The Sun.
London, England, 1837-02-20 00:00:00

amongst miscreants, ruffians, and creatures, the very out-
casts of society, and this they suffered, who were the ad-
vocates of the people's cause.--.--( Hear, hear.) Their ear-
nest hope, however, was, that the period would arrive
when their intelligent fellow-countrymen would do
justice to their sufferings. Skirting in his reply
to the Judge who condemned hlm, said, " that his conso-
lation was that these Acts would be Tejudged." He (Sir
W. Mulesworth) was glad to see so large, so respectable,
and so intelligent a body of people met for the purpose
of re-judging that iniquitous sentence—to prove that the
men so condemned were innocent—that their memory was
held in veneration, and admired by their descendants ; and
that those who suffered with a manly fortitude would be
held in grateful recollection by ages yet unborn.—( Loud
cheers ) They were met also to fling back upon the corrupt
Judges who then sat in the judgment seat the condemnation
of all good and virtuous men. The men of whom he spoke
suffered in the people's cause, but since that period there
was a vast effusion of knowledge and of instruction.
Power was rapidly passing from the hands of the few to
the many—(Loud cheers)—and each day proved the pro-
priety of giving to the people an entire control over their
own concerns. Political opinions were now freely ex-
pressed, which in those days would not dare be uttered.—
Opinions were freely discussed in the assembly of the Com-
mons of England which it would not then be safe
to avow.—(Loud cheers.) Thu political principles for
which these men were the sufferers were in a fair way now
to triumph ; and, as Gerrald said in reply to the sentence,
" the principles which he advocated were the principles of
truth—they were eternal—they would withstand the rude
blast of tyranny from every quarter—they were sure at last
to triumph, and they would strike root into the most un-
favourable soil."—( Loud cheers.) Such was the cause
which he (Sir W. Molesworth) now advocated ; they were
the principles of freedom and of representative ' Govern-
ment. In his opinion the only security for good Government
was to give the people a complete controul over the
national revenues. He believed that the poor man as well
as the rich had an equal interest in good government—the
same interest in the maintenance of peace, and in the accu-
mulation of capital, and therefore should have an equal
voice in the Government of the country. He thought that
all classes of the people ought to choose their representa-
tives—that these representatives shauld be selected by the
whole body of the people. He was the friend and advocate
of short Parliaments, and of Universal Suffrage.—(Cheers.)
It was only the other day he was asked in the House of
Commons, whether or not he was the friend of Universal
Suffrage. Now he in reply said he hoped the day was not
far distant when all the people would have the right of
choosing their representatives. He considered that if the
people had a share in the making of the laws, they
would be satisfied with such as would receive the sanction
of the Legislature, because, if they happened to be bad,
they would be aware that they were themselves a part of
the Constitution—that those who passed them were their
friends, and that though they might be of one opinion to-
day, they might to-morrow, when they would see good rea-
son, change their opinion. The martyrs of whom he spoke
held the opinions which, at the present day, were so popular,
and he had a confident hope that at no distant day they would
be universally adopted, and favourably received in the highest
quarters. Not only did they advocate Universal Suffrage, but
the shortening of the duration of Parliaments. The shortening
of the duration of Parliaments is necessary in order that
their representatives might be made strictly responsible.
They were all aware that that was a question which would
shortly be brought under the consideration of Parliament.
He feared he was trespassing too long upon their time.—
(No, no!) But these were the principles advocated by
them—Universal Suffrage and the shortening of Parlia-
ments. The one, in order that the people might
choose their own representatives, and the other in order that
those representatives might be made responsible. Still another
thing was wanting, namely, to enable the people to choose
their representatives freely, and to do that it was necessary
they should choose them in secret.—(Cheers.)—For that
purpose, and above all, they should strive by every means
in their power to obtain vote by ballot.—(Great cheering.)
—lt was a question at the present moment of the most
vital importance. The electors of England were, generally
speaking, men in dependent circumstances, and it could not
be expected that they would sacrifice themselves and their
families. Let them ask the electors of any town in Eng-
land, and they would one and all tell them, that unless
they had a vote by ballot, the exercise of the franchise was
but a burden imposed upon them;—(Hear, hear.)—Upon
that subject they should agitate and petition until there
was one universal cry throughout the country in favour of
the vote by ballot. He begged to conclude by moving the
first resolution.
Mr. H. WenateaTow, in seconding the resolution, ob-
served, that from what had been said by his Honourable
Friend who had last addressed them, they mast have pretty
well collected what was the, front of the offending of those
honourable martyrs. The front of their offending was
that they were Radical Reformers—(loud cheers ;)—there
were pretended offences charged against them, such as that
they had sold Toth Paine's works—but the head of their
offending was that they were Radical Reformers—that
the contended for shortening Parliaments, and for the ex-
tension of the suffrage. For that it was that they under-
went these sufferings, and for that it was that they were.
called together that day to bear testimony to their martyr-
dom. Let him remind them of the cruelty which had
been excited by that passion of fear. The exertions
of these men on behalf of Parliamentary Reform alarmed
that great party, the Tories, who had thriven upon exclusive-
ness. They were under an apprehension .the fruits of that
exclusiveness would by Parliamentary Reform be torn from
them, and for that it was that these glorious martyrs were
persecuted. He would remind them of the sayings of the
Tories in the present day. Why, they quoted from the
works of gentlemen who had travelled in the United
States, and they talked of the tyranny of the democracy.
Was there ever tyranny like that—the expulsion from
their country—chained together, like felons ?—( Loud cries
of "The Whigs, the Whigs," and much confusion.) He
would allow that there might be instances of the same kind
—(Tremendous cheering)—hut was there ever tyranny to
exceed that of sending men, for advocating Parliamentary
Reform, chained together like felons, to pass their lives in
wild and desolate places, away from their families ?—(Hear,
hear.) He (Mr. W.) had heard their Honourable Chair-
man taxed in the House of Commons with having com-
mitted a dishonourable act because he had attended meet-
ings, and there excited the public to do acts he was not
prepared to do himself. Now, compared with the crime
with which he was taxed, that of Mr. Pitt was infamous. He

(Mr. Pitt) was:a Reformer, and in the year 1782, together
with the Duke of Richmond, he called upon the people to
support Parliamentary Reform, and he then turned round
on them and became their persecutor ; and he it was who
sent those people, who only acted in pursuance of hid ad-
vice, to those desolate places to pass their lives in misery.
He wished he had the power of raising in their minds those
emotions which the conduct of those men called for. Look
at their self-devotion—look at the manner in which they
had come forward to take their trial for conduct which
they thought they were compelled to pursue for the public
good. He called upon them to come forward and raise
monuments to their memory, and support any of the de-
scendants of these men if there be any left in poverty.
Raise monuments, so that they might point to them, and
say to their children, " The>e monuments were raised
for sufferings in the cause of the people, which led

to -your enjoying what rights you now have. Go
and do likewise."—(Cheers.) A poem had been-put in his
hands which was composed at the time by a man of great.
emioence, Dr. Southev.—(Laughter.) Yes, by Dr.
Southey ; he would read the poem, and then they would
judge for themselves. The Learned Gentleman .read the
poem on the " Martyrs of Freedom." He preferred the
opinions of Dr. Southey of those day to some of his late
ones.—(Cheers.) He called upon them to come forward,
and let these fine lines which he had read animate them to

do their duty in the cause of Reform, and for the honouring
of these men, who deserved to be immortalized.
VINCENT;a working man, said he had great pleasure
in seconding the resolution, because he thought these men,
whose names had been so often mentioned, were pure de-
mocrats, and he was glad to see so many present, for it
.proved the progress of democratic principle since 1793 and
1794. These men advocated universal suffrage, annual
parliaments, and the free mode of voting, without which no
useful Government could Lc carried on.—(Cheers.) In
those years the successful atruggle made by democracy in.
France had a great influence on the public mind in this
country. Various Associations sprung up at that period,
communications were held between France and Eng-
land, and Muir, Skirving, Margarot, and Gerrald were
some of the men who formed the advocates of the rights
of the people.—(Cheers.) It was not necessary to look
to the principles of these men; it was enough to know they
were the advocates of the rights of all men, and justice to
their memory never could be effected, or to the principles
they advocated until hereditary and exclusive government
should cease—(Cheers)—and the people became pos-
sessed of that which was their undoubted right. These
men were the advocates of those principles of justice
at which many pretended to sneer, and at the
name of which traitors to the cause of liberty and
mountebank demagogues laughed.) lie claimed Muir
as a. democrat, because. he advocated annual Parlia-
ments, and upheld the principles of one of the mestpower-
ful writers on civil Government that ever lived.—
(Cheers.) He need not mention the name of the immortal
Thomas Paine.(Great cheering.) Ile bad no hesitation
in svyin,, that 19 out of twenty persons who read Paine's
Rig! is of Man, would not only be delighted-with them,
but recommend others to do so.—(Cheers.) Ile claimed
the rest of these persons as democrats, because they
were associated for the purpose of procuring equal
rights and equal representation.—(Hear.) lie was glad