The Sun.
London, England, 1831-04-27 00:00:00

NORWICH ELECTION.

(From the Norwich Mercury of Mond April 25.)
A very numerous body of the electors assembled at
twelve o'clock, in the space before the Committee-room.
on the Caitle Ditches, wh..n the Right Hon. RoßFn•r
GRANT, who reached this city on Siturday evening, ad•
dressed his constituents neatly in the following terms.—

Gentleman,—ln addressing you on ties most interesting
mid all-important occasion. it is my misfortune to have to
announce, and I J. so with the greatest regret, tle,t owing
to the severe and continued indisposition of try late re-
spected colleague, and whom I hope to have the pleasme
of again calling by the appellation, le will not he aide
Personally to appear among you to state his ft dings, and
ask what are yours. I am extremely sorry t ) say that that
most respected friend is now confined to his bed by an ill
'less caused by the anxiety and assiduity with which he
has attended to his Parliomentary duties, (hiring the di,
eussion of a question the most important that has ever
occurred in our Parliamentary history. Under thee cir
eumstances I have to solicit a double shore of your indul-
gence for tnysslf alone, while I address you npon a ques-
tion of a nature the most peculiar, and c circulated to excite
the deepest concern of all. On this, the third occasion
on which I have had to present myself before you in the
course of a few short monti s, I find myself in a situation
different from that I have before occupied. Under ordi-
nary circumstances, when fl repres,ntative appears before
his constituents to solicit their support, there are many
questions to be asked, many answers to be given, many
topics to be agitated, many thoughts which fill their
breasts to be given utterance, many hopes to be ex-
pressed and fears to be allayed, as they look to one-
part or the other of his conduct. But, on the pre-
sent occasion, I anticipate a glorious uniformity of
sentiment. At this most momentous period there is only
one question to be asked, or one answer to be given—one
topic alone swells every breast, one thought alone beam:
in every eye, one hope alone breaks from every lip. That
topic, that thought, that lope, that fe. ling, I embody in
one single question. Will yen, nr will you not, have a
Relorm ?—(Cries of " Ycs !"--great cheering.) Gen-
tlemen, I sty with a deep impression of the vast import-
ance of the question, and with profound feelings of respect
for the opinions of those opposed to us, that the present.-
I beg pardon—the late House of Commons, and I am glad
to say the expired House of Commons, has virtually and
substantially pronounced itself to be the real representation
of the people of England. New there are two opinion-,
upon this subject, and I am come to asst you, s.—(Cheers. )
I presume to say that in this emergency—and I do so with
all humility, yet with some feeling of exultation as an indi-
vidual—that his Majesty's Ministers have stood firmly by
the King and by the people. I add with feelings of the
proudest loyalty and the deepest veneration, that the King
has stood firmly by the Ministers and by the pc :ion., and
they both have sent me here to ask you if you, the people,
will stand by the King and his Ministers ?—(" We will !"
acid loud cheers.) I need not enter into a detail. of
the various circumstances of the Parliamentary pro-
ceedings ; they are already engraven on your minds,
and have led to the position in which we are now placed.
The battle has been fought by his Majesty's Ministers
steadily and gloriously, though not succes,fully. We have
not been foiled, hut we have received a check, owing to
the number of personal interests arrayed against us, and
this has had the effect of sending us hack to our consti-
tuents. We, the advanced guard of the people of Eng-
land, have been compelled to retreat upon a powerful main
body—we hive been compelled to fall back upon you--
and we call upon you, not by material arms, not by cor-
Portal warfare, not as armed warriors with garments
stained with blood, but with pacific weapons furnished
from an expression of the united opinions of the people,
to restore our battles. Lead• forth then those chariots of
war, those unconquerable armies arranged on the side of
law, of justice, and of Monarchy, and teach our adver-
saries that you are determined with temperance,with firm-
ness, and with moderation, that Engltnd shall still flourish
great and free, the dread and envy of them all."—(lm-
mense cheering.) I believe you are perfectly aware, and
only this allusion to it is necessary, that the great
feature of the Bill lately before Parliament, and that
which has given to it all its glory, and at the same
time its defeat, is that which struck at the heart
of what is commonly called the system of nomina-
tion. Our opponents took a ground which I never
remember to have been taken with the same boldness and
confidence at any former period. Certain places possess
the power of returning persons who are called Members
of Parliament. By some those places are called close bo-
roughs—others, who speak more freely, call them de-
cayed boroughs--and a class, speaking still more openly,
do not hesitate to call them rotten boroughs. This was
the entrenchment behind which our opponents have
fought all their battles. On former occasions they said,
do not make any alterations, let them alone, they answer
their purpose, though they have their defects ; but now
they maintain a new line, and contend, not that they are
pirdonable defects, but that they are beauties of the Con-
l.titution, and the only and true sources from whence has
flowed the glorious, the honourable, and the high situation
in which England is now placed. We are told by our
opponents that this greatness does not arise from the effects
of popular constituency in places like this, hut from the
return of representative of boroughs which have sc ireely
any other constituents than the remains of stone walls,
except, perhaps, two or three individuals, whose hearts
beat with, if possible, less sympathy for the interests
of the people of this isle. According to this doc-
trine, Norwich must be a most imperfect element
of the British Constitution ; and when Norwich
(far be that day when it shall become so t) shall
have mouldered away and become like Castle Rising,
it will present an equally delightful element of the Con-
stitution.—According to this doctrine, boroughs like med-
lers, are not good till they are rotten. Our opponents
have told us, and true it is, that these borough?, although
they do not represent the people, still they represent the
interests of those who ought to be represented—the colo-
nial interest, the interest of the peerage, the interest of the
treasury, anti altogether form such a vicissitude of beauty,
that like na ure's charming prospects, they pre ...lit a system
which never could be obtained by the imaginations of how-
ever talented theoretical politicians.—This is their doctrine
--is it yours?—(Cries of No, no.) The question for your
decision is not whether the Constitution of the House of
Commons can be made better, but whether the Constitu-
tion, as it is now composed, is your own, and we ask of
You to give us your opinion. We want a House of Coin-
Mons--not an out-house of Lords. We want a House of
Patliament chosen by the people, and not a Treasury
House of Parliament. Do nit for a moment be mistaken
and led to suppose that I speak with levity of the other
parts of the Constitution, when they perform with strict
propriety the very functions necessary for the welfare of
the people. I love the House of Lords, but I do not like
to find it in the heart of the House of Commons. With
the most unfeigned rein ect and loyalty I speak of the power
of the Monarchy dear to every Englishman when it per-
forms its duties and upholds its place; but I do not wish
to see the Monarchy, through the Ministers' influence, the
Parliament of the Treisury. Not that I do not allow
that there are both loyal and patriotic Members
exercising their duties faithfully to the country
through such means. But when a King finds
a House of Commons which ceases to respect itself,
which has no regard for its own character, for its own
patriotism—when he finds that a majority, although a
small one, insensible to the feelings and the rights of the
people, which seeks to obstruct measures sanctioned by
the Crown and produced by its Ministers—afraid of at-
tacking a great measure in front by meeting it upon its
ourn merits, the only proper ground of attack—when he
finds a House of Commons seeking to defeat such a mea-
Sure by every little art and trifling stratagem, to weaken
it by every trifling measure—when this, too, he sees is
followed up by an attempt to adjourn the consultation of
a great measure, in which the people's rights and liberties
are intimately involved—then, when we see Majesty rising
In all its dignity and strength appealing at once to its
People, it calls forth a pure and unbounded loyalty, deep
affection, cordial confidence, and almost boundless venera-
t-i°°••—(Cheering.) Gentlemen, I will not enter into an
elaborate refutation of the arguments brought forward by
Our opponents upon this question ; this is neither the time
!lie the place—nor is' it necessary. I will only say that
it:, as our opponents say, the present Constitution be per
f -
", we-cannot stop here—we cannot do' better than at
once to alter the present form of the Constitution—do
SZtai
nyg withof the tale we have heard of a Constitution con-
King, Lords, and Commons, each in its pro-
Peri
Place, and riot interfering with the functions of
e;-11 other; had better at once alter the prin•
es of our statute-book, which only remains to
frown °P'll us, and to condemn the conduct of those who
coUphold the House of Commons as at present composed,
hold
the real representation of the people of England.
say one word upon the particular measure on
all Which to
we were out-voted in the House of Commons ; and
of ltllitehirank necessary to remind you of is this—the nature
Parliameienunasren Notes to extinguish at once 155 seats in
lzitdebeearybedytbgivinog proper to be continued, being returned
!rough'''. We then proceeded to fill up the
members to large towns like this, pos-
,ing a large constituency, and to counties like Norfolk,
of great Wealth
0 seats
left u and opulence. After this there were 30
cannaupplied. Oh, said our opponents, you
do without all the members—if you take them away

you destroy the Constitution—but one thing our opponents
forget—they did net seem to recollect that these thirty °-
forty were not the representatives of the people of England,
but what they say is much better, the representatives of
close boroughs. We say that these Members do not re-
present the people. Our opponents admit they do oat,
but they represent interests which ought to be represented.
Then we say we will extinguish them, anti our opponents
exclaim, do not go and deprive poor dear old England to
her representatives.—We now come to ask you wha'
you think of the question, and to record your answer..
Delightful and exhiliratino as it is to myself to
receive these symptoms of your regard, still alleys
me to remind you that your regard must not be to me,
but to the cause.—(Loud cheers.) True it is I
have put to you the question, but I will not take yon:
answer here. It is not by acclamation that your anstre:
can be received ; hut it must be taken at the booth ott tie
day of election. It is not necessary for me to remind you
that this is a great and important struggle, to ba pursutd
with temper and judgment and courage—not with the
courage of war, but with the courage of peace—a con
rage which belongs to such a cause anti such an occasioo.
There is a duty to perform which you owe tint merely to
the Ministers, whom I place in the lowest se ale,—n,,,
merely to the Monarch, revered and sacred, as to you I:,
is—not merely a high duty to tl:e British Ti:rone, td
which its brightest characteristic is its being founded it:
the living adamant of British liberty, and imbedded it.
the generous soil of the affections of the people—no:
merely a duty to your country, and I call on you as faith-
ful and attached children to perform that duty—not
merely a duty to your ancestors, who led you out of Egyp-
tian bondage, and preserved you inviolate from civil war
and revolution. But you have a duty to posterity to pre-
serve to them that sacred trust which you received from
your fathers no-oiled and untarnished—you have a duty
to a Constitution which owes its excellencies not to its
abuses, whose beauties consist not in its deformities, that
citadel of happiness and le ace—whir% moth and rust may
have can rupted, but whose brightest ornament, freedom, is
formed in the living treasures of law and justice. You
have a duty to perform to yourse'ves, in showing to
Europe and to the world at large, that Great Britain con
effect a constitutional change .without destroying its
principles—that Reform means nut Revolution.—(Loud
cheers.)—Government can shew that the change contem-
plated is
.not theoretic :I—its object is but to alter, but to
presertle—not to extinguish—not to perpetuate—that
having received through the providence of Heaven asystem
containing in it with all its defects more seeds of happiness
and independence than any other, that having so re-
ceived it, you are in this hour of need desirous to preserve
it, and are prepared to act in a manner worthy the Consti-
tution you have received front those who have gone before
—that you will transmit it to those who will come after—
that you are worthy the liberty you love, the Constitution
you revere—that you are worthy of those principles-of
right, of truth, of law, of justice, which are the only
proper safeguards of your civil rights, of the existing in-
stitutions of the country—the security of the throne—the
permanence of the empire, and the peace, order, and hap-
piness of the whole human race.—(chetra.)—After
.having called your attention so much to the question
which has once again presented him before you, it will
be unnecessary for him who has now the happiness of ad-
dressing you to say more than a few words respecting
himself. Unworthy as I feul myself of your approba -
b ition, allow me to remind you that the honour you have
before confi r. rd on me was unsought—it is you who have
mace me what I am ; and if you choose to continue me, I
am most gladly yours.

The lotidestcheering greeted Mr. Grant on his retiring.
The throng of auditors continued to increase durine
the whole time Mr. Grant was speaking; and before the
Right lion. Gentleman had concluded, not fewer than
3;000 pees-ns were drawn together.
Ali. J. W. ROBBEKDS, jun then came forward and
addressing the meeting at very considerable length, printed
out to them that the object which for fifty years had occu-
pied their attention, and that of the greatest of men, had
been accomplished, in despite of the wars, the taxes, the
thronged prisons, the gagging hills, the repeal of the Ha-
beas Corpus Acts, that had been had recourse to, to pre-
vent constitutional Reform. But the period had come
when the people's eyes were opened—when the great mea-
sure had been taken up by his Majesty's Ministers—had
been supported by the King, who had dissolved the Par-
liament because it would not sanction a measure for the
benefit of the British nation. This was the state of
things under which they were now called on to act, to he
true to themselves„ and to assist in the triumph of Reform.
Mr. Robberds alluded to the arguments that had been
used to excite the people against the measure, by those
who now, for the first time, called themselves the de-
fenders of the rights of the poor. These arguments, be
said, were the foulest and most malignant falsehoods that
ever were invented to save a falling faction. He declared
it was not a disfranchisement Act, and asked of what
nature was the right they now held ? Was it not
from a Corporation—a :corrupt and corrupting body--
who could give or hold it at their pleasure, and who
was there among those he nos' addressed who could
not tra-e such as its origin, while they gave the freedom
freely to the Sidmouths and Pell,ws. The present mea-
sure would give that power to those who could obtain it
by their own industry and independence. He called on
them to recollect how many among them had risen from
the lowest to a state of independence—an independence
obtained by their own acts. By this Reform they would
obtain that right to vote which every man then present
would be enabled to enjoy through his own independence.
They would then hare no Chamberlain's fees—no stimp
or taxes—to pay to obtain the right of voting. Such was
the cause they were called on to exert themselves to sup-
port. He said they felt the importance of the era, and
would do their duty. Did they recollect any period so
momentous in the annals of the empire? This was a time
upon which posterity would look, as we now did to the era
of Magna Charta and that of 1688; and when our pos-
t,rity should find the citizens of Norwich were the first to
give their support to Reform, to set an example to the
British empire, would it not be almost sufficient to call us
back to life•to witness the feelings with which they would
venerate and hail our exertions. Mr. R. then stated that
Mr. Grant would address the electors at six o'clock to-
morrow (Tuesday) evening.
Mr. 'l'. BIGNOLD, after alluding to the eloquent ad-
dresses of Mr. Grant and Mr. Robberds, alluded to the
declaration made by Lord Carnarvon in the House of
Lords. It had been declared, Mr. B. said, that those Mi-
nisters who should be bold enough to recommend his Ma-
jesty to dissolve the Parliament would have fools' heads on
their shoulders and traitors' hearts in their bosoms. Now
he would ask them if out of that fool's head had there been
spoken any particle which displayed a traitor's heart.—
(Cries of no.) In spite of what our opponents said, we
are ready to take our fools and traitors instead of the wise
and great men they are so anxious to thrust upon us.—
(Cheers.) You have shown your loyalty here to-day—
on the day of election let it speak with still greater effect,
and return our able, staunch, and excellent champions—
Gurney and Grant.

The loudest cheers were then given for the King, and
for Gurney and Grant; after which the meeting separated.
Mr. Gurney, being confined to his bed by illness, was
unable to attend.

The [meting broke up about 113lf-past two o'clock, when
Mr. Grant retired from the committee-room amidst the
loudest cheers.

Tuesday, April 26.
At present no opposition has been started; and now
were the must gifted individual in the kingdom to offer
himself, nothing could save him from the most complete
&feat.

NORWICH.---Mr. James Wigram, the Chancery bar-
rister, arrived here on Monday night at eleven o'clock,
to oppose MessrA. Gurney and Grant, and a meeting of
the anti-reformers immediately took place. Mr. Wigram,
who was sent down by the club of boroughmongers, was
furnished with ample means for the contest, provided the
anti-reforming party in Norwich could assure him his re-
turn, but had no authority to spend any money in case
such assurance could not given. The anti-reformers,
knowing their weakness and inability to pay for a defeat,
were obliged to decline the learned gentleman's offer.

The City and its neighbourhood,poh
haso given nex amle
ought of
tto unanimity
iforne
rightlyt
egreat
question f Reform, which
univer-
sally followed throughout the kingdom. Colonel
JONES,
who had numerous promises of support, and a fair chance
of being returned for the borough of Southwark, bag,
greatly to his credir, declined to oppose the brother of as'
the
LORD CHANCELLOR, in order that the election of a
re-
forming Member may not be put to hazard ; and in the
City, we understand, that the Committee of the four
Aldermen have coalesced, in order to shut out all opposi-
tion, and prevent the possibility of the return of W
or any other Anti-reformer. Mr. GROTE would have
stood had not this been the case, and, being a banker,
would, no doubt, have been returned ; hut he has judged
as wisely in declining to stand, as the Committees of the four
Aldermen hive judged well in• uniting their '.nterests. In
union there is strength, and we say, therefore, let union
prevail. WARD will still contest it ; but what hope can
he entertain of his return in the fice of four Committees
pledged to oppose him, and of almost the whole popula-
tion, which is bent on his expulsion?—Morn. Advertiser.