The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-06-21 00:00:00

SECOND EDITION.

THE LIVERPOOL ELECTION INQUIRY.,_,
DISGRACEFUL PROCEEDINGS OF THE
PETITIONERS.

AFTER an examination of witnesses, which lasted
for three weeks, the case for the Petitioners was
brought to a close on Saturday, and we are con-
sequently in a fair position to judge of the whole
question. It will be remembered that the counsel
for the Petitioners, in his opening speech, made a
wholesale charge against the sitting members of
systematic bribery and treating, -of distributing
rosettes with sovereigns enclosed, and of the ser-
vants of the Post-office feloniously retaining letters
addressed to voters by the partisans of the other
side, through the instigation of the Conservative
Committee. The case has broken down in every
particular. If any bribery and treating were proved,
it was on the part of the petitioners, who appear
to have been unscrupulous as to their means of
obtaining evidence, though they were not always
fortunate in their selection of witnesses, notwith-

standing they ingeniously kept back several they
were at the expense of summoning to London,
through fear of exposure. The charge about the
rosettes was shown to be a pure fabrication, not-
withstanding the free comments about its enormity;
but the worst feature in the business is the infamous
charge against the Letter-carriers, for which there
was not a tittle of foundation, and the only doubt
is whether the greater enormity is with the witnesses
by whose perjury the charge was Attempted to be

' supported, or with those who procured their
testimony. The falsehood of the accusation is
amply proved by Mr. CLEGG, the Secretary of the
District Committee, where the offence was alleged
to be committed, and by JAMES GRAHAM and
JOHN ADLARD, the Letter-carriers, whose conduct
is impugned. Mr. CLEGG states that the Letter-
carriers came to the committee-room simply and
solely to inquire the addresses of various parties
living in the district; that the information was
given them by the WALTHEWS, upon whose
testimony the charge is made; that no letters what-
ever were abstracted; and that so far from compro-
mising himself by trusting the WALTHEWS, he
had no confidence in them, and they were employed
by the Ward Committee notoriously against his
remonstrances to the contrary. He further states
that, so far from there being any possibility of
truth in the charge, the circulars of Messrs.
CARDWELL and EWART'S committee were not
sent through the post, but by their own messen-
gers. This statement is corroborated by that of the
Letter-carriers, who declare that all the letters they
had were from the Conservative Committee ; that
they only applied for the addresses, all of which
they could not obtain; that none of CARDWELL
and EWART'S circulars passed through the Post-
office; and that the letters which were returned to
the Dead-letter Office were from the Conservative
Committee, addressed to Conservative voters, aq
the books at the Post-office will shew. The whole
charge, therefore, is an infamous and wilful fabri-
cation, the enormity of which it is difficult to
characterise in befitting terms, more particularly as
its effect was to implicate two deserving men in a
serious offence for which they would have deserved
severe punishn3ent. It may be urged, however,
that the Petitioners were themselves deceived in the
matter by their own witnesses, and made the
charge in full confidence of its truth. We cannot
give them the benefit of this extenuation, but
unhesitatingly denounce their conduct as know-
ingly and wilfully committed for the base purpose
of prejudicing the Committee against the sitting
Members, at any cost. This is amply proved by
their having subpoenaed Mr. CLEGG, who was kept
in London fifteen days at their expense, arid then
refused to be examined. The Letter-carriers whom
they had subpoenaed were also kept in London ten
days; and though they repeatedly tendered their
evidence, it was refused, because they would have
exposed the falsehood of the accusation; and there

is the still more striking fact, that the Petitioners
themselves must have known that the circulars of
Messrs. CARDWELL and EWART'S committee
were tot sent through the post. They are, there-
fore, without excuse, for they had ample opportuni-
ties of knowing the truth, and their rejection of it
shows the wretched prostration of feeling and utter
departure from common honesty to which profess-
ing Liberals will sometimes degrade themselves, in
order to seek a political advantage. The case admits
of no palliation, and our Radical contemporaries who
hare crowed so loudly about Conservative corrup-
tion are welcome to make the most of it. The
inquiry has amply vindicated the character of the
Liverpool Freemen, but it has indelibly blackened
the reputation of those who sought to impugn it.

PARLIAMENTARY PROCRASTINATION.
THERE is an old story told in some of the jest-
books, that when Queen ELIZABETH asked the
Speaker of her faithful Commons what had passed
during their Session, he replied, " May it please
your MAJESTY, six months." We can imagine
the month of July drawing to a close, the members
of the present Parliament tired of long sittings
through hot nights, and anxious for rural recrea-
tion, and 'Queen VICTORIA putting a similar
question to the Right Hon. SHAW LETEVRE. He
might repeat the answer of his predecessor in the
reign of the virgin monarch, and with equal appro-
priateness, for it would be difficult to frame a reply
more accurate. indeed it appears to have been the
policy of the Whig-Radical party, when in office,
to get over the Session with as little practical
business as possible, and -the coalition of the
PEELITE section seems in no way to have caused
an improvement upon the -system. The leading
points of Ministerial propositions are ushered into
notice with speeches of five hours' duration—the
Budget and the India Bill for example.; adjourned
debates at intervals prolong the proceedings almost
indefinitely, until, week after week and month after
month having passed over, the time for prorogation
is close at hand, and the majority of measures
which were introduced with such a flourish are
unavoidably postponed -to another Session, to
undergo
a similar round of systematic procrasti-
nation. In the interval senseless discussions take
place on the impossible projects of individual
members, who indulge in what are called their
annual motions—the Mutiny Bills are passed, the
Supplies are voted ; and when the public, who have
been indulging in hops all this time, feel a natural
anxiety to learn what beneficial legislation has
resulted from these long debates and late sittings,
they are blandly told to wait for another Session,
when the Ministers will be prepared with some
comprehensive scheme. This has become so much
a matter of system, that we may almost judge of
the poverty of performances by the magnitude of
promises. In the present Session, for instance,
Mr. CARDWELL brought forward an elaborate
measure which was to confer an incalculable amount
of benefit on the Shipping Interest; Lord JOHN
RUSSELL indulged in a long prefatory speech to a
scheme for the extension of National Education ;
Mr. WILSON proposed a Bill for the long-desired
reform of the Board of Customs; and Sir CHARLES
WOOD, in a laboured harangue, introduced his
India Bill. The month of June is now drawing to
a close, and what progress has been made in any
of these schemes, or does any one imagine that
they were ever seriously intended for any other
purpose than to occupy public attention while the
time of Parliament was occupied in imposing new
taxes under the pretence of repealing old ones ?
Our Radical friends exulted in the defeat of the
Earl of DERBY, and congratulated themselves upon
the weakness of their former leaders being com-
pensated by the accession of the PEELITE rene-
gades ; but let any honest man belonging to either
political party ask himself where is the benefit of
the change, and he will be compelled to acknow-
ledge that he cannot discover it. The Earl of
ABERDEEN has nominally replaced Lord JOHN
RUSSELL, and has openly snubbed his colleague
on the question of the Irish Church ; Mr. GLAD-
STONE has been substituted for Sir CHARLES
WOOD, and shown his superior skill by mere
intricate complication ; the Earl of CLARENDON
has replaced Lord PALMERSTON, and rendered
elaborate explanation requisite to justify his foreign
policy; and, of all the changes effected by the
boasted coalition, the only apparent improvement
is from Earl GREY to the Duke of NEWCASTLE in
the Colonial-office. Yet, for this mere shifting of
places and shuffling of the cards, the country was
deprived of the services of the Earl of DERBY, who
effected more real benefit in four months, with an

avowedly hostile parliamentary majority, than the
present Administration are likely to effect in as