The Press.
London, England, 1858-06-12 00:00:00

RE ELECTION OF SIR E. B. LYTTON.

SIR EDWARD Iltamea lorrroN appeared before the
electors of the county of llertford on Tuesday, in
consequence of his appointment to the office of
Secretary of State for the Colonies in Lord Derby's
Government, and was re-elected without opposition.
The proceedings took place in a field adjacent to th•
borough of llertford in the presence of a large con-
course of the townspeople. A semicircle of open
carriages filled with ladies, and drawn up in such
manner as to inclose the crowd on foot, gave a pleas-
ing relief to the monotony of the assemblage.
The right hon. baronet was proposed by Mr. P.
Delme Radcliffe, and Mr. C. D. Dimsdale seconded
the nomination.

No other candidate being proposed,
The High Sheriff, amid vehement cheers, deeared
Sir E. B. Lytton duly elected a knight of the shire
for the county of Hertford.
Sir E. B. LvrroN then presented himself to the
assemblage, and was greeted with loud cheers. He
said :

Gentlemen, it is somewhere between :100 and 40(1 years
ago that an ancestor of mine, who resided at Knehworth,
was a Minister of the Crown, and also a member for this
county. He held a considerable station in the councils of
King Henry VII., and be was equally honoured by the con-
fidence of the electors of Hertfordshire. At a somewhat
later period another member of my family held a post of
great dignity under Queen Elizabeth ; he also had the
proud distinction of being knight of the shire of Hertford.
And now I stand before you es my forefathers stood before
your forefathers, and I thank you from the bottom of my
heart for having permitted me to -identify the honour
which 1 have received from the gracious favour of my
Sovereign with the representation of our native county.
( Cheers.) Gentlemen, in my address I stated that they
who beat knew me were aware how little at any time in
my life I have been actuated by the desire of office in the
pact that I have taken in public affairs. Perhaps ion may
say that that is a declarer ott which is made by m-iny and
believed by few. But it so happened that several years
ago, when I was a young man, and at that age when ambi-
tion is most keen, I refused an introduction into office under
a Government which then seemed so firmly established as
to offer every inducement to an official career. And I
think you will candidly allow that it is less Intely that I
should be tempted by office now, when I have arrived at
that period of life at which men who have worked as hard
and as long as I have done usually begin to desire repose ;
when my countrymen have accorded to me some degree
of literary reputation, which may have little to gain from
the hazarilout experiment of office, and when a fortune
which suffices for all my wants, and a country home to
which I am strongly attached, would naturally dispose
me tow arils that comparative freedom from anxiety and
toil which is the happy privilege of an independent
member of Parliament. ( Hear, hear.) But you may ask ,
if that be so, why do yon take office ? Gentlemen, why do
Englishmen do many things which they do not like very
much in themselves? In that crowd there is, perhaps,
some honest tradesman who in the course of his life has
given a vote that he need not have given at all, and which
lie would rather not have given, as it may have obliged
him to offend some powerful customer of his, but by
means of which he has, neverths less, sought to serve an up•
right cause. Why, again, does the old soldier go forth once
more to fight when, perhaps, he would prefer to stay by his
own fireside ? Why do many children work fur their parents
and many parents continue to work in their old age for their
children Is it not because Englishmen are accustomed
to believe that the first object of lite is not ease, but duty ?
(Cheers.) And, gentlemen, when those by whose aide
had acted for many years of Opposition were suddenly
called upon to form a Government, and did me the honour
to think that I might be of some use in sharing the task
which they had undertaken, you will allow it was my duty
to do all that might lie in my humble power to assist them
in the discharge of responsibilities which they did not
seek, and from which they could not shrink. ( Hear,
hear.) I have been asked, and I will take this occasion
fully to explain, why I did not join Lord Derby's Govern-
ment when it was first formed. One Wednesday morning
Lord Derby, when he was just beginning to construct
his Administration, asked me whether I would accept the
same office which I have now the honour to hold. I
answered "Yes," from the same motives as I have just
stated, though with a sincere and painful diffidence
of my own capacity. A fee hours atterwinds, on the
evening of the same day, I received a sudden and unex•
pected intimation that my seat would be hotly contested.
did not complain of such a proceeding; it would have
been perfectly constitutional. I only say it took me by
surprise, because it is not usual when a member has been
appointed to office under a Government which has not
been tried even for a single day, as that of Lord Derby
had not then been. I assure you if I had then been only
an independent member of Parliament, with my own safety
alone to consult, I should not have feared any opposi:ior.
But my immediate thought—and it was my own thought
—was this, that the new Government ought not to be
exposed to the slightest possible risk of the loss of a
single seat on its first appeal to the country for the
re-election of its members. ( Hear, bear.) A: that
time I had not an hoar before me to decide.
the great offices of State were to be immediately

n.
:ide. MI
itely filled