“Although I have received no information, except from
the public papers, of the circum-
| 32 | LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE. |
“That under such circumstances I should have had the support of no less than four hundred and twelve independent voters, whilst one of the successful candidates numbered only 967, and the other only 1116 votes, is to me a subject of gratification. Nor is this diminished, when I reflect that it is highly probable, from the union of interests that appears to have subsisted between those candidates, that a great part of the votes so given were divided votes. Even this majority has not, as it appears, been obtained without a powerful struggle; nor, as we are expressly informed by those gentlemen in their printed letter of thanks, ‘without calling forth great and burdensome exertions from a numerous body of their friends.’
“In such a situation, for me to remain silent would
evince a want of feeling, of which I hope I am utterly incapable. No,
Gentlemen, although
| LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE. | 33 |
“I hope that the pleasure I feel upon this occasion, and
which I am now endeavouring to express, will be attributed to its proper
motives. That I am insensible to the honourable esteem of good men, will not, I
trust, be supposed; but a still more legitimate cause of my satisfaction is in
the decided proof that has been given, as well in your distinguished town as in
other parts of the kingdom, of the more general diffusion of principles
favourable to freedom, to peace,
to well regulated government, and to high and enlightened morality; in the conviction that
| 34 | LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE. |
