The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-09 00:00:00

REPRESENTATION OF HERT-
FORDSHIRE.

The election of a Member to serve in Parliament for
Lecounty of Herts, in the place of Lord Grimston, who
'called to the Upper House of Parliament by the de-
calase of his father, Lord Verulam, was held at Hertford
yesterday.
It being generally understood that there was to be no
opposition, there was, of course, none of the excitement
that attended a contested election. The only candidate
in the field, Mr. T. P. Halsey, was attended to the hust-
ings by about 150 gentlemen on horseback, and a num-
ber of flags and banners.
The usual proclamation having been made, and the
writ read, by Mr. Longmore, the Under-Sheriff,
Sir H. MEET% stood forward, and having briefly stated
the object for which they were assembled, requested
that the electors would give every gentleman who might
please to address them a patient hearing.
Mr. D. RADCLIFFE then proposed Mr. Thomas Plumer
Halsey as a fit and proper person to represent the
county of Hertfordshire in Parliament. Eleven years
ago he had proposed their late representative, Lord
Grimston, and at that period, as at the present, the con-
dition and the prospects of the agricultural interest were
the all-absorbing topics of interest in the public mind.
At the period to which he referred a gloom hung over
agriculture, not from the acts of any Government, but
because it had pleased Providence to afflict them with bad
harvests. Almost ever since, however, with the exception
of the exaggerated failure of the potato crop, the har-
vests had been akundant, but yet, at a period of al-
most unexampled prosperity, when the country eon
happy and contented, when there was a grett demand
P.t i for labour, and every branch of the nonal industry was
in a prosperous condition, they Lad been thrown into a
state of almost unparalleled excitement. And what was
the cause of all this Why, because a monster, hitherto
unknown in this country, a monied monopoly, has been
suffered to rear its hideous horn, and make giant strides
to invade their hearths and homes.—(Hear, hear.)
When he had the honour of addressing the meeting at
the agricultural dinner of the county, he told them that
ho doubted the sincerity of Sir Robert Peel. He at that
time thought he could discover the small black cloud in
the distance, which he expected would burst and spread
destruction around ; but upon that principle of English
justice which considered every man innocent until be
was proved to be guilty, he would forbear from
branding him with treachery until they knew what he
really meant to do ; but, at the Mme time, recent oc-
currences plainly showed that it was necessary for them
to be on their guard. It had been truly said
that ingratitude was so hateful a crime, that
the man who was guilty of it could not be
gai/ity of any other, for all were comprised in it, and he
was still willing to believe that Sir Robert Peel would
not be a traitor to those who had placed him in power.
Upon this vital question of protection to agriculture,
however, there should be no temporising ; and he was
sorry to see, that at the meeting at Bedford, Lord Al-
thiarp had likened their position, with Sir Robert Peel at
their head, to passengers in a train on the railway who,
expecting to, go at the rate of thirty miles an hour, found
that the engineer was taking them at the rate of a hun-
dred ; and when they remonstrated with him upon the
danger to whidti he subjected their lives, his only answer
was, that there was another train behind him coming at
the ante of a hundred and fifty miles an hour, and
they, therefore, thought it better to go on with him,
than to run the risk of travelling by the still faster train.
He must venture to express his opinion that they were
fools who would travel with such an engineer at all, and
that, the better course, if he persisted, would be to get
another engineer to conduct the train, and to pay no at-
tention to the 150-mile an hour train behind them, but
to feel assured that the result would be that it would
destroy itself, but would not injure any but those upon
it.—(Hear, and a laugh. A voice in the crowd, " But it's
nearly at the station.") He need not tell them that by
the 150-mile an hour train he referred to that unprinci-
pled band of conspirators known as the Anti-Corn-law
League—(Hear, and interruption)—a set of men who
were denounced by the respectable persons of all parties
in politics, and whom the great head of the Whig party
in that county, Lord Dames, had denounced as a
monied oligarchy.—(Cheers.) It was not so much what
the Anti-Corn-law League said that he objected, to as
to what they did. They might get an audience together
in Covent-garden Theatre to hear them spouting, the
same as they would go to see a pantomime or any other
exhibition, and all their talking there would have no
more effect on the laws of England than dancing " Jim
Crow."—(Laughter.) But what made them tbrmidable
was, that they presumed to interfere with the privileges
of Parliament, that they had tampered with the elective
franchise, and had endeavoured to separate the manu-
facturing and the agricultural interest, and to set them
in opposition to each other.—(Hear, hear.) They were
told that the League had obtained large sums of money ;
and with what object ? Was it for patriotic pur-
poses ? No. Their leaders unblushingly repudiated
any patriotic views, and Mr. Heywood, at a meet-
ing at Manchester, unhesitatingly admitted that
these sums of money were intended to be ap-
plied to furthering the interest and increasing the profits
of the manufacturers. A great deal had been said
about Lord John Russell joining the League, and de-
claring his adherence to what was called free trade ;
but he must say that, in his opinion, it looked more like
carrying out that feeling which prevailed in the mind of
Lucifer, that it was better to " reign in hell than serve in
heaven."—(Cheers, and interruption.) He could conceive
many humiliating positions, such as being a joint of
O'Connell's tail ; or the feelings of Mr. Macaulay, when
he wrote his humble epistle from Edinburgh, when he
expected to be indicting a high-flown document from
Windsor Code ; but, in his opinion, nothing could be so
humiliating to any person of character as an association
with the infernal League.—(Hear, and laughter.) There
was not, however, in his opinion, any cause to fear the
result. The British lion was moved, and he would
shake like dewdrops from his mane the scum of the
.Leagie. Let them wait patiently for the meeting of
Parliament, and they would then see whether the
Minister would dare to propose any measure such as has
been threatened, and whether he would league himself
with those who declared their object to be to destroy the
aristocracy of the land. If he should do so—if he should
thereby declare the legality of the exercise of this money
monopoly—then, at the eleventh hour, the agricultural
interest of England would come forward and beat their
opponents with their own weapons.—(Cheers.) There
should be 100,000/. subscribed in every county in Eng-
land.—(Renewed cheering.) He knew a great number
of gentlemen now ready to come forward with a thou-
sand pounds. He, a plain country gentleman, would
put down his thousand pounds, aye, and would sacri-
fice half his fortune, rather than yield to the
tyranny of these democratic despots.—(Great cheering.)
Men and money were ready ; and if it should come to
what he alluded to, he had no doubt they should scatter
Bright and Cobden, and the other members of the
League, like chaff before the wind. While upon this
subject of the proceedings of the League, he begged
leave to address a few words to the labourers, and to
advise them not to be deluded by the specious argu-
ments that were made use of by the League, and to look
upon every man as their enemy who endeavoured to in-
duce them to believe that those who were above them
were indifferent to any privations they might undergo,
or that they were the cause of their suffering them; and
when they talked of cheap bread to them, they should
ask them to tell them the condition of the peasantry in
the countries where bread was cheap. He could tell
them this, that in Italy they would see poor wretches
scrambling for a piece of orange-peel when a hatful of
oranges could be had for a penny.---(Hear, hear.) After
some further observations, the Hon. Gentleman con-
cluded by proposing Mr. Halsey, in the usual form.
Mr. JOHN SEGO, of Stanstead, said that, as a tenant-
farmer in the county, he had great pleasure in seconding
the nomination of Mr. Halsey to represent the county
in Parliament. He had come forward and boldly and
honestly avowed his principles, and he had no doubt he
would act up to them ; and he trusted that, when the
Parliament met, the Members would do their duty, and
fulfil the promises made by them at the last election.—
(Hear, hear.) It might be said that no political ques-
tion was at present actually before the country as Par-
liament was not sitting ; but he trusted that if, as was
Yliwoured would be the case, Sir Robert Peel was to
attempt to deprive the agricultural interest of any
portion of that small protection which they now
en,joyed, that the landed proprietors of the country would
join together to resist such an attempt. At the time of
the panic caused by the recent changes, when Lord John
Russell was called upon to form an Administration; he
had sustained a loss of 81. upon two waggons of corn,
and he had no doubt he must have continued to have sold
at the same loss if he had succeeded in doing so; but for-
tunately he was not strong enough for the place. The
effect of depriving agriculture of the protection it now
enjoyed must, in his opinion, be most ruinous—it would,
at all events, reduce the price of agricultural produce by
one-third, and which must necessarily fall upon
the labouring population. He farmed five hundred acres
of land, and had to fill fifty-seven mouths from the pro-
duce of his farm ; bat if his receipts were diminished
one-third, it would be impossible for him to continue
to support his labourers, and he must discharge the
greater portion of them ; and although he might be most
unwilling to do
Th so, yet he should have no alternative.
others
Rion SHERIFF having inquired whether any
Rion
was to be proposed, and receiving no
answer, he declared Mr. Halsey duly eected.
Mr. linstassaydtiteant
if
fsthood forward, and was loudly
sheered.
e was not able to return thanks
In an adequate formannehrim. the high honour and trust
that was reposed in
notf from any want of
gratitude, but solely from'alwt want of proper language to
express his feelings. He felt that it wastt great honour
to
for him, a young man and untried, be elected their
representative, and he could assure thethat he had a
by his
i
strong determination to merit their klincin
deeds. He was aware of the great responsibility t
Position of a Member of
at
f
all times was attached to the
Parliament, but that responsibily was very greatly in.
creased in times like the present. Still, however, he
hoped that, by a steady adhesion to the principles he
had espoused, he should be able on a future occasion
to give an account of his steward ship that would
be satisfactory to them. and honourable to himself.
He believed that his political opinions were pretty well
known in the county; but on this occasion he might be
excused for making a few observations upon the present
state of affairs. The circumstances of the present mo-
tnent were most peculiar. A month ago they saw a
Ministry, apparently strong in itself, and possessing a
large majority in Parliament,
from any external suddenly dissolved—not
agency'
but from internal dissensions.
They saw Lord John Russell sent for .
to form an Admi-
nistration, and althou
which thANobleuragwhottere were very few things
would not attempt, yet there was
oni thing that he clearly
Ataining any
nortion
of
public
succeed in, namely,
Ll for a party dim- four years ago
confidence or sympa-
hurled from power by thonlmost Aoat7as ignominiously
pogo; Lord John' Rttssell was, therefore, will
of the
livered' of a still-born AdMinistration, andr safely de- must say
that it was $ most happy deliverance for the country.

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