EAST CORNWALL ELECTION.
TO THE EDITOR OF TIIE SPECTATOR,
Truro, 1611, August 1537. Sin—However much you may disapprove, generally speaking, of the prestot Administration, I feel confident that you would be unwilling to reflect, with, out justice, on any individual member of it. I address this explanation to yap, therefore, in reference to an attack made in your paper on the 12th instantoo the Master. General of the Ordnance, in a manner of which he is totally limitless., ing. I allude to the following passage on the subject of the recent contest ia the Eastern Division of Cornwall—" As for Sir Hussey Vivian we must ay that, from first to last, his conduct appears to have been alluding. Belli been trying with bow small a portion of Liberalism, with how inuch of hie ptistine Toryistn, he could contrive to get himself into the House of Commons,. Allow nie, who am fully acquainted with every occurrence that has taken plug during the above contest, to assure you that this reflection is equally unjust tad untlue.
Had Si,' Ilesseir VIVIAN been at all desirous of reentering the Housed Commons, several seats were open to him at an expense not exceeding a fourth of that to which he will have been put in his late election ; but he, most rates tautly, allowed himself to be brought forward, solely at the call and in it port of the Reform party ; stating, at the same time, that, above all things, la was most anxious to avoid endangering the seat of his friend Sir WILLIAM T RELA W NET. At his first meeting with their joint suppoiters Sir BUSSIIT Vivi s N further said, that he should be ready to retire in case there appearedta be the slightest ground of apprehension for the safety of Sir NV1 was! Tor. LAW NET'S seat " up to the last ntornent before piny to the pull;" bathe clearly explained, that after the poll should commence, he felt it WaS due to ths Government to which he belonged, as also to those electors who might support him, that he should not withdraw. Subsequently, the canvass returns showing a large majority in favour of both the Reform candidates, Sir Wcataara LA W N EY having about 80 above Sir If. Vivtax, there existed no reams whatever why the latter should decline the contest, whilst lilaremain- ing in the field was necessary on account of the expense to he incurred, of which Sir WILLIAM TR ELA W NET was to hear only a small portion: besides, there was every reason to believe, that had Sir HENRY VIVIAN withdrawn, a second 'Tory was ready to come forward ; and the fear of the expense; as Sir W. TRELAWNEY intimates in his last address, might have driven him from the field. What, I ask you, Sir, would havebeee said of Sir H. VIVIA N, had he hesitated to go to the poll, when his only excuse would have been the possibility of his own failure? For had the return beet correct, or, I should rather have said, had the undue and improper influence or the Tory landlords over their tenants andother dependants permitted them to have acted up to their wishes and promises, theta' could not have existed doubt of Sir W. TRELAWNEY'S success. At the close of the first day's poll, it was found that, owing to the nuniher of votes split between Sir H. VIVIAN and Lord ELIOT being greater than those between Sir W. TREL A W N EY and Lord ELIOT, Sir H. VIVIAN Was placed some 30 OF 90 above Sir W. TRELAWNEY; but even then it was judged practicable to bring up the latter, there being between five and six hundred votes remaining unpolled, the great majority of whom were said to be favourable to the Liberal cause. And here allow me to point out to you the great injustice of the insinuation you make when you give the numbers polled on the first day, and add " Bat Sir Hussey Vivian did not resign." Is it possible, Sir, that you can be se ignorant of election-law as not to know that the only case wherein a candidate has the legal power to resign, is when an equal number of candidates to those to be elected are above him on the poll ? Had it been possible at this time for Sir H. VIVIAN to have retired, in order to seat Sir WILLIAM TRELAW NET, 1 can bear testimony to his anxiety to have so done. I heard him tepeatedly request hie friends to urge the electors to plump for Si,' W. TRELAWN EY ; but this course would then have only had the effect of leaving it in the hands of the Tories to determine, by splitting their votes for Sir H. VIVIAN, that he and not Sir W. TRELAWN EV should become the Member.
From the statement I have here given, to which I defy contradiction, yon will perceive that Sir H. VIVIAN'S coming forward might have saved Sir W. TRELAWNEY, which was the great object, but certainly did not cause his defeat. Indeed, since the close of the election, so distressed was Sir II. VivIaN at the result, and so anxious was be that Sir W. To F: LA WNEY (whose superior claims he acknowledges, and whose loss, I am firmly persuaded, he as deeply deplores as any other man in the county) and not himself should be the Repres sentative, that he declared at a large meeting of the committee of the friends of both, that if they felt they could return Sir Wi ELI AM TRELAW NET, he would, on the meeting of Parliament accept the Chiltern Hundreds : in short, nothing could have been handsotner, more honourable, or more straightforward, (as III admitted, I believe, by every supporter of Sir WILLIAM,) than the conduct of Sir H. Vivra pa "from first to last."
Your extract from Sir H. VIVIAN'S speech at the nomination is also incorrect. I was very near him at the time, and having distinctly heard him, have no hesitation whatever in giving the following as the substance of what he did say on the subject of the 13allott : " That in the course of his canvass he had seen enough to convince him that some measure of protection for the voter was necessary ; that niany haul told him they would gladly give him their sup. port, if they dared to do so; that it was well known he did not like the Ballot, and that if adopted, he believed it would disappoint its advocates; but still, so persuaded was he that something must be done, that if no better measure were proposed, and if a majority of those who sent him to Parliatnent should show their desire that he would support the Ballot, by sending him a petition to pre -
mat in its favour, he would support it."
The sneer at Sir H. Vivra N'S pristine Toryism" has been imposed on you by some enemy in disguise; and having no foundation in truth, was unworthy of the Spectator.
Trusting that your sense of justice will lead you to publish this, I subscribe myself, Your obedient servant, and
A FRIEND TO TRELAWNEY AND VIVIAN• [Our correspondent mentions several facts new to us, and of which we are as anxious as he is that Sir HUSSEY VIVIAN should have the full benefit. Vt'e take it for granted that the above statement respecting his behaviour towards Sir WI L LIA 31 TItELAWNEV is correct ; in which case, we agree that " nothing c odd be handsomer." In the term " shuffling," we had in view the conduct of Sir 11I'SSEY Vistas about the Billot ; it appeared to us that he did not ILA a sttaightforwarcl part with regard to that question. We hope that Sir ilt• SSE v in Parliament will justify the good opinion of his friends; and WS can truly tell our Cornish correspondent, that the fact of his being 3 Olenilier the Goveintnent will not in the lea_st dcgreff influence us to If eat him harzblY.)
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