ELECTION OF GUARDIANS.

Brother Ratepayers,

Monopoly has passed away—The death fang of ignorance, political and social oppression, has been broken in the Abortive Doings of the Past; and the sunbeam of enlightenment and knowledge is once more permitted to dawn upon the horizon of Dudley’s political and social degradation.

RATEPAYERS TO ACTION!!

The tocsin of opposition has been sounded loud and clear in the corners of our streets, and the hand of Liberty is once more held out to uphold and maintain your expiring rights! Will you once more embrace it, or again allow it to be shrivelled up in the unholy flame of party purposes, cupidity, and self-interest? Shake off, then, the torpid inaction of the past, and awaken the dormant energies for the opening future. Reflect upon the two last years of Guardian Mismanagement,—Guardian Intolerance,—Guardian Ignorance,—Guardian Cupidity,—and Guardian Retrogression,—principles that have invariably marked the proceedings of the present Board, during this humiliating period; and ask yourselves whether these are the persons who shall constantly rule over you?

Fellow Ratepayers! Are you still determined to be gagged by decrepid imbecility, and non-age, arrogance, and vanity? Are you willing that your expiring social and parochial privileges shall be immolated upon the altar of a bigotted and unprogressive Board Conclave? Do you think and feel that the present Board represents the wishes of the ratepayers, and are the proper persons to spend your hard earned money, take charge of your aged Poor, and bring up and nurture, in the paths of frugality and prudence, our rising generation?

Reflect upon these questions, before you give your vote; for, if the Past is to be taken as an answer to these plain facts, the reply must be, NO!!

Act, then, like Englishmen, and remove all obsequious toadies from the stool of office, exercise the vote, which the law and reason has placed in your hands, with honesty and justice; and spurn from your presence, as you would a viper, those dastardly serfs who try to take away your birthright when attempting to fill up your voting papers, or tamper with your freedom of thought and action. Put the old tried friends of just economy, truth and consistency, into their proper places, and Vote for

These Gentlemen have before watched over your interests, and are now ready to assist you again to proclaim and sustain your social privileges.

HARD TIMES.

Dudley, March 29th, 1858.

THE MINERS’ STRIKE!

THE IN’S AND THE OUT’S.

Four important Questions for Discussion.—

1—Which are the most Prudent?

2—Which are the most Politic?

3—Which are the most Philosophic? And

4—Which are the Wisest?

The Miners on the West of Dudley who are in Work, or, the Miners on the East who are out on Strike?

SAMUEL COOK.

IMPORTANT MEETING.

INCOME TAX RE-ASSESSMENT.

Worley’s Defalcations.

The adjourned meeting to receive the report of the committee, with the opinion of counsel, will be held in the Old Town Hall, on Wednesday Evening next, the 31st March, 1858, at half-past Seven o’clock p.m. precisely.

Signed,

J. BEDDARD, Mayor.

March 29th, 1858.

ELECTION OF GUARDIANS.

Brother Ratepayers,

“Hard Times” came a little too early, and has proposed names of parties to you who have resigned! If that is his way of doing business—jumping so hastily to conclusions, and reckoning upon his chickens before they are hatched—it augurs badly for the list he has proposed to you.

Brother Ratepayers, put your shoulders to the wheel, and get rid of “Hard Times” and some of his lot, as speedily as possible. Depend upon it “Hard Times,” is by no means a safe or congenial companion. Choose men who have stuck to your interests when the “times” have indeed been “hard,” men who have fought for your welfare, and ever had in view the interests of those small ratepayers who are not at all represented in the present Board, but who must and shall be represented in future. Great Ratepayers can take care of themselves—and the great ratepayers only were represented in the old Board. You, therefore, that are sneeringly called by certain gentlemen “small” ratepayers, and whose interests are thought to be nothing, take care and see that in the present contest your interests are not overlooked. Prove to these dogmatic, would-be despotic individuals that “small” as are your interests individually, yet that when united you can break down the opposition of such men; and as you have before accomplished your own object, and gained freedom of representation in Parliament, so now prove to the world that you can be fairly represented in the humbler Board-room of your Poor House.

Brother Ratepayers, look to your interests! Be not deceived! Choose your men by those principles of Independence which they have not only avowed but always endeavoured to carry out.

VOTE FOR

Edw. Grainger,

Thos. Griffiths,

G. B. Lowe,

W. C. Wood,

W. Wigginton,

J. Whitehouse,

W. Cooper,

W. Harrison,

Edw. Wood,

W. Washington.

These are tried men, and although some of them have not had a seat at your Board, place them there triumphantly. Let not “large” men fill up your Voting papers, or allow them to sell the interests of

THE SMALL RATEPAYERS.

Dudley, March 31st, 1858.

ELECTION OF GUARDIANS.

Brother Ratepayers,

Be not deceived: a new and specious enemy, with a very apparently humble name, “The Small Ratepayer,” has recommended you a List of Guardians, for whom decency must blush and virtue must tremble.

Fellow Ratepayers, enquire for yourselves, and you will be easily able to unmask this Small Ratepayer and find him an enemy to morality, and a promoter of Mormonism in its most disastrous and hideous form. He blushes not to recommend for Guardians, men whose lives are not regulated by the paths of virtue and morality, but tainted with noon-day adultery and heartless debauchery.

RATEPAYERS, AWAKEN! Let not naked Adultery stalk through our streets, unabashed, without manifesting your manly disgust at the audacity of the attempt to seat men of vice upon the same benches with men of honour and integrity at that Board, whose most painful duty too often is to admonish the unfortunate daughters of sin for burdening our parish with the results of such vice, from which their judges should be free and unpolluted.

We grieve for the honourable names that have been made to stand godfather for the vicious and intolerant aspirants, dictated by the organ of a dangerous, maligning local newspaper. But we know that there is enough regard for virtue and morality in the Ratepayers of Dudley to discriminate betwixt the evil and the good men; and we again call upon you to exercise your votes with care, honesty, and justice. The Times are Hard, indeed, when the town is subjected to such daring insults.

Resent it like men, by Voting for

Richard Smith,

Jno. Renaud,

Thos. Griffiths,

Jno. Whitehouse,

E. Hollier,

Ed. Fisher Smith,

W. C. Wood,

Jos. Guest,

M. Dennison,

Robt. Houghton.

All of whom have pledged themselves to stand.

HARD TIMES.

Dudley, April 3rd, 1858.

ELECTIONEERING TRICKERY!

Ratepayers of Dudley,

Be proud of your country! Local Self-Government is a privilege peculiar to Englishmen. This day you are called upon to select for the coming year the Guardians of your Poor.

Do not neglect to Vote! Do not Vote at random! Do not let others Vote for you!!! Vote for the Men who will be kind to the Poor, and at the same time careful of the pockets of their constituents.

“Observer,” in a long rigmarole about nothing, has proposed a list of the whole of the members of the old Board for re-election. It is well known that many of these have proved themselves incompetent for their office, and that others have rendered themselves obnoxious to the Inhabitants of the Town. The weekly expenses of Out-Door Relief have Increased during the whole year of the present Board!

Shew your Independence and Reject that List!

“Hard Times,” in a bombastic and senseless address, has submitted a list of names of Gentlemen, many of whom are unquestionably as amiable in their private character, as they would prove themselves utterly incompetent for the office of Guardian of the Poor.

Shew your Discretion and Reject THAT List!

One of “The Small Ratepayers” has selected another list of new, and altogether untried men. You do not want to turn out indiscriminately all the members of the old Board. You only want to get rid of the obnoxious and incompetent ones!

Shew your Independence, your Discretion, and your good Common-Sense, by Rejecting that List, and Vote only for

Please to remember that Ten Names only can be selected. Write your Initials on the Voting Paper opposite the Ten here enumerated, and see at the next election if you have not reason to feel obliged to

DISCRIMINATOR.

Dudley, April 5th, 1858.

TO THE ELECTORS OF THE BOROUGH OF DUDLEY.

Gentlemen,

I have received several communications to the effect that a Mr. Locock is, or has been, by himself and his agents, canvassing you with a view to displace me in the event of a dissolution of Parliament. Now I beg to say that, if this be true, the circumstance of a man soliciting your suffrages behind my back, without any notice to me or my supporters, without publishing any address to the Electors, or in a word, without adopting any of the usual proceedings of fair play, is a sufficient indication of your would-be representative. On first hearing this intelligence, I gave no attention whatever to the circumstance, feeling convinced that men who know so well how to stand up like Englishmen in a fair political fight, were not likely to listen to the whisperings of a person who thus stealthily presented himself to their notice.

I can no longer, however, remain silent, when I find that these persons are circulating statements with reference to me and my intentions, which are utterly false and unfounded. One of these statements is to the effect that I have announced (of course confidentially) that it is not my intention to offer myself again for the representation of Dudley. This I need hardly tell you is a wicked invention of the stealthy candidate or his agent. I therefore hasten to place you on your guard against, what our friend Louis Napoleon would call “false intelligence,” for you may be assured that it is in your hands alone I shall place my resignation, in the same open and straightforward manner in which I trust I have always met you, when the time for such a proceeding arrives.

Should the present crisis terminate in a dissolution I shall lose no time in committing my political interests to the care of those friends to whom I am indebted for the honor of representing your Borough, and whose confidence I am not conscious of having in any way either betrayed or forfeited.

I have the honour to be, Gentlemen, yours faithfully,

H. B. SHERIDAN.

House of Commons, May 15th, 1858.