Town-Hall, Ipswich, Sept....
The Times, 1824-09-13T00:00:00

At the electn,of Bailiffs andaTown.Clrk fot' th year ensuing, FFt1L5.5A5t Br3 tE, Esq., senior bailiff, opened the proceedings y stating that here could be no new freemren admitted as had eoee tU , on that day; for those adntdissions, If ibade, wo3tld be i;- legal, aI ihe expense thrown away. It was necessary thba;the free burgesses should elect two bailiffs t'or the governnmcnt of the town for the ensuing year, as the courty magistrates could not interfere. The electio, however, on that day, iirould not be valid, but the gentle. pnca must ultimately be removed in Michaelmas term by a qto rwar- canto, and a snandssmrw be procured from the Court of Kitig's Bench fl.r BACON i.ecBrother freemrnen Lepgl opinions havebeen taken, and all of them CORcur in stating that the electilin of this day must be set asidec Under c,hesecircurnstanceg, it never-was the intention Of the Blue party to have proposed anv candidates, and the dav might have pasrsed offqaietly. *'he illegaliiy of Mr. Aldrich's treedom created the mischief ia the first instance, and that.was owing to the other partyt. If the Blues had continued to ressess the ninagement of .hehor<ug ,itneverwould have been in thestnte of confusion it now is Mlr. LAWttANCZ presented hiinself, and said-" The conduct of the worthy bailiff, in private life. has ever been that of Jie gentle- aln .anI am happy to add, that, as far'am Ihave lheard, he hars lstisfactorIly discharged his 5nblic duties. But' I cannot forbear expresing my surprise at beanng an avowal from his own lips, that he has continued to hold his honourable office to this hour by a bad title; consequently, that the election which we propose to, make in thits place to-day must be futile, and that legal proceedingP must inevitably be resorted to in the ensuing terms to displace the gentlemen who may bc appointed to fill them. Surely, therefore, in the face of this evowal, thic more creditable course for the worthv Alagistrate to have adopted would have been, either that of li. claiming his office In the. last term, so that wve might have elected another bailiffin his piece, o? that such a course might have been ursued as would have procured an eleLtion under the statute of Il&o. I.By eithee of these motdes tile confusion and expense which t,ill be occasioned bgs the worthy gentleman's thus unwarrantablv (a lie admits himself) retaining his office to the last rninute would lave been avoi(led, and the afflirs of the Corpcration would have gone on in their mncient, in their regular coHrse." ,Here the noise anti clamour from tfie Blue side of the hall pre- vented the spe'aker from proceeding. M r. LEwwARtD, Al. P., said.-. Gentlemen and brother freemen, 1 asn come amongst vou not to dliscuss politics, but to assist, as a brother burgess, in tbie proper business of this your charter day, f.r the elecuon of annual officers; and in the performance of that duty I wilU be as brief as I possibly can. Sure I arm, that the gen- tleman I have to propose will be free from all charge of political bias. If I were not convinced of tliis, 1 woutld not be here to con- tribute, as tar as may voice can go, to his clection. It is, gentlemen, the important office of the civil magistrate to deqide on ali occasions justl , and without regardl to persons anwd, above all, lie should be caet-ul that no lpoliticai bias ever interfere in thie fscae of his deci- -ions. With the eelings I have stated, trhall now proceed to ptoposea geitlenman wiio is highly eligible, as I truSt you will all agree, for the office of bailiff, and who will be elected, I am sure, by a large n.tariey, if opposed. lie thenWated that the gentleman whom he cpropose was one who hatl before filled the office with great creet wto himself an.di usefulness to the town-Frederick Francis ieckanmp, Esq, whose charac;er stood so high as to require no enroinium from him. Mlr.A. ALFXA.-xDR, of London, seconded the nomination of iMr. Seekamp. :ar. Seekamp's nomination vas received with loud applause from a large majority. Dir. BATLEY here observed, titat the two persorns Intended to be pToposed for bailiffi must be tiominiated together.-(Cries of " No, no; no more putting in couples.") Mr. JACrCAMAN also sziid (as we understood) that the bailiffs, being one person, must be proposed together. . ir. liALniseAnD, .M. P., then rosc, bitt for a considerable time all was uproar, and not a word ctiul(d be understood. M1lr. B3ACOr interfered, and said he hoped Air. Haldimand would be heard. Hie had a very high respect for him as a gentleman, how- ever widely he differed from him in politics. Mr. H ALrIMAM D at length obtaitted a momentary hearing. The hon. member said that he felt gratified bytlhe compliment which hath heen paid him by his friend Mlr. Bacoti (if so he ought be allowed to call hini), for whotn he had the highest respect, excepting in his character as a politician. "M r. Bacon has said( proceeded the hon.mem- ber) tbatifit had not been forour party,the borough would not be in the .ondition it now is. J, on thecontrary (said the wrorthy member, in an inspiring tone,anti lookingto;w ards tbievastmajorityof yellow burgesses in the Ifall). ami highly proid of that condition; proud that the bo- rough has been brought into it by our exertions, and the growing: strength of a good cause. For Air. Bacon and all the Bluets of eha- racter and respectability (there are persens of character andrespect- ability in oneparty as twelll as the ot ier) I have a high esteem: but the Blues, or Tory partr, are always Ibr adding to the power of the Crown-we, preserving to the Cro,Vn its just rights, are for adding to the just rights also and powver o. the people. They doubtless are sincere, although, as I conceive, they follow a nmistaken line of con- dact; for it is eyident that the more power the Crown obtains, the less there must rmaain ot civil liberty among the people. We wis], to keep a constant check on the power of the Ml inisters ef the Crown ; for at xhat period of tim- has riot power been abused? - Look, for inmstance, at this borough, oyer which for many years ministers held ae uticontrolled sway; thereby increasing their power, and unjustly deprivinFtbe people of that salutary check on the power oithe (;rown, which afree aend un,iamsed chioice of reprcsentatires alone can give. li-aveevery apology tomake for entering itito a l)citical dis. cssion on the present occasion, but I was lecl into it by preceding ob- servations. 'We are itet here to.day to elecL bailiffs, accor.3ing to ancient charter; and it they are turned out, as lias been suggested by the presiding officers, we will meet here again to re-elect them w,hen the proper time come,. You will alway. find ilie, gentlemen, frgme, to usea term well understood." He should now hare the ho. nour, he said, to propose a gentlemati, unknown, indeed, as a public character, but whose private wortlh was well known and acknow- ledged-a gentlcman who might have liis equal, but certainly not Fis superior, among thc Blues. The hoti. mneimber then Droposed C. C. Hammond. Esq., as the other candidate to hold the office of Bailiff. AIr. BACO..-The principles I have heard from ilir. Haldimand are republican pinnciples. Had you (sai<l he, addressing the tree burges3es) supporteel your portmeti, instead of introduciig strangers into tie concernv of the borough, all this would net have liappened. .Mr. HALnMNI-AIr. Bacon lias said th-at ny ptri ples are retiublicat. ("No," said Mr. Bacon; "what I said was, that you encouraged republican principles by wishing to abridge the power of the C;ownL") I wish, continued MIr. Ilaldimand, the Crown to pre- serve all the power and all the privileges which the Constitution gives, arid furtheTl will not go. It isadmitted by all discerning men, wvhe- tther Whigs or Tories, anti it is laid down by all the great constitu- tuonal writers, that ithe influenceof the Crowi lias a natural tendency t. increase, and will iiierease, eveil toadegreedanigerous tothesafetv o-f the Crown itself, unless checked by the voices and votes of tl;e representatives of the people in Parliament. :ir. SEESKA:tp, in reumrning thaRks for the honour intended to be conferred upron him,observed, it hadbeen stated by Mr. Batley, thatitlie(lIr.Seekarrip) were elected to ite officeofBailiff,he would behliabic to be proceeded against by quo rwarra,to. If tiiS be the case !tnd Mr. Seekamp, surely it is no roore than proper that I should aik for a guarantee, I nmast, therefore, ask you to delend use, if toY right to the office be attacked. Mr. ALEXANDER then proposed, tihat if anty proceedings siroulid be brought against the bailiffs ithey were about to elect, the Corpora- iroel should bear the expenses. .Afr. BATLEY said lie would not put this question. Mr. LAW RANCE-Why does not M1r. Aldrich disclain ? or why way not the election corne on to-morrow ? (Loud clamour.) ilkr. Lawrance thien, as we understood, seconded Air. Alexander's propo sitior.. Hereupon there was a show of hands decidediv in favour of tbe niotion. .Mr. HALDIMAXISD then proposed Alr. Notcutt as Town Clerk- a person. he observed, who had served the office twice before, and who, he had no doubt, would serve it again with credit to himself and advantage to them. :Jr. SEEKAMP reconded thermotion, which was carried. A%t r. H. Alexander was next proposed and elected Town Treasurer. Then, wishing to get rid of the business as fast as they could, 'Mr. Wenn snatched away the maces, asid the bailiffs left the hall, which seas soon empty, and Cite town as quiet as if nothing had happened to ruffe the passions of any of its inhabitants. TOPPWN-YALL; IP JsWicT, Spi. 8;