He was
dressed in black, with a white neckerchief and no shirt-collar. Next to
him stood Going Gone, Esq., Mr. Titmouse's seconder, with a ruddy
complexion, light hair, a droll eye, and an expression of coarse but by
no means ill-natured energy. Gammon stood immediately behind Titmouse,
into whose ear he whispered frequently and anxiously. There were also
the Reverend Gideon Fleshpot, (though he evidently did not wish to make
himself conspicuous,) Mr. Glister, Mr. Grogram, Mr. Woodlouse, Mr.
Centipede, Mr. Ginblossom, Mr. Hic Hæc Hoc, the Messrs. Bloodsuck,
father and son--and other "leading Liberals." The business of the day
having been opened, with the ordinary formalities, by the returning
officer, he earnestly besought the assembled multitude to remember that
they were Englishmen, and to give both parties fair play, allowing every
one who might address them from the hustings, to be heard without
serious interruption. It had been arranged between the two committees
that Mr. Titmouse should be first proposed; and the moment, therefore,
that the returning officer ceased speaking, the "Reverend" Mr. Mudflint
took off his hat and prepared to address the "electors;" but he had to
wait for at least three minutes, in order that the applause with which
he had been greeted might subside; during which little anxious interval,
he could not help directing towards his opponents a look of bitter
exultation. He spoke with the self-possession, fluency, and precision of
a practised public speaker. If the day's proceedings were to take their
tone from that of the opening speech, 't was a thousand pities that it
had fallen to the lot of the "Reverend" Mr. Mudflint to deliver it. He
had so clear a voice, spoke with such distinctness and deliberation, and
amid such silence, that every word he uttered was audible all over the
crowd; and anything more unchristian, uncourteous, unfair, towards his
opponents, and calculated to excite towards them the hatred of the
crowd, could hardly have been conceived. In what offensive and indecent
terms he spoke of the Established Church and its ministers! of the
aristocracy, ("those natural tyrants," he said,) and indeed of all the
best and time-hallowed institutions of dear glorious old England--which
might, by the way, well blush to own such a creature as he, as one
entitled by birth to call himself one of her sons! How he hailed the
approaching downfall of "_priest-craft_" and "_king-craft_!"--"A new
light," he said, "was diffusing itself over benighted mankind--'t was
the pure and steady light of REASON, and all filthy things were flying
from before it," (immense cheers followed the announcement of this
important and interesting fact.) "The Bible," he said, "was a book of
excellent common sense; and nothing but villanous priestcraft had
attempted to torture and dislocate it into all sorts of fantastic
mysteries, which led to rank idolatry and blasphemy, equally revolting
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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