The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-06-28 00:00:00

SOMERSETSIIIRE ELECTION.

itcHr.sTEß,lllolenatr.
This dey the polling commenced briskly on the part or Mr.
Dickinson end Sir Thonteisqlsbridge. as if they were determined

to chew the other Candidate that the influence of their characters
over the county was not so limited as report has been making it
ever since their claims have been examined. Mr. Hunt's friends
came in small numbers, but the entlitodasin they manifeste I was a
great as it is possible to Conceive. It was evident, from the move-
ments about the Court-house during the greater pstt of the day,
amongst the two Coalescing candidates, that something was about
to be proposed with a view of putting a period to the contest. Mr.
Dickinson and Sir Thomas Lethbridge were to be aces at one time
examining records, at another consulting with their Solicito:s, with
Mr. Donning (who, far the first time during the polling. m tde his
appearance), and with Mr. slessiter and the High Sheriff: It was
indeed expected that, before the polling would close for the day, the
attention of the Court would be directed to the subject of the itiequa-
lity of the combatants. The curiosity of the respectable persona of
thc neighbourhood was more strongly excited than upon any former
day. A number of ladies and gentlemen were mixed amongst the
coarse and bean ny rotors, and their curiosity was certainly in the
very highest degree gr itified before they quitted the building. It
would be injustice not to state, that the tone of animosity which
manifested itself in the conduct of the friends of the two old Mem-
bers is no longer heard; and it would be injustice to Mr. Hunt rot
to declare, that this change is to be ascribed. not to the defeat
which he is likely to sustain, but 1,3 the manly, spirited, and tem-
perate address, with which he has conducted himself: None but
the lawyers were disappointed ; and many even of that multitude,
which has, like a shoal of locusts, infested the county and Court
during the thction, for a moment dropped the thought of gain, In
admiration of the man whom they had united to watch and to exe-
crate. This observation does not apply to the agents of the Candi-
dates, or to the AIIIiCSSOTS, whose advice it would have been well if
their clients had taken.

Mr. HUNT entered the Court before four o'clock, and upon tee-
ing Sir Thomas Lethbridge move towards the door, addressed the
High Sheriff—" 1 wish, Sir," said he, " to mention, as I see the
worthy Baronet leaving the Court. that I have something to com-
municate which may be of importance to him and Mr. Dickinson,
after die polling for the day has closed. I would not now address
you but that I see you are not now occupied."
Mr. VINCENT STUCKEY (in a low tone)—" I would not wait,
if I was you, Sir Thomas."
Sir Thomas turned into the dock, in which the voters had been
taking the oath against bribery, and spoke a few words to his agent.
He lingered about the dock for two or three minutes, and then re-
tired without saying an audible word, and joined 3tr. Dickinson,
who was walking outside. Neither el the Candidates returned.
At five o'clock the Under-Sh,niff declared the state of the Poll
to be as follows :

Mr. Dickinson

The Day's Poll. Agregek Poll.
. 228 - 1.704

Sir Thomas Lethbridge - 267 1.51)1
Mr. Hunt - -la 270
The ilium SHEUIFT, addressing himself to Mr. Heat, said
he had a question to put to that Gentleman. It was this—
whether, from all that had passed. he thought he had any chance
of success? and he put it to him, or a freeholder and • gentleman,
whether, if he thought he had no cholla% he considered himself
justified in putting the county to any further trouble and expense ?
(Hear, hear, hear.) Of his own trouble he thought nothing, It
was not on that account he spoke, hut fur the sake of the freeholders
of this extensive county.
Mr. Hurt r—Mr. High Sberlfl', Ladies and Gentlemen, and
Gentlemen of the Law, of wham I see a great number, perhaps it
would become me to say, that I have no right to answer that ques.
lion. I certainly have no right to answer for the freeholders of the
county. I cannot take upon me to trifle with their rights by closing
the poll. If. Sir, you thick that the majority of the freeholders
have polled, and there is no use in keeping the poll open any longer,
It is at your option to put an end to the election ; but it must de.
pent! entirely upon your discretion. Whatever he your decision, I
assure you that I shall bow to it. You have acted throughout in
the melt gentlematly and impartial manner, and there is nothing
that I can do with propriety that I will not do to prove my sense
of such treatment. (Cheers.) Hut I have no right to step for.
ward and say that I have no chance of succens. I know that a
large body of the freeholders are ye' unpolled, and that I have the
hearty wishes of multitudes; but if you think proper, )ou may
conclude the business at once. I see a tardiness, certainly, in all
the freeholders. This may arise in a great measure from nay Ritual-
don on die poll ; but I am sure you would think worse of me than'
you do, if I were to gay I resign the contest. I mean at the sine
time to declare, that I shall not take advantage of any step which
you may think proper to take. (Loud cheers.) Perhaps, it' you find
that my friends do not come up,yuu may exercise the right of closing
at once ; but I shall stay here as long as they come up, and do my
duty to them. (Cries of 6` bravo!" nod shouts of aptiarase.)
I did hope (addressing himself to the Court), for I had heard nollsos-
thing of this, that the other Candidates would have waited to hosi.
what I have to say. lam deligh:cd to find that you are disposed
to hear me, and 1 am particularly delighted to see chit the gentle.
men of the law, who do me the honour of attending in such multi-
tudes (a laugh), are reconciled to the task, listening to what I am
about to say. I have been attacked, most grossly attacked, by the
other Candidates, and by certain individuals, who, when I stood
on the first day in this Court, drowned my words n clamour, and
vented against me the most contemptucua and menacing language.
You must all beaware that much took place on that day that might
have been spirted; and you must also admit that I did not cast the
first stone. I have said nothing of either of the gentlemen who ass
Candidates with me that I have reason to regret, except that allu-1
sion to Mt. Dickinson, for which I have already apologized; and
how have I been treated by them ? Have I not been Insulted by
them in the persons of my freeholder*, whom they stigmatized es
dishonest men, because they voted foe me ? Have they not disho-
floured their characters as Legislators and Alagisttates, by encou-
raging the violation of the laws whi b they have made, and are
bound to administer with justice? (Loud cheers.) What could
they say to a man who should be brought before them at Quay.
ter Sessions for a breach of the peace, and declare, in his defence.
that he had witnessed the provocation which his two Judges hadl
given to an unuffentling individual in the same place (Cheers) to
break the laws which they were about to act upon ? I spoke of
Mr. Dickinson's conduct In Parliament. I retract not one word
of that, lie says that I was mistaken in what I mentioned about
Mr. Denman's motion, as to his vote; but he says that he would
have opposed that motion if he had been present. The press, then,
was incorrect, and not I; and he sanctioned the error by not cor-
recting it•when he bad the opportunity. I have not, you see, been
guilty of bringing against that gentleman a grossly false
(Cries of " No.") As to Sir Thomas Lethbridge, I chargedhafir m
with a dereliction of his public duty in refusing to support your
petitions. I made Lao personal allusion to him until he attacked
me, by saying that no honest man would vote for me ; and there
are wine insults which it is not in the nature of man to bear with-
out retaliating. I retaliated. (Cheers.) He said he knew me
when I was an honest man ; he recollected me when I wore a
smock frock. (A laugh.) I recollect the circumstance to
which he refers. He was on a visit in a family with which
I was acquainted when we were both very young men. (We
were about the same age—eighteen.) I remember that I Paw
him riding one day. I had a smock frock on, and I 'paddled one
of the horses belonging to my father, who rented between 2,0001.
and 3,0001. a-year at that time. I had no 'toddle; a
turned out ; oft' Sir Thordas ran. I could -
sway I went too- Iv-

him without much ceremony, and Mr. Hunt told him he should
born have an opportunity of defending his friends.)
Mr. /I NT, in coutinuation—A great variety of opinions, 1 ad-
mit, exist as to the Corn Bill. There are many farmers who think
that Sir Thomas has been in the right in the course he has adopted,
but many also think that he has been actuated more by private
than by public motives. (A laugh.) The tact is, that he de-
elaretthimself to be. when the corn was at a low price, a complete
; but when it rose to Cs. or 9s. he suddenly became a Church
and King man. (Laughter.) But did he ever lower his rents to
meet the price? (Cries of never, and cheering.) Was he ever
known to do so? (Ne, ne, no.) I state now what I have said to
his face; he can crone here and contradict me if be pleases. But I
don't think he will again say, " You lie; it is a d—d lie," as he
has before said to me. Now I differ from many on the subject of
this Bill. lord King gave it the name of the Landlord's Tax,
and a better, I think, it could not have ; fur I am sure it was never
inter dod to do the farmer any good. (Cheers.) I may he wrong
in most of my opinions, but I speak from my heart, and I never go
behind backs to state my sentiments. I wish to have gcSod laws
well administered. I wish to see the industrious classes of the
community in comfort. Ido not mean the profligate gang who in-
fest alehouses, but the hard-working man. who toils from sunrise
till sun-set, and often later, for the morsel he cats. This is " the
head and from of my offending." I never said the people ought to
have more than they work fur. As for Sir T. Lethbridge, fie has not,
if he had the inclination or the power to serve you--if he were re-
pentant of his past conduct and anxious to redeem his character
with yon, he has not the talent to make restitution. (Laughter,
and cries of "'pis true.") \Vida respect to Mr. Dickinson, I
bay (Line all I could to draw from him the substance of his threat
die, but in vain. rattail say nothing of whist 1 have heard of
his private history, although I have it upon other than news-
petite r port. Ile did not treat me with similar delicacy in toy
absence. the "Naso of Go.ntpoos he reviled and abused me
while Iwdt in that g (Pointing to the prison.) He and h s
collec'gue denied the t • nth of (very thing I complained of. They
abused and viii ed m when I had not the power of answering
them, having the ems le check upon me of conlittement at to my
own person and patmunentary privilege as to his. (Cheers.) Illy
crime, I declare, before the Gdd who looks down upon us, was no
greater than that which lam now committing. It was for making
just such a speech as you have now heard. My Brother Candi-
aates cannot expect to be forgotten. Can I forget this treatment t
No. I might forget it, if it merely regarded myself ; but my
family. (Here the firmness of ,Mr. Hunt's voice for a moment was
broken, and many in Court were affected.) They played with me
as a cat would with a mouse. They put me to my faintly and pulled
me bark. and put me again to them, anti pulled me back. Three
times did they torture me anti them. If t ver I forget it may I
forget myself. If my poor boys ever forget it, may they forget their
lather. (Cheering; a great many in Court were in guar agita-
tion.) I have the clothes which I wore in my prioin ; I wore them
on the day of nomination, and I shall wear them on all occasions
that rennin! me of any degradation and sufferings. (Loud and
continued cheering.) If I fail now, I shall see you again ut the next
election. I shall go borne and look after my blacking (Cheers),
and prepare to meet my antagonists again. As long AIR that gaol
stands there shall I visit this town, and renew in the breasts of my
oppressors the recollection of the scene: that pasaea there. (Loud
and long-continued cheering.) Mr. Hunt concluded by again ex-
pressing his acknowledgments to the High Sheriff.
The SHERIFF, addressing Mr. Huut with the greatest respeet_-
a feeling in which every person in the Court (even the lawyers)
participated—said that the poll should open next day at the
usual hour.