The Sun.
London, England, 1852-04-10 00:00:00

THE SUN,

appeared twice or thrice before my constituency, and
given every explanation that was in my power, and
1
upon every occasion I have had the approleatlo
those who heard me. Well, then, Gentleman, Ihnavoef
not changed. I have very often heard of the fickle
breath of popular applause. I will not believe in that
dictum. I believe that when a man does his duty by
you, yon will do your duty by him.—(Cheers.) If
he has betrayed no trust, if he has pursued no paltry
self-interest, if he has done his duty as a man, mark
you, that the dishonour of rejecting him will not fall
upon him.—(Hear, hear.) I have nothing more to
explain, unless you ask me. I have no secrets to hide.
What you demand by way of explanation you shall
have. Again I say lam not changed, and I with
confidence appeal to you.—(Cheers.)
Mr. WATERHOUSE said that those who saw the re-
port of the proceedings of the House of Commons of
Monday would find that Mr. Roebuck had spoken
slightingly of the proceedings of those gentlemen
who were often heard in Exeter-hall, and that he
also expressed it as his opinion that nothing less than
extermination would be sufficient to settle the dispute
in Kafirland. He would now call upon Mr. Roe-
buck, who had previously given him an explanation,
to explain to the meeting what he said on that occa-
sion.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. Roenucte—Lord J. Russell, Sir W. Moles-
worth, and Mr. Gladstone explained their views with
regard to the system in Kafirland. I rose late in
the debate, after Sir J. Pakington, the Colonial Se-
cretary, and I said to him, " I don't think that you
understand all that is in this question. There is a
feeling at the bottom that neither you nor Lord John
Russell, nor Mr. Gladstone, nor Sir William Moles-
worth has touched, and that is the religious feeling
of the great body of the more religious public of
this country—the pronounced religious opinion of
the country; and for the purpose of denoting the class
to whom I allude, I will take the name of Exeter-hall,
and for brevity employ that term." There are people
here who heard that speech. " And," I said, employing
this phrase, " a great body of men of the greatest re-
spectability, of strong opinions, who deserve the
greatest regard, are against this continuous aggres-
sion against the Kafirs ; and, depend upcn it, if you
propose to give power to the coler'sts to govern them-
selves and to regulate their own frontier, you give
them the power of war ; and if you give them the
power to wage war and to protect themselves, they
will exterminate the natives, and the people of whom
I am speaking will be most opposed to such a pro-
ceeding." [Mr. W. Smith—" I read it so.".] " And,
mark, the people of England won't bear with these
wars. You ere taking your troops there. That
will, of necessity, incur on us great expense. The
people of England generally won't bear that. Now,
you are in this difficulty :—You can only maintain
your colonie% well, as colonies, by giving power to the
colonists. By giving power to the colonists you run
the risk of arousing the anger and indignation of that
class of whom I speak. That is your difficulty. You
cannot get out of it by the present system. You in-
cur all tho horrors of war, and all the expense, and
extermination will follow, and anger will be in the
people of this country."—(liear, hear.) Now is there
anything there disrespectful to the Dissenters of thin
country ?

TheMAyoa.—Will any gentleman ask any more
questions ? Voice—" I wish to ask him about
Conock.")

Haavesz, after disclaiming any collusion with
Mr.
an beggedation tohfa
tthteh the
Coppock Hon.
Roebuck, and assuring the meeting that he hed
pokgeinvetoanhiemxp,
Gentle-
mannot.yewouldl; s
trans-
action.—(Hear.)
Mr. Raenucte—ln 1839 r .Hume introduced me
to Beth, and that constituency came to the conclusion
that they would bear the expenses of their own elec-
tion. At the
next e,ection they did the same thing. I
At the third election they e did the same. At the fourth ,
election •my friends came to me and said, " Can you
get any help in the way of bearing your proper ex-
penses from any of your friends ?" I said, " I will
tell you this ; I won's hear any—(Laughter)—but,
if my own personal friends choose to help me, I see
no reason why they should not:' Oo that occasion
my friends said, " We could not return two Radicals,
but we might return one if the Whigs would join
us." The Whigs were then in office. Mr. Stanley,
now Lord Stanley of Alderley, was the Secretary
to the Treasury. I went to him, and told him
what had occurred. Hear, now, the fact which has
startled many people. "I am going (low's," said he,
" to attend necessarily to my own election ; correspond
through certain persons —one of whom (Mr. Roebuck
continued) I will not not name, because there is no
necessity to drag names before the public—" but at
all events write to Coppock." I wrote to Mr. Cap-
pock on the state of the town. Mr. Stanley applied
to Lord Duncan, and Lord Duncan came down. A
friend of mine who knew vi het had occurred about
the expenses of Bath said a few days before to me,
"We have a private fund, subscribed to by many
Radicals as well as others, and we will send some of
the money to bear the expenses of the Bath election."
And that friend of mine, knowing that Mr. Coppock
would meet me on a certain day, said, " Give that to
Mr. Roebuck ;" and I carried it down to Bath, and it
formed a portion of the expenses that were necessarily
incurred. Mr. Coppock's name was mentioned in the
House of Commons this year, and I then said that
Mr. Coppock had not interfered in any election of
mine, and therefore I was not called upon to vote his
expulsion from the Reform Club. I also said then, and
I say now, that neither he nor any other man would
have dared to interfere in my election as he had inter-
fered in the St. Alban's election.—(Hear.) Now, I had
really and entirely forgotten that I had written to
Mr. Coppock, because in reality I had written to Mr.
Stanley ; the communication was with Government,
we wanting a Whig candidate, and the fact of my
having written to Mr. Coppock had dropped out of
my mind. But what is the imputation in this ?
My expenses were paid partly by the constituency,
and partly by my own personal friends. Bat when
a man says here, when I am not present—(Hear)—
that I am a Member " by the grace of Coppock"—
( Hear, hear, and cheers)—let me ask that Learned
Gentleman what his own case is.—(Hear, hear.) I
never asked anybody to bear my personal expenses.
I don't blame him for having made any arrangements
about his; but I do say that any man who could say
" I refuse to come here, even to appear as a candidate,
unless my expenses are paid," should think twice be-
fore he imputes—for imputation there was—dishonour
to me because the expenses were paid by my friends.—
(Applause.) Now, what is going to take place at this
election ? lam going to do as I always have done ; I
am not going to pay any portion of my expenses,
What occurred there will occur here. lhere are
gentlemen here who, no doubt, think that to return
me to Parliament is a matter for the public advantage
..—(Loud applause)—and they say, "We are not
going to bribe Sheffield, but there are the necessary
expenses." And you will find, for whomsoever you
act—the gentlemen who are on this platform have
found it cut—that there are expenses. They must
havQ a committee-room ; they must have placards.
These ;things are not got for nothing. And all
those are legitimate expenses. Well, 3001. was given
by my friends to elect me, in 1847 I think it was,
and that is just what this C
Coppock affair amounts to.
Coppock I had forgotten that Mr. pock had any part in it.
(Mr. Dunn reminded Mr.
Roebuck that occurred in
1841.) Oh yes, in 1841.
It is 11 years ago. Well,
I astood again for Bath, and
in 1847 what occurred .
I made again the same declaration that I would not
pay, and my friends paid the electioneering expenses.
And nay friends will pay them now.—(Cheers, and a
cry of
AY, willingly ) Where is the dishonour
in that?
If any man had asked me I would have
printed it and ut it on the statue at Charing-cross,
if he had desired it for his own private satisfaction.
,
Mr. Rorie:saes—Will Mr.
Roebuck allow those
letters mentioned by M r ck as marked " pri-
vate" to be produced r. —oppo
Mr. R9Enua--1 here ?
but if you will • don't know what they may be,
feci liberty to write to Mr. Coppock he has my per-
give them hear.) But I
don't care a single
farthing do or do
not. I have not got the g whether you
The Rev. U. G. letters.
El
Roebuck whether he eDes (Fulwood) asked Mr.
fortuity ? approved of the Act of Unin
Mr. ROEBUCK—I have said
anything like legal restraint uponhere that I object to
Mr. RHODES—WouId you repeal religious opinion.
anl.it ?
Mr. ROEBUCK—The Act ofepUe
enforce one opinion. I say that is afeirrnitY wishes to
objection to all legal restraints 'upon tuhewise, and my
of religious opinion is just as strong a manifestation
—(Cries of " The marriage question, alait,ever was
for a separation of the Church and State 2"; A" I
have
You'
answered that question just now by the other,
Mr. IRONSIDE—(Faint cheers, followed
ately by general and loud hissing)—My proposition
is this,—" That Messrs. Parker and Roebuck are fit and proper persons to represent this borough
(Faint cheers, hisses, and laughter)—and that they bea
not recognised as candidates." Mr. Roebuck h s
positively told several lies.—(Cries of "Shame!"
from all parts of the meeting, and great confusion.)
When Mr. Coppock published those letters in the
papers they furnished such proof that it appeared al-
most unanswerable, but so high was my respect for
Mr. Roebuck that I did not then come to a conclu-
sion. I determined to wait and hear Mr. Roebuck's
defence, or to read it. I read his defence. What
was it? That he had forgotten having written to
Coppock, because he was treating with the Govern-
ment. lie has said to-day that he went to Mr.
Stanley and agreed with him about this affair. lie
has said that he said to him, "We (the Whigs) want
a candidate, and we want to know how it is to be
manned." If the constituencies of England are to
be bertered in that manner 83 chattels, I think it is
high tim we came to the condition of France and
had a dictator at once.—(llear, hisses, and laughter.)
Mr. FOBINSON addressed the crowd from the steps
as the seconder or Mr. Ironside's proposition.