The Sun.
London, England, 1828-10-31 00:00:00

THE LATE KENT MEETING.

(From the Kent Herald of yesttrday.)
We have given our report of the Kent Meeting,
pretty much as we find it in the leading London
Journals, on whose practised Reporters, when no
sinister influence is used, the public ,may in most
points confidently depend. But we think it right
to state, that we have been obliged to supply many
omissions from our own netes and observations; and
must express our extreme astonishment at the anti-
liberal colouring which pervades the statements made
by most of these gentlemen. As we cannot suppose
that the Brunswick gold, however liberally dis-
tributed, has been potent enough to tempt the
Reporters to impose on their employers, these
inaccuracies and misrepresentations must be im-
puted to their unfavourable situation for giving an
impartial account of the proceedings and dispo-
sition of such an enormous and confused multi-
tude. As an instance—though we are quite wil-
ling that the No-Popery faction should have the
discredit of the vulgar and violent exclamations
which abound on such occasions, yet, as expressing
the tone of public feeling, it would have been but
just to have interlarded the report of the Brunswick
effusions with a few of the popular interlocutory
comments which were so rife from the voices of the
less fastidious among•the liberal party. But a stu-
dious courtesy has been observed throughout by the
gentlemen of the press towards the Brunswickers,—
(we adopt the current term for brevity's sake,)—
which, though grateful enough to their' " ears po-
lite," and complimentary to the Liberals, as sup-
pressing all intemperance on their part, the first are
not entitled to, and the latter by no means deserve.
Phrases which are " gall and wormwood" to the
illiberals were bandied about in profusion, and most
audibly too, though without the ferocious tones and.
gestures of then opponents :—bur nothing of this
appears in the London Papers, though every ex-
pression tending to throw odium or ridicule on the
liberals has been carefully recorded. How is this ?
But a more serious charge against these heralds
of public opinion; consists in the,ir confirmation of
the erroneous decision of the Sheriff. All the pa-
pers we have seen, with the exception of the active
and. intelligent Sun, give unhesitatingly the majority
against the Liberal Party. We solemnly declare,
from our own most careful, anxious, and repeated
observations, fur there were many opportunities
during the day of perceiving the division of parties,
from the testimony of hundreds of honourable and
intelligent men, with whom we, or our personal
friends, have-conversed since the affair,—that there
was- a most preponderance of numbers in
favour of the Liberals. Our position was an ele-
vated one, on a waggon' in the centre. of the right
wing, from which every part of the circle was:visible
and though it was difficult, or rather impossible,
from the distance and uproar to knowtrecisely what
motion the Sheriff was. putting, and considerable
misunderstanding prevailed for a time among the
more distantly-placed -freeholders, yet there was
never the shadow of a doubt as to the feel-
ing of a pear, majoaity of the meeting being
decidedly Anti-Brunswick. So confidently did
all, around us feel this, that after the show of
hands, which was reptated, somewhat irregularly,
but with increased demonstration of the Liberal
strength, the friends of freedom were busily engaged
in mutual congratulations on the great triumph just
obtained, when a shout from their opponents an-
nounced that the decision of the Sheriff was in
their favour ! It was with great difficulty that many
could be persuaded of this fact—it seemed impos•
sible, allowing for the confusion, allowing for the
Ini.:ninderstauding among the farther Liberals, allow-
ing for the difference of. the light which from the
western sky fell upon the Brunswickere long thin
line, leaving the dense mass of the Liberals in corn-
parative shade,—taking all this into consideration,
together with the known Brunswick prejudices of
the Sheriff, it did seem impossible that any person
desirous of a decent reputation for fairness, could so
decide. Throughout the day, the proportion
scarcely varied,—the Brunswick-men were so corns
partly arrayed, they performed their operations
of cheering, waving hats and hands, with such.
undeviating, almost mechanical, regularity, and
so very frequently, that the line which separated
them from the Liberal party was as familiar when
they were quiescent as when in action. We could
have traced the separation blindfolded. UnleSs our
senses, and those of all whom we have consulted,
from the Peer to the Peasant, be absolutely inca-
pable of a right impression, if we were in a situation
and in a state to make any use of our ears, eyes;and
judgment, we pledge our veracity, and we, dare our
enemies to the assertion that we ever wilfully made
any public [nig-statement—we pledge our reputa-
tion, as we would our lives if the truth could be as-
certained, that there was on that field, on that day,
a decided majority of Anti-Brunswickers. We set
the difference from first to last, for we never saw a
reason for altering our judgment, at 3 to 2 in our
favour. But with every disposition to concede as
far as we can, with every allowance for a possible de-
ception from the distance of the Brunswickmen, it is
impossible that their minority could exceed 4 to our 5.
Nothing can shake us from this confidence. We had
spent five hours, less in listening to the speeches
of the orators, than in reconnoitring the audi-
ence, in observing their actions, expressions, posi-
tion, and countenances :—we had coadjutors, in all
directions, measuring the apparent proportions of the
two parties :—and, in a comparison of the results,
many exceeded, none came below our own estimate.
We do not mean to accuse the Sheriff of a wilfully
corrupt decision, but we again arraign him as having
committed a most egregious error.
Well might Lord. Winchelsea be "frantic with
jo"," as the papers state; and, as they Might have
added, with surprise, at his unexpected victory ; for ,
unexpected it must have been; unless he knew that
the return, whether just or not, would be made in
his favour—which we will riot imagine. Well might
he "gesticulate and shout like a maniac," at having
snatched a triumph out of the very arms of defeat !
We have shown to what he owes his nominal vie-
' tory ; we shall not cease to demonstrate With how
little reason he can exult.
That the noblemen at the head of the anti-Bruns-
wick party are accountable for this alleged defeat,
we entirely agree. Had , Lord Camden and some
others who profess to have the good cause at heart,
been as personally active as their opponents noto-
riously were; had they combined in council and on
the field; hed their agents and employis been tip-
-pointed to marshal and regulate the proceedings on
the liberal side, the affair would have worn a shape
that could not have been mistaken. It would have
been settled beyond the reach of even a quibble.—
Intolerance would have been driven to its natural
" Hole and Corner" existence, or been known no
more in Kent. On them rests the shame of having
suffered illiberal principles to obtain a false reputation
in the world at the expence of the intelligent inhabit-
ants of thin county. The only reparation they can
now make is strenuously to resist in Parliament the
assertion 'that the I.eut Meeting sanctioned the
odious schemes of the bigoted and blood-thirsty.'
. There is nothing no painful- to us as alluding to

the divisions of the liberal, or if Mr. Ceases,
the radical, party ; but we must say that 'llittrscarcely
know terms strong enough to express our sense of
the mischief occasioned to the great cause of Equal
Rights by that eccentric gentleman's presence on
the present occasion. His attempt to divert the
sympathies of the people from the persecuted Irish;
his sneering at the very mention of Emancipation,
as. if injustice were not reprehensible, as if principle
were foreign to his notion of a political creed; his
attack on Mr. Sheil and on all the distinguished
men (one excepted) of the liberal party ; were re-
volting to every hater of oppression, every well-
wisher to the general cause of justice and hu-
manity. We observed with unspeakable morti-
fication the confusion which his conduct and ha-
rangues occasioned among a portion of the multitude,
who, considering him to be a friend of the people,
finding him ranged among the known friends of the
popular cause, heard him (with Hunt following on
the same side) opposing, inveighing against the very
measure that every other liberal man was striving to
recommend. Hundreds—not " thousands" as this
modest personage asserts—were stultified by his pro-
ceedings. 'We saw them glance with vacant look
from him to other leaders of their party in surprise
and doubt, at the very moment when, if their en-
ergies had been applied in unison with the rest, our
success would have been still less questionable. If
he wished well to ns why did he not place him-
self among the Brunswickers and convert some of
them ? Our men needed not to be told of the ini-
quity of the tithe system. They were ready enough
to give their voices against it on a proper occssion ;
but here, the introduction of that, or any other topic
foreign to the great question of the day—Liberality
or Persecution,—Peace or Civil Discord,—was
treason against the popular cause. It was the less
excusable in him, because he had been previously
remonstrated with on the folly, the cruelty of such
a course. We hope never to see him again in pub-
lic, for a man whose sole principle is personal noto-
riety at the expense of any and every thing, is dan-
gerous in most causes and unworthy in all.

FASHIONABLE INTELLIGENCE.

CHANGES.

. Earl Spencer, from his scat, Althorpe, Northamptonshire, on
a visit to Mr. Coke, at his seat in Norfolk ' • Prince Lievee, from
Ashburnham House, Dover-street, for Richmond ; Countess
Spencer, at her house in St. James's.place, from her seat, Al.
thorpe, in Northamptonshire ; Lord King, at his seat, Ockham,
Surrey, from a tour; Rear-Admiral Rodd, at the. York House,
Bath, from Devonpol ; Edward Henry Green, Esq. from the
Clarendon Hotel, t-ond.street, with despatches for Ancona ;
Major rancour% from Fenton's Hotel, St. James's-street, on a
tour ; Reverend I'. A. Savage, from ditto, for Bath ; the Hon.
Colonel Stapleton, from the St. George's Hotel, Albemarle-
street, for Reading, Berkshire ; the lion. Colonel and Mrs.
Grant, from ditto, for their seat in Surrey; Captain Milman, at
Gould's Hotel, Jennyn-street, from Brighton; Captain Sargent
at the Bath Hotel, Arlington-street, from Hants ; C. Beaumont,
Esq. at ditto, from the North , Count and Countess Gardebonea,
at ditto, from the Continent; Captain and Mrs. Hammond, in
Regent-street, from the Continent; James Kemp, Esq. at the
Crown Hotel, Regent Circus, Piccadilly, from Poole ; Sir
James Jelf, at ditto, from Oaklands Park; George Head, Esq.
at ditto, from Sutton; the Baron Paul de Richemont and the
Rev. Mr. Williams, from ditto, for Paris v• Captain M'Donald,
R.N. at Bryant's Hotel (late. Warne's), Conduit-street.