This contest is said to have cost the three parties nearly half a million of money,

being the most expensive that ever distinguished the annals of electioneering.

ADDRESS TO THE RIGHT HON. LORD VISCOUNT MORPETH, Passed at a Public Meeting of the Electors and Inhabitants of the West Riding of the County of York, held in the Court House at Wakefield, on the 27th of October, 1841.

THE RIGHT HONORABLE EARL FITZWILLIAM IN THE CHAIR.

MY LORD,-If we had given utterance to our feelings at the moment when the tie which had so long bound you to us was severed, our professions of attachment and concern might have been confounded with the mass of panegyric and invective which a General Election never fails to produce; but the struggle is now over,the excitement has died away,-party animosities are forgotten in friendly intercourse, and the time, as we conceive, has arrived when we may, with offence to no one, record in this solemn and deliberate manner, our esteem, our admiration, and our regret.

It would ill become us to condole with your Lordship on the late change in the Representation of this Riding, or on the still more important change which has taken place in the Government of the Country. It is impossible, we are well assured, that any such reverse should have found you unprepared.

When you engaged in the tumult of party and the cares of government, you were not ignorant of the fate which has, in every age, attended those who have laboured for the happiness of nations. Yon well knew how frequently the prejudices and partial interests which exist in every large community, are opposed to those who would serve it, and to what exertions and sacrifices mankind have been indebted for the victories of liberty and of truth.

You have, moreover, in this great turn of fortune, whatever support can be derived from the resources of a fruitful and highly cultivated mind; from the voice of an approving conscience; from the blessings of great masses of the people, both in Great Britain and in Ireland; from the regard of friends whose esteem and affection are fixed, not only on the Minister, but also on the Man; from the testimony borne, even by opponents, to your ability, your humanity, and your honor; and, above all, from the deep though unaffected tone of your religious feelings. To you, therefore, we do not presume to offer personal condolence; but we must be permitted to express our deep concern at the manner in which the connexion between you and your late Constituents has terminated.

The West Riding has ill performed its part. The place of the West Riding was

not in the ranks of Monopoly. Here, if no where else, should have been found, combined with the power to promote, the intelligence to comprehend, and the spirit to maintain, the great principles of Commercial Freedom. Here, if no where else, it should have been known, how much the activity of Manufactures and the enterprise of Trade contribute to the welfare of the Proprietors and Cultivators of the Soil; and here we might have expected a practical manifestation of that knowledge. But delusion has triumphed; and we have only, by this public act, to disclaim our participation in that delusion, and to avow our regret that others have given their support, a support which, we cannot doubt, they will ere long see reason to deplore,―to a system alike hostile to the extension of our Foreign Commerce, and to the other great interests of the British Empire; and which, by counteracting the beneficent dispensations of Providence, is especially incompatible with the prosperity of this District.

There is one point in which your Lordship will perhaps permit us to offer our counsel. On the day when, with grace, gentleness, and dignity, such as extorted admiration even from political opponents, you took your leave of us, we heard from you words which we trust are to be considered only as the expression of a transient feeling; which though natural at such a time to such a mind, will yield, on reflection, to the sense of public duty. You declared that, having so long sate in Parlia ment as the Representative of this great Riding, you were then unwilling to accept a mission from any other constituent body. The day, we trust, will arrive, when our dearest interests will again be confided to your immediate care; but your country cannot spare you even till that day. The United Empire, suffering under a legislation which turns her most profitable customers, against their will, into her most formidable competitors, has a claim to your services.

It will, be assured, highly gratify us to learn, that those talents and virtues which the greatest constituent body in the Empire has rejected, have been justly appreciated and honoured elsewhere.

And now, my Lord, with all gratitude for your long, your faithful, your ill-requited services, with all respect for your principles and talents, and with all good wishes for your happiness, and for the happiness of your noble House, we, for the present, bid you farewell.