The Sun.
London, England, 1845-09-08 00:00:00

MEETING OF MR. MIALL'S FRIENDS.

A public meeting was held on Friday, in the Tem-
perance-hall, Fair-street, Horselydown. The building
will hold about 300 persons, and was excessively
crowded.
Mr. Wake was called to the chair.
Mr. MIALL was received with great applause. He said,
the contest was assuming, more than he could desire, the
aspect of a theological controversy. The blame of it
had been thrown upon him, and he was denounced as
bigoted, intolerant, and uncharitable ; whereas he avoided
any allusion to the religious sentiments of his opponent,
until that opponent, in bad taste, and with a worse spirit,
hurled at him the title of " Reverend," evidently intend-
ing thereby to disparage him in their estimation.--
(Hear, hear.) On the previous night Sir W. Molesworth
had put furth an elaborate defence of Hobbes, of Malmes-
bury. He stood forth as par excellence the representa-
tive and advocate of civil and religious liberty. He
wondered, it seemed, whether he (ldr. Miall) had ever
read Hobbes. That smacked of the self-complacency
of the shcool of " philosphical Radicals ;" they fancied
reading and knowledge pretty exclusively confined to
themselves ; reminding him of a nursery rhyme—

" She wants to have the sweethearts all her own ;
But that she sha'nt, depend upon't, when I'm a woman
grown."
—(Laughter and cheers.)Sir William defied him to put
his hand on a passage in Hobbes derogatory to Chris-
tianity. It was one of the distinguishing characteristics
of the writers of that school, that they did not come out
open-mouthed against the system they wished to under-
mine ; their whole work was insidiously to instil false
principles into the minds of their readers, and, osten-
tatiously professing some reverence for the system, they
laboured to establish truths which, if admitted, would go
to overthrow it, be it religion or liberty that was con-
cerned. Sir W. Molesworth might be asked to put his
finger on a single passage in Gibbon, even in the most
objectionable chapters which could be selected, as op-
posed to Christianity, though every one was well aware
that the whole tendency and purport of his writings was
to pervert what we regard as the truth.—(Hear, hear.)
It was to be feared that the Hon. Baronet, and the whole
school of " philosophical Radicals," imitated too closely
the writings from whom they derived their knowledge
and their principles ; they would not openly profess what
they were ; they endeavoured rather to insinuate and
instil principles hostile to civil and religions freedom,
while professing something like an outward reverence
to the cause they would destroy.—(Cbeers.) But can-
didates ought to show the utmost openness of spirit;
and nothing should be reserved or concealed, however it
might prejudice their interest. If Sir W. Molesworth
really sympathised with that philosopher whose writings
he so highly eulogised, then he was in favour of some-
thing like a system of centralising despotism; and the
earnest support given by the " philosophical Radicals"
to the New Poor-law Bill, and to the gathering up of
despotic power in the hands of two or three men, to be
exercised without restriction or control over the whole
mass of our labouring population, led to the conclusion
that they did sympathise with Hobbes in this respect—
that they were for the principle practised on the con-
tinent for centralisation in regard to the sustenance, the
education, and the religion of the people.—(llear, hear.)
He (Mr. Miall) was not so intolerant as the Hon.
Baronet pretended ; what he aimed at was that the
religion of every man should be let alone—the entire
separation of Church and State.—(" That you will
never get.") Of all schools the " never-get" school
was the most despicable.—(Cheers.) A complete
representation of the people would soon secure this
object.—(Cheers.) The Established Church was the
great support of the corn-laws, and the most formidable
obstruction to the progress of liberty. The clergy were
se nerves spread over the body politic, to convey aristo-
cratic influence to the remotest corners of the empire.
That system must be put an end to.—(Cheers.) There
was great power in trnth. He hoped to tell it in the
House of Commons, and it should not be in that conven-
tional method which was used to conceal the real nature
of things.—(Hear, hear.) Let this election be carried,
and other constituencies would take heart, and have
hope, and would no longer put up with the best bad man
they could find.—(Cheers.) Every day's returns gave
his friends a brighter prospect.—(" Molesworth for
ever I" from two or three near the door.) Persons were
sent now to disturb their meetings. There were some
the previous night. He had on the platform a
weapon taken from the pocket of ono of them,
and another which was picked up in the inn-yard,
with the former of which the landlord's son was as-
sailed.—(Mr. Miallheld up two bludgeons each about the
size of a policeman's staff.) These men were doubtless
paid by somebody, and that somebody was a partisan of
Sir W. Molesworth ; but if his cause could only be car-
ried by such weapons, it was not worth the support of
Southwark.—(Much cheering.) If this came of sympathy
with Hobbes, he was glad his own opinions were not de-
rived from that source.—(Renewed cheers.) Let his
friends give an early vote on Thursday ; there were
numbers waiting to vote for him, if they saw they safely
could.—(" What do you say to a standing army ?") Ho
would vote for the utmost practicable reduction, and en-
deavour indeed to do away with a standing army, and let
the liberties of England be confided to the patriotism of
her sons.—(Cheers.)

The usual vote, pledging the meeting to support Mr.
Miall was then moved by Mr. Star, a Wesleyan, se-
conded by Mr. NOW3OM, and supported by Mr. Maynard,
Mr. D. Pratt, and the Rev. Mr. Richards, the latter of
whom reminded the meeting that it was but a few months
since numbers of the electors cheered the sentiment, that
the first qnestion to a candidate—and to which all others
should give way—should be, " What about Maynooth?"
The resolution was carried unanimously, and after
three cheers for Mr. Miall, the meeting broke up.