The Sun.
London, England, 1831-10-21 00:00:00

make a few observations on them as public characters.
The House of Lords was formed in spite of the will of the
people, and all the liberties of the people had been wrested.
from the House of Lords by the union of the King, his
Ministers, and the people. The House of Lords, in point
of numbers, was but a mere atom, but a mere drop in the
ocean, compared with the population of the kingdom.—
(Loud cheers.) It might, however, be said, if they were
not great in numbers, they were great in property. No
doubt could be entertained of their great wealth, but
what was their wealth in comparison with the pro-
perty of the people of England ?—(Hear, and cheers.)
It was mere dust.—(Loud cheers.) The House of Lords
form but a very inconsiderable part of this great nation.
The House of Lords bad rejected the Reform Bill without
considering the consequence.--(Cheers.) They were de-
termined to retain nomination borouelis, by which they hell
in their hands the power of selling die pockets and purses of
the people to the best bidders. The present Reform Bill would
give the people a power of choosing their own representa-
tives. It would give the people the power of being taxed
by themselves ; and it was universally known and acknow-
ledged, even by the House of Commons itself, that the
people had no more to do in the making of the taxes than
the man in the moon.—(Cheers.) By the present system of
election the people of England were put up to sale every five
or seven years, and the only remedy which could be applied to
so great a disease the House of Lords had refused to
allow. He was sorry to see the names of the most en-
lightened men of the country in the House of Lords voting
against theßeform Bill,but it was some consolation for him
also to know that they bad been able to urge no arguments
in favour of the vote they gave, and the only fault which
could be found by them against the present Administration
was that they were not adepts in the art of plundering
the people.—(Tremendous cheering.) What would be
the effects if ultimately this great measure were not to
pass ? He was afraid every shop and manufactory would
be closed, and the circulation of money between the capi-
tal and the country would be interrupted. The whole
nation would be paralysed. There would not be a fire
lighted or a loom in motion. But he would not
anticipate such a state of things.—(Hear, hear.) He
deprecated all attempt at tumult. If tumults arose,
who, he would ask, would be the sufferers. It would be
answered, why the rich to he sure. We will burn the
Bishops' palaces and the Nobles' castles. Ah, my friends,
such an argument is deceitful. These great men
have other places to go to, but once close your manu-
factories, what has the artizan to live on ? It is
ruin to him if there is the smallest violation of
the law.—(Tremendous cheering.) He trusted and
implored that no tumult would take place. If there
did, as sure as there was a Providence above, the persons
raising that tumult would be the immediate victims of
it.—(Cheers.) In a short time another Bill would be
introduced equally as efficacious as the one which had
been thrown out, and although it might be a
lesson easy to teach but difficult to put in prac-
tice, lie would say in the words of a great writer,
patience, patience, patience.—(Tremendous cheering,
accompanied with cries of " We have had too touch pa-
tience already.") The Rev. Gentleman concluded by
moving the second resolution.
Mr. J. WALKER seconded the resolution, in the spirit
of which he heartily and cordially concurred. As long as
the King, his Ministers, the Commons and the people were
firmly united, there could be no doubt of the full accom-
plishment of that great object which all present had at
heart.—(Cheers.)
Mr. lIAINES then rose. He felt great pleasure in
taking a part of the proceedings of the day, and before he
proceeded to the few observations which lie intended to
make, be would say a few words with respect to himself.
It was known to most of the present meeting, that he had
before deemed it his duty to come forward on other
other occasions fur doing which he had been stigmatized
by even such characters as Lords Eldon and Wharncliffe.
But when what he stated was the truth, instead of being
stigmatised, it required praise. He was as yet young in
life, and it that life should be extended to any lengthened
period, it should be devoted to the best interests of his
country.—(Great cheering.) Since he had last addressed
a meeting of the inhabitants of Birmingham, the boon of
Reform had been rejected bye poisoned shaft in the quiver of
the boroughmongers. But the country did not despair. They
were supported by the conviction that another, and as
equally an efficient Bill, would be brought in by Ministers,
whom the people were determined to support to the utter-
most, and it might as well be tried to stem the torrent of
the ocean with a straw as to stem public opinion—
(Cheers)--or, if the meeting wished a spice of the ridi-
culous, as well might you attempt, as the people of
Essex had done, to keep out the cholera morbus
by the erection of hurdles.--(Lomense laughter.)
What would much lighten the burthens of the people
was the removal of Palace Peers. If there were no Peers
of the Palace there would be few wretched beings in the
parish.—(Cheers.) The meeting would probably scarcely
believe him when he stated there were pensioners to
the number of 9,200 who received from the pockets
of the people no less a sum than 1,296,0001. What
was the consequence of this taxation for placemen ?
Why, that the poor unfortunate mechanic, crushed almost
into the earth with the burthens that hung on him, was
obliged to seek in foreign lands that comfort which his
own denied him.—(Loud cheers.) He was ashamed of
seeking a grave in the land which gave him birth. But
to return to the Bill. It had been defeated, by whom ?
Why, by the Peers, and by the pious votes of the
rnisrepresentatives of a God of mercy.—(Great cheering.)
The Bishops, tender souls, would not grant Reform to
the Whigs, because Dr. Johnson had somewhere said
that the Devil was the first Whig. The fact was, that
the Devil, when an Angel, was a Whig, hot when he was
sent to Hell lie became a high Tory.—(Loud cheers.) It
was true that among the Peers there were the descendants
of those men who laid the first stone, and completed die
first fabric of the Constitution. It was the descendants of
those men who now wished to whitewash the Constitu-
tion, but they could not do it because the borough-
inongel s spit their black venom on its walls. —(Clieer s.)
Most of the Peers who had opposed the Reform Bill were
Peers but of short sanding—placernen and pensioners..._.
(Cheers.) He would now approach the Right Rev.
Fathers in God. His (Mr. H.'s) creed was known perhaps
to all present. It might be thought that in what be was
going to say lie indulged an angry feeling upon tile subject.
He declared he bad no personal feeling against the Right
Reverend Prelates, but he was anxious to separate that
which was God's from that which was Caesar's.—(Loud
cheers.) To tear religion, which should be the beautiful
spotise of Christ, front being the filthy concubine of the ho-
roughmongers.—(Cheers. ) The present Bishops were paid
no less a sum than five hundred and twenty eight thou-
sand six hundred and ninety-eight pounds a year. This
suns had been paid to these Right Reverend Prelates for
that sentence of excommunication which they had pro-
nounced against the people from entering the temple of
liberty and freedom.—(Chetrs)—but the time was
now fast approaching when they should no longer
have a voice in the Legislature of the country, when they
should leave behind them their croziers as the banners of
freedom, and their germ studded mitres as the cap of liberty.
—(Cheers.) There was no hesitation in the conduct of
Ministers ; if the people would wait patiently, and press
forward their opinions with determination and vigour, all
that they wished for they would soon have,—(Cheers.) But
if they rose, and put themselves in the front of the battle,
they must remember that in disturbances of this descrip-
tion the weakest went first to the wall.—(Cheers.) The
poor man's blood would be fast shed, and the shedding of
that blood would only increase the rapacity of those who
shed it. You have now friends strong upon your harps)
the inspiring tune which urges a nation forward to the
attainment of her unquestionable rights. God and justice
ale your leaders, and be assured they will direct you as
to the course you ought to pursue; but let this, my friends,
ever be your motto, " A House of Freedom, or a Grave of
Glory."—(Tremendous cheering.) Mr. Haines concluded
a most eloquent speech, which we regret that time will not
allow us to give in detail by cordially agreeing with the re-
solution, which was carried unanimously.
Mr. Sciroenrseno, in moving the third resolution, could
not allow that opportunity to pass without making afew ob-
servations. Ile regretted that Ministers had not had firm-
ness enough to prevent the present state of things. They
must have known that they would have been beaten, and
the present unfortunate crisis would never have taken
place if Peers had liven created, which would have been
the means of making a great number of back-sliders back-
out.—(Loud and continued cheering.) Pitt, the great
destroyer of the liberties of the country, had made
a hundred Peers in five years. George the Fourth had
made sixty-one Peers, and he could not see why the pre-
sent Ministry should not have made a sufficient number of
Peers to have decided this important question at
once.—(Loud cheers.) With respect to the Bishop?,
a great many of them had gut their niitres from their
political pamphlets. Thera w 55 the Right Reverend
Bishop of Ely ; there was Dr. Coppleston, Dr, Phill-
potts, and, though last, not least, the present Archbishop
of Canterbury, who had actually out Heroded-Herod--
(Lend laughter)—for he had said no King could do
wrong. There were also two brothers of the name of
Sunnier, and a great many more of the Right Rev. Bench
who owed their rise to—he would not say what.—(Loud
laughter.) But he would ask the meeting, did they ever
find the Bishops doing their duty in the way they ought
to do as theaposAlte sf Christ,—(Louil cries of " No) 00. )