The Sun.
London, England, 1839-05-21 00:00:00

HERTFORD ELECTION.

HERTFORD, MONDAY.—This day having been ap-
pointed for the nomination of a candidate to represent
this Borough in Parliament, in the room of the Hon.
William Cowper, who had vacated his seat by accepting
the office of Commissioner of Greenwich Hospital, the
town presented the usual bustle of an election. It was
not known until Saturday that any opposition was in-
tended to be offered to the re-election of the late repre-
sentative ; but on the afternoon of that day, an address
was issued by Sir Minto Farquhar, soliciting the suf-
frages of the electors upon Conservative principles.
The friends of Mr. Cowper had already been actively
engaged in canvassing for that gentleman, and there
being no opponent in the field, had obtained a great
many promises, and the result of the election is not con-
sidered doubtful ; but beyond all doubt the contest
will be a severe one, as the Tories are using every exer-
tion in their power to forego their promises.
At eight o'clock the candidates and their friends pro-
ceeded to the hustings.

The usual preliminaries having been gone through, and
the MAYOR having claimed the impartial attention of
the meeting to every gentleman who might address them,
THOMAS N. HAGES, Esq., came forward to pro-
pose the Hon. William Cowper.
Mr. JOSEPH LAWRENCE, Ee,q., proposed Sir Minto
Farquhar, as a fit and proper person to represent the
borough.
Mr. Coween then came forward amidst loud cheers,
and addressed the meeting. After some preliminary re-
marks, he said—What have the Whigs done since they
came into power ? Putting aside the Reform Bill—
the Slave Emancipation Act, and others of a similar
description, they have abolished salaries and sinecures
to the amount of 100,0001. per annum; and they
began where Reformers are often accused of not be•
ginning—with themselves. They first reduced their
own salaries.—(Cries of " What have the Tories
done ?") Why, the Tories have opposed all these
things ; it was through their weakness that we
were able to effect them. These measures were
carried by the Whigs ; and I hope it will be in their
power further to reduce taxation. The next step which
I am desirous of seeing is the reduction of the postage,
which weighs so heavily on the poorer classes, which in-
terferes so much with the comfort of the working classes.
Another great question the Whigs are about to bring
forward is that of education.—(Cheers.) Education
most intimately concerns us all. I think it is the duty
of the State to take such steps that all who have not
fortune enough to give their children a proper educa-
tion, should be assisted to do so by the State ;
and I cannot see why the education of the people
should be confined to the Established Church. Every
. man ought to he allowed to educate his children in those
religious opinions which he has himself cherished.—
' (Cheers.) Mr. Lawrence has spoken in a strange man-
ner of my two addresses. I have made no erroneous
' statement—l have made no statement to which I do not
now adhere. In the first I censured and blamed the
conduct of Sir R. Peel, in the second I guarded myself
against being supposed to impute bad motives. His
conduct I have a right to blame, with his motives I have
nothing to do. I came down here on Monday morning
under a feeling of indignation at what I understood to
have been Sir R. Peel's conduct, under the influence of
that feeling, and without the leisure to balance critically
my words, 1 issued my address, which I certainly ac-
knowledge was couched in harsh terms. I subsequently
heard that it had given pain to some, and had been
• considered to attribute motives. Now, I should be
always, sorry to give pain unnecessarily ; it is odious
to me to impute motives, and far from my taste
to take an undue advantage of the errors of those
I oppose. I therefore seized the first opportunity
of stating publicly that I do not attribute to Sir
Robert Peel any premeditated disloyalty ; I am
bound to acquiesce in the explanation he gave
in the House of Commone, that he acted from a
sense of the weakness of his party in that House, and
from a hope of strengthening it by such means as these.
I contend that the demand he made was a most im-
proper one. He ought not to have made the demand,
and he had certainly no right to insist upon it. The
demand was without precedent ; it had never been
made by any Minister before ; it ought not to have
been to any Sovereign, but more particularly to one
under the circumstances of the present. Her youth,
her sex, her want of experience and of natural
advisers, which might have been expected to have
rendered her less able to cope with so experienced
a tractician, ought to have commanded on his part
a more than usual degree of tenderness and forbearance.
The demand was destructive of her Majesty's personal
comforts. And here I must remark that, whether the de-
mand extends to two or more ladies is of little importance,
for the principle once established that the Minister had
the power of removal, it could not be resisted on a
future occasion. This demand removed two of those
who possessed a large share of her Majesty's regard ;
it left the rest dependent on the clemency of the
Minister for leave to remain in attendance on their
Royal mistress, and it rendered it necessary that
for the future every political change should be' ac-
companied by a corresponding change in the immediate
attendants and intimate society of her Majesty. This
demand eons eyed distrust and suspicion, it cast a re-
flection on the strength of mind, or else on the integrity
of the Queen ; it implied either that she was weak
enough to be influenced by the Ladies of the Bedcham-
ber, or else that she was insincere enough to use their
agency against her Ministers. Now, either of these sup-
positions is grossly and insultingly false. It is well known
that her Majesty never allows politics to be the subject of
conversation between herself and her attendants, and if
there is one person in this country who more than another
combines firmness of character and independence of judg-
ment with a native love of truth and artless simplicity of
purpose, that person, I rejoice to say, is the Queen.—
(Cheering,) Now, how was this unprecedented, distrust-
ful and obnoxious deniAlid ity.t by the Queen? It was
met with the spirit of an Englishwoman, with the pride
of her ancestors, with the dignity of a crowned head ;
it was at once, but cautiously and delicately, rejected.—
(Loud cheers.) In that rejection the people of
this country are declaring they will support her,
and I call upon you, the electors of Hertford, to
take care not to send a man into the House of Commons
who, having, as he says, placed himself under 'the
banners of Sir Robert Peel, must aid and assist him,
on the next opportunity, in repeating this demand,
which I maintain to be inconsistent with her Majes-
ty's personal honour, and which she has declared in her
letter to be contrary to usage and repugnant to her
feelings. The ground on which it was placed was a
demonstration of confidence. There is something hol-
low and fallacious in this, for who would have been im-
posed upon by it, or believed a bit more that Sir R. Peel
had the confidence of the Queen, if he did obtain the
power of dismissing two ladies ? It could not markcon-
fidence ; it might mark power ; but then the power of
the Minister to overrule the inclinations of the Sove-
Sir Robert ,
Peel is c,ertainly
reign.—(Great cheers.)
one of the most uniu...k , . of s 4,t
Three times in the last seven years the reins of power

have been placed in his fingers, and three times have
they slipped through his grasp. Ia 1832 the will of the
nation sounded in a voice of thunder which quickly
prevented the abortive attempt. In 1834 it was the
voice of the House of Commons. In 1839 it only required'.
two Ladies of the Bedchamber.—(Laughter and cheers.)
One of them, by-the-bye, had tendered her resignation
on Friday morning, the other is now journeying on the
Continent, quite unconscious that she is made to out-
weigh half the House of Commons, and that she has
been annihilating the power of the Tories. I cannot
have any doubt of my return. I rest my reliance on
this occasion on those whom I think, after four years'
acquaintance, I have a right to call my old friends:—
(Loud cheers.)
After a short address from Sir Minto Farquhar and
a reply from Mr. Cowper—a show of hands was de-
manded by the Mayor, which he declared to be in fa-
vour of Sir Minto Farquhar.
A poll was demanded which was fixed for this morning
at nine o'clock.
Both parties were sanguine of success.