The Sun.
London, England, 1853-01-03 00:00:00

ELECTION INTELLIGENCE.

'CARLISLE.

CARLISLE, SATURDAY.—The election has gone off with
the form of a contest, but with none of its spirit. Mr.
Sturgeon, the barrister, from London, was put in nomi-
nation, but did not demand a poll, and the threatened
opposition lapsed into a friendly interchange of compli-
ments and civilities. After the right hon. baronet,
the First Lord of the Treasury, had been proposed,
seconded, and declared duly elected, he proceeded to
address his constituents.

Sir JAMES GRAHAM was received with enthusiastic
cheers on removing his hat, preparatory to addressing
his constituency. When silence was obtained, he said
—I delayed some time to address you, because I was
incertain whether or not a second candidate had been
nominated. I understand from the Mayor that Mr.
Sturgeon has has been put in nomination. Your good
humour, lam aware, is inexhaustible. When I last
addressed you, in July, you remained patient under a
broiling sun on one of the hottest days I ever knew.
To-day it is my duty to address you on one of the
shortest, as well as one of the wettest, days I ever
saw. Let us congratulate ourselves, first of all, on our
safety. Lord Derby's Government has been overthrown
cheers)—but the Garden of Eden blooms with
yellow flowers as bright as ever, and I can assure Mr.
Sturgeon, that in mind and body I am exactly the same
as when you returned me in July last. (Cheers.) Lord
Derby's Government is overthrown ; but the deluge is
not come. (Laughter.) The fountains of the great deep
are not broken up—we are not all/swept away ; and yet
where is Mr- Perring ? (Cheers.) Where is my pro-
poser, and where is the gentleman who seconded me on
the last occasion ? I rely on lay old Mends, Mr. Dixon
and Mr. Irving. They have not shrunk from support.
ing me. (Cheers.) They would have proposed and
seconded me on the last occasion, but Mr. Perring and
Mr. Hough, from that side of the hustings, proposed me.
They desert me to-day, and, not only do they desert me,
but, having proposed and having seconded me, they pre-
sented a petition to the House of Commons, declaring that
I, who was the fittest person in their opinion to represent
Carlisle, had been guilty, in the last election, of almost
every crime that can be assigned to any candidate—that
I had been guilty of bribery—that I had been guilty of
treating—that I had been guilty of fraud—that I had
been guilty of intimidation ; in a word, that I had been
guilty of every possible crime of which a representative
can be guilty. (Derisive cheers.) It is necessary to
nter into recognizances when charges of this kind are
preferred ; and, in the midst of prosperity, arising from
free trade, who, think you, was their surety ? Why,
Mr. Cowen, a most prosperous manufacturer—prosper-
ing from that free trade I have laboured much to estab-
lish. (Cheers.) He was called upon to enter into re-
cognizances of 1,000/., as surety to me, if by chance these
allegations should turn out to be frivolous and vexatious ;
and yet, notwithstanding his wealth, Mr. Cowen's re-
cognizance was imperfect, and the petition fell to the
ground. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) I ask you again,
gentlemen, to place in me that confidence which so
lately you expressed, by a large majority, your willing-
ness to repose. Mr. Dixon has reminded you that
it has been said, on high authority, that Carlisle is
a Radical constituency ; and I, fresh from the conta-
gious atmosphere of Downing-street, fresh from the
Royal presence, bring with me a clean bill of health.
Lord Derby says, Carlisle being a radical constituency,
lam a very good person to represent it. I rejoice in
that certificate—(loud cheers)—and am glad to present
it to you. Something has been said upon the merits of
Mr. Cobden, with reference to the repeal of the corn
laws. I cordially subscribe to what fell from Mr. Peter
Dixon on that subject, and my lamented chief, the late
Sir Robert Peel, when he was at the head of the Govern-
ment, and able to carry that great and important mea-
sure, frankly acknowledged that great merit, if not the
highest merit, was due to Mr. Cobden. (Cheers.) It
is charged by Lord Derby against me, that I called Mr.
Bright my, honourable friend. Am I ashamed of
having so called him ? Far from it. (Cheers.) I
admit that in my opinion, without the Corn-law League
at the present moment the corn laws would not have
been repealed. (Hear, hear.) And with such weather
as this, wheat having risen to such anlamount with open
ports, let me ask you, the population before me, what
would have been the price of bread but for those efforts
and the triumphant carrying of that measure ? I
understand the honourable gentleman (Mr. Sturgeon) to
say, in his address, that lam a Tory in disguise. Well,
gentlemen, if I am a Tory, I am certainly very ill-placed
in the present councils of her Majesty, for I have been
instrumental in overthrowing a Tory Government. I
am charged with being a conspirator for having done so,
and I do not deny I did think Lord Derby's Govern-
ment unworthy the confidence of Parliament and the
nation. (Loud cheers.) I avowed my opposition to it.
I avowed it in the face of day. I avowed it when I
presented myself here, and I told you I would give
effect to that opinion in nay place:in Parliament when I
thought the proper opportunity had arrived. (Renewed
cheers.) I beg leave to say, I was most anxious that
the boasted financial measures which were trumpeted
forth with so much promise and in such grandiloquent
language should be brought to the test, and that we
might see those measures of taxation which should give
relief to every class that was suffering, and at the same
time bestow universal contentment and satisfaction on
the people. (Hear, hear.) I was against the dissolu-
tion of the Government until we saw those measures, and
I had at last the satisfaction of seeing them introduced.
What were they ? It was a plan, under cover of protec-
tion being renounced, and all claim on the part of the
landlords for compensation, as it is termed, for local
burdens, being rejected—it was a plan, by the partial re-
peal of the malt and hop tax, to give a premium on the
increased consumption of their produce, and as I think,
coupled with other proposals, at the expense of the com-
munity. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) Whatever may be
your taste—and I believe here, at all events, on the
border, you like whiskey quite as well as ale— (a laugh.)
—when we consider the brewer's ale, into the composi-
tion of which malt and hops do not enter very largely, I
am satisfied the repeal of half the malt tax and half the
hop tax would not reduce the price of a quart of ale to
any man I see before me by the amount of one farthing.
(Hear, hear.) On the other hand, what was proposed to
be done ? It was proposed to impose a double house tax,
to add a hundred per cent. to the existing tax on houses,
and with reference to the income tax, to bring it down
from 1501. to incomes of 1001., and even, under certain
circumstances, to incomes of 501. a year. There is a par-
ticular class of small incomes, just above that of the skilled
artisan, enjoyed by persons who have risen to a station
just above that of a labourer, on whom the imposition
of a double house tax would have operated with peculiar
hardship, and, entertaining this opinion, I /did not hesi-
tate to vote against the proposition of Lord Derby's
Government, and I voted with the majority of the
House of Commons. (Loud cheers.) The effect of that
vote was that Lord Derby retired from power, and it
was committed to a friend of mine, the Earl of Aber-
deen, to form a Government, and he has succeeded in
bringing together in his administration some of the most
distinguished men who have taken a part iu public ,
affairs for the last five and twenty or thirty years.
(Cheers.) My friend, Mr. Dixon, in mentioning my
former services, has alluded to the post which I occu-
pied in the administration of Earl Grey, and it is my
pleasure and my pride in the present Cabinet again to be
associated with three of my colleagues in Lord Grey's
Government, who, with me, were the authors of the
Reform Act, namely, my Lord Lansdowne, my Lord
John Russell, and my Lord Palmerston. (Cheers.) Now,
gentlemen, we have heard something of purity of elec-
tion. I perceive you are all aware great disclosures have
been made in Parliament with reference to the "Derby'
mode of carrying on elections. (Laughter.) You have
heard of Mr. Flewker, you have heard of Mr. Frail, and
I have a document here (producing the report of the
Derby Committe) of which I mean to make a new year's
present to my friend Mr. Steel (the editor of the Carlisle
. Journal). Ido it in the face of you all. This is not
bribery, and cannot be considered as such, but I recom-
mend this document to his notice. He may treat it as
a twelfth cake, giving slices among you from time to
time. (Laughter.) They will edify and amuse you too.
It may be asked, what does this document contain ? It
contains a vast variety' of letters from Mr. Beresford, a
member of the late Government, to Mr. Flewker and to
Mr. Frail, and there is one most curious document, a
letter from Mr. Frail, from the King's Arms, Carlisle,
bearing the signature of "William Nixson "—(laugh-
ter) and by his evidence he states he was sent
down to Carlisle by Mr. Holmes ; that he was on
terms of,. intimacy with all the managers of the
elections of Mr. Hodgson in 1848 ; that he was
known to the professional men by the name of
Frail, his real name, but to all other persons attend.
ing the committee he passed under the name of Nix-
son. Frail says he has been here repeatedly at the
Carlisle elections, and we have a letter from Major Be-
resford to Frail at the Derby election, saying a safe and
trustworthy man, with judgment and quickness, was
wanted immediately, and if Frail could not go himself he
was to send such a man, but not as coming from Shrews-
bury ; he was to put on his card as coming from Chester.
Mr. Frail appeared as Nixon at Carlisle, at other elections
as Mason, at other elections as Johnson—always under
feigned names ; and sometimes the sub-agents employed