Mr. Benbow, it was thought, was not going to have such an easy walk over, as his admirers had anticipated, for a Mr. Joseph Linney, an out and out Chartist, from Bilston, was trotted before admiring reformers by our old friend Mr. Samuel Cook, with the evident intent of embracing the opportunity of airing the Six Points of the Charter. On July 24th, this Bilston Firebrand issued a long-winded address to the Electors, embracing—
1. Universal Suffrage,
2. Vote by Ballot,
3. Annual Parliaments,
4. No Property Qualification,
5. Payment of Members,
6. Equal Electoral Districts.
In summing up his discourse, he says: “I have but to add in conclusion, that, if returned, I shall lend my support to those measures facilitating by Railroad and Cheap Postage the means of easy and rapid transmission and intercourse; thus I shall oppose all Foreign Wars not rendered necessary for self-defence or the purposes of humanity, and that I shall feel it my duty annually to present myself before the inhabitants of your Borough in public meeting assembled, and there to resign my trust into their hands, should such be the will of the majority.”
Now it so happened that Mr. Linney was a voluminous talker, and his free presence on the hustings with his friend, Samuel Cook, Mr. Wm. Insull, and kindred spirits, was looked forward to with dismay by one party, and hilarity by the other, for a turn of local fun was sure to arise in the public discussions. Another element of discord, also, arose amongst some of Mr. Benbow’s previous supporters, arising from the galling political dictation now assumed by the Priory influence. It was determined that if we were to be ridden by lordly influence that we would elect a local man whom we could trust to represent us, and it was at once determined to invite our own townsman, Mr. Thomas Badger, a very large employer of labour both in Dudley and the neighbourhood, to offer himself for the suffrages of the electors. Mr. Benbow and his friends became now thoroughly alarmed, and aroused to immediate action; for the old gentleman trudged down to Dudley to survey the situation, and at once issued the following laconic address:—
TO THE ELECTORS OF THE BOROUGH OF DUDLEY.