The Sun.
London, England, 1841-04-23 00:00:00

NOTTINGHAM ELECTION.
(From the Times.)
a
The Ministerial scribes are, as might be expected, highly
indignant that the Chartists of Nottingham should presume
to give their support to Mr. Walter, and that Mr. Walter
and his friends should be willing to receive it. Accustomed,
as their masters have been, to fawn upon Chartism from
the hustings and at Liverpool dinners, and afterwards to
t'ample upon its professors when safely ensconced behind
their bureaus in Downing-street, they are now astenishcd
to find that the crushed worm can turn again and sting,
and that the working man (ignorant, as he is alleged to be)
can appreciate the difference between plain-spoken friends
who act as they speak, and oily-tongued tyrants who flatter
to betray.
We should be glad to know what is the consideration
which ought to prevent ths Chartists of Nottingham from
supporting Mr. Walter rather than Mr. Larpent ? Is it be-
cause Mr. Walter is an anti-Ministerialist, and Mr. Larpent
a nominee of the Treasury ?' We never heard More that
Chartism committed its supporters to become the
humble tools of the dominant party, or that it would be
very consistent with their principles to assist any political
party in fastening upon their native town the fetters of Dc-
vonport or Portsmouth. W,r know of no peculiar sym-
pathies of Chartism which should bind it to alliance with
an Administration existing solely by the personal favour of
the Crown ' • we know of no tics of gratitude which should
endear to Chartists a GJvernmsnt chose leader first ex-
hort,•cl them to agitate, and then prosecuted then t it agi-
tati. b and visited their agitators a it`: the severest penalties
of the law. Rather, —we do not understand how those
ho profess Chartist principles could with common honesty
support a parry whose wholesale creation of costly- patron-
age h rs throvrn vise days of Walpole (himself a Whig) in-
to ,bade ; whose swarms of Commissioners overrun the
country, eating up the public bread, which their parsimony
withhilds from the pocr ; who have addel a heavy loai to
t'.e bur-lens of the people; who hay. cast the officers of
the law into prison for refusing to viJlate their oaths ; who
have everywhere endeavoured to deprive their fellers-citi-
zens of the rights of self-government, and to concentrate
all power in their own hands and those of their creatures;
who hive created a rural gendarmerie ; who have converted
poor-houses into prisons; who have removed the poor re-
ceiving relit f out of the pale of law, and interposed every
species of personal ignominy, and moral as well as physical
privation, between them and their rights. The mere fact
of a man coming forward as an avowed opponent of such a
Ministry as this, furnishes a strong prima facie claim upon
the support of every honest Chartist, which it would require
the strongest conceivable contrariety of views to di ;place.
In the case of Mr. Walter, as compared with
Mr. Larpent, there is this prima facie claim, and
whetcver difference there may be between his poli-
tical ci e d and that of Chartism, there are several
points', and those of no sin ill importance, to which
that difference does act extend. Mr. Walter has
the peculiar merit of having supported the present
Ministry while he believed them to have the welfare of the
people at heart, and of having afterwards withdrawn from
their party when he found them trampling upon the rights
of the working class. So far he and the Chartists agree;
and they are united in hostility to the measure which Mr.
Walter has dedicated all his energies to oppose.
And what is this? It is the Now Poor-law—of all exist-
ing evils er abuses, that which comes most thoroughly
home to the working class, and t niches them in the
tenderest point—which injures them, not by any dis-
tant tendency, any constructive or collateral influence,
but by direct and necessary operation, in their cot-
tages, in their properties, in their persons, in their
children, in their wives. To tell men who have the
terror of the workhouse before their eyes of wonders
to be achieved by the ballot, or an extended suffrage,
or Annual Parliaments, is much like asking a convict with
the rope round his neck to sign a petition for an inquiry
into Bentham's theory of jurisprudence. It is quite as
natural and reasonable for the former to say, let us fight
against the Poor-law now, and when we have secured our
personal, then wo will attend to our political interests, as
it would be for the latter to exclaim, get me a repriave
from hanging first, and I will talk about the theory of
jurisprudence afterwards.
If Mr. Walter is elected for Nottingham, the Chartiste
will sot have a Chartist member. But what of that ? Do
they hope for one ? Would Mr. Larpent be one ? The
Chartists will not, in that respect, be worse off than other
political parties at Nottingham; for if Mr. Walter were
elected, he would not be a Tory member, or a Whig member
—he would be an Anti-Poor-law member, and on this car-
dinal point would be the most efficient possible represen-
tsnve of all who agree in thinking the present Poor-law
oppressive sod unconstitutional. Mr. Larpent would be
the representative of nobody, except one or two overgrown
mill-owners, and the money-bags of her Majesty's Treasury.
There is, therefore, every possible reason why the Chart-
ists at Nottingham should in this case vote for the anti-
Ministerial candidate. And, on the other hand. neither Mr.
Walter nor his Conservative friends lay themselves open in
the slightest degree le the charge of compromising their prin-
ciples, because they thankfully accept support when gene-
rously tendered from whatever quarter. Mr. Walter makes
no professions for the occasion, like his opponent; he hangs
out no false colours to catch either Radical or Conservative
votes. He appeals to his past life, to his recorded views;
and promises to act only as he has hitherto acted. If
the Conservatives support him, they do so because they
are satisfied with his past character and conduct, and
perceive the impossibility of carrying Conservative princi-
ples to any useful or honourable issue without doing justice
to the poor. If Radicals support him, they do so be-
cause they bate oppression and tyranny, and arbitrary
power, in fact as well as in name, the things themselves as
much as the political machinery which, in their judgment,
has a tendency to produce them. They see in Mr. Walter
a person whose hatred of these things is as heart-
felt and honest as their own, who recognizes them
in effect as they do, and mho will contend against
them as manfully as they would, though be
may not adopt the same theory of their remote
and ultimate causes; but Mr. Walter, to ex-
press the whole matter in one word, unites the voices of
both these parties, because neither of them is willing to re-
cognize the principles of humanity, charity, and respect for
the national and constitutional rights of Englishmen, as the
exclusive property of the other. Long and often may they
strive together in such a jealousy as this I It will teach
them to know each ether, and to overcome each other by
by the most honourable of all victories—that which
displaces unkind thoughts, and enforces sympathy and
esteem. Both sides will learn that differences as to the
theory of government do not always involve disagreement
upon practical questions. Radicals will perceive that it is
possible to be Conservative without loving tyranny, or sa-
er.ficing the ammo's good to class-interests. Conserva-
tives will learn the still more important lesson, that Radi-
calism has its root in real evils and real grievances, by re-
moving which they tasty hope to disarm the hostility of Ra-
dicalism itself.

DREADFUL EXPLOSION AT WIL-
LINGTON PIT, THIRTY-ONE LIVES LOST.

(From the Tyne Mercury of Tuesday.)
Just after we went. to press yesterday afternoon, a
Tepoit became very prevalent in this town that
ono of those dreadful and fatal accidents had oc-
curred at Willington Colliery, which the neigh-
bourhood has had too frequently to deplore. We
regret to state that the report has turned out to be
too true. The loss of life has been awful, and
the damage to prorcrty has been great. As yet
the pa-ticulars of the occurrence cannot be gathered
with any degree of accuracy ; and the general al irm has
hem much increased by a supposition that the accident
is of a much greater extent than it really is. The
explosion took place yesterday afternoon at Widington
Iliery, which is situated about balf-way between New-
castle and North Shields. We understand that the col.
i:cry had a threutening aprearanee some time ago,
but all fears as to any danger were ailayed.
At the time of the explosion thirty-four men
and boys were in the pit. Thirty-one of these have
lost their lives : three only escaped out of the number.
Seven of the dead bodies have been removed, and exer-
tions have been made for the recovery of tha remainder.
The pit itself is much shattered. We can well imagine,
because it has been our duty to be present at similar me-
lanchely scenes, the distress and agony existing in the
neighbourhood of t accident ; but it is quite impossible
to convey any idea of its nature or extent. The accident
must be regie.,,tt7d by every persoe, and its effects will be
to reduce many families to a state of poverty and deren.
dence. At present it is impossible to say when any
thesa particulars our
inquest will be hal.
readers must for the present rest satisfied. They are
merely the facts of the case, and at the present mo.-
meat, when so little can be obt;:ined with accuracy, q.
would not he right to enter further into the se bje„.
Since the above was a ritten the
have been
brought to the shaft of the pit, viz.
-Three persons
of the name of Martin, father two sons ; —llutchin,
young wan ; aed Thomas I.l4atey. married man.

LIABILITY o A CARRIER. FOR TILE CON-
Dame OP ins Dim —On Tuesday last the fullowine. case
, on fo..- final hearing tic f,ira tne Sher:ff.substitute ,f
na, •
St Airdrie, and excited considerable interest, and;
taally, no small amazement in Court. From the evidence
adduced h this arse, it appears th.t a p-.-rson of the name
Smetlie, s' carrier betwixt Coatbridgo and Glasgow,
bed been returning from Gl:segow stit:i his loaded ca: t,
accompanied by
" 14it'iiini dog, undo : chain and muzzle
In the usual place.
14Etiow Vie body of the ca-t. On the road
to Coatbridc,, it man of the name cf Brown, belonging to
LengloB.7,;, overtook Steak, and they, bei,l slightly ac-
qua;:ated with each other,
.camirenceti a conversation,
I:Ach continued until the cattier's horse drew up at a
teetering.place by the road side. Wnile the animal stood,
therefore, quenching its thirst, Brown rather impruduntly
est down on the nave of the cart wheel ; which the wat-11
dog espying, and considering Brown an intruder, suddenly
sprung' upon the wheel, and puttingslik!sth.eatd betwixt the
'pokes, gave the said Mr. Brown
and chain. Pict'was
ne growl.
ell the dog could do under muzzle a
Sag a the dog at Brawn, set the restive horseth.e doublel
quick motion, and the sudden turning. of wheel soon
twisted, strangled, and killed the caninel. favourite on the
ed reparation be.
spot. For the above injury Brown
fors a court of justice, and the Sheriffc.saulmbstitute gave judg'
meat against the carrier—fining hint two guineas, besides
eXpenses.— Glasgow Constitutional.
IMPORTATION OF LIVE OXEN INTO LON-
DoN.--Yesierday the Aberdeen Steam Navigation Com-
pany's steavu-ship City of Aberdeen, Captain Alexander
Morrison, commander, arrived at her mooring; cff Iron.
gate Stairs, from Aberdeen. She brought no fewer than
ttiB itokttfAllock,, all alive ; several pigs, and a large quan-
deenshire manufactured goods and agricultu-
tc.-N, rat du She also brought a considerable number of
9‘. • - 'sengers, who complained at being compelled
to land in all boats. Part of her cargo consisted of
et'ixt " n, whi:h were landed at Billingsgate-market
gon:ideer.; r arrival. The salmon fishing in Scotland, it
is footfall has considerably improved during the last
fossitight.