The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-22 00:00:00

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THE METROPOLITAN FIN'ANCIAL
AND PARLIAMENTARY REFORM ASSOCIA-
TION.—('PHIS DAY.)
The first public meeting of this association was held
this afternoon at the London Tavern, Bishopsgate-
street. It was most numerously attended, and amongst
those who occupied seats on the platform we observed—
Arthur Anderson, Esq., M.P., Ralphi Bernal Osborne
Esq., M.P., John Williams,Esq., M.P., B. M. Wilcox
Esq., M.P., Colonel Thompson, M.P., Lawrence Hey-
worth, Esq., M.P., George Thompson, Esq , M.P., J. A.
Roebuck, Esq., M.P., Thomas Prout, Esq, William
Arthur Wilkinson, Esq., Treasurer, W. Williams, Esq.,
William Clark, Esq., William John Hall, H. Tindal
Atkinson, Esq., Summers Harford, Esq., William
M'Rae, Esq., Frederick Gaskell, Esq., Robert Russell,
Esq., Rupert Kettle, Esq., Sir Fraucis Knowles, Bart.,
H. C. Miissingham, John Matson, Esq., 'l'. K. Pritchard,
Esq., G. W. M. Reynolds, Esq., H. G. Robinson, Esq ,
Samuel Harrison, Esq., J. M'Enteer, Esq., John Cassell,
Esq., G. E. Defines, lesq., William White, jun., Esq.,
John Ormerod, E-q ,D. M'Donell, Esq., J. A. Lion,
Esq., John Collett, &q.. William Bower, Esq., W . H.
Ashurst, Esq., Richard Taylor, Esq., Ward, Esq., of,
Liverpool, Professor C. G. Kries, of Breslau, Jesse Cullum,
Esq., James Barringer, Esq., J. G. Phillimore, Esq.,
Luke Erebleton, Esq ~1)r. Kinnuird, Dr. Longstaff, Joseph
Phelps, Esq., Edwin James, Esq., H. M. Drummond,
Esq., T. Rhoads, Esq., J. G. Rhoads, Esq., W. J.
Harris, Esq., Rev. G. H. Stoddart, George Hyde,
Esq., Joseph Sturge, Esq., Charles Gilpin, Esq.,
Thomas James Serie, Esq.,Wm. Whitaker, E 41., John
Downes, Esq., of Ware,
.George Webster, Esq., A. L.
Saul, Esq., J. C. Howett, Esq., T. Satterley, Esq.,
Richard Dixon, Esq., 11. Harper, Esq,; Messrs. Roberts,
Murray, Altord, Aitken, S. I'. Clark, of Princes Risbo-
rough, Shillibeer, Colvill, Edwards, Harbord, Howard,
Manning, Harding, Hough, Coupland, Ward, Purvis,
Allen, Landley, &c., &c.
At one o'clock the ;chair was taken by Sir Joshua
Walmsley, the President of the association, who was
greeted with loud and prolonged cheering.
The Cuetameat, in opening the business of the day,
read the placard convening the meeting and then pro-
ceeded to speak as follows:—Gentlemen, in taking the
chair on this occasion, on behalf of the association, I
have to request a fair and impartial hearing for every
man who may choose to address you upon the subject
we have met to consider.—(Hear, hear.) Let me remind
you that it is necessary that, in order that each man
should be beard, we must remain perfectly silent and at-
tentive, and I hope you will not call continually
for silence, as she never came by calling.—(Cheers and
laughter.) I shall first call upon the secretary, the ho-
norary secretary, to whom we are deeply indebted for
the active and zealous service which he has rendered the
association, to read a report
.which the council
have thought it necessary to prepare, that there
may be no doubt or question whatever as to the objects
of this meeting.—(Cheers.)
Mr. TINDAL ATKINSON then read the following re-
port:—
" The council have the gratification to state that the
steps taken to establish a Metropolitan Financial and
Parliamentary Reform Association upon a firm, en-
during, and comprehensive basis, have been attended by
striking, unequivocal, and continuous success.
" The council believe that success to he mainly owing
to the conviction which is hourly forcing itself upon
even reluctant and unwilling minds, that the present
undue pressure upon the industry and capital of the
country has its origin in the evils which spring out of
class legislation.
"The council are strengthened in that belief by the
fact that the association, in existence scat cely three
months, is daily receiving large accessions to its num-
bers, and already comprises the names of many of the
oldest, ablest, and most distinguished advocates of the
extension of civil rights.- Funds have been contributed
amply sufficient to meet the demaude ot the rpresent.
Numerous district societies, springing out of the central
association, are in active and vigorous operation in dif-
ferent parts of the metropolis, comprising several
thousands of zealous and ardent reformers, all engaged
in aid of the common object. And London, which in
the early pail et the year was behind the provinces in
the growing agitation for Financial and Parliamentary
Reform, now occupies than leading position to which it
is entitled, not more from its population and its wealth,
than from its public spirit and its pervading intelligence.
" Deeply impresseo with the conviction that no eff c-
tual nor lasting relief from the present unequally imposed
and heavy burden of taxation can or will take place
until the tax-payers have a more direct influence in the
election of the representatives who have to deal with
the national resources, the council, after much anxious
solicitude and careful deliberation, came to the conclu-
sion that the agitation for Parliamentary Reform should
precede that for financial ameliorations. In adopting this
policy, the council were Hilly aware that the great
difficulty to be met and overcome lay in the difference
of opinion which prevailed among their fellow-reformers
upon the subject of widening the suffrage. The council,
upon mature consideration, have decided upon advocating
such an extension of the franchise as will give to every
male occupier of a tenement, or any portion of a tene-
, went, the right to be registered an elector; the only
condition coupled with that right being, not the payment
of rates, but the fact of being rated or having claimed to
be rated for the relief of the poor in respect of the qua-
lifying premises. The effect of such a measure in
strengthening the popular voice in the House of Com-
) mons may be interred from the fact that the present
3 constituency of the United Kingdom would be increased
by the addition of upeards ut two millions of voter,
The council seek to invest this extended right o,
vot:ng with the shelter of the ballot; and
in order to keep actively alive that sense
of responsibility, which, in the public business of the
nation as in the private affairs ot lite, secures the faith-
ful exercise of a power held in trust, they advocate the
return to the old consitutional system of triennial Par-
liaments; while another and not less important change
sought for in our representative system will be that
which will give a more equal apportionment of Members
to const.ituents. The council believe that such an ex-
tension of civil privileges is due not more to the increased
intelligence of the people than it is called for by the
peculiar exigencies of the times; they believe that that
legislation is fraught with wisdom which concedes dure
ring a period of comparative tranquillity rights which
have been too long withheld; and that no policy is more
pregnant with danger
.than that which yields only to
iorce what is stubbornly denied to a sense of justice.
Looking to the history of the past, the council be-
lieve that neither of the two great parties in the state
will concede to the popular voice the reforms demanded,
until the appeal acquires consistency and force through
the medium of a powerful and numerous combination of
all classes of reformers. Under this impression the
council enter into a well-considered system of vigorous,
extensive, but strictly legal agitation. They will en-
deavour to enlist in the cause they have embraced all
the available elements, of moral power. District and
periodical aggregate public meetings will be held, tracts
will be distributed, aid will be imparted to the various
metropolitan registration societies now in existence for
watching over the interests of liberal voters, and impor-
tant facilities will be offered for the acquisition of 40s.
freeholds in the surrounding counties.
" The council have now briefly stated some of the
more important objects to be accomplished, and the
means by which it is proposed to attain them. They
appeal, in conclusion, to the two great bodies of the
community—the middle and productive classes—for
zealous co-operation, and active and energetic support.
They appeal especially to the unenfranchised masses, for
whose social and apolitical elevation the association has
been called into existence. And, deeply interested in
the existence of order, the preservation of public credit,
and the inviolability ot the rights of property, the coun-
cil believe that no greater calamity can beial a nation
than a protracted and obstinate resistance, on the part of
the Government, to temperate and moderate demands for
the extension of civil rights."—(The reading of the re-
port was repeatedly interrupted with bursts of applause.)
The council whom lie had the honour to represent had
alluded with considerable anxiety to the result of that,
the first meeting of the association.—(Hear, hear.)
They had looked to it, indeed, with that anxiety which
they considered proportionate to the interests at stake.
He was persuaded that they would unite with him in
expressing their gratification at witnessing that great
and influential response which had been just given to
the cause.—(Loud cheer,) That numerous and highly
influential meeting was a proof that the middle classes
of the city of London sympathised with the unenfran-
chised classes in their efforts to obtain an extension of
the suffrage.—{Loud cheers.) He thought that earnest
response was a sign of future success, arid that it would
give new zeal and energy to the executive which had
hitherto worked so zealously for the object which they
had met to promote.—(Hear.) Under ordinar
it cir-
cumstances might be desirable that he should offer
some explanation why a comparative stranger, possessing
no.local standing, nor the talent of many whom he saw
around him, saould occupy the prominent position
which had been conceded to him on that occasion.
Their time was, however, too valuable and too important
to give place to personal explanations—(Hear, hear)—and
he should content himself with saying, that
as he did not seek the position, neither would
he hesitate a moment to relinquish it when-
ever the interest of the cause they advocated should
call for such a change.—(Loud cheers.) A declaration
of their principles and several documents had been sent
forth by the council, but to avoid doubt and miscon-
ception as to the objects of the association,
or the measures which they proposed for the attainment
of those objects, the council had thought it desirable to
prepare and promulgate the report which had
just been received. That report had the full
concurrence of every member of the council,
and ho trusted that it wculd have the earnest and
zealous support of every reformer.—(Hear.) There
were thus,: among them, and he hesitated not to declare
it, as one who looked even beyond those principles in the
report—(Loud cheers)—who , desired to divide them
in opinion. , They had given the best consideration to
the subject, and adopted those means which they thought
most desirable and advisable to carry out their great ob-
jects, viz., the greatestextension of the suffrage according
to those with whom they had now to deal. The policy
of those who opposed them would be to throw discord
and contention into their ranks. But they must avoid
that, and mustendeavour to prevent them causing distrust
on the one baud and fear on the other. But if the people
were united their reply to all taunts would be, that they
would have a full, free, and faii trial for their prin-
ciples.—(Loud cheers.) The property class de
nounced their popsy and agitation as subversive
of order, and dangerous to the institutions of the
country.—(Laughter.) But the peacefulness of their
councils and justice of their cause was a sufficient
answer to all they could say.—(Hear, hear, and cheers,)
He hoped they would never cease their agitation so lone.
as from three to four millions of their fellow. men, who
were entitled to the franchises .of themst.lves, were
denied a vote iu the distribution or 'those tunas
to which they had concributed.•— (Loud cheering.)
The people, however, were now better instructed--(Hear)