C. F. G. Clark

“ Dixon ought to have commenced—“Electors of Dudley, I condole with you on this melancholy occasion,” and instead of the brilliant colours now exhibited by his opponents they ought to have been habited in mourning and crape. They who thought the constitution had been overturned ought not to make it a subject of congratulation, but of condolence. In the language of defeated men they ought to say “We are beaten, but we will do all in our power to restore Old Sarum and Gatton, and the rest of the rotten boroughs, and perpetuate every abuse, both in church and state.” ”

“ If, brother Conservatives, the sacred cause of Conservatism is worth upholding in its national integrity, reflect, consider, and forbear to commit yourselves to such a humiliating course, as to vote for a man whose practices and principles you have so often condemned since he has been in Parliament. At some future period our cause will be on the ascent, and you will then regret having assisted to hand over the Borough of Dudley to Radicalism and Faction. ”

“ Who cares for and protects this enormous mass of labouring poor? The Dudley Tories—for whom so many of them labour? We lament to say not one of them.
It is a painful fact to record, but we do believe that there is not one of the employers of the Dudley district who knows one per cent. of the men who toil and labour to produce his wealth. Take England through, and you will not find a locality where there is not so little sympathy between the employers and employed, but such an utter regardlessness on the part of the former of every single interest appertaining to the latter. ”

“ I am an advocate for the Shortening of the Duration of Parliaments, Complete Suffrage, Protected by the Ballot, and an appropriation of Members in proportion to Population. I am for the ABOLITION OF CHURCH RATES! and entire Religious Freedom. I am an advocate for the greatest economy in our national expenditure, and strongly opposed to our interfering in the affairs of other Nations; and believing the Military Bill passed by the present Government an ill-advised and unnecessary measure, if elected I will vote for its repeal! ”

“ Are you determined to belie your Conservative principles and vote for a “Shilley Shalley Radical,” the man who has branded your honoured townsmen (the Bank Directors) with a breach of that trust which many of us (as Shareholders) have placed in their hands, in betraying to the public the state of your private affairs? Is such an unscrupulous Weathercock entitled to the support [Pg 283] of the Constitutional Conservatives in Dudley, who have ever been ready to uphold and maintain, the honour of their townsmen, and the sacred principles of Constitutional Monarchy? ”

“ To you, Gentlemen, the victory is due; a more enlightened, faithful, and zealous body of supporters never rallied round a Candidate, even to vindicate the great right of Municipal Independence.
Gentlemen, my political principles are now well known to you, they have been unreservedly communicated, and have your unqualified approbation. Believe me, it shall be my study vigorously to aid in giving effect to them in the House of Commons, and also to further all measures of local improvement or general principle which have the approval of my Constituents. ”

“ Freedom of election being the bulwark of independence, I look upon the system of representation as practised in this borough, and the herd-like manner in which white slaves are driven about like cattle, according to the motives of the noble proprietor, or the interests of a small section of the electors; as a violation of the sacred rights of man, and a farcical performance calculated to revolutionize the organisation of society at large. ”

“ The Toryism of Dudley is a Toryism of ignorance—a Toryism of habit—a Toryism of self interest—and a Toryism of coercion. We have been in places where Toryism was the representative of loyalty. At Dudley they care as much about the Sovereign as they do about the President of France. There are other towns where Toryism shadows forth the Church of England, and where Tories march in array to the poll with a view, as they believe, to keep dissent in check. At Dudley the Tories profess no Church principle, nor, indeed, any description of religious principle. ”

“ ELECTORS “awake, arise, or be for ever fallen.” Men of all shades of Politics, Whig and Tory, buckle on your armour, go hand in hand, beat back the foe that would rob you of your franchise. Shew your independence, let cowardice be distant. It is not a question between Whig and Tory that we have to decide, (Sandars is neither Whig or Tory,) but between Independence and Mental Slavery. ”

“ Are there not a few good men to be found in this political Nazareth who, for the honour of human nature, and the sake of human progress, will come forward and manfully assert the principle of political independence? With such men I should be proud to combine; and though we might be only leading the forlorn hope of a better state of things—we should at least discharge our duty amid circumstances disgraceful in an age of feudalism, but a perpetual reproach to the institutions of the nineteenth century. ”

“ I am disposed to Vote for a thorough Reform in the Assessment of the Income Tax, believing it to press severely upon Industry, and to be unjust in its mode of application.
As a friend of Education, I am most anxious that every facility should be given for its more general advancement, and most assuredly will vote for the Repeal of the Duty on Paper, a Duty most obnoxious, and the greatest impediment to the diffusion of learning. ”

“ Some jarring and hasty remarks have lately been floated in our local Press, hurling serious charges against the religious belief and good manners of the people of Dudley in our own days. Past experience, and actual facts, loudly rebut such insane assertions, for we have only to take a survey of this important Borough now to witness the religious and scholastic zeal exhibited in the erection of Churches, Chapels, and Sunday Schools to the Glory of God and the spiritual good of the people; which its inhabitants have long placed in broad day-light, shewing their Christian benevolence and charity. ”

“ You, therefore, that are sneeringly called by certain gentlemen “small” ratepayers, and whose interests are thought to be nothing, take care and see that in the present contest your interests are not overlooked. Prove to these dogmatic, would-be despotic individuals that “small” as are your interests individually, yet that when united you can break down the opposition of such men; and as you have before accomplished your own object, and gained freedom of representation in Parliament, so now prove to the world that you can be fairly represented in the humbler Board-room of your Poor House. ”

“ The fact of being myself the collector of this large pile of printed information for the last 40 years, emboldens me to chronicle the Events and Curiosities of Dudley in such a succession of past years as will at once convey to my few remaining contemporaries a lively recollection of once stirring events, which the present generation of active public men in our midst may perhaps deign to learn therefrom a lesson of experience and profit. ”

“ Rise then, Brother Freeholders, and by your energy preclude the everlasting stigma being attached to your County of its representation being any longer considered the PATRIMONIAL INHERITANCE of the LYGONS!
Let me, I conjure you, by all the ties which bind Man to Man, to give effect to the great and glorious Cause in view; let it be your pride that you have defeated the Machinations of Party, and that you have given to your Country a Member who will emancipate you from the thraldom of Family Influence! ”

“ What is called the Law in Dudley is no law at all in Ireland:—In the large towns of Birmingham and Wolverhampton;—in Westbromwich and in every other place, in which intellect, intelligence and education have the upper hand of vulgar, ignorant and unscrupulous wealth, the inhabitants have swept the accursed tax indignantly away. ”

“ During the eventful period I have had the honor to enjoy a seat in Parliament, I have never blindly attached myself to any Minister; but have, as the Representative of an important constituency, uniformly supported those measures which seemed best calculated to maintain the honour of our great country, and to promote the comforts of the people: at the same time I have been equally solicitous for the advancement of those great interests which are so closely identified with the prosperity of your populous and industrious locality. ”

“ If, Sir, the present elective franchise can thus, by interested partisans on the one hand, and political demagogues on the other, be made the sportive instrument of demoralising all consistency of conduct in the virtuous, and can thus be dragged forth to inflame the unholy passions of the blind and vicious, what must be its operations when the long anticipated Reform Bill extends its privileges to a more extensive, uneducated, but not less dangerous class of such like free and independent electors? ”

“ Surely we have as much right to support and vote for an anti-reform candidate, as we had to sign a petition praying for reform. And, moreover, what has supporting a candidate to do with our having signed a petition? What if Colonel Lygon has opposed all reform? What if he be an enemy to Civil and Religious Liberty? What if he has been the undeviating supporter of the reckless expenditure of the [Pg 40] people’s money? What is all this to us? We could always afford to pay the taxes! We have thriven under the old system! ”

“ With these facts before us—can it be really true that the political influence of an important manufacturing town like Dudley, lies prostrate at the feet of a man, who appears to feel as much interest in the moral and social well-being of the district from which he derives his immense wealth, as he does for the natives of Timbuctoo. Is the decay of public spirit so manifest that not a blow can be struck for the emancipation of the Borough? ”

“ Yes, it may be replied, and this is already done; have we not schools in abundance for the children of all classes, have we not schools national, schools congregational, army schools, navy schools, public schools, private schools, was ever country so be-schooled as this is?—Alas! the education of our youth is miserably defective. I do not desire to put down the schools that now exist, but I should wish to see others of a much different kind established. The education now universally afforded is merely mechanical. The intellect is but little taxed, and, less still, amused by it. ”

“ Unconnected with, and influenced by, any party considerations whatever, I have watched with much anxiety the recent struggle, having in view the redemption of my pledge to support any Government which would give to the Country such a measure of Reform, as would secure to the people an increased share in the representation, believing that the Educational progress of the Working Classes entitles them to be dealt with in a fair and liberal spirit. ”

“ Go, gentlemen, every man unto his charge; let not such babblers affright our souls; conscience is but a word that cowards use, devised at first to keep the strong in awe. Our strong arms be our conscience, swords our law; march on, join bravely; let us to the pell-mell, not to lose, but hand in hand to win. (Immense shouting.)
Enter Messenger (breathless.) Gentlemen, gentlemen, Mr. Benbow has just entered the town!!!
Molley. Friends, where shall we meet to-morrow?
Isaac. Oh, at my house, at ten.
All. We will be there in time. Till then, adieu.
“A LOOKER ON IN DUDLEY.”
July 22nd, 1847. ”

“ Why will they not render unto God the things that are God’s without sending the Constable to lay his hands upon Dissenters’ goods? Cannot they partake of the Sacrament at their own cost, without bringing down upon the solemn ceremony the suspicion and reality of unspeakable shabbiness? Cannot they remove their own dust and dirt without making use of the cleaner hands of their dissenting neighbours? Why not quite as reasonably call upon the Dissenter to pay their Bakers’ and Butchers’ Bills? Why not tax him with the washing and mangling of the Vicar’s Shirts as well as the Vicar’s Surplices. ”

“ Thank you, my Lord, for standing up for the plain Truth, so necessary at this time both to King and Country and that you have not suffered a faction whose personal objects are of a most base and selfish character, and whose political objects are the destruction of all popular influence and the establishment of an aristocratic tyranny. ”