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

MESSRS. GIBSON AND BRIGHT AT 111.,INCHE,STER. MANCHESTER, FRIDAY NIGHT. This eveninr , a soiree has been given to the Right Hon. T. M. Gibson, M.P. for Ashton-under- Lyne, a n d M r . J o h n B r i g ht, M.P. f or Bi rm i ng ham, for the purpose," in the terms of the announce ment issued by the committee who have conducted the arrangements, "of congratulating the hon. Member for Birmingham on his restoration to health ; to celebrate the return of himself and his late colleague (the Right Hon. T. M. Gibson) to Parliament for the boroughs of Birmingham and Ashton ; and to thank them for their patriotic conduct during the last session of Parliament, as Weil as for their long and faithfulservices as repre- L'entatives for this city." The soiree was appro- Priately held in the magnificent Free Trade hall, erected to commemorate the triumphs of the Anti- Corn Law League, to which both the hon. gentle tam so materially contributed. The soiree derived its chief interest from the fact that it was the first Occasion on which the two ex-members for Man chester have appeared here in public since their rejection by this constituency. The doors were Opened at 5 o'clock, and the ladies and gentlemen who had obtained tickets, after partaking of tea, c offee, and other refreshments which had been Provided in the ante-rooms, proceeded to take their seats in the great hall, which soon filled rapidly with an eager and excited concourse of both sexes. Shouts o f applause greeted the arrival of the prin cipal persons, who successively took up their posi tion on the platform. When the two ex-represen tatives of Manchester were expected to make their aPPearance, the grand organ gave out a sonorous welcome in the familiar notes of " Auld Lang ~Yrie." By a spontaneous, and as it were electric impulse, the huge gathering caught up the touch- 3 -,'g strain, and, thrilling with enthusiasm, as Messrs. Gibson and Bright entered the arena of their former triumphs, stood up simultaneously and accorded them a vehement, prolonged, and deafening reception. The heroes of this ovation, though evidently struggling to re press their emotion, were visibly affected by the demonstration of feeling of which they were the objects. Mr. G. Wilson, the well-known Pre sident of the League of former days, presided on this occasion, and on his right sat Mr. Bright, and Alr. Gibson on his left. The following letts-rs, from Lord J. Russell,M.P., Mr. Cobden, Mr. C. P. Villiers, M.P., and Mr. L. m.p, apologizing for their inability to attend the meeting, were then read : " Pembroke-lodge, Richmond, Nov. 27, 1858. , l-eg you will express to the committee whohave ~..,00en appointed to mak israngements for the soiree to Mr. N. Gibson and Mr. Brt my regret that it will not be in 4 , 111 Y Power to attend as a guest on that occasion . — l have the honour to be, your faithful servant,. " J. RUSSELL." " Midhurst, Dec. _4. "My dear Wilson,—Your letters ought to 'have been a nswered long ago, but it is a task which I should still like to put off, for it does seem unnatural to send any but the old familiar answer. 'But, with a word or two of explana ucol, I must throw myself on the kind forbearance of my frie n-ds• After the last election, as you know, I came to Ike res o l u ti on o f w ithd raw i ng , f or a time, from public life. did so in no spirit of resentment, and from no sense of no at not having been returned to Parliament. I had '0 such feelings. But finding myself, for the first time for bearly 20 years, free to choose,,other responsibilities pressed u pon me ; I felt that a life of incessant political action had involved no little neglect of duty (some of it, I fear, irre- Parable), towards those to whom nature had given the first claims on my time and attention. I therefore stated pub licly my intention to claim, for a season, the privileges and 2rolinities of private life. The announcement, however, t he to have been viewed as very much on a par with . '"e coy u tt erance o f nob episcopari; for I have continued " 0 receive the usual invitations to public meetings, and ?scarcely a vacancy has since occurred for any boroughs f or Which I havq not been solicited by parties, with more or less authority (often with very little, I dare say), to become a candidate. And this brings me to the point I w ish you to be-good enough to consider. If I were to -at tOd the b anque t t o b e g iv en to our friends, Bright and Gibson, in Manchester (and who can doubt that I should 1 41 , h ave been glad to 'do ?) without being prepared to resume duties of public life (which at present I am not), I fear Should not only falsify my past pleas and 'excuses, but be Unable with consistency, to decline other invitations, %veral of which haVe been forwarded 'to me in anticipation °' Illy visit to Manchester. Let me then entreat you, and 11 3 r kind friends of the committee, not to put painful terap tions in my way. I shall be with you in spirit at your great gathering. The object you have in view, that of ex !eruLling the sphere of liberty, will always have my hearty s ympathy. It would be strange, indeed, if you and I had Ilot faith in freedom, after een, in one path of freedom, progress, that freedom, w and literally nothing but 4 reedon a , has yielded a greater amount of prosperity and contentment than could have been conferred on this coun try by a whole volume of acts of Parliament. I have faith 1 21 freedom, not only in its application to trade, but to all the pursuits and interests •of humanity. Let us cherish ' , lke liberty to speak, to write, to worship, and last, though Xot least,, liberty to vote. Wishing you, what I know awaits You, a great and happy meeting, believe me, yours truly, " George Wilson, Esq. " RICHARD COBDEN." " 39, Sloane-street, London, Dec. 4. "Mv dear Sir,—l beg to acknowledge the receipt of an invitation which, on the part of the committee, you have b een goodenough to send me, to attend the soirecto Messrs. Gibson and Bright, which will take place at the Free Trade 1 4 , in Manchester, on the 10th inst., and I have to rev et t l , at the present state of my health will prevent - my having ' 4 O pleasure of attending on the occasion. With every wish that the meeting may be attended with advantage to the c ause of reform, I remain, mE n dear sir, very-faithfully yours, " George Wilson, Esq. "" "C. P. VILLIERS." " Woburn-park. Chertsey, Nov. 25. " Dear Sir,—l regret very much that it will not be in 111 ...,Y power to he present at the soirée to be given to Messrs. Gibson and Bright. I am. indeed, glad to, see that . the c onstituency of Manchester has come to its senses, and pro poses magnanimously to make the only finien , de in its 'Power by offering, in the handsomest manner, a public dis 4vowal of its ungenerous conduct on a late occasion ,when, vithout even an excuse, Manchester rejected the disinte rested services of her late members.—l have the honour to be, your most obedient servant, " P. J. LOCKE KING." " George Wilson, Esq. It was stated that letters had also been received L'om the following gentlemen, regretting their Inability to attend :—Mr. J. A. Roebuck, M.P. ; kr. A. H. Layard ; Mr. W. J. Fox, M.P. ; Mr. `Williams, M.P. ; General Thompson, M.P. ;. Mr. 3. • • L. Ricardo, M.P, ; Mr. H. Pease, M.P..; Mr. W. . 1 1rart, M.P. ; Mr. W. S. Lindsay, M.P. ; Mr. C. , M.l', ; Mr. C. Foster, M.P. • Mr. J. White, ; 'Mr.. E. Miall, Mr. R. Gladstone ; Sir J. axton, M.P. ; Mr. J. Heywood, Mr. F. Crossley, "I -P._; Mr. J. Locke, M.P. •, Sir A. H. Elton, M.P. ; Air. S. Beale, M.P. ; Mr. H. Woods, M P. ; Mr. J, kleetham, M.P. ; and Mr. M. J. Bass, M.P. The CHAIRMAN, in opening the proceedings, l'eferred at some length to the circumstances under \\'hieli, at the last general election, Mr. Gibson and '▪ Ir. Bright were defeated by the union of Whigs • and Conservatives, and the grief caused by the re !lilt t o a ll true . Reformers. In the adjoining °orough, a subordinate member of her Majesty's Government---(groans)—announceal to the as sembled people that Lord Pdmerston at Broad lands would hear of the degradation of Manchester. 3lut, now, at the, end of 18 months, where were they ? The member for Salford visited his con stituents, and no praise of his late master formed the staple of his speech. (Hear, hear.) No vote of thanks'rewardcd him for his past services, and no telegraphic message was sent to Woodlands an nouncing the receipt of such a vote. (Hear, hear.) 4 le proceeded to pass a high eulogium upon Mr. Gibson 'and Mr. Bright for their services as Freetraders and as Reformers, and the sentiments expressed met with warm applause from the meeting. The following resolutions were moved and seconded, and carried by acclamation : "That this meeting presents to John Bright, Esq., M.P., Its respectful and cordial congratulations on his restoration to health, and expresses its devout gratitude that he is thereby enabled once more to devote his great energy and orainent abilities to the'service of the people." "That this meeting records its high satisfaction at the return to Parliament, by important constituencies, of the Right Hon. Thos. M. Gibson, M.P., and John Bright, Esq., and hereby tenders its warmest thanks to the electors of Birmingham and Ashton-under-Lyne, for the obligation t i ler have conferred upon the nation by reversing a shame -4,111 verdict, and restoring those gentlemen to the House' of ,-, onrrnons." " That this meeting expresses its admiration of the honest; consistent, disinterested, and patriotic conduct of the right hon. member for Ashton-under-Lyne, and the Tn. member for Birmingham, during the whole course . of their political connexion with this city, thanks themmost , ,l'armly for their political services on behalf of political, rtomercial, and religious freedom, and renews its earnest 'Lopes that they may be long spared to labour for the ad !aneement of the best interests of the British empire." Mr. GIBSON was received with loud cheers. He thanked the meeting for his reception, and said he looked with no little pride upon having been a re presentative of Manchester for 17 years, and when he placed in his house the document now presented to him his children would look upon it with pride, and feel that he had conferred upon them an ho nour by his long representiXon of so great and in:- Portant a constituency. The principles which they E .r the meeting) professed now, and had always pro fessed, suffered no defeat at the general election of , 18 57. There might be temporary clamour or momen .„Lary depression, but the principles themselves were umnded on the rock of eternal truth. (Hear.) The temporary passing defeat of the general election ad but a tendency to give additional freshness and. Nigou r to the supporters of those principles. (Ap• r e ause.) The chairman had spoken of him as having been originally connected with the landed interest, and he was still connected with it. He contended that a ll i nteres t s were id en ti ca l s i nce th e p a ssing o the great measure of free trade, and the adoption 4:L uc the policy of commercial freedom ; and he believed ~Tat no man ever served the landed interest better an he who promoted the prosperity of the manu facturing interests. He had been reading speeches d e livered in various parts of the kingdom, and he one to-day delivered by a gentleman with ' 4ol :a this constituency were once invited to form isin.ses )one. asintass Done. Business Done. ;liminess Done. ;usiness Done. ness done rnE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, DECEMBER H, 1858. an intimate alliance—he allude l to the Right Hcn. R. Lowe. (Hear, and laughter.) The right hon. gentleman made an observation in hi 3 speech that was not very encouraging to the reader. He said that he was at a loss to express an opinion upon the prcent state of public affairs. (Laughter.) That he knew nothing ; that he could conjecture nothing— (continued lauchtar)—and that he was not much more ignorant than the rest of his fellow-country men. (Laughter.) But MiP.Lowe, notwithstanding, expressed one very confident opinion—he was sure, he said, that nobody wanted reform—(laughter) ; that universal apathy prevailed, and that there was indifference among all classes of society into which he entered as to the proposals that had been made to reform the representation of the people. (Laugh ter.) When apathy was talked of, he wanted to know what it was expected that people were to do. (Hear, hear.) A man had an opinion, and he was prepared to give proof of that opinion by his vote at an election, by his attending public meetings, by his sympathising as best he could with the cause ; but the people of England were a business people; they had their daily occupations. Men could not he constantly leaving their daily avocations for the purpose of promoting political mea sures, and it did not follow that they must be sin cerely desirous for changes that were proposed and, that their opinions might not be deeply founded. (Applause.) But he wanted to know, if there was all this apathy, what was the meaning of there being so_ many volunteers to_ reform the re- presentation of the people in high places. Henever knew before that ardour for reform prevailed among the Prime Ministers of England—of all parties, Whig, Conservative, and Peelite. Lord Derby pro posed a Reform Bill, Lord Palmerston was going to propose a Reform Bill, only it was not ready when he retired from office. (Laughter.) Lord John Rus sell he believed to be sincerely desirous to promote Parliamentary reform. (Hear.) They had Lord Derby, about to reform the representation of the people, and yet to say that nobody wanted reform. The fact was that these men had the sagacity to see that the country required reform—(hear, hear) —they were bidding against each other to give what they plainly see is the obvious demand of the great body of the people of this country. (Applause,) But why was reform especially wanted ? One rea son was that the country did not.possess, with the present House of Commons, an effective control over the public expenditure. (Hear.) Reforth was to enable the people of England to do this; that the country should not be involved in secret diplomacy, of which the people knew nothing; by arrangements made between foreign powers and Ministers of State, in wars and expenditure which it was after wards found impossible to curtail or control. At this moment the expenditure of England was, to his mind, appalling; it could not, and he was certain would not be permittel by a Parliament that really represented the feelings and wishes of the great "bodrof the people, (Hear, hear.). He believed the reason . Was that, up to the present time, the people had not been in possession of the knowledge and information requisite to form opinions upon public expenditure ; but that under an extended suffrage, and with a cheap and free press circulating politi cal and all other knowledge among the great body of the people, a future Parliament would be able to exercise that effective control over the expenditure of the country which, up to the present moment, had not been accomplished. (Applause.) Mr. BRIGHT then stood forward to address the meeting, and was received with the most vocifer ous cheering, accompanied with the waving of hats and handkerchiefs ; the tumult of enthusiasm lasted for several minutes. Silence having been restored the hon. gentleman spoke as follows : Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,—l cannot tell you how much I rejoice. in being permitted to meet - so large a number of those whom I may describe as my old and dear friends in the political cause. I fear, however, that the reception which you have granted to me to-night, and which you have but this instant given to me, is calculated in some degree to disturb the balance of the mind, and to interfere with that calm judgment which is demanded by the circum stances under which we have met together, and by the gravity of that great question which is now being discussed in every part of the united king dom. I know not whether there are persons who will look upon this meeting in the light of the commemoration of a defeat which we have sus tained ; to us it wears more the aspect of the cele bration of some great success ; .and may.we not say that we are successful—that, notwithstanding the vicissitudes which wait upon the career of public men and the progress of public questions of a free country, we find, as we look back over a term of years, that those beneficent principles which we have so often expounded and defended on this ground are constantly making advances and acquir ing more and more influence over the minds of all our countrymen. Forty years, ago the spot where we are now assembled became famous—thousands of the population of Manchester and its neighbour hood gathered here, not in this magnificent hall, but under the wide canopy of heaven ; they met Only to pjcad with the ministry and Parliament of that day that they may be permitted some share in the government of their country, and that they might be permitted further to possess that natural right which one would think no man would ever deny to another, namely, the right of disposing of the produce of his labour in the open market of the world in purchase for his daily bread. That meeting was dispersed by the rude arm of military power. The tragedy of that day proved at once the tyranny and brutality of the Government and the helplessness and humiliation of the people. (Hear, hear.) Now, you have seen a Ministry representing and supported by the poli tical party which committed that iniquity voting in the House of Commons, in favour of a resolution which declared that the repeal of the corn laws has been a great blessing to this country ; and after having 26 years ago obtained one instalment of reform, you have now the . amazing spectacle of a Ministry, representing and supported by that same political party, engaged at this very hour in the arrangement of the clauses of another bill which will still further extend the political rights of the great mass of the population_of the country. (Loud cheers.) Seeing this, then, who would despair ? Since I have been able to think maturely upon public questions--since I have been able and have been permitted to open my mouth in these the pub lic councils of my countrymen, I have never for one moment despaired; and when I look around me and see this magnificent—l will say this powerful assemblv—(cheers)—my hopes and my faith are confirmed, and I. gather fresh strength for what ever struggles I may have to encounter. (Loud cheers.) My friend Mr. Gibson has in his speech steered clear, to a great extent—l may, perhaps, say entirely—of the details connected with the question of Parliamentary Reform. I think at this moment, wherever men assemble to discuss political questions, it would be a great misfortune if some one present did not go into some of the details con meted with the question of Reform, and perhaps in the peculiar position in which I now stand with regard to it you will not expect"that I should leave the subjected untouched. (Cheers.) Now, let us recollect that . whatever is said upon this question will meet much hostile criticism from persons who are not at present with us. You know that a few weeks ago I addressed large audiences of my constituents in Birmingham on this important sub ject, and you are aware to what. kind of hostile criticism those speeches have been subjected. It is not in human wisdom to make speeches to please everybody—(laughter and cheers—:nd it is not in human wisdom to. attempt to do it. (Renewed laughter and cheering.) I shall take the course of addressing myself to that subject according to the light I have with regard to it froth great study, from much consultation with dithers, and from an honest wish I have that the question of reforM should be rightly viewed by every intelligent man among my countrymen. Now, we will mention two or three things that we do not want. We don't pro pose in the smallest degree to call in question or to limit the prerogatives of the Crown. I believe we are prepared to say that if the throne of England (and we hope that it may be so) be filled with so much dignity and so much purity as we have known it to be in our time, and as we know it now to be — (cheers) —we hope that the venerable monarchy of England may be perpetual. We do not propose even to discuss, much less to limit, the legal and constitutional privileges or prerogatives of the House of Peers. We know, everybody knows, no body knows it better than the Peers, that a House of hereditary legislation cannot be a permanent in stitution in afree country—(cheers)—for we believe that such an institution must, in the lapse of time, require essential modification. Last year or the year before the Queen herself proposed to nominate persons to life peerages. That was deemed a vital change by the present members of the House of Lords, and in a manner that was not gracious to the Sovereign or respectful to the nation they almost insolently rejected the attempt of the Crown and its Ministers to introduce into that Chamber a member whose peerage would exist only during his life. We don't want to discuss that question now. We want to discuss that question which is immediately before the country, and which the Government has brought before the country—for we did not take the initiative on this occasion—a question, moreover, in Which we are deeply and closely in terested. The House of Commons is so called, I presume, because it is understood and intended to represent all those portions of the vast majority of the people who are not included in the privileged and titled classes. The Constitution, if I know anything about it, intends that the house should fairly, openly, and widely represent all the great interests of our vast population, o who are called upon to obey the Illegishttinwhich is m e iacted by that house. Now, I wish to ask you this simple question—Do you believe after exa mining the figures which have been placed befor.- you for months and for years past, that the House of Commons does at present fulfil honestly its it tended place. in the representation in thus being the organ and the expression of the opinion of all classes of the population of Great Britain and Ire land ? (Cries of " No, no.") You may have a shadow and a form of representation as of anything else. You know. very well that . you may have gorgeous temples, and you may have, in wonderful ostnta tion, all the outward symbols of religion, and yet there may be wholly wanting the life of Chris tianity itself ; and you may have a milliOn or more of electors, you may have canvassing and nomina tions, and polls and returns, and a house of legisla tion, and speeches, and contentions of parties, and divisions, and laws enacted, and yet there Wray be only the form of representation, and. its life and spirit and reality may be altogether absent. (Cheers.) All this we had previously to 1832, yet nobody says now that we had a repre sentation before that' time. All these things, or nearly till of them, existed in France previously to 1848. A great deal of it exists there at this moment, and yet there is a general impression that repre sentation is not free there, as there is a general be lief, a knowledge, that it was not free here pre vious to the passing of the Reform Act. I should like to put in as few words as I can what we think the House of Commons should be. It should be a house composed of men sent up by the free election of so many of the people voting with such an equality of power as shall give a real expression of the opinions of the nation. If anybody says that we are for levelling doctrines, and that we intend to have a President instead of a Queen—which is a favourite theory with some people—you, at least, will not believe them. And I ask them to read again, if they choose to read once that they may not misrepresent, what I am now proposing. Now, what is . the English constitution P—l never saw it. (Laughter.) I never heard of anybody who had handled it. It is not, in very words, in any book ; but there is, notwithstanding, some thing which we all understand in the British Con stitution. It is not a think meant entirely for the Crown. The Crown has its limits by act of Parlia ment and by custom. Nor is it intended entirely for a hereditary Peerage. The House of Lords has its prerogatives and its privileges well defined ; but the Constitution does not confine itself to caring for the Monarch on the throne or the Peer in his gilded chamber. The Constitution regards the Commons as well. It regards you and me and all the people of the United Kingdom, and it professes to take within its pale all these populations and these interests, and to give to them as complete a shelter and as complete a voice as it gives to the Queen or to the Peerage. (Cheers.) But if you want the House of Commons elected by so many of the people as shall give a fair expression of the people's wishes, can any living man say that it is so when five out of every six of all the men he will meet, if he traverses every county from John o'Groat's to Land's End—from Cape Clear to the Giant's Causeway—have no More votes at the poll for a member of Parliament than if they lived in South America or South Afriett? They have no thing whatever to do with it except to look on, or sometimes to hold up • their hands, and some times to shout for one candidate or the other, but if you think it necessary that your members should be elected by some fair number of votes, that votes -should be given with something like an equality of power—how - far are you from this when you hear that 330 members of the House of Commons, more than one-half of the whole number, are returned by less than one-sixth of that very small number of persons to whom the franchise is intrusted ? You give votes to a million out of six millions, and you allow • one-half the House of Commons to be elected by less than 200,000 of those electors. Then, if bribery be somewhat common, and if intimidation, whenever it canlibe practised, is almost universal, how can you come to the conclusion that there is any real freedom of election whatsoever when you survey the whole representation of the counties and boroughs of the kingdom ? Now, I will ask your attention for a moment to the • counties. They, as you know, return their members by votes chiefly of two classes—freeholders and occupiers of land or houses of the value of £5O a-year and upwards. Of these occupiers of £5O and upwards there are about 200,000, but of occupiers between £lO and £5O, as I find from a return recently made to the House of Commons, there are not less than 400,000, and by the present law these 400,000 are entirely ignored and excluded from the franchise, and the 200,000 being to a very large extent occupiers of land, and for the most part, without leases, are in a great measure dependent upon the good will of their landlords, and their votes, speaking generally, are employed to swell the power of the great landed proprietors at all the county elections of the king dom. (Cheers.) Now, Lord Derby, the present Prime Minister, is a man who has the power of ex pressing very accurately what he means ; he is a great master of the English language, and he once gave us an illustration of what is understood in English by the county representation. He said, if anybody would tell him what were the politics of three or four of the great landed proprietors of any county, he could tell at once what were the politics of the members for that county. (Laughter.) We might fancy, if we did not know something of it our selves, that this was some conjuring trick, but it is, in point of fact, nothing but that which we all know—the three or four great proprietors are the constituents of your county,and the members are the representatives of those great proprietors. They have, unfortunately for us, small sympathy with commerce, and they have never manifested—at least for the last GO years—any sympathy. whatever with Reform of any kind,—how should. they ? They are connected with the peerage and with the great territorial power; the members of their families, generally speaking, do not come into the occupa tions of trade ; they 'find employment, at least they find salaries —(laughter)—in the military or in the naval services or some other service of the country, or they take shelter from the storms of life in some snug family Irving in the church. (Laughter and cheering.) I venture to say that if it were possible to have an accurate account of the • receipts and payments of those families, and there are many hundreds of .them, I believe there are some thou sands who receive more in the way of emolument and. salaries of one kind or other from the public revenues, from the 60 or 70 millions of taxes which you annually raise, or from that portion of the e p s u t l a ti l e i s e h s e t d a t e church,Nvlii e li_fo l r h t e h l i e e v timee theyis e l t e t e l uste fda o m the e than the whole of the taxes which they annually w pay to the expenditure of the State. (Cheers.) But won't find all the fault with the countie s ; the boroughs are not at all in a satisfactory state. I was lookincr down a list the other night beginning with the fower Hamlets—the largest population, and coming down to some one which is the smallest, —I forget its name,—but I found that there were 71 boroughs, not one of which has a population of 10,000 persons. I think 10,000 is but one-third the average population of one of the wards in Man 7 cheSter. (Cheers.) The whole population of the 71 boroughs is only 467,000, which is not very much more than the present population of Man chester and Salford, and vet these 71 boroughs re turn 117 members to the House of Commons—(cries of " Shame !")—while Manchester and Salford return only three members ; but if you go a little lower, to 8,000 as a standard, you will find not less than 54 boroughs, and their whole population is exactly 316,000, which is precisely the popula tion of the city of Manchester at the census of 1851, and these 54 boroughs return 89 mem bers, while Manchester returns only two. (Shame.) Now, if Manchester and Salford, by some tradition of the past or some accident or the other, returned 117, members, or if Manchester returned 89 mem bers,—if the conditions which I have stated were just just reversed, don't you think that we should have from other parts of the country, probably from the landed gentry—(laughter)—a very violent assertion that we were favoured in the representa tion, and that the condition of things was monstrous arid intolerable, and must bc put an end to ? (Cheers.) But there is another point which you do not find out from the population tables, and it is t s h a a i f t 0 , r h e e a r n e a s ao t a h s e boroughsthey like, in lN o a w n Manchester and a o n n d e o a f et time or foolishly at another—(laughter)—at least they are free to follow their own information, their own light, their own convictions ; but these little boroughs are not so free. Half of them, I dare say, are little better than what we used to describe by the unpleasant term of " rotten." (A laugh.) They are under influence of some kind or another — a ver y small conclave indeed; two or three persons in a very small borough can have a great inflence. A neighbouring landowner, some subtle and not very scrupulous lawyer, by turning the sc rew, can, if he likes, turn the scale—(a laugh)— but these 71 boroughs, returning 117 members, or 51 boroughs returning 89 members, are n only so •small in population, but, for the most part, they have no great pretence to any power of free elec tion whatsoever. I now come to the result of 'all this,—that a House of Commons so formed becomes, for the most part, as we know it is, a sort of deputy to the House of Lords, and an organ of the great territorial interests of the country; it hates changes with an animosity that nothing can assuage, it hates economy. Let any man propose in the House of Commons that there shall be a fair committee appointed to which shall be sub mitted those enormous estimates of which we have so much reason to complain, and you will find that very few memberS will vote for such a com mittee, and it will be stoutly resisted by the Go- vernment, whether formed from the Conservative or the Whig section of the house. (Laughter.) The house hates egirality of taxation. The suc cesiion duty is a glaring instance; the income tax is another instance scarcely less glaring. They 2ive to property vast influence in the Government of the country, and they perpetually shield pro perty from the burden of taxation. (Cries of "Shame.") It was the same before the Reform Bill as it is now. Some people are of opinion that we have had much better legislation since the Reform Bill than we had before. Ido not deny it, but I believe it is owing much more to the general intelligence of the peope—an intelligence which has penetrated into the House of Commons and into the House of Lords—than to any more exact representation of the constituency—than to any change that took place by the Reform Act. You know that before the Reform Bill Catholic Emancipation was granted when a civil war was about to break out in Ireland ; you know that the Reform Bill itself was granted when an insurrec• tion, perhaps a revolution was at the door, and you know that in 1846 the repeal of the Corn Law was granted, not because the House of Commons or the House of Lords wished to grant it—(hear) --by no means ' • for I believe that not more than 100 members had ever voted for Mr, Villiers' motion for the repeal. Still, it was granted in 1846, be cause P. portion of the kingdom was visited with a famine so intense that Lord John Russell, in order to describe its magnitude and severity, compared it to the famines which are recorded to have deso lated parts of Europe during the 13th century. It required famine, not a scarcity. There had been many scarcities, as you know ; there had been a scarcity for years : on more than one occasion thou sands and hundreds of thousands of families had been pressed into penury, and not a few into premature graves, and yet the Corn Law was not repealed. To quote the lines of the unhappy Chatterton— " The civil power then snored at ease. " While soldiers fired to keep the peace." It was not till the famine became so sore in the land that all Europe and the civilised world were startled with the horrors that floated across every ocean, and in every gale, that the Parliament of England at last consented to take their hand from the food of the people. (Loud cheers.) You know that .a large party, a party who arc now in the possession of the Government, assailed and de nounced Sir Robert Peel as a traitor and a coward because he did not make a still greater fight on behalf of the most odious . monopoly that ever existed in any tountry—(cheers)--and now they do not give you the ballot, not because they don't understand it as well as you do, but precisely be cause they do understand it. (Hear, hear, and laughter.) Do you suppose there would be such a whip in the House, such a steady and powerful phalanx of members brought up —county members especially—(laughter)—to vote against the ballot, if they did not believe all we say in favour of the ballot ? (Hear and cheers.) You have had it dis cussed since the Reform Bill. Argument has been exhausted for 20 years, yet for all that they don't saide He give you the ballot. Take the question of church rates. A bill to repeal the church rates has just passed the House of Commons, but how many years has it been discussed ? The arguments were the same before I went into the House of Commons that they were during the very last session. Take the question of the Game Laws. (Cheers.) Is it to be tolerated—would it be tolerated by the people of this country if they were fairly polled, that there should exist in a populous nation like v ss thats th this an exceptional and most cruel code of laws, whose object is to promote to the greatest possible extent the pleasure of the territorial andwealthy animals for the game was property—it treats it as ( e preservation s h er e v a a r t o ion Th ofe law\ild has never yet classes some thing else—it dare not say that game is property, and it cannot, say so—(hear) ;—but we have in several Acts of Parliament clauses of the utmost complication—traps of every kind, as many to catch the poacher as the poacher has to catch the game —(laughter and cheers) —and you have in this civi lisedecssary to preserve an Establi s hed Monarchy,hh, and Christian country — we are not at all dis- C cussing the United States — (laughter) —ancient peerage,be e n law and order. According to the opinion of some of those who criticise what I say, you have, in the urc and an all hereditary that can Months of November and December particularly, in every year men going out armed, not to protect cows, and sheep, and poultry—(hear, hear)—well recognised and understood property—for nobody attempts to meddle with them, but to preserve that which the law dares not designate as property, and the preservation of which it dares not commit to the ordinary guardians of the public peace. (Cheers.) And you have further from your towns, your vil lages, and country parishes bands of men armed to the teeth, instigated occasionally it may be by want, more often probably by the love of adventure—you have bands of men of this kind prowling about in almost every county endeavouring to destroy this game, and you have charges such as we have had described to us within the last, month, in which several of our fellow-creatures have fallen victims and have been. murdered. No—clukes, and lords, and county members, and great men of any name may be represented if you will, but do not tell me that a Parliament and a House of Commons that perpetuates this enormity represents the intelligence and morality of the Christian population of this country. (Cheers.) And, to show you how little a Prime Minister is master of his own actions in the 'thee of that great territorial interest, let me tell you that when I, some years ago, and before I had any political connection even with Manchester, gave notice of a motion in the House of Commons for a select committee to inquire into - the operation of the game laws— to inquire merely—such was the anxiety, such was the trembling terror of these gentlemen that Sir Robert Peel was obliged, or thought it prudent to call all his followers together into Downing street, and there to reason with them, and obtained their co-operation in the course which he felt him self bound to pursue, which was to consent to the committee for which I meant to move. I need not tell you that the committee produced very little result. Committees of the House of Commons very seldom do; for what the House is, committees gene rally are : and, if a committee happens to stumble upon something valuable, it is generally distasteful to the House and immediately rejected by it. I be lieve that no great measure passes the House of Commons merely because it is just ; it passes some times because the people are restive, sometimes because the exigencies of party require that some thing should be done ; but it does not pass—l state it fearlessly after 15 years sitting in that House — a great measure of justice does not pass because it is just. (Cheers.) Then I come to the conclusion that reform is necessary, but I can show you fur ther that it is inevitable. (Cheers.) The- Govern ment is at a deadlock without parliamentary reform. The only great result of the Reform Bill in the House lias been this, that it has introduced about 100 men who do at times show some amount of in dependence, and they act free from the shackles of the Tory or Whig sections of the aristocracy, and it is by our work, it is by our speeches, by our votes, that we transfer the Government from one party to the other, but we make it impossible for either of them to conduct the Government upon the antiquated principles which we and the people of England are ready to abolish. (Cheers.) Now, I will ask you another question. What is the ob vious, the simple—in fact, the only mode by which ou can reform the House of Commons ? If a man s hungry, he eats ; if he's thirsty, he drinks ; and if he is cold, he puts on an extra coat, or goes to the fire. If the number of the electors is too small, extend the - suffrage ; if it be tolerable that more than half the House of Commons shall be returned by one-sixth;' of the - electors, or that the population of 'Manchester should return 89 members in some other parts of the country, and. here it only returns two, the obvious remedy is to take from the ono scale and put into the other ; and, if there be this bribery and this intimidation, the remedy to which every man points who has considered the question and who wished 'for free dom of election is the remedy of the ballot. You have read, I have no doubt, some, I hope not all of those interminable articles which have been written since I was at Birmingham. (A laugh.) You have read, probably, some of the speeches which have commented on what I said. I was charged with wishing to adopt republican institu tions, levelling principles, and to introduce some thing or other wholly destructive of everything good and noble and admirable in this 'country. Well, I find the suffrage in the boroughs is £lO. What did I propose ? I did not propose to put it at £9 ; that would have been to be laughed at ; these very writers and speakers would have said, " Why, what a lame business this is, dissatisfied with £lO, happy with £9 !" (Laughter.) I did not go for £B, norfor £7, nor for £6. The Reform Bill, stopping at £lO, drew a line, on one side of which were the constituencies we now have, and on the other . side the great body of the working classes ; the working cases were purposely ex cluded by the adoption of the £lO franchise, but the £9 would not have admitted. them, any more than the £8 or the £7. The £6 would. have ad mitted a considerable number, and £5 probably would admit nearly all of them that can be ad mitted. Well, I thought it was not worth while making, as the Saying is, " tw.o bites at a cherry." If you wish to admit the working classes, for that is the question (cheers)—you must bring the suffrage down to a point that will admit them, or else you are only practising upon them precisely the same sort of legislation they complain of with regard to the Bill of 1832. But then I find a most admirable thing all ready' to my hands. I find in all the parishes I from the time of Queen Elizabeth—and, for any thing I know, from the time of Alfred—l don't know how many hundred years it has lasted—a franchise, with which everybody- has been con tented, which nobody has condemned, and which has done no harm to law, or order, or the security of property. I find that when Parliament came to legislate for Poor Law unions they adopted this same franchise as the basis of the union franchise ; when they came to legislate for the corporation, they adopted, with some restriction, the same fran chise. Why tell me that this franchise does not act properly in the United States ? For my argu ment I do not care a farthing whether it does or not. We have tried it here in our parish-unions, our corporation's ; and I say if it acts on the whole advantageously in those departments of represen tation, it may-Abe trusted without danger in that more important representation which concerns our Imperial Legislature. (Cheers.) I am in favour of authority, particularly when it agrees with my own opinion. (Laughter.) I will read from an authority ,which is not one at any rate that the Whig party ought to think lightly of. In the year 1797-60 years ago—Mr. Grey, afterwards Lord Grey of the Reform Bill, brought forward a motion in the House of Commons for a Bill to establish household suffrage in all the boroughs of the king dom. I will not give you what Mr. Grey said about it, for I have not any portion of his speech with me. But I will give you the words of Mr. Fox—Charles James Fox, the greatest light, I pre sume, that the Whig party has ever offered to the country. Charles James Fox said this : " I think that to extend the representation to house keepers is the best and most justifiable plan of reform. I think, also, that it is a perfect recurrence to first principles. I do not radon to the first principles of society, nor to the abstract principles of our Constitution. According to the early history of England and the highest authority on our Parliamentary constitution, I find this to be the case— it is the opinion of the celebrated Glanville—that in all cases where no particular right intervenes the common law right of paying scot and lot has the right of election in the land. Sir, this was the opinion of Sergeant Glanville, and one of the most celebrated committees of which our Parlia mentary history has to boast. and this, in my opinion, is the safest line of conduct that you can adopt." Now, what is it that I propose ? That every house holder, of course, because every householder is rated to the poor, shall have a vote, and if a man be not a householder strictly, but if he have an office, or a warehouse, or a stable, or land—if he have any property in his occupation which the poor law taxes—out of which he must contribute to the support of the poor, then I say I would give that man a vote. Now, 60 years is a long time. We have members of the aristocracy of this country exhibit ing themselves frequently on platforms on various occasions. They tell the people how wonderfully education has advanced, how much Parliament grants every year, how much voluntary effort does, what a great step the people have taken forward, - I wish they would come to the legitimate conclusion after all this praise of the people. Your statisticians say that 2,000,000 of the people are subscribers to benefit societies, and that they have now for funds more than £9,000,000 sterling. Is that no proof of providence ? Is that no proof of improvement and advancement ? Who is the man that dares stand before any considerable number of his countrymen and libel them by saying that that which Mr. Grey —that which Charles James Fox, advocated for you in 1791, you are still so turbulent, so degraded, that you are not fit to be trusted in the year 1858 (Hear, hear.) And of course, with regard to your small boroughs, you must take some point of popu lation, and you must cut off all those below it ; you must allow their present electors to merge, as they would necessarily merge, in the £lO franchise, which, in all probability, you establish for your counties, But still I know how we shall be met— " You are going to Americanize us." (Laughter.) Nothing is so dreadful to an Englishman who is thinking of emigrating across the Atlantic as that we should be Americanized in England. (Laughter.) That is a phrase by some cunningknave—(laughter) —intended to catch a good many verysimple dupes, and no doubt it will catch some of them ; but I should like to ask these gentlemen whether repre sentation is not an English custom and an English principle. They were Englishmen who first took it to the United States. (Cheers.) It is said that wherever an Englishman goes, just as he takes with him his white skin he takes with it the foun dation of representhtive institutions. He has taken them already to the Cape ; he in already as busy as possible in building up four or five monarchical re publics in Australia ; he has carried the represen tive system to Canada ; he carries it wherever he goes. Why, the Bill of 1832 was a desperate mea sure in the direction of Americanizing us. It took some boroughs where 12 members of a corporation returned the members to Parliament, and it gave the suffrage to some 5,000 of the people. Was not that Americanizing such boroughs with a ven geance? (Laughter.) The more you extend the representation the more, of course, you become like that systematic and theoretically perfect represen tation which exists in the United States. (Hear, hear.) Why, we have come now to a pretty pass in this country, and it is curious how free coun tries, and countries that we deem not free, often exhibit just the same kind of thing at the same time. You know that lately a most distinguished Frenchman wrote a pamphlet about a debate in the English Parliament. He was charmed with the freedom of debate, with the absence of 'all kind of difficulty in expressing our opinions. He went away full of this impression ; and he wrote, a pamphlet, in burnifig words, describing what he had seen in England, and by inference, of course, saying something that was not very palatable to those who are the present directors of the Govern• ment in France. Well, what was done ? It was found out that it was an indictable offence and the advocate for the prosecution said in so many words, " You praised England, and in doing so you humi liated France." An humble indiridual like myself comes before his constituents, and he finds a nation of 20 or 30 millions, chiefly of Englishmen, on the other side of the Atlantic. He finds there, with some small exceptions in two or three of the Trans atlantic cities, which are more German and Irish than American, in all the free States law and order and security for property equal to that which is found in any other country in the world. (Cheers.) He says that to his constituents ; he is indicted for it; they do not inflict upon him so many pounds' fine and so many months' imprisonment, but some scores of writers for the press, men who, some of them, pretend to be in favour of liberty in England, but men who, if they were dressed in the garb that most becomes them, would be dressed in plush— (loud laughter and cheering)—these men assail me, and, probably, if I were in France and they were in France also, would do their best to indict and prosecute me. One word more upon this—l have said over and over again that perhaps I am the very last man in England who wouid propose any institution here because I found it elsewhere. I am not insensible to some things that appear to me to be errors in principle— some that are errors in practice—in the constitution and customs of the United States, but I protest against our being shut up to take nothing from America but cotton, and rice, and tobacco—(laugh ter and cheers) —and, in fact, we do take a great many other things. I am told that my friend Mr. Platt, a member of a very eminent firm in this neighbourhood, has a wonderful machine from America with which to make bricks. We know that the agriculture of this country has been greatly advantaged by the importation of reaping machines from America. We know that those persons who are going about so apprehensive of innovation have particular reason to be delighted with America, because they have received from that country the invention of the revolver. At this moment, in the Government small arms establishment at Enfield, they have patent machinery from America for making -gunstocks. They can turn out a gun• stock, I am told, in 32 minutes fit for the barrel—what a dreadful thing to think of !-- (laughter)—and I am sure Mr. Miles, if his Protec tionist principles have not long ago deserted him, will be horrified to hear that they have actually brought Americans over to show the English how to work them—(continued laughter)—but there is much more behind. The Times, and other leading newspapers, are printed on machines which were either made inAmerica, or being made in this coun try, were made upon the American patent. Further than this, don't you remember that the gentry, the West Enders, including, even the ladies, have been subscribing 10 guineas a piece to invite a clever farmer from Ohio to show them how to tame a horse. (Laughter and cheers.) Anything but politics—(laughter)•—you may delight yourself with their charming poets, if you like—with Brian t, Whittier, and Longfellow—you may interest and instruct yourself by their great historians Bancroft, Prescot, and Motley. But if you ask how free po pular institutions are working among your own countrymen on the America continent, you are de nounced as unpatriotic, and at any rate treasonable to the House of Lords. (Cheers and laughter.) But I am not without great examples in this country. I will read, if you will allow me, a passage which was partfcal trly galling to those gentlemen. From a report of my speech in Birmingham, I said, gene rally in all the sovereign and independent States of America there is a franchise as w ide as that which I have proposed to-night. There is an exact and equal limit of members to the ,electors, and there is throughout many of the States the protection of the ballot; yet in America we fit I law, order, and property secure, and a population in the enjoyment of physical comforts and abundance such as are not known to the great body of the p eo p le of this coun try,.and which have never been known in any coun try :a any age of the world before. Now, Lord J. Russell a short time ago was at Liverpool at a meet ing of the Social Science Association, and he made a speech, many parts of which were most aclmirab:e and instructive. He referred to America in two parti culars, and showed how in the States of New York and Louisiana the laws had been codified and sim plified. He said that with a few days' study a man might make himself perfectly acquainted with the laws with regard to land and landed property. Lord J. Russell, who was not afraid to look abroad on a question of this kind, said he did not see why an old country should be tormented with a system which was unnecessary and which it was found so advan tageous to dispense with in a new country. The noble lord said, " It is education which enables the United States of. America to proceed in their won derful career, upheld by the most popular institu tions, without serious disturbance of law and order. (Cheers.) I will also quote another nobleman, a most estimable man, too, a man who has in his time done great justice to the people and institutions of the United States—the Earl of Carlisle. Eight years ago, when the state of America was fresh in his mind, he delivered a lecture, from which I have taken two extracts. Speaking of the elections in that country he says :—" Elections may seem the universal business, the topic and passion of life, but they are, with but few exceptions, carried on with out any approach to tumult, rudeness, or disorder ; those which I happened to see were the most sedate, unimpassioned processes I can imagine. In the free States at least the people at large bear an active and, I believe, on the whole, a useful part in all the concerns of internal government and practical daily life." And then, speaking of the condition of the people, he said—and you will note how far it cor roborates, how far it extends even what I said : " The feature which is the most obvious and pro bably the most inevitable is the nearly entire ab sence—certainly of the appearance in a great degree —of the reality. In no part of the world, I imagine, is there so much general comfort among the bulk of the people, and a gushing abundance struck me as the . permanent character of th e l an d," an d th en with his own generous sympathy, he went on to say, " it is not easy to describe how far this consideration goes to brighten the face of nature and give the room for its undisturbed enjoyment." I cannot, of course, help the fact that Lord Carlisle for a momen t has fallen into rather a foolish panic since I under took to address my constituents at Birmingham. I I can assure him that I do not wish to introduce American institutions here, but I want to argue this point, that the people of England are now in a con dition in which ,it would be just to them and safe for all classes in the country that they should- be - widely intrusted with the possession of the elective franchise. (Loud cheers,) Now, I want to ask you before I sit down whether we can realise or whether we can do anything towards realising such a project of reform as that of which I have given you the faintest sketch to-night. (Cheers.) 'there is a danqr awaits us. It is quite possible—l think it is not 4ntirely improbable—that if the present Go vernment should introduce a bill very ineffectual, wholly falling short of what we have a right to expect, that there should be some combination of the most unworthy portion of the Whig party with the present Government for the sake of carrying that bill. It would be a great misfortune to us if anything should happen. But that misfortune would b but temporary. It would be a fatal act on the part of the Whig party to take any such course as that. They would bring about this great result, that the aristocracy, who were wholly op posed to free Parliaments in this country, would sit on one side of the house, and that we, who may be considered of a more democratic party, would take our seats on the other ; but I will undertake to say that if that division should once take place in Parliament, every election would increase the power of the democratic section—(loud cheering)—and that the remembrance of the treason to ,the people which would be effected by conduct such as this would create an animosity against the ruling class —against which I believe they would be wholly un able to contend. (Renewed cheers.) I have now come to the conclusion of the observations I intend to offer upon these questions. Of myself I must add one or two words. My position in refe rence to this question is just now, as you know, one of heavy responsibility. (Hear, hear.) I feel it to be so—l know it to be so. I have been requested by those who believed they represented a large amount of public opinion to undertake the prepa ration of a bill to be submitted to the. House of Commons during the coming session. (Loud cheers.) I have not sought the office. I did everything I could to decline it without being guilty of an abso lute desertion of what appeared to be my duty. I am told by some that are not friends of mine, and by some that are my friends, that I hazard what ever little reputation I have with the public in taking this course. (No, no.) If it be so I can only say that the creation or the sustaining of a reputation has never been the great motive in my political life. (Loud cheers.) I have said before, and every day I am more sensible of it, how ill qualified I am in many respects for the work I have undertaken—(no, no, and cheers)—and I am more and more sensible of the almost insurmountable obstacles which lie in the path before me ; but I know that the cause is a just cause. (Reiterated cheering.) " I know that its success is necessary to the great future of this country, and I am perfectly certain that sooner or later it must prevail. (Cheers.) From this platform Ido not speak to you only. I speak to all my countrymen. (Re newed cheers.), If they wish for reform, if they think me honest, informed, capable upon this ques tion—if they have any confidence in those with whom I am associated, then let them meet in their cities, their towns, their villages, in country pa rishes, wherever free speech is not forbidden, (Hear, and a laugh.) Let them meet and speak, let them resolve, and let them petition. (Cheers. If they do this I think I can promise them that before long they will be in full posses sion and exercise of those political rights which are not more necessary to their national interests than they arc consistent with the principles of their boasted constitution. (The hon. gentleman sat down amid hearty and long continued cheering. His speech had occupied about about an hour and twenty-five minutes in its delivery. As soon as Mr. Bright concluded a very general move from the hall commenced. _ _ Mr. Alderman SIMPSON was unwilling that the organisation now established should pass away without Manchester showing that example to the country which it had shown in paSt times, and which had produced for these islands great, impor tant, and valuable results. He therefore moved— " That this meeting, composed of the leading and active Reformers of Manchester and its neighbourhood, hereby expresses its desire that a Reform Association should be at once orgautsed for the purpose of giving effect to the opi nions of this county and district on the question of reform in the agitation now existing ; that the Banquet General Committee be, and is hereby requested, to take the neces sary steps for carrying out the preceding resolution." A short time ago there was an attempt to establish a Reform Association here, but it was limited in its object, contracted in its sphere, and promised always to be small and select, never great and powerful ; but the constituency had it in their power, from the large organisation to which this resolution was committed, to have such a Reform Aisociation as would represent the opinions of the great mass of the constituency. Reflect what a powerful answer it would be from any Prime Mini ster to say to Mr. Bright, when he brought in his bill, that the voice of Manchester was silent on the question. (Hear.) Many recent events showed that a change.had taken place in this city, that the parties to the rejection of the late members were endeavouring to attach themselves to their old friends, that they had sought repentance carefully and with tears ; he would give to them the oppor tunity of reunion, and he believed that the resolu tion, if passed, would be enthusiastically received by the great body of Reformers here. -(Applause.) The motion was seconded by Mr. E. WATKIN, and carried unanimously. Mr. GiBSON moved, and Mr. BRIGHT seconded, a vote of thanks to the chairman, which was carried by acclamation, and the =cling separated with three hearty cheers for Gibson, Bright, and Cobden. Loss OF A BRITISH SHIP AND Two OF TIIE CnEw.—The ship Jantzee Berg, which arrived at Antwerp on the Sth inst., reports that on the ISth Nov. she fell in with the American barque Sarah Anac (Qy. Sarawak), which had on board the crew of the ship Garden, which had been abandoned by them some days previous. Two of the crew, however, were drowned shortly before the vessel was deserted. R EFORM MEETING AT ROCIIDALE.—On Wed nesday evening a meeting, convened by requisition, wr.s held at Rochdale, to consider the subject of Parliamentary reform and the representation of the borough. Mr. Alder man Henley occupied the chair. A resolution in favour of manhood suffrage, vote by ballot, triennial parliaments, and re-arrangement of members based upon population, was carried almost unanimously, as was also one pledging the meeting to assist Mr. Bright in passing a comprehensive bill during the next session. It was also resolved in the event of a dissolution to take measures for the return of Mr. Cob den for the borough. There were about e i g ht or nine hundred people at the meeting. COUNTY COURT ARRANGEMENTS. Mr. W. Walker, Of Wilsie, near Rotherham, Judge of the County Court Circuit No. 13, comprising the towns of Sheffield, Doncaster, Barnsley, Rotherham, Goole, and Thorne, haviugapplied to the Lord Chancellor to be allowed.to re linquish a portion of the duties of his circuit, as being to 3 heavy for one judge, his Lordship has been p'eised to assign to Mr. Walker the courts at Sheffield and Rother ham as the future sphere of his duties. At ti last sitting of the Doncaster Court, the attorneys practising there pre sented to the retiring judge an address expressive of iheir regret at the loss of his services, to which Mr. Wslke7 re sponded in feeling terms. Mr. Wildman, of the North Notts district, will succeed Mr. _Walker as judge in . the vacated portiou of his circuit, LITERATURE. Tents and Tent Life. By Godfrey Rhodes, Captain 94th Regiment. Illustrated. Smith and Elder. The author of this work, having been one of those who suffered from the'overthrow of the tents in the Crimea by the hurricane of the 14th of November, 1854, turned his attention to the prin ciples of the construction of tents, with a view to improve their efficiency. His object was to increase the stability and rigidity of the tents, without materially adding to their weight ; and having carefully studied the tents of all nations, and noted their defects and advantages, he has succeeded to his own satisfaction in planning the construction of field and hospital tents. He traces with the energy of one who is thoroughly interested in his subject the history of tent-making from the days when "Abraham sat in the door of his tent," to the rude dwellings of the Esquimaux or the Red Indian of the present day. His accounts are brief and succinct, and in no way tedious. The illus trations are numerous, and comprehensible to the uninitiated. Here is a description of a monarch's tent in the olden days : " The pavilion of Alexander the Great was of enormous dimensions, and is represented as being capable of contain taining 100 beds. The roof, one mass of gilded designs, was supported by eight pillars, covered with gold. In the centre was placed his throne, which was a mass of gold : from it he delivered his judgments. This pavilion is said to have been the most gorgeous ever seen. His body guard, or armed court attendants, consisted of 500 persons, clothed in magnificent attire, covered with gold embroidery. Their duty was to guard the interior entrances, so that no unauthorised individual could approach the sovereign without complying with the usual court regul a ti ons .— (From the fifteen oks of the Deipnosophiste The author takes the opportunity of introducing incidental anecdotes to enliven his pages. The following is an amusing passage from the narra tive of a traveller in Asiatic Turkey : " The day after our arrival I prepared to make the Kurds a visit, when one of them entered my tent, and without further ceremony examined scrupulously everything it contained. I begged him to retire. But why ? the f.uu is hot, your tent serves for shade, and I shall stay in it.' However, the chief of the caravan, who knew that these visits were not always agreeable to me, relieved me of his presence by inviting him to take coffee. When I went to their encampment with some companions, it so happened that the first tent we entered was his. Oh, oh I' ex claimed he, here you are you would have driven me away from your tent just now. Think you that I would do the same to you ? It would be a disgrace to me— no, sit thee down, I shall give thee coffee and a pipe —and learn how much more estimable a character is a Kurd than a dog of a Christian, or a citizen with his smooth tongue I' I was rather astonished at a compli ment I expected so little, and I tried to make him un derstand that my European costume frequently exposed me to rudeness and importunity. 'ln that case,' said he, why not stay at home ? why come and walk about a Kurd camp, where no one in all their lives ever saw a European ? It is curiosity that brings you here ; why not indulge the same feelinc , in others ?' " Captain Rhodes gives the following description of his own invention : " The advantages the author claims for his own patent tents over all others are their great portability and strength to resist storms, as well as the ease and rapidity with which they can be pitched and struck. It will be seen that the form of the tent is a curvilinear octagon, whereby it is less liable to catch the wind than the perpendicular wall and conical sides of tents constructed on the old system. The most striking peculiarity is the total absence of the centre pole. The frame of the tent is formed of stout ribs of ash, bamboo, or any other flexible material. The ends of the ribs are inserted into a wooden head, fitted with iron sockets, and the butts are thrust into the ground, passing through a double-twisted rope, having fixed loops at equal distances. In this position the ribs have a strong resem blance to those of an expanded umbrella. The rope through which the butts of the ribs pass is well pegged to the ground, and the canvas cover thrown over the framework, and secured within the tent by leather straps to the ground or circular rope. " Additional security or firmness is given by outside storm-ropes, radiating from the cover at the back of each rib. In connexion with these are six inside storm-ropes for the hospital tent. "The canvas used is double and waterproof, and, if re quir...,d, the strong canvas covering in which the whole tent is rolled up can be divided into two parts, and buttoned. to the inside of the tent, the buttons being provided for the purpose, thereby affording a material ground-support to the whole of the canvas around the bottom of the tent, when the rifles and knapsacks of the men are placed thereon ; this prevents the ground current of air from blowing direct on the men when lying down. " Perfect ventilation is another advantage, and fires can be lighted within the tents, the smoke escaping through the ventilation holes at the top, which are easily covered or uncovered as needed. " The tents generally are of white double cotton canvas, but the guard tents for outpost duties will be of a dark grey colour, as less liable to attract observation at a dis tance. The guard tent can be struck and packed in three or four minutes, even by men unaccustomed to their management." An account of the methods of encamping an army in ancient and modern times, and of the best plan for doing so, the selection of the ground in a sani tary point of view, the management of horses, &c., is given at the conclusion of the volume. Florence. A Tale. _By M. C. Hammond. James Blackwood. This tale is evidently the production of a young and enthusiastic writer, who will probably improve with time and experience. There is no lack of incident in the plot, or animation in the style, but the usual faults of a young writer are equally mani fest. The events themselves are net so improbable for the pages of fiction, but the style of the conver sations is remarkably high-flown for ordinary mor tals ; and a young lady who talked French and Italian, and quoted poetry as frequently as the fair Florence, in general society would certainly be esteemed a maiden of more learning than taste or good breeding. In this, however, she only partakes largely of the general tendency of every one in the book. They are all good linguists, and well read in the English poets, and have no idea of allowing these accomplishments to remain unused. Accord ingly, if we find two or three consecutive pages without a line of verse or a foreign word, it is an event of rare occurrence. It is needless to observe that, however much an occasional quotation may give point to a sentence, or illustrate a thought, such constant recurrence weakens the style, and is contrary to the rules of all classic and elegant writing. The same must be said of the high-toned sentiments so constantly uttered on all occasions by the heroes and heroines. But these faults are common to most young writers, who, nevertheless, may be authors of eminence in future days, and the present work shows talent and command of language. There is a somewhat curious parallel in the cases of Augusta and Geraldine, but the moral of the two is not altogether correct, for Augusta, who deceived her parents and lent herself to a clandestine marriage, was happy ever after, as fairy tales .say; while Geraldine, who, although mistaken, endeavoured to keep her promise, died broken-heurted. The case of Augusta should have been put differently, as it is rarely, even in this world, that Kieh deceit is altogether prosperous. Notwithstandi4g__ all its deficiencies and extrava gancies, the book wilt-gratify many novel readers, and affords fair promise of better things for the future. CASUALTIES IN INDIA. (From the Gazette of last Evening.) WAR-OFFICE, PALL-MALL, DEC. 10. The Secretary of State for War has received the following list of casualties irithe Royal Artillery, serving in India : Calcutta, 22d Sept., 1858. Sergeant Henry Robinson, E. Troop—slight gunshot wound of back, near Jugdespore. Sergeant James Glanville, Ist Corn., 6th Bat.—killed by the mutineers in the stables at Mooltan. Driver Richard Mullen, Ist Cont., 6th Bat.—killed by the mutineers in the stables at Aloeltan. Driver George Martin, Ist Com., 6th Bat.—killed by the mutineers in the stables at Mooltan. Gunner Thomas M'Quillan, Ist Com,., 6th Bat.—killed in action. J. E. DUPUIS, Major-General, Conuk.nding Royal Artillery in India. THIS _HAI'S SHIPPING. LONDON, Dec. 11.—Wind this day at noon, S.W. ; strong breeze, and hazy. ailed — Maria, for S ß .E abo .— a Arri . ved— S I' ae ArMOUTII, Dec. 10.—Wind S. — Sailed—Queen, fir PORT , Sa f t ro o n u l TlT C'allao p . ec S . St. Michael's. QUEENSTOWN, Dec. 10.—Wind S.—Arrived—War Eagle, from Liverpool for Singapo re , l ea k y ; E . Z., from the Clyde for New York, leaky. BIDEFORD ' Dec. 10.—Wind S.E . —A rr i ved—Ocean Queen, from Quebec, with loss of master overboard. CARDIFF, Dec. 10.—Wind E.S.E.—Sailed—Red Ranger, for New Orleans; Hercules, for St. Jago. COWES, Dec. 10.—Wind E. — Arrived—Saracen, from • Callao. (BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.) LIVERPOOL, Saturd ay Morning. Arrived, Dec. 10.—Jacques Cceur, from Papado ; Safwar, from Corrientes ; Fanny Sermes, from the Rio Grande ; Amanda, from Nantes. Arrive 4, Dec. fl.—Parker, from Demerara and Bermuda; Elizateth, from Dieppe. Sailed.—Eva, for Gibraltar; Belle Polak, for Buenos Ay. ei ; Deux Soeurs, for Bordeaux ; Daniel, for Louvain ; Electra, for Leghorn. The Parker *rived here from Demerara and Bermuda. She took from a schooner there the captain and crew of the Co'umbia, of Plymouth, from Quebec, for Queenstoe - n, abandoned on the banks after the gale of the 24th of Oct. S e left at Bermuda, Urania, from Demerara, for Liver pool, to sail at the end of November; Alpine, from Ja mai•ta, for New York, leaky, with loss of rudder and sails ; and Ceno Goolo, from Liverpool, for Boston, leaky, with loss of sails, 70 tons of cargo thrown overLoard, and the remainder damaged. (BY SUBMARINE AND BAITISII TELEGRAPH.) GRAVESEND, Saturday Morning . . Wind E. ; tide, four hour's ebb; weather, cloudy, with slight fog. Arrived—Collier, from Antwerp ; Hindoo, from Batavia. DEAL, Saturday Morning. Wind S. by W. • moderate p aise d—Lightning, from London, for St. Michael's, G.neral Windham, from London, for Sydney ; from London, for Launqeston; Frances Harriet, brie, from Shields, for gairre, '1 161 I} 1.1 I 1 14 [i ,t