The Sun.
London, England, 1837-05-05 00:00:00

SIR FRANCIS it DETT'S FRIENDS

I ast evening a meeting ut the electors of Westminster
in tie interest of Sir Francis Burdett took place at Pen-
dali's Hotel, Palace-yard. J. ELLIOTT, Esq., Was voted
to the Chair.

the CHAL{MAN on rising said, if ever there were a time
upon which the electors were enlleil upon to do their dut)
to the country, the present was the most urg,tul.
'Mr. JONES BURDF.TT was sorry t/ hAve it to state, that
Sir Francis was totally incapacitated from attending the
meeting that evening, in consequence of violent indisposi-
tion. He was for removing (~11 acknowledged abuses—for
supporting all measures which tended to improve the state,
-and not destroy its institutions.—(Hear.)
. Mr. Wool) said no one was more sensible of the import-
ance of the-present contest than himself. The Conserva-
tive Reformers, of slam lie was one, were for preserving
and not impiring -the Constitution. From regard to the
past se:-vices of Sir Francis Burdett the electors were
called upon to return liiin.—(Cheers.) He concluded 1:1
moving a resolution to the'effect, " That the meeting view
with satisfaction the exertions of their friends towards pro-
curing the return, of Sir Francis Burdett for the city of
Westminster."

Mr. SlltlTtn seco►lded the resolution.
Mr. L. FREEMAN moved that district Committees be
formed, and that all gentlemen be requested to lcnd their
assistance.

Mr. GORING came forward and addressed the meeting
amidst the greatest noise and confusion.
The meeting was about to be dissolved owing to the
great confusion, when

Mr. DawsoN came forward and said, that though this
meeting was nominally for the friends of Sir F. Burdett,
be should be sorry if' gentlemen of different principles were
not allowed to be heard.—(Hear, hear, hear.) Let the
orinions of the majority be considered. The meetings of
Mr. Leader and his friends were held without any interrup-
tion on their parts, but they were not satisfied with that ;
they came down in a body to overwhelm us.—(Cheers.)
Mr. JERVIS, M. P., then came forward and said that he
had a right to say something, being well known in his own
parish. He was encouraged to come here. " I come to
the question," continued Mr. Jervis, " whether Sir Francis
is to have the support of this parish or not, or whether you
will choose Mr. Leader for your representative. If you
want a man of assiduity, diligence, and ability, one per-
fectly independent in fortune and principles, I should say
he was the man to select.—(Hear, hear.) I look to his
votes, to some of them I object ; for example, he is for a
reform in the House of Lords, and to that I am opposed.
But shall I not look to the other side ? Shall I not call to
reco:lection the former conduct of Sir F. Burdett, and con-
trast it with his present apostacy ?—(Cheers.) Shall I not
remember that be was the very man who attacked and
reproached Sir Samuel Remaly for refusing to vote for
Universal Suffrage ?—(Cheers.) Gentlemen, these im-
pressions have not passed away, nor are the events so far
distant as to be forgotten.—(Loud cries of Hear, hear.)
But what has he done now ? Stung and forced into
resigning his seat, he has chosen the happiest moment—
be has taken advantage of Sir George Murray's or-
ganised forces who have returned from the field—his Com-
mittee has been enlisted in his service.—(Hear.) But, gen-
tlemen, I say I would infinitely pay a man who differs
from me in polities to one guilty of a total dereliction
of principle. Therefore do I vote for Mr. Leader, though
differing with him on some material question. Should the
event of this election be determined in favour of Sir Francis,
why, the Tories would parade it as a triumph.—(Much con-
fusion among-Sir Francis's party, being anxious to disclaim
all Connection with the name of " Tory." The Chairman
eventually interposed to restore order.) Yes, I say, they
would laud it as a triumph ; it would be made a question of
principle by the Tory press and party. Sir Francis screens
himself under false pretences. For myself, I wave all minor
differences, and am content and happy to vote for Mr.
Leader. It is purely a question of principle whether you
prekr Mr. Leader to a man who was raised on the shoul-
ders of the people to the honour of being your representa-
tive, but who has now abandoned and betrayed the trust
you so faithfully reposed in him. I know not what excuse to
make for such conduct. The most charitable one is to re-
fer it to old age."—(Great uproar here ensued, with groans,
and hisses, and execrations both loud and deep.)
Mr. WOOD said, that had it not been for the exertions of
Sir Francis Burdett, they should have been without reform
in the present day.
Mr. C. BUI.LER then came forward, but, not being an
elector, was prevented from being heard. The clamour
which was so often %alluded to as proceeding from Mr.
Leader's party was in this instance so successfully held by
Sir Francis's party, to preclude the Hon. Member from a
hearing. A vote of thanks was proposed to the Chairman,
after which the meeting separated at half-past ten.

MR. LEADER AND THE ELECTORS
OF WESTMINSTER.

A Meeting of the friends of Mr. Leader was advertised
for 7 or 8 o'clock last Evening at the British Coffee-house,
Cockspur-street ; but at about a quarter past 7, Mr.
Simpson announced that: m /consequence of the meetinr
being much larger than was anticipated, arrangements had
been made for adjourning to the Lowther Rooms. A
rush was then made to the doors, and in a few minutes
a'terwards the persons assembled had removed to the Low-
ther Rooms.
Shortly before eight Mr. Leader and Mr. Chutes
Buller took their seats on the hustings.
Mr. Sistrsoi, addressing the meeting, stated that the
Tories had announced a public meeting to be held at Fen-
dall's Hotel that. evening, to get resolutions passed to se-
cure the election of Sjr Francis Burdett. Now, if it were
reap}; a public meeting, they could dispense with a few hun-
dreds to express their opin►on. If it were a public meet-
ing, they were equally at liberty to go there, and, if they
thought proper, they sere equally at liberty to say that
Sir Francis Burdett was not the person to represent them.
Mr. LEmzEtt had been informed by an active member
on the Committee that his presence was required down
at the Committee-room in Palace-yard for a short time,
and with the per Mission of the meeting he would leave for
a few minutes.
Mr. Leader, by the consent of the meeting, then left the
room, which by. this time was crowded to excess, and the
heat was almost iotolerahle.
Mr. SIMP.3:Th was about to propose that Mr. Charles
Buller, in the absence of Mr. Harvey, should take the
chair, when Mr. Harvey entered the room, and was moved
into the Chair. Colonel Thompson, M.P., Mr. Adam
Smith, Sir William Molesworth, B ut., M.P., Mr. Ward,
M.P., Mr. Hume, M.P., Mr. Talfourd, M.P., Mr. Tulke,
M.P., Mr. Evart, M.P., Mr. 11. Grattan, M.P., -Mr.
M.P., Mr. Il sh, 'M.P., Mr. Rigby Wason, M.P.,
Mr. Carpue, and many other gentlemen were on the hus-
tings in the course of the evening.
Mr. DANIEL. WHITTLE HARVEY, M.P., having taken
the chair, addressed the meeting to the following effect
For more than thirty y:ars of his life he had been the pupil
of Sir Francis Burdett—he had been a pupil of the Bur-
dett school. Well did he remember the time when he was
scarcely oat of his teens, that he proceeded from this me-
tropolis qu the occasion of the Middlesex election for forty
miles into Essex, and by the aid of four horses, and the
aid of buoyant spirits of youth, lie brought up two of the
Last men who gave plumpers to Sir Francis Burdett. From
trat time to the present there had never been a meeting
at which that lion. Baronet presided at which lie '(Mr.
Harvey) was not present, in order that he might profit by
lus snmvledge, and be strengthened in the cause of well-
doing by his exatnple. It could not but be matter of re-
gret to him, having known the Hon. Baronet so long as
he had—nay, be could not but feel deeply that the time
should arrive when a sense of public duty compelled him to
separate from him. The electors of Westminster appeared
in self-defence.- They were not disposed to deny the villue
of the past exertions of Sir F. Burdett, but they did ho-
nour to what he had done in past tipte ; they idolized his'
memory and the principles which be had advocated ; and
whilst they stilled their feelings they did honour to the
name and principles to which he bad in years gone by riven
his enlightened aid. To defeat Sir Francis Burdett was
to evince how great was their sense of his mistaken views,
by showing their devotion to that cause to which he had
been once the martyr. But the constituency of West-

minster wac not an infnntine political body— \Vestmin

.s not a it borough—it was as old as the Coo,
stitution, and the love of liberty was coeval with its sound.
, —( Hear.) But it was their duty" to ascertain the allega-
tion, " Who is the traitor ? Who has abandoned his prin-
. ciples?" They saw that in that powerful organ of the press,
the Times, the eloquent champion of Sir F. Burdett, they
were denounced as revolutioniAs.—( Hear, hear.) If they
w erc denounced thus, it was because they adhered steadily
o those principles which Sir Francis Burdett had for so
• ny years so ably advocated. [Here Mr. Hume entered the
nin, and was received with deafening shouts of applause.]
lie (Mr. Harvey) rejoiced that his Hon. Friend, the long-
tried friend of Reform, had just entered the room, because
his never-failing recollection would recur to that to which
he was about to allude. The Hon. Baronet proposed
" that freeholders, householders, and others, subject to
direct taxation in support of the poor, the Church, and
tie State, be required to elect Members to serve in Par-
liament." " That each county be subdivided according to
its taxed male, population, and each subdivision required to
elect one Representative." " That the votes be taken in
etch parish by the parish officers-; and all the elections
finished in one and the same day."- And he said moreover
—" And I make no hesitation in delivering it as my well-
digested opinion, that under the operation of this Reform, it
would be attended with much less difficulty to .return a
whole Parliament than to settle a dispute at a vestry about
a parish pauper." Again, he said, " There would be an
end to all odious and fanciful distinctions of persons and

.roperty—all would be simple and uniform : their weight
end influents' proportioned to their intrinsic value—no goa-
t:wow:mg or disqualifications—no invidious exclusions by
:cason of any office, from the bightst IA the 1t Nosh tither
.1 the elector or the tlecttilno 'variable, fantastical, liti-
;ious rights IA Voting—no possibility of false votes—no
reating—no carrying out voters—no charges of any kind--
to expense, legal or illegal—no contested elections. The
ople would have a choice without a contest, instead of a con-
-est without a choice." Sir F. Burdett, in pursuing the de-
velopment of his plani for Parliamentary Reform, on the oc-
,asion to which he had alluded, in reference to the benefits
vbich he anticipated would result from the scheme, said—
" The benefits that would undoubtedly follow from the
idoption of this reform are incalculable. Though lam
not one of those who would apply a sponge to the debt
of the nation, yet I am firmly persuaded that a re-
armed House of Commons would introduce such a
system of economy, both in the collection and expendi-
ture of the revenue, as would give instant ease to the
subject, and finally, and that at no very distant period,
by a due application of national resources to national ob-
jects, and to them alone, free the people from that enor-
mous load of debt and consequent taxation under which the
nation is weighed down." Again, " These have been the.
objects of my pursuit—to them have I always directed my
attention ; higher I do not aspire, lower I cannot descend."
Were not these the objects which the meeting had in view
—were not these- the objects for the attainment of which
they were contending ? Did they aspire to anything higher
—did they descend to anything lower ? Who was the
apostate—who gave up his recorded opinions? Were the
electors of Westminster, who, through good and ill—were
the freeholders or Middlesex. who were one and the same
body in principle—were these persons, who for thirty years
had attached themselves to Sir Francis Burdett—were
these men now, when the cause of Reform must advance
or retrograde, to be charged by their hallowed idol with
aiming at floating less than the overthrow of the throne,
and the annihilation of property ? Numerous as the elec-
tors were—strong in intelligence, in the singular locality of
their city, the scat of the Court, the resort of men of
science, of every occupation in which the industry of man
and the arts could be engaged—yet all these were to yield
to the effect of the contest—to their success or overthrow ;
for there was a singular circumstance attached to this con-
test, that the nation was not bewildered by being on the
eve of a general eliction ; there was no balancing, therefore,
a defeat in one quarter against a triumph elsewhere. There
could be no paltering of votes—no balancing of interests—
no giving a half vote to principle, and another half vote to a
friend. Let every voter do his duty—let him vote for one
man only. Let every voter remember that the eyes of the
country were directed to the result of this struggle. As the
fate of Toryism was involved in this contest, let it succeed,
and the cause of Toryism would be advanced many steps,
and the cause of the Whigs, with their reluctant supporters,
would be thrown back, and the Radical cause would have
to mourn over the defalcations of its friends and the tri-
umph of its foes.—(Hear, hear.) The Hon. Gentleman
concluded by an eloquent appeal to the assembly, calling
upon every man to exert all 'the energies of his body and
mind in carrying out the great object they had in view.
Mr. Suarsos addressed the meeting at some length,
urging combined exertions on the part of the voters. They
must recollect that they had no plural votes. to contend
against. The question at issue was not whether Mr.
Leader or Sir Francis Burdett should represent West-
minster ; but there was a much higher consideration in the
question. The Hon: Gentleman concluded by moving the
first resolution :—" Resolved—That Sir Francis Burdett,
by his repeated declarations in opposition to the popular
measures recently proposed to Parliament by his Ma-
jesty's present Ministers, and by his insulting and con-
temptuous letter to the electors, has betrayed the confi-
dence, and rendered himself unworthy of the future support,
of the electors of this parish."
Mr. HUME could recommend Mr. Leader, as a gentle-
man in every way entitled to be honoured by the confidence
of the electors of Westminster. The question was not
merely whether Nlr.,Leader. or Sir Francis Burdett ought
to be returned for Westminster, but whether those great
principles, in upholding which Westminster had stood dis-
tinguished beyond all other cities, should be maintained
and carried out.