The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-05-28 00:00:00

-7i.tbertmol gitanbarb.

TUESDAY 1110RAING, MAY 28, 1844.

Although, while we write, the excitement of the
actual polling for our county has driven rota men's
minds the remembrance of the sayings and doings
on the nomination day at Newton, there are some
features in these which we cannot allow to pass
without a few remarks. And first, let us direct the
attention of our readers to the speech and the poli-
tical opinions of the gentleman by whom our towns-
man, Mr. Brown, was introduced to the electors.
Mr. Robert Gardner, the gentleman in question,
is a Conservative; has amassed great wealth in ma-
nufacturing pursuits, under the operation, or per-
haps he will say in spite of the operation, of the
protective duties upon corn and other commodities.
What is it then which impels Mr. Gardner to stand
forward and repudiate all the political associations of
his past life—to peril those institutions of which he
has ever professed himself the ardent and firm sup-
porter—by recommending to the support of the
electors a candidate, from whose political opinions
he dissents upon every other subject save upon the
subject of protective duties, if even he does not dis-
sent upon that ? With every deference to the
honesty of Mr. Gardner, we must confess that the
only conclusion to which we can come with respect
to.the- motives actuating his conduct is this. Con-
servatism ought not to stand in the way of money-
getting. Mammon, it would appear from his state-
meats, is stronger than principle ; and live of
country—love of its institutions—love of the reli-
gion, the monarchy, the laws, of which he has been
through life the admirer and supporter—has given
way before the delusive vision of wealth held up by
empiricism, as the result of a repeal of the Corn-
laws.

But even with himself this gentleman is not con-
sistent. In words, he declares himself the advocate
of a fixed duty—a protective duty—of six to eight
shillings a quarter upon corn, declaring, in effect,
his belief that the British agriculturist requires that
amount of protection; whilst he coolly outrages his
own conviction by proposing a candidate pledged
to total and immediate 'repeal. He is willing, he
says, to tax foreign wheat for purposes of revenue;
and yet, by his nomination of a candidate of the
League, he throws all considerations of revenue to
the winds. What are we to think of consistency
like this ?

Mr. Entw;sle was proposed by Colonel Plumbe
Tempest, to whose remarks upon the occasion the
only objection which we have heard offered is, that
they are those of an old Tory of twenty years ago.
Colonel Tempest is too antiquated for the taste of
modern Radicalism. He does not recognise as in-
dubitable all the new positions and theories which
Mr. Richard Cobden boasts that his great genius
has established. He has lived, in short, before the
League was set up as the great propounder of truths
for mankind. The colonel is an unfortunate man;
but he is not singular in his misfortune. Happily
for Lancashire and for England, there is still a great
majority of the people who are inclined to doubt
whether all that is new in political philosophy is
true, and all that is antiquated—all win h was
recognised as wise by their forefathers—is necessa-
rily absurd and indefensible. The new lights of the
age we acknowledge to he brilliant and striking;
but men may walk safely, nevertheless, by the same
lights which guided the steps of those who lived in
a past age. The bude light has not yet put out
their sun and moon..

Of the speeches of the candidates themselves we
need say nothing here; but we must be permitted
to express the feeling of disgust with which, in
-common with nine-tenths of the electors present, we
cannot but regard the intrusion of Mr. Richard
Cobden at this nomination. For what purpose did
this man present himself to address the electors ?
,Had his candidate, Mr. Brown, so hopelessly
broken down in his address, that the eloquence or
the impudence of Mr. Cobden was necessary to re-
deem his failure ? Not at all. Mr. Brown ac-
quitted himself on this occasion very respectably;
and the only conclusion to he drawn, as to the ob-
ject of Mr. Cobden's lecture, is that in his opinion
it was necessary that the landowners and the Con-
servative electors of South Lancashire should be
insulted—should receive a coating of the slime of
League oratory—and that his was the tongue which
could apply it most plentifully. From its com-
mencement to its close the speech inflicted upon the
electors by this man was irrelevent and imperti-
nent; and very happy we are to think that as such
it was considered by those to whom it was ad-
dressed. The most hitter opponent of Mr. Brown
could not have done or said anything to damage
bim worse in the estimation of the constituency,
than Mr. Richard Cobden quece?ded in doing.

We called the attention of our readers, last week,
to the proceedings of the Birkenhead Commission-
ers, in the carrying out of their projected scheme of
docks and warehouses in Wallasey Pool. The sub-
ject is one of such vast importance to the town of
Liveipool, and the scheme itself fraught with such
danger to the navigation of the river, that we offer
no apology for now adverting upon them more at
length.

The preamble of the bill has been declared to he
proven, and the clauses have been passed by the
Committee with scarcely an alteration. That, how-
ever, claiming immunity for vessels in Wallasey
Docks from the town dues of Liverpool was adroitly
withdrawn. It was too impudent. Various clauses
were proposed by opponent parties for the protection
of existing rights and interests ; but, alas! they met
with no sympathy from the Committee, composed
though it was principally of gentlemen professedly
friendly to vested rights and privileges. On the
contrary, the very points urged by many of them as
necessary to be provided for in the Liverpool Dock
Bill—the construction of slips and stairs, and free
and commodious landing places—were negatived
when proposed -o form part of the Birkenhead bill.
We have. often said, and we here repeat it, that
this Wallasey scheme is not understood by the pub-
lic; it is not the magnificent thing which it is repre-
sented to be, and when fairly analysed is paltry and
ridiculous. A tidal basin, with a great lift and fall,
and a small bona fide dock of three acres—the two
gallons of sack, and the halfpenny worth of bread
in Falstaff's tavern bill ! This, with the addition of
a ten-acre open basin for coasters, is all that we are
to have in lieu of the splendid beaching ground
which the port has enjoyed from time immemorial
in Wallasey Pool—all that is left of the splendid
scheme which was first ushered to the public. Surely
the shipowners and merchants of Liverpool are not
likely to be lulled into silence by a bait such as this!
Surely we are not going to part with a positive right
to accommodation for our coasting and other trade,
in exchange for a pitifully small scheme which, with
a week of westerly wind, wi I not accommodate one-
third of such trade! Yet, this is what we are.asked
to do, and must do, unlass we stir promptly in the
matter and make known our wishes in the only
quarter.where opposition is now available,—viz., the
House of Lords.

With these preliminary remarks, we propose now
to show,—

Ist. That this Wallasey scheme is a delusion ancl
utterly impracticable, as brought forward by the
proposers.
2dly. That it is an unjustifiable interference with
existing rights and interests.
3dly. That it will inevitably be productive of
injury to the navigation of the river, and consequent
injury to every inhabitant in the town.
We will deal with these as briefly as possible,,and
begin with the first proposition. We assert the
scheme is a delusion, inasmuch as it has been based
upon promises which can never be realised. One
of these, it will he remembered, was that by the
erection of a river wall, a quantity of land, on each
side of the tidal basin, estimated at 120 acres, would
be reclaimed, by the sale of which not only the en-
tire cost of the dock works .would be covered, but
the projectors he able, in addition, to borrow
Upon it largely for any further purposes, amongst
the most prominent of which was the erec:ion of
dock warehouses. Such reclaimed land, of right,
was the property of the Commissioners of Woods
and Forests ; but we were told that it would be ob-
tained from them for a merely nominal price. It
was, in fact, to he almost given to the Cheshire
dock projectors, to be resold by them for something
like 30s. a yard, or, in the gross, £450.000! But
what is the fact with respect to this generous gift
of the Woods and Forests ? They have presented to
the Commissioners of Birkenhead, it is true, the
space for the 37-acre tidal basin, the 10 acre
bleaching basin, arid the 3-acre dock, together with
'the space for the dam excavations and corresponding
quay room, which will consist of 100 yards on the
margin of the tidal basin and 10.) feet on the re-
mainder, with the exception of the great sea wall,
along which there is to he a quay space of 200 feet