The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-10 00:00:00

CITY OF LONDON.

On Saturday, at one o'clock, an aggregate meet-
ing of the central and all the various ward com-
mittees for promoting the return of Messrs. Lyall
and Fowler, the Conservative candidates for the
city, was held at the London Tavern ; Mr. Baring,
chairman of the Central Committee, presiding. It
was very numerously attended, and much excite-
ment prevailed. The two candidates were present,
as were also Mr. Wolverley Attwood, Mr. George
Masterman, Mr. C. H. Wigram, Mr. Walter Hind-
ley, Mr. Arthur Peel, Mr. Henry Masterman, Mr.
J. Grant Hodgson, Mr. Alderman Allen, Mr. H.
Rucks Gibbs. Mr. T. B. Austin, Mr. John Bag-
gallay, Mr. T. P. Beckwitb, Mr. J. W. Birch, Mr.
A. Caldecott, Mr. W. J. Marshall, Mr. F. Mildred,
Mr. 11. It. Price, Mr. Price, Q.C., Mr. Walter St.
Aubyn, Dr. Wambey, Mr. George Stockdale, Mr.
Ambrose Moore, Mr. Thos. H. Wigram, Mr. Edward
J. Wiggins, Mr. Sergeant Atkinson, Mr. W. Hinton,
and many more persons of influence in the city.

Mr. BARING, on taking the chair, said he should
be loth to say a word against the character of their
opponents, for the question at issue was not one of
private character. When he found the gentlemen
who sat opposite to him in Parliament, and who re-
presented the city, advocating measures of an ex-
treme character as regarded organic changes in
Church and State, then he said, whether they (the
Conservatives) were successful in this contest or not,
it was their bounden duty to protest against the be-
lief which, if those gentlemen had been unopposed,
would have been conveyed throughout the country,
that those opinions were entertained by the entire
constituency of the city of London. (Cheers.)
However gratifying the Conservative canvass returns
had been on this occasion he was never over-san-
guine and never believedin success until victory was
achieved. He had only to hope that there would be no
wavering between that day and the day of polling, and
that no stone would be left unturned to assert the
principles which they had all so much at heart.
(Cheers.) The Government stated no policy ; they
did not go to the country on a Reform Bill, but they
said if the country wished one they would propose it.
(A laugh.) Believing there ought to be an enlarge-
ment of the constituencies where that could be done
in accordance with the increased intelligence of the
community, the Conservatives had to decide whether
they considered the proposal to reduce the franchise
to £6 desirable, without any other extension of the
constituencies so as to take in those who by their
education and intelligence had a right to the fran-
chise ; or whether, rather than reduce the franchise,
it was not wiser to elevate classes to it who were now
excluded. Their opponents in the city said, " Look
at the general prosperity ; why would you disturb it
by any change in the representation ?" They and
their party assumed that to them belonged the whole
credit of the national prosperity, of being at peace,
and of an increasing trade ; that, in fact, England
was what it was entirely through them. He thought,
on the contrary, that we owed a great deal to Eng-
land herself—to the enterprise and the indomitable
activity and energy of the British character. Had
this country never prospered except under the guid-
ance of a Liberal Government, so-called ? Had not
other countries prospered as well? America, before
the civil war, was most prosperous ; France, with a
protective policy, had been most prosperous, and so
had Spain under a prohibitive system. His two
friends, Messrs. Lyall and Fowler, had throughout
this contest won golden opinions from those who
were the advocates of moderate sentiments, and
from those who looked forward to tranquil and mo-
derate government, and he urged the meeting not
to relax in their exertions to secure their return.
(Loud cheers.)
Mr. LYALL referred to the kind reception he had
everywhere met during the canvass, and to the good
feeling with which the contest had been conducted
on both sides ; but he complained much of the
Registration Society, which calling itself Liberal,
and knowing that half of the citizens were Con-
servatives, reminded him that Mr. Jefferson, though
in drawing up the famous American Declaration of
Independence he asserted that all men were free,
lived and died a slaveholder. The Times of that
morning had commented on some of the measures
which the Government had passed ; but it should be
borne in mind that it was almost impossible for
members not in the Government to introduce bills
with any hope of carrying them, and he gave an in-
stance within his ovn experience. Ile denied that
the Liberal party had introduced all the great mea-
sures in which Parliament had acquiesced, and he
showed, on the contrary, since 1784, when he said
the present division of parties took its rise, how
great a share the Conservatives had in inaugurat-
ing legislation, instancing, among others, the French
Treaty of Mr. Pitt in 1787, the Union of England
and Ireland a few years later, and the reform of the
criminal code. He urged their friends to poll as early
as possible on Tuesday, and each one of them to act
as if victory depended on his own individual exer-
tions, remembering in how small a degree they had
failed of success on one or two memorable occa-
sions in the present generation.
Mr. FOWLER., who spoke next, said the leading
journal of that morning had told them that the
prosperity of the country was such that it ought to
secure a continuance in favour of her Majesty's Go-
vernment. Assuming that prosperity was due, not
to bountiful harvests, but entirely to the financial
genius of Mr. Gladstone, he was not prepared to
admit that was the ground on which the present
election ought to be decided. The election was not
a question of the past, but of the future. (Cheers.)
It was not the question whether the country had
become prosperous under Lord Palmerston, but
whether it was wise to return to Parliament men
who were pledged to a great change in the Consti-
tution of England. (Cheers.) Would it be wise in
the citizens of London to return four men, all of
whom were pledged to extreme revolutionary
changes ? (Cheers.) Looking to the great part which
Lord Palmerston had played in the history of Eng-
land, he regarded him with respect and veneration ;
but would it be wise in them to confide their
interests to men who, on constitutional principles,
were opposed to the policy by which Lord Palmer-
ston was guided? Mr. Gladstone, after his some-
what tortuous course of opinion on some public ques-
tions, was certainly not the one to whom he, for
one, should like to see the destinies of England con-
fided. (Cheers.) In Lord Palmerston they had a
statesman who wished to maintain rather than de-
stroy ; but could they say the same of Mr. Glad-
stone ? Witness the speech he delivered about 12
months ago, which, if it had any meaning at all,
pointed to universal suffrage, and witness, too, the
way in which he was upheld by the advocates of the
Manchester school. If any one of the four Liberal
candidates had been the advocate of moderate con-
stitutional principles, he (Mr. Fowler) should have
hesitated before entering into the contest ; but as
they were all advocates of an enlarged suffrage—
possibly of household suffrage--and of the ballot,
and as there was no security that the religious insti-
tutions of the country would be regarded by them in
a favourable spirit, he thought it was the duty of the
party to which he belonged to exert themselves to
prevent the City of London being represented by
men of such extreme opinions. (Cheers.) He
called upon the meeting, in conclusion, to resent the
insolent attempt of the Liberal Registration Asso-
ciation and Mr. Sidney Smith to dictate to the con-
stituency, and make the first city in the world a mere
nomination borough. (Cheers.)
Mr. M. W. ATTWOOD said that the meeting would
agree with him in expressing their united and cordial
satisfaction with everything that had passed since
they commenced the contest, and their determined
resolution to carry it ou to the end with every hope
of sulmtantial success. (Cheers.) All the circum-
stances had tended to confirm them in the convic-
tion of the justice, the reasonableness, and the ne-
cessity of the contest, and that victory would crown
their effort 3 if the Conservatives of London used the
strength that was in their power. They did not in-
tcnd to adopt the recommendation to wait until
the discordant elements of which Lord Palmer-
ston's Government was composed had dissolved
into their original chaos, or to stand patiently by
until the remnants of his Administration should
settle among themselves who should succeed to the
vacantofficr.'s and the power. The people of Eng-