The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-06-21 00:00:00

DEF E NC I.

" MEN OF Sostenstv,-.inlb;Trery general canvass which I
have made throughout our beautiful county, my most sanguine
haws have been more than realized : I have met with the most
grcifyirg promises of support from the whole people, and from a
‘^ry large mrlority of the fievholden of the county. In many in-
manors I hats received the voluntary mollies of the whole of the
votes of the parishes which I have canvassed, with the exception of
tLe dlagistrate. the parson, the attorney and their clerks : in fret,
have, throughout the county, been received and treated more like
hiuther than as a Candidate for your favours. I have endea-
voured. and willstill endeavour to sue, in person, every freeholder,
rather collectively or Individually up to the day of polling at li-
r, ,ester, which takes place on Monday, the 19th inst., when I
ii.iter myself that the freeholdera of this county will prove to the
'Fetid that they.e,e dmernitned to be free, and that they will exer-
vse their rug!lt of voting for the Dian of their choice, Gnawed by
•Jirrlees power, uninfluenced eithev by intolerance or corruption.
fientlemen you have only strike the iron while it is hot,' to
promote the tinivraslfeel,ag which now prevails throughout your
s.urty in t of Truth and Justic,, and your cause and mine
II toren Drove triempliantf. . _ _

, tirat. ;Wert:, which I pul.linit, il, 1 stated some circum.
maces relat're to the collection a- I expenditure of the money
raon from icar pewhets in the Ouu, of (:aunty Rates, wherein it
pnesred that forge soma were colicc:cd, 1:1"re than the Treasurer
d the Magistrates azenanted for. Sire. that time a contradictory
I.:JOUJOU has been published, ar..t umirrnally circulated, by Mr.

[Malt Meagher, the Trimmer of the County, and he has put forth
it statement of the sums colleved in the years 11114, 15, if,, 17. and
118. making it appear that, instead of his having collected large
sums more titan were expended, that he attuslly advanced to the
county, in that period, NV/. 13s. hid. Now, Gentlemen, I have
no hesitation in declaring that Mr. Messiter's statement is most
..candalotisly and glaringly false, and which statement he ard the
Magistrates of the county knew to be false when they published it
to the world. When I first read this contradiction to my statement,
I own I thought it possible that I might have been misinformrd,
although the statement I made was taken from the papers laid be-
fore the Commissioners of llchcster Penile Inquiry, and subse-
quently were laid by me before a Committee of the House of Cons-
mope, W'm. Dickinson, Esq, in the Chair, without its correctness
ever having been disputed or contradicted. But now, my friends.
I have ascertained, from the warrants issued under the hand of the
Treasurer himself, that Measiter's statement is gtossly and wilfully
false. Only attend to the following facts i-31essiter states, that
in the year 1817 the sums collected only amounted to 16,096 f. :
now, by the warrants issued by the Treasurer himself, the
I sums collected in that year are as follows: for the first quar.
ter 4,0001.-10 r the second quarter 5.54/01.—for the third quar.
ter 7,1142 f.--for the fourth quarter 8,0001.' Thus you will see, by
his own warrants, that in the first three quarters alone he collected
16,5421. ; just 44ra. more titan he states he collected in the whole
Tear. What think you of this, Men of Somerset ? By the
treasurer's own warrants, it appears he collected, in the year 1817,
6,446 f. more out of your poclicts titan he stated he did in this bare-
faced unblushing publication. That say you to this, Men of
Somerset ? I ask again when these abuses are to be rectified ? I
boldly answer main—never! till the freeholders of Somerset elect
one Representative of their own, unconnected with the Magistrates
of the county. I offer myself, Gentlemen, to your notice as such
a Representative, totally unconnected with the Magistrates or any
other Candidate. If you do me the honour to place me in the
high and connnanding situation of being one of your Represents-
fives, I can only say, that my life and best services shall be devoted
to the honest and bald endeavours to do you justice within the walls
of the House of Commons. In soliciting the distinguished honour
of your crowding to the poll at Ilchester, on the 19th instant, to
support me by your votes,
"I remain, Men of Somerset,
" Your faithful and obedient Servant,
" H. If t NT."
The polling commenced at nearly four o'clock, and concluded at
eight, when the slumbers appeared as follow
31 . Dickinson - . 419 I Mr. Hunt .04
Sir T. Lethbridge . - 399
31 . HI: ter addressed the crowd at the conclusion of the poll,
and stated that his friends would crowd to the poll next day.

PRESTON ELECTION.

MONDAY Dlonxixo, JUNE 19.

The good town of Preston appears to have been visited, even be-
fore the time of (lobbed, by some of the most dubious personages
of our history—the brutal henry Vlll.—the despotic James I.—
the usurper Cromwell—the unprincipled James 11. the year before
the Revolution—leis adventurous son, the elder Pretender, who, in
1715, was crowned James the Tided in the very market square in
a hieh Cobbett harangues his evening mob—the young Pretender
of 1745 (the weak Charles Edward)—llenry Ilunt, the impudent
blacking politician of IC2o—and, to culminate the climax. comes
William Cobbett in 1112 G, centring in himself all the bad passions
and principles of all his predecessors.
As it would be idle to speculate any further on the probability
of his success, I shall give you some facts which will illustrate
his character mote clearly than all the rhetoric in the Register.
He started by agreeing to every arrangement suggested by the
Mayor, and assented to by the other candidates, and afterwards
!stoke every one of hit engagements. He said at first that the
only friend he had on the htt tinge was the Mayor: he then ac-
cused him of partiality ; he praised the liberality of Mr. Wood's
principles in the beginning, and then called him a deceiver,
and no reformer; he abused Captain Barrie as • Government
tax-eater. sent by the Courier to keep him (Cobbett) out of
Parliament, and afterwards compli,nented him, and offered to
coalesce with him—the Revolutionist would aid a Tory! I At
setting out he lauded 31r. Stanley and concluded by heaping
on him the vilest ridicule—he extolled the Reporter of one of your
London contemporaries as a person of most favoured faculties, in-
vited him is his committee room, and called the assertion of a Re-
porter " the best authority that could be got ;" lie then turned him
out, and designated his Paper " the datnn'd lying Ileraldi"—be
has solicited electors to break their promises to other candidates,
and cursed them for refusing—be makes his rabble join Capt. Bar-
, rie's colours, takes the Captain's drink, sends them up to vote in
the Captain's tallies, and then whistles them back to himself; by
this paltry scheme he obtained four votes nut of his turn on Satur.
day--he Induces the lower order of the Catholics to present them-
selves to vote for hint under the false autlinrit• of a certificate frau-
dulently obtsiaeii; an act which their priests have denounced as
one of perjury itt morals and religion. To follow him through all
the mazes of his fraud and falsehood would he a pursuit as endless
as disgusting. The whole court se of his conduct, from the first day
of the dation, has been one continued system of ttickery, faithless-
ness, and deception—the assertion of falsehoods—the suppression of
truth—the exaggeration and perversion of facts--prevarication the
mast palpable—paltry stratagems—unfair advantage.—insincere
profeseione—ingretitude—inconsistency—subornation of treachery
—the grossest viecions of common decency—the most furious fits
of passion—vintlent abuse of all persons and parties, friends as well
as foes—and the most direct attempts to pervert the understandings.
and inflame the feelings, and rouse to action the physical force of
his thousands of ruffian supporters. 'fide conduct has not escaped
the observation and censure of his opponent. ; they have met every
stratagem of his by a counter-manastivre ; they have defeated every
trick of his; they have exposed every scheme. Of the squibs
against hint the following is the most pointed, and not the least
just :
" Electors of Preston,—Forget all the former deeds of William
Cobbett, and consider only what he has said and done since he en-
tered your town, and I ant sure pia will agree with me that you
never met or heard of, in public or private. a man who perpetrated.
in the course of a long life, so litany base and mean acts of falsehood
and deception, as the Serjrant. Major hat been guilty of in the short
space of the last ten days. If he had never defrauded his creditors,
if he had nev r swindled Burdett, never cheated Clement, never
attempted to leave his bail (Dolby) to pay his (('obbett's) dot;
if he had never betrayed any man that trusted him, never con-
tradicted every opinion he hail advocated ; never attacked every
party he had supported ; never abused every acquaintance he
had praised; if the rotten skeleton of his dead character were
exhumeteil (like Paine's bones) from die crave of public infamy.
and bleached on a gibbet, and animated afresh, with a new
and pure spirit of life, moral and political; if, in fact he
had ceased to be William Cobbett of the Register; if he were
unmated, and returned to existence in a totally different shape,
and name, and reputation. and thus appeared before ye, unstai d,
unsuspected, unknown, 1 assert again, that his conduct, since the
opening of the election, has been such as would re-damn him for
ever to the public detestation and contempt of every honest man of
every party."
Pretty strong this, but not more strong than true. Ile is •
regular brute in his conduct and matinees. The town of Preston
has had a narrow escape from him. Captain Barrie's assertion
was most true—" If I cannot accomplish my first object, the
return of ,myself, I shall, at least, have done a service to Par-
liament and the country, by keeping Cobbett out of the [louse
of Commons. It I hail not come down, he would have beaten
Mr. Wood, and been elected the second Member." And so he
would—for this reason, the Candidates that first appeared were
Mr. Stanley, a Bldg, Mr. Wood, a reformer, and Cobbett. The
corporation and influential manufacturers bring Tories, saw little
difference between the politics of Mr. Were! and Cobbett, and
neither telt any interest, nor took any part in the contest. Cob-
ben had got a name among the workmen ; they considered him
" the poor man's friend ;" they were delighted by his speeches,
abounding with sarcastic and humorous attacks on the rich, and
humbugging promises of assistance to the poor. Wood neither
harangued so ably nor promised so much. The men ware left
by their masters free to vote as they pleased. Cobbett was their
idol. They constituted the majority of the electors, and would,
1 beyond all doubt. have elected Cobbett. But the arrival of Captain
1 Barrie changed the face of things—he was a Tory. The corpora-
tion and wealthy merchants seeing the chance of electing a mem-
ber of their own politics, instantly awoke from their supine indif-
ference, and actively exerted their powerful influence in eon-
port of him; the result is, that he is as high on the poll as Wood,
and stands above Cobbett by nearly a hundred votes, which hun-
dred votes, if Captain Barrie hail not come, would have been
given by the workmen to their favourite Cobbett ; and this mei°.
rity would have enabled him to beat Wood, and secure his own
return. These are the circitmetances which have towed the
House of Commons, and the daily press of London, from the
disgrace of being made the vehicle of Cobbett's inflammatory ha.
rangues and revolutionary opinions. But this was not all—his suc-
cess would hare been as dangerous !o the peace and order of this
town and neighbourhood as it would have been disgraceful to its
reputation. This will appear most clearly from an extract of 'lr.
Canning speech, at 31ancliester, in the year 11112. "In this
county 'Lane %shire) it was thought that the spirit of discontent
psi. tipsily re veiled. It was known that you were suffering under
gee's, ..... e..evous privations ; it was thought, sincerely thought, 1
have no doubt, by some people of great ability, that you owed your
sufferings to the misconduct of Government, and not to those
causes which have overwhelmed other nations, and affected our own ;
it was hoped that by no very great exertion of talent, you might he
led to look for the remedy of your sufferings( and privations, in
changes of due internal and external policy of the country. Could
those principles have been successfully disseminated among you, a
standard might have been planted, around which commerce and
manufactures might have rallied against the Government."
This is precisely the condition of the county at the present
moment. The 'fferings of the working classes are "great and
grievous." " The spirit of discontent prevails" among them ; it is
thought they " owe their sufferings to the misconduct of liovern-
ment." The multitude" have been led to look for a remedy of their
euffeliogs and privations in changes of the policy of the enuntry."
" These principles have been successfully disseminated among;
' them." " A standard has been raised, around which manitfac•
t turere have rallied against the Government." That standard has
r been esised by Cobbett—raised—but not planted ; the defeat of
, his elettieneering scheme has struck it down again: but if he had
. I been rettan:d to Parliament, he would have photo] it in Preston,