The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-18 00:00:00

The Reform League.

Last night a public meeting was held at the Work-
ing-men's Club-room, Lower Rosoman-street,
Clerkenwell, for the purpose of forming a local
branch of this league—of which Edmond Beales,
Esq., is the president—and the advocacy of the
principles of manhood suffrage and the ballot.

The meeting was very thinly attended, those pre-
sent being mostly young men engaged in reading
papers.

Mr. C. H. ELT was requested to take the chair,
and stated the objects for which the meeting had
been called. We were now in the midst of a general
election, and at this moment one branch of the
Legislature was in abeyance—the Commons, on
whose advice the Sovereign stated in the preamble
of every law she had resolved that such and such
should be the law. The very term " Commons"
implied that the House of Commons should be a
house representing the Commons—the whole people
of England. Was that so ? There were on the
register of electors 1,330,000 names, while there
were six millions of adult males who had a right to
a voice in the making of the laws by which they
were to be governed, and in the imposition of the
taxes which they had to pay. If they struck off the
odd 330,000, as they well might do, for double,
treble, or quadruple votes, that would give them
only one million voters out of the six millions who
were entitled to the suffrage. He had himself voted
already in no less than three places, and many others
had no doubt votes for five or six different places.
It was generally admitted that this was not right.
Even Mr. Disraeli—a great coiner of phrases—said
that we should have a lateral extension of the suf-
frage, which some people interpreted to mean getting
rid of reform by a side wind. (Hear, hear.) For his
part, he thought the suffrage should be extended not
only laterally, but upwards and downwards, and
that all artificial qualifications were as absurd in
themselves as if they were to say tl-7t all men
having brown hair or Roman noses si.;:uld alone
have the privilege of the vote. (Laughter.) The
whole system should be recast, and based upon
right, not upon privilege. (Hear, hear.) To secure
such an extension was the object of the league, of
which it was now proposed to form a branch in
that locality. They wanted not to revolutionise the
Constitution, but to restore the Constitution to what
it was before it was corrupted ; and to do that there
must be agitation. The branch, if formed, would
have a distinct and specific work to do—to secure
the vote as a right belonging to all, and to protect
them in the exercise of that right by the ballot.
(Cheers.)
Mr. DAVIS moved, " That the partial reform re-
luctantly accorded to the people of this kingdom is
now inadequate to their growing numbers and in-
telligence, and this meeting believes that a full and
complete reform of the representative system is only
just and necessary for the increasing exigencies of
the commonwealth." In supporting the resolution
Mr. Davis contended that the Reform Bill had in
reality restricted instead of extending the suffrage.
It had substituted a uniform property qualification
for the old pot-walloping and scot and lot voters
who, with freemen and burgesses, constituted the
bulk of the old borough constituencies. The £5O
county franchise was a preposterous qualification,
and for himself he preferred a universal suffrage to
any other, upon the broad ground that in conse-
quence of the diffusion of knowledge by means of a
cheap press, and the greater facilities for education,
the great body of the working classes were better
fitted for the exercise of the franchise than they were
at the time the last Reform Bill was passed. He
contended besides, that the old theory of the Con-
stitution was that taxation and representation should
go hand-in-hand, and as the great bulk of the
taxation was paid by the working-classes, it fol-
lowed that they should have the suffrage. (Hear.)
He did not believe that their admission within the
pale of the Constitution would swamp the other
classes of society. The selection of members
would still be confined to the class who- had
means and leisure to discharge the duties of mem-
bers of Parliament ; the increase of the constituen-
cies would increase the expenses of an election ; and
on the whole he thought that we might do an act
of simple justice without any apprehension of a
revolution following: With respect to the ballot,
the system adopted in the colony of Victoria, Aus-
tralia, had shown in practice that all the objections
to that mode of voting were thoroughly fallacious ;
and he believed that under that system bribery,
either direct or indirect, would be impossible in this
country. The colony of Victoria had prospered
under universal suffrage and the ballot, and he saw
no reason why the same results should not follow
at home. (Cheers.)
Mr. WHITFORD seconded the resolution, which
was unanimously agreed to.
Mr. HOWELL moved and Mr. SURGISSON seconded
the next resolution, which was—" That the Reform
League embodies the spirit of the great mass of the
people, and
.merits the support of this assembly ;
and that a local committee of thirteen be chosen,
with power to add to their number, from which
shall be selected a president, treasurer, and secretary,