The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-06-25 00:00:00

WARD MEETINGS.

SANDON AND CRESSWELL FOR EVER!

EVERTON AND KIRKDALE WARD.
Shortly after eight o'clock on Tuesday evening last, a
meeting of the electors resident in Everton and Kirkdale
was held on the bowling-green attached to the Liver Inn, for
the purpose of adopting measures to secure the re-election
of Lord Sandon and Mr. Cresswell as representatives for the
borough. It had been advertised that the meeting would be
held in the large room of the Liver Inn, but the numbers
that pressed for admittance about the time of commencing
the proceedings were so overwhelming, that an adjournment
to the green bad to be made, in order to afford all those in
attendance an opportunity of hearing our excellent candi-
dates. The chair wal occupied on the occasion by
JOHN SHAW LEIGH, Esq., who briefly stated the nature
and objects of the meeting, and eulogised the character and
conduct of the conservative candidates.
Lord SANDON then presented himself to the electors, and
was received with the most enthusiastic cheering. When
silence was restored, he proceeded to say that he should in-
deed be sorry if he thought that much of the feeling they
had just displayed could be attributed merely to the kind
sentiments they entertained for an old servant. He knew
that there was something of peculiar kindness felt towards
.

CP
one who, for ten long years, had been engaged in their ser-
vice, who had fought through four contests for the interests
of Liverpool, and who upon every occasion had been borne
aloft by the popular feeling, and had been literally carried to
the hustings upon the shoulders of the people. (Cheers.)
He knew that there must be something of a peculiar feeling

attached to his appearance among them, but lie should much
regret if that feeling could in any material degree be confined
to that peculiar circumstance. He had rather, much rather,
it were attributable, as it ought to be, to a feeling that him-
self and his excellent colleague, who represented the conser-
vative feelings of this great borough, represented also the
wishes of the great majority of the constituency. (Hear,
hear.) He believed that no circumstance of temporary im-
portance or delusion could efface from the hearts of the con-
servative electors those deep-rooted feelings which had been
growing firmer year after year within the walls of Liverpool.
He was aware of the deep feeling of attachment to the
throne, attachment to the church, and attachment to all that
was protestant, and to all that was English, which pervaded
the minds of the electors generally, and he also knew that
feelings such as these were not to be upset by a gale which
had been blown for a temporary object by those who were
the ministers of the crown, but who could not properly re-

present its dignity. (Loud cheers.) He was sure the elect-
ors would feel with him, that the measures which had been

lately proposed under very extraordinary circumstances in
parliament, and after every other measure had been at-
tempted and had failed in securing the affections of the
people, would be mistrusted as having been put for the main
purpose of creating a temporary delusion. (Hear, hear.)
The electors would estimate the degree of feeling which her
Majesty's ministers possessed for the people of England, by
the hard and unrelenting manner in which they had pursued
their theories with respect to the execution of the poor-law ;
that those who had carried out their abstract principles on
that subject were not those who had a right to claim any
peculiar tenderness for the feelings of the people. (Hear,
hear, and cheers.) Upon this question he wished not to ex-
cite their feelings. It was a subject upon which the passions
might easily be excited, but he was not anxious to agitate
the public mind in relation to it. The question, however,
was not an abstract one with the conservatives. There had
been an engagement entered into on the part of the govern-

ment, thatllie new poor-law should not be extended to the
north of England, where there existed many who would
carry the old law into effect without its abuses. That pledge
bad not been maintained. (Hear.) Liverpool had also been
subjected to its operations, and the inhabitants had found
that their burthens had thereby been increased. (Hear.) He
would always be anxious to give to the local authorities of
every place that control over the administration of their
affairs which it was the practice of the whigs to destroy, by
placing all such authority in a central position in the metro-
polis. He believed there was no greater security for liberty

than to leave to the vafious constituencies the management
of their own local institutions, and to confer on them a
power of governing themselves, and administering their own
affairs. (Cheers.) It had been attempted to delude the
electors by the cry of " cheap corn" and " free trade "
words very seducing in their sound, but sound was not the
only thing to be listened to ; the sense should also be exa-
mined. (Hear, hear.) But what was cheap corn and cheap
bread ? The question was not whether the loaf cost 4d. or
6d., but the proportion the price of that loaf bore to the
means every person possessed. (Hear, and cheers.) He be-
lieved that by fostering the domestic industry of the country
—he did not say to an aggravated degree, so as to raise bread
to a famine price, but by fostering the domestic industry of
the people—the best security was afforded for the employ-
ment of the great body of the people, and the prevention of
famine prices on particular occasions. He believed it was
the best policy that all countries should to some degree ex-
tend and encourage, even artificially, the growth of corn at
home. What would be the effect in case every country were
to proclaim a free trade in corn ? If every country were to
say that it was indifferent as to whether it had agricultural
produce or not, the result would be that land would. be
thrown out of cultivation, and we might be dependent for
corn on countries the least fitted for the growth of it, and we
should also be dependent on chance seasons. (Hear, hear.)
He did not say that every particular provision of the existing
corn-law was the best that could be imagined. He believed
that it had puzzled the wisdom of statesmen, and that it was
capable of being improved by the wisdom of man, but he be-
lieved also that the system which would protect agriculture
was all-important for the people of England. (Hear, hear,
hear.) He might be in error with respect to corn, but he
could not be wrong about the constitution. (Cheers.) The
one was a much clearer question than the other ; and they
might rely upon it that if they were to tie themselves to the
wheels of the republican and radical party in this country,
because the latter happened to be in favour of free trade in
corn, they would have to rue the day that their interests had
been sacrificed. (Hear, and cheers.) The next was the cry
of " cheap sugar." This was the most absurd of all cries.
Was the meeting aware of the extent of the cheapness which
Lord John Rnssell promised, provided slave-grown sugar
were admittedinto England. (Avoice—lt wasabout a penny.)
No ; not so much. (A laugh.) That was too high a bid
(great laughter): it was the one hundred and twelfth part of
eighteenpence. (Hear, hear, and continued laughter.) If
any gentleman present had mental arithmetic enough in his
head to calculate exactly how much that would come to, he
would be able to do more than he (Lord Sandon) could pre-
tend to do. (Hear, hear.) He believed it would be found
that the differenceof small variations of this kind in the price
of the article would not go into the pocket of the consumer ;
and he believed that even the board of trade would agree that
unless the reduction in price amounted to a penny per pound
the consumer would not be benefited—(hear, hear)—there-
fore,, the public had no right to expect that the proposed
cheapness in sugar, as it was called, would be, sensibly felt.
(Cheers.) And the public should also recollect, that what-
ever advantage might be felt from the lowering of the price
of corn, would be counterbalenced on the other side by a
lowering of wages. (Renewed cheers.) He hoped, therefore,
that the electors would join heart and hand on the present
occasion, recollecting that their representatives in the House
of Commons had been fighting a long up-hill battle for the
last ten years. (Hear, hear.) A change of opinion from the
radical to the conservative side had taken place not only in
Liverpool but all over the country. (Hear, hear, and loud
cheers.) The people of Liverpool had manifested this change
not only at their general but also at their municipal election.
(Great cheers.) They had manifested a distrust in the
present government on the subject of their comforts, their
religion, and the education of their children ; and would
they give up and abandon all these feelings, of which they
heretofore boasted, to support a government which had ne-
glected their local interests, and because they saw the walls
placarded with the words " cheap bread," " cheap corn,"
and "cheap sugar?" (Renewed cheers and cries of "Never.")
He trusted that those good feelings which had been showing
themselves, and increasing from year to year in Liverpool,
would lead the electors to place confidence in an administra-
tion which should be constructed on conservative and firm
principles, and which would include the honoured names of
Sir Robert Peel and Lord Stanley. (Great cheers.) He
trusted they would rather put confidence in the tried, fixed
principles and high integrity of these men, than in the waver-
ing, unsettled, and unprincipled administration—(hear,
hear)—which from year to year, had abandoned one princi-
ple after another, and which seemed to care for no other
principle but the maintenance of itself, not in power but in
place. (Vehement applause.) They would not uphold an
administration of which inquiry had to be made, year after
year, as to what their policy was to be on every question, re-
ligious, political, and commercial, their assurances op those
several subjects in the one year being no security as to the
course they might think proper to pursue in the next. (Hear,
hear.) Disgraced, degraded, and dragged through the mire,
the ministry were clinging to office with a tenacity un-
paralleled, and appealing to the people when even their own
supporters were openly stating that they had no confidence
in the result. (Hear, and cheers.) It was a disgrace to the
country, and a crying evil, to have an administration cling-
ing to place, encumbering the energies of the nation, ensuring
no respect either abroad or at home, and which had been
tossed about from one faction to another as the necessities of
the day prescribed. (Most rapturous applause.) He hoped
the electors would cordially unite, and carry the present
great conservative struggle to a successful issue—that they
would come forward early on Tuesday morning, and, defeat-
ing their opponents by a bold, a manly, but an orderly de-
meanour, place the conservative candidates at the head of
the poll—cry as successfully as ever they had done before,
" Sandon and Cresswell for ever !" and that those names
would be their watchwords and their battle-cry at the great-
est victory which the constitution would ever have achieved.
Lord Sandon concluded an able speech amidst the most en-
thusiastic cheers.
Mr. CRESSWELL next presented himself, and the cheering
was renewed and continued for several minutes. He said it
was just four years since he first had the honour of address-
ing, from the window of that house, a large assembly of the
constituency of this important borough. He then stated to
them plainly, explicitly, as clearly as he could, and without
any circumlocution, the principles upon which he asked for
their support. He believed they all understood him ; at
least, he could not suppose that he had received their votes
under any mistake. (Cheers, and cries of "No mistake.")
He hoped they had changed none of the good principles by
which they were then actuated. (Cries of "We have not.")
Had they any reason to suppose he had? (Vehement cries
of " No, no.") Then he hoped they would support him
again. (Cheers.) It was at all times extremely agreeable
to him to meet his constituents ; he should be most ungrate-
ful if it were otherwise; for on those occasions when he had
betr exposed at pre-
sentble and incon-
venience, of a general election..
trouble met them, they had honoured him with their approbation.
But htoe
trhegereextteeidtetinheanttthane
dcoaugnittur
,
agitation,
onL h
should
tears) For why was it
_e
that they had this general election ' What was the phrase
that her Majesty's ministers tie.dwhp speaking of it, and
when avowing that they had advisedt her Majesty to dissolve
parliament ? Why, they said
what.
yhawtrted to appeal to the
people. (Hear.) Appealfr
• From the judgment
of the representatives of thepeople. (Hear, hear, and loud
cheering.) Now he, as a lawyer, could not deny the propriety
of there being a court of appeal._ (Hear, and a laugh.) It
was right that when one judgment was against a man, he
should have a power ofapp_ealing to another tribunal ; and
it was right that whenth e judgment of parliament was against
a ministry, there should ld be a power of appealing to the peo-
ple. But
then that power should be accompanied with this,
—that where it was quite clear that the judgment of the first
tribunal was right, and that there was no reason to believe
it would be reversed on appeal, an appeal could only be for
the Purpose of vexation towards the
Co
(Great
cheers.) When. the judgment of the House of Commons was
against the ministry, what reason had they to suppose that it
would be reversed by an appeal to:the people ? None ; and
they had proved it; for they kept the parliament together,
instead of immediately appealing, in order that they might
raise an excitement in favour of doubts which did not at first
exist. (Hear, hear. \
1 He took it that all the old
principles
of the electors were the same as ever—attachment to the
throne, the constitution, the privileges of the people, and
their protestant church. (Loud cheers.) He argued not in
favour of those principles on the present occasion. He
offered not to convince them that it • was rig • h
t to maintain
them, for they had proved that they thought itright
returning him as their representative. (Long continued
cheers.) Assuming, therefore, that their opinions with re,
spect to the old principles were the same as heretofore, he
came to the new ones which had been propounded; and hero
he begged to remind them that the new ones were only of tem•
porary interest, while the others were of permanent impors
tance ; and therefore, if there existed a choice between the
new and the old, he was sure they would support the old at
the expense of the new. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) But he
was anxious that they should sea how the ministry had acted
• in bringing forward the new ones. They had heard that two