The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-10-25 00:00:00

" Unpleasing to a liberal ear—'

—RETRENCHMENT! The researches of a Paid Officers'
Committee might have to be driven deeper into the core of
whig-radical corruption. We might be required to apply
the pruning-knife in other quarters—to burke a few schemes
now in embryo, for the erection of new haymarkets and
other matters, as the auctioneers say, too numerous to men-
tion. But, upon consideration, we can discern nothing which
ought to present a serious obstacle to the erection of this new
prison being undertaken—if at all—by the corporation. The
collection of the amount, we are told, can be extended over
28 to 30 years. Then BORROW the money, for which the
corporation can give ample security, and repay it by instal-
ments

By the bye, if the question is not already settled, let us, in
our rambling way, suggest a mode of putting it to the deci-
sion of the constituency. Let the question between the Ra-
dical candidates and the Conservatives at the approaching
election be, gaol rate or no gaol rate, and see who will carry
the day !

NOTE 2.—The way in which poor William Thornhill was
flouted by the waspish alderman for Exchange Ward, is illus-
trative alike of human nature and of " liberalism." But a
few years ago, and even William Thornhill was " somebody"
in the eyes of the aristocracy of whiggery. He was not very
presentable, it is true, at select parties. He was, however,
" a capital fellow" for a' that. He was superb in the Watch
Committee, and excellent in the markets. He was, in short,
as good a paw as your aristocratic ape could have to pull his
ehesnuts out of the fire.

But now—shame on the wickedness of Toryism !—on a
chang6 tout cela. The ascendancy of Radicalism in the
the Council has fled. The committees are no longer worked
by the faction for its own purposes, by its own subservient
tools ; and Thornhill—

" Quantum mutatus ab illo Billy !"
is but a nobody, and in the Council or in the street be must
not " come between the wind and the nobility" of William
Earle !
Poor Thornhill !

NOTE 3.—The discussion upon the relative merits of the
words " removal," " dismissal," and " retirement," is
curious. Preferring that which best expresses the real facts
of the case, the public, no one can doubt, will be satisfied
with either " removal" or " dismissal." Ironically, in-
deed, one might be brought to say of a man, who had been
kicked out of a situation, that he had " retired ;" but where
you are walked out of an office of emolument to make room,
by a kind of hocus pocus, for another man, you are "re-
moved." In the case in question, however, there was a
retiring salary, and that perhaps makes it a " retirement."
We are " bothered," however, and give it up.
NOTE 4.—" Save me from my friends !" will, no doubt,
have been the exclamation of Mr. Abbott, the clerk to the
clerk of committees, and partner of all the poll-clerks, on
reading the report of Mr. Thomas Bolton's speech in his
behalf. With the question, however, between the said clerk
of many denominations and his patron councillor, this NOTE
bath nothing at present to say, its object being simply to ask
Mr. Thomas Bolton how it came that "his wee bit moo, so
sweet and bonny," was hermetically sealed, up to Wednes-
day, upon the subject of the poor fellow, picked up out of the
streets, and—what shall we call it?—out of half-a-guinea,
fairly earned as poll-clerk, and fairly paid out of the corpo-
rate fund ?

NorE s.—Mr. Bright was a fit gentleman to illuminate the
blank leaves affair. Mr. Bright is himself the quintessence
of blank ; his place in the Council will soon be blank ; and
whenever we have in future to mention him in our columns
we shall always allude to him as Mr. blank, lest we
should have a repetition of the Dodson and Fogg affair.
NOTE 6.—The blank leaves again ! There is something
in these leaves which we cannot decypher. Mr. Alderman
Earle, in his happy mode of expressing himself, assured the
Council that " they were all clap-traps." Traps or not, they
were not baited, which is a wonder, seeing that such a " cun-
ning chiel" as Mr. James Aiken had the setting of them.
We should like to have the memoranda made by the com-
mittee, nevertheless ; and we trust Mr. James Aiken or Mr.
Bright will find them for us one of these days, before Mr.
Thos. Bolton goes into retirement. We shall as gladly give
them publicity in the columns of the Standard, as we did the
report of the Paid Officers' Committee ; and they will not
give us neatly the trouble of composition, and the cost of
ink.

NOTE 7.—When Mr. William Earle interrupted the speech
of Mr. D. Hodgson with an exclamation of " Oh, the
angel 1" was he lamenting the by-gone days of the clique,
when the affairs of the borough were settled at that far-famed
hostel? If not, he took a liberty in mentioning the name
of a being with. whom he cannot possibly have any ac-
quaintance.

NOTE B.—When the same individual presumed to say of
Mr. David Hodgson, that " nobody cares one button-top
for what he Gays," he should have said that nobody cares
one " rap" who it is that William Earle " raps" at. Poor
William—thy time is short, hereditary alderman though thou
art ! We regret the fact in our heart of hearts ; for, oh !
how the re porters must miss thy pirouettes upon the ultimate
joint of thy spine—those pshas and pughs and phoos—which
" set the table in a roar"—those screeching interruptions,

those disjointed exclamations, those strange contortions,
which, in their variety, defy a menagerie of apes to imitate !
We would no more lose William Earle than we would the
council itself, or the Town-hall, or the dock estate ; and
whenever the day comes—
" The day decreed by fates—
(How our heart trembles whilst our pen relates I)
The day when thou, facetious Bill, must bend"

to the decree irrrevocable of a majority of the council, we
shall most assuredly put ourselves into mourning, as will no
doubt nine.-tenths of the laughers of this great community.
Inimitable 'William Earle! But, good-bye for the present.

The Globe (London paper) states, that the secretary to the
Oriental Club has absconded, taking with him about a thou-
sand you nds in money, and leaving several additional sums
unsettleil. The club may thank itself for the loss, for the
secretaries need not be entrusted at any time with more than
a small sum to meet the current petty expenses, and every
thing else ought to be paid through the committee.
Tna EMPEROR OF RUSSIA IN WARSAW.—It appears,
from ti de news received by the Hamburgh mail, that great
rejoicings took place at Warsaw, on the arrival of the Em-
peror Nicholas at the capital of the ancient kingdom of
Polar id. The city was illuminated for three successive
night .s, in honour of the sovereign who had battered it to
pieo !s, who had sent to Siberia hundreds of the bravest sons
of >P 'oland, and who, in defiance of the treaty of Vienna, is
adc pting measures for making that country an integral pec-
tic n of the Russian empire.
A FEMALE CHARTIST'S SPEECH. —4' POLITICAL
EIGHTS " OF THE FAIR SER.—A meeting of female Char-
tists was held on Monday evening, in the National Charter
Association Hall, Old Bailey, for the purpose of forming a
Female Chartist Association," to co-operate with the male
association ; and for other objects connected with the inte-
r rests of " the people's charter." At this meeting a Miss
_Mary Ann Walker was the great gun. The "political rights"
of women having been brought under discussion, a Mr. Co-
hen observed that " political rights," such as he understood
that meeting to aspire to, women could never, in his opinion,
attain. Miss Mary Ann Walker then declared that she was
astonished at Mr. Cohen. She repudiated, with indignation,
the insinuation that if women were in parliament, any man,
be he husband, or be he lover, would dare be so base as to
attempt to sway her from the strict line of duty. (Hear,
hear, cries of " bravo " from the men, and much applause).
She would treat with womanly scorn, as a contemptible
scoundrel, the man who would dare to influence her vote by
any undue and unworthy means (cheers from the men), for
if he were base enough to mislead her in one way, he could
in another (" bear, hear," and renewed cheers). The events
which were at that moment taking place in the North, where
their sisters and brothers were being cruelly and unjustly
transported or else they were plunged into dismal and pesti-
ferous dungeons, for no other cause than standing up for
their rights and demanding bread to appease their hunger
and save themselves from dying of starvation in their native
land, were unfortunately of a nature to drag woman from her
retirement, and call upon her to lift up her voice against such
deeds (great chtering from the men, and cries of " bravo,
Miss Walker," and " hear, hear," from the ladies). As
for Lord Abing er—(hisses), he was unworthy of the name of
" man," and unfit to represent the interests of either man or
woman. His 1 nrdship had said, that the Chartists wanted
to get the power into their own hands to make all the laws
themselves." She (Miss Mary Ann) flung back the malig-
nant falsehood with all the scorn it merited (cheers from the
men, and " hear, hear," accompanied by waving of hand-
kerchiefs by the ladies). The spirited young lady, who spoke
with great warmth, and suited the action to the word, after
passing some additional censure on his lordship, and touch-
ing on a variety of other points connected with the objects of
the meeting, declared herself a Chartist in name and feeling;
and having appealed to her fellow-country-women to " come
out ". in favour of the charter, and, however ungramatical
their language, not to be dismayed by any shaft of ridicule
that might be pointed against them, concluded by giving them
the encouraging holss that if it were only from the curiosity,
to hear " a woman -" speak, the young men would come out
and speak to them ( laughter, and long continued applause,
amid which Miss Ma try Ann Walker resumed her seat)