The Express.
London, England, 1849-05-30 00:00:00

FINANCIAL AND
lAMENTARY REFORM.

Last night a meeting of the elect° • and non-
electors for the coney of Middlesex and the borough of the
Tower Hamlets resident in the pariahs' of Poplar and Lime-
house, was held at the Poplar Literary Institutioe, for the
purpose of forming and organising a branch association in
comae:We with the parent society.
Mr. OCKENDEN took the chair, and observed that •--
though at one time the inhabitants of these districts were
wedded to the msaopoly formerly enjoyed by the Beat India
Company, a °bangs had come over their minds, and they now
felt Outset wily wee a damsels' reform called for, but es a
preliminary to that reform, an amendment in the re-
presentation of the people in the Comatose haws of paths,
mener-is *thee weeds. they required men to be sent to par-
anoia% net to esgenient themselves their friends, sad
IMPOMIPIi3IIIIIt hat to advance, promote, and represent the
haus' sad herainterests of the people at large. He (the
sheineme) esell speak of events for the last half century,
sad be seellesmmabend every new wham at promi.irt to
de well he the peeple. duels was the case when Burdett,
Meinwering, Mellish, gad Byes contested the tounty;of
labialesex, end it was then mid that by the return of Bur-
dett, reform is parliament, reduction in the public ripen-
diture—ia that, everything that meld be desired
by the people, would he secured ; bat, I. the
end it appeared that Burdett turned oat to be as
swam a tory as any man that ever eta in the legislative as-
sembly of the country. There were, however. some honest
rasa amoegst them, and with thew ha glared Joseph Hume,
Maud Cobden, Mr. Williams, the late member for Co:
'TWIT. all of "them had ever held up sad advocated with
tree assedWeery the
_greet principles of eonstitutioaal repre-
sentries and Ommdal reform. The object el the association
now about to be fanned was to severe results, and he called
apes the meeting to unite with the parent institution in
ardor to carry the great caws to a 61100.111fil WM. (Neer,
beer.) If they united they could not be batten, but would
achieve a similar triumph to that which had been moss-
phased by the Anti•Corn.law League.
Mr. LINWOOD, one of a deputation from the paned as.
ciety, addressed the meeting at considered' length, and wee
warmly sheered.
A series of reeohitiens were agreed to, in amordsees with
the objects of the Metropolitan Parliamentary and Financial
Reform Association; and of the recognition by the meeting of
the principle of the vote by ballot, electoral divisions sad
triennial parliaments ; end a vote of thanks was peed to
the chairman.

THE EXPRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MAY 30, 1849.

Dover, by accident, sent an unfledged statesman to
represent its interest's in the British legislature.
In 1830, Mr. Wilbral am having antecedently been
elevated to the peerage, the party who had supported
him brought forward Sir John Rae Reid, the West
India meretant and Bank director—a gewleman who
possessed to the full extent the wealth which
Dover tones have always considered an eon-
teal qualification in their member. Mr. Hal-
combs stood in opposition to this gentleman and
to Mr. Thompson, but was defeated on the poll, and,
what was far mere serious, on a petition which fol-
lowed it. The ground of that petition was informa-
lity in taking the poll, and the committee having con-
sidered the bets, declared the maiden to the return
to be " frivolous and vexatious —a decision which
threw the whole burden of the cuts upon the unfor-1
tenet. petitioner.
But Serjeant Halcombe was destined to obtain, with-
out exertion on his own put, amp'e satisfaction for
this inglorious defeat. Within a twelvemonth afterl
the decision of the committee parliament was die-
solved by the Grey administration. Sir John Rae
Reid went down again to Dover. He had voted
against "the bill," and Dover, which had been in a
state of dissatisfaction about patronage for some time
before, was just one of those towns in which " the
bill" was particularly popular. Sir John Reid in
consequence was received extremely ill. The reform
party had determined to proeoie a second man. Their
candidate was Cap'ain Robert Stanhope, cf then
navy, a member of the Harrington family,l
and a gentleman of peculiarly ;popular manner 1
and address. As a naval officer Captain Stanhope was
able to neutralise some tory influence at Dover ; as a
supporter of the new administration, and a possible
" naval lord," he was able to secure much more.
But hie great success was with the populace. They
were with him to a man ; and, in a few days, such
was the enthusiasm in his favour, that the twice be-
came frightened, not for their man, but for their
personal safety, and Sir John Rae Reid, after being
pelted and hooted in a manner to which he was little
accustomed, ordered four horses, and amid the execra-
tions of the people, bolted from the town without
venturing upon a poll !
By the tones cut of Dover, who had not been wit-
nesses of the feeling excited in it, Sir John Rae Reid's
desertion of the town was consideted particularly pusil-,
lanimouv. It happened meet unfortunately for the
party that the return for Dover was the very first pro-
claimed and gszetted in the London papers. The pecan
sung over the victory by the journals in
the reform interest was as load and long as
the occasion seemed to warrant. But this was not
the only mortifi:ation. An impression existed at
this time that Dover was peculiarly under the influ-
ence of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Porte, and
that the Duke of Wellington, who had recently sue"
ceeded to that office, had been the patron of Sir John
Rae Reid. Now, as often happens with regard to
these points, this impression had infinitely lees
warranty than was generally supposed. Within
memory the Lord Warden of the Cinque
Porte never commanded in Dover above 30
or 40 votes, and it is very much to be doubted
whether the Dike of Wellington ever knew Sir John
Rae Reid even by repute before that gentleman was
elected for the town. But, the liberal papers know-
ing the general impretsion, made the most of it.
The victory was declared to have been won " underl
the very guns of Dover Castle, and in spite of alt the
active influence of the Duke of Wellington him.l
self." The matter, viewed through the medium ofl
party, became magnified, until at last it might have',
been supposed that the Dover voters had literally
stormed the Castle as the very citadel of corruption,
and carried it against the hero of a hundred fights as
the acting commander of the forces. It is said that
the Duke of Wellington, hearing daily repeated the
tale of the Dover victory, became excessively irate at
being personally mixed up with the affair, and made
no concealment of his annoyance and vexation. Sir
John Rae Reid, of course, came in for the greater
share of Warne. In the eyes of the great military
commander he had deserted his post in the hour of
danger ; and a man open to such an accusation was
not, as may be well supposed, one whom " the Duke"
would be inclined very soon to went) to his confi-
dence or favour.
It was probably his full sense of the awkward posi-
tion in which he stood, that induced Sir John Rae
Reid to come forward again at the election immedi-
ately succeeding the passing of the Reform Bill, and to
I display to the town of Dover evident semptoms of
determination to win at any price Tae other
candidates at this election (1832) were Mr. Fouls-et
Thompson, on the old independent interest, Captain
Stanhope as what may be called the radical candidate,
and the not-to-be-got-rid-of Mr. Serjeant Ilalcombe,l
whose personal popularity with the lower class of
voters made him a candidate not to be despised.
The constituency of Dover in 154:12 was lees
by 900 than the constituency prior to the Reform
Act. The cause of this was the diiiqua-
lification of the out-voteraresident beyond seven miles.
These had been by far the most expensive portion of
the constituency to deal with, and it was expected
that their ejection from the list of voters would have
greatly lightened the cost of the contest. This
proved to be the case ; and the Reform Ac', in in far,
worked well. The 1832 election for Dover was by
no meting an unfair one. It resulted in the return of
Mr. Poulett Thompson, then a member of the cabinet,
and of Sir John Rae Iteid ; the numbers being—for
Tnomnson 714, Reid 644, Ilalcombe 521, Stanhope
500. The last named gentleman would have stood
an infinitely better chance had Serjeant lialcombe
been out of the field. That gentleman, however, took
a number of the liberal split votes, and very much
' divided the independent interest.
Almost before Mr. Poulett Thompson had, on this
ocusion, issued his address of thanks to his coneti-
Inents, information was received from Manchester
I that the right hon. gentleman had been returned a'
I the head of the poll as one of the representatives for
that important town. Mr. Thompeon had now to de-
vils,* for which place he would make his election, and
it was with very little hesitation that be decided to
hold hie seat for Manchester. As far as regarded
this gentleman, the election for Dover way
consequently voided. From the moment it concluded,
Serpent Holcombe and Captain Stanhope were
both hard at work to secure the vacant post. The
contest which maned was a particularly close one,
but it terminated in Mr. Serjeant Halcombe's election
by a majority of a few votes.
Against this learned gentleman's return • petition
was presented by the friends of captain Stanhope on
the ground of want of qualification. Mr. &Tett
Holcombe had sworn to his qua' ification as in Warwick ;
evidence was adduced to the committee to prove that
Mr. Hatcombe had no sufficient qualification in the
, locality specified. The committee were applied to to
T to heayri
I tpehermqiutaiMitirca. Htionalcowmu thenbe
a:eollutedt of re
nt
charges raendt
charges upon property at Dover. The committee
amend.
declared
rent charges in declared Mr. Holcombe to be duly elected. Little
doubt is now entertained that the
lquestion were conveniently created for the sitting
member, and perhaps a str)eger case in proof of the
labsurdity of the qualification of members at all is
scarcely to be found than this cue of Mr. Holcombe's.
Mr. Serjeant Halcombe held the seat un'il 1835,
when he left Dover and appeared as a candidate for
Warwick. There were various reasons why this gen-
tleman would not again contest the Cinque Psirt.
Litigation was, at this time, going on with respect to
various election bills of 1832, and processes issued by
electors were out against him, one of which was
served upon him by a Dover solicitor on the Warwick
hustings. But besides the unfortunate circumstances
of his personal position, there were in 1833 other
candidates in the field against whom Mr. Ha'combe
would have had no chance. These candidates were
two Dover bankers, Mr. Rice, the present whig mem-
ber, and Mr. John Minet Fector, who came forward
as a tory. Of the latter gentleman it may be de-
sirable to deviate from the direct course of this nar-
rative in order to give a little history.
(To be Continued.)

CHURCH REFORMATION.

The prison door will this day gr te tunefully cn the
ear as it re 1. saes the Rev. James Shore. Tne com-
mittee in London have sent down to Exeter sufficient
funds to cancel Shyl ek's bond, by payment in full of
the costs of the disgrace fel suit urged by the dioccian
against a humble preacher of the Go:pel. We un-
der stand there is another case of almost equ A attozity,
which has been sonar ed against the Rev. Josiah Bart-
lett by the Archbishop of York, during his holding
the bishopric of Ili ret.rd, upon which a remonstrance
hoe just been publisted, detailing the a xtteme chica-
nery and injustice of Vie oppression. What with the
above two oases of prelatic malversatioa in office, the
c .nduct of the Bishop of Lotdon, in withholding his
clergy from preaching for the London Missionary
Society, and refusing leave to his clergy to evince
brotherho3d for the IVesleyans, and in denouncing
ragged schi ols, if conducted by the London City Mis-
sion, and that of the Bishop of Brivol ir, quarrelling
with the Dean and Chapter of Bristol, it would ap-
pear that a time is fully come for some check to be
put upon episcopal license. A s:ciety is forming to ad-
vccate an entire and thorough church ie'ormation.
We give the following state mentor its pi intiples from
one of the circulars issued by the secretaries, Vie Rev.
T. Spencer, cf Bath, and the !ter. G. 14. Stoddart, of
Chelsea :
The objects of the Church Reformtticot Societe will be,
to cell public attention to the present state of the Church of
Eneland ; to prove to the people that eeelvissical abuses
either cause or increase all otter social evi:s ; and that the
removal of them would facilitate all otter de.irable reforms ;
to hold meetings and deliver lectures in all the warms of the
empire ; to cultivate the feelings of Christian broth. rhosd
toward* all other protestant churches acd denomitiLtions,
and to invite their coopers ion ; to circulate tracts ; to
fercieh information to the public press; and as soon as suffi-
elint funds shell have been provided, to establish a weekly
periodical, under the title of the Church Reforms Garotte ;
to collect, through various channels, information respecting
the account of ecelssiestical property, with its use end
abuse in each locality ; to report all cases of bigotry and
supers'ition, and of intolerant and uncharitable proceedings
towards dissenters; to trace the evils of the church to its
wealth and power, and to its intimate union with tee state ;
to point out the worldly spirit, the selfishness, the covetous.
ness and ambition which Its lordly titles and princely emo-
luments have introdueed amongst the clergy; to ascertain
the number of intelligent persons in Great Britain and Ire-
land who are favourable to a bold and efficient measure of
church reform ; to furnish an opportunity for the correspon-
dence and co-operation of all friends art true religion by
forming local associations in connexion with the parent so-
ciety ; and finally to address memorials to 0111 clergy and
people of England, and to forward petiti ins to her Majesty
and to both houses of parliament iu behalf of tho gl. rims
work of the second reformation.

SEIZURE OF ARMS AT SOUTHAMPTON.—The Penin-
sular Company's steamer bladrid, In her last trip to Itsly,
took out a large quantity of Are-arms as part of her c try,.
Foe some reason or otter they were refused by the partirr to
whom they were consigned. They were seised by the South-
ampton custom-house euthwities as foreign arms whin
the Madrid returned, because the law forbids the importa-
tion of foreign fire-arms. The person who autboriit d their
shipment guild easily obtain them, if he thought proper, for
he could prove that they are of 'British manures:see, and
that they did not leave the ship; but he reinter to take
them back, and states that he is perfectly site as to the pay-
nett for them. The firs-arms, therefore, remain at the
South mptoa custom house.