The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-28 00:00:00

been made of the shortness and baldness of his ad

dress. He admitted that it was short, and at first•
sight it might seem bald, but he must ask them to
read it in the light of his address of last year, to
which it referred, and which fully announced his
views on public questions. It was, however, rather
singular that while some complained that there was
too little in his present address, though it endorsed
all that he had said in his first, there were others
who accused him of having made promises which he
would not keep. There was only one way of re-
plying to such attacks as these. He asked them to
believe him true till they had proved him false.
(Cheers.) He was told that Mr. Abel Smith on

Saturday expressed surprise that he (Mr. Cowper)
should have the brass to come forward as a sup-
porter of the present Government, which was op-
posed to the repeal of the malt-tax. Now, his brass
went to this extent, that it was only from a Liberal
Government that he had ever expected to get the
repeal of the malt-tax at all, because it was only a
Government which practised economy in the national

expenditure that would ever have the means at its
command for the reduction of taxation. (Cheers.)

His opinion was that they would get the repeal of
the malt-tax eventually. Farmers had spoken to
him of the scorn with which the Chancellor of the
Exchequer had spoken of the anti-malt-tax agita-
tion ; and he admitted that Mr. Gladstone was not
at present favourable as to the repeal of the tax.
But he, more than any other man, wase able to
devise means for that purpose; and he (Mr. Cowper)
believed that, if the case of the agriculturists were
properly put to him, he would be likely to apply any
future surplus to the reduction of the malt duty.
(Hear, hear.) He had taken care in his address not
to pledge himself to specific measures, because he
thought a Parliamentary representative should be
free to judge of measures when they were intro-
duced, and that it was impossible to arrive at a just
and satisfactory conclusion on most subjects until
they had been fully discussed. But, while he said
this, he wished it to be understood that if he went
to Parliament he should go as a Liberal. All his
tendencies were Liberal, and he should look at
every measure that was brought forward from a
Liberal point of view. (Cheers.) As a Liberal
he had pledged himself on the church-rate ques-
tion, because it seemed to him that that ques-
tion was beyond the stage of discussion. (Cheers.)
On the Reform question he most fully adopted Mr.
Gladstone's definition of a Liberal and a Conserva-
tive. There was no object to which he looked f or-
ward with more desire than an extension of the fran-
chise. He had no wish to swamp the present govern-
ing class ; but, while he hoped they would always

retain a potent voice in the affairs of the country, he
wished to see otherswho were now excluded brought
within the pale of the Constitution. (Cheers.) Sir
Edward Bulwer Lytton, in the courteous address
delivered by him at Hertford on Saturday, and al-
ready reported in The Sun, had said that the Cowper
family were trying to monopolise two-fifths of the
representation of Hertfordshire. (Hear.) Now, it
did not seem to him to be a fair objection to his can-
didature that one who bore the same name was a re-
presentative of the borough of Hertford. On the
contrary, he thought it was something in his favour
that members of his family were known and held in
esteem among those whose suffrages he sought.
(Cheers.) As to the exercise of family influence in
this neighbourhood, that was wholly out of the ques-
tion; and if those who imputed this to his family
would take the trouble to go over the pollbooks for
the borough of Hertford theywould satisfy themselves
of this by seeing how those persons on whom the
" family influence" could most easily be exerted were
in the habit of voting. (Hear, hear, and loud cheers.)
The Right Hon. W. COWPER next addressed the
meeting. He referred to the fact that every measure
which during the last half century had been passed,
whether for the extension of civil and religious liberty,
or for the removal of fetters from commerce, had, with
one single exception, been introduced and carried by
the Liberal party in the teeth of Tory opposition.
in Laws,con swehaiuc
ehn waseed
driven
iavr carried
from
by Sir
office R o Robert ths Peel,
Toryw how a sThe exception was the measure respecting the old Com
sup-
porters. The question for the country to desire at
the coming elections was whether power should
be placed in the hands of those who had opposed
every measure for enlarging the freedom and in-
creasing the prosperity of the people, or whether the
country should continue to confide in the Liberal
party by which these measures had been carried.
(Cheers.) He taunted the Conservatives in the
House of Commons with a want of sincerity in re-
ference to the repeal of the malt-tax. The Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer threw down the gauntlet to
them to propose that the surplus should be applied
to the reduction of the malt-tax, instead of the re-
duction of the income-tax, the tea duties, and the
fire insurance duties ; but they refused to accept
the challenge, and it had been said of them that
there was nothing they dreaded so much as the suc-
cess of such a policy. (Cheers.) The financial
policy of the present Government had been directed
with a view to the benefit of the whole community,
and not any particular class, and this was the only
policy which could succeed.
Mr. E. H. GREEN proposed a resolution declaring
the confidence of the meeting in Mr. Henry Cow-
per, and their conviction that he was a fit and pro-
per person to represent the county of Hertford in
Parliament.
The resolution was carried by acclamation, and
three hearty cheers were given for Mr. Henry Cow-
per and for the Right Hon. W. Cowper.
,nd