The Sun.
London, England, 1838-09-18 00:00:00

The Rev. Dr. Wane next presented himself, and was loudly
epee eI. He bad sho cn his humility and modesty by giving
Pray to every body, and by saying Amen to every thing that
had been said. He bad been one of the first delegates sent by
the Working Men's Association to Scotland, and he thought the
otehmen had come over the border to some purpose.—( Hear.)
He had been lately at Paris, and had just returned from that
place—they had all heard what had been said about the Char-
ter and rights of the English people. He would tell them
what was thought in that country of the People's Charter—
be would give them the sentiments of the democrats of France.
He ( Dr. Wade) had taken a copy of the People's Charter
with him ' • they had carefully read it aver—they highly ap-
proved of it, and they wished to held out the right hand of
fellowship and fraternisation to the working men of England
in the great struggle for democracy and independence.
(Cheers. ) A vast portion of the middle classes of France sym-
pathised with the workmen of England. Was not that
an example worthy of imitation to the middle classes of Eng-
land, so as to induce them to co-operate with the work-
ing classes of their own country ?—( Hear, hear.) In France,
the people were determined to a man to resist oppres-
aion ; and in that country he trusted that they were all
determined to have a more extensive Suffrage, as a first step
to the political regeneration of the people. The National
Guard of France—the shopkeepers (boutiquiers as they
were called)—they were men who were determined to
stand up for their rights ; and it should be remembered
the National Guard comprised five millions of men, who made
their remonstrances with a pen in one hand and a sword
la the other. In that country the people were not allowed to
have public meetings, and they were therefore obliged, while
they signed the petition to have the pen in one band and the
sword in the other.—( Hear.) Advocate as he was for
moral force, he would say that if their meetings were
put an end to—if they were to have Gagging Bills
and to be treated as tyrannically as in France, it would be a
matter for their consideration what they would do under
such circumstances.—( Loud cries of " Hear, hear.")
He could speak well of two papers, the Spectator and the
London Dispatch In the Paris papers there were no re-
creants, no backsliders, but all were general recruits
to the people's cause. He wished he could say the
same of the papers of London. He would have
every association of working men in England taking
one copy of the National of France, because that Paper advo-
cated the rights of the working men. The leading article
might be translated and read to the Association. He
had been well received by the Editor of the National
----not on his own account, for he was nothing,
but on account of the Working Men's Association,
and he could assure them that not only their meeting of to-
tuaY, but every movement of the Association, was well
known all over the Continent. There was no apathy
abroad, and their demonstration to-day showed there was no
apathy here. If Louis Philippe, like Charles the Rash,
attempted to make war with Switzerland to get away
dpeleon Louis Bonaparte, he must take care his Throne
not fall from under him ; and if Lord John Russell at-
tempted to go on with despotism in Canada he might as well
attempt to put his tiny hand on the top of Mount Vesuvius to
!Aop the crater —(a laugh)—he would only burn his hand,
The could not stop the mighty volcano.—( Hear, hear.)
people must have a voice in the Legislature of the
e9untry--they must insist upon it. They must follow prin-
IPlea and not follow men. Follow principles and they would
e safe—follow men and they would be deceived. The Whigs
and Tories had deceived them, and thus the people had
teen
_ punished for following men. The people followed
Louis
Philippe, and he humbugged them out of their charter.
The movements of liberty could not be repressed, and whether
gan in England or in France, one would follow the other,
and produce liberty to both. He would notice one objection
raised by the Press. They said, education first. Now, he
said Universal Suffrage first, and for this simple reason, Uni-
versal Suffrage would give a desire for education, in order to
exercise their rights properly. It would also give them the
,teeans, if a man did not vote for a Bill for general education, to
'urn him out of his place, Parliaments being annual.—(Hear.)
He would advise the Working Men's Association not to conde-
Scend to argue with the Press, for Cobbett and Cartwright
bad failed to convince them, and they would not believe though
one should rise from the dead. It was stated in The Sun
Paper that there were only three thousand persons present.
Now he would ask whether that was true or false ?—(" It's not
true.") Why there were more present at this time.
lie would now 'say a word as to the Convention. One
advantage of it would be that the people would have
an executive power to watch the Government. The French
people laughed at the English on this account. They said,
" true it is you have great meetings, or vast demonstrations,
but what is the end of all ? When it is over you put your hands
in your breeches' pockets, and go about your business
as if you thought no more about it." Now a Convention would
be a lever extended so lone., that all the millions of the English
people would have their hand upon it. If any unjust aggressions
Were made on the people by the Convention, they would have
the power of calling a great Convention, and those who
OW not agree with it might go about their business. He
*would also call this a Committee of public safety. They
-ere not the innovators 'but the protectors of the public
safety—( Hear, hear, bear.) There was, however, great
danger to a nation when the Almighty suffered the basest men
the eve rule over it. So said the prophet Daniel. And that
(Hear hags were the basest of men was easily seen.
) They did all that the Tories wanted, in their whining,
apoy"tgglne, sneaking way.—( Great laughter.) He would
'Lie words which had been used on another occasion :
" God save the Queen,
Kick out the Parliament,

Chastise the fools,
Te (Great laughter And takes the rogues repent."
nee worth Doctor ;oncluded by proposing three cheers for
p
llr"neh people'
von
• HETHERINGTON then came forward to propose a
of thanks to tbe High Bagitl, for the courtesy with
.101:eb he had called the meeting, and the urbanity with
ar ch he had presided at it. This was not a formal vote,
ll he had to tender with all sincerity, for himself individu-
tha y' and for the Working Men's Asssociation, their best
IhkLs theto High Bailiff for the courtesy with which
1.. had
called the Meeting, and the urbanity he had exercised
m presiding over it.—( Hear, hear.)
44Here a Mr. Ackerly, who had represented himself to be
Are of af the Delegates from Gloucester, appeared in the
hus"t.g", nd desired to know why be bad been turned off the
tris
A Mi.r. LOVETT stated that he did not believe that Mr.
foe7rlY had been' delegated from any Association,
in his
had forged the signatures to a letter, all of which was
thets Own handwriting, stating that he was so.
HETIIEItINGTON then resumed. He wished, before
Present meeting concluded, to draw the attention of those
to some important facts. The meeting would
recollect that they were an Association of Working
Ratliff
and when they reflected upon the fact that the High
elitle of Westminster had been educated and reared in a
4,,ssa different from their own, he thought they were bound
tOratitude to the constituted authority of Westminster for
/11' candour and urbanity he had displayed.—( Hear, hear.)
tbQ
r‘eesqeuetnee of the courteous manner in which he had called
present meeting, some scamp in the Morning Herald
eludeAsbed his conduct in question. Mr. Hetherington con-
amid th bY e
proposing that the resolutions should be carried,
14roud cheers.
Jlinjd • Lee
OvETT seconded the resolution, which was carried
tremendous cheering.
t 11; he 111011 BAILIFF returned thanks. He had to thank
tfur the high honour they had conferred upon him, and
to haZed to say that he should feel it to be his duty
objects public meetings, so long as he considered the
lea`t of those meetings were constititutional and
weremate--(Cheers). He believed that public meetings
ton_..tthe most constitutional mode of giving an opportunity
. to
n
PerZie uents to state their opinions to their representatives
the j.neat• As snch he had called the present meeting.
goo°d"Jeet of it being legitimate, namely, that of obtaining
*eilidsaand cheap Government.—( Cheers.) In addition he
•-•-(Qr that he had called the meeting with great pleasure.
Mr eat cheering.)
differ • HaTheiteawros then begged to return his thanks to the
the nebnt constables for the manner in which they bad repelled
Pre,ensttructions that had been imposed by some factious party
The
dist, ,rset4de.eting then, at a few minutes past six o'clock, quietly

it
~.Pf twelve o'clock the meeting gradually increased, and
th:asort,
esti./lated by some of the gentlemen on the hustings
I)at 411 4t one iime there were from 15,000 to 17,000 persons
i,a,eyard.
hat Committee Committee stated that they had obtained 15,000 sig-
es to the petition throughout
the
11,Zhe following Deputations were present :—Eber;'zer...E____l-
-1/4dc,fts")or Sheffield • John Fraser and Abraham Duncan, 1. ""'
lii"urgh and county of Midlothian; R. K. Douglas anal
ul:ta-" Muntz, from Birmingham ; R. J. Richardson, from
ehester and its vicinity • Robert Lowrey, from Newcastle-
fro°lll4-IYoe, Sunderland, and Shields; Feargus O'Connor,
tim
Dewsbury, Huddersfield, Nottingham, Pres
dlet„4lHeckmondwikc, Wakefield, Barnsley, Mid-.
fat -11' i.etds, Queesishead Amblerthorn, Midgley, Hall-
Elland, Stainland, Mixemdenstones, Oxendon, Heb-
irk q:!dge, Rooley, Holdsworth, Thornton, Newpcller, Sutton
114,th-tn. Heywo'od, Mansfield, Bradford, Kilmarnock, an
p ; Hugh Williams. from Carmarthen, Llanelly, Swan-
caYPoul, and Merthyr ; Joseph Jones, from.N.orthamp-
kirk,and its vicinity; Archibald Downie, from Stirling. Pal-
(;
legF,.M.ilton, St. Ninian'A, Alva, Tillicoultry, and Alloa ;
°cools and Jonathan Beaumont, fr en Colchester;
-11rickr'' Reeve, John Allen, and Edward Fenner, fromviti `'t Dull
William Garrard and Joseph Bird, from Ipswich;
and Gewge Taylor, from Chelmsford and its
Alin't3.; G. Layton and J Ceary, from Brelitford ; sand T.
eeZtitue:risilin and
T. Smith, from Worcester.
aPProving of the objects of the meeting were re-
hawer •rnol Glasgosv, Ayr, Aberdeen, Bath, Almondbury,
otti,r th, Leamington, Leicester, Braintree, and from several
1)0.0 places, who are too busy in preparing for their own
nstrations to send Delegates
AT,

bdpe e°IINEYS' CLERKS.—The London law-men
fit the attendance of their clerks to be from ten in the
14,o'or4"dttl,till six in the evening. Cannot this .
rule be made
tor ; Surety eight hours of steady mischief enough
iongest day in all the year.
hileGh" 1:11)E.—.1t the close of Lest week, one of
-ery rst tides that has ever been known on the coast fu.r a
14%, unZ, time was .experienced off Weymouth. The wind
itthorolirettltheirn fresh fatom the southward, and being a spring tide,
;culiarly heavy swell, and pissed over
1.°11(1 at the bottom of Green-bill.— Wilts Herald.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

The numbers at the meeting at Pa'ace-yard yesterday,
have been variously estimated at from eight to fifteen thou-
seed. But eight, or ten, or twenty thousand men can be
collected together in London on a Monday to see the
ascent of a balloon, or to witness any piece of tomfoolery ;
so that we attach little importance to the mere numbers
It was attended by delegates from the manufacturing towns
of England and Scotland ; and to the language uttered by
some of these delegates we do attach some importance. A
very tolerable idea may be formed of what Mr. Feargus
O'Connor and some others have been about of late, from
what dropped not only from that gentleman, but from seve-
ral of the other delegates of the North of England and
Scotian 1. The first who addressed the meeting was Mr.
Lovett. the Secretary of the Working Men's Association,
himself a good specimen of a working man, who seri-
ously addressed himself to various objections to the Exten-
sion of the Suffrage, and laboured to show that Universal
Suffrage was not only just in itself, but would be attended
with no danger. While he disclaimed the mischievous
opinions respecting capital which had been imputed to the
working men, he "lamented that some unreasonable obser-
vations had been made on this subject, and without due
consideration ; but he felt satisfied that the people of Eng-
land (and be would appeal to the delegates around him to
declare their sentiments with regard to the feelings enter-
tained by those whom they represented) sought not vio-
lence and confusion, but peaceable and orderly change." It
was judicious in Mr. Lovett to repudiate the erroneous
doctrines on this subject rashly delivered at some of the
meetings of the working classes, and to show that capital
was as indispensable to labour as labour to capital, for the
speeches to which he alluded created much alarm in the
minds of people of property. Mr. LoVett in illustrating
the position that ignorance was the cause of most of the
evil in the world, very ingeniously endeavoured to show
that ignorance was to be found in all classes, and
that no rank secured to a man the possession of
knowledge. It is quite true that weakness and igno-
rance are to be found among the rich as well as the poor ;
but it is equally true that the rich man has leisure and fa-
cilities for obtaining knowledge which the poor man, obliged
to toil for the daily bread of himself and family, does not.
possess ; and though (and Mr. Lovett himself is an in-
stance) a working man may overcome the disadvantages
incident to his situation—and in our times the facilities for
improvement opened to the workinr, classes in our great
towns have made it much easier than formerly for the work-
ing classes to acquire knowledge—still the general propo-
sition will always hold true, that among those who live by
the labour of their hands comparatively few can be able to
cultivate their minds. Before proceeding further with the
meeting, we may notice some misapprehension on the part
of one speaker (Mr. Hetherington) with regard to a remark
of our own on the Address of the working classes. He
seemed to suppose that because we objected to their losing
sight of the difference between America and England with
respect to population and territory, that we, therefore,
conceived that abundance of fertile land must everywhere
produce the same results as in the United States. " Let
them look," he said " to Russia : there was a large
extent of territory very thinly populated ; and yet
because the people had not their rights they were slaves
and serfs on the land." The speaker need not have gone
to Russia. In the very States of which he was speaking
there are two millions of blacks who are slaves on the
land which they cultivate, and do not share in the pros-
perity of the whites, their masters. We never meant to
say that the welfare of men was not affected by their Go-
vernment, but that Government alone was not the cause
of all the distinctions between communities of men. In
the country alluded to by the speaker, Switzerland, while
the people in one canton are poor and miserable, in an-
other they are comparatively well off ; and Dr. Bow-
ring's observations apply merely to the districts along the
Lake of Geneva, and the neighbourhood of the Lake of
Constance and the Rhine, where the people are profitably
employed. Universal Suffrage—the People's Charter—is
the object which they were to unite in obtaining ; and the
grievances alluded to at the meeting, as the Corn-laws for
instance, were rather brought forward as proof of the ne-
cessi y for the extension of the Suffrage than for
substantive discussion. When Universal Suffrage has
once been obtained, then the political millennium is
to follow as a matter of course. The people will
have no difficulty in determining what measures are bene-
ficial and what hurtful to the community. A significant
commentary on this was afforded by the notions which oc=
casionally dropped from the speakers as to what they
deemed grievances. Mr. Leader, who spoke at the meet-
ingerecemmended moderation, and alluded to what Me.
O'Connell had done by recommending peace, and what ha I
befallen the Canadians by adopting a different course. Mr.
Elliot, of Sheffield, too, the most fervent of poets, whom
nature has so peculiarly qualified for a Tyrtmus, concluded
his ardent speech with a recommendation of peaceable
means. " And let us," said he, " have 20 talk of physical
force, for you can use it victoriously whenever you need ;
but men who mean to resist don't always warn the enemy
to be beforehand with them." This is the language
of good sense ; but the men of the north had, appa-
rently, little taste for it. Messrs. Fraser and Dun-
can, the delegates from Edinburgh, told wonders of
the martial spirit of the men of Scotland, and pro-
claimed Mr. Feargus O'Connor their great apostle. Mr.
Lowry, of Newcastle, was still more unequivocal. " The
men of the north," he said, " were well organized. The
men of Newcastle dared defend with their arms what they
uttered with their tongues and that the military would
have learned on the Coronation-day had they made an at-
tack on the meeting." This is pretty well. But he spoke
still plainer. He proclaimed civil war as the alternative of
refusing Universal Suff.age. " They thought they had a
right to have a reciprocity of rights, and if not, they were
prepared to go against the Throne and the Aristocracy."
And one of the wise measures which Universal Suffrage is
to obtain for us is the removal of the National Debt. " If
the National Debt were removed, and the Corn-laws
abolished, trade would flourish." Mr. Lcwry does not, of
course, contemplate payment as a means of removal. This
proposition ought to have followed and not preceded
Universal Suffrage. Mr. Feargus O'Connor, who left.
no doubt as to his views, and proclaimed the
union between himself and King Oastler and
Parson Stephens, in order to rove the intelli-
gence of the people, advanced a still more questionable
proposition. " It was said the people were not sufficiently
intelligent—that they had not sufficient knowledge. He
would ask whether they did not know a rogue front an ho-
nest man." None have professions of honesty more fre-
quently in their mouths than rogues ; and to know a rogue
from an honest man is a piece of knowledge which many
men never acquire, and not a few only acquire at the expense
of their own ruin. Wolves are still occasionally found in
sheep's clothing. But as Mr. Feargus O'Connor is the
oracle of these associations, let us hear what his views are.
" The people," he said, " were determined to obtain
Universal Suffrage, honestly if they could, but they were
determined to have it. He counselled them against all
rioting—all civil war ; but still, in the hearing of the House
of Commons, he would say, that rather than see the people
oppressed—rather than see the Constitution violated while
the people were in daily want—if no other man would do
so—if the Constitution were violated he would himself lead
the people to death or glory !" It may be asked what is
meant by violating the Constitution? Does be mean
the refusal to give the Charter ? To concede
Universal Suffrage ? Mr. Feargus O'Connor spoke a
language which, though ambiguous here, is not ambiguous
in the North. Mr. Oastler says the new Poor-law is a
violation of the Constitution, justifying resistance ; and he
calls on the people to arm and train. And Mr. Feargus
O'Connor identified himself with Oastler. " There were,*
he said, " Oastler and Stephens—the one called a mad-
man, and the other a firebrand, because of their honesty—
who were watching during his absence—Nilo were loekieg
out for squalls." And he boasted of the people of Dews-
bury having, by way of sample, beat back the London
polite—apostrophising " the three devils of Somerset
House," The New Poor-law is, therefore, the grievance
of c,:ievances, foe the removal of which Mr. Feargus
Co
ready to laet4 the Eeople to death or glory.
So much for the "iisd°l" "la jjnivprsal Suffrage is to
hardso.n, of Manchester, tpld
obtain for us. Mr. he': had begun la arms.the meeting that " the peopte.
hang ng
They were armed. He had seen the 2."15
over their mantel pieces." And he added, " if they
fail in the present instance, he would not attempt to say
what would be the consequence. The rifles would be
loaded—that would be the next step, no doubt ; and he
defied the power of any Government, or of any armed
Bourbon police, to put them down. It was no use to dis-
guise the matter ; secrecy was the ruin of all things." Mr.
Richardson took care to inform the meeting that he ex-
pected, at the meeting•to be held at Manchester on Mon-
day next, at least three hundr,:d thousand men, of whom
two-thirds would be fit to carry arms. That Mr. Roe-
buck Itis not been altogether an utkucoessful teacher,
was proved by the c ire with which one of his observa-
tions—ia his letter of reproach to Mr. O'Connell—
seems to have ben treasured up by a Mr. Williams,
of Carmarthen. " Moral force was a farce unless that
they showed that there was another jbrce behind by
their orgenization." There can, therefore, be no mistake
here. We attach far more importance to these speeches
of the delegates from the manuthctur:ng districts than we
do to the speeches of the men who counselled moderation
and peace. We know from these speeches the sort of
schoolmaster by whom the people there have bean schooled.
We know nothing of King Oastler and Parson Stephens
but what we li .ve learned from their speeches and writings;
and that Oastler was put forward by the Tories as a can-
didate for Huddersfield, and calls himself a Tory. Mr.
Feargus O'Connor avows a partnership with Messrs. Oast-

ler and Stephens ; and Mr.. Feargus O'Connor is the
apostle of the working classes. So that we have Oast.
ler calling himself a Tory, swearing by the memory
of Lord Mon, and consequently an enemy of ail exten-
sion of the franchise; aad here we have the working
classes fully impressed with the belief that Mr. Feargus
O'Connor, the partner of ()ostler and Stephens, with
whom he will lead the people to death or glory, will obtain
for them Universal Suffrage. Mr. Oastler cannot be a
Tory and an honest co-arrater with those who seek for
Universal Suffrage. It would seem that, provided a fight
can be got up, it is a m Itter of little consequence what the
people fight for ; and that—while some are fighting against
the new Poor-law, and some for Universal Suffrage--all
will be right in the end. The new Poor-law is clearly the
means on which Mr. Feargus O'Connor mainly relies to
recruit his forces. And Mr. Richard Oastler owes it. no
doubt, to his hostility to that measure that he is, in .a
manner, justified by the Times for calling on the people to
arm and train ! —llorniny Chronicle.
Our anticipations have been realized. The great Radi-
cal meeting of yesterday passed off in the most tranquil
manner. There was not only no disturbance, but not
even the slightest sympton of a disposition to create confu-
sion or disorder, far less a breach of the public peace.
The friends of order throughout the country will concur
with us in congratulating those who got up the meeting of
yesterday on the moderate character of the proceedings.
The working classes seem at last to have made the grand
discovery—the wonder is they had not made it long be-
fore—that their cause is not to be subscrved by violence,
whether in sentiment or expression ; but that a temperate
tone, blended with decision, is far more likely to conduce
to the triumph of those principles which appear to them
to be inseparably associated with good and cheap Go-
vernment. It will be seen, from th very ample report
of the proceedings with which we elsewhere present
our readers—a report unequalled by that of any of
our Contemporaries—that the speakers on the occa-
sion were unusually numerous. This is chiefly to be
ascribed to the circumstance of an arrangement having
been previously made, by which they were severally limited
to half an hour at the utmost in their addresses to the as-
sembled multitude. The arrangement was a judicious one,
and will be found worthy of imitation at any future publi,
meeting of magnitude which may be held in the metropolis.
The meeting yesterday presented an imposing aspect. We
do not so much allude to the numbers assembled—though
there could not have been less than 15,000 or 16,000—as
to the perfect unanimity of purpose by which they were ac-
tuated, and the singular harmony of tone and expression
which characterised the addresses of the' various speakers.
There seems to be a calm yet settled determination on the
part of the millions, that they shallno longer remain unrepre-
sented ; but that their sentiments and interests shall be ex-
pressed and defended in the Legislature of the country. The
fact of there being delegates from ail parts of the country at the
meeting of yesterday, representing at least from three to four
millions of the working classes, indicates in language which
is not to be misunderstood, that the movement which is
now taking place in all the populous towns throughout the
kingdom, can no longer be regarded with indifference or be
treated with contempt. We do not sympathize with the
meeting of yesterday in all the objects they have in view.
We think that some of the resolutions went farther
than would either be safe or practicable. Still we. re-
joice at the movement now making throughout the coun-
try, and at the particular demonstration yesterday made
in Palace-yard. We anticipate the happiest results from
it. The organization which now exists among the work-
ing classes, and their determination to be represented in
th Legislature of the country, must give an impulse
to the popular cause which cannot fail to prove fatal to
any Min'stry which has the temerity to attempt to resist
it. Will the Administration of Lord Melbourne make
such attempt? We have no idea that they will ever
sanction the principle of Universal Suffrage, neither will
they concur in any measure which contemplates Annual
Parliaments ; but we do believe that the result of the
mighty movement which is now taking place throughout
the width and breadth of the land will insure the speedy
triumph of those great principles for which we have for a
long course of years strenuously contended—the principles,
namely, of Triennial Parliaments, Household Suffrage, and
the Vote by Ballot. And these are principles which, when
carried into effect, will be productive of results that will mare
than compensate for all the exertions and sacrifices which
the working classes are now making to secure an efficient
legislative representation. There can be no question that
another Session of Parliament will not pass away without
one or more of the great principles to which we have ta-
ferred being recognised by a vote of the House of Com
mons, if not embodied in an Act of both branehes of the
Legislature.—ilfornitty Advertiser.

Yesterday's Radical Assembly in Palace-yard, so boast-
fully announced as ". The Great Meeting of the People of
England, has been " a heavy blow and great discourage-
ment" to its projectors. Whatever could be effected by
the loudest note of preparation, by the longest advertise-
ments, by the largest puff, was diligently done ; and, con-
sidering that tae day was fine, and that the meeting was
so arranged as to fall on a Monday, the too general holy-
day of improvident workmen, we thought it not un-
likely that the concourse might be a considerable one.
We were not, indeed, sufficiently fanciful to anticipate, as
some gave out, that the numbers would be too vast for
the area of .Palace-yard, and that an adjournment to Hyde
Park would become neusiary, or even that 100,000 men
would be gathered together for so profitless a purpose;
but most certainly we laid our account with a total rather
more considerable than the meagre array of from 4,000 to
5,000 persons. Tne orig:nators of the meeting will Gf
course. quadruple this enumerivion ; we give it, however,
not upon loose (onjecture, but from the computation of
an officer of rank, accustomed to survey and to deal
with large bodies of men. Amidst all the contempt and
disgust isi•le which we. contempl ite the selfish impositions
practised upon the people by knowing adventurers, we have
a sincere respect for the genuine feelings of the people
themselves, and a sympathy with their suff rings apart from
the errors into which those sufferings occasionally betray
them. When a little knot of working men is collected to-
gether, as happened ye,terday, in the hope, however vi-
sionary, that their demonstration will do something to bet-
ter their condition, a reasonable and humane observer should
look at them, not as a dienagogue would do, in the light
of instruments which may be irresponsibly used for a mis-
chievous end ; nor, as a courtier of the Holy Alliance
would regard them in the light of insurgents to be sum-
marily quelled with a strong hand ; but as neighbours
and brethren whose physical privations are real, though
their political remedies are visionary. Nor is our cha-
rity at all soured by the fretful, nay virulent style, in
which several of the speakers of yesterday's meeting deli.
vered themselves against educated men in general, -and
especially against the conductors of the Periodical Press.
The main object of some of those leaders really seemed to
be to establish that the Press had ever been, and is now,
the great foe of liberty ; that information and experiinee
in matters of politics are not only useless for the practical
guidance of nations, but actually injurious to the well-
being of' the popular classes ; inasmuch as, to use the
very expression of' one orator, is of all men, the lite.
rary men had been the basest of apostates." Surely
this language was not very just to a power which has
peacefully wrought what the pikes of whole provinces
could never have accomplished—surly, we me,- add,
it was not language at all calculated t o encourage the
audisrre ; for it informed them, In other words, that their
cause was hopeless ; that they would have to struggle for
political power not only against the prejudices of the world
and the wealth of the upper claeses, but against the whole
array of cultivated intellect, throughout a population
where opinion is almost omnipotent. We can tell these
exalted and inflated politipiang that they would not hive
carried the Reform Bill against such odds, If anything
further be available to illustrate the absurdity of such doe.
trines, it is the boast of another speaker, that though the
farmers are blinded by a deplorable ignorance, their taboo
.ers
are intelligently alive to the interests of the workail
classes! Now, if we couhl conprehen4 in whet way tliP
interests of the working classes would be advanced by 415)
of the changes which were yesterday proposed to them, we
should he inclined to take a much more favourable slew
than we do now of the movement and the movers. Show
us that the accomplishment of a particular plan will really
;whereto the condition of those who constitute an im-
mense majoyity of all the iehahitenti of the land! c 1
go far to beat down the geneFal arguments whiph oppose
^ryes to constitutional change, But eVOII if yap could
attain every frai:e'll'ise embraced in the Charter of Reform
or _0
gh all Englanf, whether in agriculture
bwohuicrl,r tthhirso
umeeting was co.tnveti,,,l to advance, no' one
manufactures, would be thereby eaabli.4 tcl erne p Ar
tide to his enjoyment or welfare, thivers 1 S,uffragie, an-
nual Election, Vote by Ballot—these are thc., chlof
mends of the Charter. But, as we yesterday rem!nded ott:
readers, these are no pesitivn benefits in themselves ; they
can only have a value as means to some and, What thO'
is the end? A greater command of the necessaries of lira,
of the means of physical comfort and mental improv, m
The only way to realise three objects on a large sale is to
bring about a higher rate of' wags, Ilut eliet
down wage; is the comp eition of those who live by thew;
they bid against each other for employireat till the CO'
ployer gets his workmen at a moderate, frAuently at too
low a price. What legislative alierle pan star 010 'POW
pet.ition ? Possess Yourselves this in4tant 01 411 the a' ti-
which your most expansive reform would be3tow, and what
can you do with it toward this, your only practical poiot
The rearm why you have not what you seek is not that you
-are kept from it by the want of franchisre but that the thing
you seek is initself impossible. Let any man only find
out what law can be made by which the vi orking classes
in general t.bal be place.) in a situation of greeter,
comfort (a matter whol!7 unconnected with peftli