The Sun.
London, England, 1838-12-17 00:00:00

WESTMINSTER REFORM ASSOCIA
TION—ADDRESS to the EARL OF DURHAM.

[The following is the report of the meeting, as it
appeared in the Morning Chronicle of Friday, with
the exception of Mr. Prout's speech, which we have
received from authority.]
On Wednesday evening a special and numerous meeting
of the Westminster Reform Association took place at the
York Hotel, Covent-garden, for the purpose of taking into
consideration the propriety of presenting an address to the
Earl of Durham, on his arrival in this country.
Mr. TROTT was unanimously voted to the chair. He
said that every person was aware that, some time ago,
the members of that Association expressed their disap-
proval of the proceedings of the present Government with
respect to the appointment of Lord Durham as Governor-
General of Canada, and the almost unlimited and des-
potic powers entrusted to him. However, that time was
gone by ; and, leaving the affairs of Canada out of the
question, they were met either to approve or reject an
address to Lord Durham on his return to this country, an
address that would have no connection with his administra-
tion of Canadian affairs. The Earl of Durham was now
in this country, and what they had to consider was,
whether they could make use of him or not in the
furtherance of the objects the association had in view.—
(Hear, hear.) He looked upon the Noble Earl in the
light of a trump card that had been turned up at a very op
portune moment. There was little doubt but the,Noble Earl
would stand in opposition to Ministers ; indeed, symptoms
of that opposition had already manifested themselves in the
resignation by his Countess of her situation as lady of the
bed-chamber to the Queen.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. PROUT—Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, I take
upon myself the introduction of an address to the Right
Hon. the Earl of Durham on the occasion of his return to
this country.—(Hear.) In order, Gentlemen, that there
may be no misconeeption as to the question you have this
evening to discuss and decide upon--in order that you may
thoroughly understand and be in full possession of the na-
ture of the address I intend to submit to your considera-
tion, I will, with your permission, read it to you at this
stage of our proceedings. I hope, Gentlemen, that the
matter will obtain your best consideration, and that you
will calmly discuss it in all its various bearings, for it is
only by deliberate discussion that we can arrive at a
rational and sure conclusion.--(Hear.) [Mr. Prout
here read the Address, which will be found •in
another part of this report.] This, Gentlemen, is the
address, which, if this meeting entertain the propriety
of presenting one at all, I shall at a later
period of the evening move to be voted to the Earl
of Durham. I believe, Gentlemen, that you are all
aware that the Earl of Durham had a considerable share
in framing the Reform Bill, and I understand that the
Noble Earl actually drew up the draught of a Bill, contain-
ing provisions far more liberal than does the Bill which is
now the law of the land.—(Hear.) Such being the fact,
we must, at any rate, consider him of more liberal principles
than the existing Ministers. The Noble Earl has invariably
declared that that Bill ought to be carried out, not only to
to the very letter, but to the fullest extent that its spirit
would lead to ; and, if it were carried out to
that extent, it would finally embrace, in the Noble
Earl's opinion, three great measures, viz., Household Suf-
frage, Triennial Parliaments, and Voting by Ballot. The
Earl of Durham's political principles are not of to-day. I
remember him twenty-five years ago, when, as Mr. Lamb-
ton, and a Member of the House of Commons, he used to
attend our spirited and liberal meetings at the Crown and
Anchor Tavern ; and I can state, from my own personal
observation, that Mr. Lambton advocated then the
very same popular measures the Earl of Durham does now.
—( Hear.) When I look back on the Noble Earl's political
career—when I recall to mind his former political profes-
sions, and compare them with his present, I feel myself
conscientiously justified in asserting that I never knew him
in any one public instance to forfeit his word.—(Cheers.)
I am not a person, Gentlemen, to blindly trust to the pro-
fessions of any public individual, but at the same time I do
not think I have a right—nor has any one else—to impute
motives to public characters before those motives are

clearly exhibited by undisputed facts.—( Hear, hear.)
There are, I know, some persons who find fault with
the Earl of Durham's letter to Mr. Russell Bowlby,
written soon after the Noble Earl's return from his
mission in Russia, and who consider certain passages
in that letter in the light of a disparagement of the
Noble Earl's former political principles. I differ in
opinion from those persons. I think the Noble Earl only
wished that Reformers would for the present place in abey-
ance certain measures they contended for, and he advised
them not to urge the consideration of those measures on
Government, but to give Ministers a fair trial, and not em-
barrass them at the critical period of the accession of a
youthful Sovereign to the throne.— ( Hear.) The
Noble Earl must now see that Ministers had failed
when put upon their trial—that they had not
accomplished what they promised, and what the
people expected from them ; and the Noble Earl,
to be consistent with himself, must aid that Society
and the liberal community at large, in their endeavours to
obtain a better measure than the Reform Bill.—(Hear.)
For my part, Gentlemen, I frankly confess that I am one
of those persons who think it better for the rapid advance-
ment of liberty to have a Tory Administration than a Whig
one, for then, knowing with whom we had to deal, our course
of action would be perfectly clear and straightforward. A
Whig Administration, with its specious promises and appa-
rent liberality, lulls the people into self-confiding repose. A
Tory one awakens their suspicion, puts them on their
guard, and eventually rouses them into action. Then
an advance in the path of liberty is promptly obtained.
See what the Whigs have been doing--see the effects of
their continuance in power. They have, ever since their
accession to office, been studiously preparing the people for
Tory misrule—they have been clearing the way for the
successful domination of that faction, which the people
helped them to deprive of ministerial power.—(Hear.)
The apathy of a large portion of the people proved the fact,
and it was time to look oat for some one who would be
a means of saving them from the danger into which
they were likely to fall. As the Earl of Durham has
lately stated at Devonport, that his principles remained
unchanged and unchangable," that they were still pre-
cisely the same as those he expounded to the people of
Glasgow in 1834, and as those principles are to a certain
extent the principles of this Society, I think it will not be
inconsistent on our part if we wait upon his Lordship and
present to him the address I have just had the honour of
reading to you. As the Earl of Durham is an advocate
for Household Suffrage, for Triennial Parliaments, and
for Voting by Ballot, and if we had those three measures
we would be enabled to put a stop, in a great measure, to
intimidation, bribery and corruption, and, consequently,
obtain a fuller and fairer representation of the
people than we now possess, I think it sound
policy on our parts, to give every assistance in
our power to the Noble Earl in his efforts to carry such
desirable measures into effect.—(Hear.) I have of late re-
ceived several letters from well informed correspondents,
residing in different parts of the country, each and all ex-
pressing the opinion that the Earl of Durham was the man
who was most likely and best fitted to obtain and carry out
the Reforms the people wanted. Some may think there
was another man equally as capable and as willing to
effect those reforms as the Earl of Durham, and may
point to Lord Brougham as the individual of their
choice. Those persons may be right, and it is not my
intention to enter into any discussion as to the comparative
merits of those distinguished personages, but I cannot re-
frain from expressing the hope that the time may speedily
arrive when the two great men I have alluded to will amal-
gamate (if I may be allowed the expression), and put forth
their combined efforts for the good of the country at large.
—(Hear.) I beg, Gentlemen, that you will observe that
the address I have read contains no allusion whatsoever to
Canada, and I will conclude by remarking, that if we had
a House of Commons composed as we wish, and such as it
wouldo t t
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a bad Government as we have, and the affairs of Canada
would not have been administered in the shameful way they
have been for many years.
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decided whether any address should be presented at
Dr. WADE said that being an advocate for Universal
Suffrage, he was perplexed ; for he did not. see how he
could
consistently
Suffragesuppo rt
only.a n a d
However,dre s s to a
whenm
he
who
saw a advocated
Household
of co-operation every day springing up between the mid-
dling and working classes, and as he believed such co-ope-
rationi
species-
d
would tend to enlighten the latter, and make a
them
more patient under their sufferings, Lord Durham being
sort of link by which this union could be effected, he did
not think he could be accused of inconsistency if he sup-
ported the address to him. He looked upon the arrival of
the Earl of Durham as a sort of windfall, blown to them in
ordem to enable them to break down the finality system of
the Whigs, to save them from being the dupes of that
paltry party, and to rescue them from the abhorred slavery
of the Tories.—(Hear, hear.) He considered the Earl
of Durham as a species of stepping-stone by which the
Radical party might get out of the " Slough of Des-
pond ;" and it was for that reason that they ought to take
up with Lord Durham.--..(Hear.) He would support the
address.

Mr. KEMP said that he would move as an amendment,
" That no address at all be presented to the Noble Lord."
—(Hear.) He considered the address had been got up
in consequence of the Noble Earl's quarrel with his late
friends. It was premature, inasmuch as they ought to wait
and see whether he was prepared to carry out the measures
they advocated. The reason the Tories had vilified the