The Sun.
London, England, 1854-01-21 00:00:00

NING,, JANUARY 21 1854.

GREAT REFORM BANQUET ,AT SHEF-

FIELD.

A great Reform banquet was held at Sheffield on
Thursday evening in the Music-hall, wl rich was crowded
to excess, between 900 and 1,000 ladies and gentlemen
being present. Mr. Alderman Henry E. Hoole offici-
ated as president, supported by Mess rs. Wostenholrn,
J. G. Robson, E. Bramley, and H. Vickers as vice-
presidents. Among the guests were Me ssrs. R. Cobden,
M.P. for the West Riding ; J. Bright, M.P. for Man-
chester; Lord Goderich, M.P. for Hudd erefield ; Messrs.
L. Heyworth, M.P. for Derby ; F. Cryssley, M.P. for
Halifax ; T. Barnes, M.P. for Bolton ; G. Hadfield,
M.P. for Sheffield; J. Pilkington, M.P. for Blackburn ;
J. Kershaw, M.P. for Stockport ; John Cheetharn,
M.P. for South Staffordshire; Mr. JEldward Baines,
Leeds ; the Mayor of Sheffield (Mr. Hoole) ; Samuel
Lees, Manchester ; and James Edwards,. Manchester.
Letters of apology were read from Mr. Locke King
and Mr. T. Alcock, members for East S urrey ; Mr. W.
Brown, M.P. for South Lancashire; Mr. S. M. Peto,
M.P. for Norwich ; Sir J. Walmsley, M.P. for Leices-
ter ; Mr. J. B. Smith, M.P. for Stockport ; Alderman
T. Challis, M.P. for Finsbury ; Dr. Bowring, Sir Joseph
Paxton ; Sir Isaac Morley, of Doncaster ; Mr. Alder-
man Solly, of Sheffield ; Lord Milton, Mr. Oliveira,
M.P., and Mr. C. Hindley, M.p.
After the only toast of the evening—" The Queen !
God bless her"—which was loudly cheered,
Mr. COBDEN was called on to move the first resolu-
tion, which was as follovis
"This meeting reeards with much satisfaction the ex-
pressed intention of her Majesty's Ministers to bring
forward, in the coming session, a measure of Parlia-
mentary reform, and would urge upon the Government
the propriety and the duty of placing the. representation
of the people in the House of Coannons upon such a
basis as shall do equal justice to all interests and classes
of the population of the united kingdom."
He said that he had taken very little part in his public
career in the agitation for what was called "organic
change." He had given his vote for measures of reform
very much in advance of the great majority of the House
of Commons ; but, out of doors he had not given much
attention to the question of Parliamentary reform. But
while labouring to set commerce free—to increase the de-
mand for labour—to multiply those commodities which
enter into the ordinary subsistence and comfort of the
working people in England—he had been labouring, and,
perhaps, quite as practically, in the cause of Parlia-
mentary reform as he should have been if he had been
s
attending meetings called simply for the purpose of
raising the cry of an extension of the franchise.
(Applause.) He would extend the same meed of merit
to those social reformers who had been in any way ad_
vocating principles calculated to elevate the characte r
of the working classes of this country, foremost among
whom he placed the temperance reformers. (Hear,
hear.) And, again, whomsoever he found endeavouring
to improve the education of the people by any means
through which the amount of knowledge diffused among.
the working classes would be increased, they, too, he
considered, though apparently in an indirect way, im-
mediately promoting the extension of the political rights
of the people—(hear)—for let them give him a prosper-
ous, intelligent, sober community, and he defied all the
oligarchies, and all the political factions that ever did or
could exist, long to exclude such a community from
their full and fair share of political power. (Applause.)
On the other band, he would say—and the experience
of the world had lately very much proved it—you may
write upon parchment whatever form of constitution
you please—it may be a Republic, written in cha-
racters of red ink--or it may be a Monarchy
with universal suffrage—whether it be in Europe,
or whether it be in South America—you may
give such constitutions to a community who
are ignorant, debased, superstitious, and degraded, but
you won't make them a free people any more for that.
(Applause.) Now, having accepted this first resolution
at the hands of their chairman, it must at once be be-
lieved that he considered the people of this country, at
all events a large section of the people of this country,
were fit for the enjoyment of an extension of political
rights. He was not here speaking as an advocate of
universal suffrage. He did not say that 1,000,000 of the
agricultural labourers of this country were intelligent
enough, or independent enough, to exercise political
rights with advantage to themselves or to others—(hear)
—but he did say he believed there was a large section of
the community outside of the present electoral pale who
were fit to enjoy the franchise, who ought to possess it,
and to whom the extension of political power, in
widening the basis upon which the fabric of our con-
stitution rested, would tend to render the stability and
durability of our constitution more permanent than
under the present system. (Hear, hear.) He believed
the extension of the franchise would so promote the
principle of self-preservation and the power of upraising
and enlightening the mass of the people, as to tend
rapidly to remove any danger which at first sight
they might think would arise from altering the de-
pository of political powers. (Hear, hear.) He was not
an alarmist, nor should he fear the extension of the fran-
chise to any possible extent to which it might be granted ;
but let them not be alarmed ; we did not move very fast
in this country; we were rather Chinese in our habits,
and anything that had been a precedent for the last 20
years we were not likely to get rid of very soon. We
were not likely to have universal suffrage in England
yet, he promised them—(laughter)—but he should like
to see a measure brought in by her Majesty's Ministers
to introduce at least 1,000,000 more of the men of this
country within the electoral pale. (Applause.) If they
looked back for the last 22 or 23 years, and considered
the large effect produced upon the middle class of this
country by the possession of the 101. franchise—their
intelligence quickened, their self-respect promoted, their
patriotism fostered by the sense of the duty and obliga-
tion which rested upon them, and the responsibility they
knew themselves to be lying under by the possession of
political power—if they compared the present position
of this part of the population of our towns with what
it was 50 years ago, every one must see the improve.
ment that had been going on among the middle classes
by the possession of the 101. franchise. How could it
be doubted that it would produce the same effect
upon. others ? But he had heard it objected that the
skilled labourers and mechanics of this country were
liable to undue influence, and were not sufficiently inde-
pendent to be entitled to possess the franchise. But his
experience had not led him to doubt that that class of
people, if invested with political power, would exercise
it with as much purity as those filling a more indepen-
dent position in the political scale now manifest. (Hear,
hear.) With regard to the independence of the electors,
he held that they were bound to provide, as a part of
their new scheme of Parliamentary representation, an
efficient remedy for the coercion and undue influence
which were brought to bear upon the electors of this
country. (Hear.) Now, he would not take the bread
out of the mouth of his friend Mr. Bright_ though he
had done so before--(laughter), and yet he throve very
well notwithstanding— (continued laughter) ) but he
might say this, with regard to the ballot, that he had
never regardedthat question as one that involved so much
of a democratic tendency as some people supposed. He
was not one to believe that the people of this country were
democratic at all. He did not think the germ of what
was called democracy ha
d budded in this country ; and
that, if people possessed the ballot, they were going to run
to-morrow into any extreme of democratic and revolu-
tionary sentiment, merely because they could vote as they
pleased—(applause)—but he believed the ballot was a
moral engine that had never been sufficiently appreciated
in this country, because they had never seen it tried.
Let them see one large town conduct its election by
ballot, and it would spread like wildfire ; it would be an
instant remedy for the blackguardism,.the ruffianism, the
brass bands, and all the tumult and disorder which now
disgraced periodically their elections. (Hear, hear.) At
present an election every two or three years was a sort
of Saturnalia, where scenes little short of mortal combat
were to be witnessed. This was not the case in countries
where they had the ballot. He bad seen the ballot in
operation in America and Spain, and, though he had not
seen it in France, he had heard of it. An election in
America or in France was as tranquil an operation as
their proceedings on a Sabbath day, when they went to
their churches and chapels. There was Lord John Rus-
sell and almost every Whig and Tory in the House
of Commons of statesmen class resisting a trial
of the ballot. He had only asked that they should
give the permissive right to try it ; but, no—they
resisted it to the last. He would tell them why they
resisted it. It was a feudal institution of this coun-
try ; it was as much a badge of feudalism as had
been the Corn Laws. (Applause.) It was because
everybody in this country thought he had an hereditary
right to control somebody else's vote. (Hear, hear.)
Free trade was not more demonstrably proved to be
sound and fair by such men as Adam Smith, M'Culloch,
and Ricardo than the ballot had been proved by Bentham,
Grote, and Mill, and others, to be right and fair as a
mode of voting at Parliamentary elections. Argument
had been adduced, but argument would not do in that
question ; it wanted organisation to do it. And he

would add, with all sincerity, his firm belief that if
instead of being nearly 50, he was 30, as when they began
with the corn laws, he would, by an organisation in this
country, undertake to pledge himself to carry the ballot
in less than 5 years. (Applause, and a voice, "Do it
now.") Though belonging to no class, but belonging to
the people, without owning any allegiance to any feudal
aristocracy of this country, he had looked with shame i
and humiliation at the conduct which had been pursued
by the borough constituencies upon this very question
during the last .12 months. Why had not the con,ti-
tuencies risen up and demanded with au irresistible
voice the ballot, and said to the Government, " You
have been paltering with this thing in the House of
Commons ; you are not in earnest ; let us try the ballot,
which the acutest logicians and ablest men of this coun-
try have pointed out as the remedy for the evil ? Give
us the ballot, and see if it will put a stop to this evil,
and improve our borough elections. We demand to
have it before you continue to stigmatise and condemn
the borough constituencies as unworthy the franchise."
They had all seen that there had been a vast amount of
information gathering in official quarters, and it was
hinted that, instead of extending that fair amount of
electoral power to the boroughs which they ought to
possess, they were to give further electoral power to the
counties. Now, he had watched the argument as it
had gone forward, and he found that it was put on
the assumed corruption and unworthiness of parti-
cular borough electors. Now, as one of the county
members, he said that the borough constituencies
were the most patriotic and independent of the coun-
try ; and, so far from being deprived of their fair
portion of the franchise, it was for the interest of the
country that they should have a larger portion than they
now possessed, and that they should be accompanied by
the ballot. (Applause.) They could point to the coun-
ties and say, "There have been no such scenes of cor-
ruption there as you have had in your boroughs." No,
corruption and intimidation had ceased in the counties ;
domination had taken their place. (Applause.) There
was no electoral life at all in five-sixths (he might have
said nine-tenths) of the county constituency of that
country. They were handed over from the scion of one
great proprietor to another in the dining room of the
greatest proprietor in the county or division. (Hear,
hear.) He hoped that there would be somebody pre-
pared to make a hero or a martyr of himself, and
organise the electoral body on this question. (Hear.)
What made him most indignant in talking of the
ballot was that the very cliss who refused even a trial of
the ballot were the very class who were using it in all
their clubs and societies. (Hear, bear.) The other day
he paid a visit to Oxford. Now, Oxford University was
certainly the very last place in the world that he should
have supposed to be addicted to anything revolutionary
or un-English ; still, in all their proceedings in Convoca-
tion, in all they did, except in the election of members
of Parliament, they voted by ballot. If he was but 15
years younger, he would go--(laughter and applause)
—he would go through the country and say, " Let
us vote as they vote at Oxford." (Cheers and laugh-
ter.) Now, what they meant by vote by ballot was
this—that there should be no record kept of how a man
voted. The present system was to record a man's name
and how be voted, and then in case a steward wanted to
persecute a tenant, or in case certain customers wished to
apply the principle of exclusive dealing, or any other
injustice was to be exercised, persons had only to go and
take of a copy of the polling-book, and they knew how
people voted. (Hear, hear.) He was trespassing, how-
ever on Mr. Bright ; but they had a Reform Bill pro
raised them, and the Government, he believed, was now
going to deal with it. He would not flatter the public
to say they were not liable to make mistakes with the
franchise, but this he said, the wider the franchise, if
mistakes were made in legislation, they were sooner felt
by great masses of the community than by a section of
the community, and the error was the more likely soon
to be corrected. (Hear, hear.) He would give them
an illustration. They had all read of, and some of
them, perhaps, remembered the breaking out of, the
war of the French revolution in 1793. It was a very
popular war. Everybody called out for a war with
France ; but when two years' experience had taught the
people that this war brought famine, high prices, bad
bread, increased pauperism, beggary, and misery they
assembled round the carriage of George 111. and Mr.
Pitt, and cried out, " Peace, peace !—Bread !—No Pitt,
and no war !" But they had not the power to change
their policy ; the power was in the hands of an exclu-
sive class—the oligarchical class—and, unfortunately,
that class, finding that war had brought higher prices,
were bribed to continue the war for 20 years, against
the interest of the people, who had originally urged the
war, but who, according to historians, would have put
an end to it 15 or 16 years sooner than it was stopped
by the exclusive class. Now, he thought this was,
of all times, the moment when reform in Parlia-
ment might be carried out. It was a time of great
political calm, and it was a time, notwithstanding the
adverse circumstances of a threatened war and high
' prices, of unusual prosperity. Such were just the times
when a wise Government would carry out a plan of
political reform, because he could not fear that, under
the inibience ("passion, those upon whom the franchise
was conferred would make a bad use of the power. If
they preserved peace they must prosper, and comfort
and increased intelligence must result. In conclusion,
the hon. member expressed a hope that that meeting
might be the means of a union, and reunion, if ever
there had been disruption, of all reformers in Sheffield.
(The hon. member resumed his seat amid loud and con-
tinued cheering.)
Lord GODHRICH, M.P., in seconding the resolution,
said he trusted that the Government, having taken a
year to think upon the matter, would now redeem their
pledge, not in the letter only, but in the spirit, and that
they would bring in an honest measure of reform—one
which was likely to satisfy the demands of justice, and
set at rest this question for some time to comes (Ap-
plause.) Set at rest finally, it doubtless would not be by
any measure likely to be now carried, for he found that
final settlement nowhere in human affairs. He had con-
fidence in the honesty of the present Government; but if
they intended to satisfy the wishes of the country, and
to stay agitation upon this question, they must make
up their minds to face it boldly, and grant reform with
no laggard hand. He had no doubt that the granting of
a right to vote to 101. householders in counties would be
an act of justice. Lord John Russell resigned because
Mr. Locke King beat him about it, and now Lord John
was represented as making it the only feature of his bill.
He hoped he would have a little more regard for his
character and self-respect than to leave out the Si. bo-
rough franchise which he promised in his own bill, and
admit the 101. county franchise which turned him out.
(Applause.) Looking to the position of public affairs, they
ought not to expect too much of the Government ; but
without the outbreak of a war they must fulfil the pledge.
Their character as statesmen—their character as men of
honour was staked upon their doing so ; and their cha-
racter for political wisdom upon their doing so in no
trifling and paltry manner, which would be a mockery
of a Ministry of all the talents. It had been said that
the people of this country did not want reform, and he
eves asked the other day by a supporter of the present
Government (not in the house) what he thought would
be the best means for Government to get out of their
pledge. They had got into a mess, he was told, through
Lord John's obstinacy in promising a Reform Bill when
nobody wanted one, and the gentleman wanted to know
how they were to get out of it ? All he could say was,
if they had got into a mess he hoped they would keep
them in it. (Applause.) The noble lord concluded by
thanking them for the kindness of their reception, and
sat down amid continued cheering.
The resolution was carried unanimously amid loud
cheers.

Mr. Cheetham, M.P., and Mr. Barnes, M.P., having
addressed the meeting,
Mr. BRIGHT rose to move the next resolution :
"That this meeting is deeply sensible of the evils and
disgrace which arise from the prevalence of intimi-
dation and corruption in various forms among the
county and borough ccnstituencies of the kingdom, and
would urge upon the Government the necessity of afford-
ing to the whole electoral body the shelter and protec-
tion of the mode of voting understood by the secret
ballot."

He said he was one of those who did not believe in what
was called the universal apathy of the people en the quese
tion of reform. Men measured the feeling on this sub-
ject by the remembrance of what existed 21 years ago,
when the Reform Bill of 1832 was under the discussion
in both Houses of Parliament ; and they fancied that, if
there were not enormous meetings at Leeds, Manches-
ter, Birmingham, and Glasgow, the people were not
thinking much about this question. What was the
state of things then ? The very right which now all
men admitted, that their representation should be real,
and not a sham, was contested by their Sir C. Wetherells,
their Mr. Crokers, and other speakers in Parliament of
that day. Why, on the contrary, now everybody was
for Parliamentary reform. There was not a newspaper
in the country, be it as Conservative as it liked, that
was not in favour of Parliamentary reform. The pro-
posed measure of Parliamentary reform, whatever it
was, would, he trusted, bring into the House of Com-
mons a fair representation of the intelligence and virtue
of the people, and he was ready to trust, for himself and for
his children, that the institutions of this country, let
them be what they might, should rest upon this one
foundation—that they should be heartily supported and
entirely approved by the intelligence and virtue of the
British people. When the present Government was
being elected there was the most distinct promise that the
question of reform should be soon taken up. Sir J.
Graham spoke of "large measure of Parliamentary re-
form ;" and he being oie of the Cabinet Council Com-
mittee to whom this new Reform Bill was referred,
they might hope that the propositions which he made
at Carlisle would not be forgotten now that he was
engaged in the work of concocting the new Reform
Bill. (Hear.) Their7county had been called an epi-
tome of this kingdom, in its prosperous agricultural, its r
. manufacturing, and its shipping interests, and the
variety of its population. But it was not less so in cor-
ruption, and in the wretched condition of their represen-
tative system ; and he thought that, as they were in
Yorkshire, they might as well look at the evils around
them as travel several thousand miles in search of some-
thing to do. (Applause.) What did they think of the
fact, that there were ten boroughs in Yorkshire which
returned to Parliament 17 members, the population of
those ten boroughs being very little more altogether than

half the population of Sheffield ? There was Richmond,
with 243 voters, returning two members. Now, he could
not see why the 5,000 electors of Sheffield should send
two members, and Lord Zetland should send two mem-
bers to do his bidding. (Hear, hear.) Northallerton
had fewer than 5,000 inhabitants, and returned one mem-
ber ; Thirsk had 5,308 population, 'and one member ; the
borough of Knaresborough had a population of 5,500,
and they returned two members. There was a peculiar
circumstance at the last election for Knaresborough.
They were so highly skilled in electioneering tactics that
at the last election there were three candidates, and they
all had exactly the same number of votes. (Laughter.)
Then Ripon had 6,000 population, and returned two
members ; Malton, 7,600 population, two members
Beverley, 10,000 population, two members ; Whitby,
less than 11,000 population, one member ; Ponte-
fract, 11,500 population, two members ; Scarborough,
12,700 population, two members ; the total being
80,000 population, while he understood the borough
of Sheffield had at least 140,000 inhabitants. (Hear,
hear.) But look at those boroughs in other ways. The
borough of Richmond was connected with the Earl of
Zetland. Ripon at present returned its members at the
bidding of the Earl de Grey. The members for the bo-
rough of Malton, it was said, were returned by Earl
Fitzwilliam. He also returned the members for Peter-
borough. But there had been a sort of rebellion about
that case. (Laughter.) He feared there would be no
rebellion at Malton. One of the two members for that
borough was returned at the last general election without
being present. Nothing was known of his opinions or
his antecedents. After that, for a long time he was not
heard of, and whether he had yet received intelligence
that he,was member for Melton he did not know. There
never was such a place as Beverley, for some landed
proprietor of vast revenues, or some great East India
director, who could come there, if not offering induce-
ments, at least supposed to be able to offer inducements,
which would justify men of very sensitive character in
those matters in giving him their support. Next, there
was the borough of Pontefract, which, he had been
told, was the only one in the kingdom where the ballot
was known to be absolutely unpopular. 'Well, let them
come to their own county on the general question of
the extension of the franchise. They had a popula-
tion of about 1,800,000, and 450,000 houses. All
the voters, both county and borough, amounted to
88,000 ; but a great number of them were voters
for borough anci county ; therefore actually the number
of voters must be considerably smaller. That gave but
one vote to every five houses in the county. Now, did
any man in his senses believe that with the platform
free in this country, that with the press to some extent
free (and they hoped by and by it would be wholly free,
by the abolition of the penny stamp), a system could be
maintained that said to four out of every five of all house-
holders in this country, " You live in a free country,
with a limited monarchy and a representative system,
but only one out of five of you can vote. Four of you
are too ignorant, too debased, too desperate in your
theories, too destructive in your projects, to be admitted
into the pale of the representative institutions of your
country." If any man supposed that that state of
things could continue, he must have been asleep for the
last 20 years, and it was not of much use his opening his
eyes. If they had a parliament in Yorkshire, and York-
shire was a kingdom to itself, would the people of Shef-
field stand such, he had almost said nonsense ? but it
was not nonsense. (Hear, hear.) It was an insult, an
injury—(loud applause)—that ten little boroughs should
require 17 members, those boroughs not having half the
population nor a quarter of the industry that was to be
found in that single town of Sheffield. (Renewed cheer-
ing.) What he saw in the House of Commons, and
what was the most deplorable feature of that house was
this—that one half at least of all the members seemed to
act under no kind whatever of responsibility to an intel-
ligent or controlling constituency out of doors. (Hear,
hear.) They came when they liked ; they voted as they
liked. They must have a wider franchise. Manchester
had 80,000 grown men in it. There were 18,000 upon
the list of voters ; 60,000 were therefore excluded.
(Hear, hear.) Should he take upon himself the respon-
sibility of saying to those 60,000 men in Manchester,
not to one more of them, that unless by some means
they could get into a 101. house they should not have a I
vote for that borough, when he found that for many
years past there had been a great improvement in the
education of the people, a remarkable diminution of
crime, a regard for order which no ruler of a people
could scarcely hope to see exceeded, and when he found
the people ingenious and energetic and loyal, and de-
voted in a noble degree to all the duties of citizenship ?
What harm did a man do with his vote ? Let them take
in Sheffield—the most destructive and the wildest
theorists, and when it came to the election of members
of Parliament, in nine cases out of ten they would find
that the population of this county would only vote for
men who they have reason to believe were men of good
character, common honesty, fair intelligence, and busi-
ness habits, and disposed in Parliament to use their in-
fluence for the common interests of the community. The
Government could take, on its own responsibility,
whatever steps it pleased ; it might add 1,000,000 or
2,000,000 to the elective body ; but there was no propo-
sition for the extension of the franchise which they could
make that he should hold to be so dangerous that he
should withhold his support from it. As to the ballot, he
affirmed that no man ever heard a fair, tenable argument
against it. He knew a distinguished statesman who
always opposed it, but who admitted that it was a very
difficult question to argue against. People looked at it
as some new, some great and dangerous principle, but,
in fact, it was only a mode of giving your vote; and it
was because the aristocracy of this country—for Whigs
and Tories were very much alike in this matter—wanted
their voters to be hustled in the street, to be kidnapped,
to have suspended over them debts and threats and taxa-
tion, and influences of every kind but those which the
true spirit of our constitution recognised, that they op-
posed the ballot. It was hundreds of years old. In a
copy of the charter from James I. to regulate the choice
of mayor of Pontefract, it is provided that the very
practice they contended for was established by his free
will, " to the intent that the aforesaid election may be
without any contention and malice in any shape." In
Massachusetts they agreed on this mode of voting—that
every elector should receive an envelope, and having
been supplied by his friend or respective candidates with
ballot tickets, should enclose in the envelope the tickets
of the persons for whom he intends to vote, and drop it
into the ballot-box. Perfect secrecy was thus secured.
At the last election for Cork those who came out of the
polling-booth, having voted openly for the unpopular can
didate, were chalked on the back, and consequently exposed
to annoyances and aggressions as they passed through the
streets. Rile had had one of these envelopes, no man would
have known which way he had voted. Why not have
the secret ballot here also ? The Attorney-General of
the United States—a man of remarkable intelligence
and liberality, and possessing a large fund of information
on all subjects--said to him the other day, speaking of
the ballot. "'We consider the basis of freedom to be re-
presentative institutions, and we consider the ballot to be
the basis of representative institutions." And they might
rely on it that the ballot would give what the law often
failed to afford—it would give the vote, actually, posi-
tively, and solely, to the man whose name was on the
register. Lord Aberdeen stated that when the whole
question was brought before Parliament, next session,
and before the attention of Government, during the re-
cess, the ballot should be taken into consideration as an
important subject for discussion. It was said that the
committee, appointed to frame the Reform Bill in 1831
actually reported in favour of the ballot. Several mem-
bers of the present Government, including, he believed,
one member of the Cabinet, were in favour of the bal-
lot. Then, why, not give it us now ? There would be
great difficulties in the way of passing the bill proposed
by Government. It was very necessary that public
feeling should be aroused in its behalf; and he be-
lieved that the introduction of the ballot would create
greater enthusiasm in its behalf than anything else,
and would do more to insure its passing than the
introduction of any other provision which could be
placed in it. The Government did some things well
last session. The budget was a good one. Their suc-
cession-tax was a judicious and just'measure. They re-
pealed the advertisement duty, after a world of trouble
was taken with them ; and they distributed their sur-
plus, perhaps as well as they could, in the reduction of
taxes. Let the Government bring in this measure, and
it would be evident that the apathy which F._
pervaded
the country was more apparent than real.
.Now, what
must they do, supposing this bill to be n
a now
one ?
including
When he said a good bill, he did not m
all the five points of the Charter, foreiatn one
mightbe'good
without giving them everything that they wanted.
Don't
the members of the
let them be unreasonable. All
boroughs proposed to be disfranchised would be arrayed
in opposition to the bill.
The great questionof arlia
al
mentary reform themustbecartriaesderovuetinednividuinterests,
great ri
prin-
ciples of justice, and not
or suit the views of party. Should the latter views
prevail, the people would not support the measure of
Government, and it must consequently be lost. The
wop
wasin
alasrganisb ed last session, but they
O
probaility, pluck up their spirits
uld position
now,
a little, and return together again when they found
that anything seriously affecting their interests was
brought forward. They would probably find that
that distrust of Mr. Disraeli which existed in some
of their minds would vanish, and 250 or 260 mem-
bers would be found on the Opposition side ; while
some of those gentlemen who bad a pardonable affec-
tion for small boroughs would find themselves compelled
to vote against the Government. If Government were
placed in a minority they would be sure to dissolve upon
it ; and he thought it was very possible that a dissolu-
tion might take place on this question ; for no liberal
Government would lose office without testing the
opinion of the constituencies of the country on a ques-
tion h&c, this. He trusted, however, that the spirit
which existed 20 years ago in England,' and caused the
great reform which then took place in the representa-
tive system, would again be aroused when the occasion
for its exercise arose. He believed the bill would be worth
something ; that it would give a considerable extension
to the constituencies, disfranchise many small Loroughs,
give additional members to large constituencies, and
create new boroughs. Now, that meeting was no
proof of any apathy in Sheffield ; and he believed that
they might go to any other large town like that, or even
to smaller places, and address meetings which would
exhibit similar manifestations of enthusiasm and unani-

While every one is waiting for the reverberation
of the first cannon shot which shall boom over the
waves of the Black Sea, Sheffield has fired the first
signal gai of the coming Parliamentary conflict.
Although there are many matters on which we
cannot agree with the speakers who met to do
honour to the Spartan virtue of Mr. Hadfield,
whom not even the dainties of a Lord Mayor's
feast could tempt from his bench in the House of
Commons, we must admit in all fairness that the
meeting was moderate in tone and creditable in
point of ability and taste, the only
exception to
this latter merit being the extravagant eulogiums
lavished on a not very remarkable' speech made by
Lord Goderich. Nobody has so sincere and heart-
felt a respect for the peerage as your out-and-out
Radical, and no candidate is so certain of success
with a large constituency as a democratic Lord.
On-one point we congratulate the party of - e•ei t,;-
men assembled to discuss the prospectref ftsfortii.
No one among them all was found absurd enough
to advocate that ridiculous nostrum for aug-
menting the evils of our present system—trien-
nial Parliaments. That article seems to have
dropped out of the Radical creed, and we sin.
cerely rejoice that it has done so. Next to the
suppression of this once popular topic, we
have to observe on the carefully concealed, but
still very remarkable, divergence of opinion with
reference to the extension of the suffrage. Of
course, at such a place and on such an occasion it
was necessary to say something with regard to the
franchise, but, while Mr. Heywood spoke of uni-
versal suffrage, and Lord Goderich of the five-
pound franchise, Messrs. Cobden and Bright con-
fined themselves to safe generalities, and preferred dealing in millions to coining to close quarters with
this most embarrassing question. Nobody can doubt that the constituent class ought to be aug-
mented, but the admirers of a five-pound franchise
will seek in vain for, any advocacy of that measure
in the speeches of Messrs. Cobden and Bright.
Obviously, the events of the great European revo-
lution have not been wholly without their effect
upon the minds of our popular leaders, and they
are, much to their honour, free from the reckless-
ness which would take the government of this
country out of the hands in which it is now placed
in order to give it to untried and unknown classes
for the sake of rounding a period or raising a cheer.
It is remarkable, also, that such arguments as were
brought forward in favour of reducing the franchise
were based almost entirely on collateral considera-
tions, and avoided studiously the question which is
decisive of the whole matter. We are told that by
reducing the franchise we shall develope a public
spirit and patriotic feeling in the masses, which the
very terms of the argument presuppose not now to
exist. We are told that by lowering the franchise
we shall enlist the upper classes of this country
heartily on the side of education, and inspire them
with a genuine desire to humanise and instruct
those who will have become masters of their des-
tiny. But surely this is beginning at the wrong
end. On behalf of those who have anything to
lose in this country, on behalf of the classes who
will be swamped by the vast infusion of new electors,
we humbly beg that the education may come first,
and, instead of giving men the franchise in order
to induce them to fit themselves for it, let us
have some evidence of aptitude before we hand
over the trust. A country just released from
despotism, and seeking for institutions of a popu-
lar character, must necessarily trust something
to chance ; but we are under no such compul-
sion. Even if our Parliament were not reformed
at all, we possess in it an assembly which trans-
acts with zeal and honesty an incredible amount
of public business, which is very sensitive
to the expression of public opinion, and which
certainly need not shrink from a comparison
with any representative body in the world. It
were small wisdom to hazard the continuance of
these useful qualities for the sake of giving the
working classes a more perfect experience of public
duties. The institutions of a free country should
neither lag behind nor advance beyond the state
of its moral or intellectual development. The
first is full of discontent, and the second of danger.
The franchise is no arithmetical question. It can-
not be solved by counting up thenumbers who pos-
sess votes, and comparing them with the much
larger numbers who do not. This proves nothing.
Mr. Crossley may have a thousand carpet-weavers
who have no vote, but the fact of their being a
thousand gives them no greater claim to the suffrage
than if they were only ten. The real question,
which every speaker seems sedulously to avoid, is,
will the enfranchisement of the lower classes in our
boroughs give us better and abler members 'of Par-
liament, or infuse a more enlightened and patriotic
spirit into its deliberations ? Will men, who are
starving themselves and their families td support
in idleness and misery of their own choosing
thousands who have turned themselves out of em-
ployment because they are too ignorant to under-
stand or submit to the well-known laws of demand
and supply, be fit choosers of lawmakers for a
great commercial country whose very existence is
involved in conducting its legislation on sound
economical principles ? We apprehend not.
Mr. Cobden appears to regard *NI disfavour
the enlargement of the county constitnences, and
the proposal to extend te them a greater portion
of the representation of the country. The towns
are, he says, more intelligent than the counties,
and therefore have the better claim for an increase
of representation, and for a greater diminution of
the franchise. It is impossible to accept this as a
fair statement of the case between town and. coun-
try. If the counties were to remain as at present,
the mere appanages of large landed proprietors,
we should be disposed to agree that no more re-
trograde step could be adopted than to increase the
number of their representatives ; but the counties
as they are now, and as they would be if their
franchise were made uniform with that of the
boroughs, are quite distinct things. The num-
bers added to the county constituencies by such
a change would be, we venture to say, infi-
nitely superior both in respectability and inde-
pendence to those who occupy the lower ranks
among the borough voters. They might not be
followers of Mr. Cobden or enthusiastic admirers of
Mr. Hadfield or of the other gentlemen who spent
so happy an evening at Sheffield amid their own
mutual laudations, but they would be able to think
and act for themselves, and would, we believe,
keep alive amid all political and social changes a
thoroughly English spirit of honesty and inde-
pendenc.
The town constituencies are bitterly reproached
fpr their apathy on the subject of the ballot. They
/Tem unaccountably dead to their wrongs,. and it
may well grieve Mr. Cobden to find that those
cawhose hard fate he has so long been describing ,
cannot be brought to a sense of the misery he de-
,
Plores. It looks as if the public had taken the
Measure of this question, and, making by its prac-
tical good sense the enormous allowance, for the
difference between theory and practice which such
a case peculiarly demands, had arrived *at the con-
clusion that this great panacea of political ills had
neither the good nor the evil so constantly ascribed
to it.
The point on which we suspect public sympathy
Will go most heartily with the reformers of Shef-
field is Mr. Bright's clear and masterly exposition
of the anomalies of our electoral system. Unlike
the franchise, this is a grievance which figures
may fitly represent, and fully do justice to.
The • only advantage which is gained from small
boroughs seems to be the representation of such
opinions as do not generally find favour with the
majorities of large constituencies. But this soli-
tary advantage can easily be compensated by some
plan for the representation of minorities, and if
that be done we shall regard the extinction of
these discreditable anomalies as a good unalloyed
with any mixture of evil. Upon the whole, con-
sidering that the speakers at Sheffield constitute
the most advanced party in Parliament, we , Th)-
gard the tone they adopted as creditable to their
moderation, and the arguments they employed as
well worth the consideration of those who have
undertaken to frame a measure
whle
opinion,hshailnei-
ther needlessly alarm the timid, nor disappoint
the reasonable exigencies of enlightened

SHIPMENTS of SPECIE.—The shipments of specie by
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to 153,7261.. of which 56,0711. is gold, for Alexandria,
Malta, and Hongkong ; and 97,655 i. silver, for Cal.
ctitta, Penang, Singapore, Hongkong,Shanghai, and
Canton.

~, ~~'