The Sun.
London, England, 1832-11-13 00:00:00

MIDDLESEX ELECTION.

Mr. HUME, yesterday evening, explained to the
electors of Middlesex, resident in Hackney and its
neighbourhood, the grounds on which he sought a
renewal of the trust of their representation ; L.
MARSHALL, Esq., in the chair. The meeting, which
was held in the large room of the Mermaid Tavern,
was numerous and respectable.
Mr. HUME commenced with reminding the meet-
ing that he had been originally solicited by the elec-
tors of Middlesex to become their representative
solely, from a consideration of his public principles.
He had no family or property connections which
could recommend him to their notice, and had no
other claim than his conduct as a public man in
Parliament. That conduct, and the principles on
which it was founded, were approved of by a large
majority of the electors, and he consequently became
their representative. In seeking, then, a renewal
of their confidence, the question simply was, had he
departed from that line of conduct, or swerved from
those principles which had obtained him their confi-
dence and support ?—(No, no, and cheers.) It
was his practice to seek, as often as convenient, op-
portunities like the present of explaining face to face
to his constituents the principles by which he was
guided as their representative,—to, in fact, furnish
an smple and candid account of his stewardship.
Mr. Hume, having at considerable length explained
his views with respect to retrenchment in the public
expenditure, and the grounds on which he had
strenuously advocated the necessity of abolishing all
monopolies, sinecures, and unmerited pensions,
and of opening a free trade in corn (by means of
a graduated scale of duty—to decrease annually
till the price of grain was assimilated in this
country to that on the continent), and of removing
all b
general
th a t
,Aud
, when
burdens ns and
commerce
me
efirrcset
o ft pernicioush
commenced
e country,
s proceededc restrictionsar career
o r i
n Parlia-
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to
say,
sahe
y
he was so convinced of the impossibility of
any chance for good Government under the then
existing mockery of representation, that he directed
all his efforts to rouse the public mind to a sense
of the all-important necessity of a Reform in Parlia-
ment. He had not laboured in vain ; the empty
pockets, and the frequent calls of the tax-gatherer, at
last convinced the people of this country, that till
Parliament was reforncled there was no chance of a
good Government : and Reform has triumphed.—
(Continued cheers.) It was painful to speak of
one's own services ; but still he owed it to himself
to ask them to compare his claims with those of
Lord Henley. He (Mr. Hume) defied any man to
point out the occasion on which he had voted other
than in favour of the principles of civil and religious
liberty. Lord Henley had been also for some years
a Member of the House of Commons; he defied any
of his supporters to point out the vote which his
Lordship ever gave in favour of those principles—
(Loud cries of " Hear")—the principles which alone
recommended him (Mr. Hume) to the favour of the
electors of Middlesex. All Lord Henley's votes
were in favour of Government.—(Groans, and cries
of " Hear.") It was said that the Dissenters, for-
sooth, would support Lord Henley against Atheism,
meaning by that term, of course, him (Mr. Hume)
and his supporters. No doubt, the Noble Lord's
claims on the Dissenters were novel, if not very
urgent. The Dissenters were distinguished by their
earnest zeal in behalf of civil and religious liberty ;
Lord Henley voted, uniformly voted, in favour of
the Government, strenuously and uniformly opposed
to those principles.—(Hear, hear.) It was his (Mr.
Hume's) good fortune, conformably with the prin-
ciples which he had advocated throughout his public
career, to have voted in favour of the great measure
brought forward by Lord John Russell, in 1828,
for a repeal of the obnoxious statutes which de-
prived the Dissenters of the full and free partici-
pation in the advantages and the benefits of the
Constitution to which they were justly entitled; the
individual who was now forsooth to be supported
by the Dissenters—the very identical Lord Henley
—voted in the minority against a repeal of the
Test and Corporation Acts.—(A tremendous shout