in any manner to lessen the number of there that you belong to a ministry who ing man in any part of the kingdom will Let it! I would much rather it should, than that this withholding of the ten-ginia are by theirs! pound suffrage should take place. What And I am to express my "confidence," did I support the Reform Bill for am I, in a Ministry who, I fear (and Not because it gave all that I thought have given reasons for my fearing), it ought to give. It was expressly entertain a design to do this act of instated by the advocates of the bill, that solent injustice! Of all men I shall be the ballot and the duration of Parlia- the most ready and the most happy to ments were to become subjects of dis- find, and to acknowledge, that my fears tinct and subsequent discussion. The have been unfounded; and, in that case, suffrage was the great matter; and I shall again be ready to give "the though it fell far short of justice to the whole bill" a "fair trial;" and shall working people, I saw that, by making be the last man in England to cavil at the standard so low as ten pounds rent the acts of Ministers, or to do any-thing in the great towns, the working people to annoy them, or make their course would, in a few years, return from fifty difficult. But, as things now stand; to a hundred members, who would be with announced "alterations" in the likely to maintain their rights. I saw bill; with the nature of those alterations the injustice of shutting out the agricul-kept a secret from us, and with the tural labourers, as the bill completely speech of the Lord Chancellor before did; but then I knew, that it was im- our eyes, it would not only be folly, but possible for a member to be faithful to downright baseness, in me, and treache the interests of the weaver and to neglect ry to you, the working people, were I those of the hedger and the ploughman. to refrain from expressing beforehand I saw but a few members, comparatively, my opinions upon the subject.. to be returned by the working people; but then I knew that those few would be REAL MEN; and that BARING saw too, when he foreboded that the great towns would send "pushing men, who would "look into all the papers laid before the "House." I saw these things; and on this ground, and no other, I supported the Reform Bill. But if the ten-pound suffrage be to be raised, or, if it be to be so altered, by transferring it from rent to rate, or If this foul deed should be attempted in a new bill, I shall lose not a moment in petitioning against that bill myself; and I shall advise all others, and espe cially the working people, to do the same. I would fain have ground for hoping that the necessity will not arise; but, if the new bill contain any-thing, no matter what, to lessen the number of voters in the great towns; then let the working people in those towns, and in the small towns and the counties also, 1 turn with scorn from the preachers up you my advice as to several steps that of patience! What was the ground on you ought to take. In the meanwhile, I remain, your faithful Friend, 1 WM. COBBETT. TO THE held on the 26th of October, 1831. My FRIENDS, Boll court, Oct. 31, 1831. LORD GREY, our present Prime Minister, said, some years ago, that he would stand by his ORDER, meaning the Order of Nobility. I never saw any harm in that declaration, though it gave great offence to many, who, most likely, wanted to be nobles themselves. For my part, I do not want any such thing; nor do I wish to see the order of nobility pulled down.. But, as I belong to THE ORDER OF THE CHOPSTICKS, which, by-the-by, is much more ancient than the Order of Nobility, LORD GREY will excuse me, if I express any resolution to stand by my Order; and that I will certainly do, as long as I have a mind to think and a hand to put my .which I gave my support to the bill? I saw that it would immediately disfranchise all non-resident voters, and, in a short time, all the working people who now have votes; but I saw, on the other hand, that, by giving a vote to ten-pound renters in the great towns, it CHOPSTICKS OF HAMPSHIRE, would insure the return of from fifty On the County Meeting at Winchester, to a hundred members, by the free and uncorrupt voices of the working people; and I knew that those members would soon cause to be done those things which ought to be done. But if this provision of the bill be taken out, or damaged, am I still to approve of the bill! Am I to see disfranchised all the working men who now vote, and to see no working men enfranchised in their stead: am I to see, by a false and base pretence about “ununiformity,” the qualification in great towns so raised as to lessen that number of working voters which is, according to the bill, already too small; am I to see, in addition to the working country-people, those of the great towns premeditatedly stripped of their rights! am I to see the few oligarchs of the boroughs exchanged for a swarm of oligarchs, one of whom is to be found in every counting-thoughts upon paper. house, and in every great homestead; am I to call that a reform" which into Hampshire, and all over the kingAlong with this, I shall send down will be manifestly intended to disfran- dom, my Two-PENNY TRASH for Nochise the whole of the working people, vember. Read that with attention: it and to make them, for ages, the slaves will fully explain to you the reason for of a grinding, an omnipresent, never- my opposing, at the meeting, an Adsleeping, oligarchy of money, with little dress which expressed confidence in the finger heavier than the loins of the Ministers. boroughmongers: suspecting this to be and then you will see how deeply you Pray read it attentively; intended, am I to express my "confi-are all interested in the matter. But, dence" in those by whom I think the the object of this present paper is to intention to be entertained! Paralysed give you an account of the proceedings be my hand when I write, blistered and at the late COUNTY-MEETING; for, not burnt up be my tongue when I pro- a fiftieth part of you could be present nounce, such confidence;" and, etermal shame be the lot of all those who (suspecting as I do) are calling on the people to express or repose such" confidence!" at the meeting; and even those who were present could know little or nothing of the wheel-within-wheel that were put in motion to deceive them, and to give a false appearance to what was My friends, be not deceived, be not really intended. The present time is of cajoled, be prepared! The monient I vast importance: on the measure, to be arrive at the certainty that the Minis-adopted within the next six months, ters intend to do this thing, I will give may depend, whether you shall again live John Duthy W. Iremonger John Portol John Barker, Clerk I. O. Zillwood, Clerk. James JohnHugonin C. J. Hector Edward Carter P. Williams, Clerk William Higgens Henry Marsh Here are Iremonger and Bigg Wither among the desperate old Tories. Here are the Carters, the Portals, amongst the old sap-headed Whigs. Here is Tom Baring, and Zillwood the Parson, lately chaplain to Governor Beckett, at the Castle of Winchester, that used to be called the Jail: and, in order to have a spice of the little knot of reformers, here is Mr. Henry Marsh placed in what they deemed his proper situation, the bottom of the list, the other gentlemen of that party being left to advertise happy lives, or, be treated, all your This meeting had been prepared by a combination of parties: first, some of the parsons, and some of the bitterest of the old Tories, as will appear by the names to the requisition, as published by the Sheriff, which names were as follows. But 1. must mention the other parties first. There were the Whigs, including the two new county Mem, bers, and Mr. Jervoise; there were the Barings, and the set belonging to them; and then there was a knot of reformers, consisting of Mr. Henry Marsh and some others, who consent to be talked over by all the others, particularly by the Barings. The names of the requisitionists, as published by Sir Harry Tichborne, the High Sheriff, will show that this statement of mine is correct ;↑ R. Carleton J. Macdonald, M. P. Chas. Richards, Clerk Thos. Garnier, Clerk W. H. Newbolt, D. D. Thomas Baring, M. P. James Weld Charles Mill Richard Simeon George Atherley' John B. Carter, M. P.). Giffard, W. E. Nightingale William Grant 8 {ན་རྣན་ནུECs【yནtf 9¢fO, When I read this, requisition, which was forwarded to me in London, I saw clearly what sort of an Address it was intended to send up to his Majesty. It was manifest enough that Iremonger and Bigg Wither had no more wish to have reform in England than they had to have the devil at Wherwell and at Manydown. It was also manifest that the nine parsons by whom the requisition was signed, had much about the same degree of affection for the cause. Here, however, I must except Mr. Poulter and Mr. Newbolt, who, I verily believe, would have no objection to a reform to a very considerable extent. The Whigs by no means want it; but they must appear to want it in order to further their political views, and in order to get at more or less of the public money, which is always the end which they have in view. The Barings wish for reform no more than Iremonger and Bigg Wither; rather less perhaps; and if they were to see the devil, horns, tail and all, at Stratton and the Grange, he would not frighten them more, or so much, as my being returned Member for Man chester. As to the small detachment of genteel and jesting reformers, with Mr Marsh at their head and Mr. Hector at their tail, I know them very well, and with the exception of Hector, I believe them to be perfectly sincere in their A fore the meeting took place, we had had an interview with Mr. Marsh, and had given him our address to read, he giving us at the same time a copy, for the purpose of our reading it, of the address which he intended to move; so that all the parties were duly apprized of what we intended to do, and we were apprized of what they intended to do, the other parties having, as we understood, had communication with them, or were about to have wishes for reform: but know them not had to expect. It disconcerted them to be proof against the blandishments of exceedingly: and, of all the parsons those who are called “great men,” that had signed the requisition, no one Therefore, the moment I saw the re-made his appearance but Mr. Poulter. quisition I foresaw that we should The Iremongers, the Bonham Carters, have come from Hampshire an address the Bigg Withers, the Barings, did not full of confidence in the Ministers; full show their noses. I was told that Ireof resignation to the superior wisdom of monger and Wither were there, and his Majesty, his Ministers, and both that Tom Baring and the Lord of the Houses of Parliament; full of passive Treasury and Bingham, the two heroes obedience and non-resistance; and, in of Marwell, were at the meeting; but short, an address which would have their names were never pronounced in made the ministerial hack papers ex- my hearing, and certainly none of them, claim :-"There, look at that sensible not even old Tom, the successor of "county! No division there's all is Alfred, made their appearance as orators, "left, where it ought to be left, to those though Thomas used to make a consi❝ who must know better than the people derable figure in this way." Mr. BUDD, “can know." Thus this county would who met me at the BARLEY-MOW at have done all that it possibly could do Winchester, agreeably to his appointto encourage t the Ministers to abandonment, moved the address which was the bill, and this county could have seconded by me. In the morning, bedone much in that way, seeing that it is so rich in church possessions, that it has a bishop who voted against the bill, and two purson-peers, Lords GUILDFORD and WALSINGHAM, each of whom has the livings of four parishes in the county, and each of whom voted against the bill. In short, an unanimous vote of confidence and resignation in Hampshire would have been as heavy a blow as the cause of reform could have received. « The moment, therefore, that I received the requisition, though in the height communication with them, which afterof my corn-harvest, and pulled twenty wards appeared to be the case, seeways at ovee in London, I resolved to ing that neither the Tories nor the go down, and I sent before me, in print, Whigs had any-thing prepared for some copies of the following handbill: the meeting, and that certain resolu “Hampshire MEN,-If you have not a tions, which were proposed by Mr. Jer" mind to be for ever humbugged slaves, voise, served as the foundation of the "meet me at the county meeting at address which the Holy Alliance had “Winchester, on Wednesday the 26th finally presented to the meeting by " of this month. WM. COBBETT." the Deputy Sheriff, in the most irreguThe next day 1 received a letter from lar and queer way, which I shall have to Mr. Budd, of Burghclere, telling me that describe by-and-by. There was one he intended to be at Winchester at the thing in which the Holy Alliance were county meeting, and sending me in his deceived, or rather in which they deletter the copy of a resolution, the subceived themselves. Mr. Marsh (God stance of which is expressed in the last knows for what reason), in his conversaparagraph of the address, which he tion in the morning, took it for granted moved at the meeting, and which will be that he was to move an address, and found here below.' [didas Zup; that our address was to come in the *This hand-bill, which was circulated shape of an amendment ; ́ ́and as he pretty widely, gave the Holy Alli- took this to be a matter of course, it ance" some intimation of what they would not have been good manners in 1 " A ed, merely observing, that he was a man known to the county, and rather hinting that he was not as this "publican is.” After him came Mr. Marsh, not proposing or supporting any-thing, as far as I could learn; but saying a great deal about the bishops, and particularly about "Mr. Cobbett," to whom he would persist in ascribing the address that had been moved, and saying not a word about Mr. Budd, any more than if there had not been such a man in the world; though he well knew, that the jet of the address; that is to say, the suggestion at the close of it, which was a matter of so much importance, was altogether the work of Mr. Budd, who was, as far as any recommendation to his Majesty went, the real author of the address. us to say any-thing in opposition to an opinion so positively entertained. But Mr. Budd could see nothing either physical or moral to hinder him from being the beginner of the business, while all of us who surrounded him saw, in his age, in his experience, in his great knowledge, in his high character, in the spotless and zealous and public-spirited conduct of his whole life, every reason in the world for his taking the lead on an occasion of so much importance, so interesting to the kingdom in general, and involving so deeply the character of this County, with which he has been connected all his life, and in which he has been a greater friend of the farmers and the labourers than any man, be he who he may, that ever set his foot in the county. As soon therefore as the High Sheriff had opened the business by hav- After Mr. Marsh, who had appeared ing the requisition read by his Under to be less jocund than formerly, came Sheriff, and by exhorting the meeting to a Mr. SPENCE, a broker, or pawnpreserve a peaceable, orderly and can- broker, from Portsmouth, who apdid conduct, Mr. Budd, who stood close peared to speak as the supporter of at the back of the High Sheriff, stepped Mr. Jervoise's resolutions, and who, forward, made his bow to the meeting, as Mr. Marsh had done before him, began to speak, and, to the apparent urged the necessity of expressing configreat consternation of the Holy Alliance, dence in Ministers. This was, in truth, was, as was just and proper, permitted but a dismal day for Mr. MARSH, who to proceed, though Mr. Jervoise, who has long been the wir, ex-officio, stood a little behind Mr. Budd, had got of the county, for whose well-conhis paper out and was evidently disap-cocted jests the audience always, herepointed at not being suffered to be the tofore, had their laugh ready on beginner. The High Sheriff, too, who the nail; but who, to-day, had the had, doubtless, received a previous inti- mortification, to call forth, first, mation of Mr. Jervoise's intention, marks of listlessness, next, a smart seemed to look round for him; but it sprinkling of " NO, NOES!" and of "OH, was too late. It was not the first coun- ous!" and, at last, that ominous sound, ty meeting by many a score that Mr. which, to the ears of an orator, is what Budd had been at. Our leader was that of the death-watch is to those of the fittest man in the world for the oc- the fond mother whose darling is breathcasion. On he went, made a short and ing its last; that heart-sinking sound, very pithy speech, and concluded with" question! question!" began to salute reading his address, which he did in a very audible voice and to the great apparent satisfaction of the meeting. (For the Address, see last Register, p. 293.) I seconded the address, in a speech, in which of course I urged the adoption of it; but the address speaks for itself, and wants no speech to explain it. Then came Mr. Jervoise, with his resolutions, which he very modestly propos his ears; and, breaking out here and there, seemed to be the harbinger of a dreadful peal that was brewing to windward. It was a sober affair that we had in hand now; jesting was not in request; and it was impossible for people to see the reason, or even the common sense, of a long speech filled with attempts to divert them on the subject of the conduct of the Bishops, while the speech-maker protested against saying |