The Sun.
London, England, 1839-02-15 00:00:00

THE PEOPLE'S CHARTER.

Last night a meeting of the friends of the Charter was held in
Clerkenwell-green. A van was drawn up close by the gas lamp
in the middle of the green, from which the speakers addressed the
meeting. The hour named for taking the chair was seven o'clock,
by which time there were upwards of 1,000 people assembled, and
the numbers were much increased during the progress of the sleeting.
About twenty minutes after seven the committee arrived, and
upon the motion of Mr. Vincent, . .

Bailie Casio, of Kilmarnock, was called upon to preside, having
been kindly requested to keep on his hat, he said he came from the
land of the mountain and the flood, where the people went with-
out hat and without shoes without feeling any inconvenience.
He would be ashamed to address them with his hat on. He was a
delegate from one of the outposts of the empire—his constituents
had sent him to London for the purpose of assisting to crush the
tyranny which had bowed down the working-men for centuries.
He was delegated by the industrious classes of Ayr, who had long
felt the degraded position in which they were placed—
they felt themselves to be slaves, and not freemen. They
had no share in the making of those laws ; they were
expected to obey : but they were resolved, if possible, to have a
Parliament of their own choosing, in order that the industrious
classes should have full remuneration for their hardships and toils.
All the Radicals of Scotland wanted was fair play and no favour.
The people of the metropolis had on many occasions obtained great
boons, and had done much for the cause of freedom ; he called upon
them to come forward now, in a most important crisis, and support
the People's Convention, whose whole endeavours were directed to
obtain the People's Charter. He would not further• detain them,
as they would have an opportunity of hearing a number of the Mem.
bers of the People's Parliament, and then they would be able to judge
of the talent.; they were able to bring forth in the People's cause.
He would first call upon Mr. Coombe, who wou'd submit three
different propositions in one resolution.—(Laughter.)
Mr. CooMea then proposed the three resolutions. The first
pledged the meeting to the support of the People's Charter and
the National Petition, and not to relax in their effhrts until the
principles contained in them were fully carried into effect. The
second said the meeting having implicit confidence in the zeal,
prudence, and honesty of the Members comprising the Convention,
pledged itself to support them in their arduous labours, and
to beguided by their advice in all matters relating to the Chart^r.
The third pledged the meeting to promote the collodion of the Rent.
He said the orking.men of London had often been blamed for their
apathy upon this question, but the meeting held at White Couduil
House last Monday evening proved that the feeling in favour f f the
Charter was as strong in the metropolis as it was in the country—
that meeting would show the Delegates now in town that the working
population of London were quite alive to the importance of the
subject, and the present !arge meeting would confirm the opinion.
The Convention was now sitting, and for the express and only pur-
pose of adopting those measures which would bring prosperity to the
working classes. It was said that they were desirous of bloodshed ;
it was a eatumny put forth by their enemies ; they were determined
to carry their Charter, but they were equally determined to carry
it by moral means alone.—(Cheers.) There was, however, a limit
to human patience, and he, speaking for himself, said that if the
Government would not listen to the voice of suffering humanity,
if they refused to hear the voice of the people, lie for one was pre.
pared to die in the attempt to wrest the Charter fron. them.—
(Cheers.) He did not believe that there was one working man
who was not well acquainted with the absolute necessity for Uni.
v.n sal Suffrage; if there was one, it would be utterly useless

i with him, fur the matter was as plain as it possibly
What was not properly the time for speaking, but for
agitaticn and action. He would therefore no longer detain them,
but move the resolution, and make may fcr the seconder.
Mr. l'Aniccn had much pleasure in seconding the resolution. He
entirely agreed with every proposition it contained, and therefore
he considered he was acting only in what was his bounden duty. If
the people did not support the Convention, the Members of that
body would be powerless. If the people supported them in
an energetic and manly, spirit, the good they would do
would be incalculable.—(Cries of " Hear, hear.") That glorious
meeting would give the lie to the reported apathy of the working
men of London—they were now alive, and would never be quiet
until they had obtained their rights. He would no longer detain
them from what they must all be anxious to hear—the sentiments of
the people's real tepresentaives.
The C11.111131.1s begged to introduce one of the best little Radicals
it had ever been his pleasure to know—

could b.:,

Ir. YlNCENT—(cheering). Thst meeting had assemble,' for

the purpose of informing the Government that the people would
no longer continue to pay taxes over which they had no power
—to tell the world that the present iniquitous system must
cease, and that the people were determined to be fully and fairly
represented. They were told that the people of London were
but however just the reproach might have been it would

he s no lon•cr: He would ask them did they not toil on hour after
hour and hc.ur and week after week, and did they receive wages
which math; them comfortable ?—(No, no.) Even out of the
small pittance they did receive they were obliged to give a large
portion to the ugly Tax-gatherer, who met them at the cort,er of
every street. The poor, hard-working man was fleeced in order

that lazy Lords and lazy Ladies might be kept up for no good—all
wr.,.; swallowed up by the great drones, and the poor, hard. working
man was left in as bad a condition as the people of any country
tu the world. And all this rose—all this misery was heaped
upon them because they they had no voice in the mant-gement of the
affairs of the nation. He had no doubt it was very inconvenient
to the 638 sleek-faced, mustachoed, white-gloved dandies in the
House of Commons—very inconvenient to the 400 old women of
Lords to sit and legislate for themselves and against the people—
legislating, or pretending to legislate, upon matters the first prin-
. _ . .

ciples of which they knew nothing about. Now the object of that
meeting was to relieve them horn that inconvenience—to relieve
them from so disagreeable a task, and to afford them time

to employ themselves more appropriately at home, listening to the
sweet strumming of my Lady Angelina.—(Laughter and cheers.)
Would not the people whose all was at stake, whose very existence was
concerned much better protect their interests, if they had a voice
in the election of Members of Parliament ? If they had no right to
be represented, what right had any other class to the privilege.
To be sure they claimed the right upon the authority of law,
but the right of man's subsistence, of his existence, was
superior, and the question they had met to discuss involved
no less a proposition than that. It was only the slavish submission
of the people—it was the slavish education they recceived, which
made them believe every lawn.sfeeved Bistiop a pious man—every -
Peer an upright and good man, and every Member of Parlia..
ment an honest man, that made them tolerate such bondage.
He had no confidence in either the House of Commons or
the House of Lords. He had no confidence in the Crown.
—(Loud cheering.) He had confideneu in none but the
veovw._(chee,s) The Rouse of Commons had betrayed them—
they must depend entirely upon themselves—they must meet day
after day, and week after week; until they made London so warm,
that little Jack Russell would go down to the House, and say,
"Upon my word, I am as warm as a cat without claws."—(Laughter.)
. .

That little Lord had taken it into his head to threaten Mr. Frost, one
of the people's Delegates, because he attended public meetings and
was a Member of the Convention. Little Jack Russell asked him if he
had attended meetings at Bristol and elsewhere, but Mr. Frost spiritedly
denied the right of the little man to put any such queries to him.--
(Cheers.) He went even a little farther than Mr. Frost, for he
denied the right of any class or section to make laws to govern the
whule. They had no right to investaLy exclusive class with the
rower of the Suffrage, to the exclusion of auother. If theywanted
t) have an exclusive Parliament for themselves, the people would
have no objection, provided those who belonged to the exclusive class
consented to pay the taxes themselves—(Cheer,). The people would
have no objection provided they consented to keep their long-
nailed fingers out of their pockets. What were they after all ? how
were the great except from the privilege they enjoyed of pilfering
from the public—(Cheers). The plunderers were the makers of the
law, and they did it after this fashion—they would send a man to
prison for stealing a penny loaf to feed his hungry belly, while they
honoured and applauded him who stole thousands of acres in the
neighbourhood of Woburn (Loud cheers and laughter.)
They wanted a Charter by which the interests of the great mass of
of workinil men might be protected. The Peoples Charter would
do so, and by the unity of the people it would become law. Let
them by their conduct tell the Government that they wished to use
legal means alone, but that if they dared to trample upon the right
of the working men any longer, they would be beat. There was
was no doubt there would be some attempt to bring back the days of
Muir and Palmer, and the dungeons would be filled, but let
the Government beware, for if so, every village would send
forth its Tyler and every town its Hampden.—(Cheers.) He was
anxious that the Government should set the good example, and then
the people would go on quietly in their own way, and obtain all their
desires by moral means alone. He wished to have the Charter
established without its being stained with one drop of human blood.

—(Cheers.) But the conflict had now begun, and it would never
cea: e until the happiness of the people was secured.—(Cheers.) The
spirit which animated the heart of Washington was now largely shed
abroad in the hearts of the working men of England. He was
perfectly convinced they would do their duty ; and with that con.
viction strong upon his mind he would take leave of them by
calling upon them to assemble in every district and parish, in
order to strengthen the Convention—to work till the work was
completed., and until they had a meeting in St. James's or Hyde
Park to celebrate their triumph.—(Loud cheering.)
Mr. BURNS of Dundee next addressed the meeting. The want
of Universal Suffrage was the cause of universal suffering. They
were asking for nothing but what was strictly legal and constitu-
tionally just—all they asked for was, that they might have a voice
i❑ the choice of those under whose controul their pockets
were placed. If the present electors would undertake
to pay the taxes, then the people would be very glad to
allow them to do what they pleased in the election of
Members, but the matter was very different, for the poor hard
walking man was called upon to pay much more in proportion to.
wards the profuse expenditure of the Government than their more
wealthy and favoured fellow subjects were. Instead of contributing
to the welfare of the nation the great landowners were in fact blood-
suckers.—(Cheers.) The apathy of the people of London
arose from their being better off than their brethren in the country.
but they must shake it off or the gradual reduction which was
going on would most surely reach them. They had now a Pat-ha-
ir )t sitting, that in the place of attending to their domestic con.
cerns, were losing their time in discussing our foreign relations--in
fact, they would talk of any relations but poor relations.—(Laugh.
ter.) The only notice they took of them was putting out their
hands for all that those poor relations had got. Matters
were in a most singular position, the leaders of the
People were blamed for inciting them, but without fear of con-
tradiction he stated that had it not bean for the great exertions
of those very men in stemming the torrent, the country would now
have been without either liberty or prosperity. Were the men
of London determined to support their brethren in the country.—
(Yes, yes.) They only asked to have a voice in the choice of those
men who made the laws all were bound to obey, which was no very
unreasonable demand. The working classes were the producers of
all wealth—they were the men who paid for the Church, and even
for the soldiers, who were to cut their throats when they were or
dered. Let them work till they obtained their Charter, and then
England would once more become the happiest nation in the world,
and the admiration of the earth.—(Cheers.)
Mr. SKEYINGTON, of Derby and Loughborough—He came from
that part of the country where the people were obliged to take pota-
toes and salt one day and salt and potatoes the next by way of a
change.— (Laughter.) His constituents had sent him to do all in his
power to aid the cause of freedom. That Meeting was a display which
gave the lie to all those who said the men of London were apathetic.
They had been nobly roused, and would never cease until they had
obtained their rights. Had it not been for the leaders of the present
agitation, the people were so roused that the winter would not has e
passed without many burnings, and even murders, being committed.
The people were now roused, and were determined to have a fair
day's pay for a good day's labour. He for one was prepared to shed
his blood, if it should become necessary, in defence of the liberties of
the people.—(Cheers.)

Mr. COLLINS, of Birmingham, said his constituents had been the
first to enter into the present agitation, and a glorious agitation it
had led to. lle went to Scotland alone, and in that country he had
seen the greatest triumph of public feeling that any man had ever
uitnessed. The right arm of man had been conferred upon him,
and all by the great Creator of the Universe, and any one
who prevented him from using it in the way he
found most conducive to his own interest, was a robber. When
trade wasbad, the workman had to live, but to do so, he had to run
into debt, and when trade was in what was called a prosperous state,
the workman had still to live hard, and work hard, in order to get out
of debt. There were about 26 millions of people in the country and
we had machinery equal to the labour of 600 millions of men, and yet
nine tenths of the working population were in a state bordering upon
starvation. So bad were they off, that the poor man was often
Prevented from sending his children to the Sunday-school, for
want of decent clothing. Let them carry the Charter and all
would be well, and a great revulsion would take place in the situa-
tion of the working men.
The meeting was subsequently addressed by Mr. Deegan, the
Delegate from Staley bridge, Mr. M•Dowall, from Ashton, and Dr.
Taylor from Renfrewshire, but from the inconvenient pressure of
persons who had ascended the waggon, not belonging to the Com-
mittee, it was impossib!e to hear them in such a manner as to be
able to give a faithful report of their uttered sentiments.
Three cheers were given for the Convention. Three cheer
t)r the Charter.
Thinks were voted to the Chairman, who returned thanks, and
the meeting quietly dispersed.

HORRIBLE MURDER AND
SUICIDE AT PADDINGTON.

(Concluded from The Sun of yesterday.)
The sister of the deceased, Lovett, stated that he had expressed
great jealousy to her, on account of his wife having refused to
tell him the number of the house where she was working at. He
was jealous of a person named Southern or Souton, and had
complained of the men whom he worked with " chaffing" him and
worrying hisn so that he did not know what he was about; he ap-
peared to be very much excited. He used expressions which clearly
showed that he was labouring under some strong delusion; wit-
ness had told him that she believed his wife was very fond of Mm,
and that he ought net to think about such suspicions ; witness had
observed a difference in his demeanour since he had the
fall and the injury to his head. It was the opinion
of the medical man that he could not stand much
annoying, and that he should abstain from drinking; there
being great danger of his becoming deranged; he had been, with
witness almost every day for the last few weeks, and seemed ex-
ceedingly fidgetty and agitated ; his eyes at times almost starting
oat of his head.

Mr. William Phillpott, of Southwick-street, Paddington, surgeon,
deposed that he was called in to the house where the deceased re-
sided ; and found them lying in bed together, on their backs;
the man a little inclined to the right; their throats were cut
in a violent manner, apparently with a razor. A razor was
found under the bed on the floor, with blood upon it; it was
quite in the centre of the floor under the bed; witness could
not imagine how it came there unless the man after he had cut his
throat had by a great effort thrown it under the bed; the deaths of
both must have been almost instantaneous. There were no appear-
ances on the woman's hands to indicate that she could have committed
the treed ; there was great probability that the man both killed the
woman and himself; judging from the quantity of blood on his hands,
particularly the right. The whole of the right arm was completely
saturated with blood. He must have been over her in some position
when he cut his wife's throat. He was outside the clothes, she was
inside. She did not appear to have made the least movement or
struggle. The whole scene conveyed to the witness's mind
the perfect conviction that no other person but the man
had committed the act. A man who was jealous, and who
had received a severe injury on his head, might awake cud..
denly in the night, and in a fit of frenzy commit such a dreadful act,
without being conscious of what he was about. In cases of mental
derangement the excitement was always strongest against those who
had been most beloved. The deaths must have occurred within an
hour before they were discovered. In cases of undue excitement
there was a low stage—a state of depression in which there
was the most danger, and this accounted for so many murder: and
suicides living committed at an early hour of the morning. And
from the circumstances which had been detailed in evidence, witness
should think that the state of the man's mind, operated upon by a
feeling of jealousy, might easily have worked him up to a condition
of absolute frenzy.
Thomas Garratt, a fellow labourer stsf the deceased man, deposed
•hat for the last two months he had observed a great alteration
in his appearance and conduct. He seemed often flurried, and
did not speak to his companions as he used to do. - About
three weeks ago he came to witness, and said that the devil
had been to him ; witness laughed, but Lovett repea•ed It wts true :
and said the devil told him to keep quiet and not to be in a hurry,
for that be would make it all right by and bye: he also said that the
devil had " squeezed him tighter than he ever was squeezed before;"
he told witness to keep quiet and it would ail be settled soon. He
asked witness, "if you should ca. ch a man with your wife and were
to kill him, is there any law for it ? " To which witness replied,—
" That he knew nothing of law, but that he hoped such a thing
would never happi•en to either of them."
In answer to questions from the Jury, witness said he never
" chaffed" Lovett about his wife, nor did he ever hear any other
person doing so.
The CORONER said there was evidence enough to show that the
man must have been labouring under some delusion.
Witness further stated that last Saturday, while they were drink-
ing together, Lovett said to him," Come, drink with me—you'll not
see me here much longer;" at the same time nodding his head in a
very unusual way, When he heard any conversation going on
among his fellow workmen, he would directly fancy they were
speaking of him, and would say, " I know what you are talking
about," though they were never thinking of him. He was as jealous
as possible, and had not, witness was sure, been in his right mind for
some time past.

The CORONER said, after the evidence of the last witness, he did
not see how the Jury could profitably employ their time in further
investigation. The evltence clearly proved, he thought, that the
man must hare committed the melancholy act under a fit of
insanity.- He (the Coroner) saw no advantage which could
result to public justice in returning a verdict of " felo de se," or
wilful murder with respect'to the killing of the woman. Though,
if the man had survived, he (the Coroner) should have been com-
pelled by law, to direct the Jury to return a verdict of wilful mur-
der ; that the shield of legal protection might be thrown around
all others of her Majesty's subjects, from the effects of the man's
unsound state of mind. Under present circumstances no such ob.
ject could be answered. If the Jury were not satisfied, however, of the
condition of the man when he committed the acts, they could return
that the deceased was found dead—how and by what means they
could not determine. He (the Coroner) thought on the whole they
would have no difficulty in coming to the conclusion that the man
destroyed his wife and then himself under a temporary rhrensy.
It was very mysterious that the man should have left unhurt the
child who was sleeping in the same bed, and have only destroyed the
wife of whom he had through delusion conceived a groundless
jealousy.
The Jury returned a verdict that the deceased, William Lovett,
cut his wife's throat, and afterwards his own, being, when he com-
mitted both acts, in a fit of derangement.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF LORDS, FEB. 14.

The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat at a few minutes
after Five o'Clock.

The Bishop of LONDON presented a petition from
Cheltenham on the subject of National Education, and
praying for the free and unfettered use of tho Scriptures.
Lord LYNDHURST presented a petition from an
individual praying that the cause of Winter v. Burg might
be ordered to be reheard.

Lord DUNCANNON laid certain returns on the
table. which were ordered to be printed. _
_ . _

Lord BROUGHAM presented a petition from a Paris
in Carmarthen, praying for the adoption of Mr. 1141's
plan of Postage; another from a Parish in Norfolk, pray-
ing for a total Repeal of the Corn.laws, Extension of the
Suffrage, Vote by Ballot, and Triennial Parliaments ; also,
a petition from the inhabitants of the ward of Cripplegate
Within ; carrying on trade to the extent of between one
and two millions a-year, praying for the total abolition of
the Corn-laws.

NATIONAL EDUCATION.
Lord BROUG HAM wished to know whether the
Noble Lord would have any objection to lay before
the House a certain education return which bad been laid
before the other House of Parliament by Lord John Rus-
sell. He would take this opportunity of expressing his ex-
treme satisfaction—and he did so in redemption of his
pledge at the commencement of the Session—at
the course taken by her Majesty's Ministers in directing
their attention forthwith to the great and important sub-
ject of national education. This, he was persuaded, would
give the greatest satisfaction to all those who took an in-
terest in the question ; and he should be most willing to
enter into any plan that might be suggested
by her Majesty's Ministers, with all the dis-
position possible to concur in that plan. This was
a subject to which he had paid a great deal of at-
tention for more than the last 20 years, as the public very
well knew, both in his place in the House of Commons, in
Committees, and in their Lordships' House, and, there-
fore, he naturally felt deeply interested in it. He should
pass over all the etiquette and courtesies or discourtesies
attending a knowledge or a want of knowledge on ',he
subject before. He cared not by whom the plan was
brought forward—from what channel it came. He should
give it his most cordial ,:apport, should he find
upon an examination of it, it was such as that
he ought to approve of.—( Hear, bear.) Nothing,
he believed, could be worse than the construc-
tion of the Board of Education, and his reasons for snaking
this statement he would give when the measure was brought
forward. All he could conscientiously do in support of the
scheme of education he would do. He had formerly done
all in his power to forward this subject. He was rejoiced
that he was relieved from the responsibility of carrying this
subject further, by its being' placed in the hands of those
who, had now taken it up. He had, perhaps, had more ex-
perience on the subject than most of their Lordships ; and
711 the benefits that they could derive from his experience,
all the assistance they could derive from his zeal, he now
offered to the Ministers on this subject.
The Bishop of LONDON was understood to ask whe-
ther the returns to certain queries which had been circu-
lated through the country through the medium of the Poor
Law Commissioners had been laid on the table ?
Lord BROUGHAM—The course I ask the Noble
Viscount to pursue, was to lay before this House the re-
turns which had been laid on the table of the House of
Commons by Lord John Russell.
The Bishop of LONDON asked if there would be laid
before the House the correspondence which had taken place
between the National Society and the Treasury on the sub.
ject of normal schools, and inspectors. With respect to the
returns, we understood the Right. Rev. Prelate to say that
he believed them to be incorrect.
The Marquis of LANSDOWNE said it was only by
accident he had been prevented from laying before the
House the papers on education,which would be presented very
shortly. The Government had thought fit to do what they
deemed the most practicable, not the most complete, ,
in the way of education, upon their own responsibility,
but he need not assure his Noble and Learned Friend
( Lord Brougham) that they would be most anxious in
the progress of any measures which might be introduced