The Sun.
London, England, 1838-08-18 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 18, 1838

perManent way, and the contractors arc about to commence
laying the rails.

DOVE CONTRACT.
Length Two Miles Twenty-two Chains.
This contract was let in the course of last month. The
bridge over the river Dove will be begun in a few months,
and may be finished in March next. The earthwork is very
light, and might be finished in six weeks.

WILLINGTON AND DERBY CONTRACT.
Length Eight Miles Thirty-four Chains.
The works were commenced in June. All the excavations
are in progress; the principal road bridges are begun, and the
bridge over the Trent and Mersey canal is above the surface
of the water. The works are generally light, and offer no
peculiar difficulty.
DERWENT BRIDGES CONTRACT.

The south abutment is nearly up to its full height ; two of
the arches are half turned, the coffer-dam for the north abut-
ment is nearly finished, and all the arches are expected to be
finished by the end of October. The bridge over the adjoin-
ing canal is several feet above the water, and will be ready for
the iron girders in a few weeks.
It will be seen by referring, to the foregoinc, observations,
that the only points where delay may be feared, are on the
Kingsbury and Elford contracts. A variety of circum-
stances have contributed to retard the earthwork on these con-
tracts. The difficulty of procuring bricks in the early part of
the sumtner, in a neighbourhood where no great supply had
previously been required, has in several instances delayed the
embankments when bridges were required. The bridges which
remain to be built are generally over the railway, and will,
therefore, present no obstacles to the future progress of the
embankments. With reference to the lighter parts of the line,
comparatively little progress has hitherto been made, as it was
deemed unnecessary to commence them at the same time with
heavier works, requiring, in most instances, double the time
for their completion. There appears to be no want of ability
in the contractors to carry on the contracts in a satisfactory
manner ; and provided there is no failure on the part of the
persons who have contracted to supply the materials for the
permanent road, the Directors may confidently look forward to
the opening of the whole line by the end of June, 1839, the
stipulated time.

I am, dear Sir, yours respectfully,
JOHN C. BIRKINSHAW, Resident Engineer.
The total amount for which the contracts alluded to in the
Report of the resident engineer are let, is 318,3771.

GREAT MEETING at MANCHESTER

ON THE FIELD OF PETERLOO.

(Abridged from the Morning Advertiser.)
A very large meeting of the people of Manchester took
place on Thursday evening, on the ground distinguished by
the massacre of 1819, and to promote the same purposes—
the achievement of Univei sal Suffrage, Short Parliaments, and
the Vote by Ballot. At half-past six an immense multitude
was collected at the New-cross, at the upper end of Oldham-
street, where the persons assembled formed in procession and
proceeded to the Field of Peterloo. On their way they
marched round St. Peter's Church (the ground on which the
massacre took place) the band playing the " Dead March in
Saul." The meeting was held in a large area at the rear of
the Church, in which there could not have been less than
twenty thousand persons, all the adjacent streets being also
crowded to excess. Many banners with suitable inscriptions
were displayed amongst the crowd.
Mr. CURRAN having observed that they had met for the pur-
pose of commemorating their sense of the bloody deed which
had been on that ground perpetrated in 1819, proposed that
Mr. Richard Moore should take the chair.
Mr. MOORE having taken the chair, then read the fol-
lowing notice, in pursuance of which the meeting had as-
sembled

" ER DEMANDS .
" Brother RadicaMlsUßD ,—The memorableJUSTlCE 16th of August, that
never-to-be-forgotten day in Manchester, is near at hand,
and we call upon you once more to assemble on the Plains of
Peterloo, and there prove to the perpetrators of that inhuman
deed that you have not forgotten, nor will you ever forgive,
until Justice' has been obtained' for the outrages that were
committed on that day. Shall the shrieks of the butchered
children the piercing cries of the slaughtered women, and
the dying groans of the murdered men, be forgotten by the
Radical Reformers of Manchester, for peaceably and legally
meeting to petition for a repeal of the infamous Corn-laws,
and a Radical Reform in the representation of the people
in the Commons' House of Parliament ? Fellow labourers
in the cause of freedom,—We have obtained a mock Re.-
form in the should-be House of the people, and what is
the result to the working classes ? We have got a new Poor-
law Amendment Bill, by virtue of which you may be torn from
the bosoms of your wives and your offspring, for the crime of
being reduced to poverty, by a system of misrule, and exiled
to a union workhouses; and in addition to that most abomina-
able Act, several of our workmen have been transported, for
nobly defend;rig the rights of industry—to wit, the Dorchester
Labourers and others. Fellow-citizens, bestir yourselves as
men determined to be free ! Arise from your seeming apathy,
and let your oppressors see that, knowing your rights, you are
determined to maintain them. Brother Radicals, we (the
Committee) call upon you to follow the example of the immor-
tal Hunt, Cartwright, Cobbett, and other noble heroes, who
have " braved the battle and the breeze," against the iron hand
of oppression, and whose names will be handed down to pos-
terity as the greatest ornaments that society could boast of in
the age they lived. Brother Radicals, we call upon you to
come forward in defence of your rights, and support such men
as Mr. John Fielden, M. P. for Oldham, Mr. Feargus O'Con-
nor, of Leeds, Mr. Thomas Attwood, of Birmingham, and
other brave men who are willing to lead you on to victory, le-
gally, from conquest to conquer, until you have obtained An-
nual Parliaments, Universal Suffrage, Vote by Ballot, and
above all, no Property Qualification in the elector or elected.
A procession aid be formed at the New-cross, and pro-
ceed from thence to the blood-stained field of Peterloo, on
the evening of the 16th of August, by half-past six o'clock,
when the meeting will be addressed by several gentlemen
friendly to the cause of justice, and firm patriots in the cause
of freedom."
Mr. MooRE proceeded to observe that the last sentence he
had read was one i
of the most vital importance, and without
achieving the principle laid down n it, Reform would not be
worth a straw.
Mr CURRAN said, in a window near them a confederacy of
Magistracy had assembled on that occasion while the Riot Act
had been read, and where they had rioted in the blood of the
people.—(
Hear, hear.) He however trusted to their courage
a • d their sense of their just rights, to prevent their permittingthemselves to be sabred again.—(Hear.) He then read the
names of the parties slaughtered on that occasion, and the Ma-
gistrates who sanctioned it. He concluded by proposing the
first resolution, which was--" That it is the opinion of this
meeting the men of Mwrichester will never forget, nor ought
ever to forgive the bloody deeds of the 16th August, 1819, un-
til therigh. ts of the whole people be fully acknowledged on the
just principle of
Universal Suffrage."—(Loud cheers.)
Mr. BENROW then rose, and said that he would cordially
second
the resolution, of which he thoroughly approved.--
(Cheers.) Some twenty-three years ago, on this very ground,
he, with others, had advocated the cause of the suffering
people.---,
(Cheers.) Upon those occasions they had peti-
tioned the House of Commons for a Reform of Parliament, and
the
answer had been the Manchester massacre. They had
prayed the Legislature to lighten their burdens, and: the answer
had been the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, as would
he well remembered by the majority of the persons present.
They had asked for cheap bread, and the answerHea
was thre
passing of the Six Acts, for the purposes of restrain-
ing(
and preventing their making their theirwants
known to each other. After all these efforts, however, they
had failed to break the spirits of the people, as a proof of
which the
splendid meeting which was then assembled to
commemorate the bloody deed of
1819 was amply sufficient
—of that bloody deed by which their fathers, sisters, avid
brothers had been butchered on that sacred spot.--( Hear,
hear.)
No ! The spirits of the people were still animated
with the determination to achieve the political rights which
they knew they should possess.—(Cheers.) And this was
indeed a subject of the warmest congratulation amongst those
who had so long advocated the cause of equal justice. It
was true, poverty, like a desolating plague, had shed its con-
taminating influence over the dwelling-place of almost every
working man in the kingdom—the naked bodies or threadbare
garments of that class was sufficient evidence of their degrada-
tion and their misery.—( Hear.) Now what could be the
cause of all this ? Was it to be attributted to the God of
Nature? No ! The Psalmist stated that " He openeth his
hand and filleth all things living with plenteousness ;" and
again the same Psalmist said, " Oh Lord, all eyes look unto
thee, arid thou renderest them their meat in due season."
—( Hear, hear.) The fields of Nature produced ample,
abundant, materials for all his creatures—the cause then
was to be found somewhere else. Where did they think it
lay ? In the merciless unmixed aristocracy of the country—
that vile, rapacious, perfidious aristocracy who framed all
our laws—that infamous aristocracy by which all the concerns
were administered—that aristocracy by which all their Parlia-
ment men were bred and trained, and made to make laws to
suit the purposes of the vile, the rapacious aristocracy.—
( Hear.) This was the pestilential source from which all their
evils flowed. But still liberty was in the reach of every one of
them—if they had not, it was decidedly their own fault.—
(Cheers.) They did not want materials—they did not want
men--they did not want brave hearts nor sharpened swords,
nor thundering cannon ; but what they did want was union.
Let them be united and triumph, and freedom was secured.
What was the utility of this aristocracy ?—( Hear.) They wore
voluptuous, idle, supercilious ; and as they had been very pro-
perly designated by Mr. Roebuck, they were to this nation
an unmixed evil."—( Hear, and cheers.) But if they would
allow him, he would tell them what their ancestors had done
some 200 years ago. They had declared that the aristocracy
was useless, and passed an Act of Parliament declaring that
they should have neither part nor lot in the whole matter.—
( Hear.) He would to God, then, that the people of this day
would prove themselves to be of the same mind. They
would then teach their rapacious aristocracy a similar les-
sen. The auxiliaries of this aristocracy were the bloated
Church Establishment—the army—the patronage of the law _
( Hear.) The men of Glasgow, some three or four years arp,
had resolved that they would stand still, and called upon the
people of the United Kirgdorn to second their efforts. Mr
Benhow thee proceeded to read the following resolution, which
had been passed at the meeting to which he alluded ;
" Resolved,—That it be recommended to the united weavers
in England, Ireland, and Scotland, alto the various united
operatives of these realms, that they take into early considera-
tion the propriety of fixing a day when the whole shall simul-
taneously suspend work for one month, or till the rights of
labour and property are properly ascertained arid adjusted, a
certain provision ofthe real necessaries of life established for
the truly industrious to the extent of our national resources,

and till every sane and mature member of the community Le
invested with the elective franchise."
" This shows that a knowledge of the sullen, deer, dogged,
and unsubduable power of passive resistance is rapidly gaining
ground among those who form the foundations of society—
that we shall no more be terrified with physical revolutions,
that the stuccoed slaves of conventional force may • ground
arms,' and vegetate on sour tommy, or perish in sheer sloth—
that we may no longer dread the horrid shout of civil warc-re,
fire, and pikes to the front,' but it will be cease shuttling'
and stand at ease,' till the Corinthian capitals of the social
fabric topple over in their native feebleness, and crumble into
dust."
And, at length, he thanked God, the men of Birmingham had
been moved to second the designs of the people of Glasgow.
—(Hear.) They had determined to stand still.—( lit a )
When they ceased from labour they would have the oppor-
tunity to select the best men to establish the common rights of
man.

Mr. VINCENT then rose, and was received with loud cheer-
ng. He said, Mr. President and Radical men and woman
of Manchester, we have met to-night to evince our steadfast
adhesion to those great principles of liberty for the advocacy
of which our fathers and brothers were butchered upon this
spot.—( Hear.) We are here not merely to make speeches,
or to laud each other with fulsome flattery, but to declare in
the face of England's aristocracy, that the remembrance of
that bloody deed will stimulate us to renewed and super-
human exertions, until their unhallowed power is destroyed.
—(Loud cheers.) What was the crime of our brothers in
1819 ?—( Hear.) I'll tell you. They met to petition for
Universal Suffrage.—(Cheers.) For a repeal of the accursed
Corn-laws—for those measures of political justice which we
are now resolved to obtain.—(Loud cheering.) As rational
men, we are desirous of destroying the political system that
engenders men base enough to perpetuate the horrible out-
rages committed upon this spot.--( Loud cheers.) We were
slaves in 1819—we are slaves now.—(Cheers.) But the
meeting to-night is one of those incontrovertible evidences
of our determination that will scare the aristocracy into
nothingness—( Hear, hear, hear, and loud cheering. )
What is our present position ? In 1819 we were under the
boroughmongering faction, now we are under the reign of
enlightened and philosophical Whiggei y.—(Laughter and
cheers.) How is our position altered? Let us go back a
little. In 1830 the glorious French revolution took place.
The French people, oppressed by their aristocracy, rose in
arms, and obtained a glorious and almost bloodless victory.—
( Cheers.) But they were cheated and swindled by the French
Whigs—(Hear) just as you were swindled by the British
Whig Reform Bill.—(Loud cheers.) The French Revolu-
tion roused the British nation into action. The leading Whig
aristocracy, hungry for place and thirsty for power, taking
advantage of the general discontent of the people, raised the
cry of reform, and, backed by your physical efforts, carried
their ten-pound Reform Bill.—( Cheers.) What have we got
by this Bill? Its first fruit was the Irizli Coercion Bill—
(Groans)—because the Ministry were in some slight favour
with the English Radicals, and could do without King Dan
and his tail.—(Laughter.) The Irish had grievances, we
had a Reformed Parliament, and that Parliament began its
reforming propensities by destroying the civil privileges of
the Irish, and supplanting them by a complete military des-
potism.—( Loud groans.) That was reform number One.—
( Laughter.) Now, the London people thought that the Eng-
lish would experience a similar Reform, so they met together
in Calthorpe-street to petition for a little further Reform.
Now, mark me, men of Manchester, there is a man of whom I
cannot speak with sufficient contempt—l mean the wretch who
moved a vote of thanks to the Manchester murderers—.
( Groans)—Lord Viscount Melbourne, the Prime Minister
of the present Reforming Government.— (Hisses and
groans.) This wretch was the prime mover of the outrage
committed in Calthorpe-street.—( Hear.) He belonged to
the Government that coerced Ireland—to the Government
that gave the English labourers the Poor-law Amendment
Bill—to the Government that increased the Civil List be-
yond Tory parallel—to the Government that coerced Canada.
He and his Government have been guilty of every species
of political villany.—(Cheers.) You are the Jury before
which they are now to be tried—(Cheers)—you know their
actions—you have felt their conduct—what say you? Are
they guilty of treason to the people, or not guilty ?—(Loud
cries of " Guilty," and great cheering.) Each of you
who believe them to be guilty hold up your hands.--( Here
the whole assembly held up their hands.) Your verdict is
unanimous.—(Cheers.) Oh, my friends, how I wish that I
were empowered to deliver my verdict.—( A cry of " Hang
them." No, they are not worth hanging—( Cheers)—besides,
in my opinion, blood should never be shed.—( Cheers.) We
are not justified to take life for any crime.—(Cheers.) My
verdict should be, " You Whigs arc doomed to see the people
lifted up into political power. Behold ! your exclusive power
ceases for ever."—(Loud cheering.) We have done with war,
with force, and violence—henceforth, our weapons are reason
and knowledge.—(Loud cheers.) Now we intend to have
Universal Suffrage.—(Cheers.) We will have it, and no
mistake. The Reformed Parliament must be re-Reformed.
How are we to get Universal Suffrage ? By union, know-
ledge, and perseverance.—(Cheers.) What is it creates the
power of tyranny ? The cringing servility and fawning syco-
phancy of the multitude.—(Cheers.) We must look within
for that which makes us slaves. —( Cheers.) Let us imbibe
sound opinions—let us act up to those opinions ; and let us
never rest contented until we have entirely overthrown the
vile system under which we are living. —(Loud cheering.)
We want Reform, to improve the mental and physical condi-
tion of the people, not for any fanciful love of change.
Radicalism is not opposed to Christianity. Its fundamental
principle is, "to do unto others as you would others should do
unto you." All men are brothers—( Cheers). My
friends, I feel somewhat fatigued, having spoken
every day for the past fortnighv, but the remembrance
that lam on the plains of Peterloo inspires me with re-
newed vigour. Methinks even now the departed spirits of
the murdered patriots of Manchester hover over us, bidding
us go forward in the great work—to go forward in the great
work until you are placed in the position that you ought to
attain—until you have made England what she ought to be
—a democracy. —( Clapping of hands.) All that is good and
virtuous in the nation are with us. It wants but our union
and knowledge to insure our success. Rally, then, men of
Manchester The cheering which succeeded was kept up for
several minutes.
The resolution was then put and carried unanimously with
cheers.

Mr. CURRAN then read an Address to the men of Manches-
ter written to them on the 14th of August, 1831, by the
late Mr. Henry Hunt.
Mr. WHEELER said he had a duty to perform, which he
considered to be necessary. lie would move that they gave
three groans for the tyrants that murdered their fathers, their
mothers, their brothers, and their sisters. The groans were
given with deep emphasis. He had next to recommend them,
as an essential step to secure their purpose, to come all of them
on Thursday next to Newall's-buildings and enrol their names
as members of the National Union. He would propose that
there be three cheers given to the friends that had so unex-
pectedly and so kindly come from a distance and attended that
day. The three cheers were given with tremendous effect.
Mr. VINCENT said he had three more cheers to beg of them,
namely, three cheers for the people. The cheers were given ;
and he then moved a vote of thanks to the Chairman, which
was carried unanimously, and the meeting adjourned at half-
past nine o'clock.
The night was dark, but the strictest order prevailed, and
every demonstration of enthusiasm was most apparent.
On Monday the delegates are to assemble to fix the day for
the great demonstration of the county. There are delegates
fromeighty-six towns condensed into nine divisions. The
meeting, it is expected, will be the most numerous that has
taken place for many years. The Oldham party, who were
preceded by a band of music and banners, were escorted to the
suburbs and cheered at intervals by those who paid them the
attention of the convoy.