Memorial Edition of Collected Works of W.J. Fox (Volume 9) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: No. III. AT COVENT-GARDEN THEATRE. October 13th, 1843. In the important choice which the electors of the City of London will in a few days be called upon to make, it is remarkable that the strongest ground for the return of one candidate is set forth in the address of the other candidate. " If I were asked/' said Mr. Baring, in the explanation of his views and principles to his supporters last Friday,?" if I were asked whether I concur in the abstract justice of Free-Trade principles, I should answer, Yes." Here, then, are his professed principles?his professed wishes; and they are the principles that Mr. Pattison pledges himself to carry out into practice?they are the wishes that it would be the object of his parliamentary career to transform into realities. Why, then, is not Mr. Baring among the supporters of Mr. Pattison ? Why is he not for the accomplishment of his own desires ? Why is he not for the application of his own principles ? Is it cowardice, or is it hypocrisy ? Is he one of those who are ever " letting the ' I dare not' wait upon the ' I would/ like the poor cat i' the adage/' or is he one of those who throw out good sounding phrases to catch the simple and unwary? Does he parade his general principles to catch your votes, and make his particular exceptions to guide his own ? It is one of the commonest tricks of sophistry, when a man is flying directly in the face of a great principle, to acknowledge it in reverent phrase, and to put the antagonistic principle in the form of an exception; and this is the trick that runs through the whole of Mr. Baring's address. His statement of his adhesion to the Free-Trade principle is clear and broad, while the entire speech is made up of showing where and how this principle is not to be applied, showing how it is to b...