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 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 w r e 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 w T orld 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 w r ar, 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, w r as 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
