The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-10 00:00:00

WINDSOR ELECTION.

In accordance with the proclamation made in the course of
the past week by Thomas Clark, Esq., the Mayor and re-
turning officer of the borough of Windsor, of the receipt by
-him, from the Sheriff of Berkshire, of a precept to hold an
election of a burgess to serve in Parliament, in the room of
John Ramsbottom, Esq., deceased, the nomination of the
candidates to supply the vacancy took place on Saturday at the
Town Halls Notwithstanding the retirement of Mr. Walter,
the independent electors who had supported him, determined
that Colonel Reid should not walk over the course, and on
the morning of Saturday the walls of Windsor Were pla-
carded with the following address from Mr. Rupert Kettle, a
Barrister of the Middle Temple, offering himself as a can-
didate.
" Gentlemen,—l have heard this evening, with inexpres-
sible regret, of the scandalous victory achieved by the mi-
nions of the Court and of the Government over the man of
your free choice, Mr. Walter. So long as he was a candidate
for ytiur suffrages, I determined to yield to his superior
claims on your support ; but now that he feels compelled to
retire from the field, owing to the unprecedented combina-
tion of evil influences against him, I can no longer resist the
wish% s of my friends, and I feel it my duty as an honest and
independent Englishman, to appear among You on the day of
election as the champion of your independence, and as the
unflinching oppouent of the arrogant attempts recently made
to dragoon. you into submission, and to convert you into
the slaves of an overbearing faction. I have no time at
present to enter into a lengthened detail of the politi-
cal principles on which I claim your support. On the
hustings I will explain them at length, and give an ex-
plicit answer to any questipns which may be asked on the
subject. Indeed, the chief value of the preliminary
ceremony of nomination is that it enables the constituent to
catechise the candidate on every point of his political creed.
It is the duty of the elector to make every candidate undergo
that ordeal. I submit to it with the utmost cheerfulness,
and. I have no doubt that my honourable opponent will do the
same. In one short paragraph, I declare myself the determined
antagonist of all equivocating, temporising, and vacillating
Ministers, the advocate of free institutions for all classes of
her Majesty's subjects, the supporter of all useful reforms, the
upholder of civil and religious liberty, and the determined
enemy of the existing corn-laws. But my chief claim to
your support, at present, I rest upon my determination to
rescue your borough from the oppressive domination with
which it is threatened, and to establish its independence for
the future on a secure and permanent foundation. With this
brief statement of my political opinions, I apply to you for
support."
The surprise which the announcement of a new candidate
caused was enhanced by the appearance of that gentleman in
propria persona.
Shortly after 10 o'clock the Town-ball was opened, and
the Mayor, accompanied by Colonel Reid and Mr. Kettle,
and their respective supporters, appeared upon thehustings.
The usual formalities having been gone through,
151 r. Alderman BAssagrsx proposed Colonel Reid as a fit
and proper person to represent 'Windsor in Parliament.
Mr. Alderman SNOWDEN seconded the nomination.
Mr. Moss, a resident surgeon in the borough, then proposed
Mr. Rupert Kettle ; and the nomination of that gentleman
was seconded by Mr. MILLARD.
Col. REID then addressed the electors, and most strenously
denied that any undue influence bad been exercised in his
behalf. lie declared that he solicited their suffrages on
Conservative principles.
Mr. KETTLE in the course of his address said, that the
Castle influence had been exercised in' behalf of his opponent,
who had even canvassed the cooks in ber Majesty's kitchen,
and brought the Eton boys into the hall to swell the number
of his supporters. He well knew what was meant by the
sppellation Tory. There was a good, honest, straight-
f ,rward, John Bull manner about a Tory ; but he was
ashamed to hear any man wearing her Majesty's uniform
link himself to the phrase " Conservative."—(Loud groans
and hisses.) He professed himself an uncompromising op-
ponent of the New Poor-law, and of the Corn-laws. After
passing .a high eulogium on the public and private character
of Mr. Walter, who would been triumphantly returned, but
for the exercise of the castle influence in favour of Col. Reid.
Under these circumstances, he had come forward at the
eleventh hour, to rescue the borough from petty domination.
The learned gentleman retired amidst loud, and general and
long-continued cheers.
The Mayor then took a show of hands for each candidate,
when, according to our judgment, and that of several gentle-
men in our locality, the exhibition was decidedly in favour
of Mr. Kettle.
The MAYOR, however, declared the choice of the electors
to have fallen by the show of hands upon Col. Reid.
This announcement led to considerable uproar and confu-
sion, and loud were the shouts that the decision of the re-
turning officer was wholly without foundation.
Mr. Moss, the proposer of Mr. Kettle, handed in a written
pretest against he decision to the following purport ;—" I,
William Moss, an elector of the borough of New Windsor, do
hereby enter my solemn protest against the return of a
Member to serve in Parliament for the said borough on the
show of hands this day."
The protest was handed to the Mayor, and by him deli-
ver& to the Town-clerk.
Proclamation having been made three times for the nomi-
nation of any other candidate, and no poll being demanded on
behalf of Mr. Kettle,
The MAYOR declared George Alexander Reid, Esq., of Bul-
strode Park, in the county of Bucks, to be duly elected a
burgess to serve in the present Parliament for the borough of
New Windsor. This announcement was received with tumul-
tuous plaudits.
Colonel REID returned thanks for the honour conferred
upon him, and moved a vote of thanks (carried byacclama-
tion)—to the Mayor for his urbane, dignified, and temperate
conduct in presiding over the election.
The court was then dissolved, and the gallant member for
the borough was escorted to his head-quarters at the Castle
Hotel, by a squadron of his adherents. Thus ended the pro-
ceedings of the Windsor election. We have only to add a
fact, which may be inferred from our report, that Mr. Walter
the day did not appear in the Town-hall.

SEIZURE OF TWO THOUSAND
POCNDS WORTH OF ILLICIT SPIRITS OF NITRE.

A seizure of an almost unprecedented character was, on Satur-
day last, concluded and communicated to the Commissioners of
Excise, by Mr. C. A. Davis, one of the detective officers of her
Majesty's Customs. It will be in the recollection of the public,
that, in the month of July last, the same indefatigable officer made
a capture in the Globe-road, Stepney, of a most complete and ex-
tensively fitted distillery, together with upwards of 1,000 gallons
of spirits, 52 over proof; and the materials alone, exclusive of the
spirits, turibunted to forty waggon loads. In the course of his
search certain documents fell into the bands of Mr. Davis, from
which a clue was obtained that some thousand gallons of spirits
had been recently removed from theprernises ; and from that time
to the present his exertions have been unceasing to discover where
this immense stock had been deposited.
It appeared that in 1844 this officer found a large still on the
premises of persens going by the name of " Berkeley and C 0.," of
Grove-lane, Holloway ; but in consequence of the still being unset
he could not legally seize it, but before leaving the house he wrote
hisAnaine upon it. This still was afterwards found on the premises
in the Globe-road. The solicitor of Berkeley threatened the
officer with actions for trespass, but none were ever entered. On
searching the premises in Globe-road, several documents were
found from the same solicitor to the parties there, clearly showing
that Bayley, Brothers, (the name they went by in the Globe-road),
were identical with " Berkeley and C 0.," of the Holloway-road.
This solicitor had drawn up certain legal documents, by which
Bayley, Brothers, had teen enabled to mortgage the spirits to
various persons for large sums of money, and the possession of
them at once pointed out to whom the spirits had been consigned,
After watching the removal of the spirits from place to place,
Mr. Davis proceeded to the premises of Mr. George Firmin, tar-
taric-acid maker, in Rupert- street, Goodman's-fields, where he
found 57 carboys, coatining 18 gallons each, of spirits of nitre,
which he seized. He also found 36 empty carboys, which, from
marks upon them, proved to have been received from the same
source. He then went to the warehouse of Foote and Co., of
Battersea,' where he got 19 carboys of the ssme, kind of spirits.
From Foote's be went to Price's, also, of Battersea, where he
found 9 carboys more. As each seizure in some degree assisted
the officer In his search, he proceeded from place to place,
with the fullest confidence. In the stable of a man
named Smith, in the Maze, Tooley-street, concealed
in some straw, he found 10 carboys and 2 casks of mo-
lasses; and from thence he proceeded to St. John's Wood-road,
where, in a stable belonging to Abraham Grey, he found a similar
number. At the house of a cornchandler named Hastie, in Wap.
ping, he added 12 carboys to his already valuable prize, consisting
of 12,5191b5. of this costly spirit, which, exclusive of duty, has
been valued at no less a sum than 2,000/.
•
In addition to the seizure made by Air. Davis on the premises of
Foote and Co., the Board of Excise have given directions to seize
the whole stock of spirits on the premises, as, from documents in'
the officer's possession, these parties, it appeared, have been the
principal dealers, although they only professed to carry on the bu.
siness of vinegar merchants. It also appeared that some time
slime the board received notice that a great increase of the article
of nitre was on sale in the market, and sold at a much cheaper
rate than it could be legally manufactured for, but their officers
were unable to account for the fact of it being so. This defalcation
of duty is now apparent, and there is every probability that the par.
ties will aeon be brought to justice.
Proceedings are already commenced against the parties for pe.
nalties to a most:enormous extent, for harbouring this illegal article.
Had the duty been paid on merely what has now beets seized by
AIL DAs, it would have amounted to upwards of 8001.
To avoid suspicion in the removal of the spirits from the dis-
tillery the carboys were taken out separately, and deposited in the
warehouses of a common carrier, near the City.road Basin, and
from thence removed by the carrier's carts, as ordered by Bayley
himself, the more securely to ensure their delivery unobserved by
any district officers.

To show that a visit from the Crown officers had been antici•
pated, ai a precautionary measure each workman employed upon
the premises of the distillery was provided with a blank letter,
with the exception of the signature of the holder, and the receipt
of it was at once anderstnod that the sender was " in trouble,"
or detected in an illegal act; and if either bail or money was
required fin' his liberation, be had nothing to do but date the
same, and send it to the before named member of the legal pro.
Maim?, when every assistance.would be rendered him, the advo-
cate ostensibly only attending 'his professional character.
Other important details of this original system of smuggling will
appear in a few days, comprising some of the largest firms in
London.