The Sun.
London, England, 1831-04-18 00:00:00

to-dny..—(Hear.) One of the letters stated that a petitidn
from the working class of Darlston Would be imme-
diately sent up to that House in favour of the
measure. A meeting, for the purpose of agreeing
upon the terms of the petition; and of signing it,
had been called. One of the placards calling it he held
:er nis hind, and it stated that the object was, among other
thing:, to celebrate the triumph of the glorious cause in
the hands of our beloved Sovereign and his enlightened
ministers."—(Loud cheers.)
Mr. HUNT said thet ie.'. the first place, as to what had
fallen frotn the Hon. Member for Middlesex, he should
perhaps in some measure confirm his statement. In
regard to what had fallen from the Honourable Member
respecting Dalston, he had to say that he had been at
a meeting diet too!: place there. He was at Birming-
ham ola his way to Preston, and at Birmingham
was invited to attend a meeting in Warwickshire. In reply
he said he had no property there, and he should net go,
but would spend the day in Birmingham. Two members.
of the Birmingham Union (one a Mr. Western, a roost
respectable man) waited on him, and invited him to at-
tend a meeting at Darlston, saying, if lie would go
go, he should have a seat there and back in their
carriage, and this was the *ay in which he had got among
the Hon. Wlernher's constituents opposite. In consequence
he (Mr. II.) believed of his being present on that occasior.,
instead of there being 50 to dine when dinner had been
prepared there were nearly 800.—(Much laughter )
He was invited to address the persons assembled, and the
discussion arose upon the prevent measure of Reform.
He certainly did put two or three questions to them.
They were noisily working men, and not of the class which
he should call M. freeholders. In answer to what was
stated in the House the other day with respect to
putting leading questions, he admitted that lie had
put leading questions ; and he would appeal to any
Hon. and Learned Member in that House whether, in a
Court of Justice, leading questions were not permitted for
the purpose of eliciting truth, and the whole truth.
(Hear.) He asked those present whether they would be
likely to come within the class o f those who would have
a vote in the representation? A great portion of them
said they were not. He then asked them whether they
would choose to delegate to the 101. inhabitants
such as were proposed by the Bill, their right to vote,
and their answer in the room was, certainly not. After
dinner he was invited to go to a multitude, no doubt partly
to hear the leaders of the Birmingham Union, and partly
that he might be heard himself. He was told that he then
addressed 10,000 people, and to whom he repeated his
questions, and from whom he got similar answers. The
lion. Members for Staffordshire and Middlesex stated that
meetings bad been held all over the country, and that
the people were unanimous for the measure. He (Mr.
II.) had stated the same thing, and that the people
were running mad for it. The Hon. Member for
Boroughbridge had called it " Russell's Purge Bill." It
might be entitleno that epithet from those who were to be
scoured out of Parliament by its operations, but be should
apply some other term to it. It was a Bill to disfran-
chise 60 boroughs and to knock off 120 Members.—
Now it seemed the Noble Lord had put them all together
into an oven ; he had pounded them, and blinded the eyes
of the people of England with the powder in the shape of
" love's powder, or boroughmonger'e powder." People
had began now to see the effect of it. They were
recovering from their blindness. The House bad
been lustily told that all people approved of the measure.
Why so they did approve of it—they approved of it
so far as it went, but many, and particularly those
in Lancashire, did not approve of it in consequence
of its net going far enough. He (Mr. H.) for
his own part, approved of the knocking off system—
he approved of the measure, and he should give it his
support. At the same time he had always centended for
the right of the whole people, and this was certainly not
a measure calculated to give to the whole the right
of voting. He had stated on a former occasion
what he repeated now, that when the Bill was in the
Committee he should move, that those who were
to be exempted from the right of voting should he
excused from paying taxes and serving in the mi-
litia. He had stated this too to the persons at the
meetings that he had attended, and asked them if
they expected any thing from the measure? They
then stated that they expected nothing whatever.
The Hon. Member for Middlesex had stated that at the
dinners he (Mr. H.) bad attended, certain toasts had been
drunk. Now that Hon. Member must have been entirely
m'staken, because he had dined with no one ! He knew
what the Hon. Member meant; it was this, that ho (Mr.
H.) had been invited to an evening party—(Laughter.)
at which there was nothing to eat—(Repeated laughter)—
at all, and at the meeting the health of his Majesty's Mi-
nisters certainly was drank.