The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-11-22 00:00:00

tEfoitr AT WAKEFIELD.

NEL YouN BRIGHT has been missing for some
time, but he has turned up at last, as a speaker
at the annual soiree of the Wakefield Mechanics'
institution. The first thing that must strike any
one, on reading the report of his speech on that
occasion, is the adroitness with which he endea-
voured to evade the rule of the institution which
forbids the introduction of political discussion at
any of its meetings. Mr. BRIGHT, alluding to
the regulation in questions amused his audience
by referring to the operation of a similar rule at
agricultural meetings. "I find there," he said
" that nearly every speaker, after he has
just glanced at turnips, or some agricultural
matter of that kind, shoots off at once into a poll-
tical disquisition. I won't follow their example ;
I will not go into party politics in the least."
Thereupon he laid down the proposition that,
" As the rule excludes politics that are concerned
with party, it does not exclude politics that have
no reference to party." Without further preface
the " honourable" gentleman set off at fall gallop
into the very middle of polities., and for nearly
an hour treated his audience to a discourse, the
purport of which was that we owe all the evils
that afflict society to the extravagance of the
aristocracy ;—to the inequality of taxation, where-
by the rich are exempt and the poor oppressed ;
that we have only been saved from national ruin
by the legislative efforts of Messrs. COBDEN,
BRIGHT, and Co. ; —that our only chance of
future prosperity rests upon our unwavering faith
in the same political saviours ; and in the educa-
tion of the whole people in Mr. BRIGHT'S views
of political economy. By the same means strikes
and all their evils are to be abolished,—soup
kitchens are to be rendered superfluous, and
philanthropy left without a needy object. Ame-
rican Republicanism was, of course, held up to
the admiration of his audience, and the idea was
more than hinted at that the adoption of a similar
form of government in this country ought to be
the aim of every man ; and that the ultimate
attainment of such an object must be the natural
result of a greater diffiusion of knowledge and
intelligence. Then, the riches accumulated by
particular men and families are to be fairly dis-
tributed among the multitude, who will be no
longer poor—whose little comforts will be no
longer precarious. These are the political
opinions, the enunciation of which Mr. BitiGHT
prefaced with the assertion that their discussion
was permissible in a Mechanics' Institution be-
.cause " they had no reference to party."
The abuse of such an opportunity by addressing
politics to a large meeting, met for anon-political
purpose, is a serious evil, which might, if per-
mitted to pass without reprobation, lead to still
more grievous consequences. It is essential to
the welfare and prosperity of Mechanics' Institu-
tions that they shall not be turned into political
engines for the benefit of any party, but espe-
cially of such demagogues as Mr. BRIGHT. On
the platform of a Mechanics' Institution men of
every political opinion and phase of religious
belief ought cordially to unite in shaking hands
over their differences. Why should not the
Wakefield audience have been permitted to
realise the truth of the Chairman's eloquent
observations when he said—" They knew only
too well how political discords might provoke
animosities and sunder friendships, and it was,
therefore, with a certain alacrity that they
might
embracedmeetand
thoseaet wi
th occasionsthe
same
uponh
iwghhi chhe tphee, ya
and
the
same untiring purpose, when they might forget
Jthe strife, and contention of the past, and when
they; might remember that, however strong
may have been the impulses which hurled
some of them apart, those bonds were
infinitely stronger which, whether as fellow-
countrymen or as fellow-citizens, bound them
inseparably together ?" Was it the part of any
sincere friend of the people to mar the utility
and alloy the pleasure of such a meeting, as Mr.
BRIGHT did, by a covert attempt to propagate
obnoxious political sentiments ? -Why was Mr.
BRIGHT obliged to confess that, "to-night I feel
myself in a very unusual and indeed somewhat
difficult position." Ought he not to have been
ashamed to state the fact that although often
invited to take part at the meetings of such insti-
tutions for the education of the working classes,
it was many years since he had done so ? ltor
twenty years, as he himself allowed, he has
been before the public as a party politician, and
as the professed friend of the lower classes; and
yet he has been a stranger, if not an enemy, to
the working of a scheme which, when efficiently
carried out, is calculated to confer inestimable
blessings upon the very objects of Mr. BRIGHT'S
pretended watchfulness and care. And when at
last he does appear at a Mechanics' Institute, he
has not one word of commendation of the legiti-
mate operations of such an agency, but labours
to convince them that unless they will aban-
don the pursuit of general knowledge, and. take
to the agitation of political subjects, their
efforts at self-improvement are in vain. He
felt- bound to say, from the experience of the
past, that the _striking off and eradicating a bad
principle from our legislation, the sweeping away
of a single act of Parliament waii worth more
than ten thousand soup kitchens, and more than
an age of ordinary philanthropic effort ! He
might quite consistently have specified Mechanics'
Institutes' among those efforts which he deems
comparatively worthless. Doubtless that was his
real meaning. It is in this way that such
selfishly ambitious men—the quasi friends of the
people,—allow the cloven hoof to be plainly seen
and prove by their own words and acts that they
are the greatest enemies of sound progress.
This latest development of Brightite tactic
shows that this Radical champion is conscious of
the exhaustion of his role as a party political
agitator. He now seeks to wear a mask, and
make his appearance upon another and a neutral
stage. Under the flimsy pretence of talking
"politics which concern no party," he hopes to
steal an audience, and to pervert a useful institu-
tion into a hateful engine for republican propa-
gandism. But he shall not succeed in his vile
undertaking. His statements on Tuesday even-
ing were little more than a cold hash of
,
his formerly oft repeated,* and as often
refuted, allegations and fallacies. The people
of England know them well. They stink
in every man's nostrils. To attempt to follow
and expose the baseless assertions and futile argu-
ments with which the ears of the Wakefield
mechanics were impudently assailed for an hour
would exhaust the patience of our readers, and,
besides, would be a work of supererogation. So
far as Mr. BRIGHT'S influence with the working
classes can go, he might truthfully exclaim,
" Othe//o's occupation's gone." The people will
have none of him or of " his polities which
concern no party." Truly they do not concern
the English nation, however interesting they

may be to a few grasping, shortsighted, and yet
ambitious and loud-mouthed cotton lords, and.
would-be statesmen of Manchester. It does,,
however, concern Englishmen—every well-wisher
of his fellow-countrymen—to see to it promptly
and. efficaciously that Mr. JOHN BRIGIIT or any
of his school shall not abuse and pervert to poli-
tical purposes one of the most hopeful educa-
tional instrumentalities of the age—,our
INstitOTts,

SOUTH LANCASIIIRE

JjUnGMENT OF THE bOMMoN.,

We give elseW4ere a full reliort .of this jUdg-
thent, reVersing that of the Reviling Barrister.
Ol!q. 4;th.thr bontl6thpnitr3>, the Daily Post, has
been misinformed as to the effect of this judgment,
" which," our contemporary says, " will be to
strike off the names of all those voters in South
Lancashire objected to by Mr. Brumfit who did
not appear to prove their qualifications—about
1,500." If the Daily Post meant that 1,500
votes have, by this decision) been lost to the
Conservatives, we mean to suy that it isint'or:
rect. The point at fissile Was riieretY -Whether
Mr. Brumfit, in the eirchinstantes, bad the right
to make any objections at 'the ReVising Bar-
rister held that he had riot: 71.1.otWitirstandingthat
opinion, the COrisark-ative agent took the Precaution,
as did 'We oUrselves) in these ctslumiis, speeiall to
warn all Conservatives against whose votes Mr.
Brumfit had objected, that in all probability
the barrister's opinion would be over-ruled by the
court above. Accordingly we urged all whose
right to vote had been questioned to come for-
ward to substantiate the same, as if no such
opinion had been given. The result was that,
with a few exceptions, the parties objected to
came forward and met the objection exactly as if
his right to object had never been questioned,
and, with trifling exceptions, they Made good
their places upon the Register. Some who,
under any eireninstatibeS, ought to lia-k,e been
struck ;Off, and *he titerekorb did rot come for:-
Wara to answer Mr. Brumfit's objections, might
have been retained on the register had these
objections been held inadmissible ; but in no
event was there the least likelihood of their votes
being made practically available. The effect of
the recent judgment in the Common Pleas, there-
fore, is only to strike off a few names which had
no right to be there, and which were of no real
value to the Conservatives. The effect of the
greater purity of the list is in no way prejudicial
to the triumph of the Conservative party at the
late revision, whose strength, already enormously
preponderating, has been still further fortified—
thus rendering the issue of the nett election_ for
the Division by ito Means doubtful in fairofir of
the only sound Liberal, that is to say, the Liberal-
Conservative, party in the State.