The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-09 00:00:00

JULY 9, 1847.

CANTERBURY ELECTION.
On Tuesday evening a numerous and influential meet-
ing of the electors of Canterbury was held at the Victoria
Rooms, in that city, at the invitation of the Honourable
G. P. Smythe, the present Member, in order that he
might render an " account of his stewardship," and set
forth his claims upon their suffrages at the approaching
election. At half-past eight o'clock the hall was
thronged with electors of every shade of politics, Whig,
Tory, and Radical, and on the motion of Mr. Sladden,
Mr. Wooton was called to the chair. Shortly after-
wards, Mr. Smythe, accompanied by several friends,
made his appearance, and was welcomed with loud cheers.
As the meeting was somewhat of a convivial character,
the Chairman opened the proceedings by proposing the
toast of " The Queen."
• Mr. SMYTHE then rose, and was received with a
burst of cheering which lasted several minutes. He
said—Mr. Chairman and gentleman, it is impossible for
me to meet so many old laces ocee again without some-
thing of emotion, were it only gratitude for their at-
tenuance here this evening.—(Cheers.) You know why
I have called you together this evening ; it is because I
understand that a resolution has been come to by a sec-
tion of the Conservative party, which states that my
and-Protestant votes, as they are termed, incapacitate
me from receiving their support. I might, were I inclined
to bitterness, retort on these gentlemen, now my
opponents, of the Conservative Club, and remind them
that after I had recorded my vote in favour of the May-
' nooth grant—after I had voted in favour of the emanci-
pation of the Jews from Parliamentary and other dis-
abilities—l had their active support, as well on my
committees as by their votes at the poll.—(Cheers.) In
your local history, in the records of your corporation, in
1535, one year after the great Reformation, I have
stumbled upon the following passage:—" Paid 14s. Bd.
for the expense of bringing a heretic from London; and
for one half-load of wood to burn him, 2d.; for gun-
powder, ld.; for a stake and staple, Bd."—(Cheers and
laughter.) I doubt not but there are some corporators
in Canterbury who would not grudge me the 14s. 'Bd.,
or even the additional 4d., which the South-Eastern
Railway would exact--(Cheers and latighter)--=thertn-
powder, the stake, or the staple.—(Renewed cheers.)
But there is this difference between the two cases.
Whereas the victim of those days suffered for a creed
which he heroically witnessed, the victim of these
days suffers for a creed which he does not, cannot,
will not entertain.—(Loud cheers.) Nay, I doubt
whether, when the heat of this election shall
have passed away, when Lord Winchilsea's
letter, Sir Brooks Brydge's and Sir E. Deering's letter—
even a longer life shalt have been forgotten—when
national clubs shall be no more—and when even Conser-
vative societies shall have expired—(Great cheering)—
I think in that day they will almost doubt whether it is
not I who have been the better Protestant, in the inmost,
the highest, and the truest sense of the word.—(Re-
newed cheering.) I, who against such odds assert the
right of private judgment, and the freedom of particular
opinion against those who in their aggregate infallibity
attempt to proscribe and persecute independence of
opinion as intolerantly, as unwisely, and as fruitlessly as
Rome ever did—fruitlessly, because I believe that if this
section of Conservatives could send whom they chose to
Parliament, the common sense of the House of Commons
would nullify that man's votes and shock him out of his
prepossessions.—(Great cheering.) lam not sorry this
resolution has been passed against me, because it gives
me an opportunity of answering charges which have
been brought against me week after week, in your local
papers and otherwise, for the last six years.—(Cheers.)
I shall not shirk them; but I believe they may be con-
densed into two accusations. In the first place, that I
have deserted the Tory party by the advocacy of
Liberal opinions; and in the second, that I have
apostatised from my particular professions.—(Hear,
hear.) I give both these charges the most absolute, the
most complete, and the most indignant denial.—(Cheers.)
I must, I am afraid, bore you with much that is of a
personal nature; but when was a person attacked and
an Eeglish assembly refused to listen to his defence?—
(Cheers.) lam upon my defence.—(Renewed cheeing.)
I must recal to to your recollection the circumstances
of the case. When lam accused of deserting the Tory
party, I can only regret the youth, the earnestness, the
energy, and the passion, with which as a mere boy I
asserted before you the seeming paradox, which the
Legislature has since confirmed in many an enactment,
namely, that the Tory party is the party of progress and
of the people.—(Cheers.) I came first before you al-
most a boy, though I felt, as I believe, that I had a true
theory and a true idea, which others, my contempora-
ries, had borne triumphant over an academical society,
and which a man of genius has since made familiar to
the public by hip4vritings, I erne before you at a time
when Lord AlMoUrne's Atinikay *as in the egiloniee of
dissolution; butVd4then ad tone word or on& syl-
lable of the vulgar slang whiclit -had gone abroad? Did
I say one word of .1 No Popery"—of a " bedchamber
plot"—or of "an Owenip Administration?"—(Hear.)
1)it1 I akin any one of nto enormous lies which drove
that Min , rprom offitO—Cheers.) My chardv.ainai
the Minister was that no man since the days of Lord
Carteret had put :he Crown in so false a poition. I
then used a figure to say, " That a horse which went
forward was a good horse; a horsewhich went backward
was a bad horse; but than any horse was better than a
dead horse."—(Cheers and laughter.) Such was the
reason of my opposition to the Melbourne Ministry.
You returned me to Parliament, and when there, I am
not ashamed to confess that I was awed by the Nemesis
of that great assembly. and that, in Parliamentary
parlance, " I broke down."—(Hear, hear.) Notwith-
standing this, your kindness shortly afterwards again
returned me as your Member at the head of the poll.
Having gone through these disagreeable details—fur I
wish to evade no mortification—l will now allude to-an
attempt frequently made, no doubt in Canterbury 03
well as elsewhere, to represent that dissolution as caused
solely and exclusively by the principles of free trade
and protection being at issue. I challenge even the
shadow of a shade of discrepancy between my votes in
Parliament and my professions at the hustings. I came
in, as I have said, with others, full of hot thoughts and
ardent speculations, and we sat by men who now, for-
sooth, are patriots, but who then had but one rule,
which adapted itself to all things, to all measures, to all
debates, and to all votes—the will of the sole Minister.
I spoke, perhaps, of some ancient privileges, and the
most intrepid thinkers would shake their heads and say,
" Listen to Sir Robert Peel," and the less 'intrepid
thinkers would shake their heads and say, " Listen to Sir
Thomas Fremantle."—(Laughter.) When persons were
thus substituted for principles, personalities became a
duty with those who wished to substitute principles fur
personalities. " I am no more ashamed," said Mr.
Southey, " of having been a republican than of being a
boy." And lam no more ashamed of having used strong
language against the Minister than I am of being a boy.
—(Hear.) But now that I appear before you to render
an account of my parliamentary conduct, I would fain take
this public opportunity of making an apology to a great
man, and I cannot be suspected of adulation, for he has
arrived at an age when no man except one ever led the
House of Commons—a great man who has since shown
that his heart was all the while with the people. In the
year 1842 I had just come from witnessing all the horrors
of starvation in the manufacturing districts, and I sup-
ported the Corn Bill of that year as an instalment of a
wiser policy; but I attacked the Minister because it was
only an instalment. In the year 1846 I had the satisfac-
I don of joining a dying Administration, which only
sought to live for the purpose of perfecting that measure
of free trade of which the other was the instalment.—
(Cheers.) In 1843 I almost seceded from the party of
Sir Robert Peel in consequence of his Irish policy.
In 1845 Sir Robert Peel changed his policy to-
wards Ireland, in the sense of which I had pre-
viously voted and spoken, and I had the satisfaction
of voting for that increased grant to Maynooth which
I had been the first in the last Parliament to recommend.
I have disproved by date and fact and circumstance
the charge of inconsistency.—(Cheers.) But, having
said that, I say frankly I care very little whether the
charge be true or not true—(Loud cheers)—for there is
nothing more admirable than for a man to change his
opinions upon conviction.---(Cheers.) If I had changed
my opinion from conviction, I would gladly have pleaded
guilty to the charge, but as it so happened that I had
not, I could not permit that charge to be made without
refuting it.—(Cheers.) But while I know nothing more
admirable than for a man to change, upon conviction, I
know nothing more ridiculous than the infinitessimal lit-
tleness of Parliamentary politics, and the boast of having
been perpetually either Tweedledum or Tweedledee-
(Loud cheers and laughter.) There is a man, the wisestB
_.
of modern times, a German, named Niebuhr,
_wek?e
that the English of the present day are liekneeeth Romans
to so great
of the third century. With all due ddefer
an authority, I am more reminde
bolder than Can-
: Greeks.—(Hear, hear.) In an old city, them of the
terbury, once upon a time lifetime en grown men,
disp disputing,
Ilt i un sg-,
viol
trious senators, spent their, gal'
the pute, upon the
and they took great pleasure
and reddis and green.—
relative merits
of blue
the people of Byzantium were
(Hear, hear.) But Le of England; for there at
wiser than the peop
least the colours were salient and the dresses new; but
in our time and in our
_couinntry, the dresses are so worn
that you can no longer dist gu.ieb the colours.--(Cheers
and laughter.) The next point of any moment is the
question of education.—(Great cheering.) lam bound
to say
I looked with little satisfaction on the scheme
proposed and inaugurated the other day by Lord John
Russell. I think it was meagre as a measure of state,
and offensive as a matter of reiigion.—(Cheers.) I think
that it acceded what to all intents and purposes amounted
to a monopoly to that Established Church which has, by
the confession of the best and wisest of her ministers,
been guilty of neglecting for certainly more than a
century her only duty, that of teaching her own chil-
dren.—(Loud cheers.) And why has she been guilty
of this ? Because she is lying bound down and
fettered, as our northern neighbours would say, in the
lowest dungeons of Erastian imprisonment—because
she has been compelled to accept the alms of the
State without its confidence • moneys upon moneysr,
but at the same time disfavour upon disfavou.
But some may ask why, with these opinions, did you
not vote against the measure? I tell you, frankly, iiyi;
thisbe
cause I believe the want of education is so great.
country, that any scheme of education, even tins scheme,
with all its vices, was better thin none at al . (Cheers.)
There is another subject which has been freq_ uently and
much canvassed of late—the endowment of the Roman
- catholic priesthood in Irelaud.—(Bear, hear.) I am Ts

ROYAL THAMES YACHT CLUB.
Wednesday a sailing match for a purse of 100 sove-
reigns, and which, on account of the extensive publica-
tion given to the contest, excited very great interest,
took place on the Thames, the starting point being et
Erich, the course thence to the Nore light, and back
again to the starting-point, a distance of close on sixty
miles. The fact of the prize being in the current coin of
the realm, and for such a large amount, induced a greater
number of entries than usual, those entries comprising
yachts belonging to the principal sailing clubs of the
kingdom. The chief regulation in this match was that
for ditTerenee of tonnage halt' minute time per ton was
allowed tivon yachts coining in.
It is scarcely necessary to remark t at the morningh.
evas4pKiiiiollikfor en\ aquatic fife of This deseltptioiNlV
and that in consequence the steamers, viz., Meteor, Gem,
Arid, and Waterman No. 10, engsged to accompany
the competing yachts, were at the appointed boor fully
freighted with fashionable spectators. The Meteor car-
ried the Commodore. Lord A. Paget; the Vice-Commo-
dore, Captain Farwell; the Comm.ttee, rind their numer-
ous friends. The Marquis of An4lesea was present in
his beautiful yacht the Pearl, and so was the Duke of
Beaufort.. accompanied by the Earl of Cardigan, in his
Grace's yacht the Intrepid.
At a quarter past eleven the Noble Commodore gave
the signal for preparing to start, and of the nineteen
yachts which had been entered eleven obeyed the signal,
and took their positions in the following order. The
station figured No. 1 belt g the nearest to the southern
and No. 11 to the north shore:—
No. 1. R.T.Y.C., Chamois, 8 tons, Southampton,
Smyth Pigott, E,q.
2. R.T.Y.C., Eclipse, 50 tons, Weymouth, T. P. Wick-
ham, Esq.
3. R.T.y.c., Princess Olga, 35 tons, Cowes, T. B.
Rutherford, Esq.
4. R.T.Y.C., Secret, 25 tons, London, T. W. Smith,

E q.
5. R.T.Y.C., Ino, 25 tons, London, H. Gibson, Esq.
6. R.T.Y.C.. Bianca, 31 tons, Cowes, Lord C. Paget.
7. R.T.Y.C., Snake, 20 tons, Poole, T. and M. Stan-
hill, Esqs.
S. R.W.Y.C., Lily of Devon, 31 tons, Plymouth, W.
F. Moore, Esq.
9. R.T.Y.C., Blue Bell, 31 tons, London. Twisden
Hodges, Esq.
10. R.T.Y.C., Little Gauntlet, 15 tons, Portsmouth,
A. Fountaine, Esq.
11. R.T.Y.C., Antagonist, 25 tons, London, G. P.
Nayler, Esq.
The signal gun for starting was fired at twenty-six
minutes past eleven, upon which the different ',rem;
hoisted canvass with equal rapidity and address, no sen-
sible advantage being gained in this point by one over
the other. The yachts immediately canted round, the
Snake and the Bianca taking the lead, the Eclipse took
up the third position, but soon exchanged it for the first,
the Secret a good fourth, and the Ino following close in
the fifth berth, all the others well up. They maintained
this position to the Nore light with no other remarkable
change or incident save the following. The Eclipse in
Long Reach got the first position, the Secret obtaining
the second. In the Lower Hope the Bianca abandoned
all hope, and the little Chamois, desponding of success,
followed suit, and declined the contest.
As the yachts were rounding the Nore light the
excitement was momentarily diverted by the interesting
coup Bail presented by the graceful manoeuvring of the
many assembled yachts, and by the swelling sails of
several score of trading vessels outward bound. Ine
The Nore light was rounded in the followmg
and order:—Eclipse, 2h. 40w. 50s. ;
2b. 55w. 45.;
255.; Snake, 2h. 54m.243.; Princess 081%, ;
-6 Blue Bell.
Ino, 2h. 55m. 205.; Antagonist, 2b.
Princess
; Gauntlet,
2h. 58m. ; Lily of Devon, 2h. 58m.
Sh. 7w. 40s. Secret, 2h. 46m.
cheering ; the Blue B
and cuts her out, amidst great
In rounding, the In°Bwlelaotvheerrhsauouls
I the e
ll
the Lily of Devon. n upper part
doing the like to
ensueed. between the two latter boats.
tthhee na ean no,
of Sea Reach the Blue
From this point home no important change took place in
the relative
• positions of the yachts, and the interest was
centred in the leading ones, the Eclipse and Secret. The
and a beautiful race
former having retained and gradually increased the six
minutes' lead obtained at the Nore, and the excitement
therefore being caused by the doubt as to whether she
would increase her lead to twelve minutes and a half,
the time required by her superior tonnage to ensure her
victory over her lesser opponent, the Secret. This she
nearly succeeded in doing,
to the admiration of all, and
only lost by the short space of twenty-five seconds. It
was curious to witness the astonishment of the uninitiated
on learning the Secret to be a winner, though she had
been eclipsed by a distance of nearly two miles by the
loser. The boats reached the goal in the following time
elid order:—

h. m. s.
Eclipse
Secret 6 15 46
Blue Bell
Antagonist 6 26 40
Snake 6 29 10
Ino
6 33 50
Lily of Devon
6 38 18
Princess Olga ....
Noble Commodore with a congratulatory address to the
The purse and its contents were handed over by the
spirited owner of the Secret, a craft almost invariably
successful, no matter what wind blows. She has again
proved herself what we have called her, " the boat for
maomsutsefasmetindtioaunsdcoeuolmdfodrets,irwee;reanedvesrhys-
rod ent sh.hrtrr id g e at a quarter to nine •
all weathers."
The arrangements on board the Meteor, at least both
ttnhuteomerous and highly satisfied company at
wltirillionitnndhdge
in the evening.

To be sold, a tremendous sacrifice, the Rental of
Ireland, which has produced as much as 18,000/. a
yftr. This rental is held on a fee simple, and can easily
be raised by an agitator who only understands how to
drain the country in which the rent is collected. No
incumbrances—not even a poor-law. Tenders, stating
lowest terms (of abuse), to be sent in to Conciliation Hall,
Dublin, addressed to " Hereditary Bondsmen."—N.E.
I Repeal, and a heap of other rubbish, to be taken at •
valuation.—Punch.