The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-06-07 00:00:00

most entirely of the joints of the tail, is Convincing. proof
that the heart of England, of the English members, and
the people of England, is sound on the subject of -reli
gion and in defence of our national church. The pre-
sent bill ‘Vill fail as did the former. one. If it do not die
a natural death in the commons it will be pulled to pieces
in the lordS; so that the session will end without minis-
ters being enabled to pass any of their leading measures,
or accomplish any of their revolutionary designs.
But can this state of things be much longer endured ?
Is it desirable that these ministerial and legislative dis-
tractionS should be prolonged ? Here we have a cabinet
exercising all the patronage of the country for its own
factious ends—jobbing the public money with a truly
beral and bountiful hand—procuring the services of
three-fourths of all the lawyerS in the kingdom by cor-
rupt means—and yet the cabinet is so weak that it can-
not contrive by any means to gain a commanding posi-
tion in the country. It is weak in the coniniOnS, it is
despised at court, it is laughed at amongst the higher
classes, and in the lords it is not only feeble and con-
temptible, but it has not three peers of any pretensions
to intelligence, oratory, or the ordinary powers of debate,
to rise up in its defence. Such a ministry never was
seen in England since a rogue in a cap and bells was the
wit of the court and the favourite of the monarch. How
they can look each other in the face, knowing the general
opinion that is entertained of them, is quite beyond our
comprehension. Perhaps they imagine that with the as-
sistance of the tail they can lash England during their
good will and pleasure, and that although the lords can
prevent them from doing mischief, they cannot interdict
them from drawing their salaries on quarter-day.
Never mind. The clay of reckoning is drawing near.
The miserable majority of THIRTY-NINE is satisfactory in
the highest degree, for it proves that where the Church
of England is concerned there are numbers who dare not
vote `in favour of its enemies be they ever so much dis-
posed. Ministers carried the Irish municipal bill in op-
position to Lord FRANCIS EGERTON'S amendment by a
majority of sixty-one. Where is that majority now?
Every exertion was made—the fate of the ministry de-
pended upon it—every hole and corner was searched—
every dependent was whipped up—but the vile tail after
all formed the majority. This, we say, is a victory. Con-
sidering all the circumstances, no minister of any pride
or nice sense of honour would remain a single second in
office after such a demonstration. It has been reserved to
a RUSSELL to bring the boasted spirit and chivalric sen-
sitiveness of the whigs into ridicule and obloquy. He
and his party once claimed the romantic title of patriots;
now they are only despised placemen. "Pay" is their
motto—their religion is patronage—their country is the
home office—their valour is confined to hostile invasions
of a domestic nature—and on the ocean, under the flag
that has braved a thousand years, their last victory was a
robbery, their hero a fool, their boasted philanthropy an
invented lie, and the whole transaction culpable and dis-
graceful.

We heartily congratulate the mercantile and shipping
interests of Liverpool on the signal success which the
justice of their cause has obtained over the aspiring and
dictatorial monopolists of the town council. We have no
wish to increase their vexation by indulging in any loud
tone of triumph, being convinced that a simple statement
of the facts will satisfy all the parties concerned that the
committee, by their several decisions adverse to the cor-
poration, have best consulted the good government of
Liverpool, and the prosperity of its inhabitants.

There are several reasons why the reformed town
council are desirous of having the management of the
duck estate, the dock police, and of course the dock reve-
nues, in their own hands. It is stated that the already
embarrassed situation of the corporation, caused by their
innumerable and expensive changes, by the appointment
of new and unnecessary officers, by wasting .EI3OO a-year
upon a stipendiary magistrate, by a more costly police,
and by the unexpected and compulsory compensation
given to retired servants of the corporation—in short, by
jobbing of various kinds, only since January last, the re-
formed corporation of Liverpool is as near under water
as a concern whose expenditure equals, if not exceeds,
its income can possibly be. We speak by the card
whets we say, (and we beg the creditors to mark our
words,) if the council conduct themselves for the next six
months as they have done for the last six months—if thee
evince the same wanton disregard of economy, the same
indifference to impartial dealing, the same profligacy in
the distribution of their patronage, and the same foolish
and factious haste in removing one class of servants and
substituting another—nothing on earth can save the cor-
poration from insolvency !
Under these peculiar circumstances we were not sur-
prised to see our municipal functionaries anxious to pos-
sess themselves of the exclusive management of the dock
estate ; and had they come before the public with the
real motives, and pleaded their extreme poverty, it is
more than probable that the burgesses at large would have
shown a deeper sympathy in their favour. But, instead
of the open and candid way of accomplishing their object,
they had recourse to their old arts of mystification, endea-
vouring to show that, as the corporation was reformed,
the dock estate ought not to be reformed. Some of the
Solons amongst them tried to convince us that a tailor
in the London-road, occupying a £2O house, and having
paid the rent and taxes of the same fOr three years—all
the other years of his life having been spent in an attic
in London—had just as good a right to vote for a dock
trustee as any merchant paying £2OOO a-year to the
estate! This absurdity—this monstrous injustice—was
stoutly maintained by the leading orators of the Town-
hall ; and it was upon this impudent dogma that the
council took their stand. They openly and shamelessly
threw their former opinions overboard—they recalled the
protestations of twenty years—they scouted their own
principle, viz., that those, and those only, who pay taxes
should have the nomination and control of the imposer or
administrator of such taxes—in short, inflated pride, na-
tural arrogance, and insatiable ambition, not only made
them inconsistent, but glaringly unjust.
The rate payers and the corporation being thus at
variance upon a plain and popular principle both parties
appealed to parliament. A bill 'was brought in by the
former, and opposed by the latter. The select committee,
Lord FRANCIS EGERTON being the chairman, after hear-
ing counsel and examining witnesses, declared the
preamble proved, and on Thursday the great struggle
took place upon the question, " in whom the right of
electing trustees should be vested ?" The corporation
were in favour of the municipal voters, their opponents
wished to confine it to the ratepayers. Upon this a
long and even warm discussion took place, but it was at
length decided by 35 to 31, that the right of election
should be in the dock rate-payers only !
Beaten on this important point the corporation moved
an adjournment of the committee from Thursday to
Monday (yesterday) which was opposed, the committee
again dividing, when it appeared that the majority re-
fused to adjourn. The proceedings were recommenced
on Friday, on which day anothor most important clause
was decided against the municipals. It was this. The
liberal and reformed corporation were desirous that the
whole twenty-four managers of the Dock estate should
be chosen from the aldermen and councillors. These re-
formers wished to have the privilege of self election, but
this being denied on Thursday, they still contended for
all the power that remained -to be conferred. The rate-

payers were willing to consent to elect twelve of their

managers from the common council, from those members

of it otherwise eligible as rate-payers; but this fair con-
cession the corporation would not accept, and the com-
mittee again divided, when the prnposition of the rate-

payers was carried by a larger majority than before. By
this decision the corporation will i❑ future have no con-

:rout over the dock estate. Twelve of its aldermen or

councillors must be trustees, so long as it has twelve who

are eligible, but these must be elected by the tate-payers.
In conclusion we have only to say; that every propo-
sition which was submitted by the rate-payers was Cat-
tied by the committee, while every one Moved by the
corporation was rejected. Yesterday the police question
was to have come on, the corporation being desito6g to
unite or amalgamate the dock and town 'Tftis will be opposed, and as some think defeated. It is