The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-07-30 00:00:00

freemen and all the parties, the bribers as well as the briheA
ought not to have been unpunished. But, sir, if that punishment
had followed, no doubt`the distinction would have, been made
between the innocent and the guilty—no doubt the innocent
would have been allowed to retain their rights, and in the exer-
cise of those rights other parties would have been mixed. Sir,
remember that those who were innocent in that election were
not merely ordinarily innocent, but that they resisted a tai-
spreading and a very powerful temptation. They, therefore,
are entitled to peculiar consideration.
Sir, the course which I have said would be pursued is
the course which has been pursued in every single bill of dis-
franchisement which has hitherto been passed. In Shoreham.
the guilty were disfranchised by name, the same right was re-
tained, and hundreds were added in. Such was the case also in
Cricklade; the same in Aylesbury; the same in East Retford.
Grampound is an exception—the whole borough of Grampound
was disfranchised—and why? Because among the whole of
them every single individual but one was proved to have been
guilty. Then, sir, the principle has been hitherto that you are
to disfranchise the guilty by name, except when that guilt ab-
sorbs so large a proportion that it really amounts in fact to
universality. ' Sir, if the
.principles of those eases had been
followed in the present instance what would have been tha
course? Those who would have been proved to have been
uuilty would have been disfranchised, the innocent would havo,
been retained. But it is absurd to say that the legislature
would have contemplated the disfranchisement of the town of
Liverpool, and that they would ever with such a large popula-
tion have looked to the adjoining hundreds. Sir, it has worked
that change by itself. The reform bill has passed, and by the
reform bill and by the lapse of time every thing has been done
which would have been the object of any act of the legislature
to have done.

Sir, it is proved that a large proportion of those who were
guilty have been excluded from the register either by death or
by nonresidence, or by other circumstances, and that the whole
number remaining in the register of those who were guilty, I
think, are 1880. Besides that, there are a great number of
those who are householders, and who exercise their franchise in
another right; there are remaining 1300 who were guilty; but
is there any evidence that any one of those persons h:id been
guilty since? The table we hltve put in proves that 1876 com-
pletely innocent freemen will be disfranchised and loose their
right altogether. There are, besides those, 193 who had not
taken out their freedom in 1830, and others, makingin the whole
above 5000, who will be completely sacrificed for the guilt of
1800 persons, proved to have been guilty in 1830, and proved
by their subsequent conduct to have redeemed the offence of
which they were then guilty.
Sir, I do not press upon the committee to spare this consti-
tuency if five, or if peradventure ten, or if peradventure fifty
righteous men be found ; but I call upon them to spare it be-
cause any measure disfranchising the freemen generally will
involve a very much larger number of innocent persons
than the participators in the guilt. Sir, the result shown by
the table is monstrous and absurd in its consequences, and such
that it is impossible that the committee can ever recommend
the disfranchisement of the freemen. The great mass of those
freemen have,- since the election, shown a determination to
refrain from their evil courses; they have shown a determina-
tion to redeem their own character, and the character of that
great town, the second commercial city, I believe, in the world.
They have shown that determination by a total and entire ab-
stinence from corruption ever since 1830. We have shown
that the reform bill, by infusing into the veins of the consti-
tuency a large portion of new blood, has corrected the impurity
of the old circulation • and we have shown that the reform bill
has already effected that which it has been the object in all
former times to effect by an act of the legislature. I call, then,
upon the committee not only in the name of mercy, but in the
name of justice, to give these freemen a fair. trial. If they per-
sist in the honest and manly course which they have pursued
since 1830, you will have no ground to regret that you have
extended this mercy to them. If, on the other hand, they again
relapse, I then say that the vengeance of an indignant and
nsulted country will fall with just severity upon their guilt.

SECOND EDITION.

Standard Office, Three o'clock.

The American packet Napoleon, Captain Smith, from
New York, arrived here this morning. She brings a
file of New York papers reaching to the 9th instant, but
they do not contain any political news worth extracting.
The cholera had nearly disappeared at New Orleans.—
The following is the latest from that quarter :—" The New
Orleans Bulletin of the 22d ult. asserts, without reserve,
that the cholera at that place, is extinct. This good
news is confirmed by letters, which state that business
was progressing as usual."

From the New Orleans Courier of the 14th June, we
learn that the cholera is making dreadful ravages at
Tampico. It says :

"A letter of the 7th states that in the fourteen days previous
to the 6th, there had been six hundred deaths by Cholera, and
that on the lith the deaths amounted to a hundred and thirty.
The fatality is greater in proportion to the population than has
been experienced in any other considerable town within our
knowledge. Tampico is estimated to contain about three
thousand souls. By some there are said to be between 4000
and 5000. On the Bth, the day before the Emperor sailed,
there were said to have been a hundred and eighty-three
deaths.

"We understand, says the paper above mentioned, that the
disease was chiefly confined to the lower classes, and but one
foreign merchant had died of it. The American Consul, Mr.
Robinson, was perfectly well at the date of the last accounts.
"A French bark, name not mentioned, lost every person
belonging to her, except one man."

We have also Canada papers to the 29th June, but they

are without interest.

The Paris letters express some apprehension of dis-
turbances during the three days..

IRELAND.—HORRID ASSASSINATION.
The following is the extract of a letter just received front
Dublin:—

" Dublin, 29th July, 3 p. M.

" I open this to let you hear the most atrocious act I ever
heard of, Mr. Sneed, of the house of Sneyd, French and Barton,
was deliberately shot through the head a few minutes ago while
walking near the bank. After Mr. Sneyd fell, the ruffian came
up again and discharged the contents of a second pistol into the
middle of his forehead. One satisfaction is, the murderer was
secured."

Mr. Sneyd was of the first respectability, both as to fortnne,
character, and connections. He had long been a very eminent
wine merchant, and served for many years as representative for
the county of Caven on conservative principles.

We understand that a public meeting of the burgesses
and their friends will take place at the Golden Lion, on
Thursday next, at twelve o'clock, to express their grate-
ful sense of the valuable services of John Nichol, Esq.,
M. P., during the recent investigation before the Com-
mittee of the House of Commons.

CORN EXCHANGE.

TUESDAY, TWO O'CLOCK

To-day we have had a flat market and no speculative
business doing in consequence of a continuance of the
finest weather for the crops. The sales of wheat were
inconsiderable and at a decline of Id in prices of the
best samples, and of 2d to 3d in other descriptions.—
Prime Oats which were scarce and to which the demand
was exclusively confined supported last week's quotations,
but good and middling kiuds were offered at a reduction
without finding buyers. Oatmeal ,is 6d cheaper, and
Irish flour Id and both dull. Other articles no alteration
in prices or demand.