The Sun.
London, England, 1841-09-17 00:00:00

CHARTIST MEETING.

Last evening; meetingof the advocates of the People's
Charter was held at the Montpelier Tavern, Camberwell.
The Chair was taken at eight o'clock, when
Mr. F. O'CONNOR rose, and, after some preliminary
observations, said it was now time for the people to know
their friends from their enemies. He had said that the
Whigs were devils. The Tories were devils in hell. It
was possible to meet a good devil out of hell, but impos-
sible to meet one in it. One of those gentry goes
down to Dorchester, where the 'Whigs had ma-
nifested their tender mercies to the labourers ;
hut a Tory was returned without opposition.
It would not be right to tell Sir James Graham that he
lied, but he should tell him that he laboured under a
mistake.—(Laughter.) What reason did the Right
lion. Baronet assign to the Dorchester labourers for his
defection from the Whigs ? Why, that they were grant-
ing Mr. O'Connell such a degree of power as was likely
to prove injurious to the Church of Ireland ; and yet
there was now a part and parcel of the Administration of
Peel—of Peel who, in *the year 1835, said he was in-
clined to trench more, in the ratio of one-fifth, on the
Church temporalities in Ireland than Earl Grey
did. The receipt and disposal of money and place in
the hands of the ruling power in this country
was enormous, and he thought he could see the Whigs'
chops watering when they saw Peel disposing of the pa-
tronage. But there was what was called a Constitutional
opposition in the House of Commons. He thanked God
the days had gone by when empty sounds could induce
the country to submit patiently to suffering and. starva-
tion. There was Russell, and Macauley, and Buller,
who formed a portion of this Constitutional opposition.
He could easily forgive Mr. Macauley, for his remark
made in Edinburgh, that he (Mr. Macauley) would
sooner submit to the despotism of the Czar of Russia
than to him (Mr. O'Connor), but when Mr. Macauley
saw the might of the people he would be one of the first
to announce the hour had arrived for granting the six
points of the People's Charter. Mr. Buller, he had no
doubt, would follow in his wake, and then, thank God,
they had Sharman Crawford and Tom Duncombe in the
House, and General Johnson, with a few others who
would support the people, and would not allow even the
press to sleep. In the Times of Monday it was said that
while the Whigs were divided into many sections, there
never was a time when the Tory party were more united.
An invading army was always united until the time for
dividing the spoil came.. Mr. Sergeant Jackson expected
to be Attorney-General—thank God he was disappointed
—(Cheers)—he expected to be Solicitor-General—thank
God he was disappointed—(Cheers)—and they would
now see how he will fight the cause of the Orangemen,
and keep up a perpetual motion to make Peel give him
something, or else he will soon form a new party. Now,
if disunion would be fatal to them, with the army and
navy, and the treasury, at their back, it behoved them to
bear in mind the necessity of perfect union. He had
been confined but not disgraced, and both he and the
Whigs were out together. He left York Castle at the
time the Whigs were making their parting bow to the
Treasury Benches.—(Cheers and laughter.) The
Whigs had lost their power because they tam-
pered with the rights of the people. Their excuse
was, that the House of Lords was against them ;
but the Whig aristocrats whispered to the lordlings
" For God's sake stop us ; we are going too far !" and
the Lords met the Commons in the Painted Chamber
with their hats off, and their bills in their hands ; and
the Lords met the Commons with their hats on, and
kicked out the bills and amendments both, and then
Lord John said' the time had not yet arrived to come
into conflict with the Lords. To be sure, Lord John
would be very sorry to come into conflict with his
brother of Bedford and other immaculates of his order.
There was little use .in struggling for household suf-
frage, because the one tomb would contain both house-
hold suffrage and universal suffrage on the attempt
being made to gain it. Peel saiethat night in the
House of Commons • he would continue the New Poor-
law Bill in operation until next July. But he (Mr.
O'Connor) thought they would not allow him to do so.
The Learned Gentleman, after expatiating at great length
on the operation of the Poor-law and the effects of ma-
chinery, proceeded to say, that the Globe of yesterday
said jeeringly, in the next Ministry her Majesty would
form Mr. Feargus O'Connor would be called. If he
were, he would say to her, keep your ladies about you ;
we don't want to interfere in your bedchamber aTrange-
men ts, but in the name of common sense, as you are a young
girl, and have been called at the age of 18 to rule over a
mighty empire, let every man of 21 years have the power
to choose those Nebo are to rule over him.—(Loud cheers)
He would call upon every one in that vast meeting, which
at least numbered 3,000, to hold up their hands
who were possessed of the franchise. (Sixteen persons
only in the assembly here held up their hands.) Here
were sixteen hands held up—they were the masters, the
rest of the meeting their slaves.—(Hear, hear.) The
Sun and the Morning Advertiser were the only newspa-
pers which sent reporters to that meeting; the rest of the
daily press, forsooth, would say they were too busily en-
gaged at the House of Commons. But he would tell
them that it was of more importance to the press to at-
tend such meetings as the present, than at many of the
sleeping debates in the House of Commons or Lords either.
The press, in relation to the people, stood in a position
of mighty responsibility; for the ridicule which certain
portions of the press cast upon the people tended to
exasperate the people, and disturb the elements of so-
ciety. Those who would not, or could not think for
themselves, took the ipse dixit, and disregarded the volcano
which was bursting forth at their feet.. Those who dis-
pute the stake which the operative classes possess
in the well-being of the country are sadly mis-
taken. They have a greater interest in it than
the middle or upper classes, for the two latter have
something for the rainy day, while the labourer has
nothing but his weekly wages. The eminent banking
establishment of Hobhouse and Company, at Bath, have
failed. This may, in a great measure, be attributed to
the distress among the working classes, for they being
unable to purchase from the retailers, the merchant's
stock lies on his hands, and he is unable to pay his
banker ; thus the contagion spreads through the whole
system.—(hear.) After some further observations,
the Learned Gentleman said, that Mr. Hethe-
rington had challenged him to a discussion as to
whether the Chartist named the " Lovett Chartist," or
the Chartist of the National Association, was the better.

he (Mr. O'Connor) had to leave town until Monday,
after which he should meet Mr. Hetherington. He did
not yet know where the meeting would take place, as lie
had left the arrangement entirely in the hands of the
other party ; but Tuesday was the day fixed for the
discussion. His object in meeting Mr. Hetherington
would be to adduce truth ; and if there were divisions to
arise amongst the Chartist body, to let the blame of such
divisions lie at the door of the erring party.—(Loud and
long-continued cheering.)
Several other gentlemen having spoken, the meeting
adjourned about eleven o'clock.