The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1832-12-25 00:00:00

Ebt iliberpooi A,tanbarb.

TUESDAY MORNING, DECEMBEI? 25, 1832,

So large a proportion of the elections are now con-
cluded, that it is high time to look around us, and inquire'
how far the working of the reform bill has, according to
present appearances, been beneficial or the contrary ?
He who supposes that an impartial estimate of this
great measure can now, or for some considerable time, be
formed, is a man more happy in his sanguine tempera-
ment, than accurate in his knowledge of human nature.
Many have been too ready to exclaim, ." the bubble has
burst." How should it ? Its frail contexture has not yet
been tried. True indeed it is, that a great and manifest
re-action has already taken place : this, we believe, not
even the brazen audacity of the revolutionary press will
now venture to deny. But we must recollect, that a
measure: which promised so much—a measure whose
professions, if true, were indeed precious, and if false,
could not possibly be detected till after trial—a measure
which gave; by way of earnest-money, the right of voting
to five hundred thousand persons, previously destitute of
that privilege, such a measure necessarily acted, to a very
great extent, in the manner of a wholesale bribe, and en-
sured its own favourable reception with those, to whom
it paid such flattering and substantial compliments.
We cannot therefore expect that• these persons, still
reeling with joy under a large accession of personal im-
portance, and dazzled with the fairy and fantastic pros-
pects which the new era professes t 6 present, should ac-
quiesce in those deductions, which we may be disposed
to make from the merits of the bill. -
But this country, thanks be to God, has a population
generally sober and industrious, disposed to practice ra-
ther than to theory, never ling deluded by any visions
however bright soever, if they be mere visions, and very
apt to apply the tests of evidence to:the chinieras of en-
'• • "
thusiasm.

To the practical men of this country we address the
few following remarks.
The test of a good government is this:—does it so
model and attenzper its representative • system, by the
introduction of the largest possible portion of the prin-
ciple, the talent, and the property of a country, to secure
the fullest possible attention to all its varied and compli-
cated interests?

This test must be applied to the working of the re-
form law. And unless .it shall be found to bear it, we
may rest assured, that its reign will be short indeed.
Unless it does contribute to the practical ends of good
government in this country—unless it does at once amal-
gamate and protect our agricultural and our traditt in-
terests—unless it does raise both the spiritual and the
physical condition of the people—it will some day be
execrated as it once was adored; it will be loaded with
the deep hatred of its dupes, and become a by-word
throughout the world—even though it may have effected
the amazing good of conferring a vote for Liverpool on
the editors 'of the Mercury and the Albion.
Now we ask it of our sober fellow-corintrymen, whe-
ther the shipping interest, the East and West India in-
terests, the colonial interests generally, or the monied
interests, will be as effectively respresented under the new
system,.as they were under the old ? •
Will the tone of principle in the House of Commons
be higher? We know that there is much piety among
the Christian Dissenters of this country : we know too
that many of them have been active enough in election-
eering contests : but, we ask it in bitterness of heart—
what man of Christian principle have their efforts sent
to the House of Commons ?

Will the, poor and Oppressed classes of this country
find their interests more faithfully guarded ? Will the
miserable factory children profit by the exclusion of Mr.
Sadler ?• Will the peasant of this country, crushed in his
soul by the degrading operation of the poor laws, forget

that his unhappy case was postponed as a thing of no ac-
count, till the crayingsof the Birmingham ten-pounders
had been satisfied? The Irish labourer knows not, is not
permitted to know the truth at present; but • some day
he will know how laws were proposed last year for his
subsistence by an anti-reformer, arid -how the humanity
of the government staved off to a future and an unknown
day that beneficent relief; he knows not, but some day he
will know, what sound or practical measures of humanity
he-has to expectfrom a government, whose favourite or-

gan (the Edinburgh Review) denies, that absenteeism is a
curse to Ireland.

Will the. House of Commons—and this, though secon-
dary, is no unimportant question—will the House of
Commons, under the new system, continue to hold up a
mirror to the national mind, in:which may be seen its
concentrated wisdom and intelligence ? Will it be a bet-

ter school of those chivalrous and lofty sentiments, under
whose influence the greatestand brighest minds that have

adorned the history our country were trained'and foster•

ed Will it befavourable to the acquisition of extended
vielis of politics; to the nurture of.self-devoting and self-
denying etiergy of disposition, or not rather tend"
. .

to waste and fret away upon- Minute olAjeCtkof -detail, pains
which might have been turned to_ larger and •more profit-,
able account ? Take for example the case •of .Mr. Can-
ning. His mind was beautiful and : but in the'

midst of its beauty and-brilliancy, there was a deep and

. _
acute sagacity, which Wrought sineessantly .at home and
abroad both to extend the moral power of this countiy, and.
to enlarge the field of its commercial-and manufacturing
enterprise. British merchants well know,—how much

they owe him. We ask thenlinournfally;..WhOther, what-

ever number. of ordinary men it may assemble, the Re-
formed House of Commons will be calculated to educate
amidsts it.s.vulgar and angry squabblings, minds- of ele-

vation and expansion' such as his ? or iliether the efforts

of ten thousand ordinary minds would have procured 'us
the advantages which were the, fruits of his single
exertions ?

WE refer our readers, with muchisatisfaction, to the ad
dress of Sir Thomas Hesketh, which will be found in a.
preceding page.. It.contain.s at . once, :the breathings of
a man devoted tC) the be§t- interests of
.his country, and