THE GREAT CONTEST IN THE CITY.
THE result of the approaching contest for the representation of the City of London will be decisive as to the strength of the op-
posing parties. At the last General Election the Tories were dis- pirited, and did not bring out their full strength. The elections of Messrs. LYALL and CRAWFORD afford no criterion of the com- parative numbers of Tories and Reformers ; for in neither, on ac- count of circumstances which we need not now dwell upon, MIS their full force employed. The struggle next week, then, will be the first fair battle since the enfranchisement of the ten-pound househoulders. There are four Reformers, and probably there will be four Tories, in the field. At any rate, there will be scarcely any splitting or crossing of votes. The spirit of both parties is completely roused. If Sir ROBERT PEEL were to walk into the City, he would find exceedingly little calm and tranquillity in its streets or its commercial haunts. There has not been so much excitement since May 1832, when there was a prospect of hi& Tory friends seizing the power they now wield. • It is gratifying to be able to predict victory for the Reformers, with considerable confidence. Their four candidates will be pro- posed and seconded by men of great worldly substance—as an ,:iiswer to the impudent assumption of the Tories, that their party- moi000lizes nearly all the money and respectability of' London. For our Own parts, we do not rate the value of money-bags quite so highly ; hui 7re can easily believe that advantage will result from attending to the pe,x,isenf of the citizens for men who count their wealth by hundreds of thousanJa sterling. Therefore we are glad that rich bankers and merchants wii stand on the Reforming side of the hustings on Monday next.
To our friends the Reformers we would say—Be not too confident; contempt of the enemy is the forerunner of defeat. Be on the alert from morning to night, from night to morning; for you have to deal with a foe who neither slutubereth nor sleepeth. Recollect that more depends upon the result of this contest than upon any other in the United Kingdom. The return of four Reformers for London will shed a happy influence on every subsequent election ; while your defeat would have a baneful effect far and wide. The boasting and sneers of your adversaries, their contemptuous depreciation of your candidates, must put you to your mettle, or nothing ever will- It depends upon you to strike the first deadly blow at the system of intrigue, treachery, and misrule, which has ensnared the Court, and is to be used to enslave the People. Let your rallying-cry- then be, " Down with the Tories !"
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