The Express.
London, England, 1849-11-16 00:00:00

OUR REPRESENTATIVE SYSTEM

DUDLEY.—(Concionen
And nnw, having folly pointed t rat the position cf
Dudley regare's than Lime and political influences
at week there, we peectel to gigs that which .s mire
immediately the beaker; of lb s article, the eleeLral
t.: Me town. It ill 6 elect and dreary ore,l
asty marked by the occurrence of one exciting con-
ies'.
The large towns which were enfranchised in 1832
felt at the first election which occurred in them all
the awkwardness of a first appearance in a new chi-
/Weir. Parties were unformed, no combinations of
any sort prevailed, and in the majority of cases acci-
dent rather than deliberate judgment determined tte
choice of the electorates. An accident threw the
representation of Dudley into the hands ot no lees a
than the Solicitor-General, Sir J ihn Campbell.
E7(77am p eel I had est for Stafford in the parliaments
of 1830 and 1831. But with the passing of the /1•••
form Bill he was desirous of obtaining election by •
dlfferent constituency, and indeed circumstances
which had occurred at Stafford prevented his *gala
slides for that town. Dudley, a borough not distant
frogs Stafford, was selected it is blieved, by
Mr. Joseph Parker. Sir John Campbell went to Dad-
ekry in utter ignorance of the character of the eon-
stitaency and of the men with whom he had to deal.
But it was a new borough, a large borough, and a
manufacturing borough, and therefore was supposed
necessarily to be a hot ral borough. When Sir John
Campbell got down, he found appa ently a very in-
Runnel cpponent in the field. Tnis was Sir Horses
St. Paul, one of tho owners of the " great black
cake." 'MO nomination of Sir Horace St. Paul, how-
ever, was not free from objection. He had repreceated
Bridport in several preceding parliaments, and had
been an opponent ot the bill by which Dudley was
enfranchised. For common honour the great body of
the new electorate were obliged to let their face
maize! this. But there was another circumstaece
greatly to Sir Homier disadvantage. Although he
owned a considerable pert of the mineral property of
the district, his possession of fiat property was far
from beneficial to the iron and coal mister,. Sir
Home • St. Paul worked his own moats, and the
iron masters regarded him with some jealousy, as a
rival in their buttes& The support be received
from them was, tiler fore, anythiogbut warm • and the
Political Union of Birmingham having declared for Sir
John Campbell, "plain Jack" wee enabled to secures
comparatively easy victory at the poll, where the
numbers were—for Campbell, 318 ; St. Paul, 229.
At this time there were only 670 v. tree on the
register, instead of a thousand, as at present.
In February, 1831, Sir John Campbell having suc-
ceeded Sir William Home as Attorney-General, came
down to Dudley to obtain his re-election. Circum-
stances, however, had vastly changed since 1832.
The reform excitement had passed away. The
Birmingham Political Union was defunct. The
liberal party had become lees popular, and in
Dudley Sir John Campbell had done nothing to se-,
outs for himself any loos' sympathy. The party
which bad brought him in in 1832 was a party with-
out any influence or weight whatever in the town.
They had succeeded mainly in consequence of the
feelirg of the day, and the fact of their having suc-
ceeded was sufficient to unite against them very
strong and powerful influences. The Dudley tories,
in fact, had now begun to show a formidable front
and were prepared stoutly to oon-est the seat.
The candidate they selected was a local man—Mr.
Thomas Hawke., of Himley. Mr. Hawker was an
amiable man, whose family had made their property
in Dudley, and who had himself been engaged in the
glass trade of the district. He was a man of some
ambition, and had aimed for a long. time at high
society and a seat in parliament, without having
either the means sufficient for the one, or the ability
desirable for the other. However, the Dudley Wire
were dieposed to gratify Ifni, the more so as he was
a man very likely to succeed at an election, from his
general popularity, and the circumstance of his resi-
dence bring next door to Himley
Mr. Hawke. was aeocrdingly proposed. The tories
exerted themselves indefatigably on his behalf, and it
was speedily evident that they would b successful.
But the tories of Dudley are not a class
of people who can bear either success or
defeat with moderation. They had displayed
from an early period of this contest violent passions,
and an influite amount of bad cling t Awards their
opponents of all claw's. Gangs of bullies had gone
about to threaten and assault individuals, canvaesers
upon the liberal side had been insulted in the public
atreete, and it was an open boast with the tories that
they would make the town too hot for their ddversaries.
Go the day of election all these cease and vulgar
methods of exasperation were increased tenfold.
People were insulted at the poll, and the authorities,
all tories, would afford them no protection. At length
the town became a scene of riot and confusion. It
was feared that Sir John Campbell would personally
become an object of attack, and be was advised to
leave the town. Accordingly, whilst the tory mob was
bellowing in the street, in front of his hotel, the Attor-
ney General, accompanied by a friend, and disguised
by a muffler round the lower part of his face, left the
inn by a back door, and, proceeding through the nar-
rowest and dirtiest parts of the town, esc toed from it
by a circuitous route. The pa sage by which Sir John
left Dudley received the name of " Campbell's Flight,"
and will probably be so distinguished long after the
circumstances which gave it celebrity have passed
into oblivion.
An hour of retribution, however, was now at hand.
The tory mob had held the town all day, but it is a
dangerous thing in a dis.riet of this sort to play
agame at mob+. No sooner was it known that there
was riding in Diedliy than the largest coal and
iron works on the Sturbridge side poured forth
an army of miners ; mi n to whom to see
the light a day was itself almost an excitement
Into Dudley they poured with wild shouts and
outcries. The people fled in terror. The shop
windows tied all been closed. As they came down
the streets the colliers pulled down every shutter,
and threw them through the windows into the
houses. Not a whole pane of glass was letr. The
pavements were torn up. Stones began to fly in all
directions. The town for a whole hour was given up
to a worse riot than before, and then the Blacks
began to retire.
The rear of their army was at one end of the town
when the Dragoons from Birmingham galloped in at
the ether. The authorities who had permitted riots
on their own side all the day, had sent expresses for
the troops the moment they found they had got the
worst of the game they had begun. The military
arrived too late to prevent the mischief; but they
held pomemion of the town all night, and
thereby afforded security to the inhabitants. And
thus terminated one of the most riotous elections ever
known in England—an election thoroughly &agree.-
fel to the town where it occurred, but of which the
Dudley tones boost to this hoer, as if, instead of ex-
citing the worst felines of humanity, they had
achieved some great moral triumph.
Mr. Hawkt a sat for Dudley from Feb. 1834 to July
1614. At every Recce solve election some cue was
brought forward to oppose him, but hs majorities in-
ereasi d at every contest, and the liberals polled fewer
and fewer the more frequently they. fought the
borough. Except the excellence of their cause, they
have not, in fact, a single element of strength is
Dudley.
Mr. Hawkes probably acquired some additional
influence, in consequence of the marriage of one
of his daught re with the brother and heir pre-
sumptive of Lord Ward. The peer himself was for a
long time understood to be the lady's suitor, but the
purger brother ultimately obtained her hand. Mr.
Zawhes might have ettiatinued, under these air-

wumstauces. to represent tbs town, but un'ortenately
tie pressure of pecuniary embarressments obliged
him, in 1844. to go abroad, with a view to repair his '
fortunes. He accordingly relinquished his seat. to 1
which Mr. John Bectoow, the agent aid auditor of
the Ward estates, immediately succeeded.
Mr. Benbow's pretensions to the representation of
the town rest exclusively upon the office which hall
bolds. Be is neither a native nor a resident, nor is
l
any other way connected with the place. He is I
imaapsrativedy very slightly known in Dudley. He I
Maim it bet rarely and does nothing of himself to I
adverses its legal interests. A representative be
emreely can Is celled, for Mr. Bsnbow is ore of
those nemshwe who rarely record their opinions by
w vote in lentiameet. Wag contested with:the Nat
without dm basil, el attending.
asivpta.
Daily. thus reposoloi. Ms molted, se one • ht
the lowest pit sr Ns paged
fe"o"vetry low wins the use from
SW Alluarresasesi to X& linty; • . 611 Mill