The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-09-10 00:00:00

rection

cannot remain neutral on such a subject to remain
neutral would be to betray its cause ; it would indeed
be treason to their own interests. We agree then with
our London contemporary in esteeming the present
ministerial party, as eminently strong in moral force;
and we add our own agreeable anticipation that such
ministry will, for its own sake, and consistently witl
its known principles, go on to add to its strength it
every essential and honourable way, and cause the em
pire to rejoice and prosper under its authority.

Who is to. be our next Mayor? The scales are at
this moment nearly standing beam ; Liberalism trem-
bles in the balance, and so, of course, does Conserva-
tism; a very trifling weight will settle the preponderance.
We have already shown that our next municipal elec-
tion may make the Council Conservative, without
necessarily giving us a Conservative Chief Magistrate;
because the retiring Aldermen have a right to vote in
this election before they are finally functi qfficio ; but

we have shown, at the same time, that the return of
twelie Conservative Councillors would dispose -of the
Aldermen and their last retiring shot. The point
which we have to aim at, then, is the securing of this
round dozen—just a respectable jury; and we cannot
apprehend that there will be any great difficulty about
it. At the last general election our candidates had a
majority in every ward save one, and •the surplus
aggregate of votes recorded in their favour penetrated,
like a deep wound, into the very vitals of \Vhiggery;
how can we suppose, then, that in the Council we
shall fail to obtain that trifling accession of strength
which we need to give us, next year, a Conservative
Mayor, and to make the Council out and out, and
altogether Conservative? That a change of some sort
is most desirable, we call Alderman Evans, one of the
astutest of the present dominant party, as a witness.
The Alderman feels deeply, and laments bitterly, that
the present Corporation has little or no weight in the
community'—that it is good for nothing, and that if it
were swept off to-morrow, scarcely any body would
miss it, or be at the trouble to inquire, when did it
die ? We grant that this is a blank, a blot, a sort of
hiatus maxime dejlendus over our town, which ought to
be filled up, and which might be so, in a very ad-
vantageous way. But we and the Alderman differ in
our mode of cure: he demands for the sick body more
authority by law—more influence by act of parliament;
whereas, we only ask a little change in its constitution
—a removal of its rotten branches and unhealthy
members, and the restoration of a Conservative energy
to its vital functions. This would give it, what nothing
else can, a power within itself—something that would
render it inherently respectable and, consequently,
influential, and be of more essential use to it than all
the powers that any mere act of the legislature could
confer.

We have been speaking elsewhere of " moral force,"
and what we have there said is applicable in all respects
to our local government : it wants, we say, what Con-
servatism alone can give it—moral power and influ-
ence; and as the municipal electors will soon have an
opportunity of exercising their privileges., we have
•only to remind them that our fate is in their hands.
You have seen how inefficient, how insignificant, hoW
absolutely contemptible government, or aeiministration
of any sort is in Whig or Radical haneis; that they

acknowledge their own littleness, and total want o
consideration, and all the town echoes their voice—tin
whole world responds to the truth told them by their
internal monitor. They are, unquestionably, a mos
miserable crew—ludicrously incapable, and wholly un

creme of 414 e

mato from therwe by our proposed policy
a the extent to which the traders of the German

cities are benefitted by the prosperity which we have con-
ferred upon the landowners and agricultural labourer's of the
neighbouring states. And even whilst deriving, ourselves, a
present advantage from the increased demand in the German

kets for those fabrics, in which their manufacturers are

as yet unable to compete with us, it is much to be doubted
whether we shall not be so far stimulating the demand for
the coarser fabrics of their own manufacture, for the con-

sumption of those agricultural labourers, as to enable them
eventually to rival us in materials requiring more advanced

i❑ their manufacture,

The entire arguments in favour of free trade in corn and
timber proceed upon the supposition that the foreigner is
driven, by our restrictions, to manufacture for his own con-
sumption; and that upon a change of policy on our part he
will be,induced to abandon entirely or to neglect the pursuit

n question. But is such a supposition, we ask, at all war-
•anted? Have we any bona fide assurance that the tariffs of
:he European States will be reduced in our favour ? We
save no such assurance from any foreign government ; and
:he assumption that the people themselves of those countries
Nill voluntarily abandon their present manufactures to be-
:!otne dependent upon us solely for their clothing, is mani-
festly improbable. There is no possible system of corn-laws
which can ensure to the countries of Europe the regular sup-
plying of our markets with corn ; and surely it would be an
insane policy, on the part either of the people or the govern-
ments of those countries, to give up an already flourishing
manufacturing system—one which, at the least, is capable of
meeting the wants of the mass of their populationfor the
prospect of a precarious supply from Great Britain. if we
are blind enough to allow ourselves to become dependant
upon them for a supply of food, which they may not. always
have it in their power to afford us, they are not likely to
throw themselves upon us for a supply of clothing, which
they may not always have it in their power to purchase