The Express.
London, England, 1852-07-22 00:00:00

THE ELECTIONS.

[Pressure of news prevents our to-day repeating
the usual list of members returned].

NORTH NORTHUMBERLAND.
The nomination of candidates for the representa-
tion of the northern division of Northumberland in the
Commons' House of Parliament took place on Menden last
in the market-place, in front of the Town-hall at Alnwick,
where spacious and substantial hustings had been er, tied.
The Coder-Sheriff, Mr. If. W. Feroviek, presided, and the
various candidates, accompanied by their most influential
supporters, basing taken their places on the bushier... ea.
George Grey, Bart., standing on the right of the sheriff,
and Lord Ossulaton and Lord Louvaine on the left, pre-
cisely at 10 in the forenoon the proceedings were coal-
menced, many thousands of persons having by that time
assembled as spectators.
Mr. C. W. Oise, of Nunnykirk, having proposed Lord
Ossulston, whose nomination was seconded by Mr. Betsy
13unnete,
Sir W. TREVELYAN nominated the Right lion. Sir U.
Grey.
Mr. P. J. SELBY briefly seconded the nomination, calling
attention to the public Jae of Sir George Grey, as a tri-
umphant proof of his fitness to represent them, and of his
having fulfilled the promises which he made to theta when
they last elected him.
Mr. W. ettesswitta. proposed Lord Louvaine, whose no-
mination was seconded by Mr. J. CooneoN, of Meldon-park.
The several candidates then addressed the electors, Lord
OSSULSTUN taking precedence. He said I appear
before you to give an account of my conduct in the
responsible situation with which you have honoured me ter
so many years, and to state the course it is my ietentem ro
pursue, if it shall be your pleasure again to return me as
one of your representatives. (Cheers.) lam sillier to
ackcowledge that this is not the time is renew the tight
upon the old battle-ground of protection and free trade.
(Applause.) If the voice of the people preponderates ha
favour of flee trade, still there are other means by which
a friendly government may benefit the farmer. (Applatee.)
It has been tauntingly asked us what we con do tor the
farmer that the whigs could not do ? if you put it upon
this score, God known we should do little enough. We
may not be able to remedy much of the injustice our pre-
decessors have done ; for you all know it is far easier to
take a false step than to retrace it. (Cheers.) But that
some readjustment of taxation should take place, cow.
quent upon the late changes, and that such an adjustment
should be directed to the relief of the farmer, who has
borne the whole weight of that change, justice as weed as
policy demands, though justice has been hitherto denied to.
It may be true that Lord Derby's government is not pre•
pared, any more than the late government, to renal)... a
duty upon corn; but that is no reason why those should lay
claim to be the tanner's friends, who have denied him all
compensation for his losses ; or why those who are leagued
with his bitterest foes should have a higher claim to tee con-
fidence of the farmer than the friends who have steal and
have fallen with him in the fight. Do not then, gentlemen,
allow any false reasoning make you lose sight of your real
position. You have yet much to lose if you were left to the
tender mercies of the Anti-Corn-law and the Chesliano
place League ; and you have much that you may gain if yen
give support to a government, whose only anxiety is to do
justice to all classes, but who will not curry honour with one
class by the exclusion or the neglect of another. (Loud
cheers.) No ingenuity has been spared by our opponents in
misrepresenting the circumstances under which the pre.
sent government hat taken office. They have attempted
to narrow the question before the country to one simply
of protection and free trade, and to make it appear that
Lord Derby took office under false pretences. The real fact
is notorious that he was celled upon to take command of
the ship when the right hon. baronet and his colleagues had
deserted the helm. And the true question the country has
to decide (though it has been conjured out of sight by the
old war cry of free trade), the real question is whether the
country will require, or can afford to have a fresh constitu.
tion every 10 or 12 years, and whether it will submit to have
its constitution tinkered by the whigs, fur the sole purpose
of propping up a ricketty whig government. (Loud ap-
plause.) I must next advert to a very importaut sub-
ject, which is not unattended with difficulty, and which
will always, I fear, be accompanied with some difference of
opinion—I mean the subject of education. (Cheers.) Now,
I must first of all tell you that by education, I mean nut
merely the communication of secular knowledge, but the
formations of character, the training of rational and im-
mortal beings for the due discharge of their various duties,
and the qualifying them for the enjoyment of happiness
here and hereafter. (Applause.) Education, therefore,
according to my definition, must necessarily be more or
eu religious. And now comes the difficulty. If we were
all of one mind ie religion, the duty of the State
in this particular would be easy. But, unfortunately, we
are not of one mind. But all contribute to the ex-
penses of the State by a common taxation; and,
therefore, all have a right to look for assistance
from the State, provided they teach nothing contrary to
good morals, and nothing detrimental to the peace and
order of society at large. (Loud cheers.) I maintain that
all have this right, for government stands in the relation
of a parent to all, and all contribute of their means to
its maintenance and stability. Let government then
recognise this right—let it assist all in the great work
of secular and religious education, in proportion to the
efforts they themselves make iq jhe cause. And let it ap-
point inspectors (subject to thdrapproval of those to whom
they are spent), who shall use all vigilance in seeing that the
funds it advances for education shall not be wasted or mis-
applied. (Cheers.) (The noble lord concluded amid loud
and long-continued cheering.)
Sir GEORGE GREY on standing forward to address
the auemblage was greeted with loud and prolonged cheers.
He addressed the meeting nearly as follows :—Gentle.
men,—l sincerely thank you for the cordial and gratifying
reception which I have this day bad at your hands.
(Cheers.) I know that among this goodly assemblage
of Northumbriana there are many who do nut poss. is
the right to vote for members of parliament ; but let me
tell you this, that I prize highly the good will, the attach-
ment, and the hearty good wishes of those who, though
they may not be able to record a vote at the poll, are )et,
from the increase of their daily comforts, (desirous of testi-
fying their anpreciation of that policy of which I have
always been the humble, but the consistent advocate,—that
policy which, on every occasion on which I have met you,
I have recommended as identified with your best interests,
—and that policy, led me add, which if you return me
again to parliament, lam still prepared again to maintain
and adhere to. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, during the coune
of my canvass, and up to the time when I came into Alnwick
this morning, I did not know whether I was to meet m
noble opponents as protectionists or free-traders. (A laugh.)
There has been so much shuffling and evasion upon this
question—eo much talk about the farmer's friend in one
direction, and so much about the labourer's friend and the
big loaf is another, that I did not know, I say, whether I
was coming today to meet a protectionist opponent or a
repentant sinner, converted, though late, to the advocacy
of free trade. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, I heartily congratulate
you on the fact, which is now beyond dispute, of the late,
though I doubt not the sincere repentence of my noble
friend, Lord Ossulston. (Cheers.) He has added one to
that oodly list of funeral orations over a departed friend
—(laughter)—which through the length and breadth of the
country we have lately heard from candidates professing
an unbounded confidence in Lord Derby's administration.
(Cheers.) Gentlemen, all that I could extract front the
address of my noble friends was, that they were confiding
supporters of Lord Derby and Lord Derby's govern-
ment. I accordingly came here prepared to ask them
whether they were prepared to support the protectionist
Lord Derby of 1851, pledged, if ever in office, to attempt a
re-imposition of the duty on corn, or of Lord Derby, the
free trader, who, through his nearest relation, Lord
Stanley, who has lately had to meet his constituents, pro•
claims that a return to protection is absolutely impossible.
(Hisses from the supporters of Lords Lovaiue and Ossul-
sten) Gentlemen (addressing the opposite side of the
hustings), I am really surprised that this sentiment should
meet with the slightest disapprobation, for I was stating,
not opinions of my own, but opinions of the son of the
Prime Minister; and I see that your confidence in the gO-
- is evaporating already—(cheers and laughter)—
and that you cannot bear to hear that they have abandoned
that which, during five or aix years of opposition, they have
sedulously maintained. (Loud cheers.) Gentlemen, my
friend Mr. Ord has alluded to Lord Ossuiston as the tanner s
friend. Now, I wish he had defined what he meant
by the,
ifarmerstho manfri whoend. believe I
dares
to vethatteh him
the true
thefri thendtrouftt
farmer
(cheers)—and not the man who panders to delusion, or
endeavours to induce you to follow and expect what is
now admitted to be a phantom. (Loud cheers.) Gen-
tlemen, I have always told you—l said it on these hustings
five years ago, and I have said it wherever I have, in
agricultural meetings or elsewhere, met any large portion
of my constituents (and always happy have I been to meet
them and I thank them sincerely for their kind reception
of inc:)—l have always held, I say, that the true interest of
the farmers consisted, not in following what is utterly
impracticable, but in procuring equitable arrangements
as to their rents, sod applying their energies to in-
crease the production of the soil, and not by seeking
through acts of parliament to raise the price of corn; Or,
in other words, to raise the price of the people's suste-
nance. (Loud cheering.) Gentlemen, lam happy to learn
that my friend Lord Ossuleton is also now of that opinion ;
and I hope that those electors who have made their vote to
depend upon the fact will remember that my noble oppo-
nent has told you that the government of which he is a
pledged supporter do not intend the re-imposition of the
corn laws. We are told, in ambiguous language. by the Chan.
cellor of the Exchequer, that there is something "looming
in the future "—that there is something which the govern-
ment may hereafter do which will benefit the farmer, end
that this something is to consist of a revision or readjust-
ment of taxation. I say, however, you ought to knew 'that
the nature of those measures are before you give your on•
fidence to the ministers who contemplate them. You ought
to know what this mysterious "something " is which they
promise you. (Cheers.) It is veiled in the same imp,
netrable mist in which the government have hitherto suc-
ceeded in shrouding their intentions. Daring the last
session they said, "We are in a decided minority in the
house, and therefore we cannot be expected to hring forward
those measures of interest to the country which we shall be
surely (continued rienersfierrGwwrdorey)inthoiehneenwwpearalir
met on
lint
hustings., and when you are called upon to perform that
great and most important duty of choosing men to repre-
sent your interests, and not yours only, but to take part
all those deliberations which affect the interest.' of the
mighty empire,—eurely, at such a time as thiQ, we 0001
to know what are the principles, and what the policy. of
the men who seek your suffrages. One word to the tenant-
farmers farmers in reference to this proposed re-adjustment of tax