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position I then made of his unprincipled con- | matter as I did, I should be unable to walk duct. I thought I had demolished him, but it through the streets of London, if I had, by my appears that I had only scotched the snake-conduct, placed myself in such a situation as not killed him he is himself again. This the worthy Alderman.” This was my feeling, very Mr. Stevens had on divers occasions and I had a right to state it. What the wor drawn up, moved, seconded, or supported, thy Alderman's feelings may be I do not pre more than twenty votes of thanks to me for my tend to know; and be it remembered, that public conduct, in some of which it had been these remarks were uttered at the conclusion declared that I was entitled to the lasting of an explanation, called for by the ambiguity" gratitude of my fellow citizens." This gen- with which Alderman Waithman alluded to tleman evinced his "lasting gratitude" by the deputation which waited upon him at Rei--turning round upon me, at the only moment gate, and of which I was one. that had ever occurred where he could have "This very shown it, and supported Sir James Shaw, against whom I had formerly moved a vote of censure, which had his support; and after this conduct he presumes to talk of consistency and public principle! Had this been all had his conduct ended here, 1 should have passed him over in silence, but he must thrust To this he might have added, I had conhimself forward upon the hustings to calum-tributed to the purchase of a piece of plate, preniate me in my absence, which he would not sented to the worthy Alderman on his retiring have dared to have done in my presence. Let him, however, be aware how he meddles with my reputation-let him look after his own, if it be worth looking after.

Sir, I feel most deeply how much the cause of reform has been injured by such a meddler; and all the efforts of his life, past and to come, can never atone for the injury he has done; and in vindicating my own conduct from foul aspersions, I feel that I am performing more of a public duty than an act of justice to myself. Public character is public property; I hope I shall preserve mine; but no one shall, with impunity, attempt to rob me of it.

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I am, Sir,

Your obedient servant,
R. WAITHMAN.

Reigate, October 16.

MR. STEVENS'S ANSWER.

The worthy Alderman states, Mr. Stevens had on divers occasions drawn up, moved, seconded, or supported, more than twenty votes of thanks to me for my public conduct, in some of which it had been declared that I was entitled to the lasting gratitude of my fellow-citizens."

from public life; that I also enrolled my name at all times as a subscriber to defray the expenses of Alderman Waithman's elections for Member of Parliament for the city of London, and spent days and weeks on those occasions in promoting his interests. All this I did hecause I thought the worthy Alderman entitled to the lasting gratitude of his fellow-citizens so long as he continued to advocate those rights, and no longer.

In return, he has upon many occasions expressed his gratitude to me for those exertions; and so far, I confess, I think the account may be balanced-but gratitude appears to have a different definition in the mind of the worthy Alderman-nothing but pecuniary emolument or solid pudding seems to haunt his imagination; and because I did not support him for the office of Chamberlain of the City, which he declares to be the only moment in which I could have shown my gratitude, I am to be honoured with his abuse. I felt it my duty to To the Editor of the Morning Chronicle. vote for the man I thought best qualified to SIR,-In noticing the remarks made upon fill the vacant office. Sir James Shaw, in my my conduct by Mr. Alderman Waithman, estimation, was a fitter man than Robert arger becomes entirely absorbed in a feeling Waithman; and I voted accordingly. I will which for me to name would only tend far- never allow my political bias to influence me ther to excite the irritability of a man whom on such an occasion. In allusion to this. I have for many years respected for his po- event, the vituperation of Alderman Waithlitical consistency, and whom on all occasions man knows no bounds. I am a "snake I have supported as long as he remained con- scotched but not killed ”—I am "unprincipled sistent. On the present election, when the and inconsistent-a meddler, who can never Court of Aldermen had, by a majority of atone for the injury he has done." I feel for three, placed themselves in hostility to the the disappointed hopes of such a man, but in wishes of the livery, I confidently calculated my conscience I could not vote for him as on the zealous support of Alderman Waith- Chamberlain of the City of London. Mr.Alman; is it astonishing, then, that I should derman Waithman wonders how "I dare 'feel disappointed, together with thousands of thrust myself forward." My answer is, that my brother liverymen, that the man whose I have doue my duty conscientiously, and the reputation was built upon his upholding their Livery appreciate that conduct; and that rights should, by his conduct, place himself when the worthy Alderman thinks it savours in a situation to sacrifice those rights and his of daring to oppose him, or expose his inconown reputation at the shrine of personal vani-sistencies, he forms the most preposterous ty? I felt all this, and knowing the value of opinion of his own importance. He certainly consistency of conduct, I did on the hustings was not present when I presumed to mention. conclude," that for my own part, viewing the his name, nor was I when Mr. Alderman

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Waithman took the liberty to interfere with | abandoned after it had been depending for my right of voting on the election of Cham- several years. berlain. In both cases, I presume, it was unintentional, as I cannot calculate that Alderman Waithman had any fear of facing William Stevens; and I am sure that any dread of expressing my opinion in the presence of Alderman Waithman, is too ridiculous to require any comment. Calumny I abhor. What I stated on the hustings was true-and I am ready to prove every word I uttered. I will conclude in his own words—“ Let him, | however, be aware how he meddles with my reputation-let him look after his own, if it be worth looking after."

I remain, yours very respectfully, W. STEVENS. Bishopsgate Within, Oct. 17, 1831.

LAKENHEATH PETITION.

To the Right hon. the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled, the humble petition of the several persons whose names are hereto subscribed, being respectively owners and occupiers of land situate within the parish of Lakenheath, in the county of Suffolk,

SHEWETH,

That in or ahout the year 1820, the Vicar of the said parish, caused a suit in Chancery and five several actions at Law to be com menced for the recovery of tithes of hay arising within the said Fen, and four of the said actions were set down for trial before Mr. Baron Graham and a Special Jury, in the year 1821; but a verdict having been found in the first action in favour of the occupiers, the Vicar declined to proceed to a trial of the three remaining actions, but in the following year, 1822, he caused two of such actions to be tried before Lord Chief Baron Richards, and recovered a verdict in each action; the said verdicts were, however, afterwards set aside by the Court of King's Bench, and a new trial directed to be had in one of such actions, in order to determine the right; and a new trial was accordingly had before Mr. Baron Garrow, in the year 1823, and a verdict was returned for the Vicar, but such verdict was also set aside and a third trial of the said action directed by the Court of King's Bench, and such third trial took place before Mr. Justice Gaselee, in 1825, when the jury returned a verdict in favour of the defendant the occupier, and such verdict has never been disturbed.

That after seventeen years of incessant and harassing litigation, during which nearly THAT the Dean and Chapter of the Cathe-50007. were expended by the owners of the Fen dral church of Ely are in right of their said lands in defending the said suits, and more Church, and by virtue of a grant from the especially after the said verdicts in their faCrown, possessed of the appropriate Rectory vour, your petitioners hoped that no further of Lakenheath aforesaid, which formerly be-suits would be brought for tithes of the said longed to the Prior and Convent of Ely, and the said Dean and Chapter are also the patrons of the Vicarage of Lakenheath, and are likewise in the possession of a very extensive Manor, and a very large landed estate in the said parish, which also belonged to the said Monastery at the time of its dissolution.

That there is within the said parish a considerable tract of land called Lakenheath Fen, containing 5000 acres, or thereabouts, which was also part of the possessious of the said monastery, and the same is now vested in your petitioners and divers other persons; and the said Deau and Chapter in particular are the possessors of about six hundred acres thereof.

Fen; and so confidently was such hope enter tained by the defendants in the said suits, that they remitted and gave up to the said Vicar, the whole of their taxed costs in the said actions, amounting to several hundred pounds, besides the costs in the said chancery suit.

That your petitioners have nevertheless been credibly informed, that the said Dean and Chapter have lately made a concurrent lease of the said rectory, to Mr. Hugh Robert Evans, of Ely, their solicitor and confidential agent, and the steward of their mauor, with au express covenant or condition, that he shall proceed at law or in equity for the recovery of the tithes of the said Fen; and the said Mr. Evans threatens and intends to sue for such tithes, after the determination of the present lease, which will expire at Michaelmas next.

That from time whereof the memory of man is not to the contrary, no tithes have ever been paid for the said Fen in any one single instance, nor did either the Rector or the Vicar of the said parish ever set up any claim That your petitioners are advised and are to such tithes until the year 1808, when the fully persuaded that the said Fen is lawfully Lessee of the said Dean and Chapter institut-exempt from the payment of tithes, and they ed a suit in Chancery, and obtained a decree have every reason to expect that the said inagainst some of the occupiers, but the tended suit will be successfully defended; but defendants appealed from the said decree, and your petitioners have learned from long expethe same has never been carried into execu-rience, that whatever may be the result of such tion; and that whilst the said Chancery suit was still pending, a second Chancery suit was brought by another Lessee of the said Dean and Chapter,, but such second suit was

suit, it will be attended with a most enormous expense and infinite vexation and inconvenience; and they therefore feel it to be their duty to complain to your right honourable House,

of the state of the existing law, which enables such tithes belongs to the vicar, who resides a rector who has never been in the possession upon another benefice of which he is incumof the tithes of the land in question to put your bent; and that the spiritual duties of the said petitioners to the expense and hazard of prov-parish of Lakenheath, which contains a popuing that their exemption has subsisted ever since the time of legal memory, whenever he may think that a favourable opportunity pre sents itself of making that experiment.

lation of more than a thousand persons, are performed by a curate, who has a family of ten children, and receives only a scanty stipend of 751. per annum.

That the hardship of the case of your peti- That the exemption from tithes which is tioners is very materially aggravated by the enjoyed by your petitioners, is founded on circumstance that the said Dean and Chapter prescription; and that the particular griev themselves claim and enjoy an absolute ex- ances complained of by your petitioners in emption from tithes in respect of all their respect of the law of the subject, are occalands in the said parish, and that such ex- sioned by the protracted period of the time of emption rests upon the very same legal foun-legal memory, and by the maxim nullum temdation as that of which they threaten to de-pus occurrit ecclesiæ, whereby your petitioners prive your petitioners; and it is notorious that are compelled to show the existence of their by reason of such exemption the farmers and exemption from the first year of King Richard tenants of the said Dean and Chapter have the First, which is nearly six hundred and fifty never paid any tithes to the Vicar of the said years from the present time, and are also comparish from time immemorial; and, more-pelled to prove that their lands belonged to over, when copyhold lands lying within the said Fen have been sold, the said Dean and Chapter, in setting the arbitrary fines which are payable to them as Lords of the Manor upon such alienations, have valued the said lands as tithe free, and have compelled the purchasers to pay their fines according to such valuation.

That your petitioners further beg leave to represent to your right honourable House, that if the said Dean and Chapter should succeed in establishing their claim to the tithes of the said Fen, your petitioners will not only be liable to very heavy costs, but they will be stripped of property which has been purchased for a valuable consideration, which has been transmitted from father to son for several generations, and which has been made the subject of wills, family settlements, and various incumbrances, contracts, and legal engagements; and that, moreover, a considerable sum of money will be annually carried out of the said parish, which is already so exhausted by taxes and poor rates as to be incapable of finding money sufficient for the due employment of the labouring poor, and that by such means the poor's-rate will be increased, and the parish still further impoverished, merely for the purpose of increasing the wealth of a very rich ecclesiastical body, who bear no part of the heavy drainage taxes imposed upon the said fen; who keep no hospitality in the said parish; who do not in any respect minister to the spiritual wants of the said parish; and who, as your petitioners have good reason to believe, will not apply the said tithes to those religious and charitable purposes to which tithes are properly applicable, but will convert the same wholly to their private use and benefit: and in support of that assertion your petitioners conceive it to be their duty to state to your right honourable House, that the said Dean and Chapter, besides the profits of their large landed estate in the said parish, are now in the possession of other tithes arising on the highland parts of the said parish to a cousiderable amount; and that another portion of

one of the greater religious houses, and were held by such house from time immemorial until the dissolution thereof, free from the payment of tithes. And your petitioners bumbly submit that the power of making so strict and grievous an inquisition into the rights which anciently belonged to the estates of your petitioners, and of making them account for their titles from so remote a period, which is every day rendered more difficult by the lapse of time, is contrary to every rule of equal justice, and ought no longer to be permitted to continue a part of the law of the land.

Your petitioners therefore humbly pray that an Act of Parliament may be passed for the purpose of barring the claims of the church against laymen in all cases in which the party suing is unable to prove actual possession and enjoyment of the subject in demand, within sixty years next before the commencement of the suit, or within such other moderate and reasonable period as may be thought a more suitable time of limitation.

And your petitioners shall ever pray, &c.

HAMPSHIRE

COUNTY MEETING.

Winchester, 26th Oct., 1831. THIS meeting had been prepared by a combination of parties: first, some of the parsons, and some of the bitterest of the old Tories, as will appear by the names to the requisition, as published by the Sheriff, which names were as follows.

But I must mention the other parties first. There were the Whigs, including the two new county Members, and Mr. Jervoise; there were the Barings, and the set belonging to them;

and then there was a knot of reformers, of that party being left to advertise consisting of Mr. Henry Marsh and themselves. some others, who consent to be talked over by all the others, particularly by the Barings. The names of the requisitionists, as published by Sir Harry Tichborne, the High Sheriff, will show that this statement of mine is correct :J. Macdonald, M. P. C. S. Lefevre, M. P. G. P. Jervoise

Charles Mill

Thomas Baring, M. P.
Richard Simeon
A. Paget

John Bonham Carter, M. P.
A. Atherley, M. P.
H. B. Wither
W. E. Nightingale
R. Etwall, jun., M. P.
E. Poulter, Clerk
R. Carleton

Charles Richards, Clerk
Thomas Garnier, Clerk
W. H. Newbolt, D. D.
James Weld
George Atherley
C. D. Isdell, Clerk
J. Giffard
William Grant
James White
Francis Ellis, Clerk
John Ewer, Clerk
L. B. Wither, Clerk
John Duthy
W. H. T. Hawley
W. Iremonger
W. Portal
John Portol
Thomas Butler

R. G. Richards, Clerk
John Barker, Clerk
I. O. Zillwood, Clerk.
R. N. Lee

James John Hugonin
C. J. Hector
Edward Carter
P. Williams, Clerk
William Higgens
Henry Marsh

When I read this requisition, which was forwarded to me in London, I saw clearly what sort of an Address it was intended to send up to his Majesty. It was manifest enough that Iremonger and Bigg Wither had no more wish to have reform in England than they had to have the devil at Wherwell and at Manydown. It was also manifest that the nine parsons by whom the requisition was signed, had much about the same degree of affection for the cause. Here, however, I must except Mr. Poulter and Mr. Newbolt, who, I verily believe, would have no objection to a reform to a very considerable extent. The Whigs by no means want it; but they must appear to want it in order to further their political views, and in order to get at more or less of the public money, which is always the end which they have in view. The Barings wish for reform no more than Iremonger and Bigg Wither; rather less perhaps; and if they were to see the devil, horns, tail and all, at Stratton and the Grange, he would not frighten them more, or so much, as my being returned Member for Manchester. As to the small detachment of genteel and jesting reformers, with Mr. Marsh at their head, and Mr. Hector at their tail, I know them very well, and with the exception of Hector, I believe them to be perfectly sincere in their wishes for reform: but know them not to be proof against the blandishments of those who are called "great men."

Therefore, the moment I saw the reshould quisition I foresaw that we have come from Hampshire an address full of confidence in the Ministers; full Here are Iremonger and Bigg Wither of resignation to the superior wisdom of among the desperate old Tories. Here his Majesty, his Ministers, and both are the Carters, the Portals, amongst Houses of Parliament; full of passive the old sap-headed Whigs. Here is obedience and non-resistance; and, in Tom Baring, and Zillwood the Parson, short, an address which would have lately chaplain to Governor Beckett, at made the ministerial hack papers exthe Castle of Winchester, that used to claim :-" There, look at that sensible be called the Jail: and, in order to have “ county! No division there all is a spice of the little knot of reformers," left, where it ought to be left, to those here is Mr. Henry Marsh placed in what" who must know better than the people they deemed his proper situation, the can know." Thus this county would bottom of the list, the other gentlemen have done all that it possibly could do

to encourage the Ministers to abandon the address which was seconded by me. the bill; and this county could have I have neither time nor inclination to done much in that way, seeing that it is so rich in church possessions, that it has a bishop who voted against the bill, and two parson-peers, Lords GUILDFORD and WALSINGHAM, each of whom has the livings of four parishes in the county, and each of whom voted against the bill. In short, an unanimous vote of confidence and resignation in Hampshire would have been as heavy a blow as the cause of reform could have received.

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give any-thing in the way of report of the speeches; and I shall, therefore, when I have inserted the address, give a sketch of the proceedings as far as relates to what was done, and how the thing terminated. In the morning, before the meeting took place, we had had an interview with Mr. Marsh, and had given him our address to read, he giving us at the same time a copy, for the purpose of our reading it, of the adThe moment, therefore, that I received dress which he intended to move; so the requisition, though in the height that all the parties were duly apprized of my corn-harvest, and pulled twenty of what we intended to do, and we ways at once in London, I resolved to were apprized of what they intendgo down, and I sent before me, in print, ed to do, the other parties having, some copies of the following handbill:- as we understood, had communication "HAMPSHIRE MEN,-If you have not a with them, or were about to have "mind to be for ever humbugged slaves, communication with them, which after'meet me at the county meeting at wards appeared to be the case, see"Winchester, on Wednesday the 26th ing that neither the Tories nor the "of this month. WM. COBBETT." Whigs had any-thing prepared for The next day I received a letter from the meeting, and that certain resoluMr. Budd, of Burghclere, telling me that tions which were proposed by Mr. Jerhe intended to be at Winchester at the voise served as the foundation of the county meeting, and sending me in his address which the amalgamation-party letter the copy of a resolution, the sub-had finally presented to the meeting by stance of which is expressed in the last the Deputy Sheriff, in the most irregu paragraph of the address, which he lar and queer way, which I shall have to moved at the meeting, and which will be describe by-and-by. There was one found here below. thing in which the Holy Alliance were This hand-bill, which was circulated deceived, or rather in which they depretty widely, gave the "Holy Ali-ceived themselves. Mr. Marsh (God ance some intimation of what they knows for what reason), in his conversahad to expect. It disconcerted them tion in the morning, took it for granted exceedingly: and, of all the parsons that he was to move an address, and that had signed the requisition, no one that our address was to come in the made his appearance but Mr. Poulter. shape of an amendment; and as he The Iremongers, the Bonham Carters, took this to be a matter of course, it the Bigg Withers, the Barings, did not would not have been good manners in show their noses. I was told that Ire-us to say any-thing in opposition to an monger and Wither were there, and that Tom Baring and the Lord of the Treasury and Bingham, the two heroes of Marwell, were at the meeting; but their names were never pronounced in my hearing, and certainly none of them, not even old Tom, the successor of Alfred, made their appearance as orators, though Thomas used to make a considerable figure in this way. Mr. BUDD, who met me last night at Winchester, agreeably to his appointment, moved

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opinion so positively entertained. But Mr. Budd could see nothing either physical or moral to hinder him from being the beginner of the business, while all of us who surrounded him saw, in his age, in his experience, in his great knowledge, in his high character, in the spotless and zealous and public-spirited conduct of his whole life, every reason in the world for his taking the lead on an occasion of so much importance, so interesting to the kingdoin in general, and in

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