The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-04-06 00:00:00

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TUESDAY MORNING, APRIL 6, 1841

The burgesses of St. Anne's ward have now an op-
portunity of doing the state some service, and we con-
fidently expect that they will avail themselves of it.

Mr. James Parker is the Conservative candidate, and
we are happy to learn that he is a gentleman worthy of
;,neir warmest support. We hope there will be no
apathy on an occasion of this kind. Never was there
a time when it was more incumbent on those who va-

lue the Christian institutions of our country to exert
themselves. Soon, unless the mad and mischievous
career of legislative liberalism be put a stop to, our
government and laws will be completely unchristian-
ised, and nothing will be left of that glorious constitu-
tion which has made Britain the first of modern na-
tions, but the memory of its departed excellence.
The House of Commons has now decreed that Jews
are fit persons to have a share in the administration of
our local governments. Next they will be admitted
into Parliament ; and who then can be said to be dis-
qualified for making our laws, and deciding upon what
is most conducive to our good It will then be no
reproach to any man to avow himself a Socialist. We
shall have Socialist senators as a matter of course, and
doubtless our church and religion will be well taken

care of under such a regime.

It is said, what signifies admitting Jews into Parlia-
ment, when Papists and others who sympathise as lit-
tle with our church feelings are there already ? Well,
we cannot tell the precise amount of its importance or
insignificance ; the last bundle that breaks the horse's
back, may be but a small one—not more, perhaps,
than a pound weight ; but if the poor, sinking animal
is to be relieved at all, this is plain, that it is not by
putting more weights upon him that the work is to be
done. Papists have been admitted into parliament,
and a very great encouragement, certainly, our expe-
rience on this hand gives us to go onward in the same
march. The deed is one which we look upon as al-
ready repented of, and to be amended. But what
shall prevent us despairing of our country, unless we
find every man who has her interests at heart willing
to work in his own sphere, as if her fate depended
upon his own individual exertions ? This is the feel-
ing which we should expect that every man who has a
sense of true patriotism would cherish, and act upon
whenever, and wherever he had the opportunity.
It is a strange anomaly that Liverpool should be re-
presented in parliament by two Conservatives, but that
the burgesses should be represented in their town
council by a majority of Radicals ! It is no less un-
fortunate than strange; for thus the weight of public
authority, and the sanction of official dignity are given
to that radicalism which every Conservative cordially
and justly detests, and a power is thrown into the
scale of the adversary which it requires the utmost
straining of Conservatives at all times to overcome.

Now we say it is a matter of prime importance to alter
this. To the inhabitants of Liverpool, we know of
none greater, and at this moment we would beg the
burgesses of St. Ann's ward to assure themselves that
they can perform no greater service to the town than
by returning Mr. Parker, a staunch Conservative, to

fill the existing vacancy.
His only opponent comes forward on the Radical
side; and to those whom we address, that, we expect,

will furnish obstacle sufficient to deprive him of their
support; though if others were looked for, we believe
they might be found. Mr. Chalmer is a surgeon—
and although we would not object to a candidate
merely because he was a surgeon, if in all other re-
spects he were duly qualified—yet, if we were quite at
sea, and in search of a candidate to represent a district
exclusively mercantile, assuredly a surgeon would not
receive our preference for such a purpose. We should
have no objection to see Mr. Chalmer returned to that
medical congress, which a bill now before parliament
would constitute by free election of the professionals
for the purpose of regulating all medical affairs ; in
such a senate he perhaps might cut a respectable
figure ; but we see no necessity for filling our mercan-

tile town council with members of the lancet corps.
Mr. Chalmer comes forward on the Radical

Again,

interest; but how long, we should be glad to know,
has he been attached to that side ? Truly, the Radi-
cals must be hard run for men when they can find
none to put up but deserters from the Tory camp, and
one especially a convert of so late a date as we under-
stand their present candidate is; but this is their
affair, and let them settle it among themselves. All
we request of the Conservatives is, to vote for Mr.
Parker—a man who is not given to change—a man
whom they all know well; and one who, we believe,
will not disappoint their expectations as a representative
of Conservatve men, and a supporter of Conservative
principles in the Council.

According to Mr. Alderman Evans, the desire to
make any change in the constitution of the Dock Trust
can only proceed from envy, hatred, and all unchari-
tableness. Those who entertain it are, " a few persons
who hope to gratify personal or political enmity, or to
prevent improvements that have been sought for in
vain for the last forty years." But we take leave, on
our part, and, we think, we may safely say, on that of
a few others, to repel this not very charitable accusa-
tion of the eloquent alderman. The question with us
is simply, who are the fittest persons to have the pre-
ponderating influence in the nomination of the trustees,
and whether, under existing circumstances, it is desir-
able that the Town Council should have it ?
Mr. Evans is a corporator, and, with a suitable esprit
de corps, says, of course, that there is nothing like lea-
ther—no men equal to corporators for such work. We,
on the other hand, perceive none of that peculiar fit-
less of things in the arrangement that he does, and
cittlsive that as rate-payers are the body most nearly
-11.44-01.'t"y interested in the good management of the

estate, so ought they to be the body most largely re-

presented in the committee.

The payment of rates, says Mr. Evans, furnishes
ao title to a share in the appointment of the commit-

no more than the payment of duties on tea and

sugar by grocers gives them a right to the management
of the customs." Now will Mr
tell him, that, though a liberal, it is plain, from this
that he is but ill-acquainted with the principles of li-
berty. We have always understood that taxation with-
out representation is tyranny; and we call to mind an
observation which has been frequently made, that the
now United States of America would probably be a
British colony at this hour, but for an unfortunate at-
tempt to establish the contrary of this principle.

Evans 001

If payment of rates furnishes no title to a share of
management, or right of election, then the actual rate-
payers at this moment have no right, in point of prin-
ciple, to send in trustees to the committee, and enjoy
that privilege only through the sufferance of the Town
Council, or the extraordinary bounty of the legislature.
We beg the rate-payers to note this doctrine of Mr.
Alderman Evans, a distinguished member of the mu-
nicipal body. He declares that no extent of contribu-
tion on their part gives them the slightest right or title
to have a vote with regard to the management of the
Dock Estate, and, moreover, that a body elected for
other purposes—who may or may not consist of rate-
payers—who possibly might not have a single rate-
payer among them—and who are not necessarily elected
by rate-payers—has as good a right to choose the com-
mittee as they have, if not a much better. The ad-
vancement of such a proposition does, to our mind,
indicate unsoundness in the basis of all the alderman's
reasoning. In his engrossing zeal for the aggrandise-

ment of the Council, discretion abandons him, and he
grasps at any and every paradox that seems to favour
the ruling passion.

He argues, that as " this town is purely mercantile,
the Council, while its duties are important, will always
consist essentially of mercantile men, who will, of ne-
cessity, select their delegates to the Dock Committee,
with a view to their fitness for that duty." It may be

ted that this town is " purely mercantile," and yet

11 not follow that the Council is the body most fit
to superintend the docks and warehouses of the port ;
becanse, strong as the " counting-house sway" may
be, it is by no means omnipotent in municipal elec-
tions ; nor are councillors chosen altogether with re-
gard to their mercantile weight or talents, but fully as
much on the ground of their political principles and
other qualifications not exclusively mercantile in their
character. And this is a sufficient answer to the argu-
ment that members of the Council must necessarily be
better qualified to act as dock and warehouse trustees
than men directly selected for the purpose by those
who use those docks, and have the greatest possible

interest in their proper management.
But rate-pavers, says Mr. Evans, are "a transitory,
varying body, without organization or periodical meet-
ings." Perhaps so ; but how in this respect do they
differ from burgesses who elect the Council ? The
members of the one body are just as " transitory and
varying" as those of the other. When one set goes
off, another comes in their place. Even town-coun-
cillors, lamentable as is the truth, are a "transitory,
varying body ;" and—sic transit gloria mundi—all

things upon earth are varying and transitory.
We do not see the force of this argument ; for how-
ever the rate-payers may fluctuate, individually, still
the interest of rate-payers continues, and must ever
continue, while there are docks to be maintained and
rate-payers to maintain them. As to organization,
what do they want of it ? and as to periodical meet-
ings, there is nothing more easy than to have them
when the necessity for them arrives.
But the short of the matter is this : Alderman Evans
has conceived in his mind's eye a magnificent scheme
of Town Council grandeur, and the question is, will
the rate-payers of the docks and the burgesses of the
municipality lay aside their sober, calculating, count-
ing-house common-sense to assist the aldermen in the
realisation of his pleasant day-dream ? His worship
is, in our judgment, decidedly poetical, and sees such
visions of corporate grandeur as none but one inspired,
or one "of imagination all compact"—(a rare instance
of mental developement in the aldermanic body, by the
by)—could possibly behold. In this respect he labours
under a slight infirmity, and supposes that all the world
is in a conspiracy to thwart his views, and degrade, in-
stead of aiding him to exalt, his darling body. But—
" Oh, that Heaven the gift wad gi'e us,
To see oursel's as ithers see us"—
the fault lies nearer home than he has any idea of. He
may yet make the discovery that Radicalism is a thing
that carries no weight with it, no respect, and no con-
fidence.