Potter's Electric News

HAVERFORDWEST RIFLE VOLUNTEERS. DRILL INSTRUCTOR—SERGEANT-MAJOR RKID. Captain for the week, Captain H. P. Massy. Orderly Non-commissioned Officers, Col-Sergte. Wj E. Joueg, and W.H.Morris. There will be no drill until further orders. (Signed) X. PEEL, Lieut.-Colonel, Commanding 1st Administrative Battalion, Pembrokeshire Ride Volunteers.

TO CORRESPONDENTS. No notice can be taken of anonymous communications Wha ever is intended for insertion must be authenti- by the name and address of the writer; not necessarily forpublication, but as a guarantee ofgocd faith. Wccannot undertake to return rejected communications

A LIBERAL JOURNAL ON MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS. WE commend to the attention of our readers the following article, extracted from the Daily News of Wednesday. The Liberals in Haver- fordwest attach great importance to the result of the Municipal Elections in the extract which we place before our readers, we have the opinion of Liberals in another part of the kingdom upon the character and significance of these con- tests "A suggestion was made in the House of Commons la&t session that the Municipal Elec- tions might conveniently be deferred until the parliamentary elections had been brought to a close. There was much to recommend this course. The municipal and parliamentary con- stituencies have now the same household and ratepaying qualification. The parliamentary constituency is in the main the municipal con- stituency plus the enfranchised lodger. The apprehension was natural that corruption and illicit influence on the 2nd of November might be made to do duty a fortnight or three w,eeks later. The independent elector might sell him- self for the whole of that period, on the honour- able understanding that the bribe given nomi- nally to secure the return of Mr Figgs to the Town Council should really purchase his suff- rage for Lord Tom Noddy or Squire Broadacre", as a parliamentary candidate. Municipal Municipal elections are often a rehearsal bf the parliamentary contest. They form an opportunity for enlisting, in the usual way, by the shilling and the pot of beer, the new recruits to either party, and of drilling and disciplining ZD them. The political leader in borough politics thus gets about him a following which he hopes tJ bring as his contingent to the parliamentary candidate of his party. The riots which have taken place at Blackburn show that the warn- ing uttered Jn the House of C >mmons last .session was not without reason. In that town, we are told, the municipal elections were de- cided on questions of general politics, a were expected to foreshadow the result of the parlia- mentary election. Each ward was vigorously con- tested. A v:gorouscontest in the dialect of Black- burn seemstomean indiscriminate treating onthe part of the candidates, and when their partizans have been brought up to the stage of pugna- cious intoxication, a melee in the streets with stones, bludgeons, knives, pokers, bars of iron, large hammers, and such like instruments of political persuasion. Thus does Blackburn pre- pare itself for the exercise of its most solemn constitutional privileges, and proves how valu- able is the training offered by the institutions of local self-government towards the more responsible duties of imperial rule. Earnest- ness and zeal are admirable qualities, and the broody fight on Friday and Monday is probably only a rehearsal of a more deadly coirbat a fortnight or so hence. The ''Liberals" chased the" Conservatives" over the canal bridge; the polling booth was captured and recaptured; heads were broken and windows smashed surgeons and glaziers, police and military, had their bands full. Blackburn is at present repre- sented by two Conservatives in Parliament j I and at the njuflic'pal election on Monday the Conservatives won eight out of twelve vacant seatSt They have won the first round in the fight. But a municipal election is often deter- mined in a great degree by local cor'sidertions and personal influences, which cannot be transferred ioto the wider sphere of general politics; and it would be futile to look in the elections of Monday for the exact prediction of those which will follow them. Be this as it may, such a preparation for them as that which has been described is a public disgrace and calamity."

THE POCKET" AND "POCKET BOROUGHS." ABUSE AND SCURRILITY would appear to rage like z!l an epidemic in the Liberal ranks, and so power- ful are the influences of party feeling, that choice samples of angry invective escape the lips of persons who, certainly, under ordinary circumstances, are fair of speech and treat with some degree of respect the opinions of opponents. Among the many who ba, e during the last three months contributed to the Liberal stock of malicious assertion, we regret to include the learned gentleman, who appeared at the window of the Castle H- tel, on Monday evening, and informed the crowd assembled in the Square that an attempt was now being made to make Haverfordwest a packet borough of the House of Picton." The learned gentle- man, we admit, spoke under the influence of strong excitement; the fight with fa half-resist- Z, ing enemy bad resulted in his fayour his friends extolled the magnitude of the deed and in the midst of the hurrahing and shouting 01 his well- paid heroes, he probably lost control over his language, and like a great many other Liberal leaders, forgot the presence of the reasoning, when bidding for the applause of the-igtiorant, portion of his company. But these considera- tions, in our opinion, are no excuse for the wholesale .misstatement of the learned gentle- man. An offender against the laws of the country when brought before the justices, learns that excitement is no excuse for crime; and although it may sometimes have effect in the mitigation of punishment, it never is suffi- cient to arrest judgment. Regarding the learned gentleman as an offender against the Truth, we arraign him at the bar of public opinion, and proceed to prove our charge against him. The learned gentleman, has over & over again, stated that Picton Castle was attempting to return three members for the County of Pembroke," and on Monday evening he declared that endeavours were now being made to make Haverfordwest a pocket borough of the House of Picton. These statements, notwithstanding the learned gentleman's repeated asseverations, have not the slightest foundation: they are pure inventions, illustrating the kind of weapons used by the Liberal orators, who look upon their audiences as harmless and unthinking beings, aspire to be purveyors of political food to the electoral body, and cram them with mon- strous grievances that have no existence save in the speaker's imagination. Our witness against Z, the learned gentleman shall be the respected and truly liberal proprietor of Picton Castle, who, in a speech recently delivered at a meeting in this town, declared that "he had relrained from seeking or in any way influencing Mr Pit- man to come forward in the Conservative cause." In the sentence we have quoted, we have a dis- tinct and emphatic denial of the statement which the learned gentleman is never weary of repeating. We do not over estimate Liberal rectitude, when we state that many of our opponents will give more credit to the counter statement of the head of the House of Picton, than to the hasty accusation of a pro- fessional gentleman, who, true to his calling, aims to make the best of a bad cause, and pays, perhaps, a little more attention to the interests of Liberalism than to the cause of Truth. While the learned gentleman stands forth as the assail- ant of the House of Picton, and in his warmth recklessly talks of endeavours to make Haver- fordwest a pocket borough, may we presume to press the matter further and enquire whether he himself is altogether free from the charge ? Is not the learned gentleman's own stalking horse eritably pie-bald, whose various colours are plainly distinguishable even amid the smoke of the I Liberal' great guns let off on Monday last ? Is not Haverfordwest, as far as its Corporate offices are concerned, a pocket" borough ? and who benefits by the odious system that shuts out of the office of Sheriff all who are not num- bered among the clients of the learned gentle- man ? Was not Monday's enterprise a bid for pocket as well as for office ? Was not the zeal displayed, attributable as much to anxiety for individual profit as to a desire to advance the cause of Liberalism ? The Liberals themselves furnish an answer to most of these questions. At the Market Hall on Wednesday evening, it was admitted that the desperate efforts of the learned gentleman and his friends were made with the object of retaining their control over the civic chair, the emoluments of the Shrievalty, and the other appointments in the gift of the Corpora- tion. Every attempt to vary the appointment of Sheriff has been systematically defeated and the learned gentleman, familiar by long experience with the machinery by which this is accom- plished, had the courage to declare in an assembly of his townsmen that the issue of Monday was a triumph for Liberalism! Was there ever a bolder attempt to deceive the people ? A triumph of liberalism To what a variety of extraor- dinary uses. is the word Liberalism" now applied! Clouding, the brains of the working population by copious potations, and obtaining their suffrages by equally reprehensible means, in order to secure the patronage of public offices, are now proclaimed to be expositions of 'Liberal* principles. This is the exemplification of Cor- porate Liberalism* and according to the worthy alderman, a vindication of a great political prin- ciple. The cry goes forth that the Shrievalty is in danger; Liberals rush to the rescue they grasp it from the enemy, and the electors practically decide that no inhabitant of Haver- fordwest who is not a client of the learned gentleman shall be permitted to fill the ancient and, at one1 time, honourable—office of Sheriff, Col Edwardes's supporters are invited to celebrate the victory of principle, and with the sublimest indifference to their own interests they bow their acknowledgments for the services rendered and exhibit their gratitude to the able, but not dis- interested general, in the prescribed quantum of cheering. An influential Churchman is pronounced a tyrant if he bestows his interest in accordance with his conscientious convictions and if he will not vote for the destruction of the Church of which he is a member, he is a political renegade. The learned alderman himself, if we remember rightly, was a Conservative in 1852: but he, of course, is not a renegade, because on that occasion he pre- ferred his pocket to his principles, and was paid for his allegiance to Conservatism. In 1868, after many years' possession of the emoluments of the Shrievalty, his affection for the berth and its accessories is so powerful that he cannot, and will not, surrender it. His fight in defence of this selfish and grasping policy, is an act of patriotism, and designed to support the hands of one of the greatest statesmen that ever lived." 0 unfortu- nate Conservatives, how must ye envy the glorious deeds of Liberalism, and will ye wonder if, after all this, the learned gentleman shall strive to open a new field for his ambition, and make an effort, not only to secure an Under-Sheriff's per- quisites, but also to win the honour of representing the Boroughs in Parliament ? It is easy to perceive who desires to make the constituency a pocket" borough, and to use the words of the learned gen- tleman, the proceedings of Monday may be really an omen of what is to follow." The learned gentleman, as a public man, must, first of all, mend his manners. Greed for private ends will not, in these days of enlightenment, pass for patriotic zeal, nor will he be likely to secure the good opinions of thoughtful and intelligent electors by clumsy attempts to divert their attention from the real issues of the coming contest. The struggle for the parliamentary representation is not one of ascen- dancy between the House of Picton and the minor establishment at Spring Gardens it is not like the municipal contest, a mere squabble for the exercise of Corporate patronage: it is, so far as the Con servatives are concerned, a struggle for the pre- servation of the rights of a Church and the rights of a nation. While the Liberals have selected to be their foremost man, a supporter of the slippery and ever changeable Mr Gladstone, the Conserva- tives have, of their own free will, and not at the dictation of anybody, chosen as their champion a gentlemaif who, while anxious for the introduction of real improvements, is, at the same time, deter- mined to uphold the institutions of the country, and who will be a firm and unyielding opponent of of any measure which would produce spiritual destitution among our fellow Protestants in Ireland, and clear the way for the free develop- ment of a foreign jurisdiction, hostile to British rule and to our common faith."

THE LIBERAL TROUPE AND THEIR PERFORMANCES. THIS talented company, under the direction of a genial and respected Chairman, gave another en- tertainment at the Market Hall on Wednesday evening; Amongst the artistes was Mr Long,-a minister of half a Tabernacle—who proved rather Long winded, and tired the patience of his patrons. We have been favoured with a meagre summary of the feats he performed; but with such little details before us we are unable to state whether his performance equalled in eccentricity any of those we have previously noticed. The rev gentleman is said to hnve displayed great timidity, which some of the audience attributed to a consciousness of the peculiarly awkward po- sition he occupied; for a rumour has spread abroad that the Tabernacle Chapel was endowed I y Church of England people, and that it was never intended to be used as a place of worship for dis- senters. The rumour, which is said to have "scared" the rev. gentleman, has some foundation, and no doubt he feels a certain amount of discomfort in being required to advocate the disendowment of the Established Church, when he calls to mind that his own chapel was founded by people who had a strong feeling of affection for the Established Church, and that without the endowment which his own Chapel possesses, his existence as minister in St. Martin's would be of the shortest possible dura- tion. This report, if it be based on d good founda- tion, proves that the lev. gentleman listens to the whisperings of Conscience: his case is not altogether hopeless, and we have no doubt as he grows older, he will increase in wisdom, and will probably be able to impart some useful and correct information to some of the other members of the Liberal troupe. The rev. gentleman deserves some sympathy in his difficult situation it must be very uphill work, indeed, to abuse the Church of England for adhering to the endowment system when he knows that endowment, in his own case, is life itself. Mr George Phillips, as usual, made a -1 splendid speech to see," in which he displayed more activity of body than vigour,of mind." The platform was not large enough to admit of a com- plete exhibition of his activity but Col. Edwardes has promised to provide a larger building in which the longest of jumps and strides may be performed without danger of upsetting the table. This artiste made a few unimportant m, istakes in rendering his part: he more- than once substituted pledge book," for "poll book," evidently imagining that he was addressing a teetotal assembly and not an audience of Liberal electors. An amusing incident occurred during the performance. It is the rale with "companies;" connected, with .a first rate establishment that all lefreshojents which may b§ ■ required by them shall be consumed behind the scenes: the green'' room is, we are informed, the name of the particular apartment reserved for f this and kindred purposes. The director of the evening, however, with a contempt for ceremony, produced his bottle at the table. A glimpse of the colour of its contents at once produced thirst, and there were one or two in the assembly who expected the Director would pass the bottle in ac- cordance with Liberal usages. These expectations were extinguished by the gentleman, after re- freshing himself, consigning the bottle to the par- ticular receptacle in his garment from which he had extracted it. The Director's disregard of the rule of the establishment has been much com- mented upon; he, wiser than his audience, probably thought that the character of the assembly consti- tuted the Hall a green room, and the little scene enacted-if we may be allowed to conjecture -might have been indirect homage to the "green- ness" around him, and a sly joke at the expense of the general company. A third gentleman is reported to have suggested to Mr George Phillips, during a pause necessitated by violent exertion, that he should make use of the restorative in the Director's bottle but, to his honour be it spoken, he refused a supply of Dutch courage, and he never touched the bottle or its contents. A few of those who witnessed the invitation, which was conveyed by gestures, looked as if they wished to have it extended to them, but the bottle was kept in its place, and if any longings were excited they were unsatisfied. The performance concluded with an announcement that the Troupe would pay a visit to Fishguard on Thursday-the anniversary of Gunpowder Plot. As they are the legiti- mate successors to the business that Guy FawkeS failed to accomplish, there was a remarkable coincidence in the associations of the day with the sentiments, aims, and objects of the talented com- pany. Guy Fawkes's fate ought to be a warning to the Troupe: their undertaking will never pay," for there are faithful sentinels on duty, who will expose their tactics, and the company, like their Popish predecessors, will be ignominiously defeated in all their assaults upon the glorious in- stitutions of the country.

HAVERFORDWEST TOWN COUNCIL. A meeting of this body was heldjat the Council Chamber on Monday. There were present :—iVfr W. Walters, Mr W. Davies, Mr W. Owen, Mr W. Rees, Mr Whicher Davies, Mr H. Phillips, Mr John James, Mr James Phillips, Mr John Madocks, Mr J. D. Brown, Mr W. Williams, Mr John Lewis, Mr A. Beynon, and Mr J.Thomas. On the motion of Mr Walters, seconded by Mr Whicber Davies, Mr W. Owen was unanimously voted to the chair. The Town Clerk read a letter from Mr J. W. Phillips, in which he stated that though he be- lieved he was entitled to preside at the election of the Mayor, he did not desire to avail himself of his right; and that he thought it was only courteous and respectful to the Council that lie should inform them that it was not bis intention to be present, in order that there might be no un- certainty about their proceedings. ELECTION OF MAYOR. It being now twelve o'clock, The Chairman said Gentlemen,—I am quite sure we should have been all very glad to have seen Mr J. W. Phillips at this meeting, and acting as presiding officer to-day but as he is not here, it has devolved upon me to take his place. The 9th day of November, at the hour of twelve o'clock at noon. is the time appointed by the law of England for the election of Mayo throughout the kingdom, with the exception of the city d London. With that exception every Cor* poration in the kingdom is now sitting, round their respective boards for the purpose of electing the chief magistrate for the ensuing year. I now call upon you, gentlemen, to exercise your rights, and it is for you now to elect a burgess of the town to fill the office of Mayor for the coming year. Mr Walters With you? permission,. Mr Chair- man, I beg to propose that Mr Sumnaers Harford be elected mayor for the ensuing year. Mr Henry Phillips I bad the honour last year to propose Mr Harford for the Mayoralty, and I have now very great pleasure in seconding the proposition of Mr Walters. Chairman It has been proposed by Mr Walters and seconded by Mr H. Phillips, that Mr Har- ford be elected Mayor for the coming year. If there is any objection to his election, now, gentle- men, is the time to make it. Mr Wbicher Davies: I have much pleasure in supporting the proposition that Mr Harford be elected Mayor for the ensuing year. Last year I had the pleasure of voting for Mr Harford, and to prove that there was nothing of party feeling in the matter we, Conservatives, voted dead againsfc Mr John W. Phillips, although he was a gentleman in every way qualified to fill the office; but I thought we had no right to pass over Mr Harford, who had long been a member of the Corporation. The objection made last year by some parties to the election of Mr Harford was that he was a bachelor but I am glad to find that our consciences are not so tender to-day, and that we are likely to be unanimous in his election. Chairman: I have much pleasure in declaring Summers Harford, Esq., duly elected mayor of this town for the ensuing yertr. (Applause.) The Mayor elect then took the chair, and made the usual declarations on his acceptance of the office. The Mayor, who rose amid considerable cheering, said: Gentlemen.—I beg leave to return yon my sincere thanks for the honour you have done lOe to-day. You have been unanimous in your selec- tion, when I thought you might have selected a much better man than I am. I assure you I never sought the office :-(hear, hear):—I did not no' thing whatever to induce parties to support me; and I assure you most sincerely that I shall be party man, but as I have hitherto done, I shall o strict justice to the best of my knowledge in sense of the word. (Applause.) Not only gentlemen, I really objected to take the office* Dr Brown knows well enough, and so does Joseph Thomas, who did me the honour to c upon me. I really objected to take the both of them, thinking that I was not as con,Peag it as some other person might be. However* has been your pleasure to consider me coioP and to elect me,' I shall certainly do the bes to discharge the duties to your satisfaction, a j the satisfaction of the public at large. (^PP ain I am not afraid of doing so, for this reason •- surrounded by parties who, if iU thing unforeseen occurs, will be re y