The Sun.
London, England, 1839-03-07 00:00:00

NATIONAL CONVENTION.

MANCIIE;TEE, TUESDAY MORNING
A meeting of the Chartists rook place last evening i,.
Batty's Circus, Great Bridgwater-stseet, for objects which
will be sound doailed in its place, and which was thickly
posted on the walls in Manchester and S Ilford, on Sunday
morning The Circus, which is capable of containing
from three to four thousand persons, was filled in about
half an hour after the doors were opened. The following
is a copy of the placard convening the meeting :
" LONG LIVE THL CONVENTION

" The inhabitants of Malchester are respectfully in-
formed that a meeting will be held on Monday, March .Ith,
in Batty's Circus, Great Bridgwater-street, to take into
consideration the present state of the country, the bold and
determined position of the General Convention, and the
further collection of the national rent. The time has now
arrived when the producing class must stand by their order
against the artful machinations of both Whig, and Tory,
who, by claptrap questions, are endeavouring to draw your
attention from the great lever of Universal SufTrarre.
" Men of Manchester I be not deceived. Rally round
the standard of universal freedom, for on that depends the
happiness and prosperity of you and your fatuities.
Recollect that on your exertions rest the success
of our glorious enterprise. Assemble in thousands,
and show by your attachment to the cause of liberty that
you are not to be idle in the holy work of rectifying the
wrongs of your country. Let your motto be universal free-
dom, and no surrender. F. O'Connor, Esq., Messrs.
Rawson, Bird, Wise, the Rev. W. V. Jackson, and seve-
ral other friends to the cause, will address the meeting.
Mos. FIF.t.DEm, Esq., President, in the Chair.
Admission—Boxer, Gd., Pit, 33., Gallery, 21. each. Fe-
males half price to the Boxes. Doors opcu at seven, elodr
to be taken at eight o'clock precisely. 13y Order of the
Council.

" All persons having subscription books for the National
Rent are requested to forward them along with the ►nonev
subscribed as early as possible to the Gtuncil, who meet
every Monday and Thursday evenings, at No. 8, Whittle_
street, Oldham-street."

In the absence of Mr. Ficiden, Mr John Brodie was
called to the Chair, on the motion of Mr. R. B. B. Cob-
bett, seconded by Mr. Nightingale.
The CHAIRMAN opened the busiacss of the meeting by
reading the placard by which it was convened—after which
he called upon Mr. Hobson, of Leeds, to state the reason
why Mr. Fcargus O'Connor was not present.—(hlisses.
Mr. FlussoN, on coming forw ird, was received with

cheering. He said h appeared on behalf of Mr. 0 Con
nor, whom he had left the day before confined to his cham

ber by dangerous indisposition, being under the orders of
his physician not to leave his room. Mr. O'Connor begged
to express, through him, his regret at his total inability to
be present at the meeting. This illness was owing to Mr.
O'Connor's unparalleled exertions, he (Mr. Hobson) must
say most superhuman exertions in the cause of the
people, during the last eighteen months, and more espe-
cially it was owing to his recent journey to Scotland.—
(Cheers ) In conclusion, he thanked them for their sup-

port to the National Convention, and called upon the meet-
ing to support to the utmost of their capability their friend
and champion, the Rev. Joseph Rayner Stephens.—
( Cheers. )
Mr. JAMBS WARE moved the first resolution, which was
as follows :—" That in the opinion of this meeting the
General Convention of the industrious classes now assem-
bled in London ought to receive the support of their fellow
county) men in every part of the United Kingdom, and this
meeting confidently hopes that similar meetings will
forthwith be held in every district, and delegates
appointed in all those towns that have not al-
ready sent representatives, in order that the hands
of the Convention may be strengthened, their power
to do good increased, and that the enemies of the
people may see that the industrious ch:sses arc really in
earnest, and determined never to cease their exertions till
the People's Charter has become the law of the land."—
( Loud cheers.) After the applause that they had given
upon hearing this resolution, it was quite unnecessary for
him to occupy much of their time, particularly as there
were sonic strangers present who would address the meet-
ing. Ile was getting old in the service of the people.
He was always pi ondand willing to serve them, and was
glad to find that though they bad waited a long time for
their rights, they were now determined to have them.—
(Loud cheers.)
Mr. EDWARD NIGHTINGALE came forward and said—
Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen, I, whom ten
thousand witnesses with their lying tongues have conducted
to prison, and whom these same witnesses have had once
snugly boarded up in my coffin—l am here to second this
resolution.—( Cheers.) I think that this assembly, which
is one of the most glorious that I have ever witnessed,
gives to the powers that be a hint that the people are in
earnest in seeking after the Charter. I think that the
spontaneous ebullition of feeling that took place on last
Thursday evening, when the Whigs were not morally but
physically defeatcd.—(Cries of ‘• We'll do it again to-
morrow night !")—gave the lie to all the business, and at
once triumphantly proclaims that the people knowing
their rights, are determined, at whatever hazard,
to obtain them. It is not my intention to detain you long
to.night, but permit me to say that I most cordially ape.:
with tie resolwion that has been moved by Mr. Wire.
Allow me to call y our attention to a most infamous placard,
and bearing the signature of a working man. I think the
truth ;could have been more legibly written on that pla-
card, hid it borne tho signature in place of a " work-
ing-man," an " Arch-ruffim."—( Cries of '' Hear,
hear.") You are there told that we are coming t i
the very thing that we have for twenty years been labour-
ing to obtain. That placard calls our attention to Peterloo,
but I would direct your attention to the Calthorpe-street
business, and to the bayoneting at Bradford, and Hudders-
field, and other places, and to the deeds committed by a
drunken infuriated Yeomany. Mr. Nightingale then con-
gratulated the meeting upon the fact of their having beaten
the leaders of the Anti-Corn-law party en Thursday last,
saying that greater cowards than those persons he had
never before seen ; and he denied that either he, or the
new Chairmanapaointed on that occasion, were intoxicated.

. -
Mr. R. B. B. CORLETT addressed the meeting at some
length in support of the resolution. In the course of his
speech, Mr. Cobbett censured the line of conduct of Mr.
Douglas, the Editor of the Birmingham Journal, who
had called upon the Delegates to delay presenting the pe•
tition to the llouse of Commons, until the people had made
a more decided move in the matter. In conclusion, he
stated that he would propose an address to the meetin:
for its adoption.
The CHAIRMAN then put "the resolution, which was car-
riod by acclamation.
The Rev. W. V. JACKSON moved the second resolution
amidst loud cheering. The resolution was as fellows :
Resolved,—"That as a great and glorious undertaking
like the present cannot be efficiently prosecuted without a
considerable outlay of money this meeting confidently ap-
peals to the different trades of this great town and its
vicinity, and also, to e%ery individual who feels an interest
in the People's Charter, to exert themselves in raising the
necessary funds for the support of the delegates white en-
gaged in their arduous duties, and to the payment of Man-
chester's just portion of the national rent." Mr. Jackson
supported the motion in a furious speech, the greater plr-
tion of it being devoted to a condemnation of the Poor -law
Amendment Act, and not to the question before the
meeting.

Mr. CHRISTOPHER DEAN, Secretary to the Stonemasons'
Union, delivered an exceedingly temperate address, in the
course of which he called up,,tl the people to come forward
in support of the Charter.—The resolution was then passed.
A Mr. RawsoN, from Bury, (Minced a violent
harangue. after which

Mr. COBBETT read the address of the Radicals of Man-
chester to the General Convention. This was an exceed-
ingly lengthy document. It expressed entire and unabated
confiden c in the transactions of the National Convention.

Mr. Cobbett concluded by moving the adoption of the
address.

Mr. 110DGETTS seconded the motion, which passed.
Several other persons also addressed the meeting, and
it w is stated that the money received at the doors amounted
28/. The meeting broke up at half-past ten o'clock.

MADRID, FEB. 23.—Lord Clarendon gave a
grand dinner yesterday, and though he is not expected to
accept the Vice-royalty of Ireland, his Lordship will pro-
bably go to take his scat this Parliament in the House of
Peers.

- -
It is now positively arranged that his Imperial
Highness the Grand Duke Alexander of Russia will visit
this country the latter end of the ensuing month. The
Russian Embassy ( Ashburnhem House) has undergone a

thorou,ll internal re-decoration, and been furnished in a
most costly manner against his Imperial Highness's arrival.
We arc sure that no inhabitant of Manchester,
whatever may be his politics, can learn, without feelings of
deep regret, that Mr. Potter's recovery is almost despaired
of.—Manchester Tunes.

DREADFUL OCCURRENCE AT WOOLWICII.—
The inhabitants of Woolwich were on Monday thrown into
the greatest excitement and alarm by a report that a young
girl had been murdeied. There is reason to suppose that
the deceased, who was only eighteen years of age, and of
most interesting appearance, was just quitting h,.r mother's
house, in one of the less freqnented parts of the town,
when she was struck by a bullet which pierced her brain,
and she died instantaneously. No one seems to have wit-
nessed the horrid occurrence ; but on the discovery of the
unfortunate young creature dead, close to her mothers
house, various surmises got abroad. These, however, were
soon terminated by the voluntary surrender of a young man,
the son of a highly-respectable tradesman, who at once
acknowledged that he was the unhappy cause of the poor
girl's death. It appears from his statement that he was
fr.ing at a target-stand at the bottom of a garden, the
palings of which were opposite to the house occupied by
the deceased's mother, and the girl must have just quitted
the house of her parent when the bullet struck her. The
event has occasioned a feeling of the deepest melancholy.
A corom is inquest will be held.
The Courier, of Dumfries, states that from the
whole of that county, Kirkcudbright, and Wigtownshire,
sheep, in larger or smaller parcels, are gradually finding
their way to Lancashire.

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, Miacm 6.

The SPEAhER took the chair at the usual hour.
On the mi,tion of 31r. 11. FLEETwoon, the Preston Gas
1301 was read a second time and ordered to be committed.
On the motion of the same Hon. Mernbt!r, the Preston
and \Vyre • Railway Amendment Bill was brought in and
read a first time.