The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-07-13 00:00:00

THE ELECTIONS.

THE Conservative electors of Liverpool have just
cause to be proud. They have done their duty
nobly. Their energy, their resolution, their success,
stand out most prominently in the narrative of the
exciting events of the week. Pity that there has
been no time for their conduct to act by way of
example on the constituencies of other boroughs.

Had all other constituencies been as zealous and
earnest as that of Liverpool, much more might have

been achieved for the Ministerial cause than has
yet been done. Who can doubt that LONDON itself
might have told another tale, had sufficiently exten-
sive and timely preparations been made.
Conservative at the head of the poll, and so far in
advance of the leader of the Opposition—noticing
so remarkable a decrease since the last elections in
the number of Lord JOHN'S supporters in the city
—we cannot but believe that by prompt and efficient
preparation a more satisfactory result might have
been ensured there for the Conservative cause. In
WESTMINSTER, too, considering the large number
who polled in favour of Lord MAIDSTONE, not-
withstanding his very late entry in the field, and the
extensive preparations and organisation of the oppo-
sing parties, it seems more than probable that due
and timely efforts would have secured the return of
at least one Ministerial candidate. But, after all,
the gain of the Government party even in the
borough elections is far from inconsiderable ; and
perhaps more than they could have reasonably
counted upon. It will be noticed, too, that the
stamp of men who have come in on the Ministerial
side, in place of Liberals, is of the best kind ; and
that some of those Liberals who have been super-
seded are men of considerable mark in their party.
In LIVERPOOL the victory does not end with the
substituting of two ministerialists for two members
of the opposition—for we have on one side a very
prominent member of the Government party stic-
ceeding, and on the other a very notable member
of the opposition—an expectant of high office in a
future Free-trade Government—rejected.
At GREENWICH, WALLINGFORD, CAMBRIDGE,
we gain in Messrs. ROLT, MALINS, and MACAU*
LAY, three staunch Ministerialists, who, in all pro-
bability, will not merely be voters in the new Par-
liament, but will exercise those talents which have
led them to the high places of the legal profession,
in fortifying the councils of their party, and in
adding lustre to the deliberations of the legislature.
The rejection of Sir JOHN ROMILLY, the MASTER
OF THE ROLLS, at Devonport, is a most serious
loss to the opposition, and shows that high cha-
racter, talent, and station, all combined, cannot now
reconcile constitutional Conservatives to being re-
presented by allies of the RUSSELLITES.
The return of Mr. WICKHAM, a good and true
Conservative, for a borough so notoriously Radical
and Democratic.in its tendencies as BRADFORD, is
also a most cheering incident.
Of the borough seats lost to the Government
there is scarcely one whose new occupant will add
materially to the strength of Lord DERBY'S ene-
mies, or whose recent occupant was of much note
among to the Ministerial party. There is one
loss, indeed, which we cannot but deplore—that of
Mr. G. F. YOUNG, who has been rejected by SCAR-
BOROUGH, through the local and family interests
of the NORMANBYS and the JOHNSTONES. We
cannot but sympathise heartily with Mr. YOUNG,
who, after sacrificing his health to the promotion of
national Conservatism, and giving up his pretension
to the representation of an important county, in
order to stick by the constituents who had adopted
him without solicitation, is thus thrown aside by
the ungrateful electors of Scarborough. But, upon
the whole, the result of the borough elections is by
no means an unsatisfactory one. When, however,
we come to give a resume of the county contests, we
doubt not we shall have a much more gratifying
tale to tell.

Seeing a

What seems most urgently necessary at the pre-
sent moment is, to keep up the interest of the con-
stituencies in the election proceedings—to prevent
apathy, indifference, or indecision from producing
those disastrous effects, which, once produced, can-
not be undone ; and those electors who have
yet to exercise their privilege, should take a
friendly warning, and remember that every man
possessing the franchise, and refraining from exer-
cising it according to his conscientious convictions,
at a crisis like the present, is a traitor to his country.
To every man who esteems the British Consti-
tution ; who feels the glow of patriotism in his
bosom ; who hopes for the preservation of those
institutions which have made Britain " great, glo-
rious, and free ;" we say—" It is your bounden
duty, and your high privilege, to give the promptest
and heartiest and utmost assistance in your power,
in order to secure the return to Parliament of re-
presentatives pledged to support Lord DERBY and
the national Conservative cause."

LORD PALMERSTON'S FUN AT TIVERTON

DURING a general election, there must of necessity
be much that is dull and prosy in the daily papers.
Most readers content themselves with the synop-

tical views afforded by tabular arrangements of the
results of the elections. Here and there, however,
as the eye catches the name of a man of note at
the head of a reported speech, curiosity is stimu-
lated, and the report is anxiously perused. If any
one has been unlucky enough to skip the address
delivered by the noble member for TIVERTON, last
Wednesday, he has lost a most remarkable treat.
We shall not be suspected of any undue bias in
favour of Lord PALMERSTON. We differ from
him toto emir) on several important topics ; but we
can enjoy his sparkling fun, his extraordinary con-
troversial cleverness, and his pithy illustrations of
sensible maxims. His speech of last Wednesday
shines out in graceful and airy brilliancy among the
;pimp stereotyped dullnesses of the week. Having
-met, as he said, on the hottest of hot days, with a
reception as warm as the weather, instead of a hot
contest, his Lordship seemed determined to make
his constituents forget the threatening rays of the
sun while listening to a most refreshing oration. It
appears that the ex-ex-foreign secretary had been
threatened in a hand-bill with opposition from a
nameless and mysterious individual, of whom no
other description was given that that he was of " in-
dependent principles." His Lordship, though he
understood what an independent fortune, indepen-
dent conduct, and an independent character meant,
could not guess what "independent principles were,
unless, indeed, they were principles wholly inde-
pendent of common sense, of justice, and of
liberality."

A certain Mr. ROWCLIFF, who seems to have
catechised Lord PALMERSTON at considerable
length, will remember to his dying day the smother-
ing badinage to which he exposed himself. The
noble Lord found, in the existence of a ROWCLIFF
at Tiverton, a sufficient answer to a charge made
against him of seldom visiting his constituency.
As the questioner waxed hot and uncomfortable,
the respondent calmed him by the assurance that
he would hit higher or lower, just as Rowcimr
pleased, but he must be allowed to hit somewhere.
The noble Lord refused to say what government he
assured t}

st that I