The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-11-25 00:00:00

BRISTOL TRADESMEN'S CONSERVATIVE

SOCIETY.

The Bristol liberals have, for the last fortnight, been enjoying
the temporary triumph they obtained in the Municipal election.
After the signal deteat they suffered at the last parliamentary
election, and the power and influence they expected to gain by
the municipal reform bill, we do not wonder' they have been
incessantly and actively at work to secure their presumed ad-
vantages,—that they are running wild with joy, and that even
at meetiugs for charitable purposes, the cry is " We are now in
the ascendant, and certainly therefore the high party !!" Gen-
tlemen, had you acted wisely you would have suppressed your
assumed ascendancy, and joyous boastings, till time had a little
inure matured your plans, and you had lulled your opponents
again into that listlessness and inactivity, which have alone
been the cause of your temporary triumph. Temporary we tell
you it is, for you have roused into action a body of your fellow-
citizens, who have never before resolved to unite theinselveein-
to such a phalanx of strength and union, as that now about to
be formed, and which must regain them such an ascendancy, as
to allow the worthy president of the anchor to enjoy his old-
fashioned appellation of "a low party man."
The re-action we allude to is the formation in this city, from
the ranks of its tradesmen, of an association, to be called " The
Bristol Tradesmen's Conservative Society."
The necessity for such a society has long been apparent to
every well-wisher to the conservative cause; and had it existed
a twelvemonth ago, the late results at the municipal election
would have been very different. But it is not too late to regain
that which has been lost, The friends of this cause were fully
aware of thtvadvantageous workings of the Conservative Asso-
ciation already existing amongst many of the upper classes,
and of the energy and activity of its secretary ; and also of an
association which has been formed amongst the operatives; but
there was a connecting link to be supplied, to make Vie chain
cable entire and fitted for its purposes. That link is now firmly
rivetted—it has during the last week been silently forging and
tempering, and will be found to possess a strength and elasticity,
which will hold in safe anchorage the conservative ship of Bris-
tol—with its staunch and able commanders, Vyvyan cud
Laying metaphor aside :—we were present at a meeting, held
on Wednesday evening last, in the Great Room at the White
Lion, (sounds never pleasing to whig or liberal ears) of alafut
Sou of the must respectable of our fellow tradesmen, assembled
together without circular or public notice, but by coincidence of
feeling and verbal communication with each other, to consider
of the necessary steps to be taken for immediately counteracting
the impressions that have gone abroad, that conservatism is in
the wane in Bristol, and that the tories are so depressed that
they mean quietly to submit to defeat. Neither fear nor des-
pondency appeared at this meeting—quite the reverse, decision,
energy, and activity animated every breast—and every appeal
to exertion was responded to with reiterated cheers. l'he
speeches that were delivered on the occasion were eloquent and
heart-stirring; and being unpremeditated were doubly effective,
and were such us would have done honour to any assembly of
Englishmen. however talented or exalted. The following decla-
ration was unanimously adopted :
" Weflhe Members of the Bristol Tradesmen's Conservative
Society, declare that the object of our Association is the pre-
servation of the British Constitution in Church and State as by
law established; we engage to support the King in his lawful
authority and prerogatives; to maintain the independence of the
Lords spiritual and temporal, the rights and privileges of the
Commons, the integrity, rights, and immunities of the Estab-
lished Church, and its union with the State; and to secure, by
every legal means, the election of men of Conservative princi-
ples to be our representatives in the Town Council of the borough
of the city of Bristol, and in the Imperial Parliament of Great
Britain."—Felix Farley's Bristol Journal.