The Sun.
London, England, 1838-09-27 00:00:00

RADICAL DEMONSTRATION AT

LIVERPOOL.

( Abridged Atm the Corning Advertiser.)
Lts-Esroon, Tutsoav EVENiNo.—The meeting of the
Liverpool Radicals, for the purpose of adopting the Birming-
ham Petition, was held this afternoon, in the Old Infirmary.
yard. Delegates were present from various parts of the king-
dem, all of whom, as they were recognised on the hustings,
Were retetved with loud applause.
Mr. GoobeEnnow, a working man, having been called to
the Chair amidst the cheering of the meeting, stated that they
were assembled on that occasion for the purpose of carrying
the People's Charter, which demanded Universal Suffrage,
Vote by Ballot, Annual Parliaments, the Abolition of the Pro-
perty Qualification, and the Payment of the Members of the
House of Commons by the nation. He would call on John
Robinson, a working man, to move the first resolution.
Mr. RODIN:MN, who was received with much applause, came
forward for the purpose of bringing under their notice a reso-
lution containing a great and important principle, which, if
carried out to its full extent, would secure peace and plenty to
this happy land.—( Cheers.) That principle embraced Uni-
versal Suffrage, or the right of every man to vote for the re-
presentatives of the people in the Commons' House of Par-
liament. The labouring classes, to be sure, were told that
they were too ignorant to be entrusted with the franchise ; it
was a boon too great to be conferred upon them. If that
event were to take place as the community now stands, our
enemies say the rights of property would be invaded. He
denied that such would be the result. The rights of property
were too holy and sacred to be invaded ; but equally sacred
were the rights and privileges of the labouring classes. They
tell us we are prone to violence—that we are a mere mob.
He denied it. They tell us we are levellers, and that our
object is to destroy capital. He would assert that the Radi-
cals of Liverpool never entertained nor professed any such
principles; on the contrary, they revere its sacredness, and
Ihad always displayed that feeling. The labOuring classes
want nothing more than their natural rights—a good day's
work, and a good day's wages.—( Cheers.) He cordially
moved the ffrst resolution—" That from our experience of
the past, and the prospects of the future, we have no hope in
the Howe of Commons as at presented constituted ; we
therefore adopt the National Petition, demanding for the
people Universal Suffrage, Annual Parliaments, Vote by
Ballot, Wages of Attendance, and the Abolition of the Pro-
perty Qualification in Members of the House of Commons,
and that it be recommended for signature to the whole of the
inhabitants of Liverpool and its vicinity."
Mr. EDMONDS, a Delegate from the Birmingham Political
Union, came forward to second the resolution. He came
there as a delegate from the Birmingham Political Council,
and he could with sincerity say that hi was glad, after all
the political experience he had had in various parts of the
kingdom, to have at last an opportunity of meeting the people
of Liverpool.—( Applause.) The speaker then went on to
state that he had assisted Mr. Attwood in the formation of the
Birmingham Political Union—a union which was generally
admitted to have been the instrument of much good, and was
on all bands allowed to have carried the great and important
measure of Parliamentary Reform. Now, if they by combina-
tion, could carry a measure like that, which did not compre-
hend the interests of thousands upon thousands of non-
electors, what ought they to accomplish by the same means
in seeking for measures which comprehended the interests of
all honest men throughout the empire ?—( Loud applause.)
He rejoiced exceedingly in the grand movement that was now
being made—he called it a grand movement, and such it un-
doubtedly was ; for it would rouse up and stir into active life
every, even the lowest, atom of society, and leave not one un:
influenced by its operations.—( Hear, hear.) He was sorry
to be obliged to own that they had obstacles to encounter ; but
such was the fact. The meeting there assembled was a great
meeting ; but it was not what it ought to have been ; they
should have had many more persons there. But he would let
that pass, and to those who were present he would say that
the time had come when they must begin to bestir themselves.
It had been said that Mr. O'Connor had beets recom-
mending a resort to physical force, but the assertion was un-
true;. at least, it was untrue if it was pretended to be asserted
that he had done anything but what was sanctioned by the
Constitution, itself. A resort to physical force, in cases of
extreme oppression and tyranny, was a right which had been
obtained by Englishmen at the accession of the present
Royal Family. As Mr. O'Connor had said, however, the
man who now recommends physical force is a traitor
..—( Hear, from Mr. O'Connor)—for when the time came that
that would be necessary, they might rest satisfied that it would
not be requisite for him or any other man to recommend it.—
( Cheers.) At present their weapon was the weapon of moral
force. And what was moral force? He would tell them.
If they could imagine this to be what it was not—a fine clear
day, with the sun shining gloriously above them and casting
their shadows upon the ground, then moral force would be to
physical force what the shadow was to the substance. Moral
force was, in fact, the shadow of physical force. The great
evil under which the working men of this country laboured
was taxation—grievous taxation. One-half the earnings of
their labour were taken from them, in the shape of taxes, on
Saturday night. Let them make known to their tyrant op-
pressors the evils under which they labour. Let them do it
in a spirit of indignation that will be heard and feared by
all.—(Hear.) There was one great error into which the
people had been led—they had been told by men of great name
to take their rights by instalments. Take no instalments was
his emphatic advice. If their full demands were not con-
ceded to them, let them go on promulgating their
opinions, upholding their principles, and combining
the people ; and he would answer for it that the
same display of moral force and energy which would
suffice to carry the most paltry concessions from the
faction which opposed them, wouid serve to carry Universal
Suffrage and the other important measures which they sought
to obtain. Their opponents might erect barriers to stop their
progress ; but they did not care for their barriers ; they might
as well attempt to stop the course of the sun as to stop the
on-going of the principles of Reform. Let all who gloried in
the name of Englishmen determinedly come forth to put a pe-
riod to the wrongs of their oppressors ; let there be much ink
shed, but no blood. The faction under whose tyranny they
groaned acre but a paltry half million ; and a combined move-
ment on their part would, by the silent operation of peace and
justice, deliver their country from that galling tyranny which
had been the growth of ages.—(Applause.) He concluded
by seconding the motion.'
Mr. FEARGUS O'CONNOR them presented himself, and was
received with loud cheering. The Learned Gentleman ad-
dressed the multitude to the following effect ;—" Universal
Suffrage would accomplish all that they could possibly look
for, and until they could get that measure, it would be impos-
sible ever to look for any thing else. He would himself con-
tend for the rights of the working people of both England and
Ireland without distinction. He should never forget that he
was an Irishman. —( Hear, and cheers.) Ireland was his
country, and the world was his republic.—( Hear, hear.) He
saw several thousands of his unfortunate fellow-countrymen in
a state almost of starvation in the town of Liverpool. They
came to England in search of work ; they were an industrious
population, and they had a perfect right, so long as they had
not the means of exercising their industry in their own country,
to come to England for that purpose.—( Hear, hear.) He
He must have justice for Ireland as well as for England, and
if he could help it, unless justice was done to his own country,
England should not have justice either.—( Hear.) He would
challenge the whole Press of Liverpool, every single soul con.
nected with that Press, to stand up on that platform and contend
with him upon any of the subjects for which thot meeting hal
assembled. Let them not skulk in their garrets with quills
behind their ears, croaking like a sow with pigs is her belly,
beginning all their sentences with the personal pronoun we,
making their readers believe that what " we" say are the opi-
nions of the whole world, whereas they are only the opinions
of the person who writes. The Mercury said he would ask
Feargus O'Connor how he had voted on the Corn-laws when
in Parliament. Now he ( Mr. O'Connor) never voted against
the repeal of the Corn-laws, but he voted for a fixed duty.
Speaking of the Press, the Learned Gentleman said that of all
the daily papers in London none stood by either him or the
working classes except the Morning Advertiser—it was the
only paper in London which was doing justice to their meet-
ings.—( Hear, hear, and cheers.) There was the Mercury,
the Times, The Sun, the Globe, the Courier, the Chronicle,
were all against the working classes. He would agitate,
and by agitating he would put doe n all the Press. He had
travelled the country agitating ; but all the expenses were
out of his own pocket. The Whigs, however, had hired
a bagman to travel into Holland, into Austria, and France
—this bagman was one Dr. Syntax Bawrincsb—the Whigs
have created a new place for him, and he goes from town to
town speaking about the Corn-laws. Ile was its Manchester
the other day, and he said that corn was always high in price
when labour itself was high, and pointed to Switzerland as
a proof of his assertions • but he never told his audience, that
in England every man was' mortgaged to the amount of 1231.,
wTohuel d
Learned
co a
rt
nh
ee d p
O'Connor) w
Switzerland such was not the case. He ( Mr. F.
as as determined as any man for a repepl of the
Coirine:lnavvs,•,but a repeal of those laws, or of any other laws,
that they
eGopenletloLemfe
Universal Suffr
laws stated, that ag
thee
with-
in the last few years
This land, if put into proper
head of a family sufficient
connected Anectnaoesien
of
the aElisniginlanadavenroti,gigoodaguanintiltothtehye got the
pocket their own savings.
ofg 602u0r e bad robbed the people
et,ecotueglOdtri
00v
wwaotoi
cultivation,
acres
wouldof commonafford
to
every land.
itthbethfeoodLitvheartpohoel
Press,
roeuslsd,
geese who was afraid.Qo to meet Mr.
butMwr.as
was O'Connorthere t
eon s p ae clearspeak
te s
licete stage.—(Cries e
question,. —(C r e
aonfd woueldstiporno.p"o)se Hean
amendment to the original motion. If it was_ra merit to have
,
been a Radical in the worst of times, then he M : Aeland) de-
served this merit.—( Question, question, and cries of
‘
your amendment.") He would not read his amendment u
Read
lie had finished what he had to say.—(Order,
orde‘r, , e
and t
until
confusion. E
o)stosins rose to order, and said that at a meeting
like this, consisting of many thousands, the Chairman had a
right to know the nature onf the
amendment.
The CHAIRMAN having decided in favour of Mr. Edmonds'
suggestion,
Acstion
'LAND then proceeded, amidst shouts of laughter,
at oil
tijoelheraofdi
thei hise people
ii
ciuoorpsl,eand of
f
amendment,th theuws oul country
Awnrtaya sril t o the effect that the majo-
rwere in the habit of using
unproductivee
incurred
the danger of
whilst
intoxication—a danger
ex-
posedunproductive
the weak amongst the constituencies good,
of the countryit
tothe mischief of bribery and corruption.
Mr. O'CONNOR rose to order, and the question having beer,
put as to whether the amendment was relevant to the objects
of the meeting, it was decided by a show of hands that it was
not so.
The resolution was then put and carried.
Mr. JOHN MURRAY disapproved of the use of ardent spirits,

but he had seen nearly half a million of people at Manchester,
and he had not seen one drunken man amongst them—let them
then not talk of immorality amongst the people.—(Loud
cheers.) But he did not come there to read them a lecture.
but to propose a resolution.—( Hear.) What they contended
for %%as Universal Suffrage. He would conclude by pro-
posing the following resolution :—" That this meeting
fully approves of the People's Charter, as the outline of an
Act to provide for the just representation of the People of
the United Kingdom in the Commons' House of Parlia-
ment, in accordance with the principles set forth in the Na-

tional Petition."—( Cheers.)
Mr. CORBETT had to return his thanks to the Committee
who had appointed him to second the resolution just proposed.
The principles set forth in the Charter to which the petition
referred were Universal Suffrage, Annual Parliaments, Vote
by Ballo', no Property Qualification, and the payment of Wages
to Members of Parliament.—( Cheers.) It was to procure
these objects that this meeting had assembled—it was for that
object mote than 300,000 persons had met at Kersall- moor
yesterday, and they must, in pursuing, it, determine that they
shill never be swayed or deterred by their crotchety friends,
who might pretend to join them.—(Cheers.) The Whigs,
the humanity-crotchet. mongers, the teetotal-men, and the
education people, all joined the masses when they took their
business into their own hands ; but whenever they got the
people to join with them, that instant they sacrificed them.—..
( Cheers.) That was the trick which had been played when
the Reform Bill was gained.—( Hear, hear, hear. ) They
bad been told by Mr. O'Connor that Dr. Syntax Bow-
ring had been in Manchester attempting to get up an anti.
Corn-law agitation. Now, he (Mr. Cobbett) was, as well
as Mr. O'Connor, an advocate for the repeal of those laws,
and when, with a reformed Government, they could go for it,
and the measure was rendered practicable, then he would
warmly advocate it.—( Hear.) Nay, if they had the power
to repeal them now, he would tell them to go for it—but he
was now against it, as a Whig humbug, got up to distract the
minds of the manufacturing classes, when they were moving
to obtain their own rights.—(Cheering.) He called it a
humbug, because it was a question well calculated in the
agitation of it to create disunion between the manufacturing
and agricultural classes in Lancashire and Yorkshire.—
( Hear, hear.) It was well known that on this point they
differed, whereas they were agreed upon the question of
Universal Suffrage ; and thus it was to prevent their
acting in concert to yrocure that question on which they
were agreed, that that on which they disagreeed was agi-
tated.—(Cheers.) He called on them to have nothing what-
ever to do with those deceivers to whom he referred. Their
meetings had been termed demonstrations, as tending
to show their power derived from their union, but if they did
not act as well as talk then these demonstrations were mere
vanity.—( Hear.) He would advise them all, therefore, to
become members of the Political Union, and if they could not
pay to its funds a penny a week, let them pay a halfpenny.—
( Hear.) Let them attend the meetings of the Union, and
never give up agitation till they had obtained their rights.
What was the meaning of moral force but the informing their
enemies that they had physical force ready when they wanted
it ?--(Cheers.) He would not advise them to use physical
force, for whoever advised them to do so should be ready to
lead them ; and although be (Mr. Cobbett) might be a good
attorney, yet he was not aware that he was a good general.
Therefore, he would not call on them to hare recourse to
physical force ; but if they pretended to make demonstrations
of moral force, and were not ready to use physical force, if it
became needful, then they were either grossly deceived by
some persons, or they had not sufficient strength of mind to
act for themselves.—(Hear, and cheers.)
Mr. COLLINS, from Birmingham, said, the man who paid
taxes, and who was unrepresented, was a slave ; but he
could congratulate the meeting on the march of mind
amongst the working classes, and it was high time the
people of Liverpool should be up and stirring, and the
good ship Britannia would soon be propelled by the paddles
of Universal Suffrage, which, once acquired, the filth of
Whigism or Toryism would be unable to stop the progress of
the gallant vessel. It was impossible that the masses, when
they congregated, aware of the miseries entailed upon them,
should separate without manifesting their determination to get
rid of them. A million of people in Scotland were with
them—the men of Birmingham were with them, and with the
aid of those who were assembled yesterday on Kersal.moor,
the country would soon be free and happy.—(Cheers.)
Mr. LOWRY (of Newcastle) supported the resolution in a
powerful speech. The people were now (he said) determined
to achieve their own freedom. The Tories had ever been
against the working men, whom they considered to be born as
hewers of wood and drawers of water." The working men,
therefore, hated the Tories, and the Whigs also, who they be-
lieved to be as bad as the Tories, if they had the courage te
exhibit their vice. If the Tories had the Manchester massacre,
the Whigs had their Calthorpe-street massacre. Let the peo-
ple, then, cast away the delusive hope that they had anything
to expect from them. The people had sufficient intel-
ligence to govern themselves, and they would do so. He had
said in London the other day that literary men were the
basest apostates, and he would say again that integrity was
the only test for the Suffrage..—( Loud cheers.) He would
not consider the people to be freemen till they could stand up
holding equal political privileges with any aristocrats, and if
they relied on themselves they would soon be in that position.
—( Loud cheers.)
The resolution was then put and carried.
Mr. M.NULTT proposed the next resolution, which was—
" That Thomas Smith, Esq., and Mr. Whittle be appointed
delegates to attend a General Convention of the industrious
classes, not exceeding 49 in number, to be assembled in Lon-
don for the purpose of adopting every legal measure which
may be considered necessary to induce Parliament to carry
the great objects of the national petition into a law."
The resolution was seconded and supported by Mr. Buss;
and thanks having been given to the Chairman, the meeting
,arated.

•
THE RADICAL DINNER AT LIVERPOOL.
The dinner took place this evening, Tuesday, at the Queen's
Theatre, the pit of which was boarded over for the occasion,
along which, extending from the stage to the boxes, six rows
of tables were laid, not a place being unoccupied. The lower
circle of boxes was appropriated to the ladies, and was also
completely filled. A number of banners and union-jacks were
displayed in various parts of the theatre.
Neither Mr. Attwood nor Mr. Sharman Crawford were pre-
sent ; Mr. Attwood being confined by illness in London, and
Mr. Sharman Crawford having written a letter of apology.
Shortly after six o'clock, the Chair was taken by Mr. Jonm
CLARKE.

After the cloth was removed,
The CHAIRMAN rose and said, that they had been assem.
bled on that evening for the purpose of celebrating the corn
mencement of those rights which had for its object the re
storation of those rights which at one period they certainly
and undeniably possessed—the right of choosing their repre-
sentatives to serve in Parliament—the right of choosing those
men who would, and whose duty it was to guard their rights,
their interests, their lives, and the property which they earned
by their labour.—( Hear, hear, and loud cheers.) They were
told by their opponents that they did not possess sufficient
knowledge—( Hear, bear, hear)—but when, he would ask,
had knowledge been made tho basis of the possession of civil
rights—( Hear, hear, hear)--the basis of that right which they
claimed as their natural possession, and which they asserted no
man had a right to take away ?—( Hear, hear.) They did
not claim this right on the ground of the inferior knowledge
of others---(Hear)—but because their claim was one for that
which was their natural right, and that, which if taken away
from them, would render them slaves.—( Hear.) And he
would now ask whether those in the ranks above them exer-
cised the knowledge they asserted they possessed judiciously,
did they find it so, or rather, when did they not find that
these higher ranks had prostituted their talents, their intelli-
gence, their influence and their wealth, for the purposes of cor-
ruption, if
it
had been acted on with judgment ?—( Hear.) When
and fo r
oughtthe
to purposeenc ofnr
encourage ?—(Loud
utdh o soeh whoses.
e
erthere were other objections urged against the Extension of
the Suffrage; it was stated that the great masses of the people
were prone to corruption. Now, what was corruption ? When
he mentioned the word, he would ask what was the meaning of
it, and what wax its bearing ?—( Hear, bear.) The labouring
interests they
classes did not seek to corrupt the labouring; classes—the
poor did not desire to corrupt the poor—they did riot seek
to drive—they had not the power to drive—the poor out of their
homes, or to intimidate or terrify them by threats. No, the
nobility and the aristocracy were those w-ho sought to intimi-
date all, to drive and to demoralize the poor, who could be
demoralized by the temptation of a small sum.—( Hear, hear.)
Thus it was that it was they who made their wealth were those
whom the aristocracy desired to destroy._( Hear, hear.) The
other objection urged against the rights of the working classes
was that they were not mon of property. Now, this certainly
was a dreadful charge.—( Hear, and a laugh.) But they were
the labourers, and labour was that which produced property—
propertyyh whowho
he
lcdr
ae tet
the
et
lhaant offspringdod prope
retayrnine dtahloo roeo nn
tornye; y earandthyttelt
was the offspring of labour.—( Hear, and cheers.) Yes,
and
‘odr sateshwceharged against them that they were not men of property.
ed,
aLnedt
tthheermo
we xahs i
noi t
p fio rwmenr es l
which e
ct tuhl edmd
obney mt
oo dt ehreamt e
their and ur
ingi
ht
Cheers.) He did not despise the force of learning and
knowledge; on the contrary, he wished that it should be ex-
tended as broad as the earth.—( Hear.) But it was not learn-
ing alone that constituted the independent man. (Hear.)
Moral courage and firmness of character were of vastly more
importance, as enabling them to take their;rights as patriots
and independent men in the country.—( Loud cheers.) He
would conclude by proposing to them " The people and their
rights, and no less."—( Cheers.)
The CHAIRMAN then said that the next toast was, " Tho
Queen and her rights, and no more."
The toast was drunk with loud cheering.
C
The HA HOMAN next proposed" May the principles of Uni-
versal Suffrage and the essentials to the free exercise of our
political rights 'become the polar star of every lover of his
country."—( Loud cheers.)
Mr. Connell' responded to the toast. Their Chairman had
talked of gentlemen who possessed nsore experience than he
did, but he ( Mr. Cobbett) thought that it would be allowed
that he could not be included in the remarks which had been
made in reference to experience.—( Hear.) It had been said
that they derived the experience they possessed from the con-
nexion they had with commercial marts. Now, as to these
advantages, he thanked God that it had been his good for-
tune never to have been contaminated by a connection with
with commercial marts.—( Hear.) In making these remarks,
it would be believed that he meant nothing disrespectful to the
people of Liverpool, or to its inhabitants whom he saw
around him ; but he meant to give expression to the great
principle which embodied the horror he entertained of the
grossly tyrannical influence of capital over the labour of the
working people.—( Loud cheers.) It was that capital, or
rather the peculiar situation in which it was placed, and the
power which it gave to a comparative few over the rest of the

community ; that was the influence which had produced the
greatest evils in the country.—( Heat.) This was the grand
giievance of which the people had a right to complain, and
which he had nevertheless no doubt would be removed
by the Reform In Parliament which they sought.=
( Loud cheers.) There were no slaves on the face of the
earth—not by any means the blacks of the Nest ladies ea-
cepted—so tyranised over as the unfortunate people of this
country.—( Heat'. ) Let him also mention that onva of the
worst measures which had every lie sinterely believed, been
passed by any House of Commons or by and tiriernrnent in
the world—in all respects the worst—was the Poor Law
Amendment Act.—( Hear, and loud cheers.) lie could tit-it
but mention also the conduct of the House of Commons which
had been pursued for years on the subject of the reduction of
the hours of labour in the factories.—( Hear, hear, hear. )
They had passed a law professing to be a law for
the reduction of the number of hours during which the
little children—the boys and girls—were compelled to la-
bour there. In this law they professed to reduce the hours
of labour, but they did not enforce it--( Hear, hear)—and
their &fence was that it was so complicated, although the
law was of their own making, that they could not enforce it
upon the master manufacturers who had the power to resist
it—(Hear)—aud thus, although the Poor-law was enforced at
the point of the bayonet, and by their soldiers scattered
throughout the country at a shilling a day and all their ex-
penses, and by their police with ss. a day and all their ex-
penses—although they acted thus in their efforts to enforce
the Poor-law, yet there never had been any one instance in
which they had sent any individual to enforce the Act for the
reduction of the hours of labour.—( Hear. ) Could the Radi-
cals, then, suppose that they could get any good measure from
such a House? It was ridiculous to think that this House
would of its own accord grant to the people anything, and,
therefore, it was the more necessary that the Radicals of
Liverpool should join with the people of South Lancashire
and of Yorkshire, until that House granted that which the
people ought to have—( Hear, hear)—that which for a long
period of years had been not only the law of nature, but that
of England. That was what the people should have, and if
the House of Commons did not grant it in their own way—
the people would have it in their own way.—( Hear, and loud
cheers.) They had been told by their Chairman, that accord-
ing to the laws of England the people were entitled to Univer-
sal Suffrage. He would not mention the question of the dura-
tion of Parliaments, or any other question.—( Hear.) The
suffrage was all they asked for, and all these other questions
being matters of detail, to procure which it was only neces-
sary to carry out the first.—( Hear.) But they still could not
carry out the utility of the Suffrage without the protection
which would be afforded by the Vote by Ballot and the re-
moval of the Qualification of Members, which restricted the
people as to the numbers from which they had to choose their
representatives.—( Hear.) Again, they could not protect
their Suffrage without paying their Members, those who could
not afford otherwise to live in London —( Hear, and cheers.)
They had then by the constitution of the country, which
was in writing and upon record, the right to possess all
they petitioned for—or, rather, that which they demanded.
—( Hear.) England was at present in a situation which
afforded circumstances peculiarly favourable for their struggle.
—Cries of " Hear.") He knew no other nation but America
which had been placed in so favourable a situation. He would
exhort them not to move for the faction—not to acknowledge
a leader in any party whatsoever. It had, he said, always
been the complaint that the Radicals had permitted them-
selves to be led away by men who for the time being would
make great promises, but never stick thereby,
The CHAIRMAN then gave, amid loud cheers, the healths of
Thomas Attwood, Esq., and John Fielden, Esq., and success
to the unions of which they are the representatives.
Mr. EDMONDS then rose. He stood forward there as the
friend of labour, and of the equal rights of man. In that he
bad been ably seconded by his friend, Mr. Thomas Attwood,
a gentleman who had done what few men bad it in their
power to do. After about thirty years' writing upon one
favourite subject—the currency question—he consented to
give up his
,hobby-horse to assist in obtaining Universal
Suffrage—( Hear, hear)—Vote by Ballot, Annual Parliaments,
no Property Qualification, and Wages for Attendance as a
Member. Now, he had been told that Mr. O'Connell op-
posed the payment of Members of Parliament. What ! the
man who receives 10,000/. a year for his services as Member
of Parliament? If any man had a right to stand up and op-
pose the payment of Members, most assuredly that man was
not Mr. O'Connell.—( Some confusion and hisses here en-
sued.) After order was restored, he said he was endeavouring
to show them that Members of Parliament ought to be paid.
He objected to Mr. O'Connell's objection. If a Member of
Parliament discharged his duty properly, he was very properly
entitled to payment.—( Hear.) But, said Mr. Edmonds, they
need not discuss that point just now. If they procured Uni-
versal Suffrage and Vote by Ballot, lie knew that the other
measures would follow.—(Mr. Edmonds sat down amid loud
cheering.)
Mr. JAMBS WNITTLI next rose, and spoke to the following
effect :—Gentlemen, 1 am so little in love with change, for
change sake—l so much prefer the lessons of experience to
any benefits promised, merely from speculation—( Hear)—
that if I saw in England the spectacle which she once dis-
played—if I saw her a great and powerful realm, the mother
of a free and happy people, marked as freemen by their easy
lives, their plenteous houses, their candour and their probity—
(Cheers) —if I saw England thus, no love of theoretic improve-
ment, I confess, should tempt me into agitation for change.—
( Hear.) But let the rich recollect that the change must come;
that the revolution is already commenced ; and that what we
have to deal with is a realm already ruined by those who had
the undisputed mastery of it; that all is now confusion, all is
now distress, all is now disorder, and all has been produced by
the undisturbed will of one of the most powerful and arbitrary
Governments that ever existed upon earth.—( Hear.) The
150 despots who sold the seats in the House of Commons dealt
as they pleased with our lives and our property. They directed
our exertions to what they pleased. They wasted the fruits
of our labour as they chose, and they mortgaged the labour of
our children.—( Hear.) If we remonstrated they punished
us; and there are gentlemen here present whose portion has
been the gaol, only because they humbly petitioned for these
very rights which you are here, I hope, determined to achieve,
and which you have this night heard are written as your rights
in that very charter (Magna Charta), which our tyrants have
had the insolence all the time to boast of as the glory of their
ancestors—( Hear, hear, and loud cheers) and the highest
distinction of our common country. Such has been their power,
and the result of it has been the destruction of the state which
they administered. They have inflicted the blow of death on
the social system which they found established.—( Hear, hear.)
Change has been commenced by them ; and our task is to
guide it to a wise and just conelusion.—(Cheers.) But in some
shape it is inevitable. Let me tell you, as a fact, that
the meeting of Kersal-moor has subdued the Government,
and that the fact is already ascertained. The Government
we know had determined to place the troops within call of the
meeting—( Hear, hear)—we know, too, that that determina-
tion was changed, and that it was changed because the Go-
vernment feared their contamination by the taint of Radical
principles. They feared that the soldiers would have liked to
he within hearing of the hustings. Such is the attitude of
the people, and such the condition of Government, resulting
from the absolute power which they possessed over us. It is
the work of their own hands.—( Hear, hear.)
The CHAIRMAN, in introducing the next toast, would not
detain them further than by saying, that in drinking " Jus-
tice to Ireland" it would afford them the opportunity of hear-
ing Mr. Feargus O'Connor.
Mr. FEAROUN O'CONNOR was received on rising with the
most enthusiastic cheering. He had long struggled for the
rights and privileges of his fellow-countrymen. He had endea-
voured to follow the example and conduct of the illustrious
Irishmen who had gone before him in the same path. A
more lovely land never existed ; her climate is genial, her
sons hospitable and manly, her daughters fair and virtuous.
It was a land worth living for, aye and worth dying for.—
(Cheers.) But Ireland, with all its great natural advantages,
was an unhappy and miserable country. She had been unfor-
tunately the sport of politicians, and those who/ought to have
been foremost in defending her rights were, he was sorry to
say,phtintHaiare)boneeo
oNut,trvivadhaelroermei
oui
laboured.—(No.)
removal
ahsal forwardtes(okNmfto.lhne)es
ctmriir
monstrous
in betraying her. From 1800, down
to the period of the passing of the Reform Bill, extending
f
over thirty-two years, 100 Irish Members were sent to the
House of Commons. If there is any one curse greater than
another to a country, it is the existence of a State Church.
Many Roman Catholics were there listening to him. Let
them say whether they agree to a mere reduction, or a final
extinction of tithes. As a Protestant he (Mr. O'Connor)
had exerted himself as much as any man in the House of
Commons, for the rights of the Roman Catholics—(Cheers)
—and the ground on which he had asserted those rights was,
the privilege of every man to worship his God without being
amenable to another. He did not take " Justice to Ireland"
to mean the mere transmission of Corporation power from
compelled
pfealcletidontotoleaavneoththeer,irwhhiolme
homes
shein wsreeat crchhe dofrefsoidoedn,tsanwderteo
wander through the streets of Liverpool in . penury and
wretchedness. For thirty-two years the Irish Members
were ever ready to do the dirty work of the English. Members
in the British Parliament. When the Reform Bill passed,
which was to raise the country to the pinnacle of glory, their
numbers were increased to 105, and it was hoped that. a new
system, a more manly independence, would have been displayed.
s
Bttosiloievoutosnilrbsi
jea hteh the
pcpornodbuact
of
of
a al r
ilsrhi smh e
nM; m.
Has
s it
b be
ea
ean
such
ass
be- t osceacme men and patriots? Every Irishman present who ap-
proves of that system, who imagines that the beautiful land of
his birth has been benefited by that system, let him hold up a
hand. There is not a hand held up. Why, now you agree
with me ; and I assert that the serf of seven hundred years
since was not more a slave than the Irishman of the present
day, He would ask Irishmen who have Irish blood is their
whether they are prepared
,much longer to endure the
grinding oppression of the Law Church, whose arms are the
bayonet and the sword ? He would ask them whether at the
present moment the working classes are not as much as ever at
the mercy of the aristocracy ? When he first started into
public life, he (Mr. O'C.) saw this selfish aristocracy lording it
over the people,aristocracy
alncg tbahen
aedtn hd eom in instrumentaleresolvedered in
y over
rni s
apouwt
putting
Catholic
down
od
wtno put u
peoplept
r.dootaewnsnd.
the system in 111 S own country. He had succeeded. He was
d
was equally ready
cw as
Immense.
tt
ho e l
ae
vind iasvdcl
loshuwheuenai
atetsdlyhtrdeesei assistanceernsargstwlyow.i
kso:htedi
eicemi:lAuf:
tias,
arenoasoupltpnatebt,
unhappy
sasdttarbtaapri
innipdpnstgvyet
advocate
dcerhns
country
twnuni:lnhtaf oarsi aysit
Catholic aristocracy in their attempt to domineer over a Ca-
e
is
thprelyei;?lai—ettempts to resist the rapacity of their landlords.
icceoonipuneonotf Parliament by Mr. O'Connell, could lead to the re-
g.'ulns crying whethere
hadevils
la-
boured. Let them lay aside the notion that their salvation
rested upon the shoulders of any one man. They were
told, for-sooth, that the land was over populated. Un-

•
til be should see the country cultivated like a garden,
he would never say it was too small, nor would he
recommend emigration. There is no such thing in ex-
istence as a constitution in Ireland. At present the coun-
try is rot worth living in ; but, with the blessing of
God, it different state of things would shortly exist. It
it not for Irishmen to be satisfied with the bestial, the
nonsensical plan of corporations. You have, to your credit,
emancipated the blacks of the West Indies. You paid twenty
millions of Money on that occasion, and never runs money
better paid. But before you emancipated the blacks you
might to have emancipated yourselves.—( Great cheering.)
We mess look to ourselves, and depend upon ourselves. The
poor :rash baVe always been led away by false delusion ; as a
proof of this feeling hsi would state, that at a late meeting in
the West of Ireland, a banner WO exhibited on the day of n
the
c Tonation—" Queen and Reform.
This was a mistake
feeling. The Irish people have suffered by the cut', anochise-
ment of the English people—that, as Canning Fail f the
damning Union, the curse of Ireland is the cure of England.
The battle of Ireland is to be fought on English ground. Ire-
land has been robbed for six hundred years. What lie wished
to convey by justice to Ireland was, that it should he out of the
power of any man to give over his nei4libour to the rapacity
of the law. There was to be a remission of 25 per cent. of
tithe, leaving 75 per cent. in the form of a horse-shoe, to
perpetuate all the scenes of blond and misrule to which the
system bad previously given rise.—( Cheers and laughter.)
They had heard of this five-and-twenty per cent. being the
first of an instalment ; but when, he would ask them, did they
ever hear of a wound being healed by instruments?—( Cheers )
He trusted that Irishmen would lay aside all sectarian pre-
judices. Let them rise up, and casting from their faces all
gloom and despondency, stand erect in the land of their birth
The day is not far distant when Ireland must regain her
rights, and in effecting that object no one would feel greater
pleasure than himself.
Mr. WHITTLE briefly introduced the next toast, which
was—" The memory of the late William Csbbett, M ijer
Cartwright, a=id of all the illustrious departed advocates of
the people's rights."—Drunk in silence.
Mr. BUSSEY, in a brief and eloquent speech, spoke to the
toast.
Mr. O'CONNOR rose to propose the heelth of a gentleman
who had not only endeavoured to change all the bad , institu-
tions of the country, and to substitute good ones lit their
stead, but had battled with every iniquity wherever he ;:ad
met it. When he ( Mr. O'Connor) first came to Liverpool,
he came trudging along unheeded and unwelcomed, with a
little infant in his arms, called Universal Suffrage; but now he
had in support of that cause, which he had long advocated, a
number of eminent and eloquent men, among whom the Rev.
Joseph Raynor Stephens was not the least.—( Applause.)
The Rev. Mr. STEPHENS then arose amidst tremendous ap-
plause, which having subsided, he spoke to the following effect :
He was of opinion that only in the enjoyment of political
liberty could there be social happiness, and only in this view
could there be any right worship of God. Could there be
any separation of religious and civil liberty ? Could they tell
him that he was free to worship God in his mind, while in the
body he was bound with chains? Could they tell him that
he possessed religious freedom while he was bound in civil
bonds? Political freedom was the freedom of the body ; reli-
gious freedom was the freedom of the spirit ; and if they ma-
nacled the former, how could the latter be free ? Or, if the
latter was in bondage, how could the former be free?
After some few other remarks the Reverend Gentleman pro-
ceeded to say that he had come to Liverpool that day, having
been publicly branded as an incendiary and a firebrand. The
word of God, he could affirm, had been the sole standard of
his agitation.—(Loud cheering.) If he had ever laid down
a principle not in accordance with that Book, let them de-
nounce, let them reprove him. If he had ever given utter-
ance to a word which could not be deduced from the precepts
of Christianity, then he was no longer the friend of the
people of England, nor should he ask to be esteemed as a
friend of God. —(Loud applause.) His political career had
been a short but eventful one. A few years ago he was a
man as unknown in the world as one residing in a retired vil-
lage could be—a man of domestic peace—living only in
thought, in study, and in the society of Lis friends—whose
natural disposition and habits would more likely have taken
him a thousand miles from such a meeting as he then addressed
than have brought him hither. But in the solitude of his re-
tirement he observed that there was a great and growing evil
in society, which was to him a source of most anxious thought.
His speculations on the state of things, however, were of a
different kind to those of all with whom he was in the habit of
coming in contact, and especially from his brethren in the
Ministry; and he could not shut out the idea that he was not
altogether right, He pondered over the subject for
years, and it was not till he came to a district
where the manufacture of cotton was carried to a
great extent that his thoughts and opinions began to
assume a tangible shape. This change in him was effected
by visiting the cottages of the work-people, by seeing them in
the mills, in their homes, or on their sick beds—by inquiring
how they lived, and by instituting, in fact, a regular investiga-
tion, that he became acquainted, practically acquainted, with
the condition of the working classes. Hereupon he took up
the question in what he considered the only efficient manner,
and by so doing estranged his friends. He told them, in con-
versations which took place between them, that there must be
something wrong, and that it seemed to Kira that if they did
not apply a remedy the consequences would be fearful. He
spoke to some, and said, come, let me introduce you to the
workmen, in order that the good master and the good work-
man might learn to respect each other. This proposition,
however, was not complied with. The poor man was preju-
diced against the rich man, and the rich man was prejudiced
against the poor man. He knew, however, if the poor man
was disabused of his prejudice (and it was no impossible mat-
ter) he would become the most powerful protector of the
property of the rich man--( Hear, hear)—and if the latter be
disabused of his prejudices, in like manner he would become
the warmest promoter of the interests and happiness of the
other. He knew that there was an indissoluble link between
both ; that both acknowledged that God was the common
father and friend of all.—(Cheers.) It was soon after this
that a few of his poorer neighbours, the operatives in the dis-
trict, applied to him to take the means to obtain from Parlia-
ment an Act for limiting the hours of labour; he complied,
and the4onsequence was that his rich friends forsook him,
and instflld of being a Minister extensively respected, and re-
ceiving a support which was equal to his wishes, he became a
shepherd to a few scattered sheep in the wilderness. He told
those men, when they asked him to go to London as their de-
legate, that he should require twenty-four hours for considera-
tion, because he felt that it would. prove the most paralyzing
and destructive step to himself that he could possibly take.
He knew full well that if he did that work which was
sought to be entrusted to him in the spirit of his Master, to
him only would he have to look for his reward.—( Applause.)
He saw that religion, if it were anything at all, consisted in
the helping of the poor and needy, and in the advocacy of
the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and of all such
as were desolate and oppressed ; and in that spirit he gave
his answer to the men, and that answer was in the affirma-
tive. From that moment he never passed a day free from
persecution, and persecution of a kind, and of an extent,
without a parallel in the annals of modern religious persecu-
tion. He would not, however, trouble them with a detail of
that, but as he knew himself to be a man misrepresented and
maligned in Liverpool, as well as in other places, he thought
they would pardon him in having gone thus far.—(Tremen-
d -ius applause.) Within three short months after having
taken up the factory question he was deprived of five or six
preaching places at a stroke, and turned out of places in
which he had been constantly master for years, and having
by him a partner who cared even less about the circumstance
than he did, he went to the highways and to the hedges
—he stood upon his own door-step, that had never yet
known dishonour, and there, instead of preaching to con-
gregations of 200 or 300 only, he had preached to 3,000 per-
sons, and on one occasion to as many as 12,090. When
other measures came before the attention of Parliament, the
Poor-law Amendment Act, for instance, he again showed
himself in favour of the interests of the people. With respect
to that Act, he had received a friendly hint not to advert to
it, as there were persons in the room who were friendly to
it ; and he bad been advised either to pass it over altogether,
or touch on it so gently as not to tr cad on any corns in the
way. He would, he said, not scorn himself more than they
would scorn him, if they thought he thought so meanly of
them that they would not listen to a man whose sentiments
differed from their own, if those sentiments were delivered
in a manner which every Englishman would feel it incum-
bent upon him to deliver them.—(Loud cheers.) He had
seen a child in the boxes that evening—that child he would
select as his text. He would propose that evening, on the
question of the Poor-law, that every man in the assembly
who professed himself a supporter of it would meet, not him-
self, if they thought he was too intemperate or violent in the
extreme, but to meet a man whom they looked upon as the
mildest and most philosophical opposer of it. If the evening
had not been too far advanced, he would have endeavoured to
have spoken philosophically, and in a gentle spirit, and to
have shown that the guiding principle iii its construction
would have been such as were allowed by the common prin-
ciples of our Christianity. If the Poor-law Amendment Act
was squared to that it might then become an acceptable boon
to the people.—( Applause.) He asked this not as a Tory,
nor a Whig, nor a Radical, for he professed himself to be nei-
ther one nor the other—he knew of no parties in politics, or of
denominations in religion. He held that there was but one
Church, and that every religious man was a member of it.—
(Great cheering.) He held also that there was but one
commonwealth, and that every good man and every neigh-
bour was a member of it.—( Renewed cheering.) His desire
was, and he hoped that every man in the room would agree
with him in that at least, to make every thing secure in the
country by endeavouring to make all comfortable and happy.
He advocated Universal Suffrage, because he thought he had
no right to withhold from his neighbour the constitutional
defence which he possessed himself. There was but one real
title to property, and that was the title of the poor to com-
fortable subsistence, without the sense of shame—with-
out the brand of degrading inferiority and forlorn aban-
doment to the innumerable miseries of the waste or
wilderness of life. They had, it was true, bonds, cer-
tificates, and parchment deeds, but they were all reduce-
able to that at last. No man had a right to more than
his neighbour, so long as that neighbour stood in netd of so
much of his supcifluity as nature required to make him and
his contented and secure. Let them but make the poor
man's case their own, and they would more than feel the full
force of the argument he bad briefly, but he hoped correctly,
stated. He implored them to bury every difference—to give
party to the winds, ceasing any longer to be mere partisans,
and glorying in being true lovers of their country. He was
not a sectarian in religion, nor a partisan in politics. The.
was but one true church, and every good man was a member
of it—but one real commonwealth, and every good man was a

citizen and a subject of it. The Rev. Ge„,tleman sat down
amidst loud cheers.
The CHAIRMAN then proposed prosperity for :the Working
Mens' Association of Liverpool, which was receir e.
with long
Mr. SMITH moved a vote of thanks to the chairman.•
The CHAIRMAN briefly returned thanks, and left tht.' chair,
nhen the meeting separated in good order, shortly after were
o'clock.

EAST INDIA HOUSE•

(Concluded from The Sun of yesterday.)
The CHAIRMAN said that in submitting the resolution of
the Court of Directors to the Proprietors, he trusted that he
did not entertain too sanguine an expectation that the appeal
would give general satisfaction. On the 22d of March, 1835
Nl,-. William Fraser was basely assassinated—cut off in the
flower of life, while zealously, honestly, and uncompromis-
ii,gly executing the duties of his high office, to %Oriel' he
had been appointed by the Governor-General.—( Hear.)
Mr. Fraser had served for many years previously in Indiar
and his high character was not unknown to the General Court
of Proprietors.—( Hear, hear.) He (the Chairman) alluded
to the character given of the deceased by the Governor-Ge-
neral in his despatch to the Court of Directors, in which he
p•,kehighly of r. Fraser, arid said, that happily for the
i+rcl cstsh g
of justice the instigator as well as the perpetrator of
the murder had teen discovered and punished. No motive
could have existed on the part of Shunasodeen Khan to insti-
gate the murder of Mr. Fraser except that of personal
animosity for a decision given against him by the deceased,
and which bad drawn down the vengeance of the Nawab.
Mr. Fraser had died in the zealous performance of his duty,
i.nd the annuity granted to his mother, of 2001. per annum,
was wholly incompatible with the valuable services ren-
dered to the Company. He read an extract from the memort
vial addressed by the mother of the deceased to the Cou
(which we gave yesterday), and he should be much disappointed
it this simple appeal on the part of an aged mother was
cant
responded to by the Court of Proprietces.—( Hear.) He co-
cluded by moving that the resolution of the Court of Direc-
tors be approved.
The DEPUTY-CHAIRMAN seconded the motion.
Sir C. FORBEs rose to move an amendment, to the effect
that the further consideration of the question be deferred till
the next General Court, and that the papers relative to tk*
grant be presented in order to afford the proprietors full infor"
notion upon the subject.
LIT.. MARRIOTT seconded the amendment.
Sr. G. TUCKER (a Director) could not concur in
the giant, ant: his reasons had been placed upon record.
Colonel SYKES X..!
ipported the grant.
Mr. CL4ItKE was anxious that the rote upon the question
should be postponed.
Mr. HANKEY spoke in favour of the amendment.
Mr. \VIGRAM (a Director) opposed the grant.
The question was then put, and the original motion carried
by a considerable majority.
Oa the demised of nine Proprietors, a Ballot was fixed for
Tuesday, the 9th of October.
FAMINE IN INDIA.
The CHAIRMAN, in answer to a question from Mr. Weediag'
said that a despatch had been received from the Governor;
General, in which it was stated that, owing to the late '
the famine had almost entirely ceased, on the
Mr. MoNTGOIORY MARTIN gave notice of a
motion 0
state of the land reven3es of British India.
Adjourned.