LETTERS TO THE GENTLEMEN, CLERGY, FREEHOLDERS, AND INHABITANTS, OF THE County of IN REFERENCE TO THE EVENTS OF THE LATE ELECTION. BY SYDNEY. Quoth S to H-dl-y, "I am grown very sick, 66 Eighteen ounces of blood from your arm I'll now take, "For I vow, at this moment, your life is at stake; "Eighteen more, in the morning, must pass from a vein, "This W-ll-sl-y fever has attack'd many more ; "There's poor W-dh-m L. e quite reduc'd to death's door: "This Wiltshire Election has left a sharp sting, "And I too, I own, am by no means the thing." Printed for the Author; and sold by the Booksellers in London, Bristol, Bath, and Salisbury; Coulton, Swindon; Coombes, Chippenham; and all other Booksellers. LETTER I. "No friend to faction, and no dupe to zeal, GENTLEMEN, I publicly announced several weeks back my intention of addressing a letter to you in reference to the events of the late Election; since which, a variety of very interesting speeches have been delivered at different meetings held in different parts of the county, tending to elucidate the feelings and temper, as also the future views of the parties who distinguished themselves in the proceedings of that Election; which induced me to delay the publication of my promised letter, in order to enter into a more extended discussion of the subject than I at first intended. 1 now therefore take leave to offer this, and the three following letters to your perusal, which a love for truth and a reverence for justice have induced me to address to you. The various topics I have brought under consideration appear to me highly interesting, and in my opinion deserve your candid and most careful attention, if you value your liberty and your independence, and wish to avoid staining yourselves with the guilt of invading it. In submitting my observations to you at the present period, big with events of the last importance to the county, I confess that it is not without some degree of pain and reluctance, urged by strong feelings, but at the same time my concern is considerably diminished by the consciousness that I am likely to deliver sentiments congenial and in unison with your own. Permit me then at once to congratulate you on the successful termination of the late contest; you have indeed deserved well of your country; you have performed every thing you promised; you deserve every thing you have obtained; your conduct has been such as ought, and I doubt not will be followed by every true Englishman and lover of his country. Gentlemen, in a land of liberty there is always a trait to be discovered which characterizes and marks the people: in you it is, that this character has shone forth in its brightest lustre: clearly seeing the danger before your eyes, you nobly stood forth, and by your manly exertions defeated the secret and powerful workings of a vile corrupt faction; you came forward with firmness, and spoke out that language which souls like yours only are capable of speaking.-You have, as Mr. Long Wellesley very properly observed in his thanksgiving address, "refused to wear the chains with which it was attempted to shackle you, and have for ever secured your independence." It is impossible to calculate at the present moment what consequences this victory may produce; it has already given a new turn to the state of things in your county; its influence must spread, and like the electric fluid will diffuse itself. Gentlemen, the storm has passed over your heads, you need no longer dread your county degenerating into a rotten Borough; your public spirit, your patriotic zeal, your manly pride, your sterling integrity, have done all this! "You have fought the good fight," you have given a death-blow to corruption in every part of your county!Gentlemen, you will no longer hear of the clubs of Beckhampton and Deptford, returning each their member to represent you, or rather to represent themselves in Parliament; no, no, you have routed and put them to flight in every direction; behold their consternation! They know not which way to look, or whither to go! Such clubs, in whatever part of your county they may be found to exist, for the purpose of enslaving you, ought strictly to be watched, resolutely exposed, vigorously attacked, and completely annihilated! You should watch them as narrowly as those weeds, which if not checked in time, would completely overtop, and destroy the crops, destined for the food of And now, how am I to find words to express my admiration of the conduct of that upright, that tried, that independent, that virtuous, that excellent hearted man Mr. Methuen; who instead of going sideways about to secure his Election; openly and manfully appealed to the great body of the Freeholders, to every man without distinction who had a vote to give. He did not go skulking, sneaking, grovelling, and prowling about, stooping, cringing, bowing, and supplicating the support of this club or of that. He did not trust to the support of some two or three dozen purse-proud, blustering, pompous, swagbellied farmers, vainly designating themselves "Experimental Agriculturists," and whose minds seem in general to partake essentially of the earth, whence they take their appellation. He did not beat up his head-quarters in an odious, infamous, filthy, and notoriously corrupt close borough town in the very heart of the county. He did not slavishly, and servilely solicit the patronage and support of such men as the late, and as the present treasurer, and distributor of stamps for the county. He did not prop his hopes of success, on a ૮. quorum of magistrates," lawyers, and country bankers. No Gen man. ---- tlemen, but like your late worthy, mdependent, lamented and much respected member Mr. Goddard; he had, I repeat, the virtue, firmness, and good sense, at once to appeal to the freeholders at large: and I am exceedingly pleased to find that Mr. Long Wellesley, wisely did the same; instead of taking the course which has since been recom mended to him, by a silly drivelling scribe, signing himself A. B. in the Salisbury Journal of June 22d, and which I more than suspect to have been manufactured by some one connected with one of the clubs I have alluded to; but let this Fustilarian, whoever he may be, speak for himself. "The fact of so large a body of respectable freeholders, "assembling at Devizes in Mr. Benett's favour, at so short a notice, "is in my opinion decisive as to the question of his Election." It is, ha! You think so, do you? But do you not see how wretchedly out you have been in your reckoning? Hear this Hiccius Doccius proceed, "and from the observations I have made, I am equally decided in my "opinion, that the ground which Mr. Benett has lately gained in the "good will of the county at large, is in no inconsiderable a degree "attributable to the extreme malignity which has marked the charac"ter of the opposition made to him." Well! was there ever impudence like this heard of before? What ground then is it that Mr. Benett has so lately gained? Come, come, thou saucy knave, let us have fair play; I see you are disposed for slinking off; I again distinctly ask you, what ground it is that Mr. Benett has so lately gained in the good opinion of the county at large? Gained! what next I wonder! I say gained, indeed; why the county rings with abuse of him from one end to the other; no man before ever stood forward as a candidate so generally disliked, and possessing so small a portion of public esteem. Gentlemen, Mr. Benett is pleased to tell us, what I am sure is quite new to you, namely, "that his principles are well "known, to be strictly constitutional and independent." I do not mean to state that they are not so, as I possess not the means of knowing; I may however in the absence of proof, be allowed to entertain very strong doubts indeed on the subject: but I boldly deny that they are, as he states them to be, "well known" to be so: he has never been placed in any situation to afford us an opportunity of knowing what his principles really are: therefore Gentlemen, all that he is pleased to advance respecting your knowledge of his principles, L'intreat you to consider as sheer Gallimatia; yes, as so many empty words, wholly and every way destitute of meaning. Had Mr. Methuen so addressed us, there would have been something like sense and propriety in it; because his political principles and public conduct have been long enough before us, to warrant him in making such an assertion: but to hear an untried man, like Mr. John Benett, chattering about his constitutional principles and independence; is really so disgusting, and every way so insulting to your |