The Express.
London, England, 1866-10-18 00:00:00

YR. BRIGHT'S ♦DDRESS AT GLASGOW.

The Tinto asks what the late government mea-
sure of reform, which would only in the first instance have
added something under a quarter of a million to existing
constituencies, has in common a:th the manhood suffrage
meetings which are taking place in the great towns? Mr
Bright and his followers break openly with the past of thi;
country, and the whole of his speech at Glasgow is one
long sad acrimonious calumny on the most durable, the
most prosperous, and the most renowned institution that
the world has ever seen. The hon. member's language is not
that of reform but of revolution. He has not
shown us how one single grievance of which he
complains would be remedied by the changes he advocates.
It is a little unreasonable, when a claim is put forward for
placing the direction of the affairs of the country in the
hands of the poorer part of the community, that they
should be exempted from the ordeal of criticism, and those
members who have entered upon it be held up as proper
subjects for popular vengeance. Whatever our con-
stitution has hitherto been, we have certainly enjoyed
under it full freedom of discussion. Is it quite certain
that that is one of the blessings which will attend on the
introduction of Mr. Bright's millennium ?
In the opinion of the Daily News, a more powerful, and
in its main points • sounder, argument in favour
of parliamentary reform than Mr. Bright's address at
Glasgow has seldom been put forth ; and it is to be re.
fretted that by his strong epithets he should ever give the
opponents of reform the opportunity of II "thdrawing their
understanding from his arguments, and their conscience
from his appeals, under the pretence of resenting the
taunts and personalities which they more than reciprocate.
It is because Mr. Bright's opponents cannot answer his
arguments that they prefer to deal with his invective.
The facts which be repeats with respect to the distribu-
tion of political power in the country and in parliament
speak for themselves. A principle which was right in
1832 cannot have become unsound in 1%6, and it is
equally true now as then that the inequalities of oar re-
presentation have been kept up in order to maintain the
ascendancy of the aristocratic and territorial classes in
parliament. The result is seen in stringent Grime Laws,
in the continuance of enactments which withdraw the
land of the country from the ordinary operations of
commerce, in the pauperism of the farm labourer,
and in the discontent of Ireland. Without attribut-
ing any special hardness of heart to the landlords,
who are sufficiently clear-sighted when the manufacturing
poor are concerned, it may be said that they use their clams
ascendancy to support their class prejudices ; and until
their power in parliament I. reduced the condition of the
agricultural labourer will remain a reproach to England,
and the tenant's capital will seek other investments than
the soil which he cultivates. Class legislation is not to be
avoided by class representation, as some believe. It is
not by separating intelligence and cultivation from num-
bers and energy, but by interpenetrating numbers and
energy with intelligence and cultivation, that a real re.