The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-27 00:00:00

National Reform Union,

A public meeting in connection with this union was held
in the Assembly Room at the Free Trade Hall last evening
—Mr G. WILSON in the chair. There was a numerous
attendance.

Tho CHAIRMAN in opening the proceedings, said they
charged the House of Commons with not having fulfilled
the pledge which had been given to the country on the
question of parliamentary reform. He was not aware when
Parliament would dissolve—some people said a dissolution
was expected to take place very shortly--but ho could not
think that the House of Commons would dissolve without
making an effort to give cif:et to the engagements it had
entered into. Lle trusted that it would show it had not out-

lived its honour, and that it would take some step to pre-
vent the historian having to record of it that it was born
at a period of great promise, that during the first two years
of its existence it exhibited great strength and vitality, and
that towards the end of its days it showed physical weak-
ness, and died when the sands of life had run out, leaving
the object of its life unaccomplished,and bequeathing to us,
instead of a noble inheritance of regained rights, a legacy
of disappointed hopes. (Applause.)

Mr Alderman HEYWOOD moved a resolution urging
upon all reformers the importance of combined action in
demanding an extensive measure of reform, and of esta-
blishing branches in connection with the association. He
implored those persons who had the opportunity and
possessed the desire to aid the movement to use their best
endeavours in order to provide such machinery that at the
next election they might be prepared to make a better se-
lectie n of men than those who now occupied the benches in
the House of Commons.

Mr J. W. MELLOR, of Oldham, in seconding the resolu-
tion, said that Whigs and Tories alike had promised reform,
but they had dcne little or nothing towards that object•.

Messrs R. Cooper and J. B. Torr having been heard in
support of the resolution,
Mr S. Porn said that meeting was held for the purpose
of banding themselves together, not only for mutual enthu-
siasm and action, but also to purge their own ranks from
the rottenness that had crept into them. (Applause.)
They owed the defeat of the Reform Bill of la6o not to their
opponents only, but to the treachery and supineness of those
who pretended to be their friends. The effect of Mr Glad-
stone's speech had not entirely subsided, and it was now
acknowledged by the administration of the country that
the true principle on which the extension of political
power must rest was that the exercise of that power was
the right of every man. (Applause.) Reformers de-
manded that right. It would be a mistake to proposeT a
compromise. There was an election coming, and the
question then for reformers to answer would be—Were they
to be deluded by fair promises, or were they to secure,
at all events, some representation of their principles in Par-
liament. Ho was not sure that it was necessary that the
real radical reform party in the House of Commons should
be in the maj Jrity ; a minority under the present aspect of
the question could make it imperative upon the Govern-
ment to listen to the demands of the people. It would be far
more important if they were to band themselves together
for the sake of securing adequate support to the indepen-
dent men, such as the member for Birmingham, who sit
below the gangway. What was the meaning of the ap-
proaching dissolution ? It was that the Government and

the house had no principle, had nothing upon which to ap-
peal to the country bat the personal popularity of the most
unprincipled statesman that ever ruled, (Applause.) Had
Lord Palmerston done anything for the Liberal party? He
had demoralised it. (Hear, hear.) He (Mr Pope) hoped
that the Radicals would have no terms with the Whigs
whatever. There were no politicians so absolutely danger-
ous and fatal to political reform as the Whigs. (Applause.)
Alderman GOADSBY said that what the people had gained

they had gained by their own efforts. The Whigs only
helped them through if they could thereby serve their own
selfish interests.

A vote of thanks having been accorded to the chairman,
he proceedings terminated.

FRIGHTFUL COLLIERY ACCIDENT.—OD Monday,
about 36 men went down the Eppleton Jane Pitt,
at Hetton-le Hole, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, for the pur-
pose of going to work. That portion of the work to which
they were proceeding is at a distance of three miles from
the shaft. They are usually conveyed to work by a train of
empty waggons which runs down an incline to the "face."
On this occasion the men got into the waggons which were
then set in motion, and had proceeded some little distance
when, owing to the two guides of the brake having sustained
an injury, the waggons ran amain. The men were of course
exceedingly alarmed at the occurrence, some of them leaped
out and were seriously injured, as were others who were
pitched out by the waggons jumping off the ways, and a
man, named Thomas Lewings, was so seriously injured that
he died shortly after being brought to bank. Thirteen men
were also seriously injured, some having had their legs
broken, others their collar bones fractured, while the re-
mainder were more or less severely bruised and wound&.
--Arciccasec Chronicle.

MessrE. Coutts and Co. have received £5OO for
the National Life-boat Institution, from a friend, by the
hstails of L. H. H.

MAN v. HORSE.—On Monday a one mile race
took place on Wimbledon Cornucin botwten twu greow,
for £5 aside, the one to ruu on foot and the other to ride
a horse. ahe courke was a quarter of a mile of road, and
although the horse was the swifter of the twa, it was unable
to turn so rapidly as its opp-nent, who NV," 11 by fourteen
yardd,