The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-02-24 00:00:00

e a tory. He had presided over the House of Com-
mons for seventeen years. He was Speaker under the
first term of Lord GREY'S administration ; and when the
reform bill passed, he was called by Lord GREY, Lord
-BROUGHAM, Lord ALTHORp, and all the Whigs then in
power, to preside over the first reformed parliament.
These are facts; but when the Whigs were discarded
from office they found—but not till then—that this tory
Speaker was a very objectionable personage.

,•
Admit thik, reader, for the sake of the argument.
Admit that Sir CHARLES Was a tore- -a tory supported
and recommended by the whigs in 1832—Land admit also
that, being a tory, he was a party man to such an extent_
as was incompatible with his professional duties. Ad-
mit this, we say, to the fullest extent—what comes next ?
'Fite whig party in 1835 propose Mr. ABERCROMBY to
fill the chair in place of Sir CHARLES MANNERS SUTTON.
Who is Mr. ABERERoMBT ? Is he a party man? Is he
uninfluenced by any party 'predilections? Is he a neu-
tral who stands well with both sides, never having taken
a decided part with' either ? Ble;s your simple heart,
reader, whether tory or radical, Mr. ABERCROMBY was
a member of the late administration! He held office
and received pay under the MELBOURNE ministry. He
was placed on the pension list by the whigs, and voted
£2OOO a-year for life, although he never did anything to
entitle him to as many farthings. He has for a quarter
of a century been identified with the whigs in all their
visionary and fallacious view's of state policki.and lie has
gone the round of faction with them in all itslintizes and
turnings. He never occupied any station„ in society
which he could possibly have acquired by his talents.
Ile owes every thing to the cciincidenc of his, .father
having been born before hirit. He made'his way to par-
liament through a whig rotten borough, as a jitbaltern
in the political lumber troop of the Duke of DEVONSHIRE
and Lord LANsnowNE—and he was the warming. pan re-
presentative for Caine until Lord XERRY. carne-of age.
En short, Mr. JAMES ABERCROMBY has been A minion of.
the aristocratic whigs and the coaenient tool ofhls party
ever since he appeared in public life.
And yet this man is preferred to Sir CHARLES MAN-.
NERS SUTTON, on the
.ground that be is a more im-
partial, and a less party candidate ! Absurdity and
Logy cannot go beyond this. It is the, tine of
effrontery.

But as concerns the ultra radicals, the question of the
-speakership has disclosed proceedings which place the
'representative and his constituents, in a very dishonour-
ing light. Sir FRANCIS BURDETT, fur instance, in-
tended to vote for Sir CHARLES SUTTON, but on the day
previous
.to the election he .was waited upon by some six
persons,
.calling themselves his constituents, who be-
sought the honourable baronet to vote for Mr. Anart-
CROMBY. This he refused to do. They then requested
that he should not vote at all, and this Sir FRANCIS BUR-
DETT consented to do! Now, who were the people who
had influence enough to intimidate the member for West-
minster—who dared 'thus interfere with the indepen-
dence of their representative—and dikate the vote he
should give in a 'natter in which they could not be con-
cerned? Sir FRAlNfers BURDETT, if we mistake nut, is
the representative of some twelve or twenty thousand
electors; but by his own showidg he is only the repre-
sentative of five or six delegates of the tap-room—men
of mean intellect, and contemptible station, who have
no more stake in the country than a water rat is sup-
posed to possess which takes up its abode in the hanks
of a canal. If Sir FRANCIS fell disposed to surrender his
indvendence to the majority of his constituents, he
should have called them together at a public meeting.
At any rate, three tailors and as many cobblers do not
constitute the electors of Westminster.

But this is the way which the ginshopocracy of Lon-
don treat their representatives. Even WAKLEv, despite
his vapouring, was compelled to vote with the " base
whigs" whom he professes to despise. Mr. TENNY-
,SON, of Lambeth, was led by the nose in the same
way, and so were all the London members.- Even
CORBETT and FIELDEN had to absent themselves, in-
duced thereto by —sortie unseen' -but poreerful in-
fluence. The political unions, we understand, were
working with all their engines in favour of Mr.'
ABERCROMBY. They never were more active during
any election; but whether they were in direct corres-
pondence. with Lord JouN RUSSELL on this occasion, as
they once were with Lord ALTHORP and Lord Gary's son-
in-law, we cannot tell. At any rate their power has been
exerted to a most pernicious extent—to an extent which
strikes at the very vitals of the constitution—which de-
prives the representative of the right of private judg-
ment—which destroys every line and trace of indepen-
dence—which interposes with the emanations of friend-
ship, and makes the man of their choice, not a reasoning
being to decide upon what is most conducive to the wel-
fare of the community, but simply a sort of speaking
trumpet, or the aperture of a postoiliee through which
the sealed letter of instructions is. conveyed. klimo
would be a member of parliament on these servile and
humiliating conditions? No moan who has any pm ide, or
any spark of patriotism. or independence—no man who;
being thus hampered and restrained, would not betray
the very electots who thus degrade him. If a few dele-
gates from the pothouses of London are to control their
representatives whenever they think fit, why have any
representatives at all? They are of no use whatever.
A printed card, countersigued by the .pethOuse-Sulons,
could be sent every night to the House of Commons,
containing their decision on time questions before it. This
would be economy and wisdom itself compared with the
present system ; for a farthing's worth of foolscap per
week, and twopence, worth of ink per annuni, would do
all the business of HUME, BURDETT, WAKLEY, and Dr.
LUSFUNOToN in the Luperial Parliament.