The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-01-23 00:00:00

with which this very " packed" list has been made
out. In the first place, the: parish officers in each

the Corporate funds. As Mr. Platt has been deprived
of his seat by a decision of the Town-clerk, which de-
cision the highest legal authority in the land has year frame lists of Persons qualified to serve, those de-
Glared erroneous, it is plainly the duty of the Council
tTo
hueneor,?nk-ec
ke
,satisfactory arrangement eor
ascertainediile
as
that
-the city of Dublin by the recorder. After re-
the facts have been fairly laid before the Attorney-Ge-
jecting tmqualified persons (which we presume is neral, make it hii business to see that this is done and
what our contemporary terms " weeding the list"),
f•ro•mo, to regent those who have merely sought j
euniary fferers."
and inserting the names of persons improperly
Now, Mr. Harvey'ssu case, we submit, is scarcely
omitted, it is his duty to classify that list, so
analogous to the case of Mr. Glazebrook. The
amended, according to the rank and property of the
parties, those of the degree of esquire, or possessed case of Mr, Quayle, in Everton Ward, is nearer to
of £5OOO in property, constituting the special panel. it; and that gentleman, it will be remembered, pur-
sued a very different course to that which the Albion
The list thus arranged and classified is, by the re-
corder, given to the clerk of the peace; by the fat would
seat and voted for a year and a half, after quite
ter copied into the juror's book, and such jurors'
as good authority having declared his election to be
book. handed to the sheriff. When a special jury is.
void as any which has been given in the present case.
required, the list called the. special panel is taken by
the sheriff from the jurors' book, and handed to the We do not remember any extraordinary fuss being
clerk of the crown made about the claimant of that seat, Mr. Shand,
, by whom each name is written
the proceedings to oust the " usurping
pl
on a separate card; these cards are aced in a box, having
and forty-eight drawn out. Of these each party member " being taken up or paid for by the Council,
or any great lamentation being made by the former
rejects twelve; and the twenty-four names left are
the panel to be summoned on the trial. as to the possibility of his being a "pecuniary
sufferer."
Now this was precisely the course adopted on this, The idea, by the bye, of the Council paying for
as on previous and ordinary occasions. The "weed- the opinion itsqf, is rich !—and the idea of the At-
ing of the list," which the Mercury would fain have
, was torney-General being "the highest legal functionary
the world to view as some back parlour affair
the ordinary revision by the ordinary and only lee I in the land," is equally so.
authority. The alleged " pains taken to exclude
from it all Catholics and Liberals" is an unauthorised
invention of the Mercury himself. The list was sent
to England, for the signature of the Recorder, who
happened to be in that country.
So much then for this piece of flippant ignorance.
But we are further reminded, as a " matter of deep
suspicion," of the omission of some names, which
ought to have been upon the full panel from which
the 48 names constituting the jury were drawn; and
it is more than insinuated that the omission in ques-
tion was made designedly, although the fact is on
record that, of these names, only fifteen were those of
Roman Catholics. But how did this omission take
place ? We give the reply in the words of the Lon-
don Times, to whose columns we have already been
indebted for some of the facts above.
"The Recorder prepared the classified list with his
own hand. With his own hand he delivered it to Mr. M'Grath, the deputy clerk of the peace. Mr. M'Grath
is a Roman Catholic. He is an official of more than ten
years' standing, and his politics are therefore unknown.
The names of persons worth £5,000 were given on slips,
a separate slip for each parish. Mr. M'Grath says he
dropped the slip that contained the names in St. Andrew's
parish-16 in number. He has found it since he made
out the jurors' book. The cause of omission of the 59
names cannot be traced. In the name of common sense,
should the administration of justice be obstructed for
twelve months because a clerk lets a slip of paper fall.
out of his hand ? At all events, neither Mr. O'Connell
nor any other traverser ventures to swear that he was
not cognizant of the mistake or fraud by which the names
were omitted."
So then, after all the furious outcry against the
" person unknown," by whom these names were
suppressed, and which person unknown was of
course to be a Tory, and a Protestant, it is quite
possible that the real delinquent may have been this
Mr. Magrath, a Roman Catholic, and a legacy left
us by a preceding Whig administration. The loss
of the slip containing St. Andrew's parish, with six-
teen names, is acknowledged by the gentleman in
question, and why may not the fifty-nine names have
been lost by the carelessness of the same individual
—of course without any wrongful motives ?
But, according to the Mercury, we must view the
whole of the proceedings against O'Connell and his
confederates as an attack upon civil and religious
liberty; and our contemporary asks, " Wherefore
let the vision of an elderly gentleman living at Rome,
and a few poor divines studying at an Irish college,
frighten the land from its propriety ?" Indeed The
repeal agitation is, indeed, a Romish movement—is
it ? We are glad of a confession of the fact. for -
such we have ever viewed this very agitation !

We have been appealed to, by several corres-
pondents, upon the subject of the probable course
which will be pursued by the Watch Committee in
their election of a person to succeed to the situation
of the late high-constable, Mr. Whitty. We have
no positive information as to what will be that
course. We can have, and ought to have, none.
Our own impression, and the general impression, is,
that the best man will be selected, whoever he may
be, and that, however highly recommended, to no
man will undue favour he shown.

We do hear it whispered, indeed, that, in some
quarters, a disposition has been evinced togive prefer-
ence to a military man over one who has been accus-

to other pursuits, and that such a man, influentially
recommended, is in the field. We doubt, however,
that such a preference is generally entertained, and
greatly doubt the advantage to be derived by such a
nomination. A military, or quasi-military govern-
ment, of a purely local force is not one most adapted
to win favour in the eyes of the English people, if it

is not even adapted to provoke hostility to such
a force rather than a kindly feeling towards it
on the part of the public. The military government
of the Manchester force is an instance of this ; and
the remembrance of the events of August, 1842,
does not convince us that such a force is the most
effective. And with respect to the rank, education,
&c., of a Head-constable, we are not assured that it
is necessary that these should be of the very highest
order. A firm resolution to do his duty, and to do
no more, may be found where these assumed requi-
sites are not ; and it is, we should imagine—and
we say it without any wish to appear dictatorial—
_

not necessary to go beyond the bqundaries of our
own borough to find these qualities.

The Watch Commtttee, however, we repeat our
conviction, will do its duty fairly and impartially
upon this as upon other occasions.

We have forborne hitherto, from motives which
may readily be divined, referring to a topic suggested
to is, as eminently worthy of consideration, by the
fate of the five unhappy men recently under sentence
of death at Kirkdale, and one of whom on Satur-
day last expiated his offence upon the scaffold. We
allude, of course, to the crime of poaching and the
means to be taken for its suppression. Even now,
we do not purpose entering at any length into the
subject. A time at which the mind of the public
is excited is not that at which a matter involving
such weighty considerations caii-lie-best approached
and satisfactorily discussed.
There is one point, however, which we have seen
mooted, in relation to the present state of the law,,
as effects this crime, against which we enter our
protest. It is said—and there is some truth in the
argument—that poaching, under the present law,
which permits the open sale of game, will continue
to be resorted to by our agricultural population, so
long as that population is sunk in its present ex-
tremely depressed condition. Our firm impression
is that, practically, such depressed condition of the
labourer has not nearly so much to do with the
matter as is supposed. It is seldom that mere ne-
cessity is the incentive to this crime. In nine cases
out of ten, poaching is a propensity, indulged, in
the first instance, far the gratification which it
affords, and afterwards pursued for its lucrativeness,
and because its indulgence has rendered the party
almost an outcast from society. They are not agri-
cultural labourers, who chiefly stock our markets
with game, but men sprung from a grade of society
much higher—degraded men perhaps, for poaching
leads to degradation as its sure results, yet men
whom poverty most assuredly has not led to its com-
mission.

Excessive mode sty is not ordinarily the attribute
of a whig-radical journalist. Our contemporary,
the Albion, has this week, however, gone clear ahead
of all our previous notions of such a character; and
exhibited an amount of sheer impudence, beauti-
fully combined with ignorance, such as we must

confess we never yet met with. Our readers, of
course, remember the circumstances, under which,
as the result of a scrutiny before the assessors, Mr.
Glazebrook, the present conservative member for
South Toxteth Ward, was declared, after the opinion
in his favour of the Town-clerk upon the law of the
case, to have been elected by a majority of the bona
fide constituency. With this decision Mr. Platt, the
unseated radical, does not appear to have been par-
ticularly well satisfied. A case was, therefore, drawn
up, "as fairly as possible," we are informed, and
stating the politics of the respective candidates, (!) for
the opinion of the Attorney-General—(who ought,
by the bye, to be highly flattered by the notion of
his whig-radical clients, that he had one opinion for
his friends, and another for his opponents in poli-
tics); and the result "chews that the Town-clerk,
able lawyer as he is, was, in this instance, wrong
for Sir Frederick Pollock has delivered an opinion
in every respect favourable to the claim of Mr. Platt."
There is certainly nothing very singular in this.
The Attorney-General, consulted by Mr. Platt, and
supplied with Mr. Platt's version of the facts of the
case, has given an opinion that Mr. Platt should
have been elected to the representation of South
Toxteth Ward. Of course the Attorney-General,
an eminent lawyer, is perfectly correct in his judg-
ment upon the case as thus placed before him. But
the Albion goes much too far when he states that,
" under these circumstances, the straightforward
course for the tories to pursue would be, at once, to
resign the usurped seat, and declare in Mr. Platt's
favour " ! The opinion of the Attorney-General,
upon an exparte case (and such we must consider
it to be until it is given to the world along with the
opinion) is not to outweigh the opinion of the Town-
clerk, an acknowledged good lawyer, who had both
sides of the case before him ! Why, upon this prin-
ciple we might ourselves claim the proprietorship of
the Albion; get the opinion of the Attorney-Gene-
ral upon a one sided case, and tell our contemporary
that " the straightforward course' for him to pursue"
would be to remove his inkstand, scissors, and dic-
tionary of Latin quotations, and evaporate forthwith I
We should assuredly be laughed at nevertheless for
our modest assurance !

We must go deeper, therefore, for the causes of
the increase of this crime than to the depressed
condition of the labourer. But, as we have already
remarked, we must leave the subject for future dis-
cussion.

W. B.FERRAN n, ESQ.—This gentleman passed through
Liverpool on Saturday, on his way to Dublin, where be
attended a meeting last night (Monday) for the purpose
of assisting the fund now raising for the liberation of the
honest but injured Richard Oastler. God speed him on
his mission.

CHANGE OF THE MARKET-DAY.--We hear from a
source on which we can rely, that measures are being
taken to procure the Saturday's market to be held on
Friday, in lieu of that day, whereby the late Saturday
night's labour and the partial desecration of the Lord's
Day will be altogether obviated.
MR. OASTLER AND THE MERCURY.—Our veracious
contemporary reminds us marvellously this week of a
beaten cur. In his first attacks against the character of
Mr. Oastler, how magnificent was his swagger! He
could prove this; he insinuated that ; and, with a know-
ing shake of his long ears, he intimated that if we would
write to somebody or other, we should learn something
else very astonishing and shocking. And now—most
lame and impotent conclusion !—the Mercury is all
aground—all abroad !He has written for some informa-
tion, and waits for a reply, until receipt of which he can
say no more. Meanwhile, all he can do is to indulge in
a flourish, addressed to the chairman of Mr. Oastler's
Central Committee! We can tell the Mercury a fact,
however, in relation to the subject of his slanders, which
he prudently suppresses. Both the Mercury and our-
selves were waited upon last week, by another member
of Mr. Oastler's committee—Mr. Auty; and that gen-
tleman communicated to both the fact, that, after the ap-
pearance of the first of the Mercury's slanders, and after
our having written to them in accordance with his own
suggestion, a deputation from the Central Committee had
waited upon Messrs. Rawson and Co., and had been as-
sured by these gentlemen that they had no complaint
against Mr. Oastler; that they believed him to be a
strictly honest man ; and that nothing but the fact of no
direct charge against him having, at that time, been even
suggested, together with their aversion to being drawn
into a newspaper controversy, had prevented their giving
their strongest denial to the existence of any complaint,
emanating from or connected with them, against Mr.
Oastler. Mr. Auty's call at the Mercury-office—his
strong remonstrance with the editors—his challenge to
them to give up the name of their informant—his offer,
on the part of the Central Committee, to take upon
themselves the duty of sifting the truth of any state-
ment he might have made—the suppression of all
these facts we leave our readers to form their own
judgment upon. Aaother fact, too, we may mention, as
having been communicated to us by Mr. Auty, and which
we dare say is known to the Illercury. Not eighteen
months ago—at last Doncaster races but one—Mr. Auty
saw Mr. Thornhill himself who expressed hi perfect
satisfaction with Mr. Oastler's books, which had been
audited by competent accountants on both sides, who,
although these hooks extended over a period of thirty
years, had expressed themselves to the effect that they
were highly creditable to Mr. Oastler. Mr. Thornhill
added that he should be rej Aced to see that gentleman at
liberty, but that he wanted his money. At this period, it
can scarcely be supposed hut that, if there had been any-
thing discreditable in Mr. Oastler's conduct, Mr. Thorn-
hill must have been acquainted With it.

The Albion, however, gives " the tories" credit for
a little less of "magnanimity"—he had better have
said " common sense"—than would be shewn by their
pursuing such a course. He is of opinion, how-
ver—clever being !—that " it will be proper for the
Town-council to not only pay the expense of the (ex-
parte) application to the Attorney-General, but to
pursue the matter immediately to a legal issue"—at
their own expense of course. (!!) Strange notions
of the law and the fitness of things a man must have
who can broach such an absurdity as that any public
body should pay the expenses of a rejected candidate,
who contravenes the decision of its own legal officer
as to his election or non-election, (!) merely because
that rejected candidate, upon a case which he has
not chosen to submit to the light of day, has received
an opinion in his favour.
The Albion proceeds :--.

" It will be recollected that, when a
dispute arose
respecting the legality of Mr. Harvey's election as al-
derman, the decision was obtained under the direction
of the Council, and the expenses were defrayed out of