The Sun.
London, England, 1849-02-08 00:00:00

lIULL.

Matthew Talbot Babes, Esq., Chief Poor-law Com-
missioner, has this day, Wednesday, ith of February,
been re-elected to represent the sea-port town of Bull
in the Commons House of Parliament. Although ru-
mour had been busy for the last few days in conjuring
up an opposition, yet such has been the fusion of the
great leaders in the borough, that no one was found to
stand forward to head the :opposition, which, however,
only wanted a leader to have made Mr. Baines's return
at least doubtful.

After a champaigne breakfast given by the Sheriff, the
gorgeous procession marched to the hustings amid
mournful silence, en its arrival there, the yellings and
hootiners of disapprobation from the mobocracy were
tremendous, and the whole of the proceedings were gone
through in pantomimic form. Mr. Baines was proposed
by Mr. Ward, a Tory, and seconded by the Mayor,
hitherto considered a Radical, neither of whom were
permitted to be heard, and Mr. Baines being treated to
a like reception, the whole of the proceedings terminated
within the hour.

From Mr. I3eines's reception, it is not probable he will
in case of a vacancy for Hull, offer himself again as a
candidate; indeed, his friends would do well to dissuade
him from such an attempt.
The following address was delivered by Mr. Baines,
at the George Inn, to his committee and a few Chartists
who got into the room:—
Mr. BAINES rose amid loud cheers. Ile said—Gen-
tlemen,—l assure you it is with the truest satisfaction I
find myself again among those who have been myconsti-
tuents one, and who, I would fain hope, I may in a short
time hail by that title again.—(Loud cheers.) I can
truly say it has been my most sincere wish that I should
be found not undeserving of a continuance of the confi-
dence with which you honoured me on a former occa-
sion, and the recollection of which must follow me as
long as I live.—(Applause.) I told you then, and I told
you most truly, that no efforts which I could make would
ever satisfy myself as being equivalent in the way of re-
turn for all the kindness which you have shown towards
me. And I said so because I had erected in my own
mini a very high standard of the duty of your represen-
tative, and by that standard I can say conscientiously I
have ever endeavoured to regulate my conduct. If I have
failed, I have done so from the want of ability and not from
the want of will.—(Hear, hear.) I have thought it my
first duty on going to Parliament, not to look out for
the means of advancing my own individual interests, or
the interests of those connected with me; my object has
been—(A Voice—" Place-hunting")—in the first in-
stance to do what little I could to advance the interests
of my country, and in the next place to promote more
especially the welfare of my own constituents.—(Cheers,
hisses, and a Voice—" You looked out for yourself a
snug place.") If that gentleman who accuses me of
being a place-hunter will have the goodness to attend for
a moment to what I say, he shall see what sort of a
place-hunter I have been.—(Cheers.) I undertake to
satisfy every one who hears the that there never was a
place accepted under circumstances less discreditable to
the individual who accepted it, or to the constituency
which originally honoured him with its confidence.—
(Loud cheers.) I accept the challenge which the indi-
vidual who accuses me of place-bunting has thrown out,
and I will honestly and fairly show the circumstances
under which I have accepted office, and I will then leave
it to you—yes, I will fearlessly leave it to you (addressing
the man who had thrown out the accusation) to say whether
there is anything in those circumstances which is in the
slightest degree discreditable either to me or to you, if
you are, as I hope and trust you are, and as I hope and
trust I ever shall be, an admirer of fair and honourable
conduct.—(Long and loud continued cheering.) I was
about to state at the time I was interrupted, that I went
to Parliament not for purposes of personal aggrandise-
ment, fur during the whole time I bare been in Parlia-
ment I have never asked a favour either for myself, or
for any one connected with me by the ties of relation-
ship.—(Cheers.) And if I were to live to the age of
Methuselah I never would do so—(Cheers)-1 or it has
been my constant maxim not to make the office with
which you were kind enough to invest me subsidiary to
the promotion of my own private interests. Gentlemen,
I told you when I had the honour of standing before you
a year and a half ago, that I thought well, generally, of
the principles and conduct of the government of Lord J.
Russell, and I have seen no reasons to change that
opinion, although I have felt it my duty to differ from
him on several important occasions. Time after
time have I, the "place-hunter," voted against the very
Ministry to which I am charged with looking for place.
—(Loud cheers.) Upon points which they thought of
vital importance, I have divided against them, and spoken
against them.—(Applause.) I never hesitated to vote
against them when I thought they were wrong, and
when my public duty to my constituents required that I
should do so.—(Cheers.) Let us see what I have done?
I fully admit your right of asking. You have a right to
ask—" What is it you have done? How have you con-
ducted yourself during the eighteen months you have sat
in Parliament as our representative?" In the first
place, then, allow me to say, I have had the happiness
of introducing into Parliament three measures which I
believe all impartial persons admit have done somewhat
in improving the law of the country.—(Hear, hear.) I
am glad to say that these three measures met with such
unanimous approbation that there was not a single divi-
sion either in the House of Lords or the House of Com-
mons with respect to the expediency of those measures.
—(Loud cheers.) I have, therefore, not been an idle
representative.—(Cheers.) I set myself, in the first
instance, to introduce a clause into the Irish prime and
Outrage Bill, which had for its object the putting an end,
ae far as I could, to the dastardly system of midnight
assassination which then unhappily prevailed in many
districts of Ireland.—(Hear, hear.) I thought it was
essential to devise some means of punishing those whom
in law we call accessories after the fact—that is persons
who knowingly give facilities for the concealment and
escape of the cowardly and blood-stained murderer.
The clause which I introduced has been held to be a
great improvement of the law, and I believe has done
much to prevent the crime of assassination in Ireland.
—(Cheers.) When I say I introduced this or that
measure, do not deem that I say it at all in the way of
boasting ; I hope there is not a man here who does not
know me sufficiently well to feel assured that I have no
such intention.—(Hear, hear.) For if I had done twenty
times as much as I have, I admit that you would have t_s_
right to call me but an unprofitable servant after all.
boast, then, not at all, but am simply, showing what
think you have a right to know, namely, whether , your
ay
representative has put out to usury the one talent,
be, with which ho has been endowed, or whether he
hope
hidden it in a napkin and suffered it
se to
wliheenyou learn
idle. I
t)p
you will find that this was not the ca
what it is that has been done. I h avesaid that I intro-
vernents into the
duced what I hope will be further impro
law—improvements which, I trust, are of a valuable cha-
racter as tending to secure
of the condemnation of the
guilty and the escape
the innocent. we (Hear,
hear.) I have done,
also what I could towards
reducing parochial
expenditure, and knowing as you
all do how heavily su.elh
expenditurec affects your in-
terests,onsider that an unimpor-
tant.matter.— I trust y
notT These are the measures which
(C-ohtee will
I have introduced into Parliament during the past ses-
sion, and I am happy to say that every one of them
passed unanimously in both Houses of Parliament.—
(Applause.) And now let us see how I have conducted
myself in other matters, in order that it may be seen
what weight is to be attached to the accusation that I
am a ‘. place hunter."—(Laughter.) It will be in the
remembrance of most who now hear me that the Mi-
nistry at the commencement of the session brought in a
proposal for increasing the income-tax—charging pro-
fessional and trade income in the same way and at
the same rate as the income arising out of realised
property. I thought that unfair. (Hear, hear.)
And I said so—(Cheers) and I voted ageing
it.—(Loud cheers.) And yet that was a measure by
which the Government set great store. But I cared
not for that.—(Cheers.) I thought it my duty to vote
against it, and I did so.—(Loud cheers.) Then there
was the subject of the navigation-laws.—(Hear, hear.)
It is perfectly well known that Ministers introduced a
measure with respect to that Bill, against which I voted.
—(Cheers.) I divided against Ministers in every stage
of that Bill.—(Cheers.) I thought it my duty to do so,
cud although 1 lawr I clan km iIaSPY of rioY CQUOti•