time serving justice, under pretence of searching for arms-is this law directed only against criminals? I am astonished at the presumption which offers such reasoning, and such apologies for unconstitutional restrictions, to such an assembly as this. The returning officers were about to proceed to the poll, when Mr. RUSHTON, addressing General Gascoyne, said, that it had been rumoured, and the rumour was generally believed, that he (the General) had been applied to by a gentleman for an appointment to a situation under Government; that he had demanded of the gentleman, whether he had two or three hundred pounds to spare; and that this money, the rumour went on, was to go towards augmenting a fund for electioneering purposes. He (Mr. R.) wished to know, from the General's own lips, whether there was any truth in the rumour. General GASCOYNE immediately addressed the Mayor:-Till thus called upon, I forbore offering myself to the freemen here assembled, because I felt conscious that I had nothing to justify. I conceived that it would be time enough to make my defence, when a charge was brought forward against me. I, as well as my Right Honourable colleague, have been charged with lending my humble support to some measures which are obnoxious to the gentlemen who have exhibited the charge against me. What those measures were, was not distinctly stated by my accusers. But if the measures to which they allude were measures intended to maintain the tran quillity of the country, I nnhesitatingly acknowledge that I did give them mysupport. Whenever the state of the country has unfortunately made them necessary, I have been guilty of supporting similar measures; and should I be again returned your representative, I am fearful that my public conduct will be in nowise different from what it has been since I have represented this town in Parliament. But, Sir, to come immediately to the specific charge brought against me by the gentleman who stands before me (Mr. Rushton :) I can solemnly say, that I know nothing of the transaction to which he alludes. I have filled the situation of your representative for twentyfour years, and I have never, till this moment, had such an accusation laid against me. I can say nost solemnly, on my word as a gentleman and an officer, that I know neither the person nor the case, nor any case similar, to which allusion has this day been made. Now, Sir, that I am on my legs, allow me to say, that during the space of twenty-four years which I have been your representative in Parliament, I have never, amidst all the changes which have taken place in the political world, asked of any Minister a favour, either for myself or my relations. And, if during the long period which has elapsed, I have never hitherto asked a favour, is it likely that I should ask one now? If you demand of me why I again come forward as a candidate, my answer is-I am not so old, but that I may be useful to my constituents and to my country. In soliciting at your hands this honour, I have no personal motive to serve. If I had, twenty-four years of failure would be but poor encouragement for me to persevere. The gallant General concluded by saying, that, should he be re-elected, he would continue to pay undeviating attention to the interests of his constituents as well as to those of the empire. Some conversation took place with respect to the manner of administering the oaths to the freemen; and it was arranged, that they should be administered by commissioners. The preliminary business occupied above two hours, and the poll did not commence till near twelve o'clock. It continued without interruption until five. NOTICE. Just arrived from the warehouse of Messrs. Arthur Thistlewood and Co. Cato-street, London, a fresh supply of the famous RADICAL PILLS, calculated to cure all the diseases of his Majesty's Ministers, and thoroughly to purge the House of Commons from all its corruptions. To be had wholesale and retail of Dr. C- -n and Co. sole agents in Liverpool. N. B.-Advice gratis in Clayton-square, every evening during the Election, on all state diseases. Liverpool, 7th March, 1820. TO THE RIGHT HON. G. CANNING, &c. &c. &c. Second Edition. As a distant relative of the unfortunate Ogden, I could not but be struck with disgust and indignation at your making his case the subject of ridicule in a debate in the House of Commons on the Indemnity Bill. What, Sir, are the facts upon which you raised an unfeeling laugh? Ogden is a man far advanced in age. He has, for years past, been afflicted with a grievous bodily infirmity. At the instigation of some skulking unknown Informer, he was arrested under a charge of high treason, for which the Ministers have not dared to try him. In these circumstances, neither his age nor his infirmity obtained for him any leniency of treatment. Though it was evidently impossible for him either to resist or to escape the officers of justice, he was loaded with irons, which were continued on him after he was confined in prison. Under this usage he was near sinking, and his infirmity was so much aggravated that he was obliged to submit to an operation, the consequence of which must be either death or relief. By the blessing of God, upon a skilful and benevolent hand, the latter event took place. And because Ogden did not die under the Surgeon's knife, his pain and peril are made the subject of ridicule, and you represent him as “laid under obligation by being cured at the charge of the public!" Who are you, Sir, that thus taunt misery and misfortune? True, Ogden is poor; he is if you please, a pauper. But what are you? When you are out of place, are you not a pauper, receiving from the general parish, by quarterly payments, two thousand a year? And are not your Mother and Sisters paupers on a humbler scale? What is the conduct of the Reformers when compared with yours? When you went to Lisbon for the benefit of your Son's health, they did indeed complain, that for your convenience an embassy was got up, which put £14,000 a year into your pocket. But did they make a savage sport of the infirmity of your boy? The hardness of your heart makes you deaf to the plainest sugges tions of common sense. Some time ago you, the son of a strolling actress, attacked the legitimacy of Lord Folkstone's ancestor; and now, while you have at home a sad instance of deformity and disease, you can joke upon bodily infirmities. This infatuation makes all sober people shudder. I hope you will repent of your folly betime: for you may rest assured (and despise not the intimation because it comes from un obscure individual), that if a severe visitation of Providence is insufficient to teach a vain man wisdom, it is to be feared that the course of events, or special interposition, will bring upon him a heavier judgment. I remain, in the cant of the world, Oldham, near Manchester, GENTLEMEN, TO THE WHIGS. Mr. Canning and his friends compliment you for not taking part in the present Contest, and you submit to this degradation! When Cicero was applauded for some expressions which he was conscious did not deserve commendation, he said to his friends, I must have said something very fooolish to be thus praised." Apply this remark to yourselves, and rouse from your lethargy. Be assured, that when Canning and his friends compliment you "there is something rotten in the state of Denmark." Why hesitate to join the friends of freedom in the present glorious struggle? Do you refuse because you think success cannot follow your exertions? Then you will always be supine :-'tis by repeated efforts that the spark of freedom can be kindled into a flame. The warm friends of Liberty always come forward when occasions are presented to them, to disseminate their principles, and shew their opponents that they " dare be honest in the worst of times." Do you hold back because the present opposition did not originate with yourselves? I trust, I hope that such puerile vanity does not influence your conduct. Recollect, that the true Patriot only considers the cause in which he is embarked,-not the source from which it has originated. Are you the only body of men in the country to whom experience is useless? Your party in the nation has fallen into insignificance, Lot from a want of talent, virtue, or wealth, amongst you, but from the want of political firmness! Vacillating policy is a sure symptom of weakness; and the people, the uninfluenced people, are now too enlightened not to perceive it. Do you object to DR. CROMP TON? or to some of his supporters! Be it so. But will you suffer the noble cause in which they are embarked to sink from personal feelings? Canning, the mortal foe to freedom, the daring enemy and impudent contemner of your party, you suffer, from private pique, to pass unopposed. Public duty sacrificed to gratify a false pride or childish weakness. Do you disapprove of the manner in which this Election is conducted? If so, you violate your own maxims-Bribery and Corruption, the too general attendants of all Elections, against which you properly declaim, are banished from our party, and in their room are substituted Patriotism and the unbought Suffrages of the people. If you hold back from the present contest, you sow the seeds of future weakness and dissention, if you refuse to act with the Reformers, expect retaliation, and be assured, that honourable as many individuals among you certainly are,- without the Reformers you are nothing. Exercise therefore a little common sense, and oppose our common enemy-recollect the Athenian maxim, "He who is not for us is against us." A REFORMER. The poll closed at five o'clock, when the numbers were as stated in page 23. The different parties, accompanied by bands of music and colours, proceeded to their different places of taking leave of their favourite candidates. The party attached to Mr. Canning, went to Duke street, that of General Gascoyne to Colquit street, and Dr. Crompton's party to Clayton square. Dr. CROMPTON addressed the numerous crowd in an animated manner, and was followed by Mr. OTTIWELL WOOD, who paid a high compliment to the character of Dr. Crompton. Mr. RUSHTON spoke on the usual topics; after which the immense assemblage separated. Mr. CANNING addressed his friends in Duke street as follows: GENTLEMEN,-The little voice that I have left to me from a severe cold, and after a speech which has been this morning extorted from me on the hustings, I wish to employ in expressing my acknowledgments to you for this reception, overpowering to my feelings, and exceeding, as it does, even former expressions of your kindness. Gentlemen,.it so happens that in making my first address to you I have also to announce to you the result of the first day's poll. Mr. Leyland, 27; Dr. Crompton, 54; General Gascoyne, 149; myself, by your exertions, 161; such are the stations in which the candidates respectively stand in the scale of popular favour. Gentlemen, I wish to speak with all possible respect of any individual who, by however small a number of the freemen of Liverpool, is thought worthy of being put in competition with those whom you honour with your choice. Of Mr. Leyland, therefore, who stands last on the poll, it is far from my intention to say any thing disparaging or disrespectful. But I have been told to-day, on the hustings, by a very eloquent gentleman, that by some strong spell they have, as it were, evoked from the tomb the phantom whom, in 1816, you remember, it required so much exorcism to lay. It has even been boasted to-day, that this phantom will really appear, on this occasion, in the open air, clothed with a fleshy substance, and is to challenge your votes, not only as a shadow and a name, but as the living man who cast so long a shadow in 1816, and to whom the respectable name so much abused on that occasion belongs. I have only to express my hope that this is so.. If such be his intention,. Mr. Leyland will, I trust, present himself in person at the hustings to-morrow. But many a conjuror has found, that the spell which raises a ghost cannot always command it to do his bidding; and if the spirit now conjured. up is found to be of this refractory sort; if it shall thus defy the authority of those who boast to have raised it from the tomb, I trust that its disturbers will allow it to repose in peace, and content themselves with writing its epitaph The new candidate, Dr. Crompton, has conducted himself, in the course of this day, for ought that I have seen, M |