The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1866-11-24 00:00:00

REFORM BANQUET AT MANCHESTER.

A grand banquet was given on Tuesday evening in
the Free-trade Hall, under the auspices of the Na-
tional Reform Union, to Mr. Bright, M.P., and a
number of Liberal members of Parliament. Mr. G.
Wilson presided. Covers were laid in the large room
of the Free-trade Hall, which was tastefully decorated,
for upwards of 900 guests, among whom were Lord
Houghton, Lord Teynham, Mr. Bright, M.P., Sir F.
Croesley, M.P.' Mr. Ayrton, M.P., Mr. Baines,
M.P., and several other membetv of Parliament and a
great number of the leading Liberals of Manchester
and tl : ' We give a few extracts from

-
the 5p..«.4..1., ~L ilright :
When I look at the great middle class of this country, 'ri
see all that It has done, and see the political position in
which it Yots been to some extent allowed to rTit,.l ea, not
. . . .

help 'saying thatlt r-em-rn-,is'rrie". *very mucl of the 'language
which the ancient Hebrew patriarch addresQed to one Of his
scns. lie said, "Inischar hi a strong ass (great laughter),
" crouching down between two burdens" (Laughter )
Si on the ono. aide there is a burden of 7500,0001.

per .1311111 raised by way of tf,Xell to keep from starvetion
1 r .more then 1,200,000 paupers within the United Kingdom;
6 rind, on the :doer hand, and higher op In the scale, there is
.• emlamanagement the most gross, there Is extravagance
' the most reckhlia, and there Is waste the most appalling
..and diagracetul which has ever been seen in the Guyer.-
..mews of any country 'cheers); and the gra(Ld result of
Oils is a system wirch systematically abuts ont the
millions, and which older! the middle el/L5.4(4 by the hams ;
ri,ement. a Parlismeritarr Government. (Laughter and cheers.)
• •P run delighted beyond measure, atter ninny pars of diem, ,
.m.• • Waiver contemplation, and of labour In corm ec(lon with this
grsut -qu,stion, to believe that the great hoe,. of the
-Vrople—call them middle class, or call them working
. •. etas., are resolved that this state of things shall exist
Is le. ,we longer. (Loud cheers.) During the last Sewall of
Parliament there has been made by an honest Government
•1 ~ an / oral attempt to tinker the existing spurn) ; for, after
all, the hill of last 'irssion, holiest; and wenintefoled, stud
valuable as it was, was still but a till kering of a very had (s)s-
tem laughter; ; but the Tory party refused even to have it
tinkered. (Laughter and cheers). They remind me very
moth of a wealthy, hats most penurious old gentleman who
bred & ome yearsalgo in my netestionrhoott, and who object& d,
among other expeurea, very much to a tailor's bill. Be said
he had found out that a hole would loot longer than • patch.
(Great laughter,. lam not sure that that Is not the faith
of Lord Derby and his friends, for It was one of their
great argument., that If the litli of the Government
paned, it would inevitably fohow that something more
would alto almost Immediately be demanded ; they were
so that things shoeld remain as they are that
they refused to ,admit 200,000 more of the middle class
by the lowering of the c.muty franchise, and they
re (toted with equal, perhaps with greater pertinacity,
to admit 200,000, but as I believe not much mole
th.o 100,000 men to electoral rights. They would not
atipi rea nor allow the &aggression of a single rotten
borough ; to foot, there was no abuse, however tololoroplo,
tiovtovor putrfadtin whit they would snow the loiXhihe