MM3
36
versary to contend with) is at length terminated : and the record of jour si exertions in my favour, and in a cause p< your own., exhibits the unexampled of 542.
In addition to the 1280 freemen who h their votes before twelve o'clock this di informed, that hundreds more were a pressing to the poll, whose services were unnecessary; but of whose zeal I shall n a less grateful remembrance.
The haste which I made to present n you, Gentlemen, immediately on my a England, has delayed the performance of my public duties.
I trust that this consideration will be by you as an apology for my not rem Liverpool to tender to you my personal respects and acknowledgments.
I take leave of you with feelings more deeply impressed than I can describe, by the testimonies of your undiminished, your augmented kindness.
I have the honour to be, With the truest respect and gratitude,
Gentlemen, Your obliged and faithful Servant,
GEORGE CANNING.
Liverpool, June 21, 1 8 1 6.
THE
SPEECHES
AND
OF THE
f;mt. (Scorgc Canning,
DURING THE
ELECTION IN LIVERPOOL,
WHICH COMMENCED
ON THURSDAY THE 18TH AND TERMINATED ON THURSDAY THE 25TH OF JUNE,
1818.
TO WHICH IS APPENDED,
compr ufciou* Account DC tyc I2ir rtiou.
LIVERPOOL: PRINTED BY AND FOR T. KAYE,
AT THE COURIER-OFFICE ;
AND SOLD BY THE BOOKSELLERS IN TOWN AND COUNTRY.
ADVERTISEMENT.
1 WO reasons have led to the publication of the following SPEECHES, delivered at different times in the course of the recent Election by Mr. CANNING.
The first is, that a record might be preserved of a contest which has issued so successfully in the assertion and support of those principles which are equally dear to every enlightened Englishman and bound up with the best interests of the country. The second, that these interesting specimens of the eloquence and talent of our distinguished representative being collected into one volume, may, with greater convenience, be referred to than in the files of a news- paper.
It is not necessary to dwell upon their merits. To every person of taste, to every person who knows how to estimate the talent which unites so much wisdom with so much elegance, and gives the results of a profound reasoning in the graceful form of a chastened and classical rhetoric, they will be read with pleasure and instruc- tion, and referred to in future with interest, because their merit does not arise from the temporary occasion which gave rise to them, but from a truth, temper, and taste, which depend not on acci- dental excitement to give them value. They are the sterling coin which is current at all times, and which, through every period of its circulation, retains its value.
Liverpool, July 9th, 1818.
SPEECHES, &c.
TO THE
WORTHY AND INDEPENDENT FREEMEN OF LIVERPOOL.
London, June 10, 1818. GENTLEMEN,
JL HE Parliament is dissolved, and the writs for a new Parliament are about to be issued immediately.
I lose no time, therefore, in conveying to the great body of my constituents the assurance, which I gave some weeks ago to those among them who did me the honour to call upon me for it, that my services are again at their command; and that I shall receive with pride and acknowledgment a renewal of the trust which they have twice so flatteringly confided to me.
I hope, Gentlemen, to pay my personal respects to you before the day of election; when I trust that I shall be met by you with anabated kindness.
To that kindness I presume not to put forward any other pretensions than a steadfast adherence to the principles which first recommended me to your choice, and a zeal for the particular interests and prosperity of your town, which has increased in pro- portion as I have become more acquainted with its inhabitants.
I have the honour to be, With the truest respect and attachment,
Gentlemen, Your obliged and faithful servant,
GEORGE CANNING.
SPEECH ON HIS ARRIVAL,
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17.
DELIVERED FROM THE BALCONY OF THE HOUSE OF JOHN EOLTON, IN DUKE-STREET.
GENTLEMEN,
THEY deem very lightly of the situation of a mem- ber of Parliament, who think that it is one either to be solicited or to be granted as a favour. It is an important trust which the constituents confide; it is an arduous duty which the representative undertakes to discharge. And wisely has our constitution or- dained, that periods shall arrive at which the receiver of that delegated trust shall return it into the hands of those from which he received it, not to resume it again, unless by their unchanged and unabated con- fidence.
Gentlemen, there may be those to whom such a day of account is fearful. As to myself, I confess, that, if I were to compare even the day on which I was first honoured with your suffrages, or the day on which you renewed them to me two years ago, with the present day, I should say, that, even with all the perils (be they what they may) of the menaced con- test before me, your reception of me has made this day, comparatively, the happiest and the proudest of the three.
Gentlemen, in confiding to your representative this awful trust, you impose upon him a twofold duty. The one, to act in his place in Parliament according* to the best of his own honest judgment for the gene- ral good of the whole kingdom. The other, to watch with diligence and fidelity over the interest of hi» particular constituents.
Gentlemen, if, in the latter point, I have, in any instance, failed, let the man whose just and honest interests have been neglected by me come forward and charge me to my face. I make the challenge, because I know that I can meet it. And, in making
this challenge, Gentlemen, I make it not only as an amicable call upon those who are my friends, but as a call of defiance even upon those who have been my antagonists. If, since I have been honoured with the name of your representative, I have suffered, in any one matter of individual concern, the recollection, of local politics to warp the straight line of duty, I have not performed that duty well. But I know (and therefore it is that I desire to be corrected, if I am stating this proposition untruly) that there is not one, even among those who would have impeded the com- pletion of your choice, who has not, when he has wanted my services, according to his fair occasions, profited by them.
But, Gentlemen, while I have faithfully discharged this last part of my duty, and, in this sense of impar- tiality, while I have considered myself, though re- turned by the suffrages of the majority, yet placed in the House of Commons as the representative of the whole, although I have never suffered a question as to any man's vote at the election to deprive him of any assistance which I could properly render him, whether in the way of his individual business, or in co-operation for the interests of your town; in the dis~ charge of the other branch of my duty I have acted on other grounds. I have acted, indeed, on those subjects in consonance to the wishes of the great majority among you who elected me, because the opinions which I held on questions of constitutional policy are the opinions which first recommended me to your notice: and those opinions I hold still un- changed ; and have never qualified or compromised them by any infusion of the political opinions of your opponents.
Gentlemen, in explaining, thus shortly, what has been the tenor of my past conduct, I entreat you to collect from that explanation, rather than from any promises or professions, the course which I am likely to pursue in future. To particular interests, to local interests, I shall give a constant attention. But it is in conformity to the constitutional principles which procured my first return to Parliament as your repre- sentative that I shall hereafter, as heretofore, govern my political conduct.
Gentlemen, we live in awful times, and when prin- ciples are abroad, the indulgence of which, the fos- tering of which, the countenancing of which, the not resisting which strenuously and determinedly, would hazard the existence of the happy establishment un- der which we live. With these principles I have never held communion, and will never compromise. And if, by the declarations and the stand which I have made against those principles, I have excited the fear and incurred the hatred of those by whom they are professed and propagated, I find my con- solation and compensation in the additional hold which, you allow me to believe, I have obtained upon your affections.
Mr. CANMNG declined entering into the present state of local parties, or into the prospects of the election. He concluded by merely stating, that the poll would open at eight o'clock in the morning, and that the earlier they took the field, the sooner the con- test would be over.
AT THE
CLOSE OF THE FIRST DAY'S POLL,
THURSDAY, JUNE 18.
GENTLEMEN,
To begin with matter of fact; the poll to-day has exceeded my most sanguine expectations. By your favour I have obtained a majority, amounting, in the whole, to 304; a greater number of freemen than ever polled on a first day for any one candidate. The next in succession is General Gascoyne; his numbers are 249. The last, the Earl of Sefton, whose numbers are 164. To this last number, that with which I have been honoured is nearly in the proportion of two to one.
Gentlemen, after this statement, I may be allowed to say that the contest has begun auspiciously. It is not absolutely nothing that we are favoured as we are by the beauty of this day, which enables the
5
immense multitude which I see around me to be assembled without inconvenience, and that we bear in recollection what day this is— the anniversary of the greatest victory that ever crowned the British arms. Gentlemen, all these auspicious circumstances, un- doubtedly, are not peculiar to ourselves: the same sun which brightens the scene before me, shines with impartial light upon our opponents. But there are points upon which those who hold the political opi- nions which we concur in holding have feelings more peculiarly their own ; because we know to our sor- row, and, as Britons, to our shame, that there are breasts (let me not be supposed to indicate any per- sons among yourselves) in which the recollection of the day of which this is the third anniversary excites no such triumphant sensations as it excites in your breasts and in mine; — there are those to whom the recollection of that mighty victory, in which the right arm of Great Britain struck down the most stupendous tyranny that ever bestrode the world, affords matter rather of regret and lamentation than of unqualified exultation and national pride.
But, Gentlemen, peace has its triumphs as well as war. If the memory of that battle, which rescued Europe, and, in rescuing Europe, saved this country from the common lot with which, sooner or later, it might otherwise have been overwhelmed, is to be cherished in our hearts with everlasting and grateful remembrance, it is not merely because it exalted to the highest pitch the military character of this coun- try ; — it is not merely because it may be supposed to have shielded us from the evils of a renewed -and long-protracted conflict ; — not because it preserved our shores from invasion — (for when could these happy shores have seriously to dread being trampled by the foot of the invader 0 — not merely that it main- tained to Great Britain the rank which she had always vindicated to herself among the nations of the world : — but because, through all these means, it contributed to the maintenance of that constitution from which all our blessings and all our strength, all our power to achieve and all our right to enjoy, are derived: and that constitution, we have but too much reason
6
to be aware, has, even when the dangers of external attack are past, internal enemies to combat.
The triumphs of peace, therefore, are wanting to give full vigour and maturity to the best fruits of the achievements of war. And, amongst those triumphs, I know none more splendid, more imposing, more effectual, than the peaceful triumph of a popular election, conducted on principles such as yours; principles which are directed not to the extravagant exaltation of the democratical part of the constitu- tion at the expense of the other branches of it, but to the due support of the whole of that beautiful and complex frame, of which popular election is, indeed, the animating and conservative spirit.
Gentleman, I should be glad to know, among those who entertain the wildest notions of the elective suffrage, whether they might not be contented, theo- retically at least, with the proceedings of this day. If I am asked, whether I will consent to extend in- definitely that right of suffrage which I have this day witnessed the exercise, I answer — NO. And, first, for this plain reason — I will not consent to disfran- chise my constituents. You enjoy and have a right to your franchises : and franchises and privileges are terms which imply a principle of limitation. Be- sides, unlimited extension of the right of suffrage would dissipate and exhaust its virtue : as the circle that spreads from the stone cast into the water ex- tends itself till it embraces the whole surface of the pool, and is lost in its own diffusion.
Gentlemen, at this period of an election which may yet have many days to run, it is my desire to avoid any topics which could be construed as coun- tenancing, much less giving rise to, local differences. And, among the circumstances which enhance the triumph of this day, is this, — that no day, since I have been acquainted with Liverpool, has at once contri- buted so much to the favourable result of an election and disturbed so little the peace and good-humour of the community.
Gentlemen, it is the business of all who are con- cerned in this struggle to take care, so far as depends upon themselves, that this temper shall be preserved.
But, if I may be permitted to make any distinction, I should say, that it is more peculiarly the business of my friends. With all the certainty and the grow- ing manifestation of ultimate success, give me leave to tell you, you cannot afford to incur the suspicion of ill-humour. Give, I beseech you, to the rest of England, agitated, at this moment, by popular con- tests, (as, in the nature of things, it ought to be at the period of a general election,) an example, in Liver- pool, how such contests should be conducted.
Mr. CANNING concluded by saying, that, if the success of that day were followed up, in the like proportion for the two following days, the result of the contest would be in effect, if not altogether, decided ; and took leave in the hope, that those who had not favoured him with their company at the hustings that day, would be at his bar early on the morrow.
AT THE
CLOSE OF THE SECOND DAY'S POLL,
FRIDAY, JUNE 19.
GENTLEMEN,
THIS day has been as auspicious to our cause as yesterday in every respect but one — that which I mentioned as telling equally upon our antagonists as upon ourselves — I mean the fine weather, on which I yesterday congratulated you. But you will derive some advantage even from this deterioration in our circumstances : for I shall, therefore, feel it a duty to detain you the less while ; knowing how many of you must have been exposed to the whole incle- mency of the day, and must be desirous of repairing to your homes.
Gentlemen, the state of the poll this day is as follows : your continued exertions have raised me to a number, of which, I believe, there is no instance oa
8
a second day's poll in Liverpool, 623: General Gas- coyne has obtained 527 : Lord Sefton, 352. But, what shows still more strongly the exertions which the freemen have made this day towards bringing the contest to a close, is, that no smaller a number than 980 freemen have already polled; a rate which, if every freeman of the town were supposed to be within the reach of the hustings, would, in four days more, exhaust the list of individuals who have the right of voting. Comparing this with the rate of any former election, I have to congratulate the freemen of the town on the unprecedented alacrity with which their exertions have been brought forward. I con- gratulate them still more on the continuance of the peace and good-humour of the town, during a struggle of such arduous and animating competition.
Gentlemen, I understand that some attempts have been made to-day to detract from the value of the majority which you have obtained for me, by attri- buting it to an understanding — to what is called a coalition — between myself — or, rather, between those who do me the honour to give me their support, and the supporters of the candidate who stands next to me. Gentlemen, without fear of being misappre- hended, I say, that I have the highest respect for General Gascoyne, and that I shall be well pleased if I should have him again for my colleague. We have worked together for six years, and, I hope, not to your disadvantage. But I state this merely as my own individual opinion; I state it, because the frank- ness with which I make that declaration entitles me the more to implicit belief when I follow it up with an assertion, that, upon my honour, so far as 1 am in- formed and believe, there is no such understanding as has been imputed.
Gentlemen, the friends who originally recommended me to your notice, and whose recommendation has conciliated to me your powerful support, — these friends, I say, are not the party in Liverpool who ever presumed to think they could impose two mem- bers upon this town. They are not the party to dic- tate to the freemen, that their votes should be given to two or none. No such pretension is entertained
on the part of my friends : it would be idle and su- perfluous to add, that there can be no such presump- tion on my part.
It is for you, Gentlemen, by your unbiassed suffra- ges, to ascertain who shall be your representatives ; and to place them on the record of those suffrages according to the order in which you may think they deserve to stand. Of this, Gentlemen, you may be assured, that, whatever individual the suffrages of the freemen of Liverpool shall be pleased to associate with me in the important trust which they are about to delegate to their representatives — with that man, even if I should differ from him in general politics, I will co-operate for the benefit of the town ; and he shall have, on all local questions, if he wishes it, the advantage (whatever that may be) of my cordial assistance and of my disinterested advice.
Gentlemen, I hope that, by the few words which I have addressed to you, I have disposed of the ques- tion of coalition ; — and that you will believe, that as, on the one hand, neither those who recommended me, nor you who have adopted me, are entitled or desirous to prescribe or fetter the choice of your brother freemen ; so, on the other hand, I look to your suffrages for myself alone ; — not presuming to exercise a discretion or to express a wish as to the mode in which you shall dispose of the vote which remains, after you have placed me where the repre- sentative of your choice ought to be.
Gentlemen, another day, such as this, will go far to accomplish that object. For the present, I have before me occupation for the evening, which, added to the fatigues of the morning, will, I am sure, pre- vail with you to allow me to retire : and you, Gen- tlemen, I know, will be employed, during the remain- der of the evening, much better than in listening to me, — in pursuing that course which you have hitherto so successfully pursued, to bring to full maturity exertions of such unexampled promise.
JO
AT THE
CLOSE OF THE THIRD DAY'S POLL,
SATURDAY, JUNE 20.
GENTLEMEN,
THE circumstances and the progress of the poll this day are, in some respects, but not materially, different from what I ventured to anticipate yester- day. Our fine weather has returned to us, and our good-humour has not yet abandoned us. I trust, therefore, on the whole, that the election will be conducted under the same auspices, and, on our side, — I woiild hope on all sides, — in the same spirit in which it has begun.
The numbers of the day are : for myself, who con- tinue to stand, by your exertions, highest, 882 ; for General Gascoyne 762 ; for Lord Sefton 582 ; giving to me, by your favour, over the antagonist whose success could alone bring mine in question, a majo- rity of 300 votes ; an increase of near 30 upon the positive majority which I enjoyed yesterday. It may be material to add, that no less than between 14 and 1500 freemen have polled; justifying the calculation, that three days, at the same rate, must not only be decisive of the election, (which, indeed, I trust, will be decided sooner,) but would exhaust, to the last man, all the registered and producible votes of this borough.
Gentlemen, I mentioned to you yesterday the in- sinuations respecting a coalition. I avowed to you, that I wished well to General Gascoyne ; but I told you, at the same time, what is correctly true, that no coalition of interest had taken place, and even no understanding between his friends and mine. But, Gentlemen, in giving this negative to an assertion which is untrue, I beg not to be understood as imply- ing, that, if that assertion had been well-founded, — if, holding the same public principles, General Gas- coyne's friends and mine had determined to follow the same course, — there would have been any thing to be ashamed of in such a concurrence and co-ope- ration. I denied the assertion, because it was not
11
founded in fact ; and because I suspected it to be made for the sake of drawing from it an inference, not unfavourable to my politics or to General Gas- coyne's, but disparaging to you and insulting to the independence of the freemen.
What I then suspected is now more obvious. The imputation of a coalition was evidently contrived; first, with a retrospective policy, to justify that memo- rable coalition of 1812, which you then called me in to defeat, and which, in your hands, I was the instru- ment of defeating ; and, at the same time, to justify, prospectively, if the state of the poll should require it, a coalition of another sort — the bringing forward an empty bar to split votes (as the election phrase is) for the Earl of Sefton.
Gentlemen, it was to lay the ground for this mea- sure that the cry of coalition was raised ; and though the denial which was given to that cry was such as, in my conscience, I believe, must have convinced those who were most busy in propagating it, that it was wholly without foundation; yet, having, by per- severing assertion, attempted to convince others, if not themselves, of, the truth of it, a pretence has been deduced from it this morning for opening ano- ther bar for your antagonists, for the purpose of magnifying their poll. I do not complain of this as an unfair stroke of policy. They have a right to take their own course. But the right which they ex- ercise themselves, they cannot complain of seeing, in turn, exercised by others. In compensation, therefore, for the untenanted bar of Mr. Heywood, your worthy fellow-townsman, my respected host, has had the goodness to allow his honourable name to be used for the purpose of advancing my poll in a like proportion. He is contented to be, for this pur- pose and in this sense, the shadow of a candidate ; well deserving, as you know him to be, if he were alive to such ambition, of the substantial suffrages of those fellow-townsmen whose esteem and affec- tions he enjoys.
Gentlemen, in elections, trick must be met by trick, and management by management. We, Gen-
»0i?
tlemen, — my friends as well as myself, — -were ready to go on quietly in our own path, separate and un- connected, leaving to the freemen of Liverpool to decide between the three candidates for their favour. But, when a fourth name is started, for no purpose but that of an apparent and fallacious multiplication and subdivision of votes ; — (as if it were imagined, that a vote is like a polypus, which, cut in two, shoots out a head or a tail, and so doubles itself on each division ;) — we have thought ourselves at liberty to adopt the same ingenious experiment. And, if success be a legitimate test of an experiment, we have, certainly, no reason to be dissatisfied with the suggestion which we have thus borrowed from our opponents.
Gentlemen, the effect of this device, though it has been, in one sense, to retard our progress, will, in another, perhaps accelerate the conclusion of the contest. It has retarded us, because it has given to our antagonists to-day an appearance of strength, which they do not, in reality, possess: just as an appearance of wealth would be assumed by any person who should expend the income of two years in one. If, by splitting their votes, they could, indeed, have made two out of one, undoubtedly they would have gained a real and permanent advantage ; but having, in fact, polled two votes, instead of one, in each round in which Mr. Heywood's bar has been made auxiliary to Lord Sefton's, it is evident, that the tendency of such an increased expenditure must be to shorten the duration of the contest. They can- not " spend and have;" and the votes, thus lavishly anticipated to-day, may, perhaps, be missed on Monday.
Gentlemen, you know better than I do, that we have forces enough in store to meet this and any other mode of division or multiplication. I will not, therefore, detain you longer than while I request you to persevere with the same industry which you have so beneficially exerted hitherto, in collecting, for the day of final success, all that remains to be brought forward of the effective strength and affectionate zeal of your several neighbourhoods.
13
. . -• • '
AT THE
CLOSE OF THE FOURTH DAY'S POLL,
MONDAY, JUNE 22.
GENTLEMEN,
IF I have been longer than usual this evening in reaching the place from which I am to address you, you are to attribute it to the accident of my being, according to an arrangement agreed to by all the candidates, the last to leave the hustings this day. And, under these circumstances, you will be rather surprised that I am not later still — when I tell you, that the number of candidates for the honour of re- presenting you in Parliament has been, in the course of this day, not less than twenty-one !
Gentlemen, you have all read, no doubt, the letters of Lord Chesterfield. It is upon the authority of that polite writer, I think, that it has been laid down as a maxim, that, for the perfect enjoyment of social comfort, a company ought not to be less numerous than the Graces, nor more numerous than the Muses. Gentlemen, your candidates, when we set out, were equal in number to the Graces only; and, so long as that analogy was preserved, we went on most courte- ously together. On Saturday, that analogy was abandoned by the addition of two candidates. Dis- order immediately ensued: but wre had no sooner reached the hustings this morning than an attempt was made to repair it by raising our number to nine. Bars were actually opened for candidates equal in number to the Muses; but not, that I could see, with any great increase of harmony from that association. Gentlemen, having tried that mystical number for one round, (just time enough to induce Lord Sefton's friends to inscribe "HARMONY AND SEFTON"* on their flag,) it was found, that the Muses were any thing but a security for harmony. The harmony which followed the adoption of their number was,
•
* A flag, with this inscription, was displayed during the day.
1*
indeed, of that species, for which certain concerts (called, I know not how justly, after our neighbours the Dutch) are celebrated, where every man is said to play his own tune upon his own instrument!
Unluckily, the effort to escape from this confusion was not as well considered as it was, no doubt, well intended. By adding to the number nine, nine more, and three more to that, till, by regular progression, we rose to the number that I have stated, twenty-one, — I cannot help thinking, that we rather augmented than diminished the complication of our affairs.
The list, however, of twenty-one, which I hold in niy hand, but which the excessive state of pres- sure in which I see you prevents me from reading to you, contains many names of individuals which you would hear with kindness and respect. — (Cries of Read, read.) But, then, Gentlemen, there are others of a different description. — (Cries of Read, read.) No, Gentlemen. The concert which I have described is happily terminated : and, as many of the perfor- mers were advertised without their own consent, and were never persuaded to take a vocal part in it, I should do unfairly in bringing their names before you for criticism and comparison.
But, Gentlemen, I say seriously and sincerely, it was a great satisfaction to me to find, that, in case of real necessity, there were so many men in this town, of the principles which you approve, who could have been brought forward to put down any combi- nation against your interests and freedom. Among these names, as I told you on Saturday, my respected host (who now stands near me) was one; and, as I then announced to you this fact, and the motive of his allowing himself to be put in nomination, I owe it to him to say, that, that motive having ceased, he has lost no time in relinquishing his short trial of public life; and, giving up all claim to your suffrages, has gladly withdrawn again into that privacy which he loves and which, you all know, he adorns.
Gentlemen, I was for some time at a loss to con- ceive what could possibly have put it into the head of that venerable magistrate, Colonel Williams, (for
15
he it was who started this extraordinary arithmetical progression to-day, by presenting himself as an ad- ditional candidate;) — I was at a loss, I say, to con- ceive, what could have suggested it to his imagina- tion, that, amongst all the things that were wanting in this contest, and on his own side, candidates were the materials in which they were most deficient. From all I had before heard, I had reason to sup- pose, that of candidates they had enough, and that voters were principally wanting. But, it seems, it was reserved for this sagacious politician not only to discover where the want really pinched, but who was the fittest person to supply it. My difficulty, however, was, in a great measure, solved, when I recollected the worthy colonel's passion for parlia- mentary reform. The fashions of London travel down to the country, and are sometimes mistaken and disfigured in rural imitation. I am persuaded, that, something in this way, Colonel Williams, hav- ing learned, from Major Cartwright, that universal suffrage was the one thing necessary in politics, has only made a small mistake in the application of that doctrine, and has conceived the major to intend, not that every man should vote, but that every man should be a candidate ! Under such a conception, (however misapprehended,) nothing could be more praiseworthy than Colonel Williams's tender of his services. Of this plan of reform it may, at least, be said, that, as it is the newest, so it is the most simple and most innocent that Colonel Williams could pos- sibly pursue.
The expedient, however, having been tried, we have all, by common consent, grown weary of it ; and, after having indulged a little of that ill-humour which will break out in the best regulated contro- versies, we have found, happily not too late, that we had better return towards the point from which we set out. We have so returned ; not, indeed, pre- cisely to the original number of the Graces, but to that number with the ornamental addition only of Mr. Hey wood, as a sort of master of ceremonies. You have now again three real candidates offering themselves to your choice; and Mr. Heywood is so
good as to stand by to see fair play.
9 * * J
16
Under these circumstances, you will not be sur- prised that our progress to-day has been considera- bly retarded. In point of fact, the number of freemen polled this morning does not amount to one half of that polled on any preceding day. It is not above 230. But this diminution of total numbers has not diminished the majority which, by your favour, I already enjoyed. Lord Sefton' s numbers are 685: mine 1007; (increasing the majority of Saturday by 22:) General Gascoyne stands between us with 869. We still deny, and truly, the existence of a coalition; but Lord Sefton and Mr. Hey wood are professedly united: two and two are a fairer match than two and one would have been ; and it is for you, not for me, to draw the inference which you may think right from this conjunction.
AT THE
CLOSE OF THE FIFTH DATS POLL,
TUESDAY, JUNE 23.
GENTLEMEN,
Two thousand two hundred and forty freemen have now polled. Of these, 1290 have honoured me with their suffrages. The majority with which I stand over Lord Sefton is as 1290 to 979; a majo- rity of 311.
Gentlemen, undoubtedly this is a most satisfactory, and, with a view to the conclusion of the contest, a most decisive majority. But, in the spirit of truth in which I have always addressed you, I must not omit to call your observation to the circumstance, that, upon the poll of this day, there is a diminution of my majority by 11. This is no very considerable loss, indeed ; it is one which we can afford, and it is one which we can repair; but it is fit that it should be distinctly stated.
Gentlemen, I have been considering with myself to what cause this small, partial, and temporary retro-
17
gradation is to be ascribed. Not, certainly, to any want of zeal on the part of my friends; because this day has brought to the poll a greater number o£ voters than ever attended at any poll in Liverpool. But, I think, Gentlemen, I have discovered the cause in myself, — and in my own misconduct. From the moment of my arrival among you, I have been guilty of a great omission. It too often happens, that those who have received great benefits are, so long as they continue in the uninterrupted enjoyment of them, unmindful of the hands from which they were re- ceived- I state this infirmity of our nature, not as a sufficient apology, but as the best that I can offer, for having, during the course of this election, omitted to ascribe due influence to the female part of your community.
Gentlemen, I am this day punished, and justly, for that omission: but, (like our majority,) I trust, it may yet be retrieved. You will be my witnesses, that, on former occasions, I was not remiss in tracing to its true source the unexampled success which at- tended my first election. You who know how much I owed to the good wishes of the female part of the inhabitants of Liverpool, know also how gratefully and gladly I acknowledged the obligation : and, if I have hitherto neglected to renew those acknowledg- ments, the minority on the poll of this day, small as it is, would be a sufficient hint to remind me of my fault ; and the glory of this day, in the exhibition of beauty which it has brought forth to witness my re- turn home, would be a sufficient inducement to me to make haste to confess and to repair it.
But, Gentlemen, however remiss I have been here, I have not been forgetful, elsewhere, of the claims of the female wTorld to due participation in matters of election. Of the plans of parliamentary reform on which, in my place in Parliament, I have had occa- sion to comment, I have commented on none with more indignation and rebuke than on that which, ad- mitting the whole male population to a vote, pre- sumptuously excluded women from a right of suff- rage, falsely denominated universal. I do not mean to say, for I will not flatter even the fair part of my auditors, at the expense of truth, (at least before so
D
.
18
large an assembly as this ;) — I do not mean to say, that even the association of the softer sex in the new system of elective franchise would entirely reconcile me to an extension of it which, I think, would be full of mischief. But there is one pledge which I am quite ready to give, and which, I trust, they will think satisfactory, — that I never will consent to any plan of universal suffrage in which they are not included.
Gentlemen, having now frankly confessed my crime, and offered the best atonement in my power, 1 will riot profane the day by mixing any other topic in iny address to you; nor by addressing to you, Gentlemen, the least worthy half of my auditory, any thing in which the female part of it are not immediately concerned. I will not even exhort you to persevere in your exertions in my favour, with- out adding, that, though the day is not yet arrived on which ladies are allowed to come forward in their own persons to the bar, you are, nevertheless, to take them into your councils, and to rely upon their advice and upon their influence in the conduct and for the success of the election.
AT THE
CLOSE OF THE SIXTH DAY'S POLL,
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24.
GENTLEMEN,
MY confession of yesterday has redeemed my fault; the atonement which I offered has been accepted ; and I have now the satisfaction of informing you, that my majority has recovered from the small abatement which it suffered yesterday, and is reestablished on a footing which is not likely again to be changed, and on which I shall be perfectly contented that it should rest, unaugmented, until the final close of the poll.
Gentlemen, the number at which I stand to-day is 1571 ; a majority over Lord Sefton of 327. General Gascoyne is between us: his number is 1370;, giving
19
to us, Gentlemen, (if that were material,) a majority of 200 over him; and himself retaining a majority of about 131 over Lord Sefton.
This is the comparative state of the poll. The total number of freemen who have polled is no less than 2761 ; being, by 35, a greater number than ever before polled at any election in Liverpool. Accord- ing to all reasonable calculation, therefore, the battle must soon expire for want of combatants. But, how- ever this may be, you will be glad to hear, Gentle- men, that, even should our antagonists find the means of maintaining, for another day, the same close conflict which they have maintained throughout this morning, I am enabled confidently to assure you, and I do myself entirely believe, that, after polling with them man for man, to the exhaustion of the last vote that it is possible that they should bring into the field, I should still have a chosen reserve of more than 300, who would come forward, not to decide the poll, but to swell the magnitude of our victory.
Under these circumstances, Gentlemen, it is not improbable, that to-morrow may be the day of final struggle ; for, so far as I have had any opportunity of observing the proceedings of our opponents within the last two days, there is no disposition, on their part, to a vexatious protraction of the contest. I owe it to them in justice to say, that I have seen nothing in their conduct, that nothing has otherwise come to my knowledge, which would authorize me to sus- pect, much less to impute to them, any intention of keeping the town in that state of ferment and dis- quietude which is inseparable from such a struggle, after their hope of success shall have been really abandoned. I owe it farther in justice to them to say, that, from the effect, probably, of their example, as, I hope, of ours, my experience of elections in Li- verpool cannot find a parallel to this for the peace- ableness and good-humour with which it has been conducted on the hustings, and which, so far as I know, have generally prevailed throughout the town. As to ourselves, indeed, I took the liberty of stat- ing to you, at an early period of the election, that it was peculiarly our duty to abstain from all inflam- matory topics, from all incitements to irritation : for ,
20
if defeat affords no excuse for the indulgence of such a temper, and can derive no consolation from it ; it is no less true, that the display of any intemperate spirit detracts much from the grace and from the credit of success.
I trust, Gentlemen, that the contest will be con- tinued to the end in the same manner : and, looking forward to another opportunity of addressing you more at large on topics from which I have purposely abstained during the contest, I will not longer with- hold you from your avocations of the evening. I take the liberty only to exhort you to unrelaxed activity in finishing the little that remains to be achieved towards our complete and final triumph ; exhorting you, at the same time, to make, as hereto- fore, your wives and daughters sharers in all your councils.
TO THE
WORTHY AND INDEPENDENT FREEMEN OF LIVERPOOL.
Hustings, June 25, 1818.
Half-past One o'clock.
GENTLEMEN,
THE proclamation has just been read which finally closes the poll and confirms me again your represen- tative in Parliament.
Accept my warmest thanks for the zealous attach- ment which you have shown to me ; an attachment to which, I know, I have no other claim than what arises from my having maintained, constantly and strenuously, the public principles which first recom- mended me to your choice, and having discharged, I hope not unfaithfully, the duties which that choice imposed upon me.
I have the honour to be, With the truest respect and acknowledgment, Your obliged and faithful servant,
GEORGE CANNING,
21
•i, ;. i iri - ' ••
AFTER HAVING BEEN CHAIRED.
FRIDAY, JUNE 26.
GENTLEMEN,
FOR the third time you have been pleased to raise me to the envied situation of representative for Liver- pool; and this time by a more general concurrence than on any former occasion, and by a majority more commanding in effect, though (for reasons which I shall presently explain) not so recorded on the poll.
Gentlemen, this election has been distinguished from both the former in which I bore a part by the good order and good-humour which (with some trifl- ing exceptions) have generally prevailed throughout the course of it. When I first addressed you from this place, I took the liberty of exhorting you, so far as we were concerned, to set to the United King- dom the example of a contest peaceably conducted. It appears to me, Gentlemen, upon the retrospect of all that has passed, that the caution which I then gave has never departed from your minds; and when I learn, as I have done with grief to-day, the nature of the proceedings in some places where contests are now carrying on, I cannot but congratulate you on the proud contrast which this town presents to the excesses of other popular elections.
Gentlemen, it is not that the conflict of principles is not here sufficiently strong; — it is not that the shades of difference between parties are here but faintly marked ; — it is not that there is any lukewarm- ness in either of the parties which divide this town, (God knows, not in you, Gentlemen,) either as to the side which you have chosen, or as to the principles which you profess. Far otherwise. But you know, Gentlemen, and you have taught others to know, that the fair practical exercise of the British constitu- tion allows the fullest scope for the expansion of every liberal sentiment, for the ebullition of every popular feeling, for the conflicting diversity of pub- lic principles, and even of personal partialities: — it allows fair scope for all these, within a boundary
22
which is not to be overleaped; but within which the most swelling enthusiasm may find room to exert and to exhaust itself.
Gentlemen, for the moderation ' and good sense with which this contest has been conducted, we are indebted, first, I hope, to our sense of what we owed to ourselves : secondly, to the warning recollection of former transactions of the same kind, in which a spirit of a very different sort was allowed to intro- duce itself among you: thirdly, to the respect in- spired by the firm and vigorous exercise of authority on the part of the presiding magistracy of the town: and, fourthly, I should be unjust if I did not add, to the existence of dispositions, in this respect, similar to our own among the leading friends of all the candidates.
Gentlemen, there is no one quality which so effec- tually extracts the gall of political animosity as that generous British spirit, which, while it is warm in conflict, is sedate and temperate after victory; which, while it asserts itself, does justice to an enemy. Gentlemen, in this spirit, you will, I am sure, agree \\ith me in feeling, and, so agreeing, will think that I do right in stating for myself and you, that the re- presentative of the candidate whose pretensions alone caused any contest, — (I will name him, because I name him with honour,) — Lord Molyneux, has con- ducted himself throughout with a propriety, a mo- deration, a grace as well as a spirit, which, though they have not enabled him to fasten his father's pre- tensions upon Liverpool, must, I am sure, have es- tablished for himself a claim to the good will and good opinion of his neighbours. Of this young nobleman I had no personal knowledge till I saw him on the hustings: but it is but justice to say, that, 111 a situation so new and trying for so young a man, his whole demeanour has been such as to win, day by day, upon the regard of his opponents.
But, Gentlemen, why is it, selfishly speaking, that I am thus lavish in the praises of an antagonist, (an- tagonist, indeed, in one sense, he would be incorrectly called, because you well know that it was not against us that any contest was directed;) — why is it, I say, that I am lavish in the praises of an antagonist?
23
•
First, because they are just: secondly, because, as we are, I trust, disposed in temper, so in prudence, we can afford to render that justice. J5e the antago- nist who he may, rate his private character and per- sonal behaviour as high as any man can rate them ; still there is nothing in all this that could reconcile the people of Liverpool to the principles on which Lord Sefton rested his pretensions to their favour. The courtesies of private life, the civilities of good neighbourhood, may obtain for the individual a place in your esteem : but the delegation of a public trust requires confidence in approved public principles; and where that confidence is wanting, the delegation must ever be solicited in vain.
Gentlemen, one word, and only one word more, with respect to the election. It closed, as you all know, with the following state of the poll : 1654 for myself; 1444 for General Gascoyne; 1280 for Lord Sefton; leaving to me, over Lord Sefton, a majority of 374. But, Gentlemen, I have already stated to you, that the recorded majority would be only an un- fair criterion of our relative strength. I should, per- haps, have passed this topic over, had I not seen an address from the committee of Lord Sefton, which exhorts the defeated party to take comfort from the smallness of our majority at the close of the poll. Gentlemen, I have no objection to their taking com- fort from any circumstance whatever which they may think capable of affording it. But I object, in this case, to their taking a fallacious view of your re- sources and of their own; because such a view might provoke new trials of strength, to the unnecessary and unprofitable disturbance of the peace of this com- munity. It is fit that neither they should be misled nor you disheartened by erroneous calculations.
Gentlemen, Lord Sefton's friends came forward yesterday morning (as, in my address to you of the preceding evening, I had confidently ventured to an- ticipate) with a fair acknowledgment that they saw no chance of success remaining ; and they proposed immediately to withdraw their candidate, on one con- dition only, — that we should not persist in prosecut- ing the poll for the sake of swelling our majority. Gentlemen, it was, in one sense, a great sacrifice to
24
you to desist from the prosecution of the poll : the freemen were at hand, they were pressing eagerly forward to record their votes, and a few short hours would have swelled your numbers to such an amount as would have stifled for ever all hope of a success- ful contest against you. But the spirit in which the proposal was made, the reasonableness of the ex- pectation that a voluntary abdication, however pru- dent, should not be made an occasion of triumph ; and this farther consideration, that, if my friends had persisted to poll after the third candidate had with- drawn, they would have been exclusively answerable for the peace of the town ; — these considerations, to- gether with the recommendation of your chief magis- trate, which it was the duty of all parties to obey, determined us to accept the condition annexed to the withdrawal of Lord Sefton's name. We accordingly ceased to poll as soon as he ceased to be a candi- date for the representation of Liverpool. But, when I find an inference drawn from the positive numbers which the proposal and acceptance of this condition have left upon the poll-books, which inference is to- tally at variance with the fact, I think it my duty to set right both those who infer thus rashly, and those who might be deceived by this false inference, by stat- ing, what I am enabled to do from the most authentic information, that the number of freemen who were ready within call to be added to my majority, as fast as their names could be written down, was, at least, 500. I confess this is a greater number than I had reckoned upon, or could believe, till it was ascertained upon authority not to be disputed : and I will add, that, in naming this number, I still deduct, for the sake of being safe, upwards of 100 from the lowest estimate that has been communicated to me.
To calculate, therefore, the value of our majority, you must add to the 374 which appeared on the /slose of the poll, at least the number of 500 as that by which it would have been augmented within a few hours. It is important that this fact should be known, because, during three successive elections, a contest has been maintained against your choice, on the be- lief (I am willing to suppose) that there was strength enough in the opposite principles to entitle those
25
who held them to dictate the representation of the town. It is material, that, on this point, you should be convinced, because on the perfect understanding of it, not the certainty of triumph, but the chance of escaping contest hereafter may depend.
Gentlemen, in other places, at this moment, con- tests are carrying on with excesses which disgrace the name of liberty. The like excesses were confi- dently predicted here. But when it is known, that the vast population of this town has been, now for eight days, in perpetual concourse and fermentation, without producing, so far as I know, any one serious tumult, or any thing like a combat of blood, your town will exhibit, to all the populous towns and cities of the kingdom, an example which, I hope, it may not be too late for them to imitate.
There is another consideration arising out of these circumstances, and out of the newfangled doctrines of the reformers, which I will take this occasion of suggesting to you. The spirit of popular elections, Gentlemen, is the spirit which keeps alive the frame of the constitution, which gives it strength, and motion, and activity. But, Gentlemen, even after our own good conduct, to which I allot its full value, after the experience of this election, so different from the last, I would ask any sober man among you, whether that project, which is now the favourite with the reformers, of indefinitely multiplying the number of voters, and multiplying sevenfold the occasions of exercising that franchise, would bear the test of ex- periment? whether the election which we have seen — (and it is the best specimen of popular election that I ever saw or ever heard of) — whether this election itself could recur annually, accompanied with an ex- tension of the suffrage to half a million of persons more than now enjoy it, without infinite and intoler- able mischief? — (Cries of No, no!} If these silly doctrines of annual parliaments and universal suff- rage could be inculcated into the people by their de- magogues, is there any doubt, that the effect of them would be to derange and destroy the orderly, regu- lated play of the British constitution? — that constitu- tion which works well because it is orderly, because
E
dtlbix? o) -^Iqisonq aJcgoqqo adi ai d^gftoat
26
it is regulated, because its movements are calculated and known; — while you, Gentlemen, would, by these boasted improvements, be disfranchised at one sweep- ing blow; and upon your disfranchiseraent would be raised a system — if system it can be called that has nothing but \vild and untried theories for its basis — which, if attempted to be carried practically into effect, would lead to boundless anarchy and confusion.
If, therefore, Gentlemen, there be those who think, that freedom cannot be sufficiently infused into our government, unless the right of suffrage be universally extended, I appeal to your own good sense for a re- futation of their absurd proposition. But if there should be others, who, contemplating the disgusting and disgraceful violences which are now practising under the pretence of free election in other places, could almost make up their minds to think, that the evil inhering in the system of popular election was greater than the benefit, — to those reasoners I would triumphantly hold up the light of your example; proving yourselves worthy, as you do, of the fran- chises which you enjoy, by the manner in which you exercise them.
Gentlemen, I have nothing now to add, but my sincere and fervent acknowledgments for all that you have mixed in this contest of personal kindness and unvarying attachment to myself. I have no personal claim to your partiality. You chose me for my pub- lic principles. You called me in to your aid six years ago to fight your battle against a presumptuous at- tempt to usurp the whole representation of the town, — to do that which it has now been falsely imputed to ytfu that you intended. The attempted usurpation was defeated. It was not your fault that your anta- gonists, by grasping at too much, lost all. It is for them to acquiesce in the consequence — which could not be unforeseen — of their own inconsiderate ambi- tion. It is for you to use, discreetly and temperately, the advantage which their indiscretion and intemper- ance in 1812 put into your hands ; — and, in using it, to remember, above all things, that the question at issue, between you and your antagonists, is — not on whom you shall confer the representation of Liver-
27
pool, (for the individual to be selected is of compara- tively little consequence;) — but what are the public principles which that representation shall manifest and maintain.
Gentlemen, I now take my leave of you with the expression of my warmest gratitude and affection ; but without any other professions than those which I have already made. Of your local and particular interests you have had opportunities to judge whe* ther I am a faithful guardian. My public principles are what they were when you first chose me. Those principles are yours as they are mine. I think you are not likely to change them ; and I am sure I am not.
AT
THE PUBLIC DINNER
In honour of his third return to Parliament as Representative for Liverpool, AT THE
MUSIC-HALL, IN BOLD-STREET,
ON MONDAY, THE 29TH JUNE, 1818,
HENRY BLUNDELL HOLLINSHEAD, ESQ. IN THE CHAIR.
AFTER THE FOLLOWING TOAST HAD BEEN DRANK WITH ACCLAMA- TIONS— "THE RIGHT HON. GEORGE CANNING, AND THANKS TO riiM
GENTLEMEN,
IT was at my suggestion, that your worthy chair- mari had the goodness to make a slight alteration in the order of the toasts as they stand on the printed card, and to propose, before my health, which you have just done me the honour to drink, the health of those persons by whose suffrages I have been elevated to the situation of your representative, and of those who, had their suffrages been wanted, would have contributed to that elevation. It is in the natural
28
order of things, Gentlemen, that cause should pre- cede effect ; and, before you expressed your rejoicing on my return, I was anxious that due acknowledg- ment should have been paid to those whose votes, or whose intentions to come forward, intentions as noto- rious and as efficacious as their votes, gave effect to the wishes of this great community in my favour.
Gentlemen, six years have elapsed since I was first placed in that envied situation. Search the re- cords of history, where shall we find six years so fer- tile in events; and in events not only of such im- mense importance, but of such various character, — at one time so awful and appalling, at another so full of encouragement and of glory? We have, within this period of time, had war — peace — war again — and again a peace, which, I flatter myself, is now settling itself for a long duration.
In many of those changes, Gentlemen, as they were taking place, and with respect to all of them while they were yet in doubtful futurity, the opinions which I hold with you, and by holding which with you I am alone worthy to represent you, have been controverted by predictions, which, in prospect, it would have been presumptuous to dispute, but which, in retrospect, it is now pleasant to contemplate.
When I first, in obedience to your call, presented myself before you, it was at that period of a war, already of near twenty years duration, in which the crisis of the fate of nations seemed to be arrived. It was at that period of the campaign, destined to be decisive of that war, in which the enemy appeared in his most gigantic dimensions, and had begun to run his most extravagant career. It would be little disparagement to the stoutest heart to say, that it shrunk from the contemplation of a might so over- whelming; and it required, perhaps, as much cou- rage as sagacity to derive, from the ill-compounded materials of the colossus, a hope or an expectation of its fall. We were, indeed, loudly told, at that time, that resistance was altogether hopeless; and you, Gentlemen, were encouraged to believe, that if, by rejecting me, whose politics were supposed to be identified with the prosecution of the war, and by re- turning to Parliament as your representatives those
29
who then solicited your suffrages in opposition to me, you would mark your disapprobation of the continu- ance of so hopeless a contest, you would, by this demonstration of the opinion of so considerable a part of the British empire, infallibly produce a peace, with all its attendant blessings.
Against these fallacious but inviting assurances, with all the responsibility that belonged to the anti- cipation of brighter prospects in the midst of over- whelming gloom, and to the denial of associations familiar in the mouths and in the minds of men, I ventured to tell you, that peace was not in your power, except through the road of victory: and I ventured to tell you further, that peace, if sought through any other path, would not be lasting, and that, come when it might, it would not come, in the first instance, with all the blessings of ordinary peace in its train.
At the end of the period which has elapsed, com- pare what I then said to you with what has actually taken place.
If, at the time of which I am speaking, in 1812, this great town had contributed its share towards forcing a change in the national councils, by reject- ing the man whose political existence was identified with the success of the war, and by choosing others in his room whose reputation depended upon its failure; and if, Gentlemen, you had had the mis- fortune to succeed in forcing such a change ; I ask you, whether you believe that England would have stood erect, as she has done, with her enemy pros- trate at her feet, and with Europe saved by her assistance?
But, Gentlemen, as if to defeat and discredit the professors of political prophecy, you have had also a trial of peace, not wholly corresponding with their anticipations. I told yon, in 1812, that nothing was easier than to draw flattering views of distant pros- pects ; but that there were circumstances to be taken into account in the estimate of war and peace which baffled calculation. I told you, that THE WAR (not WAR generally, as has falsely been imputed, but THE WAR in which we were then engaged) was, from its peculiar character, one in which, though the common
30
characteristics of peace, — such as, tranquillity, and absence of bloodshed, and freedom from alarm, — were necessarily suspended, yet the springs of enterprise were not cut off, nor the activity of commerce al- together paralyzed : nor would the restoration of peace necessarily and at once restore the state of things which so long and so extraordinary a war had interrupted.
And why, Gentlemen ? Because I was desirous, as was, I say, falsely imputed to me, of dissociating the natural combinations of war and peace from their respective attributes ? of holding out war as, for its own sake, desirable, and peace as, in itself, un- lovely? No, Gentlemen; but because I wished to represent to you things as they really were, or, at least, as, in my own honest judgment, I saw them; because I wished to dissipate the prejudices which were attempted to be raised against a war on the issue of which our national existence depended, by pressing into the service those common-place argu- ments against wrar, which, however abstractedly true, were not true as to the war in question; — and by holding out all those common-place inducements to peace, which, though also true in the abstract, could not have been true of any peace concluded on igno- minious terms, and have not been found true of the first years of a peace succeeding to a war of such unexampled effort and protraction.
That the war had had the effect of opening unusual channels of commercial enterprise : that it had given a new and extraordinary stimulus to commercial ac- tivity :attdbastejB3SC5 that the war had created — I do not say a wholesome, I do not say a substantial, I do not say a permanent prosperity ; — but that it had created a prosperity peculiar to itself, and which atoned, in some measure, for its evils, and enabled the country, in some measure, to bear up against the difficulties incident to war ; — all these were matters of fact, which, as such, I stated to you : — and stated them as affording, not motives, but consolations — not inducements to prolong, beyond necessity, a war which might be safely terminated at will, but rea- sons for bearing patiently evils to which it was not in our power to put an end. That this was a forced
31
and unnatural state of things, neither I nor any man pretended to deny: — but whether we alone could enjoy a sound and natural repose, in the forced and unnatural state of Europe; — whether any peace which could be made by us, while all Europe remained under the control of our enemy, would be a peace worthy of the name ; — this was a question which might fairly be mooted, without depreciating the blessings of peace, or denying the general prefer- ableness of peace to war. Our adversaries repre- sented the war as uncompensated evil and volun- tary self-infliction : peace, as unqualified prosperity, and as immediately within our grasp. My business —the business of truth — was to show, that THE WAR —though all war is full of evil — had yet mitigations, and, besides, would not cease at our bidding; — that peace would not come at our call, and, besides, that, when it came, it would bring with it its privations. The stimulus of the war withdrawn, manufacturing industry would necessarily languish : the channels of commerce, forced open by the war, having closed, commercial enterprise must necessarily be checked till new channels were explored ; and the mere ces- sation of the "trade of war" itself, in all its various branches, must both discontinue the occupation of a population which it had created, and throw additional crowds on occupations already overstocked. Here were causes sufficient for the inevitable privations and derangements of a first year of peace after any war, — but much more after a war of such extraordi- nary magnitude and extension.
It required no great sagacity to foresee these things : but, in those who did foresee them, it would have been, at least, disingenuous to assert — or to suffer the assertions to go uncontroverted — that the war was our single and voluntary suffering, and that peace was not only attainable, but would be an in- stant and perfect cure.
Such, Gentlemen, is the true account of that tem- porary stagnation of commercial industry and enter- prise which has been insidiously imputed to national exhaustion; of the difficulty in providing employ- ment for an exuberant population (the harvest of a
32
long war) upon the sudden return of peace, and before the world had yet righted itself after all its convulsions.
Either our antagonists foresaw these immediate and necessary consequences of the discontinuance of war, or they did not. If they did foresee them, would it not have been fair to have shaded a little more carefully the bright prospects which they paint- ed of the peace to come? — if not, would it not be fair in them to acknowledge, that they had been too sanguine in their anticipations ? But, what surely is not fair nor reasonable, is, that no sooner was the peace, which they had so long clamoured for, ob- tained, than they proceeded, with as much pathos as they had bestowed upon the evils of war, to de- plore the sufferings of that moment which they had predicted as one of unqualified happiness !
Then began their lamentations over languishing industry, and stinted commerce, and unemployed population ; as if these evils were not the natural and necessary consequences of unavoidably operating causes ; as if they were the creation of some malig- nant influence, which, whether in war or in peace, blighted the destinies of the country.
Is it intended to maintain this proposition, that, in order to produce the blessings with which peace ought to be accompanied, the war ought to have been concluded with defeat, and the peace to have been a peace of humiliation ? If so, I can understand the arguments and acknowledge the consistency of those who pretend to have been disappointed at the tardy reappearance of the blessings which they promised us ; — for, undoubtedly, the war was concluded with triumphs, which must have deranged all the anticipa- tions which were founded on the basis of uncondi- tional surrender and submission.
But, Gentlemen, labouring, as I do, under the im- putation of being a great lover of war, I am almost afraid to say, that there are some things in the war which I regret, and some things in the peace which I like as little as even those privations of which we have been speaking, but which are, happily, in a course of daily diminution. The war divided the political parties of the country on one great question,
33
which involved and absorbed all minor consider- ations. With war, party has not ceased : but our differences are of a sort more ignoble and more alarming-. The line of demarcation during the war was — resistance or nonresistance to a foreign enemy : the line of demarcation now is — maintenance or sub- version of our internal institutions.
Gentlemen, it does seem somewhat singular, and I conceive that the historian of future times will be at a loss to imagine how it should happen, — that, at this particular period, at the close of a war of such unexampled brilliancy, in which this country had acted a part so much beyond its physical strength and its apparent resources ; — there should arise a sect of philosophers in this country, who begin to suspect something rotten in the British constitution. The history of Europe, for the last twenty-five years, is something like this. A power went forth, animated with the spirit of evil, to overturn every community of the civilized world. Before this dreadful assail- ant, empires, and monarchies, and republics bowed: some were crushed to the earth, and some bought their safety by compromise. In the midst of this wide-spread ruin, among tottering columns and fall- ing edifices, one fabric alone stood erect and braved the storm ; and not only provided for its own internal
fcurity, — but sent forth, at every portal, assistance its weaker neighbours. On this edifice floated at ensign, (pointing to the English ensign,) a signal of rallying to the combatant and of shelter to the fallen.
To an impartial observer — I will not say to an in- habitant of this little fortress — to an impartial ob- server, in whatever part of the world, one should think something of this sort would have occurred. Here is a fabric constructed upon some principles not common to others in its neighbourhood; princi- ples which enable it to stand erect while every tiling is prostrate around it. In the construction of this fabric there must be some curious felicity, which the eye of the philosopher would be well employed in investigating, and - which its neighbours may profit by adopting. This, I say, Gentlemen, would have been an obvious inference. But what shall we think
34
of their understandings who draw an inference di- rectly the reverse > and who say to us — " You have ' stood when others have fallen; when others have ' crouched, you have borne yourselves aloft: you ' alone have resisted the power which has shaken and ' swallowed up half the civilized world. We like not ' this suspicious peculiarity. There must be some- " thing wrong in your internal conformation l" With this unhappy curiosity, and in the spirit of this per- verse analysis, they proceed to dissect our constitution. They find that, like other states, we have a monarch : that a nobility, though not organized like ours, is common to all the great empires of Europe : but that our distinction lies in a popular assembly, which gives life, and vigour, and strength to the whole frame of the government. Here, therefore, they find the seat of our disease. Our peccant part is, un- doubtedly, the House of Commons. Hence our pre- sumptuous exemption from what was the common lot of all our neighbours: the anomaly ought forthwith to be corrected ; and, therefore, the House of Com- mons must be reformed.
Gentlemen, it cannot but have struck you as some- what extraordinary, that whereas, in speaking of foreign sovereigns, our reformers are never very spar- ing of uncourtly epithets ; that whereas, in discussing the general principles of government, they seldom omit an opportunity of discrediting and deriding the privileged orders of society; yet, AUien they come to discuss the British constitution, nothing can be more respectful than their language towards the crown; nothing more forbearing than their treatment of the aristocracy. With the House of Commons alone the\ take the freedom of familiarity; upon it they pour out all the vials of their wrath, and exhaust their denun- ciations of amendment.
Gentlemen, this, though extraordinary, is not un- intelligible. The reformers are wise in their genera- tion. They know well enough, — and have read plainly enough in our own history, — that the prero- gatives of the crown and the privileges of the peer- age would be but as dust in the balance against a preponderating democracy. They mean democracy and nothing else. And, give them but a House of
35
Commons constructed on their own principles, — the peerage and the throne may exist for a day, but may be swept from the face of the earth by the first angry vote of such a House of Commons.
It is, therefore, utterly unneccessary for the re- formers to declare hostility to the crown; it is, there- fore, utterly superfluous for them to make war against the peerage. They know that, let but their principles have full play, the crown and the peerage would be to the constitution which they assail but as the baggage to the army, — and the destruction of them but as the gleanings of the battle. They know that the battle is with the House of Commons, as at pre- sent constituted; — and that that once overthrown, and another popular assembly constructed on their principle, — as the creature and depository of the peo- ple's power, and the unreasoning instrument of the people's will, — there would not only be no chance, but (I will go further for them in avowal, though not in intention, than they go for themselves) there would not be a pretence for the existence of any other branch of the constitution.
Gentlemen, the whole fallacy lies in this : the re- formers reason from false premises, and therefore are driving on their unhappy adherents to false and dan- gerous conclusions. The constitution of this country is A MONARCHY, controlled by two assemblies: the one hereditary, and independent alike of the crown and the people : the other elected by and for the people, but elected for the purpose of controling and not of administering the government. The error of the reformers, if error it can be called, is, that they argue as if the constitution of this country was a broad and level democracy, inlaid (for orna- ment's sake) with a peerage, and topped (by suffer- ance) with a crown,.
If they say, that, for such a constitution, that is, in eftect, for an uui, undated democracy, the present House of Commons is not sufficiently popular, they are right: but such a constitution is not what we have or what we desire. We are born under a mo- narchy which it is our duty, as much as it is for our happiness, to preserve ; and which terc cannot be a
36
shadow of doubt, that the reforms which are recom- mended to us would destroy, rrgrro
I love the monarchy, Gentlemen, because, limited and controlled as it is in our happy constitution, I believe it to be not only the safest depository of power, but the surest guardian of liberty. I love the system of popular representation, Gentlemen : — who can have more cause to value it highly than I feel at this moment — reflecting on the triumphs which it has earned for me, and addressing those who have been the means of achieving them? But of popular repre- sentation, I think, we have enough for every purpose of jealous, steady, corrective, efficient control over the acts of that monarchical power, which, for the safety and for the peace of the community, is lodged in one sacred family, and descendible from sire to son.
If any man tell me, that the popular principle in the House of Commons is not strong enough for effective control, nor diffused enough to insure sym- pathy with the people, I appeal to the whole course of the transactions of the last war ; — I desire to have cited to me the instances in which the House of Commons has failed, either to express the matured and settled opinion of the nation, or to convey it to the crown. But I warn those who may undertake to make the citation, that they do not (as, in fact, they almost always do) substitute their own for the na- tional opinion, and then complain of its having been imperfectly echoed in the House of Commons, rjt
If, on the other hand, it be only meant to say, that the House of Commons is not the whole government of the country, — which, if all power be not only for but in the people, the House of Commons ought to be, if the people were adequately represented, — I answer, "Thank God it is not so!— God forbid that " it should ever aim at becoming so !"
But they look far short of the ultimate effect of the doctrines of the present day who do not see, thai their tendency is not to make a House of Commons such as, in theory, it has always been defined — a third branch of the legislature ; but to absorb the legis- lative and executive powers into one; to create an immediate delegation of the whole authority of th* nsmud lo satiiijsjjp boog aift lie rioidw ni
37
people — to which, practically, nothing could, and, in reasoning, nothing ought to stand in opposition.
Gentlemen, it would be well if these doctrines were the ebullitions of the moment, and ended with the occasions which naturally give them their freest play; I mean with the season of popular elections. But, unfortunately, disseminated as they are among all ranks of the community, they are doing perma- nent and incalculable mischief. How lamentably is experience lost on mankind ! for when — in what age, in what country of the world — have doctrines of this sort been reduced to practice, without leading through anarchy to military despotism? The revolution of the seasons is not more certain than is this connexion of events in the course of moral nature.
Gentlemen, to theories like these you will do me the justice to remember that I have always opposed myself; not more since I have had the honour to re- present this community, than when I was uncertain how far my opinions on such subjects might coincide with yours.
For opposing these theories, Gentlemen, I have become an object of peculiar obloquy: but I have borne that obloquy with the consciousness of having discharged my duty; — and with the consolation, that the time was not far distant when I should come here among you, (to whom alone I owe an account of my public conduct,) — when I should have an oppor- tunity of hearing from you whether I had (as I flat- tered myself) spoken the sense of the second com- mercial community in England; and when, if — un- fortunately and contrary to my belief — I had separated myself in opinion from you, I should learn the grounds of that separation.
Gentlemen, my object, in political life, has always been, rather to reconcile the nation to the lot which has fallen to them, (surely a most glorious and blessed lot among nations !) than to aggravate incurable imper- fections, and to point out imaginary and unattain- able excellences for their admiration. I have done so ; — because, though I am aware that more splendidly popular systems of government might be devised than that which it is our happiness to enjoy, it is, I believe in my conscience, impossible to devise one in which all the good qualities of human nature
38
should be brought more beneficially into action, — in which there should be as much order and as much liberty,— in which property (the conservative princi- ple of society) should operate so fairly, with a just but not an overwhelming- weight, — in which industry should be so sure of its reward, talents of their due ascendancy, and virtue of the general esteem.
The theories of preternatural purity are founded on a notion of doing away with all these accustomed relations, of breaking all the ties by which society is held together. Property is to have no influence — talents no respect — virtue no honour, among their neighbourhood. Naked, abstract political rights are to be set up against the authorities of nature and of reason : and the result of suffrages thus freed from all the ordinary influences which have operated upon mankind from the beginning of the world, is to be — the erection of some untried system of politics, of which it may be sufficient to say, that it could not last a day — that, if it rose with the mists of the morn- ing, it would dissolve in the noontide sun.
Gentlemen, one ill consequence of these brilliant schemes, even where they are the visions of unsound imagination rather than the suggestions of crafty mischief, is, that they tend to dissatisfy the minds of the uninformed with the actual constitution of their country.
To maintain that constitution has been the unvary- ing object of my political life: and the maintenance of it, in these latter days, has, I have said, exposed me to obloquy and to hatred; to the hatred of those who believe either their own reputation for sagacity, or their own means of success, to be connected with**- a change in the present institutions of the country.
We have heard something of numbers in the course of the present election ; and there is in numbers, I confess, a coincidence which gratifies and pleases me. The number three hundred was that of the ma- jority which assured niy return. It is the number, I am informed, of those who are assembled here toiq* greet me this day. The last time that I had heard of the number three hundred, in a way at all interesting to myself, was in an intimation publicly conveyed to me, that precisely that number of heroes had
39
themselves, by oath to each other, to assassinate me. Gentlemen, against my three hundred assassins I put my three hundred friends, and I feel neither my life nor my popularity in danger.
Mr. CANNING concluded by expressing his acknow- ledgments for the honour done him in drinking his health, and proposing that of the worthy chairman.
ON THE SAME OCCASION,
AFTER " HIS MAJESTY'S PRESENT MINISTERS, THE FIRM AND UN- SHAKEN SUPPORTERS OF THE PRINCIPLES OF MR. PITT," HAD BEEN DRANK.
GENTLEMEN,
As one of that body to whom you have just paid so cordial a compliment, it becomes me, on their be- half, to express the acknowledgment which I, as one of them, feel, and which, I am sure, they will feel collectively, for the honour which you have done to us.
Gentlemen, for myself I am bound to say some- thing, because I must disclaim any share in much of that credit to which my colleagues are entitled for having brought the late war to its glorious conclusion. But those who have witnessed my political life well know, that never, at any moment when I was sepa- rated from the councils of the crown, did I withhold my firm and unqualified support from the great measures which were necessary for maintaining the war with all our strength, until it could be concluded with safety and with honour. At the period when I had a share in those councils, began the peninsular war ; from which I then augured, and from which all are now agreed in dating, the deliverance of Europe. It was during my absence from the cabinet, that the spirit of resistance, kindled in the peninsula, com- municated itself to the other nations of Europe. By that spirit was animated a combination of states, the most powerful, perhaps, that history records ; and by that combination was achieved a peace, such as the
40
most sanguine imagination would have hesitated to anticipate ; but of which the councils of Mr. Pitt had long ago laid the foundation.
In equal consonance to the tenor of those councils, his Majesty's present ministers are determined to cultivate the peace which has been so nobly achiev- ed ; and to maintain the country in the enjoyment of internal quiet and of external prosperity, not by en- couraging vain projects of fanciful reform, but by rallying the good sense and sound feeling of the nation to the support of our free monarchical consti- tution.
In that path of internal peace, as in the more bril- liant course of national glory, undoubtedly the present government endeavour to follow the footsteps of Mr. Pitt. Where they fail, let it be understood, that the failure is to be imputed to the inadequacy of the pupils, and not to the imperfection of the principles of their great master, to any forgetfulness of his precepts, or any willing deviation from his example.
ON THE SAME OCCASION,
AFTER THE HEALTH OF " THE RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM Ht>- KISSON, AND THANKS TO HIM FOR HIS ATTENTION TO THE INTERESTS OF LIVERPOOL," HAD BEEN DRANK.
GENTLEMEN,
I RISE to return my own thanks and those which, I am sure, I should have been commissioned by my right honourable friend to return in his name, for the manner in which you have done him the honour to drink his health ; a man whom I never can describe more aptly than I once had occasion to describe him to some among you ; as being, what he undoubtedly is, the best man of business in England; — a man whose extraordinary talents, matured by long re- flection and long experience, have qualified him as one of the ablest practical statesmen that could be engaged in the concerns of a commercial country.
41
Gentlemen, the praises which you have justly bestowed on him recal to my recollection a debt of gratitude which I owe to you, for the indulgence re- ceived from you two years ago; — which gave him, during my absence, those opportunities of serving you that have won so deservedly upon your regard and esteem. Gentlemen, you may be assured for him, that, however totally disconnected from you, as you may be assured for me, whenever our con- nexion may cease, we shall be anxious to promote, by all means in our power, the interests of Liverpool ; not only from sentiments of gratitude, but because we are quite convinced, that, in promoting the in- terests of this great commercial town, we secure to the general prosperity of Great Britain one of its most useful and efficient supports. I will not say, that if the interests of the nation were, in any in- stance, at variance with those of Liverpool, even as your member, I would take your part ; but I will say, that, whether your member or no, I shall always re- tain the same desire, not to benefit you by any partial sacrifice of the general good in your favour, but to advance your greatness and prosperity, which are but the samples and epitome of the greatness and prosperity of England.
Gentlemen, you have just recognized, in the toast which preceded the health of my right honourable friend, that identity between the landed and com- mercial interests of the kingdom, the principle of which I am taking the liberty to inculcate. The one interest is, indeed, inherent in the soil, and insepar- able from it. But that soil is increased tenfold in its value, and the tenure by which it is held is increased tenfold in its security, by that commercial enterprise which augments the wealth of the kingdom, and strengthens the sinews of it maritime power.
The consent of different orders is the strength and safety of the state. To set one class of society against another is to endanger the whole. How much more when, as in the miserable politics of the pre- sent day, an attempt is made to set the poor against the rich, for the common destruction of both?
Gentlemen, your example and your authority may do much among the multitude whom you employ to
42
protect them against the poison of such doctrines — to satisfy them, that, as your prosperity depends upon the general prosperity of the empire, so do their hap- piness and comfort depend upon the maintenance of that order, which not only consists with liberty, but is essential to it, and of that commerce of which li- berty and order are the guardians.
Gentlemen, I now take leave of you, — with a sen- timent wliich is not the less valuable because it is homely in its phrase, and which will convey, though it does not fully express, all my good wishes for your prosperity and happiness : I beg leave to give— " The good old town of Liverpool and the trad* " thereof."
-
,
A
COMPENDIOUS ACCOUNT
OF
€f)e IStectiom
J3EFORE we proceed to narrate the events of the recent electioa for this borough, it may be proper, in order to elucidate the subse- quent proceedings, just to glance at the prospective measures adopted by the parties which divide this community, for the purpose of securing the election of their respective candidates.
The rumours of an intended dissolution of Parliament having be- come so general as to amount to a moral certainty, that such an event would shortly take place, electioneering movements were immediately commenced. The friends of Mr. Canning were first in the field. A public meeting of his friends was held in LUlyman's Assembly-room, on Thursday, the 23d of April last. The object of the meeting was, to take into consideration the propriety of preparing and signing a re- quisition to him to become again a candidate to represent Liverpool in the new Parliament. Henry Blundell Hollinshead, Esq. was unani- mously called to the chair, and opened the business of the day in a brief speech. Mr. Gladstone then read and proposed the requisition : the motion was seconded by Mr. Anthony Littledale, and adopted by the meeting. The requisition was then left for signature; and, although it laid only a few hours, it received no less than 589 most respectable names. It was forwarded to London the same evening. Mr. Canning's answer to this flattering invitation was received in a few days. He expressed his readiness, whenever the dissolution of Parliament might take place, again to put himself entirely into the hands of his friends. This declaration gave them general satisfaction. It not only assured them of his determination again to offer himself, but put to rest some absurd stories, which had been industriously pro- pagated, of his intention to decline the representation of Liverpool.
A party who denominated themselves the friends of Mr. Leyland were the next to take the field. This gentleman was supposed, by them, to have given a negative consent, at least, to offer himself as a
ii
candidate at the next general election for the honour of representing this borough in Parliament; and scarcely any doubt was entertained by the individuals who supported him, against his will, at the election of 1816, that he would solicit the suffrages of the freemen. To remove any doubt, however, which might be entertained of his intention, and to assure themselves of his real sentiments on the subject, it was deter- mined to convoke a meeting of his friends, for the purpose of prepar- ing and signing a formal requisition to him. This meeting was held in Lillyman's Assembly-room, on Tuesday, the 12th of May. The Rev. William Shepherd was called to the chair, and unfolded the business of the meeting in a speech of considerable length. Mr. Egerton Smith then read a requisition to Mr. Ley land, which he moved the meeting to adopt. Mr. Rushton, it was understood, seconded the motion, if it was seconded by any person. Having lain for signature at different places, and having received a great number, the requisition was forwarded to Mr. Leyland, whose reply to it was anxiously looked for by the requisitionists. It was received in a few days ; but it was of a very different tenor to what they had fondly expected. He observed, that, " having well weighed all the consequences to his future life, in the event of a successful contest, he must, with deference and respect, beg leave to decline the invitation to offer himself as a candidate at the approaching election."
The refusal of Mr. Leyland to offer himself was quite unexpected. For a moment, it blighted the hopes and frustrated the plans of the individuals who had, without his sanction, brought his pretensions before the public : and it was very generally believed, that the menaced opposition to the reelection of the sitting members would end in nothing but empty threats. This belief, however, wras soon destroyed. Although the plans of the party had been disconcerted by the unexpected refusal of Mr. Leyland, their spirit was not of a nature to be easily subdued. They accordingly looked anxiously round for some person qualified to fight their battle for them ; and much time had not elapsed before it was understood, that they had fixed their eyes upon a suitable person. Another meeting was, therefore, summoned, and held on Tuesday, the 2d of June, in Lillyman's Assembly-room. Charles Lawrence, Esq. was called to the chair. Mr. Shepherd, after some introductory observations, proposed the Earl of Sefton as a pro- per person to represent this borough in Parliament. The motion was seconded by Dr. Solomon, and carried by acclamation. A committee was then appointed, and a subscription opened for defraying the legal and other unavoidable expenses of a contested election.
A private, but highly respectable, meeting of the friends of General Gascoyne was also held about the same time, at which it was deter-
Ill
mined to support that gentleman's pretensions with all the interest and exertions of the several gentlemen who were present. These gentlemen failed not to redeem their pledge. The cause of the general was carried on with a vigour and success which not only astonished his opponents, but surprised and gratified his friends.
Wednesday, the 17th of June, was the day appointed for the public entrte of Mr. Canning. At an early hour on the morning of that day, crowds of persons were to be seen approaching the London-road from every quarter of the town. By eleven o'clock, a countless multitude, of both sexes and of all ages, had collected on Low-hill and in the neighbouring fields, all anxious to greet his arrival. The captains and lieutenants of districts, and different bodies of freemen, attended by the flags of their respective trades, and accompanied by bands of music, formed conspicuous parts of the extended line of procession. On the top of the hill stood an open carriage, in which were Sir Win. Barton, John Bolton, Esq. John Gladstone, Esq. William Ewart, Esq. Thomas Rodie, Esq. Anthony Littledale, Esq. and Ralph Benson, Esq. About twelve o'clock, Mr. Canning's approach was announced. All eyes were now eagerly turned towards the London-road. The right honourable gentleman, on his arrival, stepped, amid the enthusiastic and reiterated huzzas of the assembled multitude, from his travelling carriage into that which was waiting to receive him, and which was drawn by the populace. The procession now moved down London- road, through Daulby-street, Pembroke-place, Seymour-street, Cla- rence-street, and Rodney-street, to the house of John Bolton, Esq. in Duke-street, where it arrived a little before one o'clock. The win- dows of the houses in the different streets were crowded by elegantly dressed females, who greeted Mr. Canning by the waving of scarlet flags and red favours. The thronged multitude passed along the streets with the greatest regularity, and without the occurrence of a single accident. On the arrival of the carriage at Mr. Bolton's door, Mr. Canning and the gentlemen who accompanied him in it left it and entered the house. In a few minutes afterwards, he appeared on the balcony, and was again received with enthusiastic applause. He then delivered to his friends a most eloquent speech, which will be found in its proper place.
The election commenced on Thursday morning, the 18th of June. John Bolton, Esq. nominated Mr. Canning ; the nomination was se- conded by William Ewart, Esq. General Gascoyne was nominated by John Bridge Aspinall, Esq., seconded by John Wright, Esq. A pause for a few moments succeeded. William Earle, Esq. then nomi- nated the Earl of Sefton ; the nomination was seconded by Mr. Roger Hunter. Three candidates having been nominated, a poll was de-
iv
manded, which commenced precisely at half-past nine o'clock. The votes at Lord Sefton's bar were taken, for a short space, by W. Earle, Esq.; but about ten o'clock Lord Molynenx, his lordship's son, entered the hustings, and personated his father, during the whole contest, in a manner which gained for him the esteem and approbation of all par- ties. Throughout the whole day, the voting was carried on with the greatest spirit, order, and good-humour. The poll closed about five o'clock, when the numbers stood thus : for Mr. Canning 304 : General Gascoyne 249 : Lord Sefton 164. The comparative numbers on the poll of this day left no doubt, had any doubt been entertained, of the issue of the struggle.
To obviate any inconvenience that might arise by the friends of the different candidates moving simultaneously from the hustings after the poll, and to prevent any latent disposition to tumult breaking ont into open violations of the peace, by the contending parties coming in collision with one another; it was arranged, between the candidates, to move from the ground in regular rotation during the election. A great number of special constables were also enrolled to preserve the peace and to prevent tumult. A body of them, w 5th the number of their district printed on pasteboard and bound on their hats, followed each procession, and guarded the avenues which conducted to the places from which the candidates addressed their friends. To these pre- cautionary measures, in conjunction with the example of the respect- able leaders of each party, the unexampled peaceableness of the town, during the fervour of a contested election, may be, in a great mea- sure, attributed.
Mr. Canning left the hustings every evening, after the poll, in an open carriage, accompanied by an immense concourse of his friends, and proceeded to the house of John Bolton, Esq. in Duke- street. General Gascoyne left them sometimes on foot and sometimes in an open carriage, and was accompanied by his friends to the house of John Leigh, Esq. in Basnett-street. Lord Molyneux departed from the hustings in an open carriage, which was generally drawn by the populace, and, attended by a vast multitude of persons, proceeded to the house of Mr. Preston, in Clayton-square. The symbolical colours worn by each party were the same as at the last general election. The friends of Mr. Canning wore red : General Gascoyne blue ; and Lord Sefton pink and green.
The polling was resumed on the following morning, and continued throughout the day with unabated activity and unbroken regula- rity. On Saturday (the third day) the friends of Lord Sefton had recourse to the novel expedient of opening a second bar for his lord- ship, by nominating Arthur Heywood, Esq. A bar, after some dis-
cussion, was accordingly opened for him. It required no great pene- tration to divine the reason of this proceeding. Lord Sefton, ever since the opening of the poll, had been rapidly sinking into a great minority. His friends, therefore, with a view to diminish that mino- rity, and to poll the freemen for his lordship with greater facility, adopted the plan of opening a second bar for his lordship, in the name of Mr. Hey wood, who was merely a nominis umbra. But they soon lost whatever benefit they had expected from this manoeuvre. The friends of Mr. Canning, to counterbalance any apparent advantage which their antagonist might derive from it, also resolved to nominate John Bolton, Esq.; and a bar was immediately opened in the name of that respected gentleman.
The delay occasioned by these extraordinary proceedings greatly retarded the polling on Saturday. But the still more extraordinary proceedings of Monday threw them into comparative insignificance. Colonel Williams appeared on the hustings, and was put in nomina- tion on the part of Lord Sefton. Some opposition was made to the colonel's nomination ; it was, however, after considerable discussion, carried into eifect. The gallant colonel, after reading his reasons for the proceeding, insisted, that the oaths against bribery and corrup- tion, and the long oath, should be administered indiscriminately to all the freemen who came to poll. This was also agreed to. The long oath was administered by a commission which had been formed, and which sat in the court-room, within the Town-hall : the oath against bribery was administered to each freeman indiscriminately as he came to the bar to vote. The nomination of Colonel Williams, on the part of Lord Sefton, was followed by the nomination of John Bridge Aspinall, Esq. on the part of General Gascoyne. Three real candidates and four nominal ones were now on the hustings. The real and nominal candidates were afterwards augmented to the number nine, for whom the like number of bars were opened, and a round of tallies was ac- tually polled at each of the nine bars. The confusion, occasioned by the multiplicity of candidates, now became inconvenient and even ludicrous : but " confusion was soon worse confounded" by the nomi- nation of an additional number of nominal candidates, who now amounted to eighteen, and, with three real candidates, made, in the whole, twenty-one! a number unprecedented in the annals of contested elections. The hustings now became a scene of the greatest confusion ; and the polling was again much retarded by the extraordinary proceed- ings of the day. The inconvenience produced by the anomaly indicated the proper remedy. The nominal candidates abdicated, by mutual consent, their separate claims, and the twenty-one bars were reduced io four. The exception was iu favour of Mr. Heywood's bar, which
VI
was allowed to be kept open from a principle of accommodation. A* a matter of curiosity, we subjoin a correct list of the nominal can- didates.
FOR MR. CANNING.
JOHN BOLTON,
SIR WILLIAM BARTON,
RALPH BENSON,
WILLIAM EWART, ANTHONY LITTLEDALE, JOHN TOBIN.
FOR GENERAL GASCOYNE.
JOHN B. ASPINALL, JOHN WRIGHT,
JOHN SHAW, JOHN CLARKE.
FOR LORD SEFTON. ct
ARTHUR HEYWOOD, COLONEL WILLIAMS, NICHOLAS ASHTON,
THOMAS BOOTH,
CHARLES LAWRENCE, WILLIAM EARLE, THOMAS EARLE, HENRY BROUGHAM.
On the opening of the hustings the following morning, several gen- tlemen delivered their opinion, that the act of Parliament never con- templated the proceedings of an election prospectively : that it was unnecessary to put the oaths to every individual as he came to vote ; and that it was only when some specific exception was taken to a par- ticular individual that it became the duty of the returning officers to subject the voter to the necessity of taking the oaths. It was, there- fore, determined to withdraw the oaths, and to permit the polling to proceed without being impeded by such unnecessary shackles. It accordingly went on without further interruption till its final close.
On Wednesday symptoms of weakness began to manifest themselves on the side of Lord Sefton. His tallies were with difficulty supplied during the afternoon ; and a speedy termination of the contest was confidently expected by the friends of the other candidates. The character of the gentlemen who had conducted his lordship's election, and their whole demeanour throughout the struggle, were sufficient guarantees, that its expiration would not be unnecessarily or vexatiously protracted. If any inconsiderate friend of his lordship entertained the insane intention of keeping open the poll, after all hope of success had deserted his cause, it was instantly frowned down by the respect- able leaders of the party.
The symptoms which had made their appearance on the preceding day assumed a more formidable aspect on Thursday. The crisis of the contest now rapidly approached. The extraordinary exertions of the few last days had totally exhausted the little remaining strength of the paxty. They were like that superhuman vigour which is sometimes exerted before dissolution, and which, by the very act of exerting
Vll
itself, hastens the catastrophe which it is meant to avoid. Accord- ingly, about twelve o'clock, after having polled a few tallies,
Mr. EARLE addressed the returning officers, stating, in the name of the friends of Lord Sefton and Mr. Heywood, their wish that the contest should terminate. He confessed, that they had been fairly and honourably beaten. But if, after this intimation, the other can- didates should continue to poll, for the purpose of increasing their majorities, the friends of Lord Sefton, he added, were determined to receive the votes, and to protect, to the utmost of their power, the rights of any zealous freemen who might be inclined to record their names on his lordship's poll.
The MAYOR expressed his approbation of the very honourable and candid manner in which Mr. Earle had declared the wish of the friends of Lord Sefton that the contest should immediately cease ; and earnestly recommended to the friends of the other candidates to accept the proposal, that the poll might be forthwith closed, and that they who were actively engaged in the election might return to their accustomed avocations.
Mr. HOLLINSHEAD remarked, that a number of freemen were then waiting at Mr. Canning's bar, all anxious to record their names on the poll-book, besides a very great number who could be brought forward in a very short time.
Mr. BOLTON, after consulting a few moments with the other mem- bers of Mr. Canning's committee, declared their acceptance of the proposal made by Mr. Earle.
Lord MOLYNEUX then took leave, in a very feeling and affecting manner, of the returning officers and the gentlemen on the hustings. He thanked his friends for the zeal which they had manifested in his father's cause, and for their unparalleled exertions to return him one of-the representatives for this populous town. Although this zeal and these exertions had failed to procure them success, yet there was nothing disheartening in their failure* They had done every thing but triumph. He then took leave of Mr. Canning and General Gascoyne ; thanking them for their courtesies towards him, and for the harmony and good-humour which had subsisted between them throughout so arduous a struggle.
Mr. CANNING observed, that, when the proposal was made by the friends of Lord Sefton, for immediately closing the poll, he did not think himself at liberty to give any opinion upon the subject, having considered himself entirely in the hands of his friends. But, those friends having accepted the proposal, he must express his unqualified approbation of the propriety of the proceeding. He could not con- H
viii
elude without adding his testimony to that of the young nobleman wha had just addressed them, to the fairness,the candour, and the liberality, which had marked the conduct of all parties throughout the contest. The conduct of that young nobleman himself had been such as to- excite a feeling of respect and approbation even in the minds of those who were opposed to him. Although success had not crowned Lord Sefton's cause, of this he was perfectly satisfied, that that cause could not have been confided to hands better calculated to gain for it favour and success than to the hands of his son.
General GASCOYNE completely concurred with every thing that had been said by his right honourable friend. Like him, he considered himself, during the discussion, entirely in the hands of his friends. Those friends, he was sure, would do what had been so strongly re- commended to them by the chief magistrate, and would terminate the election in the same spirit in which it had been conducted. He must do the noble lord and his friends the justice to say, that their conduct, during the contest, had been marked with the utmost fairness and liberality. They had opposed his return strenuously and determin- edly ; but, even in the ardour of conflict, they had maintained towards him the character of gentlemen. He was convinced, that the oppo- sition which had been directed against him was directed, not against his person, but against his public principles.
The Town-clerk then read the usual proclamation ; and the Right Hon. George Canning and General Gascoyne were declared duly elected. At the conclusion of the poll the numbers were : for Mr. Canning 1G54 : General Gascoyne 1444 : Lord Sefton 1280. The total number of freemen polled was 2876. The number polled at the memorable election of 1812 was 272G ; a greater number than ever polled before : so that the number polled, at this election, exceeded, by 150, the number of freemen polled at any preceding one. •
Lord Molyneux left the hustings about half-past twelve o'clock, in an open carriage, drawn by the populace, accompanied by a very great concourse of his friends. On the arrival of the procession in Clayton- square, his lordship took a farewell of his friends, in a manner so touching as to draw tears from many of his auditors. Mr. Canning departed privately without any procession. General Gascoyne left them in a carriage, attended by a considerable body of bis friends^ 86W
The following table will show the progressive state of the poll dur- ing each day of the election. , iso-iq gJi
Canning
1st da>
Gascoyue 249
fecfiou. ..164
2d;3d 4th 623J882 1007 809
527 7621 352! 382|
5th 1290
6th 1571
112013701444
685 979 1244
1654
*H (Jr.-
ix
,, ««»MAviftill'io ifirfi Ot VflDttl'
The next day (Friday) was appointed for the usual ceremony of chairing the successful candidates. It was a lovely day. The sun shone with resplendent brightness ; and all seemed gaiety and cheer- fulness around. Castle-street resumed all the animation, all the activity, and all the bustle, of the preceding days during the ardour of the election. Crowds of persons were pressing into it from all directions ; and, long before the hour appointed for the ceremony, the congregated multitude resembled one solid compacted mass. About twelve o'clock, all the preparations being completed, Mr. Can- ning mounted his triumphal car at the door of the King's Arms, in Water-street. A signal was then given, by a man stationed for the purpose on the summit of the Town-hall, and the procession moved from Castle-street. The whole was very magnificent. The triumphal car was superb, and, preceded by several beautiful pageants, was, of course, the most conspicuous object in it. A great number of elegant flags and standards floated in the breeze. The music of several bands and innumerable drums and fifes animated the heart and enlivened the scene. The different artisans and mechanics, profusely decorated with red favours, were ranged under flags bearing symbols of their respective trades : the gentlemen who had been active as canvasers were conspicuous, by bearing on their hats the numbers of their dis- tricts in gold letters on a red leather ground ; and the gentlemen on horseback diversified the spectacle. The tout ensemble was truly splendid.
The procession marched down Lord-street, through Whitechapel, up Byrom-street, Richmond-row, along St. Ann-street, Norton-street, Seymour-street, Russel-street, Clarence-street, to the house of John Bolton, Esq. in Duke-street. Every window, balcony, and even roof of the houses in Castle-street and the other streets through which it passed, was thronged with spectators. Red and blue flags, streamers, and ribands, waved in rich profusion from almost every house. Every countenance beamed with satisfaction, and every eye sparkled with delight. The procession was three hours in making the circuit. On its arrival in Duke-street, Mr. Canning descended from the car, amidst the enthusiastic huzzas of the spectators, and entered the hospitable mansion. In a few minutes, he reappeared on the balcony, which was thronged with the youth and beauty of Liverpool and the neigh- bourhood, and delivered an eloquent speech, which will be found in its proper place.
General Gascoyne mounted his triumphal car in front of the Town- hall. He was dressed in the full uniform of a British general. The
procession, which was chaste and elegant, moved from Castle-street immediately after Mr. Canning's, and in nearly the like order. When it arrived at the top of Duke-street, in Rodney-street, it separated from the other, and, passing down part of Duke-street, through Berry- street, down Bold-street, and Church-street, arrived at the house of John Leigh, Esq. in Basnett-street, from the window of which the General addressed his friends.
On Monday, the 29th June, the friends of Mr. Canning met at the Music-hall, in Bold-street, to celebrate his third return to Parliament as representative for Liverpool. Henry Blundell Hollinshead, Esq. was in the chair. The company consisted of near three hundred gentlemen of the highest respectability in the town. The friends of General Gascoyne also celebrated his sixth return to Parliament as representative for this borough on Wednesday, the 1st July, at the Golden Lion, in Dale street. Above two hundred gentlemen, of the first respectability, sat down to dinner. John Bridge Aspinall, Esq. filled the chair on the occasion.
Thus terminated the public events connected with the election. We cannot but congratulate the town on the peaceableness with which the struggle was conducted throughout. Not a breach of the peace took place, not one serious accident occurred. In these respects, the recent election is, we believe, almost unparalleled in the history of elections for Liverpool. It was an amicable trial of strength between conflicting political principles ; and the result afforded an illustrious example how such struggles should be conducted.
T. Kaye, Printer, Liverpool.
SPEECHES,
RETURN TO;
CIRCULATION DEPARTMENT 198 Main Stacks
|
LOAN PERIOD 1 Home Use |
2 |
3 |
|
4 |
5 |
6 |
ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS.
Renewals and Recharges may be made 4 days prior to the due date. Books may be renewed by calling 642-3405.
DUE AS STAMPED BELOW.
MAR 2 82!
FORM NO. DD6 50M 6-00
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY Berkeley, California 94720-6000