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

Mr. John Bri 3ht., 31,P„ on Political Changes.

BIRMINGII.I3f, Friday Evening.
I.'his 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. Mozei.A.3l" proposed " Success to the patriotic
labo ars of tho Members fcr this Borough," which was re-
ceived with great cheering,
?fir. BRIGHT, "when the cheering had subsided, said—Mr.
Mayor--I am F.fraid that I cannot, in such graceful lan-
. _ _

guage as would have been heard from the lips of my hon.
seolleagrae, had he been present, express my pleasure at the
eompseay 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-
mon 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 themsalves, 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,
nave 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 hal the pleasure of meeting whilst I
have been in Birmingham a gentleman who I suppose—
lout 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 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 since 1 came
into this room what those changes were. lam 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; bat 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.) Up 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-
or near upon five millions, of Roman Catholics in
Ireland, beat 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.
And 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 wo are in a sense
a free country, yet thirty five years ago five millions of
Catholics in Ireland, and perhaps nearly one million in
Euglaud, 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
think eve may doubt whether the Reform Bill could have
Leen 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
foamed 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 soy that of course with great trepi-
dation in the presence of your worthy mayor and others who
eurreund him—(renewed laughter)—yet I think it mast 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
corded of the inhabitants. (Cheers.) About the time
when that celebrated measure was passed there passed ano-
ther stillmore 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
in 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 y rely upon it, that from that
great act is to be dated, to a large extent, the creation of
that conscientione feeling in 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
be purified, but the 4,000,000 of slaves will be free. (Loud
cheers.) And, sir, whilst that passes through my mind, I
cannot help, for a moment, touching upon the fact that one
of Your citiz Aas (Mr. Sturge) now no more, my pert meal
and intimate friend, was one of the most eminent of those
who endeavoured to stir the conscience to that great act of
justice, and I never pass, as I often do pass when I am here,
that marble figure of him, which you have erected in one of
the most conspicuous
that ev places of your town, without hoping
ery citizen of
Birmingham, when he comes to consi-
der public
questions, whether regarding this country or that
other country to which reference has already been made—
where that great struggle is being carried on—that he will
endeavor'r to be animated by the
disinterested and the noble
and the Christian spirit b
man was distin guiehed(ychweheiresh your late eminent towns-
.
2et There is another law to
I mig
which
ht refer, but it is
of the same character,
though no doubt it has been productive
in somecases of
Was passed
great advantage—l mean the law that
for the
reform of the laws for the administration of
the Poor
through-
out the country. That law was subjected, I believe, to
greater assault than almost any other law, for long after it
was enacted it had features in it that seemed harsh, and
unfortunately its administration was entrusted to the bands
i
of men who appeared to make t as unpalatable as possible
o the people. Notwithstanding, I am free to say that, look.
ng back to it as a measure, I believe it is one which did
credit to the Whig administration of that day—to their
_nurage, to their legislative and administrative capacity in
the carrying of it. I mention it, therefore, as one of those
changes which I believe have beep,e3tiqou'Y to the coun-