The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-01 00:00:00

ELECTION INTELLIGENCE.

--41.

CITY OF LONDON.

Yesterday the following address to the electors of
London on the choice of candidates for the repre-
sentation was issued by the Liberal Registration

Association :

" Fellow Citizens,—The contest which is now before us
is entirely unprovoked. You yourselves have, by your
suffrages, stamped with your acceptance the fitness of the
three sitting members ; and Mr. Lawrence, six months be-
fore any other candidate appeared, and while still bearing
the responsibilities and honours of the most exalted office
in your gift, claimed for the Corporation that share in the
representation which you and we had recognised in the re-
tern of Sir James Duke. It has been urged that although
Liberal principles are in the ascendant in this city, the
Conservative minority is entitled to reasonable considera-
tion. But we have to remind you that, not contented with
even two members in 1843, they put Mr. Baring in nomi-
nation to dispute the claims of Mr. Pattison, and in 1847
demanded the surrender of every seat ; while in Essex and
other districts where the Reform interest, although not
prevalent, is powerful, the party which in Lon-
don complain of a tyrant Liberal majority will
be satisfied with nothing short of a political monopoly.
The fitness of our senior member has been tested by 18
years of faithful and consistent service. We can justify our
choice by his honourable redemption in the House of Com-
mons of every pledge made upon the hustings. To the
ordinary weight attaching to the high functions of a mem-
ber of Parliament, he adds a public and political position in
commerce and finance, and a private influence from 'his
exalted social rank, which have been effectually and most
beneficially exerted on behalf of our local affairs. And
while the Liberal party in this city have, by the political
relation they have established with a name so potential,
recovered an ascendancy which had been lost, his family
has laid the cause of Reform under important obligations
by their cordial support in county and in borough, which
has far more than compensated for his temporary absence
from his place in the House of Commons. We advisedly
say temporary. When the cause and the party you retained
him to serve was in peril, he did not hesitate to risk his
health to record his vote ; and although he is not daily pre-
sent in person in the Legislature, he does not fail to exert
the influence your votes have enabled him to wield, to your
advantage, and to the substantial promotion of the Liberal
cause. The services of Mr. Crawford and the merits of Mr.
Goschen are reflected in the Mirror of Parliament;' while
their vigilant devotion to your best interests, and the legiti-
mate traditional rights of the Corporation, has not been
confined to vague professions and empty promises in
future,' but has been proved by their endorsements upon
its bills, their watchful attendances in committee, and
their speeches and votes in the house. We are no more
ashamed of the adoption of a candidate who is in trade than
those who, under precisely similar circumstances, put
Alderman Cubitt in nomination. On the contrary, we see
a peculiar fitness in joining to the finance, the commerce,
the scholarship of this great city, the representation of the
employers of its skilled labour ; and in completing the
circle of our Parliamentary membership by an adequate re-
cognition of the claims of our captains of industry. The
son of one of those citizens of whom England is proud,
who raise themselves by ability, integrity, and energy, to
exalted popular honours, Mr. Lawrence, has been called by
yourselves to the highest civic distinction it was in your
gift to bestow. We must take leave to remind you that
neither statesmen, orators, nor philosophers satisfy all the
requisitions of the public service. These are not the men
you take as partners in your business, or call to the ma-
nagement of your public companies. Parliament is a place
of practical business, as well as a rostrum for the enuncia-
tion of large thoughts and universal principles. The pri-
mary function of a representative for London is to attend
to the business of London. You have already contributed
more than your contingent to the statesmanship, the elo-
quence, the financial and commercial greatness of the king-
dom in Parliament. Five out of six of the suitors for your
suffrages are bankers ; three are directly connected with
the Bank of England. Your local affairs are those of no
mean city. Mr. Lawrence, himself engaged andthorougbly
experienced in the details of its trade, has an intimate
knowledge of the concerns of the community and the
municipality; while self-respect conspires with self-inte-
rest to suggest a choice which prefers the claims of
indigenous citizenship to a tuft-hunting weakness
for extraneous celebrity. We observe that Mr. Lyall
professes 'to protect the high privileges (of the
Corporation) which have recently been the subject of
attack,' and that the 'support of the (corporate) interests of
that great city to which we are all so warmly attached' is
one of Mr. Fowler's 'points.' But these pretences are
tendered only to cover an attempt to deprive the Corpora-
tion of that direct share in the representation which we
have willingly conceded, and to ignore the claims of the
only member of the municipality who has offered himself
for your suffrages. Indeed, we can scarcely characterise
the position of the Conservative opposition as anything
short of an insult to the understanding of the constituency.
To adopt the course which alone they offer for your accept-
ance would be to make London the laughing-stock of the
country. We can appreciate the consistency and public
spirit which demand the whole representation of London
in the interest of a prevailing Conservatism, and offer four
Tory candidates to your choice as a crucial test of your
political principles. We are perfectly ready to accept that
downright issue, and to try conclusions on that straight-
forward proposition. If the citizens of London are really
Tories it is high time the sitting members should bo
turned out, and that all necessary precautions should be
taken to prevent Alderman Lawrence from coming in.
We challenge our opponents to the utterance, and challenge
them to the trial of strength. Let them match their pre-
sent brace with another couple—let them do anything
rather than lead you into the scandalous stultification of
sending two Tories into one lobby to balance two Liberals
in another, and thereby to leave the first city of the
Empire practically unrepresented. The Conservatives are
bound to relieve you of a dilemma so embarrassing, and
either to propose two additional candidates, or to withdraw
those they have presented to your acceptance. The re-
presentation of minorities is simply an expedient for neutra-
lising the voices of the majority. Let there be no mistake
either of the cause to be tried or of the relation in which
you stand to the result. A city that is set upon a hill
cannot bo hid.' The writ for London is the first to which
a return is made. The greatest community of the empire
elects also the greatest number of representatives, and its
example to the provincial constituencies may be decisive
of the fate of parties. Conservative candidates can be all
things to all men, if by all means they may gain some.
Tories in counties, they masquerade in Radical addresses
in the great towns, and profess the very politics of the
Ministers they seek to turn out of office. Before the event-
ful issue presented for your verdict, the mere personal pre-
tensions of even the most distinguished candidates sink
into comparative insignificance. It were better that a mem-
ber could not record a vote than that it should be registered
for a policy of reaction ; better that a representative should
never speak than that eloquence should only advocate
resistance to progress. It is not the mere personal merits
of citizens you have to determine, but the whole policy of
parties. If Lord Derby be a wiser statesman than Lord
Palmerston, and Mr. Disraeli an abler financier than Mr.
Gladstone ; if you are tired of the foreign policy by which
your old member, Earl Russell, has kept us at peace, and
permitted a deficit to grow into a surplus, which has paid
off debt and remitted burdensome taxation ; if you desire
to arrest the progress of enlightened and scientific legisla-
tion and economy, of bold and skilful jurisprudence, of
spiritual liberty and organic reform, then do not stop at
returning two Tory candidates, but preserve, at least, the
decencies of consistency, by proposing two more to keep
them company. But if you have the common sense
to test the principles of parties by the results of their
policy, we feel very confident that you will conclude
with us that the falling away of London from the
Liberal cause would be a local disgrace and a national cala-
mity. Wo have nothing to conceal. We claim at your
hands that trust in the tnith of what we say which has been
earned by never having deceived your hopes or betrayed
you into a confidence which has proved fallacious. There
is no room to doubt that, by an honourable avoidance of
the fatal practice of splitting votes, by a right-banded obe-
dience to that sense of duty which calls upon every elector
to do homage to his party and its principles by registering
his suffrage, and by not being deceived by a false security
to take it for granted that it is strong enough to dispense
with the necessity of his polling, the return of the four
Liberal candidates by a creditable majority is perfectly cer-
tain. It remains, therefore, but for us earnestly to entreat
you, whether Liberal or Conservative, to maintain a manly
and intelligent consistency, and to put the relative strength
of parties fairly to the test. If Toryism be in the ascendant
we honestly desire that it should obtain the representation
which will be its due. But, as we believe, and as the past
history of our elections implies, that Reformers command a
majority on the register, we have only.to entreat our fellow
citizens not to suffer their easy good nature so to bo imposed
upon as, by a capricious distribution of their suffrages, to
record opinions constructively at the poll, which they would
be ashamed to see practically represented in Parliament.
(By order)
"ARTHUR ANDERSON, Chairman.
"SIDNEY S3IITH, Secretary.
"31, Bush-lane, June 26, 1865."