The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-02-25 00:00:00

It was 'evident that the presence of the Radical
worthies whom we have enumerated was a prelude to a
disgraceful and disgusting scene—a scene gnite in
keeping with the recent tyrannical and unconstitutional
proceedings of the House of Commons. . O'Connell
was, of course, backed by the Precursors of the metro-
polis; while Mr. Coppock, the redoubtable agent of
the Reform Club, was busily engaged in collecting and
arranging the Radical scum of Middlesex.. A "row"
was evidently contemplated ; and a " row" ensued,
such as it would baffle the descriptive powersof a
" Boa" to narrate. Soon after 12 o'clock, taking ad-
vantage of the temporary absence of the county func-
tionaries, that old humbug, Hume, was moved into

the chair. It was of no avail that Mr. Mann protested
against such a barefaced intrusion.- It was of no avail
that he said that "it was a county meeting, convened
by the Sheriff, and that that functionary, or his dele-
gated representative, had the right to preside." This
protest was met with the mingled hisses and groans of
the " most beautiful pisantry on the face of the earth,"
and of the " ragged janissaries Of revolution from St.
Giles's." Mr. Home's • conduct in occupying the
chair, at the instance of the Precursors and Radicals,
has sunk him lower: than ever in the opinion of the
electors of Middlesex. His effrontery in usurping the
'chair was only exceeded by his impudence in asserting
that " the right of publication by the HOuse of Com-
mona was a priVilege conducive to the rights and liber-
ties of the people." This bold assumption of the
"rejected of Middlesex" was treated with becothing
indignation by the great majority of the meeting. The
only parties who " honoured" him with their cheers
were the Ribbonmen and the revolutionists. To them
the tyrannical sentiment was exceedingly welcome..
After-Mr. Hume had, in vain,essayed to procure a
hearing, Mr. Wakley, the "fire-king," alias the
"medical mountebank," obtruded himself upon the
notice of the meeting. He rose, he said, to move a
-resolution, which he had brought with him, ready
"cut and dry." From this token of preparation it is
evident that the whole proceeding was a preconcerted
affair—that it was, in fact, the development of a plan
which had been diligently concocted in the Reform
Club-house, in the first instance, and then in the pur-
lieus of St. Giles.
Mr. Wakley's attempt to address the meeting was
very properly met by Mr. Taylor—a liberal common
councilman—who rose to order, and desired that•the
requisition to call the meeting should be read.' This
demand forced Mr. Hume to confess that "he had not
got
,a copy of the requisition." What right had this
conceited and pragmatical personage tb occupy the
chair, if he was unprepared to show for what object
the meeting had been convened ? To. remedy this
glaring info:mality, a hue and cry was milde for a cagy
of the requisition. At length a reporter ifor one of the
evening ministerial organs. discovered, in the profun-
dity of his inexpressibles, a slip of knewspaper, con-
taining the advertisement calling the meeting. This
document was seized upon with: rat avidity by the
gentienieiff..on _the
hisses and cries of "That's not the•iequisition." Such
was the miserable subterfuge to which the factious
intruders were compelled to rosort, in order to give a
colourable regularity: to their mischievous pranks.
After this contemptible farce had been enacted, Mr.
Wakley agaiu attempted to " drug" the meeting
_with
his nauseous oratory: -He had the impudence to (lc-
normiChhe party by whom the meeting had been, called
AO' noisy fellows," asserting that, " as. the Sheriff had
'not arrived, he, the fire-king, ought to have occupied
the chair !" This we suppose, was a burst of spleen
and jealousy at the elevation of the member for Kil-
kenny, He next called upon the meeting " fairly to
discuss the question :" as if there was any degree of
fairness to be 'expected from O'Ccinnell and his coal-
heaving myrmidons. • The whole speech of this over-
bearing quack was a strange jumble 'of incongruities
and self-contradictions. Alter voting, in every in-
stance, against the Sheriffs, and giving utterance, in
his place in the •House of Commons, to the'most harsh
and unjustifiable language towards the Sheriffs and
those who stood up in their defence, he had the auda-
city to declare, that " no man valued liberty more than
he did"—that " no man could be more reluctant to
place any restriction on his fellow subjects that was not
called for by law and justice"—and that " if any man
complained against the Sheriffs for acting as they did,
he was guilty of a gross injustice." Well might the
impatient audience exclaim, " You have done it,"
It would be almost as sickening a task to wade
through the mass of vulgar abuse with which Mr.
Wakley loaded the respectable part of the meeting, as
it would be to peruse a volume of the Lancet, Among
the choice and delicate expressions with which he gar-
nished his oration, we find the following Stupid
old fellow"—" I wish I had a strait-waistcoat for that
old lunatic"—" who is the old vagabond ?"----with
many others equally elegant and dignified. Such lan-
guage, is 'quite familiar to those Irish audiences who
are in the habit of listening to the harangues of Daniel
O'Connell ; but it is somewhat new to find an English
member of parliament so far forget himself, as to adorn
his speech with the " flowers of Billingsgate and St.
Giles." But we forget that we are living under a re-
form dynasty, when it is by no means necessary that a
senator should be a gentleman

Mr. Wakley had not been long on his legs when the
Under-Sheriffs of Middlesex entered the meeting. The
appearance of these gentlemen, one of whom claimed
the right to occupy the chair, was the signal for a scene
of confusion and riot which beggars all description.
A rush was made to the platform by a party of indivi-
duals from the body of the room—the barrier in front
of the platform was torn .down—the tables and chairs
allotted to the reporters were upset-77and,an indescrib-
able scene of tumult and violende ensiied,'in Which the
low Irish vagabonds that had obtruded themselves into
the meeting were not the least conspicuous. Mr. Un-
der-Sheriff France was precipitated from the platform,
and narrowly escaped being seriously injured. Mr.
Warburton and others skulked into one of the side
avenues leading to the platform. Mr. Hume was
ejected from the chair, and that post of honour, toge-
ther with the chairman's table, was thrown off the
hustings on to the floor of the room. So serious was
the collision, that it was deemed advisable to read the
riot act, which was done amidst the most deafening
uproar. After the RIOT ACT bad been read, Messrs.
Wakley, Hume, Warburton, and others
,quietly sneak-
ed out of the room. Not so, however, O'Connell, He .
was determined to bully the Sheriffs, by displaying his
utter disregard of the law. Even after the reading of
of the RIOT ACT, this " bloated buffoon" had the ef-
frontery to move that Sir J..S. Lillie should take the
chair, in order that a resolution, approving of the un-
justifiable proceedings of the " tyrant majority" might
be passed by the unwashed non-electors.

After this disorderly meeting• was broken up, the
requisitionists, accompanied by the' Under-Sheriffs and
a great number of the respectable electors, adjourned
to another room, where there was no fear of their be-
ing overborne by physicalforce, and where they gave
utterance to the strongest expressionSorcondemnation
in reference to the incarceration of the Sheriffs. The
independent freeholders of Middlesex have done ho-
n Our to themselves, by thus stepping forward in de-
fence of the constitutional rights of Englishmen. We
hope their example will be extensively followed, until.
the " tyrant majority" are compelled to moderate their
unwarrantable pretensions.

THE Ph.E.SIDENT STEAM-SITTP.—This magnificent vessel,
the largest and, we suppose, the longest in the world, arrived
at this port on Saturday last, under -canvass from London,
last from Plymouth. For the present, 'she lies at anchor in
the Sloyne, but will, no doubt, enter the Trafalgar dock, if
her great size will permit of it, to take on board her engines,
which have been manufactured bYMessrs. Fawcett and Co.
The President will, we believe, make her first trip to New
York from Liverpool, and; in .conjunction with the British
Queen, keep up a regular communication by steam between
the old and the new world. [We have endeavoured to put
our readers in possession of a more detailed description of
this splendid vessel, but have not succeeded in getting on
board of her. We hope to give particulArS on Friday.]
THE MONA'S ISLE STEAMER.—We have great pleasure
s
in inserting the following testimony to the humanity, zeal,
and intrepidity of Captain Gill, of the Mona's Isle steam-
packet, as exhibited by him on a late trying occasion :
Lloy.l's, 21st February, 1840.
m:iSlitt,—The
promptitudecircumstancesiidzeal,renuild
rendered assistance assistanceisliiscti you, with so
al to the crew
of the Magazine Life Boat, thereby enabling them to save
crew and passengers . (twenty in number) of the barqueuce
Corsair, wrecked on Jordan Flats, on the 27th ultimo, hay_ •
ing been brought under the notice of the Committee for ma-
naging the affairs of Lloyd's,,l am directed to express to you
the high sense entertained by them of your benevolent .ser-.
vices on that occasion,-74 am, ,Siri latirobedientservazit,
" W. DOBSON.

" Captain William Gill,
Mona's Isle Steam-packet, Liverpobl."