The Sun.
London, England, 1839-03-28 00:00:00

SHOREDITCH AND THE NEW
POLICE BILL-(YESTERDAY.)

A meeting, got up by the Vestry, to petition against
the Metropolitan Bill, was held at the Church of St.
Leonard's, Shoreditch, and was attended by the most
numerous assemblage which had ever been got together
in that neighbourhood before or since the passing of the
Reform Bill. The Church was literally crammed from
I floor to ceiling.
Mr. THOMAS REECE, Churchwarden, in the Chair.
Letters were received from Lord Stanhope, Mr.
Byrim, M.P., Dr. Lushington, M.P., and Mr. Clay,
M.P., apologizing for not attending. The letters of
Mr. Clay and Dr. Lushington occasioned a heavy dis-
cussion as to the propriety of having them inserted on
the minutes.
Mr. GouGu said he thought that the conduct of these
Members with regard to those Bills was of that sort
that it deserved the utmost expression of disap-
probation.—( Hear, hear.) They had never read or
examined those Bills, or if they had it was rather extra-
ordinary the small quantity of knowledge which they had
extracted from that reading. Indeed, Dr. Lushington
had said that he thought the Bill a pretty good one, but
that it wanted weeding.—(Hear.) He (Mr. Gough)
thought this meeting should give their Representatives a
lesson that would be of use to them, and he thought
they should not separate without testifying their disap-
probation of the Government which wanted to coerce
them by the infliction of this Bill.—(Hear, and cheers.)
Mr. SOLOMONS defended the conduct of their
Representatives.

An amendment proposed, to the effect that the letters
should not be inserted on the minutes, was withdrawn.
The letters were ordered to be inserted on the

minutes.

A resolution, to the effect that the petition prepared
by the Committee be read and adopted, was proposed by
Mr. PRICE, who said that if any petition better than
that which they had seen advertised through the Papers,
and which he had drawn up, they should bring it before
the meeting at once, and he should withdraw that which
he now had the honour to present. They had heard of
an Irish Coercion Bill, but now they had to deal with
an English Coercion Bill, which he hoped they (the
meeting) would assist in getting rid of.--(Hear, hear.)
They had heard of the 9.0,000,000 which had been voted
for the redemption of the blacks in the West Indies,
now the same persons who had passed that measure
wish to enslave the people of England. The delay that
was occasioned in carrying forward this Bill was of this
much use, that it would give them an opportunity to con-
sider that Bill under all its bearings, and enable them to
testify their opinion of those hateful persons who are
seeking to inflict it, as they did the detestable Poor-
law, on the country.—(Hear, and great cheering.)
He conjured them not to give way to clamour :
it was necessary that this, the largest meeting that
has !,,et been held on the Police Bill, should
separate with a character for order and tranquillity,
which this great parish had always maintained.—(Hear,
hear.) He hoped that they would not persevere in
their intention of getting a hearing for those Char-
tist gentlemen whom they had invited to attend.—
(" We will.") Mr. Price went into a lengthened detail
of those clauses of the Bill which would press most
heavily on the inhabitants of London. He thought
that those who framed this Bill, and who were pro-
posing to pass it, should be not only sent to the tread-
mill, which they had intended for the people, but trans-
ported for seven years.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.)
Mr. Price continued to comment on the Bill at fur-
ther length, and kept the meeting in a state of laughter
for some time at his ludicrous descriptions of Lord John
Russell and the new caricatures. He described his
conversation with Mr. Clay, and then proceeded to say
that we should not have the Bill at any price.—( Hear,
hear, and immense cheers.) He asked was there any
one there of so nondescript a way of thinking that could
imagine to himself that in this great parish, with
80,000 inhabitants, we wanted anything more in the
way of coercion ?—( Hear, hear, and cheers.) Was it
to be borne that policemen should have the power to
break open their houses day or night.—(Shame,
shame.) Is it not better to get rid of it altogether than
think to amend those clauses which all acknowledge to
be bad. If there is any man here who may be induced
to support the Bill, let him be heard with impartiality.
If there is any Magistrate, policeman, or other person,
who is interested in its passing, will point:out any advan-
tage which may be in it, he would willingly hear him.—
(" We won't have it at all," " Hear, hear," and
cheers.) He begged leave to move the adoption
of the petition, which the Vestry Clerk should read.
Mr. WEIR, the Vestry Clerk, then read the peti-
tion, which prayed the House of Commons not to pass
the new Police Bill or the new Metropolitan Courts' I
Bill.

Mr. GOUGII said the exposition which they had
heard from Mr. Price of the character of that Bill
would, he was sure, be enough to enlist their exertions
in order to prevent its being passed. The cries of the
people are not allowed to come to the ears of their
young and amiable Queen. Their petition, if sent to
the House of Commons, is Burked ; on its presentation
to that house it is not required. What is its nature ?
it is merely mentioned that it is the petition of the inha-
bit ants of Shoreditch, and there it lies. They lived in
very eventful times. A. new power had arisen among
them, with influence, as great as any of the other three
powers, which were in being for ages.--(Hear). With
the opinions of this power, he agreed in the abstract,
and although differing from them in some of their
measures, he would accord to them that they seemed
to pay more attention to the people's interest, than
any of the other powers.—(Hear, and Cheering for the
Chartists.) Mr. Attwood, the other night in the House
of Commons, told those contemptible Whigs, as he
termed them, that the measures which had brought
England to its present awful state, if not soon re-
traced, the country would be driven to a state of anarchy
and confusion which could not be remedied till ages had
passed away. Mr. Gough recommended their discon-
necting themselves with any thing appertaining to phy-
sical force. It was what the Ministry wanted, in order
Ito put them down by force of arms.—(Hear, and cries
•of " Never, never—we will put them down.")
Mr. DYSON said that his ground of opposition to
this measure was much higher than what had been taken
he those gentlemen who had preceded him. It was
that it infringed on the liberties of those who had little
liberty remaining to them, namely—three millions of the '
unrepresented.—(Hear, and cheers.) He moved an
amendment, that unless Universal Suffrage was had no
good measures could be obtained at the hands of the
Legidature. Mr. Dyson proceeded to say that un-
less the fear of physical force was behind, no good could
be obtained from moral force.—(Hear, hear.) He
thought every person £hould have arms.—(Cheers.)
Mr. WILLIAMS, of Long-alley, seconded the amend- 1
ment.

Mr. CIIILDS supported the petition against the
Police Bill, and resolution which proposed it, in a speech
of great length and ability.
Mr. PEARCE said that, in order that the meeting
might be unanimous, he would engage to pass the
amendment of Mr. Dyson if the meeting would pass
the petition.—(Great Cheering.)
The CHAIRMAN having put the amendment for the
adoption of a resolution for Universal Suffrage, it was
carried by a forest of hands and an enthusiastic repeti-
tion of applause, that continued for some minutes.
There were twelve hands held up against the resolu-
tion.

Mr. PRICE proposed that a petition founded on the
foregoing resolutions should be adopted.
Mr. Goucll, in seconding this resolution, would not
detain the meeting at that late hour ; but he could not
refrain from calling their attention to the victory they
had gained, in order that they might give the due con-
sideration which it deserved to the question of Univer-
-1 sal Suffrage.—(Hear, hear.) They, the poor, had as
much right to make the laws as the highest in the
land. Was there a poor man in the country
but paid more taxes than any Nobleman ? What
was the reason that Universal Suffrage was hitherto kept
cl.,wn ? It was a secret, but although it was so, it was easy
to guess that by keeping it from the people, the
governing party had it in their power to keep up tax-
ation and aristocracy.--(Hear, and great cheering.) If
those people who wished to deprive the nation of its
right to Universal Suffrage,did persevere in their present
line of conduct, they might provoke the people to mea-
sures to which themselves would be sure to fall a sacri-
fice. Why, if the working classes were to stop their
hands from labour for six days, what would be the state
of the country.—(Hear, and great cheering.) Mr. Gough
continued'at great length to enforce the necessity of Uni-
versal Suffrage, and concluded by saying that they should
march in moral array to the House of Commons, in
peaceable order. with their petition, at the head of six
or seven hundred thousand people, and perhaps then
they should be heard by that House. The Constitution
of England was enough if it could be remodelled. It
would bring them peace, order, ships, commerce, trade,
and happiness. Mr. Gough sat down amid the most
unbounded applause.
The resolution was put and carried with twelve dis-
sentients.

Mr. PEARCE proposed that the petition shoold be
entrusted to Sir M. Wood for presentation in the Com-

mons
Mr. GouGil seconded it.
Mr. '.EAacE said that as Earl Stanhope bad done
their cause- service, in his opposition to the New Poor-
law and Lord Brougham, he would beg to move that
their petitio should be entrusted to him for presenta-
tion to the Lords.
Mr. GoOGII seconded the resolution.
It passed with the same dissentients as before. The
gentleman who led the opposition created great laughter
from the vivacious manner in which he acted.
I.a
o.Ae resolution to address t he Queen for Universal Suf-
t was also passed with acclamation.
411tA. resolution empowering the Vestry Clerk to get
RAI,A lotions inserted in rhe Sun, as well as the
• •ral
,Papers, was passed with acclamation.
itis44, .Jotr the Queen, three cheers for their
1.1 `*l4: an, and three cheers for the
h tl!ree. groans for the Ministers,
he imtneva.se meetingos separated in

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