The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-25 00:00:00

PRICE 5(1.

(Cheers.)And, as I have just arrived from Ireland, I may
be permitted to go back there for a moment.—( Laughter.)
In the Irish House of Commons there we.s no such thing
as a qualification. Why then should it exist in England ?
Why, when the Scotch and Irish Parliaments, in which
there was no qualification, were amalgamated with the
English Parliament, should it be found where it did net
exist before ? Why should there be no man in the House
of Commons who is not worth a certain sum of money ?
Is not the free choice of a free people a sufficient qualifi
cation for any representative ?—( Hear, hear.) If his
neighbours, who ought to know him best, elect him as a
fit and proper person to le present them, why should his
rent-roll be inquired after by other people ?—( Cheers.)
It has no other effect than that of enabling a Committee
of the House of Commons to perjure themselves.—
( Chei rs.) I hope that those who intend to immortalise
our proceedings here to-night, by placing them before
the world, will be particular in taking that down accu-
rately.—( Laughter.) I said it before, and I was tried
for it by the House of Commons.--( Loud cheers.) I was
found guilty of telling the truth, and I was punished for
that by a censure.—( Great cheering and laughter.) I now
repeat the offence, and I take the consequences.—( Cheers. )
There is another question on which I am also most anxious
to see reform introduced—l mean en equal electoral dis-
tribution.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) Let us take any
one of the iostencss of the present unequal and most un-
just electoral distribution.—( Hear, hear, and loud cheer.)
There is the town of Harwich with but 79 voters, sending
two Members to Parliament, while this Riding of York-
shire, with 35,000, has only the same number of repre-
sentatives.—( Hear, hear.) Seventy-nine are represented
by two, and 35,000 are represented by two! There is vul-
gar arithmetic for you.—( Laughter and cheers.) Suppose
a dirk employed in one of your mills should put down 79,
and opposite that, 2 for a product, and then 35,000 with
also for a product, and make an equation between them,
would you not immediately put him out of your establish-
ment as a bungling fool, unfit to conduct your business?
And yet this very thing is going on before your faces, and
there John Bull stands, with his mouth open, gaping on all
the while, without rot ming himself to understand how the
matter is.—(Loud cheers and laughter.) The French
are in a great passion with us just now, but they say that
when they arc in good humour they are very fond of
laughing. Now a hat better joke could Frenchmen hare
to laugh at than seeing Englishmen made to believe that
79 make 2, and 35 000 only make 2 ? It is only required
that you should telk the matter over a little to yourselves ;
and then you will say, " 0 that will never do; there is no
standing that."—( Cheers and laughter.) Another thing
we must have is the Ballot.—( Cheers.) We must get
the honest Ballut.—(Loud cheers.) Believe me it is a
great crime, and no favour at all to give men the right to
vote, if you do not also give them the means of protect-
ing themselves in the exercise of that right.---( Cheers.)
On whatever side the poor man gives his vote ruin threat-
ens him on the other. Give him the franchise without the
protection of the Ballot, and you but tempt him to plunge
himself and his children into destruction.--( Loud cheers.)
I declare solemnly to Heaven that I do not think any man
is honest who is not for the Ballot.—(Cheers.) The
next step to the Ballet will be that no man shall attempt
to intimidate, for his intimidation would recoil on him-
self, and the threat, as well as the thing itself, would
thus for ever be put an end to. Of course I will be told
that telling a lie is a crime, and that the Ballot, by in-
ducing a man to promise a thing and then break his pro-
mise, makes him commit a crime. To be sure a lie is a
crime; but suppose that the Ballot does not, as is the case,
protect him, what happens? The politics of a man are
known, let us suppose it is a matter of fact what his prin-
ciples are on a certain subject, and the man who possesses
a certain degree of power and influence over him comes to
him and says, " I know what your opinions are ; you in-
tend to support such a party ; but I say you shall rote for
me." Now, if the voter obeys, will not his act be a lying
act? and does not he compel him to vote against his known
principles and opinions—compel him to lie by the act; and
how is he better off on the score of morality than the man
who, under the Ballot, makes a promise against his prin-
ciples which he afterwards breaks?—( Hear and cheers.)
On the contrary, is not the act of the the latter tainted with
much less of moral guilt than that of the former ? Again,
who is it that could bribe large constituencies ? Under
such circumstances, bribery would be impossible.—
( Hear, hear.) I admit that in very small constituencies
the Ballot might be productive of evil ; for instance, in
Committees for the distribution of charitable funds, and
similar bodies, the members of which would be enabled by
the Ballot to screen themselves from the effecting a breach
of their public duties.—( Hear, bear.) All I contend for
is the Ballot under such circumstances as it may be legiti-
mately useful in. Let the constituencies be enlarged also,
and then the Ballot will be more useful.—( Hear, hear.)
Give me, then, the Ballot.--( Cheers.) 1 say, give me the
honest Ballot for the people.—( Loud and continued cheer-
ing.) Of course, I but repeat whet you have heard or
read a thousand times over before ; but there is one point
in which the question may be viewed, vali:ch it strikes me
may cot be .so familiar to you, or w }deb, at least, I have
not so often heard observed upon. At present, when a
mar, goes out canvassing voters, he exerts the influence of
his sinister opinions on others by getting a landlord, or
some other such person, to threaten those over whom
he possesses controul, and the Member is returned
solely on the interests of the landlords and em-
ployers of the community. What, however, would
be the case were the Ballot to lie introduced ? All
this species of interest would be at an end, and how then
should people canvass ? Why, by asking the votes of
the people, not for a wealthy or powerful man, but for a
good mare—(Cheers.) No other qualification would then
be admitted in a representative then sir:ue.—( Cheers.)
I am, therefore, for the Ballot, and is there con here
against it ?—( Renewed cheers.) Well, then, there is some
one here against it.—( Cries of " There is no one.") You
take that civil way of telling me that I do not speak the
truth.—(Continued cheering.) Above all things let us
have also an extension of- the franchise.—( Cheers.)
What else is a slave, but a man who is governed solely by
others, without having any share himself in the Govern-
ment—a man who occupies no portion of the political
state ?—( Hear, hear.) The man, then, who has no vote,
is nothiee better than a slave ; for all that he has to do is to
obey, and look cn quietly while lie is despoiled in his in-
terests and rights by these over whom lie can exercise no
influence.—( Hear, heat.) The Judges of the land, who
come down to pie site in your Courts, with all their so-
lemn gravity and antiquated harlequinade—( Laughter)—
astonishing the people with their profusion of horsehair
and chalk, for must not every one think what a formidable
terrible fellow he is, that has got twenty-nine pounds
weight of an enormous powdered wig upon his head.—
(Laughter.) But this is all humbug of the old times, and
I hope to see it kicked away along with many other absur-
dities and abuses. These judges, with their big wigs and
gravity, tell the jury when any case is brought before them
in which any one is accused of defrauding the revenue—
" Gentlemen, you must find a verdict against the defend-
ant ;" and if the unfortunate defendant should complain of
the injustice of the laws, then they tell him that ho has no
right at all to complain; that the laws, being made by his
representatives, were made virtually by himself, although,
at the same time, he is not represented at all.—( Hear. )
Thus, thin, we find these keepers of the public conscience
declaring that the people make the laws by their represen-
tatives, while in truth the people are not represented; and
is this solemn humbug to be borne with ?—(Cheers.) Yes,
it is a grievance that cannot and ought not to be en-
dured; and, seeking for the redress of it, the only ques-
tion is how far you can possibly go.—(Hear, hear.) It is
a matter of some difficulty to define the limits to vzhich
the franchise can be extended, so as to be free from the
perpretation of any fraud.—( Hear, beer.) I would give
the franchise at once to every man of twenty-one years of
age, if, by the poseession of it, he had it not in his power
to LUC it deceitfully or dishonestly. But if it be given to
the youth of twenty-ene years of age unaccompanied by
any clause with regard to residence, he may, by the aid of
railway communication, vote in three or four places the
same day. Ile may be in Leeds, in London, and other
plecss along the railway line, within a few hours, and, as a
youth of twenty-one, vote in them all, almost at the same
t.me. Anxious, then, as lam that it should be extended
to every man who has arrived at the years of discretion,
and ie unsullied by crime, I art nevertheless still more
anxious that the right should be possessed without the
power of using it improperly, and thire should be no such
thing as a repetition of the same vote.—( Hear.) There has
been haul)• a most remarkable case at New York, where one
hundred men tvere bribed, at the rate of 71. a piece, to
vote in nineteen different places during the same election ;
and by that means the one hundred men gave n:netecn
hundred votes, and carried the election, as the parties
bribing them desired. We, who want nothing but honesty
and fair play, would not take the gift of any right that
could be subject to such monstrous abuse, and we will for
the present be content to make the qualification of the fran-
chise a fixity of residence. I say that every man ought
to be poisessed of the franchise who is qualified by residence
—it is therefore that I am for the present for the lion:ehold
suffrage.—(Cheers.) But mark me well, anti let me not
be here mistaken, I speak of the household suffrage not as
a limitation to the right of voting, but as a means to pre-
vent fraud in the exercise of that right.—(Centiniicc!
cheers.) Those are my tenets—those aro my politicalcae
opinions, and as counsel for the people, I have come
here amongst you to give full and free expression to
them.—( Loud cheers.) We ought one amid all to
exert ourselves for time attainment of those rights an
liberties, without the possession of which Englandruickly fade
be safe, and her honour aid her glory cannot
will i
of war, by which
away—thus should our best ene,rgiesbedirected, instead
of being carried away by time false dazzle
we call gain nothing but lose much in the shape of in-
creased taxation.—(Hear.) What ins it to us whether one
Syria ?—(Cries of
or other of two barbarians
" Nothing.") No, nothing, asgfoa:rears relates to the merit
power, but it is a great deal
of the patties contending forh one out of our pockets to
you, do any of you
to us, inaamueli as it takes t
decide the contest.—( Hear.; m aysk
care a China orange about the wart in
rChina, or whether
"(nod allowed to oe on according to
the peop e
their established customs without having their throets cut ?
But wby is it that those senseless and unjust wais are so
often commenced and carried on to the loss and dishonour
of the nation ? It is because the people have not the de.
moeratic control—in a word, because they aro not retire-
seated.—(Cheers. ) V, hat occasion have you to go cru-
sading in pursuit of wars and increasing your debt?
I admit that your Leeds Association has done much—
that your recent proceedings have struck a great blow
against tyranny and oppression in every shape and form,
and, in the name of the people of my long-oppressed
country, I thank you. You have set Zit example that
will two.lueo a powerful effect all over England
and Scotiaad, and 10 trait that in a very short time these