Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-04-21 00:00:00

is no such thing as a manilla-during town, or a magnificent
seaport ; but there may be well-tilled land. Ido not deny
that, and if there be such a thing, it is only by reason of the
abolishment of the corn laws. (Hear, hear.) In these
agricultural counties, the population is not equal to your
own, but several hundred thousand less ; the taxation,
much less than your own to the imperial excheqe er, and you
naturally ask how many representatives these counties send
to Parliament. If 26 comes from this county, how many
should represent those other counties ? And this Reform
bill, thought it right that things should continue in the
existing state, which was, that this county should
send in only 26 members, and those counties 98
members. (Oh, oh.) So long. as this state of things
is continued, our populations in the north, our great
seats of industry and of commerce, must be in perpetual
war and discord. I say it is totally impossible, without
long agitation and political excitement, such as took place on
the question of the Corn Laws, that they could carry mea-
sures advantageous to your interest. In any coming reform
bill, you must see that there is a more equal distribution of
political power in the House of Commons. I admit that
there will be great difficulty in obtaining that
point, because we have, unfortunately, the fact
that the members for those boroughs proposed to be dis-
franchised, voting against it. A valued friend of his, a
gentleman who purchased the borough which he now re-
presents, had a large estate in the immediate neighbourhood,
and this distinguished member is returned by 320 electors,
and he has political power in the Honse of Commons, and
this borough has two representatives, equal to the town of
Liverpool ; and, as he said before, was such a thing to be
carried on because this little borough did so ? Your work
is not and cannot be done. This gentleman purchases this
borough, and, in his very arduous task, he is obliged to have
a colleague. I have said, this bill did not disfranchise a
single borough ; it touched with a very gentle hand such
boroughs as this, and one additional member was allowed to
such boroughs. This friend of mine is a stout radical,
a liberal of the purest water, and, to my astonishment, when
I was coming out of the lobby, after voting against the
bill, I met my friend coming out of the opposite lobby, after
voting for the bill. I said, "Why, my friend, what have
you been doing ? You can only loose your colleague, and
that will be no great loss. "Oh ! " he said, " I
want this bill carried, or I shall fall into
the hands of Lord John Russell or Mr. Bright,
and they will abolish me altogether. (Laughter and ap-
plause.) I mention this, gentlemen, to show you what are
the difficulties connected with a better distribution of politi-
cal power in the House of Commons. [A Voice : ".None of
your gammon."] Mr. Cheetham : Any ministry who under-
took the introduction of a better bill will have these diffi-
culties in his face, and must endeavour to shape his measures
so as not to provoke hostility, that might prove fatal to his
measure. There was one gentleman who undertook the
defence of these little boroughs—a gentleman who to name
was to name a man of the greatest talent and ability—that
was Mr. E wart Gladstone. ( Ipplause.) This distin-
guished gentleman undertook the defence of these petty
boroughs. He said, "Now we should not altogether cast
them off. I have been looking into the matter, and
what do I find ? Why, I find-L-" and he brought
out a number of papers, and read therefrom the names of
those distinguished men—Messrs. Pitt, Fox, Burke, and
two or three others, who, during the course of 100 years,
had been returned at an early age for these boroughs. And,
therefore, these boroughs were the means of sending young
men into parliament that would not otherwise pass a larger
constituency, and they were thus trained to political
life. It struck me that this was no very great forte
of argument, if this was the only good these boroughs had
done for a hundred years, as to produce these men. It was
the men who made the boroughs, and a clever man would
find a constituency in any part of the country. I hold that
it is no argument to perpetuate such a state of things, which
shows such an anomaly as that to which I have referred.
It shuts the doors of the House of Commons to a fair
representation of the large boroughs. There is one door
which is never shut against those populations to which I
refer. There is one ingenious gentleman, who never over-
looks your powers of paying the tax, when he has a budget
to make (laughter), and when he sits down to make it, he
never forgets to calculate what the result will be from the
introduction of a new tax, upon the counties
of Lancashire and Yorkshire. When the interests
of the country are to be supported, therefore,
we have a right to call for equal justice, and have a claim
for just representation in the House of Commons, and a fair
share in the administration of the country. (Applause.) I
pass over from this topic of reform, and come to another
subject which, at the present moment, is exciting a consider-
able degree of attention. I allude to the question of the
ballot. (Applause.) Now, gentlemen, the ballot—
A Voice : What about Maynooth.
Mr. Cheetham : The ballot is strongly opposed by a por-
tion of our countrymen. We have great and distinguished
statesmen who condemn it altogether as unsuited to the
publicity of our political life, and to our habits as English-
men. lam prepared to make a great admission upon
that point. The ballot in itself is an evil, but I say
it is an evil to which I would resort, to put down a still
greater evil. I find that in the records of our ancient law
books which refer to our constitution. It is there provided,
that every elector in the kingdom shall give his vote freely
and openly, and according to his pleasure for his candidate.
Is this our experience in this candid and political country ?
I ask you whether there are not those under employers, and
those who have customers, of whom they stand in fear ?
whether there are not such things as tenant farmers, who
stand in jeopardy of their landlords ? (Hear, hear.) I
remember Mr. Gisburne telling me on one occasion, when
standing for the county of Lancashire, there came up
to the polling booth a long list of tenant farmers
belonging to Lord Stanford. At the head of
these gentlemen was his agent, and when they
arrived at the poll, the polling clerk asked the first farmer for
whom he voted. His reply was, I vote for Lord Stanford.
He was told there was no such candidate, and when the
names of the four candidates were read over to him, the tenant
farmer looked up imploringly at the steward who was going
to repeat the names. Mr. Gisbone interfered, and the
farmer at last declared that he voted for those whom Lord
Stanford voted for. (Laughter.) Mr. Gisborne then
proposed that they should hand in a list of those tenants,
and enrol them without any more trouble. That is not
such representation as I would value. If I have any
honour attached to me as a member of Parliament,
especially so as a representative of this county, I tell you at
once that I would be no such representative that was given
upon such force. (Applause.) "Well now, gentlemen, we
will pass on, if you please, to another topic. It,
perhaps, concerns you at the present moment more
deeply than many of you are aware. I allude to
the exciting state of things on the continent of
Europe. Those two mighty empires, with half a million
of men in arms, and every moment we may hear the startling
intelligence that war has commenced. I will tell you what
I think of this state of things. It appears to me that, much
as I sympathise with trodden down Italians from the tyranny
and despotism of Austria, I cannot see it is our duty or our
interest to join in any war between Austria and Sardinia.
(Applause.) I think it more important to dwell
upon this point, because within the last forty-eight hours
the Prime Minister of this country has come down to the
House of Lords, and he has told us he has little hopes of
the continuance of peace, and we must look forward for
the period when we must be prepared to take a part in this
conflict. (Cries of "no, no," and " yes, yes.") Now.
gentlemen, I have had some practical acquaintance, and
some personal inspection, of the dealings of the Austrian
Government with Italy. A country more capable of pro-
ducing all that man can desire to assist him in all his
wants, does not exist in Europe, than the fair fields of Italy.
I believe the Italians themselves are a noble race of men,
but by long despotism they may be for a time incapable of
rightly enjoying full liberty. But they had had the
experience of the little State of Piedmont, which had
possessed for a period of nine years, a considerable amount
of freedom, and had taken a very important part in the
councils of Europe. I have seen that Austrian misgovern-
ment, that Austrian tyranny and despotism crush down the
liberties of the Italian, from Naples to Lombardy, and I
say that the evils of that country lie at the root of Austrian
domination, and if any ministry in this country dare come
down to the House of Commons and ask it to help in build-
ing up that despotism, I tell you at once that I will be no
party to that. (Applause.) Now, gentlemen, I have another
point—
A Voice : That is Maynooth, I hope—
and that is the second great principle which is involved in this
contest. In the person of my honoured colleague, Mr. Brown,
the electors of this division thought fit to establish the
principle, that the great commercial and manufacturing dis-
trict of South Lancashire, should have commercial and
manufacturing men to represent it. The principle was first
adopted in his person, and it has been continued since up to
the present moment. The landed and territorial
interests have, on this occasion, called in
question this principle. They have said you are
wrong altogether, and they ask us to go back to the old
state of thine, which is worthy only of an agricultural
district, and in their conclave put forward whomsover they
think fit to appoint. I say were this an agricultural county,
their arguments might be right and sound. But
when I travel through the breadth of South Lan-
cashire, and see in every hamlet the large manufac-
turing and industrious establishments, when I see
the magnificent town of Manchester and its vast emporium
of manufactories, and when I come down to the still more
magnificent port of Liverpool, and see its miles of docks
and quays stretching along the Mersey ; when I know that
there is no place in the world where Liverpool and Man-
chester are not known ; when I look at the industry of their
artizans and the enterprise of their merchants, I say, if there
be any county in England that should:have a representation
who!sympathised by experience, and was practically acquainted
with these interests, it was this county. This principle