The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-28 00:00:00

7OTNES ELECTION.

On Wednesday evening John Dent, Esq., the
Conservative candidate, addressed the electors of
this borough in the Guildhall ; John Gill, Esq.
(ex-mayor), presiding.
Mr. DENT, who on rising was received with loud
and prolonged applause, said,—Mr. Chairman and
Gentlemen, Electors of the borough of Totnes,—
After the overwhelming reception which I met with
from you all upon my arrival in this borough I
feel great confidence in now addressing you. {Ap-
plause.) But before I enter upon the topics for
which this meeting has been convened I consider
it is only due to you, in return for the interest you
have shown in meeting me, to apologise for not
having presented myself to you at an earlier
period. I assure you it was owing to no lukewarm-
nessth e( 0 solehes rs)
on my part, lout was occasioned by indisposi-
tion. (Hear, hear.) Since my arrival I have met
with such assuring proofs of your confidence that I
do not hesitate to state that I have come here for
sbearalism
end of rescuing the Conservative interest
from the thraldom in which it has been so ldng held
spurious
existed in it.
—from the domination, coupled with
but I contend alsAo
T Somerset
otne hahvleaiwhich up to this time has
plause.) I admit the Duke of
for this borough that the independent electors of
right to a certain influence here ;
a rightvfwithout
elect at least one member
quietly to addressiyecfontrol or dictation. (Hea r
eloquence—upon certain hear.) Now,
gentlemen, allow me calmly and
or I do not pretend to any
ap-
plause.) (A Voice—Truyth.
topics upon which parties
as to ballot, I b (Hear, hear, and differ at the present dna
believe
eloquence.) In the
I contlet
first place,
it, as rld have
o f t
h alreadyo t
ex-
pression. love I have already ex-
pressed myself in most explicit
point. (Hear, hear.) I abxhpor lic•it terms upon that
pt to shield him-
said ; and I will not:retract one
Panredssein°lDi.ght(eAnpedplmauasne.)should attheemn
yuonudeeranthdeidbiyalillosth.
shall oppose
in.
that no free
contend m 1 iwsuisnhdemrosstotod. I have been
Therefore I
that
voting if
weltteevl el r I have an opportunity of in Parlia-
ment. (Hear, hear.) Now, with so
regard to the
particularly
not
church-rate
a true Churchman all my life, and Ico
the Church has as much right to her rates
s
do everything on my part to strengthen the Church
Duke of Somerset has to his rents. (Hear a;
thewili 1
in her rights; and the only adjustment I - could
possibly submit to would be that church rates should

be incorporated either with the poor rate or the
county rate. But even then I would not diminish
one iota of the Church's due right to her absolute
and independent property. (Loud cheers.) As to
the franchise, my experience has led me to the con-
clusion that the present standard is as equitable
and sound as it can possibly be.., (Hear, hear.) I
maintain that the franchise in boroughs has worked
well hitherto, and will continue to work well. And
so strong am I on that point, that I would not
willingly consent to a reduction of the
borough franchise to £9 19s. 111 d. (Cheers.)
In my address I stated that I considered
the franchise should be extended according to the
progress of education. I quite admit that, but I
am now speaking of the standard as to a property
qualification, and I can only repeat my conviction
that the present standard is a just and,proper one.
But I contend also that education is the higher
standard. (Cheers.) There is one other very im-
portant subject which must interest all of us—it is
the cause of education. (Applause.) I am per-
fectly certain that we have all the deepest interest
in that question. (Hear, hear.) I know that I for
one have, and that I am a sincere friend of educa-
tion, and shall be prepared to vote on every occa-
sion for the right of the poor man's child to a sound
plain education at the charge of the state. (Hear.)
I would see every poor man's child in every county
and borough in England Etittieted to a sufficient
point out of the means of the country. (Cheers.)
And you may rely upon me that if I am returned
to parliament I shall do all in my power to further
the cause of education. (" Bravo !") As for our
armaments and our volunteers, there can be no two
opinions with reference to them. (Cheers.) .We
are all lovers of our glorious country, and wish our
armaments to be kept up to that position which
should enable us, should it ever become necessary,
to meet even the whole world in arms against us.
(Loud applause.) As for the volunteers, it was the
patriotism of the country which gave rise to them;
and all I can say is, that if they do want a subsidy
I shall not only be happy, but 1 shall feel it my
duty, to do my utmost for that noble body, should
I ever be placed in a position to do so. (Cheers.)
In conclusion, I would say that I come to submit
myself to you hindered by no other ties. I have no
landed interest in any county in England ; and I
hope to be able to identify my future connection
with our soil with the ancient and loyal borough of
Totnes. (Cheers, and a Voice, " He's our man.")
I assure you that in every way that lies in my
power I shall be happy to promote the prosperity,
and do all I can to advance the welfareohap
of the
only
borough e
more
ot
repoint
large. t (Cheers.)
whiche e rs .
would There
allude. One is, perhaps,
land all of us must very deeply sympathise with the
great distress now prevailing in our manufacturing
districts. (Hear, hear.) I trust that distress
will be efficiently relieved, and I shall join in re-
lieving it where it so largely prevails. (Heals) If
its effects should possibly—as we know they may
—in any way react upon the poor of Totnes, if I
can do anything to relieve that reaction, I shall be
only too happyito offer:my aid in doing so. (Cheers.)
In conclusion I would say that you have received
me so flatteringly and warmly that I feel I may
confidently leave my interest in your hands. (Hear,
hear.) lam prepared to go through to the end,
and to poll the last man on your register—(pro-
longed cheering)—should my canvass justify me in
doing so. (Cheers.)
On the motion of Mr. J. F. Phillips, J.P.,
seconded by Mr. Heath, Mr. Dent was unanimously
accepted as a fit and and proper candidate for the
borough.

MR. M. MILNES ON AMERICAN AFFAIRS,

The annual soiree of the Leeds Mechanics' Insti-
tution Literary Society and School of Arts took
place last night and passed off with that success
which has for so many yearn: bean lasual on these
occasions. Unfortunately Earl Geanville could not

'ulfil an engagement to preside, in consequence o
he recent death of his mother. The duties of pre

siding were, however, ably discharged by Mr. R.
Moncktonlnes, M.P. for Pontefract, who ad-

dressed the large assembly at great length, and to
the following effect. He said, in allusion to Earl
Granville's severe loss, that his lordship held a
titular office which made him the sixth subject
of her Majesty, but a member of the Govern-

ment could scarcely tell anything new, and lately
another member of the Government had got himself

into a scrape by remarks which he made by way o

exception to the general rule. The hon. gentleman
said that (luting the eleven years which had tran-
spired since the last great Exhibition the nation
had had many disappointments. The first Exhibi-
tion was to inaugurate an era of peaee ; but this
country was driven by dire necessity into the Rus-
sian war, which lost so much of English blood and
English treasure, but added so much to English
glory. The terrible tale of the Indian mutiny was
another disappointment ; and another great Power,
founded by England in another hemisphere on the
principles of English freedom and English intelli-
gence, on the other side of the Atlantic, and which
we once only feared might become greater than
ourselves—that realm had caused another disap-
pointment. He believed there were some persons,
though but few, who had looked with something
like inhuman gratifiCation on the American catas-
trophe, but he for one would never share those feel-

ings which could regard that event as any other
and as one which Englishmen
bound to denounce and exe-
than the greatest calamity Which had ever fallen
aubpoovnetahlel humanothers
wraecere,
exe-
crate. (Cheers.) All present
knew
poverty existing in Lancashire the miserable
Ame-
rican disaster. Such events through
the
as this did not occur
without intent of moral improvement to the world;
but it was not his business to"improve" those
occurrences for any peculiar purpose; all he coced
do was to call:upon all to suggest to themselves as
they best could what had been the evil, what had
been the wrong, what had been either the injus-
tice, or some other peccant cause, from which the
calamities he had referred to had sprung. Of
the latter which he had alluded to he would say
this—and he trusted that there was no person in
that hall, whatever his abstract opinions might be
upon political subjects, who would not agree
with him—that this great American disaster was
an awful lesson to every other nation how they
allowed a great national evil, as was that of Ameri-
can slavery, to remain within the community unre-
pented of, uncared for, and unimproved. (Applause.)
There were many evils in society to which we must
bend.many which,
of
h'inour limited un-
derstanding,
abolishing or even
rectifying
a totally different thing
ta
from trying to make of the evil good. It was say-
ing, This is not an evil, we will declare that to be
;
we
uwereth
saw mt
w n
no a
good which God's law and the law of humanity de-
clares to be wrong." This it was which lay at the
root of the American disaster. This it was which
was filling with desolation the valleys of Lancashire
and Cheshire. To his young friends—who woald
grow up to the times when these calamities would
be talked of and form a part of distant history—he
would say, " Do not forget this lesson, and may it
be within the scope of their retrospective in those
days to see the abolition of those tremendous evils,
and thus to vindicate the ways of God to man by
the rectification of that great sorrow of humanity."
(Cheers.) Mr. Milnes proceeded to address the men-
bers of the Mechanics' Institute who were not to
receive prizes, and ho assured them that though
they might be disappointed, if their hopes had been
elevated, or their characters raised, by their studies,
there was something good left behind after all. In
most cases advantage would follow education in an
individual, just as material prosperity followed the
development of education in nations, and in matters
of the community, but there might be circumstances,
there might be calamities, which would prevent
those results from taking place. And was it to

be said that because the American people were
the best educated people in the world, and this
great calamity of a civil war had fallen upon
them, it would have been better had they not
been educated at all? If some unknown disaster
should follow any individual who had laboured in
the cause of his own education, thwarting his effo: is
preventing him from attaining that succean in life
which he thought he had a fair claim to—was it to
be said, "Better he had not been educated at all ?"
In tho name of moral justice, he (Mr. Alilneb)
should say neither the one nor the other. Bet-
ter to labour even to fail, even better than if any
one were to succeed unjustly and without labour.
(Applause.) The education of an individual co-
operated, so to say, with the education of the world
in the hand of the great Divine Schoolmaster and
Artificer. This was a glorious consideration, which
the humblest of mankind might feel with no unjust
pride or undue conceit. In the midst of this great
Lancashire calamity, nothing seemed to him more
interesting than that a considerable portion of the
grown-up men were improving the calamity by
learning to read. (Applause.) It might be said,
" What was the use of reading to men who were
hungry and in unhappy circumstances ? " but did
it not give them a consciousness that there was
something in the world to learn which even in
calamities like this could never be wholly taken
away from them; and did not intellectual pursuits
go a considerable way to mitigate the material evils
of life, and to accommodate the man to the uneasi-
ness of his circumstances P (Applause.) The hon.
gentleman concluded by urging the importance of
art education, and by showing that mental study
was only a duty which a man owed to himself and
to his country, by assisting in the great work of the
civilisation of mankind, which it should be the
glory of every man to be a contributor to, and, if it
pleased God, even to be a martyr to. (Loud ap-
plause.)