The Sun.
London, England, 1835-05-20 00:00:00

STROUD ELECTION.

STROUD, TUESDAY EVENING.

At an early hour this morning the inhabitants were on the
alert, in expectation that Lord John Russell would arrive by
the mail, but his Lordship came in a carriage and pair, pre-
ceded by a band of music, about 10 o'clock. We should con-
sider there were about 6,000 persons present.
Lord John was accompanied to the hustings by Donald
Maclean, Esq., W. H. Stanton, Esq., and several of the most
influential manufacturers of the neighbourhood, and was re-
ceived with loud cheers.
THOMAS CROOMR, Esq., the Deputy-Sheriff, having read
the writ, and the proclamation against bribery and cor-
ruption,
Mr. W. STANTON proposed Lord John Russell as a fit per-
son to represent the borough of Stroud in Parliament; and
Mr. W. Barnard seconded the proposition.
Mr. CROOME then asked if any other person had a candidate
to propose, but no one coming forward he declared Lord John
Russell duly elected for the borough of Stroud.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL then came forward, and was received
with the loudest cheers. He proceeded to address the meet.
ing in the following terms :—I now address you, gentlemen,
for the purpose of returning you my most grateful thanks for
the honour you have just now done me, of returning me as
your representative to Parliament. The gentleman who
seconded my nomination has told you that ho would not
say anything of corporation reform. I will take the liberty
of saying a few words to you on that subject. Gen-
tlemen, it appears by the report of the commissioners who
were sent to inquire into those corporations, that various
abuses which have prevailed have been intertwined
and connected with the Parliamentary representation, so that
if there were boroughs in the kingdom in which it could be
said those abuses did not exist, or prevail to a limited extent,
it was the corporations which had not the right of returning
Representatives to Parliament ; but in those which had, there-
did prevail the greatest mismanagement of their funds, that
most corrupt system of self-election, and all connected with a
purpose, and evidently with the end, of returning Represen-
tatives to Parliament who might support the Minister of the
day, and by that support might favour with his patronage the
Members of these Corporations. Now I say, that although
the late Ministry, who had all along opposed the reform,
might proclaim their intention of following up its principles,
yet I say that men who wish to carry the Reform Act to its
legitimate consequences were bound to look at this as one of
the effects proceeding from this parent of abuse, of a corrupt
representation, and having destroyed that parent abuse were
bound to suspect those who had been the means of conse.
quences most injurious to the country. I say, gentlemen,
therefore, that I shall go to Parliament as your Representa-
tive with the intention of proposing, as Member of this bo-
rough, and as a Minister of the Crown, what I conceive will
be a wholesome measure of the Corporation Reform. Well,
then, gentlemen, it is said, " Why interrupt the system which
the late Government were pursuing, when they were dis-
posed to follow up wholesome and safe reform?" My answer
to that is the answer given by the gentleman who spoke
before, who says, and says truly, that the measures of reform
which we were disposed to propose they were not prepared to
propose ; had they been so, we might have disputed as to the
honesty of their intentions—might have wondered at the
suddenness of their conversion ; but as to the measures
themselves, we must have given them our support. But
the fact is, that however some of the leading men among
them might be conscious of these abuses existing, that how-
ever convinced they might be as to the necessity of those
great evils, when you look to them as a party, they are so re-
lated to all those abuses that we wish to amend, that it is ut-
terly out of their power to propose efficient measures of re-
form. They had all of them, and for a long time, such con-
nexion—such friendly feelings—such near relationship in
blood with the worst of those abuses, that it was not from
them that you could expect either censure or amend
ment. I must say that they put me in mind of a story which
is related to have happened to Lord North, whose relations
had not the advantage of being handsome. He was at the
Opera-house, and a gentleman asked him who that ugly
woman was in such a box. Lord North replied, " That is my
sister." The gentleman endeavoured to correct himself by
saying, " I do not mean that lady, but the one opposite."
Lord North to that answered, " She is my wife."—
(Laughter.) So it happens with the Tory party; when we
begin to find fault with these corporations, and say what
ugly defects are in these self-elected corporations, they say
we must not touch them, they are our sister ; when we say
" Surely you cannot think of sparing such an abuse as that of a
clergyman who derives 1,0001. a-year from some benefice in
Ireland, where there is neither church nor congregation, and
where he has derived the income which he has spent in Chel-
tenham ?" " No (say they) we cannot alter that, that is our wife
—(Cheers)—that is so near a relation you must not find fault
with what you think so ugly, but which is so near and dear to
us." I say then, gentlemen, that if you are to have effective
reform, it will at least be proper that the measures should be
proposed by those who have not been connected with those
abuses, and who have been always the strong opponents of all
reform. Now, Ido not say that it will happen that the mea-
sures we propose will meet with the entire approbation of the
country, that we may not in some respect fall short, or in other
respects get beyond the deliberate judgment of the country.
All I say is, let us who produced the Reform Act be allowed
to propose those measures ; let us propose them for the appro-
bation of the House of Commons, and when I say that, I am
glad to see there is a disposition among our adversaries to say,
that by the judgment of the House of Commons, freely elected,
the great questions which must be proposed for discussion are
to be decided. Of this lam fully persuaded, that that which
shall be decided, after full debate, after free and deliberate
discussion by the House of Commons, fairly representing the
people, I am sure that that measure, if not instantly, sooner or
later, must be adopted as the law and custom of the land. I
am sure that those who have resisted, and resisted ineffectu-
ally those measures referred to, those measures of the repeal
of the Corporation and Test Acts, and the measure of Ca-
tholic emancipation, the measure of the Reform Act—that
these men will in the same respect be induced to yield to other
measures when it shall appear that the country calls for them
and that the House of Commons has adopted them; but,
gentlemen, while I have been pointing out to you what I
think the reasons why we should be allowed to propose re
form sooner than our adversaries, because we have been con-
sistent Reformers, I must add a word or two to say why I think
these reforms will be safer in our hands than in those who have
given to themselves the title of Conservatives ; I say so, be-
cause our principle has been to propose what we thought right,
and to resist that which we thought wrong ; whereas their
principle seems to have been to propose indeed what they
thought right, but to yield to that which they thought wrong,
and I ask, gentlemen, when men adopt a system of this kind,
where is it to stop ? If they thought it wrong to admit the Ca-
tholics to power—if they thought it wrong to do away with the
restrictions on the Dissenters, and afterwards yield to them,—
if they did so, I say, at what point is it they can stop ? What
opposition can they resist to which they will not have the same
reasons to object which they had against measures to which
they afterwards yielded? I say they can stand on no ground
of principle; that there is no opposition they can make which
they afterwards yielded ? I say they can stand on no ground
of principle : that there is no opposition they can make which
they did not make against those measures of Catholic eman-
cipation and reform—(Cheers)—and I say, therefore, which to
speak is Conservative, that I think it is far better that these
measures should be proposed by those who think them right
than yielded to those who think them wrong. Now, as an in-
stance, I saw a bill with the old war cry of " No Popery."
Now let us reflect a little. It is but 30 years ago since that
cry was set up against Lord Grey, who proposed that
Roman Catholics should be admitted as generals in the army ;
but, ten years afterwards, those who had raised the cry passed
an Act quietly through Parliament to that effect. They still
continued their cry for ten years more, and at the end of ten
years they introduced a measure granting everything to the
Roman Catholics, which, as Roman Catholics, they had been
asked. I say, after this, what will be expected from those
that still cry " No Popery ?" I have, indeed, a paper in my
hand, written by a gentleman of great respectability, who de-
clares himself obliged to oppose me, because he thinks I have
some measure in preparation destructive to the Church. I
thought that this gentleman had become what he was not when
he was sitting in Parliament--an enemy of all reform, till I
found out he was one of those who is for excluding the bishops
from the House of Lords.--(Cheers.) Now, I may be con-
sidered by many of the clergy, but very erroneously, as an
enemy to the Church, but I really do no know whether, if
they had to choose, they would rather have a person desirous
of reforming the Church of Ireland, or have one who was
for excluding the bishops from the House of Lords.—
( Cheers.) I think it is an instance, among many, that those
who seem to be more Conservative, and are afraid of my
destructive inclinations, that they really will find in many
respects those gentlemen are much more formidable than I
am.—(Cheers.) Gentlemen, I am, as I have told you, and
always have been, a Reformer; but, at the same time, as I
have told you, and those whom I formerly represented, I am for
preserving the institutions of the country. I think those insti-
tutions excellent in themselves ; I believe that they are well
fitted to produce the happiness of the people of this country.
I believe, moreover, that there is no wish in the people of this
country to do what alarmists attributed to them—to destroy or
weaken the monarchy of this country. I for my part believe
that those with whom I have the honour of agreeing, and
agreeing, I believe, with the great majority of the people of
this country—agreeing, I am sure, with the great majority of
the people who have had lately to return representatives to
Parliament. Our wish is to preserve the monarchy in all its
splendour, to preserve every thing necessary for the due working
of the institutions of the country, but we will not allow per-
sons to call themselves the props of the monarchy who are
its worst enemies ; we will not allow abuses which are inju-
rious to the church to be associated with the church itself.
We wish to preserve our institutions, we wish to do that which
has long been required, and which nothing but prejudice or in-
terest has hitherto been able to prevent. In doing so, far be
it from me to say that we can give to this country an imme-
diate burst of happiness and content, but what we can do
is this—to put things in such a train that the people
of this country will have a due control over the
representation 4nd over the Administration of the country,
and that they can take care no unnecessary expense is in-
curred, no unmerited pensions shall be granted, and that while
we pay due regard, as due regard we are hound to pay, to all
the sacred institutions of the country, we may deal perpetual
war with abuse, and have such a vigilant control over it, that
it never will be able to attain the height it has attained of late,
but so soon as it endeavours to gain head again it may be cor-
rected. There was something said about the power of electing
freely representatives without intimidation. At the beginning
of secisiiiii parlialier it. I ts crsy
to propose a committee, in which every thing should be exa-
mined which had a tendency to interrupt free election, either