tions, from the consequences of felonies which they had committed. I rejected their propositions with scorn, telling them, that I did not come to offer my self as a representative of felons; at which they seemed very much sur bassadors to be found in Europe all put together. Why should not an English king and his minister possess the same free-will why should they have public servants prescribed to them by the proprietors of boroughs? For myself, I most solemnly declare, that I would prised, though, apparently, not offended, rather be a hedger or a ditcher for the observing that I certainly saw the thing remainder of my life, than be a minister in a wrong point of view, and telling of England under the control of a bo- me that Mr. MooR had always done so, rough parliament. What monstrous in- and that he had recently got off the justice, too, to make a man responsible son of a freeman for transportation, for measures, the execution of which he though he was condemned to be hanged. is compelled to put into the hands of In short, the whole system is, as MAJOR persons not chosen by himself; or, in- CARTWRIGHT used to call it, the accur deed, rather, what folly in any man to sed thing in the camp of the Israelites, expose himself to the shame attendant and let us bless God it is now to be put on such a situation! an end to. The Reform now proposed will make But, my friends of Preston, if it be a total change in this respect. It will not prevented from being put an end leave the minister quite free to point to; if it be not still to remain to be the out for the King's approbation such scourge and the curse, the pestilence, persons as he shall find fit for the several the famine, the sword and the fire, to employments. He will dare to be render infamous and to destroy our honest in punishing public delinquents; country; if this matchless infamy be because such delinquents will have no not to remain, to be the unceasing pest powerful protectors. Down to the very of you and your children, and your chillowest offices and occupations under the dren's children, it will not be the fault of, government this base borough influence it will not be for the want of will in, has extended. Clerks in offices, tide- the member that you have recently waiters, excise men, under taxers of all chosep; but solely for want of power, descriptions, door-keepers, porters, all for want of talent, in him to prevent the innumerable swarms coming out of so great a good to our country; and the customs and excise, employed in the if I do not prove this to your satisdistribution as well as the collection of faction, then inflict upon me, honest and the immense mass of taxes, are spewed zealous men of Preston, the loss of your out upon us from the Boroughs and friendship, which friendship I value Corporations, through the channel of more, though, in all human probability, the members for those places; and I shall never have the pleasure of seeing thus our property and persons are you again, than I should the friendship placed under the superintendence and of all the lords in the land. ་་ control of the spawn of corruption. When you had elected this man, though Nothing is more conimon than for a I anticipated that you would be most member to bring from the borough cruelly disappointed, I was glad that that has chosen him, the names of a you had done it; FIRST, because it was score or two of wretches to be provided a great triumph for you over the vile for out of the taxes. Nay, this infer-attorneys and the rich ruffians who fornal system interferes in numerous in- bade you to vote for me SECOND, stances with the administration and because it was a good, humbling blow execution of justice itself. When I at that proudest of the proud, Stanley; was candidate for Coventry, I had appli- THIRD, because it was possible, that the cations from five or six of the voters, man might do something useful in Parpromised to vote for me was or would promise to do every thing in my and I, with perfect sincerity, publicly power to save their sons, or other rela- pledged myself to support him, as far In the state of mind which this scene was calculated to produce, the cock went off to the West, where the news of your election found him. What passed at Preston, you know better than I do ; what passed on the road up, for his expenses on which road thirty odd pounds are charged on Mr. Mitchell's account, I shall have to notice a little of by-andby. as I was able, in every thing good which between them. This excited considerahe should attempt to accomplish. This ble surprise and some murmurs in the was done, too, on my part, notwith- audience. To complete the thing, and standing his proceedings in London, to send the Cock off from the pit in just before he left it to go into the suitable style, he ordered to be taken We whence he went to p to Preston. down that tri-coloured flay which alproceedings were as follows: he ways waved over my head when I was had been holding what he called "Ra-at the Rotunda! This, coupled with dical Meetings," at a place, called the the léte-à-tête with Peel, produced, if I ROTUNDA, which was rented, and let am rightly informed, very unequivocal out, by Mr. CARLILE. But, just at this marks of disapprobation; and, in fact, time, there appeared to be some inten- the Cock went off the pit amidst tion on the part of the government to a general shrugging of shoulders and seize, or prosecute, those who took a black looks, not unaccompanied with lead in such meetings. Whatever hisses. might be the fact, with regard to this intention of the Government (the Duke of Wellington being still in power, you will remember), your Cock; I call him your cock, because, the account of his triumphal day at Preston told us that his flag, or standard, had on it the picture of a red game cock, clapping his wings and crowing, and that of a yellow dung-hill cock running or creep- His reception in London must ing away; your cock, I say, at the time have surprised as well as disappointed above-mentioned, went before the Police Mr. Mitchell, who was his precursor; Magistrates in the borough of South but if Mr. Mitchell had been aware of wark, inquired of them whether they had the circumstances mentioned above, a warrant out against him, and having relative to the warrant, the Secretary of been answered in the negative, he took State, and the tri-coloured flag, he the opportunity of protesting most so- would not have anticipated a very lemnly, that though he had attended honourable reception in London. After meetings at the Rotunda, he had had no the arrival of the Cock himself, a meetconnexion with Taylor, Gale Jones, ing was held for the purpose of receiving Carlile, or Cobbett. From Union-Hall, Mr. Mitchell's report of the expenditure he went to the Lord Mayor of London, relative to the election, and for the asked him, at a public sitting of that raising of money to make up the magistrate, whether he had heard any-deficiency that remained, in which thing of a warrant being ont against latter respect it wholly failed, Hunhim from the Secretary of State. Upon dreds of persons were ready to give the Lord Mayor saying that he knew their money, if necessary, to indemnify nothing of the matter, your Cock boldly the committee at Preston, and the declared that he would go to the Se-electors generally, for sums expended, cretary of State himself. Here was or sacrifices incurred, in obtaining the another proclamation to go into the triumph over the enemies of reform; newspapers. A few evenings after- but nobody was willing to give his wards, the Cock appeared at the Ro-money to defray the expenses of a tunda for the last time, when he told his auditors that he had been with M. Peel, who had behaved to him in the kindest and most affable manner, and who had chatted with him for half an hour; but that he was not at liberty to public what had passed make loitering journey, and of idle parade all the way from Preston to London; especially as every right-minded man felt that be came a Member of Parliament, ought to have jumped into a coach, and to have hastened, without sleeping, to the aid and protection them call to mind that his deputy MH O the sten go in c labourers then in the jails of his own Mitchell, had said, at the meeting before or native county. mentioned, that, Mr. Huntohad, that end Mr. Mitchell, therefore, laid his de-day, or the day before, been with Loan sds ficit before the Londoners in vain. MELBOURNE, the new Secretary of They might, for the sake of the people State, to carry a petition of some sort of Preston, have subscribed for all the that he had met the noble Lord in the... ** other purposes specified in the account, street; and, that the latter, finding that but, to give their money, to hang round the Coek was going to his office, shid the necks of the sincere and public- he would go with him, took him by the", spirited electors of Preston, A MEDAL,arm, turned about, and that thus the bearing the "image and superscription" honourable Gentleman and the noble of that great Cæsar, who had sitten half Lord walked to the Home Office toan hour cheek-by-jowl with Peel, and gether, where they had a long, a polite, who had come from the Home Office to and important conversation... order the tri-coloured flag to be taken When people saw the reports condown; to give their money for a pur-taining a description of the very humble, pose like this, was a folly that the Lon-respectful, submissive, and adulatory doners were not capable of. At this stuff called speeches, reported to have meeting, too, Mr. Mitchell, backed by been uttered in the House by the Cock.com another (I forget his name), proposed these visits to the Home Office, accom-sin the establishment of what he called a panied with the pulling down of the tri“parliamentary office," to asist the Cock coloured flag, and the hunting about in the discharge of his duty, the ex-after a warrant, which was manizal penses of which office were to be defrayed festly made the pretence for denouncing w by the Radical Reformers! This pro-me as one of the disturbers at the Ro position, the real object of which was tunda; when the people saw the reports so clearly seen through, excited nothing of the crawling stuff said to have been but contempt and ridicule; and, if the uttered in the House, all these things. question were put to Mr. Mitchell, he rushed back into their mind, and took”* would say, that he never experienced out of that mind every remaining solitude more perfect than that which shadow of doubt with regard to the real he experienced during his stay in Lon- motives of this Cock. lon; and I dare say that if, in future, It was not long before, if the reports he should need quietude, or hear of any be correct, he began to do his best. riend that does, he will say, talk of Much he cannot do; much he knows groves and forests and wildernesses! not how to attempt. To misrepresent Talk of these, indeed! The birds may nnoy you in them; whereas, in London, Il is tranquil as the tomb. me; to destroy my power; this is one of the ways of doing the boroughmongers great service; whether he atThus remained the affairs of the Cock tempted to do this or not, I leave you, ntil the opening of the Parliament, my friends, to judge, from the following hen the radical world was all on the articles, which I have published before, ptoe of expectation. I shall attempt but which must have a place here. The › general description of the stuff first of these articles was published on hich the newspapers put forth as the the 12th of February, and the last on eeches of the Cock, but shall confine the 19th of February. yself to specific facts; shall confine, yself to passages of the stuff, such as ey stand reported in the newspapers. e first thing which every one obved was, his wonderful respect for members of the House, the great mility with which he addressed them is made the radicals stare; and made " 270 FIRST ARTICLE.Aoxorghar etilt PRESTON COCK.—The hackerings, ," the stammerings, the bogglings, the blunderings, and the cowerings down of this famous Cock should not have noticed, though they have of the hands and the eyes, of all those who given a shrug to the shoulders, and a lifting expected any thing from him, but the following paragraph, which I find in the Morning 46 Herald of to-day giren as A mulgate the disclaimers if of Com- bim up in next Twp penny Trashon showe o en lo aling WMUCOBBETTWO64 to 130009 Vila SECOND ARTICLE M PRESTON COCK. The Parliamentary report in the Morning Herald of the 15th instant, contains the following passage: "ROTUNDA MEETINGS. Mr. HUNT,sim presenting a petition from certain persons, meeting at the Rotunda, said that it complained of the conduct of the judges on the late commission. He felt himself called upon to observe that he had been threatened and denounced by y the party to which the petitioners belonged, solely because he had on a previous occasion disclaimed in that House all connexion bestow a few words upon him, after inserting the paragraph as followsrolod zub sdi no The honorable member also presented a petition from a meeting at the Blackfriars, against the prosecution isda, institu"ted against Mr O'CONNELL. He was con"vinced that prosecutions of this kind did nat tends to check the opinions against "which they instituted, and unless the Governmen get a packed jury in" "Dublin, Mr. O'CONNELL would be ac "quitted. He could not help reverting to an" "expression which fell from LORD ALTHORP respecting civil war, He must at was a cold-blooded expression, and with them, or participation in their views. ' 66 say it ought not to have fallen from any member" "of the Government. He disclaimed all Connection with Messrs. CARLILE, TAYLOR," "JONES and COBBETT, at the Rotunda meetings.” 44 With regard to his disclaimer of all connection with me, every one will congratulate me upon that, after the exhibition which he has made in parliament. No man knows better than himself that I have never had the smallest connection in the world with either Messrs. Carlile, Taylor, or, Jones, the first of whom I never saw but five times, the latter but once, and the second never in my life that I know of. But, the shaft at me is merely venomous; in the other cases it is base beyond description. I can defend my self But they, he well knows, cannot defend So far, however, from being intimidated by these threats, he now reiterated his former assertion, and, should the House not protect him, he knew very well how to protect him"self-a LAUGH.)" This "hugh” was, as I am told by a gentleman who was present, not a horse-laugh nor a merry laugh, but a sort of a ha! laugh, uttered with the chin twisted, the lips lifted, and the nose drawn up, as if the olfactory, as well as the risible, nerves had been affected. This report may he a fabrication on the part of the reporthers, for any-thing that I know to the contrary; but I find the thing published, and, as a publication, I remark on it. What the Preston Cock call for the protection of others, and those others that very body, too, whom he so becalled, and so expressed his contempt of, years he called his friend, e, whom for when on his progress from Prestou to London he to can never It must be an invention of up in a a prison under a sentence which the reporther! What! he who is called the has made even the most intolerant of the peo-" Preston Cock," because in that town bis ple shudder. For myself I would have thanked him for thus dragging in neck and heels, and apropos of nothing, a disclaimer of me; I should have interpreted it as an act of justice due to me; but as for them, it is perhaps, though that is saying a great deal, the foulest thing that ever escaped a pair of lips even in that house flags represented him as a red gume cock, clapping his wings and crowing, while STANLEY was, upon the same flags, represented as a yellow dunghill cock, running away, HE cail on the House for protection! But, then, as to the feasibility of the thing called for, how is the House to protect him against the tongues or pens of those whom he, or his reporther, Is this the use to which he means to turn chooses, by name, to stigmatise in publicathe power which the people of Preston have tions being, or purporting to he, reports of put into his hands? Was it for this that the speeches made in that House? He is not good and sincere and generous people of Pres-intimidated" (ooh! ooh! who-o-ose afraid!) ton sent han to the parliament house 2 1 have and he knows "very well how to defend himnot room for more at present, except this, self" Nobody says the contrary; but I do that, if the reporter have misrepresented him, remember, that at a county meeting at these remarks do not apply to his conduct; Winchester, in 1817, there was a good-forbut, det me be understood, that a recantation nothing saucy fellow, under the Grand Jury with regard to myself only, would not diminish chamber window, who, as soon as he began in my eye, but rather augment, the baseness to open his mouth, held up a long wand with of this unprovoked, this uncalled-for, this white feather tied on at the end of it; and 1 ferocious ferocions attack his at once cowardly and did not see any-body able to protect him whom on three men, neither of is in a situation to defend himself nor to call him to account, and one of whom is doomed to sufferings, the thought of which would soften the heart of a tiger. If he shall be able to disclaim the whole, I shall, for the hopour of human nature, be happy to pro a against that. I did not see any punishment inflicted, or attempted to be inflicted, for that daring breach of privilege. As to his disclaiming all connexion with these petitioners, and all participation in their views, I leave them and him to settle that matter, between them, until, at least, I know what their pe 683 TO THE PEOPLE OF PRESTON. Hooley bos 99gelişiz vitealeg tition contained and other of them to know as soon as or 1 684 when, they heard his pledges on this know as soon as poss the mess to let me subject, but let then take care! as I shall want it for 66 my Letter to the People of Preston," which will be published on the 1st of March, in No. 9 of the Two penny Trash, WM. COBBETT. Boll Court, 17th of Feb. 1831. 7. he did not make them laugh at the wrong side of their mouths, (A "laugh.) They would laugh at his "attempts to gain the ear of the "speaker, but he could wait; he was I leave you, my friends, to judge of" rather determined when he had all this. If it produces mortification in mind, and he had a good deal of the your minds, it is no fault of mine; to quality called patience. (A laugh.) put the facts upon record, is just and" He had had many a set of blackguards necessary; just towards myself, but still" before him before, now. (Laughter more necessary as a duty which I owe" and applause.) He had been at to you and the excellent people of" meetings at St. Giles's, and bad faced Lancashire, whose kindness to me I" crowds of the lowest of the Irish, even never can forget. But, my friends, it" when they were intoxicated, but if is the conduct of your cock, if that con- "all accounts were true, he was going duct be truly described in the reports among a set of rips far surpassing all of the stuff called his speeches, on the" these. (Loud cheers.) He had been subject of the reform now proposed by an eye-witness of the conduct of these the Ministers; it is this to which I have men. He had seen a man stand up now to beg your best attention. Be-" to present a petition, and as it did not fore, however, I enter upon this matter, "suit these dandies, they began cough do let me call your attention to his re- ing, blowing their noses, knocking ported declarations relative to the man- "on the floor with their sticks, and ut ner in which he has spoken of the "tering such Billingsgate, that the first House out of the House. He, on three of the oyster season could produce occasions, declared that he never had" nothing equal to it. When they at spoken ill of the House, while he was "tempted to put these tricks, upon him, out of the House. He asserted this, as "he should tell the speaker that he the reports state, in the most solemn could wait, and, by the living God, manner, that he never had said out of they should give their answer to the the House, any-thing abusive of the " people of Lancashire before he was Members of that House, whom he re- put down! (Three cheers by the spected individually and collectively! company standing.) That demon. Now, my friends, the MANCHESTER AD-"stration of sentiment showed to him, VERTISER of the 3rd of January, pub- "that if ever the appeal was made he lished a report of a speech of his, made" should have a satisfactory answer. at a dinner in that town, on the 1st of" Oh, he knew them so well! They January; and it appears that MR." had often said of him, let's but have WITTLE, the very able editor of that" that chap in the House of Commons paper, was the Chairman at the dinner." and we'll manage him; but the devil. From that speech I take the following" take them if they try it. (Cheers passage: "There was no city, town, village, or bamlet, in England, that had not "heard of Henry Hunt, and did not "know that he was a radical reformer. "He pledged himself never to abandon "his principles, and said he never would sit still and see the petitions "of the people treated in the scandalous 46 manner i in which they had heretofore" "been treated. Many a corrupt knave "would no doubt laugh and sneer the declaration gub bie 1979 X reminded, in answer to above-mentioned, of |