The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-03-12 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

Abe Eiberpool 'tanbart.

TUESDAY MORNING, MARCH 12, 1833.

WE always understood that the object of the reformers
in remodelling the constitution was to root out nomina-
tion boroughs, and extend the elective franchise. It
was contended that the aristocracy possessed too much
influence in the elections, and that they and not the peo-
ple were represented in the Commons House of Parlia-
ment. In order to accomplish this, new boroughs were
created, and the right of voting was conferred upon every
occupant of a House rented at XlO a year, no matter
what was his calling, no matter how disreputable might
be his trade, or the means by-which he obtained his sub-
sistence. If he paid his rates and taxes, upon a £lO
rent, he was eligible to vote, no matter to what vile or
dishonest purposes the house which he so rented was
ttipl led.

This we were assured was for" the- benefit of the peo-
pla - What the Whigs mean by the people is at present
involved in: much obscurity. What the Destructive of
London and Birmingham mean is more clear; but what
the ultra reformers of Liverpool mean is the clearest of
any. Good reader, have a little patience and we will
endeavour to open your eyes to the liberal and benevo-
lent opinions t,f these very exemplary persons. By the
people, the clique of the Liverpo.l reformers mean them-
selcev. -These wise men.cannot endure the humiliation
of believing i hat there are other persons in the world
who are cinbued with any knowledge or political infor-
mation equal to their own. They, like the witches in
olden time, read the law backwards. To reform a country
is to confer power neon them, .and only them. To

liberalize Otblic institutions is to open a door for them,
and shut it against the rest of the community. To
conciliate the people is to minister to the arrogance and
narrow views of a faction; add to abate corruption is to
confer upon that faction the power of dictating to their
follow townsmen.

We appeal to every reader whether this be not a cor-
rect definition of the term peaple according to the lexicon
of the Liverpool reformers. A small knot of men, not
very much distinguished by their attainments or their
private virtues, whose pretensions as patriots are not
recognised, -and whose claims either to purity or con-
sistency are the general subject of ridicule, set them-
selves up, not only as our pulfile instructors, but as the
reformers of that reform which they hailed as a healing
and final measure. They clamoured for " the bill, the
whole bill, and nothing but the bill," merely because they
culcniated, with all the keenness of overreaching selfishness,
that it would work well for them,and otherwise for their po-
.litical opponents. So longas the game was in their favour,
or rather so long as they imagined it to be so, they were
content with the measure. While the boon was in the ba-
lance they grumbled not. They demanded full weight, and
they obtained it. They looked forward with inexpressible
delight to the period when they should reap the reward
Of the agitation. they had excited, the intrigues they had
fomented, the bad blood they had overheated, and' the
gross delusions they had practised. They flattered
themselves that the representation of Liverpool was
consigned into their hands by the reform bill, and that
the corporation and every publi& trust were at their
merry.

Did we do anything to dash this cup of happiness from
their lips Did we interpose between them and their
sanguine hopes ? Did we even interrupt their orgies, or
their feasts, or their imaginary triumphs, by saying,
" Fools I you are sowing the wind, and you shall reap the
whirlwind ?" No, we stoodby, not unconcerned but silent
spectators.

The time at length came when the merits of the re-
form bill were to be put to the test, and when it was to
be decided by the electors of Liverpool whether they had
one and all deserted their former principles, and become
the instruments of this paltry faction. The electors of
Liverpool nobly and successfully vindicated their princi-
ples, returned a conservative member, and rejected the
faVourite candidate of the clique. They proved that they
had a clearer sense of their • own interests, and of their
paramount duties, than the persons who would be their
dictators, and ride over them rough-shod for no other ob-
ject than personal ambition and party aggrandisement.
Mr. Thornely was defeated ! This is the head and front
of our offending. His return was promised. The clique
had pledged themselves to bring him in, He was to be
the Member par excellence for Liverpool. These pledges
were not redeemed; the promises were not fulfilled;
there was a great cry, but no wool; and Mr. Thornely
had only the honour of being the rejected member, and
his speeches may fairly be considered as entitled to be
inserted in that amusing work called the " Rejected Ad-
dresses," with this difference, that we have notuyet had
sufficient leisure to convert them into rhyme, and manu-
facture them into modern doggrel, that being the species
of composition to whicia,they peculiarly belong.
This; we say, is the serious act of turpitude of which
the burgesses of Liverpool are accused, and for which
some of them Pill have to appear before a committee of
the House of Commons. Deny .it. who may, we assert
that it is solely because this aspiring gentleman has been
shorn of his consequence, and crossed in his anticipa-
tions, that an attempt, we trust.an abortive one, is now
making to deprive the burgesses of I.iverpool of their
constitutional rights. if Mr. Thornely had been re-
turned we should have- heard nothing of bribery. If
this exceeding pure gentleman had been honoured with
a seat in St. Stephen's, tie would then have discovered
that the electors were all as pure and conscientious as
himself... There would have been no. fiat burglary," as
it, in: :4 tArliard of ale.
Dogberry would have called
There would have been no " perjury " dram—no
treason in a cup of sack No—the electors of Liver-
% pool, in this case, even although they had been doubly
bribed, would havebeen lauded as the most incorruptible
freeholders in the whole country. But they have rejected
and, therefore, are they anything but
Mr. Thornely,
what his fancy painted them; they have committed the
the health of the successful can-
grave a-once of drinking;

didate, and they must be disfranchised( Poor man—
wounded vanity is hard to bear
But a word about the petitioners in this case. They
first charge the burgesses with bribery, and then they
call upon the house to enquire into all the acts of bribe-
ry that have been committed in Liverpool during the
last twenty or thirty years. This, to say the least of it,
would have been a most unconstitutional proceeding had
the house granted the prayer of the petition. It would
have been an act of unexampled and unpardonable ty-
ranny. No man by the laws of England can be tried
twice for the same offence ; but this would have been
putting the burgesses of Liverpool on their trial for of-
fences that they did not commit, and which if committed
at all were done by individuals who do not now form
part of the constituency of Liverpool. But independent
of this, and without admitting or denying that bribery
was or was not practised in former times, it ought to be
borne in mindthat the Reform Bill -was an act of am-
nesty and oblivion for all past' charges of this nature.
Its disfranchising clauses were to give us indemnity for
the past and security for the future. This Lords Althorp
and John. Russell admitted. It was easy to see that these
noble lords were ashamed of their Liverpool friends.
But why call in'their authority which e do not value
much in II matter of this nature ? Was it not under-
stood; was it not avowed, was it not boasted of, was it not
made an argument in support of the Reform Bill, that it
would compensate for all former grievances; for all acts
of alleged bribery, and be a preventative against any re-
curring offences of this description ? This is'so,•notori-
ous that we will not waste a word in pressing the. subject.
What, then, are we to think of the liberality or the jus-
tice of this junta of our fellow-townsmen. in coming be-
fore parliament in this public manner, to-demand the in-
stitution of an illegal and arbitrary enquiry into acts and
deeds cancelled by the very bill which they assisted in
forcing upon his Majesty's Ministers ? They do that
which if it had been done by others they would have been
the first to condemn. The folly of their conduct only
renders them ridiculous; but the object of their folly, and
the unconstitutional means they have resorted to in order
to attain it, must place their conduct in a far different
light, for which neither folly nor ignorance can be taken
•
as an excuse.

But this is the way in which the pretended friends of
freedom make sport of the goddeis whom they worship.
In the name of liberty they trample upon justice. As
the assumed conservators of public morals they break
through all the safeguards of the constitution, and would
punish the innocent rather than that those whom they
deem guilty should escape. They call themselves, too,
the " Friends of the people l" Is this the way to prove
that they are so in reality ? They Would deprive nearly
two thousand of the freemen of Liverpool of the elective
franchise for the offences of, perhaps, some dozen or two
of their order, and this simply on the gratuitous and false
assumption that this dozen or two could be convicted of
bribery. Can anything be more barefaced; invidious,
cruel, or more oppressive than this ? It is paltry tyranny
of the most repulsive kind. Honourable minds do not
stoop to such unworthy acts of retaliation. _One man
may be injured by another, but he must be a poor and
heartless creature who would make war upon every man
he meets from a spirit of resentment. But such are your
liberty-loving friends of the people !

WE have learned from authority, on which we have
every reason to place implicit reliance, that the Govern-
ment have made their proposals to the Court of Direc-
tors for renewing the East India Company's charter, and
that an answer had been returned on Tuesday last,
strongly disapproving of their general tenor. The lead-
ing features are said to be, that the trade with China was
all to be opened at the expiration of the present charter,
the importation of tea to the united kingdom excepted,
which the company are to retain for three years, to enable
them to reduce the stocks they have been bound to keep
here, and fulfil their contracts in China ;—that residence
in the interior of India, and the right to possess landed
property there, with free ingress and egress, were to be
placed on legal ground, with other minor arrangements;
and that the government of India was to remain with
the company, but subject to still stricter controul, and
with more limited powers.
We have also reason to believe, that the Government
have made proposals to the Bank of England for the re-
newal of their charter, which have since been rejected, as
inadmissible.

WE are glad to perceive that public attention is kept
awake to the necessity of forcing the repeal of the
assessed taxes upon his Majesty's ministers. In all parts
of the country meetings have been held and strong reso-
lutions passed, upon which are founded petitions praying
the House to remind the Whigs of their duty, and com-
pel them to perform at least one tithe of the ,promises
they made when they entered office.
Our limits, howevei, fOi.the present, prevent us from
doing more than merely alluding to the subject. We
have in adverting to it in this manner, no wish to em-
barrass either Lo-rd. Althorp or his colleagues. All that
we stand up for Is this7--the reduction of taxation was
gratuitously offered by the administration at their acces-
sion to power—they. founded their claims to .public
support upon this gratuitous offer—and as a proof that
they had the means of performing their promises they
launched into the unneccessary extravagance of voting
a large sum for Lurd Durham's expensive and :useless
mission to St. Petersburgh---they voted £BOO,OOO to.
Prince. Otho the boy-king of Greece, and they were
liberal enough to take upon themselves the payment
of the Russo,-Dutch loan which amounted to £5,000,000
sterling.
°Under these circumstances, and seeing with what a
lavish 14nd:the retrenchment Ministers of England have
squandered away the resources of the country, the peo-
ple surely cannot be blamed for seeking some . relief
from the public burdens at least equal to this profusion.
When they see the good things thrown upon foreign
waters they have a right to open their mouths and say,

"Throw a morsel to us!" But we shall return to this
subject anon.

WE observe, in a Cork paper, the report of a trial at
the Wexford assizes, for which we regret we have not
room, but which furnishes a further proof, if proof were
wanting, of the necessity of those protective measures
now about to be enacted. A tale of more horrifying in-
terest, .at this moment, cannot be imagined than this trial
unfolds. At midnight a party of savage miscreants at-
tack the dwelling of a peaceable and
,industrious farmer.
The thatched roof is fired, and the wretched inmates
roused from sleep, and shot at by the merciless monsters.
The father is mutilated,-4 bullet dispatches the daugh-
ter,—the.tnother is trampled to death, and 'a policenian
who was guarding the house is killed on the spot. The
sole offence which ,called for this diabolical retribution
was, that the unfortunate victims had become tenants of
a farm which had been held.. by one of the prisoners.—
When we say that this case is but a part of the system of
terror—a sample of the outrages which desolate a large
portion of Ireland, surely there is no need to urge any
arguments in favour of strong 'measures ; nor does the
conduct of ministers admit of excuse in so long withhold-
ing protection from the peaceable and well-disposed.
What the remedial measures are Which government
contemplate we have yet to learn. That tithes are an
actual grievance, no one in the least acquainted with Ire-
land will maintain, however Much . the outcry against
them may serve the purpose, of those who are confede-
rated to overthrow the established church. As little can
the reduction of the number and income of the bishop-
ricks give relief to the population of lieland,L--seeing
that one shilling of the episcopal revenues does not come
out of the pockets of the.people, any more than the rents
paid to the proprietors of the soil. It is strange that
upon the main, if not the only measure 'which can, we
conceive, confer substantive and permanent benefit upon
Ireland—Poor Laws—ministers have not made up their
minds. A legal provision for the poor is essential to so-
cial order ; without it the labouring classes have little
interest in the observance of laws which fail to recognise
the first principles of justice and humanity.

IT will be observed that we have been enabled to give
a more full report of the debate in the House of Com-
mons relative to the Liverpool Election than any of our
contemporaries. In fact it has been specially reported
and.revised for the STANDARD. We are also happy to
acid that we have by this means been enabled to give a.
full report of the speeches of Sir H. Willoughby and Mr.
Gladstone on the same subject, both of which have been
mutilated or carefully excluded from the other journals.
To these speeches, along with those of Lord Sandon, we
earnestly call the attention of all our readers.

UNDER the usual head, "The London Press," will be
found an article from The True Sun, to which we invite
attention, in order that our readers may see what one class
of reformers think and say of another. The pledge eaters,
if the suggestions of our London radical contemporary
are to be followed - up, will have something more than
pledges to swallow at no distant day.

WE have received a file of Jamaica papers, by th 6
Eclipse, to the 22nd January, but they do not contain
any news of importance. It appears that Lord Mulgrave
is rendering himself more unpopular every day, although
not even a hint is thrown out of his recal. But this is•
an event which is more likely to transpire here before it
reaches Jamaica.
To show the sad deterioration which has within the
last few years taken place, in the value of all kinds of
Colonial property, we subjoin a short extract-from one of
the papers :
" Depreciation of West India Property. Several properties
were brought to a Chancery Sale in this city yesterday; one of
which was valued a few years ago at £30,000. flut from the
conduct so heartlessly pursued towards us by the Whigs of
England, the sum of £B,OOO was only offered for it; a sum, we
believe, not adequate to pay lawyerr their bill of costs.
Jamaica Courant,