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

possession of their. Nos he would state one feet with re-
spect to that : The Birmingham Political Union was esta-
blished in the year 1839, and previous to that period the
character of the labourers of Birmingham WAS that of a riotous
population—they had nothing better to do than destroy the
property of Dr. Priestley.—( Cheers.) Were not the men of
Birmingham worthy of the franchise ? \Vho dare say No? If
then they had risen so much in the scale in a few years, who
would tell them that the men of England would not also un-
dergo such a beneficial change in a few years ?—(Cheers. )
Their hopes of success were not small, for they had all agreed
as one man to lay aside those matters of detail which usually
divided Reformer from Reformer.—( Cheers. ) They had laid
aside all differences fur the purpose of getting power into the
hands of the people. The men of Birmingham had gone for
many things—sometimes they might be justly censured for
riding too much upon their hobby-horse of the currency, and
even other things ; but now they had given up all their hobby-
horses in order to get for the people the power to elect their
own Representatives ; a Id when they had that power, he had
no doubt but they vs °Wel exercise it so as to elect Members
who would give to their land ohat it ought to have—happi-
ni se and prosperity, joined with peace.—(Cheers )
Mr. LOWRY, of Newcastle, was the next Speaker. He had
been delegated by the Radical masses of Newcastle, Sunder-
land, and Shields, to support the People's Charter,
and to tell that meeting that they were willing to
end them all the support in their power in their
present agitation. Last Monday evening they had had a
a meeting, in order to resuscitate the Northern Political
Union, which had done so much good in the time of
the Reform Bill ; but they had determined to give their sup-
port no more to this faction or that faction—they were deter-
mined to do no more except in the cause of the people.—
(Cheers.) The men of the North were well organized. The
men of Newcastle dared defend with their arms what they ut-
tered with their tongues—(Cheere)—and that the military
would have learned on the Coronation day had they made any
attack upon the meeting. They were wilting to try all moral
means that were left. They were willing to try a throne, so
long as it was conducive to the happiness of the people—
they were willing to have an Aristocracy, so long as they
behaved themselves civilly—(A laugh)—but they thought
they had a right to have a reciprocity of rights, and if
not, they were prepared to go against the throne and
Aristocracy.—( Loud cheers.) The men of the Tyne and the
Wear would not draw their swords against their enemies until
their enemies drew upon them ; but having once turned their
hands to the plough they would never look back.—( Cheers.)
The colliers there were organized, and prepared to demand
Universal Suffrage, without which they could never be happy.
___( Cheers.) They had found from experience that so far as
a constituency was limited, so in proportion was it corrupt,
unjust, and extravagant—they knew from experience that
when the power was given to one section of the people, it would
be used fur the aggrandizement of that same section.
History told them that all the evils they at present suffered
under had arisen from their confiding political power to a
section of the community. The spirit of the Tories, while
they ruled the country, showed itself in their expensive wars,
their shameful taxes, and their enmity to liberty both at home
and abroad. The Whigs came into office, and they being a
mere section of the community, was their conduct better ?
Why, with liberty in their mouths, they stabbed at it in
Ireland. (Loud cheers) —and he defied any man to
show him a worse Act during any Tory Administration
than the Coercion Act. It was an Act that convinced
with the bayonet and reasoned with a halter.—( Hear.)
What had they got from the Whigs that they should bolster
up and applaud my Lord Melbourne ? Did they not consent
to the transportation of the Dorchester labourers—to the passing
of the Poor-law Bill ; and did they not bolster up the Corn-
laws ?—( Hear, hear.) What hopes had the people if the
Whigs were kept in office ? They pleaded a want of power.
However they once had too much of it, for they had an over-
whelming majority in the House of Commons, and what use
did they make of it ? The Whigs were not to be relied
on—they were only a mere section of the community,
and the working men must have the Suffrage.—(Hear.)
There must be no bit-by-bit Reform—they had suffered
enough from that already. The working classes got the
franchise for the 10/. renters, arid what gratitude had they
shown? They must, therefore, exert themselves, and for them-
selves alone. He found the objection against them was, that
there was a want of intelligence among the working classes,
and that they were virtually represented already; that Uni-
versal Suffrage would be universal confusion, and that they
were following a Will-o'-the-Wisp, because Universal Suffrage
would not remove the poverty they laboured under. Now, as
to virtual representation, they might be told the present consti-
tuency and the House of Commons represented them. He knew
they would represent them, and would legislate for them, so far
as their interests were united with the working-classes, but the
moment they came into juxta-position, the working classes
would be abandoned ; therefore they had nothing to expect
from virtual legislation. As to the confusion that would oc-
cur at elections, he denied in toto that any confusion would
occur at all, on the part of the working classes. \Vho was it
that feasted most and got drunk soonest at the present elec-
tions? Why, the middling classes.—( Hear, hear.) They had
not the excuse that the labouring man had. They were
daily in the habit of receiving good fare and of drinking the best
liquids, while a working man, perhaps, did not get a good
dinner once in six months.—( Cries of " Hear, hear.") As to
Universal Suffrage not removing their pdverty, he asserted it
would in a great degree. Would any man tell him that if
they had their taxes removed to a certain extent the wages
of the working man would not go farther? and that if the
national debt were removed and the Corn laws abolished, trade
would not flourish ? That man would be bordering on insanity
who would assert that. As to intelligence, he held that God
had given to every mat, a sufficiency of sense to manage his
()en at-firs. He held, that as to the exercise of the fr apehise,
integrity was the best guarantee ; and if it came to a ques-
tion of integrit.,-, Ire asserted the werkin;.! cases possessed
it ie the greatest abundance. It was net a want of
intelligence they complained of in the present coestituency
and [Luse of Commons, but a want of honesty. Did not
history show that of all men the literary man had been the
basest of apostates ? No class lead abandoned their p -inciples
more than literary men Fur a proof of this let them look to
the Press, and they would there see that principle was a mar-
ketable commodity, and sold to those who would pay the best
for it.—( Cheery. ) Could the people be worse than they
were at present ? If they we re ignorant, who had :male them
so ? The Ger, ernment and the eristeci a"y. They had
enacted laws to k- ep the people in. ignorance; and if
they kel t the people from their rights, on the plea
of their being incapable of management, they were
bound to remove that want of management. But
hitherto they lea I not done so. When ver there was a multi-
tude of the people gathered tegetle r, so that a fair average
cuel,l be ascertained of tin it integrity and s nse, that multi-
tude would be in favour of those principles—(Cheers)—and
v: hatever ha I been great and glorious in the history of man,
had been obtain"-d by the assistance cf this masses. Who
sang the gauntlet to the despot of Europe in America, hut
the labouring men of America ? %Vile dethroned Charles the
Tenth of I" once? The labouring men. Who got the lief rm
Bill for England? Why, the labouring men of England.
Who had bared their in, asts in tire breach, but the labouring
men ? To them we owed all Vat we possessed. if the struc-
ture was glr riot's, they had reared it, end wi re reedy to defend
it ; and they might safely be trusted w ith that which tiny gave
such assistance to produce. Could things be worse than
they now were ? The Throne was felling into contempt—the
Aristocracy vise held in disdain—the laws ucre considered
is the medium (.f r pore ssion for the rieh on the poor, and the
Church bad dwittul«l into a political machine. —( Cheers.)
Those who ought to p each hurehity and peace were the most
greedy of weal h and the most tyrannical in power when they
possessed it. They ha I seen in Irelan I that the Ministers of
!Ire Gospel ever erre) ed themselves with the sword in one
banal aod tl.e Bible in the other. They had stript poverty of
its last mite. lit fact, wherever exertions had been made for
the entr wields no nt of the insssrs —or the ameliora.i in of the
people—Ora prests had always been found against the m.—
( Coe, rs.) Ita conclusion, he would exhort them to assert their
own ii.depend..nee. They had a right to do it; and when they
el.ose to do it, their rulers dared not refuse it.—(Cheers.)
Colonel Tuostesos came forward to spe k on a particular
point, and therefore would be brief. The friends and leaders
of the 1 eople hail agseed upon certain subjects to be brought
forward before the ineetine, and he trusted they would heir
his exhortaeisn and follow it, not to brit g any others forward
eons. Whatever they might do, he should advise them to
stick to the points that had been chosen for them. Ile did not
deny that there might not he other most important ones which
would claim their attereion when the time came. There
might tie tire Corn law;—they might ask for a total Fri edam
of the pies—he hoped they would shortly hear a demand for
a system of Secular Education, by which he meant a
system in which no one should interfere with another
on account of his political opinions...-( Hear.) But he
would stick to the peint. No man must cry " halt" on a
charge. Let the people go on as they have hegun—let them
see what they can mike of the points that were before them, and
time afterwards will he found for others. Universal Suf-
frage was one of the objects for which they were met. A
new of+ etlon had been put forth against that by the Press—
' that if the working classes bad the Suffrage they would
be the majority, and because they would be the majority they
would be all powerful, and because they were all-powerful
they would do all mischief. But he asked, had not that as-
sembly had a potential majority before, arid what mischief
did they do? Was it likely the people would ever do half as
much? Was there any probability, that when they got
the power they would decree that no man in possession
of 300/. a ye +r should have a seat in the House of Commons,
and that no man having 600/. a year should sit for a county ?
They did the opposite. but the people would not do the either.
Was there any probability of a decree that every rich man
should pay seven times as much upon his harmless luxuries—
his tobacco, for instance, as the poor? The people did not
ask to have to themselves a majority and an overbearing power,
as the rich had hitherto done, and niisusrol it most damnably
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years,we will tell You a secret, which we concealed beforeac
alwayi; i.---eri,s for the establishment of the agricultural prep on.
derange? Ile trust‘d :41 would not cease their efforts until
they procured the repeal of that Aet-e-k P.heers. )
Mr. LEADER, who was received with loud cheers, s.itl••
This was indeed a glorious and gratifying sight. He s j--;
around him
a vast assembly of English working men, met to
bliaein c o
ttsilnetnriy,
consider what their right; teem end to determine by every
mtooraasiseirntfluaetnis to
e
igo
legal,,,,inb means
should toenable ga
in
In former times, when thousands met in this very place
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