The Statesman.
London, England, 1812-10-10 00:00:00

VIM!. ELRGTION.

We tetrad from the Bristol Gazette the following,
as the substance of the Speech of Sir Samuel Ro-
Spiny on his being nominated as a Candidate to repre-
seat that City in Parliament. Dear as the name and
character of.iir Samuel is to every man who loves kis
fellow-creatures, his speech will he read with the
most lively interest by every friend to the civil and
religious liberties of the people. Bristol, we trust,
will have the high honour of returning him to Par.
liament as their Representative.
64 Ma. Streeter--I appear before you to offer
you my services as one of your Representatives in
Parliametit.---If you shall repose that important
ttust In me, I shall consider it as the highest honour
that could be conferred on me, and as the best re-
ward I could receive for my past endeavours to serve
the public. It is not, however, merely as an honour
and a reward that a seat in Parliament ought to he
considered, but as an office of great difficulty and
fatigue, of deep responsibility, and one which no
person in my situation can properly and honestly
ill, without making many and almost constant saCri•
ices of his time, his ease, and his comforts, per-
haps of his health, and certainly of his emoluments.
These sacrifices lam willin,, nay, lam anxious, to
make in your service, and I shall be proud of hav-
ing those duties imposed upon me. If, however,
you shall, in the contest which is about to take place,
decide against me, I shall submit to your decision
With perfect cheerfulness ; and if I am to retire into
private life, I shall, while I am enjoying those do-
mastic comforts which I have the happiness to pos-
sess in av targ.. r. portion as falls to the lot of most
men, and while I am devoting my time in the occu-
pations of a lucrative profession, have the setisfac-
ion to reflect, that my dohg so proceeds from no
Mean or selfish motive of preferrirg my own private
advantage to the public good, but from my fellow-
citizen, hating rejected the services which I had ten-
dered them.

" It bas been usual for persons who stand in the
'Ravioli of Crelidatos to make professions of their
political opirt;e•-. to give promises of their
future conduct, and this is undoubtedly proper in
those who have nor vet been tried, and Who have no
pure conduct to refer to, because with such persons
what is it you can have to trust to, but the profes-
sions which they make, and their private characters,
which afford you secerity for the sincerity. of
those professions ; but with those whose public life is
already before you, such profeseintis and promises
can he of little avail, for either they are consistent
Frith what they have already done, aii4 then they are
unnecessary, or at variance with it, and in that
Arse they are entitled to no credit. I shall, there.
fore, upon this occasion, neither promise nor profess,
nor shall I presume to remind you of what I have
attempted to do • but I may with propriety tell you
what are the qualifications which, in my opinion, yon
ought, at the present crisis, qo look for in a Re-
present tine. tie ought to be a man firmly attached
to those principles of our Constitution which were
established at the Rerolutien, and which have seated
and -mainteined the present Royal Family on the
throne. Ho should justly appreciate, and be ready
at all times to rimintaie the Liberty of the Press, and
the Trial by Jury, which are the great securities for
all our other liberties. He should be a sincere friend
to peace, and anxious to seize on °rely opportunity
of securing all the htessings which it must bring with
It, whenever there is a prospect that it can be per-
eminently obtained. He ought to bedctermined,when-
ever the men with whose political principles he is
general agrees, and with whom he therefore gene-
rally acts, propose, or support measures which., in
conscience, he disapproves, to oppose them,
just as if they were the measures of his poli-
tical adversaries. lie should be an enemy to
that influence of the Crown, and of the Ministers. of
the Crown, which has been so fatally exercised in
the House of Commons, anti consequently a friend
to Parlamentary Reform. He should be a constant
advocate for economy in the public expenditure, and
a determined enemy to corruption and peculation ;
and if he thinks he discovers them in persons of the
Uglier rank, he should not be deterred from censur-
ing and arraigning them, by any apprehension, that
by so doing he may incur their high displeasure, and
blast for ever all the prospects of honourable ambi-
tion, in which be may at some time have indulged.—
Ile should be ready, when he sees evils arising from
' any of our present institutions, to enquire into the
causes of them, and to suggest a remedy, notwith-
standing the reproach of being au innovator, which
be may incur from those who have au interest in per-
petuating abuses; and, above all, he should be a man
incapable of being swerred from his duty by the
threats of power, the allurements of the great, the
temptations of private interest, or even the seduction
of popular favour ; and who should constantly re-
collect that all the toil, tho pain, and the fatigue of
his office must be his own ; and all the advantage's
which are to result from his labours must be for the
" These are the qualifications which, in my opi-
nion, you ought to look fur in your Representatives.
Perhaps it is not prudent in me to state them. Per-
baps, in this eeteneratien, I have been pronouncing
my owe ciiirdseneation; and in pointing out to you
what is requisite in a lember of Parliament, I have
only been reminding you of What is wanting in my-
self. Of this you are the judges ; but whatever be
till eemsequence, I Altait rejoice in what I have done ;
for this I can with perfect sincerity declare, teat I
may be elected by you is only the secend wish of my
heart. The first is, that Bristol, and other places of
popular Election, may send to Padiameat able, ho-
nest, disinterested, and patriotic Members.
" Gen•lePtenl amongst the qualifications which
are, in my okilnieln, requisite in,a Member of Par-
-141140, I have not said that he should be deter-
mined, under no circumstances, to accept an Office
under the Crown. I have not said so; because that
I
is so tar from being my opinion, that think there
are circumstances in which it may be his duty to ac-
cept
of such an office. I should be sorry to be mis-
uuderstood by you upon this subject, and I am glad
of this opportunity of avowing what my opinion ,
upon it is ; and indeed, in appealing to my past con-
duet, I have told you that was my opinion, since I
formerly myself held an office under the Crown. If
a man barters his principles for office—if in office he
acts upon different grounds from those which he pro.