The Express.
London, England, 1852-07-09 00:00:00

THE ELECTIONS.

WESTMINSTER.
Yesterday the polling commenced at 8 o'clock, and
for the first three hours the returns were favourable to Sir
John Shelley and Sir De Lacy Evans ; at 11 Lord Maidstone's
position began to improve, and at 12 he stood second on the
poll, Sir John Shelley holding the first, and Mr. Coning-
hem the last plate; the numbers then being—
Shelley
Maidstone 1,884
Evans 1,771
Conineham
This, with the tory candidate, was the top of the flood
tide; at one the ebb had set in, and his majority over
Evans was reduced front 117 to 44. At two Evans headed
Lord Maidstone by 14 ; at three, by 222 ; and at the final
close of the poll, at four o'clock, the numbers for the re-
spective candidates, as given by Evans and Shelley's com-
mittee, stood as follows:
Shelley
Evans 3,758
Maidstone 3,341
Coninghsm
Mr. Coningham's chance from the very first hour was
nil, and that he insisted on recording votes which might
otherwise have been counted for the other liberal candidates,
was la the neigl.butrhood of the hustings freely stated to
be a desire to assist the tory candidate. At one period of
the day a rumour obtained that Evans had resigned, said to
have originated with the opposing committee, for obvious
reasons, and later in the afternoon an equally groundless
statement prevailed that Mr. Coninghsm had surrendered.
At four o'clock an immense crowd, composed principally
of the non-voting friends of Mr. Coningham, assembled in
front of the huller in Covent-garden to cornier' their
own candidate and to assail the victors, in both of which
objects they were to a certain extent successful.
7dr. CON INGHAM appeared on the hustings before the
final closing of the poll books, and, responding to the im-
patient demands for a speech, acknowledged that he had
been beaten in • fair stand-up fight—(here he was inter-
rupted by loud cries of " No, no .7)—a fair stand-up fight
so far as he was concerned. ("Hear, hear," "bravo,"
and that's about it.") He bad coalesced with no one, but
had stood alike independent of the whig rump mail the
old tory clique. (Cheers.) He had stood upon inde-
pendent principle sad had conducted the contest in a
fair and honourable manner. But his whig adversaries
had not adopted that course—(" hear," and "shame.")—
They had condescended to attack him not only in the ordi-
nary electioneering fashion, but had issued against him
from their central committee libels of the most scandalous
description; and when they found that these fell harmless,
these whig friends of religious liberty, as they professed to
be, attempted to raise •no popery cry against him. (Loud
cries of " Shame.") He had no hesitation in saying that
men who could countenance such proceedings were traitors
to the cause of religious freedom. (Great cheering.) There-
fore he said that Sir De Lacy Evans was not fit to represent
the enlightened constituency. of Westminster—(great
cheering, and cries of " Oh, he is a humbug ")—sad there-
fore he said also that Sir J. Shelley was not true to his
principles of religious liberty, when he united with one
who was a traitor to the cause of religious freedom.
(More cheering.) The question to be decided by the pre-
sent contest was whether aristocratic or democratic power
should prevail in the coming parliament. (Hear, bear.)
He had hoisted the flag of democracy in that the second
city of the empire—he had flung the banner out
wide before the people of England, and before the
free peoples of the world. The democrats of America
and of France would respond to the cry that had been
raised. (Cheers.) The question was whether we should
have an Anglo-American and an Anglo-Fretch alliance
carrying out a liberal foreign policy, or an alliance with the
despotism of the north—en alliance with &pais and
Austria—(never)—whether we were to have Lord Palmer-
ston for our foreign minister, and the assertion of liberal
principles, or whether the dominion of the northern mum
was to prevail throughout Europe. (Cheers.) He was
accused of being a communist, an anarchist, and a revolu-
tionist, but his object was to carry on the contest between
the democratic and the aristocratic principles by
peaceful means not by putting a musket into
every man's hand, but a vote. (Loud cheering.)
And to that end ho bad raised the cry of manhood suffrage
in Westminster—a cry which would re-echo from one end
of the laud to the other. (Cheers.) He would above all
things warn them against whiggery. The whip were
always traitors to the popular cause. (Loud cheers.) He
bad not coalesced with the thrice. He had no connexion
with them. All his voters had plumped for him. (Cheers.)
Still, he thought an hottest tory was better than a traitor-
ous whig. (Tremendous cheering) The whigs, ever
anxious to retain dim—were afraid to act on the prin-
ciples they professed. They were even letting " I dare not
wait upon I would." The radicals went too far for the
whip, and were feared by them. A good fight had been
fought on the present occasioe, and they would fight it
again, and give the whip ramp such • licking as they
never had before. The whip had placarded the elec-
tion; booths that he (Mr. Coningham) had resigned,
though they knew to the contrary—for when a deputation
of the joint committee waited upon him on that subject his
answer was, " No ; let the whip no-Popery candidate and
the tory no-Popery candidate fight it out between them."
(Cheers.)
Sir JOHN 8111111 LIT and Sir Da L. EVANS, who came
upon the hustings as Mr. Coningham concluded his ad-
dress, severally endeavoured to obtain a hearing, but with-
out effect. They were assailed with groans, )ells, discor-
dant noises of all kinds, and at intervals with showers of
missiles of a vegetable and occasionally of an animal cha-
racter, none of them much improved by the heat of the
weather, and at length were compelled to give up their at-
tempt and retire.
Neither Lord Maidstone nor any of hie friends showed.