The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1832-12-18 00:00:00

knuckles, and having our reasoning confuted, or the
weakness of our arguments exposed, that not only, how-
ever, have our kind neighbours abstained from such rude
attacks, but they have had the extreme goodness to point
out, and to correct our errors of style land composition,
with the most friendly solicitude. Our first lessOn was
from the Journal, for whose kindness we duly returned
our grateful acknowledgement. The Chronicle, on
Saturday, had the goodness to give us some hints upon
the proprieties of verbal collOcation, although he con-.
sidered it no point of his duty, to instruct us in the ele-
gancies of composition, or the refinements of style! !
From the veracious Mercury, we have had a lesson
upon editorial veracity, a subject upon which he is pecu-
liarly qualified to give instructions, although we are far
from wishing it to be understood, that we do not consider
him competent to instruct us in every thing, from a cork
jacket to a humming top. With reference to the most
"learned Theban," we may parody the well known lines,
and say,

• " All sciences his Mammoth genius fit,
" So great is E—g—t—n, so vast his wit:" _•
With such instructors as these, and with the addition of
a few lessons on Belles Lettres and polite: literature,
from the erudite and accomplished. Editor of the Albion,
we may hope, in time, to make some progress in the art
and mystery of editorship; and to concoct leading articles
which will pass the critical ordeal of our friendly com-
mentators. We receive, these lessons with the most
grateful feelings, and assure our amiable contemporaries,
that we shall be thankful for a continuance of similar
favours: if we do not profit thereby, the fault will be in
our own dulness. We wish
" To all, to each, a fair good night,
And pleasing dreams, and slumbers light."

Outs radical friends are at their old tricks again. They
have been defeated in their darling object of returning
Mr. Thornely to Parliament, and knowing, themselves,
no other mode of ensuring success at an election, they
have raised the cry of bribery and corruption. " The
most bare-faced bribery," quoth our friend of the Mer-
cury,—" notorious as the sun at noon-day ;" whilst Mr.
Rathbone stated, that the committee of Mr. Thornely, of
which he was chairman, had not expended one farthing
in ribbons or in liquor! Do we want a reason ? it was,
because " his (Mr. Thornely's) committee were men of
too much integrity to stoop to the degrading acts unscru-
pulously resorted to by the partisans of the successful can-
didate! !!" Why, this out-herods Herod. The chairman
of Lord Sandon's committee is Mr. C. Lawrence,—of Mr.
Thornely's, Mr. W. Rathbone ;—the other members of
each committee standing in pretty much the same rela-
tive position towards each other, in point of respectability
as the two chairmen ;—and in Liverpool, where every
man is known, the editor of the Mercury has the auda-
cins insolence to say, that Lord Sandon's party unscru-
pulously resorted to acts which Mr. Thornely's had too
much integrity to stoop to ! Impudence itself could go
no farther;—the thing is so outrageous, that if we did not
see the words standing in the sheet before our eyes, we
could hardly credit the existence of such a monstrosity.
The chairman of Lord Sandon's committee has promptly
denied the slanderous and offensive assertion, and has
declared that not one shilling was expended for such pur-
poses either by the committee or with their knowledge.
We should think there are but few, even of, the patrons
of the Mercury, who would hesitate which to believe,
when the question lies between the veracity of that gen-
tleman and that of the inflated editor. We have heard
much said about bribery on more sides than one, but we
do not credit half we hear; and we can only say, that if
even half the reports in circulation be true, there has been
as barefaced work on the one side as there has been er-
roneously stated to be on the other. As Mr. Thornely
has promised his friends that an investigation, shall take
place, we may expect that the truth will, by and by, be
brought to light till then, we must be content to remain
under the delusive belief, as the Mercury will have it,
that Lord Sandon, and not Mr. Thornely, is the repre-
sentative of the people of Liverpool.

THE Times again congratulates its readers on the re-
sults of the elections,—" the evidence which every post
brings of the victory obtained by the friends of liberty and
order over tories and anarchists," and the salutary work-
ing of the reform bill. We would ask the writer of these
consolatory paragraphs whether he has read the speeches
and addresses of those candidates in whose success he
glories ?—whether he considers them likely to promote
the cause of liberty and order ?—or, whether they do not
approximate rather to revolution than reform ? In a
word, whether Lords Althorp and Russell are satisfied
that the speeches, addresses, promises, and pledges, on
the strength of which the reform candidates, have suc-
ceeded, indicate that species of reform which their "final"
measure was intended to effect ? If these worthies, whose
election tee Times would have us- belieVe proves the
value and safe working a the bill, can elrect.therneasures
which they have declared their intention to advocate. in
Parliament, we apprehend, ere long, that very Times
will be characterizing them as revolutionists, and as the
enemies, rather than the allies, of national and practical
reform.

The Times would have us believe, that all danger is
over, because, indeed, the elections have passed by with-
out eonvulsion, as though the value of the bill was to be
proved by the way
.the new .constituency would conduct
themselves at elections, rather than the way the reform
members would vote ih Varliatherit• Shallow politicians !
But, to; bring the• writer of the Times to the test. We
ass, does he. Call it a. safe er • sound working of the bill,
that the bulk:of the new rrieffth.ers undertake to advocate
vote 'by ballot, triennial:purllarttents, free trade in corn ,
immediate and peremptory discharge of the black popu-
lation of the colonies,, removal of the spiritual peers from
the second eSate: of the' reatin; and many other .wild and
revolutionary. thOries

:But, to coz-rie nearer home, We ask if the writer of the
Times, who, on Saturday. last, wailed over the rejection
of ICIr. Thurit.ellsr,.is",prePared. to Say the monstrous doc-
trines of that :sage, would-be-le ;stator, are illustrations
;‘-.fe working of the reforth .bill,—doctrines, be it re-