The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-20 00:00:00

THE TOTNES ELECTION.

TOTN ES, Monday.
The nomination of candidates to fill the seat ren-
dered vacant by the death of Earl Gifford took place
this morning on hustings erected in front of the
Seven Stars Hotel. The candidates were John
Dent, Esq. (Conservative), and Alfred Seymour,
Esq. (Liberal). The former was accompanied to
the hustings by Capt. King, Capt. Dent, R.N., Mr.
J. F. P. Phillips, J.P., Mr. W. H. Mitchell, and a.
large number of other friends.

Mr. J. F. P. Phillips, J.P., proposed, Fuld Mr.
Seaman seconded the nomination of John Dent, Esq.
Mr, Seymour was proposed by Mr. Boardman,
and seconded by Mr. Huxham.
JOHN DENT, Esq., who was received with
loud cheering, said—Mr. Mayor and gentlemen,
in presenting myself before you a second time
as a candidate for your suffrages, it may pos-
sibly be expected that I should explain to you
and justify my abrupt retirement on the last occa-
sion. This, gentlemen, I should be perfectly ready
and willing to do, if I could possibly do so without
entering into personalities and recrimination which
would only serve to embitter still further the pre-
sent contest. (Hear.) I will therefore say no more
on the subject than this—that so far from having
betrayed the Conservative cause on that occasion I
was complimented and thanked by the executive
chiefs of our great party in London for my prudence
and forbearance. I was complimented for having
mystified myself and my own feelings rather than
prejudice the great constitutional cause in which
I feel so deeply interested. With respect to my
political views, gentlemen, I have really very little
more to say to you on the present occasion than I
had on the last. I have taken pains to lay them
before you broadly, openly, and honestly, fully
aware that my creed is what is called an old..
fashioned one in the present day; though why it
should be called so I am at a !oss to understand.
(Hear.) For what is my creed ? I accept our con-
stitution as it is. lam satisfied with it as it stands.

(Cheers.) I would not undo any one single act
which has served to give it its present specific shape
and form, but I certainly would not hand over that
sacred " ark of our liberties," that treasury of all
that we love and venerate, to be pulled to pieces
to-day and put together again to-morrow by rash
and irreverent hands. (Loud applause.) I cleave,
gentlemen, to those ancient landmarks which have
made Old England what it is—the envy of the
world, the sanctuary and resting place of liberty.
(Cheers.) If this is an old-fashioned creed I avow

it, I am proud of it, and I will cling to it, and if
you send me to Parliament, understand me clearly,
I will vote dead against all elementary or organic
change. (Cheers.) At the same time, gentlemen,
I avow myself an earnest administrative reformer.
(Hear.) I know of no institution, whether in
Church or State, that can be held as exempt from
the necessity of periodical repair and amendment.
(Hear.) Abuses will creep in. The inroads of
time will make themselves felt in all human arrange-
ments, and all such abuses and all such inroads I
would as earnestly correct as my hon. opponent, or
any other man. (Cheers and laughter.) Need I
say, gentlemen, that I have been all my life a Free-
trader P (Hear.) I was a Free-trader in principle
at a time when it was not the popular creed ; and I
myself, and the house to which I belong, were in
bye-gone years amongst the earliest and foremost
advocates for breaking down two of the most per-
nicious monopolies in the world at that day—that
of the old East India Company, in conjunction with
the ancient Co-Hong of China. (Hear, hear.) I
can boast of this, gentlemen, as practical service
in a bye-gone 'day to a then unpopular cause—
(cheers)—though I cannot, like my honourable
opponent, boast of having shaken the hand of
M. Michael Chevalier, or of having drawn an in-
spiration from its contact. (Cheers and laughter.)
And now, gentlemen, I have but one word more to

say to you. My canvass has exceeded my most

sanguine expectations. (Cheers.) Let our watch-
word be union. (Hear.) Rush to the poll to-morrow
with one united effort, and we shall rescue this fine
old borough for ever from the thraldom which has
for the last dozen years so lamentably distinguished
it. (Cheers.)
_ _

Mr. ALFRED SEYMOUR then came forward, and
was received with cheers from his friends and all
kinds of uproar from th© crowd. He expressed him-
self in favour of the progressive policy of the
Liberal party, referred to the principal measures
passed through their aid—the Catholic Eman-

cipation Act, the Reform Bill, Free Trade, and
all those measures of finance which had sea

cured for this country so high a position in the
eyes of the world; and after referring to the
peaceable manner in which the operatives in
Lancashire bare their distress as a proof chat is
was no fault of the Legislature, said he was in fa-
vour of further extension of the franchise and mea-
sures of progress generally, and not like his oppo-
nent, who wished to see things remain as they were.
(Several of the crowd having interrupted him in the
course of his remarks, he delivered to them some
severe remarks.)
The Mayor then called for a show of hands, when
fully two-thirds were held up for Mr. Dent, where-
upon his worship declared the show to be in that
gentleman's favour. The announcement was re-
ceived with loud cheers.
A poll was demanded for Mr. Seymour, and the
mayor fixed it to begin at eight to-morrow morning•

LISBURN ELECTION.—Mr. Bateson, the Conser-
vative candidate, has retired, his canvass disappointed him.
The Liberal candidate, Mr. Barbour, is receiving veil
wide support. No successor to Mr. Bateson has yet been
found.

THE VOLUNTEERS.—Yesterday the important
contest for the honour of holding, for the first years
the Challenge Cup, of the value of 60 guineas, presented
by Lord Fermoy and Harvey Lewis, Esq., the members for
Marylebone, for competition between the Rifle Volunteer
Corps representing that borough, came off at Wormwood
Scrubs, and excited deep interest. The corps between whom
the competition rested were the West Middlesex (Maryle-
bone), the North Middlesex (St. Pancras), the 36th Middle.-
sex (Paddington), and the 20th Middlesex. Lieut.-Col.
Whitehead, 29th ,Yorth Middlesex, Lieut.-Col. Bigge, 20th.
Middlesex, and Lieut.- Col. Wood, Paddington, and a large
number of officers of each regiment were present. The
terms of competition were of an extraordinary chatacter,
the highest points of excellence to be decided by the average
number of marks made by the representatives of each corps,
in the ratio one for every 50 enumerated as the strength of
the corps in the adjutant's last returns to the War Office.
Capt. Williams, of the 19,h Middlesex, acted as umpire,
and the ranges were 200, 500, and 600 yards, five shots
each. A perfect gale of wind blew from the right front
throughout the contest, and rendered anything like steady
shooting out of the question. Under these unfavourable
auspices the contest commenced and proceeded to the close,
when the state of the score stood thus:—West Middlesex,
10 men, 287 marks; average, 26 70. 36th Middlesex (Pad-
dington), 5 men, 130 marks ; average, 26-00. 29t0 North
Middlesex, 11 men (1 short), 270 marks ; average, 24-54.
20th Middlesex, 19 men, 435 marks ; average, 22-88, The
West Middlesex are therefore the winners of the Borough
Cup for the present year.--2d City of London.—On be-
turday evening the above corps matched from headquarters,
East Harding-street, headed by their two bands, to Somer-
set House, and were put through a series of battalion move•
ments by Major Spottiswoode, their commandant. After
an hour's drill they marched through the Strand, St'
James's Park, Hyde Park, and Oxford •street, back to their
head-quarters.

TERRIBLE DEATH.—On Sunday evening, at
about ten o'clock, a man named John Willan, living
in Salter-street, Preston, and employed at the gasworks in
th a town as foreman of the firemen, and night attendant
to the ammonia still, met his death under the following cir-
cumstances :—lt was his duty to supply the still, when
necessary, with vitriol, which is largely used in the manu-
facture of ammonia, and which he had to pour into the
still from large carboys holding about 10 gallons each. I°
order to do this he had to ascend a platform raised about
seven feet above the ground, and on a level with the mouth
of the retort. It is conjectured that he went to the top of
the platform about ten o'clock for the purpose of filling the
retort, and then while holding the carboy, which was half
full of vitriol, he stepped back incautiously and slipped ell
the platform, which was not railed round or defended in any
way. In his fall he must bavo dragged the carboy with
him, and the burning liquid poured down upon his face and
the front of his body. Ahout half-past ten o'clock a person
going past the gasworks heard some one moaning inside.
Assistance was procuted, and the still room was entered,
when the unfortunate man was found lying on the ground
just under the platform in a pool of vitriol, which was gra`
dually consuming his body and clothing, the glass vese°l
that had held the vitriol being close to him, smashed into
pieces by its fall. Medical aid was speedily procured, L.'
it was of no avail, for the unfortunate creature, who nyver
spoke from the time he was found up to his death, expired
at four o'clock yesterday murnieg, in the gre,test agea°
He had been employed at the gasworks many years.