The Express.
London, England, 1867-02-11 00:00:00

[STAMPED, Id. ADDITIONAL.]

THE NATIONAL REFORM UNION.

A working men's meeting was held on Friday
evening in the Blaine Town-hall, in connexion with the
Huhne branch of the National Reform Union. After tea,
and the performance of a selection of music, the chair was
taken by the Rev. A. HALL. Amongst those present on
the platform were—Mr. Jacob Bright, Mr. J. B. Torr,
Mr. R. D. Rusden, Mr. W. Warburton, Mr. Thomas
Roberts, Mr. Councillor W. J. Williams, Mr. E. S. Green,
Mr. James Derbyshire, Mr. B. Chappell, Rey. J. W. Rid-
ley, Mr. W. Brown, Mr. J. F.,. Belies, Mr. Joseph Spencer.

The CHAIRMAN regretted the absence of Mr. George
Wilson, the president of the National Reform Union, a.
man who was not only a politician in whom the people had
confidence, but one of the highest Christian character—a •
man with broad sympathies, and whose life had been
devoted to the welfare of the people. (Loud cheers.) He
proceeded to say that the great masses of the people of
this country were determined that the balance of political
Power should he changed, anal that, unless the scale was
turned justly, they would kick the beam, until the weight
came down on the right side. Referring to recent conti-
nental changes, out of which had sprung an united Ger-
many, and in Italy a free church in a free state, he then
pointed to the example of America, where there were no
game laws, and no state churches, and where the people
had the possession of the land, and said that the time had
come when the people of England demanded a reform in
this direction, and urged upon all reformers the duty of
united action to procure such a change. (Cheers.)
Mr. JACOB BRIGHT then addressed the meeting. He
said that the great leading, or misleading journal— 1
(cheers)—the journal of the privileged classes—had an-
nounced that the government intended to deal with re-
form,
not by a bill, but by resolution. That did not nor-
prise him, considering their antecedents. If they brought
m a bill they would of necessity have to stand or fall by
it, and in that case he suspected their fall would be
speedy. (Hear.) This would be avoided by proceeding
by resolution ; but, in any case, the latest opinions of 1
the tory government on this question would be known
by Monday night. Mr. Disraeli was a very clever
man, but be had now a task before him that would
tax the whole of his powers—to give, or rather not to
give, but to seem to give. (Hear, hear.) His business
was to send the people to their homes somewhat satisfied
with the notion that their political claims had been
granted, when he hail no intention whatever of granting ,
those claims. If the people of this country were like i
a certain German philosopher, whose dinner was eaten
by somebody else while waiting for him, and who, seeing
nothing but the bones, fancied he must have lied his
dinner and forgotten all about it-(laughter)—then Mr. 1
Disraeli might find them very good subjects to try his
hand upon ; but, thanks to the Reform Union—(cheer)—
anal other organisations throughout the country, the pee-
ple had been brought to understand this question, and
whatever the government proposed would be minutely exa-
mined. (Hear.) It would be impossible for them to palm
any delusion upon the country. (Hear, hear.) If to be a
great, Miter of phrases was to be a statesman, then Mr.
Disraeli should occupy a high place in the roll of English
statesmen. We owed to him the phrases, " lateral exten-
sion of the suffrage " anal " degradation of the suffrage."
If the latter term were his, as he (Mr. i ht) be-
lieved it was, then he must congratulate Mr. Disraeli '
upon expressing in one word the obnoxious ideas and in-
sults which Mr. Lowe required many long paragraphs to
express. (Loud cheers.) These two terms indicated pre-
cisely where the tories were on the question of the fran-
chise. Their bill might give a greater number of rotes than
the hill which Mr. Gladstone offered last year, but it
would be quite easy to do that without going below the
10/. line. It might be arranged that all those men who
were socially connected with the class of ten-pounders
should come upon the register, and thus give a wide
, extension to the franchise, without touching the great la-
! hour-producing class of the country at all. (Hear, hear.)
But if the tones, and those who were so much like tories
on the other side of the house—(hear, hear)—combined to
I pass a measure like that, this question would simply
still remain unsettled. (Hear, hear.) The working men of
!England would carry on this struggle, and would never
cea.e until they had achieved those rights which nobody in
argument could deny them. (Cheers.) The term "degra-
dation of the franchise" was very suggestive ; as used by
its author, it meant that the franchise would be dete-
riorated if it were extended beneath the 10/. line.
But was the franchise now only in very worthy hands?
Did the men who at present held it exhibit great purity
and great honour in the manner in which they used it ?
It seemed to him that such boroughs as Lancaster and
Totnes, and other boroughs of the same class that had not
been found out—(hear, hear)--did not show that the
franchise was free from degradation in the hands of its
present possessors. hear, and cheers.) What was to
be said of the counties (Hear,The franchise was never honour-
ably used except when men went independently and with
knowledge to the polling-booth, and gave their vote for the
representative of principles that accorded with their own ;
but the great farming class of England had to give their
votes as a condition of holding the farms they cultivated.
(Hear, hear.) That seemed to him to be a degradation of
the 'franchise. (Cheers.) This phrase was applied by
Mr. Disraeli in opposition to a bill which admitted
only the very cream of the working classes ; but if
it were correctly applied to these, then the masses
of the non-electors of England were the very dregs of
Christendom, and if the civilisation of England were to
disappear to-morrow the world ought to have no regrets
about it. (Cheese.) But if this were true, what about oar
boasted institutions—(hear, head—what about the in-
fluence on our literature—what about our religion—(hear,
hear)—which had been held to have more influence upon
the life of a nation than anything else? (Hear, hear.) All
these things were a delusion if the population remained so
degraded. (Hear, hear.) The taxies were in an awkward
position. They were on the horns of this dilemma—if
the half of what they said of the mental and moral un-
worthiness of the English working class were true, they
ought to be removed to make way for another class who
would endeavour by legislative measures to elevate them—
(hear hear)—but if it were not true, then the Inifrnkie
ihotdd be generally extended. (Cheers.; Monopolists were
always unscrupulous when their privileges were assailed,
anal it would be remembered how ready they were to attack
societies and to libel individuals—but it had been reserved
for the monopolists of power in England to libel a whole
people. (Hear, bear.) It sometimes excited his surprise
that so many people who in no wise partook of the honours
or emoluments of privilege should be so ready to back the
privileged orders, and an unwilling to help the people.
Custom, as had been often said, was second nature.
There was nothing that had so much power to lift us up
out of those conventional distinctions as communion with
the' best of our poets. They taught the kinship of the
race—the brotherhood of rich and poor. A gifted poetess
had said :

Learn more reverence •
Not for wealth, that needs no learning;
That comes quickly—quick as sin does—
Aye, and often leads G. sin
But for Adam's seed, man, trust me—
lt Is clay above your scorning;
With God's imagestamped upon it.
And God's quickening breath within.
(Cheers.) A suggestion had been made that the tories
would give a household suffrage in large towns, and a
more restricted suffrage to small towns. It was very easy
to give what was not their own. (Hear hear.) The
liberal party almoat possessed all the large towns as
it was, and if the tories were to surrender them without
a contest, it would not snake much difference in what
was called the balance of power. (Hear, hear.) But
he had been accustomed to think that the physician should
be sent to the sick, and not to the whole. It was the
small boroughs that required more freedom. (Hear, hear.)
After remarking that in Scotland sod in the entailer
towns of England thousands of educated families lived in
houses below 10i., who would be paying M. if they
lived in large towns, he referred to the proposal to
alter the boundaries of boroughs, and urged that to
interfere with the boundaries from the motives avowed
by Mr. Disraeli was an insult to Englishmen, at a tinie
when they were asking fur parliamentary reform. (Hear,
hear.) He concluded by contrasting the two grtat
parties in the state—the one distrusting the
people, and the other believing in the people ;
the one cruel and selfish, and the other generous
and just ; the one seeking their own class and sectional
objects, and the other striving for the benefit of the whole
nation. He ooucluded by moving:—" That this meeting,
remembering the factious and relentless opposition of the
tory leaders against Mr. Gladstone 's Reform Bill of last
year, and their denunciation of the policy of the late
government on reform, on the ground that it was revolu•
tionary and dangerous to the safety and stability of the ,
nation, hereby expresses it. belief that it is impossible ;
for men holding such convictions to deal with the question'
of parliamentary reform in a rational and just manner ;
but should they declare on Monday next their intention to
bring in such a measure as would embrace the four
points in the programme of the National Reform Union, i
this meeting pledges itself to support them by every means
in its power." (Cheers.)
The motion was wooded by Mr. R. D. Rusilen. Ito
raid it had become a hackneyed expression to my that we
were standing in the midst of a great crisis in our national
history, but, as a matter of fact, if we passed our eye
thoughtfully along the great path that society was travel-
ling, we could not help feeling that we were indeed ap-
proaching a point where wo must lay down one of those ,
great historic milestones or landmarks that would point '
out to all future generations how tar Englishmen in our •
day have advanced in the career of progress. It depended ;
mainly upon the masses of the people of England whether
that landmark should bo worthy of the age or not. He
knew that the working classes, who must make the great
struggle, had great difficulties to contend with. He knew
that the persistent policy of the tory and church party in
keeping the bread of education away from the mouths of ,
the people had at any rate had this effect—that when they
were engaged in this great struggle for their liberties they
found shim° number of their own enter paralysed by the