The Press. — London, England, 1858-12-11 00:00:00

s • 1208 THE PRESS, DECEMBER 11, 1858. [ Chief invites all the well•disposed to remain in their towns and villages, where they will be sure of his protection against all violence. CLYDE. 6ourt anb clastion. HER MAJESTY, the Prince Consort, and the junior members of the Royal Family and suite, left Wind sor, on Monday morning, for Osborne, Isle of Wight. The Court will return to Windsor Castle on Friday, the 24th instant, for the Christmas holidays. PRINCE ALBERT visited the Smithfield Club Cattle Show, in Baker•street, on Saturday afternoon. The Prince was received by the Duke of Richmond, the President of tho Club ; Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, the Secretary; and the stewards. plittral. or trade should be taxed in the same ratio as he who derives the same income from the funds, landed, or other accumulated property. We require free trade internally; that the home manu• facturer shall not be cramped by vexatious excise duties when the foreign article is imported free. As, for example, in the case of the paper and hop duties, both of them opposed to the fundamental principles of free trade. We require a settlement of the question of national edu cation. We require an investigation into the causes of the enormous mass of pauperism that now presses on the country ;—one in every eleven of the adult population being a pauper, and probably as many more are just on the verge of destitution. We require stringent laws against seduction, and that the disgusting profligacy which disgraces both town and country should have the serious attention of the Legislature. We require a searching investigation into charitable and other trusts, in which the funds are either misappropriated or the trust badly administered. Nearly every parish in England can furnish an illustration. _ . Now, hoisting a flag does nothing; if indeed Teople are prepared to do something previously agreed to be done on seeing that signal, then truly the Bag does perform an important part in the play. Such is the fact ; the wonder is that they should have let it out. A consider a b number, both of artillerymen awl sailors, there, did sant to shot their guns ; they were restrained ; but it was only under the promise conveyed through the army and navy chaplains, that d moms de deux ass Us anent vengis de Ang !den el After citing authorities with the view of proving the soundness of the construction which he puts upon the intentions of our allies, he adds We require a revision and consolidation of the statute law. Many laws are obsolete, many contradictory, and the judges have often to decide by majorities what is law. We require a complete change in the bankruptcy laws. Bad as the old law was, the present is much worse. Bar risters and official assignees are appointed to manage insolvent estates, without competent qualifications to de cide commercial questions; and the proceeds of such estates are often swallowed up in charges. We require facilities for the transfer of real estate. At present the expense is enormous, and numberless titles are defective. In the United States, or in our own province of Upper Canada, real estate is transferred at the expense of a few shillings, and the titles are in contestable. Such, fellow-countrymen, are a few of the questions in finance, in commerce, in morale, and in law—all of them out of the province of party warfare—which have been postponed to the cabals and intrigues of rival statesmen and place-hunters; which ought to have occupied the attention of the House of Commons, and which will do so as soon as that house fairly represents the national will. If it were necessary to make out a case in favour of an extension of the suffrage, the reasonableness of which even the opponents of popular government now admit, we might contrast the present state of society with its social, intellectual, and commercial condition a quarter of a century ago. Intelligence has immensely increased—the working man is more sober, thoughtful, and provident, conscious alike of his rights and his duties—there is a greater respect for the laws, a more intimate knowledge of the relation in which one man and one class stand to another. During these five-and-twenty years, while this capacity for self-government has been increasing to an extent that makes the working man of the present day equal in intelligence to those enfranchised by the Act of 1832, the existing basis of representation, with its disqua lifying clauses of ratepaying and registration, has shut hi.n out from all share in the government of the country, and the great industrial interest has been and is practically unrepresented. Fellow-countrymen, the reformers of Birmingham have united themselves together for the purpose of removing this injustice by obtaining a fairer and more honest repre sentation of the people. Progressive liberal and advanced reformer, (-lector and non-elector,,we have resolved to sink all minor differences of political faith in the determination to advance our common cause. In this cause we have no wish to lead. We will either follow or go side by side with others. We desire only the welfare of our common country. We call upon you to aid us in our endeavour to secure the efficiency of any measure of reform which may be introluced into Parliament—by forming associations, by public meetings, by petitions to Parliament, by obtaining the co-operation of your representatives, and by every legi timate and peaceable means which the Constitution allows. Above all things, be united. Apathy has to be overcome, active opposition to be defeated, and discord and distrust to be guarded against. Reformers, you can succeed if you will. Upon your de termination now depends the character of the next Reform Bill. Your earnestness now may decide whether party or the national will shall triumph—whether an end shall be put to the constant agitation and discontent which a sense of injustice inspires, or whether the moderate demand now made by the people for a fair share in the government of the country shall be accumulated by vex atious delays, so as ultimately to create—as procrastina tion did once before—so violent an impulse as will no longer admit of a calm and deliberate consideration and settlement of the question. Signed on behalf of the Birmingham Reform Associa tion. P. H. MUNTZ, Chairman. Just after the Emperor mounted the throne he said to an eminent diplomatist, " I have three missions to fulfil; to re-establish the Napoleon dynasty, revise the freely of 1815, and revenge Waterloo." "At these last words " said the reporter of this anecdote, " hi s vo i ce altered and trembled with emotion, and his dull eyes sparkled like those of a basilisk." He has often declared to others that be had three things to accomplish-Ist, re-establish the empire; 2nd, put down the press; 3rd, revenge Waterloo. He has done the two first, which, when he said this, were more unlikely to be fulfilled, and certainly more difficult, than the last The Emperor is not a man to do things without preparation ; besides which he will give us no warning. He knows that his whole prospects, life, and fame depend on that one stroke. He will send from Toulon and Algiers, at one and the same moment, fleets and armies against Malta and Gibraltar. He will send a fleet with troops on board to Ireland, where he will be joined by rebellious Papists, determined to join with anything which should destroy Protestantism, as their authorized journals in France and Belgium have &clued. He will send a fleet to fight your fleet in the Channel; whilst gunboats from Cherbourg, Brest, and Boulogne land troops in the Thames, the Mersey, on the southern coasts, and, probably, at Glasgow. After he is here he will, perhaps, proclaim war. He will risk 31'0,000 men; he will land 100,000, and destroy here, at least, three times that number of men, women, and children, beetles burning an immense amount of property in buildings; and the 10,000 foreign patriots now in London will set it on fire in twenty places for the sake of plunder, and the shopkeepers will run away. Mr. Drummond proceeds to show what he would have done : Birmingham, I)ec. 3, 1858. MR. DRUMMOND, M.P., ON A FRENCH INVASION. MR. H. Dauumosn, M.P., has just published, in the form of a shilling pamphlet, " A Letter to Mr. Bright on his Plan for turning the English Monarchy nto a Democracy." In allusi on to the probability of a French invasion, Mr. Drummond quotes from a leading French paper these words, in reference to the effect produced on the French by a speech by Mr. Roebuck—" It required but the hoisting of a flag upon a mast to have converted that roadstead— meaning Cherbourg—into a sea of blood ; "—whete upon Mr. Drummond remarks We have 93,000 bayonets in India ; they should be brought home as soon as possible. I fear the people must look to themselves, and not trust to the Horse Guards, to defend us from foreign attack. The country is thickly inclosed, and raw soldiers can do much behind hedges and buildings which they could not do in the open field. An invading army could bring neither cavalry nor artillery. Our roads are narrow, and the columns of march must be long; more men perish in war from want of rest than from bullets, and the invaders should never be allowed to sleep for a single instant. Every one who can afford to buy a rifle and revolver should procure them forthwith, and they should instantly form themselves into rifle clubs; the people who cannot, must use pitchforks, scythes, or billhooks on poles, flails, or whatever else they can get. Every village or town where the invaders halt to rest should be set on fire, and their flanks and rear should be hung upon, no quarter given. If the emergency be not thought sufficiently urgent to require the militia to be now embodied, at least all the officers should be assembled and formed into regiments at Aldershott, that they may be thoroughly prepared, which the greater number are not now, to take the effective command of meo when :he necessity for calling them out arises. The lords-lieu tenant of counties, with the aid of the deputy-lieutenants, should have lists of every cart, waggon, horse, and all other means of conveyance fur troops, guides through back lanes, and over uninolosed downs and heaths, to conduct the armed masses on the flanks of the invaders, all ready for the use of the Government at a moment's notice. These measures would cost very little; but the moral effect of such a demonstration on the part of the whole population would be immense on the ardour of those who are planning our conquest. We are the most quarrelsome people in the world, the most insulting, the most offensive, and yet will not learn or practise the means of defending ourselves from the consequences of our misbehaviour. On the first symptom of a hostile sail appearing, martial law should be proclaimed, and every male thing brought out to fight; and, from the experi ence which we have had in late years of the conduct of kings, let us thank God that we have a Queen rather than a man on the throne, and one with all the courage of her race. MR. BRIGHT ON MANHOOD SUFFRAGE. AT a public meeting of the members of the Man chester Manhood Suffrage Association, bold on Tuesday evening, for the purpose of discussing the question of parliamentary reform, the secretary read the following letter from Mr. Bright, M.P. : Rochdale, Dec. 7, 1858. Dear Sir,—l thank you for your le•ter and for a copy of the resolutions which your association has forwarded. I assure you that I do not consider associations ancn as yours in any degree hostile to the views of reform held by me and by those with whom I am acting. On a great question like the one now before the country, there will be differences of opinion. Some think one extent of franchise better than another. Some are for a six•pound rental, some for a five•pound rental. You are fur the extension of the right of voting to every man; now, .I prefer to establish the parliamentary suffrage on the basis which has been tried for some centuries In our parishes and which has been adopted at a recent period in our poor 44 BRIJ MMAGE M " REFORM. THE Birmingham Reform Association, formed shortly after Mr. Bright's visit to the town, has issued its first address ; and it is interesting to trace the effort to do away with the bad effects of Mr. Bright's " strong language " by vagueness of demand and comparative mildness of profession ; TEE OF DIRMINOHAM TO THE REFORMERS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. Fellow Countrymen,—We invite you to co-operate with us in an attempt to obtain, by legitimate and peace ble mewls, an efficient reform in the representation of the people in the House of Commons. The association we have formed embraces men of all shades of liberal opinion, enfranchised middle classes, and non electors. We have agreed to sink all minor differences, and to work together to obtain these reforms, viz :- 1. A large extension of the suffrage. 2. Vote by ballot. 3. A mora equal apportionment of members to popu lation. These reforms we believe lie at the root of all others about which Liberals have hitherto been unhappily divided. They otter a broad and well-defined common bond of union, for they lie in the direction in which tho most decided Liberal is advancing. . _ We are no theorists. We do not wish to impair insti tutions bequeathed by our forefathers, and which, on the whole, have proved suitable to the wants of the country : our object is to expand, consolidate, and strengthen them. We are loyal subjects of the Crown, and venerate the illustrious lady who fills the throne. We have no desire to interfere with the fair and legiti mate action of the House of Peers in the government of the country, nor with the just influence of the aris• tocracy. We have no intention to set class against class. We believe all to be so intermingled that the permanent interests of the peer and the peasant, the manufacturer and the artizan, are identical and inse pars ble. But we claim for the House of Commons that it shall represent the opinions and interests not of a class but of the great body of the people. It is notorious that with the present restricted franchise, with the hindrances to its honest exercise which the plan of open voting interposes, and with the system of counterpoise by which small constituencies neutralise the opinions of vast bodies of electors, the House of Commons does not truly represent the national will. Reformers are accused of seeking reform for the mere sake of change. We deny the charge. We desire a change because we want good government. Under the present system, with the influence of tha aristocracy predominant in both houses, ministries are confined to two parties ; and a few families have generally monopolized the government of the country. The admi nistration is the ministry of a party ; its energies are wasted in the endeavour to maintain place and power, and, however patriotic, it is rarely able to grapple with any subject which might affect the interests of its supporters. Hence the constant changes in the administration ; hence the personal unfitness of many of those who direct the great departments of the State, the consequent detriment to the public service and the scandal to political morality. There is no national administration. The business of the Legislature is neglected; measure after measure is intro duced and abandoned; commissions issue without result, and the real work of legislation is made subordinate to the possession of office. Although these facts are obvious enough, it may be well to notice a few of the subjects that have long required the attention of successive Governments, but have been neglected. Administrative reform is required in almost every de partment of the State. We nquire immediate attention to our financial con dition. With a debt constantly increasing, the budget constructed on no fixed principle, merely titling over the difficulty, and attempting to show a favourable balance on the year's account, no provision is made for extraordinary emergencies, or any suggestion even of diminishing the debt. We require a readjustment of the property and income tax, en that the tax on income derived from realized pro perty end the income tax upon industry shall not remain the same. On no grounds of equity can it be maintained that the man who gains 1001. per annum by his profession