The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-23 00:00:00

THE CHARTIST MEETING.

LEEDS, THURSDAY EVENING.—This has been made a
day of very great interest, if not of importance, both by
the Reformers and the Chartists. You tare aware that it
hos been fcr some time in contemplation to hold a meeting
in this town, at which all classes of Reformers might co-
operate ; and it was proposed that there should be a union
of all those who agreed in opinion that there ought to ho
conceded to the people Vote by Ballot, Household Suf-
frage, no property qualification, and re-distribution of the
electoral districts. To give the greater effect to these
principles, it was determined that various Members of Par-
liament should be invited to attend. This demonstration
gave great displeasure to the Chartists, not of this town,
who arc, I believe, few in number, but to all in the sur-
rounding districts, and who have the advantage of read-
ing Mr. O'Connor's paper. All these persons have been
urged on and incited to assail Mr. O'Connell especially,
because he has given offence to Mr. Feargus O'Connor,
and has before now spoken in the strongest terms of cen-
sure against the Chartists themselves. But no description
can give an adequate idea of the violence of the language
used against Mr. O'Connell. I therefore send to you a
copy of one of the placards issued and circulated by the
friends and admirers of Feargus O'Connor
" WORKING NEN OF YORKSHIRE.

" Producers of wealth, but bearers of the slave-mark !
You have toiled long and arduously to better your condition,
and to remove the slave-mark of inferiority from your brow.
" To accomplish this you have held out the right hand of
fellowship to all and every one who offered or promised to
render you aid.
"To this end, you have often attached yourselves to the
middle classes ; have suffered them to lead you, and to em-
ploy the power you possess—irresistible when rightly directed
—to the accomplishment of schemes for their own aggrandise-
ment.

" You never yet, though, formed an alliance with the mid-
Ale classes that they did not betray you, and sell the power
you had placed in their hands for benefits in which they always
denied you the slightest participation.
" These same middle classes are again trying to coax you
into alliance with them, that they may again use your power
in the way they have hitherto always used it.
" The operations and the workings of the present system,
which have ground you to the dust, have also begun to twitch
the middle classes : they feel uneasy, and wish to throw off the
burden thus cast upon them—but at your expense.
" To accomplish this object, they have engaged the powers
of blarney and humbug possessed by the most hollow of all
friends;' the most mercenary of all traffickers; the most de-
ceitful of all hypocrites ;—the man who, for years, has lived
upon the miseries, the wrongs, the tears, the groans, the wast-
ing flesh and blood, of his fellow men. _ _

This friend,' Daniel O'Connell ! sold the political right
of 300,000 forty-shilling freeholders of Ireland for a seat in
Parliament for himself and his tools ; and thus procured the
turning out of their holdings upon the wide world, as vagrants
and wanderers, thousands upon thousands of his brave country-
men.

" -1
his hollow-hearted friend exerted his blood-and-life-
bound power to prevent the establishment of a rightly-grounded
Poor-law for the relief of these vagrants and wanderers, hoping
thus to starve them off the face of the earth, that they might no
longer remain living-in-death monuments of his unparalleled
treachery. . . . . . .

" This personification of Deceit constituted himself the
• Factory Child's Chancellor,' and then sold their blood, their
tears, their lives for 1,000/. !! which he received, full tale,
from the millowners of Manchester, though conscious that
every copper of the sum was the Devil's price for an im-
mortal soul !

" This foul-mouthed traducer of everything good, every-
thing virtuous, had the monstrous hardihood to declare that
out of every twenty English women who were married, nine-
teen of them were mothers before the marriage knot was tied !'
" This cowardly trickster, when you sent a missionary to
hold out the hand of fellowship to the working men of Ireland,
in their own metropolis, in order to a good understanding and
unity of action between both sections of the operative commu-
nity, packed the meeting room with his hired tools, and refused
to hear the voice of your ambassador of peace.
" This disgrace to the human form, when your faithful friend
Frost was betrayed by Government spies into the hands of the
soldiery at Newport, and when twenty of your brethren were
laid dead upon the field by their murderous fire, this' man' (?)
set up a yell of savage satisfaction, and blurted out Serve 'esti
right ! Serve 'em right ! 0! I thank God it was my own
boys, under Sergeant Daly, who did it I'
" This hideous lump of hypocrisy took the chair at a public
meeting, in the year 1829, in London, at which the Political
Union for the attainment of Universal Suffrage was formed ;
he also was one of six members of Parliament who drew up
the People's Charter,' telling you to agitate for, and procure
its passing into a law ; when you did as he bid you, and your
' arritation had become so formidable as to alarm faction, this
horrible dissimulator turned round, and denounced both you
and Universal Suffrage, and offered to bring 500,000 Irishmen
into England, to put you down ; to force you to tamely bear
the wrongs and sufferings which injustice and want have in-
flicted upon you !
" Producers of wealth !

• This is the man whom the middle classes have engaged to
wheedle yuu again into their clutches; that, conjointly, they
may again make merchandise of you—again sell you.
" In aid of this, he and they are to meet in Leeds on Thurs-
day, the 21st.
T. frustrate "-'', a IlleQting /ow, order has been con-
vened, in the same town, on the -same day.- -
" At that meeting, it is intended to tell the middle classes
that their days of betrayal and deceit are over; that the
working classes have set up in business' for themselves, and
that they will never again give themselves to the guidance or
into the power of any other class.
" It is also intended at that' meeting to tell that mendacious
lump of selfishness and deceit, Daniel O'Connell, of the estima-
tion in which he is holden by the working men of England
and Scotland, and their wives; For this purpose deputies
from every part of those two kingdoms will be present, to ' re-
gister a vow in heaven' never again to trust him ; never again
to work with him, or have any, the slightest, connection
with him.

" Operatives of Yorkshire !
"To that meeting you are called ! To that meeting you
will come !

If you love honesty and hate deceit ; if you respect up-
rightness and discountenance dissimulation ; if you feel for
your babes, love your wives; regard with jealous watchful-
ness the fair name of your virtuous daughters, to that meeting
you will come. You will come and tell the barterer of his
countrymen's political rights for Parliamentary seats—the
cause of the extirpation and death of the elonewith freehold-
ers, the refuser of the relief of a good and humane Poor-
law, the seller of the lives of your factory children for 1,000/.,
the traducer of your wives and daughters, the gloater ever
the blood spilt by murderous spies at Newport, the doubly-
damned traitor, who first set you to agitate for Universal
Suffrage, and then denounced you and it, offering 500,000
men to put you down—you will come and tell the hideous
monster, who has wrung hundreds of thousands of pouncts,
from his miserable, naked, starving, famishing countrymen ;
and whom he has kept in this condition that he may continue
to suck their blood—you will come and tell him, in terms not
to be misunderstood, that you know him : and that he is wel-
come te all the execrations which chastity, honesty, and up-
rightness can pour upon his head ! Come and speak out ;
right out; and let the betrayer know that his day is gone !"
Another moans resorted to for exciting the passions of
the populace has been the publication of caricatures. One
of them is cleverly done, and with very 'great spirit. It
describes the place of meeting in the evening, on which
Mr. O'Connell stands, as on the front of a stage, while he
is speaking to an assemblage composed of none but geese,
who are hissing at him ; and behind him stands Feargus
O'Connor engaged in depriving him of a very handsome
peacock's tail, with which he is decorated.—The Char-
tists held a soiree in the Music Saloon, South Parade, on
Wednesday evening. There was a very thin attendance.
After tea the Rev. William Hill was called to the chair.
He said as several strangers from a distance intended to
address the meeting, he would call upon Mr. Moir, from
Glasgow, to speak the sentiments of "The people, the only
source of power." Mr. Moir spoke at considerable length ;
he alluded to the time when the Whigs aroused
the country from centre to circumference, and whilst
agitating for the Reform Bill declared out and out
for the principle of Universal Suffrage. At :that time he
said the Whigs of Glasgow memorialized his Majesty Wil-
liam IV., and in a resolution, calmly and deliberately
drawn up, told him that they wore ready to arm to a man
for the obtaining of that measure which the Tories had
rejected. This was the way in which the Whigs of those
days spoke of physical force. At a meeting, held on the
green of Glasgow, at which two hundred thousand at-
tended, such a resolution was put and unanimously
adopted. Mr. Moir spoke of another resolution to which
the Chartists of Glasgow had agreed on the Bth instant,
namely, never to agitate for less than the full measure
of justice, and by all means in their power to prevent
others from agitating for less also. Mr. Moir contended
that the people were as fit at present to exercise the
franchise as they will be forty-five years hereafter.—Mr.
John Collins followed, and was received with rapturous
applause. He spoke to the sentiment, " The Charter,
may it soon become the law of the land." As he would
have an opportunity of addressing them to-morrow,
and further, as he had complied with a request
to deliver a course of lectures in Leeds and its
neighbourhood, he would not make a long speech to-
night. Ile alluded to the policy and importance of his
subject, r.nd the folly and impoliey of agitating for an ex-
tension of the franchise less than universal suffrage.-11c
was followed by Mr. Mason, of Newcastle. " Frost,
Williams, and Jones, their speedy return to their native

country," was his subject. He eulogised Frost as a man,
a husband, a father, and a patriot, and hoped that, though
at a distance of 16,000 miles, Frost and his exiled com-
panions might yet have the pleasure of visiting the land
of their birth.—" Feargus O'Connoe," " all the imprisoned
Chartists," " the Northern Star and the Chartist news-
paper press," and " the memory of Cobbett, Hunt,
Paine, and the other noble spirits who in less auspicious
days had advocated the cause of the people," were seve-
rally dwelt upon by different speakers. Thu meeting was
quite orderly throughout. A vote of thanks was awarded
Mr. Ilill for his conduct in the chair. Ile returned the
compliment, and requested that the Chartists would thank
him more substantially to-morrow, by meeting him more
numerously. The meeting dispersed shortly after ten
o'clock.

Considering the efforts that have been made for so many
weeks, I certainly expected that a great demonstration of
physical force would be made by the Chailists. I have
been greatly disappointed, foe notwithstanding they had
band: parading the streets all the morning, still they were
not able to collect at Hal beck-moor, their pluce of meeting,
more than three Thousand persons. lam quite sure I over
estimate their numbers, although I heard a half-drunken
Chartist, who stood beside me on t he hustingi, declare that
there could not be Ices than fifty thousand present! This
is, however, n very common mode of calculation "in the
north." The hour appointed for tie Chartist meeting was
eleven o'clock ; but there was not a single being, except-
, ing three females, at that time to be seen near the•hus-
tinge. It was not until one that they came upon the moor,
headed by their military bands—they call them " the

PRICE sd.

Platoff bands." They carried with them a great number
of banners, on which there were various inscriptions, but
none so peculiar as to be deserving of description.
At one o'clock it was moved that Mr. Hobson, the pub-
lisher of the Northern Star, be called to the chair.
The motion was agreed to by a show of hands.
Ile then read the requisition for the meeting, and ob-
served that Mr. O'Connell and others had drawn up the
basis of the Charter, and then sent it forth to the world,
asking them to strive and to agitate for the purpose of
passing it into law. They had done so, and showed they
were determined to have that which they w re bid to ask
for ; and when that was seen, it was said that Household
Suffrage should be asked for. The first move was made
at Leeds, and now the people were determined to concen-
trate, and therefore there were delegates from all other
parts of the country to trice pre sin the proceedings. He
read a list of the delegates. The names of Collins, Leech,
Degan, end others, were received with loud cheers.
Mr. CLARKSON, of Bradford, moved the first resolution.
He said he would not occupy their time with any senti-
ments of his (inn, and would, therefore, read the resolution,
which was this:—" That we, the working people of the
West Riding of the county of York, as well as of the rest of
England and Scotland, represented by their several dele-
gates, in public meeting assembled, do hereby resolve, front
this day forth, not to join in, or countenance, any agitation
for any measure other than the accomplishment of Univer-
sal Suffrage; being well convinced, that so long as one an an's
property constitutes another man's title to vote, the owner
of such property will have it in his power to exercise a de-
structive influence over the elective franchise; thereby
(however speciously right may be said to be conferred,-or
however secretly its use may be exercised) leaving an un-
just control in the hands of the owners of suffrage pro-
perty ; and which, in point of fact, was the one evil prin-
ciple sought to be abolished by the Reform Bill." This
showed that the meeting was pledged to support the
Char ter, and nothing but the Charter.—(Cheers.) They
were all satisfied that the Reform Bill had been a failure.
—( Hear, hear.) He thought if they agitated but Uni-
versal Suffrage it would be a very long time before they
got anything else.
Mr. JOHN KNOWLES, of Keith, seccnded the resolution.
He said he was a working man, and he was an advocate
for the Charter, and, young as he was, had been so for
eight years at least, and was determined to continue to be
so. He said, let them be determined, however O'Connell
might try to persuade them, that nothing less than the
Charter should be the law of the land.—(Cheers.)
They would show the shopkeepers that they would be
peaceable and carry their object.
Mr. COLLINS, of Birmingham, was received with loud
cheers. He said he had never met with so many circum-
stances to afford him pleasure as within the last twenty-four
hours. He saw men prudently and calmly determined to
possess the rights of freemen. He was himself not an old
man, but he remembered a time when working men tried
to pass themselves off as gentlemen : but circumstances
within the last twelve years Lad taught workmen that it was
an honour, not to be gentlemen, but to do their duties to so-
ciety.—(Cheers.) Ho was appointed at Birmingham to
represent that town to Leeds during this week. He read
the resolution appointing him, and then proceeded to say,
that there was to be a meeting that evening, in order that
they might have the earliest news of their proceedings that
day. They had been told the Reform Bill. would be a
stepping-stone to other measures ; and then those whom
they had assisted turned round on them and became their
opponents : and they, therefore, would not assist
in making more enemies to themselves. They asked
for what they knew were their rights, and they
asked for no more. As honest men they could not
hear others reproach them with wishing to tyrannise
over them. They were called Destructives, and it was
said they wished for a distribution of property ; but they
who said this knew it was a calumny ; for they well knew
that if there was not security for property there would be
no reward for labour. Again, they were made responsible
for the acts of those who were not of the working classes :
for instance, they were charged with the crimes of the
gipsies and others, who were not more of the working
classes than the parsons were.—( Cheers.) Ile was ad-
monished by the Chairman that others were to fellow him,
and, therefore, he would give way to them. Ho bad
waited on the gentlemen who got up the meeting at Mar-
shall's-mill, and he found they had abandoned their resolu-
tion upon Household Suffrage. It was agreed that the
Chartists should have as many speakers as they had. This
was done because it was thought necessary that something
should be done. This showed that those persons were
opening their eyes; and one of them said, that by House-
hold Suffrage he meant a vote for every man who lived
under a rooL—(Laughter and cheers.) The working men
were determined to have nothing less than the Charter,
and by the help of that God who smiles upon a righteous
cause, they must_they shall succeed.
Mr. O'Neil. would, he said, address the other meeting
that evening. He should, therefore, content himself with
saying that they were resolved upon abiding by their Char.
ter. For this they had been coerced, and had been perse-
cuted ; and for this some of them were in prison, and some
over the Waves. He called on them to uphold their dig-
nity, and to let honour be their political god.
Mr. 13RA:4RLY was happy that his countrymen were re-
solved to huvo --h

the principles of the Charter, To make them triumph
they were ready to suer with their friends now in prison
who had been entrapped by the Whigs. All they asked
for was a fair hearing, and they would give a fair hearing
to their opponents, and they would succeed by fair argu-
ment. As to Household Suffrage, it was only the excuse
for other parties who wished to join them. As to O'Con-
nell, he said, let them give the beast a fair hearing—
(Cheers)—for he would be followed by Mr. Lowry, who
had gonu to Dublin, where lie could not obtain a hearing;
but they would return good for evil. As to the middle
classes, if they did not join the working men, the working
men would see them dipped before they joined them.
Before the resolutio❑ was agreed to, the persons present
took off their hats at the desire of the Chairman, and it
was then passed by acclamation.
Mr. PITTKEITIILEY, of Iluddersfield, moved the next
resolution. It was this :

" Resolved—That this meeting cannot look upon Messrs.
Marshall, Stanfeld, and other capitalists, who have dared to
introduce Me. Daniel O'Connell among us (the most profligate
politician ever known in this or any other age or country),
without feelings of disgust and contempt; well knowing, as
expressed by their organ, that the said Mr. O'Connell has
shrunk' from every sound principle, and sold to a corrupt
Government that political power, which the circumstance of
being one of an oppressed religious creed, coupled with the
great ignorance in which his poor countrymen have been sedu-
lously kept, has conferred upon him; thus proving to us that
the contemplated end is monopoly ; as ;the proposed means of
acquiring it are base, bloody, brutal,' and treacherous in the
last. degree."
Mr. WITHER HEAD seconded the resolution, He begged
those who attended the meeting to-night should, when
the brute O'Connell rose to speak, turn their backs upon
him, and give him three groans, for he had sold the fac-
tory children for 1,000/. He would not hurt a bone of
O'Connell, but he would give him three horrible groans.
_(Cheers and laughter.)
Mr. LOWRY said that, notwithstanding their persecution,
they were resolved to persevere; for he who commenced
labouring for the Charter, and supposed he would not en-
counter persecution, was a fool.--( Cheers.) There was
no distinction between the terms " working men" and
" Chartists." The working man, who was a Whig, had
no right to appear at a public meeting, for his principles
were inconsistent with the declaration. He repeated his
opinion, that if there was no security in the cottage there
should bo none in the hall. If he was to be imprisoned
for not supporting his children, then he said let Prince
Albert and the Germans support theirs also. There
should be no peace in England until the whole inhabitants
were represented in their own Parliament. It might be
said that they were poor ; but it was they who produced
all the wealth, and, if they had it not, somebody must
have robbed them most villainously. He never prattled
about constitutions; but his rights 'A ere registered in the
court of Heaven, and were as immutable as the source
from which they came. Ho said let every man do his
share, and that which was difficult for a few would be easy
for the many, and no power on earth could resist the might
of millions.

The resolution passed unanimously:
Several other speeches were delivered ; but as the time
for the Reformers' meeting was approaching, I left the
Chartists still speaking. The following were amongst
the resolutions adopted by them ; they also passed an
address to the Queen :

Resolved, That this meeting, constitutionally representing
the working classes of Great Britain, is heartily in favour of
a repeal of the Legislative Union between Great Britain and
Ireland ; while they will not stir, aid, or join in any plan for
its accomplishment recommended by Mr. O'Connell, who,
while he has made it a source of personal wealth, has endea-
voured, by all the artful means in his power, to deter England
from acquiescing in the measure ; apd who, though he blusters,
vapours, and repeats his oft-told rigmarole to his staff, has just
now refused to meet Dr. Cooke in fair discussion upon the
question ; thereby proving, either that he is not a friend to the
measure, or that he feels his inability to defend it ; while he
must be aware that, if successful, such a triumph would be
worth ten thousand meetings, where none are allowed to dis-
sent from him under pain of political excommunie.atien."
" 4. Resolved, That this meeting considers the Govern-
ment of Lord Melbourne as the most cruel, incompetent, reck-
less, immoral, bloodthirsty, and profligate that has ever held
office within the memory of man; and that, therefore, we
pledge ourselves to use all the means in our power to relieve
her Majesty from the disgrace, and the country from the danger,
of being longer governed by the present Administration; and
that, in pursuance of such resolution, an address be presented
from this meeting to her Majesty, praying that her Majesty
may be graciously pleased to dismiss her present advisers, and
call to her councils men who will make the support of universal
suffrage a pledge of their fitness for office, as the only means of
preserving the country from all the horrors of civil war.
5. Resolved, That the address now read be signed by the
Chairman, on behalf of this meeting, and presented to her Ma-
jesty by those persons who shall be appointed to present the
addresses on behalf of Frost, Williams, and Jones, and at the
same time (that is to say, upon the same day), and that this
meeting pledges itself to support the Delegates in this our first
and noble endeavour to open a pure and unsullied channel of
communication between the Monarch and the people."