8 APRIL 1843, Page 8

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The nomination of candidates for Nottingham took place on Wednes- day. The contest lay between Mr. Thomas Gisborne and Mr. John Walter junior, the son of the unseated Member. :Sir G. Larpent had withdrawn, because Mr. Walter would not explicitly exonerate him from the late compromise by saying that he did not mean to stand him- self. Mr. Busfield Ferrand was in the town canvassing for Mr. Walter ; Mr. Gisborne was supported by Mr. John Bright and Mr. Rawson, on behalf of the Anti-Corn-law League. At the preliminary meetings;Mr.

Gisborne avowed his assent to the six points of the Charter, but evaded the question whether he would support it, by saying, that it never would come on in the House of Commons, for if Mr. Thomas Dun- combo were to bring it forward the House would be counted out. Mr. John Walter did not appear before the election ; stating in his address, that he kept away on account of the difficulty of canvassing without exposure to the charge of violating the new election-laws ; but he spoke of the invitation which he had received as a noble act of justice to his father.

At the nomination Mr. Gisborne was proposed by Lord Rancliffe and seconded by Mr. A. Bean ; Mr. John Walter junior was proposed by Mr. T. B. Charlton and seconded by Mr. Barker. Mr. Feargus O'Con- nor and Mr. John Tyas were also nominated. Mr. Gisborne' in his address to the electors, taunted Mr. John Walter with putting forward the principles of his father, and challenged him to make out what those principles were. Mr. Gisborne had been many years in the House of Commons, and part of that time he sat on the same side with Mr. Walter, and part on the opposite side. Mr. Gisborne avowed that he had for twelve years supported Whig Governments to keep the Tories out of power— Since the Tories had come into office. political tyranny in almost all its shapes had increased. Ile could trace it in the decisions of the Courts of Law; he could trace it in the conduct of the Magistrates on the bench; he could trace it in the decisions of the Ecclesiastical Courts ; and he could trace it also in the barefaced professions even of Ministers of State.

He declared that he had always held the doctrine that the suffrage could not be so well placed in this country as in the hands of the whole body of the people ; for in his opinion, the constituencies, as they at pre- sent exist, had always been behind, and below the great body of the people in intelligence. Mr. Walter junior retorted Mr. Gisborne's banter, by wondering that he could seek to step into a body like the House of Commons, so inferior to the bulk of the people ; and by remarking, that he had not the advantage of having been twelve years in Parliament to have his conduct criticized. He undertook to fulfil the pledges which his father and his other friends had given for him ; and he attacked Mr. Gisborne for having voted, in the case of thelKingsclere Enclosure Bill, to enclose lands without retaining any right of commonage for the poor, though he now advocated measures which would throw land out of cultivation.

Mr. O'Connor advocated the Charter at considerable length ; de- mending from Mr. Gisborne a more distinct declaration whether he would support that measure. He asserted that Mr. Alexander Baring, now Lord Ashburton, had paid Mr. Walter 187,0001. for changing the principles of the Times newspaper in 1834. Mr. Walter senior, came forward and declared, upon his honour, that he had not spoken to any public man on the subject of the press for the last twenty years ; there was not the least foundation for what Mr. O'Connor said of the Times, and Mr. Walter believed that he knew it to be utterly false. Mr. Tyas advocated the claim of Mr. Walter junior, and retired from the contest.

Mr. Gisborne declared his assent to the several points of the Charter. On which the following colloquy ensued— Mr. O'Connor was not yet satisfied. Mr. Gisborne had spoken in favour of the six points of the Charter : now, on behalf of the Chartists of the empire, he aske I Mr. Gisborne if he would, when the question called the People's Charter was introduced in the House of Commons, support it ? Mr. Gisborne said, he had given every explanation of his principles which any honest man could require, or independent man give. He did not think it fair of any person to put to him any further questions. Mr. O'Connor said, that if he understood Mr. Gisborne rightly, he was satisfied. He therefore retired from the contest.

Mr. Charlton said, that he was not satisfied with the answer given by Mr. Gisborne : would he or would he not support the Charter ?

Mr. O'Connor asked Mr. Walter junior the same question.

Mr. Walter said, that if his giving an answer would induce his opponent to be more explicit, he should at once declare that he would not support the Charter.

Mr. Gisborne said no more. The show of hands was taken, and de- clared to be in his favour. A poll was demanded for Mr. Walter. At the close of the poll, on Thursday, the numbers were—for Gis- borne, 1,839 ; Walter, 1,728 ; majority, Ill.

The nomination of candidates for Durham city, in the room of Cap- tain Robert Fitzroy, who has been appointed Governor of New Zealand, took place on Monday. The candidates were Mr. John Bright, the Leaguer, and Lord Dungannon, a Conservative. The show of hands was in favour of Mr. Bright ; but at the close of the poll, on Tuesday, Lord Dungannon was returned, by 507 to 406.

The candidates for East Suffolk, in the room of Sir Charles Broke Vere, are said to be Mr. Shafto Adair, Whig, and Lord Rendlesham, Conservative. Sir W. Myddleton, another Conservative, is also spoken of as likely to come forward.

" Birmingham, August 24, 1842. " Dear Cooper—We are in a tremendous state of excitement here. Military, pensioners, police, special constables, cannon, and God knows what, is being called into requisition. Sturge and O'Neill sold us on Monday, and broke up a meeting which they called, in order to defeat ours of the following day. Cooper, there never was greater rascals than they have proved themselves (see the Star of Saturday). We held our meeting in defiance of proclamations, ex- hortations, and threats from the Magistrates. They covered Duddeston Row with police ; but we ordered the people to follow us, and held a meeting of 40,000, where we carried the Charter amidst thundering cheers. I forgot to tell you that my house has been surrounded with police these two nights, and that a warrant has been issued for my apprehension. I have, nevertheless, marched with the sovereign people, and addressed them in defiance of their warrant. We shall meet again to-night and no mistake. There was some

At Warwick Assizes, on Saturday, George White, a well-known Chartist leader, was tried on a charge, set forth in various counts, of endeavouring by seditious language to incite the people to insurrection at Birmingham, on the 15th, 19th, and 22d of August last, the period of the disturbances in the North. The most interesting part of the evi- dence for the prosecution was the following letter by the prisoner, which was found in the pocket of Mr. Cooper, the Leicester Chartist, on the 26th of August- ugly work last night. My body guard chucked a raw lobster (a policeman) into the canal ; and the town has been paraded by soldiers, our lads cheering and marching with them, like trumps. I would rather than 101. we had you here now, to sing Speed the Charter.' I expect to be landed in Warwick Gaol before Saturday ; but, dear Cooper, no matter what befals me, I have made up my mind to stand by our glorious motto, The People's Charter, and no sur- render ! '

" Your Democratic brother, GEORGE WHITE. " We are getting on gloriously here. O'Neill and Sturge have damned them- selves."

Mr. White, whose conduct of his own defence was complimented by the Judge for its ability and decorum, endeavoured to prove that the case against him was not made out. In summing up, Baron Alderson expressed an opinion on the nature of the offence charged, which just now possesses a peculiar interest— No man ought to attend meetings which were calculated to excite alarm among persons who were not over-fearful or over-timid. An unlawful assembly must be for a private purpose. If it were for a public purpose, and that to change the laws of the country, he was not prepared to say that it would not be an overt act of high treason ; and it was well that persons should know the peril in which they stood in such matters as these. Where a meeting was of a pub- lic nature, and a great change of the laws was sought to be accomplished by noise and violence, be was not prepared to say that persons attending such meetings, in which noise and violence were used, or excitement caused by speeches to produce noise and violence, did not run a great risk, and incur very heavy danger of being charged with high treason ; and they would do well to re- member the warning which, in no unfriendly spirit, he then meant to give them. They had heard a:good deal about the Charter ; by which he understood certain opinions on political matters which some persons entertained, and which they thought, if carried, would produce advantages to the state. Whether they were wise or foolish, they had nothing to do with that. Every one was perfectly at liberty to indulge to those opinions, and promote them by every lawful means. Is was not because such persons differed from them—if they did so—that they ought by any violence or force to prevent them from holding such opinions, which they had as much right to as others had to contrary views. They were all in the exercise of their respective duties to advocate in a peace- able and quiet manner that which they might think would promote the good of all, and in a reasonable manner endeavour to carry out the opinions or princi- ples of which they approved; that was the right of the English people, and he hoped it would always be so. But though that were conceded to the utmost possible extent, it was not to be done by force, violence, or the use of improper threats. It was the improper means which he looked at, and not the object, which made the thing Improper. To carry any measure by force was an ex- tremely illegal and improper thing ; and when the defendant spoke of persons who carried a certain great measure by such means, [apparently the Reform Bill,) he did not hesitate to say that it was a crime to carry that measure by force, if it was so obtained.

The Jury found the prisoner guilty of seditious language; but acquitted him of riot and unlawfully assembling. At his request, sentence was de- ferred till the next term of the Court of Queen's Bench. On the close of the proceedings, Mr. White was proceeding to thank the Judge for the manner in which he had presided at the trial ; when Baron Alder- son observed, that it was much better that Judges should not be thanked— they only do their duty to the best of their ability, which does not call for thanks; were they to do less, they ought to be punished.

John Richmond Ellis has been ordered to find bail for twelve months, at Rochester, for threatening to assassinate the Queen and Sir Robert Peel; which he did when he was drunk. He said that his father, who had been dead twenty-one years, was a Captain in the Navy. Bail not offering, Ellis was sent to prison ; where he will probably remain for the year.