The Express.
London, England, 1868-11-07 00:00:00

ELECTION INTELLIGENCE.

lIIDDLESILX.

Lost evening Mr. LAteHlCHltelt addreeed a
meeting of the electors of Middle..: at the Yearzy-hall,
Kensington..w The shale was taken by Mr. &miaow.
Mr. I. UMW, who was received with elm% mad
be stated the other evening at 00,0 01 the 10000.
logs which be attended that the tarns weregg~•aeg
about trying to find some one to contest
mer Oil conservative pried*. ; that they bad WWI is
the City in vain, and that th ware going shout.
the mess-rooms of the barracks of the 0101111110 r bight
to find some half lodged ensign to same leveed
to contest the seat. Well, they had sisesenied at Ilit is
finding a candidate in the wean of Lord Hstgeas
He knew nothing personally of Lord Geo?gsecramilton ; he
Wired he had not been long is the 011 eat he hadist
on with the g ore step—(laughter)--and weegradually ao- •
quiriug the ter Apical information required tamable him to
pet form the not very 0110Ttli• duty hi • regiment
of the Guards. But Loot George lieta as member
for Middlesex, he was nickeled to think, would set be the
right man in the right place, for there was s large
majority of literals in Midsikeex—he believed about two to
one. But be was glad that the conservatives had been
kind enough to get an exceedingly had candidate
(cheers and laughter)—theugh be did net feel mush groin-
tude to them. as be believed it en/Hobson.' choke. Lord
George Dominos had issued his address, or rather, he
should ray, his friends had written it for him. In it he was
made to pay that heobj acted tomoney that had been devoted
to religious purposes being applied to secular purposes. Ho
did not know whether the noble lord meant that the
funds belonging to the protestant church ought te he de-
voted to catholic mos; bat if he attended any rosettes of
the electors, be hoped some one would ask lum the ques-
tion. Then, in his second paragraph, he stated, as far
as he understood him, that be was in favour of an
additional expeaditure for the army. Ile did not think
this very likely to recommend him to the constituency of
Middlesex. (Cheer. and laughter.) He also said that he
would give an independent support to thelewent govern-
ment. Now, he was afraid this was an abuse of the word
" independent." The father of Lord George Hamilton was
• nobleman, obscure, who bad for the last two
or three years had 20,0001. • year ter filling the aloe of
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland ; and because he had done it
to the satisfaction of Mr. Disraeli ho bad been made a
duke. Then his eldest son was deputy something some-
where about the court. and the second son had just been
made a lord of the treasury—of course with • eatery, be-
cause they all looked to that. Gratitude was sometimes
described as a lively sense of favours to come, but surely
gratitude for favours received would make the whole
family of the Aber erns devoted to the government ; and
he must protest against their being independent (Haar,
hear.) Tiers was • system of corruption hardly ever
attempttd before. Here they had a nobleman receiving
20,Ca1. • year. with two sons in the government, and
end;ng • portion of it in order to obtain • longer leers
of rower. (Hear. hear.
On the motion of Mr. )11:trorrosul. seconded by Mr. Hun-
New, a vote of confidence in Mr. Labouchere was then
put and unanimously agreed to, and the meeting sepa-
rated.

MR. H. A. BRUCE AND 1118

MERTHYR TYDVIL, !incur.

The excitement manifested in this busy borough
as the day of election approaches is probably not exeeeded
in any other community, and the peculiarity of the con-
test adds to its fierceness. Even shoeless children shout
the names of their favourite candidate "for ever" m they
sink miniature coal pita in the cinder heaps, and every
night there are torchlight demonstrations of some kind,
and keen arguments in all the commercial rooms, bar
parlour., and pot-house kitchens. There are three can-
didate., each professing advanced liberal principles. They
are Mr. Bruce, who hasrepresented the borough for six.
teen years; Mr. Fotrgill ' a local employer of labour;
and Mr. A. Richard, the secretary of the Peace Society.
Upon the cardinal questions of the Irish church, national
expenditure, and personal payment of rates, there is no
conflict of opinion amongst either of the candidates or
their followers, and the critical position in which Mr.
Bruce is placed arises from the constitueacy being one of
nonconformists and workmen. I. central meeting (Mr.
James, a solicitor, presiding) was held last night in
the Drill-hall, where some 3.000 persons assembled.
although tome other meetings were being held in the
town, and large crowds of perilous were assisting at the
6th of November festivities in the streets. •

Mr. Baecw, Fn the masse of his speech. :—Three
menthe have passed since I met you at Use termination of
the session, and was honoured by you. vote of confislerve.
Salve that time the political etwoephere of Merthyr has
become somewhat arum y • a fiereecontest has raged here.
and as yell know, I have been the butt of many unworthy
derv, and accusations. A no inconsiderable party in
the borough have represented me to be not only • man
whore claims were mfenor to those of other candidates,
but as altogether unfit to represent such a constituency
as this. In all tumidity, and with careful self-examination,
I have "eked myself what there was to justify
that statement. -During the sixteen years I have
represented Merthyr, can any man say that I have vio-
lated a promise, or point to a vote, speech, or actisn,
which was riot liberal to the core ? (Cheers.) You are a
people of nonconformists. I am a churchman. nave I
over given a vote which was adverse to the just rights of
nonconformists? (No. no.) You are eminently a people
of workmt n —above all the constituencies of Great Brita;n
Merthyr is a borough of working men —and I ask to whet
Clare of questions have I from first to last applied myself *.•
Whatever position—of which your chairman has re-
minded you—l have obtained in parliament or whatever
reputation I may have in the country, tell me, as fair and
honest men, whether it has not been gained by hard work
(Cl.eers.) It has: and, I willadd, in behalf of the workirie
classes at large. The first duty of • conscientious member of
se iament is to take a just measure of hisown talents and
capacity, end to endeavour to ascertain the class of sub-
jects calculated to be most useful to his enn,tituency, and
which he himself is best fitted by nature or =plenty to pro-
mote. I may venture to say there is no important elascnt
questions with which members of parliament have to deal
to which I have not devoted a careful study. I knew well
I was not one of those whose varied talent and versatile
genius would crown all subjects with equal success, but
thought there was something I might do in forwarding
meat urea which bad for their object the social advantage
of the people. Ninety-nine men out of • hundred, if
asked the question, could tell vou that this would best
be promoted by putting within the reach of the people a
sound system of national education. (Cheer,..) Other
reunifies have found this out before us, and profited by IL
Scotland discovered the secret 200 years ago, and well has
she received the benefits arising from it. Who here has
ever seen a poor Scotehman ? (Laughter.) Scotland is
one of the poorest countries in the world, yet it has
achieved an aimed unexampled reputation. Its people take
the lead wherever they gas : to find a ficotetunsn is to
find a rising man. But there is nothing in the Scotch
race or character to so distinguish them, except that
they have had a national system of education and the
main distinction at this moment between England and
Scotland is the intense interest Scotch parents take iu
the education of their children. This is far from the
general feeling amongst ua. You know well enough that
if every man in this borough was educated there would
be an enormous improvement in your position in every
reepect ; there would not be the violence, and rancour,
and ignorance, and prejudice of which we see so much ;
in one wont, whether you look to the moral man or to
his material advantagee,you can conferno greaterblowing
than a good national Aram of education. (Cheers.) In thst
cause I have laboured, and not absolutely without success,
becalm I take a pride in what others have imputed to me
as a disgrace rather than otherwise, namely, that I have
been selected for office on two separate occasions in con-
nexion with this cause. And I tetra a still greater pride in
the remembrance that the great Manchester conference
honoured me by placing in my hands tho largest educa-
tional measure ever yet submitted to parliament. The
interesta of the working clauses can also be advance I
through tie it health and comfort, and I have labourerl
long and strenuously in the cause of sanitary reform, atid
have had the blessing of passing through parliament
measure that arid* to your power of mereartanT life and
ameliorating evils which formerly ravaged the dtPllo4tie
circle. In Merthyr, I believe, there have been some com-
plaints of increased outlay, but it has been shown th it
within the last DS years the chances of life !emu Mere ruel
Iron 171 to 27% years. These two elegise/ref qirestiors alarm
should, I think, entitle a man to prime degree r f your re-
=read gratitude. (Cheers) But that i 4 not nay only
to consideration. Those who are ignorant of Cte
bleedings conferred by the temerry Al, or half-tine
arils m. upon those arts of the kineslem whore it his
operated, question whether after ail it is it good thing.
to to the dietriets whirrs: thut act is eirforeed: ask the
soaking peep!e in Lancashire, Yorkshire, or Staffordshire
what they think of its effect amongst the population
and the one answer will he, feria parent, employer,
lir, and donator, that it has had a met beneficial ie.
Genre upon the moral and physical diameter of the
people. I myself have been the mean* of peeing through
parliament ram measure for este:relief; that act to the
ternaries and some portion of laureurhire, and those
measures are now applicable to tine district. They
54-cure that your places of work shall inn properly ven-
tilated arid clean; that ne child between eight
and thirteen years of age shall work more tleur
six arid a half hours • day, and only then upou
receiving maw education ; that between the ages of
13 and 114 the, hours of work shall not exceed ten-and-a-
half hours that (with curtain modifications for iron works)
they shall not be employed at night, and that no wont re
married or single, shuttle canskryed at night. Are them
pa onsinns burnous or not e (Ma a) Without claiming
for the Factory Acts shenhite perfection we must see Unit
they will bans an immeme advantage ill securing the
health end happiness of the people. (Cheers.) When
this contest began, and when I ',mud the remeeejenajec.,
determined to return • neneouforeaket without mush re-
gard to my prosipects, I ventured to expodulate that this
was hardly right, when a churehman had a-ted tower&
you in all matters as fairly and justly as any nommetfor-
mixt could have (0111r1T11.) I have no coniplsint to
make of the action of the noneonformints during this elm-
tin n. '1 hey have supported tire heartily, and birth here
and threughout the principality there is groat de-
nies that I should be returned, trot PO much b ;1".4.1.0 of any
merits, as less:suer. it would be eourridered Jig tirlittl.l.,
to the nonconformist. of Willem if it eliereb,usir
who had served them faithfully w..ro riot roLintud. (L ,tl.l
cheers.) But the whole evuttatueney lase changed. Is it