The Sun.
London, England, 1832-12-08 00:00:00

of pension in tbtir b electors ilfignt 'reject
him, but if they diq so-, it Ought to lie UPO'n true ground's.
As to the office he herd of 'Co6misslatier with which he
hid been tau9ited 'of receiving 1,2061. a year from it, or
having :eCeiVed it, he denied most positively that he Ind
either received the 1,2001 or had the slightest expectation
of receiving it. He received not one farthing more foi
office than what a poPUlar Committee considered him entitled
te, it being one-third less than his predecessors in the same
ogee had always received. He would not enter into the details
of the 13 names he saw posted up before him, implying, no
doubt, that they were relations of his, and upon the Pension
List. There was only one of them (his own brother) to whom
he stood in the slightest relationship, and he had received one-
third less than his predecessors. With respeet, to the other
names (and particularly five imMes of ladies) he knew nothing
Whatever. He had never examined into who they were.—
KCries iif you ought to have done so.) He would now do so,
and without much delay.—(Hear, hear.) Turning from this
subject, what was it that Ministers had done ? No doubt it
was the people who had carried the Bill—(Cheers)—but the
ministers had been their faithful servants, and surely when
they had done all in their power, and so winch, the people
would not now turn round for the purpose of removing Minis-
ter.s--persons who had laboured for the people to the utmost ex.
tent that any set of men could possibly do. His past conduct was
to be taken as a pledge for his future. He had accepted office,
and for the first time in his life, under Lord Grey's adminis-
tration, and it was only under a written declaration that a free
and efficient measure of Reform should be brought forward,
for such a measure only was calculated to satisfy the people
with Reform.—(Cheers, and cries of " Oft; off") No doubt,
it was not to be expected that the electors were to return a
Minister—they were to exercise their discretion, and send
into Parliament those men of the purest and most able talent.
—(A cry, " Wakley then is the man,"—much laughter.) .The
Right Hon. Gentleman entered into a detail of what the electors
considered past conduct, which produced much disapprobation
and confusion. (There were loud cries set up of let's hear some-
thing about your future conduct—we know what your past is).
He would leave the election in the hands of those to whom
the Bill had placed it. If they elected him, he hoped his past
conduct would be a guarantee for the future--if they rejected
him, he trusted it would be upon true grounds, and not upon
those of falsehood and calumny.
Mr. Sergeant SPA NK IE was received with hisses inter-
mixed with a few cheers. He had been for the last
30 years an advocate of liberty and freedom. With re-
gard to pledges, God forbid that he should fetter and
pledge his understanding which had been given to
him to be exercised on all occasions upon the last
consideration of al, different subjects submitted to him ; as
to being pledged, therefore, pledged lie would not be.—
(Cheers and great confusion.) As regarded the assessed
taxes, however, he regretted to see that the Nobility and
gentry were so light), loaded with them, compared with
the measure of impost upon the lower climes of society,
and without Wedging himself, he declared his intention not
to support such a system. As to triennial Parliaments it
might be that, it would have to come to that, but at pre-
sent it w•s too early to talk of altering the dura-
tion oft the Parliament.—(Great disapprobation.) It
was a subject of great importance, and very likely to
lead to a controversy of opinion. As to Church
Reform, he was a strong advocate for it. (Cries of what do
you think of tea ?) He would prefer a glass of brandy and
water to a cup of tea, but at the same time, when the subject
of cheap tea came to be considered, he would give it all the at-
tention he could. (A cry of What do you think of the Bishops
in the House of Lords ?) He was sorry to see them there, a
place where they ought never to have been, and never to be.
He hoped to be elected as their representative.
Mr. WAKLEY was loudly and long cheered. Whatever
the Bill had done, it ought to have given five members for
Finsbury, because all who had preceded him had expressed
themselves as full of confidence, that they would prove
efficient representatives, —though not one of them
had come forward upon direct pledges.—(Cheers.)—
He (Mr. W.,) had pledged himself, and he had
done so for two reasons, first as a proof of his sincerity,and
next, that the electors might not be deceived if they re-
turned him to Parliament. He desired to make a few
observations on the subject of pledges. Was it the desire
of the electors that the taxes ought to be reduced ?
(Cries of " Yes, yes.) Was it their wish that slavery
should be extinguished ?—(Yes, yes.) Was it their wish
that the corn laws ought to be abolished ?—(Yes, yes.)
Was it their the franchise should be extended?—( Yes.)
Then why should they think of sending in a man to represent
them in Parliament who was not of the same opinion; and if
the candidate for their suffrages was of their opinion, why
should he, refuse to pledge himself. It was easy to make
speeches, whether legal or mechanical, but it was not easy to
stand up in the House of Commons and stem the torrent of
corruption. The way of getting individuals to come for-
ward for that purpose was to get men who would
pledge themselves—(Hear, hear)—and the choice was now in
et e hands of the electors themselves. He (Mr. W.) had
been in the House of Common occasionally, and had ob-
served for himself the wheedling and cons'ning that went
on in that Hou a as so, n as he made his appearance there
as a Member of that House, which would be on the 29th

of January nex+.—(Much 'aught, r.) Som of the half
Tories out of place, and some of the Whigs in place,
would come to him and attempt to wheedle him. They
would say to him "Wakl-y, you have got a turbulent con
stituency in Finsbury—(Laughter); it's all very well for
you totalk as you do out of doors, but here you must come
a little into our way—You must soften down the fungus
which you find here, and we will grant you a little of
what your ask."—(Hear, hear.) He was sure that such
would be thelicousining language used wien he appea ed as
a Member there. And all would yield to such language
who did not go there pledged men. He pledged himself,
and why ? Because it was impossible for a man who de-
pended on his public character to go to Parliament
pledg.d end then to break that pledge. Well then it
was absolutely necessary that taxation shout] be reduced ;
And as to public office in one sense, they might he put up
to public auction. Let men be put into office who ay., mill
do the wom k for moderate incomes. No doubt Mr. Ser-
geant Spankie would be glad to take the office of Judge
in the Court of Common Pleas at a s dary of 1,500/
a year. The Judea presiding tbere had not hall
the experience of the Learned Sergeant, nor were they half so
competent, and yet the puisne judges had a salary of 3,5001., and
the Chief Justice no less than B,oool.=the President of Ame-
rica having only 6,000/. If, then, such a talented judge as the
Learned Sergeant would make could be got for 1,500/. ; and he
might be induced to accept of I,oool.)—(Much laughter,
in which the Learned Sergeant joined)—why should the
poor man have to pay 8,000/. for the purpose of putting
an additional layer of powder on the wig of the Chief Justice?
In regard to the reduction of taxation, it would be necessary
to look to the Pension List, and he (Mr. W.) would there have
to take the largest sponge he could meet with, dip it into a
gallon of ink, and wipe every name off he found there. To

talk of vested rights was absurd. Was it not as necessary
to look to the vested rights of the working man and the
tradesman. Much had been said about practical reduction—it was

for the people to deprive the Government of the means of being
dishonest, and then to trust to their integrity.—(Hear, hear,
and laughter.) And if they who had the purse strings in

their own hands did not choose to take care of how it was
opened, how could they think that those who had hitherto
had :the power would not continue their corrupt practices ?
The country wanted a cheap King—it wanted a cheap fo-
reign Queen.—(Hear, hear, hear.) It wanted a cheap
ministry, such as would be consistent with the present times,
though at present there was nothing but a profligate expendi-
ture, and the public had as yet derived nothing from the pass-
ing of the Reform Bill. The ministers were not even pledged
to any thing for the public good, although it was far from his
intention at present to make any attack on the conduct of the
present government.—[Here some person on the hus-
tings interrupted the speaker by an observation which
we were not in a situation to hear.]—The Times
newspaper had predicted that there would be violence
and disorder at this meeting ; as for himself, he would say, if
he had an enemy present, let that individual step forward and
offer an insult to his opponents—if he has friends there,
nothing could they gratify him so much in as to assist
in supporting every thing in the shape of order and de-

corum.—(Great cheering.) On all occasions in which
he had come in contact with his opponents, nothing but
politeness and civility had transpired, and the circumstance of
seeing at that moment all the placards without a particle of dirt
upon them—without a spot, except so far as they were defaced

by the names they bore—(Laughter)—was a sufficient answer of
itself to the calumny that had been circulated. _ He had heard

with attention all the other candidates had had to say—he
claimed of others the same indulgence, and if the person be-
hind him, who had taken upon himself to interrupt, had any
thing to say against him, let him manfully stand forward
and mike the stab ment.—(Cheers and loud calls for the
individual to come forward, but no one having presented
himself, the candidate proceede. Mr. W. then addressed
the meeting at very considerable length and was throughout
loudly cheered. He exclaimed against the tithes—against
the inequality and injustice of the laws of the coun-
try—against the taxes upon beer—against the conti-
nuance of slavery—against the taxes on knowledge
—against the injustice of the present Reform Bill
towards the agriculturing labourer, to whom it gave no vote
against the taxcs on windows and the assessed taxes. He
disliked police in the uniform of soldiers; he ob-
jectedasd thattanding thearm army was always
gdeeclareOnly mode of
kepttu o
p, so
and are
getting that altered, was to take away from Govern-
ment the means of supporting it.—(cheers
( Let the
Government adopt measures calculated to Make persons
happy in their own homes, and there would be no
necessity for regiment upon regiment to keep them
in order. Should they be pleased to return him to Parlia-
ment, they might rest assured that he would serve them with
fidelity, and never deceive his constituehts as to any one pledge
he had ever given. _

He retired amidst immense cheeering. The Returning_
officer now put the election to a show of hands, and named the
candidates in the rotation in which they had been nominated.
In the result he declared the election by the show
of hands to have fallen on Thomas Wakley, Esq. and on
the Right Honourable Robert Grant. The declaration of the