The Sun.
London, England, 1852-09-18 00:00:00

',ECTION.
PETERBOROUGH EL -s of the city of
The public meeting of the elector Exchange on
Peterborough was held at the Corn . of George
Tnursday, to hear the political opinions. " the Ex-
Hammond Whalley, Esq. The doors ot efore the
change were opened at half-past six, and b ost in-
time of meeting the room was filled with a at. nre-
fluential and numerous audience ; the numbers
sent were not less than 600 to 700, and amongst the.
were quite 400 out of the 500 electors.
Mr. Heeener moved Mr. William Vergette into
the chair.
The CIIAIRMAN read the handbill convening the
meeting, which has already been advertised in our
columns. He did not deem it necessary to apologise
for the situation in which he appeared—he would.
have prefrerred seeing the Father of Reform before
them instead of himself; but not having the fathef
before them to act, the son must. The inhabitants
had never until 1852 been invited to assemble together
to exercise their political rights ; but when the people
do meet together, their sympathies are identical. This
meeting is much better than the hole and corner work
they had been used to, and for electors not to exercise
their privilege of election argued incompetency—are
they willing to admit their incompetency ?—(No, no.)
He alluded to the party who undertook to provide a
representative for them ; but in this city there wits a
fast and slow party, and these two had suet
and conferred together; but there was no
reciprocity shown between them, and the fast party
were told to leave the meeting. A gentleman was
introduced who had really retrograde principles, and
he was rejected by you. We to-night do not stand
in that position. The report of that meeting had
found ite way into the public newspapers in London ,
and that had caused gentlemen to offer themselves t o
their notice; and at last they had selected the gentlenes
who would appear before them to-night, and he wo u.ld
gay, a man more deserving of their esteem la id
respect it was impossible to have found; and the eat i-
mation in which he is publicly held, as a Tithe est id
Charity Commissioner of 20 years standing—ti Ie
High Sheriff of Caernarvonshire, and a magistrate of
two counties—would be a sufficient guarantee of 11 is
position..—(Cheers.)
Mr. Joint Wurrweee—Mr. Chairman and gel 1-
tlemen, I am truly glad to see so numerous at Ed
respectable a,meetingassembled in this place on suchtin
occasion. We cannot be said to have taken the torn
by surprise. What they had done had been fully andfearlessly done, and they had been fully justified by
the event. We were taken by surprise at the uhnclet n-
inon liberality of certain gentlemen invitinghtt eni
re o
a meeting a month ago, and who was broug_ befo
them ? A man less liberal in opinions than they we r
twenty years ago. They passed a free ye re
diet upon him, and that was he did rot
represent the opinions
after eb at
meeting la canvassing
of the electors of .Fe.
terborough ! As Mr. Lewis had
the persisted.eletor nstandi ng
their decision against biro, it c
devolveds,
otwithuPon them to
look out for a gentleman to represent opinions net re
in consonance with those of the citizens. As a citiaen
of the town, he had been guided in doing that which
he believed to be right. They had several applica-
tions, and through a mutual friend they had Mr.
Whalley named to them, and had presented a requisi-
tion to him, and, as he will be heard, the meeting
would consider for itself whether they had done
right. At all events they could not be charged with
doing anything in a hurry. A man was before them
who could not be gainsaid as to principles and posi-
tion, and they who dictate to the electors can't
find a better man. He would mention one thing
which highly recommended Mr. Whalley—and that
was, he received a letter of thanks from Mr. Spring
Rice, the secretary to the British Association, for
what he (Mr. Whalley) had done in alleviating the
distress during the famine in the West of Ireland ;
aad be was the only Englishman who had done any-
thing towards personally relieving their misery.
GEORGE HAMMOND WHALLEY, Esq.—Mr. Chair-
men and gentlemen, Mr. Whitwell has told you my
justification for appearing before you to-night. At
this particular moment I feel inspirited by the recep-
tion you have given me, and if I can do but my duty
to Peterborough, I shall feel unmixed satisfaction. I
have determined to face this meeting, this city, in
every respect as an independent candidate. I could
have come accompanied by half-a-dozen Members of
Parliament and others, but I decided to come alone ;
and I would wish, in stating my opinions, first to en-
deavour to raise your minds above all local prejudices
and party quarrels, and to fix upon your attention
your position as citizens of the empire. He must
allude, however, to another gentleman having
appeared before you, and from his high personal cha-
racter he was entitled to their consideration before
him, and unless his (Mr. Whalley's) feelings and
opinions were more in accordance with the spirit of
the times than Mr. Lewis's, he should not be justified
in asking for their support ; but should his opinions be
deemed more tnem, he of ti then,
without hesitation, solicit their votes, and trust to be-
come their representative. Mr. Lewis and himself
agreed upon the question of free trade. The clouds
of protection which hovered over them at the period
of the general election had now in a manner entirely
disappeared ; but as far as his (Mr. Whalley's) ideas
went upon this point, he thought free trade was only
in its infancy—one part of the community had tasted
the rough and bitter portion of it. It was the duty
of Members of Parliament to find a remedy for those
who complained of it. As Mr. Disraeli said, they
had a remedy " looming in the future," but what
those remedies were all were ignorant. Free trade
was an accomplished fact, and had undoubtedly
borne hard upon the agriculturists. Her Majesty's
Ministers professed to be the friends of that interest,
but they had in the last session given no indication of
what measures they intended to adopt to assist it ; but
he would be more candid, and would give his.
Ilia measures would give relief to all, and that
remedyt would simply be to follow the course in-
'
the ncl'a by the late Sir Robert Peel by taking off
duties from all the necessaries of subsistence
as well as off corn.—(Loud cheers.) All parties
were astonished, and even the Chancellor of the
Exchequer expressed his astonishment at the enormous
increase that hadplace in the consumption of
those articles which takenh
had been relieved from duty.
the was a simple creed of politics. In justice to the
agriculturists and all other interests, to relieve all the
necessaries of existence, such as tea, sugar,
paper—
indeed every article required for the consumption of
the masses—from duty.—(llr, hear.) In stating
these measures he did not believe he was r
ing anything that was impossible, but he pwoopuld-
give them a short history
.of the origin of protective
one of which they
of the great
duties, and of the principal
had lately seen the termination. All that were
England was engaged, and which
present would remember the, *events
war in which
terminated in 1815, and during which time
this
country was called upon to find whch
isums of money 'which
even now were looked upon with wonder, sums ac-
tually amazing, and which in the end saddled us with
a national debt of 800 millions ; to raise these sums,
the Minister of the day was compelled to have re-
course to every species of taxation, until at last
there was nothing that was put into the mouth,
nothing That was upon the back, and even the
light of Heaven was subjected to taxation ; the
tea, ugar, paper, and other duties were the re-
mains of that system. Sir Robert Peel had
relieved 300 articles from taxation, and there was still
an immense number of other necessaries of subsist-
ence from which all impost should be removed.
During that great war the House of Commons was
then, as now, principally composed of lauded prcprie-
tors, and they avoided taxing themselves as much as
possible, and voted the supplies for the war by putting
taxes upon tea, sugar, and such like articles, so that
Ftepeeple at last actually have become ignorant of
'What was paid as the cost of the article, and what the
amount of tax upon it. When the war was over, and
in 1815 these landed proprietors had more leisure to
look to their estates, they found the evils
which
their legislation had entailed upon the
country ; they found that they had taxed
everything, aunutlumeothburdenso:ne were the prices of
necessaries let)
their at to keep up their rents and to
afford relief
tenantry,affurdt who, being so heavily
corn, they
taxed, could not compete.. with the foreigner
in growing
resolved to place a
tax upon it to keep up vatenen.
that classes are still taxed
manufacturing, and industrpirallees. The commercial,
theoccurred during the
by this hasty legislation
13 tax is taken off
time of war, and now that
nutneable to pay
the corn alone the farmer
ilourde,sts equally
There are others°
all these
his rent.
suffsring, but who do not
complain,
the taxes
because they had got bread cheap, but ty
_upon necessaries press upon-the industrLomfove
coun-
try, and he hoped to see all of them
that
must, in justice to a nobleman who Was looked u lie
pay hint up to
with the highest veneration by him,
compliment to say that he was one of the first of his
order who aided in exonerating these ontry from
obnoxious law the duty on corn. must say that
for Lord Fitzwilliam, and he amongst others must
always feel the deepest respect on that account to-
wards him ; but the question no w is, can the taxes
of fifty millions a year be paid after relieving
such articles as tea, sugar, paper, &c., from
duties ? I say they can, and that is by
taxing fixed property--(applause)—it is the
t.a. leading principle in legislation to take off the taxes
fibtktbe necessary articles of subsistence and in jus-
, -tithe masses, who never had any voice in agree-
seet
eagetehe taxes that were levied.—(4pplause.)lf
*nett. -
4 : his people of taxing fixed
property was adopted
t. 4 . lanct ain yl. houses would increase
decrease. I will proceed to v instead of
value
another point, the
Mkit—but, in what I have hitherto said I hope I
411 j-iv-g),,geen anticipating Lord Derbytrade and Mr. Disraeli
ill their measures,corn was ob-
tained through a Conservative Governmentln
we shall obtain from the present Conservative I trust that
if Govern-
ment measures of improvement; but
am returned
as your representative I shall look always
to measures