The Sun.
London, England, 1839-05-18 00:00:00

Their duty was rigidly to obey the law, to maintain peace,
order, and tranquillity, unt such time as the mass of
the people were similarly informed, similarly disposed .and
similarly determined ;as they were, to obtain their rights,
peaceably if they could, but by any means to obtain them.—
( Cheers.) When the masses of the industrious classes
had come to that determination, then if the tyrants of the
country chose to strike a blow—if they attempted to assas-
sinate one portion of the people and to intimidate the rest
by virtue of th© organization he had alluded to, they would
understand their rights ; and if the tyrants spilled the
blood of any portion of the people, they would not be able
to do so without their own blood being shed an hour after.—
( Cheers.) When the upper or middle &asses bad a meet-
ing in the Town Hall, did the working classes interfere
with that meeting ?—( Cries of " No.") Then what right
had the upper or middle classes to interfere with a meeting
of the working classes ?—( Hear, hear.) The working
classes never sought to disturb their meetings, although
they were backed by a posse comitutus that would ensure
their success. If they were all organised and prepared he
would tell them not to he peaceable until they had
got possession of the Town Hall. They were told the Town
Hall could not be opened, except a requisition was sent to
the 'Mayor, signed by a certain number of respectable
householders—that was persons who ate better dinners and
wore better clothes than the poor working man, although
were it not for him they would neither have good clothes
nor good dinners, because they were too lazy to work for
such things themselves.—( Cheers and laughter.) They
had a perfect right to meet in the Town Hall, but that
right would never be conceded, until the people had a
voice in making laws, and electing the constituted autho.
rities. If the officers ,if the Corporation were, elected as
they were all over the United States by the people, then
their signatures to a requisition would weigh as much as the
signature of any shopkeeper, or master manufacturer, or
any grinder of the poor, or any bastile builder, or any
dealer out of skilly.—( Cheers and laughter.) He was
told not to attend that meeting, because he would
excite the people. Why, he wanted to excite the peopli.;
but he excited them on the side of justice and law ; and
though he had a most diab heal hatred of the
law, yet so long as he knew it was the law, and
that the people were not able to grapple with it,
his regard for the safety of the people would induce him to
advise them to obey the law until they had sufficient power
to overthrow the rascals who made it. Did they under.
stand that ?—( Cheers, and cries of " Yes, yes.") He
wished to speak so that he could be understood ; he hated
humbug, and he was not easily humbugged. Why should
700,000 make law for 7,000,000? • Tnete was a desire to
send some of the people off to the Cape of Good Hope—
there was what was called a " Children's Friend Society,"

who sent off poor orphans across the sea, and sold them to
aristocrats and slave masters, and when breathing their last
they had no consolation but such as was administered to
them by their kidnappers.—( Shame.) The people did
not wish to take anything from the rich that justly be-
longed to the rich, but only to enable the poor to
keep what little they were already in posses-
sion of. Look at the House of Baring and Co. Ba-
ring was one of the four partners, and by buying cheap and
selling dear, he was enabled from one year's trading to
realise a profit of 651,000 f. That fellow was one of their
law-makers who said that he (Mr. O'B.) was a seditious
character because he told the people they ought to have
more wages and less work. Why, if Baring worked he
would not get Gd. a day for what he did ; and if he had his
deserts, instead of getting Gd. a day he would be transported
for life.—( Laughter.) One of the Barings had a poor
fellow, an Irish labourer, named Corke, hung for striking
him on the arm. Bingham Baring shoved him along and
the young chap being spirited,:gave him a blow on the arm,
and he was hung like a dog for the benefit of that aristo-
cratic villain.—( Shame.) Yet that fellow had an income
of 651,0001. a year, which was equal to the wages of
65,000 Irish labourers, earning 10/. a year, and that
was more than the majority of the Irish
labourers earned. These men came to him (Mr. O'Brien)
last night. Mr. Redfearn was one of them, and told him to
get out of the town as fast as he could. He said, " Why
the devil should he go. Why should he desert his post at
that moment, and run away from those vagabonds? They
ought to run away from him—they ought to be ashamed of
looking in his face ; he lived by honesty, and why should he
run away from fellows who lived by robbery, and who hand-
cuffed fellows better than themselves—there he was, let
them come I" The fellows did come ; he treated them
with great respect, because they were very re-
spectful to him. He said—" Gentlemen, if you
want any person here, here we are—we say
nothing behind your backs or before the people that we
are afraid to say before the Magistrates." He had never
promoted a violation of the law—he had always advised
the people to obey the law as long as there was any
chance of reforming it—and had it not been for their love
of peace the law would have been broken a century ago.
If the police came for him that night he would go with
them and see them at the public office the next morning.
' It is your duty," said the speaker, " to unite as one man,
and say in a voice of thunder—Hitherto we have obeyed
your laws, because we did not wish to risk the lives or
property of any individual; but now your laws are so bad
we don't think we can obey them any longer, and so help
us God, we don't think we have either security for life or
property.—(Tremendous cheering.)
Dr. TarLort then stood up, and was loudly cheered.
He would not have been there that night, nor would he
have advised the meeting to be called, but that the excite-
ment which had existed, and was still existing, demanded
that the people should be made fully aware of the steps
their leaders were about to take—of the plans they pro-
, posed—of the objects they bad in view, and of the inten-
tions of their enemies.—( Hear, hear.) The people were
all powerful so long as they were peaceable, because, as ho
told them before, the game was winning itself, and unless
they destroyed it by sonic act of indiscretion their liberties
were secure. Nothing could put them in a false position
but giv ng a handle to their enemies, by creating partial
outbreaks, to trample on them.—( Hear, hear.) He (Dr.
Taylor) had been engaged in revolutions—he had been
in dangers, and he thought his character was a sufficient
guarantee to them, that when such men as O'Brien and
himself recommended them to be peaceful, orderly, and
united, and to keep within the law, that they ought to
follow their advice until they should, by their own acts
break the law, and give them a hint of danger as well as an
example of courage.—( Cheers.) He had a letter in his
pocket which he would take the liberty of reading. He
had purposely torn off the name and the address. It was
directed to Feargus O'Connor and himself, and was as
follows I feel it my duty to apprise you of the dan-
gerous situation in which you are placed, together with the
Delegates of the Convention, as every means will be taken
for arresting you before morning, if a meeting should
take place, as is anticipated to night. I
have been informed by one of the authorities, that
the soldiers are under arms—that the official constables are
on duty—therefore I trust you will see the necessity of
postponing the meeting ; for if you should be arrested riot
and tumult will be likely to follow, and consequent ruin to
our cause." If ever there was a time when a meeting was
necessary it was that night.—( Cheers.) It was from the
Delegates whom they honoured with their confidence that
they should regard the command, the request, the hope,
the prayer that they would give no handle to
their enemies at the present time.—( Hear, hear.) Had
the people been left, an excited multitude, with police
spies, on the one hand, and the military on the other, how
easily might an outbreak have taken place and the people
become the victims !—( Hear, hear.) It was because he
would not lead them into danger, unless he took the first
post himself, that he had met them there. They could not
lose the game, unless they played a wrong card out of their
own hands. The Government and authorities might
arrest the Delegates, if they pleased; but he hoped the
men of Birmingham would disappoint them if they hoped
those arrests would lead to tumult.—(hear, hear.) Do
not (said the Doctor) let the arrest of the whole Con-
vention ever lead you to break the peace. Wait
until you have a declaration signed by us, and thrown like
a firebrand into the country, stating that the time for
anarchy has arrived, and that confusion must reign for ever.
( Cries of " Bravo, bravo.") But that time will never
come.--( Hear, hear.) Their attempts to arrest us will
only have this effect—to supply our places with better men.
(Cries of " That cannot be done.") They will keep up
the excitement, and a little more will make the cup, now
brimming, overflow, and let those take care who upset the
chalice, for it will be a poisoned one.—( Cheers.) We
shall be more powerful as victims than as instigators to a
bloody revolt. Feeling that, I thought it my duty to come
down and tell you, that, let the consequences be
what they will, we entreat of you to take no
step which can in the slightest degree endanger your-
selves, because anything that endangers you endangers the
cause.--( Hear, hear.) I shall offer no opposition to those
gentlemen arresting me—they shall have every opportu-
tunity of doing it. I and O'Brien told them at the public
office tn night that they might stop the meeting if they
liked, but that our object was to tell the meeting to be
quiet, and that that duty we would perform. I make no
secret of my intentions, which are to change the habits of
this country. I make no secret of my views, which are
that no sacrifice is too great to attain that desirable end ;
but I won't allow the enemy to choose the battle
field—l will choose it for myself---( Loud cheering)—
and I will take care that whenever I address you it shat
not be to goad you on to useless violence, surrounded b
superior troops, but to give you energy, knowledge, dcci
sion of character—to form yourselves into better ranks
choose a better battle-ground, raise what banners you
please—be it " Wife," " Queen," " Country," " Home,'
or " Law ;" but to stand by it to the last when the day
of struggle comes.—(Cries of " Bravo I Bravo!" and,
loud cheers.) In ten days the simultaneous meetings
will take place throughout England—in ten days more
my northern brethren will be up to work, and if you now
by partial violations of peace, give any excuse to your
enemies to interfere, the vast moral power these simul-
taneous meetings would give will be lost by your indis-
•retion, and with it will be lost your liberties for 100
years.—(Hear, hear.) Wait calmly then, the re-assem-
bling of the Convention in Birmingham, when we steal
have collected the opinions of the masses of the people of
England. The Doctor then told themthsse ws another duty
they had to perform which was of a publi and a private
nature. Brown had been carried off tha day—he was in
no danger, for there was not a jury in all England that
would be found to convict him. The Convention would
take care that a writ of habeas corpus was moved for, and,
if necessary, that there should be not one trial, but two
trials. The first of these would be the trial of Brown for
doing his duty, whatever he thought that duty was ; and
the second would be the trial of the Magistrates, for an
unconstitutional act in demanding excessivecontrary
to the laws of England.—(Vehement cheering. i)
The act
was done, and those two trials would give a greater
impetus to the cause, by putting the people in he
right, and their enemies in the wrong, than wht le
ages could have achieved for them.—( Hear, he.
But while Brown was in no danger, there were others ron
whom the eye of pity might be turned, and to whom the
hand of charity might be extended—there was Brown's
wife and family—(Cheers)—and he knew that while
Brown was in custody his family would want for nothing.
--(Cries of " They shall not.") Let them enter into
subscriptions—it would be but a miserable trifle—s.they
were not Aristocrats, who required 10,0001. or '''o,oool. a
year, and he (Dr. T.) would ho proud of seeing his name
in a list, not being afraid of protecting those whom the law