The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-10-07 00:00:00

Be it. so. But no man will surely say that at the period
when conservative associations spread throughout the land
there was not cause of fear for the permanence and stability
of those national institutions which we have learned to
venerate. At that period it required no little nerve for a

man to avow in public that he was a conservative, for
conservatism was neither as popular nor as fashion.
able as it bas since become. (A laugh and cheers.)
When our association struck its tender roots in th e
soil, the whirlwind of popular violence threatened to hurl i
to the ground • but soon the tempest ceased its violence, and
the tree flourished, budded, blossomed, and bore fruit. Two
conservative representatives in parliament reposed under its
branches ; and radicalism, then apparently so firmly seated

in the Town-hall, has been since at a ol'ul discount, and
the object of the association was nobly attained. (Cties of
" True !") It now slumbers; but at the slightest alarth it

nd forth its acti

ergy. (Cheers.) It will
11-infortned' canvassers to

and,' mighty in its moral
s, and setat defiance any

tternpt of the radical party to grasp the parliamentary re-
I government of our " good old

?resentation, or the

should hay

opponent
—Forty-five out of forty-ei_
lar municipal election was surely majority enough. Did
they, when flushed with victory, exhibit their magnanimity
by electing one solitary alderman of opposite opinions to their

Dud cbiers.)

And yet

,en • reiretted- tlmt. political opinions'

f any man's fitness for occu

while ht

ast always be the case

(Hear.) (

one tine had the opportunity of
st popu-

Laing nobly

t at our

own ? (No, no.) Did they not ejeCt some of the old offi-
cers of the corporation to provide for men who wereAhrown
on the surface, by the boiling agitation of the Reform Club?
(Cheers.) And did not one portion of their press vociferate
loudly against any tradesman, who held conservative senti-
ments, being permitted to participate in any portion-of the
corporate work, no matter what his character might be—no
matter how competent he might be to fulfil his duty. (Loud
cheers.) What, then, is left for conservatives to do ? To
retaliate? No ! But to set them an example of noble and
disinterested moderation •, to let every competent and re-
spectable tradesman have his fair share of public employment,
although he may differ from us in political opinion. But at
the same time, let us keep the party who acted thus incon-
sistently with their own professions out of the Town-hall—
(hear)—for by so doing, we shall keep them out of the way
of temptation—(laughter)—and they will learn, in seclusion,
that " sweet are the uses of adversity." (Loud laughter.)
Let conservatives teach them the lesson, that a man may be
1

iberal in practice without assuming that specious name,
under which too many men cloak their real intentions and
throw dust in the eves of the multitude. (Cheering.) If.

therefore, any man now present wishes to know what my
political creed is, I will tell him. I would separate liberty
from republican violence ; I would encourage freedom, but
discourage licentiousness ; I would recognise popular inde-
peAence, but not at the risk of superinduciug revolution.
(Loud and long cheering.) I would have conservative prin-
ciples tried by the test of reason ; and, if we are convinced
of the truth, I would have all our energy exerted for their
propagation. I believe the struggle in the present day is for
all we love and venerate. We, of this generation, are the
guardians of that limited and chastened liberty, purchased

by the blood of our forefathers—(cheers)—and-we bold these
blessings in trust for the benefit of unborn generations.
(Hear, hear.) We must struggle to maintain the British
constitution, unimpared and inviolate, with all the moral and
intellectual energy of which we are capable ; and we must
consider our responsibility increased in a tenfold deg

periods of national danger. We must use all the influence
of our station in life, however humble that Station may be
in which it has pleased Divine' Providence to place us, to
preserve and perpetuate that constitution which recognises
the rights and gives protection to the lowliest as well as to
loftiest—(loud cheers)—which holds as sacred the cottage of
the peasant as the palace of the noble—(cheers)—which en-
courages industry, which gives security to property, and
which affords, as it ought to do, the most ample toleration
to all who conscientiously differ from our national establish-
ment, on points of religious faith. In the present day we
hear much about expediency and compromise. To me, such
words always convey the imputation of something dishonour-
able if not absolutely dishonest. and the sooner such terms
are expunged from our political dictionary the better for the
country. (Hear, hear.) They remind me of O'Connell's in-
stalments, and are always slices cut out of principle. An
opinion may change, but principle is immutable and eternal;

. .
and if our government, conservative though it be, ventures
to act on the shrinking and wretched system of expediency,
a downward course they will inevitably mark out for them-
selves. (Hear.) What is honest and right to-day will be so
a thousand years hence. What is wrong to-day cannot, by
any logical reasoning, be right to-morrow ; and he who acts
on expediency to-day will sink into compromise to-morrow,
and his 'next step will be inevitable and irretrievable ruin.
As it is with individuals so it is with nations ; and if you ask
me what I consider the most important duty of a conserva-
tive at the present time, I reply, a simple and straightforward
adherence to the principles of our limited and fenced mo-
narchial institutions, and a fixed, unswerving determination
to support that balance of power which preserves to each of
the three estates of the realm its just prerogative, not per-
mitting to any one of the three such a preponderance that
the equilibrium of the whole may be endangered. (Cheers.)
Am I told that in holding these antiquated opinions I am
behind the spirit of the age? Be it so. But what is the
spirit of the age ? Is it the opinion that all creeds are alike ?
Is it such liberality in political and religious matters that
I am to yield to what is termed the tender conscience of
every man with whom I have the misfortune to differ, and
not vindicate and defend the suggestions and convictions
of my own conscience ? Is it to render science paramount,
and divine revelation secondary and unimportant in the
vital question of national education ? Is it to sacrifice
the best customers of our looms I mean the agricul-
turists—to benefit .those nations who will not reciprocate
with us? (Hear, hear, hear.) Is it tamely to permit any
men to govern this mighty empire, if I conscientiously be-
lieve their acts to be dangerous and inimical to the public
welfare

Is it to stifle my-own conscience in mistaken. ten-

derness for theirs? Is it to agree in such absurdities as
chartism, which would be rediculous if recent events had not
proved that it can be dangerous ? Then am I content to be
belainl the spirit of the age, and to be assailed, in the main-
tenar

of my own opinions, with what I have been long
used to—vulgar invective. (Cheers.) Let me not, however,
be misunderstood by any man. I will not consent to the
humiliation of entering the council chamber fettered by
pledges; but I will promise you this, that I will not go there
with the union jack nailed to the mast-head, and then hoist
a single stripe of any other banner when 1 am, for a time at
least, bevond.your reach. (Hear, bear, and loud cheers.) I
will, if need arise, support the Protestant institutions of the
land in the council, as I have ever done zealously and fear-
lessly out of it. I will defend the Cherch of England, with
all her rights and privileges, endeavouring to make her more
useful to her growing population, and extending the benefits
of her communion as widely as I can. (Cheers.) I will not
enter the chamber fettered by clap-trop pledges of economy
which I do not mean to carry out when they militate against
public improvement on a comprehensive scale, and when petty
economy would prove detrimental to the exercise of public
taste. 1 love my native town, and lam anxious to see her
increase in works of public utility and elegance, in edifices
raised for the purposes of benevolence, and in all those
attainments which throw a charm around any people, and
which can stamp the every-day pursuits of life with moral
grandeur. I have a presentiment of the future greatness of
this commercial metropolis of the north. If it is too mag-
nificent for you, then do not, I beseech you, intrust to me
the disbursement of any portion of your public funds. (Hear,
hear, and loud cheers.) But consider for a moment what
our town is, and what her prospects really are. Carry in
your mind's eye the map of Great Britain, and you will find
her seated on a noble river, commanding two entrances into
the Atlantic through the great basin of the Irish sea. She
has no harbour or port to compete with her between the
Clyde, 200 miles to the north, and the Bristol Channel, 180
miles to the south of her. She possesses railways and
canals which connect her with every part of England. She
is the seaport for a home population of four-and-a-half mil-
lions of inhabitants, nearly all of whom receive their foreign
supplies, and export the surplus productions of their industry
through her portals. (Loud and protracted cheering.) The
hardware of Birmingham, the cutlery of Sheffield, the pro-
ductions of our Potteries, the produce of the cotton mills of
Manchester, and the wool manufacture of Leeds—all these
are identified, more or less, with the commerce of Liverpool.
She is encircled by coal-fields, proximate and exhaustless,
which give facilities to our steam navigation, and life and
motion to our mills. She exports nearly all the salt which
the country produces for foreign supply. Ireland pours into
her lap about one-third of its surplus produce. She pays one-
sixth of the customs' revenues of the empire. She has an
income exceeding £300,000 a year applicable for her local
government and her general government. (Cheers.) She needs
not to levy a rate on her inhabitants, as other and less fortu-
nate towns are obliged to do—and with these, and a hundred
other advantages, who will say that paltry and niggardly
measures are wise for Liverpool? Who that reflects will not
cheerfully admit that a capacious mind in her Council, and a
sagacious forethought in her local rules, are absolutely neces-
sary to provide for her future wants and her future greatness.
(Cheers.) When I reflect on these things, lam often grieved
to read the petty bickerings by which the attention of the
Council is diverted from nobler and more important matters ;

and with a heart as desirous as any man's to witness the good
government of our town in an enlarged and comprehensive
spirit, if you think fit to elect me one of your representatives,
I will do my best to carry out the views I have so feebly and
imperfectly expressed ; and I shall aim at returning into your
hands, when the time for doing so arrives, as pure'and un-
sullied as you will confer it; the honourable trust which you
may be pleased to repbse in me.
At the close of his able and eloquent address, Mr. Holme
was very warmly congratulated by his friends on the plat-
form. Mr. Wilkinson called for three times three cheers,
which were heartily given, followed, by the Kentish fire.
Mr. SANDS said, that after the admirable speech which
they had just heard, he was not at all surprised that the
meeting should feel pride and exultation at the position in
which they were placed. If he felt any regret at all, it was
that he could not pledge himself to join them in the effort
they were about to make, inasmuch as he was not an elector
of the ward ; but he should take the warmest interest in the
success of his friend Mr. Holme. (Cheers.) He moved a
resolution to the effect that the meeting, having heard the
sentiments of Mr. Holrne, pledged themselves to use all
legal means to secure his return to the Town Council at the
next municipal election. (Cheers.)
Mr. BUSHELL felt infinite pleasure in seconding the reso-
lution just moved by his friend Mr. Sands. First and fore-
most, looking at the private character of Mr. Holme, be
would ask the meeting whether they had not in that a security
for his public character with regard to the future? And con-
necting his private character with his public life for the past,
he (Mr. Bushell). would contend that they had an ample
warrant for his public life hereafter. (Hear.) It had been
too much the fashion to disunite the public from the private
character of a man. He (Mr. Bushel!) had never done this
in his life, nor did he think he should ever change his opinion
(i
so as to do it in future. (Hear.) If a man was honest and
upright in his dealings; if he was as a father and husband at
home, depend upon it the same principle would continue to
govern him in the execution of any trust that might be pub-
licly imposed upon him. (Hear.) He conceiv_ed_
_it wasp un-
necessary for him to say any thing in favour of Mr. olene,
seeing that they all knew him ; but he felt it his duty to say
this much, because in reference to public and privite cha-
racter they should never be disunited. He agreed with Mr.
Holme in his view of the magnitude of the trust delegated to
a councillor, and should be glad to see his ideas realized
selative to the improvement of the town ; but unfortunately,
whether owing to whig or to tory mismanagement the meeting
might say, the corporation was at this time, as it were, almost
bankrupt. That very day the chairman of the Finance
Committee had stated that they had not money enough to
provide for the security of the town from fire, and they must
wait for this till good government placed a fund at their dis-
posal. He referred to the obstructions offered to business
in the council by certain factious individuals, and to the
transactions of that day, in order that the people might see
who most deserved the name of reformers, and concluded by
reading the following letter from the Rev. Rector Campbell:—
, " Duke-street, October 1, 1842.
"Mr DEAR SIR,—I greatly regret that the state of my
health precludes the possibility of my proposing Mr. Holme
for St. Peter's Ward. Approving, however, most highly of
his principles and conduct in every way, I shall be most
happy to vote for him ; and there is no man whom I am
more desirous of seeing in council than Mr. llohne,apd
where, I have no doubt, he will shortly be.—Your very faith-
ful
servant, ,4 Ave. CAMPBELL.
"E. Rae, Esq." . •
•

Mr. WILKINSON called for three cheers for the rector

which were given.
Mr. SAMUEL HOLME, in moving a vote of thanks to tli