The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-07-13 00:00:00

EIR W.lberpool gßtanbarb.

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TUESDAY MORNING, JULY 13, 1847

We are on the eve of a general election;
and, perhaps, at no former period of our history
was the exercise of a proper discrimination on the
part of the constituencies, m determining upon the
materials of the new parliament to be chosen, of
more vital importance to every class and interest of
the country, than in the present crisis. Yet,
throughout the country, we observe an apathy upon
the subject, most unaccountable and most suicidal.
Constituencies, for the representation of which, in
former days, the foremost men in the land would
have been proud to be permitted to put forth a
claim, and to fight an energetic fight, are left to
solicit men of a very different class to accept, as a
boon, what should have been sued for, as an
honour. In some counties and boroughs, this
apathy displays itself in compromises; and, the
old feuds of Whig and Tory staunched, even
principle is neutralized by the return, by consent,
and to avoid the expense and trouble of a contest
of parties of opposite politics. .By a few constitu-
encies Whigs will walk in unopposed, where Con-
servatives, before their too general apostacy, were
certain of election. In short, throughout the
country, the men hitherto the most energetic
workers in election matters, refuse to stir, disgusted
with the disappointment which has followed their
past efforts, and evidently impressed with the con-
viction that there is no faith to be placed in the
professions or the promises of statesmen.

We have to laMent this feeling as existing to
some extent in our own borough ; and it develop-
erelv the character of

ment threatens to

its constituency for undeviating protestant and
constitutional consistency. Not later than last
week we confidently trusted, and expressed our
heartfelt gratification, that Liverpool would still be
enabled to emerge triumphantly from the efforts
which "liberalism" has for years making to
possess itself of—the representation of this loyal
borough. The unanimous resolve of the leaders of
the constitutional and Protestant party to support
their present tried and respected member, Sir
Howard Douglas, with Sir Digby Mackworth as
his colleague, afforded almost unlimited satisfaction
to the great majority of the constituency. We have
to-day, however, to record, and to lament over, a
step—the introduction of a third candidate, in the
person of Lord John Manners, who must rely upon
the church and constitutional party for support,
and hence divide and weaken that party—which
materially alters our prospects, and which, if per-
severed in, will inevitably result in defeat and
disaster, which every true friend of the good old
town must sincerely deplore.
We know not who are the moving parties in this
matter—who were the deputation to Lord John
Manners, or who are his leading supporters in the
attempt, to which he has been so injudiciously
invited, to divide and weaken the Conservative
strength of this constituency. We know as little
what are his claims upon Liverpool, in especial, be-
yond his talent, his amiability, his eloquence, and
his excellent moral character, which none deny him
to be possessed of, He is in favour of the main-
tenance of the Navigation Laws : so is our old and
tried member, Sir Howard Douglas, and so is Sir
Digby Mackworth. He is an advocate for protec-
tion to the colonies, the commerce, and the native
industry of the empire : equally so are both these
gentlemen, He is an ardent supporter of the
established Church of England, and of the insti-
tutions of the country, as by law established : so
is Sir Howard Douglas ; so is Sir Digby Mack-
worth. But here we must stop. In matters con-
nected with the Constitution, and the Church of
England, as established by the Reformation, the

rties are no longer on a parallel.
We ask, then, which of the candidates already

before the public is it that Lord John Manners is
brought forward to oppose, and on what particular
questions ? If it is to oppose the two Conservative
candidates, it cannot be upon the question of the
Navigation Laws, or protection to the colonial, com-
mercial, or industrial interests of the empire. It is
not upon any other great question, about which

itionalists are anxio

The conclusion,

then, must be that it is upon some question con-
nected with the established religion of the country,
with respect to which, more than any other ques-
tion, Lord John Manners has made himself promi-
nent in parliament, and before the country. Is it
his peculiar opinions with respect to the law of
mortmain which constitute his superior fitness to
represent the greatest commercial port of the em-
pire ? We should imagine that in this age of pro-
gress, and by the merchants of Liverpool, the idea
of any portion of the youth and manhood of the
kingdom moping in monasteries, when so vast a
field for the employment of their energies in the
improvement of the condition of their fellow human
beings was offered them out of doors, would receive,
from such a constituency as this, little sympathy.
We fear greatly that Lord John Manners, or
some of the parties said to be his supporters here—
we repeat that we know not either who or how
many they are—have been misled as to his chances
of success in this borough ; and we are certain,
from the character of his lordship, that, if he could
suppose that, by pressing his pretensions, he was
in the least placing our town in danger of being
subjected to Whig-Radical and anti-Church domi-
nation, he would at once withdraw from a position
so unseemly and injurious to interests which,
although in some points eccentric in his views, we
believe he has at heart, Lord John Manners is,
ve should imagine, too chivalrous in his character
;o submit to the indignity which some of the party
ht him forward have prepared for
ity of being placed in a respectable
iosition on the poll, only by the votes of parties
iostile to the church, of which he professes to be
o ardent a supporter—for we have heard it stated
hat some of the party in question meditate
coalescing with the friends of Sir Thomas Birch !
We should think little, indeed, of the scion of the
house of Rutland if he could descend to this.
Since writing the above, we have been confi-
dently assured that Sir Howard Douglas declines
to come forward again for Liverpool ; and we have
received, at a late hour, a copy of an address from
Ir. Edward Cardwell, announcing his intention of
soliciting the votes of the constituency, which will

ho have broug

in dign

nvas, in detail, the

e found in our advertising columns
w(

me t(

le Roman Catholic

incl to any undue infringement of the ex-
stion Laws. Upon commercial and
ns, too, we are aware that he is well
—infinitely better than the Whig candi-
date, Sir Thomas Birch, can be supposed to be.
In addition to these qualifications, he is a rising
man, whose influence, upon any question which
concerns his native town, will be felt in the proper

sting Navig

)cal questio.
(formed

Lead of aff
Mr. Car
merchants