The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-05-14 00:00:00

TUESDAY NORAING, MAY 14, IS#4.

We are now fairly embarked in a contest, for one
of the most important counties in the kingdom,—a
contest which, whatever may be its result, is certain
to be fought, on one (the Liberal) side, with a des-
peration unparalleled in electioneering annals, and
which, on the side of Conservatism, must be carried
on with this conviction pressing on the mind of
every elector, that the interests of this great empire,
the interests of humanity, the security of its esta-
blished institutions, the church of his fathers, and
the monarchy itself, are in his sole keeping. It is
with no conimon enemy that the Conservatives of
South Lancashire have now to deal. It is not an
ordinary party quarrel which they have now to
decide. Conservatism has here to do with a banded
faction, powerful in numbers, armed with unlimited
money-power, and with practised talent ready to be
brought to bear upon the issue. They have to do'
with a faction not local, but organised throughout
the kingdom ; and which is prepared to devote all
its energies--all its unscrupulous dishonesty—all '
that dictation, intimidation, trick, and bribery can
do—to win this county, and to ring out, from over
the trampltd body of South Lancashbe Conserva-
tism, the knell of England's greatness—the triumph
of Mammon over the happiness and the liberties of
the British people.
Yes, the Conservative electors of this division
have now to fight the Anti-corn-law League in its
own stronghold—upon the s-ene of its restless and
persevering machinations. The whole empire looks
with anxiety to the issue of the battle. The noble
in their ancestral halls—the yeoman in his native
fields—the peasant in his humble cot—the toil-worn
factory slave from his hovel—the pauper in his
basti e, or in his rags ;—all these look to the result
of this contest as one which is, more or less, to de-
termine whether they are to rest upon the security
of existing laws and look forward to their ameliora-
tion, or are to be handed over to the ruin and degra-
dation which a false and inhuman philosophy is
preparing for them. It is emphatically the question
now to be answered, whether England is to be once
more "happy England," or is to be converted, by
the harsh hand of Utilitarianism, into a mighty lazar-
house ; whether her people are to stand up unmana-
cled before the nations, or are to be chained by
poverty to the wheel and the loom, with the worse
than felon's lot of the union workhouse as their doom
if they fail, or exhausted nature refuses to aid them,
in their hard probation. This is not an overstrained
statement of the issue now to be tried. Whatever ,
may he its specious promises of temporary ameliora-
tion of their lot—of temporary prosperity to be
brought about by the realization of its boasted plans
—the ultimate aim of the Anti-corn-law League is
to throw the poor and the middle classes of Great
Britain into helpless dependence for support upon
the tender mercies of manufacturing capital; and
the sure result of such a dependence must be the
bringing about of a state of society which Christian
men must dread to contemplate as existing in this
or any other land.

We have one consolation to gladden and give us
hope at the outset of this contest, whatever may be
its issue. In the Candidate chosen by the League
we do not recognise that eminent talent and exten-
sive influence, which might have centred in some
men, upon whom their selection migh have fallen.
As a merchant, Mr. Brown occupies, we admit, a
high position. In private character, he is unex-
ceptionable. But, we ask, what, beyond his stand-
ing as a merchant, is there in Mr. Brown to entitle
his opinion, upon matters of such high moment as
now occupy the public mind, to any value ? Mr.
Brown is a free trader—a member of the League,
or, at least, of the Anti-Monopoly Association of
Liverpool. The repeal of the Corn-laws, and of all
protective laws, will, in his opinion, advance the
interests of British commerce, and giVe to manu-
facturing industry a stimulus which it can derive
from no other measure. But, then, the authority
of Mr. Brown is a somewhat tainted authority upon
such a question. Where are the sympathies of
such a gentleman ? Wily with his American
commerce—his capital embarked in that commerce
exclusively. Ask him what operation repeal of the
Corn-laws will have upon agriculture, and he will
reply that it will benefit—American agriculture!
It will enable American farmers to purchase more
largely of British manufacturers, and give additional
employment to the shipping and capital of American
traders ! Such a gentleman is not the kind of
candidate whom we should choose, as likely to
carry to a successful result a contest like the
present.
Mr. Entwisle, the Conservative candidate, is a
young man—an untried man. lie comes, how-
ever, from a good Conservative stock; has troops
of personal friends to rally round him; possesses
eminent business talents ; and, beyond the mere
question of corn-laws or no corn-laws, entertains
opinions upon other vital questions which are con-
genial not only to his own party, but to the great
majority of his fellow-countrymen. We possess in
him, therefore, a candidate in every way worthy of
our choice, and worthy of being energetically fought
for ; and we trust that Conservatives throughout
the division will not delay putting forth their best
strength in his behalf. Remember—mere victory
in a contest like the present is not the only thing to
be desired. Our opponents must not only be beat,
but crushed so decisively that they will not easily
rise to trouble us more.

The debate of Friday night, upon the third read-
ing of Sir James Graham's Factory Bill, has afforded
us the saddening assurance that Lord Ashley's pro-
position to shorten the hours of labour, and to ele-
vate the condition and increase the comforts of the
overtoiled factory women and children, is doomed
for this session to be defeated; and that, too, at the
sole dictation of government itself. Two gentlemen,
we regret to say on the Conservative side of the
house, who had previously voted with Lord Ashley,
have already been induced to announce their
changed views ; and doubtless a sufficient number
of these faint-spirited friends of humanity will be
found, to enable the House of Commons to snatch
from the lips of the labouring poor the boon which
it has thrice, during the present session, deliberately
offered to them. But the cause, nevertheless, is
not lost, although its triumph may be for awhile
deferred. Day by day the conviction of the justice
and necessity of the principle involved in it becomes
more deeply impressed in the mind of the nation- ;
and perhaps, ultimately, those who have weakly and
unwisely consented to stand in the way of its recog-
nition by the legislature, may find it presented for
their consideration in a new and more startling
form, and with accompanying demands which do
not exist at present.
It is plainly to be discerned, from the debate, so
far as it has gone, what are the nature of the argu-