The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-06-14 00:00:00

STAMP RETURNS

The quarterly return of the stamps taken out, and the
advertisement duty paid by the press of Great Britain,
from the Ist of January to the 31st of March, is now
before us ; and that influential portion of our fellow-
townsmen, who support the principles advocated by
THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD, will, we have no
doubt, be pleased to notice the steady improvement in
the circulation of this journal. During the past guar-
ter,—one peculiarly barren of anything striking in
the way of news, and marked with much commercial
difficulty,—the STANDARD, and one contemporary
only, have improved their position, as compared with
the circulation of the previous hall year; another
journal has just maintained its position, whilst SEVEN
of our contemporaries have declined, and some of them
very materially. The next return, from our sale thus
far, we are enabled to state, will show a further in-
crease ; and for the patronage which thus enables us,
advantageously and cificiently and, we may add, pro-
fitably to ourselves, to advocate Conservative inter-
ests, and to promote the spread of sound principles in
this town and district, we must here record our grate-
ful thanks to a kind and indulgent public. It is a
pleasure to vs to labour in such a cause; it is doubly
a pleasure to find our humble labours appreciated.
The LIVERPOOL STANDARD undeniably occupies now
a leading position amongst the journals, not only of
our own town and neighbourhood, but of the United
Kingdom. The respectability and influential charac-
ter of its circulation, we can say without hesitation,
is surpassed by none. To those of our Conservative
fellow-countrymen, therefore, who wish to be presented
with an honest expression of sound constitutional
opinions we point with confidence to its columns, and
to the approbation which a large portion of the public
have accorded to that expression in time past. No
exertion, no attention, no expense, we promise, shall
be spared, in time to come, to merit and increase that
approbation.
To ADVERTISERS this journal now offers increased
and increasing advantages, from its advancing circu-
lation, and its now recognised character, as one of
the most influential mediums of communication with
the gentry, clergy, merchants, and middle classes of
the community. Whilst recording, therefore, our
thanks to those of our friends who have so liberally
favoured us hitherto, we beg to impress upon their
consideration our added and increasing ability to do
justice to their favours.
We may remark, that we have never been in the habit of
making a display of our amount of circulation and
advertising. We do not, in fact, regard either as the
infallible criterion of the value of a public journal, to
the community or to advertisers. Having received,
however, the government returns, immediately upon
their issue, we have taken the opportunity of bringing
them here before the public :
Number each
Publication
7000
3000
2307
2153
1460
1423
1381
]2OO
1000
730

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EIR Eiberpoot gPtanbaria.

TUESDAY MORNING, JUNE 14, 1842

When the Whig party set about the formation of a
new electoral system, there were weak people in the
world who anticipated, from the hands of such un-
doubted philosophers, the conversion of this empire
into a political Arcadia. Corruption, bribery at elec-
tions, every evil practice which had crept into the con-
stitution, were to have been put down for ever ; the
transfer of the electoral privileges from Gatton and Old
Sarum to the pure and enlightened ten-pound house-
holders of Bolton and Stockport was to exchange rot-
tenness for perfection, disease for health, ignorance and
utter recklessness of principle for enlightenment and
political virtue. " Schedule A" was the grand arca-
num—the pivot upon which turned the destinies of
the nation ; " the bill, the whole bill, and nothing but
the bill" was to bring about the political regeneration
of the world !

And yet within ten years from the passing of this
measure the astounding discovery has been made that
political immorality never was more rife ; that bribery
and corruption at elections were never practised to a
more scandalous extent, or with more complete impunity
than now ! Constituencies—not merepocket boroughs,
but large constituencies—are bartered in open market;
bought and sold in the light of day ; jobbed in every
variety of way by every variety of men ; all pure
patriots, all babblers of their respect for popular
rights and freedom of election ! Is a Radical Reformer
anxions to hear the sound of his " most sweet voice "
in the House of Commons, a seat-broker of the Cop-
pock school can fit him to a hair. Here is a constitu-
ency which can be had for a consideration, bestowed
upon some knot of local Radicals who dictate to the
sensible people (.9 upon whom the legislature imagined
that it was conferring the franchise. There is one
which some worn-out philosopher will hand over, by a
kind of hocus-pocus arrangement, still for a conside-
ration! Here is a large town which can be purchased
by a sop to Popery and a few hundred pounds to pro-
vide bludgeonmen sufficient to beat the principles of
the candidate into the obtuse skulls of the opposing
party ; there a snug small place which can be had for
a few barrels of beer and a few rolls of ribbon. Sud-
burys and Nottinghams, Ipswiches and Newcastles
abound ; whilst the unreal dream of which reform was
in such ardent quest,—purity of election,—it would
take a year's travelling to discover in the land.
And why is this so ? Why is the attempt to secure
purity of election by the Reform Bill a failure ? Sim-
ply because the notion of perfect virtue, in such a
world as this, is an utter farce ; because the notion
of popular representation, in any other than an imper-
fect form, is an idle absurdity. There have always
been malversations in all electoral systems ; there al-
ways will be, despite the holy horror with which men
profess to view them, and despite of all the severity
which the legislature may resort to for their suppres-
sion. In fact, there is too much reason to believe that
this very severity—this excessive touchiness upon the
subject of election expenses—is doing more than any
other influence to rob the constituencies, throughout
the empire, of the privilege which the Reform Bill
professed to confer upon them, and is virtually crc-
ating a mass of boroughs more rotten than the rotten-
est which that bill disfranchised.
Take an instance of this. Enter any large borough,
and examine the working of the present system. The
Reform Bill declared that candidates for a seat in the
House of Commons should not pay any except certain
small expenses ; and forthwith every candidate stipu-
lated for his return free of expense. Yet money is
spent, and necessarily and even properly
spent. The
candidate must make his opinions known; he must
advertise and print and placard ; he must pay coach-
hire for himself and for his voters ; and these things,

in the case of a large constituency, are not done for
nothing. Then, who provides the money ?—for the
candidate, especially if a Whig or a Radical, boasts
that he pays nothing. It is raised by a subscription ;
it is, in most cases, the contribution of a limited num-
ber of the most influential or busy of the inhabitants ;
it is administered by a committee formed from amongst
them ; it may be spent in bribery or in treating ; but
the member is a pure man—a patriot of the first wa-

ter—and goes into the House of Commons as the cho-
sEn of the people,—the immaculate and spotless choice
of an unbought constituency !

And yet what is the fact ? Why, in five cases out of
nine the man is no more the choice of that constitu-
ency than his own horse, if he have such a quadruped !
He is the representative of a small clique only ; and
may be actually distateful to the great mass of the peo-
ple whose representative he is assumed to be. We
could point to twenty large boroughs, and to some
counties even, where the representation is, virtually, as
completely under the dictation of the few individuals
who provide the sinews of war—who pay the election
expenses of the needy patriot sent up to do small pri-
vate jobs at the bidding of his patrons—as that of
Gatton or Old Sarum, or any other ditch or heap of
stones, was controlled by its proprietors in the old days
of corruption, before Whiggery had tried its hand at
tinkering the constitution !
We have no wish to witness a return to the system
of electioneering practised in days gone by—when an
estate was spent upon a single contest. We have no
wish to see candidates lavish their money in treating
and bribery ; but we are convinced that an amount of
evil, quite as much to be deprecated, is involved in the
present system. Let men pay their own expenses at
elections, and, as suggested by Lord Sandon, let the
law declare what are to be considered reasonable ex-
penses. We shall have fewer needy patriots in the
House of Commons—fewer political jobbers of the
Hume and Bowling school ; but we shall have more
honest men; the people will be better represented, and
it will not be in the power of a disappointed faction, in
every borough throughout the kingdom, to harass in-
dividual members and take up the time of parliament
with endless inquiries into the existence of practices
which no candid man can be found seriously to deny.
As a remedy for abuses of our representative system,
we have more faith in the efficacy of a return to com-
mon-sense principles and openness than all that legis-
lation can do, if it persists in maintaining the skew of
consummate morality, which can only lead to secret
corruption, aggravated by the disgusting hypocrisy
with which it is sought to be cloaked.

We are much concerned at the proceedings of the
Poor Law Guardians, in reference to the selection of
designs for the new Workhouse Schools. When pro-
fessional men are invited to enter into honourable com-
petition, the most disinterested justice ought to be
awarded; and those who sit in judgment on the de-
signs ought not-to know who is the author of any one
plan : but they ought to make the selection without the
least bias or partiality. To canvass a gentleman for
his vote under such circumstances is to offer him a
gross inealt, and is as bad as if a defendant in an ac-
tion were to offer a bribe to the judge of assize who is
to try his cause. If Mr. Scott's plan is the best, let
him have the prize due to him ; but let strict and im-
partial justice be administered, that talent may have
free scope and merit its just reward. It appears that
professional men, such as Mr. Weightman, Mr. Holme,
and Mr. Stewart, who are all too independent to be
biassed, and who, from their long experience, are com-
petent to form an opinion, have declared that Mr.
Scott's is not the best design, and that there are others
sent in which are much to be preferred. The Poor
Law Guardians ought to remember that they have been
elected to administer justice indifferently, and not to
gratify private or personal predilections; and as the
public will have to pay the cost of the building, so
the public have a right to expect that the best design
will be approved. In the case of other public build-
ings, the character of the town has been upheld for
impartiality ; and we sincerely hope that it will not be
injured by the puerile proceedings of the Board of
Guardians. The decision come to a fortnight ago, of
leaving the matter in the hands of professional men to
decide, none of whom or any of their connections are
competitors, was undoubtedly a wise decision, and one
which would have given satisfaction both to the public
and the competing architects themselves ; but to an-
nul such a resolution at a subsequent meeting is really
so childish, and places the board in such a ridiculous
position, and exhibits them in such a vacillating cha-
racter, that we hope, for the sake of justice and con-
sistency, they will adopt their former resolution, and
so end what has been from the beginning something
worse than a farce. Unless this be done promptly, no
architect of talent and character will for the future be
at the trouble of making out designs. The public will
be deprived of the benefit of men of ability, and the
architecture of the town will suffer from these pro-
ceedings. Canvassing for the selection of individuals
to fill public situations may be allowed; but it cannot
for a moment he admitted that it is either wise or just
to canvass one of the individuals so elected for his vote
and influence in a case where an impartial opinion is
not only desirable, but absolutely demanded, both by
justice and reason; and where the reverse would in-
flict an injury on a number of honourable men.

We have been waited upon by several gentlemen
connected with the Timber Trade of North America,
by whom we are assured, that the feeling amongst the
trade, generally, against any further reduction in the
duties upon Baltic timber and deals is much stronger
than we were aware of when we alluded, in a recent
article, to the course taken by Sir Howard Douglas
upon the discussion of this portion of the tariff. It is
not, we are informed, one particular Canadian interest
whose opinions our respected representative gave ex-
pression to, and whose petitions he presented to the
House, but that of the owners and growers of timber
as well as those interested in shipping property through-
out the colony.

We are heartily sorry if we have inadvertently
misrepresented the position of our representative with
;respect to this matter; but it must be acknowledged,
that the tone and expressions of Sir Howard, upon the
occasion in question, fully warranted us in asking to
be enlightened with respect to their origin. Sir Howard
had " been pressed" to make the motion which he did ;
and when we remembered that the only public meeting
called upon the timber duties question in this town
was something very much like a failure, and were told
that the "twenty-one petitions" which he presented
were from people in Canada, we had a perfect right to
ask, whether the pressure spoken of had come from
this constituency or from the- people of some other
place.

We, of course, took our own opinions with respect
to the justice of Sir Robert Peel's proposition, from the
best sources within our reach at home, and those
opinions were strongly in its favor. We remembered,
too, that there were many interests, and, above all, that
of a community to be consulted upon the question ;
and we thought at the time that that community had
been somewhat slighted in the matter. It is, there-
fore, exceedingly gratifying to us to find, from the evi-
dence, both documentary and oral, which has been
placed before us, that, however individual opinions
may differ with respect to the question at issue between
the Colonial Timber Trade and the Government, Sir
Howard Douglas has acted with perfect consistency
and fidelity to his duty as one of the representatives of
this great commercial port. We have, we may repeat,
as strong a feeling of interest in the welfare of our
Canadian trade as Sir Howard himself ; and could we
have been convinced, as no doubt he was, that the
tariff of Sir Robert Peel would injure that trade and
.
the shipping connected with we should probably
have taken the very course which lie pursued.