HC Deb 11 May 1820 vol 1 cc295-7
Mr. Butterworth

presented a Petition from William Cobbett, lately a Candidate for the city of Coventry, setting forth.

"That at the last Election for Members to serve in Parliament for the city of Coventry, Peter Moore, Edward Ellice, and the Petitioner were Candidates; that the Election began on Wednesday the 8th of March, and continued until Thursday the 16th of March; that the said Moore and Ellice were returned, as being duly elected; and that the Petitioner complains, that this return was, for the reasons which he has now humbly to state, unjust and illegal; that the Petitioner, in offering himself as a Candidate, and in ell his conduct previous to and during the Election, was guided by a determination not to violate any provisions of the laws, nor any principle or rule of the strictest morality; to which determination he, from first to last, most scrupulously adhered; but that he has to complain, that, in opposition to him, means were used, not only wholly illegal, but of a nature so odious and detestable, that nothing but an over-ruling sense of duty to his country in general, and to the worthy part of the Electors of Coventry in particular, could induce him to lay a description of them before the House; that the House has not to be informed, that the right of voting in the city of Coventry is confined to the Freemen; that the far greater part of these are journeymen and labourers; that a great majority of them are in low and distressed circumstances; that they are, especially in times like the present, necessarily much subjected to the power of their masters; but lie has to inform the House, that this power was in many instances, most foully and most cruelly and tyrannically exerted by the said masters, in order to prevent those whom they still insulted with the name of Freemen, from following the dictates of their consciences, in voting, as they anxiously wished, to do, for the Petitioner, some of the said masters having posted up in their manufactories public notices, declaring that they would give no employ- ment to any person who should vote for the Petitioner; nevertheless, it is not on this ground (reasonable, solid, and fair as it is, and abhorrent as such threats are to every rule of the law of Election, as well as to every principle of justice and humanity) that the Petitioner founds the complaint which he now humbly prefers before the House; the Petitioner complains of the effect, not of under-hand influence and cruel menaces abundantly as they were used, but of the effect of direct, open, physical force, nothing short of the employment of which, and in a degree wholly, as he believes, unparalleled, could have prevented him from being at the head of the poll, and from being duly returned as a Member to serve in Parliament; the Petitioner complains to the House, that on the second day of the Election, many of the Freemen who came to the polling booth to vote for him, were forcibly taken from it by a band of men, who were, to all appearance, employed for the purpose; that he stood on the head of the poll the first day; that, notwithstanding the force made use of against him, he was nearly equal in numbers to his opponents on the second day; that on the third day he had overtaken them and surpassed them at about the hour of eleven o'clock, at which time there were ranged by the side of the booth upwards of three hundred Freemen, ready to vote for him; and that at this time there came a body of men who violently and in the most brutal manner forced away the Freemen, who were thus prepared to vote for the Petitioner; that during the whole of this and the succeeding day (which was Saturday) all was riot, uproar, and violence; that a body of men, consisting chiefly of the same persons, manifestly disciplined and organized for the purpose, were engaged in pushing away, pulling away, driving away, beating, cutting the clothes of, and in many instances cutting and stabbing the bodies and limbs of those Freemen who had voted, or who tendered themselves to vote, for the Petitioner; that on the Saturday night the same band of men, joined probably by others, attacked the house (a private house) in which the Petitioner lodged, broke the windows, tore off the window-shutters, broke open the passage-door, loudly and vehemently declaring their intention to make the Petitioner quit the city, or to drag him out of the house and kill him; that this band was finally driven from the house, but that a leader amongst them, after getting with inside the door, stabbed one man with a knife, and was prevented from killing him only by the timely arrival of persons to the wounded man's assistance; that, in consequence of these outrageous and sanguinary proceedings, and of there being no protection of the innocent afforded by the civil power until after the above-mentioned attack, those who would have voted for the Petitioner were kept from the booth; great numbers of those who had voted for the Petitioner had had their clothes cut from their bodies, had been stabbed, hacked, and otherwise maimed in their approach towards, or in their retreat from, the booth; to so enormous a length were these outrages carried, that a gentleman, a stranger at Coventry, having come to the booth to speak to the Petitioner, was, on his return, and even at the door of the booth, seized by the band of stabbers, a knife was run up his back, and his coat cut from his body; upon a representation made to the Petitioner by many Freemen on the Sunday after the attack on the lodging of the Petitioner, that they, who had not yet voted, were afraid to go to the booth, thinking their lives in danger, the Petitioner declined taking any further part in the Election; on the grounds, therefore, that the Election was not free, that it was obstructed by acts of real physical force, that though the poll was proceeded in afterwards, and closed in a peaceable manner, yet that it was, to the prejudice of the Petitioner, obstructed, and forcibly obstructed; that this obstruction, and the outrageous acts by which it was effected, caused numbers not to vote at all, who would have voted for the Petitioner, and caused others to yield to importunities and menaces that they would otherwise have resisted; on these grounds, and on the solemn pledge, on his part, that he is ready to make them good before the committee, the Petitioner appeals to the justice and impartiality of the House, whom he prays to afford him and the injured and insulted Freemen of the city of Coventry such remedy and redress as to their wisdom shall seem meet."

Ordered to be taken into consideration on the 29th of June.