The Sun. — London, England, 1858-12-23 00:00:00

MR. BRIGHT IN GLASGOW. [We fablished . yesterday a summary of Mr. Bright's speech, delivered by telegraph. We now publish a full report On Tuesday night Mr. Bright, the member for Birmingham, addressed the citizens of Glasgow, in the. City-hall, on the subject of Parliamentary Reform. The hall contained 2,700 persons, for whom suitable accommodation had been made, and on the whole the arrangements were excellent. The complexion of the meeting was that of the -attendance at a middle-class concert or assembly, and there is no doubt thatAe vast mass of those who filled the benches was atfracted, not from poli tical motives, but from a natural desire to gratify the feelings of novelty and curiosity. The hall was completely filled long before the hour an nounced for the commencement of the proceedings. There was a small sprinkling of ladies in the throng. Mr. Lambeth played some airs on the organ while the company was waiting, for the opening of the proceedings. Mr. Buchanan, M.P., was called to the chair. This distinction had been previously offered to the Lord Provost, but it was declined by his lordship. The CHAIRMAN having introduced him in a few appropriate phrases, Mr. BRIGHT, on rising, was received with great cheering, the audience rising to their feet. He spoke as follows :—Gentlemen, when I look upon these great meetings, at several of which I have been permitted recently - to be present, I cannot help asking myself--What is the question—what is the matter that appears to be stirring to its innermost depths the heart of my countrymen ? Is it some sudden frenzy, some fanaticism, which wise men might rather be sorry for than rejoice over ? Is it some phantasm which you are pursuing, and which you never will overtake ? I judge, by the look of expectation and hope, and even of assur ance of success, which lights up the counte nances of so many before me, that you believe that you have at least some great and worthy.ob ject which has brought us together this evening. (Cheers.) I believe no more worthy object can assemble any portion of the citizens of a free nation, for we are here to discuss a great question of constitutional reform—to consider how far it, may be passible to confirm and give greater per manence and security to whatsoever portion of liberty we have derived from our forefathers. And let me remind you that when you discuss questions connected with the House of Commons, you are discussing that branch of the Legislature which is by far the most important to liberty, 2 nd without which liberty cannot exist. You may have liberty, and' a large share of it, with a monarchy, as we have happily in this country, but you might have monarchy without libery, as you see to be the case in many of the countries of Europe. You may have liberty, as we have, even with a portion of your legislative power in the hands of a house of here ditary legislators ; but you might have hereditary legislators and no liberty whatsoever. But the House of Commons, that branch of the Legislature which we are to-night particularly about to dis cuss, is not only consistent with the existence of liberty, but is inseparable in this country from the existence of liberty. (Hear, hear.) One of the greatest men, one of the brightest names on the muster-roll of English worthies, the illustrious founder of the - colony and province of Pennsyl vania, gave this definition of freedom :—He said, " That is a free country where the laws rule, and where the people are a party to the making of the laws." (Cheers.) And we are assembled to-night, I hope, in the full understanding of the magnitude of the question before us, and with none but this high resolve in our hearts,—we will, if we can, by the extension and improvement of our representative system, confirm and secure perma, nently, as far as lies in our power, that which is the greatest guarantee for freedom which we in this country . possess. (Loud applause.) Now, in the discussion of this question we are in a very different position from that in which we found ourselves when we were here before. It is tiow,l believe, generally conceded that the figures are all on our side. You recollect twelve or fourteen years ago that there were orators almost innumerable about the country, some scores of them at least, who attacked us with figures without end in favour of the policy of Protection. Ido not intend to dig up those speeches from the oblivion which I am sure the orators who delivered them must wish they may perpetually keep—(a laugh) —but I turn to them merely for the ,purpose of pointing out that *nobody gets up to prove to us from the multiplication table that the people of England are fairly represented in the House of Commons. But there is one complaint made against us which it is very difficult to escape. We are told —I am told—that I use the same figures and the same facts. Well, now, what would be said were I to use different figures and different facts ? (Laughter and cheers.) It is the same case, the same cause, the same great grievance ; I speak to men of the same order, to be appealed to, reached and convinced and aroused by the same facts and arguments • and, therefore, I cannot be expected to say something here wholly different from what I have said on other occasions. (Hear, hear.) For in stance, if I tell you that the whole body of the electors of the United Kingdom amount only to one-sixth portion of the whole number of adult men in the United Kingdom, and that one-sixth of the electors—that is, 1-36th of the adult men in the United Kingdom—return more than one-half of the:members of the House of Commons, I shall find it very difficult to convey as accurate idea of that fact, unless I make that statement ; and, therefore, though one may grieve our friendly critics who watch over everything we do and say, yet I am bound to explain this matter to my countrymen wherever I meet them, and wherever they are will ing to hear. Now, putting that statement into ano ther form, we have at least 6,000,000 grown men in the United Kingdom, and we have not more than 1,000,000 of them, or a little more, who have votes. And we find by Parliamentary returns that 200,000 electors out of that 1,000,000 return some what more than one-half of the whole number of members who sit in the House of Commons. (Hear, hear.) The fact is it is very easy to show that the electoral body is so grouped and so managed, and the whole machine so ingeniously contrived, that almost all the objects for which a representative assembly should exist, and representation be ad mitted as part of the Constitution of a free country, are frustrated under the system which exists among us. There is another illustration of it that has often occurred to me. I have imagined that all the men in this kingdom, from 21 years of age, were assem bled on some Salisbury Plain, or, not to go so far, on some wild and desolate part of your own coun try. I should be afraid to take you there, even tho,ugh it be but in imagination, for fear we should be Charged with disturbing those sacred animals, the grouse and the deer. (Great laughter and cheers.) But for the sake of this illustration we will imagine ourselves so assembled. The Consti tution—that is, the Parliamentary arrangement as we, now find it—addresses the 6 , 000 , 000 men, and says to 5,000,000 of them—comprising almost the whole body of the working-classes of the kingdom, and not a few of those who may be said to belong to the middle-classes--we don't want you ; you may return to your homes, and those who are left will do your business for you. Well, then, there would remain a million. which would compose the electoral body. Let us, then, make another separation. Take all the electors of the boroughs which comprise the great metropolis of the kingdom, seven great boroughs and seven great constituencies, and then add to them the constituencies of seven of the next largest cities in the kingdom— Liverpool, Glasgow, Manchester, Dublin, Birming ham,._ Leeds, an Edinburgh. It would require that you should take about 200,000 men from this million to form the constituencies for the great metropolis and for these great cities, and when yoti had formed them you would find that they were permitted t o return 50 members to the Eng lish Parliament. In another part of this plain you find 200,000 more taken out of the great group, and put on one side, and they are permitted to return 330 members to the Ilouse of Commons. Well, everybody sees at a glance that though Parliament, sitting half the year, must do something, and must legislate, pas s laws, sometimes g oo d, sometimes bad as we all know, good with extreme difficulty —(laughter) — yet w e cannot but b e s ensible of this fact, that as a machine for representing the opinions of the people, and carrying out their views on poli tical questions, or sustaining the character of the country in its legislation, it would perhaps be im possible to devise an instrument more utterly clumsy and untrustworthy for the purpose for which it exists. (Applause.) These boroughs that I have mentioned—the metropolis and those 7 great cities —contain not less than four millions of inhabitants, being nearly one-seventh part of the whole popula tion of the United Kingdom, and yet they only re turn 30 members to the House of Commons. And of these 200,000 you have not heard the last. Yon do 'not know so much of it in Scotland as we know of it England, but the 200,000 are not labelled together only in groups of 20,000 each, to carry on their political operations, and to return members freely ; but they are scattered all up and down the country, many in Ireland, very many more in Eng land, with constituencies varying. I think there is one as low as 86 . electors, a considerable number between 200 and 300, and the bulk of them have only a very small body of electors, compared with the larger towns and constituencies. And when you have a very small number of persons together they can hardly, to use a common expression, keep them selves warm together. They can't preserve their independence. A neighbouring landowner, two or three lawyers, two or three anybodies who choose to combine and to act with a certain amount of unity and subtlety will affect the representation of one of those small boroughs ; and the members who go up to the House of Commons from them are often, and generally, not earnest men, anxious to carry out any great popular principle, or any great principle at all ; but the House of Commons is a convenient club, a pleasant lounge, affords a nice way of filling up the time of a man who has passed through business, or being of the order that does not like business, and has never had any business — (laughter)—he wants something respectable, where he may pretend at least not to be absolutely idle. (Laughter and cheers.) Well, it follows from all this that the general result of what we call our Parliamentary representation is not found as yet a guard of our public interests ; it does not respond with any heartiness or any willingness to sthe aspirations of the people for a better Government. But it is found to be in sympathy, not with you, but with the ruling class, and is infinitely more careful to preserve monopolies and privileges than the general interests of the great body of the na tion. (Cheers.) But to-morrow morning some body who is probably now sitting, or will be then, pen in hand, will say, and perhaps with a show of reason, that I am arguing entirely on a question of magnitude of population. It is not true ; but still he may say that, and say that in a country like this numbers simply. should net decide these great ques tions, though there is a large space for improvement between the condition of things I have pointed out and thecondition my critic dreads. But he will say property is to be taken into consideration at least as well as, and perhaps before, population. Let us take for a moment the test of wealth ; and, as I am in Scotland, take a comparison of your two foremost cities with some other portion of the coun try which enjoys, or possesses—l doubt if it does enjoy—an unfair share of representation. Your two cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow have a taxa ble property, taking Schedule Aof the Income tax and Property-tax, which means land and buildings and property you can see, and Sche dule D, which means profits on trades and incomes from professions, and so forth—a taxable pro perty to the amount of £7,800,000—1 leave out all the odd sums. And there are 101 boroughs in Great Britain and Ireland, and by no means the smallest, whose taxable property is £7,434.000 — that is, some £350,000 less. Edinburgh and Glas gow, with the larger amount of that taxable pro perty, return together four members to the House lof Commons ; and these other boroughs , with a smaller amount, return no less than 126 members. (Loud cries of Hear, hear.) Now, when I speak of these boroughs as adding 126 members, let me make this explanation. In the bill which Lord John Russell, acting in Lord Aberdeen's Govern ment, brought before the House •of Commons in 1854, which, as you know, did not become law, he proposed to disfranchise all boroughs with a popu lation of less than 5,000, and whose number of electors was less than 300. Now, I have omitted all these ; I have drawn the line even higher. I believe if the line be drawn at 7,000 or 8,000, it will still leave this amazing disparity, that £7,800,000 of taxable property in Edinburgh and Glasgow is represented by four members and a smaller amount of taxable property in other boroughs, leaving out these small boroughs of which I have spoken, is represented by 126 mem bers in that house. Take one other illustration on that point. The annual sum paid by the population of Edinburgh and• Glasgow in taxes, including the Income and Property-tax for the two schedules referred to, including house duty, assessed taxes, and land taxes—the whole of these taxes paid for Edinburgh and Glasgow is £556,000, represented by four members in Parliament ; and the whole sum which the 126 members represent, of annual direct taxes paid by their constituents is £562,000, being only £ll,OOO more than Edinburgh and Glasgow. Now, my investigation led me to this conclusion, whether you take numbers, or industry, or wealth, or what we comprehend as political indepen dence—l do not care by what test you choose to try it—but you will come to the same startling and, I would say, oppressive result, that these great populations and interests are most inadequately represented in the House of Commons under the present system of representation. (Applause.) Well, having got thus far, perhaps we shall all be agreed with everybody else out of doors, as Mr. Buchanan says we are, that we must have a change. The question is, -what change ? I have a great suspicion of those men who profess great anxiety for something to be done, but constantly assail those who are attempting to do something. (Great cheering.) You are aware that less than two months ago—some six or eight weeks ago—l had the privilege of addressing on two occasions very large meetings of my constituents in birmingham. You recollect the sort of howl of astonishment — (laughter)—with which—l do not complain of the Tory papers, because they are constantly labouring in their always unsuccessful vocation—(laughter) —but I mean that was set up by papers that call themselves Liberal, but who, by some means or other, seem to be manacled to the triumph of 1832, and, after living 26 years longer, do not appear to be, if they are, even so far advanced as they were at the time of the Reform Bill. (Cheers.) Well, I am told that the sentiments that were so fright ful at Birmingham were very much moderated at Manchester, ;and that at Edinburgh they were almost, if notaltogether, thrown away. (Laughter.) Well, now, I say to any of you who read leading articles, and who invariably believe them— (laughter)—and I have not the slightest doubt but this sort of notion may prevail in some minds here —I say that I believe it is impossible for any one to compare those speeches at Birmingham with the speech at Manchester, or the two or three with the speech at Edinburgh, and to discover the smallest possible abandonment of any one single sentiment that I uttered on the first occasions. (Cheers.) Do these men suppose that I have the effrontery to stand before many thousands of my countrymen, after days and weeks of notice that I am so to ap pear before them, and that I come there to speak simply the temporary passion and sentiment of the hour ? They little know, if they dream of this, the sense of responsibility which I think every man shoud speak under who offers himself on any occasion as the expounder of the opinions or the guide of the deliberations of his countrymen. (Great cheering.) Nearly 30 years ago the senti ments that I have uttered upon this question of Parliamentary Reform were proclaimed to thou sands of our countrymen by the late Lord Durham. My opinions with regard to the franchise are not novel. I stated in Manchester that they were but the opinions which Fox uttered, and which Lord Grey proposed to the House of Commons to adopt in the year 1797. (Hear.) I am no conjuror, I have got not specific for national happiness. I offer you nothing made up of all sorts of conundrums and tricks, but I bring before you what I believe to be a rational and substantial project for the amendment of our representation, which I venture to say has had during the last 60 years the sanction and ap proval of the greatest minds and greatest patriots of our country. (Cheers.) Well, then, what is this change that is to swamp everybody, and that men stand aghast at ? (Laughter.) It is that the elective franchise, which now is confined, both in England and Scotland, in boroughs, with some exceptions, to the occupancy of a house of the yearly value of £lO, shall be lowered so as to take in in reality all the persons who are householders and occupiers of premises rated to the relief of thepoor. Your system of rating is much more modern in Scotland than ours in England ; but I learn that, with two or three most inconsiderable exceptions, it has now become uniform throughout the whole of your country. One reason why I propose this franchise is this. Unfortunately, in this country —I mean Great Britain and Ireland—there is a very large class constantly requiring assistance from their fel low men. There requires to be levied all through the kingdom a rate that does not amount to less—at least, in 1856 it amounted tomore—than the sum of seven millions. sterling, chiefly devoted, and in fact, raised for the .express purpose of giving relief to the indigent poor. Now, I think that one of your arti sans, let him be what he may in his particular walk of life, who works hard from morning till night six days in 'the week, finds heavy demands at home in his own family; he . is called upon tO per Win a all the duties of citizenship, and to contribute from his own earnings. 'to • the support •of some. feeble; some sick—it may be, some dissolute and profligate man who is not able to support himself—l think that every man: who is thus called upon to pay taxes from his weekly and annual earnings for such a purpose, has some claim to be considered a citi zen, and to be admitted to the rights of citizenship. (Cheers.) I h ave been asked, I am told—for I have not had ti me to rea d h a lf t h e attac k s w hi c h, I understand, guilty of misrepresentation told that I have b have been made upon me—but 'I am t n a t attacked ion in stating a a t i s n (p t h in England with retard ''' ' havinge custom been to the franchise.. 1 said that in England, in our parochi a l governmen t s , i n our Poor Law Unions and muniei al governments, the system of rating and the scare of rtin form the basis of the elective franchise, an d I could see no reason why they should not alsO form the basis ' f the franchise in the election of membersof ' o Par ' liament Well, I am told that with regard to Poor Law unions, in the. case of some parishes, but not universally, themi.4 a mode of voting by which men give vote's somewhat in proportion to their pro. THE SUN, LONDON, TITURSDAY EVENING., DECEMBER 28, 1888, perty in the_parish. One roan may , give one vote, and another man give, 'perhaps, mx. It is a plan not very pleasant, wherever it is carried out, to those who have the smaller number of votes ; - but the defence and justification of it are this—that as the question i 3 a question of expenditure in the im mediate locality—tile making of roads in some cases, and a variety of objects requiring to be attended to by our various local governments — that it might possibly end in throwing an enor mous inequality of expenditure and. taxation on a particular firm, or a few individuals, in a particular parish or district. But when you come to a ques tion of Parliamentary representation, where not taxes only are to be considered, but rights, and personal rights, and not taxes only and personal rights only, but all questions affecting the great policy of the country, both at home and abroad—l say that it would be to cast the most deadly and unchangeable, ineradicable insult upon the work ' ing classes of this country if anybody for one single moment contended that I should go to give my six votes at the poll for a member of Parliament, and that one of the operatives in my employ should go at my side and give his one vote. (Cheers.) Till you are prepared to do full justice to a great propor tion of the unenfranchised class I would advise you to allow matters to remain as they are. lam sure that opinion is growing, intelligence is growing, ' power is growing, combination is growing, and before long it will be seen to be the interest of all those who value the tranquillity of the country and the contentment of the people that political rights should be widely and honestly, extended among all classes of our countrymen. (Cheers.) There is one question about , the suffrage which, I believe, I have never yet touched upon in any pre ceding speech I have delivered, and that is with regard to the possibility of conferring the franchise, in some shape or other, on those who are not rate payers, but what are called lodgers. (Hear, hear. ) In England we have no such franchise ; in Scot land you have. I don't know whether it is by in difference in the SCotch Reform Bill—l rather think it must have been by a _different interpreta tion being put upon it—that persons in lodgings for which they pay as rent £lO per annum—the rental required for a house which gives a vote — that such lodger can claim to have his name put on the register; and in Edinburgh I learn that there are a few—l believe not more than 30—on the list under such conditions. If that be so, there cannot be, I suppose, much difficulty in reducing the £lO to some smaller sum which shall become in some degree accordant with the principle on which the general franchise is based, in order that persons of this description who are ambitious to have a vote — and I do not want any one to have a vote who is not ambitious of it—that these persons should be placed on the electoral roll. I now come to the question of the counties, in which in England we have a considerable advantage over you in Scotland. I understand that in your counties you have no franchise whatever less than a £lO property fran chise and a £5O occupancy. In England we have a lower property franchise, coming down as low as 4s. a-year ; and, though many persons may exag gerate the number that would be admitted, and I have made no calculation as to what the number would be, I think he must be a very fas tidious person indeed who thinks that the British constitution would be overthrown, and the safety of anybody worth preserving—(laughter)—be in the smallest degree put in jeopardy by extending the 40s. franchise to that part of the United King dom called Scotland. (Cheers.) One has to tread with remarkable particularity over the various steps of this great question, for if by any chance I say anything that is not fully explained, it is sure to be explained in a manner favourable to some supposed inconsistency. And if any point I have spoken on at a previous meeting is omitted, it is said that I have seen reason to change my opinion on that subject. (Laughter.) In Edinburgh my voice was very bad and the meeting crowded, and. I was anxious not to make a long speech, and so said nothing of the question of the ballot. It was insinuated, therefore, that possibly I did not hold the same opinion ox the ballot that I did in Man chester and Birmingham. So we won't altogether leave out the ballot to-night. (Laughter.) If the franchise in your boroughs be reduced so much as to double the whole number of your electors—if it be reduced so much in your counties as to increase by probably more than a half all the number of electors in these counties, I think, if there be any call now for the adoption of the ballot, that call would be imperative if such a change in the fran chise were made. lam quite certain that in the district from which I come, the county of Lancaster, there is but one opinion among the great body of those persons who are hoping by any Reform Bill to be admitted within the pale of the constitution of their country. And I think they would to a very large extent implore the House of Commons Snot to confer upon them the right of franchise, un less they conferred upon them also the power, which I believe the ballot alone would give them, of ex ercising that franchise in_ accordance with their own convictions. (Hear, hear.) I cannot compre hend why any man should oppose the ballot. I can understand why men should think that we exaggerate its importance, but I cannot understand the man who supposes that it would be likely to inflict in jury upon the country. Every good and legitimate influence would still exist. The rich man would still be rich and powerful ; in the nature of things he must be so. the educated man, the intellectual giant, the benevolent man, the man of religious and saintly life, would exercise among all those who were of his circle, and knew of his excellent repu tation, an influence which is most beneficent, and which the ballot would not, I believe, in the smallest degree impair. But the influence of the landlord, of the creditor, of the customer, and the influence of the strong and unscrupulous mind over the feeble and the fearful, that influence would be as effectu ally chocked as, I believe, it can be by any human contrivance whatever. (Applause.) But there is another aspect of the question of the ballot, which, I think, is more important than its political one, and that is its moral aspect. How would canvass ing be conducted under the ballot ? Ido not know how you conduct canvassing in this large constitu ency. I suppose it is not very accurately done at all. But I can tell you how it is conducted in small and moderate boroughs in England. The candidate goes round to see as many of the electors as possi ble ; the next thing is to try to find out about doubtful electors, who is his landlord or employer, or who did some particular kindness perhaps to one of his children, or has some kind of influence over him. Then half-a-dozen or a dozen get together and call upon him, and though there is somebody in that small number who has done him a benefit, and who expects to have a return; or somebody who has a power aver him, and expects to be obeyed; ansl while the professed purpose is that a canvass and soli citation are going on, it is in thousands of cases little better than a demonstration of force and tyranny. Every man who, for want of the ballot, votes contrary to his convictions, is a demoral ised .and a degraded man, if he is not so be fore. (Applause.) He feels it necessary for the sustaining of his character that he should turn round and belie the principles that he has always, up to that moment, held, and declare that he h.lds contrary principles now, and therefore did not vote against the conviction of his conscience. There is no portion, I can assure this meeting, of , the propo sitions for reform that have been submitted to the public in other parts of the country in England that has been received with such unanimity and such an enthusiasm of resolution as the proposition that the ballot shall form a portion of the coming Reform Bill. (Applause.) We come now to that question which, after all, is more difficult than the others to which I have referred—l mean more diffi cult of obtaining or carrying through" Parliament — viz., the determination as to the mode in_which members shall in future be allotted to electors and constituencies. I presume that any Reform Bill will draw some line, and. below that line will dis franchise a number of ,boroughs ; assu ming that their population is too small, their number of elec tors too limited, their interests too circumscribed to justify them in returning a member to Parliament. And the more of those boroughs that are thus cut off the larger will be the number of electors which Parliament will have to distribute among our con stituencies. Now, what 'should be done with such a burgh as Glasgow ? Are you content to go on with your brethren in Edinburgh, with a popula tion of, I forget exactly how many, but approach ing half a million now—will you go on contentedly returning four members to the House of Commons to represent your vast and annually increasing in terests and population, and that a population no greater than yours shall return, as the case may be, 50, or 80, or 100 members elsewhere. You are not the lovers of freedom that I take you to be—you do nqt understand this question as I am satisfied you: do—you have not resolved to brace yourselves up for this great contest as I hope you will to-night resolve, if you 'are content at all to go on in the same condition of things which yOu have been under in times past. (Applause.) I am not about to state what I think should be the limit that ought be taken. The limit that ought to be taken I am perfectly satisfied will not betaken. Lord J.Russell proposed that all boroughs whose population was under 5,000 should be dis franchised. Many persons proposed that allboroughs under 10,000 should not return members to Parlia s ment, but should merge in the counties, electors for bOroughs becoming in future electors for counties, to the vast improvement of the county representa tion. 3 will leave that point, for in my mind, if I had the drawing of a bill, it is not a settled ques tion, and I know nothing whatsoever about the in tentions of either the Government or of anybody else who may be likely to take a prominent part in introducing, any measpre to tlle,.ljouse, of commons and the' country. Now; in mind that it is possi ble to make a great change in your representation without the smallest improTement. -It is the same thing in daily life. At dinner you may go from (MP bad dish to another • you may go from one unplea sant street to another ; you may go from unprofit able business to another. You make a very impor tant change—you may change the representation as you shuffle cards or move the pawns upon a chess board, but there may be no successful result ; and it is precisely this which we ought to warn each other about, especially because it is quite possible that the Government, hampered, perhaps, by their own pre judices and indispositions, hampered by their-fol lowers—there may be some of their opponents who do not want much reform—may attempt a measure which, with the seeming of reform here and there, may leave the whole question of the representation in a state quite as unsatisfactory as it is at present. However, this I maintain, that there can be no re form whatsoever except upon the basis, or some thing like the basis, I have endeavoured to lay down; and I state this with the more particularity, because I am anxious that all my countrymen should have so entirely investigated the question that, when any measure is really placed before them, they may be in a condition of knowledge to form an intelligent opinion on it. (Applause.) At present the great body of the working classes of the country are excluded ; and I have shown you, I think, that, from the mode in which the electors are grouped and man aged, the great body of the middle classes, if not excluded, are so arranged and so worked upon that they may be said to be almost altogether de frauded. I want the working classes and the middle classes--I wish we had no such terms or that we had some better terms, but I mean all those persons who may be said to compose the vast population of the country, below the great privileged and titled classes of society—why should we not all unite fairly on behalf of this great measure of political freedom to which we are looking ? Depend upon it, a real measure of Reform is as much wanted for the security and the welfare . of the middle classes of society as of the operative classes. (Applause) There is a great attempt constantly made to frighten the middle classes. They are told that the working men will not be influenced in the least by those above them in condition, in circumstances, or in education: Some of you recollect 40 years ago, When such a thing as a public political meeting could not be held hi Scotland. What did the ruling class say then ? That political meetings were dangerous, that they were absolutely treasonable, that public tran quillity and the security of Government were im possible, if Englishmen and. Scotchmen were per mitted to meet and to discuss public affairs. Well, now we meet, and have met for many years, and we find that the public tranquillity and the security of the Government are infinitely . mere established than they have been at any previous period proba bly in the history of this country. (Cheers.) Twenty seven years ago, before the Reform Bill passed, what did these great peers, some of whom I appear to have startled out of their somnolent security,'say ? They said the King's Government could not be car ried on, and that from the time when that mode rate but great measure of reform was passed, there would be an end of the greatness and glory of this great nation. Well, what has been the result? Every one of their predictions has been utterly fal sified. Twelve or 14 years ago, when I was here last, what did they tell us about that small measure of repealing the Corn Laws ? Why, one great peer told us that he would leave the country; but one of the labourers at the meeting said, " He'll not take his land with him." And we are told that not agriculture alone, but the manufactures and all the great commerce of the country would be crippled, if not destroyed, and your noble river, bearing - the leviathans of naval architecture consti ucted upon its banks, would return into its former state of a small and pleasant stream, and I suppose men would catch trout and salmon from the bridges. (Laughter.) This kind of argumentation is what Jeremy Bentham has very happily described as a hobgoblin argument —the great trick now-a-days to frighten people lest they should do themselves some good. To the middle classes—to you who 27 years ago were pronounced utterly unworthy of the franchise, and to be filled with all manner of ignorance and all manner of evil tendencies—to you now they say, " You are the bery bulwarks of our constitution." (Laughter.) You live in £lO houses ; but if you go below—to £9, £B, or £7—you go wrong, the case becomes more desperate at £5, and a rating franchise is positively revolutionary. (Renewed laughter.) I confess I do not believe this in the least. The num ber of electors under this rating franchise has been verymuch exaggerated by those who have not exa mined it. It was stated at a meeting at Edinburgh the other night, by a gentleman whose authority will not be disputed, that the franchise I propose would raise the number of electors in Edinburgh from about 8,000 to about 17,000. Well, I presume that in your city it would raise it in a rather greater proportion than that ; but, whatever it may be, I am satisfied myself that if we are to take any step—if we now must change our representation without (soing near to convulsing the country and Parlia ment, destroying a Ministry , or two, and perhaps having a couple of general elections before this question is settled—l say to every man of the middle class, to every man who wishes the stability of all our valuable institutions and the security of law—treat the great body of your people. with magnanimous generosity, and I wholly mistake the character of my countrymen if 20 years hence there is not a unanimous acknowledgment that genero sity in 1859 was the path of absolute wisdom. (Loud and repeated cheers.) I observe in a num ber of some newspaper-=I am not sure whether it was one in your city—but I will say of those in your city that I have seen, that when they have differed from the views that I have propounded, there has been a fairness in their criticisms which I appreciate and which I honour. lam in favour of the most rigid criticism of political opinions and political acts, but this I do think, that we are en titled to demand of those who criticise that they shall not knowingly misrepresent, and that they • shall not fill up any void which we may happen to leave with something that is obviously inconsistent with the general character of our observations. Now, one of those critics said that I had failed to show to the working classes that giving tlitem a vote would be of the smallest advantage to them. I believe that it would be of advantage to them in the way of raising, their self-respect. (Hear.) I have seen thousands of men who had no votes at tending at the nomination of candidates, or 'stand • ing about the polling booths with looks of great • anxiety, and often with looks of great dejection. I believe that if the major part of these were enfran chised the effect upon their minds and morals and mental condition would be obvious and signal. The great secret of raising any man who happens to be in what may be called an inferior walk of life, and who seems as if he could make no effort to raise himself in it or from it, is to find out something that will increase his self-respect. If he becomes possessed (that is not, to be sure, a very high ground for self-respect) of the sum of £s—if he thinks he can make it £lO by frugality and labour—if he sees there is anything among . his fellow-workmen, or any of your numerous societies, benevolent.and educational, in which he can be of the least use, don't you see at once a change in the look of the • man ? What there was that was stupid, or low, or degrading to some extent, or hopeless, seems as • if it gradually sank and diminished, and in time retires altogether, and in its place it is succeeded by something greater, andhappier, and ennobling. • I believe when you invite the gi eat body of your artisans within the list of the roll of electors- -- when they can not en4ly attend your nominations and hold up their hands and cheer for the successful or ap plauded candidate, but when they can also go one by one into the polling booth and register their fiat as to the man who shall represent the great interests of the community—my honest, my conscientious con viction is, that you will do as much to raise their self-respect, to give them at least the rudiments and elements of a hither class of citizenship, as you do by all the other means that you now have in opera tion, with the view of improving the temper and the condition of the wOrking classes. (Applause.) And there are other res u lt s that will come to this • country, in case You, ev er o bt a in a fair representa tion of the people. I h ave b een i n Scotland a good deal for the last three or four years, and often before then. I have found, in travelling over your coun try, that your land is not the land of the people of Scotland, but that it is in possession in a manner exclusively, which is not found to be the case with regard to any other property, compared with the whole number of the people, of a small handful of proprietors. Nov, let no man say that lam about to assail any landed proprietor in Scotland. I have received many courtesies from them, and not a few • courtesies from the most eminent and most dis tinguished among them. I speak only of a system which arises from legislation, which is diametrically opposed to all those .great principles of political economy which we and you struggled for many years to place on our statute book in the shape of legislation in matters of trade. Land is the basis of your industry. Is there any reason why land should not, be as free as machinery, or ships, or household ferniture, or cattle, or the goods, and manufactures in your warehouses ?• If freedom bethe law of right, of wisdom, and of benevolence with re gard to all other kinds of property, how shall the reverse of freedom be any other than the law of mis chief and injury when applied to land? (Applause.) You travel, I was going to say, from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof, on one single estate in Scotland ; north or south, east or west, wherever you go, you ask whose land you are on, and it belongs to Lord This or Lord the Other, or Mr. Somebody-else. These are happy mortals it may be said, who ,possess these great terripm4es, and so, perhatisi they would be if it were vissible for any. man, however.wellslispose4ade quately to answer the responsibilities which such .possessionslay - upon him: - Yoh find - on these" vaSt estates rury few tenants, and generally few of an aftiebilualTopulation tit all. There is little social freedom—there is little industrial freedom—there is still less political freedom in districts such as these lam describin g . I don't know myself very well how men can breathe freely when they find themselves continually—but I suppose habit helps them to it—on a soil not a niorsel of which can they call their own, nor can they ever hope to call any of it their own, until they take their last long sleep in that which society shall allot them. lam no advocate for laws to force a division of land. I do not want any landlord to be compelled to have a greater or smaller number of tenants; but I say that a system of legislation in laws of primogeni ture and in laws of entail, which is intended to keep vast estates in one' hand through successive generations,, to prevent that occasional dispersion and change of property which is found so advan tageous in every other kind of property—l say that state otthings is full of the most pernicious consequences not only to the agricultural classes, but to all other classes of our countrymen, for all are affected by it. (Applause.) I recollect seeing a farmer one evening riding away from an inn that I was staying at in the Highlands, and I asked his namo. They said he was a farmer in some neigh bouring glen, and that he had a prodigious farm. At one time my informant said he recollected there were 14 good farnis on that farm, and that these 14 families always managed to send at least one of their sons to get a first-class university education. I don't want any law to strip that one farmer of his farm and restore the 14, but laws that interfere with the free course of transactions in . land, which aid and keep up such transactions in an estate, giving to one man the power over a whole terri tory, whereby he has at his disposal tenants and labourers alike, is a state of things not consistent with that freedom which the people of England and Scotlawl, in my opinion, are alike entitled to. (Applause.) . Your agricultural ' population have no chance of rising in the world. They can come to Glasgow, as scores of thousands of them have - come here from the Highlands and L from Ireland, and, forced by the unfavourable cir . . cumstances in which they find themselves, that they may become exiles from their native country, and may form colonies in the far Pacific or beyond the Atlantic. But I think we are bound as free- men---4ind we in this town. are especially bound, for we only have the power, to take the initiative in this great question, so far as we are able by our re presentatives in Parliament, and I have no doubt it would be one of the consequences of a real Reform Bill, to apply those great principles of political economy which are the gospel and .charter of indus try as fully to the great property in land as we have already applied them to property enjoyed in trade. (Applause.) There is one other point to which I must ask your attention, in answer to the question, What is the good which the working classes, or any claSs,will get from a wider extension of the franchise ? Now, there is one great qnestion which the public have. no sort . of' hold over. The present Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Disraeli, an eminent member of the House of Com Mons, a leading member of the Government, and a man of genius, whose position, I may say, is a proclama tion to the world of the incompetency of the Con• servative aristocracy aid of the country gentlemen of the United Kingdom—(applause)—and, what is still more to be remarked, is the evidence which this shows of the humility which adorns their character—(laughter)--in thus permitting it—Mr. Disraeli said on more than one recent occasion, that expenditure depends upon policy, and he meant by that that our public expenditure depends upon our foreign policy. Now, our past foreign policy has been of a very questionable character. It has landed us in a permanent payment, from which there is no honourable escape, of the sum of £28,000,000 sterling per annum—(hear, hear)—and our present:foreign policy, and matters connected with it, involve us in a present payment of £22,000,000 per annum in our great military and naval preparations and expenses. Now, lam not about for a moment to discuss the question of whe ther our foreign policy has been, or is now, good, bad, or indifferent, because that does not very much affect the question to which I want to call your atten tion. Now, in our home affairs we have a very open system of Government. If the Home-office is going to do anythin somebody hears of it, and somebody approves or somebody objects. On all matters connected with our freedom, with the ad ministration of justice, on things which may be called internal, we have the freest opportunities of obtaining information and expressing our opinions arid enforcing our views upon the Government, — that is, the freest that is possible so long as our re presentation is as imperfect as it now is; but when you come to our foreign policy you are no longer Englishmen, you are no longer free. You are re commended not to inquire ; if you do you are told that you cannot - understand it,--you are snubbed, hustled on one side, told that it is a matter too deep for common understandings like yours ' • there is a great mystery about it. We have what is called diplomacy,—we have a great many Lords engaged in what they call diplomacy. (Loud applause.) We have a Lori in Paris, we have another in Ma drid, another in Berlin, another (at least we have had up till lately) at Vienna, another until lately at Constantinople, another at Washington—all over the Continent particularly, and where the society is the most pleasing andthe climate the most agree able, there is always an English nobleman to repre sent the Foreign-office. (Laughter and applause.) But you never know what he is doing. You have three or four columns in the Times newspaper nearly everyday, and in almost all the rest of the London papers, and not a little of this is copied into the provincial papers, all about foreign affairs; but, notwithstanding that, . you are seldom a bit more acquainted with them when you read these things—if anybody ever does—than you were be fore. But yet out of all this has come this great fact of the £28,000,000 which you have paid since 1815, for more than 40 years—a thousand millions of money paid out of. the industry of your people. And out of this comes now the supposed necessity for armaments twice as large as were considered necessary 25 years ago; and yet you have no control over this, and you positively kriow nothing whatsoever about it. There is no population equal to this in Russia, Austria, or France, that knows less about the foreign policy or foreign affairs of Russia, Austria, and France, probably than this nation knows of the foreign affairs of England. Lately, your Minister of Foreign , Affairs was candid enough to tell you that the Government drifted—you know what they mean when. a ship drifts—into war ; and these Foreign Ministers have drifted us into a great many wars ; and I suspect if some change is not made with regard to this matter, they will find it very convenient, or find that they cannot avoid it, from some cause or another, to allow us to drift into war in future. I won't talk about what war is ;we have had a specimen. Be it necessary, be it unne cessary, be the quarrel just or be it unjust, be it for the rights of a nation, or be, it to gratify the stupidity of a Monarch or the intrigues of a Minis ter —war, nevertheless, is one of the greatest cala mities which can ever afflict any kingdom of the human race. (Loud applause.) But your people arc ignorant of the steps by which you are dragged into war. A Scotch duke—rather a sprightly duke too—lately took me to task for something which T said in a public speech. L called in question the wisdom of these enterprises abroad While the people of Ireland had a shilling a-day of wages, and great numbers of families in the Highlands of Scotland had two or three meals a-day consisting only of oatmeal. Why, what is the answer, the triumphant refutatitm—that"was - " a wholesome diet. (Laughter.), If I had said that the duke's dogs, at Inverary Castle werefcd with oatmeal the answer would have been perfectly w-itisfactory. (Loud and repeated cheers.) But I am told further by these great authorities that though the country does occasionally become involved in the calamities of war, the people are as fond of war as their rulers, and that even . the House of Lords was less disposed to the • last war than the people. Well, if they sorrowed for the wars, all I can say is they never told their grief." So far as can recollect there was but one member of the House of Lords —and I hold him in the highest honour for his courage, and, as I believe for his wisdom—that boldly declared the non-necessity of the contest into which we were drifting. • But is the people, are we, the nation, who• know nothing about these foreign affairs, to have the blame of these calamities thrown on us when they do occur ? Who form your Cabinets ? Glas gow mercharits, or shopkeepers, or artisans, or the farmers 'of. your counties ? No ; but members of the peerage of the Uriited Kingdom. The half of your Cabinet is alwaTs in your House of Lords, and the half that is in the House of Commons is more than half always connected with the peerage. Don't let us have the same men for generations — men of. one class, of a few families holding these high positions, enjoying their vast emoluments, standing before their country honoured with all its dignities, and when some one such as I am steps forward to point out the grievous blunders they have made, and the crimes that some of them have committed, and the fearful 'and incalculable suffer ings which their countrymen have endured—suffer ings which never will- be revealed to us here, but are known only, and will be recorded only, on the everlasting tablets of the Eternal : I say, when we point at these, don't let them turn round and say that we were in the Cabinets, we received the elm- luments, we had the dignities, we were the rulers of the country, but the people were in favour of ...war,_and we had_little to An with it. --(Applause.)- It is a striking thing to observe the wonderful, de lusions which nations_live under in. almost all ages of the world, and the submissive spirit with which they yield to them. I have often compared in my mind the people of England with the people of Egypt, and the Foreign-office of this country with the temples of the Egyptians. lam told that those ;who pass up and down the Nile—and we know something of it from the beautiful artistic repre sentations that have been laid before us—that you have, as you approach these temples, massive and lofty columns, towering obelisks, and gigantic statues, each one of which would appear almost to have exhausted a quarry. You have those vast chambers and gloomy passages, and some enormous recess, some holy of holies, in which when you ar rive you find, perhaps, some crawling reptile, almost loathsome to the unaccustomed eye, to which a nation had knelt in adoration, and to which it had offered the countless treasures of its wealth. In our Foreign-office we have none of those columns, no obelisks, none of these statues, nor have we these vast chambers, but we have mystery as profound, we have a deception as com plete, we have a superstition as contemptible ; foriu the enormous recess we find some miserable in trigue, in the pretended defence of which your fleets are traversing every ocean , your armies are marching and perishing in every clime, your toil-worn artisans and labourers are sweating at every pore, and the blood of our countrymen's children is squandered as though it was water, and had no price at all. (Loud applause.) I hope that an improved repre sentation will change all this, that that great por tion of our public expenditure which is connected with the doings, the secret and irresponsible doings, of our Foreign-office, will be placed directly under the firm control of a Parliament elected by the good sense and virtue of the great body of the people of the United Kingdom and then, and not till then, will your industry , be secure from that gigantic, confiscation to which it has been subjected during the last 150 years. (Applause.) There is much in this country, notwithstanding all this, that we might be proud of. We can write freely, we can meet in public as we are met to-night, we can speak freely all our political wishes and our politi cal grievances. . The ruling class, with a wise sagacity, have yielded this of )ate years without further struggle. But we are so delighted with our personal freedom=that we have no passports, that we have practically no censorship of the press, that we can move, speak, write, and act as freely as men require to do in a free country—we are so de lighted with all these that we appear to be almost altogether unconscious of the fact that our rulers extract from the industry of the people, and have dene it for half a century past, a far larger amount than any Government on the face of the earth in any age of the world, has ever extracted for pur poses of government, or for pretences of government, from an equal-number of people. Dr. Livingstone, the African traveller, if I am not mistaken, is a na tive of this city, or, at least, of the neighbourhood of this city, and you identify his reputation in some degree with yours. (Cheers.) He gives in his most charming work many anecdotes of the various crea tures, not human creatures, which he saw and heard of during his troubles. His describes in one place, I recollect, a bird which he calls a dull, stupid bird, a kind of pelican, I believe, which occupies itself with its own affairs by a river side in catching the unsuspecting fish which are gliding by. The peli can seizes a fish and puts it into a purse or pouch which he has, instead of the ordinary accommoda tion which anglers in Scotland have, a fish basket. Dr. Livingstone says there is another bird in that country which is neither dull nor stupid, and it is called a fish-hawk. He says that this fish-hawk hovers over the fishing pelican, and by and by comes down, not quickly but with a gentle poise of wing, the pelican looks up, becomes a little alarmed, opens its mouth. The hawk comes down, takes the fish, and away he goes. (Laughter.) The pelican, delighted that the hawk did not take himself away, immediately sets to work with the greatest possible diligence and endeavours to catch another fish. Now, I ask whether you can apply this anecdote. (Laughter and applause.) You are delighted that your Government is a Government that allows you to meet in vast assemblies like this—that it allows every man, at least in times of ordinary tranquillity, to say anything short of absolute treason, that your leading article writers can denounce every mem ber of the Government, and still walk the streets in perfect security; you are delighted that your ruling class makes no objection to the possession of all this freedom; and, like that pelican, you are so delighted that you are not absolutely eaten up, that you allow them to extract from your pockets every week of your lives, every year of your lives, an incredible portion of your industry, and you go to work again just as the pelican did—producing, labouring, making wealth, and this great Govern ment sponge comes down agan upon you. (Cheers.) Now, what I want is that all the people should examine this question thoroughly, for rely upon it their present and future welfare as a nation is greatly wound up with it. Many persons suppose that if a working man himself pays very little taxes—though we know that he pays a great deal, if he consumes coffee, tea, tobacco, spirits, or ale—it matters nothing to him what taxes the Government collects and expends. But there is no greater delusion than that. Everything which the Government expends, suppose it were all collected from the employers of the people, and none from the operative class, would be by so much a diminution of that great fund and capital out of which employment is found, and out of which alone wages can be paid. And any man, whether he pay taxes or not, who is not content to be a mere liver upon the taxes, has the strongest and most direct interest in establishing that kind of representation of the people which shall give us a firm control ever the expenditure of the public • money. (Ap plause.) I have Spent some years of my life in labouring for freedom of industry, and I hope to live to see in this country a complete freedom of the soil. I believe that to the landed proprietors, to those great nobles who are the possessors of so much of the soil, it would work a change to the full as beneficent as that which has been produced by the abolition of the corn laws. I think that freedom to the land, and greater economy in the expenditure of the public money, with the growing intelligence. which we all see around us, and which has made a revolution in the people of this country within the last twenty years, with the increase of habits of temperance among the people—l say all these things together fill me often with the hope that whatsoever we may have in our annals in the past of which we may boast, there is yet even a brighter future for this country, and a more pros perous and happy time for its people. (Applause.) I come among you not to stir up animosities be tween class and class. That is the charge of men who wish that one class should permanently rule the other classes of the country. I come among you rather that we may all deliberate in a friendly and open council on this great question, on which our individual success and our natural prosperity so much depend. You know it, at least if you do not know, I can tell you, that I am no frequenter of Courts • I have never been a seeker fo r o ffi ce , or for the emoluments of office ; I have no craving for popularity, I think I have but little of that which may be called a lust of fame ; I am a citizen of a free country, as you also are citizens. I love my country ; I love its freedom, but I believe that that freedom can only be ex tended on a fair and honest representation of the people, and it is because I believe that I am here to-night to ask you, iu the power of your numbers and of your intelligence, to step into the harvest that is before you, and obtain possession of that harvest. Mr. Bright concluded amid• u•burst of tremen dous cheering, having spoken an .hour and fifty minutes. The following resolutions were then carried : " Tliat this meeting of the citizens of Glasgow presents to John Bright, Esq., M.P., its warm congratulations on .his happy restoration to health, and most . respectfully assures him of its cordial anctenergetic support in promot ing the great cause of Parliamentary Reform which he so ably advocates. " That the committee promoting this meeting be re quested to adopt measures to advance its object, and that they have power M add to their number, and to take steps to secure extended co-operation." The proceedings of the meeting terminated with three loud cheers for Mr. Bright. [ADVERTISEMENT.]—Ittitey'i Horse and Cattle Improv ing Food is equally adapted to improve the stamina of ill conditioned Ilorses, Cows, Bullocks, Calves; Sheep, and Pigs. It causes no extra . expense, as it contains far mo re and better !nourishment than its cost of lid. per feed sup plies in,-.eorn and hay; hence ensures an actual saving in the keep. But its principal advantages are a great im provement in the digestive functions, the stamina and general condition of horses enabling them to perform far more labour without getting. distressed. It imparts new vigour to sick, debilitated or old apparently worn-out horses,. and it putt rapialy thd 'finest flesh on cattle gene rally, and improvea'the milk in cows, as it enables them to extract the entire nourishment out of everything they feed on. Rarey and Co., 77, Regent's Quadrant, Piccadilly, London. Packed in tins of about 99 feeds, lls. • in casks about 450 feeds, 505.; o f a b out 1,000 feeds, l i4l, being lid. per feed. [ADVERTISEMENT.]—.HoIIoway's Ointment.—Measles, Cough, I Vheezing.—The symptoms of coming measles are generally recognised by every parent ; but the safe mode of treatment is not so universally known or happily followed. The grand object is to keep the rash well out ; to prevent in flammation; to- check cough. Holloway's Ointment as sisted by a regulated temperature answers these-desirable results, when well rubbed upon the back and chest it is at. sorbed,, and acts so wholesomely on the entire system, that the morbid matter is naturally expelled,- and with moderate -care afterwards all danger of . pulmonary or head disease passes away. It is prudent in every case use this re medy, nor should the mildest attack lull us tutu dolVve or C911§ 1 4010 wwity. REVOLT AT TONKIN. The Moniteur de la Flotte-says:-- - -- - "The news of a revolt at Tonkin seems likely to be confirmed. If creditis to beattachedto a Manilla letter of the 23d Oct. which has been communicated to us, the chief of the insurrection is a Prince of the Trinh dynasty, whose father died in 1851 only, after having enjoyed great popularity at Tonkin. This family:reigned contemporaneously with the Le dynasty until the end of the 18th century, and was dethroned by the usurpers called Tay-Son, who only held power for a few years, and were in turn vanquished, after a severe struggle, by Hoang-De, of the Nguyen dynasty, who owed his success to the Bishop of Adran, so justly celebrated ; to the • French officers commanding his armies, and to the Roman Catholics, his noble auxiliaries. Iloang-De, once victorious, joined Tonkin to Cochin-China, and assumed in 1802 the natne of Gia Long, under which he immortalised.himself. That Prince pro. tected the French and the Catholics, to whom he owed everything. But at his death, in 1820, his son and successor, Minh-Menh, changed the system entirely, and broke off relations with the old friends and the brave lieutenants of his father. Thieu-Tri, the son of Minh-Menh, having attained to power in 1841, commenced persecuting the benefactors of his family ; and his successor Tu Due, the present Emperor being animated by a worse spirit than even his predecessor, con tinued to exercise against the Christians, to whom he owed his crown, a system of persecutions and tortures which recal to mind the sanguinary annals of the reign of Diocletian. Seldom has more stupid ferocity been seen united to blacker ingratitude. His sanguinary reign commenced in 1847, and his tyranny has not only been exercised against the Christians, but has weighed heavily on the other populations of his States, and especially on the in- • habitants of Tonkin, who entertain a profound aversion for his government.. This hatred explains the sympathy which the last descendant of the Trinh dynasty has met with. It was stated at Manilla that the new pretender exhibited the most favourable dispositions towards the Christians, and it is already known that, about 1837, his father having wished to consolidate his position, for that end had sought to secure the support of the Chris tians. We shall not be long in finding out whether these reports are correct, and what is the extent of the revolt, for Father Rivas, sent to Tonkin to as certain the real state of matters, left on the 14th October. What appears certain both as regards Tonkin and Cambodia, is, that the country gene rally is in a state of agitation. It is easily under stood that • Admiral Rigault de Genouilly, Com mander in Chief of the expedition, whose merit and devotedness are known, finding himself among population of several millions of souls, wishes to be well acquainted with the position of affairs before undertaking his great operations towards the centre of the country, which. will commence as soon as circumstances allow." COUNTRY MA_RKETS. NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE -Mx. 21. At this morning's market the trade in wheat was in active, and the few parcels disposed of were at last week's rates. The trade in barley was confined to a few fine malt ing samples, at previous rates. A fair demand for oats, and Saturday's prices realised. Very few inquiries for flour, but it was not offered on any lower terms. In other articles nothing doing. NEWARK—Mgc. 22. To-day the show of wheat was very limited, and the sales made were at is to 2s advance on last week's prices. A moderate show of barley, fine malting parcels is dearer, in inferior sorts little doing. In oats no change. Beans scarce and dear. White wheat, new, 46s to 49s Barley, grinding..2Bs to 32s Red do. 4OB to 42s Oats, old, —s to -a Old white 39s to 40s New do 25s to 265 Red do. 36s to 39s I Beans .. 445 to 485 Barley, malting....36s to 39s I Malt.. 66s to 72s HULL-DEC. 21. At the market this morning there was a moderate sup ply of English wheat, for which the demand was more general than of late, and sales free at fully the late rates. Foreign held too high for buyers. Barley dull. Beans and peas a slow sale, but not cheaper. Oats a slow sale, in favour of the buyer. More inquiry for clover and grass seeds. Linseed in good supply. Wheat.... Old white per qr. 44s Od to 46s Od Old red New white .. „ New red .... „ Dantzic, Konb., &c. old white 50s Od to 52s Od Dutch, Belgian, and French 4ss Od to 46s Od Baltic and Hamburg, red St. Petersburg and Riga, old 3Bs Od to 39s Od Barley.... English malting 32s Od to 36s Od Grinding 2Bs Od to 30s Od Saal and Oderbruck Holstein and Danish 29s Od to iii, Od Grindino•. Oats English, old Archangel and Riga ' per st Os lld to 11 3 / 4 d Friesland and Dutch 05111.41 to 18 Od Swedish and Danish oBlla to 08110 Beans ....English, old, per qr. .. 41s Od to 45s Od New pigeon 4os Od to 42s Od New tick. 39s Od to 40s Od Egyptian 3ss Od to 36s Od Peas Foreign breakers Grinding - Od Tares ....Winter Bsa Od to 90s Ad Indian Corn Linseed, feeding sos Od to 55s Od , crushing , 44s Od to 51s Od Linseed cakes (Hu11) £9 7.6t0 . £9 10 0 Foreign BlO oto 815 0 Rape cakes 6 5 oto 610 0 Bones 512 6to 515 0 CORK—Dze. 20. The following were the quotations this morning :—Red wheat, 17s Od to 235; white, 18s 6d to 22s Od; barley 108 941 to 15s 3d; oats, 9s Od to 12s 6d. • DUBLIr —DEc. 21. The market to-day conti Friday, with a small supply, cues much the same as laSt at the following prices : . s. d. s. d. Wheat, white 22 6 to 24 6 Do., red 2l 6 to 22 6, Do., new Barley Oats Do., black ll 0 to 12 0 s.d. s. d. DO., new Il 6 to 13 0 Bere . ll 6 to 12 6 Rapeseed 26 0 to 29 0 Oatmeal l2 6 to 14 0 Bakers' flour l3 0 to 18 8 Indian corn COAL MARE (Prices of Coal per Ton at :ET--DEC. 22. the close of the market) Walls End. x. d. 15 6 Hartlepool Wed Hart- . . ley 14 9 s. d. Bell - • 17 3 Bradyll's Hetten......18 9 _Harvey. .Hello - • •19 0 Hilda - • .16 3 Belmont . - • Duifryn 21 0 24—Sold, 24.- Walls End. Cassop ___ 18 9. Hartlepool. .19 3 South Hartlepool 18 3 Ships at market LOCAL SHARE MARKETS. LIVERPOOL-DEC. 22. The market was steady throughout' the day, closing flat. North British, 58/ 9—York and North Midland, 76/ Eastern Counties, 12 1-16 I—Midland, 1021 I—Chester and Holyheads, 45 t—Caledonians, 871 7i---Lancashire and Yorkshire, 981—London and North-Westerns, 95 East Lancashire, 96 7—Dutch _Rhenish, 3j 9-16 dis.— Grand Trunk of Canada, 9i 3-16—Great •Western, 55 Leeds Northern, 48—Dovers, 22/ 9-16--Berwicks, 9 Great Western of Canada, 161 161 Blackburna, 11 i t Birkenheads, 67 67/. MANCHESTER--DEC. 22. The market was rather quieter to-day but firm. Dovers, 22k—Sheffields, 391—Ditto 3i per Cents., 691 u.—Midland, 104—North Stafford, 4d. East Lancashire, 6 per Cent. Pref., 1411—Blackburn stock, 44—Grand Trunks, 91 1— Londons, 96 I—Leeds, 98/ BIRMINGHAM-DEC. 22. The transactions in shares to-day were as follow : South Staftbrds, from 10f to 10a--Shropshire Unions, 46 — Great Westerns, 554—Ditto, - Birmingham Guaranteed stock, 74—Midland, 4l—Pref. stock, 105. BIRTHS. BRAMALL.—On the 19th inst., the wife of W. F. Braman, Esq., of a son. CROPPER.—On the 19th inst., at Dingle Bank, Liverpool, the Hon. Mrs. Edward Cropper, of a daughter. HAINES.—On the 20th inst.,- at Viewfield-place, the lady of Brevet-Major Haines, 92d Highlanders, of a daughter. NINIL—On the 22d inst., at Beech-house, Mrs. H. Nind, of a son and. heir. MARRIAGES. COLLINSON—BARBER.—On the 21st inst., at St. Martin's in-the-Fields John Win. Sowden CoHinson, Esq., of Doncaster, Yorkshire, to. Jane Elizabeth, the youngest daughter of Robert H. Barber, Esq., of Hayton Castles, county of Notts. SPOFFORTH LOUDON. —On the 21st inst., at Christ Church, Craven -hill, Paddington, Markham Spofford', Esq., of 61, Jermyi-street, St.. James's, to Agnes, only child of the late J. C. Loudon, Esq. . DEATHS. COWSLADE.—On the 22d inst.,. at Bayswater, Frederick Cowslade, Esq., late of Reading. DANSEY.—At Stake, • Devonport, Frederick Dansey, Esq., of Canterbury Villas, Maida-vale, London, aged 53. DALTON.—On the 20th inst., at the Vicarage, Kelevedont Essex, the Rev. C. Dalton, 54 years resident vicar of that parish, aged 83. ELL/CE.—On the 19thinst., at Balbirnie, Fifeshire, Robert Ellice, Esq., aged 43. GRIBBLE.—On the 21st inst., suddenly, at his residencet, Warner-road, Camberwell, Mr. Edward Gribble, late the East India House, aged 71.. Ronnisorr.—On the 21st inst., at,Prenchay, near Bristol, Colonel W. H. Robinson, aged 58. StIMiTER.—On the 20th inst., at Brightwell Rectory, the Rev. R. Sumner, rector of Brightwell, and third son of _the Lord Bishop of Winchester, aged 35. LONDON : Printed and Published by MURDO YOUNG of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at The Sun Office, No. 112, Strand, in the Precinct of the Savoy, in the county of Midden; Thursday, Decuuber 23, 1868. The th e 181 , br?ei eeiv :the *iv I t ' w The Bt Ed' Th Sire Joh. lieu Pal