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

3ortij EanraObire Cation.

TO THE ELECTORS OF THE NORTHERN DIVI-
SION OF THE COUNTY PALATINE OF LAN-
CASTER.
GENTLEMEN,
THE House of Commons having on several occasions
1 indicated, and at length formally declared, its want of
confidence in her Majesty's Ministers, they have thought fit
to advise the Crown to appeal to the Country against this do-
cision, by dissolving the present Parliament. You are there-
fore called upon to exercise your constitutional functions.
under circumstances of peculiar interest; you are called upon,
virtually, to decide in whose hands the Administration of this
great Empire shall be placed, and on what principles its Go-
vernment shall be conducted.

In soliciting a renewal of the trust which you have already
placed in my hands on four several occasions, it is unneces-
sary for me to enter into a detailed explanation of my views.
I have now had the honor of a Seat in Parliament for nine-
teen years; for the lastnine of them as your Representative;
and although in that long period my personal position and
connexions have undergone considerable change, I am con-
scious to myself of no change which is not reconcileable with
the steady support of the same principles.
I have ever been a friend to Civil and Religious Liberty;
I cordially supported the removal of political disabilities on
the ground of religious Opinions, whether of the Roman
Catholic or of Protestant Dissenters ; but I never consi-
dered that the principles of Religious Liberty were incon-
sistent with the maintenance, by the State, of the National
Religion ; nor that the removal of invidious distinctions, and
a perfect equality of Civil Rights, were incompatible with a
firm determination to support, uphold, and strengthen the
National Establishment as an integral and most valuable
part of the British Constitution.

Again, I was of opinion, prior to 1830, that the lapse of
time had produced abuses in our representative system,
which required to be corrected ; and I warmly supported the
measure of Earl Grey, which aimed at substituting a real,
for a nominal representation of the People in the House of
Commons ; but I looked upon that measure rather as a pro-
tection against, than an introduction to, perpetual change ;
and I am prepared to resist endeavours rashly to break in
upon a settlement so recently made, by alterations of a more
democratic tendency.
I avowed to you in 1837 that I had no confidence in the
present Administration ; and I cannot say that their subse-
quent measures have had the effect of creating that sentiment
in my mind. I cannot entertain confidence in a Government,
which I see gradually repelling its more moderate Supporters,
and supplying their places with Men of extreme opinions;
denouncing, as most mischievous, such measures as the
Ballot, and extension of Suffrage, and then admitting sup-
porters of these measures into the Cabinet, under the con-
venient, but not very creditable plea of open questions ;
causing, by mismanagement, a large deficiency with an in-
creasing Revenue, and then seeking to make good the defi-
ciency by measures superficially considered, and hastily
adopted, involving the most important National interests ;
least of all can I entertain confidence in a Government,
which, as a last resource to recover lost popularity, brings
forward such a question as the Corn-Laws, with a distinct
avowal that they have no expectation of being able to carry
it.

I am not prepared to deny that our Commercial Tariff may
require careful revision and reconstruct:on ; I do not claim
for the existing Corn-Laws, any more than for any other
laws, exemption from legislative reconsideration, and amend-
ment; but I deprecate the agitation of a subject of such ex-
treme delicacy, except by a Government which should well
have considered not only the soundness of the amendments
it proposed, but its ability to give effect to itsown intentions.
I consider the degree of protection proposed by the present
scheme inadequate in amount; and I am strongly of opinion
that the principle of a fluctuating scale is more advantageous
to the Country at large, than that of a fixed duty, and better
calculated to afford due protection under varying circum-
stances, to that Agricultural Class, whose interests I will not
abandon, believing their prosperity to be interwoven with,
and essential to, the very existence of the Empire.
Should there be any points on which you desire explana-
tion, I shall feel it a pleasure, as well as a duty, to state to
you my views with entire unreserve on the day of nomination
at Lancaster, where I earnestly reqnest the favour of your
attendance; and gratefully thanking you for the confidence
you have hitherto reposed in me, of which I respectfully so-
licit the renewal, _