The Sun.
London, England, 1841-06-18 00:00:00

'AND INbEPENDENT ELECTORS
TO THE WORTHY
CITY WORCESTER.
OF THE FAIT

GENTLEME.N,
THE' retrament from. Parliament of Colonel
Davier,,
will, at the ensuing General Election, impose
upon you, the necessity of selecting some other individual to
whom "f ou will confide the important trust which your long-
triecl and justly-valued Representative is about to resign.
Encouraged by the favourable opinion communicated to me,
by several of the members of your highly-respectable consti-
tuency, I venture to present myself to your notice, and re-
spectfully to solicit your suffrages, that I may, as his successor,
represent your faithful City.
While thus soliciting your support, I am fully aware that
the privilege and duty cf electing Members to serve in Parlia-
ment, at all times important, arc rendered so at the present"
crisis to a degree which. at no period of our history has ever
been surpassed.
As I have sat for some time in Parliament, my name and
the general character of my political principles are perhaps
not altogether unknown to some of you. But on the present
most important occasion, and soliciting for the first time the
honour of a connection with your city, it is fit. that I should
make some more particular and distinct avowal of my political
sentiments. I decle.re myself, therefore, to be a steadv, persever.•
inn Reformer, at all times desirous of maintaining and preserving
the institutions of our country by adapting and restoring them
to their original objects, and by purifying those institutions
from the derects and abuses which the progress of time, the
changes in the state of society, or the s, lfish purposes of suc-
cessively dominant parties, may have created ; believing as I do
that the blessings of the Constitution can be perpetuated only
by seasonable and timely reparations, end that without such
reparations, and without a proper and judicious adaptation of
its true principles to the present circumstances of the com-
munity, even its most valuable parts may be perverted into po-
sitive evils.

I first sought a se.at in Parliament for the immediate purpose
of adding my hnintale aid to the promotion of the cause of civil
and religious liberty ; and I have constantly, and, I trust, con-
sistently, verse gered in furthering those objects, while, at the
same time, to the Church I have been a determined friend,
and of which I shall ever continue to be a steady defender ;
conceiving, 'however, that I best discharge the duties of those
characters,, and that I act most in accordance with the prin-
ciples up on which that Church is based, by recognizing the
rights of, all to liberty of conscience, unaccompanied by civil
disab;:dty, and unstained by degradation of any kind.
The proposed alterations in the Corn-laws, and in restrictions
upon other branches of trade, demand especial and explicit no-
tice ; I, therefore, beg to state, that I entertain the opinirLd
that the country cannot too soon regulate its commerce gene-
rally upon principles more enlarged and liberal, and ";,rented to
the promotion of the greatest possible ,-,400d to the '.:ommunity at
large, and to the abandonment of the, false sr.;.em of sacrificing
one class of the community to anotio:r--41, system which experi-
ence has shown, not only fails in 'Attaining its partial and unjust
object, but is productive of evil never contempla•cd. At the
same time, I admit, that just'e.e requires that the necessary al-
terations in the laws shoul,,,' be made with due caution. that they
may not injure the clas,,es or individuals whose pursuits and en-
gagements have bee:, regulated with reference to the existing
saws, and withwat just ground to anticipate any immediate
change. in thc,se laws.

I appear before you, soliciting the free and unbiassed votes of
ever member of your Constituency, expressing my abhorrence
and, repudiation of coercion and intimidation in every form.
Long, indeed, have I opposed the exercise of such unrighteous
means, and too long have I been witness to the cruelty and the
evils which it inflicts. Ido not hesitate, therefore, to declare
my intention to continue to vote for Election by Ballot, not
insensible that some evils' may be insayarable from the system,
but Feeling that such evils are less than those produced by
the present course of unjustifiable interference and persecu-
ti.cm, rendering, as it does in many instances, the Elective
'Franchise, intended by our Constitution to be the most honour-
able badge and possession of a freeman, an evil to its possessor,
and converting it into an instrument of his oppression and
degradation.
Such, should Ibe honoured with your confidence, are the'
public principles by which ray Parliamentary conduct will be
regulated. • To the local and particular interests of your filth-
fnl City, and its Inhabitants, you shall also find me zealously de-
voted. The trust which I now solicit at your hands I shall
regard as of the highest value, and your kindness in conferring
it, as binding me, by every tie of duty and gratitude, to main-
tain and defend it on all occasions to the best of my abilities,
and, whenever the season shall arrive, render it back to you
unimpaired.
Immediately my public duties will permit I shall appear
before you. when I shall be ready and anxious to afford such
further satisfaction as any of the Electors may desire, and shall
have the honour to renew, in person, my solicitation for your
favour and support.
In the meantime I Leg to subscribe myself with great re-
spect, Gentlemen.
Your most devoted and very humble servant,
THOS. WILDE.
29, Dover street, London, June 15, 1841.