The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-10 00:00:00

and that one thing is your labour and your will. The hon.

member concluded by seconding the resolution.
Mr BAINES, in the course of his remarks, said—The re-
solution which has been put into my hands to move says
" That further delay in remedying this injustice, after it
has been repeatedly admitted in speeches frail the Throne,
and by the leaders of both parties, would be derogatory to
the character of Parliament and destructive to political
morality." That might have been put oven more strongly
than it is put as to the facts which are there referred to.
The Queen from the throne has five times recommended to
Parliament to take this question into its consideration. Four
Administrations, including every Prime Minister for the
last 12 years, have also declared their adhesion to the prin-
ciple of Reform. Both Houses of Parliament, and both
sides of those houses, have, on every occasion when the
Queen addressed them, pledged themselves to take the
question into their serious consideration. These are pledges
given to the nation, and the nation at the last general elec-
tion received and confirmed those pledges. I have got hero
the words used by Lord John Russell at a meeting of Libe •
ral members, held at Willis's Rooms, before the last Parlia-
ment actually assembled, and before the Queen's speech was
delivered, at which Lord Palmerston, Lord J. Russell, and
other members of the Liberal party met to determine what
course they bhould adopt. Lord J. Russell spoke those
words—" The Reform Bill ought to be as unlike as possible
to that which had been lately rejected (meaning the plan of
Lord Derby). It ought to enlarge the franchises of the
' people, and there should be no counterbalancing provisions
to take away wit h one hand what was given with the other."
Here the noble lord referred to the plan which he himself
had sketched, of which the two main features were an ex-
tension of the county franchise to the occupiers of £lO and
of the borough franchise to occupiers of £6. And what did
Mr Bright say in the presence of these noble lords, and of
the whole Liberal party at that meeting ? "He hoped to
see a measure of Parliamentary Reform brought forward
not less liberal than that which they had recently seen
sketched by Lord J.Russell"(£lo and £G). (Cheers.) These
wore the conditions upon which the present Government
received the adhesion of the Liberal party, and upon which
they afterwards came into office. I consider the measure
sketched by Lord John Russell is a debt of honour due from
the Government to the country. I for one have called upon
them in the House of Commons—and I call upon them here,
and will continue to call upon them—to redeem their pledges
and prove themselves men of honour. (Hear, hear.) On
this many said, " You must, at the next general election,
obtain from all your members a pledge in favour of the elec-
tive franchise." But I am disposed to go a little faster than
either. I think that the next session of Parliament, and be-
fore wo come to the dissolution, is the time for Government
to redeem their pledges, and that the Parliament and the
people should insist upon that redemption. (Cheers.) In my
opinion, the first session of Parliament is in every respect
the worst time atwhich the question of reform can be bi ought
forward. The last session is the beat time. And not only so,
but the last session is the only time in which Ministers and
the existing House of Commons can redeem the pledges
which they have given to the public. In the presence of
these pledges, remembering what they promised and what
they are again about to face, I think it would be better that
you would urge them to en immediate decision of this ques-
tion. Now, when the political atmosphere is calm, when
every other question is swept out of the way, now is the
time when this question should be urged upon the House
'of Commons. Nor do 1 agree with those who think there
would not be a very fair prospect of success it a measure of
that kind were brought forward by Government. I obtained
for my motion last year, and I was below Mr Locke King,
no less than 216 votes with 24 pairs, making 240 in favour
of the measure ; but you cannot judge from the support a
private member receives of the support a Government mewty
sure would receive. If Lord Palmerston were to come for-

ward and say, " I have given my pledge, I am bound as a
man of honour to redeem it," and were to say to the house
moreover, " We must meet the country, whether we redeem
our pledges or not; is it better to meet the country without
having brought forward a measure and having exerted our
utmost strength to support it and carry out our pledges,
or to be subject to the reproach of having broken our
pledges? '—there is very strong reason to believe that if
Government were thus to feel and thus to act they could
carry the measure in the House of Commons. There is one
man, if we could call him forward—the man wha has been
electrifying the house and the country session after session
by his magnificent speeches, and whose glorious sentiments
and large heart correspond with his mighty talents in finance
and with his wonderful eloquence—if we could but hear the
silver trumpet voice of Gladstone—Parliament and the
country I believe would respond in a manner which would
secure success to a measure so brought forward. (Applause.)
Lord Russell, who for many years with honour brought the
question before the House of Commons, having been re-
moved to the Upper House, is, perhaps, a little disposed to
" rest and bo thankful"—(laughter)—but Mr Gladstone is

in the prime of his strength ; he has felt the claims of the
working classes ; he has acknowledged them both to them.
selves and to Parliament ; he has acknowledged that Go-
vernment and Parliament have not done their duty towards
the working classes. He is the man to take up this question
and if you call upon him I am not sure ho won't answer you.
(Cheers.) Surely it would be a grand ambition for Mr.
Gladetono, the man who, by the commercial treaty with
France, put the top stone on the temple of tree trade in this
country, and thus loosened the last shackles from the arms
and feet of industry, that ho should be the means also of
leading the iudustrious classes within the sacred pale of the
English constitution. (Cheers.) That would be a grand ob-
ject of ambition—that he should be Enabled to say that he
found industry fettered and loft it unfettered, that he found
the people unrepresented, and that ho was the means of
conferring upon them the franchise. (Applause.) I know
some say they are indirectly represented, and that
that is the same thing—that if they are well governed
and indirectly represented they aro protected equally.
It does to me appear absolutely puerile to introduce that
argument as an objection to conferring the franchise
upon the working classes. My belief, my conscientious
belief is, that the introduction of a considerable repre-
sentation of the industry of this country into the House
of Commons would have the effect of improving the char-
acter of that Clouse, and not of deteriorating it—would add
to the elements of safety and of intelligence, and not with.
draw enything that would be considered a safeguard of our
constitution.
Mr R. KELL seconded the motion.
Mr Alderman GODWIN moved—" That it is necessary
Reformers throughout the country should co-operate with
energy in order to induce the Government and Parliament
to settle satisfactorily the Reform question. This meeting,
therefore, rejoices in the establishment of the National
Reform Union for that object, and promises to that organi-
sation its hearty support."
Mr WHITEHEAD seconded and Mr A, ILLINGWORTH
supported the motion, which, with the previous ones, was
carried unanimously,
A vote of thanks to the chairman concluded the pm-
ceedings,

Demonstration of the Confederate Congress

The Index publishes the following resolutions,
which were introduced in the Confederate Congress
on November 18, by Mr Henry, senator from Ten-

nessee :

Resolved, by the Congress of the Confederate States of
America :—That the people of the Confederate States are
endowed by their Creator with the inalienable rights of life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; that to secure these
high rights governments were instituted among men, de-
riving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
and, whenever any government becomes destructive of
these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it,
and to substitute a new government, laying its foundation
on such principles and organising its powers in such form
as to them shall seem most likely to effeot their safety and
happiness ; that on these principles, embodied in the
Declaration of American Independence, the United Colo-
nies, in 1776, d.ssolved the connection that bound
them to the Government of Great Britain, and on them
the Confederate States have severed the bonds of that poli-
tical union which connected them with the people and the
Government of the United States of America, rather than
submit to the repeated injuries inflicted upon them by that
people, and to the usurpations of that Government, all of
which had the direct object to deprive them of their rights,
rob them of property secured to them by constitutional
guarantees, and to establish an absolute tyranny over these
States.

Resolved--That the Confederate States appealed to arms
in defence of those rights, and to establish these principles,
only after they had in vain conjured the people and the
Government of the United States, by all the ties of a com-
mon kindred, to discountenance and discontinue these in-
juries and usurpations, and after they had petitioned for
redress in the most appropriate terms, and received in
answer only a repetition of insults and injuries, which fore.
shadowed usurpations still more dangerous to liberty.
Resolved—Thatafter:nearly four years of cruel, desolat-
ing, and unnatural war, in which the people of the Con-
federate States have unquestionably established their
capacity for self-government, and their ability to resist the
attempts of the enemy to subjugate them, this Congress
does not hesitate to aver its sincere desire for peace, and to
that end proclaims to the world the readiness of the Go.
vernment of the Confederate States to open negotiations to
establish a permanent and honourable peace between the
Confederate States and the United States, upon the basis
of the separate independence of the former.
Resolved—That the time has come when the Confederate
Congress, in the name of the people of the Confederate
States, deem it proper again to proclaim to the world their
unalterable determination to bo free, and that they do not
abate one jot of their high resolve to die freemen rather
than live slaves ; and further, if the people of the United
States, by re-electing Abraham Lincoln, mean to tender to
them four years more of war, or reunion with them on any
terms, deeply deprecating the dire necessity wantonly
thrust upon them, and relying upon the Justice of their
cause and the gallantry of their soldiers, they acceept the
guage of battle and leave the result to the righteous arbi-
trament of Heaven.

Resolved—That in view of the determination of the
enemy to prosecute this horrid war still further, against
which the Confederate States have at all times protested,
and which the enemy had waged with extraordinary vigour,

and which has been marked by acts of extraordinary
atrocity, in violation of the usages of civilised warfate, the
Congress of the Confederate States will from this hour
dedicate themselves anew to the great cause of self' defence
against the combined tyranny of the enemy. That it shall
no longer be the momentary occupation of the Congress al
the people of the Confederate States, but the business of
their lives, to gather together the entire strength of the
country in men and material of war, and put it forth as
with the will of one man, and with an unconquerable de-
termination to defend their altars awl their firesides till the
last votary of freedom falls around them.