The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-04-09 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDS RD.

paupers who are driven to our shores by famine, and who
have a just claim upon their landlords, which as it is not
respected must now be enforced.

It will be perceived by the proeeedings in the Town
r.,:ouncil that Mr. Foster has furnished the public with an
admiraLle expose of the evidence collected by Mr. Wm.
liathbone, and laid before the wondering committee on
the Liverpool election. We cannot conceive how any
ten or a dozen sober and sage men could sit and listen to
such contemptible puetil;ties and barefaCed falsehoods,
for so many days, in a heated room, without feeling sick
and calling ini,the assistance of the stomach pump. If
bribing had been practised, or if it had been necessary,
we venture to assert that a twenty pourid note would
have bought, from the crown of the head to the sole of
the foot, the whole squad of witnesses who have imputed
bribery to the burgesses. Nine-tenths of the evidence
is wholly inadmis; ible. It would not have been re-
ceived in any court. of law in the United Kingdom, and
Certainly would not have been believed by the most vora-
cious juryman who ever.sat upon a C6roner's Inquest.
Some of our sensitive contemporaries complain of us
for laughing at the proceedings. It is a serious charge,
and a grave subject, questionless; but we declare we
could not help laughing even if by being demure we were
to make Mrs. Robinson a duchess. How can a man
stand unmoved and hear such ridiculous absurdities al-
lowed to pass as evidence, just as an old coat and a pair
of inexpressibles stuffed full of straw are made to pass for
a member.of parliament or the Pope of Rome ? Let us
for instance take the evidence of Mr. Abercrombie. He
says he saw a man receive. a £5 'banknote, as a bribe, at
one of the booths in Toxtethrpark ; butbe-does not know
who the man was—he did not touch the note—he was
not allowed to inspect it—and, therefore, it is impossible
that Mr. Abercrombie could. swear that it was a genuine"
bank note. We do not mean to assert that Mr. Aber-
crombie would swear falsely---we do not assert that Mr.
AbercroMbie would affirm that which. he did not believe
to be true—but it is quite possible that Mr. Abercrombie
was deceived—it is quite possible that he was quizzed—
but it is quite clear that what he imagined to be a bank
note, was nothing morethan a knot of ribbons. But in-
dependent of all this, and supposing that it was a bank
note, still in the absence cf the bribee and the bribe, his
evidence is not worth a single stiver. The gentleman
who is accused upon this vague and bird's-eye evidence,
denies the charge in the most solemn and distinct terms,
and consequently, as far as Mr. Abercrombie is con-
cerned, there is an end to the case.

There are two uncontradicted charges against some
master builders and other individuals who treated their
workmen with ale on the day of election, and actually
committed the heinous offence of paying their debited
potations to the amount of 255. and 30s. These men, as
Jack Cade would have said, are guilty of " speaking
Latin," and of 'course ought to be hanged—at once—.
without further trial, or the benefit of clergy ! What !
treat their workmen with ale, on a political holiday, in
honour of reform, Oh, fie ! it is a never-to-be-forgiven
crime, although for the fuur gallons of X X so consumed
by the fifteen sinners, three thousand freemen should be
rubbed of their rights. It is such stuff as this which
would make even a quaker laugh in his sleep. Had such
evidence been brought before any other Committee than
one composed of inexperienced members, returned by the
" far-away bodies" of Aberdeen, and the respectable
white' feet of the back settleMents of *lreland, it would
have been, sneezed out 'of the room 'on the first day of the
investigation. Of a verity, Mr. William Rathbone, you
cut a very pitiful figure!
But with the exception ofitheSe.twO br three instances
of small-beer bribery; every other attempt to substantiate
the charge against the freemen has proved a total failure.
Mrs. Robinson's case is not a whit worse than the-rest.
This remarkable herOinethis,..LiVerpool Joan of Arc—
threatened to pull the noses of- the honourable members
of the Committee, set the Goose AND•BoArt. on fire, and
throw some of her intimate friends *out of the window.
What an insult this would have been to the nation—it
would have immortalized her, and made her fortune!
But the lady was lender -hearted, and her bark was worse
than her bite. . She spared the representatives of the
people, and mildlystbOd upon her quality and set them
at defiance. Although. complained of by the chairman,
reviewed by the whole House, and commanded by the
Speaker, she refused to answer oneword... She received
her money and enjoyed her brandy and bitters. She
banni,cl Mr.' Rathbone in Liverpool, but being a stranger
in London she. took him in. All this, however, is truly
despicable, but the freenien have had their triumph. It
is mere folly to talk about renething the enquiry—,-it can-
not—it will not be renewed.

A TRUMPERY " Journal" which is fast going to the
dogs.; and sinking from sheer incompetency, has . had the
impudence to-publish a long string of falsehoods relative
to this paper. As it is, we.understand, under prosecution
we decline for the present taking any further notice of it.

Public opinion will have
.free way, and public indig-
nation will speak oat in its natural language even among
gentlemen. Mr. IN-m. RathbUne was hissed yesterday
on making his first appearance in the Exchange Rooms
since his late exhibition in the metropolis. Some of our
radical neighbours are mightily offended by this treat-
ment, but these gentlemen, before they complain, should,
like certain persons- who shall be nameless, have good
Memories. They will be pleased to recollect that they
have frequently set the example, and have even defended
it, in the most patriotical way, in one of their oracles.
When General Gasebigne WaS insulted by this same Mr.
Rathbone in 1831, the -Liverpo.ol Mercury took
upon itself to justify the._ gentleman's' good taste in the
following words :-
-"By some squeamish, but well meaning persons,. the act of.
hissing au obnoxious candidate is condemned as indecorous,
and indicative of a bad spirit, which ought to be repressed.
Now, we are as much opposed to violence or intimidation as
any individuals living; we would appeal to the force of argu-
ment; not to the argument of force ; bat we maintain, that the
electors have a right to hiss the man whose conduct, whilst he was
their ,representative, was reirrrhmilde,' and who again solicits
their swages."
Mercury, Mail 6, 1831.

As the spoliation of the Irish Church is at present un-
der consideration, we may consider with What justice the
clergy of it are about to be treated. The agitators say
that it causes all the distress of the Irish peasantry, and
that it must be abolished. In opposition to their false-
hoods let us place Ole following truths, taken from the
examination of Richard Griffiths, Esq., Civil Engineer,
before the. Lords, cohfirmed by that of Richard Delacour,
Esq. and Dr. Erck.
Ireland contains 20,399,603 statute acres ; its value is
£12,715,578 ; the proportion of tithe to £1 sterling rent
in the value of land is is 31d.
Thus, then, for every £1 sterling which the peasant
pays his landlord, he pays the clergyman is. 31d. The
landlord being mostly non-resident, the clergyman mostly
resident, and making a considerable return in acts of
charity. So that a man who pays his landlord £lO per
annum, pays the clergyman about 135., and yet these
enormous and unblushing calumniators affirm that it is
not the £lO rent, but the 13s. tithe, that bears the pea-
sant to the earth, and raises his blood-stained hand to
murder, and steels his unrelenting heart to deeds of cru-
elty, the bare recital of which harrows up.the soul.

Again, Ireland contains
4 Archbishoprics,
2.3 Bishoprics,
24.50 Parishes,
there are 1422 beneficed clergymen, and the average
amount for composition of tithe in those parishes that
have compounded is £2S7 per parish.
The whole revenues of the church might be, if well
managed, about £700,000 a-year, all in the hands of
resident well-educated men, of whom Sir William Par-
ker Carroll, a Roman Catholic, says, that " their cha-
racter is most benevolent and amiable—most eminently
so;" of whom Mr. Pierce Mahoney says, that he thinks
"their moral influence is above all price, for though they
may not extend Protestantism, yet they must extend
civilization wherever they reside."

And, yet, this is the class of men whom Lord Althorp is
going to tax to the extent, we believe, of nearly 30 per
cent. on their income (including all taxes, for there are
several besides his new graduated tax), in order to please
O'Connell and propitiate Dr. Doyle.

LONION LATEST NEWS.

Saturday Evening, Half:past Seven o'clock.

Since our last the operations of the Consol Market have not
been of any great moment, nor has the variation been of much
importance. Consuls for the account closed this afternoon at
88%. The 3 per -Cent. Stock Reduced Ex-dividend is 87 %;
the 3 per Cent. Consols 88 ; 31 per Cent. Reduced 93ii the
New 31 per Cents. 95 •; the 4 per Cents., 1826, 101%; the Long
Annuities 16%'; India Bonds 27 to 29 premium; Bank Stock
dosed-at 192; Ex-dividend and India Stock is 222.

. ,
The intelligence of the change of Ministers at Madrid, has
caused considerable alarm among the holders of Spanish Stock,
as the party now in power, it is imagined, will be adverse' to
any arrangement with respect to the Cortes Bonds. Spanish
Stock fell to 17%, but has since rallied to 1834. Belgian Stock
is 88%; Dutch 46% ; ltussian 102% to 103%.
We have had late accounts from Oporto and from Lisbon to-
day. The letter announces the arrival of Don Carlos, the'bro-
ther of King Ferdinand, on the '2oth ult., from Madrid, whence
he had been banished by the King. Nothing deciSive • had oc-
curred at Oporto. It was reported some fighting had taken
place on the 31st ult., but the accounts altogether are very un-
interesting.
'\Ve have late accounts from Singapore, by which we learn
that the rebellion in China had been terminated by a compro-
mise, and that the military force was on its return.
We have late accounts from Tampico, but they contain little
of moment. A Conductor from Zucaticos had- been attacked
by a gang of robbers, under the command of one of Montezu-
ma's former officers, but the travellers behaved so manfully,
that they killed the captain and two of the outlaws, and arrived
safe at Tampico.

We learn by the accounts from the frontiers of Poland, that
the disease called "La Grippe " was very prevalent at Warsaw.
Count Witt who commanded in the absence of Prince Par
P. ioitisch had been attacked. In Russia many Governors, par-
ticularly those of Moscow and of St. Petersburgh, had severely
suffered.

The accounts from Wurtemburgh announce the approach of
the elections there. The States were summoned for the 15th of
April, but only for the purpose of discussing the budget, and
the other laws would be discussed. by an extraordinary Diet to
be held in the autumn.

Letters from Alexandria of the l‘t of March, mention that
the Paella had fixed the price of Jumel cotton, at 15 piastres
the quintal. The merchants appeared perfectly satisfied with
the rate.