The Sun.
London, England, 1831-01-01 00:00:00

CHAIRING OF THE NEW MEMBER FOR

PRESTON.

According to immemorial usage in Preston the success-
ful candidate rode on horseback on Monday, triumphantly
through the town, instead of being raised on people's
shoulders and hugged along. From a very early hour num-
bers of persons arrived from the surrounding towns and
villages; and at one o'clock Mr. Hunt proceeded from his
lodging, in Lune-street, mounted en a very fine charger,
suitably decorated with the colours of the party (crimson),
and attended by six grooms in fancy liveries. In the pro-
cession there were about 2,500 Preston voters in rows of
ten each, wearing figured aprons and other insignia of their
various tribes. Six volunteer bands joined in the pro-
cession, and thirty-six flags, with various inscriptions in-
dicative of the political sentiments of the electors, were
intermixed with the voters. It is rather singular that
there was only one tri-coloured flag, and that there was
scarcely a tricoloured ribbon to be seen either amongst
the voters in procession or the great mass of the public,
which could not have consisted of less than 40,000 per-
sons. After having paraded the whole of the town, Mr.
Hunt returned to his lodgings, and front the windows
addressed the assembled multitude, who, notwithstanding
the extreme severity of the weather, remained for up-
wards of two hours attentively listening to Mr. Hunt and
his friends.

Mr. HeNT exhorted the people to maintain the same
peaceful and orderly conduct they had manifested during
the election, and promised that he would, from his place
in the House of Commons, represent the grievances under
which the labouring part of the population suffered. He
had, as he conceived it to be his duty, gone round the
country, and witnessed the horrible privations to which
the people had been subjected, and he should state to those
who were now his brother Members of the Legislature—
(A laugh)--the extent of those privations, and tell them
the eause.—(Cheers.)—They should find that hii character
tor consistency should not fail nor be deteriorated. Mr.
Hunt concluded a long and animated speech amidst loud
cheering.
Mr. MITCHELL followed, and gave a most appalling
account of the distress under which the weavers in
the manufacturing districts laboured. He was proud
to tell them that Mr. Hunt had accompanied hint to
the abodes of the poor and wretched weavers, and
had witnessed with his own eyes the destitution of
their state. In these miserable lodgings there was
scarcely to be found a chair or a table, or a candle-
stick. A little straw in the corner of the room, with a
couple of rugs, furnished their beds.—(Shame, shame.)
Porridge was their scanty meal, and although the sabbath
after Christmas-day was the day of visit, potatoes and salt
were the only fare; and there was but one house in which
they found a morsel of meat for a man and his wife and
a large family of children. He (Mr. Mitchell) considered
Mr. Hunt the representative of the hitherto unrepresented
population of England—(Cheers)—the labouring indus-
trious, honest, and oppressed population.—(Continued
cheers. )

Mr. Mitchell was followed by several gentlemen, friends
of Reform, from Manchester, Chorley, and the Alinufac-
tuling Towns, who testified to the satisfaction expressed
by the labouring classes in their different districts at the
return of Mr. Hunt to Parliament.

The meeting then separated.
Public dinners were herd at various houses in the town
in compliment to Mr. ITuat. The day passed off without
the slightest breach of tile public peace, and by eleven
o'clock at night scarcely a person was to be seen in the
streets.

CARRICKFERGUS REFORM MEETING.

On Thursday last a meeting of the inhabitants of Car-
rickfergus was held in the Court-house, agreeably to re-
quisition, for the purpose of considering the subject of
Parliamentary Reform.
Mr. J. CAMPBELL, the Sheriff, took the Chair, and
stated, that though the requisition had not originated with
any of the Members of the Corporation, yet, on account
of the number of signatures attached to it, the meeting
had been convened. He then referred to the ignorance of
the lower orders as to the objects of what was called Re-
form—to the late rebellion, and the part which the
disciples of Priestly and Paine had in producing it. He
commented, in severe terms, on an allusion to the town of
Carrickfergus in the speech of Mr. Montgomery, at the
late Belfast meeting, connecting Mr. Montgomery with
the Belfast Institution. He then animadverted at some
length, on the payment of Government salaries to men
who deny the Trinity, and represented the impossibility
of men yielding loyalty to an earthly King, who deny it to
a Heavenly one.
_ _ _

The Rev B. T. STANNUS, to an Alumnus of the In-
stitution, defended it from the attack which had been made
upon it by the Chairman ; and he denied, in strong
terms, the right of any individual to brand as heretical a
set of opinions merely because they :night not correspond
with his own. He then moved a resolution, expressive
of the people's right to a fair representation in the House
of Commons.

The iesolution was seconded by Mr. HotmEs, and carried.
The Rev. JOHNSTON NEILSON moved a resolution,
stating, that on account of sinister influence the people
were rot in fact represented.
The resolutio❑ was seconded by Mr. CRAIO.
Dr, FoasvritE moved, as an amendment, that it is ■n-
ncceseary to burden Government with petitions.
Tl'e amendment was seconded by Mr. ROBERT HANLY.
Mr. STANNUS again, in a speech of considerable length,
replied to those parts of the Chairman's observations
which he had omitted noticing in his previous address, and
also to some remarks of Dr. Forsythe and Mr. llanly.
good deal of angry discussion now occurred, and the
question was put several times, and as many divisons took
place before it could be ascertained whether the amend-
ment had been adopted or rejected. Both parties claimed
a majority, and amidst considerable confusion a decision
vas given in favour of the amendment, many of the oppo-
!ite party having left the meeting. Thanks were then
Toted to the Sheriff, and the assembly dispersed.
We had intended to give a more detailed report of the
proceedings at the Carrickfergus meeting, but a pressure
of other matter has compelled us to give for the present
only the above hurried sketch.—Bellast News Letter.

PINKERTON'S CORRESPONDENCE.--The
letters which form this work are rich in anecdotes illustra-
tive of the lives of the principal literary men who have
flourished during the last half century. Many curious
particulars connected with the history, antiquities, and
literature of Scotland are also embodied in the epistles,
whic:: are perhaps the most various and most valuable col-
hectic ever published.
MARRIAGES.—The Chancellor of this dio-
cese has re-appointed all the surrogates of his predecessor;
and, we are informed, does not intend to appoint any new
surrogates, until vacancies arise. It is not generally
known that a residence of fifteen days of one of the parties
in the parish where the marriage is to be solemnized, is ab-
solutely indispensable, unless the parties are wiping to
commit perjury. An the public are not aware, perhaps,
that every individual surrogate is fully authorised, not
merely to grant a license to his own church, but to any
church in the counties of Lancashire and Cheshire, in
which marriages are usually solemnized.—Blackburn
Gazette.

That which we only put as matter of reasoning,
we might have stated as matter of fact,—namely, that
Parliament would only be dissolved in case (the thought
of which is monstrous) it should reject Reform. Sir JAMES
GRAHAM avowed in the House what were the intentions
of Ministers in this respect so that our Brighton corres-
pondent was clearly in error if be meant that an uncondi-
tional dissolution was agreed on by the KING. It is more
than probable—indeed we may say it is certain—that the
plan of Reform is not yet arranged, there being still more
than a month allowed for its preparation. We know no.
thing of its nature, except from the motions already made
to the House; but we hope to hear no more of nomination
Members, or the sale of seats as common as that of bullocks
in the market. Times.