The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-11-18 00:00:00

CORRLSPONDENCE.

TORY DUPES.-THE VICTUALLERS THROWN
OVERBOARD BY THE NEWLY-ELECTED
COUNCILMEN.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

SIR, The man who hails you Tom or Jack,
And proves by blows upon your back
How he esteems your merit,
Is such a friend that one had need
Be very much his friend indeed,
To pardon or to bear it
Some tory publicans, last municipal election, either
voted for or supported radical candidates. By some cu-
rious process of reasoning they consider a sleek and wa-
ter-gruel radical a better friend to the " trade" than a
well-fed tory. The Committee of Publicans appointed to
beat up for candidates were supposed to be uninfluenced
by politics, and were merely required to find suitable per-
sons to represent the licensed victuallers of this town.
Let us consider the result of this movement, and see if
the tory section have not been led to do radical work ;
and that they have not only been gulled by their radical
brethren, but duped by their supposed representative
friends.
The victuallers, in the first place, proposed to contest
four wards,—St. Paul's, Lime-street, Vauxhall, and St.
Anne's ; two of these were supposed safe to the tories,
and two to the radicals; surely this was fair enough in
design ; what was it in execution ? The two radical can-
didates walked in unopposed, and the two tory representa-
tives were thrown out of their respective wards, through
a junction of simple tory publicans, with the whole
strength of radicalism, thus the tory victuallers were the
tools of the radicals, although they could not thin see it.
Again, the bustle of the election being over, and the
boasts of the radicals being exhausted at this (what they
call) triumph of party, not of publicans, whom, by the
bye, they never notice, let us see how these friends of the
victuallers evince their gratitude.
At the first meeting of council, where these publicans
friends appear. one of them, Mr. Earle, moved a standing
order of council ; and what think you was its purport,—
to pass a vote of confidence to the spirit merchants and
brewers in the council and on the watch committee for
seeing justice done to the victuallers ? No such thing.
Was it to propose that all the brewers and spirit mer-
chants should be placed on the watch committee to assist
in protecting the victuallers? Not in the least. What,
then ? 1 give the words of the resolution. Mr. Earls
moved that no brewer, spirit dealer, or other person
selling wines and spirits to publicans, should be a mem-
ber of the Watch Committee 1!" Now this was pretty
fair as a beginning, and for Mr. Earle it was not surpri-
sing that his nobility was affected by sitting with persons
" selling spirits ;" but then Mr. Vincent Higgins, the
knight errant of the victuallers, was present, and surely he
would break a lance in favour of his new tory friends, the
new reform voters, and for the publicans generally. Alas!
he did not ! He and his party had tied themselves hand
and foot to vote for a dealer in spirits next election for
Lime-street Ward, and surely he would not presume to
say in the council that he changed his opinion of men
" selling spirits," when he had once got the votes of the
good-natured easy landlords.—yes, he did, " 'tis true, and
pity 'tis, 'tis true,"—Mr. Vincent Higgins voted for the
te,Antion that brewers and spirit dealers should not be
on t-ie Watch Committee! Now, tory victuallers of
Lime-street Ward, put that in your pipes and —. It
was for this Mr. Higgins that you left an old friend.
Have you mended your market through deserting your
principles ? Ido not press for an answer. Mr. Lloyd,
North Toxteth, was equally thankful to the one hundred
conservatives who either voted for, or remained neutral,
according to his address. He payed the tory victuallers
off by voting the same thing, namely, that a spirit seller
or brewer was not fit to sit upon the Watch Committee.
Indeed the whole radical faction slapped the faces of
the publicans in the same off-hand manner, and it is worth
while printing the names of those who supported Mr.
Earle's resolutions, that the parties may be held in last-
ing remembrance by the duped individuals who placed
them where they are. The names are W. Thornhill, W.
Rathbone, T. Chalmer, W. Preston, E. Evans, H.
Hornby, J. Aikin, Vincent Higgins, W. Earle, J. Horn-
by, and T. Lloyd,—Messrs. Glazebrook, Parker, and
Lawrence, being tories charged as interested in the mat-
ter, voted for the resolution, as a matter of course; and
these were the only tories. Thus the tories to a man de-
fended the sellers of spirits by their votes in the council-
room, and would not allow the absurd and unjust stigma
to be cast upon the licensed victuallers, spirit merchants,