The Sun.
London, England, 1866-06-07 00:00:00

Bridgwater Election.

The nomination of candidates took place yester-
day, the hustings being erected on the Cornhill.
There was a vast assemblage of persons, and each
party had a procession, headed by brass bands, the
splendid banners of blue and the orange and purple
being displayed, as is usual on these occasions.
Mr. John Trevor proposed and Mr. I. R. Smith
seconded Mr. Patton, the Conservative candidate ;
and Mr. J. L. Scaly proposed and Mr. J. B. Hammill
seconded Mr. Walter Bagehot, the Liberal candidate.
Mr. PATTON, who first spoke, was frequently
interrupted in the course of his speech by some of
the roughs on the Liberal side, who appeared deter-
mined not to let him speak. He commented rather
strongly upon his opponent having charged him
with being incapacitated from the post of Parlia-
mentary representative for Bridgwater on the
grounds of his being a Scotchman, and for having
dared to Question his antecedents and call him an
unknown man. It was a mean, dastardly insinua-
tion. His opponent had alleged there was a demand

for reform, and that if the bill were withdrawn they
would be afterwards subjected to a system of terror,
and be compelled eventually to do much more than
the Government now proposed to do ; but this he
denied. All this imaginary terrorism was palpably
absurd. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had
gone down into the provinces to endeavour to stir
up a little agitation in favour of reform, but in vain.
Instead of remaining at the helm to pilot the state,
he had gone to the forecastle deck and whistled
away to get up a storm, but the sea remained
calm, there was scarcely a ripple to be seen, and
the winds and waves would not obey the voice of
the charmer. (Laughter.) Lord Palmerston's
Reform Bill was withdrawn because be found that
an organic change was hostile to the spirit of the
times. What was the result of that withdrawal ?
Did it rouse the ire of the country, and
increase the clamour for reform then ? Not a
bit of it ; everything remained as quiet and as
peaceful as before ; and so it would be now. If the
present administration sneaked out of the Reform
Bill, and let it drop, in order to carry on that ad-
ministration, instead of the people clamouring more
loudly for reform they would be thankful that the
Legislature had abandoned it, and had determined
to engage in promoting measures better adapted to
the public weal. The Reform Bill would affect,
to a degree incredible, the great agricultural inte-
rest of the country, and it was time for those con-
nected with that interest, which would, by the
lowering of the franchise, be swamped and de-
stroyed, to rally around and support those who were
opposed to the administration of Earl Russell and
Messrs. Bright and Gladstone. The Budget of the
last-named gentleman, now before the Parliament,
was not the work of a philosophical financier, but
that of a man given to change and surprise, and
who acted upon very strange principles. What a
great public boon was the abolition of the tax on
pepper? (Laughter.) Did the consumers ever feel
the burden of that tax ? No. And it produced no
less a sum than £113,000 a year, an amount exceed-
ing by one-fourth the whole sum granted for uni-
versity education in the country whence he came—
Scotland. In conclusion, Mr. Patton said that he
anticipated victory, and if most unexpectedly and
against all moral probability he should retire from
contest a defeated and not a victorious candidate,
he should always have engraved on the tablets of
his heart the kindness he had received at Bridg-
water, the memory of which would be ineffaceable
and imperishable.

Mr. BAGETIOT next addressed those assembled, and
was also much interrupted. He assured Mr. Patton
he meant no disrespect towards him in what he had
said. All he meant to say was that people they
knew were far preferable than those they did not
know, and whose antecedents they had not the same
opportunity of inquiring into. Mr. Westropp, their
late member, was an Irishman, and he should have
thought it was hardly consistent with old Scotch
pride that a Scotchman should try to get into Par-
liament by catching hold of the skirts of an Irish-
man. (Roars of laughter.) Mr. Patton bad very
discreetly omitted to make allusion to the disastrous
event which had happened to the Conservative party,
who thought, but wrongly, that the Liberals had
got many traitors in their camp. After what had
happened, Lord Russell and Mr. Gladstone were now
more firmly seated than ever, and Lord Derby had
no more chance of getting into office again than the