The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-11-14 00:00:00

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liberpoot taitbarb.

TUESDAY

MORNING, NOV. 14, 1854

THE MAYOR.-THE TOWN DUES.-
LIVERPOOL IMPROVEMENTS.

WE were told by the Radical papers of the great

importance to the town of electing a Mayor who

should stand well with the PRESIDENT OF THE
BOARD OF TRADE,—for the great question of the

retention of the Liverpool Town Dues was to come

before the Legislature, and Liverpool would be on
her trial for the preservation of an income of more
than a hundred thousand a-year, which was assailed
by all the Parliamentary influence of Radical Man-
chester. There is something very peculiar in the
mode in which the Radicals endeavour to carry out

their views. When the name of Mr. JOHN
STEWART was mentioned as one who was likely to
be the chosen of the Conservative majority of the
Town Council, we were told that nothing could be
more injudicious, for Mr. STEWART was personally
objectionable to Mr. CARDWELL, whereas the
election of Mr. GEORGE HOLT would be such a
graceful concession to Ministerial prejudices that it
would be the means of saving the Town Dues from
confiscation, and leave Liverpool in undisturbed
enjoyment of her princely income. It was vain to
contend that Mr. STEWART possessed every requi-
site qualification for the coveted dignity ; his po-
litical principles were the bar to his success, and
nothing but a Radical Mayor would save the town
from legalised robbery. The question, however,
assumed a new phase, for the name of Mr. JAMES
ASPINALL TOBIN was announced as the favourite
of the Conservatives ; and then the Radicals
unsaid all their previous sayings, and, throwing all
their objections into convenient oblivion, advocated
the election of Mr. STEWART as the best man to
fill the office of Chief Magistrate. So much for
the consistency of Radicals— showing that in this,
as in all their former acts, they are the obstructive
class—active only in opposition, and opposing
any or everything that may emanate from
the Conservative body. The people of Liver-
pool, have, however, a deeper interest in the
stake, and the members of the Town Council
are called upon to show their regard for
that interest without reference to the triumph of
party feelings. If, as we are told by the organs of
Radicalism, and have reason to believe from the
report which has been presented by the Com-
missioners on Local Post-charges, the great ques-
tion of preserving the Town Dues to Liverpool,
under their present management, is to be brought
before Parliament, it would be as well that the
hands of the advocates of Liverpool interests
should be strengthened by practical evidence in
their favour. It should be shown that a tax, which
Manchester, however unjustly, complains of pay-
ing, is not only sanctioned by a legal right as in-
disputable as the title to any landed estate, but
that its outlay affords a benefit to the community
at large. It will not do to point to St. GEORGE'S
HALL, which, with all its magnificence of propor-
tions and decoration, is but an ornament to the
town. With far more advantage could the Land-
ing-stage be referred to as a convenience of which
all partake the benefit, and to wide streets and
thoroughfares which give advantage even to Man-
chester men in the facilities for the traffic of the
goods upon which they are called upon to con-
tribute. In this respect, however, much remains
to be done, and we trust to see the Town Council
turn their steady attention to it as the best means
of disarming opposition. A proposal is now before
the Council to improve the approaches to the Land •
-
ing-stage, by altering the arrangements of George's
Dock and the Basin ; and this has met with such
favor as to afford reasonable evidence of the public
demand for it. We have, on a former occasion,
pointed out the advantage to the town from widen-
ing Paradise-street and Whitechapel, which would
remove much that is a disgrace to Liverpool, and
form a most convenient thoroughfare between the
Custom House and St. George's Hall. Park-lane
and the lower part of Duke-street should also be
widened ; and by this means the crowding of Bold-
street would be relieved, and a convenient route be
afforded to Toxteth-park and that neighbourhood.
These would be improvements of practical utility—
affording more real benefit to the inhabitants than
the ornamentation of particular localities ; and now
that the attention of the Town Council is
awakened to the necessity of doing something, in
order that its expenditure 'may be defended as
clearly as its legal right to its income may be
proved, we trust to see some progress towards
carrying out the suggestions we have made