The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-01-05 00:00:00

and to aid in propagating these views, by means of in-
cessant attacks upon public opinion through the press
and by the exertions of hired lecturers, a combination
under the title of the "Anti-Corn-Law League"

sprung into existence.
Of the parties who constitute this body we need say
little more than that they belong to the utilitarian creed
in politics, and are a busy, meddling set of small peo-
ple, of whom Mr. Richard Cobden, of Manchester, is
the alpha and omega. It is this body, however, or
league, which, by a kind of retributive justice, seems
destined to worry poor Lord Melbourne out of Down-
ing-street, By the retirement of Mr. Finch from the
representation of Walsall a temporary vacancy was
made in the Whig phalanx ; but it was conceived that
the return of a gentleman of similar principles, in the
Person of Mr. Lyttleton, was a matter of easy accom-
plishment. Accordingly that gentleman duly pre-
sented himself, and made, we were assured, a very sa-
tisfactory impression upon the electors of Walsall.
But the electors, it seems, were not the parties to be
consulted in the choice of a representative. This
mushroom creation of ministerial dishonesty must first
be satisfied that the candidate was thoroughly grounded
in the Anti-Corn-Law catechism ; and. accordingly a
deputation, composed of three members of the.league,
Messrs. Rawson, Acland, (an itinerant agitator,) and
Mr. Archibald Prentice, proceeded to Walsall to school
the young gentleman. Mr. Lyttleton, however, does
not appear to have passed a satisfactory examination ;
and having received an intimation that he was likely to
be opposed in the attainment :of his object by the in-
fluence of " the League," he very prudently resigned
his pretensions, leaving Mr. Gladstone, a Conservative
j of the right sort, in the field unopposed.
Whether this result of their interference was calcu-
lated upon by the three worthy free traders, we cannot
with certainty tell ; but this much we do know, that to
Lord Melbourne's ministry at the present moment it is
rather an unfortunate contretemps. The " liberals" of
Walsall themselves do not seem too well satisfied with
their position, and will scarcely, we fear, be able to find
a sufficiently accomplished and accommodating candi-
date within the short space of time which is allowed
them to make their selection. Whig-Radical gCnius
now-a-days is not plentiful as blackberries ;". and when
they had got a passable specimen, in the person of Mr.
Lyttleton, they ought to have been contented. We
suppose, however, that now they must put up with any-
thing that is offered them—with Bowring the quack,
or with that very ordinary personage—Mr. J. B. Smith,
of Manchester. But, in any case, Walsall is lost to
Lord Melbourne and to Whiggery. Opposed or un-
opposed, Mr. Gladstone's return has been reduced to
a moral certainty ; and the illustrious individual now
at the head of her majesty's government will have the
consolation of reflecting, in his approaching retirement
to a private station, that the officious meddling of the
Anti-Corn-Law League has wonderfully hastened for-
ward that unfortunate consummation.