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

THE SUN,

and not t',) men upon all questions I am called upon
to giv'..l my support ; and this I shall do for your
sakes.. At one time he had scarcely believed in the
ballot, and had not admitted its necessity. Changes
were generally, to some extent, an evil, and re-
quired to be looked at with care ; but he
was now convinced the ballot was not required
so much on political as social grounds ; and
i 1 it was required in order to induce those men who
had votes to apply their minds on occasions like the
resent to give their opinions.—(Cheers.) A man
I, I exercised a vote at an election, and used it con-
wh, to his opinions, was similar to a man in a jury
trary `lO returned a false verdict—he is de-
box w- 'Loud cheers.) If the ballot were in
graded.--k -.y would be freed from all bickerings,
,
-ears ago it had been in operation the
and if thirty y
de, the revolutions of parties would
edxeipsrteensscieont h
tr 6
for they would long before have
not have happened'
Aks voting now stood, men
had free trade. and thinking on public mat-
abstained from reai d I.lg
'love them who considered the
ters ; there were those a, ~
erned by compelling elec-
country could be better go. h
.it
he would say to the
tors to follow their ideas ;
Yr°lnatufal course, and let
for me, i,gt things ta I.'
i:selves from thinking
highest in the :land, rkeelietlvhfeei
us think fo: ourselves.
on matters, there are ten
man who tilinks vvron
him, it thus matters would find
there is one cross-grained
who differ from h. 121 ir
~0
If pray relieve yourselves
their natural lei el, an". ' I was a voter in
never look at a
from thinking fe: nine' votlog. existed, and I speak
this place so long as oile
%o the dominan: party I am
d say t .
newspaper ; I woul
from bitter experience,
dzment into your hands, I pin
obliged to give my
ju- and I know I must vote ac-
my vote to your sleeve,
I don't know that there is
cording to your direction.
I have considered one of the
lam sorry that he whom h that sort of coercion here. If 00, I can only say
natural if it is obnoxious here, how
friends of the peo pl.e s. wild exercise this sway
over your actions ; and. .
much more so must it be in other constituencies--oif
you repudiate interference in your political views from
a friend. how must it be to those who are constrained
by adverse parties r When the Queen's writ goes forth
for the election of a Member here, the deepest respon-
sibility is placed upon the voters of this city
to the millions in our colonies and in all parts of the
world, who look to this country for protection and
laws, and are relying upon us in every way, and re-
, quiring any man's vote, that man says, " No, I vote
against my conscience," can that man feel he is
worthy of the right to be an elector ? Is he worthy
1 of his country and the liberty of an Englishman
when he has done his best to deprive all those mil-
lions who depend upon his conscientious voting
of the benefit of it? In my own neighbourhood I
have seen enough of the system of open
voting ; I saw how emasculating it was, and
those who had given their votes against their
conviction and conscience felt as degraded
as those who bad upon a jury given a false verdict.
He would say:to them by all they held most valuable,
by all that was right, for God's sake, for the
sake of religion and morality, avoid such a de-
gradation—and that was why he favoured the
ballot.—(Applause.) What I have stated in
support of the ballot will be sufficient to induce you
to agree with me as to its necessity ; but I will
give you an instance of what took place at one of the
Montgomeryshire boroughs at the last election. Four
of the most respectable people in the town came to
me at the dead of the night and told me they were
compelled to vote against their consciences ; they
have since packed up their goods and quitted this
kingdom for Australia, bearing with them the hateful
conviction that in this country, with its boasted free-
dom, they were not free men. I will, having tres-
passed at some length upon your time, leave my
opinions on any other matters to be elicited by ques-
tion.—(Long and loud applause.)
Mr. R. J. HEAD—What are your views, Mr.
Whalley, upon the question of church-rates ?
Mr. WeaLLEv—l should like to see them entirely
abolished—(Loud cheers)—and without compensa-
tion. I would vote for their entire abolition. I have
been myself a churchwarden, and the question of
church-rates is entirely a disputed point. I have
looked a great deal into the history of the Church.
The churches should be repaired out of the tithes ; it
would be much to the interest of the Church if such
a source of grievance was removed.
Mr. HEAD—I would ask you, do you conceive it
responsible to give a grant to Maynooth ?
- - - -

. _
Mr. WHALLEY—In my opinion all such appropri-
ations of the public money are utterly wrong.—
(Cheers.) Such grants are ridiculous as well as un-
justifiable. I would vote certainly for taking it away,
although, in my opinion, that is but a meagre way of
staying the Romanist oppression. The way to meet
that properly is to reconstitute the Church Militanteto
organize the Church against Roman invasion, as the
militia is onese:--1 e.e,"---t, telex« C.,..,1tial in..-..luu.
Dlr. HEAD—How far are you prepared to extend
the suffrage ?
Mr. WHALLEY—Without the ballot, to extend the
suffrage would only be an extension of evils. I have
such confidence in all classes of my countrymen
that I would almost support its extension
to all classes. The House of Commons is
the medium through which taxes are raised,
and therefore the taxation should be identical with
the representation, but as I hope to see fixed pro-
perty alone taxed, household suffrage is the extent to
which I should propose to go.
Mr. Iluen—Would you vote for Mr. M.iall's lime
tion for the separation of Church and State ?
Mr. WHALLEY—I am not prepared to vote for any
such question. It is one that is not before the country.
I trust the Church will be so organized as to be as
offensive against vice and immorality as defensive
against Romanism.—(Applause.)
The CHAIRMAN—Is there any other gentleman
who desires to make any observation upon what has
fallen from the Hon. Gentleman before you.
Mr. SCHOLEY—WouId you, Mr. Whalley, vote
for the removal of taxes upon knowledge ?
Mr. WHALLEY—Most certainly all such taxes I
would remove, and impose upon fixed property.
Mr. SCHOLEY—WouId you vote, against universal
suffrage ?
Mr. WHALLEY—Against it.
Mr. JOHN WHITWELL—Mr. Chairman and gentle-
men, I trust this meeting will fully acquit us of at-
tempting to obtain a vote upon any informal or
false grounds. We who have introduced Mr.
Whalley here appear for want of better men, but rest
assured, as other opportunities occur, to hear Mr.
Whalley, the more you see and hear of him, the more
you will like him. Your local interests will he safe in
his keeping, in him you will find a friend, a protector,
which I regret to say has not hitherto been the case
amongst you; for, on former occasions, if you have
not been used to the purposes of other people, your
opinions have certainly been moulded to the
opinions of other people. It is something to be
proud of to have a gentleman who responds to your
sympathies, as Mr. Whalley has done, and who comes
forward thus manfally to aid you in your right to
express your opinions. When was choice ever
pepeited you before ? I trust the decision
of this meeting will ring through the
couetry—that it will make known to the
empire
representatives that Peterborough is determined no longer to
be dictated to b another person, but determined to
choose her
for herself.—(Loud ap-
plause.) To remain
inai
had
as we have been we shall be
ad no opinion at all—we shall
not be than f
but the mere shadows of men. As
John Miller used to
at the Board of Guardians
—lf there is a differencesyarmoefseure to turn out right.
opinion let them be
shaken together and the
represented ?
theiriapeeeopre/ehaevveeralvvbese
chosen a .
Perhaps deference to great nhas deterred us from
exercising our undoubted privilege of freedom of
Asusocoion,
I say
pnuc
rhso
e. to s i!
eciii
leObt.and .thought for
There should be no party here to monopolise e
' • neither the Financial Ref, the re-
this
point let all parties unite. You are eeeeeePefu
nor Noble Lords, nor Tories, nor WhigT.
I have now to Mr.
re-
presentation; ,
'Whalley's sympathy
I did a month ago. dischargee a
more pleasing duty than .a. now
therefore move—
" That this meeting, having heard the exposition.
offered by Mr. Whalley of his political views, and be.
.
lieving them to accord with those entertained by a me_
jority of this constituency, considers him fully entitled
to the confidence and support of the electors of Peter-
borough."
Mr. ALDGATE—I cordially second that resolution.
The CHAIRMAN—Does any gentleman wish to
make any observation before I put the resolution to
the meeting ?
After a pause of five minutes, and no one offering
any remarks,
The CHAIRMAN put the resolution to the meeting,
which was enthusiastically and unanimously carried.
Mr. WHALLEY rose to move a vote of thanks to the
I.Chairman, and to thank them at the same time for
tihstening to him so patiently, and he cordially thanked
a:teaair.yn,
manudsinaggain for the most satisfactory and
tyrieeuramphant accomplishment of every object he had in
itneuinlawteicte.
found
in
true. policy of the country was not to be
n trusting to the wisdom and devices
men, but rather in the accu-
mulated solitary, musing
of the masses. Let Protectionist
be found to rely wisaleonFiree-traders, and that will prove true politi-
cal
live under the
r andi the general good of the country will
upon the experience of a people who
Mr. HEAD laws which they aid to create.
Chairman. seconded the vote of thanks to the
Mr. HEAD_A=©
vee to consider. Mr Whalley, that
you appear before , •
suffreges ? us as a candidate fur our
Mr. WHALLEY—you
now put the most important
question of the whole everee
find
concerns myself. If
1 d
en inquiries and a canvass ,
nothing
the opinions expressed
at this meeting sustained
your inde-
will prevent me
from using my best exertions to become
(*Rounds of applause.)
This terminated the largess
pendent representative.—
and most influential