344 PABLIAMENTAEY ELECTION IN TRURO, 1832. 



was SO strong, that on 9th May, 1832, Earl Grey was compelled 

 to resign. This intelligence roused a terrific storm of indignation 

 throughout the country, and brought it to the verge of revolution. 

 A meeting of the Reformers in Truro was hastily convened and a 

 requisition was addressed to the Mayor, requesting him to call a 

 public meeting of the inhabitants to consider the propriety of 

 adopting such measures as the terrible crisis seemed to demand. 

 The Mayor (Clement Carlyon, M.D.) was a Tory, so in reply he 

 stated that holding the views he did, he could not consistently 

 comply with their wishes, but he would willingly grant the usd of 

 the Town Hall. Mr. Edmund Turner, of the Truro Bank, was 

 thereupon selected as chairman, and a series of indignant resolutions 

 was framed. But, in the morning of the day appointed for the 

 meeting, news arrived from London which entirely altered the 

 aspect of affairs. The Duke of Wellington had been unable to 

 form a Cabinet, and it was thought probable that Earl Grey would 

 again take office. The news spread rapidly, and a complete 

 revulsion of feeling ensued. A band of music was engaged, and 

 for an hour previous to the meeting, paraded the town in triumph. 

 At 12 o'clock, the committee, now jubilant and hopeful, met at the 

 Town Hall, which was rapidly filled, and hundreds were unable 

 to gain admission, so that it became necessary to adjourn to the 

 Green. There being no time to erect a platform, the sashes were 

 removed from the window of a neighbouring house, and here the 

 chairman took his stand. The speakers, (among whom 

 were Dr. Taunton, and Messrs. Carpenter, Budd, Bennallack, 

 Milford, Stokes, Plummer, and Baynard), were accommodated on 

 three tables placed side by side underneath the chairman's window j 

 and from this rickety platform they harangued the fifteen hundred 

 listeners throughout the afternoon of that day in May. It is 

 needless to remark that the proceedings were characterised by 

 boundless enthusiasm, and by as good order as could be expected 

 on such an exciting occasion. The late Mr. H. S. Stokes, referring 

 to this incident, says " I was an extreme politician, and I thought 

 the Reform Bill would prove the salvation of the nation. We had 

 a meeting on the Green, and I was called upon to make an oration, 

 and I did make an oration. Then I remember dancing in the 

 streets, and there was a gentleman in a brown suit and broad- 



