The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-10-27 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

certain that the ship ought never to have been in
a position to see it at all.
But, according to Captain Hosken's account, an
important question arises. If at half-past five he saw
the land of the Isle of Man, which from his course
of N. W. by N. must have been on the starboard,
how, by continuing the same course for two and a
half hours—until eight o'clock, the light seen on
the larboard bow, immediately after altering his
course, could he mistaken for one of the Calf lights,
is not easily arrived at, unless the ship had not only
been " held back"—to use the captain's phrase, but
had actually been stationary, or nearly so, for those
two and a half hours.

From the period of seeing this St. John's light,
up to the time at which he was "surprised to find
that it was a quarter past nine o'clock," all appears
to have been confusion in the minds of Captain
Hosken and his subordinates. The strange light
utterly confounded them.

The proceedings, thus tar, connected with the
approaching municipal election, afford an admirable
specimen of the hollowness and trickery of the
Whig-Radical party. At the outset of the struggle,
we were told that the fitness of the men, and not
their mere politics, was to be made the test by which
candidates were to be selected. We were to hear

no more of party in the Council ; and to offer an op-
position to any man of business talents, otherwise
qual fled by the possession of high personal charac-
ter, w6s to be regarded as indecent and factious.
Yet, at this moment, we see a Whig-Radical candi-
date brought forward in every ward except two,
which are left undisturbed by a contest, solely be-
cause opposition is considered utterly hopeless. West
Derby Ward and St. Peter's are the wards in
question, in which Mr. Geo. Hall Lawrence and Mr.
Tinne are to be allowed to walk the course. There
is, however, we venture to say, not a candid man
amongst the Whig-Radical party, acAuainted with
its underground workings, who will hesitate to ac-
knowledge that, notwithstanding the admitted talents
and usefulness of these two gentlemen, their re-
election would have been opposed as bitterly as that
of the most obnoxious candidates in the Conserva-

tive ranks, could the ward committees have held out
to the members of the secret caucus the slightest
hope of foisting, in their stead, two Radicals of any
grade of rampancy, upon the constituencies.
Upon what ground, other than his politics, is the
re-election of Mr. Jas. Tyrer opposed for Exchange
Ward ? Certainly it cannot be said that his oppo-
nent, Mr. James Mellor, is better qualified to
represent the business intelligence of such a consti-
tuency. We never remember any thing very
striking, either in talent or usefulness, which dis-
tinguished the former presence of this gentleman
in the Council. He was an active partizan, ever at
his post when the Conservative party in that room
were to be attacked, and always at hand to further
the interests of his friends the Reformers. Yet Mr.
Mellor can parade in his address to the constituency
his (!) conviction that politics ought to cease to in-
fluence the return of candidates to the Council.
Upon what ground is Mr. Thos. Todd to be con-
sidered a better man than Mr. Thos. Kaye, the pre-
sent member for Abercromby Ward ? We might
refer to other Conservative candidates who are op-
posed, and the answer to a similar question in every
case, if a candid one, would he—that it is not that
they are less efficient men of business than their op-
ponents, but that they are not Whig-Radical
politicians.

Our amiable friends are fond of new hobbies;
and when they are mounted, they ride them most
unmercifully. The sanitary question is their hobby
of the day. Whig-Radical professions of readiness
to devote every energy to the efficient carrying out
of the new bill stare us in the face, conveyed, in
unmistakeable type, upon every blank wall or shut-
ter where a placard can be posted. What is the
Whig-Radical claim to exclusive love for cleanly
streets, and improved habitations for our working
poor, we have yet to learn.

Let us test the sincerity of their new sanitary
professions, bearing in mind their professed longing
that the fittest men only for the carrying out of this
and other similar practical questions, should be re-
elected to the Council.

Mr. Samuel Holme, the candidate for Rodney-
street Ward, is, par excellence, a gentleman calcu-
lated, by his business knowledge and pursuits, to
carry out the provisions of the new bill for the sani-
tary improvement of the town. Against such a man
there could be no ground of objection urged by any
candid man of the opposing party, except his poli-
tics

Has Mr. Holme's claim of fitness been recog-
ised ? No. Mr. Thomas Booth, personally, no
loubt, a respectable and honourable man, has been
lragged from the shelf, upon which his fellow-

townsmen would have been content to see him re-
pose, to contest the ward. A paltry and pitiful plea
that Mr. Holme is engaged in a Corporation contract
is put forward. He is told that he cannot, as a con-
sistent man, enter the Council. Whig-Radicalism
sets itself up as the especial guardian of Mr. Holme's
honour (0 Now, mark the shameless hypocrisy of
this pretence ! Mr. James Holme is a candidate
for Scotland Ward ; Mr. James Holme is the bro-
ther and partner in business of Mr. Samuel Holme.
Both are concerned in the same contract, or the fag
end of it, which is said to present a bar to the elec-
tion of the latter. Yet to the election of Mr. James
Holme for Scotland Ward, we have seldom heard or
seen this contract, in which he is equally concerned
with his brother, offered as an objection ! And the
reason ? Why, it is palpable. Mr. Samuel Holme
is a prominent man amongst his party. He has
shown himself no mean adept in the art of pounding
Whig-Radical quacks in their own mortars. He is
cunning of fence, rather a heavy hitter, and, worst
of all, is more than suspected of being sound upon
the question of scriptural education in the Corpora-
tion schools. Hence he is offensive to the nostrils
of Whiggery, and is to be opposed with all the
virulence which the faction can bring to bear against
him.

Let us offer a word of consolation—we suppose
it must be—to this very pure and conscientious
party. " Gentlemen, Mr. Samuel Home will seek
the suffrages of the constituency of Rodney-street
Ward freed from any interest whatever in a Corpo-
ration contract." Mr. Tomkinson, we believe, is
ready to relieve the firm of Mr. Holme from the
little that remains to he executed of their engage-
ment with him. Are the friends of Mr. Booth—
who only oppose Mr. Holme from their virtuous
dread lest he should sacrifice his honour (!)—pre-
pared to withlraw their candidate? Of course not.
No man acquainted with the ways and propensities
of the faction could entertain the thought for a
moment. Meantime it is gratifying to know that
their candidate will be soundly thrashed.
We shall not have another opportunity of addres-
sing the constituencies of Liverpool upon the
subject of this election ; and must therefore
seize the present hour to impress upon them the
necessity of exertion in every ward. In two or
three of these, to which we have not hitherto

referred, we feel a great interest. St. Anne's
must be won. A better candidate than Mr. Bennett
it never had, and never can have. The men of both
Toxteths, tco, must fight stoutly for Mr. John
Sheppard, their old and tried friend, and for Mr.
Glazebrook, who we are glad to observe has con-
sented to stand again. More honest men, or
sounder Protestants, they would find it difficult to
meet with. There is another reason, too, why this
contest should be fought unflinchingly in every ward.
An election for the borough is not far off, and the
result of our ward elections will be regarded in many
quarters as a test of the town. Nay, the very men
who are raising the cry of " Good men, and no poli-
tics," will be the first, in the event of the success of
a majority of their party, to turn round upon their
Conservative dupes and exclaim—See, the opinion
of the ratepaying constituency of Liverpool are in
favour of " Liberal" men ! By the bye, may we
ask, in concluding, are the Conservatives of Liver-
pool, in the event of an early election—no very im-
probable event—prepared with a candidate

As some little misapprehension appears to exist
with the mode in which the Corporation of this
town propose to meet the increased expenditure im-
posed upon them, by the merging of the Highway
Board in the Town Council, and in carrying out the
other provisions of the Sanitary Bill, we shall en-
deavour, as briefly as possible, to lay before the
public our actual position and the amount of ability
in the Council to meet the coming demands upon
them.
In the first place, the Corporation accounts for
tha past year spew a surplus ordinary income to the
credit of the borough estate of £26,907 17s. SW.--
This of course is applicable to the new demand upon
us. The general statement, however, shews a debt
outstanding on the 31st of August, of £835,167
19s. 10d., the balance of interest upon which is, for
last year, charged in the accounts at £19,039 18s. 9d.