The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-12-01 00:00:00

out." To this bold and singular assertion Mr.
MAXWELL replied, " Don't tell me anything of the
kind. I was at the booth all day, and you never
fought an election with more determination to
keep him out." • Here lies the truth and glory of
this victory to the liberal cause. The enemy
never fought an election with more determination,
and yet they were beaten, signally defeated and
manfully routed.

Having thus achieved a most auspicious victory
let us now count the gains. First of all, has been
driven a mere conventional drone from an impor-
tant public office which ought at all times to be
filled by competent, honest-minded, and liberal
men of business. Secondly, we have gained a man
who pledges himself to act independently and to
the best of his abilities; and lastly, if he fails to
give satisfaction to his constituents, he pledges
himself to resign his seat in the council to some
other candidate for municipal honoUrs. On these
points Mr. EARLE'S supporters could. require no
Juch pledge. He is too well known to them as an
honourable and consistent man, worthy of public
confidence, and an ornament to a public office.
And mark the spirit with which he returns to the
field of his former usefulness.

Scarcely had he acknowledged the marked coin-
iptiments paid to him by the electors present, before
we find him grappling with tho reckless prodiga-
lity of the Town Council, and he begins by ex-
huming the defunct " Highway Board," who Mr.
EARLE reminds us.were guilty of the most infamous
jobbing, for which purpose they were so strongly
linked together by political friendship, that they
kept everything in their own hands. By this
" gallant crew " of sharpers and tricksters, he tells
us that from £lOO,OOO to £120,000 of the Borough
funds were squandered in paying for streets badly
levelled, sewers laid down at random, and which
have since been broken up, and for workmanship
which was abominable. He next turned
_to the
improvements now going on in the Borough under
the Board of Health, whose movements he seems
to understand much better than many of the lead-
ing members of the Board itself. Such is the out-
line Mr. EARLE has given to his constituents of
his acquaintance with their wants and interests,
and if practical knowledge and experience be of
any value in a public servant, we think that the town
at large will soon have reason to be thankful to the
Burgesses of Abercromby Ward for having sent
such a man among the drones who are at present
" linked together by political friendship for the
purpose of keeping everything in their own
hands."

But Mr. EARLE does not stand alone among the
Medes and Persians of the Council Chamber. The
liberal cause has another able and sincere advo-
cate. One, too, of whom the oppositionists have
been heard to say, " He is like all converts," by
which they mean that he will be three times more
difficult to deal with than a hundred Tories. They
are for once, quite right ! Mr. ROBERTSON GLAD'
STONE is as practical, unbending, and useful, as
our pier head. He has every qualification to make
him so ; and, above all, he is up to the " secrets of
the prison-house." He can detect a job, as Paddy
would say, " before it is in sight." That is, he'
scents out a job before the public are called upon
to pay for it; for, after all, the rate-collector is the
best oculist, wherever the visual organs of the
public are defective.
This is, however, political badinage, for which
we care nothing. Our duty is simply to direct pub-
lic attention to the high character and practical
attainments of two public men. Mr. GLAD-
STONE went to the dinner with a bill of
fare in his pocket. And notwithstanding
that the viands were of the first order, the
Burgesses seemed to relish Mr. GLADSTONE'S
dessert amazingly. The worthy gentleman then,
by way of a preface, said—" I have great abhor-
rence of the mind which can suggest nothing—
which can only tread the old beaten track—oppose
every object which in itself is calculated for the
good of mankind, and then afterwards, when a
measure is carried, shelters itself under this, ' It
has become law, and it is my duty to bow and
obey it.' I say you had better have representatives
who are in advance of everything that has ever
been, than to have such men as these, who are for
ever trailing in the mire, The best course is to cut
all connexion with such men as these." There
is something in this that carries with it impress of
greatness. Suchgrape and canister would make the
Town Hall resound again. It is just what is wanted
to drown the hum-drum fiddle-faddle of that
drowsy how-do-you-do conclave.
But Mr. GLADSTONE had another charge in his
pocket, in the shape of a statement of the pur-
chases made by the Corporation of landed estates,
houses, and buildings, the purchase of which he
reminded his hearers had been paid for out of the
till, or out of the pockets of Borough ratepayers;
or else by money borrowed, the interest of which
was charged against them in the annual account
and current expenditure. He then read his state-
inent, in which it appeared that the sum so ex-
pended already amounted to 134,7631. 15s. 3d.
These are the links which bind political friendship
in the Town Council, and if we take them by bulk
their power must be great. But strange to say,
there is not one of the squanderers of this large
sum that can point out the estates, houses, and
buildings they possess ! . They know as much
about them as they do of the territories of the
King of the SandWich Islands. To reform this
state of things, however, Mr. GLADSTONE proposes
(supposing the estates to be in existence) on the
payment of a fine, to convert all the leasehold into
freehold property. Of the amount produced by
tho fines he would apply one-third to the extin-
tinguishing of the Corporation debt, one-third to
the credit of current expenditure, and one-third
for the purchase of land in the environs of the
town, where the Corporation might make their own
streets, according to their own plans and width,
without having to meet the objections of owners
and the claims for compensation.
Mr. GLADSTONE next goes on to estimate the
value of the leasehold property of the Corporation,
which he sets down at two or three millions; and at 1
per cent. he calculates on a return of £20,000 from
his plans ; but he spoke with great caution. We
are disposed, however, to think that 4 per cent.
would be nearer the mark, and that, instead
of £20,000, the income arising from the sources to
which he alluded, would be £BO,OOO annually.
This large revenue coming from this " great un-
known" source would be a prodigious' relief to the
over-burthened ratepayers of the Borough. The
speaker next directed attention to the " Church
Establishment" of the Corporation. On this sub-
ject Mr. GLADSTONE made these apposite remarks :
" It is unfortunately the case that the Corporation
Churches, after giving credit for the very small
amount of rent received, cost something like
£3,400 per annum. Now, I think those churches
might be disposed of. The appointments are
gone. Perhaps you would ask, who would buy a
number of churches which are bringing you into
debt each year ? But • I have faith in the manage-
ment of private individuals over public bodies,
who are generally imposed upon, and I think if
these
.churches were once disposed of—and at
present they are an eyesore to almost every one
who knows anything about them—l think it would

be a happy circumstance for the corporation."
Now if we pause for moment to take a retrospective
glance at the diversified, comprehensive, and prac-
tical character of the speeches of Mr. EARLE and
Mr. GLADSTONE, both. the necessity and propriety
of sending such men into the council, must be
admitted even by their greatest political and
municipal opponents. In a word, the speeches to
which we have devoted so much of our space,
would be no disgrace to either houses of parlia-
ment, and the verdict of the public will be ita est

THERE are a few individuals in this country
whose hearts are really too large for their bodies—
who would reform every abuse, and make all
nations conform to their precise ideas on politics
and religion men who would turn this waste
earth into a beauteous paradise, and perform any
good work, provided it could be accomplished by
" a subscription." We give them full credit for
good intentions ; but as to their practical wisdom
and consistency, the less that is said about them
the better.

That newly-formed body, the " Protestant
Alliance," has just held a meeting, in London, for the
purpose of memorialising the Government on the
aspect of Popery abroad, " especially with regard
to the persecution of British subjects in foreign
countries." Lord SHAFTESBURY and Sir CULLING
EARDLEY were the " lions " of the occasion ; and,
as our readers may have anticipated, there was a
great display of vapid oratory, to which the senti-
ment of VOLTAIRE may not inaptly be applied :--
" A terrible thing that so much time should be
wasted in talking !" However, the whole affair
wound up by the adoption of a Memorial to Lord
CLARENDON, calling upon him to redress the
numerous grievances of which they complained ;
and there is no doubt whatever but that the same
will receive, upon presentation, a most polite,
dignified, and ministerial response.
But we should like to know who constituted
those gentlemen guardians of their Protestant
countrymen abroad ? We always thought that
we paid a FOREIGN SECRETARY and Ambassadors
for the purpose, and that whenever a foreign
nation committed any ontrage upon a British
subject, immediate redress and satisfaction were
demanded. But it does not appear as if our
governmental arrangements were complete or
efficient, and that it became necessary for a self-
formed clique to assume the reins of power.
Really those gentlemen would require a Secretary
for Foreign affairs all to themselves. There is
little doubt but that he would have more work
than he could ever get through, even supposing
each day were forty-eight hours long.

We do not deny that the laws of Tuscany are
intolerant—that those of Portugal and Spain
are no better, if they are not worse
—that they boar very stringently upon what
Englishmen consider their inalienable rights,
—and. moreover, that they ought to be either con-
siderably modified or altogether repealed. But,
on the other hand, we must bear in mind that
those countries are professedly Roman Catholic,
and that the same obligation rests upon their
several governments to uphold that system of
religion by all lawful means, as upon our own to
maintain inviolable the Established faith. Nor
do we see how great blame can be attached to
those governments as long as the interests of
Church and State are bound up together. English
law is decidedly more liberal and tolerant ; but it
must not be forgotten that the penal statutes for-
merly enforced, both against Catholics and Dis
seaters, could not well be rivalled in atrocity by
the codes of foreign nations. ,
The Memorial complains of the revival of old
penal laws by the governments of Tuscany and
Portugal. But how can any reasonable man wonder
at it? Has not England herself set the example?
Has not our Legislature created new penal enact-
ments, and put them in force too, against the
establishment of a Catholic hierarchy ? Has it not
forbid Catholic ecclesiastics and religious orders
from appearing publicly in the streets wearing any in-
signia of their respective orders ? Have not motions
been repeatedly and perseveringly brought into
the Senate for the purpose of violating the privacy
of convents, and annulling the dearest privilege
of the Constitution, "that an Englishman's house
is his castle ?" In what country of the world do
we meet with such rampant and insolent bigotry ?
Do we not hear it on the public platform—view it
chalked upon the walls of our streets—and even
tolerate it from the pulpit ? What just cause, then,
have we of complaint, if Continental countries
take a page out of our own book ? Let us, at all
events, be without sin, ere we throw the first stone !
Let those gentlemen who are so desirous of abolishing
tyrannical enactments abroad, first of all endeavour
to obtain more toleration at home. Let them first
pluck the beam out of their own eye. What ?We
enact penal statutes against Catholics, and we
complain that other countries enact the same
against us. We forbid a Jew from taking his seat in
Parliament, because he cannot conscientiously swear
" upon the true faith of 'a Christian !" and yet we
rave and rant about liberty of conscience, and the
rights of man—and are loud in declaiming against
the GIUND DUKE of Tuscany ! When shall we be
shamed into consistency ?

Some of the reformed religionists of Great Britain
having, in vain, strived to bring about union among
themselves, have fortunately found a grand rallying
point—" the Papal aggression " and changing
their soubriquet have assumed the defensive. Those
valiant champions of the faith regard with no
jealous eye the workings of Jesuitical moles; and
like the " nervous gentleman," fancy they escry
danger on every side. And 'twould be hard to
convince them otherwise. We know " all things
seem yellow to a jaundiced eye," and that within
the whole pharmacopeia no remedy can be found
to suit the phases of monomaniacal distempers.
But really Catholic nations have more to fear from
English fanaticism than we have from theirs.
One society labours to effect a revolution in the
laws—another to overthrow the faith of continental
nations ! How should we tolerate such pro-
ceedings on the part of the zealous propagandists
of Catholic France or priest-ridden Italy ?

This sectarian spirit is highly condemnable. It
is productive of the most fatal results. It sets
nation against nation—people against people—and
effectually destroys that international good feeling
which even commercial and political policy should,
for obvious reasons, sedulously cultivate. We
hope LORD CLARENDON will teach such a seasonable
lesson to those bellicose representatives of
" religious liberty" as his distinguished colleague
did to the " fast" Presbytery of Edinburgh.

Am-DE/vv.—Yesterday, James Morgan, a hawker, while
walking from Crosby to Liverpool, slipped down and frac-
tured his leg. He is now in the Northern Hospital.
FIRES.—The two fires mentioned in our yesterday's im-
pressfon, were duly extinguished, without doing any material
damage.
THE VALDiviA.---The Pacific Steam-ship Navigation
Company's ship " Valdivia " sailed from this port yesterday.
She had on board 59 passengers, and 30,000 dollars of
specie, for Valparaiso.
MANCHESTER AND SALFORD ASYLUM FOR FEMALE PENT-
TENTs..—Yesterday, the annual meeting of the subscribers
and friends of the above institution was held in the Town
Hall, Ring-street, Manchester, when there was a very
numerous attendance of ladies and gentlemen. Several reso-
lutions in favour of the objects of the society were agreed to.

THE NORTHERN DAILY TIMES.