The Express.
London, England, 1849-11-03 00:00:00

Mr. A. if LRAM' moved the following reed:Alen :
That t' i 'peeing, cu..vh.ced of 'he absolute and imp°.
ratios iseessity of parliamentary and financial reform, and
approving as they As of the means used by the Nstional
Remain League to aseonaplish the same, do hereby pledge
themselves to give every moistens' in their power in tarry-
ing est the objects contamplated by that body, and never
he rata:their Jo" until their exertions aro crowned with

complete suocess."
He coaled upon the meeting to rally round the Financial
Reform Association, as it was high time that the people
should obtain more extended representation, end en eco-
nomical management of their money. He conjured them to
" Agitate, agitate, agitate," until they had obtained all the
objects of the memiation. (Cheers.)
-Mr. WM. HOWARD seconded the resolution, enlarging
with great force and eloquence on the topics which had been
urged by the previous speakers. He congratulated them,
above all thior, upon the fact teat Austria had bees unable
to raise owe shilling of her loan in the City of London. to
enable her to cut the throats of bar Hungarian subjects.
(This observation was received with the loudest cheering.)
The resolution was then put and carried unanimouely.
Mr. SHAND ',toyed—
" That this meeting desires to express their approbation of
the conduct of the liberal proem of the metropolis, especially
the baity New, the Morning Advertiser, the Standard of
Freedom, and others, for their consistent advocacy of the
rights of the people. And they hereby pledge %hemostats to
support theme journals to the utmost extent of their power."
The motion was ascended by Mr. THTJETLS, and carried
unanimously.

GREAT PEACE MEETING AT THE FREE
TRADE HALL, MANCHESTER.

The third of the series of meetings commencing
this week at Exeter Hall, London, was held on Teunday
evening in the Free-Trade Hall, Manchester. It was one of
the most crowded =entitle in that immense hall which has
been held for some time. There could not be less than
8,000 persons present, and goraethotteands who had obtsiued
tickets (issued on the supposition that many of the tickets
taken by peewee would not be used) were disappointed of I
admission. George Wilson, E.g., president of the Man-
'heater Peace Society, took the chair; and there were pre- I
seat—John Bright, Esq., M.l'., M. Horses Say and sou,
M.
Frederic Haunt, M. Peutnnier, M. Joseph Gamier, and Pre- I
Went Malian, of Oberlin College, U S.
The CHAIRMAN, in briefly opening the proceedings,
said, we have not had to measure the progress of peaces
principles by the slow and sober stages of
former times, but by something very much akin
to railway velocities. (Land cheers.) Why, gentlemen,
not long ago, in this town, the man who thought he was in
favour of peace, scarcely dared acknowledge to much in any
society in the district; he scarcely dared venture to tell the I
world that he was iu favour of peace. It is not many years
ago since it would have been held the height of bad taste to
say he liked it very much, and should like to have more of
it. It is not owo years since, in this hall, because Mr.
Cobden—(loud cheers)—ventured an opinion that it was dm',
sirable to originate measures for the continuation of the
peace—it in not two years ago sines he caused an amiable
nobleman in this district, not usually accustomed to get out
of temper, to display great p.ssion, and write • letter to the
papers condemning his objects, and stating his opinion that
there w.e every reason to expect some floe morning or other
the countrymen of our friends who are now here from Paris,
would sail up the Thames and run away with the Queen and
the Lord Mayor of London. (Great lauehter.) Some tam
eludes have not been so nearly fulfilled as that was. We
have had the Frecch since that time in London, tut,
instead of taking our Queen, they sent us their
King. (Great laughter and much cheering.) Any men
wholmiks about him can come to no other conclusion than
this, that the peace questions have become questious which
will have to be grappled with in this country by the go-
vernment, end teat very shortly. (Hear, hear.)
Mr. EDMUND FRY gave an account of the enthu-
siastic and hospitable manner in which the English visitors
et the late Pace Congress in Paris were received, and the
progress of peace principles in England. The ridicule with
which their prepositions ears at first received he alluded to ;
but described the proeress made when Mr. Cobden mode his
motion on the subject, and found 91 supporters in the
British legislature. The T,mes sneered at the Brussels
Congress, but they proceeded with it, and, es • re-
sult, were led to believe that they had felt the
pulse of the people of Belgium and France there
more correctly, than the magnates of Printing-house-
square. (Applause.) The same paper ridiculed and at-
tempted to laugh down the late Peace Congress at Paris,
but they received a more marked and enthusiastic reception
than they had done at Brussels; and be adverted to the
delicacy of feeling and the confidence which dictated, on the
part of the French government, the dispensing of passports
in their ease. He believed the result had been to diffuse a
large body of evidence and argument over the world in favour
o: their principles, w:th which many were probably mime
queinted. He believed they had prevented, as the result of
ibis congress they had done that which would prevent in
future, either the rovernment of England or France from
commi.ting the people to a war. (Applause.) Tne peopl
of toe two countries had never gone to war of their own
feelings : it WAS their governments that had done it : but
there would be a new element brought to bear through
this agitation which would prevent either of the two
goveroments from committing the people to a war
again. ( A ppl ewe.)
Mr PRENTICE moved the first resolutipn
" That this steeling, desiring internoti final arbitration as
a substitute for the unchristian system of war, disapproviig
of loans for the prosecution of war, and believing the. the
permanent prosperity of nations cannot •be secured without
a general disarmament, to juices to hear of the signal success
which attended the European Congress lately held at Paris,
and of the unanimity which prevailed in the deliberations
of that large assembly."
In moving this resolution, Mr. Prentice centended
that the show of national defences, which were
said to be necessary as a security *gains' war in a
time of peace, were rather an incentive to hostile
feeling, and too much expressive of defiance towards
other nations to answer their preyosed ends. He illustrated
this by his own experience whilst travelling down the Ame-
rican I. kes which divide our Canadian territories from the
provinces of the United Stater. In every place where he
.ad nip fellow-travellers put in on the Canada store there
were soldiers strutting about, while rot one was to
be seen on the American side. At Toronto there
were soldiers; at Kingston there were soldiers;
and at Montreal there were soldiers. They went to the little
vi.lege of Se John, on the Lake Champlain ; close by that
beautiful placid lake, where it seemed as if nothing ever dis-
turbed toe peaceful scene, there were Englisa soldiers
strutting about. An American gentleman expressed his
setosishment at the worse than folly of the English govern-
ment in thus provoking the anger of the American people.
" We have no soldiers on our aide," said he ; " you can go
about the States from one end to the other without • feeling
of distrust ; but here we come to pay a friendly visit to you,
and you cannot receive us wi.h confidence." (Hear, beer,
and cheers.) There wss a better time coming, however.
Mr. Alderman HERVEY seconded the motion, and it
was earned with loud cheers.
JOHN BRIGHT, Esq., M.P., was called upon and pre-
sented hims.lf amidst enthusiastic cheering—the whole audi-
ence rising to greet him. Ile said, If there be one charac-
teristic which has been mere commonly, perhaps I might
say universally, attributed to the English people than
another, it is that we are eminently a practical people. And
yet, according to the dictum of certain very wise people,
powerful organs, (or assuming to be such) of public opinion,
we have latterly become • most visionary race—pursuing all
sorts of unattainable objects, and neglecting in so pursuing
them, many great questions which we might profitably agi-
tate. The night before lest some 6,000 people of ttis practi-
cal race met in Exeter Hall; they met for the purpose which
has called us together to-night. They passed resolutions in
harmony with these which are about to be submitted to this
meeting. That meeting expressed the opinion of a vast ma-
jority, I do not hesitate to say, of the inhabitants of the great
metropolis of this kingdom. Last night one of the largest
buildings in the kingdom, the Town Hall of Bir-
mingham, was as crowded as this hall now is ;
resolutions of the same effect were passed, speeches
were made, and great unanimity prevailed, even in
that great town, where the manufacturing of implements of
war was no small trade. (Hear, bear.) The principles of
peace were enthusiarically adopted by thousands of those
men whom trade and inoustry to a large extent would be
affected if wars were for ever put down. (Cheers.) And,
to-night, this same practical race that was, but visionary that
now is—(a laugh)—manifests its change of character oy
meeting in this hall, where so many absurd meetings have
been held before—(sheen and laughter)—aud I take it for
granted, by what I have seen already, that these resolutions
will be passed with equal unanimity,and you will say "Ay!"
to that groat question which has been brought before the
asffrages of the people of England—whether henceforth war
shall be your security, war your object—military glory that
only which shall be inscribed in your future annals—er that
you will henceforth do that which you have en opportunity
of doing—lead along with other great nations a wear
of human improvement, and enabling us to date
from the year 1849 • new era in the history of
the human race. (Loud cheers.) But the question
is worth asking whether it is a visionary and unattainable
object we are pursuing—for, of all things on earth, I think
his most unsatisfactory to be pursuing something we never
man catch These great newspaper writers publish every
morning what they call " leaden ;" but what, in my op!niois,
are g lly found to be " lohowers." (Laughter.) But
such is their versatility, and such the inconsistency of th. ir
writings, that I verily believe of late the public press, so far
has much less Uffiuencie on
public
puce leading
e pmi ,pinion nr:e thanbefore
larticles
a r e
theit concerned,phnad:rmi,
end
dy year' s
before a g ego.
the Thewo
world
dfr Logan daveryof
favourable ground, for they professed to be working for en
object which I believe every man living will admit to be a
good one. Now, nearly all other great movements have
met with opponents on the very threshold. Men denied
that free trade was good ;they asserted that "short coot-
' mons" Were good. Well, that difficulty we had to get over
as best we could; but hero we have no such difficulty_ to
surmount. War is an evil—peace is • great object. How
to get it ? It's quite true that no friend of peace expects
by the three meetings held this week to make it certain
that England can never again go to war, but we expect to
have created so much of opinion in favour of peace that it
will be almost if not altogether impossible for any minister
of state to involve the country in war again. Why what is
our experience of war, this glory which shines so muck ia
history ; blood without reckoning, treasure without reckon-
ing, wasted hundreds, poverty, taxes, crime. At this mo-
ment half our gaols and poorhouses, are the moarsoodo
of the wan for the last fifty years between this country and
France. (Cheers.) Were the millions that have bseaspent
still in this country—had they been applied for the theremgh
cultivation of our land, every acts of England would have
been as a garden. (Chun.) Had they bean applied for