The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-10-11 00:00:00

COBBETT VERSUS RUSHTON AND OTHERS•

(Prom Cobbett's Register.) tt
hi '
"In my Registers of the 14th and 21st of September, 13 ct
'4tomplained that Wood, (emphatically called John,) d ;or
flung me back at Preston; that Rushton, who had roar!
him on that occasion" 'and that Parkes, whom I had dete‘.
e
in the act of whispering for the .Whigs in order to get alea
stead of a 10 pound suffrage : I had complained that thesl,
were now eating taxes; or, in other words, coming, swing'
iig
and with jaws wide open, at my victuals and-drink. KO ee
something of their appetites, and not knowing when they ip
to stop, I naturally became alarmed, and began to cry out der
an endeavour to defend my bacon and my beer-barrel, tt Yoe
necessary for me to inflict heavy blows on the assailants. 0,
cannot effect a defence of this sort by merely pushing the I•ng
sailant back; soldiers do not defend a breach by merely tak.o,o
the assaulters by the hand, and gently handing them down tol
the tosss. But, I was, they may say, unjustly severe • that pp
attack on them was personal and outrageously violent.' I
this; I say that it was just, and that is all that I care about: of
Cobbett then proceeds to animadvert upon the character...„
the persons who form the travelling commissions. He saYs'o,
"But, again I say, that this commision ought to have nreri;
sisted of lawyers, famed for their knowledge of real proPe
of magistrates of independent fortune and of unquestionato
integrity and impartiality, together with a peer of the taso
stamp and character, anethat this commission ought to flip
been occasionally assisted by one of the most learned 04.0;
judges. Here arc immense masses of property to be dealtivid it
estates of all descriptions, held by all sorts of tenures; an the
would have been better to pass a law at once, to confiscate to
whole, en masse, and bring it to account to be delivered ar ca
the Jews,—it would hale been better to make a sweep at Ow
of freeman's rights, of burgess's rights, and all sorts of right' of
have tumbled -house, land, manors, privileges, and all sortso
property belonging to corporations—to have tumbled it and yes
together, rather than set men like Rushton, who was the °to,
day keeping a shop at Liverpool, selling mathematical WO
ments ; and who has been, even in appearance, a barrister 0
one twelve months or less; better to have demolished the 10"00
at once, by a short act of confiscation and of general applicat,irs,
to the purposes of the Jews, than to insult peers, common to
magistrates, and the whole nation,.by setting a man like thje e{
the investigating of tenures, plivileges, and rights, satect
them of a thousand years' standing. This has been the soil if
of my complaint. It is the subject of my complaint still; 0,40
I have further complaint upon the subject, it is this—that 1 of
not see the justice in making the nation pay the expeossoe,•
this commission. If abuses be to be corrected in corporals of
the correction, if it take place, is for the immediate beue
those who live under those corporations
of •' and I can see 00 'l;i
son at all for the people of the parish Ash being taxed toP
for an inquiry into the state of the corporation of Guildfah
However, this is an objection of less weight than that whiclial
have to the constitution of this commission; there are lea' „a
and experienced lawyers enough; there are magistrates t;
peers, in whom the people would have had entire confiders ';,-
and therefore such men ought to have been chosen. This c.,nbo
mission will not give satisfaction to the people at large, "„ea
never will believe that the thing can be well done by 8-
means."