The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-08-28 00:00:00

TO THE PPEEMEX OF THE BOROUGH OF LIVERPOOL.

'lt will doubtless be in your recollection with what acrimony
—with what inveterate spleen and ino.lice you were 'attacked
by, the whig-radical.ministry and their motley adherents, during
the progress of the so-called municipal reform bill through the
House of CoMtnons. In common with others—thousands
throughout the kingdom—you were designated as the most cot-
ru•pt, dishonest, vile, and despicable class of persons in the
community. No epithet was deemed too strong, no language
was thought too coarse, no caltimnious expression was 'reckoned
too reckless to be applied to the freemen of England. But by
• whom. were you thus virulently assailed? Who were your
malignant aspersers? Who were the men that levelled their
vindictive, degrading, and abusive charges against you ? Who
but the contemptible slaves—the degenerate serfs of O'Connell
—himself the superstitions slave of the popish priests? Talk of
corrupt.freemen ! Where has corruption the most glaring, and
jobbing the most disgraceful been more, than among the whigs,
ever since their aecessionto power? Talk of unprincipled free-.
men ! Was there ever such barefaced and shameless violation
of principle exhibited :by public men as the whigs have shown
:through the whole course of their sinister• and tortuous policy?
Talk of the subserviency of freemen! Have ever slaves truckled
with inure abject meanness to the domineering will of a cruel•
taskmaster, than the aristocratic whiles have done to that impor-
tation of Irish impudence and buffoonery that now rules the
fate of England?
And who are the freemen of the English boroughs, that have
such an ignominious load of abuse to bear? Are the freemen
of Liverpool such worthless characters? Are there not among
you merchants of princ•e'y fortunes—living iu palacea-7whose
.richly freighted ship sweeps a thouFaud seas—whose honourable
conduct has rendered the name of Briton respectable through-.
out the world ? Are there not among you professional men of
all grades, whose consistent deportment and personal worth
and integrity are unimpeachable•? Are there not among you
multitudes of industrious tradesmen who, pursuing the even
tenor of their way, live honoured and esteemed by all their ftl-,
low-townsnien ? Are there not among you hundred& of honest
mechanics, usefully employing those talents and that know;
ledge which, they have acquired during a protracted term of
honourable servitude? Are there not among you many indi-
viduals of "independ,nt.means, who have realised a competency
by their commercial pursuits or professional avocations, and,
who are now employing the goods of fortune, or the energies of '
their minds, for the benefit of their fellow-citizens? And are,
these to be denounced and maligned—without keeping Melt
vilifyeri in remembrance? When these cringing Macsyco-
phants, whose obloquy is uuqualified praise, make their ap-:
pearance before the freemen of England, whose confidence
they have betrayed; when they intreat them for their suffrages
with hypocritical humility; when they again, "the fifth time in
four short years," solicit their votes, how will they be received?
A short time will tell—and of this I am confident, that the free-
men of the English boroughs will be found ready and willing
to stand forward in defeace of their time-hallowed privileges:•
Liverpool will be among the first to dissolve all connexion with
the anarchical and republican factions that now disturb the
peace of the empire.

Before I have done with your defamers, it may be worth
while to notice who are the most prominent among them, and
who have declaimed with the greatest violence against you.
Conceding, for the sake of argument, that the freemen of cer-
tain boroughs, to wit, the whig corporations of Nottingham,
Derby, &c., have proved themselves to be corrupt and unde-
serving of their privileges. Who have made them so? Who
have bribed there ? Who have tempted them to Sin ? Why,
these very men who, like Sir John Campbell, are now, with,
astonishing inconsistency, denouncing them as the veriest vaka-
bonds on the face of the earth. This, however, is quite cha-
racteristic of the party from whom the charge has emanated.
No unprincipled seducer could act with greater meanness, or
treat the object of his arts with greater indignity.
Since so much has been said and written about the poverty
of the freemen, as a class, we may as well inquire how far the
charge is applicable in Liverpool. In reference to this; I can
make the following assertion with every conviction of its truth—
that there are to be found 1000 individuals among the freemen
of this borough, whose aggregate wealth will far exceed the
amount possessed 'by any 3000 non-freemen in the town, and
that every farthing of this wealth will have been realised by
commercial or other honourable pursuits. Or I will take
another test; I will maintain that no equal number of persons,
indiscriminately selected from the mass of otir population, can
be found, who are as wealthy and as respectable as the freemen
of this borough-are. They say that comparisons are odious. I
am sure this will be so to the radical detractors who have
endeavoured to stigmatize the freemen as an impoverished set
of miserable dependents.
You have, no doubt, recently had your risibility tickled into
more than ordinary motion by the ostentatious display which
the radico-republican faction has made of public opinion.
What a mighty demenstration of unitarian busy-body ism has
takeu place ! What an irresistible burst of papistical ruffianism
his been "simultaneously" exhibited before our astonished
vision! What a formidable array of muzzy brawlers have rent
the air with their patriotic screams! The displosion of their
twopenny crackers over the beads of a sympathising mob has
been Mistaken for the thunder of heaven! You have been
boastiugly informed that the rumbling of "the popular thun-
der" has terrified the House of Lords, and`spread consterna-
tion through the ranks of the conservatives! Fudge! Where,
and what is this popular thunder ? It is true that the Morniv
Chnmicle has been beating its great brazen gong—it is true
that the Liverpool Mercury has been playing its ancient hardy-
gurdy to the tune of the "schoolmaster abroad"—it is true that
the penny whistles of the Albion, Times, Chronicle, and Journal
have squeaked their delectable accompaniments—it is true that
conceited orators have palmed their fustian upon the gaping
and ianurant multitude for genuine eloquence—it is true that
ministerial franks have been forwarded to different parts of the
empire to stir up the elements of popular strife—it is true that
republican magistrates have sputtered forth their treason •untit
they have foamed at the mouth, and have spat their venom at
every thing which is good and respectable—it is true that all
this blustering has taken place; but surely this is not public
opinion.
As a test of what public opinion is in Liverpool, I will ven-
ture to say, without fear of contradiction, that of the 12,000
persons whose signatures were appended to the insolent peti-
tion which the radicals of this town sent up to the commons
lately, there were nut 2000 who are entitled to vote for the
members for the borough; while the 5000 persons who signed
the counter-petition to the lords, were almost exclusively com-
posed of the parliamentary constituency of the town ! Let the
radicals try the expedient of sending up a petition of the same
character, signed only by the qualified voters of the borough.
Let the address and business of each be stated, and I will chal-
lenge them to procure more than 3000 names with their utmost
exertions. Ah! that's a poser for them. By the bye, how
came William Ewart ace Thomas Thornelv, Esqrs.l to assert
that the meeting in Clayton-square was attended by 10,000 per-
sons, and that the petition was signed in two hours? Are they
mad?

1 asserted, a few days ago, that conversions' to conservatism
were rapidly taking place among the freemen of this borough.
Recent facts—especially the circumstance that only 134 free-
men could be found whose suicidal propensities led them to
sign the petition for their destruction—have served to. coro-
borate the statement. But the progress of conservatism is not
confined.to them. The working classes are, at length, begin-
ning to open their eyes to the wretched manoeuvres of the de-
sfruetives. In illustration of this I will just state another fact,
which speaks volumes. There are no less than five public-
houses in the north at Liverpool, chiefly frequented by.meeha-
nies, &c., who have, within the last fortnight, substituted con-
ifervative for radical paperi:, entirely out of deference to their
rustunzerz' demands/ There's a :nut to crack for the destruc-
fives. AMBROSE.