SIR,--I was much surprised on receiving your paper of last
Saturday, to find a most impudent statement made by Mr. John
Williams of this town, relative to his exclusion from the
Bowling Green. In my opinion, he only met with his deserts,
for it is an invariable rule with us to _cut_ any person who
differs from us in politics. It was our wish that Colonel
Lygon should have been again returned to Parliament for the
County of Worcester, and of course expected no opposition;
it was, therefore, with feelings of the deepest indignation,
that we saw Mr. Williams's name announced as Chairman of the
Committee of a rival Candidate, in direct opposition to Lord
Dudley's agent, the meek and amiable Chairman of Colonel
Lygon's Committee. Yes, Sir, Mr. Williams is right, in saying
it was the election and that alone, which was the cause of
his expulsion, and surely it was enough to rouse the blood of
Englishmen (accustomed as we have been to rule the town) to
find our power gone, and our influence laughed at by the party
which Mr. Williams espoused. Our feelings are so tremblingly
sensitive on this point, that one of the gentlemen whose names
have been so unwarrantably exposed, actually dined with Mr.
Williams, at his own table, and from it walked down to the
Bowling Green Committee, and voted for his expulsion, so that
we do not allow private friendship to interfere with public
duty; and as we have, besides, the sanction of two intelligent
County Magistrates, we have little to fear.
It is a source of poignant regret to us, that none of the
other members of the Reform Committee could be punished in
the same way, for although for the most part composed of
highly-respectable individuals, yet as we wished to keep the
"Green" select, we did not send them any invitation to join
us, for we have been long accustomed to love unanimity, and if
persons thinking differently from ourselves on public matters,
were to be admitted, there would be no end of discussion, which
we much dislike, having but few talkers amongst us, and others
not choosing to give their opinions to be carped at by their
opponents.
We have been taunted with having signed the Reform Petition
a few months since; but what of that? Surely we have as much
right to support and vote for an anti-reform candidate, as
we had to sign a petition praying for reform. And, moreover,
what has supporting a candidate to do with our having signed a
petition? What if Colonel Lygon has opposed all reform? What
if he be an enemy to Civil and Religious Liberty? What if he
has been the undeviating supporter of the reckless expenditure
of the people's money? What is all this to us? _We_ could
always afford to pay the taxes! _We_ have thriven under the
old system! and yet we are to be told, forsooth, that we have
forfeited our consistency, in supporting a man, than whom a
more consistent being does not breathe. He subscribes a few
pounds annually to our charitable institutions, and we are
really fearful lest these should be discontinued now that
his political connexion with us has ceased. Such are the
consequences to be dreaded from this new state of things. It
was very strange Mr. Williams could not take his dismissal
quietly, without publishing his disgrace in the newspapers,
as it never was intended, out of a sincere regard for his
feelings, that it should be known beyond our own circle.
I am, Sir,
A MEMBER OF THE BOWLING-GREEN.
_Dudley, June 9th, 1831._
(_From the Birmingham Journal of June 11th._)
* * * * *
A "SQUIB," ISSUED AT THE FIRST PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION IN FAVOUR
OF MR. JOHN CAMPBELL.
March to the battle field,
The foe is now before us,
Each heart is Freedom's shield,
And vict'ry's smiling o'er us;
The great St. Paul, with tripe and all,
We quickly made surrender,
In proud disdain we'll break again
Each Tory link asunder.
Who for a Campbell brave
Would shrink 'neath Tory power?
Who our just cause to save
Would rest e'en for an hour?
Our noble cause,
Our homes and laws,
'Gainst Tory power sustaining;
We'll hold in spite
Of Tory might,
Or die our rights maintaining.
Haste to the poll, my boys,
The foe is near expiring,
The Tories all have lost their joys,
And homeward are retiring.
The great St. Paul,
With tripe and all,
You quickly made surrender;
In proud disdain,
Then break again,
Each Tory link asunder.
The old town of Dudley, with the outlying hamlets of Netherton and
Woodside, having been created into one of the New Reform Parliamentary
Boroughs (allotted to send one Member to Parliament), the whole town
became awakened to its newly endowed responsibilities, and many an
ardent admirer of his native town rejoiced in the fact that Dudley had
been restored to its ancient Parliamentary honours and privileges,
which had been taken from it, viz.: disfranchised by Oliver Cromwell's
Parliament for its fidelity to the Royal Stuarts. As a matter of
course, Dudley proclaimed for Reform, and there was no gainsaying the
opinion that the new Reform Bill had made Dudley into a real borough;
therefore, we must have a Reformer to sit for Dudley. The old Tory
party thought different, and considered that the world was going wrong,
that revolution and the destruction of Church and State was near at
hand, despite the exuberance and hilarity of the Reformers; and they
succeeded in inducing Mr. Abiathar Hawkes, a local Glass Manufacturer,
to issue his _moderate Reform Address_, conveying the impression that
the man was to be elected for some virtue in himself, not for his
pronounced political opinions.
However, Mr. A. Hawkes soon retired from the attitude that he and his
too zealous friends had strung him up to, for _he retired_ before the
first election came on in 1832, and his place was supplied by the
well-known Tory, Sir Horace St. Paul, Bart. The Reformers in the new
borough were far from falling asleep, and after one or two futile
efforts to procure a local candidate, they succeeded in inducing plain
Mr. John Campbell, Q.C., from Edinburgh, to fight the first battle
of Reform in the maiden borough of Dudley. Sharp and fierce was the
contest, but as the majority of the 800 electors were somewhat _raw
and green_ at electioneering adventures and tactics, they did not come
up to the style and vigour of electioneering "pleasure and relaxation"
which was witnessed at our hustings and in our streets in later years.
The close of the poll shewed Mr. John Campbell the winner.
1st. ELECTION, 1832.
1. Mr. John Campbell, Reformer 318
2. Sir Horace St. Paul, Bart., Tory 229
----
Majority for Campbell 89
Thus the Reformers of Dudley distinguished themselves at their first
effort at electioneering, and happened to secure the election to St.
Stephen's Hall of one of the soundest lawyers of his day, besides
becoming one of the most accomplished Historians of his country, for
Lord Campbell's "Lives of the Lord Chancellors of England," can never
die in historical readings.