The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-02 00:00:00

HORSHAM ELECTION.

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HORSHAM, WEDNESDAY, MAY I.—The election of a
Member to represent this borough in Parliament, in the
place of the Hon. Mr. Scarlett, took place to-day, in the
l'own-hall.
There being, at present, no returning officer for this
borough, the High-Sheriff appointed Mr. France as his
deputy, to perform the office. 'The only candidate in the
field was Mr. R. H. Hurst, of Horsham Park, who repre-
sented the borough on three occasions, and who possesses
very considerable local influence, inded to such extent,
that it was almost hopeless to oppose him. Some mem-
bers of the Anti-Corn-law League sounded the feelings
of the electors, but finding they had no chance of success,
they retired, leaving Air. Hurst to waik over the course.
At twelve o'clock the proceedings were opened in the
Town-hall ; and the Bribery Act having been road, and
the other necessary formalities being gone through,
Mr. FRANCE addressed the electors, and said, they
were assembled to perform a very important duty, that
of sending a Member to represent them in the Commons
House of Parliament, and he requested they would give
every gentleman who might feel inclined to address them
a fair and patient hearing.
Mr. W. LINTOT, who was stated to be a member of
the Anti-Corn-law League, then stood forward and said,
he had great pleasure in proposing to them Robert
Henry Hurst, Esq., as a fit and proper person to repre-
sent the borough of Horsham in the Commons House of
Parliament.—(Cheers.) He should have felt great re-
luctance in proposing that gentleman if he had been a
stranger, but as he was well known to them all, he felt
that he had very little more to do. From his childhood
he had been an associate with them, and was, in fact,
one of themselves, and as a private gentleman and a ma-
gistrate he felt satisfied that lie merited all their good
opinions. He bad, besides, represented the borough in two
Parliaments, and his political opinions were well known.
Mr. Hurst did not go so far with regard to some political
questions as himself ; but he felt that it could not be
expected a man should be found whe would vote accord-
ing to the opinions of every one of his constituents, and
he, therefore, knew that some concession must be made,
and he had no doubt that Mr. Hurst would take the
political course which would coincide with the views of
the great majority of those whom he represented. At
the present moment there was such a great diversity of
opinion upon almost every great political question of the
day, that it would be almost necessary
.for every man to
have a member in Parliament, if he wished to have his
particular views represented ; but as he believed that
Mr. Hurst would fairly represent the general political
opinions of the borough, he felt pleasure in proposing
him to fill the office of their representative. He believed
that he enjoyed the confidence of a great majority of the
electors, and therefore there was no doubt of his success.
and he felt convinced at the same time he would enter
the House of Commons as independent as any man who
now sat in it. He was also sure that while he sat
there he would give his best attention to the important
subject of the heavy taxation upon articles of consump-
tion, and the restrictions upon trade; and that he would
give those subjects that consideration which their im-
portance demanded from every Member of the Legisla-
ture. He concluded by proposing Mr. Hurst in the
usual form.

Mr. H. MICHELL, who was also said to be a member 1
of the Anti-Corn-law League, seconded the nomination,
and said that the qualifications of Mr. Hurst had
been so ably described by Mr. Lintot, that very little
else was left him to say. Mr. Hurst was known to
them all as an old inhabitant of the town, and
he would take that opportunity of saying that he
had always expressed himself to be a zealous sup-
porter of all measures that tended to relieve
the industry of the country from the burdens
that were thrown upon it. In his address to the electors
Mr. Hurst had expressed his intention to support all
such measures of amelioration as would not effect the
rights of property, and he (Mr. Michell) entertained the
same opinion ; but he also thought that while they re-
garded the rights of property, they ought at the same
time not to lose sight of those of labour.—(Hear, hear.)
He considered they were also entitled to protection, and
that those taxes which pressed so heavily upon the lower
orders should be removed, although, of course, he did
not wish in any way to break faith with the public
creditor. It had been said that Mr. Hurst did not go far
enough, but he would ask them whether, in the present
state of political opinion, they were likely to get a Mem-
ber who &would represent them so well ? They
had seen a specimen of the Conservative feel-
ing in the House of Commons on Monday night,
when, although it was admitted that there was
a surplus of revenue, nothing was done to
milere tlie 41!. 'rho ants- nn wnnl had
been remitted, which would enable the tailor to buy his
cloth a little cheaper, and he could also get vinegar
cheaper for his cabbage, and this was all that was done.
—(A laugh.) In conclusion, he begged leave to second
the nomination of Mr. Hurst, and he expressed his
opinion that his conduct in Parliament as their represen-
tative would be such as to entitle him to their confidence
in future. _ . .

Mr. FRANCE then inquired whether any other indivi-
dual was to be proposed, and there being no answer, he
declared Mr. Hurst to be duly elected.
Mr. Holm' then addressed the electors, and after some
preliminary observations he said, that he had four times
stood before them as a candidate fur their suf-
frages, and he had been returned three times, and
probably would also have been in the fourth, but that he
would not make himself a party to arrangements which
he felt he could not conscientiously countenance.—
(Cheers.) He assured them that on no occasion had he
felt so much excited as the present, and he could not
and words to express his gratitude for the reception
they had now given him, and also during his canvass,
and he felt pleasure in stating that, all through the
canvass, he had not heard an unkind word from a single
elector, and the result of the canvass satisfied him that
his return was certain. He would not now enter into a
detail of his opinions upon those political subjects which
at present were agitating the public mind. His
opinions were well known. He was never an ex-
treme party man ; and, although it was known
that he agreed in opinion with one political party,
yet he never carried his opinions to extremes, and never
refrained from expressing his dissent from any measure
or measures v%hich he considered were not likely to be
beneficial to the country at large.—(Hear, hear.) He
very well knew th'e difficulty of such a position. It was
very easy to go into Parliament with a political party,
and to say yea or nay, as the leaders of that party dic-
tated, but he would never do so ; he had alwap acted
independently, and he assured them he should ever
continue to do so. Ile would not pledge himself to any
particular line of conduct upon any particular question,
but he should endeavour, when the opportunity occurred,
to inform his mind upon any subject that might be under
discussion, and be would give his conscientious vote
founded entirely upon the arguments that might be
adduced either for or against that particular measure.—
(Hear, hear.) This was the feeling he had always en-
tertained, and he should continue to act upon it, as he
felt convinced that whenever he met his constituents,

either individually or in a mass, that they would never
have an occasion to reproach him with departing from
this course. The treatment lie had experienced at the
hands of the electors during his canvass satisfied him
that he possessed their confidence, and ho hoped that
those who differed with him on former occasions would
feel, that although they had so differed, the struggle
had left no unfavourable impression on his mind. He
did not consider it necessary to' say more on the present
occasion—he should have a constant opportunity of
seeing them, and he trusted that he should always meet
them with the confident idea that they would feel that
he had acted conscientiously as their representative, and
that he had entitled himself to their continued support.
He should be happy at any time to explain his conduct
as their Member, and to listen to any suggestions they
might think proper to make to him; and he could assure
them that it would ever be his desire to preserve the in-
stitutions of his country, and to use his best endeavours
to give to the people of this country that liberty which
they had so long enjoyed, and to which they wero so
well entitled.—(Cheers.)
Mr. PADWICK then proposed a resolution of thanks to
Mr. France, for the independent and straightforward
part he had taken in the proceedings of the election,
which, having been responded to by that gentleman, the
electors separated.

-
LYCEUM TITEATRE.—The following distinguished
persons have visited this theatre during the week :
The Duke of Richmond and the Ladies Lennox, the
Duchess of Bedford and family, the Marquis and Mar-
chioness of Clanricarde, Earl and Countess of Har-
ringtoa, Earl Fitzwilliam and family, Earl and Countess
of Chesterfield, Countess Mostara, "Viscount Canterbury,
Lord Andover, Lord Tenterden, Lord Ranelagh, Lord
Sherborne, Lady Bolton, Sir Archibald Macdonald,
Sir Charles Des Voeux, General Hodgson, Mrs. Russel
Ellice and family, Capt. Polhill, M.P., &c. &c.
Yesterday was the birthday of the Duke of Wel-
lington. Ile was born on the Ist of May, 1769, and
consequently is now in his 76th year.
been said and-written—reloaUtiIt
veT
toEAthTelES.—i‘
[ADVERTISEMENT C
assemblageuch hasof
female beauty celebrated
Vandyke,
this title. The portraits
asestpfeairirtaLhnfetul
aYI representationst
.aolda
notorietyionf.t Windsor Castle, are
dbyouSbirtlePsthose fair and suc-
cessfulpresent day. But how gratifying whiche endures to the
we are enabled to arrive at in favour of theour
own conclusionsti
es
The polished observances of modern
thehosl(ci,c expressioniety seem to
testor of
have had their effects in subduing
eyes akin to those that beamed upon the
While a costume ever chaste and resplendent has super.atn.
seded the stiff and formal sameness of the "olden time."
And to these important advantages may be added a
pleasing restorative and preserver of the complexion,
Govvlaa's Lotion, in removing every species of cu-
taneous impurity, and sustaining a brilliant vivacity of
tint, has long been appreciated in the highest circles.
An assurance of the sterling remedial qualities of this
invaluable article cannot be too firmly entertained by
all who suffer from irritability and discolouration of
the skin.

the history of the corn-law of 1815, they would find
that it was passed avowedly for the purpose of keep-
ing up war prices. That law was literally passed
at the point of the bayonet, for the Members who
went down to the House to vote for it were protected
by the soldiery. That law was passed without
giving the people time to petition against it. One
petition against it was rejected, because the first
name of the signatures was not written on the same
piece of paper on which the petition was inscribed.
That must he useful for them to know, should they
petition the House on any other subject. It was very
little use to petition it on this, as their petition would
only go into the bag under the table.—(Hear, hear.)
That law was hurried through Parliament with in-
decent haste, and Mr. Horner said of it, at the time,
that it was an endeavour on the part of the land-
owners (who then, as now, commanded an unreason-
able majority in both Houses of Parliament) to save
their rents from an unavoidable fall. Then, as now,
we were told that so much capital had been invested,
that it would be a great injustice to do away with it.
So that because an injustice had been once committed
it was always to be continued. Now, many farms
in Scotland were taken at war prices, and the conse-
quence was that many of the landlords were owed
large arrears of rents. When he came to his property
he thought it was unpleasant to have one's head thus
always under water—he, therefore, had all the land
valued over again.—(Cheers.) Those arrears could
be of no use to a landowner unless they were in-
tended perhaps to be used at an election.—(Cheers.)
But there was a great outcry made by his neighbours
when he made this valuation ; they said he was
damaging the value of land. But he always asked
them what was the use of this nominal rent if they
did not get it ? It was only deceiving the farmers,
and deceiving themselves. And what was the case
in England ? If they looked at the Morning Post,
they would see paragraphs chronicling the great
liberality of this landlord and that—of the wonder-
ful example he had set of indulgence to his tenants,
in having, at his audit, remitted them ten or twenty
per cent. on the amount of their rents. Why, this
only meant that the landlord could not get it !
(Cheers.) But the consequence has been, that the
landlord, being under the belief that he had a larger
income than he really possessed, lived in a manner
far beyond what he was able to afford. And it was
a very remarkable thing that the same journal did
not now contain so many announcements as of old,
of fetes, and entertainments. There had been a
great reduction of establishments, and he (Lord
Kinnaird) who had been behind the scenes,
knew that one-half, or two-thirds of the agricultural
landlords were in a state of great embarrassment, and
that they were mainly anxious to maintain these laws,
as a drowning man catches at a straw, in the hope
that they would enable them to get out of their dif-
ficulties. But he could tell them that it would'only
get them deeper into them. He had ascertained, from
the same person who valued his land, what was the
state of the land in England, and he stated that
he thought that the land of England was universally
underlet, and that it did not produce the same quan-
tity or the same profit as it might be made to yield.
The landlords then were like pigs swimming down a
stream, cutting their own throats. The landlords
were clearly not benefited by these laws; the prices
were going down. There might be one or two good
years for them, as they were called—that was to say,
years of scarcity, when the-poor man could not procure
food for his family. But it was a miserable state of
things to consider, that when Providence had blessed the
country with an abundant harvest, it should be looked
on, as Lord Castlereagh declared it to be—a cause of
distress. An evil was, made out of what ought to be
a blessing. They always saw that the seasons ran in
a kind of cycle; they had a good harvest last year,
and, by the blessing of Providence, it seemed likely
there would be a better one this ; and perhaps they
should have the farmers crying out for a Committee
of Inquiry into the causes of their distress. There
must be something wrong where this was the case,
and the people's mind ought to be turned to in-
quire into it. But now for the farmers. Perhaps
some might think that the corn-laws benefited them.
But if they inquired of a farmer how the times went
with him, he would say very bad indeed, there was
no trade going. There must be something wrong in
all this. Nothing was so productive, nothing ought
to give so good a return, as the land. Yet he knew
that many farmers had been reduced to abject poverty
who had expatriated themselves, or were obliged to be-
come labourers on the land where they had held farms.
This did not arise from improvidence on their part,
but from this reason—that by the law they were pro-
mised a certain price for their corn. They calcu-
lated, on taking their farms, on getting that price.
They believed what their landlords and their agents
told them. But they did not get it, and they knew
what the consequence was, and what would be the
consequence so long as they continued any law so
uncertain in its operation as the corn-law. He had
visited several agricultural counties of England, and
he confessed he had never seen such bad management
or such imperfect calculation; the land was not made
to produce one-half of what it ought to 40.
—(Hear, hear.) Even within ten miles of
London, he had asked the letting price of land, and
had been told 303. per acre, for what was worth 3/.
He had been told, also, that there were Scotch far-
mers who, on the same kind of land, were making
fortunes at the latter price, while the English
farmers were being ruined at 30s. But the Scotch
were an industrious and acute race of men, who did
not always believe all that was told them. But much
of their superiority was also due to the Scotch agri-
cultural labourers, who were much more intelligent,
as a race of men, than the Englishmen of the same
class. They did not look upon machinery as an evil ;
on the contrary, they considered it as a great boon.
The reason why the Scotch farmer did better was
because he had a worse climate to contend with than
much shorter time
forth e
putting English
farmer
seedone day prevented the getting of a crop. If the Eng-
lish farmer had a little more to contend with, so as to
exercise his industry, he would be much better off.
The Commissioners that were sent lately into the
agricultural districts to inquire into the state of the
agricultural labouring classes, had furnished reports
of the state of those poor people in Dorsetshire,
Hampshire, and other purely agricultural counties, of
their ignorance, delitution, and immorality, that
would harrow up ones soul. He had visited the pro-
perty of Mr. Bankes, who had boasted so much in
the House of Commons of the happy, prosperous con-
dition of his tenantry, and anything more miserable
than the condition those people presented, one could
not conceive. True,. there was not so much misery
compressed together in a small space as in localities
in the manufacturing districts; but, in their detached
cottages, one could see disease. brought on by want of
proper food. He had an instance of that being the
case, which came under his own observation. To one
of those' wretched families. he allowed an order on a
butcher for meat for six or eight weeks, and the
change which took place from the improvement in
their food in the appearance of this poor family, was a
proof to him that if they had got good food they
never would have been in the miserable condition in
which he found them.—(Cheers.) So much
for the boasted prosperity of the agricultural
labourer. He did not want to abuse the landlords
individually. He had travelled through many coun-
tries, and he knew of none in which the landlords
were so inclined to do good on their estates as they
were in England. But no individual charity could
do good to any large extent. Employment was what
the poor wanted—not charity. In Sussex, in the
neighbourhood of a great corn-law man, who was
pretty well known, there were schools, which that
person had established there ; and yet he (Lord Kin-
naird) saw several children at their homes, who did
not frequent those schools. He asked why the chil-
dren were not sent to school, and the reply he always
got was, their parents' earnings were too small to
admit of their paving for their education--that they
to
amounted only 6s. per week in winter, and 7s. per
week in summer; and a woman, showing him a loaf,
which she said cost Bd., asked him if he thought that
sufficient to furnish food to three children and two
full-grown people per day, and if the '2s. Bd. per
week which remained was sufficient to purchase other
articles, and also pay for education ? ll as it, then,
any wonder how they lived, or rather how they
starved, for they could be scarcely said to live ?
(Hear, hear.) It was strange to hear the arguments
to which the protectionists had recourse to support
their doctrines. They would have it that they were
the most numerous body in the State, an d therefore
were entitled to the greatest measure of protection.
They set down every one who was not a manufac-
turer as an agriculturist, ladies and all.—(Laughter.)
In the Economist newspaper he saw a report
relative to 27 counties, including the great majority
of the purely agricultural counties, such as Essex,
Norfolk, Lincoln, &c. In those 27 counties were not
included Yorkshire, Lancashire, Staffordshire, or War-
wickshire—all manufacturing or mining districts.
When Mr. Brotherton, in the House of Commons,
quoted that report to show that in those 27 counties,
instead of the numbers of the agricultural population
being 7.9ths out of the whole population, it was not
1-10th, they cried out, " Oh, oh," which meant that
he told what was not true, and that they .did not be-
lieve him. Now, by the official returns, it appeared
that not 1-Bth per cent. of those employed
. in those
agricultural counties were engaged in agriculture,
even including children ; and the persons occupied in
other trades, amounted to 281 per cent.; and it was
for that small fraction of the community they were
cursed with protection laws to keep up the price of
food. Tt was a fact that, according as the population
increased the proportion of it employed in agriculture
diminished. In 1811, out of every 1,000 persons,
there were 352 employed in agriculture, while there
were 648 engaged in other trades. In 1821, the
agriculture engaged, out of every 1,000 persons, 322 ;
other trades, 678. In 1831, agriculture. engaged 281
out of every 1,000, and other trades 719, and as to 1841,

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENI Np, MAY
.25 1844.