The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-05-08 00:00:00

TO THE PUBLIC.

Owing to the very liberal encouragement whick we have
received from our advertising friends, and for which
we beg leave to tender our grateful acknowledgments,
we have come to the resolution TO ENLARGE THE
LIVERPOOL STANDARD, TO THE EXTENT OP SIX AD-
DITIONAL COLUMNS
Hitherto we have frequently been under the necessity of
excluding various articles of local interest, and a large
proportion of general news, in consequence of the great
press of advertisements with which we have been fa-
voured. We have often, also, been forced to the alter-
native of materially curtailing our reports as well as
our editorial remarks, on the same account. The pro-
posed enlargement will enable us to embody aigreater
share of such intelligence as may be generally useful,
and to extend our reports of the various public meet-
ings, 4.c., which may be held in the neighbourhood,
as well as to present to our readers a mass of amusing
and instructive extracts from modern publications,
which latter we intend to make a prominent feature in

the STANDARD.
It will alio afford us great pleasure to avail ourselves o
the opportunity which the coiteniP kited enlargement of
the STANDARD will give us for advocating more fully
those conservative principles for 2:chich we have uni-
formly contended. The extended patronage which we
enjoy shall operate as a stiniulus to increased real and
energy in defence of that gloriods cause to which we
feel an ardent attachment---the cause of the Monarchy,
the Church, and the constitution of Great Britain.
We are happy to announce that arrangements are in
progress for considerably increasing the number of
agents for the sale of the LIVERPOOL STANDARD.
When these arrangements are matured, we anticipate
a material increase in our circulation, an advantage
which we feel confident will be duly appreciated by our
advertising friends. We also flatter ourselves that
the great increase of matter which the STANDARD Will
contain in its enlarged form will procure for us ad-
ditional support from the conservative public iu
Liverpool.
The proposed enlargement will take place in THE FIRST
WEEK IN JUNE, after which the LIVERPOOL STANDARD
will contain TWELVE COLUMNS OF ADDITIONAL MAT-
TER PER WEEK, without any increase of price.

Ebt ft:pool *tanbarb.

TUESDAY MORNING, MAY 8, 1838.

The Publication of the STANDARD commenced this morn'-

iog at 5 o'clock.

THE TOWN COUNCIL AND THE BALLOT QUESTION.-7-
The discussion which arose in the Town Council, on
Wednesday last, on the subject of voting by ballot, has/
spread the utmost consternation in the radical camp. It
is evident from the tone of the Chronicle, the acknow-
ledged representative of ultra-radical opinions in this
town, that the conduct of certain reformers in the Town
Council will be viewed in anything but a favourable
light, when next they come before their constituents to
claim a renewal of their confidence. The language, of
the Chronicle, independently of its pathos, is extremely
instructive but we are not a little surprised that our
shrewd contemporary has not long since found out the
real character of the tyrant-majority in the council.
Glad are we that the eyes of the sapient editors of that
polite journal have, at length been opened, and that they
have been enabled to obtain a glimpse of the truth, hovV-
ever faint. The Chronicle says," We turn with sad and
melancholy feelings to the thought of the shipwreck of
principle made by the majority of the Town Council on
Wednesday." Sera nunquam est ad bonos mores via.
It is better to confess an error tardily than to persist in
it for ever with dogged pertinacity. Where was the
Chronicle when the same "majority in the Town Council"
made "shipwreck of their principles" by the election of
16 aldermen of the same side in politics with themselves!
for the purpose of effectually swamping the corporation
with radicalism ? Why did the Chronicle pass over in
silence the " Sacrifice of principle" committed by the tyrant
majority when they turned out of office the old and faithful
and efficient servants of the corporation, for the purpose
of superseding them by their own servile creatures, and
that at such a great expense to the public ? Against
this exhibition of partiality, the Chronicle was never
heard to declaim. Why did the Chronicle not lift its voice
to declaim against the one•sided policy of the Council in
filling the vacancies in the Dock Committee? Why
was the Chronicle not " sad and melancholy" on the
many other occasions on which the same tyrant majority
have evinced their utter disregard of all their previous
professions ? We beg to assure our very temperate,
classical, erudite, and Chesterfield-like contemporary
that many acts of the Town Council have been far more
deserving of its severe animadversi-ons than the pro-
ceeding of Wednesday last. Nay, further : we would
respectfully submit that the Chronicle is bound in con-
sistency to defend the vote of the majority on Wednes-
day. They only afforded a practical illustration of the
working of the system of vote by ballot—an illustration'
worth volumes of unmeaning verbiage such as the'
Chronicle has wasted on the subject. The Chronicle.
ought to reflect that a parallel case to that presented in
the Council might happen among the electoral body, if
the vote by ballot were conceded. Let us suppose that
at the next municipal election the system of secret voting
were adopted, and that in consequence sixteen conserva:-
tives were returned to the Town Council, Would DO
the Chronicle become equally " sad and melancholy"' at.
such a result? Would not all the yelping curs. in, the
different radical kennels in town howl in dismal unison ?"
Would it not be said that the electors had baen guilty
a " shipwreck of principle" ?
And let us assure the Chronicle that such an outcry
about consistency and principle would be. equally just irk
the case which we have supposed. Are the electors
themselves not a responsible body ? If they
were not.
it would be rank absurdity for any one to complain 01
any of their acts, whether done openly or under the fur-
tive covert of the ballot. Are they not as arnenable to
public opinion as the members of the Town Council ?
Are they not, in fact, a representative body ? Do they
not represent the interests of those who are not in pos-
session of the suffrage ? they do not, we would ventw
to ask whado ? It is well known that the whole constituency
of the country, municipal as well as parliamentary, doe's
not amount to one-tenth of the population. By whom,
then, are the remaining nine-tenths represented ?
say by the electors, whom we consider to be as account'
able for the exercise of their franchise as the members of
the Town Council are for the votes which they may giv°
on any question whatever.
Is it not palpably evident from what we have Just
stated, that. the Chronicle is inconsistent in its denunot