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

ELECTIONS.

TOWER HAMLETS.—THE NOMINATION.
The nomination for this borough took place yes.
terdsy morning on Stepney-green. Lung before 12 o'clock „the
hour filed for commencing, an enormous crowd surrounded
the hustings, and, in spite of the scorching nun, a dense rum,
assembled in front. There Was a great paucity of Ilage and
even of ribbons, but withal no lack of partisanship or lung.
to give spirit to the occasion. The several candidate.,
they successively arrived, were mot with vocif,roin de.

At a little after 12 tho writ was read in the ordinary
course.

Mr. CHILD, the returning officer, then reminded the
assembly of the important duty which it had to iliseharge
and requested a fair hearing for the 'peahen, elm rving, is
conclusion, that Mr. Thompson would he prono.,•d hrst no
account of his having stood at the hind of the poll at the
last general election. (Cheers.)

Ni;. F. CLARK then came tOrward, and said he had to
nominate their old, well tried, hard-working, and bout.,
representative, George Thornpson—(ehren, and ern, of
"moonshine ),—who had laboured in the cause of the
people during the whole of his mature life. Haring tn.
mined the addresses of the other candidates, he must say
that through most of them any one might drive a mark and
(Great uproar.) The gentleman whom he pro;ar.ert
had always shown himself the true friend, not of rel:aious
liberty merely, but of religious equality—(ita, hear);—and
if any of them bud been misled on that subji et, they wouhl
on the following day have an opportunity of core tin; their
mistake.

Mr. POORE, amidst great confusion, seconded the nomi-
nation.

Mr. Ststesox, of Clanton, nominated Sir William (lay,
amidst continued yells, and oecnsional cries of •• Sliami,."
Mr. C. IieICWS seconded the uemin .tion, wui,l t siniiiar
interruption.
Mr. Howe proposed Mr. Ayrton, &eland his Mdiaf
that he was a fit companion for George Thomps,,c. It was
difficult to please all parties; but it having been
to Mr. Thompson that lie was poor, he weak. °burst U. at
Mr. Ayrton was not poor. (Laughter.)
The Rev. Mr. CHI YCII MIR seconded the nominstim.
Mr. J. It. D. Tviist:is proposed Mr. Salisbury but:er.
Whilst he was making vain effirts to be her..rd, the sc. as
was varied by the sudden appearance at one corner of the
hustings of a large body of labouring men, who ch. red
with all their might, and were stated to be an import iffo
tram the Ratcliffe Gas Vorks, of which Mr. 1101;. ris the
chairman. Alter remaining a few minutes, they suddenly
went away, hot reappeared at intervals during IL, ill%
Mr. .1. G. HAMMACK FCCOllded the raiminntiou.
Mr. AMIIILUSE then proposed Mr. Will. Newton, al. ra
he commended to the suffrages of the electors a. a
advocate of the rights of the working clas es.
Mr, ih.,01/NIFIELu seconded the nomination of Mr. N, w.
tun. No other candidate being nropossd—
s. ........

Mr. 0. THOMPSON then a-di-mice(' to speak; and on
doirg so was received with general ehee..'ng read .n in
muse waving of hats. When compirative silence la I
been obtained, he said he had to offer to the etcetera. a.
title to their suffrages, a life of utdmpeacheil and %aim-
reachable integrity. (Loud cheers and partial urn ..r)
He came In fare them again because he believed that tle.:r
principles remained the same, because he believed ti./
meant to stand by their principles, because he believed they
were not to be hoodwinked out of them, intimilated ',et of
them, cajoled out of them, bribed out of them. (Chow )
lie came before them after having manifested the. met
earnest, disinterested devotion to their CAU4.—(..;.kO
" How about America i'")—and so surely as the sin thee
shone upon 'item, so surely, he believed, he should he at the
head of the poll on Thursday morning, (Confusion iii the
centre of the platform.) Some gentlemen behind ware ie.
terruptiug him. They knew their fate, and desireti nut to
be tormented before their time. (Cheers and laughter.)
No other candidate in the field hail dared to iinpiLin any one
'act of his public life. ("Oh " and cheers.) If n:iy man
who dared not do co on that Platform did so at nett other
period (as was understood), he would brand him a, a mie
errant wail a coward. (Cheers.) Ile had sleep courted
inquiry. At fifty meetings he had branded the weal,
used against him us the basest that could be entaloyid.
The influences on which some of his opponents hat Ailed
were base, brutal, and—(The close of the sent re c was
drowned in noise). These weapons were poisou,d, and
recoiled on the assailants. Thom: who used them hail I'm
their supporters, disgusted all honest men, outraged airy
sense of decency its the borough. As to his political prim..
pies, amongst other things of which he was in fateur were
the ballot, annual elections, and absolute religious ea
Some of his opponents said they could nut sot, for the
repeal of the Maynooth endowment because it new meted
upon an act of parliament. Who proposed the set of par-
liament? They did. Who paused it? They did. (Hear,
hear.) He could vile against it without any hesitation, le •
cause he had had nothing to do with the matter, and he would
do so because he grulged every penny of the public money
that was applied to religious or ecclesiastical purposes.
(Cheers.) As regarded one of the other candidates, he
could not kelp mentioning that at the period of the last
election that gentleman wrote a letter in which he "de-
precated the return of Mr. George Thompson us a c:.lamity
to the church." Ile was quoting Mr. Salisbury Butler's
own words. He bad the letter, and could pro Mee it
Mr. Thompson concluded with a declaration that he was M
favour not of religious toleration—that lie could not recap
nix—but of religions equality. (Cheers.)
SirlW. CLAY then attempted to speak, but for several
minutes not a ayllualr could be heard amidst the deter-
mined interruption which he met with. lie then removal
to a part of the platform which was within three
or four yards of the reporters' box, and there ultimately
succeeded in making himself tolerably intelligible, in spee
of continued' attempts to prevent him from being heard.
He said the first subject to which he would refer was
Maynouth. lie mentioned that subject first, be-
cause he bad seen a placard in which his name
was mentioned in connexion with it. Let them
look that question in the face like men of sense, like just
men and Christians. The Msyuooth endowment was not
an annual grant, but a charge of 26,0001. a year on the
Consolidated Fund. The act passed in the year Ist) was
a confirmation of many prior acts. These acts coot tined s
solemn compact between the crown, parliament, .:red the
Roman catholic people of Ireland; and the obligati in thus
incurred could not be broken without cause being sheen,
the only sufficient cause being a violation of mead faith.
It was said that there was that cause. (lieu, hear)
Charges had been made against the Roman catholics to the
effect that they had shown themselves inimical to the
crown and government of this country. As thee charges
were believed by large portions of the English people, it was
desirable that they should be either verified or disproved.
i Therefore he was n favour of a committee of inquiry being
appointed by the representatives of the people of Eagland.
He would have voted for such an inquiry in the last paha-
. latent. and if returned he would vote for it in the neat.
(Cheers.) If the charges were proved he would Pan in
abrogating the grant. It they were dieprored,
there was only one other ground on which it could
be justly abrogated, namely, that it was a violation of the
rights of conscience to support or assist any religious system
out of the public taxes. That was a sound objection, and,
in theory, at least, unanswerable. No religious endowment
by the government of a protestant country could logically
be defended, for it was contrary to that right of private
judgment which was the corner stone of the protestant
faith. Such endowments could only Ir defended on grounds
of general policy—for example, as tending to promote kindly
feelings between those who, agreeing on many other topics,
differed with respect to religion. It they failed to du that,
they failed in their object; and, instead of being a bond of
peace, were a source of religious animosity and of exal
discord. (Hear, hear.) But if on that ground he were
called upon to vote for the abrogation of the grant to Mas•
nooth, ho must reply that in that case there should be ac
inquiry with regard to the public money granted to pre.
Unmet. in the north of Ireland, and all similar application•
of the public revenue. Let them change the system it
they pleased; but let them not commence with an attack on
one clam, and that the poorest, the humblest, and the
weakest clam of the community. (Cheers.) Those ea,
not his sentiments alone ; be had the satisfaction of knee •
ins that they were the sentiments of almost every emiwnt
may, without exception, in the House of Commas. of every
shade of opinion, Whig or Tory, Peelite or Radical. 'Huy
had all refused to vote for abrogating the grant to May
without inquiry. it was amusing to think what
would be the result if views like those which were held by
the authors of the placard which he had mentioned were
generally successful. The result would be to turn en:
Lord John Russell for the City, and Mr. Disraeli ler Bide
ingbamshire—(laughter)—Sir J. Graham fur Carlisle, Mr
Cardwell for Liverpool, and Mr. Gladstone for Oxford ;
W. Moleeworth for Southwark, Mr. Cobden for the W,.:
Gibsonßirig toofrYiduarkanettihete;Lheoarc,..hebare).—ohl_.r. Bdriett,
Mr. Macaulay, the glory Of our age, would be ra.
vented from coming tu for Edinburgh. Whom wain
they have in their stead? Mr. Spooner and Mr.
Newdegatc, and a very few orange-coloured gentlemea.
from Ireland. (Laughter.) Let them imagine suet, a par-
liament. Why, a crew without their pilot; an aims with-
out its commanding officer ; a troop of actors with *all the
stars left oat, their parts being performed by walking Ma,
tlemeu and scene-shifters ; a plum-r without the
anlle!:ll.4t.

pudding
plums—conveyed but a feeble notion of such a par,rcorat.
But he had a graver charge to make against the authors of
this pamphlet. He found thews words—' In the short
reign of Mary, the papists burnt to death 277 geese,-1
whom 66 were woman and 4 children." It was ss:th for-
row and humiliation that he found that this paurphict cos-
tume from the East London Protestant Protection "acid';
a society, he believed, containing in it clergymen silo) •"'
members of that church to which he belonged. Da those
gentlemen think that they were showing - zeal acconlaut
to knowledge ?" Did they think that they were obeying
the precepts and fulfilling the example of their diva
Master ? Did they think it wise to seek to rouse the pas-
lions of tho people, by referring to the mats
of the dark ages? Did they think it wiv
to cut about firebrands, and to pantie I
course which might result in making our Mee,. rot with
blood ? Did they wish to see the scene+ at Stockport
rain
over again in London ? (Hear, hear.) Blu ut • gum
that painful subject; convinced that the men of the FORCI
Hamlets were too enlightened and too just to forget the
obligations which were imposed upon them alike by emurooa
sense and by Christian charity. He weuld not, before al.+
audience so little disposed to give him that fair play which
was the boast of Englishmen, prolong what he heal to say.
Charges had been made against him in a placard what
swtaeteremaetintrwe hoifehmwiscrereprteleotanfityatuionnfs,;unpdacdrti,y ainroduipacrtlytaifprr!
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