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TO THE FRIENDS OF

RADICAL REFORM.

FELLOW COUNTRYMEN,

To you we dedicate our narrative of the events of the last Westminster Election. They have not as yet been represented as they actually occurred. The newspapers, even those whose appearance of impartiality on other subjects might have given them an air of authenticity on this occasion, notoriously perverted many facts, which though of minor importance individually, formed, when collectively taken, the true character of the Election. Such a perversion is not to be charged, generally speaking, upon the Reporters, who, if left to themselves, would faithfully discharge their laborious functions:-but it is to be charged to the proprietors of the Journals. The leaning of these proprietors to the aristocracy and their dependents, and the gross violation of all truth by the Whig conductors of the Morning Chronicle, served to communicate to those who were never in Covent Garden during the Election, a completely erroneous impression of the scenes there passing: and it is natural to believe, that excepting the partial disclosure of facts by the conductors of the liberal Sunday papers, and also by those of some of the Provincial papers, who seem to have understood the real nature of the question at issue, there has been a delusion spread amongst the people, which still continues to operate perniciously to the great interests of the nation, and to the cause of Reform. The silence of most of the daily Journals, which are usually supposed to be devoted to liberal principles, during the whole of the

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three months previous to the contest, facilitated the misrepresentations of the party opposed to the people; and to remedy this defect, we have thought it advisable to prefix an account of the proceedings connected with the nomination of Mr. Hobhouse. The same desire of counteracting the effects of calumnies hitherto uncontradicted, has induced us to intersperse the account of the Election with such remarks as may serve as a supplement to the partial answers which Mr. Hobhouse and Sir Francis Burdett gave on the Hustings, to the attacks more particularly levelled against themselves. The materials for this exposure of facts have been drawn only from authentic sources; and we may safely defy the denial of a single statement contained in the ensuing pages. The speeches have been compiled with the utmost care. Those of Mr. Hobhouse we have been enabled to give nearly word for word as they were delivered; a Reporter having been employed at the time for the purpose of enabling the Committee to circulate such speeches as they might deem more peculiarly necessary for the furtherance of their cause. The speeches of the Whigs and of their coadjutors, have been given from the Morning Chronicle, which we presume to be the fairest mode of proceeding which we could adopt. We may with perfect security appeal to every spectator of the scene at Covent Garden for the truth of every word which accompanies our account of the manner in which those speeches were received by the PEOPLE. The propagation of fiction must be superfluous to those whose cause has suffered by delusion alone, and who require no other justification than a simple narrative of facts. Wishing success to our mutual cause the cause of all England-the cause of human nature

We are

Your affectionate fellow-labourers,

the Committee appointed

to manage the Election

Westminster, July 26, 1819.

of Mr. HOBHOUSE.

AN

AUTHENTIC NARRATIVE.

THE lamented death of Sir Samuel Romilly occurred on November 2, 1818, but the circumstance was not generally known until the next day. After the first consternation produced by that distressing event had partially subsided, the attention of the Electors of Westminster was naturally directed to the vacancy in their representation, and the Reformers were solicitous to provide a colleague worthy of being seated by the side of Sir Francis Burdett. It was generally supposed, that Sir Murray Maxwell, having procured 4,808 votes at the last election, would be proposed by the court party; and it was conjectured, that the Whigs also might wish to retain the seat they had lately obtained in Westminster. The Reformers, therefore, held a meeting on Thurday, the 5th of November, and, after some consideration, determined that a public meeting should be convened, as speedily as might be consistent with their respect for their deceased representative. In order to secure the tranquillity of the meeting, it was resolved, that Sir Francis Burdett should be invited to take the chair: for it had been seen on more than one occasion, that without the interposition of some authority, such perhaps as Sir Francis alone for many years has been able to acquire in a large popular assembly, it would be very easy for a few designing individuals to interrupt the proceedings, and finally dissolve any public meeting. A few partizans of Mr. Paull in 1807, and latterly some twenty friends of Mr. Hunt in 1818, had broken up an assembly of more than a thousand Electors, and it was, if possible, to provide against a similar disturbance, that the Reformers agreed to request Sir Francis Burdett to take the chair. This, andthis only, was their motive for writing to him the following letter:

"Westminster, November 5, 1818.

"Sir,-A great public duty has again devolved upon the Electors of Westminster. The death of Sir Samuel Romilly, your honourable colleague, which the national grief proclaims to be a

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