The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-10-03 00:00:00

TUESDAY MORNING, OCT. 3, 1848.

THE present position of a large portion of the
Conservative constituencies in the various wards,
with respect to the municipal elections to take
place on the Ist of November, is an unfortunate
one. It is painful for conscientious and rightminded
men to find themselves brought into collision with
the friends and neighbours, with whom they have
laboured for years, in the effort for securing the
town from Whig-Radical domination. Yet, we
foresaw and foretold from the first that such would
be the result of the course taken by the Council
with respect to the water and the dock rating ques-
tions. In the discussion of both these, the state
of feeling, even within the council, has been,
in no small degree, of a personal character, whilst
out of doors the contest has assumed the aspect of
a struggle between class and class; between the
mercantile body and the tradesmen and shopkeepers.
Upon this ground the issue of the coming elections
in many of the wards will have to he decided,
party politics, and even personal predilections,
being entirely waived ; and we shall most likely
see many changes of members made, which, on
general grounds, will not be regarded as advanta-
geous to the public.
It is much to be feared that, in some cases, pas-
sion has been allowed to prevail too much, and
conclusions have been come to without a due con-
sideration of the whole circumstances. Perhaps
it would have been advisable to have afforded to
some of the gentlemen, who have either offended
against the wishes, or who have not acted fully up
to the expectations, of their constituents, a little
more opportunity of explanation, before finally
resolving upon the severance of old connexions,
and practical forgetfulness of past services. It
might have been remembered too, and we fear has
been totally put out of view, in deciding upon the
fitness of some of the gentlemen who have come
under the ban of the constituencies, that it is not
the mere fact of constant attendance, and voting
at council meetings, which constitute the main ele-
ment of merit in amember; that there are committees
to be attended, the labour of which is very great;
and that there are some gentlemen whose presence
and practical and local information are almost inva-
luable to the community, whom they serve so un-
ostentatiously.
We can quite account for a little soreness, on
the part of the friends and supporters of such can-
didates, who are acquainted with the advisableness
of their continued presence in the Council. We
are not unaware too of the fact that in some of the
wards the proceedings of the committees, who have
put themselves forward to oppose them, have been
objectionable. But it is unjust to visit the errors
of these committees upon respectable parties, who
have been induced to come forward to represent or
to test the feelings of the constituencies. As an
instance of the feeling, which we deprecate, we
may refer to some remarks made at a meeting of
the friends of Mr. John Stewart in St. Peter's
Ward, reflecting upon the character and principles
of Mr. Ferguson, the senior Churchwarden, who is
the opposing candidate. Mr. Ferguson has come
forward solely on the nomination of a public meeting
of the ward, of all shades of politics; and for con-
senting to accede to the wishes of his fellow towns-
men, and at the same time seeking to gratify an ho-
norable ambition, to which he had a just right from
his position to aspire, no man can reasonably blame
him. He is known as a good Conservative and
Churchman ; and possessed of experience and local
knowledge which qualify him to become a valuable
member. But it is found to be a serious objection to
Mr. Ferguson that be is a member of the National
Confederation, " the principles of which," we were
told at the meeting in question, "combine the plea-
surable theories of the French Communists, the
Scotch Socialists, the Irish Repealers, and the
English Chartists," and the body in question was de-
signated as a " set of men who are patriots in pro-
fession only, whilst Demagogues and Republicans in
heart and design—men who only bide their time to
plunge this country into the same state of anarchy
under which France and Germany are groaning."
This shocking character of an influential body of
his fellow-townsmen, the speaker had only just had
impressed upon him by a perusal of Mr. Ferguson's
address ! We have read that document attentively;
and we certainly can find in it nothing to warrant
any imputation of the sort. It is an able and candid
exposition of Mr. Ferguson's views, in which
we cannot find any part against which the most
thorough Conservative or Tory—if there is any
difference in the terms—can object. But whatever
may be the opinion as to the principles of the Con-
federation as a body, Mr. Ferguson's high character
for loyalty might have protected him from all im-
plication in such designs as those which are imputed
to them.

Regretting, as we do, this split amongst our
friends, and valuing the services of Mr. Stewart and
some of the other gentlemen, against whom oppo-
sition is about to be directed, we do earnestly trust
no unnecessary bitterness will be infused into the
contest. We may all perhaps have yet to meet, and
fight side by side, in a cause upon which we shall
be more unanimous.

OUR contemporary the Manchester Guardian
views with no slight misgiving, apparently, the
facts stated in our last publication, as to the inte-
rest excited in Liverpool by the lectures of Mr.
Duncan on the currency question; and in particu-
lar he objects to the fact of most of the gentle-
men on the platform, and the originators of the
movement, being ptominent free-traders, being
fairly to be regarded as " a sign of the times." The
Guardian says :
" What peculiar tendency of the times is signified by
so simple an occurrence, it is difficult to see. That an
individual, whose antipathy to certain economical theories
is notorious. should, on the receipt of so flattering an
invitation, deliver a lecture against them, is certainly not
extraordinary. We have no doubt that Mr. Jonathan
Duncan would at any time be glad of a tolerably respec-
table audience. That the gentlemen who called the
meeting, and paid for a public room that he might have
an opportunity of addressing them, should go to hear
him, was also a very probable event."
And, in answer to our allusion to the exposure, by
Mr. Duncan, before these free-trade gentlemen, of
the fallacies—and we may add the ignorance—of
Mr. Cobden with respect to the currency question,
the Guardian continues :
" Now, if this be considered to imply only that the
prominent members of the free-trade party are willing to
hear both sides of a question, and indeed exert themselves
to hear all that can be said against their theories as well
as for them, it is significant of a fact very well known
already. But by the aid of a little illogical expedient,
known as a begging of the question, it may be mado sig-
nificant of a great deal more, viz., that in hearing, they
assented."

He concludes with this, as an apology for his
friends :
" Who would be safe, if at a public meeting silence
gave consent' ? To remain doggedly out of hearing of
an opponent's argument is the policy of weakness. To
go expressly where our favourite theories are to be at-
tacked is a sufficient proof of candour, but nothing more.
To hear in silence a public lecturer no more implies con-
currence in the opinions presented to us, than to read the
columns of a journal. without calling upon the editor to
protest against his opinions."
We can satisfy our contemporary in a very few
words. The gentlemen in question did attend the
lecture without pledging themselves to any con-
currence in the whole of Mr. Duncan's opinions.
The chairman. Mr. Charles Holland, expressly
guarded himself against being supposed to do so,
on both evenings. But the condemnation, by the
whole meeting, of the present system was unequi-
vocal; and was shewn by an express vote, passed
unanimously, against bullionism, and by another,
laying the foundation of an association, or league,
having for its object an agitation for the overthrow
of that system, as essential not only to the carrying
out of free trade, but to the very existence of so-
ciety. . .

l'Ve can assure the Guardian that, in our few
hurried remarks upon this matter, we had no wish
to beg the question. We certainly could not resist
remarking upon the circumstance of free-traders
being, in a measure, compelled to agitate this
question in self-defence. But agreeing with them
as we do, so far from wishing either to indulge in
a sneer or to shirk the expression of our own firm
convictions, we are disposed to give honour to a
body of gentlemen, who have shewn the high
moral courage required to enable them to condemn
a system, amongst whose advocates are the chief
professors of their own favourite theories. It is a
" sign of the times," and a most happy one, when
free-traders, of acknowledged ability, are to be