The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-06-04 00:00:00

sword and belt of a knight of the shire, amidst loud cheer
ing from the assembled spectators,
The next ceremony was that of re-sealhi tip the polling
books. This being done, Mr. Entwisle tfi2tS requested to
put his seal to them, and the High Sheriff caused procla-
mation to be made inquiring if Mr. Brown was present;
the negative answer to this inquiry, from a score of voices,
caused great merriment
The indenture of return to the writ was then filled up,
and signed by the High Sheriff, and afterwards by the
following gentlemen :—Colonel Tempest, Sir Thomas
Brandier' Edmund Buckley, Esq., M.P., W. F. Hulton,
Esq., H. C. Lacey, Esq., and James Fenton. Esq.
Mr. Entwisle then presented himself far the purpose
of addressing the electors, and his appearance was greeted
with the most enthusiastic cheering. He spoke as follows :
Mr. High Sheriff and gentlemen,—Since our last meeting
at this spot, the contest has been fought, and, I am most
happy to say, has been won. (Cheers.) I congratulate
the electors of this division of the county,—at least those
of them who are my friends, for to offer congratulations
to the other party would be very ill received,—but I will
take the liberty to congratulate those electors who have
done me the honour to support me in this election, on the
result of their exertions. (Applause.) In proof that the
cause has been no slight or unimportant one, we may ap-
peal to the numbers that have been polled in this election,
those numbers amounting to upwards of 14,500 of the
electors of this most important district. (Hear, hear.)
That such an election, such a contest, could be carried on
with so little animosity, or ebullition of party spleen, or
resentment, I have been most happy to see—(applause) ;
and I am sure it must be satisfactory to every one of those
gentlemen who had been engaged in it that it has been so
carried on. Gentlemen, I may fairly say that this con-
test has been conducted on fair grounds; the cause has
been fairly tried between the two candidates,—one on the
conservative interest, the other the candidate for the
league. (Hear.) I believe the question has been fairly
tried between those two parties on this occasion. Both
were found unprepared by the very untimely and melan-
choly event which has necessitated our coming here to-
day; the forces of both were collected in haste; there can
be no doubt that such was the case •, and I am happy to
think that the contest has been tried upon fair grounds,
though, in saying so, I am assuming that for which I shall
not have credit given me on the other side,—namely, that
in some measure at least the merits of the two candidates
were equal. (Applause.) I observe it was said that the
difference between us was as great as between the sun at
noon day and a farthing candle. (Hear, hear, and laugh-
ter.) Gentlemen, Ido not pretend to enter into compa-
risons • but I will take the liberty of treating this as only
one of! those appellations which the party calling them-
selves liberals so liberally apply to all who take the liberty
of differing from them. (Loud applause.) When we were
here upon Friday last, we had another opportunity of ob-
serving the liberal manner in which those gentlemen con-
duct themselves. I will only allude to the circumstances
under which a third candidate was brought before the
electors,—(hear, hear)—for the purpose, whatever might
be the motive with which that gentleman was brought for-
ward, of serving only as an introduction for a speech for
the honourable member for Stockport, and for another
lecture in addition to all those we have received from the
league. lam threatened, on my appearance in the House,
to which I am destined to go as your representative
—(loud applause)—with being told by certain gentlemen
who have been expressing their opinions very freely in
Manchester, that I am to be visited with the weight of
their indignation, and to be told that 1 do not go to the
House of Commons as the representative of the electors
of this division of the county. (" You do," and applause.)
One of those gentlemen, at least, who has been at the
trouble of expressing his feelings on that subject, I think
ought not to indulge in any such terms as those in which
he threatens me. I allude to the honourable member for
Salford, who, upon a former occasion, to the best of my
recollection, went to the House of Commons elected by a
majority of one, having given his vote in his own favour.
(Loud applause and laughter.) Now, gentlemen, that I
am returned by a majority of the voters in this district
they will not assume for an instant to doubt ; but another
gentleman to whom I have alluded says I am sent there
by those who are driven to the poll like sheep. I should
be very willing to stake the issue of this or of any other
contest upon a comparison between the respectability and
independence of those electors of this division of the county
who have done me the honour to give me their support on
this occasion, and that of those electors by whom Mr.
Cobden himself is returned to the House of Commons. I
should have no fear for the result of such a comparison in
any impartial hands; and to them I would most willingly
commit it. I can only say that strengthened as I feel
myself to be by your support, and the support and counte-
nance with which I have been received in all parts of the
county I have had the honour to visit in the course of
my canvass, I hope I shall feel myself able, as I certainly
ought to feel myself able, to reply to any such arguments
as may be brought forward by any of those gentlemen.—
(Applause.) And it will notbe for want of a hearty good-will
in your cause if I omit to answer them in a proper manner.
—(Applause.) It is now my duty, gentlemen, to return
my most sincere thanks, and to hope that those exertions
which have been most freely given on this occasion may
not fail in future.—(Applause.) lam happy to be able to
add that many distant voters, many gentlemen residing at
a considerable distance, have lent their aid by coming in
numbers to the poll, feeling convinced that the importance
of the occasion demanded their services ' • and those ser-
vices have been most freely given.—(Cheers.) To all
those gentlemen I beg to offer my most sincere acknow-
ledgment, and in so doing, I am only expressing what is
the sense of tke electors at large. (Applause.) Mr.
Entwisle then proceeded at considerable length to state
his intentions of supporting measures calculated to extend
manufactures, and for the good of trade. He also alluded
to several inconsistencies and offensive epithets of Mr.
Cobden and others, and sat down amidst tumultuous
cheering.
Three cheers were then given for Lord Francis Egerton.
Mr. Entwisle then proposed a vote of thanks to the
Sheriff.—Mr. W. F. Hulton seconded the motion, and it
was carried with prolonged cheering.
The High Sheriff, in acknowledgment, spoke as fol-
lows :—Gentlemen,--I beg leave to return my most sin-
cere thanks to you all,—to the gentleman who has done
me the honour to propose this vote of your approbation,
and to you who have just received it in the most flattering
way. As I told you, on my first appearance on these
hustings, on the first day of the election, it was my deter-
mination to act towards all parties with the strictest im-
partiality. ( Hear, hear.) I flatter myself, gentlemen,
that I have acted up to that determination —that I have
done my duty impartially. (Loud applause!) Gentlemen,
most people know, I dare say, that 1 am opposed to the
Anti-Corn-Law League, and that I am a thorough Con-
servative. (Loud cheers.) On that occasion, gentlemen,
I told you that I did not show my politics ; but those were
well known to you all ; and being a true Conservative, I
d.d expect that every act of mine connected with the elec-
tion would be remarked upon, and in an unfavourable
way, by many who were assembled on that occasion.
(Applause.) But, gentlemen, I did not expect that shame-
less falsehoods would have been published in the public
papers ; and although 1 care little for them,—they are of
very little consequence,—still I do say this, that where
false assertions are deliberately made and published,
they should meet with a deliberate denial. (Hear,
hear, hear.) And I do now most deliberately say, that
those parts of the papers which have referred to
me, reflecting upon me in a shameful way, are totally
untrue. (Loud applause.) lam told, in one paper, that
there was not the least obstacle to my seeing the hands
held up round these hustings. In answer to that I say,
the very person who has made that assertion was himself
one of the obstacles to my seeing half the hands that were
held up. (Applause, and a cry of " Through his clumsy
skull.") lam told, by the editor of another newspaper,
unfavourable to me, unfavourable to your present mem-
ber, and to the cause in which you were all engaged, that
I was heard to declare, before I gave my opinion as to
the state of the show of hands, that I th)ught there was
a majority in favour of the other candidate. (Hear, hear.)
Gentlemen, I beg to say most deliberately, that I said
nothing of the kind. (Loud applause.) 1 will tell you
what did take place. (Applause.) My assessor was in
doubt ; he thought that there was perhaps a majority in
favour of Mr. Brown; but my assessor was not the she-
riff of the county ; he was not the person who was called
upon to declare for whom the majority was. Gentlemen, I
was appealed to by my honourable friend (Mr. Entwisle),
and by some of his friends on my left, who told me that
I could not see a number of the hands that were held up ;
and as you are all aware, there was a great number of
waggons here, (pointing to the front of the hustings) and
in those waggons stood the reporters for all the•papers,
and they certainly did obstruct my view, so that 1 could
not see the hands. If Mr. Brown had appealed to me, I
certainly should have listened to him, and taken the show
of hands again, because it was my great endeavour to act
impartially,and to do my duty to both parties. (Applause.)
Gentlemen, I will not detain you longer, but will congra-
tulate you that the election has passed over in the peaceable
way in which it has been conducted throughout the county.
Gentlemen, I beg to thank you all for the compliment
which you have paid me, for this pledge which you have
given me of your approbation of my conduct. This makes
amends for every reflection that has been cast upon me.
(Loud cheers.)
This terminated the business. The conservative pro-
cession then returned, in the same order, to the Leigh
Arms, where Mr. Entwisle and a large number of his sup-
porters took luncheon. At half-past two Mr. Entwisle
returned to Manchester : on Friday, he went up to
London, and was expected to take his seat in the house
last night (Monday).