The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-12 00:00:00

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1 Ctootnsvteitruytinionuchisdiff"eoruenrcellobuestew,:enyotuhemfi.nd
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majority of the Mernbsrs of that House ref •
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either very small sections of the people, or are reteee•
under circumstances which have made it impossibl6s4l i,
that the electors should exercise a free choice in "'V
their election.—(Hear, hear.) Now, I will give you one
or two facts. There are 22 boroughs represented in
the House of Commons, which send 42 members, and
the whole population of these 22 boroughs is 100,000
people. There are other 20 boroughs that send 42
members also, and their population its 3,780,000.—(" Oh,
oh," and cries of " Shame.") Here is another fact.
There are 42 boroughs which you will find put down in
" Dodd's Parliamentary Register " as being under the
influence and patronage of the nobility or gentry. These
return 69 members, and the whole population is 370,000
There are 36 other boroughs returning 69 members
also, whose population is five millions.—(Hear, hear.)
I will just read the names of them, and you will recog-
nise them all. A man does not want a microscope to
find out London, Liverpool, Leeds. Now all those places
that I have mentioned, being 36 boroughs, having a
population of five millions, send their 62 members to the
House of Commons; and 42 boroughs, having a popula-
tion of 370,000, send also 69 members, who meet
them in power and number.—(Shame.) Take another
point. The metropolis, London, with all its boroughs,
has two millions of inhabitants, and it sends sixteen
members to Parliament; while eight small boroughs,
such as Bridgnorth, the names of some of which have
never been heard, send also sixteen members; and in-
stead of two millions of population, how many do you
think they have? Why, they have 40,000.—(Oh, oh.)
The metropolis increases every year by about the num-
ber of 40,000, which is equal to the whole population
represented by these sixteen members.—(Hear.) But
our opponents tell us that property should be repre-
sented, and not population. Well, here is a fact about
that, which is a very ugly fact too.—(Laughter.) Buck-
inghamshire, for instance, has eleven members, and
is rated at 174,000/. Lancashire has' twenty-six mem-
bers, rather more than double, and is rated at 5,266,0004
Now, Sussex and the West Riding of Yorkshire
have the same number, eighteen. Sussex is rated at
1,100,0001. and the West Riding of Yorkshire at
3,300,0001. Well, now, I think nobody will say that
sort of arrangement is a fair idea of a representative
system.—(Hear, hear.) If they were to attempt to set
it up on the continent, in some of those countries where
a representative system is about to be established, it
would be scouted as little better than the system which
they have just overthrown. But there is another point.
You have heard of the Cabinet, that mysterious thirteen
or fourteen gentlemen who always know the secrets
everybody else wishes to know, and many cannot get to
know.—(Laughter.) If we had a fair representation in
the House of Commons, and a fair Cabinet representing
the House of Commons, our own class—that is, the
trading class—would assuredly be found in the Cabinet.
But who are there ? There are fourteen of them, and
you will see how many of them aro connected with the
trade and manufactures of this country. There is Lord
Cottenham, the Marquis of Lansdowne, Earl Minto, Earl
Grey, Lord Campbell, the Marquis of Clanricarde, the
Earl of Carlisle, and until the other day when he was
removed by death, the Earl of Auckland, whose place
is filled up by a Member of the House of Lords. Ix
addition to these eight Peers there are two Lords—Lord
John Russell and Lord Palmerston ; so that, out of the
fourteen, ten arc Lords. Then there are Sir Charles
Wood, Sir George Grey, Sir John Cam Hobhouse, and
Mr. Labouchere ; the two former being connected either
by relationship or marriage ; Sir John Cam Hobhouse
is son-in-law to a Peer ; and Mr. Labouchere is son-in-
law, or brother-in-law, or both, to a Peer. I am not
making any charge against these men. These men are
admirable men in many respects, but I don't think they
make an admirable Government. But they are very ex-
cellent men in many respects. I say that a Government
—a Cabinet, whether composed of eight Peers, two ad-
ditional Lords, and four Barons—l say these fourteen
men do not and cannot represent truly and fairly, and
without bias, the great commercial and industrious in-
terests of this great country.—(Cheers.) I imagine
them sitting at the council table and questions being
discussed such as we are discussing to-night. Why,
they have got half-a-dozen friends and relatives nursed
up with this great taxation and expenditure, and the
families would disagree if they advocated to a small ex-
tent the principles advocated in this hall. Yeu cannot
pretend to have a real representation, or that you are
governed by laws emanating from the people so long as
fourteen members of the Cabinet are chosen entirely
from one class in the community.—(Cheers.) To what
conclusion do we come ? That Government is in a dead
lock, and cannot carry out the very reform which some
of the members would wish to be carried out. Thky
have not the power, and many not the will. They watt
that amongst them which has enabled them or other
men to carry out reform in past time. They want the
assistance of a popular and democratic element, and
without that I defy them to move in the direction which
we require.—(Cheers.) The democratic element repealed
the Test Act, emancipated the Catholics, carried the Re-
form Bill, renovated the municipal eorporations,abolished
slavery, mitigated the criminal code, and repealed the
corn-laws.—(Loud cheers.) And unless that element
is again roused throughout the country, infused into
the Government, and united with the Government,
it is impossible that the interests and opinions
of the people of this country can have a fair
discussion and deliberation amongst the members of
the Cabinet. Well, now, how are we to get this popu-
lar element into the Government and the House of Com-
mons? Why, by the union of all popular, all the de-
mocratic, all honest reform influence which exists
throughout the country.—(Cheers.) And how are we
to get this union? By pursuing the same plan with re-
spect to the registering of votes that we pursued in the
Anti-Corn-law League.—(Cheers.) We can attend to
the registration and qualification of electors ; we can
fee that in boroughs everything is done as far as the
law will permit, and in counties the number of electors
can be doubled, and in many cases quadrupled, and the
power transferred to the people.—(Great applause.)
My object in rising to-night is to propose a resolution,
which will have the effect of initiating something which
shall carry this out, and although it is so late, I am
sure I shall have, for a few moments, the attention of
this audience, that I may explain it somewhat.—(Cheers,
and cries of "Go on.") We propose to request that
our chairman—it could not be in better hands, and I
doubt whether it could be in as good hands—(Ap•
plause)—that our chairman shall take the necessary
steps for the formation of an association, which shall
have for its express and solo object the attention to the
registers or voters in boroughs or counties; and the ex-
tension of the 40s. freehold in all those populous counties
where the people can, if they will, obtain the electoral
power within their own hands.--(Bravo.) I will not go
into the particulars of that movement. You know what
the 40s. freeholders are. You know that the question
of the validity of those freeholds, and of the propriety
of making them, was tried in the Court of Common
Pleas, and that that able justice, whose character, I be-
lieve, stands untarnished for honesty in the performance
of his public duty—l mean Chief Justice Tindal—de-
clared that it was meritorious for the people thus to add
to the register, and that it was the special object of the
Reform Act that the number of electors should be
increased.—(Cheers.) Well, then, we are not going
to make a violent agitation. This is not at all
necessary. We aro going to recommend all the
counties in England to do that which this county
in which we now stand has done; that which the West
Riding has done to a considerable extent; that which the
people of Birmingham, Coventry, and Norwich are doing
now.—(Hear, hear.) We intend to invite, so far as the
I constituencies will co-operate with us—to invite all the
constituencies in all the counties to a constant and unia-
termitting attention to their register. We intend to
point out to them how the people of these large towel,
if they would only make a judicious and patriotic invest-
ment of 501. a piece, or in many cases of half that sum,
how they might become qualified to give a vote along
with the greatest farmers or landowners in the country.
Now, let us recollect one thing, that we !get nothing for
asking.—(Hear, hear.) We get everything for doings—
(Loud cheers.) We have asked Parliament long enough.
We are going to ask them again. But they will listen
to us infinitely more if they see coming up behind us
thousands and scores of thousands of newly enfranchised
voters, by the purchase of 40s. freeholds. When any
of those fifty men who voted for economy and reform
kto
last session; when any of those u 3"/
vote; when
the House of Commons; when they
ill be more
will be more listened to, their arguments
be more ap..
cogent, their patriotism and good
sense
known that they
they express an opinion upon a question, v(t)heir voices
will
• whichn ur
parent, and more acknowlenged,
of thousands who
millions, and the united
exertions
electoral roll.—(Hear,
have behind the sympathies
defileseset
have placed themselves upon
e.
There are no weapons of
taoinnfdsztthe co-operation of
hear.) We discard violence.
for thatu
armlamereenntst
cheons. We have nolsoodNup
downr• its industry, but by
but still g • 0; we look for
the page of history,
is
(Hear, hear.) Not by
h country from a very different
the salvation of t
the spread of
war in our hands. Therei
which shall bhe7crh admirationnar be
shall raise
principles
cheers)—by holding out industrial
population—
al,' rn "se nfr h. _ to all those classes
that are 7,0 e une anc ised the right hand of fellow-
ship from us who are of the enfranchised
course of conduct.—(Hear,
siapclass.—(Cheers.)
I „c no reason to doubt the nationalityof
the
great body
of the people of this country. I •t 3. am willing to admit
that they do not look u
and that the affection whiche our institutions as. perfect,
to
burn so brightly for the throne and tanedir
ihnsertlrtutstinins said
institutions of the
country may be a little dulled. Their ease may be like
that of the Levito mentioned in Mr. Macaulay's book,
who was a chaplain in some nobleman's household. He
remained at table, and they might eat of the corned
beef ; but while the choice viands and delicacies of the
table are being 'consumed, he stands apart. And then,
forthwith, this unfortunate priest is called to the table
to return heartfelt thanks for the delicacies from which
he has been excluded.— (Laughter.) Recollect that five
nut of six of all the groan-up men you meet in Man-
chester and Lancashire, and Great Britain and Ireland,
are as much excluded from the direct influence upon the
Government, as were the slaves who formed the great
population of ancient Rome. Recollect that amongst
these millions there are vast numbers that can compare
with any of us in intelligence, and in honesty and in-
dustry. Ay, they have dono deeds heroic, but which
are unknown to tame. And I ask you, who have the
franchise, who see how unequally you have it, who see
who govern this country, and how they govern it—l ask
you, whether you cannot judiciously, wisely, and
with the greatest benefit to your country, call up to your
electoral ranks vast numbers of those whom the rulers
of the country have hitherto excluded?—(Cheers.)
Don't fear that when they have the vote, they will be
actuated by motives less pure than yourselves.—(Hear,
hear.) Don't fear that the cottage has its hallowed in-
stinct, as has the more comfortable home of the middle
or higher class.—(Applause.) Don't think that work-
ing men, because they
work and their hands are hard,
are brutal and depraved.—(Cheers.) I have an nnfal-
tering faith in the integrity and good disposition of the