The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-07 00:00:00

ELECTION MOVEMENTS.
WEST KENT ELECTION.
The nomination of the candidates to represent this di-
vision of Kent, took place yesterday, on Penenden Heath.
During the last day or two it was announced that Mr.
David Salomons intended to come forward and oppose
the Conservative candidates, and the rumour obtained
some credence, and a good many of the electors believed
that he would appear at the hustings, and this gave the
proceedings some additional interest.
The candidates, Sir E.Filmer and Lord Mersham, were
escorted to the place of nomination by a very numerous
body of nobleman and carriages, and it was calculated
that there were at least five thousand persons present.
J. BEHRENs, Esq. proposed Sir Edward Filmer as one
of the knights whom her Majesty had that day called
them together to elect, to represent them in the ensuing
Parliament.—(Loud cheers .) The splendid spectacle
before him showed clearly that, the ;Conservative opi-
nions entertained by SirE. Filmer were those of the great
majority of the electors, and he congratulated them
most sincerely that the people of Kent at length saw
their error, and they were now about to retrieve it,
by returning two Conservative Members to Parliament.
For many years they had been mis-represented by a
Whig, but they had at length returned to the right path,
in support of the Church and the other institutions of the
country.
Mr. HOARE seconded the nomination, and said he
could assert, without any fear of contradiction, that if a
contest had taken place, Sir Edward Filmer would have
been placed at the head of the poll, and the Noble Lord,
the second candidate, would not have been twenty votes
behind him. The conduct of the Hon. Gentleman who
had retired from the contest, in supporting two of the
free trade propositions of her Majesty's Government, and
his general support of the Administration, had created
such a feeling of hostility to his opinions in the breasts
of the loyal and patriotic electors of West Kent, that he
would not have had the slightest chance of being re-
turned if he had gone to the poll. In the districts of
Cranbrook andTenterden, where, on the former occasion
he had a majority of 330 votes, it had been
clearly ascertained by correct returns that he would not
now have had more than a majority of fifty, and he was
quite sure that even if the Ballot, which God forbid,
were to be established, that the electors would have re-
turned the Conservative candidates. In the Gravesend
district a similar feeling prevailed, for in that place a
Roman Catholic chapel had been built for the use of the
nominees of Mr. O'Connell, who, having complete autho-
rity over the Ministry, had evinced it by getting a great
number of his countrymen placed in that sea-port
town, with a view, no doubt, to spread the tenets of the
Roman Catholic religion. The electors, therefore, saw
that they would be sacrificing all their dearest interests
by lending themselves to the support of the Whig Ad-
ministration, and they almost unanimously determined
upon replacing their late Whig representative by a Con-
servative.—(Cheers.) .
COl. AUSTEN then proposed Lord Mersham, and said
that his high talents and his great assiduity in the per-
formance of the public duties that devolved upon him
were so highly appreciated by the county, that any ob-
servations from him upon the subject would be quite un-
necessary, and when the high and honourable character
of the Noble Lord in private life was superadded to those
qualifications, he had not the least doubt of his being
elected to the honour to which he aspired of representing
the county in Parliament.
Sir W. GEARY seconded the nomination, and said, he
congratulated the county, and the country at large, that
they had become aware of the delusion that was intended
to be practised upon them. They had not forgotten the
glittering promises of peace, retrenchment, and reform
made by the present Ministry when they took office, and
they had had ample opportunities of seeing what was the
result. The man they required to represent that great
county should be a man of integrity and honour—one
who would support measures and not men, and above all,
one determined to uphold their glorious Constitution in
Church and State. Such a man was Lord Mersham, and
he had therefore. great pleasure in seconding his nomi-
nation.
The hoes SHERIFF then inquired whether any other
candidate was to be proposed, and being answered in the
negative, he declared that Sir E. Filmer and Lord Mer-
sham were duly elected.
Sir EDMUND FILMER then came forward and was re-
ceived with the greatest enthusiasm. He said that little
more was now left for hint to do than to thank the elec-
tors for the cordial manner in which they had received
him on this occasion and also daring his canvass. He re-
gretted that there were not more of his opponents present,
for he should not flinch from stating his political opi-
nions, and he almost regretted that his late honourable
opponent had not gone to the poll, for he really believed
if he had done so it would have prevented any probabi-
lity of a contest in future, as the majority that the Con-
servatives would have obtained, would have convinced the
Radicals that they had no chance whatever in that county.
—(Chess.} He would not pledge himself to the electors
any more than this, that if they thought lie did not, in Par-
liament, act tip to his professions, the sooner they
turned him out the better. He was a staunch supporter
of,the Throne, and, of course, at the same time, the
Church, and in upholding the union of the Church and
State, he did it on the most conscientious grounds, be-
lieving that if the Church was deserted, all the nume-
rous sects of religion now in existence would struggle
for the mastery with each other, and a spirit of complete
anarchy and turbulence would prevail ; and he was con-
vinced that it was to the interest of all that the full
union of Church and, State should be maintained ; and
they might be assured that no Government could exist
without the blessing of God on it. These being his
opinions, they would not, of course, be surprised to hear
that he was a firm opponent of her Majesty's present
Government, who had done more to injure the Church,
in the first place, than any other set of men in the coun-
' try, and the Prime Minister himself admitted:that the
1 measure he sanctioned would be a heavy blow to
' Protestantism.—(Hear, hear.) His late opponent ex-
plained that by this was meant Protestantism in
Ireland ; and he attempted to make out that
_Protestantism in Ireland and Protestantism in England
/
were very different things, but he must confess that he
could not understand the distinction. This was their
conduct to the Church, and he was prepared to contend
&.,I,:t they had done their best to injure her Majesty in
the eyes of her faithful subjects, and he himself knew
tha tin &line parts of the country the candidates who
supported I
.ord Melbourne canvassed the different dis-
tricts as the nueen's• candidates, and a more unconsti-
tutional use.of t.he name of her Majesty could not pos-
sibly be conceived. Her Majesty's Ministers had also
done more than any other set of men to injure the Con-
stitution, but thank .74-od they had not succeeded, and
the more they tried to do so the more they were beaten.
The Hon. Baronet then alluded to the foreign policy of
the Government, and said that their conduct in allowing
poor M'Leod to be confined as an American prisoner
merely„for gallant y doing his duty to his Sovereign was
a stain upon the hovour of the nation, and he said that
1
all the proceedings of :the Government showed it to be
an incapable and unpriitcipled Administration, and he
cited their conduct in referenca to the Irish Tithe Bill
and the Corn-laws in support of his assertion. The Go-
vernment was now on its trial for the third time. Upon
t he Jamaica question they pleaded guilty, and retired
fc r a short time to be brought back by their ladies, when,
as the electors would recollect, Lord Brougham said that
it was the first time in the history of the country that
the Ladies of the Bedchamber had been made political
engi'nes ; and he added, that although the one half went
out, the better halves remained in.—(Laughter.) Their
a wa house of Commons had said it had no confidence in
th em, and they now appealed to the nation, and felt con-
vii iced that the groat Court of the people would confirm
Aht, verdict that had been given against them.—(Cheers.)
Lord MERSHA.Si next addressed the electors and thanked
Ghent mos: cordially for the high honour they had con-
Ji-a-reil upon him by returning him as their representa-
ti ye, and he could hardly have expected that this would
It aye taken plasee without a contest. He hardly hoped
tl tat under ex:sting circumstances, the Conservatives
A ould have been eble to make a sufficient demonstration
t 4 ) deter their adve.-earies from coming forward, and to
.12 ave induced Mr. Ho: ages to resign, but from the returns
6 i' the canvass he was i.nduced to believe that gecnoursetlema an
r and e
I ad adopted the most proms
1 a would not have had the slightest chance of success.—
(t sheers.) They were aware of his political opinions,
at ul it would be unnecessary to go into them at any
:length ; he had no past services to refer to or
to give any account of, and they must.
•th erefore wait until he had had a trial ; and
he assured them that he should always act up to the
principles upon which they had returned him as their
Terfresentive. He could only assure them that up to this
time in his magisterial capacity, he had endeavoured to
administer justice equally to all, and to perform his duty
FonFaientionsly, and they might depend that in his place
: in the house of Commons he would do all in his power
• to carry out good laws for the benefit of them all. lle
• was ardently attached to the Constitution, and he would
lefend it to the utmost of his power, because he believed
t was the best bulwark for the protection of all their
) interests. lie would endeavour by all means to educate
the people, but he would at the same time resist all those
r ash experiments which many were attempting to drive
of 1 for the purpose of oversetting all the ancient institu-
tic ns of the country. In his opinion the various
sch ernes of religion that had been recently set
aflot It. were the offspring of Jesuitism,
having
for their object the destruction of the Pro-.
•
• testant faith, in order that Popery and all its horrors
might be
sin opponent restablished in England. lie came forward as
to a Government which had thrown itself
into the arms of a party, avowedly seeking
the destruc-
tion of the institutions of the country, and he also came
forward to represent the feelings of the Conservative
the
f feeling of
-majority in the county, and the result of the election
slowed clearly
NvtabtleviL' ord thin predominant
theethinn avowed himself an op
.
electors.
, rh
ite anent of the Government projects in ra erence to corn,
burdened debt,..p was a so utely
& e., and expressed his
withopsnion tharnt,tcntaiocnountrybthalt was
so heavily
neo, ssary, . and that without it, it would be impossible to
. aei, 1. etc with the
by
nd
returning
aoftbfaolriekisgntntbe countries,elec.
r aid 1,„ concluded g
given
etno the
t )1,8 fo. r re-
him laiosntobuerirthreepyrehaaednteaotnivfeerTred upon him by re-
ti ire ITT ,
11
ig-elt vostehe-rietf'f,
and a
t, hanks
after
rs
tthhreenecearireeiersd uhnaadnbimeeonusl
the c wean, and three for the Members who had just been
ram: aed, thep electors separated.
------

EAST SUSSEX.
LE WES, JULY 6.--Mr. Shelley was nominated this
is y, Lnd was most ,qnthusiastically received. The poll-
in; v., as fixed for Friday' and Saturday next, and the at-
to; as nc3 of the voters recit:ired at the respective polling
PI Age 3.
-L _

I-
. amiNGRA3L—We are assured, on very good nutno
rity, that although there was a .contot of unusual see
at Birmingham last week, the successful candidates
ba qt been returned entirely free of nxpense.- The trifling
- st 3in each ward were defrayed by, the Ward Com-
, • „,11 •k%i ees, and the General Commiteee tlid not expend more
• _ .