The Press.
London, England, 1858-02-06 00:00:00

REFORM MEETINGS.

A REFORM demonstration took place in the Birming-
ham Town•hall on Tuesday, with the Mayor of the
Borough in the chair. The hall was crowded. The
Chairman, after a few prefatory observations, intro-
duced Mr. Edmonds, Cleric of the Peac,.., who read
a letter from Mr. J. Bright, M.P., in reply to a
circular of the society. Mr. Bright observed :

Twenty-five years ago the Tory party, and the Whigs
almost WI much so, were greatly afraid of an extension of
the suffrage : now very few persons of any intelligence,
even among the Conservatives, are afraid of it. The pro-
positions made some time ago by the Governments of Lord
John Russell and Lord Aberdeen showed clearly that
franchise extension is no longer the dread of the aristo-
cratic and ruling class; and it is not unlikely that Lord
Palmerston, if he proince a Reform Bill, will go a long
way in the direction in which we wish to go, so far as the
franchise is concerned. We can easily understand this.
The franchise itself gives no real power unless accom-
panied by the right, on the part of all the possessors of it,
to elect some►hing like an equal number of representa-
tives. I could easily frame a bill which would give
universal suffrage in its widest sense, and which would
confirm more strongly than ever the supremacy of the
English oligarchy over the English people. If your great
city, with its great constituency, is only to send two men
to Parliament, whilst an equal population and property in
some other part or parts of the kingdom is to send twenty
men to Parliament, then I say your extended franchise is
of little avail. The man who can merely about at the
hustings, or contribute to the show of hands, is in reality
in almost as good a position as the man who votes, if the
value of votes is rendered so unequal, or is nearly de-
stroyed by the unequal distribution of representatives
among the whole body of electors. The Government and
the Parliament, even the House of Lords, will consent to
a large increase of electors, and men who have not con-
sidered the subject fully will imagine they have gained
much by the concession. Lord John Russell, in his many
speeches on a further measure of Reform, generally, if not
always, confines himself to an extension of the franchise ;
and his last bill, although it would have added largely to
the number of electors throughout the kingdom, would
have done absolutely nothing to lessen the power of the
order to which he belongs, and to increase that of the
nation as distinguished from its privileged and aristocratic
class. It is not a matter of opinion or of any doubt that
lam discussing. It is a question of fact and of arithme-
tic, and therefore I wish to urge it strongly upon your
attention. The contest of the question of Reform will be
in the distribution of the seats. Will the great borough
of the Tower Hamlets, with its half million of population,
be content to return only two members to Parliament?
Will Finsbury, will Marylebone, will Lambeth, and the
other London boroughs? Will Glasgow and Manchester,
and Liverpool and Birmingham, and other leading cities
of the United Kingdom, be content to dwarf themselves
politically to the size of boroughs whose whole population
would scarcely people one of their inferior streets? Shall
it be admitted that the more men come together—the
more they are industrious, skilful, intelligent, and powerful
in every other respect—the less shall be their influence
in the government of their country?

With regard to the ballot, Mr. Bright said :
The ballot is not so much a principle as a convenience.
It does not bestow the franchise ; it only guarantees that
which the law has already conferred. A voter goes to the
poll in a cab, because it is easier, and sometimes safer for
him, than to struggle through an excited crowd on foot.
Why should he not be allowed to vote by ballot to shelter
him from the more serious annoyances he may be, and is
now, often subjected to from the importunity or the
threats of his landlord, his creditor, or his customer?
When the 200 men now in the House of Commons who
are obliged to support the ballot, or when 100 of them, or
when fifty of them, are in earnest, and tell the Government
they are resolved to have it, and that they will leave any
Government that will not grant it in the lands of the
Philistines on the opposite side of the house, then, and
probably not till then, will the ballot be conceded. I
dread to think of the consequences of the wide extension
of the suffrage in our manufacturing districts, should it be
obtained without the ballot; it will tempt employers of
labour to a hateful tyranny, and it will doom multitudes of
the employed, I fear, to a not less hateful condition of politi-
cal degradation.
In conclusion, Mr. Bright warned his hearers against
the pitfalls in their path :

Your cause is not in the hands of friends. Your forces
in the parliamentary field are commanded by men taken
from or chosen by your constant and natural opponents,
and they lead them not for your purpose but for their own.
I beseech you to watch well what is proposed, and what is
done, be the nature great or small; let it be honest in
every part. Include as many as you can in the right of the
franchise ; insist upon such a distribution of seats as shall
give the House of Commons fairly to the industry, the
property, the intelligence, and the population of the
country ; demand the ballot, and as the undeniable right of
every man who is called to the poll, and take special care