The Express.
London, England, 1851-12-18 00:00:00

UNIVERSITY AND CLERICAL.

CAMBRIDOL—At a congregation holden on Mon-
day, graces passed the senate: 1. To appoint Mr. John-
son, King's College, an examiner of the Moral Sciences
Tripos of the ensuing year. 2. To appoint Dr. Paget, of
Caine College, an examiner of the Natural Sciences Tripos
of the dialling year. 3. To appoint Mr. Thring, of King's
College, and Mr. Westcott, of Trinity College, examiners
for the Maitloasd Prixe.—Mr. B. T. W. Polehampton, M.A.,
of Pembroke College, Oxford, was admitted ad mann.
At a congregation holden on Tuesday (being the last day
of term), the said term was dissolved in the usual form.
Caosal SCHOLAIL—The vacancy in this scholarship has
beta filled up by the election of Mr. 0. Mertyn Cloreham,
B.A , of Trinity College.

REFORM MEETING AT STOCKPORT.

The annual smirk, of the Stockport Reform A•go-
elation was held at the County Court Hall, on Tuesday
evening, and drew together nn exceedingly large and re-
specteble attendance of the electors and other ilinabitants.
Mr. HANIrBoN, president of the association, took the chair,
and the company included Jas. Kershaw, Esq., M.l'. for
the borough, Juhn Bright, Esq., M.P., Mr. Councillor
Eskrigge, Aid. Itylands, of Warrington, Edwin Oldham,
Esq., ltev. IL de Valnaint, Rev. John Thornton, Mr. 11.
Coppock.
Atter the usual loyal toasts, the chairman proposed
" John Bright, Kai., M.l'., and speedy success to the
scheme of parliamentary reform so ably expounded by him
at the late delegate meeting in Manchester." The senti.
ment was received with immense cheering.
Mr. BRIGHT rose amidst renewed demonstrations of
enthusiasm, and after a few introductory observations,
said 1 should like to ask you what was the rea-
son that it was required that the struggle should be main-
tained for seven years before we could obtain the abolition
of the corn Lev. rue reason is a very simple ono. If you could
step inside the House of Commons, us it has been my for-
tune to do tamed every day for six months in the year for
the last nine years, you would perceive that your opinions
are nut the prevalent opiniuus there ; and that your repre-
sentatives, or those who speak your sentiments, or the senti-
ments of the great miss of the population, are not in a major-
ity, or in any great numbers in that house; but you would
hid that representatives of im entirely different class, and in
numbers a very small section of the community, are in-
trenched in both houses of parliament, so that without souse
great and long continued agitation it is impossible to over-
come them or to convince them. When I speak of con-
vincing them, it is nut convincing their reason so much as
convincing them that they must be compelled to surrender.
(Cheers.) Now, there are abundant proofs that the cora
law was an unpopular law when it was pasted in 181$.
There were riots hi many parts of the country, many most
intelligent and patnotie own opposed it, and the govern-
ment of that day employed a large number of spies to visit
all portions of the metropolis for the purpose of ascertaining
what were the reclines of the people with regard to that
bill, and to report to the government thereon, in order
that the government might know whether the course they
were pursuing was safe, and whether the people would stand
the pressure about to be laid upon them. Now, I have
seen a bill, signed by a Bow-street magistrate in London,
attesting the services of certain men employed all spies,
with their as. a day wages, and ss. ter expenses attached.
That was the course taken by the government in 181.5, be-
cause they knew that what they were doing was contrary
to the interests and liberty of the people, and they were
afraid that what they were doing might create trouble and
insurrection. From 181.5 to 1846, when the law was abo-
lished, there has always been a protest against that law on
the part of the great majority of the people of this country.
The landlords were fur it, because the law was made fur
them ; the farmers ultimately became for it (they were not
for it in 1815 to any large extent), because they believed
their interests were bound up with it ; but the great body
of the people, the manufacturers, trailers, and artisans in all
our large towns, were opposed to that measure
from the beginning, and remained, the vast majo-
rity of them, constantly opposed to it until it was
extinguished. Now, what is the opinion of the country at
this moment with regard to that question? Almost unani-
mously we are agreed that the abolition of that law in 1816
was a very happy circumstance for the country. (Hear,
hear.) There is out a man in Stockport at this moment
who is so obtuse that you would not ask his opinion on
any question, who mould say that it is nut a happy thing
for the country that the corn law was abolished by Sir
Hubert feel in 1316; and, with the exception of some
farmer; who are not much accustomed to examine and re-
flect on these questions, and some embarrassed landlords
who fancy that their mortgages would be better paid if you
helped to pay them—with some exceptions like these the
whole country hue come to the conclusion that the corn law
was a bad law; and, although in its abolition some persons
may have been put to temporary embarrassment, yet
' its abolition was just and necessary, and it would
be impossible to re-coact that low. (Laud cheers.)
Now, there is cot one argument that I could
use on this platform to-night against that law, that
was not as good at any time since 1815 as it is now, and
there is not a fact that I could bring to prove its wicked and
unjust character, which would not have been equally patent
to prove its character any time between 1811 and 1816.
Aral what is more, the chief men of the political parties in
this country knew as well any time within the lust 20 years
the character of that law, its objecfs, and its ri sults, as
they know it the very minute at which I am speaking.
(Hear.) It is not to be supposed for a moment that Sir R.
Peel first discovered in November, 1346, that the corn law
was a bad law ; what he had discovered was that the people
bad found out that it was a bad law. (Loud cheers.)
The House of Commons is, as can be demonstrated
by figures and by facts which cannot be controverted, con-
siderably more the representative of the House of Lords, of
the great landed proprietary, than it is the representative of
the property, the industry, and the intelligence of the whole
people of this country. We have possessed Ireland in some
shape or other for hundreds of years ; that is, it has been
governed from the administration, or by the government
established in London; and yet Ireland at this moment
presents a picture which cannot be equalled in any civilised
country in the world. .So much poverty is not to be found
in any country on the earth. Ireland, during the last five
years, has sulfured as much as if armed men had been con-
stantly contending on its plains ; and at this moment, as
you may see from every Irish newspaper you look at, the
people, tired of the hopelessness of their condition, arc gra-
dually escaping as fat as their means will permit and as
ships will carry them, to a land which is more free than
thews, and which stiles them an asylum and a subsistence
which are denied them in their own country. (Hear, hear.)
New there is nothiug. in Ireland, there is nothing in the
soil, in the climate, in the constitution or genius of the
people, to make it more difficult for them to live in
their own country than it is for them to live in the
United States of America. Sending wine on a voyage to
the East Indies is said to improve its qualities, but it is not
to be supposed that because an Irishman is three weeks at
sea, he lands different from what he was when in his own
country ; anal yet it is a fact that when Irishmen are in the
United States they do become a different race in their con•
dition to what they were in their own country. And these
people, who could not live in their own country, are sup-
posed to send over to Ireland some hundreds of thousands
of pounds annually, to pay for the exportation of their fa-
milies and friends to the land to which they themselves
have fled. Well, now, there are only two circumstances
which can in any way affect the Irishman differently in
America from what he meets with in Ireland • one is with
regard to the land, and the other is with regard to religious
questions. With regard to the land, until very recently,
no Irishman could get hold of a piece of land
for love or money. Such a thing as the soil of a
field, or a plot of land for building ; or a
email farm, was not known to a man of 50 or 60 years of
age in Ireland, who was yet fully conversant with all that
was taking place in the country. The estates were in the
hands of great proprietors, who were mortgaged up to the
very lips. (Hear, bear.) With regard to the Esta-
blished Church of Ireland, we have had, as you
know, this last year, not • little discussion upon the
questions of protestant and catholic. I shall discuss no
such question here, but I shall speak of men, and of free-
men ; and I say that there can be no greater insult to a
nation—to the nation of Ireland—than that this
nation, a more populous, a more wealthy, and
a more powerful one, should insist on maintaining
in Ireland a proud, dominant, wealth-gathering,
church, which is not in any degree the church of the
people, which instead of being the distributor and dis-
penser of blessings, of civilisation, and of the Gospel, is
in point of fact, a symbol of the conquest in ages gone
by, and of the degradation and servitude of the Irish
people. (Prolonged cheering.) Why, there is not a man
in his senses that will say, and speak honestly, that that
state of things would have existed in Ireland if the popu-
lation of the United Kingdom, if the property, and in-
dustry, and intelligence of the United Kingdom had been
fairly represented in the House of Commons. I would
scorn to call myself an Englishman, I would be ashamed
to say that I belonged to this country, if I thought the
people of England had no more sense of right and justice,
no more sense of what was due to their own character, and
their own future and present well-being, than to trample
on every sacred right of Irishmen in the manner in
which the government of this country has been doing.
Well, now, this representation is a question which
is now coming before the public. It is just of that nature
to allow the opinions of • small minortty of the people to
be expressed in the parliament, but it is of that nature also
to allow as much evil to be done, and to give an apparent
popular sanction to as much evil of government as the go-
vernors think it is safe to practise upon the people. The
sentiment which has been read referred to the reso-
lutions which were passed in Manchester, less than •
fortnight ago, at a conference of gentlemen assembled
chiefly from Lancashire and Yorkshire. From the accounts
in the papers, you will know that that conference was of a
very influential character, that it was composed of men of
education, property, and influence, and all those qualities
which give men standing in this country. The resolutions
that were passed were passed in the belief that a law based
upon them would give to the people of this country that
representation to which they are justly entitled. The
object was not to take care that every particular individual
in the country had a vote, nor that every member of parlia-
ment should have precisely the same number of constituents;
but they were prepared upon this view, to obtain the sanc-
tion of the good, the liberal, the well-intending portion of
every class of society ; and judging from the mode in which
they have been received, I am happy to believe
that the conference did not wholly fail of the
object which it had in view. (Hear, hear.) Now,
with regard to the franchise, the resolutions proposed
that a principle which has existed time immemorial in this
country should be adopted,—the principle of voting within
parishes, which I believe no one ever complaiued of as
being too extended a suffrage or too contracted; that every
person liable to rating, every person rated in fact, every
person who has a right to have his name on the rate-book,
by virtue of any occupation he might hold, should have
the franchise ; that, in point of fact, the rate-book should
be a copy of the register of the electors. Now, if that has
worked well in all the parishes of England, if it has been
the franchise adopted in municipal boroughs (with one
great mischief, which the House of Lords introduced, of a
three years' residence, and which ought immediately to be
abolished), and if the same franchise has worked well
in poor-law unions, I cannot see why it should
not work well in electing members of parlia-
ment. And as this conference proposed and as
anigghrteastannictrotinnedg thine prthpoe.iFtioreen
thTatraitdew-uhaldl
estirahebleu thatme
a measure should be introduced by the government, of
which we have had some faint promise, and that it should

be based upon that most efficient and admirable franchise,
which, whilst generally speaking, it admits every settled
inhabitant to vote, wherever it excludes a man, it does not
exclude them because he belongs to a particular chits in so-
ciety. Now, the present ten pound franchise is fixed at ten
pounds for this special purpose, that the great lady of the
working classes may be excluded. It is intended to admit
broad-cloth men—(Laughter) —what are called " respect-
able people "—(Cheers)—but it is intended specially to ex-
clude the great mass of the peopi' of this country. The
rating franchise will not be directed against them
at all, but whatever exclusion there may be,
will be directed equally against men of all classes
of society who do not happen to come within
its limits, and be liable to be rated to the relief of the poor.
Tho next proposition of the Conference was, that there
should be established a system by which voters could go
is the poll without compulsion, and without fear—the vote
by ballot. (Great cheering.) We hid it upon authority,
whirls 1 doubted extremely, in the House of Commons, I
that the people of Stockport did not care about the ballot.
(Cheese.) An elector of Stockport answered that statement
by it petition to the House of Commons (which being in-
formal was not permitted to be accepted), Sy signing of a
memorial, I believe, to the extent of a considerable Ina-
jority of the constituency. (Cheers.) I met a gentleman
the other day who was a candidate at the lust general elec-
tion fur a borough in Yorkshire (and lie was not under-
stood to be of the political party to which I am supposed to
I belong), but he said he thought he ought to vote for the
ballot ; for at the last election, when ho was a candidate, he
I only lost his election by a very small majority, and
no less than forty-four of the voters who had signed
the requisition to him ultimately voted for his opponent.
They voted, of course, under more or less of compulsion or
influence, which the ballot would shield electors from.
I should like to find a man who could give au argument
against the ballot. (Cheers.) I have heard it discussed
repeatedly in the Home of Commons' —I have heard one
of your representatives speak of it, but I never beard an
argument against it. The only thing which has been said
only shows that there is uo argument, and that is, that it
is u very un-Englisli way of voting. Well, everything that
is not English may not be good, nor is everything that is
practised in England bad; but if there be one thing worve
than another, according to the spirit in which this govern-
ment is established, and according to the music which we
have heard this night, it is that the man to whom the con-
stitution professes to have given all independent vote,
should give a vote not in accordauee with his holiest opi-
nions, but in accordance with the dictate of an employer, or
a creditor, or a customer, or somebody
i who has some influ-
ence over this elector. Why,
_it s a notorious thing
that in almost every borough in England, certainly
with the exception of the largest boroughs, this
influence is used to a great extent at every election.
After referring to the much-talked-of corruption at elec-
tions, Mr. Bright wound up as follows:—I should say that
any minister who is really anxious to improve the repre-
eentatiun of the people would boost signally fail in time per-
formance of his duty if lie did not cooneet with the mea-
sure, whatever it may be, the shelter of the ballot. I be-
lieve that any minister who withholds from the electors the
shelter of the ballot, after the experience of so many years,
prefers that the votes should be given under these impure
and immoral influences rather than under the impression of
intelligent and conscientious duty on the part of the elector
who is entrusted with that vote. (Cheers.) Another pro-
position of the conference was that we should have a cond.
amebic alteration in the distribution of the franchise.
In Stockport I believe there are about 60,000 inhabi-
tants; there arc many boroughs wills not more than four
or live thousand inhabitants who return as many as
Stockport does. Manchester has three hundred thousand
or more, and 12,000 electors, and i+ only returns two mem-
bers, while Stockport, with only 1,300 or 1,400 electors, re-
, turns as many. These inequalities actually defraud you of
what real representation there is. Out of every seven men
you meet, six of them have no vote at all, and the number
of electors all over the country amounts to less than a mil-
lion, and the number of members going to parliament is so
distributed among these that all your great seats of popula-
tion, wealth, intelligence, and power, are deprived of power
in the government, and are matched, and outlialaneed in-
deed, by little paltry boroughs in different parts of the
country, half a dozen of which might be carved out of
Manchest, r, and Manchester would not appear any less
than it is now. (Hear, hear.) I am in hopes
that the propositions submitted by the conference
in Manchester will meet with the Approbation
not of this meeting only, but of all the population of this
town. But your borough does not stand in quite so satis-
factory a position as that in which I live. We, fortunately,
return only ene member to parliament, and we return him
on what we conceive to be the right side of the question.
Your borough sends two members to parliament, and I
have the pleasure of being more or less intimately acquainted
with both of them. Mr. Kershaw I very often find at my
elbow in the Home of Commons, and we see opposite us
about us far from here to that clock--your other member;
and whenever Mr. Kershaw says " Yes," that gentleman,
with a most unpleasant echo, says " No." (Laughter.)
That must be admitted to be an unsatisfactory state of
things. It may be of no consequence that nothing is done
in parliane nt, it may be of no consequence whether " Yes"
is said or "No " is said, but I think it is of
very great consequence what parliament does, and I
think that the people of this country have suffeted
during the last GO years to an enormous, incredible, and
indescribable extent from the crimes of government. The
minister has declared distinctly that, at the opening of next
session, he would be prepared to submit a measure of reform
to parliament. We believe he will keep his promise. His
measure may be a very small one, which will be very un-
statesmanlike ; or it may be one °lnsubstantial improvements.
If it be the latter, of course, we who are in favour of parli-
amentary reform will give it all tile support in our power.
But bear in mind that a large section of the llouse of Com-
mons, as in 1830 and 1831, don't want any reform at all.
The gentlemen who won't to get back tne corn-laws don't
want any reform at all; gentlemen who sit for corrupt
boroughs don't want reform, because they doubt whether
they would get back again to the House of Commons. The
House of Lords don't want reform; and it is not quite cer-
tain that all the members of the cabinet want reform. lte-
form is not desirable in their eyes because they know its ob-
ject is, and its result would in all probability be, to lessen to
some extent their exclusive possession of power, and dis-
tribute power more equally amongst the people—in fact to
ask in a larger number of the population to discuss and settle
the affairs of the empire. Now if ire go to the House of Com-
mons we may make whatsoever speeches we like, and give
what votes we like, but if there is not a manifestation of
feeling and opinion out of doors, you will see at once how
incapable we, who are in a minority, are to cope with this
banded and confederated monopoly of power which is
arrayed against at. Why not have great meetings in
all your towns, why not have your reform com-
mittee, most of whom are hero to-night, I presume, who
should they not meet and arrange a system by which they
can obtain the signatures of every man in Stockport in
favour of a scheme of parliamentary reform. Why should
they not make a circuit of all the surrounding villages and
obtain from each of them also a petition, which Mr. Ker-
shaw, when parliament meets, may lay on the table of the
house and say: "This is the opinion of the people of
Stockport—not of the electors only whom I represent, hut
of the vast body of the people, and of the surrounding vil-
lages, too, of that most industrious and very large town.
This is the opinion they have sent me here to express, and
they demand that the House of Commons should give to
them that right which the constitution in theory says they
have, but which our system hitherto has denied them.'
(The hon. gentleman sat down amidst loud cheering.)
The CHAIRMAN proposed as the next sentiment, "James
Kershaw, Eat., M.P. for Stockport: may his energetic
struggles, which rescued the borough from tory domination
be ever fresh in the memory of his constituents—may he,
u one of the representatives of Stockport, live long to up-
hold liberal measures and support progressive reform, the
safeguards of constitutional liberty and the bulwarks
against anarchy." The sentiment was rapturously ap-
plauded.

Mr. KERSIIAW addressed his constituents upwards of
an hour, frequently interrupted by loud cheering. lie con-
gratulated the reform association on the service it was
doing. lie understood that they had achieved some signal
successes in the municipal returns, and secured a right
good register aptinst the next parliamentary election,
I (Loud cheers.) It was probable that in a very short time
I he (Mr. Kershaw) should have to place in their hands the
important trust delegated to him four years ago; in his
opinion there could be little doubt that the present par-
liament would be dissolved during next year; and they
would then have to give a verdict upon his conduct. They
would then have to elect or re-elect the gentlemen who
were to serve them in the next parliament ; and though
the last four years had been a period of labour, of trial to
his health end many sacrifices of a personal nature, with-
out any personal object to serve (for he had never asked the
minister for a favour to himself or any relative, and never
would, though he was ready to take any and every
means best to promote the good of his con-
stituents), it was his determination—and it was due
to his many friends who had solicited him to take
this course, to take the earliest opportunity to avow
it—it was his determination to offer himself again at the
next election. (Great cheering, in the course of which
the whole body of the meeting rose to their feet.)
In his opinion the present was a time eminently favourable
to the discussion of a great question like this. The people
were well employed—they had more nearly " a fair day's
wage for a fair day's work " than within our memory they
had ever had; and he thought this wu a time, when the
people were free from the excitemen. of political dema-
gogues on the one hand, and from the temptations they
were subject to in times of distress and physical suffering on
the other—he thought this was a time of all others when an
attempt might be made to settle this great question of the
franchise with advantage. (Cheers.)

Mr. COPPOCK responded to " The independent electors
of the borough," and Mr. Alderman Rylands to " Educa-
tion for all the people; " and several other sentiments
having been given and responded to, the meeting broke up
at a ►ate hour.

FATAL ACCIDENT IN LONG-ACRE.—Yesterdayafter-
noon Mr. Bedford held an inquest, at the Charing-cross
Hospital, on the body of Aaron Boss, a carpenter, aged ♦O,
whose death was consequence of falling through the
scaffolding from the roof of the factory of Messrs.
Horne, Long-acre. The deceased was fixing the purlins
for the rafters of the roof on Saturday week, when
be stepped on a thin piece of plank (such no is used for
covering roofs previous to slating), which snapped asunder,
and the deceased in consequence fell through the scaffold-
ing to the ground, from a height of about 30 leet, fracturing
his spine. He was immediately taken to the above hospital,
where he lingered till Monday last, when he expired, leav-
ing a widow and three children to lament his loss. Verdict
—" Accidental death."

Rain Intelligence.

EQUITY COURTS.-YESTERDAY.
lima, TUN MOT) OP T9[ Row.
BARKER T. THE MAYOR AND COUPoRMON OF LIVER-

1 POOL.—JUDGMENT.
The Master of the Rolls said ho Mai of opinion that this
demurrer must be allowed. On the construction of the acts
of parliament he entertained a clear opinion that the cor-
poration has a clear right to do what this bill complains of.
fhc first act, the 6th and 7th Vie., cap. 75, enabled the
commissioners for paring and sewering the town of Liver-
pool more effectually to water the streets, and to provide
water for extinguishing fires, and the ith sectain em-
powered them to by pipes for these purenses in any of the
streets of the town, or in any of the adjoining to . nships.
By the 6th section, which was the section on which tho
plaintiff principally relied, it was provided that no water to
be obtained front any wells shall be supplied by the
commissioners for any other purpose than the ex-
tinguishing of fires, or watsriag the streets, or
for other public purpmes as in the act provided. The
129th section provided that the commissioners might
supply salt or fresh water within the town fur public baths
or for other public purposes not thereinbefore provided,
and the supply of water under these acts for the purposes
therein mentioned was wholly unlimited. The 9th section
provided that the commissioners should make the wells as
deep as they thought fit, and they were compelled to leave
the pipes quite full, notwithstanding any waste. The act
recited that the commissioners had bought Green-lane, in
the parish of West Derby, aad therein sunk wells, and laid
pipes front those wells to different parts of the town. In
this state of things the second act passed, the 9 & 10 Vie.,
c. 127, by which the acts for supplying the town with water
were incorporated into one act, and Placed under the con-
trol of the corporation, the water to tie supplied for every
purpose but domestic purposes. Upon this, the third act,
the 10 & 11 Vic., c. 216, passed. It authorised the corporatioa
to purchase the Liverpool and Harrington Watt rworks, mid it
gave power to the corporation to obtain water also from
ltivingten like. It was obvious tl.at the object of this
last lie! of purliament was to place the whole system of
supplying water for domestic as well as for public purposes
under the control of the corporation. The preamble recited
that under the provisions of the former acts, !sorts of tho
borough of Liverpool had been supplied with water, but
that such supply was only
i int, rmittent, and was not ade-
quate to the wants of the nkubitants ; that the corporation
had power to supply water for public purposes ; that it was
expedient that the supply of water for all purposes should
he placed under the control of the corporation, and that all
i the privileges of the water companies should he vested in
theta for that purpose. It was not possible to state more
clearly that the object of that act was that the supply of
water for domestic us well as public purposes should be
placed under the entire control of the corporation, and this
was confirmed by the various provisions of the act. On
that ground, therefore, without giving any opinion on the
other part of the case, he was of opiuton that under these
acts of parliament the corporation el the borough of Liver-
pool has the power of doing that which the hill complains
of, and that consequently the demurrer must be allowed.