The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-01 00:00:00

Kr. Bazley, M.P., and his Constituents.

Mr Baxley, M.P., for Manchester, met his cons
etituents in the Free.trade-hall on Tuesday even.
ing. It has not been customary for the members
for Manchester to give an annual address to their
local friends and supporters on the prominent ques-
tions of the time, as is done in many towns ; but
in the years prior to the election of 1857, when
Mr Milner Gibson and Mr Bright were unseated,
the practice was substantially observed by their
attendance at great political gatherings held each
winter at the Freestrade-hall, the Corn Exchange,
or the Albion Hotel. If any dissatisfaction might
be supposed to have existed at the absence of many
opportunities since then of receiving from the
members for the city a review of Parliamentary
affairs in the form of a speech, the idea would
hardly be borne out by the limited attendance on
Tuesday evening. Up to within a few minutes of
the time of commencing the proceedings not more
than 200 persons were present. The number after.
wards increased to upwards of 1,500, but the hall
was at no period of the evening half filled. The
spacious platform was quite empty until the chair was
taken by Sir E.At mitage. Mr Bexley on his entrance
was very cordially received. Among the gentle-
men who then and subsequently made their appear■
ante on the platform were Mr George Wilson, Mr
Alderman Mackie, Mr Alderman Nicholls, Mr Alder-
man R. Neill, Mr M. Ross, Mr T. Mosley, Mr F.
Taylor, Dr. Watts, Mi S. Giles, Mr Alderman
Goadsby, Mr S, Pope, Mr T. Clegg, Mr R. Romney,
and Mr Councillor Thompson

Mr BAILEY, who was much cheered, addressed
the meeting at great length. He said he had en.
deavoured since his return to Parliament to give
effect to those Liberal principles which he had en.
gage& to support. After speaking of his vote for the
abolition of church rates, he referred to the reduction
of taxation, He had voted with the Chancellor of
the Exchequer for the repeal of taxation to the
amount of £10,000,000, without detriment to the
national revenue. He objected both to an intermed.
dling foreign policy and to a system of levying upon
the mother country the expenses of our colonies,
which were rich enough to support themselves. In
our dependencies abroad there had been aggressions
from time to time which had received his condem-
nation. He feared, as in the case of New Zealand,
that some of our countrymen were not altogether
free from the charge of an attempt to abstract
the inheritance of the aborigines. He regretted that
we did not so direct oar national councils as to de-
velopo more effectually the resources of the East In-
dies. We sent Europeans to;manage that great de.
pendency, where the people were quite capable of
managing themselves, and he had no doubt the time
would come when they would direct their own men.
tel powers to the government of their own country.
Happily we had given to our colonies the means of
self-government; they had Constitutions freer than
our own ; they had a franchise more extensive than
our own ; and in many of them vote by ballot had
been constitutionally established. (Applause.) But in
connexion with the East Indies in particular there
was a very grave and lamentable feature. We were
holding that vast possession at the present time
more by the power of the English army than by
the cordial support of the people, although he was
happy to acenowledge that by a wiser course of
government pursued during the last few years the
affections of the native Hindoos were more attached
to us than they have been in former times. Still
there remained the lamentable fact that we were
holding India chiefly by the support of a European
army, and the 80,000 men we had there, sent from
the United Kingdom, were diminishing in numbers
year by year full 10 per cent. They might rely
upon it this year the 80,000 men have diminished
by 8,000 men. They had to be replenished by re•
exults from this country, and next year, by deaths
and other causes, another diminution of 8,000 men
would take place, and so on year by year. This
was a sacrifice of human life not needed. He be•
lieved if we governed India wisely and well there
would be found to be a force there capable of de-
fending its own shores and everything that was
valuable within its territory. The hon. member
then proceeded to enumerate some of the fruits of
our free-trade policy, showing the enormous
increase in our exports and imports in the last 20
years. He pointed to this as a triumph for industry
which had been emancipated. At the present mo-
ment our foreign trade might be represented by an
export of manufactures, and by other products, the
result of labour, amounting to X 150,000,000 ster-
ling. In that sum he was excluding the exports of
colonial produce, and of course of gold and silver
and other extraneous things that Jeft the country.
He was only referring now to the employment of
the people in this country, who had contributed by
their labour and productions to the extent of 150
millions sterling in value that had left our shores in
the form of exports. He wished to give a very prac-
tical application to this subject, because we had
among us many people who said that perhaps the
mere transference of colonial produce did not come
strictly within the reward that industry ought to
obtain for labour. Therefore, he was bringing be-
fore them prominently the mere result of labour in
the various manufactured articles that left us. He
did not hesitate to declare his conviction. that our
exports of foreign comforts now were contributing
to the subsistence of one-third of her Majesty's po-
pulation in the United Kingdom. To do our colo-
nies justice, he must tell them that they took from
us about one-half of our exports, and in return they
gave us about one-third of our imports. Of course
the balances were paid for in bullion by other
means, but it was gratifying to find that of the
labour expended on our foreign trade our colonies
took one•half the produce, and sent in return one-
third the useful products we received into the
country. (Cheers.) After a reference to the well-
known figures of the increased trade with France
consequent on the commercial treaty (which elicited
cheers for Mr Cobden), the hon. member said there
was no doubt national prosperity had greatly in-
creased since the remissions by Sir It. Peel and Mr
Gladstone of 1,163 articles of customs' duty, but
unfortunately the increase of prosperity had been
accompanied by increased extravagance. In per-
eonal expenditure the rich might do very much
what they liked with their own, and the governing
classes of this country were chiefly the rich people
among us; but the poor contributed to an immense
extent towards the revenue of the country, and
therefore, dealing with the income that we derived
we should be careful that we did not 'avishly spend
the earnings of those who could well and perhaps
more profitably employ them than we could by ab-
stracting them for public extravagance. (Cheers.)
He considered the increase of 15 millions a year in
the cost of our national defences since 1833.4 as
unnecessary, and he characterised it as a source of
almost wilful waste. We had positively been pour-
ing our treasure into the sea. 'We had been raising
fortifications upon some points of our coast,
and enlightened engineers said that those fortifica-
tions would be comparatively useless, because no
wise or cautions enemy would, if ever it should be
contemplated to invade this country, enter under
powerful batteries and attack us at our strong
points. If we were to continue this system of de-
fence, we must come back to Bishop Berkeley's seg.
gestion of having a brass wall (laughter) round the
whole shores of the kingdom (cheers and laughter),
and we knew well that would be a practical impos-
sibility. It was quite true that we hod been lavish-
ing money very extravagantly through the agency
of various engineers. He had seen often enough by
the Manchester papers that a " long firm" came to
their city occasionally, cropping out here and there,
and abstracting sums of money that would be very
much better left at home. Well, he very much
feared that we had had a "long firm," that he should
deeignate as Armstrong and Comnany—(laughter)
—who had been abstracting from the public tree.
money which had v(ry much
Bury Lrge sums of
better have been left to fructify for the advantage
of the people. It was not his intention to calum-
niate or to injure the reputation of Sir W. Arm-
strong, or those immediately connected with him,
in reference to his labours upon his great gun and
other mechanical contrivances; but in London the
other day he was told by a very high naval autho-
rity that in all probability the engineering services
—the gunnery—of Sir W. Armstrong would prove
ultimately to be perfectly useless to the country.

(Hear, hear.) We had been spending, through Sir
W. Armstrong, probably something like £3,000,000
sterling, and in all probability we had to begin
de novo. Well, we had a number of these con-
jurors—(laughter)--competing with each other,
telling us they had sundry contrivances that would
make us invulnerable. Their contrivances were,
in fact, to take money out of the national Treasury
—(hear)—and he hoped that there would be some
corrective influence exerted that would stem the tor•
rent that seemed to have set in. He would do justice
to two of our own eminent citizens—Mr. Whitworth
and Mr Fairbairn ; and he believed that if these
distinguished engineers had bean called into cone
fidence some years ago, and had given wise sug-
gestions, such as they were capable of, many
millions might have been spared to the Exchequer.
(Cheers.) Let them not understand him as being
unfavourable to the reasonable defence of the coun-
try ; on the contrary, be was favourable to the
maintenance of the safety of the empire, but he
was decidedly opposed to all wilful waste and ex-
travagance. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) With the
increase of the prosperity of the United Kingdom,
there, no doubt, had been a vast increase in trade,
commerce, and industry in every possible form, and
he was exceedingly happy in being able to express
his conviction that the cotton trade had partaken,
in common with other trades, in the amazing pros-
perity consequent upon the changes that had been
effected in our fiscal system and the repeal of the
corn laws. Twenty years ago we were consuming
about 28,000 bags of cotton per week. We had
gone on increasing until at the present moment, if
we had a supply of the raw material of good quality
such as the United States formerly supplied, he bes
lieved our power of consumption would be quite
equal to 56,000 bags per week. It was quite true
that in 1860 we only consumed about 48,500 bags
per week, but such had been the confidence of men
of capital in the resources of the country, that new
mills had been building, old mills had been ime
proved, and all in the hope that a better time was
coming, and that ample supplies of cotton would be
brought to fill those vast fabrics of industry, and
lead to the increasing prosperity of the country. He
deplored with them that the great calamity had oca
curred in America that had intercepted the supply
of cotton. But we were now dependent on our own
resources, and unless we did look at the cultivation
of cotton in our own colonies and vast possess
sions he feared that this industry would have to
suffer very considerable inconvenience for a great
length of time. He was sure he had no occasion to
repeat to them what he had often stated—that the
possessions of Great Britain contained more land
capable of producing excellent cotton than any other
territory on the face of the earth, (Hear.) There.
fore if our colonial exertions were wisely directed,
we should be enabled to obtain from the colonies
cotton in abundance, and of a quality equal to any
that was ever grown. He defended himself and his
colleague (Mr J. A. Turner) from accusations cf
neglect of the question of cotton supply, not only
by reference to the part they had taken in public
agitation on the subject for many years, but by the
fact that they were both personally interested in
undertakings for the production of cotton in India
or elsewhere. He (Mr Bazley) stood before them
not with the golden prospects in return for these
exertions, but with losses in various forms, for the
originators of many schemes, however sound and
excellent they might be, were frequently the first
to suffer until the new industry was fairly esta-
blished. (Hear, hear.) In the storming of a citadel
there was always a forlorn hope that led the way,
but we know tha t the men who first plunge into
the citadel frequently become the viol ims of their
bravery, and of their absolute determination to be
victors. And so it was frequently enough with
those who led on the career of social improvement
—that while they were sacrificing their own ims
mediate interests they were promoting the ultimate
good of those by whom they were surrounded. (Ap-
plause.) He should give his attention to this sub-
ject, and it would be his endeavour, so far as in his
power, to contribute to the independent and abun-
dant supply of cotton for this very great industry in
which they were all interested. (Hear.) The next
subject to which he referred was one too much over-
looked—the necessity of legal reforms: He spoke of
the absurdity of passing separate sets of laws for
the three portions of a " united kingdom"— (bear)
—he referred to local discrepancies, such as those
between the municipal government of the city of
London and that of the West-end; also to the non-
reception of living evidence in cases of business
contracts. As the matter stood, the majority of
transactions on the Manchester Exchange were
illegal, and could not be sustained in a court of law,
because there was no written contract. We also
needed common standards of weights and measures
throughout the country. (Applause.) Adverting
to the Parliamentary proceedings of last session, he
was glad the Government had kept out of war on
the Danish question, although no doubt aggress
sions had been committed which we all regretted
and condemned.. We could not in this country
undertake the police of Europe. (Applause.) Nor
would it be right to interfere in any way in Ames
rica. (Applause.) He preferred the retention of
power by a Government inclined to a peaceful
policy, because a peaceful policy is most consistent
with economy. In spite of our difficulties or de •
ficiences our people had much improved in social
position during the last 20 years, and especially in
respect of education. He maintained very strongly
the conviction that nothing less than municipal
education—by local rates—would meet the wants
of our time. (Applause.) Daring the last few
months there had been a cry that middleeclass educa-
tion ought to receive more attention. He confessed
himself very much surprised by the clamour that
was raised, for when we recollect that judges who
adorned our bench, that bishops who sat in the
House of Lords, and that some of the most eminent
men in the country had sprung from the middle
&ass, he did not think that that class need excite
the sympathy either of the Legislature or the
public. The middle class had been the means of
paying for their education, and, as a body,
he believed they were obtaining the best
education of the kind for their children.
He next came to the most important subject on
which he had to speak—that of Parliamentary re-
form. (Cheers.) Both the great rival parties of the
State, the conservatives and the Liberals, were
pledged to a reform in the representation of the
people. Their promises, he regretted to say, were
unfulfilled, and ho thought that the non-fulfiment
of those promises had produced a corrupting influ-
ence on the minds of the people, and were destroy-
ing to a great extent public confidence. (Hear.) He
very much feared that there was design in the with-
holding of these promises, for it had been discovered
that promises retarded more than denials did. He
quoted some of the statistics of anomalies in the re-
presentation, as shown by the numbers of popula-
tion in places returning members. There were 77
boroughs in England—not in the entire United
Kingdom—containing 535,388 inhabitants, and
which returned 118 members to Parliament. The
average number of inhabitants contained in these
75 boroughs wore 7,165. Now, there were 59 places
with 782,545 people, or an avenge of 13,263 inhas
bitants, that did not send to Parliament a single
member. (Shame.) Just look at Manchester and
Liverpool. There were 801,917 inhabitants in these
two great cities, and we sent four members to Par-
liament. Those four members were met by the 118
members sent up by the 537,388 inhabitants from
the 75 places to which he had referred. He did not
know how such an inconsistency could be for a mo-
ment defended or maintained. To put the thing
in extreme contrast, let him remind them that there
was one borough in this England of ours—Honiton
—which contained only 3,301 inhabitants, that posi-
tively sent two members to Parliament, so that the
two members for Honiton had the power with
their 3,301 people, of t egativing the votes and the
voices of the two members for Manchester, who had
nearly half a million of people to represent. We
must have this state of things amended. (Cheers.)
There were all sorts of contrivances made for the
purpose of diverting the attention of the people
from their main interests, and now there was a
clamour raised that " interests" in this country
should be represented, and not the people. What
a mystification was that ! What interest had we in
this country, but such as are identified with the