The writer of the Handbill does not tell you, that whatever may be the expenditure of the Board of Health, it will always have to be audited by a Public Officer, and the Balance Sheets open to the inspection of any Ratepayer.
The Handbill would deceive you again in reference to the stake in the Parish which those proposed as guardians on the List nominated by Messrs. Dixon and Lester possess.
He again insinuates, where he dares not assert. What will you think of this insinuation, when I tell you that there are Four Persons on that List, each of whom pays separately, three of them as individuals, and one as Agent of a Company, a larger amount of local taxation, as far as the Parish of Dudley is concerned, than the entire Ten upon the opposite List.
I regret exceedingly, that I should be obliged thus even to allude to a matter which may appear to be personal, but I am compelled to do so. It would be false delicacy to shrink from the exposure of the deceit contained in the Handbill. I am ready at any moment to confront the writer, and to prove, not only every statement I here make, but also any inference I have drawn therefrom.
For myself, I can only say, that personally I have no motive to serve in allowing myself to be nominated as one of your Guardians. If you honor me by election, I shall earnestly strive to fulfil the duties so imposed—but how painful those duties are, they only know who have accompanied me over the Poor House in this Town, which, I hesitate not to say, is a disgrace to humanity, and to the intelligence of the present day. The hours which I have spent within its walls have been amongst the most painful of my life, and there is, I am sure, no Ratepayer who would accompany the Visiting Committee in their periodical inspection of it, who would not most earnestly labour for its removal, as a religious duty which he dared not neglect.
I am, Gentlemen,
Your obedient Servant,
S. H. BLACKWELL.
Dudley, March 31st, 1854.
This disgraceful strangling of common sense and prostitution of all recognised rules of decent electioneering propriety came to a close with the following result: