The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-02-26 00:00:00

TIM LINE:RPOOL STANDAKO.

THE LONDON PRESS.

THE " CORPORATION REFORM.' COMMITTEE.

We wonder that no independent member of Parlia-
ment has yet directed the attention of the country to the
monstrous partiality with which ministers have composed
the committee who are to report upon the merits and de- ,
merits of chartered corporations. We published their
names but a few days ago. Upon a reference to the enu-
meration our readers will find not half a dozen conserva-
tives pitted in most idle conflict against a score or two of
reckless levellers. If it is intended to discuss a matter of
most momentous interest with any semblance of honesty
and caution, why is not the committee from whom we
are to have a report upon its merits constituted with
some show of fairness and propriety ? And if it is deter-
mined to make short work with the question—to abolish
at all hazards the furred gowns and the gilded maces—to
tear the seal from the parchment, and annihilate the town-
clerk for ever—why are we mocked with an inquiry upon
a subject upon which his Majesty's advisers have fully
formed their determination ?
That ministers should have resolved at this time to
bring forward a measure for the reform of all corporations
would convince us, if we were not before convinced, of
the absence of all practical wisdom from the councils of
the government. They had enough of reform, we all
know, to occupy them for some time. Reform of the
church—reform of the law—reform of taxation—reform
of expenditure—all these reforms were demanded with
more or less vehemence by one or the other sect of re-
formers. But this reform of corporation was a reform
which had not as yet inspired the lucubrations of the
pamphleteer, nor enlivened the symposium of the club.
It was a difficulty which no man forced upon the cabinet,
a burden which the laborious shoulders of Lord -Althorp
most superfluously assumed. When; however, it was de-
termined to superadd this toil to all for which the House
of Commons was already prepared, surely an upright
minister would have committed a matter involving the
ownership of property, the preservatiOn of the pub-
lic peace, and the administration of justice, to tole-
rably unprejudiced hands. We could point. out some
—several—of the members of his lordship's committee,
who, having been opposed at their respective elections
by the influence of a corporate body, are ready, at any
loss to the country, to destroy the strength of that in-
fluence. If the representative of the town of Cambridge
is properly a member of the committee, why is not the re-
presentative of the city of Norwich sitting by his side ?
We are far from maintaining that a revision of the con-
stitution of corporations is to be avoided or condemned.
Oh the contrary, it is because we think such a revision
very desirable that we reprobate strongly the spirit in
which it is commenced. It is because we wish to see the
municipal government of our cities and towns.vested in
the most responsible and respectable of their inhabitants
that we anticipate with alarm the report of a: committee
in whose eyes we are sure nothing that is responsible or
respectable can ever find favour.

The subject assumes its most serious aspect when we
recollect that the Irish corporations, as well as the Eng-
lish, are to be submitted to the scrutiny of these admirably-
selected inquisitors. The Irish corporations have been
exclusively Protestant, and the very purpose of their ex-
istence was to support and secure in Ireland the interests
of what we used to call our national church. We com-
mend these corporations to the undoubted candour, the
tried integrity, of Mr. O'Connell and Dr. Baldwin. We
suppose that Lord Althorp has made up his mind that the
remedy which is requisite for one island cannot but be
beneficial to the other, upon the principle of the physician,
who,

"If Tom went sick to bed,
" Would clap a blister on Tom's brother's head."
Morning Post.

RADICAL ATTACKS ON THE BISHOPS.

We hope we ,are not out of order when we inquire,
who is Mr. Gillon ? An honourable gentle Man of this
name, who happens to be a member of the House of Com-
mons, has given notice of a motion, "declaring that no.
ecclesiastics ought to hold seats in either House of Par- •
liament, and that those who hold them, at the present.
moment, should immediately abdicate them."
The extraordinary proposition contained in this notice
is the reason why we ask, " who is Mr. Gillon ?" If we
understand him correctly he is desirous to expel the
bishops from the House of Lcrds. He stands so much in
awe of the lawn sleeves, that he would rather not see
them anywhere in the vicinity of Palace-yard. !'
It is a proposition, nevertheless, of immense assurances
How comes it that there are Gillons in the House o
Commons ? Simply because the law allows certain other
Wow. and three-and-tenpenny voters, to send to that
assembly any person who has sufficient influence to com-
mand their votes. These votes may be obtained in a
thousand various ways, by means of which Mr. Gillon,
or Mr. Smith, or Mr. Figgins are transformed from ob-
scure private gentlemen or tradesmen, into honourable
members of the imperial Parliament. It is an honour we
admit. To sit. near many whom we could name in that
assembly is questionlcss esteemed a high honour; but
with submission be it spoken, we see nothing irsithis ho-
nour, or the privileges it confers, which gives a right to
an honourable member of the lower house to •.assail the,
rights of the House of Peers. The venerable prelates
of the established church, which every blockhead thinks
he could reform, and every jackdaw prides himself upon
plucking, after the manner of the jackass with the sick or
dead lion—these learned prelates have surely as good a
right to sit in Parliament as such a person as the afore-
said Mr. Gillon. This, we are told, is the age of the
schoolmaster. Why, then, are learning, and piety, and
exemplary morals, not respected. Have we reached such,
a point of national degradation, that no man is deemed
worthy of senatorial distinction, or competent, to legis-
late, who is not a dunce, or some of the other characteris-
tic epithets employed by Pope in his celebrated rhyme
about the blood of "all the Howards ?" It would ap-
pear so. The quack says there ought to be no regular
physicians. The tub-preacher, and the drum-major. who,
has turned anahaptist,. deny the utility of the regular
clergy. The smuggler hates the exciseman ; and the
study pauper cannot conceive for what purposes. rich men
are suflerecl to exist except for contributing to hiS neces-
sities and maintaining him in comfortable idleness.
All this is very well as a matter of taste, and illustrative
of the vices of society ; but it assumes a more serious
foim when persons who move in the higher circles, as
we suppose Mr. Q-illen does, and who are generally sup-
posed to be gentlemen, place themselves in the obnoxious
and unwarrantobie • position of attacking their superiors
_superiors, we mean, in every respect, as regards learn-.
O
ing, esperience„ patriotism, and. Christian charity. The
bkilops may net be of those whom the honourable mem-
honeors and reveres. But why so chary as to stop
with the bisheies ? In an era of enlightenment like the
present; NV by :31101111 theresbe lords ? And from the abo-
lition of the peerage it is easy to leap to the climax--
why should there oe Kings !

. It is nut the degradation and overthrow cf the church
which .i%r. G:llon's motion would effect, if succeaul, but
the th!siruction of the uitper house altogether.'• :the ac-
compliAnnent cif the one project would lead to the other ;
and there are those who can see far enough into a mill-
stone to perceive that the abrogation of the rights of the
peers would be the expulsion of the King and the nulli-
fication of the monarchy. . How delighted must the
movemeut party be at the bare idea of this happy con
sifunn4tion .ICo King—no Peers—no Bishops—no
noL.hiog at all," (1w Gillons!

But do the sumphs not see that if all this were effected,
the people might begin to think that there was no use
for the Gillons either ? Why have any House of Com-
mons at all ? What utility is these in long dull speeches
delivered by brainless orators on subjects ten million
leagues above their comprehension ? What is there in
talk, or in mere volubility, or in Gillonisms or babble-
isms, any more than in a woollen nightcap or a pair of
leather breeches ? The House of Commons, now that
the schoolmaster is on his
.travels, and considering the
human materials of which it is composed, is incompetent
to instruct the people. What is the meaning of a four-
night's debate on a subject that a cowherd would decide
perfectly well in four minutes ? Why are we dinned with
such stuff, night after night, to the disturbance of our
rest, and the disarray of our next morning's breakfast,
wasting precious time upon Irish blunders, and diverting
the attention of public men from the real business of the
country, and the redress of national grievances ? Why !
—just because there are too many Mr. GILLoNs in the
Commons House of Parliament.

We do not write with any feeling of asperity, but we
put ourselves in the position of the mechanic and labourer
—that class of men whom the Whigs placed beyond the
pale of the constitution by their invidious Reform Bill,
and we ask where is the man among them who has the
sense or honesty to bring forward a measure for the real
benefit of the operative and labouring classes ? It is
easy to nibble at the pension and sinecure lists. It is
easy to make senseless speeches about the church, and the
Jews, and the dog tax, and the taxes upon knowledge,
and about civil and religious liberty ; but where is an
honourable and eloquent orator amongst them who ever
dreams of introducing a bill to encourage industry, to
enhance the wages of labour, to protect our home manu-
factures, to correct the evils of the free trade system, or
to reduce the burdens of taxation by a safe cheap paper
currency ? Not one. They throw away. thousands of
pounds in saving pennies. They chuckle with delight
at the robbery of a poor half-pay subaltern, who has
wasted his life in the service of his country, and this
they call economy ; but they never for a moment think
of any salutary and practical measure for the relief of
the working classes. Relief !—no--the Whigs only
hang the labourers. The gallows is the word, but no
bread—stern justice, poverty, good gaols, and free trade !
They temporise, and then coerce; they preach sedition,
and then punish it; they agitate, and then gather together
military officers to transport their victims beyond seas
for fourteen years, or for life. This, as we said before,
comes from having so many GILLONS in Parliament.—
Guardian and Public Ledger.