The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-11 00:00:00

Mr. Brig'

,t, m

,ochdale.

ROCHDALE, April 10.
About nine o'clock this evening Mr. Bright rose
to address a crowded meeting of the Liberals of
Rochdale, which had assembled for the purpose of
choosing a candidate for the representation of that
borough in Parliament, as successor to their late
highly-esteemed and much-lamented representative,
Mr. Cobden.
A resolution approving Mr. T. B. Potter, of
Manchester, as the Liberal candidate, having been
proposed by Mr. G. L. ASHWORTH, seconded by Mr.
Alderman HEAP,
Mr. BRIGHT supported the nomination in a speech
of considerable length, in the course of which he
said—The Rochdale Reform Association sent a de-
putation to London to ask me if it were possible
that I could give up the position which I now hold
as the representative for the borough of Birming-
ham to stand as a candidate for the representation
of my native town. (Hear.) I felt that to be a
very kind proposition on their part, but I felt also
what I think they felt, and you will feel—that,
looking back to the circumstances under which my
connection with Birmingham commenced, it would
not be consistent with an honourable return for the
confidence then reposed in me that I should leave
the position in which I was then placed to accept
that of the representative of any other constituency
in the empire. (Cheers.) Mr. Ashworth, who
moved the resolution, has referred to the high cha-
racter of the late Sir Thomas Potter. I know one
man who bids fair to approach him, and that is the
son, who is proposed to you to-night. (Applause.)
I have known Mr. Potter, I think, from about the
time when he left school, and I believe that from
that time to this he has held the opinions that
were held by his father before him, and which
I venture to say will at some not dis-
tant future time be held by every educated
man in this kingdom. (Cheers.) We come to this
contest upon a fair field, and with a fair issue before
us. We have two candidates offered to us, we have
two faiths tendered, we have two systems of legisla-
tion and government offered to us, and we must make
our selection. Some people say there is no difference
now between Whig and Tory. Well, I don't quite
believe that, though there are some whigs very like
some tories—(laughter)—but in the two candidates
that are now offered to you there is a wide and essen-
tial difference—(applause)—and a man must be
most ignorant and most stupid if he cannot perceive
it. (Laughter.) What is it that makes this country
a better country to live in now than it was when all
the grown up men here were children ? Why is it
that you have not had for years past the discontent
that was almost universal 40 years ago ? Why is it
that you have among all classes of the community a
better and a kinder feeling than existed in the days
of our fathers ? I hold it to be for this reason—that
during the last 20 years there have been made great
changes in many branches of our legislation and ad-
ministration, and that the bulk of the people—for
whom governments too often care but little—find
themselves better treated than they were in past
times. I believe that the changes in our legislation
during the last 30 years have saved the country from
anarchy, and its people from all the dreadful conse-
quences which attend political cOnvulsion. (Hear.)
The candidate opposed to us, Mr. Brett, comes be-
fore you in his own address as a distinct and firm ad-
herent of Lord Derby, and therefore an acceptor of
Lord Derby's policy. (Applause.) I tell you that
Lord Derby's policy has been a policy, first of all,
that two millions should be placed on short rations
of food; that all that cdious, imbecile, and wicked
system of protection should be maintained—(cheers)
—and his policy was to keep France and England for
ever apart by destroying the efficiency of that glorious
treaty of Mr. Cobden—(cheers)--and his policy was
to keep the millions ignorant, because he refused to
allow the admirable penny newspaper to enter the
homes of the people and to instruct them daily
(loud applause) ; but these men are all in favour of
the good that has been done. (Laughter.) When
we have given years of our lives (enthusiastic cheer-
ing), when you have encouraged from youth to
manhood the spread of just principles and the esta-
blishment of wise laws, and have done all this in the
teeth of the combined opposition of all the Mr. Bretts
in England, then the Mr. Bretts come forward and
say that the repeal of the corn laws was a good
thing (laughter), that the French Treaty was a
valuable measure, and the freedom of the press was
a great blessing, but theystill stand with Lord Derby
(laughter), and if you will ask them about any one
single question not of the past but of the future—
of the next 20 years ! you will have to fight as great
a fight for every future good against the Mr. Bretts
(laughter) as you have fought against their class and
order of mind for the last 20 years. (Cheers.) I
bought a Tory paper for a penny (laughter and
cheers) this morning, and I was reading a speech
said to have been 'delivered by Mr. Brett, and I
thought I would see what sort of a notion he ha,

about Parliamentary Reform. lie is very compli-
mentary to the working classes who have no votes
(laughter), he is even so complimentary as to say
that he thinks they have as much honesty and in-

telligence as the classes above them—that is, above
them in the possession of property ; but he is very
much'afraid of one quality the working classes have
—it disturbs him hugely—and that is, there are so
many of them. (Loud and prolonged laughter.)
Well, generally it is considered an advantage to a
country that it should be populous. lam afraid, if
there be a great many that are comparatively poor
in this country, there would have been more if Mr.

Brett's politics had been carried out; but if the work

ing classes, the unenfranchised, have equal honesty
and intelligence with the other classes, I want to

know how anybody can feel alarm at the addition
of the qualities of honesty and intelligence to our
elective body. (Cheers.) Mr. Brett's theory is, that
the unenfranchised classes are so many that they
would submerge and swamp what he calls the classes
above them. I don't believe it is possible for honesty
and intelligence in any quantity, however large, to
swamp honesty and intelligence in a smaller body.
(Cheers.) I will undertake to say—and I hope that
time may come when my prediction may be proved
to be true or otherwise—that when the honesty and
intelligence of the working classes are added to the
honesty and intelligence of the other classes we shall

have represented in the Parliament of this kingdom
an infinitely greater quantity of honesty and intelli-
gence than we have at present. Remember the

''arliamentary history of this borough. Since 1841
_ _ _

no Liberal candidate in Rochdale has canvassed per-
sonally any voter or paid any portion of his election
expenses, and there is not a borough in England
whose annals are more creditable, and every way
more honourable, than the annals of the Liberal
portion of the constituency of Rochdale—(loud
cheers) ; and, hereafter, when our voices are hushed
—when I can no longer speak, and can no longer
listen—there will
be generations of your townsmen
who, speaking of
your late representative, Mr.
Cobden, will stimulate our posterity to patriotic
deeds, and will tell you that he, the ablest and in
services the greatest of his countrymen, once repre-
sented this town. (Great cheering.) If those who
come after us can saythis' may' not say it to-night?
(Cheers.) I cannot trust my
as I could wish. As I have saidsmeu e to speak of him
elsewhere,, I must
leave that to some calmer time,
have recovered somewhat from the when
my
nerves
shock that they
have sustained during the past
week ; but this I
e i t
will say, that I should feel wherever I went
in England or any other part of the world—
a amed
to acknowledge that I was one of this consti-
tuency if it should now turn its back upon itself,
upon its own principles, its own interests—all that
it has held sacred and all that the friends of humanity
admire and regard and look forward to, and should

return a man whose politics would reverse the very
dial on the face of time and would turn your back

from the progre3s and the good which we have seen
of late years spring around .us, to an age almost of

-- -
political barbarism, and, throughout the country, of
almost universal discontent. (Loud cheers.) I ask

you to adhere to the "grand policy of the past.
Do not ask Mr. Potter to go from house to house
with half a dozen influential men to beg and entreat

your votes. Don't ask him to defray the expense

of a contest. Let us keep ourselves pure among
ourselves, and pure before the eyes of the country
and the world ; and let us who ask for Parlia-

Mentary reform who want to add to our present