The Express.
London, England, 1861-11-20 00:00:00

THE REPORM JONITEENCE AT LEEDS.

LEEDS, TII7IIIBDAT NIGHT.
The second day's sitting was held at the Town
Hall to-day ; Mr. BAINse, M.P. for Bolton, presided, sod
after making a few remarks, called upon Mr. Hicks., one
of the secretaries, to reed the following resolutions, which
had been adopted by the business committee appointed on
the precious dry.

1. That thin conferees regards the present state of the
iepreesatation of the people as a gross injustice to the
workers classes, who are almost entirely excluded 'rum the
homilies and without any constitutional protection for their
labour, their property, their liberty, or their families.
2. That the members of this conference, whilst differing
corlierably among themselves as to the degree to which
the hnochiee ought to be extended, are unanimous in din-
elarlos that they, and tree whom they roomer, are
dlesatished with the state of tbe Mulching, sod claim
phrasing in cordire and boroughs as will give the
we. ikons' a fair, hosed, aid effectual representation
in the Home of Connors, as well as the protection of
voters yNs ballot, end the dietrartion of the rigb* totes
to
is
indlithern of patilammt more in accordance with popu-
lation and property.
3. That regarding the union of all classes of real reformers
r essential to the attainment of any greet amendment of
the representation, they recommend the formatiou of •
Reform Association oo a broad basis, with a view to bring-
ing them to bear on government and parliament by
reaps of public meetings, petitions, memorials, deputations,
end all other constitutional means, including action in the
registration and at elections.
4. That the committee, recommending petitions to par-
liament from every town, village, and workshop, would not
attempt to prescribe the kind of reform to be asked
for, but would leave each body of petitioners to
the exercise of he own judgment, at the same
time advising that friendly support should be
given to every honest measure which may be proposed for
the extension of the suffrage to the working claws, as well
as for the protection of the wren by the ballot, sod for a
more equitable distribution of rata
5. That a meeting of delegates be held In London soon
after the oommeneemeot of the pest amnion of parliament
to consider with each other and with Meads in parliament,
of and to decide opus a measure to be promoted to the Howe
Oeouncon

6. That • committee be appointed for calling a confer.
ernes in London, and if it should be desirable after corr..
speadiag with the friends of reform to convene another
oiliference is Birmingham, Manchester, or some other gnat
town before the meeting of parliament.
7. This oneference canoe' dissolve without expressing Ito
deep regret and disappointment that her Majesty's 'ovens-
meat appear to have abandoned the reform qualities_ and
that unless the presentcabioet introduce a reform bill im-
niedistely on the opening of whatnot:it they suet forfeit
the confidence of the people.
These resolutions were discussed seriatim.
Almost the whole time of the sitting was taken width •
debate on the second resolution, to which Mr. Makes, of
Manchester, offered a vigorous opposition, for the impose
of gettin inserted into it a clause declaring in favour it
suffrage ; the majority, however, thought sack an
oddities to the remintion would pledge the Caremas, sad
drive QM seasiy who would otherwise be powerful supporters.
Mr. Slakes evenbeelly withdrew kis amendment, and the
Osatamse eland at about 2.30 p.m.

This eves* a demonstration oa a large scale took place
la the Vielarikkall.

The chair was lakes at 7 o'clock by EDWARD BUM,
Faq., M.P., who opened the meeting. He said Mr/ were
assembled at the close of what he pronounced to have been
one of the ablest, calmest, frankest, and freest easfereness
he bad ever attended is his life. (Cheers.) That cosferenee
had decided upon the necessity for a hearty and Must
mum* to admft the working chasm to the Motive fray
aWhile them bad bees treat prepare la muy
things, the people bed lose hen in parliamentary
repearentados than they bad thirty years ago. (Hear,
Mar. This was as latiretioe, as iafnerdism of
liberty. (Cheers.) No )em than 100,000 of the
Men who exuded beA4 Reform Bill were of
week* °Mesa. The of the old haellein
were dying out. The Aare of • working clams wee
growing less and leas. If the working classes were going
back in character and intelligence it would have bees a
ground for withholding the franchise from them, but the
neon being far otherwise, it was a great rusum;Jy and a
moooteous injustice. (Chum) He showed that the objeM
of the bill be had brought in upon the subject would sot
have been so greatly to thugs the repreeentativie he-
lium° of the upper Gleason am had been supposed, and
he also showed the Masan which bad taken place in
cheap literature in schools, methanice and other kindred
imitutions, and in benefit sad building sonelies ; and with
these he monasted the demos is and crime.
H. asked that the weight should he yen to this evidence
which belonged to it. It had been raid it was not the
for further reform, and he knew whim it was the time.
(Hau, hear.) The working Gleams must make the time—
they must ehy the time bad come loudly and perseveringly,
and they would be listened to, and they would get
Mint righte. (Load cheers) The working claim were
almost altogether shut out from the representation,
and wee it tameable they should be deprived of
that which was the pillar of protection to them, a pro.
intim as important to them se to the greatest man in I
the Md. (Cheers.) A mans wile and family were pledges
of good conduct ; but had they no property ? He computed
their annual income in wages at 21,10,000,000 f.; but besides
that he valued their furniture, clothing, he., at 101. fur each
family, and if there were 4,0111,000 of families these moo had
40,000,001.11. in actual prorty. Besides, there was the
money is the mviogs banks, frieodly, buildup, and co-
operative ataneties. la addition 400,000 handicraftsmen and
small shopkeepers had 101. each in tools, he., so that
altogether the property at the working-classes might
be estimated at more than 500,000,0001. The working men
was anxious to defend hie property by just laws. To these
he would add 4,000,000 of -heeds, hearts, consciences, and
families ; and if the seals before was not heavy enough, he
thought
(Cheers.) that with those last added it would kick the
ns.
Mr. J. ILITIVOOD, late Y.P. for North Lancashire, spoke
out, and in the course of his remarks, referred to the
ballot, swim; he bed sees the way it bad worked in Ame-
rica, and he thought it would be to the advantage GI all
dames if it were introduced into this country. He thought
if the commercial interest had is larger share of the
tattoo there would be lees temptation to go to war=
the only thing to rein the puce of corn greatly was • war,
and the agricultural interest would, therefore, naturally be
less indifferent to a continuation of peace. (Applause.)
Mr. W. Fosses, M.P., directed the attention of the
meeting to the way in which au increase of the suffrage
was to be obtained. The aristocracy would not give and the
middle classes could not get it them. Nor did they wish
to get it them unless they were reedy to work it for them-
selves. (Cheers.) Their demand must be expressed with
more earnestness and persistency. No one but a minister
could carry a Reform Bill, and if one came from such a
quarter let it be vigorously .supported. An active organiaa-
tem was wanted. If wisdom like the Leeds Working Men's
Associaticio were formed throughout the country they would
get a Reform Bill—sot out session, but oerteduly in the
course of the sulks following. He disapproved of Hr.
Bright's proposal that the Trade 'Unions of the country
should he made the immolation for reform. He hoped the
new Reform Bill would result in the return of some working
men to parliament, aye, even thou who bad been the leaden
of strikes. (Appisees)
Mr. E. A. LZATRAY, M.P., denied that there was a con-
servative reaction; Dot that the country had been so
prosperous and busy that there had been little leisure far
political agitation.
Mr. R. Coons, of Manchester, contended that the meet-
ing of that night showed that there was once more unity of
action among reformers of all shades, and the tones might
undentand that their pride and power were at an ejuL
The memos had been too oontdiog, and that was thrown in
I their teeth, as showier: that they were not worthy of reform.
The head of the present guverument hail more than ones
propitiated the conservatives, sod if the interest of that
party were cafe is his herds, those of the liberals could not
be safe also in the same keeping. (Cheers.) Was there to
be a return to violence and conspiracy !If there was he could
tell the aristocracy it would be they, and not the people,
who would be the fndigston of physical force. (Cheers.)
Mr. Carter, of Laseda ;Hr. H Hooson, of Manchester ;
Mr. Field, of Oldham ; Hr. 8. Pope, of Manchester; and
Mr. Baines out addreesed the monies.
Mr CHADnICI, of Arksley, moved a vote of thanks to the
chairman, which was carried amidst much cheering.
The ClialititaN having responded, the meeting broke up
at kalf-past ten.

Imam Tmom—The undermentioned gentlemen
won celled to the bar >y the Honourable Society of the
hear Temple on the 111th instant :—Hoary Pendock St.
Georg* Tucker, FAq. ; William Gerrard Lysley, Fq., M.A.;
John Pope Reoaseney, Eq.. M.P. ; Richard Routs.% Dig. ;
Heavy Citadel Ross Jetsam°, Eq. ; William Bayley Moab,
Eq., B.A. ; Robert Draper Jamas, Esq., B.A. ;
Joy* Ye e, Neg. ; CAM, Haalitt, Eq. ; Her-
lbert George Drama Croft, Fag., ; and Stanley
rg.
YSTAL PALACI. ONE SHILLING DAY.
TUESDAY, Nov. 19.—Admissions on payment, 509; ditto by
MOOG ticket., 881; total visitors, 1,170.

Apropos of Mr. Diemli's recent manifesto at
Aylesbury, a contemporary publiatris the following extract.
from "Coaingsby :"
" What can be more anomalous than the present con-
nexion between state and church? Every condition en
which it was originally consented to has been cancelled.
That original alliance was, in my view, an equal calamity
for the nation and the church ; but, at least, it was an
intelligible compact. • • • The only consequences of
the present union of church and state are, that on tbs.
side of the state there is perpetual interference in eccle-
siastical government, and on the side of the church a
sedulous avoidance of all those principles on which aloes
church government can be established, and by the influence
of which alone can the church of England again become
universal.•
" It (the church) would do as great things now if it were
divorced from the degrading and tyrannical connexion that
eschains it. You would have other eons of pegmatite bishops
of England, indeed of men appointed to that maned office
solely because they were the needy scions of a factitious
aristocracy • men of gross igoorance, profligate habits, and
grinding cantina, who hems dinamosd the episcopal throne
sad passed the altar. • • • •
" There is, I think, a rising feeling in the community,
that parliamentary interference In matron ecclesiastical has
not tended either to the spiritual or the material elevation
of the humbler orders. Divorce the church from the state
and the spiritual power that struggled against the brute
force of the dark ages, against th. tyrannical monarchs
and barbarous barons, will struggle again in opposi-
tion to influenosi of a diffenot fens, but of a similar
11•8011•471, math, equally teersibtr.. repel bar-
--17}1y church, transformed into a national establishment
and therefore gruinbled at by all the nation for whom it
was not supported! What an inevitable harvest of sedi-
tion, radicalism, infidelity! I really think there is no society,
however great its resources, that could long resist the united
influences of chief magistrate, virtual representation, and
church establishment !"

THB OCTOROON AND THE SLAVERY QUESTION.

The following interesting letter from Mr. Dion
Bone-Wank appears is the Times :
"Sir,—la your criticism as my drama, The Octoroon, it
is stated that the reception of tile fifth act, in which the
slave girl commits suicide in order to escape the embraces
of her purchaser, contrasts strongly with the enthusiastic
applause which had accompanied the &rut four sots of the
Play.
•• The question involved in these few words is not one of
merely the craft of the playwright. I candidly admit that
your estimate of public sympathy, as expressed last night,
as just as it is inexplicable. Since the Uncle Tom mania,
the sentiments of the English public on the subject of
slavery have seemed to be undergoing a great change ; but
I confess that I was not prepared to rind that change so
radical as it appeared to be when the experiment wss
tried upon the feelings of a miscellaneous audience. Mar I
shim your attention to this view of • subject fraught with
much sous interest?
_ _

" A long maidence in the Southern States of America had
oreviaced ma that the delineations in Unde Tun's Cabin
of the condition of the slaves, their levee and feelings, were
not faithful. I found the slaves, u a ram, a happy, gentle,
kindly-treated population, and the restrainta upon their
Liberty so slight as to be rarely perceptible. A visitor to
Latham, who might expect to find his vulgar sympathies
aroused by the exhibition of corporal punishment and phy-
sical torture, would be much disappointed. For my part,
with every facility for observation, 1 never witnessed soy
indreatment whatever of the servile clam ; on the contrary,
the slaves are in general warmly attached to their masters
and to their homes, and this eseditioa of thinp I have
faithfully depicted.
" But, behind all this, there are features in slavery far
more objectionable than any of those hitherto held up to
human execration, by the side of which physical suffering
as a vulgar detail. Some of these features are, for
appears as
time, boldly exhibited in The Octoroon. The
audience hailed with every mark of esthusisam the sunny
views of negro life ;
they were pleased with the happy
rerlYa existing between the slaves and the family
ch
they were dependanta ; they enjoyed the hear-
*Me with which these slaves were sold and cheered
the *oaten who bought them. But, when the Octoroon
e t was purthased by the ruffianly overseer to become
, her suicide to prmarve her purity
gsweetarpar sympathy whatever. Yet, a few years
ago Ow mow public, in the earns them" witnessed with
ticepues•ha the death of Uncle Tom under the lash, and
scsupbullas lublisu of the poor old negro, his millet stained
with w blind from his lacerated back, crawling Meal the
Meg% eaddylim la slow torture.
'lathsilleth al the Octoroon lice the moral and teaching
of the whsle work. Had this girl bees saved, and the drama
Mw happy end, the horrors of her position, frreme.
a 11.11.111 very ostun of
cub S"rake the condition rfe a tat4uli
ni.jtam aslavery,
annoyance." Whil.l admit most fully the truth of your statement
that the public was disappointed with the termination of
the play, sad would hays been pleased with a happier issue,
I feed strangely bewildered at such a change of feeling. Has
public sentiment in thisessiatry veered so diametrically esi
this subject, cod is it posethis that this straw indicates that
the feeling of the English people is taking another course!

-.. •
Yours respectfully,
"Hereford Hones, Nov. 19." "DION BOUCICAULT.

FINSBURY ELBeTION. —A meeting of liberal
electors was bold yesterday STOWE% at she Belvidere
Talmo, Peutooville, to consider what step should he Liken
to secure a suitable representative for the borough, in the
room of the late Mr. T. Duncornbe. Mr. fir Donall pre-
sided, and in opening the meeting, paid a warm tribute to
the memory of their demenied.menaber. He then asked the
electors present to state their opinions, and advised them to
select some gentleman of clearly defined liberal opinions in
preference to one who only put on the mantle of liberty to
secure his return. Mr. Bontems proposed a resolution to
the effect that the candidate selected should be of advanced
liberalism in reference both to home and foreign politics.
This resolution was duly seconded, and it was unaraniously
tarried.—Mr. Benjamin Fatter, of the Jerusalem Tavern,
proposed that Mr. Charles Dickens should be invited to
stand far the representation of the borough. Mr.
Dickens, by his writings, his intellect, his large
bemoan sympathies, had given good evidence that
he was highly eligible to serve as a member of
parliament. —Mr. Hopwood thought Mr. Dickens was •
very sensible mesa, but he doubted if be was the proper
man for Finsbury ; albeit, be knew something about elec-
tions, as his description of the one at Eatanswill testified.
(Laughter.) The name of Mr. Samuel Morley having been
resotioned, Mr. Elt said be meld assure the meeting thst
Mr. Morley bad declined. The name of Mr. Edward Mall
was afterward' mentioned. hut it was stated that he also
would not be a candidate. Mr. Hodson thonht
Torreon M'Culloch would be the proper man.—
The Obaimnan here stated that Mr. Sleigh bad engaged his
parliamentary spat, which was proof of his intents= of
Mr. Elt proposed General Thompsoe, and
Mr. Moore suggested the name of Mr. John Stuart Mill.
After some further conversation, in which the names of
Mr. Peter Alfred Taylor and Sir William Clay were spoken
of, the meeting was adjourned until Monday evening next.
COURT Or A LDERMSN.—A Court of Aldermen
of the City of London was bidden yesterday st Guildhall
the Lord Mayor presided for the first time in his official
capacity shies reelection to that office. After the
formal business had been disposed of, a aeries of resolutions
complimentary to the Lord Mayor, which will he forted in
oar advertising columns, were paned. The sheriffs, Mears.
Cockerell sad Twentyman, made • report of the condition of
the several gaols belonging to the City, from which it ap-
peared that in Newgate there are coshed 85 prisoner', in
Holloway, 371, and in the debtors' prison, Whiteermes.
street, 137, only just orne-balf the ordiaary number hitherto
confined there. The general purposes committee made a
report upon various subject", among which was an applica-
tion by Mr. Alfred Skeen to be re-admitted • broker of the
City of London. This application was refused by the court.
The Gaol Committee, to whom • isference bad beeu made
relative to the nature, duties, and emoluments of the office
of Governor of the Debtors' Prison, Whitecrms•street,
made • report to the court, in which they stated that
owing to the great decrease in the number of prisoners, from
the recent alteration in the law relating to bankruptcy, sod
until they had seen what further results would be obtained
from its operation, it was impossible for them to corps to
any satisfactory conclusion es to what ought to be done
with the office of governor of the prison. and they therefore
requested that the matter might be allowed to stand over.
Alderman Salomon" moved, "That it be referred to the
General Purposes Committee to consider and report as to
the powers of the justices of the City of London, with re-
spa to committing boys to Reformatories, and as to the
best mode of exercising the same," which was agreed to.
Sir J. Musgrove gave notice of his intention, at the next
a
ring the court, tenement • petition from the inhabi-
tarttaof Breadotreet Ward, upon the subject of the supply
of pa to the City of Loodon. The court adjourned.
'flue GREAT EASTERN.—This vessel is uow lying
safely moored at Milford Haven, where she has satUfae-
torily ridden out the recent terrific gales. She in diadem-
ing bar coals into vessels alongside, to hasten the compho
Mon of which relays of men are at work day and sight so
that she may be placed on her gridiron atNayland (prepared
for ber purposely when she was last here) with all possible
despatch. Every necessary preparation is being made for
speedily effecting her repairs, to expedite which even
the resources of the adjacent royal dockyard are readily
afforded. The enoorniams her commander pays to Milford
Haven are of the most satisfactory description. He is
delighted with its capacity, its security, and its remark-
able facilities of epees and tepees. MOMS were pre-
dieted for the 17th and 1141). The weather at )(Weed
Haven has been remerlobly dee sad mild.

A box of gunpowder exploded to-day on the
railway works near Orbitallo, killing seven penons
and wounding five others.

NAPLES, Nov. 19.
Vaglio, in the Basilicata, has been occupied by
the brigands.
A band of brigands has been put to flight near
Pietragalla, in the same province, with the loss of
thirtptiree killed and several wounded.

General Della Marmora has held a review of the
National Guard of Naples, at which he addressed
them in a speech.

TURKEY.
CONSTANTINOPLE, Nov. 17.
The Marquis de Mouatier, the new French am-
bassador, has arrived here.

INDIA.

BOMBAY, Ocr. 28.
Lord Canning has published resolutions permit-
ting the absolute .6 of waste lands and the re-
demption of the laud revenue on conditions of
clearance and cultivation. The price of unasiessed
lands is not to exceed five shillings an acre, and
that of cleared lands is not to be above ten shillings
per acre. These rates are to rule for five years.
The Governor of Madras has refused to annex
North Camara to Bombay.
Colonel Baird (1) in his final report on the
famine recommends the permanent settlement of
the land and water revenue in the North West
Provinces.