by a majority of his fellow-townsmen. The smallness of our majority, in the first instance, was effected by subornation of perjury on the part of our opponents; for which I refer to the' evidence before the Committee of the House. And they afterwards rendered it impossible that I should avoid the contest by advancing against me disreputable charges, of no one of which did they attempt any proof before the Committee. There are few terms of disgrace which public opinion would not justify me in applying to such conduct; but I choose, for conciseness, to comprehend them all by stamping each and every of the parties concerned with the elaborate infamy of robbing by means of charging with disreputable offences.
"As your representative, I take the opportunity to point out to the Hull Reform Association, and through it to every association of the same nature throughout the country, the insulting falsehood contained in asserting that you, or any other set of electors, have freedom of election. You are free to elect whom you please, under the understanding that he shall be mulcted in his personal property to any extent the adversaries may choose to effect by the expenditure of perhaps a much inferior sum of their own. To take the present case: here am I, a man of comparatively small property, and no means of increasing it,—one in fact who could just, consistently with prudence, produce the moderate sum necessary to defray the legitimate expenses of an election,—robbed of the provision of my children to the amount of, I suppose, several thousand pounds, by possibly a conspiracy of the richest and most powerful individuals in the kingdom,—men, for aught we know, not confined to the rank of members of the Commons House of Parliament, but extending upwards
Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/68
This page has been validated.
60
Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.
