The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-03-29 00:00:00

FRIDAY MORNING, MARCH 29, 1833.

WE have received a file of New York papers,
from the American Ship, John Jay, but the long:-
prevailing contrary winds have prevented us from
. receiving any of a later date than the 23rd of February.
These papers contain nothing from Charleston, but an
account of an extraordinary duel, in which, according to
the civilised mode of warfare in the republic, both parties
were killed. The narrator of the story, with great
naivete, observes, that they must have fought with "wea-
pons of a deadly character
The Tariff Bill progresses slowly through the House
of Representatives, without the slightest hope of passing
into a law during the present session. A letter dated
Washington, 20th February, and addressed to the United
States Gazette, says :

" There will be no Tariff Bill Yiassed at the present session.
Mr. Verplanck's bill will not find its. way out of the labyrinth
of amendments in which it has become involved. It must
expire of,suffecation. As to Mr. Clay's bill, there is no chance
that it can even get so far onward in the path of existence.
A few days, however, will put a period to all hopes, doubts, and
fears on the subject—While I am writing this letter, I presume
that the final vote is about to he taken on the Judiciary Bill of
the Senate. That will never rise to the dignity of a law of the
land. The times are out of joint.

THERE have bean some rather serious rumours during
the week with respect to dissensions in the cabinet, and
we admit that we are among those who give credence to
them. After a cabinet meeting on Monday it was ob-
served that the Duke of Richmond made a hasty and un-
expected visit to the King at Windsor, and since then we
perceive by the Ministerial journals, that Lords Grey,
Goderich, Althorp, Holland, Sir James Graham and Lord
John Russell have had a conference at which neither
Lord Brougham, the Duke of Richmond, Lord Palmers-
ton, nor Mr. Secretary Stanley were present. There is
evidently something in the wind.

The evidence given before the Liverpool election com-
mittee has at length assumed a very serious appearamak
and we begin to suspect that some- of the parties con-
cerned will be sent to gaol, and perhaps it would be no
novel misfortune if they were sent to the tread-mill.

After a prolonged inquiry, which most unquestionably
would not have been endured by any but " thirteen" of
the wisest acid most patient men in, the_ world, it turns
out that no less a sum than £32 3s. 6d. have been sworn
to as having been spent for the purposes of bribery and
corruption. It happens most unfortunately for the De-
structives, that although this large sum was actually seen
to change bands in the free trade of buying votes, not
one penny can be traced to the guilty parties. It is in
evidence that thirty shillings were paid to a freeman by
a tall gentleman in a blue ribbon, and two and sixpence
to another freeman by a short gentleman in a pink rib-
bon, and yet though same harries are given, the persons
so described are as unlike themselves as the Spanish
dwarf is unlike the Irish giant. There is not a tittle of
this evidence which is levelled at the individuals alluded
to which will not be proved to be false. It is, what we
. • ..
said at the outset it would be, nothing more than a tissue
of vague and groundless gossip, the vulgar rumours of
the low tap-room, the Whispers' of bemuddled smokers
over their ale, the inventions of poetical carmen, and the
rum-inspired romances of the ladies who love the moon.
A cooper who was summoned to give evidence, had no-
thing to tell further than that he intended to charge a
day's work for his vote, but as he neither voted nor re-
ceived his contemplated 55., he was paid his expenses for
nothing, and had the pleasure of a trip to London, and a
hearty welcome to the festivities at the GOOSE AND BOAR.
Such is the-trumpery and contemptible evidence on which
a charge of general corruption is 'founded, and upon
which visionary charge an attempt is. made, in the first
reformed parliament, to deprive more than a thousand of
the freemen of Liverpool of their political rights

But out of this £32 3s. 6d. must be deducted the
£3 10s. bribe sworn to by an exceedingly delicate and
interesting lady who is called Mrs. Elizabeth Robinson.
She says that she saw a gentleman pay this sum to a free-
man for his vote ; but who the freeman is she does not
know ; and who the gentleman is she refuses to tell I
Now, who is this Elizabeth Robinson ? We have had a
voucher as to the honourable character of Mr. Aber-
cromby; whose yet unrefuted evidence accounts for £5
of the £32 3s. 6d. ; but who vouches for the respectabi-
lity of Mrs. Robinson ? Is Mr. William Rathbone, or
Mr. Wyberg, or Mr. Harvey, the Paymaster-General, so
intimately acquainted with this lady as to volunteer a
word in her favour ? We presume that they must have
had some previous knowledge of her reputation; in which
case we. ask them, as men who have still some reminis-
cences of self esteem, and some feelings of shame, whe
ther they consider such a woman an admissible witness
upon such an inquiry ? It is immaterial to our argument
whether .they were or were not conversant with the repu-
tation and habits of Mrs. Elizabeth Robinson. If they
were, we leave them in the undisturbed enjoyment of the
whole value of her evidence; if they-were nor, we con-
sign theM to the general derision which their ignorance
must excite, for it proves them to be totally' incompetent
to manage judicial proceedings—it proves them to be
equally credulous and. imbecile--simpletons of the mud-
diest water, whom it would'not be safe to entrust with
the responsible duties of a church beadle or a parish con-
stable.

Mrs. Elizabeth Robinson, like Niobe all teari, re_
fuses, when brought before the committee, to disclose the
name of the gentleman who gave the bribe; lest he should
murder her! Gentle creature! she st4nds in ewe of her
lifefor a sum of three pounds ten shillings! • :This re-
pugnance to be explicit might be.excused. in Ireland, but
it will hardly be tolerated on this side of the channel. It
is easy to perceive that there is not a word of truth in the.
evidence of this favourite witness. There is not a cub-
bier in England, who ever salon a petty jury or a coro-
ner's inquest, who would not erase her evidence from his
notes if he could *rite; Or from his memory if be bad

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