The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-08-26 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

WARWICK ELECTION.

Warwick, Monday, August 22.

The nomination of candidates for the representation of the
borough of Warwick, in the room of Sir Charles Greville, who
has resigned on account of ill-health, took place in the County-
hall of that borough today. The candidates, as we have
already announced, were the Hon. Charles John Canning (son
of the late Right Hon. George Canning,) in the conservative
interest; and Jr. W. H. Ilobliouse (the brother of the Right
Hon. the President of the Board of Control,) in the whig-
radical interest. The election was looked to with great interest
in the borough, inasmuch as it was the first election since the
election of the new corporation, and as it was imagined by that
body that they would, by their influence, be at once enabled to
defeat the conservatives.
At an early hour the town presented the usual appearance
antecedent to an election, and party spirit runs very high here.
The nomination was appointed to take place in the County-
hall, at eleven o'clock, and at that hour the mayor and the
candidates and their supporters took their places on the hustings.
The usual formalities having been gone through, the mayor
called upon the electors to nominate any candidates they might
have to propose.
Mr. H C. Wise was received with mingled shouts of applause
and disapprobation. Mr. Mayor and Gentlemeu,—ln rising on
the pres,ent occasion to propose to you a candidate to supply the
vacancy in the representation of the borough, I am sure that
most, if not all, of those whom I have the honour of addressing,
will unfeignedly lament with me the cause which has led to
this event. (Cheers.) Our late representative, Sir Charles
Greville, has been obliged from the bad state of his health to
resign into your hands that trust which had been so long confided
in him. Gentlemen, how zealously and how assiduously the
high and important duties attendant on that trust were discharged'
by him, the long experience of I believe nearly twenty years
must be the best answer. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, Sir Charles
Greville has been long and intimately connected with this
borough, both personally and politically, and I believe that no
one was ever more esteemed or beloved by his supporters,, and
respected by those from whom he had the misfortune to differ
politically, than that hon. individual. (Cheers.) Gentlemen,
under these circumstances it is, I know, not a very easy task
to propose for your suffrages, a gentleman who has hitherto been
but little known to you in connexion with this borough. But
that difficulty is in some little degree removed when it is con-
sidered that the hon. gentleman brought forward in opposition
to the candidate I shall have the honour to propose is also an
entire stranger to the borough of Warwick. (Cheers.) So far,
at least, they are uyon an equal footing: But, gentlemen, the
name of Canning 'is not so strange and unfamiliar even to the
borough of Warwick (loud cheers,) and one can hardly men-
tion' it without associating in some degree the person of the son
with the brilliant and transcendent abilities of his-distinguished
and incomparable fattier. (Loud cheers.) Gentlemen, it is
not upon these grounds that I_would offer the gentleman I am
about to propose to your notice ; but it is, that being a gentleman
of high respectability and integrity, as also being a gentleman of
great talent and distinguished attainments in one of our univer-
sities, and a gentleman professing and maintaining those prin-
ciples which in my conscience I firmly believe are the most
conducive to the real interests of this great nation. (Cheers.)
He was willing to reform defects where defects where proved to
exist ; but was a decided enemy to revolution and anarchy, and
he is one who will maintain inviolate the venerable institutions
of this country, both in church and state, to the best of his
ability. (Cheers and hisses.) Gentlemen, it is upon these
grounds that I have the honour of proposing to you the Hon.
Charles John Canning as a fit and proper person to represent
this borough in parliament. ( Loud cheers and groans.)
Mr. E. Greaves briefly, but inaudibly, seconded Mr. Can-
ning's nomination. _ _

Mr. J. Tomes (formerly one of the members for the borough)
presented himself for the purpose of nominating Mr. Hobhouse,
but the confusion occasioned by the contending parties in the
hall rendered it extremely difficult to hear the speaker. We
understood him to speak to the following effect:—Gentlemen
and brother electors, I assure you I will not detain you long,
because it is quite unnecessary that I should say much after the
able and honourable declaration of his political sentiments
made by the gentleman I am about to propose as your repre-
sentative in parliament. He has told you that he comes
amongst you as a stranger, but he has also told you the princi-
ples upon which he presents himself to your notice—principles
which I trust every man in the country will soon and cheer-
fully adopt. I wish, gentlemen, my health would permit me to
address you more adequately on the present occasion, but the
gentleman I am about to propose to you, although not connect-
ed with this county or borough, is by name and character con-
nected and identified with the people of England at large,
(cheers,) and I have no doubt whatever he will shortly be more
intimately connected with you in particular. (Great uproar,
in the midst of which the mayor interfered to obtain attention
to the speaker.) 1 am confiaent it is unnecessary for me to
state to you the opinions of the hon. candidate with whose
name I shall conclude, as you will have an opportunity of cool-
ly considering the principles of the two gentlemen who appear
before you to solicit your suffrages. I beg of you, however, to
bear in mind that professions are nothing and that actions are
everything in the present times. lam quite sure the gentle-
man I am about to propose, and you are prepared to elect, will
do everything in his power for the benefit of this place, and of
the country at large. (Cheers.) I beg leave, therefore, to
propose Mr. Henry William Hobhouse as a fit and proper per-
son to represent this borough in parliament. (Loud cheers.)
Dr. Conolly was received with cheers and groans. He had
great pleasure in seconding the proposition which had been made
to them by their most respected friend Mr. Tomes; and be only
regretted that an opportunity had not been offered them of
listening to the observations of that gentleman. He did not,
however, wonder at the anxiety shown not to hear Mr.
Tomes's sentiments. Thei e was one cause which was supported
by words and reason, and one which was supported by noise
and brute force; and be contended that theirs was the cause
which did not fear to hear reason, and which would he ashamed
to have recourse to noise and brute force. (Cheers.) He
huped to see the day arrive, and he thought it was fast approach-
ing, when Englishmen would meet upon inch occasions as the
present and conduct themselves as a great people in the dis-
charge of a very important function—as became a people fond
of liberty, and determined to maintain it. If opportunity had
been afforded, he should have been glad to declare his reasons for
being of the party of thepeople against the party of mere power.
(Cheers.) He would have been glad to explain to them, look-
ing at Mr. Hobhouse's address, the particular points in it which
left no course to the friends of the people than to support that
gentleman. (Cheers.) He (Dr. Conolly) should have been
proud to explain to them those points, because they were senti-
ments which would have been responded to by every firm and
English heart. (Cheers.) But he saw that this was no tune
to enter upon such points. He saw this was a contest between
the supporters of freedom oti,the one hand, and of mere power
on the other—between a patty en the one hand most anxious to
improve the condition of the people, to render them more free,
prosperous, and independent, and a party on the other deter-
mined to support pensions and all those things which pressed so
heavily on the people. After a few other observations of a
similar loose and general character, the doctor concluded by
seconding the nomination of Mr. Hobhouse. (Cheers and
groans.)
No other candidate being proposed, the Mayor called upon
the electors to give an impartial hearing to the two gentlemen
nominated.

Mr. Canning, after order had been in some degree restored,
spoke to the following effect:—Gentlemen, I hope you will
follow the fair and impartial advice which has been so gene-
rously offered to you by the mayor, and give to us all the ad-
vantage of an attentive hearing. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, this
contest I conceive to be one of principle, and not of persons,
and therefore I entered into it without feelings of acrimony or
hostility, and I trust that the gentlemen opposed to me have
done the same. (Cheers.) Acrimony can add no triumph to
the victors, and it will bring no consolation to the vanquished.
(Cheers.) Gentlemen, I am well aware that some people here
present do not consider this a contest merely of principle—l
am aware that most of you have heard that my hon. opponent,
when he first entered the town, expressed his satisfaction that
he was coming among you to rescue the borough from the
tyranny of the Castle—(cheers)—l am aware that I have been
taunted with being the nominee of the Castle. (Cheers, and
cries of " You are.") Gentlemen, let me tell you, that if
any man, by using the term nominee, means that the lord of
this or of a hundred castles has the power to force upon the
electors of this borough a representative of whom they do not
approve, the charge is an insult to you, and not to me. (Loud
cheers.) But, gentlemen, if by nominee it is only meant that
I, from my coincidence in principles with your late represen-
tative—with a man who so long and so diligently served you—
who gained the honour of your services by the principles which
he professed, and which I now advocate, and who brought to
that service all those good qualities which can adorn the soldier
and the man—an ardent zeal, high integrity, and an unremit-
ting energy to this hour (cheers)—if, I-repeat, owing to my
coincidence in principles with Sir Charles Greville, I have the
fortune to succeed in carrying with me, in this contest, the sup-
port and good wishes of his family, his friends, and his late
constituents, and if for that reason I am called a nominee, not
only do I not deny, but I glory in the name. (Loud cheers and
groans.) Gentlemen, the hon. individual who seconded the
nomination of my hon. opponent touched upon that gentleman's
address to the electors of Warwick. Now perhaps my hon.
opponent, in connection with this subject, will allow me to ask
him one question. I believe he arrived in this town on Wed-
nesday morning last—his address was not published until Thur-
sday night. With all due deference to my opponent's elec-
tioneering experience—in which be has much the advantage of
myself (loud laughter and cheers)—l say, gentlemen, with ad
deference to him, I would ask him if that was the usual course?
Was it sanctioned at Finsbury—was it observed at Bath ?
(Laughter and cheers.) Gentlemen, I conceive that one and
all of you would have considered it more fair and open in my hon.
opponent -if he had manfully declared his own opinions before
ho had carefully ascertained yours. (Laughter and cheers.)
Gentlemen, I think indeed that even I may be allowed to cons-
plain of that delay, for I confess that up to Thursday I had no
knowledge whatever of the political principles professed by the
gentleman by whom I am now opposed. True it is that an
advertisement was most irlustriously circulated by that gentle-
man's present friends and supporters, stating that they were
prepared to bring forward for your favours " a gentleman of
acknowledged liberal sentiments and intimately connected with
the county." Now, gentlemen, how was I to know but what
the first part of the definition here given might be as fallacious
as the last? (Cheers.) True it is my hon. opponent is not
connected with the county, and I could not, therefore, take it
for gospel that he entertained " liberal opinions." (Cheers.)
Now, however, gentlemen that that address is published, there
is one point in it which I confess has much surprised me. (A
voice—" Give us your opinion.") My opinion upon the Poor I
Law bill 1 am about to state to you. Gentlemen, I did not ex-
pect from a person who so firmly coincides with the views of the
present government such a sweeping condemnation of their pet
bantling. (Cheers.) In fact, when I found how closely the opiniou
of my hon. opponent coincided with those of a great portion of the
party who allow the present ministers the benefit of their support,
I could scarcely believe my eyes at reading his paragraph on the
subject of the poor laws. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, I honour him
for it, and trust that if ever he should have the good luck to find
himself seated in the House of Commons, with Lord John Rus-
sell on his right hand, and Mr. Spring Rice on his left, with his
brother, Sir J. Cam Hobhouse, to hack him up, iie may never
find occasion to repent or wish to retract the verdict he has
' given on that bill. (Cheers.) My own opinions on that hill
• are these—l think it cruel, and doubly cruel, because I think it
unnecessary, that power should be given to any number of men
to separate a husband from his wife, and the parent from his
children. (Groans for the bill.) I think it a hard case, gentle-
men. (Great uproar from the supporters of Mr. Hobhouse,
who were evidently determined that M r. Canning. should not be
heard upon this subject ) Well, gentlemen, I wish you joy of
your poor law bill, and I would gladly see that and other clauses
;mended. On every other subject the addresses of myself and
my hon. opponent are so totally different, that there is no com-
paring them. I tell you, gentlemen, I am essentially a conser-
vative. My principles, indeed, yon know. They are, as I have
before now stated to you, admiration of our constitution, a con-
sciousness of the danger which threatens it, both from Mternal '
and external foes, and a firm determination to do my utmost to
defend it. (Cheers.) Further, let me add, that I reverence
my church, am loyal to my King, and the faithful friend, but
not the servile flatterer, of you. (Cheers.) I will say no more,
furtherpian that I am ready to explain my views and opinions
on any subject upon which any of you may wish for informa-
tion. and I cent hide by begging of my friends to extend the

same courtesy to my hon. opponent which has been generously
given to me—a patient heating. (Loud cheering.)
Mr. Hobhouse next came forward to address the meeting,
amidst cheers and disapprobation. He said that as the cause
for which they had assembled was their own cause, and not his,
or that of his -honourable opponent, he would entreat them for
their own sakes to give him a patient heating. His honourable
opponent had told them that the present contest was one not of
persons but of principlQ. He perfectly coincided with him; he
however thought that his speech was a direct contrast to the
statement he set out with. As far as he could collect from his
opponent's speech, he had not told them his opinion upon any
of the public measures. He should like to have heard him
state his opinion to them on the subject of the ballot. Instead
of that, however, or of giving his opinion on other. public mat-
ters, he confined himself to telling them in his address his ob-
jection to him (Mr. Hobhouse.)- His hon. opponent had asked
him a direct question. He would give him a direct answer.
He was a stranger to the borough, and had been invited by the
reformers to come forward as a candidate. He at once accept-
ed the invitation; but he was determined not to go to the poll till
he had ascertained whether the principles he professed were in
accordance with those of the majority of the electors. This he
had satisfactorily ascertained, and should go to the poll with
every confidence of a successful termination of the contest.
Upon the subject of the poor laws, he should like to ask his
hon. opponent whether he (Mr. Hobhouse) could in any man-
ner be a party to that act ? He disapproved of many of its pro-
visions. He would, however, point their attention to one
single fact. The gentleman who proposed Mr. Canning
was chairman of a board appointed by it. (Loud cheers)
He again repeated, that if, upon examination of all its provi-
sions, he saw any that were injurious or oppressive to the poor,
he should be equally anxious to annul them and stand by the
cause, of the people as his opponent. (Cheers.) He repeated
he had come there at their bidding and at their wish to assert
and vindicate the principles of freedom, and to give them an
opportunity of returning the man of• their choice, and prevent
any unconstitutional interference with the freedom of election.
He would ask them whether it was ever possible for this country
to be again governed under tory or conservative principles?
The spirit of the age was such, that he was certain this country
would • never return to toryism. In looking back, even to the
beginning of the American war, every single point had been
abandoned by the tories. They had in 1828 yielded up a point
upon which, for many years previous, they had taken their
stand. He alluded to catholic emancipation. They had re-
sisted the repeal of the test and corporation act as long as it
was possible for them to do so. If they forced the present go-
vernment to retire from office, they might rest assured that the
next government would be decidedly liberal. (Cheers.) He
felt that he had exhausted their patience. He should, therefore,
in conclusion, only assure them that he should ever be found, at
all times and all seasons, in or out of parliament, advocating
the principles of his address. One word more. He had found
it impossible for the whole of the electors to give their suffrages
freely; but be must say he never asked, or would receive, a
vote -from any elector who did not give it freely, unbought, un-
biassed by undue influence or intimidation. tie requested that
his friends would come early to the poll in the morning, and he
told the independent electors of Warwick that the victory was
their own. (Cheers.)
The Mayor having asked, and there being no other candidate
to propose, then put the show of hands, which he declared to be
in favour of Mr. Hobhouse. A poll was demanded on behalf of
Mr. Canning, which is appointed to take place to-morrow morn-
ing, at eight o'clock.
A vote of thanks having been given to the Mayor, that gen-
tleman returned thanks, and the meeting was adjourned. The
candidates subsequently addressed their respective friends from
the windows of their hotels.

WARWICK, TUESDAY NIGHT, AUG. 23.
The election has terminated as I anticipated yesterday, in the
return of Mr. Canning. At an early hour this morning all
parties were on the alert, and the election throughout the day
has been conducted with great vigour.
At two o'clock the state of the poll was—
For Mr. Canning
For Mr. Hubhouse

Majority for Mr. Canning . 34
At the final close of the poll the numbers were—
For Mr. Canning
For Mr. Hobhouse 434

Majority for Mr. Canning. 3O
The poll was declared in the Shire-hall oy the Mayor, and
after the usual formalities connected with signing the return,
Mr. Canning addressed the electors. The hon. gentleman
congratulated the electors of the borough upon the victory they
had achieved, and offered them his most sincere, and he might
be allowed to add, his enthusiastic thanks, for the honour they
had conferred upon him. It was his first step into public life,
and to the very end of his existence he would remember, with
pride and gratification, the triumph of the principles he had
come forward to advocate; and, he most sincerely trusted, if
they ever found him desert those principles they would condemn
him. (Cheers.) He (Mr. Canning) could assure them that
this triumph of the principles which he had on this occasion es-
poused would ever be the Polar star which would direct the course
of his future public life. (Cheers.) He disclaimed all party
conuexion—he had no friends in the cabinet—he had no con-
nexion in parliament, and although he appeared before them
perhaps as a youth,—he was still a free and independent man.
(Cheers.) He hoped he should gradually cease to be a youth;
but he would never cease to be free and independent. (Cheers,)
He had nothing more to observe than that he hoped if they dis-
approved of his conduct in parliament they would speak out,
and that on future occasions they would not have reason to ac-
cuse him of any dereliction of duty. (Cheers.)
Mr. Hobhouse, evidently chagrined by. defeat addressed the
assembly amidst much confusion, and intimated his intention of
coming forward when an opportunity occurred.
Mr. Canning and his friends then paraded the principal streets
of the town, and were loudly cheered during their progress.