The Southwark candidates severally held meetings of their friends last
night; and Mr. Miall took occasion to refer to Sir William Moles- worth's last speech. He said, the contest was assuming more the aspect of theological controversy than he could desire; but he had not alluded to opponent's religious sentiments, "until that opponent, in bad taste and -a worse spirit, hurled at him the title of' Reverend' ( !) evidently intending there- - by to disparage him in their estimation." Sir William wondered whether • he had ever read Hobbes: this smacked of the self-complacency of the ," philosophical Radicals," who fancy reading and knowledge pretty exclu- sively confined to themselves. He was challenged to put his hand on a passage in Hobbes derogatory to Christianity: but writers of that school do not come open-mouthed against the system which they wish to under- mine; such a passage could not be found even in the worst chapters of Gibbon. [There is no answer here to Sir William Molesworth's question.] The meeting of Mr. Pilcher's friends was very uproarious; the disturb- ance being begun early, by a person who interrupted Mr. Shaw's long speech for Mr. Pilcher with a call for the candidate himself to speak. [Decidedly, if the electors choose Mr. Pilcher, they should ascertain whe- ther Mr. Shaw can be admitted with him, to make up the single Member required; or else the tongue of the orator will be left behind, and only the voting-half of a representative be returned. "The Honourable Member for Southwark" might then be called in the reports "Mr. Pilcher-and-Shaw."]
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