The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-07-20 00:00:00

THE REGISTRATION.

ELECTORS FOR THE COUNTY—Remember that
this is the last day to send in claims to be put upon
the register of voters for the coming year. It is
most important that this should be done at once ;
and that the strength of the Liverpool district
should be augmented. Should Lord DERBY'S
proposed bill for dividing South Lancashire be
passed into a law next Session, you will most pro-
bably be called upon to return a member.
BURGESSES Of LIVERPOOL--ThiS is the last
day for paying the rates, which are required to
entitle you to exercise the Borough Franchise.
Shew yourselves to be in earnest, as you were when
you achieved your late memorable triumph.
FREEMEN Of LIVERPOOL—If you have not yet
taken up your freedom, or were not upon the last
register ; or if you have changed your residences,
apply at once at the Constitutional Office. This
must be done before the 31st of July, or you will
not have the privilege of recording your votes
should an early election occur.

GOVERNMENT; OR, NO GOVERNMENT ?

1 A POWERFUL OPPOSITION does not necessrrily
contain the elements of a powerful Government.
The opponents of the DERBY Administratior,
widely varying in their principles and their projects,
have no other bond of union but the desire of un-
seating the Ministry. The opposition of a great
party is one thing; the opposition of a great num-
ber of cliques and of petty sections of parties is
another. To call the anti-ministerialists the Liberris
is a mere fafon de parler. Who is the exponent of
the party which is to succeed the present Goveta-
ment in office? Is it Lord JOHN RUSSELL? Is
it Sir JAMES GRAHAM ? Is it Lord PALMERSTON?
Is it Mr. COBDEN ? Or are all these, and other
political notables, to be coordinate Premiers of the
great Liberal Government ? Is there one individual,
from John O'Groat's to Land's-end, who can point
out with any confidence the man, or the men, who
are to conduct the business of the country, if Lord
DERBY'S Ministry should be turned out of office ?
It surely is time that the people reflected upon the
consequences of making Government impossible.
Government must become impossible, if the party
in power should be opposed by a combination of
all the parties out of power; and if the possession
of office should become the first object aimed at by
every party, it is sufficiently evident by this time
that the issue to be decided by the country is that
of "Government, or no Government," The ejec-
tion of Lord DERBY from office would be the sig-
nal for intestine contests among the "Liberals" of
the fiercest and most spiteful character; and if for
a time concessions and coalitions should be effected,
they would prove hut certain fore-runners of
dissension and disorganisation, which would render
it impossible to carry on the business of the coun-
try. To fancy that any " Liberal" Government can
exist without a leaven of Manchester democracy in
it is absurd, and if once the worthies of that school
get a footing in the Administration, the principles
of the Liberals are pretty sure of being treated
" duck and drake" fashion ; and the value of Con-
servatism will begin to be felt by the people just
when it is too late for them to profit by their
enlightenment. It sounds no doubt very big and
manly to call those people "alarmists" and "old
women" who venture to speak of the perils to which
the institutions of the country are exposed, and to
point out the almost certain consequences of pro-
moting the projects of the democratic party. That
very blustering, self-confidence, and false security is
one of the worst results produced by the spread of
democratic principles. It indicates a want of
sobriety in judgment, and a recklessness in action,
which cannot but have mischievous consequences.
A Manchester man would pretend to laugh at us, if
we were to say to him, " Look at France. The
"state of things you see there is such as would
"result in England from letting you have your own
" way." But, while he laughed, his conscience
would tell him that the political experiments he
would like to try might not improbably come to
such a conclusion. Were the present opponents of
Lord DERBY to be asked why they oppose him, the
very last answer we should expect them to Zi

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