The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-02-03 00:00:00

CON TEMPORARY PRESS.

WEST CUMBERLAND ELECTION.—A FEW LAST WORDS)
—The conservative triumph in the Westernbivision or
this county received its formal completion at the hurt,
ings on Friday last, when Edward Stanley, Esq., and
Samuel Irton, Esq., . were declared _duly elected. The
proceedingsbn the occasion were comparatively brief;
yet they furnish one or two
,points. we are anxious td,
„advert to, before we finally dismiss . the subject. And;
first, as to Mr. Aglionby's daring ace,nsation against the
conservative party, of having employed threats and,
intimidations with the electors. What has been the upt
,shot of all his inquiries ? He had thorpnghly raked.thd
sewers far something wherewith to balster up his charge—,
:hut all in vain; and he was therefore constrained to de-
clare, that " not. being in pos4ession of pronf of his,
accusation, he begged to retract it. as publicly as he made
it !" That pretence, therefore, is scattered in the winds.:
But Mr. Ag,liortby does not let his candour and con-rinu-
:nicativeness stop there. One of the " vices of speech".
which belong to the learned gentleman, is garrulity
. and like most garrulous men; he is -apt to tell more than
is always discreet. In .the instance before us this is;
strikingly-exemplified; for he lets out the secret; that it
was not in the agricultural constituenCy of West Cum-
berland. but in the operative constituency of Coeker-
mouth, he found his incitements to the course he had
pursued. The borough—the immaculate borough !—..
'"
which had the highest claims :to his services," had
halloed him on to the assault ; " and could he,' he asks,
being strongly urged, refuse to aid it with his huinble
services—to embark in the same boat with his constitu-
ents?" The plain English of it, then, is simply this,--=
that the whigs and radicals of Cockermouth had enter'
tained the splendid design of foisting a nominee of their
own on the constituency of the: county; and their own
redoubtable representative was their chosen instrument
for accomplishing their purpose ! Electors of West. Cum-
berland, you 'See, then, how you have escaped from the
snare that was laid for you'? But though you have escaped
this time, the net, it would Seeni, is again to be spread.
Mr. W. Wybergh assured the people, that " though he
and 'his friends were defeated; they were potclisheat Wiled ;
and he trusted that the very first opportunity they would
be prepared with a different system of management, and
ensure a different result." This may all be, and perhaps
it is, mere braggadocio,—as to the " different system,"
and the " different result, we are quite sure it is ; yet it
shows how unquenchable is the evil, the raneordns. spirit
within them—the spirit, of petty malignity, untiring,
agitation, and wanton annoyance. The sense of the con-
stituency has three times, within as many years, been
taken, and the.result has. shown a growing aversion to
the prinCiplespf•those who seek to enthral them; vet'
the fruitless, hopeless struggle is still threatened to be
persistdd in. We are much mistaken, however, if Major
Aglionby, who has a high character
.to lose, will again
lendlii name to a game so desperate and disreputable.
But, come what may, the electors of West Cumberland
will have no fellowship with principles:So destructive of
their interests,' and the institutions they reei-e.. 'Three
times have they emphaticallyy—declared- it;- and three
times three will thev do SO, aye, and 'in still'rnore power-
ful language, Should their adversaries require.it—Car-
lisle Patriot.

It is manifest that arrangements were made at the
close of the poll on Saturday evening to insult and abuse
the independent freeholderS Of the county on the follow-
ingday !!• • The ghostly' despots who were driven from
the hustings and put to flight were seen sneaking 'out of
town, when the victory was proclaimed; but instead of
inculcating principles of peace and charity on the minds
Of their savage followers.,.th.ty encouraged them to com-
mit outrages, and' to violate that sacred ordinance
Remember to keep holy the Sabbath day." The un-
paralleled villainy of the mob on that day surpassed any-
thing recorded in the history of elections. They broke
the pews of the independent catholic electors, and strewed
the fragments on the roads—pelted themselves with
stones—beat their wives and daughters, and openly
dragged delicate females from the altars, and abused
them in the chapel yards. In the chapel of Ballinkillen,
in' this ,county, similar outrages took Place ; but of a
'more disgraceful description. But the hardy freeholders
of the barOny of St. Mullins mustered their clans on
Sunday last, and threatened to clear the chapels if any
unmanly insult wernoffered to the families. The priests
took the hint, and we'liav,e good Naomi to know through
fear of provoking the indignation of the barony men
will not dare to meddle with them, or denounce them
in the chapels. Here 'is a species' of liberty we 'would
have been blessed with had these remorseless and fana-
tical tyranti Sticceeded in their last desperate struggle to
perpetuate their savage ascendancy in. this country.-- Their
moral influence over the people is daily diminishing ;
they find that the mere brute force of a lawless peasantry
cannot break the ranks of those who have in the eleventh
hour Pried the standard of men of rank and property—
who have led their train bands to victory. They have
been beaten at.all points, and in a paroxysm of despair
they are instigating the peasantry to acts of brutality,
ruffianism, and violence, disgraceful to a ciVilized country.
They are hoWever hurrying on the crisis—the_intelligent
Roman catholic will no longer submit to their grinding
tyranny—even their dupes, when cast upon the world
without favour or protection, will perceive, when too
late, the evil consequences of following their advice, and
we venture to predict,that a reaction will take place as in
France, fatal not only to their temporal, but their spiri-
tual authority—such a moral reaction as will check their
arrogance and assumption, and consign those boors-to
to that obscurity to which God andnature,intended them.'i
—Carloie Sentinel.
1

The means by which the remnant or the " tail" has
escaped amputation, and bearded the aristocracy at the
'hustings, durinc, the late election, are developed in. a
graphic and explicite manner in an extract taken from
Col. Bruen's speech to the electors of Carlow, which we
lay before our readers.- To many who are unacquainted
with the agency employed by the popish priesthood, the
representations of the gallant colonel will appear too
highly coloured, but we can assure them from experience
of the fact, that nothing is, too gross to be palmed on
the credulity of the people, who imagine that the priest
is omnipotent; neither is there any power competent, in
the present state of things, to control such agency,
whensoever it is exercised. The only resource, there-
fore, which the proprietors of the soil have in their
hands, and the necessity of the case calls, for its adop-
tion, is, to exclude popish tenants from their estates, and
to enconr4;e the growth of protestantism around them,
thereby rescuing the representation of the country from
the fangs of the degraded crew who have obtained pos-
session of it. To this theywill be driven at last, and
the people ci ill then be taught the evils of sacredotal in-
terference, and the disadvantages that arise from a co-
operation with political agitators instead of with their
landlords. Here is the declaration of the gallant colo-
nel—

Gentlemen, where is the independent catholic that would not
cry shame at the proceedings which have taken place since the
period when Sir J. Milley Doyle first canvassed this county.—
Many of my friends have been dragged from their houses at the
dead of night, and others most cruelly beaten and their property
destroyed. Yet. such conduct as this has been justified, and
Father Mather asks what objection is there to his method of as-
serting his principles. And we are told, that ha this country we
enjoy the freedom of election and the blessings of reform.
(Cheers.). Gentlemen, it is my love of rational liberty, and an
attachment to my native land, which have induced me to come
forward on the present occasion to rescue you from the most
huMiliating of all tyrannies—a tyranny which no nation has
been able to bear—a tyranny which has deformed the very face
of nature, and turned the most fruitful countries in the world
into deserts- (Great cheering.) I might retire to England,
France, or Racy, like others, and enjoy myself, for I am not am-
bitious not of a disposition to make any display as a public man ;
but you have called. upon 'me to standin the breach—you have
stood by me like men, determined to be free, and I shall never
desert you. ( Lotoicheering, and cries of " No more corn crakes,"
mingled with laughter.) That cry reminds me of a priest who
lived in this town, proceeding from the chapel on the Sabbath
day with a mob of ruffians, to the neighbourhood of Tinryland,
for the purpose of canvassing the freeholders. (Cries of " S.haine,
shame.") I saw that mob myself, and on making inquiry as, to
the cause which had induced theta to break the'Sabhatli, I was
told, "that they were hunting corn crakes." (Laughter.) I
will now mention some facts, disagreeable, no doubt, to some ;
- but, however unpalatable the truth maybe, I shall not shrink from
publishing it to the world. England and Ireland shall see the
sanctified and rational weapons with which their reverences
contend ter the freedom and purity of the elective franchise.
One priest threatens that the very moment a poor man, who
votes for me, returns home, he will clap a pair of horns on his
head. When next I visit that part of the country. I shall see
• whether the threat has been carried into execution. Another
protests that if he had not forgotten his crucifix and breviary,
he would, on the spot, turn his rebellious parishioners into
daggers; a third gravely tells them that their food shall melt in
their hands ; whilst a fourth swears if they go against him he
will turn them into four-footed beasts, and put them on their
bellies for the rest of their lives. This, you see, is au improve-
ment on the serpent. (Cheers and loud laughter.) Now, it is
to be -hoped that these reverend gentlemen will not carry their
threats into execution; no, no, they never will have the heart
to do it. (Laughter-) I mention these facts to show how
Father Maher and his coadjutors have canvassed this county
What objection, quoth the reverend man, can there be to my
mode of asserting my principles ? Mr. Maher has complained'
that I am not a tit representative of his principles. I'o this
charge I plead guilty. I certainly shall not represent his
rinciples, but I shall, I trust, represent the principles of those
ependent protestant and Roman catholic electors who placed
t their head, and wi;h whom I have fought and conquered:
ewise feelingly laments that his party have applied to
gentleman in and out of the county, to allow themselves
returned, but in vain ; they have, one and ail, refused.
,s .certainly is a grievous but very ingenious confession
_ at no one, in the shape of a gentleman could be found
fleeted with Carlow so lost to shame as to place himself in
ht • hands. And what, then, does he do? Why, on the very
Morning of the election he sets up two candidates totally un-
ktiown, and the fear of being transformed into crawling, four-
looted beast*, (I recommend this rare animal to the Zoological
Society,) and other equally good and substantial reasons, ob-

_tains fut. them some hundreds of votes. Why, gentlemen,- Nerc
-and -his horse was nothing to this : he obliged the Romans to
elect that animal as consul, and the fact has been recorded as au
instance of the most Outrageous insolenee of the vilest and most
absolute tyranny that ever existed. But herefio the nineteenth
centilry, ma country that boasts of freedom, and enjoying for
four years the blessings 'of reform, freeholders are obliged to
vote for men they never saw or heard of—who care no,inore for
.their interests than they do for .him. Those Romans saw, at
least,-the object they were obliged to choose, and these are not
so- much indulged; the horse could not, at all events, misrepre-
sent their sentiments. We are not so secure. (Cheers.) The
honourable gentleman next adverted to the present state 'of
Spain and Portugal, and the gradual diffusion of knowledge
amongst the people of those hitherto benighted countries groan-
ing under sacerdotal tyranny, and expressed an ardent nope
that he should live to, see his countrymen emancipated from the
yoke of ignorance, when they would become a great, Virtuous,
-and happy people.—Derry Sentinel.