The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-03-30 00:00:00

wav applied; and then, we ask, what dilererwe evald
it possibly make to conscience whether the tax were di-
rect or indirect, specific or general? What consciences

our contemporary must suppose Dissenters to pos-

sess. They would have a conscience against eating
raisins, forsooth, if you offered them to their accept-
ance in a plain state; but serve them up in a plum-
pudding, and they will swallow them without making
Conscientious fellows !

a wry face

A few more such martyrs as Baines and Thorogood,

says the Mercury, and—c' es t fait de 71071 S the game is
up with church rates at least. And this is surely •a
great encouragement, to the martyrdom speculation. It
has been very gainful to Thorogood, and Baines has
had immense sympathy and great honours thrust upon
him in consequence. But the practice, like a two-
edged sword, cuts at both sides.

• Dr. Nichols' exposure of Baines's trickery, chica-
nery, and dishonesty in his legal defences, has settled
him, and his " Dissenting conscience" along with him,
in the opinion of every Conservative and reasonable
Whig; and a few more such cases, so far from having
the effect contemplated by the Mercury, will, we think,
be very likely to save us a great deal of trouble in
dealing with the party hereafter.

It is not surprising that the Radicals shrunk from a
contest in the election of the Board of Guardians ; for,
not to speak of the hopelessness of such an attempt,
a victory, were it even attainable, must have been at-
tended by some disagreeable consequences. " Willing
to wound but yet afraid to strike," they had no objec-
tion to see a local and independent administration of
poor relief put an end to because in the hands of Con-
servatives, and a foreign power let in because in the
hands of the Whigs ; but when it came to he a ques-
tion as to the administration of the obnoxious law,
their courage cooled amazingly, and they have pru-
dently left it altogether in the hands of ConservativeS.
Their journals boast that the Conservatives have fallen
into a trap :—" Now," say they, " whatever odium may

attach to the operation of the law, upon you it will fall
exclusively; we have washed our hands of it." But
this it mere trifling. The introduction of the law into
Liverpool is the act not of Conservatives but of Radi-
cals, and they, and not its mere ministers and ser-

vants, are accountable for the consequences.
But have the Conservatives really fallen into a trap ?
For our parts we cannot perceive it. Mr. Aspinal's ma-
nagement of the matter appears to us to have been most
judicious, arid he has won by it, we have good reason
to know, increased confidence- and esteem from all
Conservatives. They consider that the offers he made
were most liberal, and such as he did well to make with
a view to save the town the expense and annoyance of
a contest ; whilst, on the other hand, in refusing the
demand made by the " Reform Association," he took
a course which avoided any compromise of those inte-
rests which he may be considered as representing. The
Reform Association, forsooth, aspired to a perfect
equality of Whigs with Tories in the new board, whilst
in the old—viz., the Select Vestry, they constituted but
a small minority. This was a claim which they had no
right to make, and which even their own plenipos con-
demned as unwarrantable.

And here we may admire the sweet harmony and
union that exists in the Radical camp. They appointed
Mr. Tate and Mr. Paton to conduct the negotiation on
their part, and those gentlemen obtained terms for them
such as they were themselves quite satisfied with ; but
on reporting the result to the Reform Association, this
modest and discreet body disavowed their acts, and re-
fused to ratify the treaty. Such treatment naturally
excited strong disgust in the minds of Messrs. Tate
and Paton ; and they declared, as mentioned by Mr.
Aspinal, that " they would have nothing more to do
with the Reform Association—that the Conservatives
had acted honourably and fairly, and that they, Messrs.
'l'. and P., would support them." This fact speaks
for itself, and needs no comment from us.
On the whole, so far from having fallen into a trap,
we think those mancevring gentry have themselves fal-
len into the pit they had digged for others. The Con-
servatives of Liverpool have shown by their memorial,
signed by upwards of twenty-one thousand persons,
how much they deprecate the New Poor Law and its
introduction here. The Radical party would not lift
so much as a finger against it. But the fiat of the
commissioners went forth, and the law must be obeyed.
Under those circumstances the Conservatives had no
choice but to take and administer' it themselves, or
abandon it altogether to the Radicals ; and we say we
rejoice in the wise decision taken by Mr. Aspinal act-
ing in their behalf. The law is a bad one, but it is a
great matter that it will be administered not by those
who approve, but by those who condemn it, and who
will not fail to deprive it, so far as may be possible, of
its harshness, and apply its provisions with due ten-
derness and compassion to the miserable.