The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-08-03 00:00:00

Yearly $

MORNING,

WE must make the admission f
whilst the Election for this borough. has

'rankly that

terminated as we wished, the result has been
precisely what we anticipated and foretold.
From the first, we were satisfied that the attempt
made by a section of the Conservative party to
force upon the acceptance of the Electors a young
nobleman utterly unfitted to represent this great
commercial community, and holding besides views

upon religious questions most di's:tasteful to the
majority of the Electors, would bring about, what
no other agency could effect, the return of the
Whig candidate ; and we urged upon the influen-
tial members of the Conservative body to lay aside

their divisions,

rnd to unite their effort

the return of Sir Digby Mackworth, with th

gallant and respected member, Sir Howard Dou-
glas, as his colleague. In our publication of the
13th July, we placed these views on record thus :

- _
"Not later than last week we confidently trusted, and
expressed our heartfelt gratification, that Liverpool would
still be enabled to emerge triumphantly from the efforts
which "liberalism" has for years been making to possess
itself of the representation of this loyal borough. The
unanimous resolve of the leaders of the constitutional and
protestant party to support their present tried and re

spected member, Sir Howard Douglas, with Sir Dig,
Mackworth as his colleague, afforded almost unlimited
satisfaction to the great majority of the constituency. We
have to-day, however to record, and to lament over, a step
—the introduction of a third candidate, in the person of
Lord John Manners, who must rely upon the Church and
Constitutional party for support, and hence divide and
weaken that party—which materially alters our prospects,
and which, if persisted in, will inevitably result in defeat
and disaster, which every true friend of the good old town
must sincerely deplore."

wrote the passage we were in
d sense of our brother Conserva-
:e them to withdraw Lord John

nite in once more tendering their
old, tried and faithful member.
to press, however, we learnt on
r Howard had peremptorily de-

author

dined to accede to the prayer of the requisition
which had been presented to him, stating, however,
that he would have rejoiced if, by presenting him-

self amongst t

he mad have healed our differences

The obstinate determination of the Manners party,
however, to press their candidate, had satisfied
Sir Howard that this object could not be effect-
ed ; and he had communicated to Mr. Cardwell
that opinion, and that the field was open to him.
Mr. Cardwell has himself placed this fact on record,
and stated that had Sir Howard Douglas been a
candidate, he should never have come forward to
divide our strength ; and the conclusion to be

drawn from the cireumatances is inevitable; that to
the friends of Lord Jol6i, Manners alone we owe that
split amongst our party which has led to the return

of a Whit member.
In the same publication, in which we expressed
ourselves as above, appeared Mr. Cardwell's ad-
dress ; and, on the day of such publication, that
gentleman appeared on'Change, and addressed the
assembled merchants and electors. There was still
time for the Conservative party to arrive at a con-
clusion, by which the defeat just experienced might
have been avoided. It was, however, thrown away.

On the

dnescl

was called by cir

ich circular stating its ob

ject to be to communi
returned to th(

to the members the

iting him to aIIM-v

himself to be put in'nomination. At that meeting
the friends of Lord John Manners, evidently pre-
pared for the course to be taken, mustered strong
in numbers, and, notwithstanding the protest of an
influential majority present, many of whom left the
meeting without voting, his lordship was adopted
by the association as the candidate to be brought
forward by them, in conjunction with Sir Digby
Mackworth ; and a meeting of electors was called
to be held in the Amphitheatre, at which both were
to address the electors.

Another hitch, however, took place in the pro-
ceedings, which might have informed the friends
of Lord John how hopeless his case was. Sir Digby
Mackworth refused, on principle, to be leagued
with a candidate, to so many of whose principles,
upon questions which he considered vital, he was
widely opposed; and intimated that he could only
consent to attend the meeting, or to appear as a
candidate, on the distinct understanding that he
and Lord John should not be in the most remote
degree committed to each other; that no joint can-
vas should be made by them, and that each should
have separate committees and separate canvassers.
Was this stipulation carried out by the officers of
the association and Lord John's friends ? certainly
not. The placard calling the meeting at the Am-

phitheatre, reasonably implied that such meeting
was to promote their joint election.. There was no
distinct explanation given at the meeting itself that
they appealed independently to the electors

that a quasi division of their central committees
took place, Sir Digby's friends and his Lordship's
occupying different rooms in the same building.
But in many of the wards both committees sat
together at the same place, and canvassed for the
parties jointly. Their ward and other meetings
were held in the same rooms, on the same evenings.
The voting papers were directed by the same hand
and delivered by the same person ; in fact, from
first to last, Lord John Manners' friends stuck to
Sir Digby Mackworth's skirts, traded upon his
popularity, and hoped, no doubt, to be returned by

thes split votes won from electors, who were unaware
of the fact that a coalition had been repudiated.
Had the honourable baronet had fair play : had he
been allowed to occupy his real position before the
electors, his return would have been assured, most
probably, along with Mr. Cardwell, as under the
circumstances every body knew that the return of
the latter gentleman was morally certain. As it
was, the bitterness displayed against Mr. Cardwell
and his friends, drove some hundreds of his voters
into the liberal camp : and thus accomplished the
return of Sir Thomas Birch, to the exclusion of

o discover upon what grounds thi
Lord John Manners, and agains

Sir Digby
It is difficult
battle on behalf of

Sir Howard Douglas,who would certainlyhavestood
and been returned with Sir Digby Mackworth, has
been fought by the majority of his supporters. To
a large portion of the mercantile body, to the ship-
owners, the shipwrights, to the colonial body, and
to all who deprecate undue interference with the
national industry, the claims of Sir Howard Douglas
were infinitely superior to those of the Noble Lord.
His experience alone; putting out of view his long-
tried services, justified a preference in his behalf.
True, his Lordship has the character of a literateur
to of rural sports—
strange recommendation to a commercial constitu-

i.nd even a poet

an ath

has voted for sanatory improvements
nof the toil of the people—in which
Sir Howard Douglas is not behind

aculars

lIILIJ. There must, however, be something beyond
this, which, at least, has operated upon the small
party amongst the Conservatives, by whom his claims
were pressed in preference to those of Sir Howard,
at a time when the bulk of those gentlemen, who
ultimately adopted his Lordship, were straining
every nerve to induce the Honourable Baronet to come
forward. Do we not find that something in his
Lordship's peculiar religious opinfons ?—Do we find
nothing in the bitter hostility with which an ultra-
section of his Lordship's supporters regard the Pro-
testant party, and sneer at and revile its leaders ?
Bear in mind that Sir Howard Douglas is a consis-
tent and firm Protestant ; that Sir Digby Mackworth
was brou ghtforward on expressly Protestant ,9,Toun ds •
On the other hand, remember that Lord John Man.

ners has lost the representation of Newark, as we
may not unreasonably surmise, because his anti-
Protestant views are opposed to those of the high-
minded and sincere Protestant, the Duke of

New-

grounds, and to gratify what specific feeling, his
Lordship was introduced to the Protestant Conser-
vative electors of Liverpool—to split the party up
• cm since it refnspri fn nrnc:fratp itcelf

t of the Tractarians, to hand over a portion
borough to the Liberal

tation of the

of the represe

It calm°.

of succes

to
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