The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-07-05 00:00:00

TO THE BURGESSES AND FREEMEN OF THE
BOROUGH OF LIVERPOOL.
GENTLEMEN,

THE Representation of your important and
populous Town has been declared vacant by the
judgment of the Tribunal constituted for the purpose of in-
quiring into the proceedings of the late Election.
It is no business of mine to impugn the justice of this and
other analogous decisions. I have been invited to present
myself as a CANDI ll&TE for your suffrages by a Requisition
from a large and influential body of your Community, upon
conditions, which must, at least, exonerate me from any par-
ticipation in any possible proceedings which may have a
tendency to sully the purity of popular Election in the eyes of
its self-constituted Judges.

But this has also been the position of many able and honour-
able men,.who have, nevertheless, recently been unseated by
the decision of Parliamentary Committees—men who have, in
their own person, paid the penalty of acts done by indiscreet
friends oF.(it may be) by disguised enemies.

After thiii prefice, for-which recent events will at least afford
an excuse, I shad be expected to make some statement of my
political opinions. As to the personal qualifications which
have led to my introduction to this great Emporium of Com-
merce, they will be more fitly explained by others than by
myself. It would not be becoming in me to put forward any
claims to the high honour to which I have been invited, further
than to refer to the good opinion of your Fellow-Townsmen
already manifested towards me.
This opinion can only be founded upon some knowledge of
my past life, the better portion of which has been devoted to
my Country's service in the Commons House of Parliament.
In the earlier part of my public career I was honoured and
encouraged by the personal friendship of two Statesmen,
whose connection with your Town will ever be a distinguishing
feature in the annals of Liverpool,—l allude to Mr. Canning
and Mr. Huskisson. _ _ _

Following the example of these illustrious men, I proclaim
myself a Conservative Politician, the defender of the Throne
and the Altar, at the same time yielding to no man in attach-
ment to the Civil and Religious liberties secured to the People
by our matchless Constitution.
With regard to the long agitated, but now settled, question
of what is called " Free Trade," I am content to view it as an
accomplished Fact ; rejoiced to find that a recurrence to the first
principles of Commerce, so long viewed with apprehension by
many, is compatible not merely with security, but apparently
conducive to the National wealth and enterprise. Some excep-
tions may, I fear, still be pointed out in the midst of the
general prosperity, greatly enhanced as that Prosperity has
undoubtedly been by those wonderful discoveries of the precious
metals in the remote quarters of the Globe. which have added
a stimulus to manufacturing industry and created a demand
for Shipping, unprecedented in the history of this or any
other country. But the Merchants of Liverpool must be too
painfully conscious of the deplorable condition of our West
India Colonies (once so flourishing and so wealthy), not to
admit the justice of the allusion in the preceding sentence.
Whether the case of these Colonies be desperate, or whether it
may admit of some palliation, is now one of the most in-
teresting problems which can engage the thoughts of public
men, and occupy the attention of Government.
Upon the complicated questions of Finance and Taxation, I
shall be prepared to offer in public such explanations as may
be required of me.

I hive already given proofs. to which easy reference may be
made, of my devotion to the cause of British Navigation. In
fact, I can only attribute the support and encouragement I
have received in Liverpool to the attentive consideration I
formerly devoted to this great National Interest.
While I desire that all classes of my Fellow-Countrymen
shall enjoy the fullest extent of Civil and Religious Freedom, I
consider that Freedom is best maintained by a resolute de•
fence of the Rights, Privileges, and Property of the Protestant
Church, as by Law established.
- _

Concurring, as I do, with the just and emphatic language
recently uttered in the House of Commons by the Noble Lord
the Leader of the Government in that House, I regret that the
participation of such sentiments seems to have been disavowed
by the First Minister of the Crown.

conclusiono humbly venture to hope that you will
pardon this imperfect exposition of my political opinions. A
candidate for popular support, in these days, must rather look
to other and more convenient opportunities of dealing with
important questions than attempt to comprise them all within
the limits of an address.

Every honest politician has the same object in view, although
the wisest may differ as to the best means of obtaining it.
That object is the PUBLIC GOOD, or, in the words of a well-
known writer, "the greatest possible amount of happiness
extended to the greatest possible number of the people.
By combining a sound moral and religious Education, with
the progressive discoveries of Science; by strengthening all
that is valuable in the Framework of Society, and improvingall
that is defective, we shall best further this great end, and act
in harmony with the designs of a beneficent and over-ruling
Providence.

I have the honour to subscribe myself,
Gentlemen,
With great respect,
Your obedient, faithful servant,
HENRY THOMAS LIDDELL.
London, 23d June, 1853.

TO THE INDEPENDENT BURGESSES AND
FREEMEN or THE BOROUGH ow LIVERPOOL.
GENTLEMEN,
T SHOULD be wanting in justice to my own feelings
I as well as in gratitude to my fellow-townsmen, to whom I
am so largely indebted, if I failed to acknowledge the warm
emotions of satisfaction with which I have received,* most
influential and numerously-signed Requisition, with the urgent
request that I would allow myself to be nominated as a Candi-
didate at the ensuing Election to represent this unrivalled port
and great emporium of commerce in the Commons House of
Parliament.

Had such a request not been so urgently pressed upon me, I
should not have ventured on the presumptuous het of offering
myself to your notice; for, though I must candidly confess
that the honour is one to which my ambition never led me to
look forward, the refusal of an offer of support so spontaneously
and generously tendered, would manifest on my part an ingra-
titude for the kindnesses heaped upon me, and a want of moral
courage of which I would not_ willingly be guilty. . .

My'Principles are so well knowrrlo most of you, that it is
hardly necessary for me to revert to them, more than briefly to
state that—

I have no recantation to make. I have been honoured by a
seat in your Muncipal chamber for the last twelve years, and
my conduct is before you. 1 have endeavoured to discharge
my duty honestly to the town, for the general good. My con-
science tells me I have been a faithful servant ; and 1 owe to
you the declaration, that I have been amply rewarded by the
often expressed approbation of my fellow-townsmen.
I profess and adhere to those Conservative principles which
have ever guided my political course. lam a firm supporter
of our National Church, which I believe to be one of the bul-
warks of the Civil and Religious Liberty we have the happiness
to enjoy.
I am an advocate for that Commercial Policy which seeks to
obtain, as far as it is practicable, a reciprocal interchange of
the products of foreign countries, ;—convinced that nothing solid
or lasting can follow that which is not mutually benefical.
should consider it a paramount duty carefully to watch over
the Public Expenditure—to enforce economy as far as is con.
sistent with efficiency for the safety of the country, and the
honour and dignity of the Crown.
Adhering, as I do, to those Conservative principles, I should
lie the last, by any act of mine, to jeopardise their ascendancy ;
and, so long as there were only Conservatives in the field, it
was an offer fairly open to my acceptance or rejection
now that a political opponent has been brought forward, ; but
h I feel
it due to the great Conservative body, with which I have
been associated, at once to state that I would not i always
Weaken the conservative ranks. ThiS

any way

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