The Sun.
London, England, 1835-01-16 00:00:00

PRICE 7D.

Government, where are his means of resistance ? lie is crushed

by the overwhelming power of the aristocracy of the coun-
try, and it is under that that we and the industrious class of
society have suffered and have groaned for the last sixty
years.—( Great applause.) lam for no longer suffering.—
( Hear, hear, hear.) My word, the first and the last, has
been, Away with the Tories ! Down with the Tories,
and up with the Liberal Government I—( Great cheering.)
Then, Gentlemen, you see there is no love lost between the
Tories and me ; they are stirring heaven and earth to turn
me out—l will stir heaven and earth if you put me into Par-
liament to turn them out—(Laughter)—and that I shall not be
returned to Parliament would be an insult to the people of
this country to suspect.—( Great cheering.) Gentlemen,
what took place last time? Why, three-fourths of the
Whigs at the last election would not vote for me. lam
sorry to say they are not now voting for me. Some of them
have been plumping for Mr. Byng this very day—men whose
very names stand on my Committee at Mile-end—( Shame !)
Never mind, gentlemen, we have honest men with us, and we
shan't want them. All I ask is this, let every man who has a vote,
and every man who has not a vote—let him endeavour to bring
up the man who has, in order to settle the question which
has to-day been proposed.—( Loud Cheers.) We have now
recovered from the overwhelming power which was brought
in upon us at the commencement of the day, so that we have
reduced them to about forty or fifty of a majority. Why,
gentlemen, that is nothing at all. One hour's polling in the
Tower Hamlets alone in the morning, I am sure, will bring
me above Mr. Thomas Wood—( Great cheering)—and I
trust that those who have hitherto been backward will
not wait to be brought up, but that they will come
forward boldly to record their votes against the Tories,
and in favour of me.—( Immense applause.) Who-
ever has a vote, let him inquire for a neighbour who has one
also—let them come up together—let them come up in
pairs and in threes, and I think you will very soon
give a very flattering account. But looking, gentlemen, at
the-last election, and seeing that I was placed at the top of
the pollby 3,238 votes, I shall not think you do your duty by plac-
ing me at the head of the poll by a bare majority. I want you
to testify to the Crown that no reaction has taken place here,
and that the three thousand and upwards of men who polled
for me on the last occasion, will come forward to record
their votes to place me still higher on the poll in utter defi-
ance of the Tory Government, with all the power that par-
sons, magistrates, and lawyers can exercise. —( Loud applause. )
Gentlemen. I am sorry to think I have a power against me
now, which I had not the last time. I have all the power of the
Tory Government exercised against me in every way
they possibly can—l had not that the last time.—
( Hear, hear.) If, therefore, one stronger inducement than
another could be brought forward for independent men to
assist me, it is that I have now a greater opposition than
I had before, and that I now want more to place
me in the situation in which I was, than I did
on the former occasion.—( Great applause.) Gentlemen, one
element against me this time I ought to notice. Colonel
Wood, the father of the candidate, is a Colonel in the Militia.
As far as has been reported to me, at Hampstead and other
places the militia officers and staff have all been canvassing (I
presume by orders from their commanding officer)
against me, and in favour of Mr. Wood.--( Cries of
" Shame.") Now, I call that a most unconstitutional
proceeding.—(Hear, hear.) Military men are servants of
tne public. It is not for them to join in civil strife, or
sit all to enter into contests such as these ; and
I do think that that is an additional reason
why every independent man ought to come forward
to support me in this struggle.—( Loud applause.)
In a few words, what is it you have to do ? You are now to
decide whether you shall have cheap and good government
carried into effect by a liberal Administration, or have all your
burdens continued by the continuance of a Tory Government.
Those who vote for Mr. Wood are by every vote they
give opposing themselves to those reductions of taxa-
tion, and to the correction of those abuses in Church.
and State, which I hold to be essential for the best interests
of the country. Every man, therefore, who gives his
vote as a personal favour is guilty of the grossest abuse
of the trust reposed in him.—( Hear, hear.) No man
is at liberty to give a vote for favour or affection ; his
vote is given to him not for his own interest, but for the inte-
rests of the community.—( Hear, hear.) If, therefore, solicita-
tion and powerful influence upon him induces him to vote
against his conviction, he is no longer worthy to be a free-
man,—he is only fit to be enlisted under the banner of
slavery,—and by that very act he makes himself a
slave—not only himself, but the whole of his unrepre-
sented brethren.—( Hear, hear.) Every man, therefore,
who gives a vote under the influence of power sacrifices the
dearest interests of man, and sacrifices the rights of a
freeman. It is a question, therefore, of good or bad
government. I ask not a vote for myself. I care not a pin for
myself—l may be in the churchyard by to-morrow ; but your
interests and rights must be protected. Vote not, therefore,
for me because I have been a Reformer, but only vote for
me because I will carry the Reform Bill into effect, as far
as an humble individual can, and take care of your interests
and rights. I am told there are some men who, because
I have not asked them to give me their vote, have yielded and
given a promise to the first man who came. Now, Gentle-
men, I tell you candidly, I prize the feeling of independence
too much ever to ask a vote from and body.—( Loud cheers. )
And I think I do no more than justice by saying that the bulk
of the electors of this county are men who are desirous to do
their duty, and are determined to do their duty in sending a fit
and proper man to Parliament to represent them, and that it
is their duty to appoint that man, according to the dictates of
their consciences. Formerly a man did everything in his power
to get into Parliament, and cared not how much he spent, be-
cause he took very good care, if he bought the electors, to sell
them again, and get a profit of 100 per cent. on the bargain !
But now the Reform Bill is passed, and the people of England
have the power of choosing whom they like.—( Hear, hear.)
Before the Reform Bill passed the Tories and all who pre,_
fitted by misrule had the power of putting 'trends
into your pockets whenever they liked, by Votes from a
House of Commons composed of nominees and Borough-
mongers.—( Hear, hear, and cries of " Shame 1") That, thank
God ! is now put an end to, and it must be dishonesty and the
most base profligacy on the part of the community, if they
now allow a Tory majority to get possession of the
House of Commons. I therefore call upon every man
who values his right as a citizen, every man who has
property to protect, to do his utmost to return to the House
of Commons a majority of Reformers.—( Cheers.) One of
the principal objections to me is that I am Destructive.
Now, in one sense of the word, I have been a Destructive for
five-and-twenty years. I have been destroying all the
abuses that existed. I have been able to get a good many of
them under, and if I sit ten years longer in the House
of Commons, I shall be able to get a great many more
of them under. Gentlemen, I have no hesitation in saying,
the effects of a Reformed Parliament for the next five years
ought to do more than all the independent men in Par-
liament have been able to do for the last 30 years.—( Hear.)
If I am correct in that, what an important duty falls on the
electors at the present moment, because in their hands are the
destinies of the empire? All these men who call me a
Destructive, believe me, are men who are afraid that I
am about to destroy their pensions and sinecures, and
all the good things that they now most improperly enjoy.
In that sense of the word I pride myself as a Destructive.
There was a time, gentlemen, when I prided myself on
being a Reformer, but I am sorry to say I have lost
that honour now, because all the Tories have be-
come Reformers.—( Hear, and laughter.) I stand before
you as an unchanged man, and I trust that no single act of
mine since I have been returned to Parliament will
prove the contrary, although I candidly admit
I have been obliged to bear with patience many of the two
der proceedings of the late Administration, -1110,
have always said, ought to have gone
turtuer than
they did ; but they buckled
a petty faction,
for after all it is but a petty feet'
,on—they truckled to that fac-
tion until they riske,l
Gentlemen. ".,:gri .:neir own popularity with the country.
e men are crying out—" What have the liberal
G(l.7ernment done for you ? Let but the Duke of Wellington
be in place one year, and he will do more for the country than
they have done in four years." But, gentlemen, recollect
the four years' administration has done a great deal ; it has
taken off five millions and a half of your taxes.—( Hear, hear.)
It has taken off three millions and a half of useless offices and
expenditure, and left every institution better able to perform
its functions than it was before.—( Hear, hear, and cheers. )
Is that nothing ? And can any man for one moment believe
that the Duke of Wellington and his party would do a single
act that they were not forced to do, and how would it
be done ?—( Hear, hear.) Sir Robert Peel says the people do
not like a system of continued agitation. Why does agitation
exist in this country as well as :in other countries? Be-
cause men, sensible of an unjust Government, sensible
that they are taxed more and treated worse than they
ought to be, become restless and want relief. If you go on
gradually day by day, and then stop short, you will get nothing.
I therefore call upon you to draw your line now between Tories
and bad Government, and between, I will not call them Whigs,
but I will call them liberal men who are disposed to meet
your wishes, who value your rights, and are disposed to pro-
tect them and send such men to Parliament. You can expect
nothing from the party. Then try to obtain a reduction of
your taxation, relief to that unfortunate part of our fellow men
in Ireland. Return such men who will put an end to the
scandalous scenes of bloodshed which continue to disturb
that country. If there are any amongst you who
are lovers of religious liberty, if there are any of you
who smart under the disabilities which arise from your
worshipping God according to your own conscience—
if there are any of you suffering under those disabilities—
deprived of your civil rights—l would ask you, what can you
expect from an Administration which stopped short, and denied
you being admitted to take those degrees of honour which
every man who attends a college is anxious to obtain and
aspire to ?—( Cheers.) I say the Tories in the House of
Lords, with the Duke of Wellington at their head,
threw out that Bill, which in the last Parliament, the
House of Commons carried through. What can you ex-
pect from them ? I therefore call on every man—dissenters in