The Express.
London, England, 1852-02-03 00:00:00

MEETING IN ST. PANCRAS.

Yesterday, a meeting of the inhabitants of St.
Pancras, convened by the parochial authorities, took place
at the Vestry Rooms, " To consider the question of parlia-
mentary reform about to be introduced to parliament by
Lord John Resell." There was a crowded attendance.

Mr. T. E. BAKER, one of the churchwarden', presided,
and suggested that each speaker, except the mover and
seconder of a resolution, should confine himself to • quarter
of an hoar. (Hear, hear )
Mr. W. D. COOPER moved, "That the First Minister
of the Crown having intimated his intention to introduce •
measure of parliamentary reform during the nest session,
the people should lose no time in giving effective expression
to their wishes; this meeting does therefore declare that
any measure which does not re-arrange the electoral dis-
tricts, extend the franchise at least to every occupier of a
tenement, protect the voter by the ballot, shorten the dorm
tion of parliaments, and abolish the property qualification
required of members, will fail to satisfy the just expecte-
, tions of the people, will be ineffectual in preventing the '
corruption, intimidation, and oppression now prevailing at
elections, and in securing the full and free representation of
the people in the Commons' House of Parliameat."
He observed that under the present system Marylebone,
with its 10,000 101. electors, had no more influence in the
house than a place like Great Marlow, which could scarcely
muster 200 voters. Be ridiculed the idea of a property
qualification for member', and asked it the Scotch mem-
bers were not as good as the English members. (Hear.)
The ballot was necessary, not to protect such voters as the
independent inhabitants of St. Pancras, but to protect
throe who could not afford to be independent, principally
in the rural districts. He was an advocate for manhood
sulfrage ; but eves if the franchise went as low as St. it
would give a vote to every house in that parish ; while in
other and leis populous places it would largely extend the
suffrage. Reform was needed, not for its own sake, but
to secure good and economical government, which could not
be had without it. (Cheers.)
Mr. Ktseica seconded the resolution.
Lord DUDLEY STUART was received with loud
cheering. He said he had asked to be called on early,
having to attend another meeting in the City, in support of
the Freehold Land Society for the Home Counties. Ile
had already attended • meeting similar to this in the parish
of Marylebone. (Hear, hear.) These were questions of
paramount importance, questions whether the people should
have their rights or not, and take their proper place in the
management of public affairs. (Cheery) It wu for the
people of St. Pancras now to make their voice heard, and
tell the government what were their expectations as to the
government measure of reform. He wished he could be
sure that the measure of the government would be •
" great measure," or one likely to satisfy the people. From
all he heard, it would be one of very trifling extent, and not
such as to satisfy their just demands. (Hear.) To extend
the franchise to M., and disfranchise a few of the smeller
boroughs, without providing for the independent ex-
ercise of the suffrage, would never meet the wishes
of the people. (Hear.) The franchise ought at least
I to be extended to all householders, including lodgers.
I (Cheers.) The, would be a great measure; but to make
.it a ;if. franchise would be to draw an arbitrary line. Still
he was not disposed to vote against any measure of reform,
however small it might be ; he had never dune so, anal he
never would. (Hear, hear.) Imperfect as was the Reform
Bill of 1831, it had done something; it had given members
to the metropolitan boroughs; it had given the people the
power of demanding more of their right.; and let them use
it in that view. (Hear, hear.) Of all the points referred
to in the resolution, the must important was the ballot.
i (Hear.) With the ballot and extended suffrage they
would get on a long way towards the attainment of their
rights. As to the property qualification of members, it was
! • mere farce and humbug. It was well known there were
, many men in the house who did not possess 3001. a year in
lend. (Hear.) No one knew this better than himself.
, (Cheers and laughter.) Ile was first returned to parliameut
I twenty years ego for • borough which it would go hard if it
did not now go to the well—Arundel. For four years he
represented the liberal elector" of that borough ; hut was
then turned out by a large territorial proprietor. He was
then • young man, 11111.1 hail not come to his property ; but
. he went to his solicitor, said he wanted a title to
land worth 3001. a year, and the sdicitor brought
hint one for land somewhere or other—he had

3.

•no idea where. (Cheers and laughter.) On entering
the house fur the first time, having the parchments of the
estate in his possession, he bad a pert et right to swear he
was the owner of it ; but when asked where hie property
NU situate, he was obliged to tell the clerk he did nut
know. (Great laughter.) Ile had no alternative hut to
take a cab, drive to Lincoln's Inn, and ask his solicitor
where hie property was. Then he went and took his seat,
and all was right. Such was the history of the law of
the property qualification. (Cheers.)
Sir B. lIALL said that from the rumours which had'
reached him, he had no doubt they would here to
meet again soon, to protest against an inefficient measure
of reform. He had been upward. of 20 years in parliament,
and had been all that times sincere and roneiatent reformer.
(Cheers.) The allegation that no reform was needed was
met by looking at tiny of our institutions, which all con-
tallier! abuse' that could not be removed' without Parlia-
mentary reform. (Hear, bear.) He did not thiuk parlia-
ment so much to blame fur nut retorming itself. The con-
stituencies were to blame for not sending up mentlet•rs to
give rap,. mien to their true wishes. The great difficulty
in making any alteration in the Return) Bill arose iu senile
measure from the popular cry, at the time it was passed,of
" the bill, the whole bill, and nothing but the bill." Two
years slur it passed, lie sought to amend the rate-paying
clauses ; and it was 1:1 years before lie succeeded in getting
an extension of the time for the people to pay the /atm
That was almost the only amendment that had been`madu
in the Itt form 11111. However the suffrage might be ex-
tended, it would be of nu use without the ballot.
He did not believe there was more corruption in the ugri-
cultural districts, than amongst the millownere and other
large employers in towns, who expected their workmen to
vote as they wished. (Hear' hear.) Nothing but the bal-
lot could remedy this state of things. (Cheers.) As le the
necessity of short parliaments no doubt could he enter-
tained ; he should vote for it cheerfully ; and if, at the end
of three years, his constitui•nte were dit.satiefied, let them
return somebody else. The property qualification sm. not
only absurd •it was unjust. While the younger son
of a peer needed a 3001. a year qualification for the House
of Commons, the eldest sou walked into the Mouse of Peers
without soy question as to his qualification being asked.
(Hear, hear.) All our institutions needed reform ; the kw
courts amongst the rest. It had recently transpired in the
public prints that the:Lord.Chief Baron's coachman rec. iced
20. on undefended actions. Ile had recently turned his
attention to eceleeinstical matters ; and would under-
take to say the ecclesiastical courts were the mist rascally
abominations that ever existed in any country. (Cheers)
He had shown up in the Howse of Commons the ease of the
highest dignitary of the church nominating a relative to a
sinecure office of 8,0004 a year. It was replied that the
office was not a sinecure ; but on inquiry lie found that the
only duty the young gentleman performed was to walk into
the office four times a year, and take a cheque for his salary.
(Cheers.) But he knew a case in the diocese of Chester,
where a child of five years, the sort of a bishop, had been
appointed to the registrarship of the diocesan court, with a
salary of 4,000 f. a year, which he received all through a
long life. (" Hear, hear," and " Shame.") These were
instances of the need of reform. As to small boroughs, they
were a pest to the community. (Hear, hear.) Ile hail the
misfortune to sit on the St. Albans committee, rind ht de-
clared it was almost as bad as an ecclesiastical court.
Mr. MOtiltE, of Kentieh-town, moved an amendment,
declaring that nothing short of universal seffrage, vote by
ballot, annual parliaments, abolition of the property genii-
cation, classification of electoral districts, and payment of
members, would secure the just rights of the people.
The CHAIRMAN put the amendment, but not more
than twenty hands were raised in Its favour, out of a meet-
irg of near a thousand persons. The original resolution
was then put and carried amidst great cheering.
Mr. BIIETTINGHAM moved—" That the cordial union
and energetic action of all reformers are now imperatively
requisite That the prineipks advocated by the National
Parliamentary and Financial Reform Association inerkt the
support of the great body of the people of this kingdoin ;
and this meeting, consisting of reformers of every shade,
pledge themselves to sustain the well directed i duets of that
association." Amidst the cry now raised for national de-
fences, he was convinced the best national defence would
be a just representation of the people in the House of
Commons.

Mr. l'a.stier, one of the churchwardens, seconded the
resolution, which was unanimously adopted.
Mr. MANNINO, a member of the council of the Na-
tional Reform Association, moved the adoption of a petition
to the Rouse of Commons, setting forth the anomalies and
injustices of the present representetson, and of the ti-cal
system of the country, and praying for the adoption of the
measures named in the first resolution.
The petition was adopted; and it was resolved that it
should be forwarded to the borough numbers for presenta-
tion.

The proceedings closed with a vote of thanks to the pa-
rochial authorities, and to the chairman.

EXTRAORDINARY ACCIDENT AT THE
ROYAL ARSENAL, WOOLWICH.

Yesterday an accident occurred at the Royal
Arsenal, which might have been attended with awful con-
sequences. It is invariably the case on the receipt of new
guns from contractors to test them by an extra charge of
powder, varying according to the size of the gun and de-
scription of ordnance. In compliance with this regulutins,
• detachment of gunners of the Royal Artillery attended at
the proof butt, in the Itoysl Arsenal, and under the usual
superintendence loaded tout% pounder guns, lying on the
ground at a short distance from the butt, with a
charge of 211 lbs. of powder to each, and, after the
wadding, added a Sfilsounder solid shot to each.
The tune selected for proving guns is always at 12
noon precisely, when the whole of the workmen is the ar-
senal have lett their work to proceed to their dimmers. Yhe
process of testing the guns is very carefully conducted, port
fires calculated to burn four or five minutes being supported
by clay over the vent of each gun, and the whole ignited
by one roan, who has ample time to retire three or four
hundred yards before the firing takes place. On the ar-
rangements being made for firing with the lour 16-
pounders, one of the guns, whose port fire hail communi •
cated to the charge before the others, burst in the act of
firing, and one of the pieces struck one of the other guns
and turned it right round the muzzle being then instead
of nearly due east towards the 'rotund, due west in the
direction of the town of Woolwich, and in an instant after-
wards the 56-pounder shot was fired, proceeding at a tre-
mendous velocity given by the great charge of powder over
the houses in the line of High-straet, and only at a very
little elevation above, starting and causing the horses re-
turning from their work at the dockyard to rear and refuse
to proceed, and astonishing the numerous workmen going
home to dinner with its whizzing sound. The shut passed
on a little to the south of the tall chimney at the
saw-mills, and struck the chimney of the residence
of Mr. Macdonald, master attendant at Wool-
wich dockyard, and a few yards further knoelted
down the back drawing-room chimney of Mr. Morgan,
the store receiver's residence, at the same time knocking
down a large portion of the parapet of the building, scatter-
ing the bricks in all directions, and, ultimately, fell on the
roof of a detached part of the house where the shot was
found. Had the shot gone ten yards further, and the dis-
tance where it fell from the place where it was fired is fully
a mile and a half, it would have fallen on ti dense growl of
dockyard workmen at that moment leaving the yard for
dinner. Mr. Budd, one of the inspectors of the dock-
yard police, had • narrow escape from being in-
jured by one of the pieces of scattered bricks,
as it entered the open door of a greenhouse
he has on the top of his house, and broke off • piece of a
shelf by the great force with which it struck ; Mr. Budd had
not left the slut the distance of a foot when the brick
entered. The scattered bricks ascended and broke nume-
rous chimney pots on the tops of the adjoining houses, and
Several windows in the lower parts of the dwellings, and the
inside of Mr. Morgan's residence was covered with soot and
pounded bricks which came down the chimney. The spot
was visited by hundreds during the afternoon all congratu-
lating each other that no personal injury has been sustained
by the accident.

HOME COUNTIES AND METROPOLITAN FREEHOLD
LAND Socterv.--sLeat evening a public meeting was held
at the London Coffee house, Ludgate-hill, for the purpose
of explaining the objects and principles of this society.
Lord Dudley Stuart, M.P.' presided ; and in opening the
business of the evening, stated he had &Irises felt a deep
interest in freehold land societies, as he considered that they
were calculated to elevate and ennoble the character of the
working classes, and he thought that great honour was due
to Mr. James Taylor, of Birmingham, for having founded
sneh institutions. He should much like to see the freehold
land movement so widely extended as to produce a political
change in those counties where there had been none but tory
representatives, and where he hoped so in to tied pod,
sterling, hottest liberals returned. qtr. Nicholay proposed a
resolution to the effect that freehold land societies based on
sound principles were well calculated to promote the eleva-
tion and improvement of the industrial classes. Mr. Nicho-
lay observed that these societies had been very successful
so far as they had gone, and those who had purchased land
under their auspices had found tho investment desirable in
the extreme. Ile had received a letter from an influential
person in America, stating that the freehold land move-
ment was regarded in that country as one of the most im-
portant agitations which had ever taken place in 'England,
and he (Mr. N ieholay) thought this a very favourable omen.
Dr. Challis seconded the resolution,which was supported by a
working man, named Hopkins, who created much amuse-
ment by the honest, straightforward manner in which he
upheld institutions whose object was to keep men out of
the public-house, and to induce them to cultivate habits of
sobriety and prudence. The motion was carried unani-
mously, and was followed by a resolution to the effect that
the principles and objects of the present society were cape-
tehiaelrelyfocritelecunltitittleirdl
ttoo
operozoptpoe
nthoef ettnd anst
vweerreal
anilkit,:eeLhini:e'eubill:"Uvsinnuesserluof'tet the resolution,
uldra't*r:. awrh'viloci'tehttio'safu:litinhMganritsß‘et:go car-
ried,
Elt TO WILLIAM LOCKHART, ESQ., M.P.—On
Friday afternoon, Mr. Lockhart, M.P. for the county of
Lanark, was entertained at dinner in the Clydesdale Hotel,
Lanark, by the gentlemen of the Upper Ward, as an expres-
Dion of the value which they attached to his services as re-
presentative of the county. The party, which numbered
upwards of 120 gentlemen, many of them of With standing
in the county, embraced all shades of opinion, it being un-
derstood that the demonstration was entirely irrespective of
politics. Hope Vere, Esq., of Blackwood endemism Hall,
discharged the duties of chairman.--VortA BriliA Daily
Mail.

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