The Express.
London, England, 1867-05-16 00:00:00

NATIONAL REFORM UNION.

The first public meeting held by this association,
in pursuance of • resolution pawed at the rioted winter
eine, took place yesterday evening in St. Jamesls-hall.
The hall was crammed in every part an hour before the
commencement of the meeting, and soon after seven
o'clock the doors had to be closed, so dense was the crowd
waiting to be admitted. The appearance of the
popular reformers upon the platorm was signalled
by enthusiastic and protracted cheering. Amongst those
present were Mr. S. Moaner (in the chair), Mr. Bright,
M.P., Mr. J. Stuart Mill, M.P., Mr. W. E. Forster,
BLP., Sir H. Hoare, Mr. T. B. Potter, M.P., Mr. Baines,
M.P., Mr. E. Beaks, Colonel Dickson, Mr. Holden,
M.P., Mr. Barnes, M.P., Hon. Lyulph Stanley, Serjeant
Parry, and Mr. Vernon Harcourt.
The said the gentlemen on the platform were
net present for the mere love of agitation. He felt like
a man just waking to the conviction that he was being
cheated. Having expected a reasonable settlement of
the reform question, and thinking it desirable the ques-
tion should be shelved at least for our lives, by the adop-
tion of a moderate measure, which would give room
for practical legislation, the events of last Thursday
had bitterly disappointed him. He saw in the government
bill • sign that the old pane was being played, and that
the measure was being framed in the very essence of
toryism—in a mistrust of the people governed by fear.
(Cheers.) He objected to the compound householder being
handed over to two of the most objectionable of parties—
parish officers and landlords. (Haar, hear.) He protested
against the further progress of the bill in its present con-
dition, because it was founded on fraud. (Cheers.) Mr.
Disraeli was never more true to his party than in his in-
troduction of a measure that would hand over the boroughs
of England and Wales to rich :oen and election agents.
He and his friends on the platform were prepared to
enter upon a new agitation, however long it might
last. It was not a question of union or league ; they
were all friends of the working man. (Cheers.) He was
extremely disappointed with the course pursued by
certain liberal members—(hisses)—be hoped, however,
they would rally round their noble leader. (" Three
cheers for Gladstone!") A friend of his had told him that
the Scotch members, true to their instincts, had gone over
to the enemy, because they thought they would get a good
bill for themselves. (Laughter.) He, however, would not
do the •Scotch members that Injustice, but would leave
them to their constituencies. Let the people of this coun-
t 7, notwithstanding cabals red tea-room intrigues, back
Mr. Gladstone in the new agitation for reform, and maths-
factory reform would follow. (Loud cheers.)
Mr. Veitxret Mascot ter said at the commencement of a
great battle it was usual to send out the skirmishers, and
in that capacity he then presented himself. He knew
that the heavy infantry and old guards would follow him.
(Cheers.) It was the duty of every man to come forward
la support of a common cause, and he agreed with the
chairman that all differences ought to be allowed
to subside in disposing of the great imposture
that was now being passed off on the country.
The people had asked for bread and the House of Commons
had given them a stone ; they had asked for fish, and
received • serpent. (Hear, hear.) The policy being pur-
sued reminded him of a lady, a distinguished florist, who
was as 'cute and ingenious in her way as the Chancellor
of the Exchequer. (Laughter.) A friend asked her for
one of her choicest plants, but though loath to part with
it, she, after some hesitation, sent her friend, with a very
courteous note, the root of • rare tulip; but—and here
came the point of the story—before sending it she took
care to have it boiled. (Laughter.) Now, the present
object of the House of Commons and the government
appeared to be to cook household suffrage before presenting
it to the people. (Cheers.) The resolution he had to
move was this—" That this meeting desires to ex-
pressheartfelt gratitude to Mr. Gladstone, Mr.
r ight, and Mr. Mill, and the other mem`ers of par-
liament who have acted with them in theft
endeavours to secure a satisfactory reform bill during the
present session, and to assure them of its entire con d.
deuce in their efforts to obtain a full, just, and equal re-
cognition of the people's rights." Having adverted to the
manner in which the gentlemen named had recently been
traduced, he add some of this abuse about " incendiallies
and 'pouters of sedition " reminded him of two lines in
siohnerm—
Rate never wounds more deep the generous heart
Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart.
(Cheers.)
Sir HENRY Miser seconded the resolution, remarking
that those who indulged in hard wools should remember
that " hard words break no bones." Despite what had
been said of theui by the tories, the people should support
their leaders blindly, confidently, and place implicit trust
in the course they might suggest for their adoption here-
after. (Cheers.) In 11tH the cry of our forefathers was
" The bill, the whole hill, and nothing but the bill," and
he would advise the reformers' of the present day to in-
scribe on their banners, "A real bill, an honest bill, or no
bill at all." He had much pleasure in appearing upon
that platform, believing that under the influence of a
little more agitation the liberal minority of to-day would
become • majority to-morrow. (Cheers.)
The resolution was then put from the chair, and carried
by acclamation.
Mr. W. E. FORRTIII, M.P., who was received with loud
and long-continued cheers, proposed the second resolution,
which was as follows:—" That this meeting utterly re-
pudiates the bill of the government, in the present form,
as a settlement of the reform question, especially
in the borough franchise ; and resolves that, 'a
the House of Commons, by the divisions of
the 12th of April and nth of May, refused to remove
the partial, capricious, and unjust restrictions by
which the government seeks to prevent large numbers of
householders from acquiring the franchise, the agitation
be at once renewed and continued until these restric-
tions be abolished and an honest and straightforward
measure be seemed. If the deputation of " incendiaries
and 'poetess of sedition"—(groans and enthusiastic
cheers)—had come up earlier, arguments would have
reached the tory lines that had not hitherto reached them.
If that magnificent meeting fulfilled its promise, and if the
earnest reformers of the country bestirred themselves,
they need not give up the hope of the borough
franchise even out of the present bilL That bill was good
so some extent. It was a good bill for 29 boroughs,
but it was a very bad bill for 171 boroughs. Should
they accept this bill as a settlement of the reform ques-
tion? (Loud cries of " No, no," and protracted cheering.)
They should continue to agitate before they accepted it as
a settlement ; but at the same time they could use
the bill as a lever to remove those inequalities which
made it impossible it could be a settlement.
Mr. J. B. Tone, a member of the National Reform
Union of Manchester, seconded the resolution, and ex-
plained why the Union bad not appeared in London be-
fore. Mr. George Wilson, the president of the union,
when his attention was called to the stigma which
the Chancellor of the Exchequer bad tried to cast
upon him, said, " Never mind that ; it is not the
first time Mr. Disraeli has accused me of sedi-
tion." And it was so, for during the corn-law struggle
precisely the same epithets fell from Mr. Disraeli, when
speaking of Mr. Wilson, Mr. Cobden, Mr. Bright, and the
other leaders of the Anti-Corn-low Levee. (Hear, hear.)
But the right hon. gentleman seemed to be oblivious of
his early political career, or he would have recollected •
passage in one of his letters, written at the time he was
seeking to eater parliament through the borough of Mary-
lebone. In that letter he wrote, "My forte is sedition "
--(obeens)—and therefore be should be • little more chari-
table in the ugly expressions he flung about him when
speaking of the motives of those who differed with him.
(Hear, hear.) But the forte of the National Reform Union was
not sedition. It relied upon the constitutional usages of the
country for the attainment of its object, and with the aid
of other meetings similar to the present, to be held periodi-
cally in London and the great boroughs of the provinces,
it Must at no distant day succeed. (Cheers.)

Mr. BRIGHT, on rising to address the meeting, was re-
ceived with the most enthnsisstle cheering, the whole
audience rising, and waving hats and hadkerchiefs. When
silence was restored the hon. gentletari proceeded to
remark that from the first reformers had had the misfor-
tune of seeing the question in which they were interested
in the hands of its enemies, who, is almost every clause of
their bill had introduced some►hing of a pernicious ten-
dency. Entering into an analysis of the provisions of
the measure, Mr. Bright came to the conclusion that all
that it would really admit upon the borough register
would be about 122,000 names, while it would prac-
tically exclude 238,000 who would be voters if the
bill fairly applied equally to all the boroughs in
the kingdom. It was a monstrous proposition, and
unheard of until this day in English legislation, that
a bill should pass the knperial parliament which
opens its arms wide to all the people of Sheffield
and closes them almost absolutely to the people of Bir-
mingham. Therefore he said that the government were
not in earnest and meant to deceive. Would anyone my
it was a just act of parliament to give to the Irish borough.
• franchise down to the rate of U. per annum, and the
DAM to Scotland, and to deny M to the great majority
of the people of England who live in the 170
boroughs to which the reAriction refers! To all those
liberal gentlemen who had been so credulous about the
candid consideration of the Chancellor of the Exchequer
the right hon. gentleman had given • slap in the face,
which he (Mr. Bright) hoped they would long remember.