The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-02-05 00:00:00

of modesty, arising from the source pointed out, which
has deterred the Council hitherto from taking any steps
in opposition to the inland bonding measure ? We
should wonder if it were.

The whole of the speeches at the Manchester meet-
ing are of the same character as those to which we
have referred, and consist of the same vague generali-
ties, betraying an entire ignorance of the subject in its
practical details. That a public meeting, or a com-
mittee of the House of Commons, might easily be
misled by such palpably exaggerated statements, is
quite possible ; but we think, if properly dissected and
sifted in the house, there will be little fear of their
being successfully palmed off there, to the injury of
existing interests and the deterioration of the revenue.
The people of Liverpool, however, must be up and
stirring, to ward off the agressions upon their own
property with which they are threatened by the success
of the measure.

We have received, since the above was written, a
report of the proceedings in Council yesterday, from
which it will be perceived that the so-called " liberal"
representatives of the interests of Liverpool have added
another proof of their incapacity to preside over the
affairs of the town ; but we shall have more to say on
the" subject on Tuesday.

Last Tuesday was a great and memorable day for
the good cause in England ! Two distinct victories
gained in distant and unconnected quarters at the same
moment—why it was great, glorious, and glee-ful !
Yes, we really must lay aside our accustomed gravity
on such an occasion as this—we must give some utter-
ance to our feelings, or the consequences would be
dreadful.

The Whigs have been telling us, any day these
twelve months past, that the two great parties in the
State are so evenly balanced that it is little short of the
grossest presumption in Tories to think of hoping to
supplant them in office, considering the advantage they
enjoy in actual possession, and in much personal fa-
vour at Court. Well, here have been two election-3 in

one day, and the outgoing member in each case was a
Whig. Agreeably then to the " equilibrium" theory,
the Whigs, if they did not gain both the places, should
have given the Conservatives no more than one, and
been sure to keep the other to themselves; but they
have lost both—ay, and by very decisive majorities
also ! What becomes then of the doctrine of the ba-
lance ? For our part, it is just the sort of balance
which we hope that O'Connell-Whigs may ever find
when settling their accounts with good, Conservative
Tories. If this be the " balance" of parties, only play
on, gentlemen, and give us enough of it.

But let us count our gains with due deliberation.
Whom have we beaten at Canterbury ? We have
beaten at Canterbury the pure—we mean the unmixed
—ministerial clique—the place-hunting, time-serving,
principle-abandoning, Popery-bound Ministerialists
with a Radical Town-Council and all the means of cor-
ruption at their back ; and the victory over them has
been complete. They have been beaten on the show
of hands, and beaten at the poll, that is to say, beaten
popularly, and beaten constitutionally; and at the
close, the majority against them, numerically, was such
that we venture to say they will let Canterbury alone
for many a long day to come. The men of Kent have
more than realised every expectation entertained of
them by their countrymen, and we honour them for
coming out so nobly from among the serviles of a base,
un-English, and disloyal faction. But turn we to the
next place.

And here, at Walsall, the triumph, though not nu-
merically so evident, is really greater than at Canter-
bury, all the circumstances of the case being fairly
taken into account. For here we have had the united
force of Whig Ministerialists and ultra-Radicals to
contend against; here we were in the midst of a ma-
nufacturing population, banded together, trained, and
drilled by a " League," cunning and practised in all
the arts of sedition and excitement. Here the Minis-
terialists fell back, but only to give way to leaders of
more experience, more resolute fierceness, more ran-
cour, and more desperate doing—a sort of persons far
better calculated to, wield the democracy, to delude a
simple or inflame an ignorant people, and use such a
power with effect. Here the ad captandum of cheap
corn, and the ad baculum argument also, were vigo-
rously set to work, and all things considered, it is, we
say, astonishing, not that the numerical majority in
favour of Mr. Gladstone has not been larger, but that
it is so large as actually it has proved to be.
Beaten then are both the parties—separately and
together. Beaten are both the " leagues"—the anti-
corn, and the anti-British. Routed are they, singly
and in one mass—Dissenters, Socialists, Ministerialists,
Radicals, Repealers, and Papists, " white, black, and
grey,, with all their trumpery." But we have done.
Conservatism, we may observe, has at length fairly
turned the corner, and is now going gaily along on its
way rejoicing. We bid it God speed. We congratu-
late every friend of Old England—of Church and
State—on the event, and invite the readers of the
LIVERPOOL STANDARD in particular, to join with us
in a joyous, but not intemperate, exultation at the
occurrence.

On Tuesday evening Lord Stanley made good his
engagement to introduce his bill for the amendment of
the law relating to the registration of voters in Ireland,
and the Agitator did not make good his, to divide the
house on the question that the bill should be read a
first time, because it did not contain a clause for the
definition of the franchise. He did divide the house,
however, on a question that may perhaps be consi-
dered as an equivalent; namely, on the _question that
the debate should be adjourned ; but his friends, the
ministers, could not with any decency support him
here, and his motion was consequently lost. We do
not infer that any coolness has existed, or teat any
will exist between the parties on this account; for
while the Agitator is opposing Lord Stanley's bill
with all his might for its want of a. definition clause,
the Irish Attorney-General has been concocting one
which shall contain that desiderated section, and which,
we dare say, will satisfy Mr. O'Connell in all respects.
The right honourable, the member for North Lan-
cashire, introduced the subject to the house with his
accustomed ability, and, in a clear and conciliatory
speech, shewed that the bill which he brought for-
ward complied very nearly with all' the requirements
and conditions suggested, or demanded, by liberals
themselves. It was in the main similar to that which
he had submitted to the house last session ; and in
whatever respects it was different, it had been altered
in these with a view as much as possible to meet the
objections of adversaries.

The arguments urged against his lordship's proposi-
tion on -this occasion were chiefly- three : first, that as
the government had given notice of their intention to
bring in a bill on the same subject, he (Lord Stanley)
ought to give place to them ; secondly, that as he
seemed anxious to amend the law,Of registration, he
should not introduce a partial measure applying to
Ireland only, but one that should embrace the whole
kingdom ; and thirdly, that as the number of the en-
franchised in Ireland was small, when compared with
that of the privileged, there could be no occasion for a
bill still further to limit their amount. Such were the
poor, miserable, vague generalities set forth by way of
barrier to his lordship's progress in this most important
and really national concern. No reply was given to
them, and to none were they entitled. The Agitator
adverted to the paucity of the electors in the county
of Cork, compared with the extent of the population,
and trotted out all his pocket statistics to shew—wlL t ?
why that the franchise is too high in Ireland, and on
this account unattainable by the great mass of the
people. But was that the question before the house ?
Certainly not. Lord Stanley's is a bill not designed'
either to define or meddle with the franchise, whether
it be high or whether it be low; but a bill to change
the practice as to registration, and to prevent frauds
being committed in the use, or abuse, of the franchise
as it is. That is its purpose and object, and the
Agitator had not a word to say which treated on that
point. As to his statistics, they really prove nothing
but the abject condition of so large a proportion of his
countrymen.

MR. CARMAN'S BENEFIT.--Everybody knows Mr. Car-
man, the box-bookkeeper at the Amphitheatre; and all who
have any business with him to transact can bear testimony to
his willingness to oblige and his wish to facilitate any matter
in hand. As his benefit is fixed for Tuesday next, a very
good opportunity occurs of showing him that his merits are
appreciated.
Tumour the Tartar" is sure to draw. It is
a capital melodrama.