_To the Editor of the_ BIRMINGHAM DAILY PRESS.
SIR,--In your publication of this day we are favoured with a
letter from Mr. William Haden, of Dudley, one of the uninvited
to the late Court Leet Dinner, in explanation of what he
alleges to be a misinterpretation of his very un-called-for
remarks at the Court Leet meeting on Friday last. As I was
present on that occasion, I deem it but just to the merits
and acknowledged truthfulness of your general reports to aver
that Mr. Haden assuredly made use of the expressions referred
to, and in such an excited state of mind, too, as to leave
no doubt upon the minds of the gentlemen present that he came
there brim-full of indignation and chagrin (at witnessing
the "good time coming" manifestation), at what he and the
deputation who indorsed his expressions with "Hear, hear,
hear," seemed to believe was intended as a personal slight to
those worthy townsmen who have so often eaten Lord Ward's roast
beef, and then lampooned his lordship for his hospitality and
courteous welcome.
The Court Leet meeting of the manor of Dudley, being dependent
upon the manorial rights of the barony of Ward, becomes by such
ancient right a self-constituted body of that barony, hence
the perfect right of Lord Ward to invite whom he may please to
attend his Court Leet. This private right could not have been
more scrupulously observed last week than has been witnessed
the last thirty years at former Leet meetings, for it cannot
be denied that a certain "clique" has at that Leet exercised
an amount of domination unbearable to honourable minds, arming
themselves with a species of presumptuous authority, most
unmistakeably uncongenial to the known liberality and courteous
bearing of Lord Ward; dictating the terms of political
subserviency and social local dependency that should fit any
townsman to be eligible for that festival of local celebrity.
Pitiable indeed must be the status of that spirit of
independence engendered in the minds of intelligent Englishmen
who can present themselves where they are not invited, and
condescend to interrogate the legal authority of the Lord of
the Manor upon a question beyond their right of inquiry.
Mr. Wm. Haden may, if he thinks proper, characterise the
last Court Leet meeting "as a contemptible proceeding," but
we remind Mr. Haden that the influx of new life and liberal
thoughts into the elements of the late Court Leet augur well
for the onward progression of both political and social
advancement in Dudley. We believe, sir, that the contracted
neck of Toryism and the conclusive and bigotted favouritism of
partizanship is broken thereby, and that Lord Ward has hitherto
been deceived in his estimate of the lingering political
vitality of the borough of Dudley. We furthermore hail this
last local excitement as foreboding days of enlightenment,
and liberty of thought and speech to the good old town of
Dudley; and we accept the proceedings of the last Court Leet
as the act of a liberal, benevolent nobleman, conscious of his
immense responsibility, alive to the approaching signs of the
times, and fully sensible of the patent fact that local cliques
and self interests, rigidly exercised in the management of
affairs in Dudley, have retarded its commercial enterprise, and
contracted its social and political usefulness.
Yours respectfully,
VERITAS.
_Dudley, November 6th, 1857._
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