The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-11-02 00:00:00

GREAT GEORGE WARD

This was the ward, in the election of which Mr. William
Rathbone, the twice rejected of other wards, was selected to
try his third experinzent to obtain admission into the town
council. The "vaulting ambition" of the patron of wash-
houses and other notrums, however, " over leaped itself"
in this instance, for it so happened that in no part of the day
was he able to obtain the slightest chance of success. The
majorities against him from the commencement of the poll
ranged from 14 to 40, and finally he was defeated by a ma-
jority of 20, according to the official return. The greatest
exertions were used by Mr. Rathbone's friends throughout
the contest, to secure him a respectable position on the poll,
they having the sagacity to foresee that victory was totally
beyond their power. Nothing of incident, worthy of notice,
occurred during the day, unless we except the somewhat
laughable circumstance of the Mayor rushing into the con-
servative committee room, about half-past three, mistaking
it for the polling booth, which was next door, and in a tone
approaching to despair, demanding to know whether the
alderman and assessors had voted for this ward. On being
told that he was in the conservative commitiee room, his
worship retired, amongst unequivocal laughter, to obtain the
requisite information from some more congenial place. It is
but just to the people of the ward to say, that though means
were not wanting to inflame their passions, and to excite their
bad feelings towards the conservative candidate, not a single
instance of disorder occurred, so far as we are aware. Just
after three o'clock the desperation of the radical committee
was at its height ; no efforts were spared to procure voters,
and at one time they succeeded in reducing the conservative
majority from upwards of twenty to sixteen. Their expecta-
tions, however, were very soon signally defeated, and at the
termination of the contest Mr. Lawrence was left in a ma-
jority of 20—a result that was received with tremendous
cheering. On the close of the poll, the friends of the conser-
vative candidate retired to their committee-room. when
Mr. INGRAM., chairman of the ward conservative associ-
ation, addressed the meeting, and congratulated the burgesses
upon their having sent the proprietor of Green. bank where

the proprietor of Green-baiik ought to go. The whole of
the wards of Liverpool had looked to the issue of the contest
of this ward with intense interest ; and he was happy to say
that the ward had done its duty. For the third time the
burgesses of Liverpool had sent Mr. Rathbone, not to protect

their interests, but to look after his own luxuriant crops of
cabbages and savoys. This result could not have been ob-
tained without the agent}• of the conservative voters ; it was
to them that the safety of the ward was owing. They had,
in his opinion, done the good old town a great deal of service
in rejecting Mr. Rathbone, and in sending a man to repre-
sent them who would always endeavour to promote its true
interests. (Cheers.)

Mr. SAMUEL HOLME being loudly called for, presented
himself at the window, and was received with loud cheering.
He said that Ile could not but congratulate the assembled
electors on the glorious triumph which had this day been
achieved, the triumph of those principles under which this
happy country had risen to unwonted greatness. (Cheers,
and hisses from the radicals.) After sonic time had elapsed,
during which Mr' Rathbone's party attempted to drown the
voice of the speaker, he continued—He assured those friends
on the other side of the street will did him the honour to
applaud so vociferously, but who had such an odd and noisy
mode of showing their liberality—(laughter)--that if they
would only listen to him for a few moments in quietness, he
would communicate to them some very pleasing intelligence
connected with Mr. Rathbone, of whom, or of any other
candidate on the radical side, who was probably as well con-
vinced of the truth of his political creed as he (M. H.) was of
his, it was not his intention to say any thing direspeclul.
(Cheers from both sides.) The election had been conducted
with good humour, and in good humour he hoped it would
terminate. (Applause.) The information: he had to com-
municate to Mr. Rathbone's friends was this—that although
that gentleman had had the misfortune to be defeated in
Great Georga Ward, as he had previously been defeated in
Toxteth-park and Pitt-street, he had had the good luck to
be elected for—Coventry. (Loud laughter, in which the
radicals joined.) There was, therefore, no necessity now to
make him an alderman. His friend, Mr. Ingram, had told
them that Mr. Rathbone might now employ himself with ad-
vantage in cultivating cabbages and Savoys—(great laugh-
ter)—but he (Mr. H.) begged to supply an important
ingredient to make the dish palatable, and that ingredient
was Russian beef. (Immense cheering, and roars oflaughter.)
But seriously speaking, it was with no slight gratification
that he hailed the return of the electors to good old sound
principles. The various appeals, both parliamentary and
municipal, which had lately been made, declared without any
mistake that England was attached to those noble institutions
which elevated her in the scale of nations—that she loved
her national church--(loud cheers)—that she loved the pro-
testant principles which were entwined with her constitution,
and gave to it its stability—(great cheering)—and that she
would never yield these stable blessings for a paltry system
of liberal expediency, which was to often the mere worthless
liberality of the lip, but which had no seat in the heart and
the affections. (Cheers.) During the contest with the pre-
tender a century ago, an old Scotch woman, who was oue of
his partisans, was seized by a mob and was thrown into a
river. Such was her devotion to -the pretender that every
time her head appeared above the surface she cried out amidst
the bubbling waters, " Prince Charlie yet—Prince Charlie
yet." And such pertinacity ought to be exhibited in defence
of our principles. Whether in seasons when they are be-
clouded, or as now, when they have risen triumphant, it is
our duty unflinchingly to exhibit our adherence to them, and
to the very last to cry out, " Conservative principles yet—
conservatiTe principles yet." (Loud cheers.) It was time,
however, that he told them the state of the poll in that ward.
It was, for _

Mr. Lawrence
Mr. Rathbone

Majority
He had also to add that at least twelve out of the sixteen
wards had been won, and he should probably not be far
wrong if he said thirteen. (Cheers.) It was now clear that
the election of both mayor and aldermen rested with the con-
servatives—(applause)—and be trusted soon to see Mr. John
Shaw Leigh, or some conservative equally worthy, in the
civic chair, and he hoped that all would take care and attend
to escort him to church, after the good old custom. (Cheer-
ing.) Eight aldermen would also be selected, who were
well known to the tradesmen and mechanics of the town—
(hear)—not those who carried away copper sheathing to put
it on their ships bottoms in America, but some of those well-
known and respected East and West India merchants whose
names were as familiar as household terms—who built their
vessels in our own port—who rigged them with Liverpool-
spun ropes—and found them with stores, the production of
Liverpool mechanics. (Vociferous cheering.) From pliv-
cal inability he could not say much more—(go on)—but,
be-
fore he concluded, he wished to say—use your victory with
moderation. It is not a triumph over individuals—and those
our own townsmen—it is the triumph of protestantism—the
triumph of constitutional principles. Let us be thankful for
our victory, and let all of us forget the animosities which are
apt to be engendered in periods of excitement, and leave the
good cause in the hands of those successful candidates whom
we may now hail as our municipal representatives. Mr.
Holme retired amidst the loudest applause.
Mr. INGRAM then explained that Mr. Lawrence had gone
home so ill that it was Impossible for him to address the
people. This announcement was received with much regret,
and shortly afterwards the people separated, having first given
three times three cheers for the success which had attended
the conservative cause throughout the contest.