The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-11-10 00:00:00

THE ELECTION TO THE MAYORALTY.

SAMUEL R. GRAVES, Esq., was yesterday elected
Mayor of Liverpool. As to the importance of
this office, and the rare fitness of the gentleman
selected to fill it, we have already expressed our
unqualified opinion. It is certainly gratifying to
us, and cannot but be satisfactory to the public,
to find our opinion so ably and eloquently
endorsed by more than- one gentleman whose
services to the community entitle them to its
highest respect, and so cordially coincided in
by those members of the Council who represent
the feelings and views of the majority of the
people of Liverpool. To have been proposed
yesterday by CHARLES TURNER, Esq., a gentle-
man who has so long and honourably held a
position scarcely second in importance to that of
the Mayoralty itself—to have hid that nomination
seconded by
.so devoted and zealous a representa-
tive of the public interest as Alderman BENNETT
—to have been enthusiastically supported by so
intelligent, discriminating, and independent

gentleman as J. A. TOBIN, Esq.,—and, generally,
to have enlisted the sympathies and votes of
gentlemen bearing the honoured names of Alder-
men BRAMLEY-MOORE, HORSFALL, LLOYD, PAR-
KER, ROBINSON, COOPER, and GARDNER, and
the elite of our municipal parliament, was a com-
pliment of which older servants of the public than

Mr. GRAVES might well have been proud. It is
impossible for anyone—especially if they have any
personal knowledge of Mr. GRAVES—to read his
unaffectedly modest speech in acknowledgment
of the honour yesterday conferred upon him,
without feeling convinced that he has accepted
the civic chair chiefly from a sense of public duty,
not without a keen sense of the honour it confers,
with a serious feeling of the heavy responsibility
attached to it, and with a single eye to the
interests of the town, to the efficient performance
of his high duties, and to the untarnished honour
and dignity of the Mayoralty. We feel assured
that the whole body of the people will re-echo
with us the good wishes of the Council for health,
wealth, happiness, and long life to his Worship
Mayor GRAVES.

The severest condemnation of the ludicrous and
hopeless attempt of the Radical members of -the
Council to get up a demonstration against the
views of the Conservative majority, Will be
found in their triVri irrelevant; incoherent,
self-destructive, and self-contradietoit speeches.
Acting under this persuasion, we have given a
tolerably full report of the suicidal orations of these
gentlemen. To attempt to pass in review the un-
becoming personal insinuations,—the unwarrant-
able allusions to private dinner party cofiversations,
—the coarse slang,—the frantic attempts at wit and
jocularity,—the disorderly behaviour,—and the
mis-statements of facts, lugubriously indulged in
with unblushing effrontery by a small and insig-
nificant clique, who insist upon needlessly occu-
pying the time of the Council, and upon making
themselves the butts and laughing-stocks of the
public out of doors,—would be unworthy of our
space—would be at once a work of supererogation
and an affront to our readers.

" The Mayor "—speaking of His Worship
officially—has no politics. Still, however, un-
doubtedly he cannot but have his individual
predilection for one or other of the two great
sectiens of politicians ! so also must the members
of the Council who elect hint. That they should
exercise their right with due reference to political
sympathies is surely fair and reasonable, and not
more than the electors calculate on and look for.
That the majority of the Council should, under
ordinary circumstances chose one of their num-
ber whose political views are in unison with their
own, is, therefore, according to reason, fair play
and public expectation. To rail against them for
doing so is to insult common sense, and throw
discredit upon the choice of the electors. That
the Conservative majority of the Council have
hitherto given effect to their political sympathies
with moderation and generous consideration for
the undoubted merits and valuable services
to the town of gentlemen entertaining opposite
sentiments is a fact easily demonstrable. It
is therefore the less creditable to the minority
that they should feebly attempt to clamour against
the occasional preference of the majority for one
of their own political creed. On the present
occasion, nothing could have been more unhappy
than the attempt made to thwart their avowed
decision by bringing forward a gentleman, against
his will, whose claims to the honour were, with-
out disparagement to his actual worth, confess-
edly not equal to those of the successful candidate.
If aye only, and mere length of service, are
to be the test of merit, how many of our
most valuable and useful public servants must
succumb to such an ordeal ? Fortunately, the
people of this country have learned to give the
preference to efficiency and merit over mere
numerical seniority or traditional right. Just
fancy the weakness and inconsistency of those
Radicals of the Council in noisily asserting
the privileged rights of individuals as against
proved sufficiency. The question as to the
right and propriety of the majority of the
Council electing the man of their choice
was so worthily and satisfactorily disposed of
by JAMES ASPINALL TOBIN, Esq., that we feel it
unnecessary to do more than quote his words.
This gentleman said,—" He would not have come
forward and desired to make any remarks in that
Council had it not been for the observations that
had been made by Mr. EARLE, who had thought
that occasion a fitting opportunity of making an
attack upon a portion of that Council. He (Mr.
ToBIN) meant that which was called the Con-
servative portion of the Council. He, however,
would not enter upon any recrimination, which
would be productive of no good, but would
excite and stir up an angry and irritable
feeling. He should not, for one, ever be
a party to any such proceeding as that. He
gave every person leave to exercise his own
option, and to differ from him, if he liked, in his
political views. He was content to believe that
these people entertained their opinions conscien-
tiously, and the like privilege he claimed at their
hands. That party, if they had a majority in
that Council, at all events bore in mind that they
were but the representatives of the people at
large—and if they did possess that power, and if
they acted in opposition to public opinion, that
majority would very speedily turn into a
"rn,"1211 ••••• CANI10•1 01..4
great power, public opinion, without its reacting
upon themselves, and very soon, indeed, that
power which they might possess would be taken
out of their hands. He could not understand
what Mr. EARLE had very boldly called discre-
ditable conduct. He was not, however, going to
enter upon the merits of that question ; but he
would say that he did not think that the
Conservative party had acted in a narrow or
bigoted manner, for, during the last few
years, they had elected two gentlemen dia-
metrically opposed to themselves in political
opinions. He was quite content to abide by
public opinion, and the decisions of public
opinion ; and he felt assured that if Mr. GRAVES
were elected to the office of Mayor, that public
opinion, at the expiration of his year of office
would be exceedingly gratified by his course of
conduct and action, and that he would fully
realise the expectations that had been formed of
him by his friends and the public."
We believe the public will all but unanimously
respond to those eloquently expressed and liberal
sentiments; and we have the greatest confidence
in hailing Mayor GRAVES not only as the choice
of the Council, but as the choice and pride of
Liverpool.

SUICIDE.—On Tuesday last, a provision dealer, named
James Allison, who carried on business in Cockspur-
street, stabbed himself in the abdomen, and died yester-
day from the effects of the wound. It is stated that he
was drinking at the time, and that he was not right in
his mind.
FINt RTS.—Amongst the portraits shown at the
late bazaar in St. George's Hall, were two that commanded
attentions not only as works of art, but from the fact
that they are the production of a local professional, who
has uttained some celebrity as a portrait painter. The
objects of the artist's pencil in the present instance are
two eminent bishops, one the Right Rev. Dr. Hughes,
of Gibraltar, and the Right Rev. Dr. Furlong, Bishop
of Ferns, Co. Wexford, one of the oldest sees in Ireland.
In both Mr. Fortune has shown talent of no mean
order, the drapery and accompaniments, as well as the
likenesses, being remarkably correct in colouring and
detail ; and, from the praises bestowed on the works,
Mr. Fortune must soon become a favourite in his noble
profession.
CHEMISTS' ASSOCIATION.—On Thursday evening the
third meeting of the session of the above society was
held in the Royal Institution, Dr. J. B. Edwards in the
chair. After some donations had been announced by
Mr. Thomas D. Walker, the hon. secretary, an address
and a microscope were presented to Mr. H. S. Fisher,
from the student members of the association, in recog-
nition of his kindness in meeting them at a botanical
class during the summer months. Mr. Fisher gracefully
acknowledged the gift. He concluded by proposing a
vote of thanks to 11Ir. T. D. Walker and his lady for
permitting the class to assemble at their house on
various occasions. The motion was carried by acclama-
tion, and briefly acknowledged by Mr. Walker. Mr.
Evans, vice-president, was then voted to the chair ; and
the president, Dr. Edwards, proceeded to deliver an
eloquent lecture on "magnetic light," which, for the
convenience of experimental illustration, was delivered
in the large lecture room. The lecture was of a most
interesting and instructive character; and the meeting,
very naturally, accorded to Or. Edwards a very cordial
vote of thanks.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

FRANCE.
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
PARIS, Friday, Nov. 9.
An incident relative to the Warsaw Conference
has just transpired, of a highly interesting and
explanatory character. It is stated that the
Emperor Alexander, previously to the opening of