The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-01-04 00:00:00

FRIDAY MORNING, JANUARY 4, 1833.

POSITION OF THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY.—The London
Standard of the 23th Dec. judiciously remarked that, if
the Conservatives begin at once, and pursue their object
steadily, they must, humanly speaking, unless revolution
intervene, acquire a majority in the next House of Com-
mons.

The present elections, unsatisfactory as they must be
deemed, if estimated only by the numerical strength of
Conservative candidates returned, yet if viewed upon a
sounder, more farsighted, and more comprehensive prin-
ciple, appear in a very different 'light. We have to re-
collect, that the system of voting in this country, which
allows each elector to give as many suffrages as there are
members to be elected, is attended with this peculiar dis-
advantage : that the merest majority can command at
will, the return of all the members, while a minority per-
haps, only just exceeded by them in numbers, remains
wholly excluded and unrepresented. In a county, for
instance, returning three members, all the three may be
returned by a majority of which each person splits, his
vote between the three, while a minority amounting to,
perhaps, nine tenths of the majority is without a member.
Of course nothing can be more unfair than the opera-
tion of such a system, in times of great excitement. But,
in all ordinary times, where the electors are divided into
two great sections, each returns one member, irrespec-
tively of any inconsiderable difference in their numerical
force : because there is a sense of justice, in the minds of
most men, sufficient to make them fully aware, unless in
seasons when the passions are strongly stimulated, the
coalitions to exclude a powerful minority from any share
in the-representation are extremely unfair: where they
have been adopted by Tory candidates, it has been on the
principle of defence or retaliation.
So great, at present, is the number of these large and
wholly unrepresented minorities, that we fear this Par-
liament will be found to give, indeed, a very partial idea
of the feelings of the people.

Take, for instance, the case of West Gloucester.—
It returns two Reformers. Therefore the Radical Press
will say, it is fully and fairly represented. Such are the
fictions—what are the facts ? That Lord R. Somerset
was excluded from the second place by a majority of
thirty-four, while twenty-six hundred and fifty-three
persons who gave pluppers in his favour, remain wholly
without an organ of their principles. in the House of
Commons.

The number of these cases of hardship is on the Tory
side extremely great,—on that of the Whigs extremely
small. There are Westmorland, North Essex, and one
division of Cumberland, where the Whigs have suffered;
on the other side, the cases are almost numberless. To
speak Of counties only, we may 'mention both diviiions
of Lincoln, Norfolk, Suffolk, Derby,.. Hants, Durham,
Gloucester, Somerset, Staffordshire, one of Worcester-
shire, Cheshire, Kent, and Lancashire.
We do not complain of this :—our adversaries have
only.used their legal priVilege: But we advert to it, to
prove that the defeats of ConServative Members are
owing purely to temporary oircumstances, and that, when
excitement subsides and the trade of agitation stagnates,
Conservative principles -will, in the, natural order of
things, resume their ascendancy. : .

Is it doubted that of the landowners an immense
majority. are Conservative, and that similar principles
extend far among the middle, classes ? Hear the Globe
of Dec. 28.

.
" man who knows any thing. Of England, can fail to
knoW that what we may still call the. Tory party, embraces a
very large number of the most opulent and intelligent of the
middle, to say nothing of the higher classes."

Hear the Morning Chronicle
.of Dec. 29—a witness
in thii case, as good'as a thousand :

" A majority of the landholders, magistrates, and clergy,
are Tories, in every county of England."

By and bye, perhaps, these very journals will call the
Tory party a contemptible faction, destitute alike of num-
bers, education, and respectability :—but let that pass.
We have quoted Philip sobei, and pay little heed to
Philip drunk.

It is, therefore, incumbent upon the holders of Conser-
vative principles, carefully .to• remember that, though
their cause labours under. the evil of representation
most inadequate, whether estimated by their numbers,
their wealth, or their respectability, yet they indubi-
tably hold in their hands the means and elements of
permanent power. _ _

Why then are they now depressed ? Because, confi-
dent in their strength and lulled into tranquillity, by a
long continuance of Ascendancy, they have neglected
the use of those means which they possessed for :their
defence and protection. • Union, combination, system,
have been terms unknown among them. Activity
and perseverance,—qualities sufficiently rare; the legal
and fair influence of property, as a means of consolidating;
political power, they have never 'duly considered ; dis-
gusted with the abuse of the power of the press, they
have neglected its use. Unhappily for this country,
paperi conducted upon the principle of the most shame-
less disregard to religion and to honesty, have been
fostered into their present importance, by the unreflect-
ing patronage of the Tory gentry of this country. In
addition to all this,jealousies,—the ordinary attendants of
extreme prosperity,—insinuated themselves into their
ranks, and defeat naturally followed upon the heels of
dissention. •

Disposed by their station, habits, and character, to
peace, our men of property bear
.much for the sake of
peace,. and can only be roused into energetic action by
a long series of pertinacious and violent attacks. But
the time, we apprehend, is• now.fully come, when they
must act, and act unanimously and energetically,—or
-prepare to lay at the feet of an insolent and unprincipled
faction' their possessions and privileges, and not only
these, but the wise laws and noble' institutions of their
country, :And with them, the sobriety and stability of
'their national character which, moulded and fostered by
those institutions, will inevitably decay without them,
tend will be replaced by a morbid excitability of disposi.
lien adverse alike to the acquisition of temporal pros-
-perity, and to the due pursuance .of the higher and
more permanent purposes of our existence.