The Sun.
London, England, 1831-12-26 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 26, 1831.

MEETING OF THE EDINBURGH POLI-

TICAL UNION.

This body held its annual meeting in the Cow-
gate Chapel, on Monday last, for the purpose of
choosing Office-bearers for the ensuing year, and also
embracing the opportunity of approving resolutions,
and a petition to Parliament, in favour of the new
Reform Bill. Upwards of twelve hundred Members
were present.
Mr. BRODIE having lately retired Mr. JAMES
AYTOUN (Advocate) took the chair, as Vice Pre-
sident, and opened the proceedings with the follow-
ing speech :
Mr. AYTOUN, Advocate—Brother Unionists—
We are assembled here to-day, as you are all aware,
for the purpose of electing Office-bearers for the
ensuing year, and afterwards to move resolutions
in approval of the new Reform Bill just laid be-
fore the House of Commons by his Majesty's 'Mi-
nisters; but before we enter upon the first part of
the business of the day, I will, with your permis-
sion, address to this meeting a few sentences upon.
the subject of Political Associations, and of our
Union in particular.—(Cheers.) A cry, gentlemen,
has been raised against Political Unions, chiefly by
the boroughmongers, who never hold a meeting
without introducing an express resolution against
us; and here I may remark, that the highest
praise which can be bestowed upon the Unions is,
that they are feared by the enemies of our country,
the boroughmongers.—(Loud cheers.) Those
persons know well that we the Unions are their mot
formidable, their most uncompromising opponents,
they know that we will never cease from every mode
of constitutional agitation, that we will never give
in until we have obtained our rights—(Cheers)—
and there shall be a full, fair, and impartial representa-
tion of the people in Parliament, and until they (the
boroughmongers) are laid prostrate in the dust, and
reduced to that stilt:: of insignificance and contempt
to which they must sink when stripped of their ad-
ventitious advantages, their rotten boroughs, to which
alone they owe the little importance which they now
possess.—(Loud cheering.) It is not, therefore,
surprising, gentlemen, that the Unions should be
attacked in the most violent and virulent manner by
this party, which is pleased to call itself the conser-
vative party—(Laughter)—a phrase which, in plain
English, means that party which is determined to
preserve as long as possible their corrupt institutions,
by which they are enabled to put their hands intoyour
pockets, and thus extract from a suffering people the
money necessary to enable them to live in idleness
and luxury amidst a starving population.—(Loud
cheering.) But not only, gentlemen, have the
Unions been railed against by the conservatives,
some of the friends of Reform themselves, or at
least those pretending to be friends of Reform, have,
like Mr. Hunt, joined with the Tories in endeavour-
ing to run down those parties which the Tories
most fear. They say that we are unconstitutional,
and that we ought to leave every thing to Ministers
and the House of Commons; I should like, how-
ever, to ask those sticklers for leaving everything to
Ministers and to Parliament, if Ministers, the House
of Commons, the people, aye, and the King himself,
have not been bearded, nay defeated, by the insolent
Tory faction ?—(Applause.) And are the people
to be blamed under such circumstances as these for
having recourse to unusual means to obtain
their rights ? In order to preserve themselves
from another catastrophe of a like nature ?
(Cheers.) No ! unanimity is not enough, if the
people wish to succeed they must be united, united
in plan and in efforts; we must in short, form such
an imposing front to the common enemy as will
convince them how fruitless it is longer to contend
against the popular wish, and that the people are
now fully aware what are their rights—aye, and are
determined to have them too.—(Tremendous
cheering.) And in what better way can we do this
than by forming ourselves into Political Unions?
By uniting ourselves together, we give a strength,
a force, a unity to our efforts, in short, we render
those efforts ten times more effective than if each
individual acted entirely by himself and for himself.
—And I will say that I am convinced that it is
chiefly owing to the energy displayed by the Po-
litical Unions now spread over the whole Em-
pire, that the Reform question has not already
been abandoned in utter despair. And if Par-
liament considers us dangerous, let Parlia-
ment grant us our rights, and make its free ; that is
the best and only way to put us down.—(Loud ap-
plause.) Now, gentlemen, one word with regard
to the legality of Political Unions. Upon this sub-
ject I need not trouble you with many remarks, for
the speeches lately delivered in Parliament by Earl
Grey and Mr. Stanley, must convince every unpre-
judiced mind that Unions, when properly conducted,
are perfectly legal, and that the late proclamation
was only directed against those Unions which are
illegally organised. Every Political Union, there-
fore, which conducts itself properly, is, in fact, re-
cognized by our laws, and is in every respect as legal
as the Bible and other Societies. And, gentlemen,
who ever heard any one doubt the legality of Anti-
Slavery Associations, the object of which is to give
freedom to the West Indian slave ; and if we are
allowed to combine to give liberty to the negro, I
should like to know by what law we can be prevented
from combining for the purpose of obtaining our own
liberty.—(lmmense cheering.) I shall now, gentle-
men, conclude the few remark, which I have made
by adding a few words upon the subject of our own
Union of Edinburgh. We, the original members
of the Edinburgh Utiion, well aware of those statutes
which have been heaped one upon another by the
despotic Administrations of Pitt and Castlereagh,
for the purpose of stifling the voice of the people,
have taken care, in the formation of our body, to
avoid every thing by which the laws could be
contravened. We have neither divisions nor sub-
divisions, gradations of rank, nor badges of distinc-
tion. The late proclamation, therefore, does not
in the slightest degree apply to us, nor was it ever
intended to touch us, We are nothing more than
a body of patriotic citizens of all ranks, from the rich
householder to the honest and intelligent artisan,
who obtains his livelihood in the most honourable
of all ways by his own industry.—(Loud cheers.)
We are, I say, a body of citizens, joined together. by
a common bond, the desire of obtaining our common
rights, arid that by giving in every legal arid consti-
tutional way the strongest expression to public
opinion.—(Cheers.) The objects of our association
are in the first place to obtain such a Reform as will
fully satisfy the country; in the second place to
ameliorate as much as possible the moral and phy-
sical condition of the working classes, and in, the thiid
and last place to maintain with all our influence as
a Union, and as individuals, the public peace, in
periods of excitement and agitation like the present.
These, gentletnen, are the objects of our Union, and
I fearlessly appeal to the public, to whom all our
acts are well known, whether we have not acted in
a strict accordance to these our pOnciples.—
(Tremendous cheering, and cries of " We have.")—
We shall now proceed to the election of Office-bearers.
Mr. WM. TAIT said, gentlemen, we now pro-
ceed to the election of Office-bearers of this Union
for the ensuing year. When I say for the ensuing
year, I beg it to be understood that I have no idea
that the Edinburgh Political Union is to continue
year after year, and be a permanent association.
Our enemies, who, I rejoice to observe, are also
either the open enemies of Reform or its known
hypocritical friends, assert that the existence of
Unions of the people is incompatible with good

Government. Gentlemen, I firmly believe that
these two things cannot exist together ; but it is
because there can he no Unions under a good Go-
vernment, and not, as our enemies say, because
there cannot be a good Government where Unions
prevail. Gentlemen, this Union was formed to en-
able us to raise our voices together in favour of cer-
tain measures of Reform, by far the most important
of which was a Reform of our Parliamentary repre-
sentation. After much delay and difficulty, the
great Reform measure of the present Ministry ap-
pears about to run a triumphant course through Par-
liament. The opposing faction begin now to dis-
cover some glimpses of common sense, some faint
idea of their own weakness to oppose the national
will. I have scarcely any doubt that the Reform
Bill will speedily pass ; and if so, our next meeting
will probably be to testify out joy at the success of
that great measure, which, by securing to us a
House of Commons that truly represents the people,
secures to us at the came time all other Reforms.—
Then, I believe, gentlemen, we will be inclined to
dissolve this Union, conceiving our grand object
gained, and leave to the present excellent ;Ministry
and a Reformed Parliament the task of carrying
through all those other important measures to which
Parliamentary Reforms merely prepare the way;
ready, however, to unite again, in aid of any great
Reform, to effect which a manifestation of the na-
tional will may be required. Contemplating, there-
fore, that long before the expiry of a year, we may
dissolve this Union, in the happy circumstances
which I have prognosticated—yet, a year being the
period fixed by our original regulations for the du-
ration of office, I beg leave to move that the fol-
lowing gentlemen be appointed Office-bearers of the
Edinburgh Political Union for the ensuing year.—
To fill the vacant Chair of the Union, I have the
pleasure of proposing a gentleman well and ho-
nourably known to you; a gentleman of family, a
circumstance which even we, Radicals as we are,
regard with respect—a gentleman of talent, which
has often been exercised in your service—and a
gentleman of the most perfect integrity,—Mr. James
Aytoun, advocate: a gentleman than whom the
people never had a more resolute friend, nor the
abettors of corruption a more determined opponent.
Gentlemen, in Mr. Aytoun this Union will have a
Chairman whose good sense, good feeling, and ab-
horrence of all crooked ways, will prevent your ever
being lead wrong; and whose energetic activity and
fearless honesty will always promptly and decisively
conduct you to w hat is right.
Mr. WILLIAM BIGGAR, printer, seconded the no-
mination. It had been objected, he said, to Politi•
cal Unions, that they infringed on the power of
Government, and tended to circumscribe the inde-
pendence of the representative. Now, this Union,
and all others, act for the maintenance of order, and
to form a true and natural channel through which
public opinion may be harmonised, and find its way
with effect to the Legislature ; and it yet remains
to he proved, whether such course of conduct can
be styled as unconstitutional, or proclaimed as against
law. The organization and subdividing of political
associations is held to be contrary to statute law, but
the simple junction of political creeds—the mere
union of sentiment and opinion—and a unanimous
and united expression of the same, are the common
birthright of every Briton, which no law can take
away, nor statute nullify, without throwing down
one of the most important and necessary bulwarks
of the Constitution. And those who cell for the
suppression of Unions such as these, or designate
them as illegal, are at once the most unconstitutional
and revolutionary, uttering treason against the people,
and proclaiming themselves and fellow-men as bends-
men of the lowest caste—men who inherit but dare
not enjoy—who possess, but carthot prize the uses
and blessings of rational freedom. The doctrine of
us circumscribing the independence of the represen-
tative cannot hold, for we have no representative.
It is to obtain representation that we are united, and
when in the possession of that representation,
(thus placing us on a new and better footing in the
ccuntry and the national assembly) it will be time
enough to enquire whether we can, or do, trench
upon the proper and legitimate independence of the
representative. Our path is therefore plain before us;
arid our purposes are—to assist in the complet ion of a
nation's lorss-defet red but earnest hope—to make as-
surance doubly sure—to bind up the broken and dis-
jointed elements of social order—ro replace the fal-
len fabric of a people's confidence, nor only in them-
selves but in their rulers—to ensure the continuance
and stability of trade, and the consequent employ-
ment of the industrious portion of the community
—to complete the union of all classes into one sole
and indivisible people, children of the same soil,
governed by the same laws, without separation of
interests, or peculiar or exclusive privileges—to ren-
der that people free, and the institutions of the
country safe. Wilde it is our duty thus to concen-
trate all our means, and lend all our energies for
these purposes, it is equally incumbent to place at
our head an individual in whom the most implicit
reliance can be placed—whose public spirit and con-
tinued exertions may be depended on, and whose
knowledge of political affairs will render him eflicient
in himself and serviceable to others. Such a one, I
think, we have found in Mr. Aytoun, and it is with
the sincerest pleasure that I second his nomination
to the chair, and also of the other gentlemen ap-
pointed to the Council of the Union.
Mr. Aytoun was elected chairman, and took his
seat amidst the most enthusiastic plaudits.
Mr. W. R. JAMIESON, W.S.—Mr. Chairman,
whom I am glad to see at last in your proper place,
for a much maligned, long-suffering, but firm and
united body requires a leader who is unflinching
and disinterested—one who will not leave on light
occss:ons—(Cheers)—and who, as we know, he will
net flinch from the helm, when the wind sings high,
. is the less likely to lead us into those dangers of
which he would be the first sufferer and principal
sharer.--(Cheers.) We are now, Sir, arrived at
the third, I hope the concluding epoch of the
great Reform struggle a struggle which we are de-
termined shall not end but with victory.—(Cheers.)
Two successive defeats have already convinced us of
the prowess and pertinacity of our opponents, and
two successive rallies have also convinced us how
well placed is the confidence which the nation re-
poses in its illustrious leader and Prince—(Cheers)
• —but the struggle has lasted too long, the delay
has been of immense evil, and further might be ruin ;
it has emboldened our foes, and disheartened our
friends; and worst of all it has disgusted too many
amongst us--for though the Reform Bill, which
when at first suddenly flung down before us in all its
amplitude and completeness, did seem, and de-
servedly, perhaps, the greatest gift which ever justice
received from the hand of power, yet it is an un•
deniable fact that with every month of delay it
has been decreasing i she estimation of many—
men hate accustomed themselves to think more of
their undoubted rights to it than of the difficulty of
procuring it; and hence those differences among
Reformers which have so much weakened a force,
whose strength is in unity alone ; and in fact the
• only way to, continue the Bill as generally acceptable
as heretofore, is to pass it without delay.----( Cheers.)
But if it has hurt, it has also helped us, fa:, by ern-
, boldeoing it has seclueeel, our enemies from their
fastnesses, end set them in open array amongst us—
, both armies are now in the field, and their strength
may be calculated. The disproportion seems vast,
but let us never forget that while the millions 01
the people fight because they have much to gain,
I the hundreds of the bosonghmorigers fight des-

perately, because they have every thing to Jose, and
they will cling convulsively to the corruption they
feed on, because they will not be comforted vvhen
it is not.—(Loud cheering.) But be not dismayed,
though desperate they are feeble—feebler in this
very warfare they stem inclined to provoke. Yes,
Sir, lurking in his hole the viper may wound his
captor's hand—crawling into sunshine, he is crushed
with ease—gliding stealthily from one snug corner of
corruption to another—bribing this one and cajoling
that—tickling the vulgar palms of needy Council.
men with substantial gold—cramming the greedy
ears of more dignified county voters with unsub-
stantial promises.—(Cheers.) There the Tories
are dangerous, for there they are unmatched, but
let them come forward and attempt free discussion,
and there they are pitiful, for there they are easily
overmatched.—(Cheering.) [Mr. Jamieson then
adverted to the late Edinburgh Anti-Reform meet-
ing, and afterwards thus noticed the speech of Pro-
fessor Wilson.] " I shall not do more than advert
to the eloquent oration of the chief speaker, a man,
whose genius, bright, reckless, and incoastant, as
the meteor of the marsh, is mayhap, to the un-
wary, as misleading too, where with praiseworthy
ingenuity he contrived to avoid every semblance of
argument in the support of a cause which would
hear no argument, but rather with declamation as
vivid as it was vague, and which methinks would
do equally well on either side to enrich the ears
and confuse the judgment of his auditors, and to
throw a thick veil of obscurity over all the pur-
poses of his faction; nor need I comment on the
speeches of those who succeeded him, the minnows,
who swam in the wake of this great Triton.—
(Cheers.) Suffice it, they all told us that even
Tory Reform, by which I understand, the smallest
possible, and that delayed for the longest possible
period, is not now to be granted by the Anti-Re-
formers, at least of Edinburgh.—(Much cheering.)
But there is one resolution which, as explained by
its supporter, every Unionist is entitled, is bound,
to contend with ; for by it, we—all Unions, are de-
, nounced as unconstitutional, dangerous, nearly
illegal—seeking their end by means alien to the
spirit of the Constitution—seeking to controul
Government by perpetual and united pressure upon
it. Now are such the objects of the vast majority
of Political Unions ? Is it unconstitutional to asso-
ciate to petition ? Is it dangerous to give free,
open, deliberate expression to public opinion ? Is it,
can it be alien, to the genius of any Constitution,
not framed by a Castlereagh—that freemen should
assemble again and again to deliberate on public
grievances, and respectfully to request from their
rulers and representatives that such, if possible,
should be removed ? Is it controuling the Govern-
ment to offer and afford that Government the perpe-
tual pressure of universal assent in the prosecution of
its most darling plan ? Are these the grounds why
we should be reprobated, why the strong arm of the
executive should be invoked to put us down ?
(Cheers.) Or is it not rather because we have not
overawed Government, but have afforded it a
steady potent support, because we have amalga-
mated the middling with the lower classes, and si
crea ed strong sympathy between them—(Cheers)—
because we have afforded the friendless artisan and
labourer, an open, ready, and familiar mode or
making his wants known arid his rights respected,
and thus effectually checked secret associations to
di-content and ignorance, which would otherwise
have sprung up every where around us ; betatus.
while giving strong expression to public opinion v,t-
have succeeded as well in keeping the peace by tlo
best of all means, that of persuading the people rim
to break the peace. Are not these the grounds wh_.
we should be reprobated by the boroughmongers 1
and let me ask are open associates in support of
Reforming Matt er the only unions to be reprobate
and hated? is the Charles-street junto, which sit-
in secret and sends its spies abroad—should it no
be hated too ? (Jr would they have hated us, had we
sougnt to overcome that Government which the;
would overthrow ? had we, by exciting to outrage,
broken up that sacred union of freemen, determined
to vindicate our lights spins, their usurpations—
( Cheers)—would they not have flattered and canvas-
sed us ? for, who is now their pupil, their protegee ?
who, but that mean heartless traitor whose mortifiet•
vanity has sent him like an unqui.-t and unclear:
spirit, wherever ignorance and misery have gene-
rated discontent, there, with mendacious impudence
to delude the populace against their best interests,
and to excite them to hostility against those who
are working, even suffering for them ; and may we
not yet see this infernal coalition completed, and a
ragged band of Cropper-street Manchester Radicals,
with Henry Hunt—( Hisses)—at their head, posted
on the mound of Old Sarum, ready to sell their
lives in defence of those sacred institutions wide'
which they and their fathers had starved for so many
generations.—(Loud cheers.) Mr. J. then strong()
animadverted on the impropriety of the proposer of
the declarations against Unions, being a person le-
vested with judicial functions, and then continued
thus—but, Sir, with the prospects before us,
we can smile at the extravagances of a desponding
faction; the Legislature is now, I hope, turning over
a new leaf of the Constitution, on whose unsullied
page the rights of the people are most legibly in-
scribed—(Cheers)—the Bill now introduced is a
faithful transcript of that so often sanctioned by
your plaudits; and it is now taking its final chance
of being passed according to the terms of the exist-
ing Constitution, certainly with every reasonable
prospect of succeeding, chiefly by the united deter-
mined support of its friends operating the tardy con-
version of its reluctant enemies—(Cheers)—how
indispensible, then, that as for as in us lies, we should
give it our undivided, undistracted support—
(Cheers)—it is not that we have to ulterior objects
without the attainment ol which even this Reform
would not be perfectly satisfactory ; it is not that
with the widely extended franchise should not
be granted that mode of exercising it whereby the
honest man should not suffer in substance and
friends, while obeying his cestseience, and the base
, man be prevented from bartering his birthright for
gold—(Ceatistued cheering)—it is net that know-
, ledge, which is to our souls as the breath
of life to our bodies, should not be unrestricted
as the air we breathe, that our capital, our labour,
and our skill, should not, unfettered by monopolies
and prohibitions, have free course to increase
and magnify, and be subject only to those exactions
which national credit demands, or to which a :,heap
Government is justly entitled for the protection it
affords ; that all municipal and local abuses should
not follow buroughmangery into its yawning
tomb—(cheers)—or that the foul stain of colonial
slavery should not be utterly erased from our insti-
tutions, and equal rights be accorded to all? It is not
that all these should not be done, but only that by
no inopportune Agitation or clamour for these= should
this fundamental one be undone or done, and all
these shall speedily follow. This is the pearl of price
enough to purchase ell the rest—grant us but us pa-
, triotic Parliament, its we have a patriotic King—
(Cheers)--and whatever we ask of theaiimnßtediltitlnh,haehotrfrielities-
i good for us, the.t shall we receive, and all this is
.f.poiirriloieevmhelaiernsstegaiel
disLl;t:
about
eurol
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ostetfhot
,eap, sedle wty
iduteehsus dote;tvtioothinhc;‘ovvoferedioihrtiu; our
st :ratifying
t this al oi
sri
our,e." as( ye
only
alone."—(Loud d alid continued cheering.) But
in promise, it is not yet won
trumpetsbu
ftohrejursa,ionuarg
(scab! as
tms PaMoa rt
e y ae
ltr et
ah
w dyinn—t thlei etests,
are sounding, but they are the terrible notes of onset,

not the cheering flourishes of triumph ; it may be
that Heaven will not yet defend the right, that our
Prince is again to be powerless, and his people to
be quelled; that just as we were about to assume the
elect attitudes of freedom, we are again to be struck
down and crushed under the hoofs of a proud pre-
vailing oppression ; that the dungeon-gate is again
to be flung in our face, just as we were emerging
into liberty and light. What then, Britons, who
boast your inalienable right to be free, will you, for
the sake of peace, comfort, patience, prudence, of
all or any of the disguises under which sophistry
seeks to conceal degradation, will you suffer your-
selves as passive clay to be again moulded into ves-
sels for the dishonourable uses of a corrupt and in-
curable faction—(Loud and continued cheering)—.
or rather as the unresisting victims of a fierce end
terrible reaction ? I will not tell you what you
should do—no, the need is not, and, I trust, never
will come, but I may ask you, if your forefathers,
the Reformers who carried the first edition of our
Bill in 1688, for what is ours but the second edition
revised and enlarged—(Great cheers)—who among
privations and perils contended unaided against tre-
mendous odds, and at last triumphed ag ,inst all ex-
pectation, and bequeathed to you as their spoils the
blessings of religious tolerance and individual liberty
—think you, that if for you they by their daring
wrenched from the hard gripe of their oppressors
this moiety of your rights, which are thus yours by
hereditary as well as natural right, that you are to
enjoy it idly as the clown would the dinner he had
bought with his money ?—(Cheers.) No, it is
entailed on you as a sacred trust, to be kept enlareed,
perfected, and consolidated, that to freedom you
should add political privilege, without which free-
dom cannot be secured—(Cheers)—and these in the
fullest measure should be by you transmitted to your
children, that they with institutions perfected, arid
energies untrammelled, should raise our dtar colliery
to the pinnacle of earthly greatness--(Lotal cheers)
—and if this consummation has been hitherto de-
layed by rebellious wars, and all the other tricks
with which cunning trickery contrives to perpetuate
the corruption on which it lives; if we must therefore
hold our intermediate ancestors excused, think you,
dare you think, that if with all appliances and means
to aid you, you be now found wanting, that your chil-
dren will not cry " fie upon your graves ?"—(Great
cheers.) Again, let me suppose the great Hollan-
der, the hero of 1688, I mean the Third William,
were to rise from his time-honoured tomb, and to cast.
his eyes over the empire he had saved from super-
stition and slavery, might he not be expected thus
to speak, " What, have these lazy Britons been 130
years idly content with that portion of their rights I
was able to procure for them, or have they not
rather slovenly let much of them slid away, for I see
many boroughs now dwindled into mere manufac-
tories of unrepresenting M.P's—(Cheers)—are they
then really unworthy all that has been done for
them, undeserving the freedom they boast of? but I
see how it is," he would continue, " they can do
nothing without William—(Cheering)—they must
just trust to William again—(Cheers)—and well
'for them that my mantle has fallen on my namesake
end successor, let him take it like the Prophet of
old, let him with it smite boldly upon the waters of
opposition, and see if they will not part asunder in
the midst, and walling themselves up on either side
'ford a speedy, spacious, and safe passage far the
riumphant procession of the people's rights on-
wards to the citadel of supreme power."—(Loud
and continued cheers.) He concluded by moving
ihe first resolution, for which, together with the pe-
tition, see Advertisement.

Mr. PRENTICE (Chairman of the Committee of
he working classes) rose to second this resolution,
and was received with the most enthusiastic cheer-
iii:—Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the
Upton, I had determined to have contented mysel.
.vith merely seconding the resolution so Oily intro-
luced by the eloquent speech of Mr. Jamieson, but
he flattering manner in which you have greeted my
appearance encourages me to make a single remark
in what was lately said at a meeting in this city,
when we of " humble though honourable ouctipa-
ion," hewers of wood and drawers of water, tillers
f the soil, and in-gatherers of the harvest, arti-
ficers in brass and its iron, were admonished to con-
fine ourselves to these our proper duties, and to
leave that which did not belong to us, the discussion
tf politics, to the " wise and intelligent" ;Lien—
' gentlemen by birth" and of " honourable elle-
acier," for as even they, with all these advantages,
could not decide or agree on this dtfficult question,
how could we have the " light of education" to see
through it ?—(Cheers.) The working classes are
perhaps not very learned, hut they have some caps-
etty of understatitimg, and they have strong though
perhaps rude perc .ptions of right and wrong, and
he sophisms of the most subtle casuist cannot con-
since them that it is just and equitable that a con-
-elrrable portion of their earnings should he abserbeil
in the wasteful expetehture of a prefltgate and ex-
ravagant Government.—(Chet. is ) They know
they are taxed in their necessare a and in their
luxuries, they are taxed in meal and taxed in to-
aacco—(Clieers)—t hey are taxed in what they eat
end in what they wear, and they know that a great
part of these taxis go to reward services, the nature
if which to mention in this place would he inde-
eorous.—(Cheers.) It any working man could, by
moderate or even hard labour, procure fur himself
and family a competent share of the neerssaries of
life, he might do as he has been admonished, leave
the science of politics to those who pay themselves
out of his labour for studying them, but " broken
wages anti pantry's toom," makes him feel some-
thing is wrong, and when he sets himself to dis-
cover the cause, he finds that one monopoly et.-
fiances the price of his leaf—(Cheers)—and that by
another his hard-working wife is denied the solace
of a cup of tea.—(Cheers.) Yet, forsooth, politics
are none af his business, and should he raise his
voice in the reprehension of a Government that to-
lerates such absurd and oppressive monopolies, he
is told by high authority to go home and read his
Bible, arid learn to be submissive and colitent.—
(Cheers.) Unfortunately for these conservative
theologiciank the working man knows his Bible, and
knows that no crime is so severely reprehetided in
Sacred Writ, as oppression of the poor—and " that
he that withholdeth the just reward of labour" and
" lie that withholdeth corn the people will curse,"
—and if I am not mistaken, it is also said that the
curse will be confirmed by God.—(lmmense cheers.)
Mr. JOHN W. HAY, Advocate, I request the in-
eulgence of the meeting whilst I introduce to its
notice the second resolution, with the spirit of which
I feel assured that vou will all cordially agree,
for it is expressive of your approbation of the con-
duct cf his Majesty's Ministers.—(Cheers.) They
were worthy of the people's confidence, for they had
consulted the best interests of the country, by so
speedily re-assembling Parliament, after a session
almost without example for exertion and fatigue—
unprincipled and factious opposition. They were
deserving of gratitude and support ; they had nobly
redeemedtheir
asu re of Reform, pledge,
foformr
,thaes efficient u
yhttdalreadsy
ts u
n
intro-
duced
fortunate elder brother, so uncourteously strangled
by the House of Lords, and whose fate the country
so deeply deplored; its principle features were the
same—a wide extension of the elective franchise—
the 10/. qualification, and the demolition of the rotten
boroughs.—(Cheers.) It had been said by the
enemy, these reforming Ministers have been a year
in office, and they have done nothing Did these
accusers expect that the millions which it cost
the Tories half a century to amass could ha
removed in tt single year?—(Loud cheers.) Did
the experience of their own party nut demon-
stiate how easy it wits to accumulate, but how
difficult to retrench, national expellee ? Did
hey forget,iiice,hone hsttlya h
declared
ectlae Ministers,redth that they
when
they took
seinilul good to their country wit bout a reit) well
Parliernent 2—(Citeeis.) And had they but beet,
el waited and opposed in all their etteenets to cart;
this rand object ? N ty, iu trying to carry aunts
the half-finished piatjeete of the late Atimoostretiott,
they had not only been deserted, but even turned
round upon, by time very wen whose tnramires t,,ey