The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-01-12 00:00:00

• . -

JANuilly 12" 1S 8.

possession Of the town, and had one-fourth of the troops
subsecpently sent to retake it been forwarded at the pro-
per tiiiie, no loss of prope!ty would have taken place.
So far, therefore, were the destruction and rapine com-
mitted by the insurgents from being consequences of a
purely accidental nature, that they were decidedly the
consequences of gross neglect. The argument founded
on the losses suffered by Brazilian subjects is too ridicu-
lous to merit an observation. Brazilian subjects have no
means to compel payment, and the justice of any claim
they might choose to advance would be no argument in
their favour with the Brazilian government.
A short time previous to the entry of the insurgent
forces into the town, the governor of the provinde ad-
dressed a despatch to the British consul at Para, claim-
ing the co-operation of H.M. ship Racehorse with the
Brazilian squadron to defend the town from their attacks,
when feared or expected:

This was readily complied with from the 14th August,
1835, when the insurgents opened their attack upon the
town, until the 23d, when it was abandoned by the go-
vernment and the white population. During the whole
of this time the Racehorse kept up an effective fire when-
ever the insurgents made their approaches, and at the same
time kept her boats constantly employed in the convey-
ance of Brazilian subjects from the shore to the vessels
lying off the town, and thu3 saved many, hundreds of
lives.

If, therefore, as foreigners, connected by a treaty of
reciprocal duties and privileges, but in no way concerned
in their national differences or internal divisions, British
subjects might have previously claimed protection from
all parties under all changes of government, they were
by this last measure stript of their usual claims to for-
bearance from the insurgents, and throw•n_entir_ely on the
justice of the Brazilian government.
It has not yet transpired how the British government

intend to follow up this matter. Every concurrent cir-
cumstance, however, so fully supports the justice of the
claimants in their appeal, that we feel assured their in-
terests will not be neglected.

THE MEETING OF THE • TRADESMEN'S REFORM ASSO-
CIATION.—The hole and-corner meeting of this political
club was held last night at the Music-hall. This assem,
blage of the Liverpool radicals was designated, in the
Telegraph of Wednesday last, a "public meeting of the
reformers of Liverpool, for the purpose of adopting reso-
lutions in favour of the ballot, the extension of the suf-
frage, and the introduction of Sir John Cam Hobhouse's
bill into Liverpool." Can there be a greater mockery of
common sense than to dignify this secret meeting of the
Reform Association with the title of a public meeting?
Every body knows that no one could obtain admission
into such a meeting hut the enrolled members of the so-
ciety. It was, therefore, to all intents and purposes a
private meeting; and every thing emanating from such
a meeting must be considered as the result of the furtive
operations of a weak and contemptible faction. It is
really laughable to speak of " the voice of this great.
community being unequivocally expressed" on such an
occasion. The " voice of this great community," in-
deed The miserable whisper of an expiring faction we
should call it.

We suppose the radical journals of this town will con-
tain a report of the proceedings at this meeting. We,
shall take -care that they do not escape our notice. On
Tuesday next we hope to have it in our power to inflict
a salutary castigation upon Mr. Blackburn and his asso-
ciates. In the mean time we warn the people, of Liver-
pool against the fallacy of considering the resolutions
which may have been passed at this secret conclave of
the radicals as the echoes of public opinion. The peti-
tions which may emanate from the same source must
participate of the same nature.

O'CONNELL AND THE DUBLIN TRAIDES.—This "bold,
bad man" has at length met with a rebuff which he little
anticipated, and from :a quarter in „which he considered
himself perfectly secure. In a moment Of excitement lie
ventured to declaim against the proceedings of the
Trades of Dublin, accusing theta of unlawful combination,
and vituperating their leaders in terms of unmeasured
calumny. This was considered the more surprising as
Mr. O'Connell himself had advised them to carry out
the very schemes against which he now proclaims his
imstilitY. On numberless occasions his hat rangues to the
Trades were marked by the most lawless violence; and
if they acted upon his suggestions, and rendered them-
selves obnoxious to the law by their secret combinations,
they rationally and naturally concluded that he should
have been the very last to upbraid them for the conse-
quences resulting from his own inSidious advice. Ac-
cordingly we find that, when he ventured to impugn
their conduct, they retorted by accusing him of directly
prompting them to acts of violence. In this the Trades
were perfectly right. There is no man living who has
suggested more numerous infractions of the law, or
organized a grater number of conspiracies against the
public peace than the Arch-agitator. At the same time
there is no one who has shrunk more frequently, from
feelings of instinctive cowardice, from the consequences
of his own seditious and villanous advice, than the same
traitorous O'Connell. But lie has at. length met with
his reward. The very instruments, upon whose willing
co-operation lie had long depended, at length have proved
the means of bringing his character into disrepute.
But on this subject we cannot do better than quote the
remarks which the Evening Mail has made upon tile
meeting of Monday Evening. The following is the lan-
guage of our able contemporary:—
THE TRADES OF DUBLIN AND MR. O'CONNELL.
Monday last will be marked as the fatal day in the calendar
of Mr. O'Counell's public life. It was the crisis on which de-
pended the return of the popular tide in his favour—or its per-
severance in retreating and deserting him for ever. Ile em-
ployed his arts. and more than his usual arts, to procure the
appearance of a favourable result. He came prepared to flat-
ter, to cajole, to tempt with pecuniary offers and gavernlnent
patronage the injured and insulted men by
whose honest but
mistaken zeal he had himself attained that eminence which
enabled him to injure them. He had filled his rooms at the
Corn Exchange with a packed assembly; he had selected a
chairman suitable to his purpose; and in Peter Purcell, the
snail-coach contractor, it must be admitted, he found a bench
man who "did him yeoman's service." Ere yet the proceedings
were fully opened, or the agitator committed with his " country-
men," Peter, who in irony is called "Simple," took occasion
to read a document, as he said, emanating front the coach-
makers of Dublin, and signed by those who work at the factory
in Russell-place, wherein the subscribers "most heartily coin-
cide with Mr. O'Connell." But Peter forgot to state that the
factory in Russell-place is, a portion of his own establishment,
and that the coachmakers who signed his document are exclu-
sively those in his own employment, and under his own controul.
Nor did this disinterested contractor's aid stop here—his friend-
ship carried itself through the whole proceedings from beginning
to end—for we are informed that "the business of the meeting
concluded by tine chairman (Peter Purcell, as aforesaid) bring-
ing forward a resolution to the effect that a tradesman's-hall, with
suitable cominittee-rooms, should be erected in this city ; and
announced, amidst continued cheering, that himself and Mr.
O'Connell would subscribe £lOO each!" A sprat to catch a
salmon! But the bait did not take, The meeting broke up at
nine o'clock, p.m., giving "three cheers for -Lord Mulgrave
and old Ireland," and omitting by universal consent the once
popular name of O'Connell ! How are the mighty fallen !
- The proceedings are of the most singular nature. For the first
time in his life, Mr. O'Connell stood as a crimival—not at the
bar of justice, but at the bar of the popular party—arraigned of
deception, treachery, and falsehood. His position was painful:
bad he been an honest.. straightforward and virtuous man, it had
excited pity. In public he has hitherto niastered his temper,
Inn here he lost all self-control; and being encountered with
nn ability, a firmness and spirit which he did not expect, and
was unable to resist, he stood like an angry bear at a stake,
growling, and snarling and snapping at every thing and every
body, till his spleen at length gave way to exhaustion. On the
very outset he madean hijUilidous cast, in calculating on the
absence of Mr. Patrick O'Brien, the Chairman of the late
Aggregate Meeting, and in falling foul of that able antagonist
in his absence. But Mr. O'Brien havinglearned" the course
adopted by his honourable opponent, in violation, as it would
appear, of a previous agreement entered into, left the work in
which he was industriously engaged, and quickly appeared
upon the platform to confiont this caluinniator. We have
seldom seen a display of such prompt ability, and unpremedida-
led eloquence in a labouring mechanic. His denunciation was
terrible—and when he reminded his antagonist that he (Mr.
O'Connell) was himself a leading coinbinator—that at Kerry
he recommended the death's. head and cross bones to be placed at
the dimes of all who did not combine with him—that he had a;'..
'6e4 the whole country to combine against tithes {—and he
,night bare added that blood streamed at Ilathcormat in con-1