The Sun.
London, England, 1827-04-20 00:00:00

READING ELECTION.

On Wednesday the electors of the borough of
Reading celebrated the triumph of independent
principles by chairing Mr. C. Fyshe Palmer, who
was lately returned as their Representative by
the decision of the Committee of the House of
Commons.
At eight o'clock in the morning Mr. Fyshe Pal-
mer set out from Okingham in his landau drawn by
four horses, accompanied by Lady Madeline Palmer,
and some ladies of her acquaintance. Between
three and four o'clock, he alighted at the Crown
Inn, and made his appearance on a balcony at one
of the windows, accompanied by his high-minded
and independent colleague, Mr. Monck. As soon
as the cheers which their appearance had excited
were concluded,
Mr. FYSHE PALMER said, that when he looked
around him, and beheld this vast assembly congre-
gated to celebrate their extraordinary triumph, he
oould not help recollecting the lines of the poet--
" Lords, ladies, captains, counsellors, or priests,
Their choice nobility, and dower not only
Of this, and each, and every city round,
Met from all parts to celebrate this feast."
Tie could assure them he felt that this was not a
'common occasion—that it was not a mere question,
whether Mr. Wakefield or Mr. Spence had t,ken
bis seat as their representative, but that it was
nothing less than this—whether the real electors of
the borough should any longer enjoy their right of
voting—whether the trading interests of Reading
were, as formerly, to send their own representatives
to Parliament—(Applause)—whether, in fact, the
new coalition of Wakefield and Spence was per-
manently to establish a predominating and bigotted
party to overawe the real interests of the people—
whether real voters should be supplanted by ficti-
tious—and whether resident votes should be ousted
by granary ones. These, and nothing else, were the
greet questions which they had just decided—(Hear,
kear)—and which had fixed upon an immoveable
basis the just and lawful right of the people to exer-
rise their important privilege. When he alluded to
lerits of such a struggle, he might be permitted
to say, that the sun never shone on a cause of greater
worth.—(Applause.)—lts benefits would be felt, not
alone by the present race of electors, but by their po-
sterity; for their descendants would have greatly to
thank them for their zeal, their firmness, and persever-
ance. He should only trespass one moment longer upon
their attention, while he did justice to the merits of
two gentlemen who had rendered them important
aervice. However just their cause was, still it ob-
viously required a good deal of active superintend-
ence. Of Mr. Weedon, his solicitor, a rising man
in his profession, he would say, that from the first
moment to the last, he had afforded the most valuable
assistance.—(Applause.)—Of Mr. Talfourd, who
was obliged to be absent by professional business, he
was also bound to say, that no gentleman of the bar
could have rendered greater service. For three days
had he been pitted in the Committee against three
of the most eminent election lawyers in the country,
and he had acquitted himself with the utmost skill
and talent.—(Applause.)—All he should say in
conclusion was, that he again thanked them for the
honour they had done him, and should only ask on
all future occasions fair play and an open stage on
which to appear before them.—(Loud cheers.)

Mr. MoticK then addressed the people, and was
loudly cheered. His Hon. Colleague, he was sure,
deserved that heroic defence, which had made him
emerge with greater glory, after a short obscuration,
to their renewed delight, and, he might add, to the
cordial satisfaction of the whole kingdom, who knew
and appreciated his great public worth.—(Cheers.)
Mr. HENRY NlARsit being loudly called for, made
his appearance, and was cordially greeted. What
different countenances they now put on from those
so woful and wo-begone which clouded their brows
when the last procession (Mr. Spence's) had turned
the corner. Albeit though not often given to the
melting mood, he could, on that occasion, have al-
rnos, cried himself, when in the eyes of their female
friends he saw the tear of sympathy from one eye,
while the other flashed fire at the supineness and de-
generacy of their male associates.--(Applause.)--The
tables were now turned, and proud and delighted he
had this day been, to see the same attendance of
fascinating ladies hailing their triumph now that they
had made the fish to swim again.—(Applause.)—
The fish had only suffered what the doctors called
suspended animation," and he now swam like a
Leviathan, taking his pastimes in the flood of public
approbation.—(Applause.)--" I met a man (said
Mr. Marsh) of the opposite party, in the borough,
who exclaimed We are all ruined ; we are new in
the hands of the Radicals, we shall get nothing good,
and no respectable people will come among us.'
But, adverting to the procession which we have wit-
nessed to-day, to the numerous aed highly respect-
able people who have been flocking into the town, to
their substance and regularity in the discharge of
their debts—l have only to pray, that if the town is
to be ruined, it may be so ruined as it is this day.
I should like to see a similar ruin occur every week
(laughter). The speaker then congratulated Mr.
Palmer most heartily upon his triumph : he had
achieved as much as the poets ascribed to Hercules
—ay, more; for when had Hercules triumphed, after
three contested elections, and two petitions to Par-
liament, in battle over a legion of blue devils ? (Re-
newed laughter.) It was not alone, however, the
achievement of his Hon. Friend, for it was also the
glorious triumph of principle over fraud, of patience
and perseverance over intimidation and violence.
They could now boast of having two members who
did not pull different ways, like the dogs in Hogarth's
picture of Marriage-d-la-Mode. Mr. Marsh pro-
ceeded to advert to the occurrences of the late elec-
tion, and to caution the electors in the strongest,
terms against sleeping at their posts, when the ene-
my were still watching to storm their gates. (Loud
cheers.)
At five o'clock, above 150 of the electors of the
borough sat down to a dinner which was suitably
provided
forc them at the Crown Inn ; Mr. Henry
Marsh in the chair, supported by Mr. Fyshe
M. P., on his right, Mr. Monck, M. P., on his left,
and several others of great respectability, connected
with the county and the borough.
In acknowledgment of many toasts of personal re-
ference and constitutional application, several gen.
tlemen addressed the company in the course of the
evening.

The Rev. Dr. VALPY repeated his fixed attach-
ment to the great principles of civil and religious
liberty, which ought to distinguish every civilized
comi-Aunity. Early impressed with their advantages,
he had cultivated them through life—they had grows
with his growth, and strengthened with his years;
and when, on a late occasion, he had felt the curtain
of life about to fall before his eyes, it was at once
his comfort and consolation that he had pursued such
a path. He knew, indeed, that it was not the path
to preferment, for two very high and upright digni-
taries of the church had on former occasions offered
him professional advancement, if he would abandon
certain principles (in allusion, we believe, to the
Reverend Doctor's sentiments on the Catholic
question), which he had, from a sense of truth and
Justice, espoused. But he had declined the acquisi-
tion of personal advantage, when it was to be ob-
tained by such a sacrifice.—(Loud applause.)—The
Reverend Doctor, in allusion to the affairs of the
late election, on which he cursorily glanced, de-
clared, that though for half a century a resident of
the borough of Reading, and having acquired per-
haps in such a succession of years some little in-
tluence over those with whom he was connected,
yet that he had never interfered to force any man's
Lonscience ; that the liberty which he claimed him-
self, he had always freely conceded to others—a
course of fair and candid conduct, which ought at
least to have spared him from the unmanly animad-
version of Mr. John Blandy, while he lay in pain
and anguish upon a sick bed in Bristol.—(Hear,
hear.)—But he forgave the ungenerous, or rather
thoughtless act. The Reverend Doctor, in conclu-
sion, eulogized the public and private worth of their
present representatives, and highly approved of the
suggestion made by other speakers, that the warn-

mitt' of the electors of Reading constituted their
strength, and that it ought to be consolidated by
every fair means which they had the power of em-
bodying.—(Applause.)
The health of Mr. Walter, Mr. Wheble, and other
gentlemen of the neighbourhood, whose assistance
had conduced to the success of the election, being
given,
Mr. WALTER congratulated the meeting on their
glorious victory; a victory, however, obtained with
such difficulty as to prove, that though principle, like
truth, will at last prevail, it might yet bo sometimes
exposed to a most severe trial, when contending
against error, supported by obstinacy and treachery.
The more severe the contest, however, the greater
was the glory of the triumph. This would appear
by a review of the whole course of the election. Let
not the free electors, however, rest in security ; for
their antagonists N: ere as active in their foolish and
abortive attempts, as if they were better planned and
managed. This might be seen by their petition to
Parliament, which could not be thought of without
laughter. They had galloped to London, and gal-
loped down again, as if their object had been to kill
horses rather than to return their caedidate to Par-
liament. [Here it was Observed, that they had only
galloped up.] They had dwindled down from a pe-
tition signed by 200, to a valorous petition signed
by only one puissant elector. A gallant Admiral
had stepped forward, with a bit of bunting tied to a
relopstick, instead of colours flying, and a respectable
crew; and he, and his bit of bunting, and his mop-
' stick, were all puffed into the water at the first
breath of the House of Commons : such craft was
not even suffered to enter into the port. Mr. Wake-
field was now said to be in the town of Reading.
The conduct of him and Mr. Spence might remind
the electors of one of those disgraceful transactions
which are said sometimes to take place in the public
markets, where one man sells his wife and another
buys her with a rope round her neck. It was with
a rope round its neck that Mr. Wakefield tried to
sell and hand over the borough to Mr. Spence. Eut
then Mr. Wakefield had never legally married the
borough ; it was one of his family matches ; he came
a stranger; he forcibly wooed, but he had not law-
fully wedded the borough. He could not there-
fore hand over the degraded wife to another, what-
ever might be the purchase money. He only put
the rope into the hands of his deluded associate : the
intended bride had slipped her head out of the
noose, and had flown to the embraces of Monck and
Palmer.—(Laughter.)—He concluded with wishing
they might long enjoy that independence from foreign
dictation and domestic tyranny to which their per-
severing courage so justly entitled them.
Mr. Wheble, Mr. Eyston, and Mr. Throckmorton
(Catholic gentlemen of ancient families, and high
character in the county) severally expressed sentiments
of corresponding liberality, deprecating as strongly the
interference (whenever it took place) of foreign Ca-
tholic Governments with their Protestaat subjects,
as they did that of the established Government of
this country with the consciences of their people, of
whatever religious denomination.
Several other speeches were made in allusion to
the proceedings of the different candidates at the late
election, and the most unanimous determination was
evinced for maintaining in future, as heretofore, the
independence of the borough. In proposing the li-
berty of the press, a young stranger made an elo-
quent and admirable appeal to the company, upon
the close connexion between that toast and the great
principles which they had on that day assembled to
celebrate, in the course of which he was loudly and
repeatedly applauded.
The CHAlR.gaei having coupled the name of Mr. .
Conway, a gentleman present, with the toast,
Mr. -CONWAY adverted to the uniform and anxious
attendance which Mr. Monck and Mr. Palmer had
always given in the House of Commons, never ab-
senting themselves at any hour of the night, while
public business was in progress.

The CHAIR3IAN maintained the hilarity of the
evening by constant sallies of mirth, particularly
when some toasts were precipitately volunteered at
other parts of the t:lble, which in due time it would
have devolved upon him to have given from his list.
He complained, in particular, that Lady Madelina
Palmer's health had been stolen from his custody,
and humourously declared that they might as well
pluck away his heart, as take from him, piecemeal,
the ladies (such as Lady Madelina Palmer and Mrs.
Monek) who had endeared themselves to the elec-
tors of Reading for their affability and condescend-
ing interest in their affairs; and for sending them
such husbands to do honour to their suffrages and
maintain their most valuable rights.
The company sat till a late hour in the enjoy-
ment of the utmost harmony.