The Sun.
London, England, 1856-11-21 00:00:00

SOUTLIAMPTON ELECTION.

SOUTHAMPTON, Nov. 20.
Active operations for the election of a successor to the
late Attorney-General (Sir A. Cockburn) in the representa-
tion of this borough have now commenced. A very large
meeting of the electors, convened by placard, was held
last night at Pratt's Riding-school, for the purpose of hear-
ing addresses from gentlemen offering themselves as candi-
dates in the Liberal interest. Mr. E twin James, Q.C.,
however, was the only candidate who presented himself to
the meeting.
Mr. JAMES presented himself, and was loudly cheered.
He said—Gentlemen, electors of the borough of Southamp-
ton, I aspire to the highest honour that can be bestowed
upon a citizen in a free country—the honour and right of
representing his fellow citizens in their Parliament. lam

aware, from what has occurred to-night, of the prejudice

that has been raised against me as a lawyer—of that pro
judice, merely because lam a lawyer, without reference
to what lawyers have done for the people—without refer-
ence to the energies and the industry that lawyers have be-
stowed on behalf of the people. If they are to be cast aside
by such an enlightened constituency as that of Southamp-
ton from a mere vulgar prejudice, then I say that the con-
stituency of :Southampton are ignorant of what lawyers
have done for the liberties of the people. (Cheers.) Are
the names of Romilly, and Brougham, and Denman, to be
mentioned beiore you to incur contumely and disgrace ?
(Cheers.) No man struggled for the people's cause and fur
the people's liberty, in days when it was dangerous to his
profession and to his reputation, more than Sir S. Roniilly.
No man has struggled harder for civil and religious
liberty than Lord Brougham—(luud cheers)—and no man
ever advocated the rights of the people against the
tyranny of the Crown more strenuously than Denman.
(Cheers.) Ne man, to the sacrifice of everything that was
dear to him, professional advancement and gain, struggled
harder for the people and the liberiy of the press than
Erskine. (Cheers.) Therefore, if I am to be told that merely
because a man happens to be a lawyer, he is, though willing
and anxious to bestow his industry and energy to the cause
of the people, on that ground only to be exiled from
Parliament--if this constituency teach me that lesson, I
shall indeed be surprised at hearing it from such a consti-
tuency as Southampton. (Cheers.) lam aware of the im-
portance, the wealth, and the commerce involved in the
interests of this borough. lam deeply sensible of the task
I undertake in perhaps the presumption of presenting my-
self as a candidate for your suffrages. I know the vast in-
terest you have in commerce—the millions floating on the
surface of your waters, your docks, your harbours, and your
vast emporiums of trade—the enormous increase of your
exports and imports—and your position as one of the
greatest and most thriving ports of this kingdom. Bat do
allow me to say that there are many questions pressing on
the attention of the Legislature, in which not only your
interests, but those of the country generally, are involved
—questions which, if a lawyer will do his duty with energy
and industry, he can advocate, if not better, certainly as
well, as a layman or a commercial man. (Cheers. What do
you say to your bankers lately ? Has not commercial credit
in this country received a check that it will take years to
overcome, by the dishonesty of bankers ? So that you may
have dishonest commercial men as well as dishonest lawyers.
(Hear and cheers.) Let me direct your attention to many
questions coming on for consideration ; and I am sure you
will agree with me that many of them are of that import-
ance that lawyers can render your town and the public
essential service. (Cheers.) What are the great questions
that are pressing ? (A cry —" The Police Bill.") Well,
now I will tell you, if I had been in the House of Commons
I would have voted against that bill. (Cheering.) And
allow me to say that I know the Attorney General did all
he could to remove from the bill those clauses which he
thought were obnoxious to the people of Southampton.
(Cheers.) He struggled hard for that purpose. After-
wards,
it was true, he voted for the bill, but he laboured
to remove what he considered were the obnoxious clauses
in it. (Cheers.) But why is it, I ask you—and if you
say you will have a commercial than, and suppose that
commercial man did something to displease you—why are
you to visit any faults on the next commercial man coming
here? Let us have fair play, that is what I want.
(Cheers.) I am myself sprang from the working classes,
and lam of them. (Cheers.) I have been the architect
of my own fcrtunes, and my own position—(cheers)—and
if yeu say that because I am a lawyer I am to be disquali-
fied, say so at once—but let us discuss the question, and
see if the objection does not arise from a prejudice which
ought not to obtain in an enlightened constituency.
(Cheers.) I was about to speak of those questions which
must come prominently before the Legislature, and as to
those questions in which a lawyer can assist the cause of
the people. (Cheers.) Take, for instance, the Appellate
Jurisdiction of this country. That will be one of the
most prominent measures introduced during the next
Session of Parliament. You are all interested in the proper
administration of our laws, and I tell you the state of the
Appellate Jurisdiction in the House of Lords is a disgrace
to any civilised country. (Cheers.) If you have a lawyer
who is advocating the cause of the people—tell me who can
advocate that cause better than a man who is versed in
the laws, and who understands how to amend them. Take
the question of the Ecclesiastical Courts, coupled with law
Reform. The state of those courts is a disgrace to the
civil code of any country. (Cheers.) If you are left- and
it is a question which comes home to the bosom of you all
—a legacy of 1001., and it is litigated, you are driven into
the Ecclesiastical Court, and before you get the 1001. it is
sweated down to 60/. (Cheers.) So it is in all questions
connected with the Ecclesiastical Court. You have one
commercial man as your representative, and a most honour.
able man he is, as well as a most able representative—
(loud cheers)—and a commercial man can vote, and will
vote rightly on all those questions, but on those great
questions a lawyer who is advocating your interests will
be of advantage to you. (Cheers.) Take the great ques-
tion of crime, now pressing itself on the attention of the
country—its prevention and cure. The state of crime has
arrived at that fearful pitch in this civilised society that
it is essential some broad, comprehensive, and statesman.
like view should be adopted to meet this great evil.
(Cheers.) Who can advocate or bring to bear his legal
knowledge and experience better on questions of this
sort than a lawyer? (Cheers.) I am not here vaunting
myself as a lawyer, but endeavouring to meet that which I
believe to be—and which I think you, as anintelligent and
thinking people, will believe to be—an unfair prejudice.
Take, now, your local questions. (Cheers.) There are
two local questions which occasion great interest very pro-
bably.: in the minds of the people of Southampton. The
one is the introduction of a competing railway into the
town. (Cheers.) Perhaps, now, gentlemen will do me
the justice to own that I may know a little about that
matter, because, when the narrow gauge was projected
from Manchester to Southampton, and it wanted a law-
yer's help in Parliament, I had the honour of being the
lawyer employed—(cheers)—and I think a competing rail-
way to the town would be of infinite advantage. (Re-
newed cheering.) I believe it will tend to keep in check
that which might otherwise, and perhaps does, prove to
be a gigantic monopoly. (Loud cheering.) If I were out
of Parliament it is probable that my services as counsel
may be retained as before to advocate that railway; and
do you imagine that lawyers are so degraded and so base
that I would not, as your Member, uphold the interests
entrusted to my care, and deem them a higher and a
greater stimulus to exertion than the mere fee I should
receive if out of Parliament? (Cheers.) Are you so pre-
judiced as to think that if I had your interests confided to
my care, I should not advocate that railway as willingly,
and as zealously, as I would for a mere paltry fee—(cheers)
—believing that the railway would be of infinite advan-
tage to the town? (Cheers.) Knowing as I do, and feeling
convinced, that the railway would be of vast benefit to
the commercial interests of the town, the advancement of
those interests would be to me a stimulus sufficient to
advocate it to the best of my ability. (Cheers.) Take
another question. A eontest will probably arise between
the Crown and the interests of Southampton on what
are called the " mudlands," and I ask you, gentlemen,
fairly and conscientiously, is not that a question in which
a lawyer can materially assist you ? (" Yes," and cheers.)
Of course your commercial member, Mr. Willcox, will
assist you by his vote and interest, bat the question is one
in which a lawyer can render you essential service. (Cheers.)
Do you believe a lawyer does not take deep interest in the
honour of representing such a borough as this? And is it
fair to say of my friend Sir Alexander Cockburn that if,
in the discharge of the duties of his profession, those talents
by which he is adorned ware attended with their ordinary
results, and honours fell upon him, that he made South-
ampton a mere stepping-stone to his promotion. ("Ne,
no," and cheers.) A peerage may fall to the lot of a com-
mercial mast who has amassed wealth by his industry and
integrity, as well as to a lawyer. (Cheers,) We have an
instance of it in Lord Overstone—(cheers)—and it is a
little unfair to say, even though he might have displeased
you in some minor points, that my hon. friend the Attorney-
General has made the constituency a mere stepping-stone
to his advancement. (Cheers.) No, gentlemen, 'he has
not. (Cries of "He has)." I know him to be essentially
the friend of the people. I know that in any sphere in
which he may be placed he will continue to be so. He
will advocate the people's rights ; and I would rather risk
all hopes of being elected than allow one word to be uttered
to his discredit in his absence—(cheers) —without endea-
vouring to set it right. I believe, on my honour, that air
A. Cockburn would not sacrifice the interests of the
humblest elector of Southampton for the brightest coronet
that ever glittered upon a statesman's brow. (Loud
cheering.) No, gentlemen, it is unfair to say that be-
cause of the possession of talents which you well
knew, when you elected him, must have led him to the
highest honours in his profession- -it is a little unfair to
say that, because honours have fallen upon him, he has
sacrificed the electors of Southampton. (Cheers.) I be-
lieve that in the house in which he will sit there will be no
more sincere friend of the people's cause, and of civil and
religions liberty, than the new peer, Lord Langton. (Cries
of "He has run away from them.") Run away ! Why,
von returned him six times in nine years, and it is an
honour that he is proud of. His elevation, so far from
being a disgrace to you, has done infinite honour to your
choice. (Cheers.) Now, then, I come to tell you what
are my political principles. Upon the question of free
trade I may say we are all agreed. The great questions
that will come before Parliament upon that subject are
merely to carry it to its legitimate results, but those ques-
tions are very much questions in which a lawyer's aid will
be of avail. (" Let's have free trade in law.") lam for
that too. (Cheers.) I am thoroughly for free trade in
law, and I should not mind seeing the gentleman who has
just spoken with a wig on to-morrow. (Lsughter and
cheers.) The great principle of free trade has been accom-
plished, and the wealthiest and proudest aristocracy which
the world ever saw have conceded to public opinion that
great question. (Cheers.) It has now to be carried to its
legitimate results. You have to give every possible sti-
mulus to commercial enterprise, by the relaxation of the
strict laws of partnership, and other measures—to set com-
merce entirely free. Taking the question of the extension
of the franchise, the people—who, allow me to say, in the
want of a proper system of education, are educating them-
selves—have become more intelligent, and the working and
other classes are in my opinion entitled to,] I will tell a consider-
able extension of the suffrage. [" How far ?'
you how far. The extension proposed by Lord J. Ituswit
vrould not, I think, be a bad beginning. I would extend
the right of voting from 10/. to 6f, householders—to every