The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-01-27 00:00:00

der, and require wealth by violations of .thosc I, w
wilich they are appointed to observe and-enfurce. It is
'only in a country where the people imagine they possess
equal rights, but where the grossest corruption prevails=
where justice is bought and sold—where every post and
place under the government is a job—that such enormi-

ties could be committed or would be endured. We have
our blemishes, We confess, and, with respect tuship-
Wreeks, great blemishes but our vices in that respect
are humanity itself compared with the. conduct of the
justices and the citizens of the United States.

The Staffordshire .4dvertiser of Saturday last contains
a full and, We believe, a faithful report of the speech de-

ivered by Sir lloorArr PEEL to the electors of 'Fain

worth on the 16th instant, The occasion was-a il:nner.

given by the right honourable baronet to his friends,

chiefly for the purpose of giving him an opportunity to

emler them his thanks for returning him to parliament.

Sir ROBERT was not present during the election; but as
soon as he could disengage himself from his duties in
London he hastened to 'l'amworth to acknowledge the

honour conferred upon him, and to explain his views of
public policy as far as he could do so' consistently with
his official responsibility. We cannot make room for the
whole of his animated achifess, but we the less regret
this, inasmuch as the extracts which follow contain those
declarations _which can alone interest the general reader.
In answer to the factious cry, that: the people have
"no confidence" in the new administration, the right

honourable baronet obser-ves
" Have Hull, and Liverp..ol, and Bristol' marked their disap-
probation of thu principles av'ow'ed
by the King's government ?
Look at the constituencies' of counties and towns,--constituen-

cies existing under the reform bill,--and judge whether the
men who repre4ent them are to lie denounced as persons un-
worthy of the confidence of the people. (GreiAt cheering.) But

_ .
the truth is', that there never was an assumption snore gratuit-
ous and more arrogant than that of 'those who undertake to an-
swer for the opinions, and to claim for themselves the authority
of the people of Bectand. (Cheers.) Every little knot of an-
gry politicians speaks in the name of tbe'peopte, .1 They remind
one of the story of Mr. Sheridan,—that three tail,ore met in
'l'onley-street to petition parliament, and headed their petition,
" We, the people of England." (Laughter and cheers.) They
begin by excluding from their definition of the people the no-
bility, the clergy, the magistracy, the lauded proprietary; they
assume that between those classes, and the class which courti-
tutes, in their sense of the term, the people, there is uo coins
munity of interest or feeliog, and that iu the class so constitut-
ing the people, there is perfect unanimity. (Hear, hear.) Now,
let them make what exclusions they please,.cau they make any
which, with any semblance of decency, will exclude this society
from its light to be considered a part of the people? I see
around me magistrates, country gentlemen, the ministers of the
established church, the minister,s of Roman Catholic and dis-
senting congregations, farmers, manufacturers, retail dealers,—
entertaining, no doubt, different opinions oti many points, but
agreed in this—to support the King in the exercise of his just
prerogative, and at least to heat before they condemn the in-
tentions of his government. (Loud cheering.) My belief is,
that in holding this opinion they hold it iu concurrence with a
very large proportion of that class of society which has educa-
tion, intelligence, and property, and that that proportion is
daily increasing in numerical and moral strength. (Cheers.)
I am told that I am not: a reformer, and that if I become a re-
former I must bean apostate. Now, before I determine whe-
ther I am a reformer or not, I must have a definition of the
term. I see some men who call themselves' reformers, who
throw the greatest opstructiuns in the way of real reform, who
consume the public time in useless snotious ; who make speeches
for mere display; who condemn everything as wrong, and set
nothing right; eh() soar above the vulgar task ofdevisiug prac-
tical remedies themselves, and leave no time to others to devise
them. (Hear, hear, hear.) They denounce you as a defender
of all abuses if you do not adopt their definition of an . abuse.
One gentleman thinks the legislative union-an abuse ; another
thinks the church of England an abuse; another thinks grand
juries an abuse; another insists on vote by ballot; another on
expelling the bishops front the House of Lords. I voted against
all their propositions on these subjects, which were suburitied
to a vote; and if this be the test of an anti-reformer, and a pa-
tron °rebuses, I must be condemned' as such,—,but I must be
condemned in company with Lord Althorp and Lord John
Russell, who voted as I did. (Loud cheers.) I shall continue
to take the same course; shall claim for myself the right to
form my own judgment, neither taking for granted that that
must be an abuse which any one may please to call an abuse;
nut deterred from applying a remedy by the fear of being
charged with apostacy. An apostate indeed ! Why, I have
done more in the cause of substantial and permanent improve-
ment than nine-tenths of those who call themselves reformers.
(Great applause.)"
The premier then proceeds to show the nature of the
-calculations upon which he rests his hopes of support in
the new parliament. ~ He says t— •
. "Notwithstanding all the ominous predictions of our inability
to carry on the government, 1 own to you that I do entertaiu the
greatest confidence that those predictions will not he verified,
(cheers,) and that the representation of the country will not
refuse to give the King's ministers a FAIR 'I Itl A 1,. (Cheering.)
A few weeks only can elapse before the experiment will be made.
I am not alarmed at the lists that are published, dividing the
members of parliament into "conservatives" and. •' reformers:"
I cannot but think that many of those, who are classed as se-
formers, entertain opinions not far different front my own; and
every hour that passes will, I doubt not, increase the disposition
to take a caleter view of the principles-upou •whit Is we propose
to act. (Cheers.) It' the pia,tte and the representatives of this
country are convinced that we are desirous of maiutaining our
national institutions,.and of improving them, with a view to their
maintenance, I do not believe that they will lend themselves to
any factious opposition: to the King's government. (Great
I,cheering.) The people Of England are anxious, I believe, to
preserve, in their full integrity, the prerogatives of their uncient
monarchy. (Great cheering.) 'racy are anxious to maintain
the free and iudependeut action of every branch of the le-gisla-
ture ; they are anxious to maintain the church and its connex-
ion with the state, less for any civil or secular object, than be-
cause they believe the mains •.tance of. the established church to
be the best security for the maintenance of that faith which they
profess, and the surest bulwark against infidelity on the one
hand, and fanaticism on the other. 1 hey will support the church
on high grounds ssf religious feeling and principle, iu which
even many, who do not conform to all the doctrines of the
church, may cordially and zealously concur.
..This-ohject, I. for
one, ant determined to maintain. (Rapturous applause.) But,
it is quite consistent with that object to relieve any real griev,
ante, and to remove any civil disadvantage under which those
I who do not concur in the doctrines of the established church may
labour. My Opioion is, that with that course, coupled with a sin-
cere desire to pronwte rational and well-matured improvement, the
people of England will be content; nay, more, that qt that c0t....:e
they will cordially approve. (Hear, bear, hear.) As for myself,
whatever may be the result, I regard it without any feelings of
anxiety or apprehensiou; I have no object uf personal ambi-
tion to gi atify, and whatever else I may lose, I calling lose the
consolation of having acted on a sense of public duty at a period
of great difficulty. If I succeed, 1 shall have the satisfaction of
thiukiug that I have succeeded against great obstacles and amid
the most coutident predictions of failure.. I BRLIEVki THAT I
CHALL sccc sun. (Thunders of applause.) I have that couti•
deuce in a good cause; I have that confidence in the success of
good intentions; that I believe that a majority of the representa,
lives of Ignyland will be satisfied with the measures which I shall
prOpose,.and that they will lend their support and co-operation in
carrying them into eject. (Cheers.)
We have no doubt but that in these sentiments a vast
majority of the people will heartily concur. •

Our attention has been called, by one of the parties
concerned, to a series of letters which were published in
one of the Liverpool newspapers on Saturday last. This
correspondence will be found in another place.
We should not have noticed it at all but fur ono irresis-
tible reason. The character, conduct, integrity, and in-

dependence of this journal are arraigned by a reverend
gentleman, whom, fur the sake of his friends, and the
church to which he belongs, we are Sorry to see coming
forward, like a London informer, to make charges the
utter fallacy of which is plainly marked on the face of
them ; but, these charges having been made, we cannot
hesitate for a moment in doing our :need of justice to

le gentleman accused, and in refuting the slanders ca

upon ourselves.
We allude to the correspondence between Mr. THOMAS
Dzany HOUSVALL and the Rev.'jAMES ASPINALL. The
animus of the contradictory allegations is confined to a
question of private character. Throwing the evidence
aside, which is of the first importance, and, in our
opinion, settles the question ; but, throwing the evi-
dence aside, the charge rests upon the credibility of
the disputants- In the first imitancei.therefore, we put it
to that test. The Rev. JAMES ASPINALL has been before
the public as the incumbent of one of our churches, as
the author of a few sermons, which display neither pro-
fundity of thought, rareness of learning, aptness of il-
lustration, nor even a popular acquaintance with his sub-
ject. But no man ought in justice to be censured for a
want of talents. If Mr. ASPINALL possessed redeeming•
qualities of another kind,, such as 'Meekneas—A regard
for the influences of moral action—if he had ever placed
a rigorous restraint upon that voluble httle enemy—the
worst enemy in a weak man—the tongue—if he could
have subdtted his political partizanship to a degree of
temperate moderation—or, if more generous, ho had

been the friend rather than the violent assailant of the

church to which he belongs—whose bread lie eats—with
whose oil he is anointed—and whose sacred robes he
wears—had this been the character of the reverend gen-
tleman—we are sure he would not have been a party to
this silly controversy, nor have laid himself open to the
exposure which we now make on the score of duty and

strict justice.
The Rev. Mr. ASPINALL, at a period of strong political
excitement, after he had voted for two church levellers,-
one of whom had been defeated, chooses to drag forward
Mr. THOMAS' BERRY HORSFALL, and far factious, and,
therefore, the meanest of all purposes, especially in a
clergyman, by circulating a report that he, Mr. T. B.
HORSFALL, is the.editoy of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
The object of this most indecent charge is transparent