The Express.
London, England, 1867-12-24 00:00:00

MK JOHN BRIGHT AT ROCHDALE.

ROCHDALE, MownAT.
A numerously attended public meeting was held
In the New Theatre in this town, this evening, for the pur-
pose of presenting an eddies. to Mr. Jacob Bright, con-
gratulating him upon his election for Manchester. The
MATOR (Mr. Whitaker) occupied the chair, and among
those present were Mr. John Bright, M.P., Mr. T. B.
Potter, M.P., Mr. B. Ashworth, Mr. J. Robinson, Mr. H.
Rebell, Mr. Alderman Heape, Mr. W. Fenton, Mr. Alder-
man Tatham, Sm.

The CHAIRMAN briefly opened the proceeding; after
which in address, the adoption of which was moved at
greet length by Mr. E. Ashworth, and seconded by
Mr. Robinson, the ex-mayor, was presented to Mr. Jacob
Bright.

Mr. JACOB BRIGHT, M.P., feelingly acknowledged the
compliment paid to him. His speech wee almost entirely
confined to a review of the recent election in Manchester,
end the victory which he and the advanced liberals had
gained with regard to reform. He expressed a fear that
union we obtained a better redistribution of seats and
the protection of the ballot, we should find ourselves
left after aN with a mere class parliament. Upon
the subject of Fenianiam, he denounced the cowardly
crimes and outrages which had lately been perpetrated,
but igisektluit oar *WO= with ttostlio Itelatul had
beers unsatisfactory, and demanded earnest attention in
the coming parliament. If the tory government were un-
able to grapple with the subject, they ought to give way
to better men, and there should be no hesitation in dis-
placing them. There were a greater proportion of Irishmen
in Lanseahlre than,ln any other part of the country, and it
would be a very lamentable thing if they could not live
together in amity. He believed that the men who coun-
tenanced these acts were a miserable minority, and it
would be moat desirable that means should be found by
ht the Irishmen in this *gauntry should promptly show
17they were altogether eeperste from these
nsee. (Cheers.) Amid all the pest cheeps
which the nation had made, and the still greater
it was likely to make in future, the question to be asked
was, were they making real progress! He knew many
wbo had done great service in their day who were apt to
despond, and asked themselves whether the result was
worth the toil end anxiety. He could for his own part my
with confidence that be had no doubt upon this point, and
if future generations of Englishmen should do as much to
establish sound principles, on which the public welfare
depended, as had been done by the men of the present
time, the future of England would transcend even the
dreams of boyhood—those dreams in which ignorance,
misery, and crime were to be banished from the land.
(Cheers.)
Mr. H. KiJAALL moved, and Mr. Alderman Ilium
seconded, the following resolution :

"That this meetinf regards the Manchester election
and other manifestations of public opinion as decisive
proofs that the people of this country gratefully recognised
those gentlemen to whose service a reform bill is justly
due, and that the attempts to delude them made by a tory
government have failed, and whilst it regret' the many
defeats of the bill just passed, anticipates their speedy
amendment in a new parliament elected under the ex.
tended franchise which the bill provides."
-- -

Mr. JOHN BRIGHT, on rising to address the meeting, was
received with great cheering. He commenced by con-
gratulating the city of Manchester on reassuming its right-
ful position in the great liberal party of the kingdom.*
He then passed on to twit the tories with the millions of
money and oceans of beer which they had wasted in the
attempt to stop the progress of liberal legislation. Even
Lord Derby, the man who alone was considered faithful
to his party, had hauled down his flag. The ballot
and • better distribution of seats, both of which seemed
to him (Mr. Bright) not far oft, were all that were required
to give us a really democratic parliament. This Lord
Derby had done, by his own admission, in order to keep his
party together. The conduct of that party on this coca-
lion led him to conclude that there is scarcely any institu-
tion in the country, however honourable and ancient, that
they would not sell for the permanent possession of office.
Having argued for some time in defence of the
ballot, the hon. gentleman approached the condition
of Ireland. On this subject he spoke as follows :
It is not my intention to say anything in the way of ex-
planation of what I collative to be the grievances under
which the Irish nation have laboured, nor of the remedies
which ought long ego to have beeriepplied. I have done
that frequently, both at public meetings and within the
walls of the House of Commons. One thing
at any rate. I may be allowed to say with
regard to them, that I entirely disagree with
those who, when any crisis or trouble arises, asy that
yea treat first of all preserve order, you must put
down all disloyalty and disobedience to the law ; you
must smart the supremacy of the government and then
consider the grievances thatare complained of. Generally
after having asserted the supremacy of the law and having
made what they call peace under the terrors of the
law, the grievancees are forgotten, and there is
no considering of them. This has been the case in
Ireland for 200 years. The great preserver there has been
the gallows and the gibbet. Of late years the barbarity of
the law has but rarely exhibited itself, but in former
years the number of the persons who suffered death by
the law in Ireland was something wonderful and appalling
to think of. Now, twenty years ago many of you will
recollect that in Ireland, under the guidance of one of
Ireland's greatest sons, the late Mr. O'Connell, there were
held in Ireland meeting. of vest numbers of the people,
equal probably in number to the meetings that were held
a year ago in Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Glas-
gow, and in London. Those meetings were held
to condemn certain things that were evils in Ireland,
to demand remedies—to complain even that there should
be • legislative union between the two countries, for they
thought that only en Irish parliament could abolish the
miseries of Ireland ; but there is not one of you that can ,
point to any single or great measure of justice which was
given tojlrelend in oocsequence of these great meeting..
(Cheers.) They were on the other aide of the Channel—
(cheen)— they did not frighten Lord Derby like the meet-
ings of last year ; they were not so near home, and the
government in London always knew that they could count
upon the power of Great Britain to prevent any great mis-
chief being done across the Channel. The grievances were
not remedied, the demands of the people were not conceded.
Nothing has been done in Ireland except under the
influence of terror. If you go back to the first time
k when the horrible penal laws were ameliorated, you will
find it was during the time of the American war of inde-
pendence, when the government in London felt that it
would not do to have • great war with the colonies on
band with a disaffection in Ireland, and the penal laws
were mitigated to some extent. In 1829 the Catholic
Emancipation Bill was passed, but the Duke of Welling-
ton admitted it was passed because he would not
take the responsibility of civil war. Afterwards
when • great famine took place, • poor law was passed for
Ireland, and the Ineurnbered Estate. Court was established
in order that the sale of land might be made more free.
But except under the pressure of some great emergency,
no man can point to anything great having been done
by the imperial parliament for the Irish nation, and
if these great meetings were disregarded, what was
more natural or inevitable than that • certain
portion of the people, not reasoning well, stimu-
lated by an impassioned feeling of the wrongs
done to their country, should descend into the
nub—the odious end the criminal ranks—of a
dark conspiracy. If last year parliament had refused to
extend the franchise, if our great meetings had been
held in vain, if the popular voice had risen so that all the
world should hear it but the deaf members of the imperial
legislature, you would have had in England, I will not say •
dark and &criminal conspiracy, but you would have had men
who would gradually have worked their way amongst the
people and would have instructed them in principles and in
practices which are near akin to the worst form of criminal
conspiracy. (Hear, hear.) There is nothing as safe as
great meetings (Cheers.) Come together, look each
other in the face ; let the men who comprehend the things
discuss them fairly before you ; consider them well for
yourselves ; vote by an open free vote in favour of the
policy that you require, and than let your riders take that
voice as significant of the will of the country, and let them
bend to it and give the country that which it demands.
(Cheers.) That has never been done for Ireland,