The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-30 00:00:00

Mr. John Bright, 111,P„ on Political Changes.

BIRMINGHAM, Friday Evening.
This evening Mr, Bright was present at a soiree at the
Royal Hotel. The large room of the hotel, in which the
proceedings took place, was crowded, and the chair was
occupied by Mr. Holliday, the mayor. After various
addresses had been delivered by local celebrities,
Mr. W. MORGAN proposed " Success to the patriotic
Labours of the Members for this Borough," which was re-
ceived with great cheering,
Mr, BRIGHT, when the cheering had subsided, said—Mr.
3layor—l am afraid that I cannot, in such graceful lan-
guage as would have been heard from the lips of my hon.
colleague, had he been present, express my pleasure at the
company of the ladies who have been kind enough to join
our party to. night. (Hear.) I can say, with the greatest
truth, that I rejoice on this, as I have rejoiced on many
other occasions, to see them exhibiting an interest in the
:progress of political questions. It has not only been com-
=on to create the impression that what are called serious
people should not meddle with politics, but that those pub-
lic questions were entirely out of the field in which women
should exercise themselves, I venture, not diffidently, but
confidently to differ from any such opinion, and to say that
politics, by which we understand the science of legislation,
have a very direct and constant influence upon the happiness
of every female in every country where there, is a govern-
ment; and that therefore what is done under the name of
political action can by no means be indifferent to the
mothers and wives and sisters and daughters of England.
(Cheers.) I have had the pleasure of meeting whilst I
have been in Birmingham a gentleman who I suppose—
ltt I have not been told so—does not generally act with
our political party; and after much conversation, and
after I had told him that some time when I came to Bir-
mingham ;I would speak on a particular question, he
said he should be very glad if some time or other I
would make a speech on the bright side of England.
(Cheers and laughter.) You understand, I dare say,
the sort of sarcasm that was contained in that suggestion. I
suppose, as he does not agree with me on many subjects,
he thought I took too gloomy a view of the position and
prospects of this country. Now I will admit that there are
a great number of speakers, and a great number of writers,
whose business it seems to be always to persuade everybody
in England that everybody is well treated and perfectly
happy, and they advise them to avoid the errors of the
french on the one hand, and the mistakes of the people of
America on the other, If everybody was contented and
happy, and there was nothing that it was our business to
reform, I should stay at home. I have no fondness for poli-
tical meetings and platform work, and I should not for the
last 20 years have given the whole of my time to public
questions, if nothing had been necessary but to come before
audiences and to rejoice with each other at the glorious
position which we occupied. (Cheers.) It is the very exis-
tence of grievances which calls me from the quiet of my
home and from the pursuit of my business, and from atten-
tion to my own family; and whenever I find there is nothing
for me but to say what a happy people we are, and how de-
lightful it is to be under the government of Lord Palmer-
ston and his Whig colleagues, then I can assure you that I
will not trouble you with saying that. I shall leave you to
find it out, and shall stay at home. (Cheers.) But still
there is a bright side in the prospect of England, and you
may see some of it probably looking forward, and you may
see a good deal of it in looking backward. The bright side
of the history of this country, so long as I have been able
to take any part in it, is that side on which are delineated
the changes that have taken place—changes which I, at any
rate, have the satisfaction of knowing that I have supported,
and changes which no doubt many of those who would
wish me to speak in a different tone have to the utmost of
their power opposed. I have been thinking rinse 1 came
into this room what those changes were. I am rather what
I may call trapped into a speech to. night, because I thought
we were coming here merely to a conversational meeting, that
there would be no tables and very few forms, and that we
should walk about the room and make ourselves acquainted
with each other, and have some tea and coffee, and conversa-
tion ; but I find that the managers of the meeting have de-
signed otherwise, and I have been informed that I am ex-
pected to make a speech. Now, :one cannot make speeches
without thinking of what should be said ; and I have been
looking over the great changes which have taken place in
the time many of you can recollect, and which form the
bright side of our history so far as it is to be found in our
lifetime, Many of us can remember 30 or 35 years ago, and
if there be any gentleman who complains of the tone of
my speeches in general, I would ask him to bear in mind
what are the changes which have taken place, and if he can,
to measure their results on the prosperity, the peace, and
the happiness of this country. (Hear, hear.) The first
great measure which suggests itself to my mind is a mea-
sure which gives a certain great right—the right of Parlia-
mentary representation—to which I may call almost the
whole nation of Ireland, being the Catholic population of
that country. (Cheers.) tip to the year 1829 no person
professing to hold the Christian religion as it is held by the
Roman Catholic Church was permitted to sit in the House
of Commons. There was at that time, I suppose, five mil-
lions, or near upon five millions, of Roman Catholics in
Ireland, but they were not allowed to send to the House of
Commons any man agreeing with them in religious opinion.
It is in the recollection of many of us that it required an
agitation of a most formidable character, led by one of the
most remarkable men that Ireland has ever produced, Mr.
O'Connell (cheers)—to obtain the concession of that right.
Ind bear in mind that it was opposed by a very powerful
party in this country, and there is a party in this country
even yet who regret that that concession was ever made,
(Hear.) Although it may be said that we are in a sense

a free country, yet thirty five years ago five millions of
r Catholics in Ireland, and perhaps nearly one million in
England, were shut out altogether from representation in
Parliament from being able to return any man of their own
religious sentiments, and every one was prevented from be-
coming a candidate for a seat in Parliament; therefore, as
respects these men, this was not for them a free country.
The next great step that was made was one in which Bir-
mingham took so distinguished a part. On looking back, I
mink we may doubt whether the Reform Bill could have

been carried at the time it was carried if it had not been for
the strenuous and protracted efforts of the inhabitants of
this great town. (Cheers.) The party which has always
opposed, and does apparently oppose every step in advance,
run the country to within 24 hours of a revolution before

they conceded that measure; and when it was conceded it
was so far mutilated, so much changed from the original
proposition, that, on the whole, although great, it was so
deficient that we look upon it as leaving the representation
of the country in a very unsatisfactory state. (Cheers.)
After that bill had passed, as was natural after so great an
agitation, there was a powerful swell of Liberal opinion
throughout the country, which did not satisfy itself by the
passing of the bill, but carried other measures of great im-
portance. One of these was a bill by which all the corpora-
tions of the towns and cities of the kingdom, with one or two
exceptions, were reformed. Up to that time there had been
no real representative government in any town in the king-
dom. About half a dozen or a dozen, or two dozen men,
self-elected, or elected by some landed proprietors or some
lord of the manor, were the governors of your towns and
formed your corporations, and their corruption was of a
character so foul that the odour of it remains in the nostrils
even until this day. (Loud cheers and laughter,) Now
although corporations are by no means centres of absolute
wisdom—(laughter)—I say that of course with great trepi-
dation in the presence of your worthy mayor and others who
surround him—(renewed laughter)—yet I think it must be
acknowledged that the passing of that bill and the reform
of these corporations has been to this country an enormous
advantage, and I only hope that corporations generally will
become much more expensive than they have been—not ex-
pensive in the sense of wasting, but that there will be more
nobleness and liberality amongst the people of our towns
and cities, giving our corporations leave to expend more
money in those things which, as public opinion advances,
are found to be essential to the health and improvement and
comfort of the inhabitants. (Cheers.) About the time
when that celebrated measure was passed there passed ano-
ther still more celebrated, because it affected not England
alone, but the opinion of the world, and excited emotion in
the mind of every good man in every country, and stirred
an him, I believe, the lasting admiration of the world and
the magnanimity of the English people. I speak of that
measure which emancipated 800,000 slaves in the colonies
of England, and did even more than emancipate 800,000
slaves, for it set an example which the world could not help
but follow ; and, you may rely upon it, that from that
great act is to be dated , to a large extent, the creation of
that conscientious feelingin America, which has been grow-
ing from that day to this, and owing to the unteachable
spirit of the slaveholders of that country has finally ended
in bringing a great nation into the throes of a fearful revo-
lution, out of which, I trust, not only will that nation itself
he purified, but the 4,000,000 of slaves will be free. (Loud
cheera.) And, sir, whilst that passes through my mind, I
eau not help, for a moment, touching upon the fact that one
<et your citizens (Mr. Sturge) now no more, my personal
andintimate friend, was one of the most eminent of those
Nvho. endeavoured to stir the conscience to that great act of
justice,
and I never pass, as 1 often do pass when I am here,
that marble figure of him,'
the most conspicuous which you have erected in one of
places of your town, without hoping
that every citizen of Birrain when he to consi-
der public questtoiozioavhhreetfh:r rael3grdingtlu'sccoomunestry or that
ether country
is
srehne has already been made—
where that great struggle
endeavour to be animated by
theeg
.carried on—that ho will
Whiohdisnaterested and the noble
and the Christian spirit by
(Cheers,)yoTur late eminent towns-
man was distinguished,
notof
fhere is another law to which I might refer, but it is
thei same character,
though no doubt it has been productive some cases of
-a' elvantage—l mean the law that Wasn passed for the
reform of the laws for the ad ministration of thepaos
o
out the country. That law was subjected, I r thbelireovueght-
o
greater assault than almost any other law, for long after it
was enacted it had features in it that seemed hash, and
unfortunately its administration was entrusted to the hands
of men who appeared to make it as unpalatable as possible
to the people. Notwithstanding, I am
free
to say that, look-
ing back to it as a measure, I believe it is one which did
credit to the Whig administration of that day—to their
courage, to their legislative and administrative capacity in
the carrying of it. I mention it, therefore, as one of those
to the coun-
changes which I believe have been satigactory

try, and which have passed during the time I am sketch-
ing. (Cheers.) Well, then, after that we came to a very
quiet, and, I may say, an unsatisfactory time—the Whigs
had settled comfortably into their places—they lir, ve, I be-
lieve, a motto which, however, they have not rublicly an.
nounced, which is this, "A place for every man, and every
man in his place." (Great laughter and cheers.) That means
of course, every man of their respectable party. (Laughter.)
After this time they became very much indisposed to go
further, and the satisfaction of the country with them gra-
dually diminished, their majorities in Parliament were re-
duced, and finally, they came to a general election in the
year 1841; bat nine years after the passing of that great
measure of reform, they were thrown out of office by the
constituencies, and a :Parliament was returned with a ma-
jority against them little short of 100 votes. Now, at this
time there came another great change into sight, and an-
other new principle, though it has not been new within the
last generation or two. The 'principle of free trade was
brought before the public, very much in consequence of the
sufferings which arose from the bad harvests we had imme-
diately preceding the general election. It took from the year
1838 to the year 1846 to bring about that great change—
the abolition of the corn law. A Parliament was elected in
1841, with a majority of 90 pledged against the abolition
of that law. Sir Robert Peel was the great leader of that
great party, and having found themselves in Parliament
with this enormous majority, they looked down upon all of
us who were moving in that question, and considered that
they were absolutely sure tostmintain that law and to main-
tain their places. Well, the result shows how much is to be
done by continuous, disinterested labour on behalf of a great
cause by appealing to the sympathies of a whole nation.
(Cheers.) In 1846, particularly at that moment, owing, no
doubt, to the failure of the harvest and the difficulties which
threatened from an impending famine in Ireland, this vast
majority melted away. Men who had pledged themselves
in every form of language to their constituents in 1841—who
had attended meetings to abuse the Free-traders, who had
subscribed to newspapers to abuse them, found their whole
power melting away, and their leader himself converted to
the necessity of a change ; and a change took place—a
change so great that all the members of the House of Com-
mons, and I think the majority of the House of Lords, be-
lieved that to them at least the world was pretty nearly at an
end. (Laughter and cheers,) I recollect a lady relative
of mine sitting below the bar of the House of Lords on the
night when the Corn-law Repeal Bill was read a second
time. It was very late, or rather early in the morning
when the division was approaching, and a lady sitting near
her, who was a connexion of some peer, spoke to the peer as
he came out from the house. She said, "How will it go?"
It was just before the division. He pointed to the clock in
an agony of excitement, and exclaimed, "In 20 minutes
we shall be no better than dead men." (Laughter and
cheers.) Now, then, the corn law was abolished, and if
they had told the farmers—those terrified farmers, and the
landlords, who were almost still more terrified—l am not
sure that any of them would have ever found it out; the
country would have found that it was much better off, and
the people would have discovered that by some power they
could not imagine loaves and provisions, to the amount of
twenty millions of pounds sterling per annum, had been
deposited in their houses for the sustenance and en-
joyment of their families; they would not have known
how it was all brought about, although we all know that it
was brought about by the repeal of a single act of Parlia-
ment. (Cheers.) It was not by a number of benevolent
ladies and gentlemen forming a society all over the country
and giving the people alms, but it was by the repealing of
an act of Parliament—by a simple act of justice—an act
which was so just that I scarcely ever heard a man deny its
justice except on something which they call political consi-
derations. (Hear, hear.) They say there were political rea-
sons why that great act of justice could not be done. I re-
collect meeting once with a very pious banker that I hap-
pened to travel with in the North of England, and he ad-
mitted it was very unjust that there should be a law to make
food scarce and dear, but he said "I accept it because I be-
lieve it necessary to maintain the hereditary aristocracy of
this country." (Laughter.) And, further, he said he
thought our greatness in the eye of the world depended very
much on the maintenance of the wealth, and the power, and
the display of the aristocracy:of England. (Laughter.) That
is exactly the sort of reasoning which people give ; weak-
minded men are attracted by reasons of that kind, and they
give you reasons now not a bit better for opposition to the
changes which many men wish to promote, and which doubt-
less, by-and• bye, will be effected ; and their results will
show that those who have opposed them were just as silly,
and just as little worth following as my traveller, the pious
banker. (Laughter and cheers.) But the question of the
corn laws was not all—there was the question of sugar, in
1840. It is not very long ago the single article of sugar in
this country cost, by reason of the monopoly, not less than
six millions sterling more than it would have cost if you
could have bought it freely in the market of the world.
Well, the fall of the corn monopoly, being the key -stone
of the arch, let down everything else belonging to it and
supported by it, and the sugar monopoly fell, and I don't
know how many others, such as those connected with
the supply of timber from abroad, and one still more
important— the monopoly our shipowners had the
abolition of which has been found to be injurious, I be-
lieve, to nobody, but greatly advantageous to the whole
country. (Cheers.) Well, then, when this was done the
course was perfectly easy for your Chancellors of the Ex-
chequer. It has been all driving down hill with Mr. Glad-
stone since then. He began with a tariff which had 800 or
1,000 articles—l am not sure that there were not even 1,200
articles in it on which duties were raised in our ports. When
the names were read of those which were to be abolished
there was a general laugh in the House of Commons ; peo-
ple turned to each other and asked " What is that ?" "Did
you ever hear of it ?" They were things people had never
heard of, but still heavy duties were levied upon them. At
present there are only 12 or 15 articles on which duties are
levied ; all the things which were formerly taxed came freely
into the country, and we have made a very great clearance
in that matter, and a revolution in regard to it more com-
prehensive and more advantageous to the country than pro-
bably has ever been made by any other Government within
the same time in the world. Ido not think that those who
were most active in promoting these changes could be re-
garded by certain people with much more confidence than
they were before, but still the changes were made, and they
had worked well for the nation. (Cheers.) Then we came
to the question of the treaty with France. I was born just
before the termination of that monstrous and wicked war
which was so long carried on with France; and the school
books of my time and of yours mostly, no doubt, were filled,
at least they contained insinuations against the French that
were not flattering to that people—(laughter)—and there
were representations on the stage, as I am told by those
who frequented tha theatres at the time, to the same effect.
There prevailed a general feeling that there was some risk
to Englishmen if they became too well acquainted with the
French, lest by any possibility they should learn to believe
that the French were not the natural enemies of England.
(Hear, hear.) Well, my friend, Mr. Cobden—who, as you
know, is occasionally favoured with very abusive language
from the great instructors of the press—(laughter)—thought
that the Emperor of the French, and some persons who
were occasionally consulted by him, would be very glad to
have more intimate relations with this country, and ho went
over to Paris, he sought and obtained an interview with the
Emperor ; he discussed these questions with him, and found
the Emperor not only most willing, but moat anxious that
the people of the two countries should be introduced to each
other by the medium of extended commerce, (Cheers.) His
object was, for I heard him say so, that the people be-
ing thus knit together, it would not be in the power of
rulers and statesmen hereafter to enter into those frightful
struggles which, now we looked backed upon them, we can
say have for centuries disfigured the history of the two
nations. (Cheers.) There is another question, which cer-
tainly must possess some interest ; but with regard to that
to which I have just adverted, I ought to say further, that
it was not, as war observed the other day by Mr. M. Gib-
son, at Ashton, one of our regular diplomatists, who effected
that treaty, it was done solely by my friend Mr. Cobden--
(cheers)—and as the ericketers would say, he got it en-
tirely off his own bat—(cheers and laughter)—and I venture
to say that as long as the history of France and England is
read, it will be read of him, that a simple statesman of this
country, interested in iM welfare, interested in peace be-
tween France and England, interested in the spread of great
and enlightened principles of commerce throughout the
world, went over to Paris and there negotiated with the
Emperor of the French a treaty which I believe to be the
most important document of the kind that has ever been
signed by the rulers of any two nations of Europe. (Loud
cheers.) From that I pass, ;perhaps, to the last of those
topics that I shall touch upon, and that is, to another kind
of freedom in which no person in Parliament was more
actively engaged than Mr. M. Gibson, Mr, Cobden, and
myself, and that is the fredom of the Press. (Cheers.)
When you pay a penny for your admirable newspaper in this
town you are not conscious, perhaps, of what happened only
a very short time ago. The paper on which it was printed
say ten years ago, had a penny stamp upon it ; the paper
itself did not cost more, probably, than a halfpenny or three-
farthings, and therefore there was from 100 to 150 per cent
tax upon that paper, before my friend Mr. Jaffrey could
touch it. I am speaking now of the stamp, but there was at
that time a tax of threepence, and afterwards of three-half.
pence per pound on the paper itself at the paper mill ; this
unfortunate article might have been the greatest of all nui-
sances, it was made out of the vilest rags and rubbish, and
then the Chancellor of the Exchequer put upon it a tax of
threehalfpence per pound. The moment it was sent to the
newspaper office it was necessary to send it to a Govern-
ment office to be stamped, unless the manufacturer had
stamped it previously; and when this was done, if he put
into the paper an advertisement of a cook wanting a place
or a lady wanting a nurse, or a pupil wanting a tutor, if
the advertisement consisted only of a line, or three words,
or even one word, it was liable to a tax of is 6d. Some people
at that time said we were a free country, and some said that
we had a free Press ; and in the House of Commons it re-
quired every kind of argument and every kind of fact,
in
addition to ordinary facts and arguments, to induce 'the
house to make any change, and it required this argument
and this fact to convince the Chancellor of the Exchequer
that unless he would undertake to remove the duty there
was not a single thing he proposed to do that the house
would not oppose. (Cheeers.) By getting the Chancellor of
the Exchequer into a fix of that nature by absolutely wor-
rying him into this act of justice, and by the wonderful skill