The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1866-12-08 00:00:00

MR. BRIGHT'S PANEGYRIC ON THE

QUEEN.

On Tuesday night asneeting called by the leaders of
the London Trades,' and Friendly Societies was held in
St. James's-hall, Piccadilly, London, in favourof Par-
liamentary Reform, as a sort of sequel to the open air
demonstration of the previous day. The galleries
were hung with festoons of artificial flowers,
and some of the bannerets and mottoes used
in the procession of the day before were displayed
at the hack of the platform and in other parts of
the building. Among the most conspicuous of the
latter were " Edmond Boalee and the right of meeting
in the Parks;" " Honour Bright, our Guiding • ;"
"Residentisl and rrgistered manhood suffrage;'
"Vote by Ballot ;" • the working men of London
return their thanks to Lord Rimelagn ;" "The People
the legitimate source of power," &c. At half-past
seven Mr. Bright, H. P., arrived, accompanied by Mr.
George Potter, Mr. Mason Jones, and other leaders of
the movement, and was received with cheering. Most
of the trade delegates present wore the scarfs and stars
appertaining to their respective offices.
Mr. George Potter presided, and opened the proceed-
ings in a very brief pithy speech. He was followed by
Mr. Henrette, who moved the first resolution, which
was seionded by Mr. Leicester, who took the oppor-
tunity of saying that:—

When he read Mr. Lowe's speech charging the working
Classes with drunkenness. Venality, and ignorance*, he
thought that if the doctrine of the transmigration of souls
wu true then poor Mr. Lowe must have been born when
nobody died. 'Ltughter ) There appeared to be. clue of
politicians who would not neve God till the Gelid lel them;
and those men it was who set themselves up as censors and
umpire. RS to the 'Unties of the working men. Tnere was •
pretty g cod "cheek " in that !laughter), and he denied their
power to judge the working men rightly. There was no
possibility of pleasing the Tories, whether they hit them
high orbit them low. If Lord D-rhy had made such a batch
of glass blowing a. he had of statesmanship he would not
have been allowed time to go out of the basis...l—he would
have been kicked out (I. tughter). When the people were
descrined as ugni for the franchise the word Lsocashire"
should be whitpered ity their conduct during the cotton
famine the people of Lancashire saved the country from sad n is-
hominr. and prevented the Americans from ventin r their Ire
upon us hut Lord Derby hail not only snut tne door lit the
I ace of the people wno asked for the franchise ; he had
slammed it in their faces.

The resolution was carried unanimously.
Mr. Bright next spoke, and when he rose he was
greeted with enthusiastic cheering, the whole audience
cheering again and again. Mr. Bright's speech was
an eloquent advocacy of Reform, and was interrupted
frequently by burets of cheering. He tact that--

He took credit to himsel m • prophet for having pre-
dicted what has now clime to pus in the position of the
Reform mitetion It ma. Me advice, he Into, years ago
that the machinery of the trade and frlennly societies ehould
be emplos et for politic.' purposes, and he oonaidered such
employment perfectly legitimate At all events, it was no
worse than the omverdon of all the agricultural melon.o
of the Kingdom into political china, which happened darks
the anti-corn la • agitation. The hon. member went at great
length into figures to prove that the people have nothing to
do with the making of the lawn What semi:wiled an appeal
to the country in the shape of a general election was
at the very utmost an appeal to bOO,OOO elmoton, and
In all probability the appeal was anawered by registered
voters to the number of from 200,000 to 400,000 That
being 80, the people were riot a party to the laws, and the
government of the Halted Kingdom was not free to the
people. There ma. DO lone of Government much worse
then the gosernrnent of a sham representation. A Parlia-
ment like one Parliament had numbers enough, and lust
enough .1 the mmhlaece of reprwentation, to make it safe
for it to do almost anything It liked against the true interests
of the nation Ihere was nothing at aafe as a PariLment
like Una in the oommimion of what Is evil, hut there wee not
representation enough to make It truly responsible to the
inteligence, and the virtue, and the opinion of the nation
No alwohr e monarch would have dared to do what the un
reformed Parliament of landowner. did In 1815 for the
passing of the men laws. And only tut seesion we saw
the question of Reform dealt with in • way which
in a Parliament feeling itaelf remonelele to the people
cool I never have ocmrred. The Hausa of Commons had
restated the demands of the people, and would possibly go
on to resist until the discontent which la now m general
shall become universal, and Von which is now only a great
exhibition of opinion may become, necessarily and Inevita-
bly, • great and menacing exhibition of force. At this point
In the lion members speech the reporters say there wee
tremendous excitement. The audience warted to their feet
and veered anti they never meant to leave off Mr Bright,
In tome further remsrks. Funned his conduct in exciting
alarm, for which he was at muck blamed by the prem. It
was not he who made the danger ; he only warned people
of it, and was no more responsible foe what might follow in
eonsequence thane man who might give notice of a volcanic
eruption Would be answerable for Ms existence of the
volcano.

The hon. gentlemsn spoke inet over an hoar.
Several other speakers followed, amongst whom was
Mr. Ayrton, a portion of whose speech aroused strong
expressions of dinv.nt. He

•
The demonstration of Monday woe useful, beeenes It
showed how perfectly amenshle the people were to law sod
order, and hlw great was their respeot for existing Indite.
COIN. Yet he could not help regretting that when the
assernhlage was In one of her Itajtaty's parks and in front
of her p7dscs, she should not beer been 50 .011 achrbed alto
neve enjaged the paitlrlan opeeisele of loeldog upon Yr
loyal ponds 'CUM.) 1e mut minim be Vaught lb one

Of the ditties of Ytoyalty to 'how a feeling eq wearier
with ties Hying as well se an affectionate revs-
rooms for the memory of the dead. (Cheers ) But whole
the people found that they could hot pay their homage to Hirt,
Sovereign as the, named along, they opontanroualy elected,
as it were, a Queen for them...lees, aed found her in ine
who In hat metrop illswit. a Queen of beeevolence and
; and be a natural Irnows• they rehdored t, her th•
homage which they Invariably rendered to the Quern who
reigned by right (Near) Monday's demoustrattem likewise
testified the good feeling which animated the people lowa, ds
othee dimes of society, and as the proceed°n pullet the
very repul.lre a.sii somewh.t &tient defences of Hyde
Park, it. members recognised lo them an ex,aeadon of
the law of the land the a awitlon of legal 'um,. (Cries
of
"co' and Interruption.) That gentleman who underveok
to say "No' in that emphatic way probably knew
lees of the subject than he dd. ICheen) . .
1,4 him remind them, then, that if the Government
exercised a wrong discretion am regarded the parka then.
was I constitutional way of bringing them to account
(Diswent, and cries of " Where ?'") If the people, or any
body of them, at any time wished to meet in the public
mak., and the Ministers exercised an Improper discretion
to refusing their requests, the proper pleas to bring them to
account was the House of C,,mmons. (Loud Cries of " No,
Ito hisses, and renewed clamour, in the midst of which
Colonel Dickson came forward and expreased his want of
faith in the House of Commons.)
. .

After some further obser;ations, Mr. Ayrton con-
cluded his speech, amidat great mansion and up-
roar.

Mr. Bryan moved a vote of thanks to the chairman,
which was aeconded by Mr. Conolly, when Mr. Bright
rose and said :

I rise for one moment before the vote of thank. Is put to
say • few words I need hardly say that! entirely c •ncur in
IL and I hope it will receive the nnanlninus support of the
meeting, hut I rise for the purpose of making, in one sen-
tence, a referenoe to a portion of the speech of Mr. Artton
;cheers) whlch I hope I did not fully c,maprebend, but, if I
did, in ghtch lam totally unable to concur. He made an
allusion to the great meetion of yesterday, to the athemblage
In the Park and the neighbourhood of the Palace. fie also
made obserrivione with regard to the Q teen, which, in my
opinion, no meeting of people in this C.,llllter, and certainly
no meeting of Reformers, ought to have listened to with
approbation (Coeers ) Let it be remembered that there
has been no octanon on which any Ministry has proposed an
Improved reprrtentation of the people when the Queen has
not given her oordial, unhesitating. and, I believe, hearty
assent (Cheers) Let it be remembered, if there ['snow at
her side • Ministry that Is opposed teen Improvement of the
representation of the people, it la because, In obedience to the
wall-known rules and constitutional practice, the decision of
the House of Commons on the Bill of lan &Won rendered
It necessary for her to take the emir. which she then did
take. But Mr. Ayrton retorted further to .• supposed
absorption of the sympathise of the Queen with her late
husband to the exclosion of sympathy for and with
the people. (Hear, hear.) I am not accustomed to stand
up in defence of those who are posseseors of crowns (Hear,
hear.) But I could not elt here and ttear that obserta-
non without a sensation of wonder and of pain. (Loud
otters) I think there has been by many persons • great
Injustice done to the Queen In reference to her desolate end
widowed position. (Cosier' ) And I venture to say this, that
a woman, be she the Queen of • great realm or be she the
wife of one of your labouring men, who cth keep alive to
her heart • great sorrow for the lost oiled of her life and
affection, Is not at all likely to be wanting In a great and
generous sympathy with you. (Loud and prolonged cheers.)
After some efforts on the part of Mr. Ayrton again
to set • hearing, the vote of thanks wise carried by
acclamation.

Mr. Ayrton again emayed in vain to erplain that he
had been entirely mienuderetood by Mr. Bright, and
the meeting separated.