He (Mr. H.) would not therefore be misled by his example; and if he offered himself at all to the notice of the Freeholders, he did so, because he was desirous as one of themselves, as one who had been present during the whole of the election, and opposed to the unsuccessful Candidate, to bear his humble testimony to the courteous and honourable conduct of Mr. Cavendish, and his immediate friends. He was also anxious to do justice to the fair and manly spirit, which had been displayed by the great body of the Freeholders, on which ever side they had given their votes, as well as by those who have no votes,--(the commonalty as they are well described by a good old English word in the return to the King's Writ,) but who are not the less on that account interested in the election of those who are to represent the people of England in Parliament. Their partialities, their feelings, and their honest prejudices had been in some instances strongly marked; but without exceeding that antient and acknowledged licence, which had at all times heretofore, and he trusted, would at all times hereafter, be tolerated at popular Elections of this free country. He considered this indulgence and latitude given to popular feeling, not only as tending to keep alive the spirit of liberty; but also as conducive upon the whole to that love of order, and to the maintenance of that mutual confidence and good will, which generally prevail at other periods among the different classes of society in this country. For one therefore, he had no wish to check the popular ebullitions of a contested Election. Outrage and violence, if committed, must indeed be put down; but for the honour of the City of Chichester, he was proud to say that no instance of the sort had occurred; and he felt it the more necessary to make this remark, as he knew a report was current that he himself was an exception to it. The circumstance which had given rise to this report was not worth stating; but this much he would say, that however he might have resented it at another period, it appeared to him nothing beyond what ought to be borne with good humour during the heat of a great contest. The Right Hon. Gentleman then said, that in his opinion, Mr. Cavendish had done his duty by his friends; had done his duty by the County; had done his duty by his Op ponents. By his Friends, in giving them an opportunity of fully and fairly trying their strength; by the County in ceasing to interrupt its tranquillity, and the occupations of its industrious population, as soon as he had reason to believe that by a continuance of the struggle, he should not be able to succeed in the object of his ambition; by his Opponents in giving them the earliest possible intimation of his intention to retire, in order to save further expence and trouble to their friends. This is as it should be; the Candidates have all behaved as becomes English Gentlemen in their situations. Let us, said Mr. H. in ours, imitate their example; retaining as warmly as we please our political partialities and opinions, we may nevertheless revert to those habits of friendship and good humour, which form the happiness and comfort of English Society. Let this be our only feeling on leaving this hall, and let us vie with each other, who shall best inculcate it by his practice and his example. The Thanks of the Meeting to the Sheriff for his very liberal and impartial conduct during the Election were then proposed by Mr. Huskissor, who was seconded by Lord H. M. Howard, and were voted unanimously,-after which the Court was closed, and the immense crowd dispersed in perfect good humour. The two following Addresses were published on the following day. To the Gentlemen, Clergy, and Freeholders of the County of Sussex. GENTLEMEN, I hasten to offer you my grateful thanks for the honour which you have conferred upon me in again returning me to Parliament. After a severe contest, in which the sense of the Freeholders has been fully and impartially ascertained, you have, for the third time, committed to me the high trust of representing the county of Sussex in the House of Commons ;-stamping at the same time, your kind approbation of my past services, by the further distinction of placing my name at the head of the Poll. The eight last years, for which I have had the honour of calling you my constituents, have been marked by great and trying difficulties in the history of our country. To support, during the first half of that period, the exertions of the Government in a just and necessary, but most expensive War; and, after that war was brought to a safe and glorious conclusion, to repair its exhausting effects, -have been among the principal and anxious labours of Parliament. The humble part which I have taken in these labours has been, on each particular measure, that, which to my judgment appeared most conducive to the permanent happiness and prosperity of the People These great ends of all good Government will, I am convinced, be best attained in this country, by preserving unaltered those institutions, religious, civil, and political, which have so long placed the life, the liberty, and the property of an Englishman, upon a footing of security unknown to the subjects of any other state. To perpetuate these blessings, by shielding them from the wicked attempts of desperate, and the wild speculations of visionary Politicians, appears to me among the first duties of public men in the times in which we live. this ground I zealously supported the measures of the last Session of Parliament. Your confirming approbation, peculiarly marked by the character and result of the late contest, is, next to the sanc On tion of my own conscience, the only, but to me most gratifying, Reward for the Votes which I on that occasion. gave I have the honour to be, Gentlemen, Your much obliged and faithful Servant, WALTER BURRELL. Chichester, Wednesday Evening, March 22, 1820. To the Gentlemen, Clergy, and Freeholders of the County of Sussex. GENTLEMEN, The support of the independent Freeholders of this county, which had been promised me previously to the Election, I have found fully adequate to the very arduous contest in which I have been involved. You, Gentlemen, have carried me through the struggle and all my difficulties with success. The obligations under which I have placed myself in my address to you, I shall always consider to be binding on me and sacred, and it shall be my constant study in the course of my parliamentary conduct, to redeem all the pledges which you now hold, and which I have solemnly and deliberately deposited in your hands. I have the honour to be With gratitude and due respect, Your much obliged and most humble servant, It may be expected, that we should mention the Expences of this contest-but as we are unable to do so from authority, our readers will, we hope, be satisfied with our stating, that, from every inquiry we have been enabled to make, it appears to have cost from £50,000 to £60,000. Appendix. 1 19. Henry VII. C. 24.-For holding the ShireCourt at Chichester and Lewes alternately. "IN consideration that the Shire-Court of and for the shire of Sussex is held and kept in the City of Chichester, which is in the extream part of the same shire, the same shire being lxx. miles in length; by reason whereof divers and many of the King's subjects, inhabiting that shire, are sometimes outlawed, and sometimes lose great sums of money in that Court ere they have knowledge thereof, to their utter undoing:"-Be it therefore enacted by the authority of this present Parliament, that from the Feast of Easter next coming, the Shire-Court for that shire shall be holden and kept one time at Chichester aforesaid, and the next time at the Borough of Lewes, which Borough is in the midst of that shire, and so to be kept alternis vicibus for ever; *and every Shire-Court holden to the contrary hereof, and all things therein done, to be void. * See 2nd, and 3rd. Edward VI. which provides that County Courts shall be held every month. |