At the next meeting, on 9 November 1870, the first chaired by the new Lord Mayor, Joseph Gibbons Livingston (who was a strong supporter of M‘Neile), various motions were put, various amendments were proposed, and a number of very strongly held views were expressed.(1) His entire 34 years in Liverpool had consistently stirred up such ill-will among the classes, and such division between different sections of the Liverpool community, that any suggestion that he had a national or local claim to such a high honour simply beggared belief; (2) He was a clergyman of high status and pre-eminent in one of the Church’s largest divisions; (3) He had no national significance as a clergyman, because he only served the interests of one section of the Church of England; (4) He was an earnest, conscientious, zealous Christian, of the highest principles whose integrity was beyond question; (5) His extreme anti-Catholicism had insulted, antagonized, and alienated at least a third of the population of Liverpool; (6) His vicious attacks on those who did not share his religious views (Roman Catholics, Anglo-Catholics within the Church of England, non-Evangelicals, non-Conformists, and Dissenters, etc.) were so offensive that, if a statue must be placed in St. George’s Hall, it was better to allow considerable time to pass and the offence he had caused to dissipate; and (7) He was a well-published author on divinity and theological subjects, and a measure of his excellence was that his works had been reviewed in prestigious publications such as "The Edinburgh Review" and "The Times".</ref> Despite the convention requiring a unanimous vote, it seems the majority (the final vote was 36 "aye" to 16 "nay") were prepared to take the view that, whatever divisive conduct M‘Neile may have displayed, he deserved recognition as a writer and orator, and agreed to place the statue amongst the other eleven local and national dignitaries (Cavanagh, 1977).