your cause merits it, and the way in which you have conducted that cause, more than the cause itself. I am not here referring to you alone, but of the party of whom you are the head; and to the system that they have adopted with regard to Mr. Wellesley. You will recollect, probably, that he too received a trifling portion of what you complain. Where were your sensibilities then? They appear to be cuttingly alive now; it touches you, and you murmur; but with what shew of reason? The very letter that contains your lamentations, is brimfull of invective against that gentleman. Probably you ima gine, that, by inflicting a wound on another person, you will lessen your own suffering. I have read of tyrants who resorted to this method of removing trouble, but have never heard that it succeeded. In every point of view, Mr. Wellesley has been the object of your censure and sly invective; your opposition to him has been petulant, mean, and unmanly! He had to complain of midnight assassins and anonymous libellers ;" and you know pretty well to whom he referred. He was laughed at when he complained, and a fresh volley of abuse was all the sympathy be experienced. He has been calumniated as a son and a servant; as a man and a master; as a husband and a father; and when he resented such unmanly, base, and ungenerous conduct, and called his calumniators by the proper name, you were the man who sent round that stupid, and egregiously foolish requisition to the county magistrates in your neighbourhood (not Swindon !) to procure sig natures, calling on Mr. Wellesley to define the meaning of "Notorious Quorum." Your success was very bad, and bad it deserved to be, for this was the base return you made his bonourable and unsuspecting mind for complimenting you, though his adversary, with the choice of his agent. How little must you appear in your own eyes, would you but condescend to take a look! How little you appear in our eyes, when complaining under that lash which you have so unsparingly ap plied to the shoulders of another! Yet, though so much at odds, we shall agree at last. Like you, I have the same aversions, but not the same attachments. "I hate the midnight assassin, and the anonymous libeller:"-" in the moral scale they hold the same station, and are equally detestable!" Adieu, for the present, MY OLD HEART. To the Freeholders of the County of Wilts. I TAKE the earliest opportunity, after renewing my canvass, of acknowledging, with gratitude, the obligations which I am under to the friends who have taken care that my interest should not suffer while I was unavoidably absent in attending my duty in the House of Commons. But it is to the county at large that I am indebted for the support which I have to boast of in every district; and the best return which I can promise, if I am again seated by them in Parliament, is an honest discharge of the sacred trust reposed in me; and, above all, a vigilant eye over the application of the public money. I feel myself now called upon, in consequence of reports of coalition with another candidate, to account for my presence at the dinner at Marlborough. I shall state the circumstances, and I am sure they will speak for themselves, without further comment or explanation : I received some time back an invitation from my friend Mr. Fulwar Craven, to dine with a party of freeholders. I unfortunately accepted the invitation; and afterwards received another letter from that gentleman, informing me that Mr. Benett also was invited,-when I immediately declined dining there, stating, that it might appear like a coalition. I actually passed through Marlborough on Friday, (the day of the dinner,) and had proceeded five or six miles when I met Mr. Atherton and a party of gentlemen from Calne, who pressed me very much to return, and really would take no refusal, saying they had come all the way to meet me, as I had accepted the invitation they understood, and that it was a freeholders' dinner, and not Mr. Benett's. Under these circumstances (and I appeal to Mr. Atherton for the truth) very much against my own opinion or inclination, I could not do otherwise than return; particularly as they informed me (which I had heard before, but did not credit) that Mr. Wellesley himself was to be there. I can only say that I returned to dine with a large body of my constituents, who had done me the honour of inviting me, without intending the smallest. benefit to the cause of one candidate at the expense of the other; and under similar circumstances, had the dinner been called by the friends of Mr. Wellesley instead of those of Mr. Benett, I should have acted in the same manner, without the slightest difference whatever. I therefore beg again to disclaim any coalition; and trust, with the fullest confidence, to the candor of my constituents, and my own character for veracity, to have full credit given me for the real truth of the statement; and the renewed assurance "that no consideration whatever shall induce me to take any part, directly or indirectly, with any other candidate." Thanking you all for your support, and begging you most carnestly to believe that it is my desire to wait personally upon every freeholder, if possible, before the dissolution of parliament, I have the honour to remain, Gentlemen,. Salisbury, May 27, 1818. Your grateful devoted servant, PAUL METHUEN. To the Freeholders of the County of Wilts. GENTLEMEN, MR. METHUEN having, in an address to you, appealed to me for the truth of his statement of the circumstances which led to his being at the dinner at Marlborough, on the 22nd instant, I lose not a moment in confirming it. Mr. Craven's advertisement of the dinner being a general invitation to the freeholders who were interested in supporting the independence of election, some of my neighbours and myself, without regard to the candidates we meant to support, determined to attend the meeting, and our numbers were increased by a report that the three Candidates would be there. On our way to Marlborough we met Mr. Methuen, who had passed through that town on his road home from London. We expressed our surprise at meeting him, telling him that we expected to have found him at the dinner. He replied that it was a dinner of Mr. Benett's friends, and he had an objection to being at it, as it would have the appearance of a coalition of interests; I answered, that I should not have attended a party meeting on either side; that the call was general to the friends of independence, among whom we reckoned him and ourselves; that we were going to the meeting purely in that character, some of us favouring Mr. Wellesley, and some Mr. Benett, but all preferring him; that the friends of neither Candidate could, with any propriety, call themselves exclusively the friends of independence, and that no one, attending to the advertisement, could construe his presence into a coalition. We also added, that we expected Mr. Wellesley would be there, and after using something of that license which returns to the freeholders once in seven years (thanks to the honest Parliament for not making it seventy) we prevailed on him to return with us. This is the true history of Mr. Methuen's appearance at the dinner. Calne, May 29, 1818. Your most obedient servant, WILTSHIRE ELECTION. ON the 22nd day of May, 1818, pursuant to the call of Fulwar Craven, Esq. a meeting of the freeholders, who felt an interest in supporting the independence of the county, was held at the Duke's Arms Inn, Marlborough. After the usual toasts of the King, &c. had been given, the chairman proposed, "The Independence of the County," upon which Mr. Atherton, of Calne, rose and said, that as this meeting had been called by Fulwar Craven, Esq. a gentleman known as a friend to independence, he considered his name as a guarantee that the meeting was intended purely for the support of the independence of the county, and not to advance any party interest; and, after observing with great effect upon every proposition which he afterwards offered as resolutions for the adoption of the meeting, and receiving great applause for every sentiment contained in his speech, proposed the following Resolutions: First, That independence of election consists in every freeholder exercising his right of voting in the choice of a representative in parliament, unawed by rank and power, and uninfluenced by hope of reward, or fear of injury.-Second, That the freeholder's suffrage is his own property; and that those who aim, by intimidation of any sort, to deprive him of it, or resent his using it according to his own will, commit a great crime against society, are enemies to the constitution, and to the independence of the county, and forfeit all claim to respect from their neighbours and dependants.-Third, That it is the right of every man to express his opinion, with freedom and candour, of the principles, the character, and conduct of every candidate for a scat in Parliament; and, beyond that, we, in our several situations, will use no influence to induce any voter, who may be connected with, or dependent upon us, to prefer one candidate to another.-Fourth, That the enormous expense attending contests for the representation of counties, prevents many men of independent minds, who are not trading politicians, from becoming candidates, and not unfrequently leaves the freeholders' no choice, or a very bad one; and that it is from the dread of expense alone, and not from a love of indolence, nor a want of will to serve their country, that many gentlemen, eminently qualified by fortune and talent to represent us in Parliament, remain in privacy.-Fifth, That we will use our influence with, and endeavour to prevail on, freeholders, who are in suitable circumstances, to attend the election at their own expense, considering it a disgrace for such persons to be carried and fed by others; and that we will, in all other respects, endeavour to keep down the expenses of the contest, with a view to induce other gentlemen to come forward on future occasions, as well as to serve those who have declared themselves Candidates on the present. Notwithstanding every sentiment that Mr. Atherton uttered was greatly applauded, a friend of Mr. Benett's rose, and stated that as the friends of Mr. Wellesley had not come to any resolutions to refrain from using undue influence, there was no reason why they should adopt Mr. Atherton's; but he did not mention any instance in which undue influence had been exercised by the friends of Mr. Wellesley. The resolutions were then put and rejected by a great majority, some gentlemen holding up both hands against them.-Afterwards (in the interval Mr. Benett had made his speech) the same friend of Mr. Benett, being sensible of the propriety of adopting Mr. Atherton's propositions, rose and said that he did not mean they should be rejected. Mr. Atherton, in reply, said, that the recantation of his friend was like the confession of a monk after committing sin, and was proceeding to remark on the insuffi ciency of Mr. Benett's declaration of his political principles, when number of Mr. Benett's injudicious friends interrupted him, and Mr. Atherton and a few friends, who were anxious the freeholders should give their votes without any undue influ ence being exercised, left the room. VERITAS. To the Printers of the Salisbury and Winchester Journal. GENTLEMEN, I ABSTAIN from allusion to private character, which I deem it base to impeach under the cloak of a fictitious name. I wish not to question either the good sense, the erudition, the taste, the liberality, or the honour of those who think they promote the interest of their favourite Candidate, by traducing iny humbler talent, my learning, the style of my compositions, the correctness of my judgment, or the integrity of my heart. Though my real name, yet undiscovered, should be branded by the calumnies which it is thought prudent to attach to my fictitious character; though my opponents should accumulate their unprovoked censures on my undefended reputation; yet the pretensions of the respective Candidates are to be weighed without regard to me or to my pretensions, and perhaps without much respect for the superior taste, learning, and liberality of those whose good humour is not unimpaired in the zeal with which they would destroy me. Of the public character and pretensions of the respective Candidates it is surely fit that we should be fully informed. The representation of the county is not a bauble for the gratification of youthful ambition. It is not merely the appendage of rank and fortune, to be enumerated among the hereditary distinctions of any family, however ancient or respectable. It is a function of high responsibility, and only for that reason to |