The Sun.
London, England, 1834-11-21 00:00:00

doctrines alone are the right, ones I merely put forward can- '
didly and openly to the world that which I imagine to be best.
I do not want all other Refoiltiet's lii siter'igeo their opinions to
mine, nor am I inclined pertinaciously to adhere to a propo-
sition if I am shown that a better can be adopted in its stead.
I seek amongst honest and fair Reformers for the mutual dis-
cussion and deliberate canvass of opinions. The following are
the terms in which in the speech I haVe already referred to I
introduced my proposition for household suffrage :—" The
right of voting I propose in these districts should be given to
all inhabitant householders bond fide rated to church or poor,
or assessed to or paying direct taxes for six months previous
to the first day of election, not having received parochial
relief." Such so right of voting amounted, as my learned
friend in the chair can inform you, to what in law is
commonly known under the acceptation of " household
suffrage." I will fairly own that the proposition did
not originate with me; indeed it would not have been befit-
ting a man so young as I was at the time to come forward as
the originator of a measure of Such magnitude and impot-
ence. I only adopted it after it had been the subject of long
and deliberate examination by men of far greater ability and
experience than I could pretend to. It was first originally
proposed in the declaration of the friends of the people in
1797, of which meeting my father was chairman.—( Cheers. )
It was next brought forward in a motion made by Lord Grey
in the same year, on which occasion Lord Grey proposed that
the country should be divided into districts, and that household
suffrage should be established. If you will turn back to the
debate on that occasion, you will find that the proposition was
supported by Mr. Fox, Mr. Sheridan, and Mr. Erskine.. Fur-
thermore, according to Mr. Wyvill's published statement by
authority, Mr. Pitt himself was in 1785 an advocate for house-
hold suffrage. Mr. Fox, in the memorable Speeds which he
made on that occasion, declared that it was absolutely essential
to a plan of reform. His words are so terse and apposite, that
I am snre you will forgive me for reading them to you.—
( Hear, hear.) " I think that to extend the right of elec-
tion to housekeepers, is the best and most advisable plan
of reform. I think, also, that it is the most petted recur-
rence to first principles. Ido not mean the first principles
of society—nor to the abstract principles of representation
—but to the first known and recorded principles of our
Constitution."—( Loud cheers.) I can also refer, in addition
to those authorities, to the recorded decisions of the
House of Commons, who have always decided where a pecu-
liar difficulty arose in a case that household suffrage was by
the law of the land the common right of every inhabitant. The
House of Commons' decisions have twice declared that "of
common right all the inhabitant householders and residents
within the borough ought to have voice in the election." In
therefore advocating household suffrage, I only advocate that
which would be a recurrence to the best principles of the con-
stitution, and which has been supported and enforced by some
of the wisest and greatest men that this country has produced.
I need not detain you with regard to the proposition for short-
ening the duration of Parliaments ; we are all agreed as to
the necessity that exists for such a measure.—( Cheers.)
With respect to the ballot, I know perfectly well that it has
been & trisputed point even amongst the best Reformers. —.
(Hear, hear.) I know that some of the most determined and
honest Reformers believe that, so far from insuring indepen-
ience, it would necessarily produce corruption. I mention
these things to show that a difference of opinion exists with re-
gard to the ballot, not between me and those who advocate the
ballot and the common enemy, but between us and some of out
best friends amongst the Reformers. My own opinion is, that
the ballot is the surest safeguard against corruption, and the
most certain protection for that independent exercise of the
right of voting which was absolutely necessary for insuring
the rights and liberties of the people.—( Cheers.) What
I said at Glasgow I will now repeat to you—that I am
never ashamed of yielding my own opinions to those of my
friends—that I do not condemn a compromise when, a mea-
sure being proposed, it is necessary to meet the views of the
various friends of it—that some of the details should be altered,
in order that the common object of all may be carried. But
the species of compromise that I do condemn is, when a mea-
sure is altered from its original object to conciliate those who
differ from us in toto on the subject.—( Cheers.) Such a
species of compromise is one that I would never assent to. If
at the period of the Glasgow dinner I thought it necessary to
recommend union amongst Reformers, how much more neces-
sary do I consider it now, at the present momentous crisis.—
(Loud cries of " Hear.") We have a great struggle coming on
before us—one that will call for the exercise of the most deter-
mined energies we possess, against a most powerful and com-
mon enemy.—( Cheers.) If you will take my advice, I would
say to you, and all my fellow-countrymen engaged in a com-
mon cause, wave all speculative opinions, and endeavour only
to see how to make your force the strongest, and your resist-
ance the most effectual.—( Loud cheers.) Gentlemen, my hon.
friend has alluded to court intrigue, which has been displayed
in the late events. I cannot describe to you the dismay with
which I behold such infatuation.--( Immense cheering.) I con-
fess, however, I am not surprised at it, for I have been too long
aware what work there had been going on in secret, which only
waited for a seasonable time, such as they seem to consider the
present, to have the mine explode —( Cheers.) I confess to you
that I, for one, do not regret what has taken place.--( Cheers. )
We, at all events, know against whom we shall have to con-
' tend.—( Hear, hear.) If the battle is to be fought, as it neces-
sarily now must be, let it, at any rate, be what is called " a
fair stand-up fight."—( Cheers and laughter.) Set us see who
are to be the victors ; let us have a clear stage and no favour.
—( Cheers.) If, indeed, the people of this country are Tories,
—if, indeed, they are turned anti-Reformers, the sooner the
fact is known the better.—( Hear, hear.) Who are those who
are about to supply the places of the late Ministers, so con-
tumeliously and insultingly dismissed ? Who are they, but
those Tories who have voted, who have struggled, and in-
trigued against every measure of reform that has been pro-
posed up to the present moment ?—( Cheers.) Those are the
persons who are now called to administer the affairs of this
empire, and it remains to be proved by your declarations at
meetings of this description, and by that dissolution which I
think absolutely inevitable—(Cheers)—it remains, I say, to
be proved by such means whether this party possess your con-
fidence and the confidence of the people of this country, as
well as the confidence of the Sovereign. I have observed,
that our opponents have already put forward two rallying
cries, the first of which is, " The Church is in danger."—
( Great laughter.) What, I ask, do they mean by the word
Church ?—( Hear, bear.) If by it they mean clerical sine-
cures, pluralities, non-residence, and those disgraceful in-
equalities which exist in the payment of the working clergy
—if these are the things they mean by the word Church,
then must I confess that the Church is in danger—very great,
very serious, and very imminent danger.—( Loud cheers. )
But if by the word Church, is meant real religion—
the pure doctrines of the Protestant faith—if, as I believe, it
means the congregation of the faithful—if it means the main-

tenance of the true and working ministers of religion, then I
say that the church was never in less danger, and never better
supported. I will venture to say, that at no period of
the history of this country were religious principles more
widely diffused than at present. I would appeal to the
clergy themselves whether such be not the fact ? lam glad
indeed to find that it is 80, convinced as I am that no country
can ever flourish without religion being deeply impressed on
the minds of the people, affording as it does the best security
for tranquillity in worldly matters, as well as for peace and
happiness hereafter. Another cry is, " The Monarchy is in
danger." From whom ?—( Hear.) I look around to the north,
the south, the east, and the west, and I never have been able to
hear a word uttered bearing the semblance of the shade, of a
shadow of an objection made to monarchical institutions. I

never heard anything approaching to a demand for republican
institutions, and wisely, in my opinion, convinced as I am
that a constitutional monarchy affords the best security for
liberty.—( Hear, hear.) I must say, that those are very
ill-advisers of the Crown who put such notions into the bead
of the Sovereign—( Great cheering)—who attempt to persuade
him that the great fund of loyalty which has always existed
in this country has suffered any diminution. I believe, in fact,
that it prevails more strongly at the present moment than
ever it did, and that it is only pent up and not exhibited, be-
cause, in the first !place, there is no occasion for calling it
forth, and because, in the next, those who ought to excite it
have exhibited too little sympathy for the wishes and wants of
the people. • Neither of these two cases is well founded—
neither the Crown nor the Church is in danger ; but I will
tell you what is in danger—it is the oligarchy.—( Great cheer-
ing.) The fact is, that for a long period of time, in former
days, in the days of George 111. and George IV., the Sove-
reign of this country was entirely in the hands of a faction.
He was in fact a mere puppet, to be moved according to their
wishes ; and all power and all honours were wielded entirely
for the benefit of the faction itself. The Reform Bill, they
saw, gave them a death-blow, and now they are about to try
a last struggle to endeavour to regain that power which it
wrested from them. After we had destroyed their strong-
holds, after their fortresses had fallen successively, they have
pitched upon a great military commander, who is to come for-
ward and arrest the progress of that reform under whose ex-
terminating hand the corporation abuses, the church abuses,
and all other abuses in the institutions of the country, were
about to be swept away. I confess to you that this great mi-
litary commander whom they have selected will find it to have
been much easier to take Badajos and Ciudad Rodrigo than
to retake the liberties and independence of the people.—
( Great cheering.) I say that in my opinion he will utterly
fail in such an attempt ; I mistake my countrymen much if it
can be otherwise. Tory success is incompatible with the
power that the Reform Bill has given you, with the liberal
spirit which prevails throughout the country, and with the
mighty influence exercised by an able press. I repeat, that
under such circumstances, it would be utterly impossible for
this Tory military commander to succeed in this anti-constitu-
tional war. To follow up the military metaphor I have em-
ployed, I suppose that if he takes upon himself the conduct of
affairs, he and his party will open with a plan of their cam-
paign. It is possible enough that, finding that the temper of
the country will not admit of a restriction of reform, this party
may appear in another and a new character. They may, per-
haps, put themselves forward as Liberals and Reformers.—( A
laugh.) Now I will only say that I cannot conceive anything
that would be more disgusting or disgraceful than such an
abandonment of principles, by one whom I have heard over and
over again oppose reform in the House of Lords, and whom
I have heard with astonishment declare before reform was
carried, that if he were called upon to frame a consti-
tution, he could not frame a more perfect one than that
which then existed. It is possible that the Tories may there-
fore appear before us like wolves in sheep's clothing—( A laugh)
—but I think you will agree with me, that if ever such a
thing should take place, it would be most disgusting to be-
hold such a disgraceful abandonment of principle, and I
am sure that such a step, if it should be taken, would be cal-
culated to destroy the character of public men in the eyes of
the people—( Hear.) No, if we are to have a Tory Govern-
ment, in God's name let it be a downright honest, high church,
anti-reforming, Tory administration. Such a government
would be an intelligible one. We should know how to deal