The Sun.
London, England, 1837-11-20 00:00:00

TILE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1837.

he wished to say, that he believed no other means could be
found for affording protection to the voters. He believed
that the Tithe and the Poor-law questions would be satis-
factorily settled this session, if not impeded by persons in a
certain place.—(Hear, hear.) He, for one, trusted that
the high aristocratic feeling in the place he referred to
would so far relent as to think upon what was beneficial to
the country. He hoped, at least, that they would do so
upon questions respecting which the Government and the
people were all unanimous. He differed from his honour-
able friend in his
.opinions as to the extension of the
suffrage ; for he thought that the more the franchise was
extenled the more expensive did bribery become, and
the more difficult was corruption.
The CHAIRMAN next proposed the health of a Noble
Lord, for whose character they all entert tined the deepest
respect—. Lord Nugent, and the free and independent
exercise of the elective franchise."
Lord NUGENT believed that the great Bill of Reform
could be of no benefit without the Ballot.—(Cheers.)
Without the ballot he was quite sure they were only giving
to their enemies the free use of arms which must make
them successful, and they were allowing their opponents to
bring secrecy into the field against the overawed and borne-
down opinions of the voters.—(Cheers.) He believed that
there was no other great domestic question likely to come
before the Commons' House of Parliament of so much
importance as this. He believed that in the course of the
next Session there would be no subject of domestic legisla-
tion of so much importance as the Ballot. They ought to
unite in pressing such a measure, so that in or out of Par-
liament, public opinion respecting it might not be mistaken.
He said that there ought to be union amongst Reformers ;
for there never was a time that so much demanded, and so
loudly called for, and invoked them to cultivate it ; there
never was a time in which union was so much required, and
combination so demanded, upon the part of Reformers ;
for on the one hand there was arrayed the remains of a
staggering, desperate, and corrupt Aristocracy, and upon
the other a people struggling for freedom and the Queen—
God bless her !—(Enthusiastic cheering for several minutes.)
How often had he, in meetings of that sort drank, and how
often had his heart responded to the toast—" The legiti-
mate source of all power—the people." It was legitimate ;
but God bless the spring which, rising from that source,
flowed in an ample current through the Royal heart of a
Princess to her people, and from which all might draw life
and happiness, as from a noble river fertilizing the land from
which it rose.—(Cheers.) He said now to the people let
them do their duty, the Queen had shown that she knew
how to do her's.—(Cheers.)
The next toast proposed was that of " George Pryme,
Esq., and the Reformers of Cambridge."
Mr. PRYME recommended constant association amongst
Reformers—he recommended district unions, as he thought
that they ought to have a nucleus round which men might
gather, and that they might be prepared for action when
the occasion might call it forth. He hoped that good would
be done in the next session ; their majority was a small
one, but it was a firm majority. They had now no wa-
verers amongst them, for the waverers were gone. He
hoped that the Ministry would be able to do justice to Ire-
land, and to carry other practical measures, in the progress
of Reform, which ought to be the effect of the Reform
Bill.—( Hear.)
The CHAIRMAN proposed " Thomas Hobhouse, Esq.,
Ralph Bernal, Esq., and the Reformers of Rochester."
Mr. HODHOUSE for one felt that he was returned by a
popular constituency, and lie would therefore do everything
in his power to take care that the Democratic principle
should be in the ascendancy.—(Cheers.) It was not merely
England that was interested in the contest that was now
taking place, but every part of Europe was interested in
it, bat all the nations that were struggling for freedom were
looking to their efforts, for by their efforts each hoped to
obtain freedom in his own country.—(Cheers.) With re-
gard to the Ballot, he held it to be the sovereign remedy
above all others for the evils of which they now com-
plained.—(Hear, hear.)
Several other speeches were delivered in the course of the
evening. The company separated at an early hour.

TRIBUTE TO THE MEMORY OF THE

LATE DAVID PRENTICE, ESQ

The Committee of the Glasgow Emancipation Society

having resolved, in conjunction with the other anti-slavery
associations throughout the kingdom, to send delegates to
an anti-slavery congress, to meet in London on the 14th of
November, for the purpose of concerting measures for ob-
taining complete freedom to our negro fellow subjects in the
colonies, in 1838, by the total extinction of the apprentice-
ship system, a public meeting of the members and friends of
the society, to invest these delegates with their sanction and
authority, was held in the Rev. Dr. \Vardlaw's chapel on
Wednesday evening week. The meeting was numerously
and respectably attended—indeed the church was crowded.
The Rev. Dr. Heugh was in the chair, and Gtorge Thomp-
son, Esq., made a powerful address to the meeting. Mr.
James Beith, in proposing a resolution recording the socie-
ty's sense of the valuable services of the late David Pren-
tice, Esq., said :—" I do not know that it is necessary to
say any thing to you, a Glasgow anti-slavery audience, for
the purpose of inducing you to adopt the sentiments con-
tained in this paper as a tribute of respect to the memory
of a man who did so much, and sacrificed so much in the
cause of negro slave emancipation as the late David Pren-
tice. That this generous friend of the liberties of the
human race, whether black or white, did much in favour of
the oppressed negro will be disputed by none who know
anything of the readiness, and frequency, and ability, and
unction with which the monstrous evils of slavery, and the
cupidity and heartlessness of those who profited by its con-
tinuance, were discussed and denounced in the columns
of the Glasgow Chronicle, for a period of not less than
twenty years ; during the whole of which this journal,
under the editorial superintendence of Mr. Prentice,
was always open as his own heart to the cry of
suffering humanity. Possessed of a head as clear as
his heart was warm, a strong sense of justice was Mr.
Prentice's constant companion, which he cherished
into such practical activity that no crime against its sacred
claims-escaped his burning censure. Some men and women,
too, aro so constituted that the distress which comes
within the range of their own personal observation readily
ccmmands their warmest sympathies—nay, some are so ner-
vously constructed that they are ever on the point of going
off in a fit of hysterics at the sight of a scratched figer,
while the most intense distant misery, however vividly placed
before them, is regarded with indifference as no concern of
theirs. Such was not the temperament of our deceased
friend. True,- he saw and deplored, he felt and did all he

could to amelioratethe politically-degraded condition of the
millions of his unenfranehised countrymen at horne. None
laboured more assiduously, or with greater consistency and
constancy to renovate and consolidate the British Constitu-
tion, by conferring upon the people the privilege of self-
government, than did David Prentice. But he did not stop
here. Through
the roar of the Atlantic he heard the clank-
ing of the chains and :the'r,roaning of the negro prisoners
in bondage. He beheld the physical and mental, and moral
degradation in which they were sunk : and knowing that no
human power save that of public opinion could redeem them
from their low estate, and raise them to the enjoyment of
the common birth-right of their species—liberty and the pur-
suit of happiness—he gave publicity to their wrongs, and
pled their cause with a perseverance and earnestness which,
along with the labours of other philanthropists like himself,
powerfully contributed to the rousing of that national sym-
pathy in farour of negro emancipation which embodied itself
in the sublime spectacle of 339 delegates from all parts of
the country presenting themselves before the then first lord
of the treasury, Earl Grey, demanding that the oppressed
should be allowed to go free, and which we cannot but believe
enabled that minister to at least fix the day when slavery
should be banished for ever from our transantlantic depen-
dencies. Are you grateful for this ? Forget not, then, the
claims of David Prentice. But to all this, and much more
than this—had I the tongue of a Thompson to express it—
we must add, that Mr. Prentice, in uniformly and boldly
maintaining his integrity in this noble clause, made immense
pecuniary sacrifices. Great and wide-spread interests were
supposed to be involved in this question. The planters
raised the shout of spoliation. What they called their pro-
perty—the bones and sinews of their fellow-men, sprung
from the same root, and destined to the same immortality—
was reckoned to be in danger ; all, therefore, they could do
they did do to silence their supposed Glasgow enemy, but
in reality their best friend. They withdrew their advertising
support and reading patronage from his paper, and left him,
as his reward, to console himself with the sentimentalism of
his own humanity ; and here I cannot but with shame ob-
serve that, although this was well-known to the Glasgow
emancipationists, yet, strange to say, they did not individu-
ally bestow on him anything like the countervailing support
which he had a right to expect at their hands. But such
was his firmness, which lays us under an everlasting debt of
gratitude..to his memory—such was the deep-rooted con-
viction in his mind of the paramount claims of justice and
humanity, that, in the face of this positive loss on the one
Iniaeind, and stilltherstagge mredoirnenporrodviokveirnggednegfrloeon the
met
tile
pathotohter—lie
duty.
To the last hour of his connection with the Glasgow Chro-
nicle he remained the enlightened, incorruptible, unbending
friend of freedom all over the world ; and that the base
slave-holding professing Christians, of America well know.
With these few and, considering the subject, very tame re-
marks, I beg leave to move the resolution."—Manckester
Times.

We are sure it will give great satisfaction to the
country to be informed that the representation lately made
to the military authorities by Lord John Russell, relative to
the general practice of soldiers wearing side-arms when not
on duty, has been successful ; and that in consequence of
his interposition the practice will in future be discontinued.
—Morning Chronicle.