The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-26 00:00:00

MORNING E OITIOISt

(Cheers, )And, as I have just arrivad front Ireland, way
be permitted to go back there for a ruerneet Laughter.)
In the Irish House of Commons there was 1,0 soeh thing
as 'a qualification. Why then should it exist in Erks;!and?
Why, when the Scotch and Irish Parliaments, in welch
there was no qualification, were amalgamated with the
English Parliament, should it be found where it did not
exist before? Why should there bane man in the House
of Commons who is not worth a certaia rum of mousy?
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 represent them, why slese;1(1 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",g—
(Cheers.) I hope that those who intend to immortalaw
our proceedings here tosilight. 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.—( Isom! cheers.) Ie as
found guilty of telling the truth, arid I was punished for
that by a censure.—(Great cheering end laughter.) I now'
repcatthe offence, and I take the coneeeptencea.—( Cheers.)
There is another question on which I am also most anxious
to see reform introduced—l mean an equal electoral dis-
tribution.—( Hear, hear, and cheers.) Let us take any
one of the instances of the present unequal and most un-
just electoral distribution.—(Hear, hear, and loud cheer.)
There is the town of Harwich situ 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 represeetted
by two, and 35,000 are represented by twol There is AA-
gar arithmetic for you.—(Laughter and cheers ) Suppose'
a clerk employed in one of your mills should put down 79,
and opposite that 2 for a product, and then 35,000 with 2
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 Mime your faces, and
there John Bull stands, with his mouth open, gaping on all
the while, without seeming 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 are in good humour they are very fond of
laughing. Now what better joke could Frenchmen have
to laugh at than seeing Englishmen made to belteve that
79 make 2, and 35,000 only make 2 ? It is only required
that you should talk 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 Ballot.—( Loud cheers.) Believe rate it is a
greet crime, and no favour at all to give men the right to
I vote, it' 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 men
is honest who is not for the Ballot.—( Cheers.) The
next step to the Ballot will lee 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. 0:' 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 riot, 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 arc 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 vote for
me." Now, if the voter obeys, will not his cot be a lying
act? and does net he compel him to ante against his known
principles and opinions—compel hint to lie by the act ; and
how is lie better off on the scare of morality than the man
who, under the Ballot, make's a promise against his prin-
ciples which he afterwards breaks ?—( Hear and cheers.)
On the contrary, is not the act of the th a latter tainted with
much less of mcral guiii than that of the former ? Again,
who is it that could brlbe large constituencies ? Under
such circumstances, bribery would be impassible.-_
(Hear, hear.) I admit that in very small constituencies
the Ballot might be productive of evil ; for instance, in
Committees fur the distribution of charitable funds, and
similar bodies, the members of which would be enabled by
the Belot to screen themselves from the ef ecting. a breach
of their public duties.—( Hear, hear.) All I contend for
is the Ballot under such circumstances as it may be legiti-
mately useful in. Let the constituenc'es be enlarged also,
and then the Ballot will be more useful —( Hear, hear.)
Give me, then, the Ballot.—(Cheats.) I say, give me the
honest Ballot for the people.—( Loud and continued cheer-
ing.) Of course, I but rep at what you have heard or
read a thousand times over before ; but there is one point
in which the question may be viewed, salich it strike's me
may not be so familiar to you, or which, at least, I have
not so often heard observed upon. At present, when a
man goes out canvassing voters, he exerts the influence of
his sinister opinions or, others by getting a landlord, or
acme other such person, to threaten those over whom
lie possesses eentroul, 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 be introduced ? All
this species of interest would be at an end, and hew then
should people canvass? Why, by asking the votes a
the people, not for a wealthy or p isverful mall, but for a
good min. —(Cheers.) No other qualification would then
he admitted in a representative then simue.—(Cheers.)
I am, therefore, for the Ballot, and is there one here
against it ?—(Renewed cheers.) Well, then, there is some
one here against it.—(Cries of " There is no one.") You
take that oil way of telling me that I do not speak the
trutli.—(Cont*ted cheering.): Allove all things let us
ha-ye-6430 an--;txtenaion of the franchise.—(Cheers.)
What else is a slave, but a mart who is governed solely by
()Oat rs, 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 nothing better than a slave ; for all that he has to do is to
obey, and look en quietly while he is despoiled in his in-
terests an i rights by these over whom lie can exercise no
influence.—( Hear, heat.) The Judges of the hall, %she
come down to preside in your Courts, with all their so-
lemn gravity arid antiquated harlequinale_( 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 Ise haleno
right at all to complain; that the laws, being made by his
repres.ntatives, 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 conseimice
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 which
the franchise can be extended, so a; to be free from the
perpretation of any fraud.—( Hear, hear.) I would give
the franchise at once to every man of twenty-one years of
age, if, by the pcsaesaion of it, lie had it not in his power
to race it deceitfully or dishonestly. But if it be given to
the youth of twenty-one 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. He may be in Leeds, in London, and other
places along the railway line, within a few hours, and, as a
youth of twetity-one, vote in them all, almost at the same
time. Anxious, then, as lam that it sheuld he extended
to every man who has a rivet at the years of disc.retion,
and is unsullied by crime, I am nevertheless still more
anxious that the right shouid be possessed without the
power of using it improperly, and there should be no such
thing as a repetition of the same vote.—( Hear.) There has
been lately a most remarkable case at New York, where one
hundred men were 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 nineteen
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 tran-
chisc a fixity of residence. I say that every man ought
to be soisessed of the franchise who is qualified by residence
—it is therefore that I am for the present for the household
suff age.—(Cheers.) But mark me well, and let me not
be here mistaken, I speak of the household suffrage not as
a limitation to the right of voting, buptc,oai_ea,
pre-
vent fraud in the exercise of that right.—(Continued
cheers.) Those arc my tenets—those e
Imil'aype come
to
\Nye ought
es rights and
expressionn t
opinions, and as counsel for the
here amongst you to give full andir"
one and all to
zlrii
It)
ectl
to
fEu gav,rl,ba, nebdtyheclairnhni
which
them.—( Loud cheers.)
exert ourselves for the attainment those
ow liberties,ree beinga t g actiaani:
tdui
itianvtrghaey possessionbut
Ntwillquickly
be safe, and her honour and ier.g y
.fade
our best energiesbe directed, instead
lose much in the shape of in
away—thus should
e she: ft
d ril"soz. one
h r of two barbarians govern Syria ?—(Cries o
or other
„ Notigne.e) No, nothing, as far as relates to the merit
creased taxation--(
the parties contending for power, hut it is a great deal
of
to us, inasmuch as it tal,es the money out of our pockets to
decide the contest.—( Hear.) I ask you, do any of you
care a China orange about the war in China, or whether
the people there should be allowed to go on according to
their established customs without having their throats cut ?
But why is it that those senseless and unjust wars are so
often commenced and carried on to the loss and dishonour
of the nation? It is because the people hare not the de-
mocratic control—in a word, because they are not repre-
sented.—(Cheers.) What 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 an example that
will produce a powerful effect all over. England
and Scotland, and I do trust that in a very short time there
will be a Central Association in London, acting in concer
with your Association at Leeds.— (Cheers.) There are,
per taps, some in this town who t
that they would make you believe
such persuasive powers
1 hiak themselves men of
a sucking pig was a roaring lion, who will not unite with
you, and who think that the people in the smoke of towns
ought to have the franchise, whilst those in the country
ought to le without it. Now, as they say in Ireland,
" Dare you say peas ?" Stay," Dare you say, " Baines ?"—( Cheers and laughter.) Baines would endeavour to
make you believe that the people in the country parts of
England arc such Zanies that they ought not to be en-
trusted with the franchise ; as if a man when he went out