The Sun.
London, England, 1849-07-02 00:00:00

CITY OF LONDON ELECTION.

(THIS DAY.)
The ancient and local cinz ns of London began 10
assemble in and about the Gni'dial) this morning
of
n,
in or& r to elect a I epreentative in the room of Bat on
Lionel de Roih,child, who, on account cf the Pal liamen-
tary Oaths Bill being thrown out by the Peers, 1,4
accepted the Chiltern Hundreds, and again api,eals to
the citizens to re-elect him en the high pi-0111;th of civil
and religious liberty, which, it is conceded, have to be
v indicated by the ei,z,-Fis in his pet son.
By oleve o'clock King-sireot, which leads rip to the
Guildhall, was almost impassable. At the eeriflm ace of
Gresham with King-street a number of II cue rgt din the
ref eshing brei z-, on which were ernbazont d two gigantic
hands clasped in each other, in wh:ch were wa iked the
following words—,c Free Trade" (with a ship in full
sail) ; •• Equal Electoral Rights ;" " Civil and Religious
Liberty ;" •` Rothschild tor London." Every now end
then strains of music fell upon the ear as the different
companies wound their way up the street to discharge
their ancient duties in the hall.
The interior of the hall presented an animated ap-
pearance, such, indead, as we never taw it present
upon the many occasion s in v. hich we have been
within its walls. The hall vvas filled with
human beina:s, who, in the early portion of the
t:ay conducted themselves in a very proper ai,d tempe-
rate manner. In the galleries, which were also filled,
!here were several ladies.
JOTIN MANNERS arrived at the hall in a car-
riaga about half-psi eleven, and immediately. was sworn
in as a freeman, before Mr. Brown, the Chamberlain.
Baron Rothschild and his friend:: arrived about the same
period, and was loudly cheered. Lord John Manners
did not appear known to the citz:iins.
At twelve o'clock the Lord Mayor, the Sheriffs, and
other offlcers of the Corporation, entered the hall and
tool: their position on the platform.
Baron Rothschild and his friends were much cheered.
Lord John Manners' entrance was not marked by any
expression of opinion worth mentioning. •
Among those present we noticed Baron Rothschild,
Lord John Manners, Mr. Thomas Baring, Lord Dudley
Stuart, M.P., Mr. Alderman Salonacns, Lord Mayor,
M.P., Mr. Christopher, M.P., Mr. Osborne, M.P., Mr. J.
Abel Smith, M.P., Alderman Sidney, M.P., Mr. Bouvi,rie,
M.P., Mr. John Williams, M.P., Mr. Edward Ellice, M.P.,
the Marquis of Granby, Mr. Forbes Mckenzie, M.P., Mr.
J. B. Hope, M.P., The ,U' Borman Mahon, M.P., Mr.
W. Milues, M.P., Captain Balfour, R.N., Mr. Forster,
M.P., Mr. Moffatt, M.P., Mr. Christopher, Mr. Alderman
Thompson, M.P., Mr. William Carpenter, Mr. Bannock,
Sir De Lacy Evans, M.P., Mr. William Hawes, Mr. Wil-
liam Williams, late M.P., Sir Peter Laurie, Mr. Currie,
Mr. Adam Smith, Mr. Bernal Osborne, M F., &c.
The reporters are much indebted to Mr. Secondary
Potter, fur his courtesy in presenting them with pas
tickets to the seats, and for enabling them to reach
them without inconvenience.

Mr. HARKER then came forward and read the precept
and tie writ.

Mr. Sheriff FINNIS having asked a fair and impartial
heering for every individual who chose to address them,
arid reminded the electors that, they were called on to
exercise an important privilege in the election of a
citizen of Loader, to rept.. IA them in Parliament.
Mr. RAIKES CURRIE, M.P., stood forwerd to address
the assembly. He said—Citizens of London and brother
electors, I propose to eou Lionel RothschiM—(Loud
cheers, and waving of hats)—as a fisting and proper
man to represent you in the C. remons House ut Perna-
talent.—(Cheers.) In Ott• ring these sentences, I de no`
merely propose as a candidate to the greatest city in
the world one of its must distinguished and its most in-
fluential citizens end its most esteemed merchants. No
gentlemen, my words, feeble though they be, have a far
voider and a tar diff. rent import. This is no contest or
pt tonal t xtbi.i n.—(Cheer,.) This is no c nte st of
political pities; it was something more than this. Ic
tatis us wt 1! to ettosider what e e are called on to do to-
day, and rightly to understend it. We, as the ;n-ma-
ntle, industrious, ancl 'natter- ot- feet citizens or Londare
meet within our areeeet hail, which has witnessed so
rneny triumphs of civil and religious hberty.—(Loud
cheers.) We, met together as we are en this occusion,
here throw down the gauntlet—(Loud chi ers)—arid ere
pledge ourselves all to all, and each to ne another, to
contest, try every constitutional means, the great and
sacred piiia4le of religious liberty—(Loud cheers)—
and never to abandon that contest till we have
achieved a vieterv.—(ltenewed cheers.) Who dares to
to doubt it?—(" No one.") On this very spot, or 11( ar
it, men have been tormented and burnt by those
who thought they did God service, because they differed
in their moles of worshipping our common Father.—
(Hear, hear.) Those dark times rolled on, and at length
a voice was heard which said that conscience should be
free.—(Loud cheers.) Those men who burnt and per-
secuted each other were not doing, es they thought,
God's work, but the devil's work.—(Cheers.) From
that very moment when that voice went forth among the
nations, the cause of bigotry was silenced. It is most
true, it is most painfully true, that she has fought her
groundinch by inch for centuries; but the light is
nearly out of her. We are called together by her
last expiring kick.—(Laughter) She was doomed
when once that great truth, asserting the freedom of
every man to worship God recording to the dictates of
his conscience, without the let or hindrance or the in-
terference of any human being—(hear, hear)—bad been
pronounced in the world. And why is this? Because,
thank God, when any great truth is once launched into
the world it can never die.—(Cheers.) It is inextin-
guishable and irrepressible. It has immortal life within it;
it is truth conquering and to conquer. You may aid it,
but it aids you more. It is growing while you are
sleeping. It shall encompass and subdue the world— '
(Cheers)—and therefore I see that victory will be ours in
what we are about to do, when we are simply asserting this
great principle, that man shall never be persecuted for his
religious creed.—(Cheers.) And does some shallow
sophist, some miserable bigot ask me—" Oh where is
your persecution? We have not tortured Baron Rotchs-
child; we have not fined him; we have not shut up
Baron's Rothschild's synagogue." No, you have not—
(Laughter)—but you, by your votes, my Lords—you
have shut up that honourable ambition which by the
esteem and confidence, and the universal respect of his
fellow-citizens, was open to Baron Rothschild.—
(Cheers.) And is this no persecution? Take an illus-
tration from facts in the material world. What are
chemists and astronomers doing who are Lent on studies
the wisest and the best ? They seek in the
varied phenomena around them which they investigate
some one law which they may di-velope. So
do the men who look at politics and at society ;
they lot& on legislation for the development of some one
principle. I ask the common sense of all mar:kind—
(Question, question)—if on this occasion it is net the
principle(ic,,ipe some oo stiflingoe
onor; -1
may
religious pereecution that we
soak to e'sekto
to ask how it is meant
carry this qu. scion? I can only Fay this; my poli-
tical life Lae not been a very short one,
sad I am willing to stake my existence
on the tact that if you go on return-
nig Baron Rothschild this great question will be
carrie d.—(Cheers.) I abstain from any disparaging
refl, mien on any branch of the Legislature. I have not
one word to s ty ageiroot the H. use of Lords; they have
exercised an ultdeubted ti nstitutional right; and I for
one do not desire to displace one leetiter of that
splendid plumage which waves above them ; but
his I do say, that they are thiuking and rt asoning
teen, and that the majority will reflect that the
pleasures, great as they are, may be purchased at toe
dear a price.—(Hear, hear.) Depend upon it no great
deliberative assembly ever loog persisted in a course
aeainst which a verdict was given by the common sense
of mankind.—(Loud and,prolonged cheering.) More-
over, I have been long enough in Parham, nt to have
known minorities of 20 and 30 for all those great
measures which have eventually been carried, and who
have made the fame of statesmen who founded their
former fame on opposing them; therefore I despair of
nothing when truth is on our side.—(Cheers.) Now, one
word on our noble opponent—(Cheers and hissing)—
I think we are deeply indebted to that accomplished no-
bleman who comes forward to-day.—(Cheers and hisses.)
The Noble Lord is an accomplished member of the
Young Englund party, or, as it is sometimes called, the
white waistcoat party—(Loud laughter, and cries of
" 011 oh I)—a party consisting of some eight or ten
benevolent individuals, who piously wish in the nine-
teenth century to bring back to England its primeval in-
stitutions.—(Continued laughter.) It was the custom of
the sages of antiquity to embody in some one pithy or
apposite sentence the wisdom of a whole lifetime—a
sort of concentrated essence of sagacity to be carried in
the waistcoat pocket.—(Great laughter.) Fortunately
for us—:he electors of the city of London—the Noble
Lord, in imitation of those wise men, has adopted this ex-
ceedingly excellent coursejand I find his political opinions
embodied in a memorable and ever to be remembered
couplet, which I am sure must commend your sympathy
and apprubation.—(Great uproar.) Listen, I beseech
you, listen. The following is the couplet:—
" Let wealth and commerce, laws and learning die,
But save us still our old nobility."
(Great laughter and uproar.) 'I am not generally an
advocate for an electioneering device, but I do think
that sentiment deserves a banner, which might be hung
over the door of the Noble Lord's committee-room.—
(Loud laughter.) It will do a great deal for him, if it
will not do for him altogether.—(Laughter and cheers.)
Mr. DILLON then presented himself in front of the
platform, and was received with loud cheering. He
said—Brother electors, I present myself before you to
second the nomination of Mr. Baron Lionel Roths-
child—(Vociferous cheering)—but in doing so allow me
to remiad you that I speak in favour of a principle,
and not in favour of a man—(Loud cheers)—that
this is not a contest on behalf of an individual;
that this is not a contest as to the religious opinion of
tin individual, but that this is a contest upon a large and
broad principle—viz., whether the time has not come
when we can no longer have religious !Rya made
the means of determining a matt's political posi-
tion.—(Loud cheers.) That is the question, and that is
the only question.—(Cheers.) Catholics, gentlemen,
have been admitted into Parliament ; Dissenters have
been admitted into civil and municipal offices ; and so
have also Jews ; and they claim—l beg your pardon—
no, it is we that claim that they shall be admittedinto
Parliament.—(Prolonged cheering.) The principle
you must bear constantly in mind in this contest
has no reference to the merits of the individual
or to his religion, but is based upon a much
broader question—the rights of the citizens, of
Lo: don, and the rights of the people of Leg-
lend, to elect whom they please, and to :end theta to
Parliament irrespective of their religious opinions.—
(Cheers.) Now you must bear in mind that this is the
question at issue fetween these candidates before you
etel no otb.,r. Bishopof Oxforci.—(Groans)—;tlieged
ti. - ~flu

L.)rci J. Ilosi-4,11 had i)ntcri-:,if Into a cootpreraie
1 himself to Baron li;ott,xhilii io order to gain th
eiection.—(Cries of "61 me.") I believe he apologised
for that slander, but he afterwards repeated it upon a
much larger scale, and said that the constituencies of