The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-10-24 00:00:00

they would be sure to pick him out, and ask him to go. (Hear,
hear.) Gentlemen, you have, on several occasions, many of
you, been kind enough to intimate to me your desire,
whenever it might suit my convenience to place my
serviced at your disposal, that I should represent you in the
town council. (gear, hear.) I had, lio*e•ser, nd inten-
tion when I conversed with Mr. Rcay to do any such thing.
But, subsequently, the provisional committee to which I have
referred, did me the honour to come to a unanimous resolution
to present me with a requisition calling upon me to permit
myself to be placed in the position in which I have now the
honour to stand before you, as a candidate for your suffrages for
the representation of the Lime street Ward in the town
council, at the forthcoming electien, upon the Ist
of November next. (Cries of " hear, hear," and loud cheers.
Gentlemen, that requisition, I feel, states more of me than I
fear I deserve. (No, no). But it was signed by so many
burgesses of the ward, in so short a time, and feeling, as I do,
that the duty of a citizen is the highest duty a man is called
upon to perform, ansthat it' it were in my power to respond to
the invitation, it was my duty to do so cordially and without
delay. GentlFmen, acting under the influence of those feelings
and those principles, I did not hesitate, but I at once accepted
the requisition, placed in the hands of the gentlemen my address
which you have seen on the walla, and I Stand before you this
evening to make known to you the faith that is in me. (Cheers.)
If that faith be acceptable to you, and you, send me into the
Town Council, I will do your duty for you to the best of my
power and ability without regard to my own individual interests
apart from yours. (Cheers.) Igo therefor no purpose but to
serve you—it is your business and not mine. (Hear, hear).
I hope then, gentlemen, you are satisfied with my explanation
and you will do me the justice to say that I have done no wrong
on this occasion from the first to the last. (Renewed cheers.)
Gentlemen, I shall detain you no longer by what I feel ought
not to have occupied your time, but I was necessitated to go at
that length into the question. lam extremely obliged to you
for the indulgent hearing you Tiave given me, upon a question
not of that high character, not of that noble order for which
we are assembled this evening, and by your permission, sir,
and the perrnission of the gentlemen I have the pleasure of
addressing, I shall now proceed to the immediate business for
which the meeting has been convened. Gentlemen, hold
that a community cannot be financially wrong and socially
right. If you want an illustration of this go across the channel,
and, unfoi tunatcly, you have it there. Look at the fever heat
with which the authorities lie down upon their pillows at night,
and rise up in the morning, in consequence of the disordered
state of the finances of France, and you will see that I am
right in coming to the conclusion, that social order is
disturbed immediately the balance of finance comes
on the wrong side. (Hear, bear.) Then, gentlemen, in
attempting to put before you any views as to the duties of a
town councillor, I put first the question of finance.
Any gentleman aspiring to the position I now aspire to must
feel that it is a great honour to be elected according to the
spirit of the constitution to a seat in the council. It is debasing,
it is demoralising to go there by any back stair or pocket
borough influence, (Cheers.) Gentlemen, t have not asked
a single elector for his vote—l have not sought the suffrage of
any one individual; and, I am sure, you will permit me to say
that it is not my intention to do so, and that I shall receive
your approbation for it. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) I have
said before it is your own business—it is, at least, more yours
than mine, for I am only an infinitisimal individual among the
muhitude. You are the masses, and have the great interest at
stake—l have comparatively but little. If you please to select
me to go into the Town Council for the seat which will be
vacant on the Ist of November, I told you before, and I tell
you again, t will do my duty there to the best of my power
and ability. Well, now, gentlemen, look at the revenue of
this great estate. Why, this corporate estate is a small king-
dom. It is a German Principality, and with far greater re.
sponsibilities than any German Principality, in my opinion.
There is the great avenue, one of the great arteries, through
which flows all the raw material which employs millions of our
population of the northern, and some of the midland coun-
ties—here flows out again the raw material in its manufactured
state, having added to it the value of the industry of the bee-
hives of Bolton and Wigan, and Sheffield, and Birmingham,
and Manchester, and all the surrounding districts. We have
to provide for the accommodation of millions inwards and
millions outwards, and have therefore in that section of our
duties very heavy responsibilities, and I say woe be to the
man who undertakes those duties, and is not resolved to do
them conscientiously, whatever may be the offence he may
give in carrying on his duties to the best of his power.
(Cheers.) I appear to have given offence already, so you see
I have begun getting myself into a bother. (Laughter.)
I cannot help it. I must speak out whatll believe to be
true. Idoso as courteously as I can. If it-she the fact why
should I withhold it ? If the statement be trete, why should
I not express it? I have stated in my address that I-denlo.e
the circumstance that there is not a single member of
the Council, neither councillor nor alderman, who h

a knowledge of the state of Liverpool, over which he is put to
preside as an agent, (Hear, and cheers). My opponent has
charged me with issuing an abusive address. Let me
introduce to you what my opponent himself says :—" Let me
ask you if some of you do not recollect 1833, when my late
.partner, then the town clerk. Mr. Foster, went through the
ordeal of a Royal Commission of Enquiry into the estate and
property of the Corporation ? I was then his partner, and,
although I did not appear in court, yet I was actively engaged in
obtaining information, from time to time, as might be required.
For twenty one days that commission sat ; and when, at the
end of as many periods of years as the Corporation had existed
in 1833, I hope, if such another enquiry should arise, it may
be found as clearly and as honestly dealt with as the
Corporation was previously to that period." Now, gentlemen,
I ask you who has offered the greater insult to the Corporation
of Liverpool ? Out of this vast assembly, I very much
question whether 20 gentlemen, or even probably a dozen,
would, •but for the Reform Bill of 1832, not at this
moment, be without a vote, or a name upon the Burgess
Roll. (Hear, hear, and cheers). Yet my opponent, with
all the boldness he is capable of possessing, intends to imply
that the corporate estate was better managed and taken care of
in the olden time before that reform, than it is at the present
day ! But what does that say for him, a member of the
corporation among the rest ? (Hear, hear, and cheers) Well,
I want to know what he knows about the corporation estate
now ? He talks about having been a partner with the man
who waded through all the documents Rot up in 1833. But is
the property which was valued in 1833 being rented now at
the same valuation ? (Uear, bear.) Has the corporate
property remained in statu qua from that day to
this ? (Hear, hear.) if 1833 be the last date
of the last inventory of the corporate estate, I do think
that, that very fact is an evidence which proves that there is
not a member of the corporate body who knows anything
about the corporate estate. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) Gen-
tlemen, the revenue derivable from the yearly rental of the ,
corporate estate, is £23,500 a year. Ido beliveve, that if the
reduction which has been placed upon the books of the council, '
at the instance of our highly and deservedly esteemed friend,
Mr. Robertson Gladstone—(enthusiastic cheering)—l say, if
the resolution had been practically carried out, and laid before
the council, it would [not (surprise me at all to find that that
rent roll would be augmented from £23,500 up to £30,000,
and not even then over estimated. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Lloyd
said, the last inventory was taken in 1833, and we are now
living in 1856, so that is twenty three years ago, within ono
year of the whole time I have resided in the town of Liverpool,
was the last record made which the agents and trustees for the
burgesses possess of the immense estate which they have
undertaken to manage and control. (Hear, hear, and cheers.)
Why, can anything be so monstrous ?—and yet I am charged
with issuing a most offensive address, and most abusive
address ! (Laughter.) Well, gentlemen, lam quite willing
to receive that imputation from the quarter whence it comes.
(Hear, hear, and cheers.) The entire income of the borough,
gentlemen, from all sources, is very nearly, I believe, one
million of money. Half of that, or thereabouts. is derivable
from the dock estate the other moiety from the corporate
estate, from the water, and from what may be termed the
borough rate. I call rates levied within the borough,
borough rate. Our Manchester neighbours say we have no
borough rate. Now, what do you suppose is the amount
raised within the parliamentary borough, in the shape of a rate
upon the the inhabitants of the borough ? In round figures it
amounts to £130,000. Yet, they have the effrontery to tell
us, that they have a borough rate, but we have none—whilst
we extract from the pockets of the people £130,000 a year, iu
the shape of rates for various purposes. (Hear, hear.) Now,
the law expenies of the corporation last year were £15,500.
(Oh, oh.) Where is there a provincial town in the kingdom
having a much larger revenue than that, except in the North
of England ? (Hear, hear.) We spent £15,500 in one year
in law. Well, now, is a lawyer the right man to send to the
Town Council after that ? (Cries of no, no," and cheers ) I
think we had better keep the lawyers in their offices, and
when we want them go to them. (Hear, hear, and cheers.)
Pay them their fees for advice given when sought, but when
we have so many lawyers in the council chamber, I am quite
sure we are mulct in consequence, and as a principle and a rule
uge
there ought to be no member of that profession upon the finance
committee of the council. (Hear, hear, and cheers) He
oughthear.)
Well,
not to be sent there—it is to our prejudice that any
lawyer should occupy a seat there, in my opinion. (Hear,
a;2
bugbear—whenever
gentlemen,
wthe h
e caovreposrpaetekeestate
thaswebeehnavea
great bb
been told to " hush, hush, hush, take care, some-
body or other will come and take it from you."
(Hear, hear.) My opponent has had recourse to tho same
thing. This is held up to us as a road in terrorem. But'
if we have a right, let us maintain that right boldly—that
is the true course and the best course, and I have faith in
Queen's, Lords and Commons, that justice will be done to
vested interests, whether in the hands of corporate bodies
or of individuals, and if you do me the honour to send me,
into the town conncil chamber, I shall net be deterred by
any such fears from making every enquiry, and
ascertaining the position of our property to the
best of our perceptive ability. (Loud cheers.)
Gentlemen, I am afraid lam detaining you sadly too long—
(cries of'" No, no")—but I have been requested through the
prints to give you my opinion upon three or four questions—
gas, water, and the parks. Now, gentlemen, I place next to
finance, education ; and under the head of education, I place
parks and circulating libraries, notwithstanding. Mr. Alderman
Dover's opinion to the contrary. I would give a circulating
library to every ward in the town. (Applause.) And allow
me to tell Mr. Alderman Dover, that it will cost the consti-
tuencies no more annually to have a library in every ward in
the town, than it will to have one huge library in one locality.
(Hear, hear.) It will cost no more ; but if it does cost more, so
much the better, provided that cost is incurred by the thirst