The Sun.
London, England, 1854-01-26 00:00:00

REFORM MEETING AT MANCHESTER.

On Tuesday evening a meeting of the leading Liberals
of Lancashire, numbering in all about 250 gentlemen,
took place at Manchester. There were on the platform
Mr. George Wilson (chairman), Mr. Cobden, M.P.,
Mr. Bright, M.P., Mr. Milner Gibson, M.P., Mr.
Cheetham, M.P., Mr. Kershaw, ➢I.P., Mr. William
Brown, M.P., Mr. Miall, M.P., Mr. James Heywood,
M.P., Mr. Barnes, M.P., Alderman Watkins, Mr.
Alexander Henry, Mr. Mark Philips, Mr. L. Heyworth,
M.P., Mr. William Rawson, Mr. Henry Ashworth,
Mr. Thomas Bazley, Alderman Barnes, Sir Elkanah

Armitage, &c.
After speeches from the chairman and Mr. Milner

Gibson,
Mr. COBDEN' spoke at great length, referring to
fa a
o
various topics. He said :—We must not take the
of a few thousand men—and probably, after all, but
few thousand lads and lasses—having gone
proofwr thaton the
Upon
a question of political economy, a
great mass of the community could nsotab disfranchisement
If
that rule is to obtain, I am afraid our
must be wide indeed. If all those who have not yet
mastered all the problems of political economy are not
to have votes, I am afraid we must begin by disfran-
chising Bucks and Dorsetsh ire.le
life of Lord was verymrudch
Jeffrey,struck
the other day, whilst reading the
with a letter which he wrote, dated August 24, 1819, at
a time when you here were suffering extreme distress,
and when great disaffection and tumult were manifested
by the labouring population. He says, "Our present
radical evil is the excess of our productive power, the
want of demand for our manufactures and industry,
or, in other words, the excess of our population ; and
for this lam afraid there is no radical remedy but
starving out the surplus, horrible as it is." Now,
recollecting that this was his deliberate opinion, and
that it went to justify all the breaking of machinery,
and all the riots and tumults to put down the accumu-
lation of capital that was going on—remembering this,
should it not make us a little tolerant towards a body
of working men—limited in number and sadly neglected
in point of education, who have not arrived at all the
hidden and secret causes which decide the relative ar-
rangements between capital and labour. (Cheers.)
Alluding to a pamphlet he published in 1835, Mr.
Cobden said—That pamphlet, from beginning to end,
expressed these views :—Don't go to war to maintain
the independence and integrity of America. America is
the only rival you have to fear in England. Barbarism
will not overturn civilisation in these days. With our
improvements in machinery and the discovery of gun-
powder, there will never be another irruption of the
Goths. My arguments went to show that Turkey was
a decaying country ; that, for 150 years before, all the
authorities that could be obtained pronounced it to be a
declining and decaying country. Well, that crisis of
the Eastern question blew over. There are now the
same instruments at work, and the same arguments
used, and we are called upon again, just as we were in
1835, to maintain the independence and integrity of the
Turkish empire. But we are called upon to do more—
we are called upon to make war against Russia. These
are two distinct questions. Our hostility to Russia,
and a determination to keep Russia within her present
boundaries, is a distinct question ; and whether you
will maintain the Turks or Mahomedanism as a per-
manent rule in Europe. You might if you liked look
at the map and say, " There is Russia ; we will make
war against you if you remove those marks which
now form your boundary upon the map." You
might make that declaration, and I do not say it
is impossible you could accomplish your object ;
but you might go to war for it, and of this I am
certain that it would be more possible to do that
than by any process of war or diplomacy to main-
tain Turkey as a ruling power permanently in Europe.
Englishmen are nowhere more , popular—nowhere do
they exercise a more social sway than they do in Russia.
You will find at St. Petersburgh 30 or 40 English houses,
great mercantile establishments, by far the most in-
fluential body of merchants to be found in any part of
Europe—for our merchants have been declining as a
body, in numbers as well as in wealth and influence, in all
parts except St. Petersburgh. But there is no hostility
in Russia towards Englishmen. They meet with no
such thing. There is an English club at St. Petersburgh,
founded on our principles, called the English club, and
cooducted after the manner of your club in Mozeley-
street. Their horse-racing is an imitation of ours in
England. You can hardly go into a nobleman's family
in Russia, but you find the children given in charge to
English nurses, and I do not know a finer compliment
that can be paid to you as a nation. Now I defy any-
body to bring forward a single fact to show that there
exists a national prejudice on the part of Russia against
England. I might shock you if I were to add that there
is something in the social organisation of Russia that
resembles that of England more than any other country
in Europe, because Russia and England are the only
two countries where you find, on the one hand, elevated
to an inaccessible altitude, the Demidoffs or Potemkins
in the one country, Sutherlands and Bedfords in the
other, and where you have about them as an agricultural
population a peasantry entirely divorced from the soil,
and between whom and the nobles there is an impassable
gulf over which they can never tread. Russia is
making an unjust aggression upon a neighbouring
state—(cheers)—and upon that question of the injus.
tice of the Government of Russia towards the Go-
vernment of Turkey there are no two opinions in this
country. If you ask me what my opinion of the con-
duct of the Russian Government or the Russian
Czar towards the government of Turkey is, I will say
that it is unjust, aggressive, unreasonable, and insolent.
But if you ask me to go further, and to transfer that ex-
pression of opinion upon the conduct of Russia into an
act by which I shall assume to myself the right and the
power to chastise Russia because she is unjust and inso-
lent to her next neighbour, then I say you have shifted
your ground completely, and must show me, first of all,
that I, as an Englishman, am invested with the power
and responsibility of acting as a policeman all over the
civilised world. But I say it is a question of interest.
You arc afraid that if Russia comes to Turkey and gets
possession of Constantinople, she will become a great
maritime power, will absorb all the influence of the
Medlterranean, and will become dangerous to England.
Very well. How will Russia, when she gets possession
of Constantinople, acquire all the power ? Constantino-
ple itself will not give this power, or what have the
Turks been doing for the last 400 years ? How is it that
that country has sunk to a state of miserable decrepitude,
not capable of protecting its own frontier, or even of de-
fending itself against its own satraps ? Why is it ? Why
if Russia is to gain this power and influence at Constan-
tinople, and become a great maritime power, it can only
be by encouraging commerce and increasing her wealth
through the means of manufactures and industry. Mer-
chant vessels will not sail ready rigged and manned
down the Wolga and Danube because Russia possesses
this territory. She must have a merchant navy like all
other nations—like the Venetians, the Americans, and
the English ; she must have industryand energy, and ac-
cumulate wealth through her commercial energy and the
skill and intelligence of her artizans ; and before she can
do this, she must cease to be a barbarous power. But
I defy her to increase her wealth or commerce from
Constantinople, but through her commerce with you
more than with any other nation. How has America
become so great, but by sending so many ships to the
ports in this country ; and the same process must go on
with regard to Russia. When Russia shall have arrived
at that state of civilisation she will have given a bond of
peace that will not go forth to devastate the world, she
will have something at home that will give a hostage for
y
her conduct to the civilised world. A country cannot
become great, and rich, and
powerful, and remain still
a barbarous and dreaded nation. Lord Aberdeen knows
what those foolish people who shout for war at our pub-
lic meetings do not know. He knows all the dangers
and vicissitudes that spring out of war. He knows thaters
when a war is once begun, the beginning of strife is like
the letting out of water. He knows that scarcely in an
instance on record has the end of a war answered the
purpose of its beginning. It 'may appear to be some.
what of levity to use such a simile, but I compare it to
a person leading off in a ball ; he knows whose partner
he is when he begins, but does not know who will be
his partner at the end of the dance. Lord Aberdeen
knows that at the beginning of the great French war in
1793 we had every government in Europe with us, and
he knows that in ten years afterwards we had almost
every government in Europe against us. II knows that
the very subsidies we granted to our allies on the Con-
tinent were converted into ammunition and accoutre-
ments, and used in opposition to ourselves. Lord Aber-
deen knows that when war had existed for six or twelve
months, the silly people who now cry out for war will
be the first to turn about and denounce him for having
brought distress and suffering upon them. He knows
very well that if he accedes to their hostile shout and
IV rentsEt into a war against Russia, that it ceases to be a
!"t:,cAZ7,1,.,,,,--rwar qbtween two semi-barbarians in an almost inacces-
iliZtij ~. staNhen the conflict assumes European dimensions,
o `
-v;1-''itt.i'lzhall have confusion and insurrection, and pro-
tt
I,:letiff,;:. Flbroughout a great part of Europe.
P'' ...;CY`,..,.41:441M GHT followed. His speech much resembled
%`: :. ,:l ' alr
~..:61 en's in its tone and topics. He also objected
bi
fl adlirty 0, a' t.• intervention in the East. He wished the
. l' Government had cougned themselves on the question to