Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-03-18 00:00:00

,
chattels under this bill of sale. Mr. Disraeli has told you
that this bill is not a disfranchising bill. It deprives every
freeholder of the borough of Liverpool, who may be a
resident within the borough, of the privilege of exercising
his vote for the county.
A -voice : " Quite right"
and hisses.)

(" No, no ; " laughter, cheers,

Is that not a disfranchising bill ? (Cries of hear, and loud
cheers.) Suppose that the land within the parliamentary
borough range should be owned by inhabitants of the
borough, that land remains unrepresented as part of the county.
(Hear, hear.) The borough of Liverpool is thus cut out,
at one fell swoop, from the county franchise. (Hear, hear,
and cheers.) Is ,that right ? (" No, no. ") Then
you will admit with me that that is diminishing the
power, most seriously, of those who live within the
boroughs. (Hear, hear.) But is that all ? What does
Mr. Disraeli propose in addition to that ? He proposes
that all those who live beyond the precincts of the borough,
and are owners of land within the borough, shall have
votes for the election of members of Parliament professing
to represent that borough. Now, understand this—any
man who may live in the Orkney Islands, in Jersey, Guern-
sey, Alderney, or Sark, can have a voice in the
election of the representatives of a borough, if he
owns soil within the precincts of that borough to
the extent of 40s a year. (Hisses.) Now, will
you have this ? (Cries of " No, no.") Let me say
one word; while upon this part of the subject, to those who
are holders of shares in freehold land societies. This bill
disfranchises every one of them but two. Every freehold land
society in this country is destroyed by this. bill. Let
me have no mistake upon this question. It has not been
mooted before by any person to my knowledge, at least I
have not observed it. Let me read you only three lines out
of the clause of the bill. " Provided always that no greater
number of persons shdll be entitled to be registered in
respect of any freehold, copyhold, or leesehuld interest in
the same premises, than shall be equal to two voters for any
single tenement or undivided plot of land, unless they shall
have derived the same by descent, succession, marriage,
marriage settlement device, or promotion,"—that is to
office I suppose (laughter) --" as aforesaid, or unless they
shall be bond fide engaged as partners carrying on trade or
business thereon." Do you call that an enfranchis-
ing bill. (No, no) ? Yet Mr. Disraeli had tle
effrontery to stand up in the House of Commons
and 6ay that it was an enfranchising bill, and not a disen-
franchising bill. Gentlemen, I call it a stand-and-deliver
bill. (Cheers.) How can it be otherwise than a stand-
and-deliver bill, when two witnesses to the voting paper go
to the door of the cottager, and ask for his vote ? (Hear,
hear.) They demand his vote ; they say, " Give us your
signature, give us your vote." Is not that a stand-and-
deliver bill ? How many are there who would be enfran-
chised under a £lO qualification clause, in the county, who
could dare to exercise an independent vote, when, probably,
the two witnesses would be, the one the lawyer, and .the
other the squire's estate agent. (Hear, hear, and cheers.)
Gentlemen, this voting paper system is no novelty. It is in
operation at this moment in the neighbouring township of
Toxteth-park. The present government knew perfectly well
how the system was worked. Let me give you two instances of
manner in which it has worked already, and then you will
see probably the reason why the present government adopted
it as a part of their so-called Reform Bill. In the neigh-
bouring town of Preston, two men, one of them at least out
of the parish office, and clerk of the clerk to the guardians,
committed—

A Voice : Name. (Order.)
Mr. Jeffery : I am telling you of a circumstance which
occurred in the town of Preston, and if you will be
kind enough to attend, you will get all the information you
require. The two parties of whom I speak were committed
to gaol, having been convicted of forgery and alteration of
the list of votes which had been delivered. (Hear, hear.)
Is that a system which is likely to improve our mode of
recording our votes ? (No, no.) I will give you another
instance which occurred in the parish of St. Martin's-in-the-
Fields, in London. You are aware that the voting papers
are first distributed and then called for by parties deputed
to that duty. The voting papers in this instance were
called for by the parties, and it was known that in a certain
locality in a certain district the votes would be in favour of
a certain candidate. The old Tory trick was
.put to
work. They got hold of the man with the bag containing the
voting papers, and what did they do with them ? They
made him drunk. And what did they do with the voting
papers when they had made the man drunk ? They put
them into the fire. (Oh, oh.) Is the system, then, under
which such things can be done, a system which we are to
have introduced in this year 1859. (No, no, and cheers.)
You say no—l say no —we will not have it. (Hear, hear,
and renewed cheers.) We are not to be done on
this question. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) Gentlemen, I will
give you another name for this bill. I call it. an electoral
game law preserving bill, for the poor country electors.
(Hear, hear.) It is literally so. With the voting papers
how can it be otherwise than that the poor dependant
voters will be obliged to vote as they are ordered. (Hear,
hear.) How many 'of those whom this portion
of the bill will peculiarly affect are able to
read or write ? Does not the imposition of this
income tax in its exemption, shew that the legislative
acknowledges that the former is unable to keep his accounts
otherwise. Why does not the legislature put him upon the
same footing as it puts the trader ? The trader has to
make out a balance sheet, and shew his profits. I was
talking to a member of the legislature the other day upon
this very question, - and he said, " now there is no
use in blinking the question, you know as well as I do that
not one farmer in ten knows how to keep books, and that if
he were to attempt it, he would make a precious bungle of
it." (Hear, hear.) I believe lam right in saying that the
last time the income-tax bill was before the House of Com-
mons, there was an amendment moved at the eleventh hour,
fifty-ninth minute, that although the maximum was fixed
according to the rental on which the income-tax was
based, still there should be a minimum fixed by which if an
individual could show that he had sustained losses he
should be relieved from any payment. The maximum was
so fixed that if he should make £l,OOO, although he only
income-tax
in £l2O rent, he should be only liable to pay
in proportion to the amount of rent he paid, and
the minimum was fixed in order that if
he could shew that he was unable by
losses to make the amount for which he was
assessed, he should be exonerated. I am told upou very
good authority, that there have been but five applicants to be
relieved from the payment of the tax under that statute,
and that these five applicants were unable to produce any
books to show that theyhad lost any money at all. So much,
then, for the education of the agricultural districts,
and the community who live in them. How can
this system of voting papers be carried out if men to be
entrusted with votes can neither read nor write ? it is clear
that the only way in which such men can fairly exercise their
privilege of voting is by going to the polling booth or to the
ballot box ; and, unlike my friend Mr. Steains, I am an
advocate for the ballot. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, this is a ter-
ritorial owners' bill. (Hear, hear.) It is a bill for the
exclusive benefit of territorial owners. ( Hear, hear) A
class which never had faith in the people of this
country ; which, whenever the opportunity arose, showed its
want of faith by placing the people within as many
trammels as it was in its power to inflict. ( Cheers.)
Call it by its right name, gentlemen, this bill is a
gross imposition. ( Cheers) A certain humorous
paper has more than once presented to us the Chancellor
of the Exchequer as the Wizard of the North. (Hear, hear.)
Now, if ever he practised a juggle in his life, this bill is a
juggle. (Hear, hear.). Its effect is calculated to aggravate,
and not to diminish existing evils. (Hear, hear.) It de-
grades the county electors, who may be bought and sold—
there can be no doubt whatever about it, may be bought
and sold, if this bill becomes law, as any of the black slaves
of the United States. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, I have
been entrusted to move the second resolution, and, with
your permission, I will now read it, and propose it for your
adoption.

That, in the opinion of this meeting, no measure of Parliamentary
reform will satisfy the Liberal party which does not give to the
working classes a larger share in the representation of the country.
Who are the working classes ? I shall not attempt to
define them. I will give you the words of others as a defi-
nition. When anything is wanted to be obtained from the
people, the majority of the people is talked of. (Hear,
hear.) The people are talked of as being ex-
tremely majestic, and referred to as being all-
powerful. That is the definition given of the people oft-
times by those who are in power. But when there is
anything to be bestowed, what is it they think of then ?
The majesty of the territorial owners. (Hear, hear.) If
there is anything to be bestowed through the people
it is given to the aristocracy or the oligarchy.
(Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, to ask the present
electors to request their representative to support the bill
as an improvement upon the present state of affairs, is an
insult to their common understanding, and impugns their
sense of justice (Hear, hear, and cheers.) Who gave
us our franchise ? They who held it before the
year 1832 gave it to us as a matter of
justice. I ask you, then, should we be less just
than they ? ("No, no.") We have it our power now to bring
within the pale of the constitution at least as large a number
as were brought within the pale then, and who are now as
well able to exercise their franchise as we were at that time
of day. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, there are six millions
of adult inhabitants in this country, and there is just one in
four who has the franchise. Now, is that fair ? Is it just ?
Do you call that honest legislatnre ? I call it—what ?
A voice : Robbery. (Hear, hear, and cheers.)
Mr. Jeffery : Now, then, I call upon you to unite in
demanding from the legislature, through your representatives
—and there is one of them here before you (loud cheers)
I call upon you through your representatives—and I speak
of them in the plural number, to demand, at the hands fo
government, justice for those who have not the power