The Sun.
London, England, 1820-03-17 00:00:00

far distant when a system of vexation, at once so
feeble and so misebievo,is must break down.

SPEECH OF THE RIGHT HON. GEORGE CANNING,
ON MONDAY, MARCH 13.

Geart.amabt,-.-The occurrences, and the result
of this day's poll, have been somewhat more sa-
tisfactory than those of the days precedinv.—
There has also been some novelty in the course
of our proceedings. In the first place, Gentle-
men, Mr. Leyland has appeared ; in the second
place, Gentlemen, he has disappeared ; he has ap-
peared as a voter, thereby disappearing as a
Candidate. He, was, as lam credibly inform-
ed, visible above the horizon for near five mi•
nutes, while he gave a plumper at the bar of Geo.
Gascoyne. Gentlemen, in that appearance and,
in that plumper, he has, first of all, redeemed him-
self from a situation of playing second fiddle to
the first fiddle assumed to himself by Dr. Cromp-
ton ; and he has lett behind bins an injunction to
all his friends, as solemn as if it weie written in
his will, that whomever else they vote for, they
shall not vote for Dr. Crompton.
With respect to the second of our antagonists,
I hardly know in what words to communicate to
you what has befallen hint. Gentlemen, we have
lost our Crompton ; lie is not to be found in Li-
verpool to-day : but as when the sun sinks into
the West, it is a consolation to those who
lose the benefit of his light (if they have any
spark of generosity in their nature), to know th.a
it. is rising upon another hemisphere; so we, who
can no longer bask in the beams 'of Dr. Cromp-
ton's countenance, have a benevolent satisfaction
at !causing that it rose, through the window of
the morning coach, this day, upon the people of
Lancaster.

Gentlemen, why Dr. Crompton has betaken
imselt to Lancaster, it is not for those who are
or in his councils to conjecture. We are told,
ideed, by his friends, that it, is not for the pur-
pose of proposing himself as a Candidate there ;
that he is gone to propose souse other Gentleman.
But, surely, Liverpool has a right to complain
even of such temporary dereliction. He is no very
warm suitor who can leave the Lady whose band
he is soliciting for himself, to plead with another
fair one the cause of a friend, however dear to
him. We are assured, however, that he is to re-
turn on Thuisday from this suit by proxy, in the
hope that Liverpool will forgive his little infide-
lity, and take the dear deceiver to her arms and
her favour again.
Gentlemen, during Dr. Crompton's absence,
his place is supplied by Colonel Williams ; a man
of whom I mean to say nothing nor perfectly re-
spectful, but of whom I must, in trite h, say,
that, since my arrival in this town, my ideas
have become exceedingly confused. I thought
him a professor of the most popular principles ;
I thought him an adorer of the power and rights
of the. people. Judge, then, what must have
been the surprise with which, on the first day of
the election, I heard him publicly declare on the
hustings, his incapacity to canvass clubs, and
" squeeze the. dirty palms of the freemen,"—
Stich, Gentlemen, was the declaration that I heard
with astonishment, on Wednesday last, from Co-
lonel Williams ; and judge what must be the
surprise with which, after that declaration, I learn
that he hes been squeezing the palms of Dr.
Crompton's voters to-day.
Gentlemen, when I heard these words uttered
by Colonel Williams, I could not help reflecting
what would have been the misconstruction—nay,
1 should rather say, what would have been the
just indignation created among the freemen of
Liverpool, if, from any less popular friend of
freedom, they had heard a declaration of such a
kind. I could not help considering with myself,
if unfortunately I had been betrayed into an ex-
pression so offensively disrespectful—But no ! that
was impossible. I will not, or even for argument's
sake, admit such a supposition. But whet if I,
in the middle of an Election, had taken leave of
the Freemen of Liverpool, or bad set out without
raking leave, to canvass for some one else, in some
other part of the country; what, 1 say, would,
in that case, have been the declamation of Coinuel
Williams against me ? How should I have been
held up as treating you with contempt, as reckon-
ing upon your suffrages without an effort to ob-
tain them ?
But, Gentlemen, the lesson which every sober
MAD will draw from these, among other instances,
is, that habitual protestations of extravagant,
excessive popular feelings are to be received with
a caution, proportioned to their extravagance and
excess. Distrust all such protestations ; be as-
sured, that whatever is exaggerated in profession,
whatever pretends to be peculiarly disinterested,
or peculiarly devoted to the popular cause, is to
be watched with peculiar caution ; and that the
chances are very great, that some opportunity will
arise, when temper or policy will betray the
worthlessness of such professions and pretences.
Gentlemen, under the circumstances which I
have described, more auspiCious than those of
preceding days, the progress of the poll has more
nearly kept pace with our former experience and
with our wishes. The numbers are, for Mr.
Leyland, 117 ; Dr. Crompton, 286; General Gas-
coyue, 954 ; for myself, 1041. The total num-
ber of freemen who have polled is 1453, being
somewhat more than half of the number of the
year 1818, the greatest (as I stated to you on Sa-
turday) that ever polled at a Liverpool Election.
I told you on that day, that one-third of our work
was done ; I may now congratulate you on hav-
ing probably achieved more titan one half of it.
The same indisposition, though happily dimi-
nishing, which prevented me from attending at
the Hustings on Saturday, has kept me at home
to-day ; and I have again to thank you for having,
With the same kindness, been ple.ised to accept
the services of my son in my behalf. By the in-
dulgence thus extended to me, I have Nide d,olbt
of being able to nicer you at the Hustings to.
morrow. But it is suggested to me, that as the poll
is now happily going oe at an accelerated pace,as it
is possible that two ur three days may bring us to
a conclusion ; and es, during the absence of our
only remaining opponent, nothing of any very
lively interest can occur, it may be convenient for
all parties to dispense with our further meetings
here until the close of the poll, looking forward
to the meeting on that occasion as probably very
near, and assuredly as most triumphant.