The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-11 00:00:00

I Ir. Layard and his Constituents.

Las t evening Mr. A. H. Layard, M.P., for South-
wark, met his constituents at the Bridge-house
H.-tel., Loudon-bridge, for the purpose of rendering
an ay.tcoi int of his Parliamentary conduct, and ex
preF3sing• his views on the present state of public
affairs. The meeting was very numerously attended.

Oh entering the room the hon. member was loudly
cheered. He was accompanied to the platform by
many of his most influential supporters in the

borough.

Mr. G. NEWMAN occupied the chair, and briefly
introduced the business.

Mr. LAYA RD then presented himself, and was
greeted with vehement cheering. He said it was a
custom among the ancient Egyptians when a man
died for 'o.is friends and enemies to assemble to say
all We food and evil they could of him, in order to
ace wh'2ther he ought to have a ticket for crossing
the gr.lf which separated him from the realms of
the blessed. With us it was a custom to go through
th4t ceremony during a man's lifetime, if he hap-
pened to bo a member of the Legislature ; and once
a year he was obliged to appear before his friends
and enemies to submit to ail manner of cross-ques-
tionings and examination, in order, if possible, to
obtain a ticket which should carry him over the
gulf of a general election to the happy period of a
new Par liament. (Hear, and a laugh.) If he were

fortunate enough to obtain that pass from them he
should feel amply rewarded for presenting himself
to the: aon that and other occasions. It had been

a frect sent practice with public speakers te abuse
the la te session, and assert that nothing had been
done by Parliament. He did not quite agree with 1
that statement, but even if it were true there would
not,, after all, be very much to complain of. Parlia-
me at must be a reflex of public opinion in this
country, and if public opinion were anxiously bent
on the carrying of any great measure, they
mi;ht depend upon it that an opportunity would
be given in Parliament to those who were really in
fav our of them to make their influence felt. To use
a ct ,mmon expression, they could not have sensation
Par liamenta if trey had no sensation questions in
the country. Certainly, in the late session nothing
had been done to extend the suffrage or amend the
representation of the people ; but he did not infer
from that that the Liberal members who had pre-
viously taken a deep interest in those measures were
now less inclined to support them than they
had
been a few years ago. Mr. Baines and Mr. Locke
King bud both thought it unadvisable to press their
proposals relating to the borough and the county
franchise on the attention of th House. To have
done so might hese damaged instead of promoted
the carve they sincerely had at heart ; and no doubt
they had shown a
visa
discretion. Scarcely any
allusion to the extension of the suffrage was to be
met with in any of the recent " extra Parliamen-
tary utterances." Ho did not argue front that that
such an e •
Itenston was not necessary ; on the con-
txary, he believed that it would be a wise course to
coecede
It, and that it was eminently deserved by
the p,o e •
pie. At former periods of our history, when
unexpee
,eudistress occurred among the community,
violent scenes of disturbance were witnessed and a
raqtrsal estrangement of classes. That was because
t-ie people then had not the advantage of a free
preee and a widely-spread education. Tney did
not know exactly what their rights and their re-
lidieras to the rest of the community were, and
they immediately attributed to wrong causes the
sufferings which pressed upon them at the moment.
.I.sirow, however, the people were intelligent, and
enstructed in the maxims of political economy, and
did not ascribe to the Legislature or the Govern-
ment a distress which neither could prevent. The
Loble attitude of the cotton operatives of Lanca-
shire bad brought into prominence the high quali-
ties of the British workman. He regretted deeply
the speeches lately delivered by two eminent men,
both personal friends of his—he meant Mr. Cobden'
and Mr. Bright. They were painful speeches. (No.)
He was expressing his own opinion—(cheers)—and
must say he thought his hon. friends greatly mis-
understood the position of the people of England.
Having had some experience of most countries in
Europe, he maintained that, notwithstanding the
evils which existed in England—and God knew he
did not seek to make light of them—our labouring
classes were infinitely better off than the labouring
classes of many other European countries. He did
not now speak of our colonies or of the other side of
the Atlantic. It was stated in the speeches to which
he referred that if the working man had political
power he would have land, and that if he had land
he would be prosperous. Now, reversing that, did
the working man who had land necessarily enjoy
political power ? Would those acquainted with the
condition of the labouring man in France, for ex-
ample, assert that he enjoyed or exercised political
power ? He said that he did not, and granting that
the franchise did not go so low with us as it should
do, yet he maintained that, indirectly, our working
classes exercised more political power than was
"cielded by the same classes in any other country in
Ehad denounced the want of education in this coun-
try, e
farming that our people were not educated up
ta. h
-;
h-t of other nations. (" They are not.") It
greateanod like a paradox, but that arose from the
Prsssiamount
of liberty enjoyed in Eogland•
a law obilll3' other continental State might pass
'school, but igteery man to send his children to
this country. Awl'i'"'l impossible to pass such a law in
this matter on be'ge portion of our people insisted in
left alone, they would not have
educate
a compulsory
r eaue
chiittli°ll, and claimed the right to
pedueacion,
o
er. But though edheati as they thought pro-
n in England could not be
forced upon the people
greetly left to private
tyatih.3 State, and mnot be
dart, nobody amongst us
eves really opposed to
that cou!d he said about the and the woose,
elude such an accusation as th,itari:_Traey did not in-
aertiso.l st there. (Hear,
No doabt:ittNavilat about " an
hear.) They heard a good
to
base such
highest
educated" democracy.
educated
a de-
desideratum of any philosopher
restraints ted so
mocracy ; but then it should be
as to enable it to recognise those moral
which made a man feel what he owed to Th.,rights
of others as well as to himself, In sere,
t„.iagtrhies
ts
they had seen the educated democracy ea,,,aoa;ed..
the uneducated. To him, indeed, the question of
the franchise was a question of education ; he would
give the suffrage to the man who had the inteliol
gence to us',, it, but not to him who had not such
intelligence. (Cheers.) The last session could not
altogether be called a useless session. for it had wit-
nessed the springing up of a desire for economy.
The great object of Mr. Gladstone had been to in-
ce.lcate the importance of a reduction of expendi-
ture; and last session he had been enabled to lower
the tea duties and the income-tax. True, the pro-
pesal to deal with public charities had to be with-
'drawn ; but all who heard or read Mr. Gladstone's
masterly speech on that subject would feel that an
alteration in the discreditable state of these institu-
tions must one day be attempted. (Hear.) Having
alluded to the removal of St. Thomas's Hospital
from that district asa grossviolation of the founder's
will, Mr. Layard proceeded to the foreign questions
which had been discussed during the past session.
-Me"ra. Cobden and Bright told them that they
ought to have nothing to do with such subjects)
yet,
strange to g
speeches
two-thirds at least of their own re-
centere devoted to foreign politics. (A
Voice, "
dnbut
to
run them down.") He did not run
Iwas
anybody
own, met argument by argument.
t imPossibie
reign politics. Enli hkeEp this country from fo-
men were determined to
: whichaintinththey atplwaceere
among
i,titedhe nations of the world
by their intelligence
and their noble traditions. Dici
believe that
_I have no in-
with an extended suffrage the_
wtheyi
for Poland had
teereeenee with foretgn qu,„ioYns 5
the sym-
tNe:milaYnated more
pathy lately shown
classes than from
from the lowerhigher and,
Government taking
so far from the the
lead,' they
had, as it were, been compelled to restrain the pope:
tar ardour. (flear, hear.) It Was often said that
the United States did not mPddle with otherpeepkat,
affairs, bat kept theroseivee to themselves. That
might be po,:sible for them, but w^snot P°'sibla for
t 0... As a member of the European family, we were
a totally different category from America. H,
was not advocating the odious policy of interven-
tion; a policy adopted by this couvAry in former