The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-11-04 00:00:00

affairs

The " reformers,

who were to have effected such mighty changes in the world,
where are they now ? what are they now? They sit no more
in high places. One after another they have been snuffed
out or puffed out, like farthing rushlights, or thrown into
a corner, like old boots. Sulky and melancholy, they cross

our path occasionally, as they creep to their counting-houses
or their counters, to sigh over their changed condition ; but

in public life, upon the arena of the world, where they
strutted and gesticulated of old, we meet them no more.
They are a doomed, an extinguished faction.

Let us trace their fall, for the instruction of mankind

Seven years ago they came into the management of our local
They were rampant in the Council and upon the

magisterial bench. They promised magnificent things, and
a foolish world believed them. They were to purify, to re-
model, and to amend every thing. Corruption was to be no
more ; favouritism and patronage were to cease for ever, and
desert to become the only recommendation for office or emo-
lument. How did they redeem their professions? By repu-
diating them, and laughing at those who had been duped by
them. They filled every office in the town with their tools.
They made offices for them ! They jobbed in the open day.
They revelled in corruption. They were more shamelessly
and insolently venal than even their mendacious tongues
had painted their predecessors ; and with " liberty" ever
upon their lips, they were more insolently tyrannical in their
rule than any party to whom the government of this great
town has ever been committed.

Need we go far for evidence of all these things ? Are they
not notoriously true? Who is' there that remembers not the
exclusiveness of their committees? To be a Conservative in
those days was to be under a ban,—to be shut out even fro in
the fair rewards of merit, to be hopelessly excluded from all
favours. The doings of their Market Committee were a
scandal to a British community. Their Watch Committee
Was a tribunal for rewarding political subserviency. The
Town Hail was in their hands—let the recent report of the
Paid Officers' Committee be the evidence—a scene of min-
gled disorder and jobbery. The Mayorality in their hands
was a utensil by .vhich our national Church could be insulted.
The Schools of the Corporation in their hands were semina-
ries for the diffusion of popery and infideli
But these things could u
could not endure the tyranny
less faction. Conservatism r

continue. - Flesh and blood

the monster vigorousl

.s energies and attacked

Year by year we

topped off its strength. Year by year a shoal of empty and
Presuming coxcombs were kicked by the honest burgesses of
the town into the insignificance from which• they rose. We
infused Conservative blood and honest blood into their disho-
nest and jobbing committees. We outnumbered them at
length in the council itself; and we are now, thanks to con-

servative energy and perseverance, a triumphant and•over-
whelrning majority there. A few conceited jays flutter their
wings and chirrup within the council-chamber, it is true ;
but as an influential body in that chamber or in the borough,
the Whig Radical faction is extinct !

And what, let us ask of our fellow-townsmen, are the re-
sults which we have already reaped as the fruit of our victo-
ries ? We answer, HONEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT. The
impartial distribution of corporate patronage, and the con-
version of the corporate influence and property to their
legitimate influences. We have uprooted the system by
which the children of our poor were trained up in popery,
socinianism, and infidelity, and substituted, in its place, a
system by which they are being educated in the truths of the
Bible and the faith of our Established Church. We have
stricken the first blow at whig corruption in the management
of the public business ; and we trust before long to see it
followed up by the operation of the sweeping broom. If we
are to enjoy fully the advantages of conservative administra-
tion of the affairs of our town, we must not work with whig-
radical and corrupt instruments ; and although we would
not, in imitation of the faction which is now sprawling at our
feet, displace good and efficient servants of the public merely
because they are not our political friends, we can see neither
Prudence nor wisdom in that delicacy which would convert
the mere fact of this or that servant having been appointed
for his political subserviency to other men into a title to be
retained in the possession of his reward. We look for honest
government and constitutional government ; and, to secure
such, the hands which work must be Conservative as well as
the head which directs.
With the consciousness before them that this must be the
requirement made by a Conservative majority in the council,
the faction has fougnt hard in every contest which we have
had with it; and in that which has just terminated it have
not been wanting in exertion, although that exertion has
been characterised by somewhat changed tactics. On former
occasions Whig Radical candidates afected to engross the
Popular favour. We had flaming speeches. multitudinous
gatherings, and profession without limit. On this occasion,
however, the faction has effected prudery—has shunned the
Popular gaze, and endeavoured to creep into power, where it
was once borne upon the shoulders of its friends. Trick has
been tried, and surprise. We have had mine and counter-
mine; but we had no stand-up fighting. We have been
sought to be vanquished by a shuffle---by men in ambush—
candidates standing behind paper screens ; but we have foiled
them at this last effort, and they may now despair.
Prior to entering into any statistical detail and comparison
as to the voting of this and previous years, we will submit a
brief statement of the polling in the respective wards last
November :

~, Wards
•Everton

Scotland

Vauxhall

Mr. Geo. Quayle (it) .... 303
No conservative candidate.
Mr. W. Preston (a) elected.
Mr. Jos. Edwards (c).... 308
Mr. Chris. Rawdon (a).. 264
Mr. John Ridgway (c) .. 300
Mr. Henry Holmes (a) .. 329
No conservative candidate.
Mr. John Holmes (a) elected.

Si. Paul's

Exchange

Castle-street

St. Peter's

M r. Eben. Rae (c)
Mr. John WoollrigF

Pitt-street

Mr. Jas. Asi.
Mr. Hugh Ho.
Mr. Jas. Lawret.
Mr. Win. Rathbon.
Mr. H. Lawrence (c)
Mr. Chas. Holland (R)
Mr. R. Gladstone (c).
M. James Cooper (re
Mr. J. B. Lloyd (c'
Mr. Thos.
Mr. James Parker kc)....
Mr. Thomas Chahner (it) 2G6
Mr. J. S. Leigh (c) ....elected
No Radical Candidate.
Mr. S. L. Trotman (c)... 241
Mr. W. H. Tayleur (it) ... 197
Mr. Alex. Smith, jun. (c). 374
Mr. W. Lockerby (R)..... 338

Great George

Rodney-street

Abercromby

.
. 388
. 257
. 424
). 416
. 276

Lime-street

Mo- reCrOft (xt

St. Anne's

West Derby

South Toxteth

North Toxteth

Majority

It will be seen from this statement, that the conservatives
succeeded at the last election in returning thirteen members
to the Town Council, out of sixteen wards, whilst their op-
Ponents were only able to elect three to represent them, and
two of these they were allowed to return without any oppo-
sition being offered by the conservatives. This result was
achieved, not through any momentary excitement, but
through the gradual returning good sense of the people, as
Will be abundantly proved by an examination and comparison
of the various elections, as well as by a remembrance of the
effect produced in the public mind by the reckless conduct
and unprincipled neglect of duty on the part of the boasting
reformers after their elevation to power. It will be recollected,
that at the first election after the passing of the Municipal
Reform Bill, a mere fraction of the successful candidates con-
sisted of conservatives, and in 1837 twelve radical councillors.
and only four conservatives were elected, and the radical gross
Majority was 146 out of 6040 electors polled. In the follow-
ing year, their returns were slightly more favourable to the
constitutional interests, but in 1839, the tide which has since
led on to fortune " " set in," and nine conservatives and
eight radical councillors were elected (a vacancy having oc-
curred by death), and the former had a majority on the
Voss poll of 194 voters (one ward not being contested). In
1840, when each ward experienced a contest, the radicals
only gained four wards out of the sixteen, and the conser-
vatives had a total majority of 199 out of 6619 electors who
recorded their votes. We have already noticed some of
the results of last year, and we need only say further in this
Place, with reference to it that whilst the total number of
electors polled at that period amounted to 8052, the conser-
vative total majority was 556. One or two reminiscencies
connected with the last named important contest are worth
recording. In 1840, for Pitt-street Ward, Mr. Toulinin was
elected by a majority of 1 over Mr. Rathbone, whilst in
1841 Mr. James Aspinall obtained the decisive majority of
42 over a much more popular man, Mr. Hugh Hornby. In
Great Georges Ward, last year, Mr. James Lawrence defea-
ted Mr. Rathbone (to effect whose return every radical exer-
tion and stratagem were made use of) by a majority of 25,
whilst iu the preceding year the majority of Mr. Joseph
Cooper over Mr. Thomas Taylor was only two. The con-
servative majorities in 1811 were in each instance sufficiently
indicative of their overwhelming strength; in Everton, as
that' be seen from the preceeding tabular statement, they
Polled 127 more votes than their opponents ; and
_in Aber-

erotnby Ward 131 if
than for his opponen
The following, we 1
Polling in the respec
vative candidates are

ore electors voted for Mr. Gladstone

lieve, are cor

;ive wards

inted in i

rect returns of each hour's
The names of the conser-

TIME.
1I

hiajo-
-2i 3I 4 irity

53 69 801 90 1041
61 77 108 1221 1381,

91 1161 MI 1501 186
66 811 1131 131 163

118 141 170, 221 277
126 1611 198, 230, 3121

145 1731 1951 214 252
85 1031 1171 156 137

66 83 116' 145 171
87 107 138: 160 190 19

120 1341 157 i 166, 177 87
53 641 7-1 i 82, 90

107 1331 1581
70 85 104

86' 123;
10 18

217 85
132

120 159 -
101 123 -

1721 148
241

245! 3131 77
175 i 236

77 1021 124; 164 2101 8
71 92 122, 1511 202

113 13.11 153; 166 182
95, 1051 112

73 87

63 801 103 108, 142
23 28 36: 43, 64

76 126 175 216 278, 129
61 80 100 128 149