Her Majesty's Ministers have announced an immediate dissolution
of Parliament, and the duty of choosing a Representative in the
House of Commons has therefore devolved upon you. Encouraged
by the very flattering requisition I have received from an
influential portion of your body, I venture to solicit your
suffrages at the approaching election.
Having sat in the House of Commons during the entire of the
last Parliament, my opinions on most of the questions of the
day stand recorded in the votes.
During the last thirty years great improvements have been
effected in reference to our Parliamentary Franchises,
our Municipal Institutions, and our commercial and fiscal
condition. I have been long connected both by official and
personal ties with those who, for the greater part of the
period referred to, have been the leaders of the great Liberal
party by whose exertions these changes have been effected. The
principles by which they have been dictated, I desire to see
extended in their application.
The question upon which the country will have to decide at
the approaching election is that of Parliamentary Reform. I
am in favour of a bona-fide extension of the Franchise, both
in Counties and Boroughs, which would, by a lowering of the
present qualification for the suffrage, admit within the pale
of the Constitution an adequate representation of the labouring
classes; and I desire to see a portion of their present
representation transferred from the smaller and less important
Constituencies, to those larger communities which the growth of
trade and wealth has produced.
I am opposed to the proposition for taking Votes at Elections
for Members of Parliament by Ballot, because I think under its
operation corruption could not be detected, and I do not wish
to destroy the influence of the Non-Electors, which would be
the case under a system of secret voting.
In reference to Taxation, I am desirous of taking off, as the
necessities of the State will permit, all those taxes which
press upon trade, or impede the springs of industry, and I
desire to see judicious economy and retrenchment carried into
every branch of the public service.
I consider the Income Tax in its present form presses unjustly
upon incomes derived from trade and industry.
I have always in Parliament voted for the abolition of Church
Rates, because, as a member of the Church of England, I think
the pecuniary gain to the Establishment is not a compensation
for the ill will and odium which the enforcement of the claim
produces.
I am in favour of the most complete freedom of trade, and have
always voted for every measure which tended in that direction.
I desire to see Government aid to Education extended to all
classes of my fellow subjects, without distinction of sect, or
creed.
Should I have the honour of becoming your Representative, the
local interests of your important Borough shall always command
my best attention.
I hope before the Election to have the pleasure of calling upon
each of you, and shall be happy to explain my opinions more in
detail.
I have the honour to be, gentlemen,
Your most obedient Servant,
MONCK.
_Bush Inn, Dudley, April 5th, 1859._
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