DROITWICH ELECTION. [From the Times, July 6.] Thursday evening,

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 760, 13 November 1852, Page 4

DROITWICH ELECTION. [From the Times, July 6.] Thursday evening,

To-day the Bight Hon. Sir John Somerset Pakington, Bart, was elected without opposition, , to represent the borough of Drbitwich in the new Parliament. The nomination took place on hustings erected i» a field a short distance from the town. At 10 o'clock, the right hon. baronet ', was met by his supporters onhis way from his'

seat at "Westwood Park, about a mile «na* a half from the borough, and was escorted by them in procession, accompanied by music and banners, into the town. After parading the principal streets, the procession arrived at the place of meeting, at 11. During their progress they were received with' repeated bursts of cheering' and mingled cries Of " free trade for erer !" and 11 we want the big lotf!" About 700 or B^o persons were collected round the hustings 1 , and the proceedings passed cffin a very orderly mariner. The customary forms having been complied with, The Mayor (Mr. T. G. Smith) bespoke for all parties a patient and attentive hearing. Mr. W. H. Ricketts then proposed the Right Hon. Sir John Somerset Pakington, Bart., of Westwdod-Park, ad a fit and proper person to represent the interests of the borough of Droitvrich in the ensuing Parliament. Mr. P. Atnpblett seconded the nomination. No other candidate being proposed — The Mayor declared the Right Hon. Sir John Pakington to be duly elected amidst general cheering. Sir J. Pakington then stood forward, and was received with enthusiastic cheering. He said.: — Gentlemen : although this, is the -fifth time upon which you have conferred upon me this great honor, I stand before you now under circumstances materially different from those under which upon any other instance you have been good enough to return me to Parliament. Only four months have now elapsed since, upon my receiving the unexpected and high honour of being appoiuted to a distinguished place in the councils of the Grown, I was obliged to come | down to you to ask you to ratify the choice which had been so, made, and again to return me in consequence of the vacancy which that appoint- i ment had caused. I then explained to you at considerable length, fully, frankly, and honestly, the line of policy, which, as a member of Parliament, 1 had thought it my duty to adopt since! the last general election in 1847. It remains for me now only to explain the conduct which, as one of the members of the Queen's Government, 1 have thought it right to take since. You will recoil dm, gentlemen, that at that moment a new Government was just formed. We were assailed, some of us upon one ground, and some upon another. I, as my honourable friend who has just seconded me said, w,as singled out for attack on that ground, to which I confess that I never felt any serious objection, namely, chat I had been a chairman of quarter sessions, for certainly it was a satisfaction to find that that was all our opponents bad to say against me. But, some of us for one cause and some of us for another, we really were rather roughly handled by the press and by opponents both in and out of Parliament; and it was a question bow we were to be met, and how we were to carry on the Queen's government under circumstances of some difficulty ; because we were conscious that we had not a commanding majority in the then House of Commons. Well, gentlemen, in this stale of doubt and uncertainty, I returned to London, and I cannot help telling you a little anecdote which occurred to me shortly afterwards, because it bears npon what has since occurred in the House of Commons. But it is a private conversation that I had at a private party, and therefore I have only to request that you will consider it as strictly i confidential. (A laugh.) Well, soon after ray return to town I met at a party an hon. friend of mine in the House of Common?, but one con* nected with extreme Radical interests. We are very good friends in private, but widely separated in public life. But I observed to him, " Here we are, a newly-appointed Government, in doubt as to bow we are to be treated. I have no doubt that you are in the councils of oar opponents. 1 will be glad if you will be good enough to tell me what sort of treatnieut we must expect." He was very frank : be said, " Oh, 1 have no hesitation at all in telling you : we have met once : tomorrow we meet again; our line of action is quite determined upon, and I will tell you what it is. We are going to vote you short supplies, and we mean to drive you to an immediate dissolution, or we shall drive you out of office." (A laugb.) Now, gentlemen, you have promised to consider this as confidential, therefore I will tell you one more secret. I will tell you the answer I gave to my hon. friend. I said, "I am very much obliged to you, I hope you will go oh with that game, for it will be our game, and not yours." Shortly after this Parliament met. Night after night went on, and we began to wonder when those short supplies that bad Been threatened were really to be proposed. You must all have heard of the maxim — a very good one* in life, but our opponents did not act upon it. " Never show your teeth unless you mean to bite." (Laughter.) Now I never saw such a show of teeth in all my lite as we had. There they sat, night after night, showing their teeth and grinning at us* but they never bit. The nrenaced short supplies were never moved. It was found that, the policy would never,. do ; for although we did fabb pretend to have a commanding majority it the late house of Commons, yet tbeie was either too much sehie of .'fair play and justice in that house, or, (I do not pretend to say which it was), there was too great a certainty that that tack would fail ; it never was attempted. That policy was abandoned, rind instead of voting short supplies, atfd turning us out of office, our opponents took to abusing us and faultfinding. This we could not stop ; and what was the first charge tbit they made ? Why, " Oh I you came into office upon false pretence* ; you have always been a protectionist party, and why do you not make a protective motion ? We expect you to make a protective motion directly." This was the trap which they had set for us ; and) they looked upon us with I tell you what sort of feeling. Ido not suppose there are any poachers in Droitwich ; you are too respectable a iet of men (a laugh), but you know there are poachers in some other places. Well our opponents looked upon us just a» the poacher might look when he has set his trap, and finds that the hare or the pheasant that comet dp walk's past, out does viol enter the Snare. (Laughter.) This was thi wajr we were regarded by our opponents. We < walked round, but Ye did not go into their trap. Well ; hut we have been accused of entering upon office undYr false pretences. This language hfei come I am 'ibrrjr to »ay, from 10 distinguished a man as Lord 'John' Russell man whom', whatever "our pftltitftl different**, 1 sincerely V^pecti,

although I cannot say that I have ever regarded him as a great statesman ; but Sir J. Graham bas jast declared before the electors at Carlisle, i that we climbed into office on protection, and now we have kicked down the ladder by which we rose. Now, gentlemen, I say that never was a j nlore unfounded charge brotfght against public men. Upon that question we never have changed mind*. We baftg always bfeen consistent, ever since the year 1846 up to the present time. In the j/ear 1846 we* thought thai great interest in this empire was Hardly dealt with. There wms an outcry against the corn laws. The statesmen of that day, in consequence of that outcry, rnshed ,to the opposite extreme, and I think, unwisely, (hear,- hear), and adopted the policy which: baß involved the landed interest in this country in great distress. (Hear.) In the same year they adopted the same policy with regard to the sugar interests of this empire. They slid the consumer wanted cheap sugar. We h&ve no objection to his having ft ; but tliey flew to an extreme which has involved our sugafc-growihg colonies; as I be r ore told you from these hustings, in a state of ruin ani distress which it is frightful to contemplate. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, we have neVer changed our views on these subjects. We haVe told you from tbat day to this, that justice ought to be done (6 those suffering classes. But we have also told you from that Jay to this, that a policy once deliberately adopted by a British Parliament, and especially ft policy which was so interesting to. the people of this country as one which relates to the duties on the great articles of general consumption, conld not lightly or ties' til y be reversed, and indeed never could be reversed, unless by the strong concurrence of public opinion that that policy had been carried too far. Gentlemen, we did not come into office on any motion of our own ; we came into office because our predecessors went out of it. (Laughter.) That really was the true reason. We' did not even assail the late Government. They bad been tottering and tottering for a long period befbfe— they had been getting weaker and weaker, and more subdivided among themselves — and having less and less confidence in their leaders — until at last they went out more as you see your bed-room candle go out at night than any other simile' that I know of. (Laughter.) They were truly burnt out, and tbat was the reason why they left office. We did ,not turn them out upon a protection motion. Ever since the year 1847 the parly with which 1 have the honour to act have nev«r yet made a motion for a return to protection. On the contrary, when the noble Lord now at the bead of the Government was called upon td form *v Administration at the commencement of 1851, what was the language that he held in one of the most able speeches that he ever addressed to the House of Lords, — a speech which gained him, and justly gained him, honour and applause from every parjy in this country ? What did he say then ? Why, tbat this was a question which must be reserved for the deliberate decision of the constituencies of the United Kingdom. Tbat was the language which he held in tbe year 1851. He said, " My opiuion of the injustice with which tbe land has been treated remains what it was, but still this gi eat experiment cannot be lightly reversed. The next general election must decide what is to be the policy of tbe country on this subject." I think that on this subject our conduct has been clear. But, as regarded the business of the late session, we alike disregarded tbe threats of sbort supplies and the imputations on the manner in which we obtained office. We said, "We have a duty to our Queen and our country to perform, and that duty was to appeal to tbe patriotism of Parliament to carry on tbe necessary business of the count rj — to see tbat the country suffered no detriment by the change of Ministers — to effect the legislation which was imperatively called for, and then to appeal to our couutrymeu to know whethei or not they approved of the manner mi which we had done so." These are the circumstances, gentlemen, under which we now appear before you j and I hope I may say without presumption, without vanity, and with honest truth, that as a member of her Majesty's Government we do refer to the past session of Parliament with no feelings of shame for what we have done. (Cheers.) I am prepared, gentlemen, on the part of the government to maintain that it is a long time since any session has been more marked by useful, and important legislation than tbe session which was just terminated. You will forgive me, I trust, if I trespass on your time for one minute while I allude to the important acts so passed. One bill will restore that national force, the militia of this country. In making this attempt — an attempt in which Lord John Russell's Government failed — we have, 1 am glad to say, proved successful ; and that important act is now the law of the land. There was no necessity which by the British public was felt to be more pressing than tbe necessity for some reform in .the Court of Chancery. What did our predecessors do on that subject f (Hear.) They fell and they acknowledged tbat pressing necessity « they appointed, a commission to inquire ; but a the end of February they were but of office, ant when we came, in we found no steps taken, am no bill prepared to correct, this great evil. It is the fortune of the prevent Government to have at the head of the Court of Chancery one 6f tbf most distinguished equity lawyers this countrj ever produced (bear, bear,) or who ever filled thl high office of Lord Chancellor. Under his guidance tbe present Government undertook this great and urgent reform, and what is more, gentlemen, by tbe concurrence of Parliament they have carried it. There still remains one subject of legislation during the late session, to which 1' advert with great difficulty because it is connecj ted frith tbe office which I have. the honour li hold — I allude to the bill conferring a consthuj tion on the . interesting colony of New Zealand], It is not for me to dwell on a measure in the preparation of which I had a considerable share. It wiis proposed by me. lam gratified with the sudcess it met. It is now tbe law of the land : and in recapitulating, the legislation of the past session, I cannot, with consistency or truth, pass, over an act which deserves to be regarded as one of the most important measures of that session . 1 will not detain you this hot day by dilating 'tipbn other acts to which, with, feelings of some gride, I might advert; but there was another measure connected with my mn office with re-, gard to tbe great revenues that maybe anticipatedhorn tbe recent gold discoveries in Australia— a, measiire which cannot be considered without importance, and which our opponents allowed to be one of the greatest ever conferred on the colonies of ttit Brftisli Crown. But 1 will not dwell fur-

right* of the Crowt)7tne ; *ig!^M^^|H^|l the rights pT ( every class md section of tte com J munity. (Cheers.) I Sir C Hasting* ask?d whether the right hon. baronet would advocate the modification of the income tax ? Sir J. Fakington reminded bfc Bon. friend (bat to ask an independent member of Parliament what be Would d 6 on Hhy given abstract question, and to ask a Mibis'te'r of the brown be intended to prop'6f e several nr onfts benee were fery different tbingS. fbey TflaaVt all feel that be had been very confidential that morning, and lie bad told them so Winy secrets thai he thought his hon. friend would hot expect him to tell them any more.' (Laughfe'r.) Anything that he said there mast be said for his colleagues is well is TiimseJf. lie '(Srr J. Pakington) w*s not tlte ChMiidellor 'of the Exchequer, but Ire was afareif bi« faort. friend would write "to f&e rigk luira. We would tell him all 'about it. <Lobd cVeers.) Thanks having been Voted /to the Mayor, for his able conduct on that occasion, the procession returned to the. town, where the right hon.barcnet and, his friepds partook of a luncheon at the George Hotel.