The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-04-13 00:00:00

REPRESENTATION OF SOUTH AND
NORTH LANCASHIRE.

League faction in Manchester has presumed
to dictate a candidate for the representation of
South Lancashire, in the place of one of the present
members, Mr. HENRY, who has expressed his deter-
mination not to offer himself again at the ensu;ng
election. They have fixed upon a gentleman from
the enlightened locality of Staleybridge, Mr. JOHN
CHEETHAM, a cotton spinner, a Socinian, and a
democrat of the most ultra character. Will this
insolent assumption be submitted to by the free-
holders of one of the most important constituencies
of the empire, without at least a constitutional
struggle for the maintenance of constitutional prin-
ciples ? We trust not. It must he resisted ; and,
notwithstanding the vauntings of the millocracy,
we believe that it may be resisted successfully. A
large portion of the freeholders of this division, and
even of those who advocate the existing commer-
cial policy of the country, are not prepared to
prostrate the institutions of the country at the feet
of an insolent democracy. They are not anxious,
like Mr. JOHN CHEETHAM, for household suffrage
and the ballot, as the machinery for overthrowing
the Monarchy, the Peerage, and the Church. They
can conceive the possibility of a man holding Free-
trade opinions, without his being a leveller and an
incendiary—wi►hout his being ready to pander to
the bad passions and bad principles of the mobs in
our large towns. And we mistake the signs around
us, if an attempt is not being made, at this moment,
and in influential patters, to find such a candidate.
A letter has just been made public, addressed to
the Manchester Courier by the Earl of ELLESMERE,
which bears us out in this conclusion. The Mor-
ning Chronicle of the 3d inst. contained, it seems,
the following paragraph, under the head of " Elec-
tioneering Intelligence" :

" It is stated that the Earl of Ellesmere has expressed
his conviction that his son, Captain Egerton, whom a
section of the Conservative body are seeking to bring
forward, as a candidate for the place to be vacated by Mr.
A. Henry, is too young to take upon himself the repre-
sentation of a county. The noble earl is said to have
intimated that he does not desire to disturb the peace of
the county."

His Lordship, however, denies having expressed
any such opinion respecting Captain EGERTON'S
youth, or any disinclination on the score of disturb-
ing the peace of the county. He says, on the con-
" I would, so far as depended on me, en-
courage a contest to-morrow, if I thought it could
be undertaken with a fair prospect of seating for
the county a Conservative adherent to the commer-
cial policy of Sir ROBERT PEEL." His Lordship,
in reply to the application made to him, merely ex-
pressed his belief that "the chances of success did
not justify the adventure." We differ from him in
this opinion ; but the admission is valuable, that
his well-known powerful interest would be given to
a candidate who, treating the question of Free-trade
as a settled one, was opposed to the democratic
views of the Manchester factionists. His Lordship
is not alone in taking this view of the present crisis.
There are many other men of large influence in the
county, who would even concede such a modifica-
tion of Free-trade measures as is now practicable,
rather than entrust the government of the country
to a party who have proclaimed openly that they
are prepared to subvert its institutions, and to
appeal to brute foree, if required, for the carrying
out of their revolutionary designs.
Most earnestly we would impress upon the Con-
servative freeholders of South Lancashire, and upon
patriotic men of all parties, to rescue the division
from the disgrace with which it is threatened. A
candidate should at once be brought forward, in
whose behalf the constituency might vote, with the
full confidence that they were aiding in the preser-
vation of the must hallowed and valued institutions
of their country. The intention of Lord JOHN
RUSSELL and his Manchester allies, as declared by
a late member of the Government, is to hurry on a
dissolution. They are afraid of the favourable im-
ich Lord DERBY and his colleagues are
making upon the mind of the nation. To defeat
servatives should be pro-
vided in time with candidates and effective organiza-
tion ; and the battle of the constitution may yet
be won. We say this deliberately ; although we
that here we differ from Lord ELLESMERE.
tration of this portion of the division has
attended to. We are more favourably
tated now for the support of a candidate of Con.
we were at the period when
WM. ENTWISTLE
he Salford hundred,
has been neglected. It has been so
nd we antici-

trary,

pression NS

this conspiracy the Cor

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been well

rvative views than
ouch Lancashire returned

neglected, however, by both parties,
pate that the Conservative loss will be more than
made up for by conversions. In Manchester itself
—the stronghold of the League party—we are
satisfied that one-third, at the least, of the ultra-
Free-trade electors, at present on the register, have
been disfranchised by removals, deaths, bank'•upt-