The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-09-27 00:00:00

MR. FAWCETT ON THE FRANCHISE.

On Friday night in last week, the Right Hon.
Henry Fawcett, M.P., Postmaster-General, addressed
a crowded meeting of Merionethshire Liberals in the
Eisteddfod Pavilion at Bala, in conjunction with Mr.
Samuel Holland, M.P., and Mr. Henry Robertson,
M.P. for Shrewsbury. The meeting was held in
support of the franchise, and to express unabated con-
fidence in the Government. Mr. Fawcett, who was
cordially received, said he did not intend to speak in
public until he addressed his constituents on Oct. 13,
but he bad been overruled. As to the franchise, he
could not help thinking that whatever might be the
wishes of the Tory leaders, and however anxious to
pursue the struggle recklessly to the end, common
sense, prudence, and patriotism would still prevail.
No unprejudiced person could doubt that the people
were determined that the Franchise Bill should pa-s;,
and if the Conservatives should insist on asso-
ciating with its passing other issues, Liberals should
not shrink back from facing them. (Loud cheers.)
But then Conservatives must remember that the
responsibility of raising these issues rested with them.
(Hear, hear.) It the House of Lords was anxious to
assert its position, it would be impossible for the most
perverse ingenuity to have selected a more inde-
fensible case for a struggle between a majority in the
Lords and a majority in the House of Commons than
that which has been chosen. (Laughter and cheers.)
It was simply whether the Tory majority in the Lords
or the Liberal majority in the Commons should have
the arrangement of redistribution. Ire himself
should have been very glad if it had been possible to
have dealt with the entire subject of Parliamentary
reform in one comprehensive measure. But in
politics they had to deal with things as they were,
and not as they ought to be--(hear, hear)—and what
might formerly have been possible with regard to
legislation was now, in the opinion of the most
experienced, impossible, in view of the increased
difficulty which the passing of any measure en-
counters. It was evident from what had occurred
throughout the length and breadth of the country
during the last few weeks that there had never been
an occasion when the decision of the majority of the
House of Commons had been more enthusiastically
ratified by a majority in the country. He went on
strongly to protest against the idea of the House of
Lords determining when an. appeal should be made
to the 'people. Such a demand must be resisted at
all hazards. (Loud cheers.) Many and illustrious
as had been the services which Mr. Gladstone
through his long life had rendered to his country,
nothing he had ever done deserved more grate-
ful recognitia than when, in those memorable
speeches which he had lately made in Edinburgh—
(loud cheers)—he showed an unaltered and unalter-
able determination to keep resolutely to the
principle that, so far as he could prevent it, no
majority in the House of Lords should, against the
wishes of a majority of the representatives of the
people and of the Ministers to whom this majority
had confided the responsible dutyof government, have
the power of bringing about a dissolution. (Renewed
cheering.) If, in conclusion, he might be permitted
to express his individual opinion, he could only say
that if -be had thl power of political prophecy, and
could know that a dissolution would double the
Liberal majority, that would not diminish in his mind
by one iota the importance of doing nothing, either
directly or indirectly, to give the slightest sanction to
the contention that a majority in the House of Lords
should be permitted to exercise the right of de-
termining When there should be an appeal to the
country.