The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-09-13 00:00:00

THE LATE ELECTIONS.

(From the Morning Herald.)
The late elections have caused great dissatisfaction. -They
have given a heavy blow and much discouragement to the
cause of pure whiggery. Our contemporary of the Chronicle
called the result of the Cambridge election " melancholy;"
and, no doubt, he only expressed what he felt. It is one of
the most melancholy signs of the times for whiggery, or
whig-radicalism, or tory apostacy, that has hitherto been
manifested. Mr. Gibson was a decent wrangler of his year,
by no means unpopular personally, a pupil of Mr. George
Peacock's, the tutor of Trinity, and also had enlisted in his
favour a certain esprit du corps, remarkably infectious
amongst us Cambridge men ; but there was a desertion of
principle—a mere sacrifice of political principle to personal
pique by Mr. Gibson, which at once decided a class of men
who have more influence at Cambridge than all the Trinity
tutors together. The esprit is this—a man must not prosti-
tute however much or however little talent he may possess
to the ministry of the day. If an ambitious man, he must
also wait for his opportunity. Mr. Gibson's mistake was
not understanding this. If Mr. Gibson is the clever man
he is supposed to be by himself and his Cambridge friends,
he would have been found out by the party to which he first
attached himself. He had, moreover, the silly impertinence
to think, at the outset of his career, that he ought to be
offended because the great party on the right hand of the
speaker rather preferred to hear Sir Robert Peel than himself.
He should have remembered that Sir Robert Peel is an older,
we will not say a better, man than himself, lest we might
hurt a cause we- have at heart} by provoking a man so ex-
tremely sensitive to his own merits ; still we say that he
should have remembered that Sir Robert Peel is an older
man, more experienced, and very likely more wished to be
heard than himself. Canning did not speak much for some
years ; Praed (worth a thousand Gibsons for mental acquire-
ments and business talent) spoke very rarely; Macaulay,
when he was in parliament before, spoke more rarely still;
Bulwer does not speak at all; and it is an excellent evidence of
a good taste in them all. And yet, Mr. Gibson, because the
tories wished to hear their most influential men in preference
to him, must feel affronted and turn whig. There are hardly,
we confess, few better men than a real old, whig ; but a sham
young whig is the most contemptible creature on earth ; and
Mr. Gibson has found it so at Cambridge. But a whig
ministry, which is only so in name, can make much of a
Gibson ; that is, they think that they can.
Of the Perth election little need be said, except that, in
the voluntary acceptation of Mr. Greg, a most welcome and
gratifying proof has been afforded that Scotchmen are becom-
ing canny again. Lord Panmure's (the Fox Maule) family
are drilled out there, and in the county of Perth too. Of the
other (the Manchester) Greg, we have a few more words to
say.. Mr. Brotherton congratulated the working men of
Manchester upon the form of returning a merchant, and it
was likewise stated that it was false that Mr. Greg was over
in Geneva, in order to establish our staple manufactories on
the continent. It may possibly turn out that Mr. Greg never
had any such intention ; but we ask the question of Mr. Cob-
den, was he not sent over to. Russia by an association to
which Mr. Greg was a subscriber (and let it be remembered
that Mr. Cobden is at Manchester, the first and the foremost
for Mr. Greg, though he did want the representation for
himself)—was not this Mr. Cobden sent over to establish
manufactures there —to teach the mechanical skill—to in-
troduce machinery—to arrange about the capital, and even
to write books, and establish banks, to supply which banks
the capital was to come from the Brothertons and the Gregs?
Making money is all our manufacturers think about at the
present day. Of national credit and honour they think no-
thing, until it pinches them severely ; and then they cry out,
and ask our workmen " to send us to parliament because we
are merchants !" Their workmen are coming round to know
their interests are different from the interests of the selfish
"merchants." In two years we shall probably have a dif-
ferent class of " merchants."

RETIREMENT OF LORD HILL.—The report iS again rife
that the Marquis of Anglesey is to succeed Lord Hill at the
Horse Guards. We confess that we should be sorry to see
this distinguished soldier and most estimable nobleman re-
linquish a post, in which he has to his utmost done justice to
the army ; but if a change is to take place, the service will be
best reconciled by the appointment of the Marquis,-or Sir
Hussey Vivian, two officers universally respected,—Nava
and Military Gazette. 1