The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-08-15 00:00:00

thousand pound

either.
Worst

We have no wish, for instan. c

ip the Mayo

ntertaining the public on

andwiChes am ix'inger be

is, however, a

Whig precedent 'fora diet little better, that £2OOO
per annum notwithstanding ;—and we should be
the last in the world to wish to see him deprived of
the means of providing that good cheer, which our

.
contemporary describes as having such a remark-
able effect, in bringing about harmony amongst
people, who would otherwise be disposed to be cut-
ting each other's throats.

We are also quite agreed with the views of the

Special Committee, as to the rating of the owners
of all property, whether large or small, within the
borough. There may be abundant reasons given
for omitting to tax the occupiers of cottage pro-
perty, the most irresistible of which is the difficulty
of collecting and apportioning the rates. But there
is no valid reason why a mass of property, amount-
ing to one-fourth of the entire yearly rental of the
rateable property within the borough, and noto-
riously the best tenanted, and yielding the best
return, should be permitted to escape taxation. It
is not true that the payment, if insisted upon, would
fall upon the poorer classes of our population, and
thus be productive of hardship upon those who are
the least able to pay, unless, by reducing the return
for capital invested in such property, we withdraw
the inducement to build it. We have no fear of
this, however. There is an ample margin at pre-
sent between the return made by cottage houses
and those of a better class; and from present ap-
pearances we should much rather expect to see the
small portion of vacant land remaining within the

borough appropriated for cottages than for any

other species of property. It is not at all unlikely
either that, in a few years, we may see a large por-
tion of the household property of the better class in
some of our streets either pulled down and replaced
with cottage property, or converted into smaller
tenements for our working classes.
For the present the Council, by an unexpectedly
small majority, and in a very small meeting—it
seems by the way as if some gentlemen were not
over much disposed to commit themselves on the

question—have decided against the recommenda-

lions of the Select Committee. There are some
good names, however, both Whig and Conservative,
in the minority; and, sooner or later, the voice of
public opinion will carry the question. To Mr.
Parker, its zealous advocate in the Council, and to
those who have supported his efforts, we recom-
mend a little further pressure, and the constituen-
cies as well must do their duty on the first of
November.

WE regret much to learn that a misapprehen-
sion has prevailed in some quarters, with respect
to a paragraph which appeared in our publication
of this day fortnight. We stated, in the paragraph
in question, what had come to our ears from trust-
worthy sources, that in some wards, in which the
present Conservative members had displeased their
constituencies by their proceedings with respect to
the water question, it would he attempted to make
use of the strong feeling existing in opposition to
the Rivington scheme, for the purpose of procuring
the return of candidates opposed to it, but, in
other respects, of Whig-Radical politics. In short,
a party manoeuvre was to be attempted, against
which we conceived it to be our duty, as Conser-
vative journalists, to warn our readers.
It has been imagined, on what grounds we can-
not at all conceive, that our remarks were pointed
at a public body in our town—the National Con-
federation. Nothing certainly could be further
from our intention. We have, from the first day
of its formation, expressed our decided approval of
the objects of that body; and up to this hour we
are not aware that they have deviated from a
straightforward pursuit of that object—the revision,
equalization, and, were it possible, the economiza-
tion of our local imposts. Already the fruits of
their exertions are manifesting themselves in the
increased attention bestowed by the rate-paying
public upon their own interests, and in the efforts
making by them to assert their just claims to the
consideration of the authorities. Under such cir-
cumstances, we could never have dreamt of im-
parting to that body the degradation of lending
their deserved influence to any mean party trick,
or of mixing themselves up with the petty machi-
nations of ward juntas. We cannot consent to
recognise party politics as affecting the proceedings
of such a body, knowing, as they must themselves
know, that the instant they diverge from the path
of duty which they have marked out, they must
cease to merit the respect and confidence of their
fellow-townsmen.

BUT a few days ago, Whig-Radicalism was in an
extacy of thankfulness. We had escaped the hor-
rors of a rebellion in Ireland, of which this feeble
party had sown the seeds and watered them by
years of pandering to agitation, and of trafficking
for place with its incendiary leaders. An outbreak
among the disaffected Irish in our own town had
also been repressed by the foresight and firmness
of the magistracy, aided by the loyal portion of our
population ; and our local " Liberals" and their
organs, in the exuberance of their happiness, could
almost afford to be honest, and to give honour
where honour was due. We imagined, indeed,
that byegones were to remain byegones; that the
ban was now to he taken off a class of our fellow-
countrymen who, reviled though they have been,
and persecuted for their steady maintenance of
Protestantism and of loyalty to the throne and the
constitution, had proved themselves our best reli-