The Sun.
London, England, 1839-11-27 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDONI,_WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 27. 1839.

ever, this aggravation, that when they bad a standing
army, they knew what they had to contend against—
they knew all its capabilities and oblizatione ; but here
was a set of men, neither citizens nor soldiers—they had
the evils of both—they were neither "fish, nor flesh,
nor good red herring."—(Laughter.) But under the
delusive garb o fcitizens, they had the most extended
capabilities of mischief.—( Hear, hear.) Against. a
system of this kind he should never cease to protest.—
(Cheers.) Against the men themselves they could
have no hostility—it was against the system they
protested. The sentiment that had fallen from their
Chairman was worthy of an enlightened patriot, for the
people were never so strong as when they quietly re-
flected on those questions which affected them, and de-
termined on legitimate means for their reform. This
could never be achieved by two or three individuals, but
must be effected by large masses of the people. This
might seem a recommendation to them to act in re-
sistance to anything constitutional, or authority. But
the working men of Birmingham knew him too well to
suppose him capable :of recommending anything of the
kind—first, because it would be wrong in itself,
and because he had lived long enough to see
that there was a God in Heaven who visited
with his malediction .those who violated its sacred
injunctions ; and secondly, because these things hardly
ever succeeded, and entailed'on the men themselves who
took part in such opposition, their families, and their
country, greater evils than those which they endea-
voured to correct.—(Cheers.) He was obliged, in
justice, too, to say that he did want the police. They
(the men of Birmingham) were said to be wicked fel-
lows ; the parsons had declared as much in their evi-
dence before the House of Commons : they said the
men were all rogues ; and as for the female part of the
community, what they had said was fitter for parsons'
tongues than for his, therefore he would not utter it.—
(Cheers and laughter.) These parsons had had the
men of England and the men of Birmingham in their
keeping for SOO years, and sad bungling work they had
made of it. They now said they would have " no
Popery," plainly implying that they had more of it than
they wished, and they were now about to (Jive
back to the Church of Rome those whom they
found honest—a parcel of rogues.—(Great laughter.)
He was accused of saying his prayers in Latin ; but he
confessed he never remembered sinners in his prayers
that a pack of Tories did not rush across his mind.
—(Renewed laughter.) He bad no objection, on the
contrary 4 with every other man in the town he felt
a personal interest in the establishment of an efficient
police, but they wished to have some control over those
persons.—( Hear.) A knife was a useful instrument.,
but people did not like to place it in the hands of
men of whom they had a bid opinion. Therefore, he
thought, first, that they should have a police in ar-
mingham ; and, second; that that police should be ap-
pointed according to the ancient Constitutioo by those
who required their protection, and to whom they should
be ameuable for the proper discharge of their duty.—
(Cheers.) What had been done ? The charter framed
by the Government themselves was declared invalid,
or at least was thought to be so, and a par-
cel of Tories went thereupon to Lord John
Russell, and said •"Fhese Birmingham men are utterly
unfit to govern themselves, but make an appointment in
the true spirit of Toryism. Do you become a second
Sir Robert Peel, and do that of which, when we come

into office, we will have the benefit, and we will work
it in a way worthy of the old days of Toryism in Eng•
land, while - (the Wh' ill hr the benefit

tion.—(Cheers.) Under this conviction he moved the
amendment he had propcsed.
JOHN FUSSELL, another Chartist, seconded the
amendment, and said he did so because he tel; con-
, v inced that they ought not to have either a police or
any other force in the country unless it was under the
control of the pe4ple, and such never could be the
case so long as the great mass of the people might
be said to be without the pale of the Consti-
tution. His friend Brown bad advised a union
of the middle and working classes. He would caution
them against any union not based upon a fixed under-
standing. They well knew that the middle class( s had
already betrayed them, and had driven them to take
their affairs into their own hands. What had the Rev.
Mr. M‘Donnell told them ? Why, that the appointment
of the police ought to be in the hands of the Corpora-
tion. That was a farce, The working men had no
voice in the Corporation, and if they consented to give
the power into the hands of that body they would ho
in the same situation as at present.—(" No, no !"
" Yes !") He would say to the working men, he al-
ways watchful of men who had once turned their coats.
JOSEPH STURGE, Esq. then presented himself, and
was received with tremendous cheering. He said, as
one of those who wished to live to see the day when
every civil and religious privilege was placed within the
reach of the poorest as well as the richest man in the
community—(Cheers)—he wished to say a few words
in reference to the amendment. They knew they had
many powerful enemies to contend again t. They had
many excellent but timid frieuds, who had been greatly
afraid of the result of that meeting.—(Hear, hear.)
He knew that some of the originators of that
meeting had been sent to Coventry because
they ha caused that assemblage, and knowing all this
he would put it to them whether it would not appear
a breach of faith with those who had signed the requisi-
tion, if they were by any sitiewind to frustrate the object
of the meeting. If the working men wished to call a
meeting for the franchise, and they had any difficulty in
procuring that Hall, he would pay all expense, and
guarantee any damage that might be done.—( Loud
cheering.)
A long discussion then took place respecting the pro-
priety of withdrawing the amendment, when it was
eventually agreed that it should be withdrawn, on the
condition that the mover should have the liberty of pro-
posing it as a substantive resolution.
The first resolution was then put and carried, amidst
cheers.
Mr. BuowN then came forward, and proposed the
amendment as a resolution, and in doing so again
dwelt on the present distressed condition of the
working classes ; and in a sensible and effective speech
pointed out the necessity of a further extrusion
of the suffrage, as the only means by which
they could avert the threatened evils of the country, and
do away with that class of legislation to which
all their miseries were to he attributed. The working
men had on that occasion given up to the wishes of the
middle classes, and he hoped there would not be a gen-
tleman present -who would not vote for his resolution.—
Hear, hear.)
Mr. FUSSELL seconded the resolution, which was
carried unanimously, not a single hand being held up
against it.
Mr. STURGE, on rising to move the next resolution, was
received with enthusiastic cheering- H dh-

.e sal. ,e was so
little qualified to address such an immense assembly, that
nothing but a sense of public duty would have induced

with a cutlass.—(Shame.) Now he held that if police
were thus armed at all, they should carry their wea-
pons openly and at all times, and that the soldiers are
much less danceereos to the lives of the public, than
men who were only armed with mortal arms at the die.
eretion of an individual.—( Hear, hear.) This, it ap-
peared might have been the case when the police at-
tacked the people on the 4th of July, but if they had
been armed as regular troops, the crowd would have
known what to expect.—( Hear, hear.) He found, too,
that if the persons selected to manage this police (anti
be here begged most distinctly to disclaim all personal
allusions, as the parties were entire strangers to him),
that next to the Commissioner, who was the nominee of
the Conservative county magistrates, three out of five
of the principal officers had served in the Queen of
Spain's army, and obtained their military rank there.—
( Hear, hear.) Now, he left it to his fellow-townsmen
to say whether, if this force had been only intended for
the legitimate objects of police, men who were so fond
of the battle field as to seek it on a foreign service, were
the most suitable of all others to command them ?
and whether a police under such control was likely to
add to the moral improvement of the town what it de-
tracted from its pecuniary resources.—(Cheers ) The
feelings of the rate-payers had not been consulted in
their appointment, and the London Police (and they
knew what they were) appear to have been taken as
their model.—(Hear, hear.) Their measure, he con-
ceived, also proved that they were intended for soma-
thing more than they professed, and that it was intended
as a system of espionage, he need only mention that
May, the Superintendent of the London Police, stated,
in his evidence, that he had had two of his men in that
capacity for months in this town.—(Groans and hisses.)
He would also refer to the letter which was published
last week, which was addressed by the Birmingham
Police Commissioners to the Mayor of Newport.—
(Hisses.) Such, indeed, was the character of the force
altogether, that he was firmly of opinion, that upon
their successful opposition to it—and if the men of Bile
mingham could not succeed who could ?—greatly de-
pended the questioc whether the people of this country
were to be governed by moral or physical force, and the:
it was the duty, therefore, of every true friend to his
country, to use every Constitutional means of opposing
it.—(Cheers.) To the advocates of physical force
he would say—pause and examine its results before you
persist in it further ?—(Cheers.) He felt strongly
upon this subject, for he had no hesitation in stating
to this v.ist assembly that he believed the taking away
of human life, under any possible circumstances, was
forbidden by Christianity, and that it was equally con-
trary to sound policy and true national safety.—(Hear
and cheers.) Per himself he would far rather be sent
a penniless exile from his country, than a single hu-
man life should be lost in defending either his property
or person.—" Hear, hear," and applause.) They might
perhaps be disposed to ask, how persons holding such
sentiments, could successfully hope tor protection,:or re-
sist the encroachments of despotism ? To these he
would reply, that in his humble opinion these weapons
w. re far more irresistible when universally acted upon,
titan all the mortal weapons in the world.—(Hear.)
Doing full justice to the people, they would find far
greater security than in the most powerful armed po-
lice.—(lmmense cheering.) He would recommend them
in opposing this most obnoxious Police Bill, to have re-
course to these measures. But he believed there
was a legal defect in the Act of Parlia-
ment which they must have carefully examined.
Next, the Press was open to them, which (though at
the present moment it might be under the influence of
those in power, or of those who hoped to possess
power), thy might in the end expect to see this mighty
engine employed in its legitimate vocation--exposing
abuses, and fearlessly contending for the rights of the
people.—(Cheers.) They could also try the result of
an appeal to Parliament next Session to repeal the Bid,
and even should they fail, it would afford them the
opportunity of showing to the world the hideous defor-
mity of the measure, and, if' needful, they might then
consider what steps should next be taken.---(Loud
cheers.) He knew there were so many alarmed at the
present state of things that they were ready to give up
a portion of their liberty for the sake of what they
called security ; but that security, it would be recol-
lected, was to be procured by the introduction of an
armed police, and the adoption of measures which alie-
nated the feelings of the great mass of the working classes.
They might suppress the expression of public opinion
for a time, but they must be conscious that without
doing justice to th e people they were treading on a
smothered volcano. He also knew there were some
who considered that the few and the wealthy should
govern the poor and the many ; but he could not find
in his Bible, either in the doctrine or example of Him
whom all Christians professed to follow, a single passage
to justify such an opinion or such a practice.—(linmense
cheering.) It was the conviction of a Christian duty
which had brought him there that day, and which told
him that he should resist by all possible means such
measures as the Government Police Bill.--cs(Cheers.)
He felt that he would not be obeying the injunctions
of his Divine Master, "to love his neighbour as
himself" if he did not use any little influense which by
might possess to prevent encroachments upon the liber-
ties of his country, though they might not affect him
personally vand it was also his duty to advocate the
rights of the poorest individual in the community to
all the religiou, civil, and political privileges of the
wealthiest in the land.—(Cheers.) Sonic might be dis-
posed to blame him for promotiug meetings such
as the present at this time, but he so f.r differed from them
that he firmly believed the public and constitutional ex-
' pression of popular opinion at the present eventful pe-
riod was their greatest—he had almost said their only
safety.—(Great applause.) The severe censure cast
upOn the middle orders of society for their want of sym-
pathy with the working classes, at some of the nume-
rous meetings which had been held, had produced an
effect which both concerned and alarmed him ; and
whilst he would earnestly appeal to all of the former
class to remove every such ground of complaint, ohe
would warn his working friends against listening too
readily to such representations.—(Hear.) He felt in-
dignant that they had been included in one sweeping
condemnation, because of the wicked and mad conduct
of perhaps one in a thousand of the population in the
destruction of property in the town ; and did one of
that vast asssembly listen with that compla-
cency with which such sentiments had been
heard and responded to in other places—he would im-
plore him to consider those who uttered such opinions
as the most inveterate enemies to the cause of liberty,
and to rest assured that for every victim of popular fury
sacrificed, the welfare of tens of thousands of the
very class must suffer whom they falsely said they
w ish to serve.—(Cheers.) He knew that recent
events had created, in many honest minds, a feeling of
despondency, and that the suspension of holding public
meetings for the expression of public opinion, might pro-
duce the most peaceful consequences ; but i.o all peace.
able reformers he would say that their cause was not
so helpless as they might suppose. It had been his
privilege long to fight under a peaceful banner in a
cause which, at one time, appeared much more helpless
than theirs—that of endeavouring to obtain the personal
liberty of their fellow subjects in the West Indian
Islands—(Cheers)—and if anything contributed more
than another to the success of that cause, it was under
Providence the unexampled patience with which the y
Birmingham,
bore their sufferings ; and if' the men at
and their fellow-subjects in other
parts of the kingdom
were united in their efforts, though their ju rhts
might for a time be withheld, they might feelst assuigred
that they would ultimately gain tinan.—(lmmense
cheering,) The wise and good of all sects and ell par-
ties, when they saw they were determined not to gain
even a righteous cause by unrighteous means, would
join them ; and, above all, they might rest assured of
the blessing of Him who could blast the mightiest means,
and crown with the most signal success the feeblest
effort.—(Great applause.) No, the cause of true free-
dom was not to be stopped in its onward course even
by this formidable Government police ; and the petiee-
ful name of the men of Birmingham in its favour
would again be echoed by millions of their countrymen
in accents that should be heard by the Senate and the
Tnrone, till the equal rights of alt should be fully
achieved and secured, fot they were all equal in the
sight of God. Mr. St urge concluded amidst vehement
end continued cheering by meting the resolution,
Mr. GEORGE EosioNos next addressed the tneet:n;:.
and in a powerful speech denounced the folly of physical
force, and recalled to the recollection of the working
classes the stand he hall made against it in that Hall,
when it unfortunately was first broached. He had from
his earliest moments advocated the principl, s of Reform.
He had stood by them in all their difficulties, and he
considered he would be a traitor to the people had he
advised them to resort to violence for the attainment of
their object. He had always told them, and he would
now repeat it, that there was no necessity for physical
force. They had only to wish to be free—they had
only in a firm but legal and constitutional manner to
declare their determination to be so, and they would be
so. Ttlis was the doctrine he had always preached to
thorn, although in the most unhandserne and unmanly
manner he bed been hcld up as a Destructive in the
House of Commons by Sir Robert Pool,
Mr. SHEARNAN said he rose as the locum tenens of
Mr. Giles, the Secretary, and because he had conducted
a part of the public press in this town, 140 was still
coarieeted with the press, though not now residing in
Birmingham. Mr. Storge had alluded to the power of
the press, and eulogised m
its liberty. No an more
admired the liberty f the press than himself; but no
man more abhorred its licentiousness. A part of the
public press of this town had lately committed one of
the grossest outrages on one of the best teen, if pqt the
very best man in the town, He qllu.(led to an article of
the ./!ientittrbsset j0w.4(41, of Ow week be'Ore I.ast, on Mr.
urga..;,-(Here.
Sturp',..' got u:s and iusisted on Mr.
Shearmati hot alluding to the subject, but Mr. Shear-
man persisted most resolutely on going on.) It was
not only of the 2irmingham 'Journal he complained.
TIM 7j'inics and Wiandard, and other of the .Cory
Oilers; lied, fór the last three tears,,
p~biishing
articles
of the most infamons airoci9ns nature, s s the Queen
viiii6l(kiey Qua, insicnatect, a not §Wo, t-q,-
*staA tt strumpet, the Court was a stew, and the Ni-
I