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

S6UT.HAMPTON ELECTION.

-4IL+
'OUTHAMPTON, 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'a Riding-school, for the purpose of hear-
ing addresses from gentlemen offering themselves as candi-
dates in the Liberal interest. Mr. Edwin 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 •f
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 pre-
judice, merely because I am 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, thenl 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 ho
mentioned beiore you to incur contumely and disgrace?
(Cheers.) No man struggled for the people's cause and for
the people's liberty, in days when it was dangerous to his
profession and to his reputation, more than Sir S. Roruilly.
No man has struggled harder for civil and religious
liberty than Lord Brougham—(loud cheers)•—and no man
over advocated the rights of the people against the
tyranny of the Crown more strenuously than Denman.
(Cheers.) No man, to the sacrifice of everything that was
dear to him, professional advancement and gain, struggled
harder for the people and the liberty of the press than
Erskine. (Cheers.) Therefore, if lam to be told that merely
because a man happens to be a lawyer, ho is, though willing
and anxious to bestow his industry and energy to the cause
of the people, on that ground only to bo 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. I am 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 bettor, certainly as
well, as a layman or a commercial man. (Cheers. What do

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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.
(Hoar and cheers.) Lot me direct your attention to many
questions coming on for consideration ; and I run 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 aro 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 too to say that I know the Attorney General did all
ho could to remove from the bill those clauses which he
thought wore obnoxious to the people of Southampton.
(Cheers.) Ho struggled hard for that purpose. After-
wards, it was true, he voted for the bill, but ho laboured
to remove what ho considered were the obnoxious clauses
in it. (Cheers.) But why is it, I ask you—and if you
say you will have a commercial man, and suppose that
oommercial man did something to displease you—why aro
you to visit any faults on the next commercial man coining
hero ? Let us have fair play, that is what I want.
(Cheers.) I am myself sprung from the working chaste.,
and lam of them. (Cheers.) I have been the architect
of my own ferlames, and my own position—(cheers)—aed
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 Callto of
the people. (Cheers.) Take, for iustance, the Appellate
Jurisdiction of this country. That will be ono of the
most prominent measures introduced during the noxt
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 the who can
advocate that cause better than a titan who is versed in
the laws, and who miderslands how to amend them. Tale
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 100/.' and it is litigated, you are driven into
the Ecclesiastical Court, and before you get the 1001. it is
sweated down to GO/. (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 wan he is, as well as a most able representative—
(loud chearaj—and a commercial wan 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. (Chews) Take the groat ques-
tion of crime, now pressing itself on the attention of the
country—its prevention and cure. The state of crime has
ari iced 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 groat evil.
(Cheers.) Who can advocate or bring to boar his legal
knowledge and experituce better on questions of this
sort than a lawyer? (Cheers.) I am not here vaunting
myself as a lawyer, but eudeavouring to meet that which I
believe to bo—and which I think you, as anintolligent and
thinkiug people, will believe to be—an unfair prejudice.
Take, now, your local questions. (Cheers.) There aro
two local questions which occasion groat 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, aud it wanted a law-
yer's help in Parliament, I hail the honour of being the
lawyer employed—(cheers)—and I think a competing rail-
way to thu town would be of infinite advautage. (Re•
'sewed chewing.) I believe it will tend to keep in check
that which might otherwise, and perhaps does, prove to
bo 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 thy care, and doom 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_bo as o zealously,v
that
thea
el I
railwaywe co would fKo
urn
ooa
nwmi r
ingbe
sapsoa t ridnyo to.
aei
nt—ed (
act.
ehdeevl eia
the n-
ti(lige neveiotnoncitemhdee'rtetoihawalat railway would be of vast benefit to
interests of the town, the advancement of
those interests would be to me a stimulus aufficient
to
advocate it to the best of my ability. (Cheers.) Take
another question. A contest will probably arise between
the Crown and the interests of Southampton on what
are called the " mudlands," anti I ask you, gentlemen,
fairly and conscientiously, is not that a question iii which
a lawyer can materially assist you? (" Yea," and cheers.)
Of course your commercial member, Mr. Willoox, will
assist you by his vote and interest, but 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 were attended
iwniotmh
otthieoinr.or(d,iinNaroy,
results, and honours fell upon him, that he made South-
on
awatand.
an:oe,
rP"et dwacahniseeewrr cheers.)
(;) teh
IA: ipanci gne i'astmg°oeudetnwtoyi a
ihftaihsl oy
tithes lot of
industry
integrity, as well as to a lawyer. (Cheer..) We have au
instance of it in Lord Overstone—(cheers)—and it is a
No. gentlemen, he has
as()C.'h' "Irsk.)now him to be essentially
little unfair to say, oven though ho might have displeased
you in some minor points, that my hon. friend the Attorney-
General has made the constituency a mere atepping-stoue
people. I know that in any sphere iu
—bwoniothuoruAbestai;
which be may be placed he will continue to be so. Ho
will advocate the people's rights ; and I would rather risk
all hopes of being elected than allow one word to be uttered
ablBbauelci:—(cheers)
nt°thoeth.firsi(eCiairddiveifnoefte‘hmieleinet
vouring to set it right.
which you well
A. Cockburn would not sacrifice the interests of the
humblest elector of Southampton
tofosrmtahne,brightest coronet
that over glittered upon a s brow. (Loud
cheering.) No, gentlemen, it is unfair to say that be.
to his discredit inhis
esectossidonbitno,f
nitaulsetntbsue
led
him
to
the
' 1 est honours in his profession--it ia, a little unfair to
highest
say that, because honours a • fallen upon him, he has
sacrificxxl the electors of Southampton, (Cheers.) I be-
lieve that in the house in which he will sit there will be no
kcanuesee, owfbentilyeouP°els
more since re friend of the people's cause, and of civil and
religious liberty, than the now peer, Lord Langton. (Cries
of " lie has run away from them.")
Run away ! Why,
you returned bins six times in nine years, and it is an
Honour that he is proud of.lliaelevation HO far from
being a disgrace to you, has done infinite honour to your
choice. (Cheers.) Now, then,
CWIIO to tell you what
litseal principles. Upon the question of free
aro le
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 in questionswhich s. lawyer's aid will
be of avail. (`' Lot's have free trade in law.") lam for
ers•) I am thoroughly
that too. (Che •
law, and I should not mind seeing
to the gentletnan who has
just spoken with a wig on
of-uaorrow. (Laughter aud
cheers.) The groat principle d free trade has been accom-
h and the wealthiest au proudest aristocracy which
plis o
conceded to •
the world ever 'raw have
It has Public opinion that
great question. (Cheers.) It
now
to be carried to its
legitimate results.. You togive every possible sti•
mules to oomlnerel
al enterprise, by the relaxatien of the
strict laws of partnershiN.aU d other measures—to set coin.
merce entirely free. Teeing the question of the extension
of the franchise, the people—who, allow too to say, in the
want of a proper system of education, aro educating intelli en
them-
selves—have become more . g t, and the workingand
in my opinion eat t
other classes are I led to a consider-
able extension of the suffrage. How far ?''] I will tell
you how far. The extension proposed by Lord J. Russell
would not, 1 thiuk, be a bad beginning. I would extend
the right of voting from 101, to tit 1.
sonsOlsoldere---to every