The Express.
London, England, 1852-08-27 00:00:00

(ROUGH ELECTION.

(From tbe Doily Now)
AN allusion, in our last article on Vote by Ballot,
to Mr. CORNEWALL LEwls's reception at Peter-
borough, has drawn down upon us an objurgatory
letter from a resident in that city, which will be
found in another column. Our correspondent deli-
cately insinuates that our remarks on Mr. Ly.wts's
speech have a tendency to encourage the Derbyites
to start a candidate for Peterborough ; these remarks
being, according to him, calculated to cause dissension
in the Liberal ranks. It happens curiously enough
that we were just about to make the same complaint
of himself and his friends when we received his
letter. Our readers shall be judges which of us is
in the right.
Nothing is so easy as fur Liberals, or professing
Liberals, to start a candidate for any constituency,
and then, if any elector demurs to the eligibility of
the candidate, raise a cry against him that he is fol-
lowing divisive courses. And yet it must be obvious
to the dullest apprehension that, if the candidate was
brought forward without giving the aggregate body
of Liberals an opportunity to judge whether he was
the man suited for their purpose, the dissension in
the Liberal ranks may really and truly be the work
of those who are the first to impute it as a crime to
others.

Now we will not be suspected of any desire to
oppose Mr. Lewis : we have on more than one occa-
sion expressed our conviction that ho possesses
qualities and acquirements which may bo turned to
good account in Parliament. Neither has any man
a right to accuse us of following divisive courses;
for our constant efforts have been directed, through-
, out the late elections, to dissuade Reformers from
: going to loggerheads among themselves. Yet we
must confess that though Mr. LEWN is the Liberal
I candidate first in the held in Peterborough, he has
been introduced to the constituency in such a
'fashion that we should hesitate to accuse any Re-
former there of introducing dissensions into the
Reform camp, simply because he was reluctant to
accept Mr. LEWIS as the Liberal candidate.
The Firzwit.t.tma interest is strong in Peter-
borough ; and we gladly admit that it has on many
occasions been creditably exercised. Hut the time is'
fast passing away when any body of men will allow
a noble family (or its head) to think and act for them
in matters political. Above all, this sturdy spirit of
independence is of rapid growth in places which are,
like Peterborough, active centres of railway enter
prise, and where new men arc daily springing up
who neither know nor care for Um old lords para-
mount.

Peterborough is a constituency in that kind of
transition state which "craves wary walking" and
delicate handling. It will no longer be kept in
leading strings. Yet the aristocratic section of the
Liberals which has brought forward Mr. t'onNEWALL
LEwis as a candidate for Peterborough, has been
treating the Liberal electors as if they were mere
vassals of the House of Frrzwtswit. "A body
of electors," according to our correspondent, invite
Mr. Lewis to come down; Mr. LEWIS pays the
general electorate the compliment to address a
public meeting; that meeting, after awarding to
him a fair and deliberate hearing, passes a resolu-
tion that he is not the member for their purpose;
whereupon Mr. LEWIS tells them that ho will per-
sist nevertheless in his endeavour to become their
representative, and betakes himself to a private can-
vass. Had Mr. LEwis alleged that the majority
who voted against him were not electors, or even
that they were not Liberal electors, and ap-
pealed to a ticket meeting of the electors
holding Reform opinions, no one could have
blamed him. But by betaking himself to a
private canvass, he says, as plainly as actions can
say, "I would have paid you, the independent elec-
tors, the compliment of condescending to appear to
be your nominee, had you accepted meat the hands of
the gentlemen who brought me forward; but since
you will not, I throw myself on the private influence
of the old family connexion, and will be your mem-
ber in spite of you." And wo say unhesitatingly,
that the candidate and his backers, who thus attempt
to ride roughshod over the independent electors'
right of choice, are answerable fir any divisions that
may arise out of such conduct in the Liberal party.
Whether they are first or last in the field is in such
a case a matter of not the slightest moment.
The reasons why the public meeting at Peter-1
borough hesitated to accept the offered services of
Mr. Lewis are, whatever our correspondent may
think to the contrary, not without weight. Mr.
LEWIS professed great indignation at the intimidation
exercised upon electors at the general election.
" 'Personal experience had confirmed his opinion
that some plan must be devised to secure freedom of
voting." Well; what was his plan ? He bad none.
Would ho support vote by ballot ? To this plain ques-
tion (if our correspondent informs us rightly) Mr.
LEWIS answered by elaborately parading every argu-
ment fur and against the ballot he could think of ; and
ending by declining to support it, because
he " doubted the efficacy of the ballot-box
in securing the secrecy of a vote at parliamentary
elections." Mr. LEWIS, it seems, only objected to some
specific mode of ballot, as not ensuring secrecy, not
to secret voting. He had no other plan for shielding
the honest and independent elector to propose.
And yet he declined to support a measure for ensur-
ing secret voting. Is it to be wondered at that men
smarting, it may be, under intimidation, disgusted
with the scenes of bribery they have witnessed,
should doubt whether they can rely upon a man
who, when action is urgently and imperatively
called for, puts them off with long rigmarole speeches,
leading to nothing, not even to a definite abstract
opinion ?
So with extension of the suffrage. Mr. LEWIS,
as far as we can gather from our correspondent's
letter, expressed himself as friendly to suffrage ex-
tension; but he appears to have followed up this
profession by enlarging on the dangers of a hasty
extension, and cavilling at every specific qualifies,
tion that has been brought under the notice of the
public. Here, again, Mr. LEWIS presented him-
self, not as a man of decision and action, but merely
as au ingenious dialectician and plausible talker.
This is the weak side of the section of the Liberal
party to which Mr. LEWIS belongs. Their senti-
ments are in general unexceptionable ; their critical
sagacity great; but they are never prepared to act.
When their opinion is asked about suffrage
extension, vote by ballot, or the like, they
reply, as the Spectator did to Sir Royer de C'orerley,
that " mush may be said on both sides." When
finked whether, if returned to Parliament, they will
sapport vote by ballot and suffrage extension, they
diverge into long and irrelevant expositions of the
inexpediency of tying up legislators by specific
pisolges. This is an evasion. They know right
well what is asked of them, and that is, not to
pledge themselves to vote for any specific measure,
or at any specific time, but to declare by a plain in-
telligible " yes" or " no" whether they arc for or
@gaunt vote by ballot and suffrage extension.
It is by such paltering that the Whigs have
thrown away the preatiyc which attached
to them in 1t430. The earliest independent Liberals
have from time to time drawn off from the Whigs, not
because the Whigs did not "go as far"as they did
—that was never looked for; but because the Whigs
never could be got to say how far they really did go,
sr to act upon their own professed convictions. It was
by such conduct that the Whigs broke up the Liberal
patty, and allowed the Derbyises to creep in. It is
not by persisting in the same evasive, irresolute tactics
that the Whigs can repair the mischief they have
done; yet Mr. CORNEWALL LEWIS and his friends at
Peterborough seem resolute to adhere to their old
dull jog-trot.

The following is the letter referral to above.
TO THE EDITOR 01 THU DAILY HMV'S.

Stn,—ln adopting the report of the meeting of
liberal electors at the Corn Exchange, Peterborough, whe•
titer taken direct from the Ames or received from the re-
porter, you have in your leading article of the 23rd instant,
been led to speak of our liberal candidate—Mr. Cicorge
Cornwall Lewis—in a somewhat unfair tone. It is true you
have been misled by a very imperfect report of his sperch at
the above meeting, the reporter. a native of this city, being
• mere novice in the art. I am a constant reader et your
valuable journal, and appreciate the aid you give to the
cause of progress, and was much grieved to read your re-
marks on Mr. Cornewall Lewis's reported speech, fearing
the injury they might do our common cause.
Mr. Lewis was invited by a body of electors of this city
to come down and give an exposition of his political prin-
ciples at a public meeting of this constituency, in the hope
that he might gain the support of the entire liberal party at
our next election.
lie did so. Several questions were put to him, chiefly
by a small section of the liberals, with a view to draw from
him distinct pledges to support certain principles, =ono

which Vote by Ballot, Household Suffrage, Aloitn
Church Rates, and Separation of Church sod State, were
prominent. In his replies he did not merely say, in the
in-
stance of the vote by ballot, that " the question was sur-
rounded by difficulties," he did not shirk it in this way, but
he • ntered at considerable length int) the nature of those
difficulties, showing how much may be said on both .ides of
that important question. Many liberals, most anxious for
(realm of election, doubt the efficacy of the ballot box in
securing the secrecy of a vote at parliamentary eleetiois
and how do you think the ballot boa andeonfessional would
work together iu Ireland.? Surely the ballot box would
either fail to secure the voter from the intimidation of she
Romish priest, or utterly demoralise his esaract, by cu.
cnursging him to lie. But Mr. Lewis admitted fully the
enormity of the evil which, as some think, the ballot.bux is
to remedy. Ile believes that he lost his election fur the
county of Hereford through the intimidation of voters-
and su personal experience has confirmed bin opiuiuo thai
some plan must be devised to secure freedom of vutine.
Again, in his reply t the question on household suffrage,
he spoke well and at considerable length, deehriug dis-
tinctly his advocacy of an extended franchise, bat such
extension must be gradual to be cafe. Look at France,
where the suffrage has been too hanti4 given; under the
appearance of freemen, the inhabitant, ul that unfortuuate
country weer the chains of the most galling slavery.
Again, with revect to the abolition of church rater, Mr.
Lewis is not such a simpleton al to tell any constituency, as
his only reason for retaining it or a substitute, that it is a
"very ancient pas." Ito freely admitted is apparent us-
felines; in certain cases, and would have this tax abolished,
on condition of some grant being provided fur the repair of
parishes churches, and in support of this opinion be gave
his reasons fully. In conclusion, let me Ira uf you to I,l[l.
eider whether you have not, by your remarks on Mr.
Lewis's imperfectly reported speech, led the Derbyite party
to suppose that there is room here for it De 011ie candidate.
At the last election they did bring forward one, but we beat
them, aided though they were by the extreme rade:ale
I am truly happy to soy that Mr. Cornewall Lewis has
been very well received here, mid his curlews!' has been nv,t
successful, and that we are confident of plating him at the
heal of the poll.
But a contest we are anxious to avoid (although we hare
not a shadow of duelist as to the result), awl then I stemey
deprecate the tone of your remarks, whirl, by encouraging a
split iu the liberal camp might induce a IL rhyite to toms
forward. You know Mr. Li win's worth as a public moo,
kis admirable pamphlet on the financial state of the
country has greatly advanced the growth of free-trade
principles, and was the immediate cause of his being invited
here by the liberal party ; and believe me we shall show
the men of Herefordshire that wo can appreciate public
servicia though they could nut. 1 trust these remarks will
not be too long for your columns ; they come from an ear-
nest advocate of liberal principles, but who believes that
progress to be improvement must be slow awl well consi-
dered. ALPHA.
Peterborough, August 24.

TILE ARGILEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

NEWCASTLE,w V.DNE,,I)AV EVP.NINci.

This morning, at 10 o'clock, the hi.toncal section
met In We theatre of the Literary aial
Society, soder the presidency of welter. JAM!S Raise,
of Derheat.

JOHN HODGSON lIINDE, E•q., read a paper on the
State of Newcastle and Gateshead daring the Saton
period, which had been originally compil, at in suniewaat
fuller detail, as a contribution to a comprehensive hat.,,y
of Newcastle, on which Mr. Richardson 1,4 I been f r some
time engaged. Mr. Made also read a paper on the ancient
trade of Newcastle, showing the gradual manner in which
the town had risen to the prosperity it now enjoys.
The Earl of CARLISLE, who had arrived as Mr. 'bride
was finishing his paper, now took the chair, and called upon
Mr. Thomas John Taylor to read a paper upon the
Archaeology of the Coal Trade.
Mr. TAYLOR, after remarking that he had enlarged the
customary bases of inquiry, bee Luse coal-mining had long
ceased to be a separate subject of in vestigation—eting asso-
ciated with the steam-ensile, with railway*, long called
"Newcastle wads," and with gasdightine—obserred that
the most ancient employment of coal would be fauna to
hese been among the Chinese. It was mentioned, under
the name of " litiianthrax," by • single Greek author, as
having been found at Eli, and used I,om:times by 'mid".
The name of "stone-coal" was natural enough from ds
hardness; and Bum Sylolus, in the fifteenth century,
mentioned that he had seen, with much surprise, what
appeared to him to be lumps of black stone given as
alms to the poor at the gates of the Scottish monasteries.
The Romans appeared to have had no proper name for
coal, yet it was need among them. The records of the
Antiquarian Society of this town showed that rod
cinders formed part of the relics found at Roman
stations, yet the Romans did not seem ever to have
worked it systematically ; and bells of coal were vet entire.
near some of their stations. Yet it was evident, from their
other operations, that this was not from any want of mining
skill. Wood at that time was so abundant, that =thing
else was needed fur fuel. In the year h 52 a payment in
kind was made to the Abbey of Petereorough, consisting of
ale, wood, and 12 vassals of (weal or pit coal. Probably,
this was fur smiths' use. The use of coal, however, was
long very limited ; and in the Leger Burgerum, made
about Ilia, a particular privilege was granted to those abs
brought fuel into boroughs. but coal wan not anon; the
kinds mentioned. These laws ware made in Newcastle by
David, King of Scotland, then in possession of the town
Probably coals were used for manufacturing purposes in
Newcastle, and exported also, before the grant of any roaal
charter to work them; because privileges were not sought
till their value was known. In 1239 Ilenry 111. granted a
charter to the freemen of Newcastle to dig coals in the Castle-
field and the Furth. Six years afterwards coal was called by
Matthew Paris "cork math," sea coal, from its brig
taken to London by sea. The mines at Leige, the New-
castle of the continent, were discovered in 1189. The
tracts of grouud extra muros," mentioned in the charter
of Henry lII.' with the Town Moor, contained, at that
time several beds of coal, particularly the scam from Me ID
six feet thick, called the 'High Main. In aid of the fees
form rent payable to King John, the liberty to dig cab
was granted by his summon In 1305, towards the end of
the reign of Edward I, artizans and others used coal, oteer
fuel becoming scarce in populous districts ; but the pulse
meat declared it a noxious nuisance, corrupting the air by
its smoke. A commission was therefore appointed to destroy
these furnaces, and fine all who persisted in using them.
This, however, failed ; and a few years after 10s. worth of
coal was used in the king's palter, at the coronation.
Coal smoke had often been complained of since, and it
was to be hoped that some method of consuming it, suf-
ficiently economical to be brought into general use, would
soon be discovered. In the beginning of the lth century
the coal trade was found to be progressing by the upsw-
ing of new mines, while the old were still worked. Teo
of the new ones were mentioned as having been let by
the Prior of Tynemouth, near Elswick. The term
" stashes" was found in English in a lease in 133 a; tte
word then included a storehouse for the coal. A licocce
granted by Edward 111. showed that the coal-fieldain the
Medea, district were then opened ; snit a document fray
the Pipe Rolls of the Exchequer, dated February 19,130.,
showed that coals were then being worked in Winlatom
In the middle of the 11th century the working of cook
' extended on the north, south, and west of Newcastle, bat
only where it lay near the surface. Mr. Taylor here de-
scribed the mode of mining is those dap, and remarked
that the price of Newcastle coal in London was relstin:y
higher than now. Coal mines, further, were worked
Beellingtonshire, and their produce probably shipprd
the river Blyth ; for the Bishop of Durham, in
appointed a supervisor of his mince in that dinr.r.
The rolls of Whitby Abbey, in 1395, showed that
thirteen shillings and fourpence was paid for CO3l
to William Retie, of Suaderland. In the faun
teenth century the first notice was found of duties leal
upon coal. Mr. Taylor here gave various detain TV•
lating to the duties, and proceeded. During the waned
the Hoses little tespecting coal mining was recorded. The
Northumberland Household book mentions the peer
1.112; at that time coal was burned with a mixture of trod,
till the latter became too scarce. In 1529, Carillon Wiervea
than Bishop of Durham, appoiated a supervisor of the bad,
iron, and coal mines within his demesne lands. In
Thomas Gardiner. l'rior of Tynemouth, granted a less,. of
the coal mines in Elawick, at the annual rent of 201.
a limit upon the quantity rained ; a condition not found at
the earlier grants. In the latter part of the lath center/
coal was in general use for manufacturing and cabal
purposes, but not fur domestic tires. In 14; it is oar
tamed as having found its way into some of the PI!
merchants' parlours. Among the documents in La
T.'s) possession, was a lease front n Phizaheth to.er
Nicholas Tempest, of coal mines at Stella, tle-n teal
Stellcv and Stellingtoo. In 10th) Elizabeth incorpo
the society of boatmen, who had existed as a guild n?''!
castle from time immemorial ; they were named at 7'l
charter as being incorporated for the better loading:4r
disposing of Coals is the Tyne. Amongst some details raw
,given by Mr. Taylor, ho pointed out the misappr,h,cso*
which had ,arisen from the word ° tens" having. col
hl of'
take, been taken for " tons; " the ten " having pbd
been about twenty-one tons. In 1619 a Met
atren
woo made to smelt iron with pit coal. Coke had.
need for drying malt and other mimeses Pr'''°e`'' •
1610, but was not used successfidly for coal eil
after ; when, iu consequence, the iron trade, which 'IN.
literally been almost extinguished for want of fui
wined, and progressed with extraordimuy
charcoal had now to be used, nearly half the suttee,
island must be devoted to tla, growth of woad for
n wnsoalufenuertauiriew.a,l7...4Mdre.scir'aibeylodr.oLtof the Jh:
Hone as well as the drainage of mine., the lesel."1ar' .
oected with the application of the steamengine to e:.
anarpotes, tic , and then noticed the moil, fit impree,..
'upon the coal railways. The ventilation of nom, 0,
Iniegzhttinsughjeicita,oif.grepomainrtke,d
to
follotwheedubusn'cnibt-
many interesting particulars, Mr. Ties for
paper (which took an hour and a half it, reading' ••,1
following estimate of the total present consularA '
in Great Britain :In operations connected .; I. . .
ores, 10,500,000 tans; for railways anal gas, a o '
for domestic consumption and all other -
tons; total, :15,900,000 tons; expotted, 3, roet,tnst t".
39,100,000 taus.
whTohlee
ii,Ecartilonof.CoAuißd LhleSarlt,iEls scaoind,
uhre
wwitals,
lution of thanks to Mr. Taylor, for the able and ter',
paper he had read. To use a common phrase
Mr. 'Taylor had " brought his coals to Nk weletle
ingly well. (Applause.) Willi ri to On' „
very comprehensive statement, as lie (1,01 l'a, • ,
longer the Chief Commissioner of the W '