ADVERTISEMENT. To the Worthy and Independent Electors of the City and Liberty of Westminster. Gentlemen, Impreffed with the deepest sense of gratitude for the very diftinguished honour done me, upon a former occafion, whilft I was abroad in the fervice of my King and country, and having now received the moft flattering teftimonies from various quarters, that the worthy Electors at large continue to think very favourably of me, I prefume to offer myfelf a Candidate to reprefent this great and truly refpectable City in Parliament, whenever a diffolution fhall take place; and fhould I be fo fortunate, Gentlemen, as to become the object of your choice, I moft readily pledge myself to be vigilant and zealous in my duty, to act in full conformity to your wishes, and on all occafions to endeavour to prove myself, Dover-ftreet, March 23, 1784. Your very faithful fervant, HOOD. ADVERTISEMENT. To the Independent Electors of the City and Liberty of Westminfter. Gentlemen, Having had the honour of being called upon by a very confiderable body of the worthy and independent Electors of the city of Westminster to offer ourselves as joint candidates to represent this great and refpectable city in Parliament on the approaching election; we beg leave to folicit the honour of your countenance and fupport; and if we should be fo fortunate, through your voluntary fuffrages, to become your Representatives, we fhall endeavour to acquit ourselves in the high and important truft with zeal and fidelity, and we truft in full conformity to your fentiments and wishes. We have the honour to be, Your moft faithful and obedient fervants, Cannon Coffee-house, March 24, 1784. HOOD. CECIL WRAY. ADVERTISEMENT.. To the Worthy and Independent Electors of Westminster. Having been grofsly misrepresented in what I faid relative to Chelsea Hospital, I think it neceffary to inform the public, that I faid in the Houfe of Commons, "That I did "not wifh to fee the provifion made for Military Officers annihilated; on the contrary, "I do not think the honourable retreats for fuch meritorious men fufficiently numerous; much less did I hint at reducing the fubfiftence of the hardy veterans. The "whole that I meant to apprize the House of, was, that taking in the expence of the ❝ institution---the falaries of men, not military, and the neceffary repairs of the build ings, by dividing that fum by the number of penfioners, the expenditure per man was fifty-one pounds five fhillings. "I then thought, and I now think, that if each man in that hofpital was allowed twenty pounds per annum, and to live where his connections and friendships led him "to, that he would live more happily---and an overplus remaining, which would pro', vide for one thoufand out-penfioners as letter-men; a charity more extenfive, and devoutly to be wished for. 66 Great George's-street, March 29, 1784. CECIL WRAY. ADVERTISEMENT. WESTMINSTER ELECTION. The Committee for conducting the Election of the Right Honourable Lord Hood and Sir Cecil Wray, Bart. will meet this and every evening, precifely at feven o'clock, at Wood's Hotel, Covent Garden. Wood's Hotel, March 27, 1784. ADVERTISEMENT. To the Worthy Electors of the City and Liberty of Westminster. Lord Hood and Sir Cecil Wray have the honour to return their moft grateful thanks to those worthy Electors who have promised them their fupport; and having been very fuccessful in their canvass, they take the liberty to requeft that fuch Electors as have not yet been waited upon perfonally (which is intended to be done as foon as poffible) will kindly impute it to the fhortnefs of time fince the diffolution of Parliament, and the neceffity they have been under of attending the public meetings. Wood's Hotel, 27th March, 1784. At a meeting of the General Committee for conducting the Election of Lord Hood and Sir Cecil Wray. Refolved unanimously, "That the mifconftruction put upon Sir Cecil Wray's déclaration in the Houfe of "Commons refpecting Chelsea Hofpital, is malignantly intended and founded in falfe"hood and dishonour." JOHN CHURCHILL, Chairman. ADVERTISE ADVERTISEMENT. To the Independent Electors of Westminster. Gentlemen, The plan which I juft hinted at in Parliament, relating to Chelfea Hofpital, having been fo totally mifunderstood, even by fome of my good friends and Conftituents, think it incumbent upon me to affure them in particular, and the Electors in general, that a just and seasonable œconomy in the ftate, and the additional comfort and advantage of the brave and deferving invalids, were the only objects of my wifhes and intention; and I will venture to pledge my word to the partakers of this great charity,) fo honourable to themfelves and their fellow-fubjects, that if fuch plan fhould hereafter be adopted, every Penfioner will have reafon to bless that Parliament which fhall have brought about fo ufeful and fo laudable a reformation. Wood's Hotel, March 29, 1784. CECIL WRAY. ADVERTISEMENT. Answers to the Queries to Sir Cecil Wray. March 29, 1784.] Firft, Sir Cecil Wray, at the request of a great part of his Conftituents, did propofe a flender tax upon maid fervants. 2d. Every man is by nature and humanity bound to protect the fex; but, furely, no fophiftry can be clearer, no abfurdity can be greater, than to fuppofe that a tax of a few fhillings per annum on female fervants would border the least upon oppreffion, would be the leaft calculated to increase proftitution, or to deftroy the means of female subsistence. Men who feriously think this (if any fuch there can be) must estimate female virtue at a very low rate, and be very fuperficial judges either of the expences or the paffions of women. But after all, fuch tax would in reality fall upon the mafter or miftrefs; wages would not be lowered by it, neither would the number of fervants be diminished to any degree deferving of attention. 3d. 4th. 5th. 6th. Sir Cecil Wray did declare it to be his wifh that Chelsea Hospital fhould be abolished, and that the inftitution fhould be regulated. But no man, perhaps, was lefs ignorant of the wife and humane intentions of its founder and fupporters; and no man more defirous of feeing fuch intentions fully anfwered than Sir Cecil Wray, whofe feelings, both as a foldier and as a man, do him the greatest honour in the opinion of all who have his friendship or acquaintance. However impolitic, however hard and oppreffive this plan may appear at first fight, yet the man that can, the man that will reflect but one moment, muft more than acquit the heart and defign of Sir Cecil towards the gallant penfioners whom he only wishes to see still better rewarded, and still more comfortably fupported. 7th. Sir Cecil was, doubtlefs, indebted to Mr. Fox for his introduction into Weftminfter; the chief condition of this favour was, that Sir Cecil, in conjunction with his friend, fhould always adhere to the inftructions of his Conftituents. Sir Cecil fulfilled this condition; Mr. Fox broke it. Sir Cecil did indeed defert Mr. Fox, but it was not till Mr. Fox had deferted himself, and loft the confidence and good opinion of the far greater part of his conftituents which a few days will prove beyond all poffible contradiction. N 9th. The oth. The party, with whom Sir Cecil has now formed a junction, have no league against the just power of the Houfe of Commons; for this is too great an abfurdity even to fuppofe: This party, with Sir Cecil, only meant to call no one branch of the legifla ture independent of the other two, but wifely and refolutely contend, that the dignity of the Crown, and the rights of the people, be ever confidered as infeparable by every faithful Member of the Senate. 10th. The laft query we fhall beg leave to answer in the ftrongest affirmative, and in the interrogator's own words; "that good women, brave men, and virtuous ftatesmen, "muft ever efteem Sir Cecil Wray in a private, and fupport him in a publich cha"racter." QUERIES addreffed to Mr. FOX. Whatever may be thought of your abilities, can you affume any credit to yourfelf from your actions, or are not rather your fpeeches the fole criterion of your merit. Did you not firft emerging out of the obfcurity of a college, embrace the decifive principles of a TORY, and act up to them with fo much earneftnefs and violence as aftonished the Jacobites themfelves, till a perfonal difference with Lord North, drove you to feek refuge among the whigs? Did you not during the period above mentioned, fignalize yourfelf for your feverity against individuals, who had oppofed the corrupt meafures of the Miniftry, and fallen under the cenfure of parliamentary privilege, by exerting the undoubted rights of a British fubject? Did you not, when you were obliged to abandon all hope of regaining an official fituation, proclaim yourfelf the friend of the people, and an advocate for thoje rights, which you had been before fo ftrenuous to annihilate ? Did you not, for the fpace of. about eight years, declare your abhorrence of every ack . and every principle of Lord North, as a Minifter and as a man, till you found it neceffary for your mutual intereft to unite in cajoling and oppreffing the public? Did you not exprefs your terror at the fuppofed idea, of Lord Shelburne's defign, to bring Lord North again into the Cabinet? Did you not, while in oppofition to Lord North, repeatedly manifeft in the most explicit manner your contempt for a majority of the Houfe of Coinmons? Did you not, in 1778, upbraid Lord North for his indecent neglect of the aristocratic body? Were you not a moft earnest advocate for affociations in 1780, and did you not con tend that the fenfe of the people is to be collected at those affemblies? Have you not fince declared, that the people are not competent to decide for themfelves, and that the fenfe of the people is only to be collected through their pretended reprefentatives? Did you not call Lord North a plunderer for making fome little innovation in the East India Charter; and have you not fince brought a bill into Parliament, by which that charter was to be totally ANNIHILATED, for the benefit of the proprietors and the public? Did you not, in fpeaking to the Wiltshire meeting, lament that you were often obliged to addrefs yourfelf to a corrupt body of men; and have you not fince, with the moft naufeous and difgufting repetition, decfanted on the dignity and incorruptibility of the Houfe of Commons? Have you not uniformly, when a candidate for Weftininfter, cringed in the most wretched manner to the fcum of the Electors, and made promises which you neither could nor would perform? Have you not, by fimilar promifes, and by prefents to a few, while the means were in your power, fecured to yourself the intereft of all the venal fcribblers in this metropolis? Did you not, by a promife to divide the fpoils of the Eaft India Company, gain over a majority of the Houfe of Commons, no lefs venal and corrupt than thofe gentlemen of the quill above alluded to? Have you ever done any thing for your country? Have you not impeded the defigus of feveral Minifters, which might have been attended with advantage? Has not your political life been a conftant fyftem of profeffions and promifes, which you have obferved as beft fuited the neceffities of the day? Finally, Do you not laugh among your bofom companions at the dupes you have made, as well in the Houfe of Commons, as amidst the wife Electors of the city of Westminster? Reafons humbly offered to the worthy Electors of Weftiinfter, fhew, ing they ought to elect the Honourable COGDIE SHUFFLECARD REYNARDINE to be their Representative in Parliament. ift. He hopes it will not be forgotten, that the nation has already had a fpecimen of the integrity of his farmily in an office of great truft, on account of which a confiderable balance ftill remains undischarged. 2dly. When it is confidered with what admirable economy he has conducted his own private finances, his ability to conduct those of the nation cannot be doubted. 3dly. The great estates, which he is poffeffed of, will prove an undeniable fecurity for his not loading the landed property with fresh taxes, of which he must neceffarily bear fo confiderable a proportion. 4thly. He humbly hopes his confiftent behaviour, ever fince he has been a public character, particularly in the late Parliament, as well as his ftrenuous attempts to facilitate the public bufinefs, will not be overlooked. 5thly. He flatters himself he fhall not be accused of arrogance in requesting the atten tion of the electors to his moral character, and particularly his hatred to that prevalent and most pernicious vice of gaming. 6thly. Confcious of his merits with the commercial part of the electors, particularly thofe concerned with the Eaft India Company, he hopes not to over-rate his pretenfions in claiming their votes and interest. N. B. If he fhould enjoy the happiness of being the object of their choice, he promifes to be their faithful Reprefentative, by declaring his own opinion freely, and confulting their fentiments on the next general election. He pledges himself to adhere to his principles, without adding to their number, and invariably to maintain their interefts, which he confiders as his own; neither of which he was ever known to overlook, fo long as they were connected with each other. |