-09-11 00:00:00

THE TOWN COUNCIL AND THE FREEMEN.—We

:eartily rejoice that an opportunity has been once

more afforded to the liberals in the Town Council for
vilifying the freemen, and for broaching their own pe•
culiar opinions on the subject of the principle of repre-

sentation. The freemen of Liverpool, and the con-
servative electors of Liverpool, have cause to be thank-
ful to Mr. Smith for his perseverance in bringing the
subject of the freemen's admission fee before the Town
Council. It has resulted in a debate which cannot

rail to operate beneficially to the conservative interes

The liberal spouters, who have been placed " acc

dentally" in the situations of councillors and alder-
men, have been once more compelled to unmask
themselves, and to exhibit their naked features before
the gaze of their fellow townsmen. We are glad of

it. The more we know of these empty demagogues
the more do we learn to despise them—a feeling in
which we feel confident a large majority of the muni-

cipal electors will cordially sympathise.

We shall not offer any extended remarks on the
emperate and pertinent observations with which

Mr. Smith introduced his motion to the notice of the
Council on Wednesday last. Casting out of sight the
technical objection which was started by the Mayor,
we see nothing in the motion which ought to be re-
sisted by men who make a profession of " liberal"
principles. The extension of the suffrage has always
been a theme on which these shallow politicians have
dilated : but then their zeal on this point was only
manifested so long as it suited their purpose. The
ascendancy of their own party was their grand object
in advocating an enlarged constituency. The mo-
ment that the franchise was proposed to be conferred
on any class of persons politically opposed to these
boasted " liberals," that moment it became inexpedi-
ent. They had the cunning to foresee that an increase
in the number of freemen would only prove a source
of political weakness to themselves. Hence their
blustering denunciations of the whole body of the
freemen. Hence their declamatory effusions against
❑niversal suffrage—a doctrine to which they willingly
subscribed as long as they conceived that it would not
militate against their party ascendancy. The crafty
demagogues have, at length, found out that " the
masses" are as much opposed to them as to the con-
servatives : and having secured their seats at the
council board by pandering to the passions of the non-
electors, by whom a large proportion of the electors
have been intimidated, they now turn round upon the
former and declare that they were only practising a
little hypocrisy in feigning to be the advocates of uni-
versal suffrage. It may, perhaps, be objected that the
leading speakers on Wednesday last never advocated
universal suffrage. Let any one consult the reports
of the speeches delivered in former years in Clayton-
square, when the reform mania was raging in Liver-
pool, and he will find abundant reason for attributing
inconsistency to the mob orators who have been trans-
lated into the council chamber. But we must examine
the speeches of these gentlemen.
Passing by Mr. Mason's "child's play with parlia-
ment," as unworthy of serious notice, we come to Mr.
Alderman Evans' tirade against the freemen, which
was characterised by all that malignity of feeling and
meanness of purpose, by which the oratorical effusions
of this irascible individual are ordinarily marked. No
doubt this pitch-forked Alderman is "opposed to re-
moving any existing obstacle out of the way of the
freemen." We know the reason. The freemen were
the means of securing two conservative members for
the borough, in spite of the" base, bloody, and brutal"
intimidation of the Popish rabble. They did their
duty manfully on that memorable occasion. This is
the reason why such men as Alderman Evans "would
place £lO in the way of the freemen" to prevent them
from voting—" if he could do it." It is really amusing
to find the Alderman floundering from one absurdity
to another in his efforts to account for the circumstance
that freemen should be allowed to vote at all. Does
he forget that the freemen were. in poßiesolol3 of _,this