The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-27 00:00:00

Messrs, Bright and Scholefield at

Birmingham,

BIRMINGHAM, Tuesday Evening.
Mr. Bright, M.P., and Mr. Scholefield, M.P.,
attended a meeting in the Townhall this evening,
for the purpose of addressing their constituents on
public affairs. The hall was crowded in every part.
Mr. HOLLIDAY, the Mayor of Birmingham, occu-
pied the chair, and having briefly opened the pro.
ceedings,
Mr. G. DIXON moved the following resolution—
" The present House of Commons having been
elected on the question of Reform, and the majority
of its members having pledged themselves to pro.
mote an extension of the franchise, this meeting
records its opinion that the Parliament has failed in
its duty in not having passed a measure which
would have admitted a large number of the unen-
franchised to a real share in the government of the
nation ; and that this meeting believes the present
period to be favourable to the passing of such a
measure, the necessity for which has on various
occasions been enforced by her 'Majesty's Ministers,
and by the leaders of both political parties."
The motion having been seconded by Mr. Alder-
man MANTON, was put and unanimously agreed to.
Mr. SCHOLEFIELD, M.P., then rose to address the
meeting, and was received with mingled cheers and
hisses, but the cheering greatly predominated. He
observed that he was prepared to-night, as he
always had been, to address his constituents, and
he trusted that if any differences of opinion pre-
vailed they would agree to discuss those differences
in perfect good temper. With regard to the last
session of Parliament he did not agree with those
who asserted that nothing was done during that
session. He believed many useful measures had been

passed, and he knew of none of an obnoxious cha-
racter except those odious restrictions in reference
to the game laws which both himself and his col-
league had opposed to the utmost of their power'
lie was not sanguine that any great measure would
be passed next session. The reins of government
were in hands that were not certainly very strong.
The power of the Government was at the mercy of
the Coiservatives at any moment, and such being
the case we could not look for any important mea-

want to see done, and I believe it would be better for the
public if the freedom was given to the owners of land what
is given to the possessors of other property. (Loud cheers.)
There is one other point on which I wish to make a remark.
The man who buys and the man who sells property finds
the law regulating the transfer so complicated, that if Solo-
mon himself were here he could not come to any fair deci-
sion about it except that very curious one which he is re •
ported to have done upon another point. (Cheers and laugh-
ter.) Now, everything which I am proposing is carried out
to a somewhat greater extent in the United States, in most
of the States, and to a greater extent on the continent of
Europe; and it is being carried out en all the Australian
colonies. It is the most curious thing in the world that
whenever an Englishman leaves these shores, whether it be
the effect of the salt air, or of sea sickness, or of that pro-
longed meditation which a long voyage invites, he seems
to peel off, not the rags of his body, but the verminous rags
off his intellect and soul ; he lands in Australia with his
eyes perfectly clear, and he can see things in a common-
sense manner. (Laughter and cheers.) Now, I want to
ask you, as reasonable men and men of business, if there is
a man here who cannot understand the question mode-
rately well in the way in which I have endeavoured to put
it. Is this spoliation? Is this agrarian outrage ? Is
this stimulating working men and the agricultural
labourer to--what shall I say ?—incendiarism or
anything else he may have recourse to ? It is nothing
of the kind. It is laying before them just principles
of law, admitted to be just in every other country in
the world except this, and which we admit to be just
in regard to everything else, charged with all sorts of dread-
ful things by that gentleman in the mask, On the 27th of
November ho wrote this about Mr. Cobden :—" He (Mr.
Cobden) stoops down and picks up a missile which has never
yet been used but for anarchy and for revolution. Is it not
in effect to tell the labourer and the workman to look over
the fence of the labouring proprietor, and to learn them to
think they have a natural right to a slice of the soil?" The
law steps in and maakes it difficult to sell and to buy ; then
I say that labourer has a right to look over the hedge and to
feel that the law deals a grievous injustice—(loud cheers)—
and it is this gentleman in the mask that frightens the
landed proprietors. I met the other day with a gentleman
connected with one of the largest properties in the kingdom.
He said to me (and he is a very liberal and thoughtful man),
"You have no idea of the terror which ye ur speeches create
among the landed gentlemen." (Laughter.) I never
frighten any of my neighbours. Ido not know why I should
be so alarming to those gentlemen who live in their great
houses and their castles ; but the fact is, that the landed
gentlemen are not a wise class. (Laughter.) There are
brilliant exceptions. (Hear, hear.) There are many men
amongst them who cannot be surpassed by any of their class,
or of any class in the world ; but as a class—and perhaps
one might say it of nearly every class—l believe it is true of
the class to which I belong in Lancashire, they are not a
wise class. They know something of agriculture. County
members have to get it up for agricultural dinners—(laugh-
ter and cheers)—and they know something about horses,
and they know all that can be known on the subject of
game. (Laughter and cheers.) Nell, en the principles
of law and of government, speaking of them as a whole,
and judging of them by their past force, they are dark
as night itself. Would you believe that the landed
proprietors never found out, till Mr. Cobden and I and a
few others told them, that the corn law was a great
injury to them. (Laughter and cheers.) They did not
know that it actually diminished the value of the land
and diminished the security of their rents, and that
it loaded them with an inconceivable amount of odium.
whilst at the same time it beggared hundreds of thousands
of the people, and it menaced this nation with revolution.
(Cheers.) Mr. Cobden and others who acted with us—
chiefly perhaps because we were the most prominent—Were
slandered then, and by the gentleman in the mask, just as
we have been now. (Cheers.) The 2intes was as foul-
mouthed upon us 20 years ago as it is now. (Cheers.) They
said that we went about the country eetting class against
class. (Cries of " True," and " Shame.") They said that
our views led to the confiscation of landed property. They
said, in fact, everything that was spiteful and untrue, as
they say now ; and yet is there a man in this country who
will not admit that property is more secure in consequence
of the abolition of that law which they believed to be the
anchor of their safety, that animosities between class and
class have been allayed ; and who shall tell how much it is
owing to that that our Queen at this moment wields an un-
challenged sceptre over a tranquil realm ? (Great cheering.)
A landowner in the House of Commons, an old member of
the house, a representative of a south-western county, a man
of excellent character, for whom I have always had the
greatest respect, even when he was the most wrong—(hear)
—said to me not long ago, speaking about the corn laws,
they didn't then know the good wo were doing to his class.
(Laughter.) I nuged him and said " Well, if you would
only have faith I could tell you one or two other things—
(laughter)—that would do you just as much good if you
would let us try them." (Cheers.) But he had not faith-
(Great laughter.) Now I will just say to the landowners
that I never was more their friend than in discussing this
question as I am doing to-night without the least animosity
to them—(laughter)—and with a belief as firm as I ever had
on the question of the corn laws, that their interests are bound
up with the interests of the people in the right solution of
this question. (Cheers.) I would ask to what are they tend-
ing under the operation of these laws? They are becomkig
every year smaller and smaller in numbers—the large ones are
rapidly eating up the small ones. The census returns show
that the number cf landed proprietors is but a handful in
the nation, and every day becoming fewer and fewer. Their
labourers remain at the old nine or ten shillings a •week.
Somebody will write to the papers to-morrow and say they
get twelve shillings—(laughter)—but bear in mind that
they do not always receive wages on wet days— (loud
laughter)—and I believe that the average money income of
the agricultural labourer throughout the United £ingdom
will not exceed, and many persons will say it will not reach,
ten shillings per week. The smaller in number these landed
proprietors become, the snore, it may be, these labourers
become discontented, There may arise some political acci-
dents, and political accidents come almost as unlookel for
as other accidents. You do not hear the tread of the earth-
quake which topples down your finest architecture, and the
country gentlemen do not see the tread of that danger—it
may be that catastrophe which inevitably follows upon pro-
longed unjust legislation. (Cheers.) And there may come
a time—and I durst prophesy that it will come if there be
an obstinate retention of our present system—when there
will be a movement in this country to establish not what I
believe to be the just, moderate, and sufficient plan which I
recommend, but a plan which shall be in accordance with
that which is established by the Code Napoleon in France,
and which is spreading rapidly over the whole continent of
Europe. I would ask them again how do they propose to
keep their population if this system is to be maintained. And
now I beg the attention of you working men who are here to
two or three observations upon this point. America, though
3,000 miles off, is not so far off but that people may go over
there in about 12 days, and they may go there for a sum
varying from £2 to £5. During the year that has just
passed, I think 150,000 or 160,000 persons have sailed from
this country to New York. (Bravo and cheers.) Every
man who settles there is not blinded by mystifications and
falsehoods of the New York Correspondent of the Times.
(Cheers.) He is there, and can see what the working man
gets, how he is considered, and what he is, and he writes
over to his friends in this country, as has been the case for
years in Ireland, and the result has been that Ireland has
been drained not of its surplus population, but of the popu-
lation actually necessary to the proper cultivation of the
soil. (Loud cheers.) Now let me tell you a fact, and if you
do not treasure it up in your minds, I hope one of those
gentlemen, the landowners, who think I am very hostile to
them, will just think it over, if he has time, as he eats his
breakfast to-morrow or next day. (Laughter.) In America
there are at this moment 140 millions of acres of land sur-
veyed, mapped, and set apart for those who are ready to
settle upon them. In the year 1861, that was the first year
after this war attained its present proportions, there were
not less than 40,000 new farms, over 80 acres each, occupied
in the Western States; but the Government of the United
States, not content with that measure of progress, passed
an act which came into operation on Jan. 1, 1863, which
was called the Homestead Act. I have a copy of the act
here, and I have a copy also of the circular which was issued
at the same time. -What is that Homestead Act? It is this
—it says that any man or woman, 21 years of age, or
younger, if the man happened to have been for a fortnight
or a month in the service of the United States—whether in
the army or navy, may go into these territories, may choose
w hat is called a" section," which is 150 acres of land, being
one-fourth of a square mile, and on payment of a fee of
10 doll., which is equal to £2 English, he may apply and
have this land conveyed to him for no other payment for
five years, and it cannot be alienated. Heis not allowed to
sell it. It remains in his possession, and at the end of five
years—he having done to it what the Government requires,
that is, settled upon it and begun cultivation, and so forth
—then the law gives him what is called a patent, but which
is, in fact, what we call a Parliamentary title—the land is
absolute freehold for ever. (Cheers,) Now' it would not
take more than £l5 for a man to go from Birmingham
to the territory where this land is to to disposed
of. if ho had not got any money by which he could
take up the 160 acres, and begin to cultivate it, and would
emvdseye ieloafdurgos tiwnohgeaab
about
neighbouring e
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waonudl
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Nw no
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sufficient for him to commence the cultivation of a portion
hedros anso ta let me
leave you with the idea that there is no rough and rugged
career in this. There is much that is rough and much that
is rugged. But there is a good deal of that in this country
now. (Cheers.) When a man looks upon those children
tnat make, even in the poorest house, sometimes a gleam
of joy—when he thinks what these boys and girls must be
in this country—never to rise one step higher than that
which he occupies now as agricultural labourers ; and then
he looks abroad and he sees them not labourers in the sense
that wo use the word here—not tenants even, but freehol-
ders, and landowners, and farmers of their own property,
then I say that the temptation held out to men here to emi-
grate, if he knew all the facts, would be irresistible to hun-
dreds and thousands who have now no thought of moving
to another country. Even our agricultural labourer's con-
damn is improved in some respects. There are some feeble

......r.......••••••••••••••!............................." ...".'""...."
ere are newr
efforts made to give him a little instruction. Tla ;rue deemed
papers published at a price which was at one t. it villages,
amnpossible. They fled their way into agricultur their eyes
andd the labourers will gradually begin to °' to lipossiblo
aa to see that a change of their position is not so i. that tbe
they once thought it was. Off'w what it; it —they
United States offer more 2 Theyer social eqnallt) _y ban
offer political equality—they offer to every child of ev• ruing
in whose face I am now looking education from tht ' Iceo far,
of his alphabet up to, if he has the capacity to trav el:iejt is
the highest knowledge of classics and mathematics W" try
offered to the best students in the colleges of this c clihn;,.,-;
and all that without the payment of one single fa, 4."'":t.,'
except that general payment in which all the peopi iPth,
ticipate in the school-rate of the various states '
08. to
Union. Well, now, I ask you if lam wrong in seYi. 00
the rich and to the great, that I believe, if tile/ r to
whila tot iv@
their own interest, it would be worth their
imake this country a more desirable one for the Pa° t' .) svo
. (Cheers.) It they disregard this great questiot 400
who are of the middle class—or not absolutely' P° terri.
class—shall have to decide between the claims of out tb.t: conv
tonal magnates and the just rights of millions al e`r aof
I Laeet them,
lay.
trymen. (Cheers) There are some men --
and then--and I wonder where they wore ho'll' 4„alli.d, vi3l
they came into the world, who regard thes., down
magnatesha as idols before whom we are Al' to bow' is a
the rict they
tribe
able submission. I think travellers tell us
in Africa so entirely given up to superstition tb' do
that th Ittii,
fill their huts and hovels with so many idols
not leave room for their families. It may be ge irlt Ito
trieleaerheto
country, that we build up a system which is dt.'
our rpolitical freedom, and is destructive of the be. 4 i star s
the great mass of our producing ICag. e- b
and wor 1 0 for
(Cheers.) Now, am I the enemy of any class if lOW
said
ward to state facts •
like these, and to explain prliciples:'l, 6
in the dart :„7.
as these ? Shall we go groping continually
m king no effort to strengthen our position ? De /1; svitll
posethe because I stand here I love better to find 15'1" to
o
laws of my country than to praise them, that I stilepy
Englishwith
h and less patriotic, or that I have less YreChave.
country and my countrymen than other %actor'
(Cheers.)my
..u., I want our country to be populous, to be k and
nevert andl to be happy ; but this end can only be attaineatwo
has been attained in any country butt b
just o t°
justly administered. I plead only for what I believe 1 eta
ssnot.nod I wish to do wrong to no man. For 25 ears 1,,,,11/
tbefore audiences, great meetings of DV countrwt;
,t
timepleading only for justice. (Loud cheers.) Dariago.ito
you know, I have endured measureless ins
time,
I have as
need or
e passed through hurricanes of abuse.
tell
rich you that my clients have not generally beeilloly,
and the great, but rather the poor and tbea- dig'
(Hear, hear.) They cannot give rae Place 9.:11,, lelds
nities and wealth ; but their honourable ser'Pc- „lc,
mthe that which is of far higher and more lasting ce.held•
ins
consciousness that I have been expounding alid.,,id tO
g laws which, though they were not giveD It'i Or
thunders of Sinai, are not less the coraniandnieatB °OO-40
andofnot less intended to promote and secure the be:PAstreat
men. (The hon. gentleman resumed his seat OP"
cheering.) dat lc°
A vote of thanks to Mr. Scholefield and gr. ;11'0'ilot t'/
subsequently carried, and the proceedings Were Dr
a termination at half-past ten o'clock.