The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-02-13 00:00:00

meeliest' of the inhabitant. of Man,./:ester,
on reqcieitien, by the bormighreeve cud coestables, to eonsi.:er
the propriety of petitioning the crown fur a charter of incorpo-
ration for the borough, and advertised in our last, was held
agreeably to the. announcemeut, in the lert:te room of the To.
Hail, yesterday morning. The seine efforts used by the whigs
to give the requisition an air of importance were resorted to in
order to swell the number of their supporters in .this assembly,
and,• as subsequently appeared, was attended with the desired
suceese. In addition to a liberal distributor: of. Mr. Cobden's
pamphlet's, the publication of the replies of the town-clerk Of
Stockport, and the.meinberfor Waterfordato that g,entlentaa's
inquiries as to their opinion of the desirableness of incorporat-
ing that borough, the vast amount of money, spent in placards
and canvassing notes, and other mere effective inducements to
their friends to .come forward tp their assistance. a number of
men anti boys were for several days employed in parading the
streets with boards, on which were inscribed, in large charac-
ters,
."Corporation charter. Apprived lay the Birmingham
Political Union, by the men of Sheffield. possessed by Leeds,
Huff, Liverpool, and Glasgow, claimed jay. the Irish patriots,
opposed by the operatives of Manchester, who are hired by the
tortes." The opponents of the measure, reality the radicals
of Manchester, were not idle, and the walla of the town were,
for some days prior- to the meeting, prefusely placarded with
their addresses, descriptive of the claims of the whigs upon their
support. 'rhe paper war, in fact, raged with so much violence
that the higher classes of the community, notwithstanding the
publication of a placard by the authorities, expressive nl' their
determination that none but ratepayers should be admitted, an-
ticipated but little reason from the deliberations of such a Meet-
ing, and almost wholly absented th-mselves, The leaders of
either party were admitted by ticket shortly after ten o'clock,
by which time an immense crowd had congregated in the street,
in front of the hell ; and on the doors being thrown open at
half-past ten, the room, which is calculated to contain upwards
of two thousand persons, was speedily filled. The boroughreeye
John Brown, Esq. with the constables, John', Ferguson, Esq.
and David Price, Esq. on his right and left, took his seat amidst
slight applause from the whigs, and read the requisition, which
he stated to have been signed by Mr. Williada Callender and `a
nuinber of utti,er peoine, to the extent of one thousand.' rhe
answer which he and his colleagues had returned'was not given
without mature and proper consideration ; they thought they
hail acted right in calling the meeting, and that had they re-,
fusedethey should not have done their duty. (Applause-from
the whigs.) tie 'expressed a hope that the assembly would be
cool and temperate in their deliberations, as by pursuing that
course they would he most likely to come to a wise and safe
conclusion. The requisitionists wished this to he the case, and
he had that in his pocket by which he was bound to believe:that
any noise or unpleasantness that might occur would come from
their opponents. They told hint that they were never allowed.
to hold a town's meeting in quiet, and that was one chief reason
for wishing to incorporate the borough. He hoped, therefore,
that the penceedinee would be conducted in such a:manner, that
whilst they were creditable to the town and satisfactory to him-
self, they would do away with one of the strongest arguments in
favour of the proposed incorporation. (Some strong remarks
were made as to the unfairness of this attack upon the oppon-
ents of the measure, but they were drowned in the cheering of
the whites.)
Mr. Cobden rose to propose the first resolution, Which 'stood
as follows :—"That it is due to•the character of this impOrtant
borough, that its chief municipal officers should be a body pepu-
lialy chesen, instead of being nominated by the Lord of the
Menor's Court Leet e end that as a preliminary step to the es-
. tehlishment of a responsible local self-eereernmenn'a _petition
be presented to her majesty in council, for a charter of incorpe•
ration, under the act 5 and - 6 William 4 cap. 76, called the
English Municipal Aet." Mr. Cobden then spoke at great
length in support of this resolution.
Mr. J.C. Walker seconded. the motion in a short speech of
no peculiar interest, which was, however, much applauded by
his party.
Mr. Taylor, amidst frequent interruptions from the Whigs,
and consequent uproar, said that he had been requested by a
numerous body of ley-payerssol Chorlton-upon-Medlock, to at-
tend this meeting and• express their decided disapprobation of
this measure. When the (pies; ion was first agitated, a public
meeting wee called fur the purpose of ascertaining their notions
upon the:subject. The meeting was numerously and respect-
ahly attended, the various points were argued, and resolutions
were unanimously passed deprecating the proposed union with
Manchester in a charter of incorporation. It was just twelve
months ago, that a meeting similar to the present was held in
that very room, when the. proposition was rejected by a large
majority. lie could not imagine that the .inhabitants of the
out-townships had, altered their opinions, neither had they had
an opportunity of expressing them. The present meeting had
been called on so short a notice as put it out of their power to
discuss, the question amongst themselves, and enable them to
• come prepared with a statement of their views. There had
never before been in Manchester a meeting on so vitally impor-
tant a question got up on so short a notice.- The inhabitants of
Chorlten-upon-i'dedlock were always ready to join the other
• townships in-any thing that might be mutually advantageous, •
or that might not be positively disadvantageous, to themselves;
but they could not see why their interests should be sacrificed
to' another township merely because it was richer, more nu-
merous in population, and more powerful. The meeting had
heard much of the difficulty 'of finding comoetent persons to fill
the municipal offices in' Manchester; thet difficulty did not exist
in Chotiton-upon-litadlock. The inhabitants there bad been at
a great expense in getting an act which gave them all-the power
which they would have under a charter of incorporation, except
that of taxing themselves for .the benefit of Reenter township.
The commissioners of police there were elected by- the inhabi-
tants at large, who were ratepayers, and every person inhabiting
a £2O house was eligible to -he a commissioner. The com-
missioners were elected every three Beare; they bad power to
appoint watchmen and police officers, and an armed patrol, if ,
nece,•sary. The- inhabitants were satisfied with this act for the!
protection of their persons-rine property, and they could not see
why this firebrand sheuld be thrown amongst them, merely on
the plea that the eeople of Manchester had a dilliculty in elect-
ing their boronehreeve - and constables. The gentlemen who
were qualified for these offices, it was said, left Manchester to
go and reside in the out-townships. Now what would he the
case if the charter were obtained? A common cottneilman re-
siding two months in the year beyond seven-miles (tribe borough;
was liable to a fine of £5O, and mayar to a fine of £2OO. What
was to hinder than front stepping over the limits,- and living
eiut of the borough-altogether? -This might he sport to the
reople of Manchester, but it would be death to those of Chorlton-
uponAladlock. -The owners of property in Manchester could
always find teuants for their shops and their warehouses ; their
rents for these were easily obtained ; but that was not the case
in Choritnnupon-Medlock ; the property was there laid out for
a particular purpose, and the owners would soon find its de-
preciation. They -were told that they should be, taken into
partnership with Manchester in the management of the police.
Now let them see what this partnership would be. The borough
would be divided into wards, and each ward would have council-
men-in proportion to its population, and the rates of its assess-
ment.. • If one part of the town had a population of only one
thousand, and a high -assessment, it would- return as many
councilmen-as another ward with ten thonsand population and
a low assessatent•; and the. township of Manchester would re-
turn as many as all ',the other townships put together. The
council so elected would havepower to tax the people to an un-
limited extent; it could give salaries to the mayor, the town
clerk, the treasurer, the assessors, the coroner, and the consta-
bles, to an unlimited amount. How would the people thus be
oppressed with rate. The inhabitants of Cherlton-upon-Med-
lock felt this grievance so strongly that they would rather give,
up their right to participate in the election of members of par-
liament, than join in a charter .for the borough. Mr. Taylor
then intimated that persons were present from the other out-
townships -who would speak their opinions, and that he bad no
wish to indulge in personalities, as a former speaker had done.
—(Cheers and groans.) .

Mr: J. Wroe, in a very long speech, not one complete sen-
tence of which reached the ears of. the reporter, in the
hubbub
that prevailed •went through the principal clauses of the act, for
the purrse of exposing the gross fallacies of Mr. Cobden, and
concluded by proposing the following amendment.
"That this meeting protests againA this the second attempt
to force on the people of this borough nu enactment entitled
" An act to provide for the regulation of municipal corporations
in England and Wales," such bill not being congenial to the
feelings or compatible with the wants of the inhabitants of the
town of Manchester or the borough, as it is the opinion of the
meeting that all ratepayers should partake of equal eligibility in
all local enactments."
Mr. Nightingale, whose speech was almost wholly drowned
cautioning the people against heing deluded by the vicious.
whip, find pointing out the way in which the charter would
operate to their disadvantage. He also disputed the democratic
in the clamour of his opponents, seconded the amendment;
spit it of the act, and corrected many of Mr. -Cobdeu's misstate-
ments.
• Mr. Prentice replied to Mr Nightingale; and was followed,
in opposition, by Elijah Dixon, and a person named Barrow,
amidst much confusion. •
Mr. Heelis said that he haul been rather surprised to lica'r Mr.
Cobden say so much about the universality of the suffrage; and,
imagining that heandother persons mightbe placed in a situation
in which they world have no vote at all, he had sent for the act,
and found by the 9th clause that it was essential, in orderto have
a vote, that the party should occupy a house, warehouse count-
dig-house, of shop, in the borough. Now as he, as to situation,
bid neither of these, but occupied only an office, though he paid
a sufficient rate, he ass to have no voice in the municipal govern-
orient of the town. If the gentlemen would consider. the act a
little better, they would find that many persons who expected
votes, would have none at ail.
Mr. Doherty spoke, at some distance from the table, against
the charter, and could not he heard for the Omar Created by the
iricorporatorS. We understood him to • recommend delay/ and
the alteration of the police act.
,Mr. Cobden, in the course of his reply, mentioned that the
signatures of the ratepayers to the petition, 'would be collected
by going from door to door.
The amendment was put first, and the original motion next.
when there appeared to be a considerable 'majority in favour of

the latter.
A committee was thou appointed to carry the resolution into
vffect, the proceedings were ordered to be advertised; thanks
were voted to the boroughreeve, and the tr.,eeting separated.