The Sun.
London, England, 1831-10-03 00:00:00

REFORM MEETINGS.

BIRMINGHAM TO IVN MEETING.

On Saturday a most numerous and reapectable body of
the inhabitants of Birmingham was held at D,,e's Royal
Hotel, for the purpose of petitioning the House of Lords
to pass the Reform Bill. Our correspondent states, that
he never recollects to have ssen before so numerous and
respectable an assemblage of " the heads of houses" con-
gregated for a political purpose in the town of Birmingham.
The meeting was attended by several magistrates, bankers,
merchants, and clergy, both dissenting and of the esta-
blishment. We have not room for more than the following
extract from the speech of Mr. Joseph Parkes, in seconding
the motion that his Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex
be requested to present the petition to the House of Lords.
France, previous to her first revolution, was honoured in
the ministry of M. Turgot. That great enlightened Mi-
nister, like Lord Grey, attempted by timely reforms to
save his country from anarchy and revolution. But a
blind and infatuated aristocracy prevailed. Condorcet, his
philosophical biographer, records the unhappy causes. He
la a sacrifice to courtiers, needy place-hunters, prejudices,
and fears, and Turgot was driven from office. The revo-
lution followed, and all its consequent horrors and evils ;
and fatal would it be for England, if the fate of Turgot was
the fate of Earl Grey. But he would not contemplate, lie
could not anticipate, without overwhelming feelings, such
a catastrophe.—(Cheers.) He (Mr. Parkes) was per.
suaded that the Bill would pass the Upper House. In
that House it would be most ably debated, and with cor-
responding influence. The Peers would probably best
know how to work on one another. They had no in-
terest as a body in boroughmongering, and there was
scarcely an instance on historical record of any great mea-
sure lost in that House. He would not at that late hour
enter into any minute historical details.—(Cheers. But
the Lords imposed charters on the ancient Kings. The
Lords consented to repeated alterations of the national re-
ligion. The Lords passed the Attainder Bills of Land and
Strafford. The memorable Triennial Bill had passed the
House of Peers, as he (Mr. Parkes) hoped it again would,
in substitution of the felonious Septennial Act.--(Repeated
cheers.) The Lords assented to the revolution of 1688.
They had, in the memory of every one present, virtually
acquitted the late persecuted Queen; and Ice (Mr. Parkes)
thought that he recollected Lord Harewood, or some Noble
Peer, admitting., that in his vote he voted for peace, and
from respect far the voice of the country. More recently,
the Peers had stood by the Duke of Wellington and passed
the Catholic Bill. On the whole, he rejoiced that this
meeting had not used menace or intimidation in their peti-
tion and resolution. Peers were a peculiar order of
society, who associated little outside their own class. As
a friend to the Constitution, he trusted that the Peers, as at
present constituted, would pass the Bill. If they did so,
without obliging the Crown to increase their number, it
would heal all wounds, and (as an eloquent speaker had
said) would even bide the scar. If they threw it out or
smothered it, on their heads be every responsibility ; the
question of the utility of an hereditary Peerage would infal-
libly arise. No after-step—no increase of the Peers, even
if it subsequently carried the Bill—could retrieve the blow
to the Peerage. But if they should blindly oppose it,
his Majesty possessed a prerogative, not for orna-
ment but for use—a wise appurtenance of the Constitu-
tion calculated for occasions of peril. He would say
no more; but hoped he had proved his own modera-
tion, but now he must lea allowed to say that he
(6,1 not blind himself to the peril of the crisis. He hoped
and believed the nation would be saved a possibility of
anarchy; if anarchy occurred, its horrors in this country
would far exceed any ever recorded. We subsisted on
credit, and our monetary system exposed us to evils
which no man could exaggerate. The men of property
might, in a revolution, slink into holes and curlers, and
bury their money bags ; but the numbers were ruined and
undone with a cessation in the demand fur labour. The
people ware really, above all, as a body, interested in or-
der, and averting any extreme political change : they
knew it, and proved it by their actions. But if, unhap-
pily, an Anti-Reform Administration should befal them--
if a cheat were substituted for the Bill—if scenes of civil
discord did arise, similar to those in which the blood of
Hampden, the Russells, and the Howards, was the seed
of English liberty—he (Mr. Parkes) should go with his ;
order—the people.—(Loud cheers.)

The resolutions and the petition proposed at this meeting
were unanimously agreed to.
To-day the meeting of the Birmingham Union takes
places. The expectation is that it will be attended by
many thousands from the town and neighbourhood.

DEVON COUNTY.
(Abridged from the Western Times.)
Castle of Exeter, Friday, Sept. SO.
The meeting of this great county once again was held
this day, and few will say, after seeing the number who
were present, and the rank and respectability of the gen-
tlemen present, that the opinion is not increased in favour
of the all-healing measure of Reform in this large and in-
fluential county.
The requisition, signed by three hundred most respec-
table men, having a very considerable stake in the county,
was presented to the High Sheriff on Saturday last. The
hour appointed for the meeting was twelve, but long before
that hour the crowds were seen from every quarter crowd-
ing towards the Castle-yard, with a quietude of manner
best fitting the fixed resolution with which they asssem-
bled, and the gravity and all imposing importance.of the
object for which they met. Thus may the gathering to-
gether of the men of Devon ever be !

The chief speakers at the meeting were Lord Ebrington,
the Hon. Newton Fellowes, Messrs. Elton, Divett, Parrott,
Nortbmore, Fankerley, Hamlyn, Sandford, Michelmore,
and Colonel Pell.

A petition was unanimously agreed to, in which the pe-
titioners state that they have viewed with intense interest
and lively satisfaction the progress of the Bill, and that they
indignantly repel the false and malicious imputation of
their feeling lukewsrrn on the subject.
" That they venture to express, with much earnestness, the
hope that your Right Honourable House will give to a measure,
so admirably calculated to guarantee the future enjoyment of
the just rights of the people—to al:ay much existing discontent--
and to restore the long-needed and most necessary sympathy
between the House of Commons and the intelligent and indus-
trious body of the community, your immediate and favourable
consideration.
" They therefore humbly pray that 'your Right Honourable
House will pass into a law a measure which they believe calcu-
lated to remedy numerous evils, and the failure of which they
cannot in any way contemplate without unmixed and serious ap-
prehensions. And your petitioners will ever pray, &c.