The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-11-21 00:00:00

JOHN pRIGHT AT
WAkEfIELP.

(BY BRITISH AND IRISH MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH.)

The annual soiree of the Wakefield Mechanics' Insti-
tute was held in the Corn Exchange, 'Wakefield, last
night. Thera was a crowded assembly, which included
modifiers of Many of the principal families of the town
and-neigbbonrhoe'd: A: Latham' Esq., M.P., for
Hddelerstielcl; *hothe president of the institute,
oedlipiqd the anitomP4l464
e'entleirien preaent
were John F:sq:.,
!iM.P., , Thomas Coll2s, v.p.; the Mayor, of
• Wakefield, ,(Thorras aigh, Esq.;)
On making_ their appearance on the pleat:hairs the
aeporiopaxii:4l,drems'seeide,trhe:e.miveeedtzitaht
Chairman, Mre„Briglit, M.P„ and. the gentlemen by
Whom , they, were..
enthusiastic and reiterapd After the the apPlause'
had subsided, the Clithirnan
some length, urging various reaagng 4114 there •sliald
be no evils arising from the general cdticAfall of the
people. The Secretary read letters of apology froth
several gentlemen who were unable to attend the soiree.
Mr. BRIGHT then rose to address the meeting, and
was greeted with loud and prolonged applause. He
commenced his speech by asking their indulgence,
because he felt himeelf in a very difficult position.
It was many years ago, he forgot bow many, since.he
appeared en the platform of a meeting in connection
With a ilieolianies' instittite: Several years ago he
ae6epted,the jiiiYitation to preside at one of the meetings
of the Wakefield MeChanics; iristititte, but he was pre-
Vented in 'eonseqtfeilde of a Sere, throbt: He therefore
appeared there that night to wipe Cif the eld seore. lie
supposed the same rule existed at Wakefield as eisted
at most other mechanics' institutiansviz., that the
speakers on such occasions as the present should avoid •
discussing party politics and polemical theology. He was
about, the last person who would intrude anything
in the She of p.plemiseal theology ; and although he
had been twenty .ycat,s) elg,ed in party politica,
yet few persons in that time oad Vat less sympatht.
than he had with what was generally termed piirt!
politics. (A laugh.) There was a description of meet-
ing held in the country in the autumn and winter,
known by the name of agricultural meetings, and those
meetings had the same rule; but he found that nearly
every speaker, after just glancing at turnips or some
other agrictd.theal matter, shot off at once into a poli-
tical disquisition,—and if he were a conservative he
generally praised Lord ralinetston and attacked Mr.
glacTstone.pr humble indifidual as Mr. Bright.
(laritigVei.Y The . gentlemen in the north
were rat Vet tiri oddoT Men. If there could
• be' a photoiraph of of th'aV gentlemen, showing
not only his outward and pls.3%sieat bPdyi Mit hk mental
lineaments, there could be no doubt it Would represent ti
man with a very rohast constitution and of very con-
fused notions. (Renewed laughter.) He (Mr. Bright)
*ottl4 not follow the example of these gentlemen—he
would riot go into party politics in the least ; but he
took it for g'ra:ffted,,,tte the rules of the institution
excluded politics which eolieterr&ed a party, it did not
exclude politics that had no referenZe to party. (Hear,
hear.) It seemed to him that there `r f, nothing
more neglected ix the education of all Cifi&er
in this country than the consideration of the principles on
which the laws should be founded, and on which the
permanent prosperity, peace, and greatness 'of com-
monwealths were based. He believed that the liberty,
wealth, happiness, and the progress of every people met
with a thousand obstacles from laws which were based
sometimes on selfishness, but he believed still more
trequenti cm the trite interests of a nation. The
sciende o eeortonly, although it was a science
which, had hail pradtised by tery learned and able
men for neailY a hu'ndre'd years, *as a science which was
yet absolutely in its inTan'cy; Mid it teas an entire mis-
take to suppose that it was only m'enatiers Of Mechanics'
institutes who were not well inforMed ii! thvt
enee. (Hear, hear.) Mr. Bright proceeded to refer to
the establishment of the Corn Laws in 184.5,• remarking
that with such a season as there had been during the
last six months, ,if those Corn Laws, which were
suppoitecl by statesmen, by bishops, learned men,
and Oxford gird eambiidge scholars, had been in
existence; his hearers' Might rely on it that the manu-
facturers of the country, would ltafd ttelYin a state of
confusion, the capitalists of the country Would he,bank-
rupts, workmen unemployed, and statesmen would be
their wits' end to find remedy for the mischief, which
had been repeated because the workmen found they were
wrong. Mr. Bright next alluded to the French treaty,
eXtireasing his belief that those- who lived so many years
hence as had elapsed since the repeal of the Corn-laws
would haie the 6'M* aphtlon of the advantage of the
step which has just been fii*ea With regard to France,
as the step taken in 114 d with regard to the
Corn-laws. But there was another matter in
which the working classes were more inirnedietely
interested, at least they had it more under their OW ri
control, than the qUestion of tariff, viz., the question of
Combination to raise wages. Now, if there was one class
of persons in this country whose wages had risen
more than another within the last twenty years, it
was the class of female domestic servants, but whoever
heard of a combination among cooks or housemaids to
get higher wages. (Hear' hear.) - Now how was this?
The lady who employed such persons regarded her
expenditure with a far keener eye than her husband,
who employed large numbers of persons in his manu-
factory, usually did, and they might depend on it that
if the value of the labour of domestic servants ,were
not worth what it fetched, the mistresses of houses
would not be disposed to give the advance which they had
given to their servants for many years past. The error
in regard to combination of workmen arose from the
notion that masters could control wages or, could control
prices. (Hear, hear.) Neither the one nor the other ,
was under the control of the manufacturer or the
capitalist. What was going on in the northern counties
of England was a proof beyond all cavil that, when
trade was greatly extended, profits increasing, and de- ,
mend for labour growing from month to month, wages
would rise, and that without any kind of comhina-
Ulm. (Hear, hear.) The honourable gentleman ,
referred to a letter which he had received from Glasgow,
the writer of which suggested that Parliament should
fix a minimum rate of wages, and that it should
be an indictable offence for any manufacturer or em-
ployer of labour to reduce the wages below that amount.
He (Mr. B.), in reply to that letter, said that unless manu-
facturers could secure their profits at and end, it seemed
very unreasonable that they should give a certain rate of
wages which they might not be able to afford to give.
(Hear.) The reason lie had introduced this was not to i
show the importance of general education, for that he
conceived to be settled, but to show the impor-
tance of .. education being directed to political
questions. (Hear, bear.) Let him take another matter :
there was the question of the expenditure of a govern-
ment. Some foolish person had said it did not matter
what taxes the people paid to the Chancellor of the ,
Exchequer, because it all came back in refreshing
showers. Doubtless that might be, but the showers
only refreshed the tax eaters—they never refreshed the •
tax payers. (Laughter.) The same arguments might
be used by the highwayman when he committed a
robbery ;or if they had a conqueror living amongst them ,
and they.paid tribute to him, it might be said that it •
made no difference, because the money was spent in the
country. fie hoped the people were beginning to find •
that taxes were taxes, and lie hoped they would never
imagine that a single farthing. of the taxes beyond
what was required for the economical service of the State
would ever `benefit them any more than if they lest
it in the sea, or somebody picked their pocket of it.
(Applause.) At the present moment there was in this
country—a condition of general prosperity which had
certainly never been exceeded since the commencement
of the great war with France—he held that prosperity
to be based mainly on the long continuance of peace, to
a very large extent upon the revolution of the tariffs in
the country which he had already spoken of, and also to
the enormous saving to all the operations of the country
by the introduction of the mode of transit by rail.
(Hear, hear.) 'Well, the results were great ; but
notwithstanding all this and that, every public speaker
and writer broke into exclamations of satisfaction
at the prosperity which had never been equalled before,
and that they could not hope long to enjoy, they ought
to bear in mind that at this very moment there were
hundreds of thousands of families in this country whose
condition was that of poverty verging upon pauperism,
and to whom the rays of that prosperity seems scarcely
to have reached at all. It was worth while consi-
dering whether all had yet been done to raise
the people to the condition to which they rightfully ,
might hope to obtain. He did not believe it to be the
end of the Government, the end of civilisation, the end
of education and morality and christianity, that the
great body of the people in this country should be in the
condition they were now. Even in this time of great
Prosperity, to say nothing of the fearful condition they
had beeil in times past, they who were better
oir, who from their father's industry or from ' their
own, or from happy circumstances in which they had
been placed were better off, were bound to look'at the
lowest strata of society, and see how and why it was
that hundreds and thousands of families seemed to make
almost no progress upwards, and which, if the general
prosperity of the country were in the least clouded, were
plunged into a state of suffering shocking to behold,
and which was really not creditable to 'the government,
or to the civilisation of the country. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. Bright continued by referring to a letter he had
received about two years ago from Mr; Cobden, who
was at that time in the United States of America, and
in which the writer said, notwithstanding. the artisan
and labouring class in England had made greater pro-
gress during the last twenty-five years than they had
during any former similar period o time, those classes
in the United States were much further in advance
than they were in England. This was a very re-
markable fact, and lie (Mr. Bright) had never
heard any man who disputed it. He met not long
ago a gentleman connected with what was generally
reported the most reputable of the press in this'eountry, 1
who had been spending some weeks in the United States,
and he gave the same account. He wanted to know
what made this difference. It was not necessarily the •
form .of government, it was not a question of latitude or
longtithole ; and people had to work in the United
States. The machinery there had more labour, and the
land was not even as fertile. How came it, then, he
asked the public writers, he asked their statesmen, he
asked their ministers of religion, how came it, then,
—this fact was notorious and indisputables--41iat in
the United States the great body of the artisan
and labouring classes were so much better off than
they were in this country ? He knew of three
causes that could account for it. In the United States
the laud was wholly free from all feudal law and tenures
—the people were instructed by 'an extensive and tho-
roughly working common school system to a degree
infinitely beyond what the people of this country, ever
dreamt of ; and, further. that from some cause or other
,that he:could not then inquire into, the government of
the United States, although the population of each
country was about twenty millions, spent nearly sixty
millions sterling less than the government of this coun-
try. He only ated facts ; and he said that they were.
not in the least questions of party, not questions of,
forms of government, but principles with regard to our,
legislation. Mechanics' institutions throughout the
country would but ill fulfil their duty to their members,
they were 'content with teaching them the common rules
of arithmetic, of drawing, or music, or other branches,
of knowledge which were taught them, and did not
bring their classes and their members as much as pos-
sible to consider those great questions upon which the:
Well-being of their families and the country most de-'
pended. (Applause.) After sonic further remarks, in
the course of which he passed a warm eloeinni on the.
benevolence and piety of the present age, at said that.
he considered the meeting aware of that single Act
of Parliament which opened up the supply of food, and
and was worth 10,000 soup kitchens, Ir. B. obierved