Your faithful Servant,
FREDERICK H. W. G. CALTHORPE.
Central Committee Room, February 11th, 1859.
MR. PAKINGTON’S LAST.
“Nothing extenuate, nor
Aught set down in malice.”—Shakespeare.
Brother Electors and Friends of the eastern division of the county of Worcester, my kind friend Lord Ingestre could not do me a greater kindness than that which he has now done me, namely, that of addressing you in his usual eloquent, terse, and pointed style, to introduce to you my humble self, the present candidate on the Conservative interest, and of expressing as he has so forcibly done the political views which I entertain in common with him. I am engaged, gentlemen, as you are all of you well aware, in a most vigorous, a most determined, and, from what I hear on all sides of the county, anything but a desperate contest. I am carrying it through with vigour, and I will win if I can. Gentlemen, as you must be well aware, labour of all kinds, whether of the body or the mind, involves considerable fatigue. That is the case in regard to every kind of labour, but when you find a crisis like the present at a time when from accidental circumstances I had to undergo on other grounds and for other purposes a most severe week of mental labour, and when at the end of that week I had to commence this battle, which, from certain reasons to which I will not now further allude, required in my particular instance a tremendously oppressive amount of energy and exertion both of body and of mind, under these circumstances it is a great kindness on the part of my friend Lord Ingestre that he should take one half my duties himself, in stating as he has done what are my personal qualifications and my political views. You all know what my father’s political views are, and if you want to know mine, gentlemen, they are contained in my address, which has been circulated throughout the county. But I tell you that, important as I consider political matters to be, at this present crisis and in this present battle, politics with me are as nothing. I, however, know all electioneering dodges very well; I know where I am and whom I am now addressing; I am going to win. But politics, as I said, are now second with me. I am not fighting a political battle so much as one of high-minded independence as a Worcestershire country gentleman. God forbid that I should boast of anything like an ancient family. The Pakington family have been for three hundred years residing near here, and in the very centre of the county. They have been Worcestershire people to the backbone. I am now residing near Worcester, where I am endeavouring to do my duty in that station of life to which I am called. I am trying in various ways to exert around me that kind of homely influence which kind and homely thoughts and actions will always produce by whomsoever exercised. I, for my own part, have no ambition for Parliamentary life. If I wanted a seat in Parliament for its own sake I know where to get one. I have been asked over and over again, by gentlemen of the highest influence, to stand for this or that place, to go here and to go there, in different parts of the country, and have been regarded as a likely candidate for a seat in Parliament. But I have said “No, I don’t want to be a Parliament man, I have no desire to go to Parliament myself, but if ever I represent a place it shall be, not a town in the north or south of England, but some town or division of a county that has some claim upon me, and where I have as a country gentleman some kindly feeling entertained towards me and my family.” These, gentlemen, are my private feelings. You will see that in the address I have published I have made use of the expression “Whatever my private preferences may be.” These are the circumstances to which I allude. But now I am ready to state briefly what are my principles. I need hardly repeat that I am a true Conservative, because I believe true Conservatism to consist in aiding social progress and the reparation, when necessary, of those institutions of our country to which England owes its present greatness. As your representative, it will be my duty to support that Government which is to give the greatest stability to the nation at large, and the greatest amount of happiness to the community. So far as I am able to judge, the Government of Lord Derby fulfils these requirements, and I believe they will not waver. I am fighting in three different capacities. Firstly, as the son of a Worcestershire man, I won’t have two Staffordshire members; secondly, I am a Conservative, not one of the stiff old Tories of the old school. I am a Conservative of the present day, of this very hour. I am unpledged by any past political measures. As a Conservative and as a politician I should object to having another gentleman of strong Liberal opinions to represent the agriculturists of the Eastern Division of the county of Worcester, the majority of whom are, I believe, eminently Conservative. I must, therefore, as a Conservative, strongly object to Mr. Calthorpe. Thirdly, I object to Mr. Calthorpe, and this is my strongest point of all, casting aside politics, that which is the strongest objection I feel, and which is now the key to my actions, is that I am an independent man, and I will not see my county represented by a comparative stranger without offering my services to the electors. That is the keystone to my movements. I know whom I have got to deal with. I know where Mr. Calthorpe comes from. It is a matter to me of no consequence who wrote the letter requesting him to come forward as a Candidate, but I know his supporters right and left, every one of them. Gentlemen, I object to Mr. Calthorpe coming here. He may be a Staffordshire man, or a Warwickshire man, but he certainly is not Worcestershire. His father, Lord Calthorpe, is a man whom all persons must respect and justly respect. He is a friend of my own father, and I know him well. Mr. Calthorpe himself was a school-fellow of mine, but, as he tells you himself, he has since been almost round the globe, and I have not seen so much of him as I could have wished. I like him personally very much, but he appears to have picked up some very funny notions. The last time that I spoke to him he was an out-an-out no end of a hog man, and no mistake about it; but he was then just about starting for Timbuctoo, China, or some other distant place, and I have not seen him since. (Laughter). His property is just of that kind that might occasion a mistake. It is situate near the confines of Worcestershire. The bulk of it is away from this county, and neither Lord Calthorpe nor his son have, I verily believe, so much land in the county as you can stick your hat on. (Renewed laughter). Where does he date his address from? Perry Hall. Where is Perry Hall? (A voice, “It is a garden down at the bottom of the town,” and great laughter). I am very glad to hear it, and if the hon. gentleman who gave me the information can tell me of his own knowledge that Mr. Calthorpe was there when he wrote his address, my argument is at an end. We know where Westwood Park is, and we know where Witley Court is, but where is Perry Hall? (A voice, “It is Mr. Calthorpe’s villa.”) But, gentlemen, Mr. Calthorpe’s first address is a puff of smoke; it’s a blind, and he finds it is so. (A voice, “Not he.”) He does. Why does he not attend public meetings? (A voice, “He’s a-coming.”) Let him come; I am ready to meet him anywhere he pleases. I say that Mr. Calthorpe’s first address is a sham; that he finds it so himself, and therefore he is obliged to publish a second, which I now hold in my hand. (A voice, “There’s a third coming out.”) I am glad to hear it; let it come. (Great confusion.) As I was saying, Mr. Calthorpe’s address is all moonshine. His friends got frightened; the views he expressed were not satisfactory, and therefore he has published another, stating stronger views. I am a man of business, and when I write my views in one letter I don’t write a second, still less a third for that purpose. My occupation now as a candidate is a matter of business, and I am not going to write a second address; I don’t need it. Here (pointing to his first address) are my views, my opinions, and all about myself; I don’t require a second address. As I said, I don’t enter now on political differences at all but there is one question to which I must allude. As I have told you, I am playing a deep game; and with me it is a determined one. Those who know me privately, and I am surrounded by kind friends, know that when I make up my mind as I have done in this contest, I carry my object through if possible, so I am going on determined to fight this battle. I am fighting a good fight, and when a move is made in this game of political chess between me and my adversary, be he who he may, I will meet it if I can by a good move of my own. Mr. Pakington then referred to the following attack upon him in the Morning Advertiser:—“Mr. Pakington, his (Mr. Calthorpe’s) opponent, is, on the contrary, a bigoted Puseyite, and one of the most prominent partisans of the Hon. and Rev. Mr. Liddell, in the parish of Knightsbridge.” On which Mr. Pakington, among other things, said—I wish to explain that I merely resided in that parish, subscribing to the schools and attending divine service at the church; but having now ceased to reside there, I have nothing further to do with it, and I indignantly deny the charge made. He concluded by saying—I see that some of you are getting a little fatigued, and I am tired myself. I am very glad to have had this opportunity of meeting you, and I hope to do so many more times. We cannot do so too often. As I said before, I will come again if I am wanted; but I have duties of a like kind elsewhere, for which duties I now go to prepare. I am very much obliged to you for your kind reception.
Note,—The “Printer’s Devil” has exhausted his stock of I’s.
Query—Why is Mr. PAKINGTON like a Peacock?—Because his tale is full of I’s.