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one word to be heard from Mr. Budd or from me: the tame, the unmeaning, the talentless, the servile, the toadeating address would have passed as the unanimous voice of the county; which would have sunk it to a level with the basest rotten borough in the kingdom; even to a level with the rotten CALNE, which returned, under the patronage of Lansdown, this barking Scotchman to parliament.

man told me he got from Mr. Marsh; their plea for good thumping places, an address that had never been seconded upon the ground that they were mainly nor even moved; and, if it had not been instrumental in preventing this great and for me, it would have been even read fine county from passing a sulky and to the meeting! However, the thing silent censure on the Ministers it was, was done; the scheme for making this as the gamesters say, "all but: it great county the mouth-piece of confi- was the turn of a feather. At any rate, dence in Ministers; of passive obedience I hope Sir James and his merry-andrew and non-resistance: this scheme was will have the honesty to tell my Lord defeated. I knew that there would be Grey, that ONE-HALF of the county a great division at any rate, and a great of Hants tacitly expressed their want of division there was: for, it was so near confidence in him; a decision greatly to a thing that the High Sheriff made the the honour of the county, and for which meeting divide twice before he would the county is indebted, next after the determine which had the majority. The virtue of its people, to the manly detersecond time, addressing himself to me mination of Mr. Budd to be heard first; he said, "I think there are rather most for if the Holy Alliance had begun, the hats on that side:" to which I answer-agents of noise would not have suffered ed, and really for the purpose of not giving him any plague with the Alliance, Yes, Sir, I think there are," and so he decided. The plain truth is this: I saw more than a thousand Chopsticks, who never held up their hats at all, not being able, from the noise, to discover what was going on, and being afraid of committing some error. The Holy Allies, in a rage of disappointment, and thinking that they should gain by a division into sides, called on the Sheriff It was curious to observe the great to divide the meeting to the right and pains taken by all the factions of the left! Then we should have had a fight" Holy Alliance to cause the meeting to a certainty; for our side already to believe that Mr. BUDD had nothing began to clench and shake their fists at all to do with the Address which he the Holy Allies would have been in the moved, and which I seconded. And River Itehen in ten minutes. But Mr. this contemptuous demeanour to wards Budd and I did not want to see soldiers Mr. Budd was particularly conspicuous come from the barracks, and still less in Jephthah Marsh and Reformer to see Baring's Yeomanry Cavalry Hector, who really seemed, as I was come out from the inns in the city, in told, to affect not to know who he was which they, by accident of course, had or whence he came; though Jephthah been assembled, in order to go out to might have recollected, that Mr. BUDD exercise! The Sheriff seemed surprised, not only knew him, but knew his father and well he might, at my allowing the before him, and knew something, too, other side to have the majority; but, I of his father's Reading paper-money, and was resolved that there should be knew, moreover, even the wife of Jephno pretence for "calling out the mili- thah, to whom Jephthah's father was tary in aid of the civil power." No: guardian! Jephthah might, by these the thing was done well, my friends; tokens, have recollected who Mr. Budd and it will teach you how much de-was, and whence he came. And, as to pends on your exertions.

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And now let Sir JAMES MACDONALD, as picked orator of the alliance, and JEPHTHAH MARSH, as Jester Ex-Officio, go to the sincere Whigs and put forward

REFORMER HECTOR, he might, one would think, have remembered, that, when he was the renter of the post-horse taxes, as his very worthy successor, MOSES LEVI, THE JEW, has since been,

he applied, at Newbury, to this very Mr. said I," that Scotchman, will never Budd to save him and his informers cheat you." This MACDONALD, who from undergoing that aqueous ceremony had first the audacity to say, that I which is usually called A DUCKING!“ prostituted" my talents, and then He might, to be sure, with a soul so the supreme baseness to set on a crew wholly given up to Reform, have for- to prevent me from being heard in gotten, that, for more than twenty years reply, is the very dullest fellow that I (ending only about two years ago), he ever heard in all my life. In a crowd, was manager of the rotten borough of you can hear distinctly only the close of Petersfield for Joliffe; and that, hav- every sentence. His speech is like a ing, purely from an abhorrence of cor- peal of that sort of ringing, in which all ruption and a pious anxiety to save the bells change except the big bell, Joliffe's soul, tried (but in vain) to get which comes, 66 DONG! DONG!" at the the borough out of his late employer's end of every change, the rest of the bells, hands, he became, at once, patriot" you being at a distance, being heard inand" reformer": Hector might, I allow, distinctly. My God, how weary I was! have forgotten all this; but the devil At last, when he began to attack me, was in him, if he could have forgotten the "Off! off!" and "Question! questhat Mr. Budd, whom, with tears in tion! came. And he, great fool-like, his eyes, he, not many years ago, im- told the meeting, that if they thought plored to save him and his taxing in- he had betrayed his trust, he was" ready formers from the pump or the horse-to surrender it into their hands; pond!

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which he got no other answer than “ Give up your place too!" This made him cease tolling, and his visage assume an expression truly satanic.

Such, my friends, were the men who poured out the lowest and basest personalities upon me, when I, observe, had uttered not even a personal allusion After the decision as to the address, against any one, and who, when they the small-beer orators, LEFEVRE and had so done, made and caused to be MILDMAY, came forth to harangue, under made, a noise so great as to prevent me pretence of moving thanks to the sheriff; from being heard in reply. Observe, but, not a word was suffered to be that MACDONALD lives at a little place uttered so as to be heard; and they were called BRAMSHOT, near PETERSFIELD; told that this was their punishment for HECTOR lives at that town, where he is not suffering my reply to be heard. attorney and paper money man, and But, they had the privilege of hearing. was boroughmonger's agent till his ten- "Rat! rat! rat!" saluted the ears of der conscience worked on him as is MILDMAY; and JOSEPH WAIT of Whitsaid above. CARTER, whom you saw so church gave LEFEVRE as decent a lesson, busy in the noise-making, and who is aas neat a dish of severe, well-pointed, Member for Portsmouth, lives very near and just reproach as ever insincerity and Petersfield: and, I dare say, Hector double-dealing received from a bold knows very well why he is endeavouring and intelligent man. to keep this Scotchman crammed down the throat of the county; and the county ought to take very good care to get the Scotchman out of its throat, which the Scotchman will take care that it shall not do for six years, at least, if he can help it. This fellow attempted to be facetious upon the conduct and talents of that "doughty champion of corruption, Sir CHARLES WETHERELL; but he was put a stop to there by a farmer, who exclaimed, "You never said that to's face!" "Well said, my buck,"

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And now, my friends, Chopsticks of Hampshire, I conclude with exhorting you to be ready for our foes another time, and to be always ready to meet them; and be assured that, life and health permitting, you will never fail to see in your ranks your brother Chopstick and faithful friend, WM. COBBETT.

P. S. All you who have raised any of COBBETT'S CORN, be sure to hang it up in your rooms, or some place, till it be perfectly dry. I sell mine to a great

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baker in London, who gives me 48s. for ascribes to my Lord RADNOR are these: a Winchester quarter. I will tell you "Much had been said about the qualihow to use it in puddings and bread "fication for the suffrage, and it had another time. I have sent some of the" objected, that allowing ten-pound

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To the Editor of the Morning Chronicle,

ON THE

TEN-POUND SUFFRAGE IN GREAT

SIR,

TOWNS.

Kensington, 2nd November, 1831.

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It is impossible not to gather from these passages that you and my Lord RADNOR believe that the Ministers intend to do this thing, which, I am sure, neither you nor his Lordship approve of, and which, besides its being an act I HAVE read in your paper of yester- of flagrant injustice, would be a scanday, and in the speech of my Lorddalous breach of that compact, upon the RADNOR (made at the Wiltshire county faith of which the working millions meeting), published in your paper of most generously consented to forego a the day before, some remarks relative to part, and a great part, of their clear and the ten-pound suffrage in great towns, unquestionable rights; and, in many which would seem to indicate, that it is cases, to yield up that part of their the opinion of you and also of his Lord-rights which even the boroughmongers ship, that the Ministers mean in their allowed them to enjoy. new bill to raise the sum, which is I enclose you, Sir, a copy of the to be deemed a qualification for voting Two-penny Trash for November, a in those towns; to make that sum copy of which I have also sent to each more than ten pounds: and as I am of the Ministers. I believe that you quite convinced that an attempt to do will there find it proved that every sane this would excite rage not to be ex-man, not stained by indelible crime, has pressed, in the working people of those a clear right to a vote in the choosing towns, I will here, with your leave, show, not only the barefaced injustice, but the unbearable insolence, of such an attempt.

of those who are to make the laws to which he has to yield obedience. But I, in common with almost the whole of the working people, had declared myself The passage in your paper to which willing to take THE BILL; that is to I allude is in these words: "Let it be say, to take a great deal less than our "borne in mind, that a good, an eco-right, and, for the sake of peace and "nomical government will benefit all "honest men; and would it not, then, "be folly to differ about extent of suffrage at the time when such an ex"tent is about to be obtained as will, at all events, secure the blessing of good "and impartial government? They are "the enemies of the working classes, "who advise them to reject all reform, "because the most extensive is not to "be granted." The words which the report in your paper of 31st October

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harmony, "to give THAT BILL a fair trial." And why did I hasten to make this declaration; and why did I labour so earnestly to reconcile the working people to it? Not because I thought it was just; not because I saw with approbation all the millions of hard-working Chopsticks, and all the working people in boroughs, completely shut out from all the rights of election; but because, and solely because, I saw that the ten-pound suffrage in the great

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towns (as it stood in the bill) would house and in every big home-stend, and enable the working people, in those they would, in a short time, find themtowns, to send from fifty to a hundred Members into the Parliament; and because I saw in those Members men who would maintain the rights of all the working people in every part of the kingdom; because I was very sure that the working people of Manchester, or Leeds, or Bolton, or Oldham, or of any other large town, would never choose a man who would not pledge himself not to stand with his arms folded while, for instance, those poor creatures in Ireland, from whose labour came their bacon and their butter, were starving for want of food.

selves under the harpy claws of an omniscient and ever-present oligarchy of money, with little finger heavier than the loins of the oligarchy of title and privilege.

Not to trouble you further, Sir, I venture to assure the Ministers, that if an attempt be made to raise the sum of qualification for voting in the great towns; if Lord BROUGHAM'S “readiness to re-consider" this matter should lead to this result, the bill will be rejected with scorn by millions of men, and by no man amongst those millions with more indignant scorn than by

Your must obliged and most

obedient servant,

This, Sir, was the part of the compact which induced me to set my hand to it; but if this part of the bill is to WM. COBBETT. be taken out of it, away goes the whole, P. S. The Editor of the Chronicle, for me; aye, Sir, and for all the work-after having had the fairness to insert ing millions, who will, if any-thing be this letter in his paper of Thursday, done at all to lessen the number of voters gives the following explanation:in great towns, petition to a man against "Mr. COBBETT, in a letter, in this day's the new bill. Mark, Sir, I pray you, "Chronicle, refers to some remarks in mark the fraud which would, in case of" the Chronicle of Tuesday, and in a such alteration, characterize the whole" speech of Lord RADNOR, at the Wilttransaction. The bill by disfranchising" shire County Meeting, as seeming to IMMEDIATELY non-resident freemen and indicate that it is the opinion of us burgesses and livery-men, and also pot "and also of his Lordship, that the wallopers and scot-and-lot-men; and by "Ministers mean, in their new bill, to disfranchising resident freemen and bur-" raise the sum which is to be deemed gesses and livery-men in future; the "a qualification for voting in great bill thus disfranchises all the working "towns; to make that sum more men who have votes now, while it en- "than ten pounds. The passage in franchises no working man except in the" the Chronicle to which he alludes is, great towns; so that, if the sum of the suffrage be raised in the great towns, this famous Reform Bill will not suffer to vote one single working man in the whole kingdom!

Let it be borne in mind that a good "and economical Government will "benefit all honest men; and would it not then be folly to differ about "extent of suffrage at a time when But, do I not wish to get rid of the" such an extent is to be obtained as rotten boroughs, and will I not petition" will, at all events, secure the blessfor schedules A and B No! Flat"ing of good and impartial governand plain, NO! Unless the ten-pound" ment? They are the enemies of the suffrage remain. Tell me not of " bo-"" working classes, who advise them roughmongers!" They suffer some few" to reject all reform, because the working men to vote at any rate; but a "most extensive is not to be obtained.' bill to raise the ten pound suffrage in" We have only to observe that we great towns would suffer not one of "firmly believe that Ministers do not them to vote. Instead of a borough66 intend to raise the sum which is to be monger up at London or over at Paris," the qualification for voting in great whom the working people only hear of," towns, and that when we wrote the they would have one in every counting-" above passage, we equally believed

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that the new suffrage would not give a vote to one single working man in the whole kingdom! How were they to feel! That declaration uncontradicted, how were they to feel!

BRISTOL.

"that Ministers had no such intention. "We were arguing with men who were "dissatisfied with any reform short of "universal suffrage; and the object at "which we were aiming was the per"suasion of those who were hostile to "the Reform Bill, because it stopt short "of universal suffrage, that such an "extension of the suffrage as should "" secure to the people the blessing The following account of the awful "of good and impartial government transactions, in this very finest city in "(meaning thereby the suffrage in the the king's dominions, is, perhaps, as “late bill), ought not to be rejected accurate as any that we shall get, for "even by the partisans of universal some time at least. To write upon the "suffrage. We wish to avoid raising subject, I cannot at this moment trust "questions as to the extent of suffrage my pen, full as my heart is of those "which in itself might be most de- feelings which, after having so recently "sirable, as the people have gene-seen that beautiful and opulent city, and rally agreed to make concessions so admired the demeanour of its inhabi"to each other, for the sake of ob- tants of all classes, especially that of its taining what, without union, they decent, orderly, and civil and laborious "could never obtain-THE BILL." working people; full as my heart is of This is all right. I never imputed to those feelings, which these recollections this Editor, and I should have been are calculated to inspire, I cannot, while base indeed to impute to my Lord Rad- I think of the heaps of dead bodies, and nor; a WISH to see the qualification of the heart-broken parents, wives, and raised in the new bill; but, I thought fatherless children, trust my pen to write that their words indicated a belief in on these transactions. I therefore insert them, that the Ministers meaned to do the following account from the BRISTOL it; especially when I looked at the MERCURY, making, however, this respeech of Lord Brougham, who volun-mark; that I beg to be understood as teered to express "his readiness to re-not adopting, not agreeing with, any one consider" that part of THE BILL, and single epithet, or any one single appellawhen, at the end of three weeks, that tien, which is abusive of, or disparaging intention having been so often imputed to, any part of the people of BRISTOL. to him, not a single word had come forth Of the TRUE CAUSES, remote as well to remove the imputation. I have never as immediate, of these transactions, we suspected LORD GREY of a wish to raise shall have time enough to speak herethe sum of suffrage. But I know that he cannot stand alone, without, at once, making a personal appeal to the people. If it be not intended to raise the qualifi cation, all may yet be well; but, the sooner the people know this, the better; for the suspicions excited by the Lord Chancellor's speech have done quite mischief enough already. This it is that is filling the working people with rage. Look at the now unhappy city of BRISTOL, for instance. The freemen, that is the working men, saw their right of voting taken away by the Bill; and how were they to feel, when, from the Lord Chancellor's declaration, they had such strong ground for believing,

after.

WM. COBBETT.

RIOTS AT BRISTOL. (From the Bristol Mercury of Tuesday.)

ARRIVAL OF SIR CHARLES.

At half past ten Sir Charles was perceived to approach, at a rapid rate, in a chariot drawn by four greys, and on stopping at Totterdown Sheriff's carriage, he was instantly assailed by for the purpose of being handed into the the most deafening yells, groans, and hisses. The constables were then, in considerable numbers, placed around the carriage, a gentleman on horseback riding close by the side of each door, and three or four hundred preceding and following. In this manner the cavalcade, which comprised also the usual number

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