The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-10-19 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, OCT. 19, 1847.

THE annual contests for Municipal honors are
drawing near; and full as the times are of matters
of gloomy omen and interest, it would appear that
there are still amongst us aspiring people, who have
leisure on their hands for the indulgence of a
little.political or personal feeling. Notwithstand-
ing the specious kind of reasoning, by which it has
been attempted to persuade constituencies that a
man's politics should not be looked at in examin-
ing his fitness for the office of a Councillor, we
find the Radical party already giving sign of a dis-
position to contest every Ward, having Candidates
already named for thirteen out of the whole six-
teen. We have given a list of the parties put for-
ward on both sides in another part of our paper.
Our object here is only to draw the attention of
the constituencies to the character and claims upon
them of the Conservative Candidates.
Of the opposition to Mr. Geo. Green Hornby,who
contests Everton & Kirkdale Ward, we have spoken
elsewhere, in replying to the scurrilous attack upon
him of a contemporary print. He has been thus
far an active and energetic worker in the Council ;
and, had he no other recommendation, he has
deserved the support of every sincere Protestant, of
whatever politics or sect, by his firm stand against
tillowing the Corporate Property to be misapplied,
and the public feeling outraged by the carrying
out of Tractarian novelties.
For Scotland Ward we have a new Conservative
candidate for municipal honours in the person of
Mr. John Woodruff. This gentleman is not, how-
ever, an untried man in another department of our
local affairs. He has proved himself one of the
most active and intelligent members of the Select
Vestry ; he has lived and carried on business in and
near the ward for upwards of 17 years, and is, of
course, conversant with its wants, and in other
respects is well calculated to become a most useful
member of the Council. His address, which is an
able business-like document, will be found in our
advertising columns.
Mr. R. B. Hill, who comes forward for St. Paul's
Ward, is another of the hard workers upon com-
mittees—a class of men whom the Town Council
could ill spare. We trust that the electors of St.
Paul's will do their duty in his behalf, and return_
him by a good majority.
Mr. R. S. Henderson for St. Peters, and Mr. W.
Mann for North Toxteth, have alike exerted them-

selves indefatigably, during their term of office, as
members of the Albert Warehouses Sub-Com-
mittee of the Dock Committee, in addition
to performing their ordinary duties in the Council
faithfully and efficiently. In arranging the book
of rates to be charged in the warehouses—a work
of tedious and lengthened labour, their services
were most invaluable. We hope the electors of
the Wards, for which they at present sit, will work
as hard for both as their members have worked for
them. •

Mr. Rimmer, for Pitt-street Ward, will, we be
lieve, be returned unopposed; Mr. Denton, wbo is
put forward to oppose him, not being, it is stated,
on the Register. Whether this be the case, how-
ever, or not, Pitt-street will not forfeit its character
by returning a Radical.
Mr. G. H. Horsfall, for Exchange Ward, and
Mr. James Aspinall Tobin, for Rodney-street, are
alike untried men. Their mere names, however,
are sufficient to give them an introduction to the
electors. They are known, however, to possess
largely the business intelligence, honesty of pur-
pose, and industry, required to form useful mem-
bers of the Council.
In Great George Ward Mr. H. G. Harbord, who
appears as a neutral in politics, we observe is at
present unopposed. He will make a most useful
member of the Health of the Town Committee;
but we should certainly have preferred to see him
come forward for a Ward in which his appearance
would not have displaced a Conservilfre.
Mr. Josias Booker is unopposed for West Derby
Ward, and is an excellent candidate. Mr. J. B.
Lloyd is also unopposed in Lime-street. We need
say nothing in commendation of such a gentleman.
For South Toxteth Mr. R. L. Jones will have to

fight a very hard battle in order to win. We have
our fears that the machinations of the Radical

party, to strengthen themselves in both Toxteths,
will be found not to have been in vain.

We greatly suspect that it will be in St. Anne's
Ward that the principal effort of Radicalism will
be directed to unseat Mr. Parker. They have done
their best in procuringi the most likely candidate
for their purpose ; and are, we are told, working
almost night and day, and with a determination of
purpose, which evinces the interest felt in the suc-
cess of their object. If there is one man in the
Council, however, likely to give them trouble in
achieving that object—one man to whose aid the
tradesmen of the town ought to rally and will rally
—that man is Mr. Parker. His usefulness is ac-
knowledged by men of every political party ; and his
sturdy honesty and persevering watchfulness overthe
interests of his constituency and the public at large,
have perhaps contributed more than any other cir-
cumstance to bring upon him the Radical opposi-
tion. We trust his friends in the ward are keeping
their powder dry. Mr. Parker is always an advocate
for every measure calculated to improve the sanatory
and moral condition of the town.

EVE are now embarked upon the unknown ocean
of Free Trade. We have volunteered a race of
competition against the industry of the world;
and to decide whether we are likely to stand or to
fall, as the result of .that struggle, if it is of im-
portance that we should severely scrutinize the
elements of our strength. The most important of
those elements, upon which we have been taught
to rely, is our supremacy in the cotton manufacture.
From the centre of the district dependant upon
this manufacture—Manchester—the agitation of
Free Trade originated. " Give us only," said the
organs of the League, " free admission for the
cheap food which the foreigner is willing to grow
for us, and we are ready and able to pay for it with
the products of our spindles and our looms." A
few other promises hinging upon this were made,
to which we shall not here advert. Our business is
now to examine how far the Cotton Manufacturers
of Manchester are in a position, or are ever likely
to be, to fulfil their promise ; whether, in fact, this
boasted source of the country's strength is likely
to grow in greatness or has already reached its
acme.

In an article headed " Progress of the British
Cotton Manufactpre," which will be found in
another column, we_ have given sonic statistical
data which, as bearing upon our present enquiry,
we must briefly recapitulate. In the year 1835, it
appears, we had 1305 cotton mills, consuming
17,750 bales of cotton per week, and employing
221,169 persons. In the year 1838, the number of
cotton mills were 1903 employing 260,100 persons,
and consuming 23,785 bales of cotton per week,
being an increase of one-third of our productive
power in the three years. In 1846 we had further
increased our cotton manufacturing ability, our
consumption for that year being 31,796 bales per
week, or 1,653,392 bales for the year. Taking into
consideration, however, the fact that our machinery
was only partially employed during a part of that
year, we have drawn the conclusion that our present
power is equal to the consumption of 35,500 bales
per week, or 1,846,000 bales for the year.
Now, it is important that we should at the least
not retrograde from our position as manufacturers
of this vast amount of raw material, firstly because
of the vast amount of capital embarked in the
trade—in factories, machinery, ;
shipping for its
transport, &c. ; secondly because of the labour
which it employs in its various branches, and lastly
for its importance as furnishing us with the means
of paying for imported commodities, to the extent
of one half of what we pay, for we find that in
1844 bur cotton exports were £25,805,338 against
the Total Exports, £50,648,306. In 1843 they
were £26,119,331 against £53,298,026 ; and in
1846, £25,600,693 against £51,279,735. At least
two-thirds of the value of these exports of cotton
are the creation of the national industry.
Can we maintain that position, is, however, the
question which just now presses itself upon us.
In discussing this we are not going to say anything
about foreign competition—whether other coun-
tries can produce as cheaply or as good an article
as ouiselves. We take rather the plainer question
whether 01 not we have overtaken, in the expansion