The Sun.
London, England, 1835-01-14 00:00:00

SOUTH IL4NTS.-NOMINATION.

The nomination of candidates for the Southern Division of
the County of Hants took place yesterday at Southampton,
when the old Members, Lord Palmerston and Sir George
Staunton, Bart., were proposed by the \Vhig interest, and
'Messrs. Fleming and Compton by the Tory party. We have
received a very long report of the speeches made by the pro-
posers and seconders of the various candidates, and those of the
Honourable Gentlemen themselves ; but the press of other
important matter, and the late hour at which our express ar-
rived (the business not being over until five), compel us to
omit everything save the annexed report (also very much con,
densed) of the clear and manly address of Lord Palmerston.
We should state that, on the show of hands, the Sheriff de-
clared the election to have fallen on Messrs. Fleming and
Compton, ou which a poll was demanded for the other can-
didates.

Lord PALMERSTON was received with loud cheers. After
some prefatory observations, his Lordship proceeded to say,
that he would state to them the grounds on which he ventured
to solicit a renewal of that trust which had been so hand-
somely and so independently confided to him two years ago.
In asking for this renewal of their confidence, he assured them
be should nct attempt to cast any disparagement upon his
competitors ; for he knew them to be most honourable and
'worthy men in private life. But that was not an occasion on
which they were assembled to do homage to private worth,
or to dispense personal favours ; they were, in the exercise of
the most valuable privilege that an Englishman could boast,
to choose fit and proper men to represent them in the Par-
liament of England—a choice that would only with propriety
be made upon public grounds and public principles, uninflu-
enced by private regard or personal affection—( Cheers.)
When he stood two years ago in a similar situation to that
which he then occupied, he came at their own bidding,
called by their own express invitation, and he took from
them unsolicited and unsought, the trust of representing
them, their wishes, and their interests in the Commons'
House of Parliament. At that period he was honoured
with invitations from more than one place, invitations not
merely attended by every prospect of success, but he might
fairly say with a certainty of it. —( Cries of " Hear, hear.")
He could not, however, hesitate for one moment in obeying
the summons of the electors of South Hants.—( Loud cheers.)
If a seat in Parliament was to be looked upon as an honour,
there could be none so dear to him as that which was in the
gift of men amongst whom it was his fortune to live.—.
( Cheers.) If a seat in Parliament was to be looked upon as
an office of trust and duty, there were no electors in England
that had such claims upon his honest and earnest exertions as
the electors of South Hants. At that period they deemed
him worthy of representing them in the British Home of
Commons; and he would confidently say, that nothing had
since occurred to alter their good opinion, or make them think
that he was less deserving, as a public man, to be their politi-
cal representative.—( Cheers.) He stood before them in a
situation very different from that of his competitors; for he
was not only bound to give them an account of his con-
duct as a legislator, but he was also bound to satisfy them
as to the conduct of the Administration to which he had
the honour to belong.—( Cheers.) That Administration
had, on its formation, given to the country three distinct
pledges—reform, retrenchment, and peace.—( Great cheer-
ing.) Those pledges they had fully and faithfully kept—
( Cheers)—kept, not as some persons kept their pro-
mises, by " keeping the word of promise to the ear and
breaking it to the hope"—(Bravo ! go into the Tories)—
but they had kept them in a way, that even the persons to
whom they were made, had not ventured to anticipate.—
( Hear hear.) Now, with regard ;to the first of these pledges,
and the way in which it had been redeemed, he might simply,
upon such an occasion, refer to their meeting at that place, to
show in what way the Administration had kept its promise to
the people.—(Cheers.) But they looked on that great mea-
sure of Parliamentary Reform, however important it might be
in itself, not as an end of Reform, but as a means of future
Reform— ( Cheers)—as a preliminary but indispensable step to
those other practical measures which inquiry and examination
pointed out as expedient for repairing the different institutions
of the country.—(Loud cheers.) They had been called Re-
volutionists and Destructives—nay, there was no term of re-
proach which had not been applied to them, for the disposition
they had shown to improve—which disposition had, by their
enemies, been unfairly construed into a determination to over-
turn and to destroy.—( Cheers.) There were some persons
who could not, or would not, think it possible to improve without
subverting—to repair defects or correct abuses, without destroy-
ing—to maintain the healthyovhile rooting out the decayed por-
tions of the constitution. They were not of that opinion; the late
House of Commons were not of that opinion—the people of
England at the present moment were not of that opinion.--
(Loud cheers) Who then were of that opinion? He left it
to others to tell them if they could not of themselves find it
out.—( Loud laughter and cheers.) Well, they did carry se-
veral most important reforms, but they did not do all that
was hoped for and expected by ardent and eager minds ; be-
cause, in fact, time was allowed to them to carry their fair
and just intentions into execution.—(Loud cheers.) For the
two first years they were in office, they had quite enough to
do to struggle with the obstacles which so perseveringly beset
the grand fundamental measure of Parliamentary Reform. It
was only during the last two years that they possessed a House
of Commons founded on the principles of the Reform Bill, and
fitted as an instrument for working out those great amelio ra-
tions in our institutions which the altered circumstances of the
country required. Then only was it that they first acquired
the means and had the opportunities of pursuing their own
principles and putting them into practical operation.--
( Cheers.) But he would contend—boldly he would contend,
that in those two years they had done great things—that they
had geatly improved the institutions and added to the
prosperity of the country.—( Loud and continued cheers.)
They had opened the trade with China to the industry of
the people; those vast territories in India, the magnitude of
which the mind of man could hardly compass, which teemed
with a population of upwards of sixty millions, had been opened
to the tide of European civilization, which would, no doubt,
rapidly flow into them.—( Cheers.) They also caused vast
improvements in the laws of the country, and they would have
carried more had their opponents allowed them to do so. He
was not a lawyer, nor was he addressing an assembly of law-
yers, therefore he would not talk on abstruse points, or speak
to them about such matters as fines and recoveries ; but he
would tell any man who knew any thing of such matters, and
would take the trouble of investigating what they had done,
that by their legal reforms they had greatly contributed to the
security of property, and rendered justice much more easy of
acquisition to the injured and the oppressed.—(Loud cheers,
and cries of " The Poor Laws 1") Well, as to the Poor Laws,
he shrunk not from the question. He well knew that the great-
est pains had been taken to create a prejudice in the minds of
persons with respect to that measure.—( Hear, hear.) He
considered the new law a great improvement on that vicious
and demoralizing system which existed before.—(Disappro-
bation.) He knew he was touching upon a tender topic, but
at the risk of acquiring an unpopularity of no enviable
character he would ever openly state his opinions, and de-

Glared that he fully approved of that measure, that he heartily '
concurred in all its provisions ; and he was satisfied that full
justice would be done to those who originated and passed it,
when its operation came to he fairly felt, and its benefits en-
joyed by the community.--( Hear, hear, hear.) The laws as
it formerly stood, was grossly abused by being made stibiservi-
ent to the purposes of idleness and of profligacy.—(Cheers.)
The law, as it formerly stood, was a curse rather than a blessing,
for it discouraged industry and forethought--it compelled the
thrifty and hard-working to labour for the reckless and the
improvident—it discouraged the accumulation of wealth, and
retarded the progress of society.—( Cheers.) They would
find that the system established by the present law, if tempe-
rately and prudently put into operation, would improve the
industrious habits of the poor—would relieve the farmer from
the pressure under which he had been too long labouring, and
would tend to promote habits of prudence and forethought
amongst those to whom, heretofore, the present hour was the
only consideration.—( Cheers.) But, gentlemen, be this mea-
sure for good as I think, or for evil as it appears some here
think, it was one that was supported by more parties, and by
more men, than any that was ever remembered to have passed
through Parliament.—( Great cheering.) It was supported by
Whigs and Tories--by all classes—without distinction
of party ; and, therefore, it is not on that measure that my
competitors can draw a distinction between them and me.—
( Cheers.) After alluding to the glorious measure for the
abolition of slavery in our West India colonies, the Noble
Lord proceeded to say, that he and his colleagues were not to
be judged merely by what they had done ; they ought like-
wise to have credit in the country for what they had vainly
attempted to do, and which they were prevented from doing by
those very opponents who were now their successors.—( Great
cheers,) They remembered that excellent and just measure,
, the Local Courts' Bill, which was stifled solely through the
efforts of their opponents—the new Reformers now in office.--
( Cheers.) They would also remember a measure which the
Into Ministers carried through the House of Commons—a
measure of conciliation and peace for the people of Ireland—
(cheers)—that they carried a Bill for the commutation of
tithes, the effect of which would have been to relieve the Ca-
tholic peasantry of Ireland from an impost, which was not
more irksome to their religious feelings than it was oppressive
on their resources—(cheers) ; and which, at the same time,
rendered the revenue of the Protestant clergyman more
secure than now—if, indeed, it was not deluding them to say
that at the present moment he had any revenue at all.
If that measure, which the late Administration carried through
the House of Commons, had passed the House of Lords, and
become the law of the land, the blood recently shed at Rath-
cormac would not have been spilt, nor the tranquillity of Ire-
land been invaded by disputes about religion, which ought to
breathe and spread abroad the spirit of peace.—( Loud cheers. )
He had stated to them much of what they did ; he had told
them, also, some things which they had attempted to execute,
but in which they were defeated by their opponents. It was
not becoming in him, who had been in the situation of a con-
fidential adviser of the Crown, to tell them all that he knew
with respect to past measures of Reform, but he would take
upon himself to tell them the other reforms which they were
anxiously maturing at the time of their dismissal.—( Hear,
hear.) Thus much should lie consider himself at liberty to
reveal.—( Cheers.) The plans they were maturing then were
for the settlement of the question of tithes in Ireland and in
England—( Cheers)—for the reform of the Church in Ireland
and in England-_( Cheers)—for a redress of the grievances
and privations under which the Dissenters of various denomi-
nations were suffering—( Loud cheers)—and for the rooting
out of those abuses which disfigured and disgraced the Muni-
cipal Corporations of the country.—( Continued cheers.) Now
he said, that if they were now called upon to decide between
those who were the candidates for their favour upon political
considerations personal to themselves, then he, as a membar
of the Administration that had carried so many reforms,
and were planning so many others, was undoubtedly tae
first entitled to their suffrages and support.--(" True, true,`'
and cheers.) Well, then, he had told them what they had
done and were doing with respect to reform, which was their
first pledge. He came to their second pledge, which was re-
tt-enehment. They had struck off from the annual expenditure
of the country two millions three hundred thousand pounds,
and from the annual taxation of the country not less than five
millions per annum ; and this, too, following an Administra-
tion which all men must admit had reduced with no slight
hand, and which many men contended had lopped off every
shilling consistent with the safety and integrity of our esta-
blishments.—(A voice in the crowd, " Offices, patronage.")
In answer to that gentleman, he had to say, that they abolished
thirteen to fourteen hundred offices, all of which were at the
disposal of Ministers, and therefore they were entitled not
only to take credit for this great saving to the public, but for
a great sacrifice of official patronage.—( Cheers.) Now, the
third pledge was to maintain peace, and that pledge they had
also faithfully kept even beyond the letter ; they promised
peace, and during four most eventful years, fraught with diffi-
culties and teeming with embarrassments, they succeeded in
preserting that blessing to the country. We took charge of
the affairs of the country when Europe was in a state of gene-
ral agitation, when hostile and conflicting principles were
ranged against each other, when no man expected that peace
could be preserved for three months, and when one spark
thrown upon the inflammable matter with which all Europe
was strewed, would have involved the whole Continent in one
general conflagration.—( Cheers.) They were threatened
with a war of no common extent, of no ordinary character ;
not merely a war of one nation against another nation, but a
war in which all Europe would have participated--a war of
principles, a war of extermination ; the result of which must
have been either the triumph of tyranny and the establishment
of a withering despotism, or the success of that resistance
which, in its victorious career, would have subverted thrones,
and let loose the wild elements of confusion ; and God himself
could only know the result.--( Great cheering.) It was not
then, merely for the benefit of the people of England they had
done good service—they had benefitted the cause of mankind
and of humanity all over Europe.—( Cheers.) But it was
not only on the question of the actual preservation of peace
that they could take credit, but also in comparing the state of
Europe now with what it was when their predecessors left
office ; for, whereas there was then imminent danger of war,
and at the present time he would defy any man to point out a
question on which it could rationally be apprehended. But,
though pledged only to a principle of peace, yet it was not
the only point which, as a Government wielding the energies
of a great people, they thought themselves bound to attend
to. They considered the maintenance of the principle of na-
tional independence abroad an object to which they should stea-
dily direct their attention—they thought that, guiding the
counsels of the freeest people in the world, they could lend
a moral aid to the free institutions amongst those nations
which loved and cherished such forms of Government—
( Cheers.) Some persons had talked a good deal at different
times about the principle of non-interference, without, how-
ever understanding the real meaning of the word. Now what
the late Ministers meant by non-interference was, that we
would not interfere by force of arms, but while we imposed on
ourselves that abstinence, we would not permit others to depart
from the same rule.—(Loud cheers.) We said, leave other
nations, if you will, to settle their own internal affairs ; but
mark you this, if we, the people of England, do not by force
of arms interfere in the support of liberal institutions, neither
shall you, the despotic powers of the world, interfere on the
other side.—( Cheers.) And in the case, most especially of
Portugal, in regard of which more abuse had been levelled at
him than perhaps any servant of the Crown ever had in so good
a cause, the language of the Administration was this ; We,
though invited by Portugal, will not interfere by force of arms ;
but if one Spanish soldier pass the frontier to assist Miguel,
you shall see the sword of England immediately drawn to main-
tain the cause of Don Pedro. —( Great cheers.) And it was
by this independent conduct—by the assertion of this moral
power, that they were enabled to keep the ring in Portugal,
and to give free scope to his gallant Friend near him, Admiral
Napier, to immortalize his own name—to add another
trophy to the countless glories of his county—and secure on a
broad and firm basis the constitutional freedom of Portugal.—
( Three cheers were given to Admiral Napier.) After taking
a rapid glance at the condition of Greece, Belgium, Portugal,
Spain, and France, when the late Ministers came into office,
and when they left office, the Noble Lord proceeded to say,
that they had arrived at a crisis which was unparalleled in the
history of the country, not between persons, but between
parties—between, in fact, conflicting principles of Govern-
ment. He might be told, that four years ago, when the late
Government came into power, that at that period there was
also a great crisis. But he begged of them to remark the dis-
tinction between the then crisis, brought about by a Govern-
ment which fled from what they had themselves created, and
that on the present occasion there was no crisis till it was
produced by those who had now come into power. Therefore
had they first produced a crisis when they were in office, and
next they had produced a crisis by coming into office.—( Loud
cheers.) It was for the electors after such doings to decide
according to what principles the Government cf the country
was to be carried on ; whether on principles of progressive
improvement and reform, or in resistance to what they
called revolution, but which would be more appropriately
termed repair.--( Cries of " Hear, hear.") But they were
told that those in office were about to become Reformers
—that they had been suddenly animated by the remnant
of that spirit of Reform which he and his friends had left
behind them on quitting office—( Loud cheers)—that they
were going to see things in a new point of view, and grant re-
forms to a far greater extent than their predecessors had even
thought of.—( Cheers.) Why, if that were to be so—if the
Administration which then existed really and truly mean to
pursue the same course as the late Administration, then was
he at a loss to understand why any change had taken place.—
( Cheers.) If such were really to be the case, then was he at
a loss to understand why one individual in the kingdom held,
for a period of three weeks, nearly all the executive offices of
the State—(Cheers)--and why another had to come from an
extreme point of Europe, and why they, the electors of South
Hants were called upon, in the depth of winter, to meet in the
open air to elect fresh representatives to serve them in Parlia-
nsent.—( Cheers. ) Was it that the new reforming Ministers
were afraid the Parliament would be found lagging behind
them in their projected ameliorations that they were dissolved?
( Loud cheers.) The electors of South Hants were not suffi-
ciently credulous to believe that to be the reason.—( Cheers.)
What he (Lord Palmerston) thought much more probable
was, that in the course of the last and preceeding session of
Parliament, there had been such determined indications of
a reforming spirit in the Commons that they knew
if they met that House they would be left in a minority.
and therefore unable to retain their places._( Cheers.) If
Ministers meant to bring forward real and substantial reforms
—if they meant to be tried by measures and not by men,
why have waited to dissolve parliament, and have deferred an
appeal to the people until their measures had been produced
and been known to the people of the country ?--( Cheers, fol-
ed by an attempt, often before made by some hired ruffians,
who were stated to be understrappers of the government, to
force a rush upon the hustings.) There was a specimen both