The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-27 00:00:00

four hours after the election.—(Cheers.) That is pre-
cisely the position in which I have been placed; I feel it
much, and I am sure you also must deeply sympathise
with the circumstances in which I am placed.—(Cheers.)
The only ground of complaint in the matter, the only
reprehension to which I am exposed is, that I did not
look earlier into the matter ; but I did not do so till I
received notice of the intention of Sir J. Hamilton. As
regards my friends in Marylebone, it is impossible to
exaggerate their kindness and disinterested devotion,
and no man, I believe, can so deeply feel for the result
to which I have alluded. Some peuple have said to me,
" We are astonished that you could think of standing
Oa that ballot ; there are 16,000 electors, and you had
only 2,000. In all, there Isere only 3,500, some of
whom would not vote for you—how could you
consider that a fair test of the reform power of
that borough ?" I make no such excuse. I believe
in Marylebone there was a power in my favour
that no circumstances of any nature or kind could in
any way counteract. Therefore, I impute blame to
no one but to myself, and I am abundantly satisfied not
only of the strength,but of the sincerity of my supporters.
s
--(Cheers.) Now, having said this, I may be al-
lewd to say that I appear before you with feelings of
pleasure and of mortification —of great mortification
that I am not able to touch on the various public topics
to which tinder other circumstances I should have felt
inclined to allude, and particularly called on to address
you ; for if I had resigned my office of commissioner I
should have appeared before you to-day in the perfect
freedom of man, unshackled by those manacles with
which I am now fettered ; because as to the Police Act,
such are the cruel contrivances spun about me, that if I
ceased to be commissioner to-day, and had twenty votes
for towns and boroughs, I could not give one of them
for six months to come ; and it places me under a
penalty of 1004 if I asked any man in this crowd to
withhold his vote, or to give it to any particular candi-
date. Therefore, if there is any person here who desires
to assume the unenviable character of an informer, I
wish him to understand that I do not appeal to you to
give or to withhold a vote to or from any one of the
three candidates. But I do appear here, as I have a
right and as I feel it my duty and my pride to do, for
two purposes—one is to dispel a misapprehension,
and the other is to expose a falsehood.—(Cheers.)
I have been told there are men in this town who
assume the pretensions of gentlemen, who have
dared to say that I have been bribed by Mr. Sanderson
to keep away from this place.—(Hear, hear.) I am
also told that gentlemen well known here, one as a
banker in the borough, and the other as a timber mer-
chant, have given utterance to that falsehood. If that
be so, let them come before this great court, this large
popular tribunal, and face to face charge me with the
fact.—(Cheers.) Mr. Sanderson is in this town—let
him hare abundant time, if he thinks fit to make his
appearance here, and say whether there is any founda-
tion for that accusation.—(Cheers.) But do not mis-
understand me. Ido not impute to Mr. Sanderson any
such baseness. But as " there never is," as the proverb
says, " smoke in which there is not some fire," so there
is rarely any rumour in which there is not some truth;
and as I am one of those men who will always proclaim
the fact whether it tells for or against me, I will ex-
plain to you exactly what foundation there is for that
statement. Some years ago I embarked in an attempt
to establish a daily paper on what is called the cheap
principle—the True Sun ; I embarked a. great: deal of
money in this affair, and some who called themselves
my friends took shates—l will name no one—but after
that speculation had gone wrong, and I had lost thou-
sands on it, to my utter surprise I was called on to
pay hundreds of pounds for persons who in the first
instance I considered contributors and subscribers
to that undertaking; and being pressed to pay
a large sum of money, I went .wen or eight
years ago to Mr. Sanderson, who, as ;eu know, is a
large bill-broker and money-lendet is the City,
and I considered I had as much neer ie go to Mr.
Sanderson or Mr. Gurney, or any oiler i).; broker, to
discount my bill, as any or you, it yc SCE he three balls
up here, have a right to take a pair ,f shall-clothes and
pawn them.—(Laughter.) I men ion Pais to Mr. San-
derson's credit ; for if I had come here and said—
" I have spent many thousand; i place, but I am
now hard run for 800/. ; why do..'• you put your hands
in your pockets and subscribe amongst yourselves ?"
—how much do you think I should have got?—(Cheers
and laughter.) But Mr. Sanderson lent me 8001. on my
lease and other security ; five years ago I paid 5001. of
it, and the other 3001. I have paid since. I always paid
his interest, and I feel much obliged to him for lending
the money, and he is much obliged to me for borrowing
it. That is the whole story ; and I appeal to you whe-
ther the men who can make such misrepresentations as
those I have alluded to have not done that which is
wrong ?—(A person in the crowd exclaimed—" How
came Mr. Sanderson to betray the trust ?") That is
another matter, how far a gentleman can think his cause
advanced by disclosing the affairs of his banking estab
lishment, which is the same as if a banker were to dis-
close any tradesman's affairs here. But Ido not go into
that. He lent me the money, and I paid him the utter-
most farthing, and five per cent. interest. Now 1
said I had to speak on two subjects, one to ex-
pose a falsehood, and the other to dispel a misapprehen-
sion. The second is the most important. While I
should be delighted, under other circumstances, to throw
myself into your ranks, to ask your votes, and to do
Anything I could to redeem the town from its state of
political thraldom, I may only go to these topics as a
matter of self-defence. I will not ask what foundation
there may be for that impression which I understand
prevails to no inconsiderable extent, that I have been ill-
treated, and it not unfrequently happens that the truth
is suggested by those who feel it most; but when I was
asked if I had any objection to Mr. Hardcastle's preten-
sions, and to his entering this town as a candidate, and
whether I should withhold any influence or pretensions
I might have on your minds, I was prepared to say that,
as against the claims of that gentleman, I could not in-
terpose any just objection.—(Cheers.) Now it is said
I have prevented other people coming here. It is very
likely I have.—(Laughter.) Because I do not hesitate
to tell you that, after I left the town the other day,
being told that I stood no chance, and understanding no
just reason why if I stood no chance another should,
when a gentleman came to inform me that he had been
applied to to come to this place and he wished me ho-
nestly and openly to tell him what my opinion was, I did
tell him, as I would any other mar. in the same circum-
stances, " Go down and judge for youe elf, but keep your
hands on your smaliclothes' pocket.----(Laughter.)
Some people would say, " That is very unkind; did
we not treat you with the greatest kindness ?—did
we put you to expense ?—and what prevents
any gentleman coming here to amuse himself at
a little expense, as others do?" Ido not recognise that.
If a person came to me under the circumstances I have
stated, and said he had a notion of coming, and asked my
honest opinion, I should say, " My advice is for you to
look before you." But when I was told that an indi-
vidual residing in the county, having large property in
it, educated in liberal views, and who had constantly
observed them, was prepared to be your candidate, I
said, " there are all the elements of success in that man"
—(Cheers)—and I should feel not only ashamed of my
self as a Reformer if I were to attempt to gainsay his
pretensions, but still more if I did not do all I could to
advance them.—(Cheers.) It is for that purpose that I
eppear here—to remove from your minds any impres-
mon that I have lurking in mine—any feeling of
or say desire to control the friendly disposition of those
who may have a str.ng remembrance of our old associa-
tion ; and if there be any one in this vast assembly with
that feeling, it is my anxious desire that that impression
should be altogether obliterated.—(Cheers.) There is
a topic some of you may read, and others may ; hear it
is a sentiment that has its origin in pernicious sne
elfish
and is extremely dangeroas in itself. It is e als'
general,
assumed at the present moment that all men are
that there are no principles, no political objects to
o
tend for, and such is the happiness that prevails thactwne
have nothing to grumble about, nothing to complain of.
But, so far from considering that the truth, I believe the
people of this country are breaking the fetters under which
they have long groaned.—(lnterruption.) I was observing,
that so far from its being true that all political matters
and all the great questions that have occupied the poblic
mind since the passing of the Reform Bill have been ac-
complished, and it is a matter of little moment to whom
you confide the legislative trust, the present time, in my
judgment, is, of all others, the most important, and im-
poses on the constituency of this country the greatest
duty ; because, allow me to say, that when the power of
Parliament ceases, the power of the people begins ; and
tt is perfectly idle for ycu, who have the power of re-
uming two Members to Parliament, and who are not so
unanimous as it is desirable you should be—it is more
incumbent, I say, on those who occupy the position of
electors, and who have these duties to discharge, to act
an honest and faithful part ; and they will have no right
to complain if a series
ameasures should be passed in
the coining session which prejudicial to their inter-
ests, and to the poor at large," they acquit themselves
ill in the great trust confided You are all
complaining, and justly so, and toi the course of time
your complaints will be louder—whether
more just will depend on your own they will be
conduct—for it is
announced by the ;Chancellor of the Exchequer,cdt and if
not by him it would have been by others,
rhat the
on. It
tax-
ation of the country must undergo a strict
is impossible that you can have free-trade aetvitt
time that the springs of industry are almost snappinge Sar
under the weight of taxation. Those springs must be
lightened. You must divert the weight of taxation from.
the transactions of industry and other things, and
transfer it to the substantial property of the country ;
end if they neglect their duty now, what right will the
-inhabitants of Colchester have to complain of the part
taken by their representatives, be they who they may,
when that subject is tinder consideration, and they
have to decide in what way the taxation of the
loountre to be inflicted on the people shall be altered?
You will 'have no right to complain if you find both
Z*hose
representatives voting against any mitigation of
'fey do and against a saingeing property tax, if
want?,
fdo ot. not in the first instance pledge themselves to
b • both.—(Cheers.) It' I was a candidate, I should
rum ureserp
your n - •
lunderottce tact 3 to show that you are daily
and hourly
by the Committeeof edby the tax-gatherer. It is proved
man who earns 12s. the House of Commons that the
a week (and what a miserable pit-
-tame is that!) cannot
:his existence—not luxuries, because
necessary articles of
:Ind champagne, and ,wirecause if you drink claret
wears rings and brace-
your
lets, these are luxuries you should pay pay for—but the poor
beer to his mouth, if
man
Canamy not put a mug of stron
tghzte balf is aid in the
h 9 get it, without knolihnigs
m, sit-tax and the hop-duty
a cup of
2s. of it in
gust eicious tea at 4s. a pound, without cannot
sip
—a person eannot wash his hands- paying
duty
duty tif44 weep almost as great—in slier* without
Paying a
run over an jv necessa,ry article on which he does uacatnnot
duty, and altogether he pep Os. ld. out of his pay22s.
The way in :vhi'eh the enormous injustice of th t is to
be filustea, ted is this:--suppose one of your landlords
had 1,200 L a year, and the tax-gather was to call and
—say—. I hat e come for 6001." "Six hundred poundsl—