The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-06-28 00:00:00

FREEMEN OF LIVERPOOL,
You may shortly be called upon to exercise once more
that electoral privilege which the moat searching investi-
gation has amply shown you knew so well how to appre-

ciate, and nobly to exercise, at the last Election, in the
preservation of the principles of the Constitution and the
maintenance of the true interests of the Port. You
know by what party you were foully slandered and your
electoral rights attempted to be taken away ; and you will

bear this in mind when canvassers, with bated breath and

whispering humbleness, shall again venture to solicit your
votes for the effete cause of treacherous Liberalism. You
have yourselves nobly vindicated your character for
intelligence and independence ; you have shown that you
are equally above the delusion of false promises and more
tangible corruption ; and now that it has been amply
demonstrated that your strength rests in your defence of

,onservative principles, you should unite as one man in
opposing the Radicals, who would make the first use of
their power to deprive you of your Franchise. It is to the
Conservatives you owe your retention on the Burgess list
by the Reform Act ; the same party has ever resisted
your removal from it ; and the late investigation has
proved that your bitterest enemies are those 'chose cuc7,co

cry has always been for an extension of the Fran

who, in your case, would dinai,nish it.

ie arc pal

s which ought never to he forgotten, and you.

1 brance. 3f them

be shown whenever the Radicals shai

dare to contest the Represe

ntation of Liverpool

THE HON. HENRY THOMAS LIDDELL
ON 'CHANGE.
ADDRESS TO THE ELECTORS,

-.6.----

Yesterday, at

noon, the Hon

:enry Thomas Liddell

arrived in Liverpool from London, by the six a.m. train ;

chants " most do congregate," in company with Mr.
Edmund Molyneux, Mr. Bold. Mr. Bremner, and others
of his friends. Previous to the hour of his arrival the
Exchange was thronged, although the rain fell in tor-
rents. My utmost interest was evinced in the arrival of
Mr. Liddell, and when the honourable gentleman made
his appearance, he was welcomed with loud, hearty, and
I
stin. prolonged cheering, which he gracefully ackowledged as
- -

he walked from one end of the spacious room to the other.
Then, emerging from the throng, he made his appearance
at the window of Messrs. Littledale, in the Exchange-
square—the merchants and other inhabitants of the town
congregating in front. The attendance was very nume-
rous ; fortunately the rain subsided, and it continued
comparatively fair during the entire proceedings.

EDMUND MOLYNEUX, Esq., on coming foieverd, was
received with considerable applause. He said :—Brother
electors of Liverpool, the committee of the House of
Commons, as you are well aware, have deprived us of our
two late excellent representatives—Mr. Forbes Mackenzie
and our esteemed townsman, Mr. Turner. It is not my
intention at present to say anything, either as to those
who petitioned against the return of those honourable
gentlemen, or with regard to the committee of the House
of Commons. The matter is now settled, and to it I shall
not allude. But what I have to inform you on this occa-
sion is, that we have found two good substitutes—(cheers)
—one in the person of our respected townsman, Mr.
Thomas Berry Horsfall, (great cheering,) with whom you
are well acquainted—whose good deeds and words are
familiar to you—(hear, hear)—and who I only wish were
here present to address you. But lam happy to be able
to state that to-day a telegraphic message was received,
from which we learn that he will be with us on
Saturday or Monday next. (Immense cheering.) When
we first fixed upon him for a member he was at Vienna,
but he was on his way home at the time, and I antici-
pate that we shall see him on Saturday. And now
allow me to introduce to you the Honourable Henry
Thomas Liddell k great cheering)—a gentleman who bears
a high character—of sound, good principles, and much
experience in parliament—and who, I have no doubt, will
prove a most excellent member. (Loud and continued
cheers.)
The Honourable HENRY THOMAS LIDDELL, Upon
coming forward, was received with loud cheers, which
were continued for several minutes. He spoke nearly as
follows :—Gentlemen, it is quite impossible that I should
find myself for the first time in the presence of such an
assemblage as that which I now see before me, composed
of the electors and inhabitants of the greatest commercial
town in the world (hear, hear, and cheers), excepting
only the metropolis of this great empire. (No ! no !) It is
quite impossible that I should be here for the first time
before such an assemblage as this, without feeling very
strong emotions at the fact; and, gentlemen, I am sure
that I shall not appeal to you in vain, when I ask for
your indulgence and your consideration during the short
time it will be my duty to address you on such an occa-
sion, and for the first time. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, the first
impression which I feel upon this occasion, is simply
astonishment—astonishrnentpartly at the position in which
I find myself, but astonishment much more when I con-
sider those circumstances which have called for my ap-
pearance among you—(cheers)--because I do firmly and
truly believe that it is an almost unprecedented circum-
stance in the political history of this country, that a great
and important town like this town of Liverpool should be
practically, ever. for a short time, disfranchised, and that
its members really and fairly returned—(cheers)—by an
immense majority of a constituency which far out-num-
bers that of almost any place we can name, should have
been unseated upon grounds so utterly flimsy and trum-
pery, as far as my reason enables me to judge those
grounds are, by which your late members have been un- I
seated. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, my own humble opinion i
i 9 this, and I do not care whether it is delivered here or I
within the walls of the House of Commons—(hear, hear)
that if verdicts are given as this has been, upon such grounds
as those which I have alluded to, by the committees of the
House of Commons, the natural result will be, that the
public will cease to regard those decisions with any degree
of respect. (Hear, hear.) And I revert to what has
been an old formed opinion of mine, that it would be much
better, and much more to the satisfaction of the commu-
nity at large, and would redound more to the credit of this
great country, and would redound more to the public li-
berty and to the freedom of election,—and would redound
more to the credit of a representative government,—
if cases of this description were removed from the jurisdic-
tion of a committee of the House of Commons and trans-
ferred to a court of jurisdiction, who would give a decision
with the sterling impartiality of ajudge, leaving no grounds
to suppose that such decision had been influenced by a
spirit of political partisanship. (Cheers.) Gentlemen,
when Sir Robert Peel, some years ago, begged the House
of Commons not to part with their jurisdiction—for Sir
Robert Peel was a great stickler for the privileges of the
House of Commons—that very House of Commons pro-
ceeded to no less a step than the imprisonment of two
sheriffs of the city of London, because, in the exercise of
their duty, they had obeyed the highest court in the king-
dom. That, to my mind, was a bad precedent ; and,
although I differed with Sir Robert Peel on that question,
I was induced to concur with him on the question of the
House retaining the privilege of election trials being re-
tained in its own hands. I have only to say now, how-
ever, that I believe my first impressions were more correct,
because I have since seen cases in which the decisions were
so discordant with one another, that I have come to the
conclusion that these tribunals ought to be removed from
the House of Commons. So opposite in my mind were
those decisions of the House to common justice and equity,
that I have come to the conclusion, I say, that that juris-
diction, for the satisfaction of the community, ought cer-
tainly to be removed from its present possessors. But,
gentlemen, will you forgive me for going a little further ?
(Yes, yes 1) I hold in my hand a copy of the report of
the committee, which, by its vote, succeeded in unseating
your late members. That committee states in its report
that Messrs. Turner and Mackenzie were guilty, by their
agents, of bribery and treating. Gentlemen, according to
the law, that is sufficient, if carried home to the convic-
tion of the committee, to unseat a member, and to justify
the judgment they have in this case come to. But the
report of the committee goes on to say, that several voters
were bribed with the payment of sa. each. This state-
ment was received in the llouse of Commons with some
laughter and cries of "Oh ! Oh 1" (Laughter, and
cries of "Oh !") That is, gentlemen, it was received
with derision ; which, I doubt not, originated within
the walls of the House of Commons, will be re-echoed,
with interest, from within the walls of the town of Liver-
pool. It states, also, that some refreshments were pro-
vided on the following day, but it was not proved that
these were of an extravagant character. (Laughter.) It
was reported that certain sums of money were given as a
day's pay for loss of time, and that in each case it was not
beyond the ordinary earnings of the voters. (Hear !)
Now, gentlemen, I will ask you one question. Although
this is the first time I made the acquaintance of Liver-
pool, I had had long and friendly connexion with many
seaports of great importance and great business. I hap-
pen to know particularly well that the employment of
men in shipbuilding-yards cannot be conducted merely
according to the work of each individual workman, but
that it is a continuous occupation in which one set of
employee depends upon the occupation of the other, and
the whole must go on together, or the day's work will be
practically thrown away. Now, gentlemen, I will ask
not only you, but, through the medium of the press, I
will ask the kingdom at large, whether it is not easy to
account for the master, upon a great day like the day of
election in Liverpool, when some of the workmen choose
to take a holiday, and are probably called upon to exercise
the privilege of recording their vote, for the master,
I say, both out of consideration for the workmen and
his own interest, giving the whole of the workmen a
day's pay. But that very obvious conclusion seems to
have escaped the consideration of the committee, and the
result has been what I have stated. (Hear, hear.) In the
last clause of the report of the committee, it is stated
that, as it did not appear that the so-called treating had
been the principal means of corrupting the voters, there-
fore the committee did not recommend any further inquiry
into the circumstances of the late election. In conse-
quence of that conclusion, notice has been given by a
member of the committee that a writ for this great and
important town is to be moved for to-morrow night. A
noble lord, the member for Marylebone (hisses and groans)
—a self-styled " Liberal" (laughter)—one who is anxious
for the liberty of the subject—one who appears every day
as the ultra-supporter of every liberty dear to the
Englishman—has given notice that he intends to
move that the town of Liverpool be practically
franchised for a month, (groans,) and gives this as
his reason for doing so—because, in pursuance of a
crotchet of his own, he intends to move that the votes at
the next election for Liverpool be taken by ballot.
(Laughter, and cries of " Oh ! oh !") He has given
this notice in the face of the recent discussion in the
House of Commons, when the opinion of the house was
taken on the subject of the ballot after a lengthened and,
I will say, a very able discussion, in which the general
character of the ballot was resolved to be reprehensible
thatw
by a very large majority. He has given notice of this
motion, too, in the face of the report of the Liverpool
Election Committee ; which, after the long inquiry, has
imputationcharacter
—(cheers)
an d lenaotefvuerethreersitnsquuiproyncaynobuer
recommended, (Loud cheers). These, gentlemen, five