The Express.
London, England, 1853-01-04 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 4, 1853

binet in this country. (Hear, hear.) He believed that
he might else say with the most perfect truth that the
members of that cabinet were men of the most spotless cha-
racter. (Hoar, hear.) They were engaged in the task of
governing the country, a task which he had
strong confidence to believe they would be able to
discharge efficiently. (Hear.) As.d wherever they
surrendered their charge he believed they would do it with
a clear conscience and the approbation el the country.
(Applause.) In the House of Lords, the head of the go-
Term:neat (Lord Aberdeen) had given an outline of the
paltry which would be adopted. Government would respect
in foreign nations the right of choosing their own rulers.
' No unnee• teary int non with foreign countries would
take place, nor would anything be resorted to to break that
peace which it was so important to preserve, but, on the
contrary, all the arts of peace would be cultivated by every
means in the power of the government. (Hear, hear.) With
regard to free trade, it was essentially a tree trade ministry.
(Cheers.) Its members were bound by every principle to ,
maintain and extend that principle, and present any r- '
tempt to reverse it. (Elear, hear.) They were bound
also to prevent any attempt of a more covert
kind which would have the effect of calling
upon one part of the country to pay compensa-
tion to another for hating obtained that great boon.
(Hear, bear.) With regard to the last paint, he (Mr.
Baines) was not free from apprehension that they might
have rime proposition brought before parliament for giving
compensation to the agricultural interests for their alleged
1 loss sustained by free trade, now that the attempt to repeal
half the malt tat had (ailed. (Hear, hear.) It RIP, there-
fore, important that there should be a government in office
prepared not only to resist any reverral of the principles of
tree trade, but to prevent the great body of the people to
pay compensation for the repeal of a tax which never
ought to have been put on. (Hear.) With regard to re-
forms in the institutions of the country, no one could doubt
that there were many of those institutions that needed effec-
tive and searching revirion. We had the authority of Lord
Aberdeen that the government would apply themselves to
that subject. They were prepared also to apply themselves
to the subject of parliamentary reform. They were pre-
pared to recognise the great principle that a considerable
extension of the elective franchise ought to be given.
(Cheers.) And he (Mr. Baines) thought a wiser and more
just sentiment me from the lips of a statesman than
that which was given utterance to by Lord Aberdeen whoa
he said, that, from the results of the experience of his long
political life, he was convinced that the great body of the
people of this country were becoming more and more de-
serving of the confidence of statesmen, and ought to have
a larger share of power put into their hands than the law
had hitherto given them. (Cheers.) He (Mr. Baines)
entirely concurred in that sentiment. (Renewed
cheers.) But whilst the government were prepared
to guarantee reforms they were prepared to maintain the
great institutions of the country. They would not attempt,
by means of those reforms, to insidiously weaken the insti-
tutions of the country ; but they would reform in •.rder
that they might strengthen and perpetuate them. (Cheers.)
That was the way, he believed, the present government
would reform ; and he trusted it was one which would
meet with the approbation, not only of the constituency of
the borough of Leeds, but of the greet bulk .( the inhabi-
tants of the whele country. (The right hon. gentleman
then concluded amidst the loud cheers of the persons as-
sembled.)
. . . . . .

At the close of the bon. member's speech be proposed a
vote of thanks to the mayor, which wag seconded by Sir
George Goodman, M.P., and carried unanimously.
T ILO proceedings were all over in an hoax.

HALIFAX.
THE NOMINATION.
HALIFAX, MONDAY. JAN. S.
The nomination took place at eleven o'clock this
morning, in the Piece Hall-yard, a spacious area, capable of
containing a very large number of people. On this °erasion
there were about air thousand people present, and all
parties were heard with great patience and attention. The
candidates, as is well known, are the Hight Hon. Sir Chas.
Wood, whose acceptance of the office of President of the
Board of Control, under the Aberdeen ministry, has created
the vacancy, and Henry Edwards, Esq., of Hope Hall,
who sat for the borough in conjunction with Sir
Charles Wood in the hut
.parliament. At the
election in July last, Ernest Jones,the Chartist,
was nominally a eandi.late, but he really tood for the pur-
pose of aiding Mr. Edwards, the tory, and ousting Sir
Charles Wood. On that occasion it was considered that
his violent abuse of Sir Charles on the hustings seriously
damaged the tory cause, and aided their opponents; this
time me Ernest Jones has again visited Halite:, and
issued an address to the electors, but he did not appear on
the hustings, having Jett the town a day or two before the
nomination. _

Sir Charles Wood and his friends occupied the compart-
ment on the hustings on the right of the mayor ; and Mr.
Edwards and his supporters took up their places in the left
hand compartment. Each candidate was received with
cheers on presenting himself to his supporters in front of
the hustings.
The Mayor (Samuel Waterhouse, Esq.), attended by the
Town Clerk, arrived on the hustings a few minutes before
eleven o'clock, and immediately proceeded with the business
of the day. Proclamation having been duly made by the
beadle, the town-clerk read the act against bribery and cor-
ruption, and administered the usual oath to the mayor as
returning officer,
The:M•xon, in opening the proceedings, alluded to the
peaceful character of the proceedings at the last election,
when not a single person was committed to prison for
riotous or improper conduct; and expressed a hope that at
the close of the preseat election he should have again to
compliment his fellow-citizens for their good conduct. lie
then bespoke a fair and patient hearing for every gentleman
who wished to address the electors, and called upon any one
who had a candidate to propose to come forward.
Mr. EDWARD ARROYO, of Denton Park, proposed, and
Mr. JOHN CROSALIT, brother of the sitting member for the
borough (F. Crirsley, Esq.), seconded the nomination of the
Right Hon. Sir Charles Wood, as a fit and peeper person
to represent this borough.
Mr. Ono. Heron proposed, fed Mr. Jonx Annorr
seconded, the nomination of Mr. Henry Edwards as a suit-
able person to represent that borough in parliament.
The different speakers were cheered by their respective
partisans, but all were heard with great good humour.
No other candidate being proposed, the Mayor called
upon Sir Charles Wood to address the electors.

8:r C. WOOD was received with loud cheers, and was
beard with great attention. He said—lt was so short a
time since he last stood before them on the hustings to de-
clare his opinions on public questions, and they had signi-
fied their approbation of those opinions by returning him
to parliament by a very large majority at the head of the
pull, that he felt it to be utterly unnecessary for him now
to detain them by a repetition of what he then addressed
to them. He asked their confidence now on other
grounds. He could not suppose that since he
stood there as an individual unconnected with go-
vernment they would have changed their opinions
in the epees of six sheet months. He could not suppose
that any votes he had given as an independent member of
parliament in their late short session had otherwise than
met with their approval. (Hear, hear.) They knew the
votes he bad given, which were before them, and he be-
lieved there was hardly a man amongst the majority who
meat him to parliament before, who would not have voted
as be had done. (Hear, hear.) But it was duo to the
electors and to himself to state the circumstances under
which he now came to ask for their suffrages. He stood
before them now in obedience to that constitutional

practice which required those who accepted office
under the crown to submit themselves for approval to the
constituencies which •ent them to parliament. It might
be that the electors approved of his conduct individually,
and disapproved of the government of which he formed a
part. (Hear, hear.) He now asked them to return him
again as a member of the government, on the ground that
that government was the best calculated to promote their
interests and the interests of the country at large. (" Hear,
hear," and applause.) He agreed with the seconder of his
opponent, that Hahn: was the head of • most important
district ; and he now asked the electors to look upon this
contest with metropolitan eyes, not confining
themselves to what merely concerned the town
of Halifax, but considering also whet concerned the
various and important interests—the universal interests
of the United Kingdom and the British empire. (" Hear,
hear," and cheers.) Such were the considerations which,
he believed, ought to influence all the electors ot the United
Kingdom ; and it was the ground on which ho appealed to
the electors of Halifax for a renewal of their confidence.
Sir Charles then proceeded to detail what had led to the
downfall of the late government, and stated the reasons
which induced himself and colleagues to take office. Allud-
ing to the late Derby government, he described them as
still professing protectionist principles, but willing to carry
out, though inadequately, the principles of free trade.
These gentlemen had declared certain principles and mea-
sures to be dangerous and destructive t, the beet int.:rests
of the country, yet they pledged themselves to carry them
out. (Hear, hear.) What did the electors of Halifax
think of men who pledged themselves to do that
which, according to their avowed opinions, they believed to
be mischievous and dangerous? (Hear, bear.) They not
only declined to put into the Queen's Speech an opinion
that free trade ought to be carried out, but they refused in
the House of Commons to vote that the repeal of the Corn
Laws was "wise, just, and beneficial," on the motion of
Mr. Villiers, therefore he opposed them. (Cheep.) He
would ask the electors of Halifax how would they have
voted if the question had been put to them ? Would they
have said that the repeal of the Corn Laws was " wise, just,
and beneficial "—(loud cries of " Yes, yes ")—or would
they have said it was not to ? ("No, no," and cheers.)
Sir Charles proceeded at great length upon these and other
topics t 3 which he had adverted in his address of last
week, and which has already appeared in our columns. He
was loudly cheered at the conclusion.

Mr. EDWARDS came forward amid cheers from a consi-
derable majority of the multitude. He said he had come
forward upon this occasion as a matter of duty in deference
to the requisition which had been presented t 3 him. He
had promised to answer to that cell whenever it wee made.
Ile submitted that, while their former representative, he had
done his duty as an Englishman. The eyes of all England
were upon this contest between himself and the right hon.
baronet, and he hope 1 his friends would be as faithful
to him as he had been to them in times gone by. He
flung back an insinuation made agaiuet him that he had
brought Mr. Ernest Jones again to Halifax to divide the
radical ranks. With rufercnce to the free-trade question,
which had been harped upon so long, he said they knew
already that he would do nothing to oppose its operation,
but would promote it in every way which might he coast-
dered conducive to the best interests of the country. He
begged also that he might no longer be taunted