of re-election, an event honorable in itself, but acquiring additional dignity when thus independently conferred. I have the honor to be, With the highest respect, Your most obliged faithful servant, EDMUND POLLEXFEN BASTARD. London, 28th May, 1818. To the Gentlemen, Clergy, Yeomanry, & Freeholders, of the County of Devon. GENTLEMEN, At the earliest period which my parliamentary duties have permitted, I hasten to renew the offer of my services to the county; to solicit the favor of your suffrages; and to take my full share in the competition for the high prize of your approbation Honored already with your confidence in one parliament, I have been most anxious to merit the continuance of so flattering a distinction in another. My public conduct is before you: its integrity is unimpeached, and I await your judgment on its general propriety. To your decision I cheerfully and confidently appeal, trusting that you will at least give me credit for having endeavoured to serve you diligently and honestly, and for having maintained inviolate the independence of the county as well as my own: that real independence which has never been identified with personal interests, or made subservient to party purposes. The decided encouragement which I have received from every part of the county, gives confidence to my hopes, and demands my warmest thanks: I have, therefore, only to request of my friends a continuance of their active exertions, which will be particularly valuable at this moment, to bring the cause they have so kindly espoused to a successful conclusion. I have the honor to be, GENTLEMEN, Your very faithful and obedient servant, Killerton, June 3, 1818. THOMAS DYKE ACLAND, Why, Freeholders of Devon, is Sir Thomas Acland a proper Representative of us? Because his public character stands so high, as to assure us, he has too much at stake but to guard it with the most scrupulous anxiety; and the indisputed feelings of his heart secure his beneficence and his humanity. His importance in his native county is a pledge he will be alive to its interests, and his intelligence and ability direct him to the judicious employ of his superintendance ;--because he who shall guard the interests of so great a county should be as Sir Thomas is, not even suspected of interested motives; -because the man who speaks our sentiments will do as Sir Thomas does, neither be the bigot of one party or the tool of another;-because our opinion of him, is evidently that of his colleagues in the House, since scarce a committee, to whom legislative importance is attached, but Sir Thomas is a respected and active member;-Because his rank and property deprive him of any and every incentive to barter either his honor or our interest for wealth or title ;-Because his private benevolence has placed in him all our confidence ;-and Because these varied requisites, embodied in so young a member, afford the desirable probability of a long and satisfactory repose from the mischiefs of contention. More reasons why Sir Thomas Acland is a proper Representative for the Freeholders of Devon. Because he stands so high with the minister, that he is ever an attendant on the levee days; and he has this and much more at stake if he displeases him; and therefore he guards against it with scrupulous anxiety. Because his importance as a land-holder in his native county, is a pledge that he will be alive to his own interests; and he is so judicious, as to employ his talent and ability to superintend your starvation, and to secure his heart against the feelings of conscience or humanity.-Note, the corn bill. Because he who should guide the miseries of so great a county, should be as Sir Thomas is, convicted of interested motives. Because the man who speaks our sentiments should do as Sir Thomas does,-carry up our petitions, pack them together without reading, and declare himself in opposition to the tenor of them all. Because our opinion of him is evidently that of his colleagues in the House, who make use of his activity on every dirty occasion. Because his landed property instigates him to barter his honor and our interests to increase his wealth. Because he wishes to make us dependent on his benevolence. And because these varied requisites, in so young a member, afford the probability of a long dissatisfaction, without any hopes of repose from the mischiefs of contention. Plain Questions and Answers. Who voted for continuing the SALT TAX? Who voted for the continuation of the PROPERTY TAX? Sir Thomas Acland. Who voted for the LEATHER TAX? Sir Thomas Acland. Who voted for the measures most oppressive to the people since he has been in parliament ? Sir Thomas Acland.. To Sir T. D. Acland, Bart. SIR, As a freeholder, my attention was this morning particularly called to an address written by you, to the gentlemen, clergy, yeomanry, and freeholders of the county of Devon, a letter dictated with all that duplicity which marks your parliamentary character. You first begin by" renewing your offers of service to the county:" if you mean such services as you have already performed, the county need not thank you for the generous offer. If descending from the proud eminence of an independent representative of one of the most beautiful and opulent counties of England, and consenting to become the humble tool of ministry, you could betray the hopes of your constituents, by moving an address to the Prince Regent, every line of which was fallacious, and teemed with the most un-statesman-like views -if the supporting useless and extravagant expenditure, and the large standing army-if the countenancing the income tax-if the opposing of a commutation of tithes-if the voting for the suspension of that palladium of our rights, the habeas corpus act-if the secretly opposing of the repeal of the leather tax, which you wished your constituents to consider you advocated,-be services, then indeed, Sir, you have essentially served your country, and are entitled to "take a full share in the competition for the high prize of our approbation.” At your first setting out in public life, you were "honored with our confidence," but sorry I am to be necessitated to assert, that such confidence was misplaced. We sent you to parliament without any pledge, and you have played on the credulity of a generous public; our hopes were blasted in the bud, and our expectations unhappily disappointed. We sent, Sir, the independent country gentleman; you return contaminated to our hands, the pander of the court, and the minion of the minister. Your "public conduct is, indeed, "before us," we know and we feel that it neither accords with our wishes, nor coincides with our sentiments. We wished, Sir, to have a representative whose lofty independence would soar above the prejudices of party, and stamp, with the mark of patriotism, the grandeur of the legislator,-" determined to the utmost of his. ability, and the best of his judgment, to do his duty to his country, from love to its king, its constitution, its liberty, and its laws;" but sorry I am to pronounce that "judgment" which you so earnestly await,"you have been weighed in the balance, and are found wanting." " Can you, Sir, solemnly ass rt, that your independence has never been identified with personal interests, or made subservient to party purposes?"— Can you, Sir, who calmly allowed the liberty of Britons to be sacrificed to the will of a minister, assert this? The majorities on the suspension act, deny this assertion. What, but a subserviency to party purposes, could instigate you to allow the fetters of tyranny to clank round your fellow-creatures?-and the jaws of the dungeon to immure the innocent? What, but a subserviency to party purposes, could stimulate you to coincide with a system which fills our prisons with debtors and criminals, and crowds our poor-houses with paupers ?--a system which is seen in the horrors of crime, and heard in the howlings of despair. Look round you, Sir, see this beauteous island, once the wonder of the world, and the pride of its population, marked with all the beauties of commerce, bespangled with all the dews |