Star.
London, England, 1820-12-26 00:00:00

60U1`&Y OF ABERDEEN MEETING.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STMT.
AIIEILDIEN, DIC6II,IFI 21, 18e0.
A Meeting of the Freeholders, diKtices of the
Peace, and Commis,ioners of Supply of the. County
of Aberdeen, was_held here yesterday—the Marquis
of llurcrLY, as Lord Lieutenant, in the Chair—for
the purpose of voting a loyal Address to the Throne,'
Or, in other words, his MAJESTY'S Ministers.
An Address, containing the usual paragraph of
abhorrence of the conduct of the seditious and fac-

tious, and of the blasphemous publications and Sedi-
tion: Press, was proposed by Mr. IRVINE, of Drum,
and seconded by Mr. Meezres, of Pitfoddles.
On this Major A. LEITH HAY, younger, of Rannes,
rose and objected to the Address, on the ground that
it did not contain a censure and disapproval of the
conduct of Ministers ; and characterized it as being
an Address, " not for the purpose of sheaving their
loyalty to the King, but for the purpose of supped-
ing the ruins of a tottering Administration."
Honourable Gentleman made a variety of other re-
marks, and sat down, cheered from all parts of the
Court-11,,tise.
Here Mr. Mesetes, the seconder of the Address,
rose and observe :4 " That it was improper and out of
order for Gentlemen to impute motives, where they
did not appear ex fireie from the Address itself," and
" openly denied, that the. Address was either for the
urpose, or had the tendency of supporting :Ministers!"
Lord FORBES followed in the same strain, and
tir2eti • n the Meeting the great consequence of being
unanimous.
M.. SICENE, of Skene, one of the oldest and most'
respectable Freeholders, then rose, and in a very spi-
rited speech, took up the same ground as Major Hay,
and declared his intention of proposing an amended
Address, un'a2e: the one before the Meeting was:mo-
delled to his mind.
This breaght up Lord Forms and Mr. MENZIES,
who again denied that the Address was for the purpose
of supporting Jlinisters, and wished the Gentlemen
to withdraw their objections and allow the Address
to pass titeu.imously ; hut Mr. SKENE and his friends
COI ti:.tied firm, and the Address having been refused
to an Mi. SKEXE produced an amended
Address, equally loyal with the other, but disap-
provite of the conduct of Ministers. This Address
was loudly cheeiod by the people assembled, and the
I qu.-ti.•n fit-4 or second Address being put to the vote,
first Add-ess was carried by a majority of 97 to 15.
Your English readers will perhaps, from this state-
ment, conclude that the popular party was defeated ;
bat an v i.erson who is aware of the componen► parts
of a Sc tch county will see that, instead of a defeat
they had a triumph. In the first place, the ,Tories
were f r unanimity—they were defeated. Its the
second I lace, here were a variety of charges 'made
against Ministers—but, instead of dending them,
their friends were openly obliged to disavow, in the
most implicit terms, all connection with them. Thwhat
a pass has the conduct of a base and servile Ministry
brought the country, when that conduct cannot be
defended in a meeting of Scottish freeholders ? Had
the majority of the meeting been cleared of Sheriffs,:
Sheriff Devutes, Sheriff Clerks, Commissaries, Pro-
vo is and old Provosts, Town Clerks, and Tax-ga-
dieters and Cess Collectors, and other dependents on
the Crown and Gn a certain Noble. Family in this
county, the majority of 97 would have dwindled to
less than 15.
I may mention that the minority consists of the
most respectable Freeholders, Justices of the Peace,
and Commissioners of Supply, in the county.
I am, &c. s • 0 • 0.

was prepared with an Address? On which Dr.
Walker drew the Address from his rocket, and read.
it over to the Meeting. It was in tenonr very much
the same as the other exclthively Loyal Addresses,
and declaimed in the usual style against the " abet-
tors of faction," a Rrostituted Pres•," and so forth,
forgetting altogether, that these topics were not in the
Requisition, and thatit had been laid down as a rule
of these proceedings, that no topic which was not
there mentioned could be introduced.
Mr. SAMUEL CLAY begged leave to propose an-
other Address by way of amendment, expressive• of
loyalty and detail] attachment to his Majesty's per-
son and Government—of sorrow for the consequences
prodliced by the misrule of his Ministers—of indig-
nation at the attempts recently made to degrade the
Queen, and of a conviction that these appalling disas-
ters would not have taken place if the People had
been fairly represented in Parliament.
This Address having been seconded by Mr. JoDO:
BOOTH, a scene of joatephip commenced at which
every candid mind ,must revolt. Dr. WALKER con-
tended, that the amended Address Was irrelevant,
because it introduced subjects not mentioned in the
Requisition. On which, Mr. WOOD inquired if the.
Address moved by the Doctor was not open to the
same objection, seeing that the Requisition did not
mention the Press, and his Address made a furious
attack upon it? The Doctor, instead of answering
this argument, burst out into a furious tirade against
persons who, he said, wished to dethrone both their
GoD and their King !—( Violent murmurs).
. Mr. SENIOR professed quite as much regard for
both his GOD and his King as was either felt or
shewu by. Dr. Walker ; and insisted, that the be,t
way to serve the King, was to tell him what they
thought of his servants.
JOSEPH HAIGH, Esq. then rose, and moved "That
the original Address should be put and carried:' To
this it was objected, that the Amendment must of
course be put first; on which Mr. Haigh actually
moved, that the original Address should be consi-
dered as an Amendment upon the Amendment, and
that in this way it should take the precedency!—
This highly irregular proceeding the Chairman
adopted, and requested those who were for the
.amended (original) Address to hold up their haricls.
As might have been expected, an equivoque was thus
raised, and a number of persons did not know which
of the Addresses the Chairman had put. Sir Jana
then put the other Address, in favour of which Clete
was a decided majority; but, from the confased
mode of submitting the Addresses, no reliance what-
ever could be placed upon the shew of hands. Sir
Join, however, exclaimed—" 1 believe in my con-
science, as Gou is my Judge, that the original Ad-
dress has it !•" and we believe, in our conscience, that
Sir John is too honourable a man to make any de-
claration that he did not suppose to be true. In this
stage of the proceeding, considerable clamour and
confusion prevailed, both parties contending that
they had the majority ; and, in order to remove all
doubt upon the subject, the Gentleman who moved
the amended Address demanded that a division
should take place ; but this request, reasonable and
honourable as it was, was not complied with, and
Sir JOHN left the Chair, and quitted the room, with-;
out.dissolving the Meeting.
Mr. JOHN WOOD "was then called to the Chair,
when the Address proposed by Mr. CLAY was moved,
seconded, and carried unanimously, by about four-
fifths of the number originally assembled.
Since the Meeting both the Addresses have re-
mained open to the signature of the Ithabitants,
and the numbers of the subscribers to each are in
about the sam'e proportion as were their supporters
in the room—that is, about four or five to one for
the Amendment over the original Address. The state
of parties in Huddersfield and its neighbourhood, as
in most other places, is this—a large proportion of
the truly independent men are against the Ministers,
and against their measures. This is the case with a
large majority of the middle, and almost all the
humbler classes of society. In the higher classes,
which are always the most susceptible of alarm and
of Court influence, the majority cling to the Minis-1
ters, though both with diminished numbers and di-I
minished spirit ; and it is, we think, impossible to'
give a more decisive proof of the lowered tone of
the Ministerialists, than is to be found in Mr. H. B.
ALLEN'S speech, when he declared, that the Meeting
was not " assembled to approve or disapprove the
measures of his Majesty's Ministers." This was alone
wanted to render the humiliation complete ; even
their friends are ashamed of them, wad when they
come into public they shriek from applauding and
even from canvassing their measures.