The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-30 00:00:00

MEETING AT ROTHERIIITHE.

Last night, notwithstanding the unfavourable state of
the weather, a large number of persons assembled oppo-
site the Europa Tavern, Rotherhithe, for the purpose of
hearing an address from Sir Charles Napier. The princi-
pal room in the tavern was also crowded with the friends
and partisans of the gallant Admiral. Mr. Chrystal was
called to the chair, and introduced Sir C. Napier to the
crowd as a candidate for the representation of the
borough.
Sir C. NArIER then made his way to the window, and
was received with great cheering by the assemblage be-
low. He said that in a short time they would be called
upon to elect a member in the place of their late lamented
representative, Sir W. Molesworth, and it behoved them
well to consider on whom their choice s'aould fall. They
had in the field four or five candidates, and one of them
was stated to be Mr. Scovell, a gentleman who was con-
nected with the place. There were one or two more,
and they also had a saii!or. (Cheers and " Bravo.")
Well, it was not his intention, nor was it his practice,
to canvass the qualifications of the gentlemen opposed to
him, and he thought the best and the fairest thing, in
trying to gain the favour of the electors, would be to act
towards each other with the most perfect good-will. He
had said before that he was a sailor, having been
brought up to it from his youth, and he trusted that he
had always acted fearless;y and honestly in the service.
He was made a commander when very young ; he would
not say that he deserved it, but he got his appointment.
When he became a commander be had the ball at his
own feet ; it depended then upon himself and his own
exertions, and in a short time he arrived at the rank of
captain. He had gone through the various grades of
the service since 1813, and if he had not done so with
distinction he trusted that he had done so in a creditable
manner. (Cheers.) His course was not all couleur de
rose, for he bad been wounded—not that he would put
that forth as a claim upon them, as that was one of the
incidentals of the service. (Cheers.) One objection bad
been made to him by his opponents, and that was that
he was too old. He was sorry to say that he had ar-
rived at a very good old age, but he would show them
that ho had got some stuff in him yet —(loud cheers)
and he thought he should be able to prove if they sent
him to Parliament that he was as able to work for them
its some of the young ones. (Cheers.) Another objec-
tion that had been made to him was that he was anxious
to get into Parliament to avenge some private quarrel
with Sir James Graham ; it was a great public and con-
stitutional question as to how far a Minister of State was
justified in perverting the letters of an officer for the pur-
pose of damaging his character in the opinion of the peo-
ple of England and of the Government. Another ques-
tion, too, arose Gut of this, for the First Lord's coadju-
tore justified and adopted his language, without having
read his (Sir C. Napier's) despatches—a thing which
often happened at the Admiralty, and one which he
thought ought at once to be corrected. If, therefore,
he was returned to Parliament, he would state that
fact as strongly as possible. As to the existence of a
private cuarre; with him and Sir James Graham, this
was too insignificant a charge to be worthy of notice,
for he had eompletely "smashed" Sir James already.
(Great cheering.) During the French war he had, under
the Duke of Wellington, served in the Peninsula
throughout an entire campaign, where he had au oppor-
tunity of learning the art of war ; and he trusted that
he had profited by the experience he there acquired. He
then served in Portugal, and first hoisted the flag of
liberty in that kingdom ; after which he served in Syria,
where he assisted in putting an end to one of the most
despotic Governments that ever existed. (Cheers.) From
these facts they would see that he had not only been a
sailor, but a soldier ; and he thought ho had shown that
he was not devoid of a knowledge of diplomacy, as he
had signed a treaty with Mehemet Ali, and had thus put
an end to a war which all their ambassadors had been
bungling at for four or five years. (Renewed cheering.)
He then came home, and was returned to Parliament for
the metropolitan borough of Marylebone, for which he
sat six years, and he was not afraid of any gentleman or
elector of that borough turning over the votes he had
given during that time, for they would find that he had
always voted well. (Che ) He had supported Sir
Robert Peel in the whole of his free-trade measures, and
he had voted for an improvement in the naval service of
the country, which he would admit was far from being
in a wholesome or healthy position. (Cheers.) If they
sent him to Parliament he would assist in a complete re-
form of that department, and, while saving them a good
deal of money, would do his utmost to procure such a
vigorous prosecution of the war as would be likely to
lead to peace, so that the people might again enjoy cheap
bread, which, God knows, they had not at present.
(Cheers.) There were many questions which might pro-
bably be asked of him, and he would endeavour to anti-
cipate them in his address. He was a Reformer when
he was in Parliament, and he was a Reformer still.
They had not at present got far enough in the way of
reform. He was not a wild reformer, but still there were
many demands of this kind that might be granted with
safety to the country and satisfaction to the people at
large. (Cheers.) He would not, in order to obtain a seat,
attempt to deceive them with any claptrap as to univer-
sal suffrage. He did not think that the people were pre-
pared for universal suffrage, but as they advanced in
sound intelligence they would be fit for it, and then he
would be an advocate for its adoption. At present they
must draw a line somewhere, and he thought the safest
line that could be drawn was by the tax-gatherer, and
that every man who paid his rates should have a vote.
They had lately heard that a society had been formed for
the promotion of administrative reform, but it was his
opinion that they had got the wrong SOW by the ear ;
that they had begun at the wrong end, for before they
Lad administrative reform they must have Parliamentary
reform, and before they could have Parliamentary re-
form they must reform themselves. If a man stood as a
candidate for a borough it entailed upon him a large
expense—an expense which the aristocracy liked to keep
up, as the effect of it was to keep poor honest men out
of Parliament, and he was sorry to say that the habits
of the people did not lead them to go up unsolicited to
the hustings, but candidates were obliged to run after
them, and what with the time consumed in talking to
them and the cost of the election it had the effect of
keeping out of Parliament many men who would honestly
represent them. He was opposed to that system, and,
having issued his address, he hoped that if the electors
preferred him they would go up early to the poll and sup-
port him as the right and proper man for the place.
As to the war he thought it had been badly carried on, for
people had beeniput in prominent places which they did
not understand ; it had cost a great deal of money, and
worse than all, he was sorry to say, a good deal of British
blood. He was willing, however, to let bygones be by-
gones, for Sebastopol was taken, and the telegraph daily
brought them news of Russian reverses. The Peelites
were all gone ; indeed, those who called themselves so
were not Peelites at all, for ho believed that if Sir R.
Peel had been in office—the man who granted them free
trade—he would have prosecuted the war with vigour,
and brought it to a happy conclusion. Therefore, ho
contended that the men who called themselves Peelites
were not worthy of the name. (Cheers.) Lord Palmer-
ston, he believed, had the full support of the country,
and he was firmly impressed that, if the whole country
was polled, they would vote for his lordship as Prime
Minister of this great nation. Since Lord Palmerston
bad come into power they had had more energy infused
into the war, more troops sent out, and, with the excep-
tion of the Baltic, things had gone on more prosperously.
(Cheers.) In speaking of the Baltic he was going on to
his ground, and the reason of the failure there was be-
cause a sufficient force had not been sent out. He would
ask any one of those present, although they might know
nothing of nautical affairs, to say what would have been
the consequences if, instead of sending to Sweaborg 16
mortar-vessels, they had sent 160, and those in a proper
manner? He did not believe that he had anything fur-
ther to touch upon, unless it was church reform. He
wished to see a reform in the church, so that the bishops
should not be in the receipt of enormous salaries while
the working clergy had hardly any salary at all. If the
poor clergyman who visited his parishioners doled out