The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-08-14 00:00:00

CONTEMPORARY PRESS.

A considerable quantity of nonsense beinc, talked about
the manifestations of public spirit, which have taken
Cace within these few days in favour of the corporate re-
form bill, or what is more the purpose of those who at •
tach impoirtance to such meetings—the evidences of popu-
lar hostility towards the actual proceedings of the House
-of Lords—we have no hesitation in declaring our opi-
nion, that many of. the addresses, resoliitions, petitions,
-Szc., condemning their lordships for thecoUrse they have
adopted, have been got up in a way.at. once ludicrous in
itself, and disgraceful to the parties ‘v.lio have devised
them. It is in vain to look for any great or numerous
meetings of people upon this-question of the examin-
ation of evidence before the lords.. There are none but

the wretched hangers on of a desperate faction, who now
attempt to slander their lordships, as being actuated by
any desire to throw oat the bill, or to convert the mere
delay occasioned by the investigation at their bar, into
an instrument for defeating its essential principles. A
petition from ,Manchester having been adduced by cer-
tain peers as a proof of the sentiments entertained by
its population in favour of the corporate reform bill,, or
in censure of. the proceedings in their lordihips house,
it was stated by the Duke of Newcastle, (who is a man
of truth, whatever else he may be), that the signatures
to the petition had been obtained by placing tables at the
corners of streets, and convassing all passers-by to sign
them; that in this manner many boys and other igno-
rant personages signed the papers •
,and, in cases where
the petitioners thus pressed into the service were so il-
literate as .to be incapable of writing their names, the
hired journeyman, or factOtnm of the political union,
standing as footman in attendance, on the table, was
asked, and of. course assented, to do it for them ; and
this is the power of po'ilt...Cal opinion, directed to the in-
%ruction of the House of Lords in the higher duties of
statesmen ! It is enough to make an honest man sick.
The House of Lords has on this occasion rendered es-
sential service to the people of England, by opposing it-
:Fell' as a breakwater to-the deluge of radical violence,
and encouraging men of sound principles to look about
them, or to choose some safe positiOn to rest upon, in-
stead of blindly and precipitately yielding to the storm.
If nothing more be effected than this (which we may call
judicial) proceeding of the House of Lords, than the op-
portunity given to the people to consider whether all,that,
goes under the name of " Reform" deserves in reality the
sweeping encomium conveyed by such an epithet. much
will have been done towards disabusing the- imagination
of the public, and tranquillizing those 'passions .which
have been so mischievously raised and perverted.
For the sake of truth and justice, it cannot be tooof-
tenrepeated, that there is no wish in the majority of the
• House of Lords to deny the necessity of corporate re-
form, or to condemn the necessity of the present bill.
But it. is a little too insolent in any clique, official or un-
official, to maintain that the upper house of parliament
ought to be cashiered for introducing alterations into the
details of any bill for the avowed purpose of rendering it
more conformable to the ends otanund'policv and of sub-
stantial justice, as if it was a mouel of consummate wis-
dom.
It has been hinted, we know not on what authority,
that the corporation bill may be postponed. We have no
reason to believe such to be the intention; but we have
no doubt that the principle of the bill will'be formally re-
cognised, and that the ground of the postponement,
should it be postponed, will be so stated to the country
as to divest the transaction of all invidious or suspicious
character. In one respect the sinister asseverations of
the ultra-radicals have been falsified already, for instead
of the examination of witnesses continuing throughout
the remainder of the session, it was substantially closed
on Saturday last, and the bill goes into committee at five
o'clock. to-morrow. Our firm conviction is, that the
House of Lords have not, nor never had, the intention
of gratifying the ministers by rejecting the bill altoge-
ther —Dimes.