The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-12-29 00:00:00

upon to state that clergymen Of the Church of England
have voted for radical and' unitarian candidates For-
getting every sense of decency and. gratitude, they have
supported those who would pull the churches in, which

they profess to worship GOD about their ears.
But the moral depravity of the proceedings of Satur-
day will be found black enough in other respects. Men
who ought to know better have violated their solemn
pledges—tradesmen have not kept faith with their, friends
—butchers, bakers, tavern-keepers, coal agents, and
others in a similar grade, have voted against those to
• whom they owe almost every thing in the world—the
first shilling that relieved their necessities in the streets,
and the first credit and act of confidence which enabled
them to commence business! All this is extremely dis-
. gusting; but we would rather see it sincerely repented
of than condignly punished.
What can these men say for themselves ? Let. us con-
cede that they were desirous to give the factious and pre-
tending liberals a "fair trial." All this might be excused
if there were a particle of reason in the proposition.
Most of the conservative candidates were also new men,
who sought to have, and were entitled to claim, the same
new trial. The inconsistency and folly of the proceed-
ing on the part of these speculative electors is this.
The service to be performed by all the candidates was the
execution of a pecuniary trust, and nothinc, more. But
instead of selecting men most competent to discharge the
duty, they have actually returned men whom they them-
selves would refuse to trust in any matter connected with
their private interest. They have elected some men
whom they would not trust to the extent of two hundred
pounds, except under peculiar circumstances; and there
are others who are so destitute of ordinary intelligence,
that they would not entrust them with any thing more
difficult than the lighting of a cigar or the compilation of
some indifferent. doggrel arranged to be sung out of
tune ! Such are the numskulls—we say.irothing of the
sages—who are to have a fair trial, in directing, reform-
ing, improving, jobbing, quacking, tub-bathing, cork-
jacketting, and knocking down the corporation of Liver-
pool—they taking care of the spoil, and the plundered
freemen looking on as silent spectators!
There is one thing, we confess, we are delighted with;
because, let the cynics say what they will, there is some-
times honour among thieves. We return our best thanks
to Lord JOHN RUSSELL for having well considered the
character of the men upon whom he conferred the bene-
fits of this municipal reform. There mustbe a few drops
of honourable blood in his veins after all. He knew
into what hands the ancient corporations would fall, and
he took care to divest them of honour and patronage at
one stroke of his pen. It was boldly conceived and cle-
verly done. Policy and a strong love of. place encou-
raged him to court the favour of the radicals, the low so-
cinians, and the Irish papists. But he knew that they
could only be rendered subservient to his views by keep-
ing them in a subordinate position, where hope should
draw a more attractive picture than reality. He accor-
dingly gave them power; but with a sense of prescience
which cannot be tocoloudly extolled, he took care they
should not possess one item or one chance of any wind-
fall of valuable patronage. He knew his birds so well
that he would not suffer the very poorest church living to
remain at their disposal. He conceded to them the sa-
voury honour of being scavengers. He very properly
conceived that the sweeping of the streets, and the col-
lection of the manure for the public good, could not be
placed in better hands. Nor did the noble lord oppose
the clause which conferred upon the new councillors the
distinguished honour of lighting the lamps. " What do
you propose doing with the old lights of the town ?"
asked Mr. WILLIAM EWART, in a fearful whisper. " Oh,"
answered Lord JonN, " it is quite arranged : the new
lights must do it—Mr. COGLAN will regulate the spurs,
Mr. SMITH the argands, and Mr. THOMAS BOLTON will
superintend the blowing out in the morning."
Fit men for such things, say we ; but this is not all
which Lord JOHN RUSSELL has, by a remarkable fore-
sight, ruled and ordered for the town of Liverpool. The
church patronage has been transferred, and the work of
~,svenginff. sweeping'. lighting, and cleaning the com-
mon sewers preserved, in a very proper spirit, to the new
municipal council. They are to have nothing whatever
to do with clerical appointments, nothing with law pa-
tronage, without paying for it at a rate which they dare
not presume to say they can afford ; and as little with
the town-clerk, who is the only independent officer of
the corporation, and by all appearances its master. But
this is not the worst. Their aldermen are to be
honoured with on empty title, to which certainly
less power or honour will be attached than to that
of a parish beadle. The new made alderman is to be
nobody in any court of justice, any more than a chini-
neysweep, who, by the way, will Cut a more attractive
figure if he should be dragged, not,to the bench, but into
the dock. The name of alderman is retained, but, we
think, in well-studied burlesque._,. It is like PETER
SNooKs, the deputy butler, playing" My Lord Duke"
in High Life below Stairs. It is like a footman out of
place, hired at ninepence per night and a pot of -beer to
play "my father's spirit," the murdered King of Denmark.
How a reformed alderman is to look a gentleman in the face
we positively cannot form the most remote judgment.
How he will feel when passing the Sessions Court, in
which he cannot show himself, except as a spectator, or
a culprit, we have not the powers to describe. Never
was such marked distrust and humiliation inflicted upon
any set of men, as our particular friend Lord JOHN Rus-
SEL has evinced acrd bestowed upon the aldermen and
councillors of the reformed borough of Liverpool.
Having thus clearly shown the odious disparagement
thrown upon the reformers by the provisions of this com-
ical bill, we now proceed to examine some of its intri-
cate if not studied and intendedly obscure and impracti-
cable enactments. We have heard who the man is who
drew the bill; but whether his flights toward the realms
of nonsense were for the purpose of making it a farce
more than a comedy, and like one of SHERIDAN'S
turnpike gates which did not open at either end, in-
stead of a practicable thoroughfare passable with
safety at all times—we have no means of deciding.
Nay more—that the bill was intended to be practi-
cable and intelligible we have the greatest doubts.—
In the first place, we can comprehend the
motives of an able lawyer makiliCk bill. a:.:.nn114„
for he might be serving his employers under cir-
cumstances which he could not, even in his cTfi defence
explain. On the other hand, we do not choose to as-
sume without better evidence, because we cannot bring
ourselves to believe on such evidence as is before us,
that any man one degree removed from an impractica-
ble idiot would have drawn such a bill which in so re-
markable a degree sets all simplicity, intelligibility, and
common sense at defiance. We are disposed to make
every concession to whip diplomacy, under trying cir-
cumstances, and more especially because we have rea-
son to apprehend that the bill was absolutely laughed at by
the highest legal authorities to whom it was submitted,
and only adopted by Lord JOHN RUSSELL in the full per-
suasion that its blunders would be its own executioners,
and that the whole mass of impudence, fraud, and ab-
surdity, would be detected and instantly rejected by the
upper house.

Unfortunately for the [Ands they did not understand
the mean tricks of the whigs, and still more unfortun-
ately they were advised by some honourable spoons to
treat with seriousness what should have been treated
with ridicule and rejected with contempt. They passed a
bill—but they overlooked the first principles which it in-
volved. They looked at expediency and forgot justice.
They contended for trifles but lost sight of principles.
They protected the few whom they listened to, but dis-
franchised the many who had far better claims upon their
honour and their sense of equity.
But we pass by this, because their own acts have
fallen severely upon those whom, at so great a sacrifice
of principle, they were anxious to bear harmless. They,
under an evil influence, imagined they could save one
portion at the expense of another; but events prove
that they have sacrificed the most valuable, without be-
nefitting the individuals for whom they were induced to
profess so much solicitude.
We cannot afford to laugh at the bill without inviting
the reader to join us, and,by placing before in the ne-