The Express.
London, England, 1866-08-28 00:00:00

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

(THIS DAY.)

TMI BIRWORAM WORM DIKOZOSTRATIOIL
The reformers who were disappointed of their
proposed demonstration in London, observes the news,
have been able to hold an open-sir meeting without inter-
ruption at Birmingham, and even without the eloquence of
Kr. Bright such a demonstration would have deserved all
attention. The resolutions carried at the open-air meet-

ing are certainly explicit, both with respect to the put
and the future, but the Times can hardly say that they
ass very oonvincing or consistent. As regards the future
we are assured that the speakers, at least, will be content
with nothing but " registered residential manhood suffrage
and the ballot" From this point of view it must be ad-
mitted that the measure of parliamentary reform

. -
proposed by the late government was " very moderate,"
but it is not so easy to see why the House of COICIMOIN
should be so vehemently denounced for rejecting a measure
Be little satisfactory. Mr. Bright boasts that he gave the
.. . ..

bill an honest support ; but- from the very first it was
" damned with faint praise" by Mr. Bright himself and all
his supporters. It wee "an honest" bill, they gave oat.
A feebler epithet was never applied to a momentous
constitutional change. The fact that this should be
the highest praise vouchsafed to the bill by its
strongest supporters indicates the real mean why
it failed. There was no wind in its sails.
But the Tina denies that the bill was even an honest
one, and says that, from the first, the late government
sacrificed the hearty support even of their own party by
an apparent want of plaindealing and frankness. In truth
the House of Commons never more ti aly " represented

the wishes of the people of Great Britain " than when it
objected to pass so fragmentary, so uncertain, and so ill-
defended a measure. It gave up nearly the whole of
last session to the Reform Bill, and the Times doubts not
_ . .

it will give up the next. Reform will have a fair hearing
and full consideration, and if a good bill is brought in It
sincerely believes it will be carried.
The great meeting held yesterday in Birmingham is a
portent which may well draw the attention even of the
idlest observer, and overcome the prepossessions of those
who have wrapped themselves up in the comfortable con-
viction that the people of England are indifferent to re-
form. Though members of the legislature, and frequenters
of the dubs, and even the leaders of local politics, eschew
political anxieties, and throw off political cares in the
earlier part of the recess, there is, as a glance at
Birmingham may serve to convince even the
moat sceptical, quite a sufficient number of no-
bodies left at home to keep political questions alive,
and to prepare work enough for the politicians when they
return recruited and refreshed. The popular objection to
the present government is that it is entirely illegitimate ;
it represents not the strength of toryism, but the weak-
ness and division of the liberal party. But the return
of the liberals to power, says the Daily New, is only a
question of time. It has long been evident th►t the liberal
party has needed the discipline it is at present undergoing.
For some years past it has shown that unbroken prosperity
was not good for it ; it has succumbed to the temptations
of mem and the evils of unquestioned power. Under
Mr. Gladstone's strong leadership in the House of Com-
mons the liberal party hes made its first decisive move-
ment in advance, and in doing so has discovered its weak-
ness and found its real strength. The time it spends in
opposition will bee time of holiday. And, perhaps in the
end, there will be no reason to regret that the first session
of the new parliament closed ineffectually, and left a tory
,vernment to linger through the holidays.

The Poet denies that there is any genuine demand for
reform. It is only the fraction of a class that is calling
for political change. The resolutions passed at Birming-
ham speak of the rejection by the House of Commons of
the Reform Bill as if that bill had been rejected because it
was a Reform Bill ; whereas every working man who in-
terested himself the least in the matter must know per-
fectly well that it was not rejected on that ground, but
because it was a bad Reform Bill. The present House of
Commons is declared not to enjoy the confidence of the
nation because it did not pale the crude and imperfect bill
which had been laid before it. After this there follows
the curious non sequitur, that " therefore" the resolu-
lionise pledge themselves to agitate for, and use all lawful
methods to obtain, residential manhood suffrage as the only
just basis of representation, and the ballot to protect them
from undue influence and intimidation at elections.
Satisfaction with the late bill implies dissatisfaction with
manhood suffrage and the ballot ; and, conversely, ap-
proval of manhood suffrage and the ballot implies disap-
probation of the bill. Mr. Gladstone has publicly ex-
pressed hie opinion as against manhood suffrage and the
ballot, and those who really want these things can be no
friends of the lost bill.
Whilst the Herald admits that the English working
man is the strongest, the most industrious, and the most
intelligent worker to be found all the world over, he has
his faults. He is sadly credulous and easily worked upon.
His pitiable weakness in the direction of credulity renders
him sadly accessible to flattery. The worst possible in-
structors of the working man—Mr. Bright and Mr.
Beales—are not satisfied with teaching him the doctrine of
universal equality, thty encourage him to believe that he
is better than anybody else. Let, lays the Herold, the
working man disabuse himself of the silly notion that
these arrogant pretensions are recognised by any class
of men out of his own section. The chime of the
working classes always are and always will be respectfully
listened to when they are urged with justice, good sense,
and moderation—it may be worth their while to consider
whether they would not stand a better chance of obtaining
a fair hearing if they were to disentangle themselves from
such spokesmen as Messrs. Bright and Beale', end the
minor 'pouters by whom they are surrounded.
Even those, says the Star, who least believe in the
strength of the reform impale), of the eounhy—who
attach least importance to popular demonstrations—must
own that no common emotion could have gathered together
at Birmingham on a working day 250,000 working men.
There is no power on earth but the profound belief and
animated resolves of a great free people that could pro-
duce so magnificent a spectacle. When the tones hear of
this great Birmingham gathering, let them acknowledge
at once that while as a matter of fact the gathering of yes-
terday was twice as great as any that took place before the
peering of the first Reform Bill, as a matter of probability
its results will also be far more remarkable.
The mayor, the members, the favourite orators, and
almost all the leading and wealthy gentlemen and clergy-
men of Birmingham took part in the demonstration;
while by way of preparation for an assembly of nearly •
quarter of a million English working people—the "violent
drunken, and ignorant" English working people—they had a
handful of constables sad " seven marshals." Less than
half the number threatened to walk up to London in 1832,
and they were spared the trouble with quite's& satittes