The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-05-15 00:00:00

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

In reply to an "ORANGEMAN," we have to state that the three
are each entitled to a vote. They must, however, take care
to have their names placed on the register.

'VIe Eiberpool Atanbart.

FRIDAY MORNING, MAY 15, 1835.

Parliament re-assembled at the appointed time on
Tuesday. Nothing particular occurred in the upper
house, save and except a few rather painful and personal
attacks made by Lord BROUGHAM upon Lord AUCKLAND
and Lord JOHN RUSSELL, the latter of whom was treated
in rather a contemptuous manner. It is evident that
the noble and learned ex-chancellor feels that he is awk-
wardly situated. An administration has been formed
composed of his old colleagues, he being,the only man
who has not been consulted or restored to office. At this
neglect, if not insult, Lord BROUGHAM is extremely sore.
He knows that the world will form an opinion on the sub-
ject, and that the opinion is not likely to be very flatter-
ing to himself. To be deemed incompetent is galling
enough, but to be thought untrustworthy, capricious and
personally obnoxious, is sufficient to drive a man mad.
His friends, however, are doing all they can to foist him
upon the new ministry. The worthy Mr. JOSEPH HUME
has given notice of a motion for a return of ex-chancel-
lors, and the amount of their pensions, evidently for the
purpose of inquiring ." why is Lord BROUGHAM not em-
ployed ?" Mr. DANIEL WHITTLE HARVEY, another
equally respectable friend of his lordship, has given
notice of his intention to submit a motion relative to the
duration of the commission at present entrusted with the
great seal. If these motions do not comptl Lord MEL-
BOURNE or Mr. DANIEL O'CONNELL to accept the ser-
vices of Lord BROUGHAM, his lordship is a doomed man,
bagged and bundled away for ever from official life.
The Commons met, and as usual indulged themselves
with a plentiful exchange of speeches about nothing at
all—an indulgence which must have been extremely gra-
tifying• after so protracted a fast. New writs were moved
Cr Staffordshire, Poole and Stroud: This last place was
iepresented by Colonel Fox, the, son of Lord HOLLAND,
and the son-in-law of the King, who has condescended to
retire, in order to make room for Lord JOHN, the rejected
of Devonshire.

Stroud, then, is to be the place, and a most convenient
place it unquestionably is. The electors must be docile
to excess when they can gulp down a new member at
the word of command, and change their representative
with as much facility as a 13,?ggar changes his coat.
What claims Colonel Fox. had upon them or any body
else we have no means of knowing ; but that Colonel
Fox entertained the greatest contempt for them and
their suffrages, is proved, by the, fact that he has jobbed
his seat.

In the buSiness of humble life it is. no uncommon oc-
currence for two costermongers to exchange donkeys,
but it very rarely happens that the two donkeys are of
equal value. There is something given to boot. If they
were of equal value there would be no necessity for the
exchange; but being unequal in value something equi-
valent is given with that which is supposed to be the
most useless. Now, in this case, Stroud has exchanged
Colonex Fox for Lord JOHN RUSSELL, but does Stroud
give or receive any thing to boot v If the colonel be the
better animal Stroud is entitled to the difference; if on
the contrary Lord Jour; is the most valuable, the Colonel
is entitled to compensation. We leave the worthy elec •
tors to settle the matter between them._ They must be
proud of their independence when they suffer themselves
to be transferred so easily—made a sort of foot ball to
the'whigs, to be played with and kicked at pleasure.
Pool and Staffordshire will both be contested, the latter
with every chance of disappointing the ministerial can-
e
didatte. . .

We areconfident that our readers, that the public ge-
nerally, that all classes of men, will read with intense in-
terest the speech delivered by Sir ROBERT PEEL at the
entertainment given to hien in the city of London on
Monday. The sentiments then and there expressed re-
flect great credit on both parties— on the eloquent and en-
lightened statesman who delivered them, and on the
wealthy, numerous, intelligent, and upright body who
listenedto them with deep attention, and gave to them
all the force of their cordial, unanimous, and enthusiastic
approbation.
The position of the respective actors in this grand
scene of spontaneous' patriotism, of conservative and na-
tional princ;ples, is both singular and instructive. The
one had, after being in power for a brief space, been de-
feated by a factious majority in the House of Co:2=ons,
and driven from the councils of his sovereign, greatly to
the regret of the King, as confessed by the Duke of
WELLING ox; thefother,•who listened to his speech and
applauded his sentiments, 'although the real representa-
tives and actual possessors of nine-tenths of the wealth
of the metropolis, have no voice whatever in the repre-
sentation of this country. •
The anomaly does not consist in the fact that Sir RO-
BERT PEEL is not prime minister of England; but it is
painfully obvious, in this other still more important fact,
that the merchants, bankers, fundholders, annuitants,
rich traders, and all the wealthy and independent inhabi-
tants of the city of London, are not represented in the
preseat.commons house of parliament. Was this con .
templated by the reform bill ?, Lord JOAN RUSSELL has,
since the passing of that measure, and when alluding to
the borough wealth, the misused 'church wealth, of the
house of BEDFORD, talked of the " legitimate influence of
property." The house of BEDFORD has its Tavistock—
the house of HOWARD its Morpeth—the house of FITZ-

WILLIAM its Malton—the hoae of PETTY its Caine; and

. these properties are those which Lord Jowl describes as
• enjoying a " legitimate influence ;" but he acknowledges
no such influence arising -from property in the city of
London. All the wealth, all the property, all the influ-
ence, is on one side ; all the representation, all the mem-
bers, all the votes, all the power, is on the other. Was
this what the framers of the reform bill intended or con-
templated ? INTe hope not for their own sakes; if we
could believe the . contrary,' we would be bound to call
that infamous which we should rather* ascribe to igno-
rance, and denounce as wilfully unjust what was perpe-
trated in a moment cf political frenzy, without re-
flection.
From whatever cause it arose, however, we have here

the result plainly before us. We see London and its en-
, virous, as Ireland is, in the hands of landless, lawless,
beggarly, and unprincipled demagogues—represented in
Parliament by men who have no one feeling or principle in
ecnlnnon with the wealth, intelligence, or the integrity of
its ►nhabitants—represented by fools, quacks, impostors,
444 political fanatics, who have not, and never can

have, because they are unworthy of, the confidence of the
higher, the affluent, and the most respectable classes.

Sir ROBERT PEEL adverts to this singular and lament-
able anomally in forcible language. He says—

" Gentlemen, I understand that by assembling here to-day you
have shown an attachment to the ancient institutions of the
country, and a firm resolution to maintain those principles
which are interwoven with the safety of those institutions, and
the security and prosperity of this empire. (Cheers.) It was
incumbent upon you to come forth in this manlier, because you
do not happen to have any publicly recognised organ through whom
your sentiments could be expressed. (Loud cheers.) When I
look round this great meeting, abounding as it does in wealth
—abounding in intelligence—abounding in respectability—and
reflect there is not one single member out of the eighteen allotted
for the metropolitan districts to represent your iipNons, I am aot
surprised that you should resolve to speak tit. yourselves.
Whatever be the numbers here assembled, theyimight have
been almost indefinitely swelled by fresh accessions. The hall
has been taxed to the utmost extent of its accommodation, and
if there were room for, ten times a &eater number of gentlemen
within these walls we should have had thetiiVresent. (Great
cheering.) And yet you and your friends had not thf good for-
tune to secure a single representative to yourselves out of the whole.
eighteen, by whom your opinions could be spoken, through whom
your just and legitimate influence could be exercised in the publi
councils." (Loud cheers.)

The right honourable baronet, after describing in the
most energetic and soul-stirring terms the injustice com-
mitted by the reform bill—after pointing out the melan-
choly condition in to which the country has been plunged,
and the fatal ascendancy given to the democratic order
by the measure introduced by Lord JOHN RUSSELL, and
carried under the auspices of Lord GREY, still courage..
ously declares, that formidable though the difficulties be
he does not yet despair of his country. Despair!
When did an Englishman despair under any circum-
stances ? With his heart on the right side; his conscience
clear, his acts regulated by the maxims of truth and
wisdom, and his intentions pure and straight as the path
. of duty in which he4noves under the cloud by day anti the
fire by night of an overruling PROVIDENCE-Why should
he despair ? Go to the nursery, old fool, unfit to guide,
unfit to rule; thou lily- livered slave, conservative though
you may call yourself, who thinks that England is un-
done, or that there is any-reason to despair, merely be-
cause you are in your dotage, nerveless, indolent, or
cowardly. Go to your bed, simpleton, we repeat, you
are none of us ; you do not breathe the same air, you
do not possess any of the vigour of that blood which
warmed the heart and the veins of those whom you call
your ancestors. •

Despair, indeed I who despairs? Englishmen, stand
upright! remember your mother! think whence you
came ! rub the dust from your eyes, and ask yourselves
this question—" Shall we submit—we, the protestants
of England, submit—to be drilled, and cowed, and kicked,
and trampled upon, by a set of paltry and unprincipled
beggars and bigots who are the instruments of the popish
priests of Ireland? Murder—suicide—a stab in the
dark—a mortal plunge in the last ditch—a glorious
death, no matter where, rather than yield the supremacy
we conquered, or testify against the truths we avow, and
the faith we all acknowledge, at the insolent command
of the monks in the garb of Rome, or of the incendiaries
from Ireland. Give "despair" to the winds; say we.
Give us black popery from its darkest regionsgive us
the inquisition—give us the fire-peril and the water-
peril—bring to us from old Spain your screws, your
racks, your wheels—give us the papal absolution which
encourages a fanatic of the holy mother to assassinate an
heretic—which compounds for crimes in the cause of
priestly intolerance and monkish licentiousness—give us
all this and more, we shall not despair !
Why should we ? London, it is true, has, in the per-
sons of her dishonouring representatives, lent a hand
to obscure the lights of the reformation. She has played
false with the things holy. She has tampered with the
betrayer, and exalted a painted deity in the place of the
true Gon. She has fallen down to worship the rotten-
images and the lying augurs of the Romish church at the
bidding of certain impostors from Ireland. Let her !
What is London to us ? She is the Tyre of the British
nation. She is .a fallen city. Her empty warehouses,
her ruined traders, her declining commerce, her deserted
marts, her extinguished monopolies, all tell the fate that
awaits her. Her wealth is unrepresented—her intelli-
gence has no voice—her talent is dumb—her power is
that of a child's fingers attempting to play upon a harp
either above his reach, or whose tension he cannot
move. Let her go ! If those, thus unrepresented and
dishonoured, are compelled to desert her, she must ine-
vitably become a city of desolation—a wilderness of
ruined houses—a destitute and a desperate, because a
ruined and wasted town.

Such we predict—and a large portion of the predicted
curse has already come—will be the fate of London—a
city of the plain—if the present policy pursued by mi-
nisters, her pretended friends, and by her popular repre-
sentatives, her worst enemies, is suffered to prevail for a
few years longer. But why should London be so ex-
posed and endangered ? Her wealth and her intelligence
have no representative in the House'of Commons. This
is true; but why is it so ? Sir ROBERT PEEL did not lay
bare as he might have done the muscle to the bone. The
" eighteen members for the metropolis" are returned by
the gin-house oligarchy-6y the scum, the filth, and the
crime of London. Why so ? Because the higher classes
have for several years been steeped in apathy, have
totally disregarded their obligations to the state, have
wilfully neglected their duties as citizens and subjects,
and have allowed' ten pound voters to exercise a privilege
which they had not the sagacity or the good sense to secure
with them in common. Look at the parish of Maryle-
bone, one of the largest communities' in England. Not
one conservative in ten has taken the pains to register
his vote. There are at least fifty streets in Marylebone,
inhabited by the nobility and gentry, nine-tenths of
whom are conservatives, out of which it would be difficult
to obtain a single vote for a conservative candidate.
Why ? Because they look on and laugh. They fiddle
while Rome is burning. They draw their dividends, or
receive their rents, reckless of the consequences, and
caring little as to the fate of their country. The butclier
who is in dalliance with my lord's cook has a vote—my
lord has none ! The fellow who cleans my lord's win-
dows has a vote—my lord has none ! The green-grocer
is represented, and• votes against the family whom he
weekly cheats, under connivance, in the matter of sa-
lads, tutinfp-topi, and cabbages. The pothouse lout, as
ignorant, and less unlettered than his own polished pint
pots, lives upon the thirst of the Honourable Mr. SILLY'S
custom, and votes against him ! The baker gives him
bread, but, forgetting his own bread, votes against
him ! The charwoman, who scrubs for a sixpence
a day, takes her wages, and instructs her husband,
who is a costermonger, or dog's-meat-man, to vote
againstthe " aristocrats !" The very chimney-sweeper
asks his patron to oppose the bill against crying
sweep" on the streets, which of course he does ; but
the black rascal imagining himself an independent
trader, votes against the patron whose custom he begs.
All this shows the state of confusion into which society
has been plunged by the reform bill. Sir ROBERT PEEL'S
remedy is not only a natural and a necessary, but an in-
dispensable one. He tells the wealthy citizens of Lon-
don that they must not rely upon kings or lords. He
tells them that they must look to the people, and that the
democratic usurpation can only.be counteracted by their
activity in those walks where a power, recently abused
by their own supineness, might easily be conducive to
their best interests. He says :

" I say to you then, thereis danger to the institutions of this'
country (great cheering), danger to the prized and happily tem-
pered form of government under which we have lived and pros-
pered. (Continued cheering.) But it is in your power, and in
the power of those who think with you and fill situations in the
country corresponding to yours, to avert the danger. (Continued
cheering.) It is in your, power, by unremitting activity, and
by the exercise of those functions which the constitution has
left to you, to mitigate, if not altogether to remove the evil.
(Loud cheers.) My opinion is, that the danger can boonly met
by your gaining an effectual influence in the popular .kanch of the
legislature. (Hear, hear.) We shall only aggravate .the evil
if we attempt to deceive ourselves as to the nature of the instru-
ments we can employ. Let us not indulge in useless lamenta-
tion. Let us waste no time in regretting that which is beyond
our remedy. (Cheers ) This is quite idle. The first step to-
wards safety is a knowledge of the real source of our strength,
a just confidence in it, and a firm resolution to exert it. If we

__`l_ 2F: •
7

cease t o take a deSponding view of public affairs, all will be yet
well. Though you may not be able to exercise that full share
of influence to which you are legitimately entitled, yet hesitate
not to strain every nerve to acquire all that can be acquired.
(Cheers.) Act like Englishmen, and if- you will do so, I am
confident, from the national spirit and its indomitable resolution;
that the country will be rescued from the dangers by which it is
at present threa!ened. (Cheers.) I warn yotl that you must
not place a firm reliance upon the prerogative of the crown—on the
influence or authority of the house of lords. The prerogative of
the one, the authority of the. other, are constitutionally potent
in occasionally controlling the acts or encroachments of the
house of commons, but you must not now-a-days depend upon
them as bulwarks which are impassable, and which cannot be
committed without apprehension to the storm and struggle of
passion and ambition and the loie of change. The government
of the country, allow me to tell you, must be mainly conducted
with the good will and through the immediate agency of the
house of commons. I again say the royal prerogative, the au-
thority of the house of lords, are most useful, nay, necessary, in
our mixed and balanced constitution. But you must not strain
those powers. You do not consider that worthy of the name of
government, which is nothing but a series of jealousies and hos-
tile collisions between two branches of the legislature. You
wish to tee all branches of the legislature maintaining each
its independent authority, but moving, through mutual confi-
dence, in harmonious concert towards the great end of civil so-
ciety and civil government—the public good. (Loud cheers.)
I ask you, then, not to undervalue the power and authority of
the house of commons, not to trust to the controlling checks
which may theoretically exist upon that power and authority;
but to secure through the legitimate exercise of constitutional pri-
vileges, that degree of influence fur your principles in the house of
commons which will be more powerful for the establishment of what
is good, and the resistance of what is evil, than any intrinsic con-
trol of the crown or the house of lords."
In every word of this admirable reasoning we most
heartily concur. It is in the House of Commons that
the battle of the constitution must be fought, and the
salvation of the country achieved. The people alone
can be the conservators of their property, of their rights,
and the fruits of their industry. We must . not now.
sleep as in the old time, and fight only in fair weather:
under a bright sun. We must face the storm, and wres-
tle with the winds and waves. We have begun a new
chapter in our political •history, and our efforts must be
strained to meet the new difficulties which present them-
selves. Our adversaries have stolen a march upon us,
and have succeeded in seducing the people from those
attachments which were once dear to every Englishman
whether rich or poor. Falsehood has flung its polluting
pitch upon our venerable institutions; slander has assailed
our religion; popery has vilified the light of the refor-
mation, and showered down calumnies upon all that is
good and great in the land, thereby making the working
man unhappy, increasing discontent and disaffection, and
letting in the waters of strife upon a nation, the noblest,
the happiest, and the most virtuous in the whole world.
It is our duty to counteract the effects of these per-
nicious slanders by all the means in our power, and give
the people of England a fair opportunity, which they
have not enjoyed for many years, of choosing for them-
selves, and deciding between the good and the bad. We
have allowed the enemy to walk the course unchal-
lenged ; we have allowed him to sweep the living seas of
our population without question or molestation. It is
now time to change our tactics, and come forth from
seclusion, where we have reposed too long, and meet the
revolutionary party in open field, on every hustings, face
to face with the people. There ought to be a conserva-
tive association in every parish of England. Sir ROBERT
PEEL says we must not rely on the royal prerogative or
the authority of the House of Lords; but we go further
than the right honourable baronet—we say the people of
England must place no dependence on the electors of
Scotland or Ireland. They • must- seek no aid from
without. They can dispense with the reluctant or at
least questionable aid of either country, for they have
within themselves, if properly recruited, sufficient power
to outnumber, defeat, and crush all the enemies of the
institutions of England, whether these be the agents of
the popish priests in Ireland, or the representatives of the
scum of Scotland. Devonshire has proved that the heart
of the English yeoman is sound ; Essex has done the
same ; Staffordshire we doubt not will follow the ex-
' ample ; and although some of the 'manufacturing towns
still lalyour under the influence of the poisonous drugs
administered to them by quacks, yet..even in these
places we do not despair of success. Look at Leeds—
she nobly threw off one of the destructives . who had
fastened upon her; Bristol rejected two, Dudley one,
Gloucester One, Wigan one, Leicester two, Ipswich two,
Bolton one, Warrington one, Colchester one, and fifty
other places did the same. Let us therefore buckle on
our armour, and be prepared for the next election, which,
we are confident, will take place before the month of
October.

But we cannot conclude this article, long though it
be, without calling attention to one _point most ad-
mirahly handled iu the speech of Sir ROBERT PEEL.
There is no subject upon which so much falsehood has
been expended, or in respect to which so much delusion
prevails, as that which holds up the conservatives to the
people of England as rapacious place men, haughty aris-
tocrats, and. trading politicians. This slander has been
propagated with indefatigable industry, and there are
thousands of unreflecting persons who believe it. Still
it is as slanderous a falsehood as ever was uttered. Look
at the acts of the Whigs during their four years happy
enjoyment of, the sweets of office. It was the most
aristocratic government that ever ruled England. It
•was, an administration of lords. The premier was a lord,
tls.e chancellor of the exchequer a lord, the foreign secre-
tary a lord, the colonial secretary a lord, the chairman of
the woods and forests a lord, and so on; lordly, proud,
ignorant, needy, and corrupt were they all. Then,
again, they began and persevered in a system of jobbing
altogether unexampled in the history of this country. '
In Sir JOHN KEY we saw trickery and jobbing. In Mr.
EDWARD ELLICE we saw jobbing by means of treasury
money in favour of that very respectable attorney, Mr.
DANIEL WHITTLE HER VEY. In Lord DURHAM'S mis-
sion we saw a noble job—in Doctor BOWRING'S mission
a very dirty job; in Colonel TORRENS'S appointment one
equally vile ; and in all the numberless roving commis-
sions, giving bread to hungry, needy and rapacious
lawyers, it was jobbing and bribery and corrupt patron-
age from alpha to omega.
Who dares to say that there was any such fondness for
the aristocracy manifested by Sir ROBERT PEEL. He,
like the best of the apostles, laboured with his own hands.
He did net resort to the mean device of gaining power
by well-paid commissioners. What he could not do him-
'self-he confided to the hands of one able man, not to
some twelve or twenty idle barristers who for doing no-
thing but harm, received large salaries. But Sir RO-
BERT must speak for himself with whose words we are
compelled to conclude :
"Gentlemen, what was the charge against myself—that the
King had sent for the son of a cotton-spinner to Rome, in order
to make him Prime Minister of England. (Cheers.) Did I
feel that a reflection ? Did it make me discontented with the
state of the. laws and institutions of the country? No; but
does it not make me, and ought it not make you, gentlemen,
anxious to preserve that order of things under which the same
opportunities of distinction may be reserved to other sons of
other cotton-spinners, if they can establish a legitimate claim
on the confidence of their King and country? (Loud cheers.)
We are charged with having some interest in the perpetuation
of abuses. Why, can there be any one with a greater inte-
rest than we have, that the public burdens should be as much
lightened as can possibly be consistent with the maintenance
of the public engagements? We are represented as fattening
on the public income. Looking to this company, and to those
associated with it in feeling, is there any one motive, I ask,
connected with the increase of the public revenue that can
countervail the interest we have in the seduction of the public
burdens? (Cheers.) We therefore, I say, have a direct, a
,uperior interest to any other . in the correction of every abuse
and the application of every just economical remedy."