The Sun.
London, England, 1848-06-21 00:00:00

his questionable testimony. He would call for that of the
Honourable Member for Reading ( Mr. Sergeant Talfourd),
who, as it had been said of Akenside, that he had
breathed the spirit of Plato into English poetry, might be
said to have invoked the spirit of Euripides on the British
stage, and not invoked in vain ; or of him who had
tandotfh
wath, owmitiht would
dne ever
also gained laurels, though in a different field of exer-
icneerroebpetiaonsuobfjteacstteofangdrawteiftuhl
recollection
the generosity of genius, he saw and recognised the powers
which were revealed in the Purgatory of Suicides, though
written by a self-taught cobbler, and gave the author facili-
ties for coming before the public which would otherwise have
been difficult of accomplishment.—(Hear.) When this
whole literature was considered, from the time of Ebenezer
Elliot, the Sheffield worker in iron, it would be found per-
vaded by the spirit of indignation which would arise among
men who felt themselves reduced to a slave class, threaten-
ing the disruption of that nationality the unity of which had
hitherto constituted the glory of this country. The stream
of mind was separated into two distinct courses; and if they
Sid not recognise the claims of a class already represented in
the noblest arena, that of their national literature, they would
exhibit to the world a most deplorable spectacle; the genius
of the country would become suicidal by the antagonism of
its elements. Future collections of poets and historians
would not be complete without the authors of those produc-
tions. They had a niche in history. They had a place
among the laurelled, but they were not admissible into the
society of 10/. householders. —( Hear, hear.) In all ranks
high talents and great information were the exception ;
but they very much misunderstood the working classes who
thought that among them were not diffused the mind and
the intellectual aspirations which rendered them not un-
worthy brothers of such as he had named ; nay, which ren-
dered them not unworthy countrymen of those great names,
such as those of Milton and Locke, which constituted
the brightest glory this country had yet achieved.
What was the Legislature to fear ? That those men
would render this House a less decorous and less dignified
scene? Would it be thought that those men would return
from their body—still less from the refuse of that body—
persons to claim fellowship here, who would turn the House
aside by personalities and sarcasm from every great topic of
discussion ?—(Hear, hear.) Would they send thither men
elated. not with champagne or burgundy, but with beer or
brandy, to throw disorder in the midst of their business?
Would they send people who would make a taxon property?
Why, property—the love of it was instinctive in an English-
man.—(Hear, hear.) They could not propose to him a " land
scheme,' or anything of the sort which he could call his
own—(" Hear," from Mr. O'Connor)--even with the most
forbidding prospects of attaining his object—(A laugh )—but
he would make the attempt to acquire property. Nor was
there any participation in opinions which strangely had found
their way into a document which had found its way to the table
of the House. He had consorted with working people—not as
master, as landlord, as employer, or as patron—and he had
found in them that intelligence and those qualities which
kept alive faith in human nature. They had the spirit of
freemen. But it must be considered to what they were ex-
posed. There was a locality which he bad known for upwards
of fifty,years. He first remembered it with a constituency as
pure as could be found throughout the length and breadth of
the land. Of late it had gained a name for venality ; and
how ? Parties were kept up in the town ; partisans were
led to bid against one another in corporation as well as Par-
liamentary contests; and by keeping it before the people
that their vote was always to be sold, by this mode of prac-
tical teaching corruption was instilled into their blood.—
(Hear, hear.) It was the tempter who ought to be the ob-
ject of indignation. The briber was a thousand times worse
than the bribed, and when those people did fall there was
something which ought to abate the severity of the judg-
ment on their conduct. One poor man said he had never
taken a bribe, but he was in the workhouse, and he took
the bribe in order that he might liberate himself from what
he thought a poor-law bastile, and consort again with his
fellow-men. Another man, who was invited by a Noble
Lord to take his place in a carriage, and go to the poll,
replied, "No, my Lord, I will walk to the poll, and will not
disgrace yeti:by riding in your carriage." The working
people would not elect men of their own class as representa-
tives unless under very strong inducements. In France,
with its universal suffrage, they had chosen about 30 or 38
from their own class among the 900 representatives. What
would they do here? They would look to persons of local
importance, to local benefactors, and to men of national
reputation. These were the men who were desirable for
that House, rather than those who were unknown to the
locality, or who went rambling about with their heavy
purses—(Hear, hear) seeking where they could find a
constituency to corrupt. Under such a system as had been
presented to the notice of the House, the latter class of can-
didates would be found generally to fail, and there were
only two classes of candidates whose claims would prepon-
derate iu the choice of the constituency. Under such a
system there could be no such degrading practice of canvass-
ing as now existed, and which only brought the poor and
the rich together for their mutual degradation. With
large constituencies that would not'exist. Men of infor-
mation and talent, for whom little boroughs were said to
provide seats, could more easily find their way into the
House through large constituencies without subjecting them-
selves to any of those degrading practices which polluted
him who gave and him who received alike. It was of im-
mense importance that they should be a united people, that
they should not have a class unrepresented, whether on ac-
count of their industrial undertakings, their relations with
other countries, or their internal and external prosperity.
One advantage of such a subject as the present being dis-
cussed at the present moment was, that it brought the
middle and the working classes into more harmonious con-
cert than had existed for many years. It afforded a fair
means of amalgamating them together, and it was for the
aristocracy to consider whether they would do well in with-
holding themselves from that union which, with their
assistance, would become the union of athreefold cord which
conld not be easily broken. It was not in our armaments
—brilliant as were their exploits, and magnificent as were
such means of defence—it was not in these that our great
glory and influence consisted. It was in the indomitable
energy and enterprise of the people, in the course of opera-
tions which depended on the working classes as our main-
spring; it was on these that our power and safety mint
rest ; it was from the progress of mind must come our
security. Unite this class on such harmonious terms—
disregard theological difficulties—spread education with a
bold and free hand over the country—throw wide and open
the doors of the constitution—give the people an equali-
sation of the burdens of taxation, which surely was their
right, whatever else was—do this, and they would have the
millions no longer an alienated body, but the real and firm
base of the social pyramid. By these means, we should
achive far nobler conquests in other countries than our
armies had ever yet won'; for we should bring back
voluntary tributes from every clime to which our
commerce penetrated —we should raise more hon-
ourable trophies, trophies not watered by blood—
than we could do by the most sanguinary victories; for
these measures would be the source of union with, and
peaceful dominion over, other nations, and as in war, so
in peace, we should continue to be powerful and uncon-
quered. Untax the population, so far as their taxation was
unequal—educate the population, enfranchise the, population,
and then they might arm the population without a shadow
of fear' for the result—{Laughter from the Opposition
benches)—for should the nations of the world be banded
against us we should be perfectly able to drive from our
shores the world's hostility.—(Cheers.) He would only say,
without entering into metaphysical speculations about
natural right, but taking suffrage as the rule, and showing
the cases for exception, that to accomplish all that the
working classes required the Legislature must do them jus-
tice; in the words of the Great Charter, " neither denying
nor delaying justice." He begged of that House, therefore,
justice—equal, universal justice justice to the working
people of the British empire.—(Cheers.)
Mr. DISRAELI—The address of the Hon. Gentleman
who has just sat down is professedly founded on the motion
of the Hon. Member for Montrose. The Hon. Gentleman
has avowed himself to-night the advocate of those whom he
describes as serfs; but I cannot find in the resolution of the
Hon. Member for Montrose that he is prepared to enfranchise
those serfs.—(Hear.) No one can suppose for a moment that
the project brought before us to-night by the Hon. Member
for Montrose is one that at all aims at elevating the condition
or the position of those persons in the social or political sys-
tem. Whatever may be the prejudice of the Hon. Gentle-
man who has just addressed us against a 10/. elector, it is
not, as I understand it, the proposition of the Hon. Member
for Montrose that a person—who is found starving under a
hedge—is to be entitled to the suffrage. Whatever may be
the sentiments of the Hon. Member for Oldham, I cannot
understand how, entertaining those opinions and animated by
those feelings, he should have found it his duty to be so de-
cidedly the friend of a
plan, the object of which is
rather to increase the difficulty of the class
whose interests, I believe, he most sincerely advocates.
I cannot find out how the Hon. Gentleman, consistently with
his philosophy, can support the proposition of the Hon.
Member for Montrose.—( Hear, hear.) With regard to that
and similar propositions, the gentlemen on this side of the
House are in a position different from that of the Hon. Gen-
tleman and his supporters, and also from that of the mem-
bers of her Majesty's Government. It is not for us, Sir,
either to defend or attack the Reform Act. We obeyed it.
It received from us that allegiance which the law in this
country always commands. The practical good sense of the
country no doubt prevented much of the evil which we then
anticipated from the operation of the measure. Bat when I
say that we neither defend nor attack the Reform
Bill, I cannot believe that it is consistent with our duty, or
with the position which we occupy with regard to our con-
stituency and the country, as the representatives of a
party who were opposed to the change of 1832, that we
should evade the difficulty of a debate which some are in-
clined to think rather fruitful in difficulties, and therefore I
wish to take this opportunity to make some observations on
a project which has been so sedulously prepared, but the
true character of which has not been sufficiently appreciated,
and which, I am clear, has not been understood by the elo-
quent advocate whom we have just heard, who is prepared
to enfranchise imaginary serfs. The /
Hon. Gentleman told
us he was the advocate of fiscal reform. observed that
project dwelt but slightly on
the great propounder. of this
that doctrine. I have watched with attention,and read with
an observation of no careless character, the proceedings of
meetings that have been attended by the Hon. Gentleman
and his friends, and the resolutions that they have offered
bled and I have always
found the consideration of those assembles' and
8
found that on every opportunity---en ever,' 9
brought financialforward,
and fiscal reform has been ostentatiouslyreconstruction
orward,
and that the principal plea for Parliamentary
ier in the e
and political revolution has been the xpendi-
, (Hear, hear.) I have
ture and taxation of the country' the
had occasion this afternoon to listen to presentation of a
great number of tpetitions. They
Government, and the enor-
mously increased amount of taxationall talk of the increased
and enormous expenditure of the s
of the country. I want
to know what is the reason that to-night we heard so little
of fiscal and financial reforms?—(Hear, hest% ). I can easily
understand why the Hon. Gentleman who has, just
that subject.
ad-
dressed the House did not dwell on He is a
master of statistics, but statistics of a different kind to those
House. Those statist'
we are accustomed to hear in this
but th 'Cs
arnount of
may be very important in their way,
in cheapincreasethose literature,
the increase of railway intellect, and productions
the terminus of a station, are not
which you may find at
statistics which touch the question of financial and fiscal re-
form. I think the House will agree with me, that all Eng-
land has been told, during the last four months, that there
has been in this country an enormous increase in taxation,
and in the expenditure of the Government.
• has been
in order to T
told to the people of this country taxation,impress on
and the
them that, in consequence of our excessive
great expenditure of our Government, there ought to he
s that are b •
changes made in unison with coneane
d, then ,b made
in other countries.—(Hear.) wor
this , as to the
enormous increase in the taxation of this
rgeuntry. I
take the period of twenty years revenue
49 500 000/
• 1828 was , • ; 1848,
raised in this country lit , .
47,500,0005, in round numbers. How is it possible,
that Honourable •
Gentlemen
with these facts before them,
that the taxation of this country
can maintain the position
d ? But the revenue of
increased has been progressively
2,000,000 L greater than that of 1848, but
1828 was not only . s
raised trom a population, in
the revenue of 1828 was
round numbers,
less than 23,000,009, while the revenue of
1848 has been raised from a population of 30 ,000,000.
head in those two periods, in
The burden of taxation per
2 2d. head,.:
s. aan. in
1828 amounted to something like 2/. 1
1848 it only amountod to 16 05, sad a trictioa.....(kienu