The Warrington Examiner. — 1869-05-22 (Warrington, Cheshire, England)

BRIGHT. Subsequently, Lord RUSSELL raised a second night's debate on the policy of the Government respecting Ireland, and Lord DERBY was only too glad to seize the opportunity to impute motives against the man of all others whom he most fears and. hates. The complaint against Mr. BRIGHT was that he had led the Irish peasantry to expect that the land some day would be divided amongst them. But Mr. BRIGHT has stated in the House of Commons he never advocated, and he would never support, anything that was contrary to the principles of political economy, and in his beautiful and eloquent language "He has pleaded for just laws justly administered." Notwithstanding these hostile party efforts to damage his character, Mr. BRIGHT Will ever live in the hearts of his countrymen, and. can afford to smile at the petty attacks of selfish landlords. At the time of the general election, the instructions sent out from the Tory head quarters were simply these :—" Don't express any opinion about our policy, but abuse Mr. GLADSTONE and denounce the Irish Church bill." Everybody knows how well these instructions were obeyed, how all the Tories attempted to damage Mr. GLADSTONE'S character, how the clergy especially heaped abuse—such as was never heard before in this country—upon him. In Warrington there were one or two clergymen that obtained an unenviable notoriety from their abusive and shameful language. One said that Mr. GLADSTONE had positively been cheating the revenues of the country, when he was the Chancellor of the Exchequer, an accusation that was perfectly false, and had not an apology been given, Mr. GLADSTONE would have exposed his calumniator in a court of justice. Another clergyman likened Mr. GLADSTONE to a murderer, and compared him to MILES WETHERALL, the wretch who shot two or three persons in the parsonage at Todmorden. But the judgment of the people was not blinded by these indecent attacks, and Mr. GLADSTONE found himself placed in the proud position of Prime Minister, with a larger number of supporters than any Minister has ever had in this generation. We have had, on a small scale, another exhibition of Tory animosity in our local Parliament. Councillor Dr. SMITH moved a vote of thanks to our worthy member, Mr. RYLANDS, for his long and valuable services in the Town Council. No political opponent had the good sense to second the vote, which they all knew was well deserved, but they had the bad taste to move an illogical amendment. This amendment objected to the vote of thanks until some explanation had been given why certain gentlemen had not been made borough magistrates. The Liberals never dreamt, in their innocence, that any one—not even a Tory—would attempt to oppose a vote which the whole town knows to be so well deserved. They over-estimated the character of their opponents. The Tory members were whipped up secretly, and they carried the amendment by a majority of 11 to 10. The Liberals have since wiped out this disgraceful amendment by again supporting Dr.  SMITH'S vote of thanks at a special meeting of the Council, and carrying it by a majority of 19 against 11. Alderman T. G. RYLANDS, in his able and conclusive speech, told the Tories what was perfectly true, that, as on another recent occasion, their majority was a fictitious one. He also rebuked the Tories for objecting to the vote of thanks, by remarking that had the tables been turned and a vote of thanks been proposed to Alderman PETER SMITH, our Member would have been the first to second it.  We know that the Tories in this borough suffered a crushing defeat at the late election. It must have been desperately mortifying to Mr. GREENALL and his friends to lose the seat, especially after they had resorted to the practices that everybody knows they were guilty of. Therefore we are prepared to make some allowance for this miserable exhibition of feeling in the Town Council. Toryism in Warrington is the same as every where else. It is eminently stupid and desperately selfish. We trust, however, that it will improve now we have got a Liberal Member of Parliament, and the most advanced Liberal Government that has ever been in power in this country.