The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-05-31 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

I splatter and were lang:ied out of court. But for men of
I their virulent minds the law has charms. Some people
are never happy but when they are -in hot water and
quarrelling with
_their neighbourF. TIMOTHY and Tno-
MAS seem to he Mother CAREY'S chickens in this respect.
Thunder and stormy weather are their delight; but, as
they cannot have these always at command, they have re-
course to substitutes—THOMAS getting up artificial
thunder in the Council-room, and TIMOTHY kicking up
a dust in Chancery.
Having failed in obtaining an injunction, they again
applied to have the money raised by the corporation paid
into the hands of the accountant-general. In this
they were beaten again—the settlement was made—the
endowment effected—and 'the legal proceedings stayed.
TIMOTHY and THOMAS, however, were the only persons
in the whole community who could neither be appeased
nor silenced. The law still stuck in their throats. They
were choke-full of equit3"- and dog-Latin. Where the
costs came from has never been explained; but we sin-
cerely hope they do not come out of their own pockets.
It is a maxim with the unitarians which they have acted
upon for many years, viz., "it is easier to rob a church
than build one ;" but we make no application of this say-
ing to either TIMOTHY or THOMAS.
Shortly aster the two legal repulses above alluded to
the corporation was reformed, churchmen gave way to
dissenters, old scavengers with new brooms were ushered
into the TownLhall, and THOMAS, the unitarian, contrived
by some means or other to creep in as a member of the
council. Then came direful threatenings on the part of
these worthies. The endowment was to be challenged
and annulled. The tobacco warehouse was to be taken
out of pawn, the Salthouse Dock released from debt, and
all manner of things were to be done in order to punish
the old corporation, and immortalize the new. The
mode of procedure was clearly pointed out by the reform
act. But instead of the council appealing to the privy
council, or to the lords of the Treasury, they send us once
more only' TIMOTHY JEVONS and THOMAS BOLTON
These men may well be called brothers,in-law, for they
seem to live and breathe only in the Rolls' Courts and
the Court of Chancery. Their names must be as fami-
liar to the lawyers as those of JOHN DOE and RICHARD
ROE, and, as respects Liverpool, they are quite as' con-
venient.

The legal thunder we suspect, however, is very near
spent. All the menace and bluster of the reformed
council has settled in TIMOTHY and THOMAS. They
swaggered most lustily at first, and the, endowment was
to be set aside as a matter of course. Mr. Councillor
THOMAS was equally valiant and eloquent in his declara-
tion of war against it. He had his committee to inves-
tigate and decide upon the best plan of hostile, opera-
tions. Learned opinions were taken ; barristers' briefs
and fees lay around as thick as weeds; attorneys were
kept gallopping between this and London as if both the
Mersey and the Thames were on fire, and the commit-
tee, by their spokesman, Mr. Councillor BOLTON, re-
solved to prosecute the nullification scheme, and to rob
the clergy by the most expensive means in their power.
It turns out that the corporation, having seen the folly
of such proceedings, have changed their minds. They
are, according to the Attorney-General, not parties to
the present suit. Sir JOHN CAMPBELL and his three learn-
ed brothers confess that they only represent TIMOTHY
JEVONS and THOMAS BOLTON, and that the Corporation,
of which the last-named person is so inestimable a mem-
ber, have refused to institute any proceedings to annul
the engagements of the old corporation unless authorised
to do so by a decision of the Master of the Rolls. That
this is the fact, however incredible it may appear, we
can establish by the words of the information sworn to
by JEVONS and BOLTON. They run as follows :
" And his Majesty's Attorney-General, at the relation afore-
said. (viz., Timothy and Thomas,) charges that the defendants,
the Mayor, Aldermen, and Burgesses of Liverpool, have been
advised and admit that the said appropriation is invalid, and
they are desirous that the said sum of £105,000 should be repaid
by the trustees thereof, to be applied to the purposes aforesaid,•
and they have, in fact, applied to the said trustees to repay the
same, but they (the Mayor, &c.) refuse to take any further steps
to procure the payment thereof without the direction and sanction
of this honourable court." ! !

Here, then, is the entire mouse squeezed out of the
municipal mountain. The corporation, knowing the
consequences, are desirous of quashing the proceeding,
and TIMOTHY JEVONS and THOMAS BOLTON, after being
compelled to eat their own words, and swallow their own
impotent and ignorant threats, are brought forward as the
mean instruments for covering the retreat of their col-
leagues. It is as ingenious a trick as ever was executed
by any member of the thimble-rig profession. The pro-
ject has come to an end like a culprit in due courss of law.
But who is to pay the piper ? TIMOTHY and THOMAS
being but the sham complainants will not surely be made
the real sufferers. We have reasons for suspecting that
they are indetnnifiedAind in order to ascertain the ime
portant fact it will be necessary for the auditors of the
borough to keep a sharp watch upon the accounts of the
corporation when these shall be laid before them. At
the same time we must confess that it is not remarkably
kind on the part of Sir JOHN CAMPBELL to sign informa-
tions which he ought to have flung into the fire, accept
fees for prosecuting them, and then throw the whole
charge and costs upon a corporation which he had done
so much to reform !! In that name, reform, what injustice
has been (lone to individuals—what unnecessary burdens
heaped upon society ! !

* To the borough fund.

We perceive that Mr. RIGBY WAsos has been play-
ing the part of showman in Ipswich, and exhibiting the
Irish hyena to his constituents. Whether Mr. WASON
makes any charge for showing the beast does not appear,
but the probability is that the exhibition will form an
item in the next election bill, as so much money spent
for the benefit of the burgesses of Ipswich. We all know
that the animal in question never travels or feeds at his
own expense, therefore the cost of him on this occasion
must he defrayed by the gentlemen who bring him, who
exhibit him, who "turn him up," as other showmen call
it, and make him dance and roar. Mr. WAsoN being one
of the principals in this " safe speculation" will of course
be called upon to pay his share of the expenditure. No
doubt he calculated that it would be money well spent,
inasmuch as it would procure for him the thanks of his
loving constituents. No one could call feeding a hyena
bribery. No one could insinuate that making a two-
legged brute, dressed in a green cap and a gold band,
howl and yell, was corrupting the radical, and, of course.
independent electors of Ipswich. No such thing. Had
the honourable member presented any number of • his-
constituents with a quartern loaf or a pint of ale that
might have been tortured into bribery, or had he stuffed
them with boiled beef and cabbages that might have been
called treating under the GRENVILLE act; but to walk a
wild beast through a town for the diversion of its inha-
bitants, taking care that he bleak not loose, and that
none of the people are killed or' wounded, cannot surely
by any logical process be twisted into wilful bribery and
corruption. !,•1' • •

So far the ingenuity of Mr. WAsoN is harmless enough.
He has shown the monster at Colchester and Ipswich,
but we are sadly afraid that the exhibition has not an.
swered hiS purpose. 'The good people did not appear to
relish the show. They were, perhaps, unacquainted with
the nature; and peculiar habits of the animal, or probably
they du not fancy ugly sights where there is nothing to
eat or drink. Some of them were provokingly sulky,
and seemed disposed to maul most unmercifully both the
brute and its leader. Others stood by and laughed at
both, the one, they said, being just as comical as the
other. A large number of the most respectable burgesses
deemed their town insulted, and public morals outraged,
by so disgusting a sight, so that upon the whole there is
reason to apprehend that the honourable member for
Ipswich, our esteemed friend, has spent his money in
vain. He might have done more good if he had gone
with a monkey and a barrel organ, or taken with him
Lord JOHNNY and another kangaroo !

TEE-I'6T. A"tl.-:-This term, which is used h:f temperance so
cieties to designate the system which inculcates abstinence from
intoxicating ffuors, origiutted NNith a named 'Curler, a
menalier of the Preston Temperance Society;, wtio,lciOle,fir an
impediment of 5pc(44),,, in addressing a inedtp,,b remarked 7 that
partiatals;inenteT w
ious intoxicating liquors ould.'iiiitYtr,' etilY
6716 V tee-W-64- CofalT stOfoi'ire!!!"