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SATURDAY, JULY 24, 1852.
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^Snblit Mutts.
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There is nothing' so revolutionary, beca...
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THE "SCREW" IN THE COUNTIES. Sir George ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Saturday, July 17 The General Election. ...
his own words is a " Protectionist Protestant and Conservative , " in other words a bread-taxer , a bigot , and a Tory . When he said he was a Protestant , somebody cried out , " You don't look like one ; you look more like a billy goat , " followed hy shouts of laughter . While Mr . Disraeli was giving up Protection in Bucks , Mr . Christopher made the following remarks : — "I will now say a few words with regard to the position of Lord Derby ' s Government on the subject of protection to native industry and capital . ( Hear , hear . ) On any occasion on which I have addressed the electors of this division , on any occasion on which I have addressed the House of Commons with reference to these great interests ,
I have invariably maintained that a fair and adequate frotcction ought to be given to the industry of the people _, never pretended to deceive you by pretending that after the fatal year 1846 , at which period you had a duty on foreign corn varying from Is . up to 20 s . per quarter , it would be an easy matter to restore the act which was repealed in that year ; and I remember well the remarks of that chivalrous nobleman Lord George Bentinck' Gentlemen , this is the period at which you must exert yourselves , for , depend upon it , if you return to Parliament a number of representatives pledged to a Free-trade policy , you will increase the difficulties of every succeeding administration to reverse that policy . ' ( Hear , hear . )
Unfortunately that Parliament did approve of that policy ; and the plain question is now put to the electors of this kingdom , whether they will return to the present Parliament a sufficient number of representatives to enable the present Government to attack and to revise that policy . ( Cheers , and cries of 'No , no . ') The settlement of that question does not rest with the present administration , it rests with the electors of this great country . The Prime Minister has declared , in language which no one can misunderstand , his views on this question , and it rests with the
electors of the United Kingdom , and not Lord Derby , whether that policyis to be modified or not . ( Hear , hear , and laughter . ) With regard to the financial and commercial policy of the country , I hold it to be a safe principle generally that you ought to levy from f oreigners , under the shape of import duties , as large a portion of revenue as you possibly can without interfering too far with the comforts of the people , by which means the foreigner would be made to contribute to our taxation to a certain amount , to which amount British industry would be protected . ( Hear , hear . )"
Sir Montague and Mr . Christopher carried the show of hands ? , but a poll was demanded . Doesetshire . —Mr . Bankes , Mr . Seymer , Derbyites , and Mr . Floyer , again returned . Debbyshire ( North ) . —Mr . Cavendish and Mr . Evans , Liberals , returned . Durham ( North ) . —Mr . Shafto , Liberal , and Lord Seaham , Derbyite , returned . Devon ( South ) . —Sir John Buller and Sir 11 . Lopes re-elected . ESSEX ( south ) . PINAIj close ov the toll . Brinnston „ . 2 G 19 Sniijth 2418 Buxton 1792 ESSEX ( NOtlTTl ) . CLOSE OF THE POL ) , , PIKST DAY . Tyrell 1742 Beresford . 1 . 710 Lennard 54 , ( 5 JI 7511 _liVOKDSinit ... first day ' s poll . Hooker 2701 Hitnbury 2 ( 53-1 Lewis 240 . ' , King 2220 T CAST KKNT . FIRST DAY ' S l _> Ot , LIN << . _Dering 221 ( 5 Deedes 187 K Ih blares 1 7 . 'U West Kent . —Mr . Hodges resigned , nnd Sir I'l Filmer and Mr . Masters _rtnnr / _ii , ine _i'onsei-varive e . _tintlidates , were consequently returned . _JMOUTIIAMI'TONSIIIUIO ( sO _( ITIl ) . 1 'IKHT DAY ' S I'Ol . l _. lNU . _Vyse 14 :. 7 Knightley 14 . 17 Houghton . >' NORTH U M HKIII _. AN l > ( soUTtl ) . I'lKHT _IIAY ' H l'Ot . l . tN < i . Beaumont IHI 5 Lhhloll J 771 Kidley litl & _Z OXI'Oltl _) (( MlUNTV ) . _CI . OSI ' . OK Till' : l'OI . I .. Henley ( Minis ! eri . ilist ) .... 22112 North ( Ministerialist ) .... 2 I !) I Jim-court ( Liberal CoiiHcrvntive ) . i . _'lilH Norreys ( Liberal Conservative ) . (>( ' !) NiTftHKX . ( W 1 : ht ) . —Tho Karl of March , " confined to his bed by an attack of chicken pox , " anil Mr . l _' r ' _unw returned . HAST HUKIMCY . King _SMHI _, Alcock 2 _'W <> _Antrolmu ....... 20 ( i ( I _Cltuby . _. , * . * * . li _>< W
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Saturday, July 24, 1852.
SATURDAY , JULY 24 , 1852 .
^Snblit Mutts.
_^ Snblit Mutts .
There Is Nothing' So Revolutionary, Beca...
There is nothing' so revolutionary , because there is nothing' so unnatural and convulsive , as the strain to keep thing's fixed when all the world is by the very law of its creation in eternal progress . —De . Aknold .
The "Screw" In The Counties. Sir George ...
THE " SCREW" IN THE COUNTIES . Sir George _Gket , sorely pinched by tiie Derbyite screw , testifies with , a quasi-ofheial reluctance to the necessity of protection to the independent voter . The ex-Whig Home Secretary , standing at bay on the _hustings of Alnwick , is no admirer of the Ballot . No doubt , he still clings to the belief , that it is un-English to extend the practice of Pall-mall to societies less choice and less exclusive in the selection of their
members . It may be all very well to secure the secresy of selection in the Club , but in a matter of such _questionable importance as the choice of representatives for the Commons House of Parliament , the precaution of a Ballot-box is unworthy of that noble animal , the English elector . Mark , however , this confession , extorted by the Derbyite screw from the lips of a past and possible Cabinet Minister : —
" I will only say this—that , thinking as I do that the advantages and dangers of that system are both greatly exaggerated ; and , doubting as I do its efficiency , and not being forward to adopt it , I must say , that those persons among us who exercise an undue influence and coercion over the honest voters — ( Mr . Collingwood , of Glanton here cried out , ' Name , name , and no insinuation , ' ' and Sir George continued)—I am asked to name tliose who have exercised undue influence over voters , and who have created on their part a demand for the ballot . I had almost said their name was legion . ( Cheers and hisses . ) I only wish to say , that men who have acted in this way do more than any arguments can do in favour of those who advocate tho ballot ,. "
So much lor Northumberland , according to the testimony of Sir George Grey . But the fact is , that the remarks we made last week , on the coercion practised by a barbarous landlordism , fell far short of ihe scandalous reality . We write in the midst of a heap of damning proof ' s of these fatal excesses of a bastard feudalism . Last week we singled out one county for disgraceful distinction . We return this week to the same , spot , not because we believe the doings in . [ . Cast Somerset to be exceptional , but because circumstances have p laced in our hands the reports of eyewitnesses , and of suffering electors in that ; county- —reports which we de f y all the audacit y of " unjust stewards " to refute .
Of course , the result of the election has 1 »<¦>«»» the return of the two " _Karnieis' . Friends , " and the rejection of the Liberal-Conservative . True , the lni tar 1 i » . i 1 been in the field only three weeks ; but even bud be appealed to the good sense and public , spirit of thai constituency six months ago , he would have been eminently inadequate fo represent so much brutality , so much corruption as have contributed to the success of his opponents . We tell Mr . Ellon , it i . s an honour to him that no future compensation can surpass , nnd no present , defeat obliterate , to have failed in a . field where such base arts have won . Mr . Miles , indeed , possesses strong personal claims
upon the fidelity of his congenial constituents ; for , putting his o p inions aside , he has been a , diligent , painstaking , useful representative of local interests ; he has been consistently , and , we believe , most honestly jealous of the claims of agricultural stolidity ; he has shone with a halo of dull glory in ( lie ranks of the Heavies , otherwise known as Protectionists ; he has run his undamaged head against , walls of statistics , which no Cobden has cared to demolish , and no Osborne has expended his rockets to explode ; and lor fhe rest , hn may do to go on the stage , some years hence , as ihe typ o of that extinct species , Ihe county member , for whom "Church und State" aro civil aud religious liberty , aud
The "Screw" In The Counties. Sir George ...
Taxes the British Constitution . If it becam to allude to his more personal . -characteristics _M _? might speak with pleasant approval of hi 8 ehe ful and heartymbonhomie , of his business-lit " habits , and of that Napoleonic gift , of never _' fo getting _^ faces and names , and taking intense in " terest in everybody ' s domestic welfare _* which more than any other qualification , secures th ' hearts of British farmers and their wires , jr / 3 colleague , Mr . Knatchbull , is a new man to the world beyond his village , and ha 3 a reputa . tion to achieve as a speaker and a legislator which
, his performances on the hustings , have , we believe not contributed to render very _threatening—I except to the English language . These are the gentlemen selected to represent , par excellence the " dirty acres" of East Somerset in Parliam ent ! What wonder that a candidate like Mr . Elton should be rejected ! We " theorists , "indeed , mi _"lit dream that a man of ancient famil y and gentle birth , of refined and cultivated habits , a scholar and the son of a scholar , a student and a thinker a moderate but conscientious Churchman , _living
among his friends and tenantry , as a beloved and respected neighbour , exercising the health y influences of a country gentleman , whose life has been an open book , —we might suppose that such _, a man would be the ideal of a county member in these times of ours ; but in East Somerset such a man is a Pariah : —a Jacobin , an ultra-democrat , and—a Puseyite : a singular compound . He is a Jacobin because he asserts that the many should not be sacrificed to the few ; he is a Puseyite because he endeavours to believe that his Church
is something better than an establishment , and that it is not a mere shop , to be open only on Sundays , as other shops are on week days . He is an ultra-democrat because ho thinks the suffrage may be moderately extended within the limits of the constitution ; because he desires an " enlightened ministry ; " and because he says , " Let landlords do their duty by the land . " " Let
no such man be trusted , " say the landlords , the magistrates , the bankers , the attorneys , the military stewards , who have for the last _fortnight been- holding a reign of terror in East Somerset , carting tenants up to the poll like sheep , menacing electors , insulting non-electors , defacing every Avail with odious slanders , and with such amenities as we will not suffer to disgrace these columns .
Pour great landlords reign between Bath and Wells : they and theii _~ dependents have voted as one man , or rather as one yoke of cattle . One of these landlords , we have heard , was a conspicuous lie former in ' 31 and ' 32 . He has supported the . Liberal cause steadily for twenty years ; but now recants the opinions of a life ; and when Toryism is rotten , votes for a Tory , as when Protection is dead he , plumps for a Protectionist . Talk of the _agricultural mind after this !
He does not coerce indeed : he tells his tenants io vote as they like , and one of them bravely stands up by his side , and plumps the other way ; but he leaves this dirty work to a steward , " with a craving after dominion , and an insolence equal to the ( -raving . " The inditerof the pleasant circular we cited Wi (< weeic , IH , _iirs' 6 < , m « , it Sort or JOcuT _f , ou 1 s i \ ifp oleon- —a cock-tailed Coriolanus , going in for all that is feudal and all that is fossil in Tory ism . Surely he is a , candidate for future suffrages , for on the hustings lie has nothing better to do than to shake a , slick at the electors , and at the polling booths he prances about brandishing ti whip iu the midst of the tolerant and contemptuous
crowd . Ho adorns the walls of his neig hbourhood with sueh elegancies as " l ying scoundrel , iu { illusion to his political opponents . And the father , exulting in the genius of such a son , and in the prudence of such a steward , commits the well - worn reputation of a , Ilofornicr to a , g !| iss house ruled by a brittle gentleman who throu / _i stones ! This is o ik ; episode wo have received from I ' . ast , Somerset : another is that of a
very /\ sfiniable professional gentleman , who deserts his pills and his laiieef-ease to bleed p oor tradesmen of ( heir votes ; straining every nerve of intimidation in behalf of fhe Tory candidates , as fta mushroom mi ght , in the vegetable world , grow wild in enthusiasm for tho cauliflower interesli : a third episode is t hat of an ultra low-cluu * i ' h _eleif !<> yniaii , of ( he species immortalized in VVilki " _Cojliiiis ' s Christinas Tale , who takes occasion <" pn / ach against Ihe danger of elections inuking nii / n forget their spiritual interests , and at th " nine time _seasons his discourse with wot tt f _« _vV
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), July 24, 1852, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24071852/page/14/
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