The Sun.
London, England, 1837-01-24 00:00:00

THE SUN, LOND'

tion that the union of Reformers throughout the! kingdom,
and the progress arid predominance of the cause of Reform
for the future, are mainly involved.—',Hear, hear, and loud
cheers.) Like my respected friend, Mr. Flume, and like
the other gentlemen who have spoken before me, I too
am anxious that the union of Reformers should be un-
broken ; that it should be hearty, active, and triumphant,
for the noble purposes which called it into being, and 'for
the benefit of the people at large. lam anxious, if it
were possible to see Lord Melbourne the chief and centre
of that union, commanding, if not the unanimous agree-
ment of all, at least the respectful esteem sad confidence of
all. I could wish that he would be, in deed and in word,
the Minister of the people as well as the Minister of the
King. But this he will not be, and cannot be, so long as
opinions avowed and justified by half of his supporters in
Parliament, and by a vast proportion of his partisans out of
Parliament, are forbidden to be manifested by any Mem-
ber of the Government. If Lord Melbourne wishes to be
considered as the Minister of the entire Reform party, anti
not of one section of it only, he will consent to make the
great and vital questions on which that party is divided,
matters of open. debate and fair discussion. Is it not at this
moment a truth, notorious and undeniable, that the Radical
voters in the constituencies are absolutely essential as allies
and supporters to the very existence of Lord Melbourne's
Ministry ? And can he reasonably count upon the conti-
nuance of their active zeal and co-operation, if he persists
in attaching the anathema of the Cabinet to such questions
as the Ballot and Triennial Parliaments. I wish most
anxiously, gentlemen, that there should be as much concert
and unity of purpose, and as little disunion as possible be-
tween Whigs and Radicals, and it is my duty plainly to state
my belief that this harmonywill become more and more difficult
to preserve unless the principle of open questions be con-
ceded in reference to those points of reform on which the
opinions of Radicals have been largely and unequivocally
pronounced.—( Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, we have all
heard the shouts lately raised by the Tory press in the in-
creased prospects of victory to their party through animo-
sities between Whigs and Radicals. In these hopes I
confidently trust they will he altogether disappointed.—
(Hear.) If I know any thing of Radicalism, the Radicals
have much to lose, and nothing to gain, by countenancing
or abetting the Tories ; and if Sir Robert -Peel is to defer
his entrance into office until he is helped into it by the
Radicals, his period of expectation will be sufficiently te-
dious.—(Cheers.) But, gentlemen, I cannot forget that
my paramount duty as a representative in Parliament is,
not to identify myself with one Ministry or another, but
to labour with my best energies in the vineyard of the
people.—( Hear, hear.) However valuable the preserva-
tion of any Ministry may be, the cause of Reform is in my
eyes far more valuable, and I am bound by every feeling of
public obligation to enforce that cause, as I understand
and interpret it, whether my doing so may place me in
collision with Tories alone, or with Whigs and Tories together.
Far be it from me to countenance the smallest trace of
vexatious opposition ; but I shall not shrink from asserting,
that the error of Radical Members has hitherto been on
the side of overstrained forbearance ; and there have even
been important occasions on which the Ministers themselves
have been unhappily misled by the reluctance of their inde-
pendent supporters to give public utterance to objections
conscientiously entertained.--(Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, it
is neither my duty nor my disposition to appear as the un-
qualified panegyrist of the past acts of the Ministry ; but
there is one department of their administration which stands
so prominently apart from the remainder, and deserves such
eminent commendation, that I should be guilty of injustice
if I left it unnoticed—l allude to the Government of Lord
.Mulerave in Ireland.—(Cheers.) The spirit of justice,
impartiality, and beneficence in which the Executive Go-
vernment of Ireland has been conducted since the ap-
pointment of Lord Mulgrave forms a memorable era in
the chronicles of that distracted country.—(Cheers.) I
cannot wonder that every man of liberal principles, English-
man as well as Irishman, is proud of this glorious page in
the history of the Whig, Ministry ; still less can I wonder
that a long-oppressed and warm-hearted people like the
Irish are grateful to excess for their emancipation from the
tyranny of a faction, and disposed to forget every other
consideration in the eagerness to preserve Lord Mulgrave
at the head of their affairs.—(Hear, hear.) Gentlemen,
there is one more topic on which I would gladly say a few
words. If the Ministers desire to maintain the esteem and
confidence of the great body of Reformers, they will abjure
at once and for ever the fruitless project of trying to con-
ciliate the House of Peers at the expense of their own con-
sistency, as well as of their duty to the people.—(Cheers.)
For my part, I know but of one satisfactory remedy. and
that is, a complete reform of the Hereditary Chamber.—
(Cheers.) What are the two points, gentlemen, against which
Sir R. Peel, in his recent harangue at Glasgow, directed the
main stress of his attack ? Ballot and 'Peerage Re-
form. He wants to preserve the Upper •House, with its
Tory majority, unaltered. He wants to preserve the
undue footing of the Tories in the House of Commons, by
continuing the present intimidatien and corruption of the
constituencies.—(Hear.) He is for a House of Commons
not freely chosen, and for a House of Lords not chosen at
all. These are his component elements of popular govern-
ment. Such, gentlemen, are the holdings of the Tories.
If Ministers still remain opposed to Peerage Reform, they
are bound at any rate to avoid the dishonour of surrendering
or compromising the great points in dispute, and prostrating
both their own dignity and the hopes of all Reformers at
the feet of an inexorable oligarchy.—(Hear, hear.) Mr.
Grote then sat down amidst loud cheering.
Mr. H. G. WARD, M.P., rose amidst loud cheers to
propose the next toast. The toast he had to propose was
" Justice to Ireland."—( Loud and long continued cheering,
the audience rising from their seats and prolonging the ap-
plause for several minutes.) Up to the present time
Ireland had had rights withheld from her which no Go-
vernment would ever have dared to have kept back
from the people of this ceuntry.—(Hear, hear, hear.)
The principle acted upon up to the present day was
to preserve and promote the interests of the mino-
rity, and this was to be effected by reducing to a state of
degradation the bulk of the Irish nation—(cheers)—and
and what was the justification for this ? Why, the worst
of all pleas, namely, the plea of a difference of religion.
(Hear, hear, hear.) He protested against acting upon
such a principle in the name of Christianity and Protes-
tantism, which, when it was rightly interpreted, meant the
right of free judgment on religious matters.—( Loud cheer-
ing.) It was the duty of the Government to protect the
rights and preserve the liberties of the people, and to deal
out to each and all impartial justice. To talk, therefore,
of the essential principle of Protestantism in the English
Constitution was as unjust as it was absurd.—( Hear, hear,
hear.) He felt called upon to make some observations
' with reference to the tithe question. He could understand
the principle of the Catholics refusing to pay tithes, as they
might regard them as part of the cruel system which had so
long existed ; but he could not understand those who said
that they never would assent to any other than the present
system of appropriation of tithes, and most certainly to none
by which the Catholic millions could be benefited.--(Hear,
hear, hear.) He was glad that Sir Robert Peel bad made
use of the language which he had at the late meeting at
Glasgow. There could be no mistake as to the mean-
ing to be attached to the language he there -.used. ' He
thre distinctly statteUtliatlwel Would maintain the Pro-
testant religion in' 'as. it -then' ,ssta.,--in connection
with the State. The second of which. Ireland had
to complain was the refusal to her of that system of
municipal reform which both England and Scotland were
now in the enjoyment of.—(Cheers.) On what plea was
participation of that reform refused to Ireland ? Even an
English House of . Lords not dared, as a general
principle, to -dispute .thc:.-tight-,af the !people to admi-
nister their own • eoncetuts.:-:-(Cheers.). They hail not, in
the case of Scotland, refused to that country the benefits
of municipal reform, though the large majority of her po-
pulation was Presbyterian ; nor had they denied it to Eng-
land, notwithstanding a considerable portion of the English
consisted of Dissenters. In the single case of Ireland had
the old and lame fallacy of Protestant ascendancy been al-
lowed to come into play.—(Hear, hear.) This was the
second evil, the remedy for which was comprehended in
his toast, " Justice to Ireland."--( Loud cheers.) He
might allude to many more grievances of which Ire-
land had to complain, were it . not that he feared he
should be considered tedious.—(No.) It was essential that
an immediate remedy should be applied to the existing want
of a system of national education in Ireland, and that re-
cognition
should be unequivocally made of the right of
the poor of Ireland to relief' out of the wealth which they
were the means of creating.—(Cheers.) The sufferings,
the extreme wretchedness and misery of the Irish poor
were without example, and were such as, until the publica-
tion of the Irish poor-law reports, not a single man in this
happier country coulti have had a conception of.—.(Hear.)
To all these evils it was essential that an effectual remedy
should be applied, and lie had every reason to hope, from
recent declarations, that to many of them Government was
prepared to apply the required remedy.—(Cheers.) He
felt certain that whatever other slight differences of opi-
nion might be entertained among Reformers, there was none
in reference to Ireland ; and that although it might be a
feeling with many Liberals that Lord Melbourne's Go-
vernment would have done better in taking bolder mea-
sures, and throwing themselves with more fearless confi-
dence on the support of the people, yet that all shades of
Reformers did full justice to the Irish policy of the Go-
vernment, and equally admitted and admired the vigour, the
impartiality, and the conciliatory spirit which characterised
the whole administration of Lord Mulgraee.—(Cheer.)
The Hon. Gentleman concluded by proposing his toast,
which was drunk with great enthusiasm.
Mr. C. BULLER said the toast which he had to propose
was one which had been unexpectedly put into his hands,
and he owed this honour to no less potential a cause than
the influenza, which had, by its :widen attack, prevented