The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-06-29 00:00:00

NORTH AND SOUTH TOXTETH WARD

The last of the numerous ward meetings which have been
attended by Lord Sandon and Mr. Cresswell, was that of the
electors of North and South Toxteth, which was held on Sa-
turday evening in Toxteth Hall, Mill-street. The same en-
thusiasm which prevailed at the other meetings towards the
hon. candidates, was in an eminent degree visible in this ;
indeed the whole course of proceeding seemed to be but a
continuation of the applause with which their appearance
was originally greeted. _ _ . _

Mr. DUNCAN GIBB was called to the chair, and he briefly
described the purpose for which the meeting bad been as-
sembled.

Mr. ALEXANDER SMITH, jun., in rising to move the first
resolution, expressed his regret that the room was not ten
times larger than it was, for had it been, it would have been
filled to overflow. He knew that the sentiments of the elec-
tors in the two wards of Toxteth, were in perfect unison with
his own, in favour of Lord Sandon and Mr. Cresswell.
(Loud cheers.) These gentlemen had fought their, battles,
and whatever the opposite party might say they were the
true and bona fide friends of the people. (Cheers.) The
resolution he had to propose was one approving of their con-
duct in the last session of parliament, and declaring the in-
tention of the electors to return them again. (Hear, hear.)
He (Mr. Smith) avowed himself to be one who was con-
nected with the colonies of this country ; and what, he would
ask, would the country be without her colonies? (Hear.)
What, too, would the colonies be without the support of this
country ? (Hear.) If the measures which had been pro-
posed by her majesty's ministers, and which he was happy to
say, had met with strenuous opposition from our represen-
tatives, were calculated to dissever this country from her
colonies, they would have done an infinity of mischief to the
colonies, and greatly have injured this country. (Hear.)
The colonies of this country were linked together, and their
cause was the same. Ministers, and those who supported
them might say what they pleased on this subject, and they
might, if they chose attempt to dissever society, but we were
all perfectly cognisant of the fact, that we lived by one
another—the artisan by the person who employed him, and
the person who employed by the artisan. (Loud cheers.)
In like manner the colonies and the mother country
were nourished and supported by each other. (Great ap-
plause.) Mr. Smith concluded by moving the following re-
solution—" That this meeting approves unequivocally of the
conduct of Lord Sandon and Cresswell Cresswell, Esq.,
during the period they have represented this town in parlia-
ment, more particularly as respects the opposition they have
given to the ministerial measures proposed for the alteration
of the duties upon timber, corn, and sugar, which in the opi-
nion of this meeting would be proved ruinous to our trade with
the colonies, and to the shipping interests of this kingdom."
Mr. CHARLES HORSFALL, jun., in seconding the resolu-
tion, declared his conviction that Lord Sandon and Mr.
Cresswell had, in their parliamentary conduct, fulfilled all
that they had promised, and that they would be triumphantly
returned on Wednesday. There was scarcely one branch of
trade which the questions at present before the country did
not involve, and by the disturbance of which they were not
the more or less injured. But the corn question, the timber
question, or the sugar question, were not the real questions
upon which the decision of the country was to be grounded.
When the government were defeated upon Lord Stanley's
Irish registration bill, they saw full well that a dissolution
must take place at no distant day ; and these questions were
brought before the people to excite them to throw into the
back ground the real question, which was, whether this
country should for the future be a Protestant country.
(Loud cheers.) Whether this country shall be ruled by a
Protestant government or by a popish faction, as it had been.
(" Hear, hear," and cries of Never.") He called upon
the Protestant and conservative electors then to do their
duty. _ _

Lord SANDON then rose to address the meeting, and was
loudly cheered. His lordship said, he was indeed deeply
sensible of the warmth of kindness with which they had
greeted not only his colleague and himself, but more espe-
cially the great questions which endeared them to the electors.
He was peculiarly sensible of the warmth of attachment they
had expressed towards that great Protestant cause which they
had in hand; and although he was not desirous of shrinking
from the great questions of trade which had been put forward
at this moment for the purpose of blinking and hiding out of
view those greater questions upon which the country was
really divided, yet he was gratified to find that those attempts
had been totally unsuccessful, that it was in vain to endeavour
to delude them away from the main question at issue, and

induce them to forget those feelings which had agitated them
for many years past—(cheers)—those feelings of deep attach-
ment to our Protestant constitution, to bur own Protestant
religion, and to the Bible, which had been the source of in-
struction for themselves, and which they hoped to make the
source of instruction for their children. (Loud cheers.)
And it was not only their deep attachment to these things,
but also the detestation in which they held the principles
which would rob us of these, the noblest privileges of Eng-
lishmen, and which had collected together that proud con-
servative phalanx which now governed the political destinies
of Liverpool, which made them a watchword—not a byeword
—to all the conservatives of England—(loud cheers)—and
which made them looked upon by conservatives, in every
quarter, as their guide and their standard bearer in the great
conflict which we had in hand. (Renewed cheers.) We had
had peculiarly within the walls of Liverpool to discuss this
great question, which had also been agitated within the walls
of parliament. Whilst they had been discussing within the
walls of parliament the question of Irish education, our cor-
poration had thought fit to make it a local question to us as
well as one of general interest—(loud cries of " hear,
hear,")—they had thought fit to try before our eyes
the experiment which the government had been endea-
vouring to try upon the nation. We had shown our strong
dislike for the attempt to lower down the tone of religious
instruction to the feelings of those who had the least religious
feeling ; we had expressed our strong dislike for those who
would merge all that distinguished the protestant faith from
the Roman catholic in the vain attempt to conciliate, in one
common education, the Roman catholic and the protestant
children. (Hear, hear.) It was not that he wished to raise
in their minds feelings of hostility towards any class of our
fellow-countrymen that he said this ; on the contrary he had
for them the deepest attachment and the strongest feeling ;
but he would not, in the vain attempt to meet their preju-
dices or their views, lower down, by one jot or one inch,
that course of instruction which he thought best adapted for
the protestant children of the empire. (Hear.) Let them
have their schools, he would not interfere with them ; but
let us not make our own children less protestant, less church
of England, in the vain hope of inducing others to come and
partake of that. (Hear, hear.) It was, indeed, not the con-
stitution which would save the church, but the church would
save the constitution. (Cheers.) It was perhaps in vain to
expect that great multitudes of men should enter into those
refinements upon questions of government which would in-
duce statesmen to prefer one form of government to another
as best fitted for the happiness and prosperity of the people ;
but the questions of religion, the questions which affected the
immortal happiness of our children and ourselves, the ques-
tions which affected our own religious interests were ques-
tions of common interest to all, and those which he was con-
vinced, would bind the safest and the strongest, the affec-
tions of the people towards that constitution which was en-
twined and enthroned in the pillars of the church. (Loud
cheers.) As he had said before, it was not through any spirit
of hostility towards his fellow-countrymen, whether English
or Irish, Roman catholics or dissenters, that he inculcated
so strongly those feelings of attachment to our own protest-
ant church ; but because he believed that man would be the
best citizen who was most sincerely attached to our own pro-
testant creed, who was not willing for the purpose of some
temporary or political advantage, to curtail in order to enact
with the multitude the value of his own religious belief.
(Loud cheers.) His excellent friend, Mr. Horsfall. had al-
luded to his colleague and himself having fulfilled the pro-
mises which they had made with regard to their political
conduct. He believed, indeed, no one had ventured to sug-
gest that in any respect they had, since they last met the
electors, departed from that course of conservative attach-
ment to the church which the electors expected of them, and
which had ensured their support. (Cheers.) They bad en-
deavoured to wa:k steadily forward, not in any spirit of fac-
tion, incommoding and harassing the movements of govern-
ment—indeed, so little so, that those who looked at them
from a distance had complained of them for want of energy—
(hear, hear, and loud cheers.)—but they had been desirous
of shewing that it was the part of a conservative opposition
to look to the permanent interests of the country, and not to
the temporary advantage of embarrassing and distressing an
opponent. (Loud cheers.) They were not disposed to sa-
crifice their principles for any temporary advantage ; they
were well content to wait until the country appreciated that
firm, steady, and consistent conduct which, with Englishmen,
was sure, sooner or later, to be understood by them, and to
receive their approbation. (Cheers.) The!, had never at-
tempted to catch popularity by flattering the prejudices or
the feelings for the moment ; they had preserved a steady
and even course, supporting the government when the go-
vernment was in the right—which it was occasionally, per-
haps by accident—but when the ministry, by the necessity of
their position as a government, had been compelled to sup-
port the prerogatives of the crown and the interests of public
order, the conservatives had then supported them against
their own friends. (Loud cheering.) The ministers, indeed,
thank the conservatives for having been enabled to live so
long ; for if there had been no conservatives in the House of
Commons, long enough since they would have been over-
whelmed by their own friends. (Hear.) The conservatives

• .
had, indeed, now received the weed of that steady and for-
bearing conduct; for we had seen practically that opposition,
which was at first a small minority, in the hands of Sir Ro-
bert Peel, enlarging and swelling, by degrees, until at last it
had turned the tide, and now, he hoped, there would, for the
future, be a full flow of good conservatism. (Cheers.) This
question was the great question we had to decide—whether
we would decide in favour of a government which had settled
and known principles, or in favour of one of which it had
hitherto been asked—' • What are the fashions for the season?"

(Hear, hear.) Every year, when the session of the year has
been beginning, or about a month before, it has been the
practice for the public journals, for the last few years, to en-
quire what would be the fashion of politics for the govern-
ment for the session. " Last year, it is true, they opposed
the ballot; will they continue to oppose it or not? They
have declared that the ballot would unsettle the best inte-
rests of the countrt ; but that is no reason why they should
not adopt it." (Hear, hear.) The whole question thus was
one of calculation and speculation of how many votes they
would lose or gain by conceding it, and if, upon summing 11P
the two sides of the equation, they found the balance upon
the side of concession, concede it they would. (Cheers.)
That was the only way the future course of government was
calculated by, with regard to the present administration.
They considered that they were in a sad minority the other
day, and that they must strengthen themselves, but then
those rascally tories—(laughter)—and sooner than admit the
tories, perish the !constitution. (Hear.) This was the feel-
ing which animated the government—" we would do as
little harm as we could"—and he (Lord Sandon) did not
believe they would do harm for its own sake, but that if they
meant to keep alive they must not shrink from doing it.
(Hear.) That was the character of the present administra.

Hen; but that Wag utA the character et an administration
which ought to guide and rule the destinies of this great

country. ' (Cheer-s.) It was not a government which would
be the slave of the mere majority of the day, and which had

to look for its course upon every question to a nice calcula-
tion whether it would get five votes upon one side or the

other, that should govel'.'n the destinies of this empire ; but

it was a government whose principles were known, round
which the great mass and interests of the country might

collect, and with them their opinions and their confidence.
(Cheers.) That government he believed we should have in
her majesty's future administration—in those men whom he

Laud govern-

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