The Sun.
London, England, 1862-02-19 00:00:00

DRAUGHTS round DOORS and WINDOWS
rrE c YuAL tt PREVENTED BY
CHURCH'S INDIA-RUBBER MATERIAL AND
ANTI-DRY-ROT CEMENT,
Windows and doors, however imperfect, thus improved, will
never make a rattlinz, noise, or admit of Draught, Fogs, Dust,
Wet, &c., will last for Ten Years, and will 'open and shut
with the greatest ease. Windows, 2s. each, and doors, 3s. 6d.,
material and workmanship included. Cheffoniers, book-
cases, wardrobes, &c., thus regula,ed, will not admit of the
intrusion of dust, smoke, blacks, ce,.c. Letters addressed to
Messrs. CHURCH and SON, No. 13, Circus-street, Bryan
stone-square, London.

MR. DIGB F SEYMOUR'S VINDICATION.

A great meeting of the inhabitants of Southamp-
ton was held at the Carlton-hall, on Tuesday even-
ing, the 4th inst., at which Mr. Digby Seymour,
after having addressed the audience at great length
upon topics of public interest, proceeded as fol-
lows :

Gentlemen,—l have dwelt upon public political
topics—l have dwelt upon important local questions
—I am, by the cruel artifice of a dastard assailant,
invited to dwell upon personal topics. Gentlemen,
I thought that when a man had honestly performed
his public duties—l thought when a man in his
public relation to a borough like this had shown
honesty of purpose_ and consistency of principle—l
thought that such a firm and faithful discharge of
public duty would, among a constituency like this,
shield him from the poisoned weapons of the anony-
mous libeller. (Loud applause.) Gentlemen, when
I came down from London to-night, it was not my
intention to enter upon matters of personal concern,
and I'll tell you simply why. I was quite aware
and by venemous
you all knew that after my enemies in Southamp-
made elsewhere—l
ge my political
was received—but
made to stab my
st
loano
dheard,, doneby their
secret
oopposition m a
I thought if I went down
dchonarttacktneor,wanwheffenorete
thhaedstbimeeunlos
my personal
pthroafteassdioenaadllyreaptutetmatpiotolis had eteonvilify
honour. But, gentlemen,
to Southampton and stood before my constituents--
I thought if I said to them, I still am here before
you the member of an honourable profession—l still
hold upon my shoulders the rob of rank which Lord
Chancellor Campbell gave me'—l thought that that
fact was in itself sufficient to cope with ten thou-
sand slanders, and to save me from the dastardly
efforts of masked calumniators. (Loud applause.)
Now, gentlemen, I hold in my hand a bill which
has been posted throughout the town, and freely
circulated in this hall. It is addressed to the electors
and non-electors of Southampton,' and is signed ' A
Disappointed Elector.' (Loud laughter.) Well, I
am sure he is what he describes himself. (Hear,
and the spiteful
hear, and renewed laughter.) I am sure of that
hear.) I am
man who has
worked hard for the laurels he has earned has not
t
Nveasr, and applause.)
fromsure
uarlet r
ythhae en
limos no,esdiati nsyadpi
topbiojni endc
tit
ee oad ft
,et
sht. sa bi,
r I
1.1
eh
ae r
that have been
lbeenev
Gentlemen,—l should like to see the " Disap-
enesdtruagckaindsotwhnimb. y
(Htheearb,lho
Disap-
pointed Elector.' (Tremendous cheering and cries
of Bravo !) If the Disappointed Elector' is here,
I challenge him to confront me—(renewed cheering)
—if the 'Disappointed Elector' is not here, I brand
him as a villain and a slanderer. (Renewed and
protracted applause) But you are here, gentlemen,
and you have all read the questions put to me by
this 'Disappointed Elector.' I have been asked
whether certain charges were not made against
me affecting my honour as a gentleman and as a
professional man—whether those charges were not
such as had they been proved would have insured
my being disbarred—whether the result was com-
municated to me in writing—and whether as affect-
ing the honour of a gentleman representing the
town and county of Southampton, I am prepared to
give a copy of the decision to the constituency, or
to publish it in some manner calculated to allow
everyone connected with the town to see it. Now,
I answer to the questions of my anonymous inter-
rogator, that the printed evidence of everything
which took place during an eight months' investi-
gation with closed doors is open for his inspection,
or for the gratification of his curiosity—at any hour
or place he chooses to appoint. (Loud and pro-
tracted applause.) But I will also say this, that if
he expects me on this platform to-night to endeavour
in the compass of a few minutes to go over that
which occupied so long a time—to parade before
you, who could not without a full bearing, and
without due consideration, judge of their merits,
the details of this protracted inquiry—and to ask
you to sit as a court of appeal uponithe judges who
were appointed to conduct it,then I say I have not
come to Southampton to submit to such conditions.
(Loud cheers.) Gentlemen, I have now been nearly
16 years at the bar. I never won a laurel and
never obtained a promotion without a severe and
arduous struggle. I came among the members of
the Northern Circuit with that misfortune which
my countryman Grattan has described—l came
with the curse of Swift upon me'—l was an Irish-
man. I was made from my earliest time the mark
of a cruel and jealous opposition, and a determined
effort to keep me down if it were possible. But,
gentlemen, their efforts failed. Step by step I van-
quished
one difficulty and another, and won by
degrees the honours which I have received, and the
dignities which I hold. (Loud cheers.) I obtained
a lead at my sessions ; I obtained the best recorder-
ship but one on the Northern Circuit—l obtained
my rank a short time ago from two judges, them-
selves formerly members of the Northern Circuit,
of Palatine precedence at Liverpool ; and, finally,
notwithstanding all my traducers—aye, and at the
very time when detraction was doing its worst, I
received the rank of her Majesty's counsel from the
hands of the Lord Chancellor Campbell. (Loud
cheers.) Gentlemen, I am asked what charges were
brought against me. I will tell you in substance
what they were ; but I do this, not to please the
' Disappointed Elector,' but in compliment and re-
spect to you. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, I will tell you
the high crimes and misdemeanours which formed
the principal points of the recent inquiry. It was
my misfortune—or, if my interrogator likes, it was
my fault and error in judgment, to accept many
years ago the chair of a company, and connect my-
self more or less with commercial speculations in
London. Gentlemen, the charges, as they are called,
which were brought against me, arose out of matters
the youngest of which is seven years old, and others
dated back actually to ten years ago. (Loud cries of
shame and hear, hear.) The men who instigated
these charges never showed their faces—my real ac-
cusers never appeared—but, beginning with the
efforts of a few individuals on my circuit, scandals
were whispered about, which at last, by some means
or other which I have not been able as yet to detect or
expose, led to the investigation by the benchers of
my Inn. Those charges arose out of these by-gone
and past transactions, and they who alone, if the
charges were true, had aright or title to complain
were no parties to the institution of the inquiry. (Ap-
plause.) Gentlemen, without going into detail, I
tell you this—that foot by foot, and inch by inch,
I disputed the ground with my assailants. (Hear,
hear.) I was upon 15 different occasions before the
benchers of my Inn, and I stood practically before
15 different tribunals, because upon no two occa-
sions were my judges the same. The examinations
were conducted within closed doors. I would to
God they had been conducted in the broad light of
day and before the face of my constituents and the
country—(hear, hear)—they were conducted by
men sitting down after dinner, varying in numbers
and attendance, and sometimes postponing the in-
quiry upon the most trivial grounds. But, gentle-
men, whatever feelings were entertained towards
me originally, there were many among those

benchers who, I believe, were men of the highest
honour, imbued with the spirit of justice, and ac-
tuated by feelings of generosity—and to them
mainly, and to their indignation at the monstrous
wrongs which was enduring, I believe I owe at
last the verdict which even my interrogator will
not deny has been in my favour. (Loud cheering.)
Gentlemen, I do sincerely hope that that public
which claimed for a supposed lunatic the other day
a public examination as to his mental capacity—l
hope that public will declare, sooner or later, that
a man holding my rank should not be tried in the
dark, by a tribunal constituted like that before
which I have appeared, upon any charges affecting
his professional conduct or his private character,
(Loud cheers.) Gentlemen, I have now only, in
conclusion, to tell my disappointed' querist that I
have no objection on earth, if it pleases those who
were my judges, to the publication to the world of
everything which took place before them. (Loud
cheers.) I refer my ' Disappointed Electot' to those
benchers whom he has had the impertinence to name,
and I believe, if he makes inquiry with the idea
that he will gain any material to damage my cha-
racter, he will come away a doubly disappointed
elector. (Loud applause.) No, gentlemen, if the
truth must be told, mine is a hard lot. When men
had ceased to strike at my political character—when
men had ceased to disown my professional claims,
they have dared to assail my private honour; but, as
I conquered the former, so I have succeeded in dis-
comfiting the latter ; and I tell this disappointed'
one in particular that if he will dare to show his
front and utter in plain language these slanders
which he has dared to insinuate, I shall make him
responsible before 12 men in a jury-box. (Loud
and protracted cheering.) Now, gentlemen, I have
done. I have gone over the various points which,
fairly or unfairly, have been pressed upon your
attention, and upon which I have come down, though
late, to Southampton, in the honest hope that I might
receive from you a verdict such as would tell at once.
to the public that whatever cruelty I have encoun-
tered elsewhere—however the dirty fingers of cer-
tain members of my own profession have been em-
ployed in raking up the scandals of the past for the
purpose of dragging up something to damage my
repute, yet that you sympathised with your repre-
sehtative—that you accepted the result—ghat you
saw me still the member of an honourable profession
in spite of malice, and jealousy, and of political hate
—still holding the rank which by such hard struggles
I attained, and that you would by your determina-
tion and by your pronounced opinion to-night
trample for ever upon this cruel attempt to call
public attention to a matter which hitherto, at least,
has been confined to a more limited circle, and has
never yet been brought forth and laid before the
glare of public day. (Loud cheers.) But the Dis-
appointed Elector' has done it, and I hope he is now
satisfied. Let him go home to-night to his bed, and
if he knows the Lord's prayer let him say, if he can
with an honest heart, Forgive me my trespasses as
I forgive them that trespass against me.' (Hear.)
Let him go home and ask at the throne of grace, or
teach his children to ask, ' Givens this day our daily
bread ;' but let his conscience remind him that he
has done his best, as others have for some time
been doing theirs, to deprive me and my children of
their daily bread, by traducing my name and slan-
dering my personal character. (Much cheering.)
Let him go home, gentlemen, and if he be not a
miserable hypocrite the words that I have uttered
will at least dispose him for a moment to a feeling of
contrition, and I hope, before he has done his prayers
he will utter an expression of repentance. (Loud
applause.) Gentlemen, I have no more to say. I
trust I have not said too much. (No, no ; go on.)
I did not menu to weary you. I came here to dis-
charge a duty. I came here to tell you and lay
bare before you my conduct during the past session.
Gentlemen, hitherto, at all events, every effort of
the enemy has failed. (Hear, hear.) What was
the first slander against me ? Why, that I sold
myself for a mess of pottage to Lord Derby, and
afterwards that I sold myself to Lord Palmerston.
What has been your opinion of these slanders P
Why, you found, when I challenged and defied
those who dared to make such charges, that they
slunk like this Disappointed Elector' in the back-
ground, and covered themselves either behind the
sheet of an anonymous poster, or sneaked into the
dark alley where the coward and the calumniator
hatch their wicked plots unseen. (Great cheering.)
[Some confusion here took place in the body of the
hall, and a young man connected with the Ramp.
shire Advertiser was forced through the crowd to
the front of the platform.] Silence having been
restored, Mr. Seymour proceeded to say,—Gentle-
men, don't, I pray you, visit upon our young friend
here the sins of those who are his principals ; don't
panish the subordinate for that which, personally,
he is no more responsible for than any man here
whom I have the honour of addressing. If I could
read that young man's heart I believe it beats with
indignant sympathy for the outrage which has been
done me. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, let these things
pass. When I was last in Southampton I met a
man, whom I will not name, but you may all easily
identify him, for he has been long personally con-
nected with these attacks upon my reputation.
When I met him in Southampton he ventured to
make a bold prophecy in my hearing. He said, ' Mr.
Seymour may speak very confidently about coming
to Southampton, but I tell you I have strong reason
to know that he will never appear here again.'
(Laughter.) Well, gentlemen, whatever that indi-
vidual may be, it is quite clear that he is a false
prophet. (Hear.) That is quite clear, for believe
me this is no shadow you see before you—(laughter
and hear, hear)—this is not the ghost but the
reality of W. Digby Seymour. (Renewed laughter.)
Yes, gentlemen, I am here, and with God's help
I'll be here again—l'll be here always to maintain
the principles I have always avowed—l'll be here
to assist you to the utmost of my power in develop-
ing and increasing your local prosperity—l'll be
here to cheer my friends, as far as I can, by nry per-
sonal opinion and my presence—l'll be here, the
fearless expositor of the views and principles which
I have never shrunk to utter, and when the next
election comes, whatever charming sounds I may
hear from other constituencies, I tell you that, so
long as 50 men in Southampton will honestly stand
by me, I would rather court an honourable defeat
with you than win a victory elsewhere. (Enthu-
siastic and prolonged applause.) I'll be here, and
I tell the men who now traduce me that what I was
before they will not find me on another occasion.
They found me then earnest and hopeful—they will
find me next time resolute and determined. They
saw me then animated with the spirit of a cham-
Peniot
nh—usitahsemy wofilal fimnadrtmyre. neTxhteytimsaewfinireedbweflotrhe the
enthusiasm of a martyr. They saw me before ad-
dressing a constituency who knew me not—they
will find me next time borne onward by the wave of
a popular affection I have never deceived. (Great
cheering.) You took me as a stranger—you gave
me a generous credit for the unknown features of
my character—you paid me, by anticipation, the
dearest tribute of your affection. 1 have neither de-
ceived your hopes nor abused your trust. As an
honest man I appeal to an honest and independent
constituency, and I hope another election will prove
that when that gentleman signed himself A Dis-
appointed Elector' he was prophesying for me the
arrival of another victory, and foreshadowing for
himself a more signal disappointment."
The hon. gentleman resumed his seat after speak-
ing one hour and three-quarters, amid a most en-
thusiastic burst of applause, which continued for
several minutes, and culminated in three hearty
cheers, with one cheer more, for the worthy mem-
ber, whose eloquence had from beginning to end
completely rivetted the attention of the largest
political meeting ever seen in Southampton.

Mr. T. P. PAYNE then rose, but was unable to
obtain a hearing, a great clamour being kept up by
the meeting, amid which sundry allusions to work-
house legislation were heard,
The CIIAIRMAN requested a fair hearing for his

friend, and advised the audience to put aside local
politics until the lst of November, or an earlier
date, when he should be quite ready for them. His
appeal, however, was ineffectual.
Mr. PAYNE persisted in his attempt to speak,
but ultimately contented himself by proposing a
voteapplause ofconfidence in Mr. Digby Seymour. (Loud
Mr. JAMES COCK'S came forward and said—l beg
to second Mr. Payne's proposition—a vote of con-
fidence in our worthy and esteemed member.
(Loud cheers.)
The CHAIRMAN then put the resolution to the
meeting. He said—it has been proposed and se_
conded that a vote of confidence be given to our
worthy member, Mr. Seymour. All who are in
favour of that proposition will signify it by hold-
ing up their hands.
Upon this request an immense forest of upturned
palms was presented, and upon the negative being
put only one solitary hand in the vast assembly
obeyed the will of its proprietor.
The CITATRMAN then declared the resolution to
be almost unanimously carried, and an enthusiastic
round of cheering followed for the hon. member.