To the Freeholders of the County of Wilts.

GENTLEMEN,

As the day when, by your independent votes, you are to elect your representatives, more nearly approaches, I feel more confident in the hope of being honoured by your choice. I already exult in the approval of my pretensions, expressed by so many freeholders in every district, and have no doubt that your exertions will speedily ensure our common triumph, which can only be derived from the true principles of independence.

Some, who are unfavourable to my success, have invented and circulated a report, calculated to impair my interests and your good opinion of me, that I do not intend to avail myself of your suffrages at the poll. Should my opponent persevere in the contest, my exertions will be unremitting till a decided majority of votes expressed in my favour shall record the opinion which you entertain of me, and declare me to be the object of your election.-Believe me, Gentlemen, ever to remain Your most obliged and devoted servant, JOHN BENETT.

Pythouse, June 6, 1818.

To the Freeholders of the County of Wilts,

GENTLEMEN,

To anonymous publications I will never descend to give an answer. The impropriety of a professional agent of Mr. Benett, or of any other candidate assigning the interest upon which he says I stand, which has been done in the letter published by Mr. Gaby, must be too apparent to require from me any comment: I never have boasted of that which I have not fully acted up to. I have not preserved a copy of my letter I wrote to Mr. Atherton, when I first perused the resolutions proposed by that gentleman, (who has not promised me his sup port,) and which I wrote several days previous to my seeing Mr, Gaby's publication, which has but this moment come into my hands; but I know that in that letter, I not only gave my unequivocal assent to Mr. Atherton's resolutions, but I conveyed to that gentleman my determination to propose those resolutions myself, whenever I might have an opportunity, which is a practical proof that the doctrine contained in them would suit me, though I positively declare they were never proposed to me, and equally declare I can fulfil the terms of them.

Judge, Electors, who are the persons whose requests are imperative commands, by the perusal of the following letter from an humble freeholder, addressed to a respectable agent of mine, Mr. Timbrell :

"May 31, 1818.`

"Sir, I am sorry to inform you that I am under the

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cessity of altering my vote from Wellesley to Benett, as Mr. J. G. Everett has told me that if I did not give my vote to Benett, that he will turn me out of my employ, which is my whole support, and to give my voice to Benett."" It is much against me to do it, and if I can get employ elsewhere I will not run from my word, but it's what I must do.

From me, your faithful servant,

THOS. PIK."

Is it true that this gentleman, Mr. Everett, is a member of the Deptford Inn club? Is it true that he is a subscriber in order to defray the expenses of Mr. Benett's election? I am told it is!

The old story of having endeavoured to use Treasury influence is once more brought against me. I declare upon the word and honour of a man that I never have, directly or indirectly, endeavoured to use either Government or Treasury influence, as may be seen by the following quotation from a letter written by me for the perusal of a cabinet minister, and which must place beyond the possibility of a doubt my independence.

"I think it neither consistent with the conduct I have pursued for six years I have been in Parliament, nor with that which would be becoming of a county member, to bind myself to belong in politics to any man."

This letter was written in consequence of an offer of extensive support, tendered to me by a person of very considerable influence in the country, connected with his Majesty's government. I am, Gentlemen, your most obedient servant, Warminster, June 1, 1818. WM. LONG WELLESLEY. P.S.-I shall be obliged to Mr. Atherton to cause the insertion of my letter to him above alluded to.

To the Printers of the Salisbury and Winchester Journal.

GENTLEMEN,

WE might have hoped that the contest for Wiltshire, in which the Candidates are two gentlemen known and respected in the county, and another of high birth, professing an intention hereafter to reside within its limits, would have proceeded without any violation of that decorum, to which, even in the deadly conflict, an honourable mind will scrupulously adhere.

I am not intimidated by any who imagines that the aspersions cast on my supposed name and character (now becoming tiresome from daily repetition), will vindicate the pretensions of one Candidate, or divert the freeholders at large from the preference which they shew towards another. Not even the

harmless merriment of my other correspondents, or the ineffec tual fire which they prepare for my destruction, will induce me to abandon that cause which rests on honour and independence, or to join in the servile adulation of superior wealth. Fearing neither the knife of the midnight assassin, nor the wretch who would direct the populace against a supposed rival, by lampooning his name in the public streets of Salisbury, nor the more malevolent enmity of the anonymous libeller, whenever I find occasion I shall use my best judgment to vindicate that honour and independence, and to rescue the freeholders of Wiltshire from the degradation into which they inevitably fall, if they err in the decision of the depending contest.

I deem it right to declare, that no Candidate is responsible for any sentiment which I express, or any observation which I make on the events happening in our connty. My fortune, though not considerable, and much more the temper of my mind, place me very far above the condition of a hireling writer. Whether rational or not, I express not a word which is not dictated by pure and unbiassed judgment.

But undoubtedly a just opinion may be formed of a Candidate from the general tenor of those writings which are published in his behalf, and from the nature and description of those persons who advocate his cause. If there be a writer in his service, who cannot be supposed, by the most credulous, to labour in his vocation without reward, if that writer (who actually proffered his services to the opposing Candidate), having little reputation to sustain, shews no regard to the common feelings of mankind, but introduces into his various publications matters not relating to any Candidate, but tending to vilify other persons, hitherto respectable and unimpeached; if that writer is known to have been the coadjutor of Mr. Hunt in those dangerous projects which seemed to threaten the peace and welfare of society; if his shapeless mass of slanderous invective is printed at the expense of the Candidate who may be supposed to employ him, is posted in every town, and widely distributed through the county, then it behoves every honest man to consider, whether such are the legitimate means of supporting any honourable cause. The highest dignity cannot remain untarnished in such association. The independence of the county can never be combined with pretensions which are permitted to rest upon the assistance of such an advocate.

It is for the independent freeholders to judge, whether the matters, from time to time imputed in my letters to Mr. Wellesley, by direct assertion, and not by sly insinuation, are yet refuted by any one. I am, indeed, a stranger to "the illuminating brilliancy of his talents, and to his other commanding qualifications.” He may be the gentleman, the soldier,

and the senator," as his friends assert. "Every qualification necessary to form that character may exist in every act and deed of Mr. Long Wellesley." I am sure that six months ago no true friend of that gentleman would have thought it becoming to bring his real merits into question by adulation like that, for

"Praise undeserved is censure in disguise.”

He may, indeed, be endued with all the courtesies of po lished life; he may have fought many battles, and have achieved many victories in his country's cause. He may have been an useful and judicious legislator, but the history of his country, both foreign and domestic, is silent upon all these points. Nevertheless, I once more assert, in language direct, and not by sly insinuation, that the representation of Wiltshire ought not to be the appendage of any house or family whatever, and that it was solicited by that gentleman, as "ambitious to restore it to the house of Draycot ;" that he is not by birth a Wiltshire gentleman, nor connected by blood with any Wiltshire family; that he enjoys at most an interest for life in the property of his lady; that the representation of the county ought not to be among the advantages of his matrimonial alliance; that the hereditary property of his opponent is as adequate to the station which he aspires to as any member for the county could boast of in the recollection of the oldest among us; that if Mr. Salmon is worthy of credit, Mr. Wellesley and one of his agents did assert that he had the support of Government, which he certainly never had; that Mr. Salmon, being uninfluenced by that assertion, Mr. Wellesley did apply on the subject to Mr. Arbuthnot, but without success, and did attempt to intimidate that gentleman by a false statement of the law, in a quotation from Blackstone's Commentaries; that he has vilified the magistrates of the county, and made unproved accusations against the particular friends and professional agents of his opponent; that the attack made upon Mr. Benett's private character, and other calumnious publications, reflecting on that gentleman and his friends, by whomsoever written, have been circulated in the various newspapers of this and the adjoining counties, and by various other means, at an expense which no private person, for any private purpose, would sustain. Till the contrary is stated by authority, may we not believe that these publications were at the expense of Mr. Wellesley? Can we believe that the advertisements of his tenants were all "voluntary and unexpected," and not at his expense? As to the dinner at Marlborough, it was a festivity at which but few freeholders were present, and which independent freeholders would never condescend to attend, at the expense of any Candidate; but let every freeholder, ungoverned

by scurrility, deliberately form his judgment upon the occa sion of that dinner, and the sentiments expressed at it, and upon all the various incidents which mark this strange contention; and then let him vote conscientiously. No friend to our independence can express any other wish; if that wish be gratified, the triumph of the election is secure.

I remain, Gentlemen, your constant reader, Swindon, June 5, 1818.. THE OLD MOON-RAKER. P.S.-I hope, Mr. Editor, I shall have little occasion to trouble you again. I have asserted nothing hitherto which has been or can be disproved. Calumny and abuse are not the weapons with which I have combated, nor will I resist them when directed against me. My fictitious name, and assumed age and residence, are not worthy of serious comment. Let my enemies triumph that my name may not be Moon-Raker, that I may not be in my dotage, and that my residence is elsewhere than at Swindon. If the public transactions of the county should justify it, I will again request your attention: but I shall not vindicate myself against slander or falsehood in the columns of a newspaper, nor obtrude myself on the public, through the medium of your journal, unless occasion should require it.

To the Freeholders of the County of Wiltshire.
BROTHER FREEHOLDERS,

HAVING been absent from England some time, I find myself called upon immediately on my return to exercise my discre tion with regard to the disposition of my vote for your county, in which I was born, in which I was bred, and whose interests I shall cherish as long as I live. The advertisements of both your Candidates have been put into my hands, and all I know of the contest is from these and the overcharged comments made by the partisans of the rival factions.

One tells me that till within these six years Mr. Long Wellesley was entirely unconnected with the county, that even since this time, the period of his adoption as he calls it, he has never lived a week within its precincts; that he has utterly estranged himself from all intercourse with you, and spurned the arms that are extended to receive him. This has been asserted by his enemies, I look in vain for its contradiction by his friends.

With regard to his advertisement, he says in it that he will not allude to the public transactions entrusted to his care; if he is the same Mr. Wellesley Pole who I remember at Constantinople (my long absence prevents my speaking positively) his forbearance is most prudent; for though I cast not a shade