The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-07-02 00:00:00

runt to the people, and the consequent danger was,
that the people might use their newly acquired liberty
injuriously to the constitution. That was the danger.
Sir R. Peel is, we are sure, no enemy to popular li-
berty : no enlightened statesman can be so. If the
people be prepared foi it, their enfranchisement is the
strength of the Conservative principle, and we care
not how much they are enfranchised. The authors of
the reform bill did not calculate on the extent and the
strength of the Conservative principle in the people of
England, and their own- weapon is now wielded with
irresistible power against them. Conservatism, taking
the hint of Sir Robert Peel, soon made large acquisi-
tions at the registries, and now it is striking the deci-
sive blow at the elections. This is a cheering spectacle
to every true lover of England and her institutions. It
is .n very glorious triumph. We dwell upon it with
unmingled satisfaction. It is like daybreak after a
long night—like sunshine and calm after gloom and
tempest; but there is one point, and it is, in our mind,
a most material one, to which the right honourable ba-

ronet does not advert ; it is, as to what constitutes the
essential element of Conservatism ? It is good Con-

servative practice to vote for Sir Robert Peel at Tarn•
worth, Lord Sandon and Mr. Cresswell at Liverpool
and so on ; it is highly proper, right, and Conservative
to protect the English farmer, the English shipowner
the British colonist, and so forth ; but these are fruit
arid results—excellent in their kind—of a principle. W
ask, what is that principle, or that which is most impor
tant to it ? The answer is religion. Without the religious
principle, there is no security, no stability, scarcely even
vitality in Conservatism. This is a position which we
cannot too often advert to. We have no doubt but
that so just a thinker as Sir Robert Peel must .conceive
that it is one of very great moment, though he.scarcely
adverts to it in the speech to which we now allude.
We wish we could persuade ourselves that lie esteems
it of that very high degree of consequence at which
we certainly presume to think it is worthy of being
estimated even in a political point of view. We re-
gard it as the palladium of the British constitution,
and, therefore, as something whose preservation is of
paramount importance. The reform bill widened the
foundations ; but it was the renovating—redeeming—
salvatory religious principle which went in and built.
A reform bill widened the foundations of the constitu-
tion in Ireland as well as in England ; but what went
in there ? A religious principle certainly, but, unfor•
tunately, not the religious principle of the state, but its
great antagonist, and there, in consequence, Con-
servatism has made no rally ; there democracy has
gained all—the constitution has sustained so much
pure loss, and recovered nothing back ; there was no
Protestantism, no Church of Englandism there, pro-
portionate to the demand, to go in and occupy, and
reform became revolution. With the most profound
respect for every opinion enounced by Sir R. Peel, we
do say—and in so saying we should rather hope for
his concurrence—that it is vain to think of rightly
administering the affairs of this country irrespectively
of the religious principle. See what consequences
follow from extending .the same system of legislation
adopted in this country to Ireland. Most Mischievous
they have been in every point of view, and for the
reason already assigned : there was an attempt to shut
out the religious principle from consideration. Here
there was a vis mediatrix in the constitution capable of
bearing it up against such wounds as the reform bill
inflicted upon it; but in Ireland—where Popery has
got so firm a grasp—there is none—none, at least, of
sufficient power to overcome the injurious tendencies
of such sweeping innovation.
These remarks will not be deemed unseasonable at
the present moment. We shall soon have a Conserva-
tive Parliament and a Conservative Government, and
unless these principles be fully recognised and acted
upon, we will not say that the nation will receive no
benefit from the change; but we do aver that Con-
servatism will be exceedingly blind to the advantages
of its position and to its true interest. It is not enough
that, after a severe and arduous struggle, the Con-
servative party, at length, recover their ascendancy ;
nay, unless they follow up the blow, we count it as
almost nothing. The foundations of the constitution:
recollect, have widened ; or, in other words, a large
measure of enfranchisement has been given to the
people. Upon the people, then, all depends. Leaven
the masses with the Conservative principle, and you
will he safe; neglect that indispensable measure, and
all will be lost. Let us, then, have Church extension
and sound religious education. Without these your
walls are without cement—your Conservatism a mere
rope of sand. We have now just barely gained a
victory ; we have yet to secure it, and profit by that
lesson which adversity so clearly pointed out, and, we
trust, has taught us.

Liverpool. again contributes its quota to the Con
servative cause, and under circumstances which pros'
that it does so with increased good will. It is mw

agreeable to be able to say, not merely that the C

servative electors have achieved a great victory, but
that Conservatism has here become decidedly the popu-
lar cause—popular with all ranks. This was evinced
in every stage of the late contest—in the canvass, at
public meetings, in the streets, at the nomination, and,
above all, in the polling-booths ; and the result is to
place.our Conservative members in such a position as
must make the Radicals bitterly lament their folly in
exposing their weakness by attempting to substitute
others of a different stamp in their room. The gross
majority of the successful candidates over their oppo-
nents,
it will be seen by the official announcement, was
most overwhelming. It was, we acknowledge, even
beyond what we had ourselves looked for—sanguine
as were our hopes of a glorious result from the first.
Her Majesty's Ministers have thus got their certificate
from Liverpool, and we wish them joy of it. Here
there certainly is no confidence in them ; their arts
have failed to produce any effect upon us, and we
rather think the people generally are too knowing in
the way of business to take had government in pre-
senti in exchange for a vague promise of worse bread
in futuro. The short of the matter is, that Liverpool
is Conservative—unequivocally Conservative ; and
everything we see in progress and process around us
, leads us to the conclusion that it will become every

day more and more so.
And now, having said these few words in the wa:
of congratulation, we are at liberty to do the civil thin

. Remember thm

Aye, thou poor ghost, while memor y holds a seat

in this distracted globe

by our opponents. A second phantom is now added;
and these dim forms of uncircumscribed shade may at
this moment embrace each other on equal terms.
Charon has done his office with the knight as well
as the lord, and landed him safely at the other side
of Styx. May they converse together in Elysian fields
supreme in all the happiness which a phantasm world
can afford them ! It would be pleasant' to over-hear
their conversation, as they walk about, recalling events
and things once done upon this upper surface. If
there :was any possibility of sen.iing a reporter after
them, how exceedingly amusing it would be to peruse
these new dialogues of the dead ! We must keen
matter in view, for we by no means despair
able to furnish our readers with something extreme.
original and refreshing in this way. Meanwhile,
it was kind of Sir Joshua, before his final fiittir 1-, I
token of remernbr .ce
leave us a bit of writing as a

Indeed we did not need any such :mark of consider-
ation to keep him in mind; it would be hard to forget
him. But since he has left us a last will and testa-
ment, it is only respectful to his memory that we
should examine the contents. And first he begins by
thanking us all for the great kindness, and even
" thusy musy" which we evinced towards him during
life. The judge that trif:d and condemned him; the
party that convicted Win, and even the sheriff that
conducted him to the place of execution, all, all have a
share in his grateful recollection. We acknowledge
that even we who wi3re his political opponents, ever
treated him with the "utmost courtesy." In short,
never did man depart in more perfect charity with all
the world—which mu st be a great consolation to his
relations. _ . _

But secundo, there is here a dying declaration which
will be very inspiritin g to some of his old associates,
particularly those wl to are known to be of a deter-
mined, desperate cha ratter. Whether it was right to
communicate this i act to the world in the first in-

stance, or not, we. tic not stop to inquire ; with that we
have nothing to but that we may correctly ap-
preciate the cha-cacte r of the deceased ; it is due to him