The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-05 00:00:00

nice to some of the most important companies

SO U 7 rfAMP7 ON BLEC7ION.

THE NOMINATION.
The nomination of candidates to fill the vacancy
occasioned in the representation of Southampton by
the death of B. M. Willcox, Esq., took place at the
Town Hall yesterday morning, at 10 o'clock, pre-
vious to which the members of the two council were
invited to assemble at the Audit House. The win-
dows of the hall wore strongly barricaded. Shortly
after nine o'clock a crowd assembled outside the
doors anxious to gain admission, but a limited num-
ber of the friends of each candidate, together with
the corporation, were first admitted by a private
entrance. The Lord Mayor, accompanied by a few
of his committee, was the first to arrive, followed
shortly afterwards by Captain Mangles and his
leading supporters, amid a hearty round of cheering
and clapping of hands.
Immediately upon the door at the main entrance
being opened, the building speedily became filled
with an immense crowd, and as the partisans of each
candidate called for cheers for them it was heartily
responded to by groaning and hissing.
The Under Sheriff (Mr. W. Hickman) read the
writ, and the usual formalities were gone through.
Colonel TRYON proposed Captain Mangles. (Loud
cheers and groans.)
Mr. J. T. Tuexi.n, amidst the greatest uproar,
seconded the proposition.
Mr. LE YEI:I7RE proposed Mr. William Ander-
son Rose us a fit and proper person to represent the
town..lti Parliament. (Groans and cheers.)
'sslr. JOSEPH LOCKE seconded the motion.
Mr. SCRASE proposed the Right Hon. W. F.
Cowper, the First Commissioner of Works, as a fit
and proper person to represent them in Parliament,
but there was no seconder.
Captain MANGLES, who was received with cheers
by his friends and groans from his opponents, said
implore my friends, of whom I am happy to see
a great many present, not only to listen to me, but
to give the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor of London
a fair and issnpartial hearing. We are, or ought to
be, searching after truth. Having fought and con•
quered my hon. opponent at Newport, we still pre-
served our tempers, and were as good friends at the
end of the election as we were when it began. I
hope this will be the case now, and no words shall
Cross my lips which can be construed as personally
offensive to my opponent. Let me, before I pass
to the particular object of the meeting, pay a just
tribute to your late excellent and liberal member,
Mr. Willcox, who has passed away from us, I am
sorry to say, full of years, and yet with a vigour
sufficient to justify our hope that he would
have served you with the same ability and same
howssty of purpose that he had for many years
post. If I were for the first time addressing
you it would be necessary for me to enter more
fully than I propose to do into my political
opinions ; but 21 years ago I stood before the con-
stituency of Southampton, and then, as now, I was
an advocate of the ballot, extension of suffrage, and
abolition of church rates, and when I am returned,
as I am sure I etiall be to-morrow, as your repre-
sentative, it will be my duty and my pleasure to
pursue the same course as I did then. I will allow
it is sad to think how little has been done in the
movement of reform since I then addressed you,
electors of Southampton. But be not downhearted,
the truth must prosper, and we shall ever honestly
carry that, as we have previously carried those just
and liberal me,4sures which are for the benefit of
the people at large. The Tories are apt to disguise
themse'sves in very strange garments, and my hon.
cistssment calls himself a Liberal-Conservative. He
is brought forward by a party whose object it is to
try and turn out your respected and esteemed neigh-
bour, Lord Palmerston. He asks you to return
him pledged by a party not to intrude on institu-
tions; he sticks to the old fashioned tyranny of the
party he seeks to represent. He drops altogether
the question of an extension of the franchise, and
instead of the abolition of church rates, proposes a
compromise ; but, men of Southampton, you will
not be such fools as that. Having got rid of church
rates yourselves, you are not going, I hope, to allow
them to he re-established were ; and if I were to ,
search the country through I know no town which
could be adduced as a stronger argument in favour
of the abolition of church rates than Southampton.
You have had no church rates for many years, and
yet the Established Churches in this town are in
beautiful order, and there is no fear of the
fabric falling to decay. You and I who are
Churchmen, or attend the Established Church, or
are members of it, will not allow such a thing,
but, at the same time, we do not wish the conscien-
tious Dissenter to put his hand in his pocket for
our church as well as for his own. He tells us,
look to America, look to France, to see the working
of the ballot. Does he mean to say they are parallel
cases ? Does he mean to compare England with
America, moved and swayed about by every
element of discord ? Does he mean to compare
America to our blessed constitution, with Queen,
Lords, and Commons? Does he mean to compare
France with happy England ? Either he has been
deficient in his history, or I am afraid he was at-
tempting to impose on your credulity. He now
shirks the question of the extension of the fran-
chise. At present you have only one man in six
who has a right to vote. Let me ask you, would it
be dangerous to make it one in three ? Would it
be dangerous to extend the franchise to the £6
householder, and not confine it, as it is at this
moment, to £lO ? In many boroughs, and it is so
in this, a £lO man gets so large a house that he
lets out a part of it, whilst a £6 householder has
not room to do it, and, therefore, the £6 house-
holder really pays more rent than the £lO man, be-
cause the £lO man gets a great deal of it back again
in the shape of lodgers, I have mixed a great deal
during my canvass with non-electors, and found
them fully as intelligent, and as fully deserving the
franchise as the £lO man ; and where can we draw
the line, and say the right of representation is to be
con haled entirely tr, a mat who happens to hold a
£lO house ? It is unnecessary for me to enter into
my political opinions ; they are of 21 years' stand-
ing in this town, and whilst I feel a pride in having
shown that I have been both in and out of Parlia •
ment consistent in my political opinions, I think it
must also be an assurance and a comfort to you that
you will return, as you undoubtedly will tomor-
row, a man who has acted for the last quarter of a
century as consistently and as honestly as I have
done. I feel unwilling to trespass upon you longer,
and I will, therefore, sit down with a few words of
Consolation to my friend, for I will quote, if he will
allow me, a few lines of poetry :
" Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathomable caves of ocean bear,
Full many a rose is born to blush unseen,
And Waste its sweetness in the desert air."
(Enthusiastic cheering.)
The LORD MAYOR then addressed the meeting.
The principal claim which he had for their suffrages
_was that he was an independent man ; but whilst
he was anxious to reciprocate to the utmost the
kindly feeling expressed by his honourable oppo-
nent towards him, yet he felt that he was bound to
express to the electors that between Capt. Mangles
and himself there could be no comparison in regard
to the interestsof the people of Southampton. South-
ampton possessed advantages second to no port in
in the kingdom, but Capt. Mangles had succeeded,
in the honest discharge of the trust reposed in him
as chairman of the South-Western Railway Com-
pany, in securing a railway monopoly against the
interests of the electors. He had also told a par-
liamentary committee that the port was not capable
for sailing ships, but only for large passenger
steamers, and had said that Southampton did not
more trade, did not want more railways, did
want
not want more eia is and iron ; and if they returned
the captain he believed that
ihde
nwootutlhdinckarrtyhaotutthhei;
prophecy.their interests. The An-
dover and Redbridg e
He, the
r
would entrust him wteffohre,
was a very fair speci-
men Capt. Mangles would
of the kind of interestßailway did not
exercise in their behalf.
but would ask blame
them him m
his conduct in the matter, resent
e to
for
continue to allow Capt. Mangles
to repreent tem
South-Western Company, andse had to represent the
in parliament, Capt. Mangleh also sheen h
t he
means of driving away from the port a company
which would have yearly expended a large sum.
He
was an active director, and gave valuable assist-

connected with the port, but that a 3 stance

was confined to the various interests of those

respective companies, and, therefore, it would be the
most suicidal thing in the world for the t orough to
return as their representative such am,P . He (the

Lord Mayor) was free from all these objections ; he
was not a director of a company whose interests
were antagonistic to Southampton, and he was pre-
pared, if they elected him, to serve them honestly
and faithfully, for this course would be the only one
he 'had of maintaining their confidence. As to his
political creed Captain Mangles had said that he
(the Lord Mayor) was opposed to an extension of
the franchise, but he would tell them what the cap-
tain did when there was an opportunity of extend-
ing the franchise to intelligence, talents, and integ-
rity, by allowing lodgers, and persons possessing
personal property in railway shares, or savings bank
deposits, to vote—he voted against the bill. They
intended, they said, to bring in another bill, but
they never did, and he believed never intended to do
so. With regard to the ballot, it was quite a mis-
take to say that he had ever even dreamt of being a
supporter of it. Persons having a stake in the
country did not want to sneak behind a ballot box
in order to give their votes, and if it were in force
the men at this election would be handed over to the
friends of the sheriff, as returning officer, neither he
nor the mayor, nor any other public officer, being
able to protect himse'f from the stigma, however
fairly and honestly they might have acted. He
would illustrate what the ballot had done in France
and America. In France through it alone they had
lost every right which made a country worth living
in. In the United States it had caused an expendi-
ture of millions, a conscription, suspension of habeas
corpus, and martial law. Every species of terror
had been the result of their having no prominent
public men to come forward and lead the public
mind ; and why ? Because they voted hishouestly
and in secret, and the result had been that
eminent public men had eschewed politics,
and left the country to itself, and anarchy and con-
fusion had been the result of democratic institutions
which had adopted the ballot box. With regard
to church rates, he said some years ago, and he re-
peated it now—if church rates were to be abolished
there must be an equivalent. If they were prepared
to abolish our noble constitution, sever Church and
State, and let in confusion, if they were prepared
to work demolition and spoliation, and to hand
over the Church, as they did in an earlier age, to
the nobles, let them allow his opponent to have his
way, and abolish church rates throughout the coun-
try. Mr. Lobb had referred to their armorial
bearings ; but if they returned Capt. Mangles he
was afraid they would lose one of their supporters,
and that the lion on one side would tumble into the
sea. He had only to repeat that he believed his
hon. opponent to be a most conscientious man, who
had well discharged his duties as chairman of the
South Western ; but who was not fit and proper to
be entrusted to represent their interests in the Com-
mons House of Parliament. (Loud cheers.)
The SHERIFF then announced that Mr. Scrase
had withdrawn his candidate—(laughter)—and he
called for a show of hands, which he declared in
favour of Alderman Rose.
Three cheers were given for each candidate be-
core the meeting separated.