The Express.
London, England, 1849-08-01 00:00:00

THE DUKE OF BEDFORD AND HIS
TENANTS.

The following address, which forms s good argued
to the celebrated Bennett correspondence, has been presented
to the Duke of Bedford by his tenants:
" Ws, your grace's tenants, beg leave to record the sand-
menta of deep respect and attachment which we entertain
towards you as a landlord. In a qua stion purely political, it
would have been more becoming is us to observe perfect
silence; but when we see your grace's character assailed u a
landlord (not so much by aid tiaras so by ambiguous in-
sinaatice), we feel that a responsibility rests with us
to counteract the Mame of such • misrepresenta-
tion. Your grace's correspondence with Mr. W.
Bennett km been circulated from one end of the
Wand to the other, end has been mods the subject of
commentary by parties who have not tailed to interpret a
a generaut proposal into an arbitrary exercise of power. We,
your grace's tenants, therefore think that a longer silence on
our part would be unpardonable, and we beg thus publicly to
repudiate, as grows calumnies, the charges made against your
grace in the capacity of a landl rd. We deem it the noblest
characttristic of a British tenant that he possoses the free
choice of his political opinions, and the power of their free
expression. Tins privile4e we enjoy unfettered by any
condition on the part of your grace. It is our
pride and happiness to tent under a man so pre-
eminent for his private virtues, of such an unex-
ampled munificence in promoting the welfare of every
clue of persons upon his property, and one with
whom the relations of landlord and tenant are cemented to-
gether by so many ties and endearments, as to make our
attachment to your grace's name and person a reel and en-
during sentiment of the heart. And • e beg to subscribe
ourselves, with the greatest respect,
"Your grace's most faithful, obliged,
"Obedient, and bumble servants.

- -
(Rae follow the signatures.)
The Duke's reply was as folluwe:—
" Endsleialt, July 17, IEI9.
" Gentlemen—l have to acknowledge the kind and
affectionate address you have transmitted to me under
circumstances that render it peculiarly acceptable.
It shows that the question between Mr. W. Bennett
and myself is clearly understood by you, although
attempts have been made to pervert it, not only
to an impatation of ' arbitrary exercise of power;
but also a question of personal character; and 'mo-
tives have been attributed to me which are as alien to my
feelings in this transaction as they would be repugnant to
the principles of my whole life. But I have already stated,
on another occasion, that it would ill become me to notice
more particularly the reflections and insinuations which Mr.
Bennett has cast upon use, but which, let us hape, his own
calm reflection will, sooner or later, repudiate. The
opinions he entertains upon free trade, or any other
political subject, he had a perfect right to express when
and where he thought fit; but when he publicly
proclaimed his conviction that tenant farmers (him-
sM, I took for granted ircluded) must be ruin-
ously affected by the Act of 1846, I felt induced to
offer to release him from his engagement to me. It was my
desire that, in empties or declining this offer, he should be
governed solely by a consideration of his own interest, and
it wsa made without a thought of depriving him of one atom
of his political independence, or of fettering its free exer-
cise on all occasions. I gladly take this opportunity of
expressing how entirely I concur in the opinion expressed
in the address, that it is the noblest charactetiric of a
British tenant that he possesses the free choice of his
political opinions, and the power of their free expres-
sion; and I cordially thank you fir having done jus-
tice to my true sentiments, as well as my invariable practise
in that respect, by the avowed that you have always enjoyed
this privtlegs unfettered by any c.aulitiin on my part. Gra-
tifying as it must be to me at any time to receive such a tes-
timony of the confidence and aruchment of a large number
of nay Bedfordshire tenants, it is particularly at at the present
time, to be furnished with this satisfactory proof that they
fully understand and justly appreciate what Mr. W. Ben-
nett himself has been unable or is unwilling to comprehend.
Believe me. gentlemen, with heartfelt thaoss for your con-
siderate and well timed kindness on this occasion,
Your obliged and faithful fri.ert,
" BEDFORD."