The Sun.
London, England, 1851-01-25 00:00:00

they might be carried without difficulty, and carried
with results most happy and prosperous for the country.
—(Applause.) Now, this meeting to-night was con-
fined by the Chairman (without whom, in spite of all I
have been saying, I am not sure whether we should do
anything at all or not)—(Applause)--to the members for
the county and borough, and so forth, who should meet
together here; and I thought that you would lecture us;
but it appears that we have been lecturing you all
the evening. Now, during the last session of Par-
liament, it will be in the recollection of many hero
that there were circumstances occurred which caused a
little disappointment in some minds.—(Hear, hear.)
Men thought that we did not quite sufficiently compre-
hend and appreciate the virtues of the Foreign Minister,
or the absolute necessity of maintaining a Whig Ministry
in office. Why, Mr. Dyer said there was 80 or 90 men
in 1818 who were in favour of these reforms; quite as
many as we have now. But if these 80 men had hap-
pened to be on the other side of the Speaker's chair,
they would have been much fewer than now; and if
these men who now sit as a Government on the right
of the Speaker's chair were by some accident sent over
to the other side, you would find our 80 or 90 would
become upwards of 200. It is not because some 80 or
90 only vote for some measures that therefore those 80
or 99 are all who are on the side of Reform? Those
30 or 90 are behind a Government, which is said to be
a Liberal Government, and which men who are willing
to give men credit for all kinds of virtues call a Liberal
Government. Why, the Whigs in are totally different
creatures to the Whigs oat.—(Applause.) It is quite
notorious that the timid, the rather far-seeing of the re-
spectable classes, have been willing to keep the Whigs
in, because they know if they were out there is no kind
of desperate measure which they would not recom-
mend. And I venture to say, and I would stake any-
thing upon it, that if the members of the present Cabinet
were on the other side of that table which you see
when you go into the gallery, there would hardly be
a single proposition which Mr. Cobden has proposed,
and which any one has seconded or supported, that
they would not have supported with an ardour and a
political partisanship which we have never exhibited.—
(Applause.) We go there without any expectation of
getting titles and places—(Hear, hear)—and thousands
a year. Very likely, if we had those expectations our
feelings would be stimulated sometimes, and we might
be excited to bitter and irritated expressions against
our opponents. But there is nothing of that kind in
our case. We have no hope of anything of the sort.
We sit among some of those who vote with us so con-
stantly, telling us we do harm, that it is a great deal
better not to go into that lobby—that, in point of fact,
above all things, if Mr. Disraeli or any of his party
should show a spirit of hesitation whether they will go
that way or this way, should they prSpose so go for
what is right for once, even though it is our conviction,
we must go the other way with the Government, and
forget our principles.—(Applause.) I must confess,
after all—and there are many of my constituents here,
and I hope they will bear it in mind—that my principles
are not in the slightest degree affected by my geogra-
phical position. What I tell you in Mattehester, when
I have occasion—perhaps sometimes too often—l tell
them in the House of Commons, and the principles
which I have expounded and advocated on the platform
of the Free-trade Hall, I intend to maintain in the
House of Commons. —(Loud applause.) And if I should
happen occasionally to run athwart the opinions, convic-
tions, or prejudices of any of my friends, I hope that
they will give me credit for being sorry that I am obliged
to differ with them; but that I am endeavouring, I be-
lieve, to serve their true interests by maintaining the
consistency of my character and by upholding those
principles which were no; concealed from them when I
was elected, and which I cannot play any tricks with and
conceal to please any party whatsoever.—( Loud applause.)
I believe there is nothing more essential for the progress
of freedom in this country than that you should have an
independent party in the House of Commons. Oh,
there are lamentable things seen in that House !
(" Hear," and laughter.) Everything is to be forgotten
fur the sake of keeping a Government in or a party
out, and the most visionary dangers are conjured
up—dangers really hardly surpassed by the Prince de
Joinville's invasion or the Papal aggression—but these
things are raised up before th© eyes of affrighted Mem-
bers a Parliament, and they are really not able to see
their course clearly how they should vote and how they
should act. Now, even though we should sometimes
go wrong, even though wo should occasionally vote
against the Government, when you may think that with-
out abdicating our position or principles we might have
voted with them, bear this in mind—that whatever
slight error we may at any time commit (and I confess
our liability to error), that error is abundantly compen-
sated for by the existence of some 50 or 100 men in the
House of Commons who have a regard to the opinions
of their constituents, or (what is even a far better guide)
to the principles which they have learnt, which they
have taught, and which they value. It is far better for
the country that there should be such a party, than that
any Ministry that ever existed in this country should be
kept in office.—(Loud cheers.) I believe there is no
good and honest measure, even though not going so far
as we would go, but going in the direction of the prin-
ciples we hold, which we have not constantly supported
and wherein we have not constantly defended the Go-
vernment. We shall take all the pains in our power,
when they bring in an Irish Franchise Bill, that it shall
not be made a worse Bill, and that it shall pees,
if it be in our power to make it pass. It would be fir
more satistactory to be on the most intimate terms with
Noble Lords and Right Honourable Gentlemen who sit
down below where we sit and speak; but that is not pre-
cisely what we were see; there for.—(Loud cheers.) If
there had been no men in Parliament but those who
trembled for the fate of a Ministry, where would have
been the liberties that you have already achieved; and
where would have been your freedom to import corn at
this very hour?—(Prolonged cheering.) Now, all I ask
is, that you should trust us.—(Renewed cheering.) You
have had some experience of us—an intimate experience
of ten years past. I trust you so far as to dare to vote
in the teeth of any uproar that may be made down here,
in accordance with my own convictions, knowing that the
men in this district, if I know aught of them, will at
least, when they have calmly considered the circum-
stances, be able to give me credit for having taken an
honest and independent and conscientious course; and
having taken that, I am sure they will not condemn me
when Income before them again.—(Repeated plaudits.)
During this session that is now about to open, there may
be points—anxious and difficult and unpleasant points—
that will rise up. Well, all I ask is, that you should, give
us credit for doing the best we can under the circum-
stances in which we are placed. Ido not think we have
lost the respect of the Government, or their regard, lb any
particular whatever, by any course that we have taken.
There is not one of that Government who would charge us
with any kind of factious or improper proceedings with
regard to them. We give them credit whenever we can;
our tendency is to do so; our sympathy for their past
career—for the past career of many of them, leads us to
do it. We have no interest whatever in doing other-
wise; and, as they give us credit for an honest course, I
trust that you, and all those throughout the country who
may consider us at all representative of their views, will
give us credit for an honest course in what we do, and
that, at least, will be some compensation for the toils and
the anxieties which are inseparable from public life.—
(Mr. Bright sat down amid enthusiastic applause, the
meeting rising to do him special honour as they cheered
the conclusion of his speech.)
Mr. RICHARD COBDEN, M.P., who was received with
great applause, spoke as follows.—When I entered this
room I was not quite aware of the character of the pre-
sent meeting; but when I looked around upon the
countenances of the gentlemen assembled, I perfectly
understood its character. It comprises, I can vouch for
it from personal knowledge, the pith and marrow of
the Reform and Free-trade party in South Lanca-
shire. It comprises men who worthily represent those
who cannot be present in this room—men without
whose co-operation no election can be carried in
South Lancashire, Manchester, or Salford, and against
whose opposition it is equally important to know that
no victory can be won. lam glad to have had the op-
portunity of beholding the cordial, kind, and flattering
reception with which yon have greeted those who repre-
sent you in Parliament. They are the men who stand
the brunt of abundance of abuse; they have to meet de-
traction coming from your own city, and professing to
express your own sentiments. The shafts of calumny,
the base insinuations of base motives, are continually
sung at them—those unfair weapons of political warfare
which are never resorted to except when men are either
conscious of a bad cause or actuated solely by personal
pique and spite.—(Hear.) It is right, therefore, when
they have to bear the brunt of such attacks that they
should, when they meet you, receive the reward which
you bestow upon them. But I, for my part, come here
not to answer to you for my conduct in Parliament, nor
to share in the tribute of respect and gratitude which
you have bestowed upon them;
spectator that I rise here, t
it is as listener and
past ten o'clock, to say a
few words. This has been
a-
called a meeting to talk over
all sorts of subjects. Now I am not going to dcal in
vague generalities, nor range the wide
topics of political
controversy. I will say, generally, that after we suc-
ceeded in the free.trade eontroversy, I set
cer-
tain task in public life, I thought that the natural
a
and
collateral consequence of free trade was first to end"
along with physical comfort and
prosperity, -
your to give the people,
improved intellectual and moral
ad-
vantages. I thought that the country which had b
ained for itself to enter the lists of ar-
competition with the
Wide world, seeking no favour, but asking only for
a
fair field and free competition, would set about to econo-
mise its resources and attempt in every way to mitigate
a load of taxation which must impede the career of any
nation which is unduly taxed in its competition with
more favoured countries. I thought that when he had
said, We offer to trade with the whole world, and we
invite the whole world to trade with us," that by that
very declaration we told the wide world we sought
peace and amity with them.—(flear.) I set myself the
task of endeavouring by every effort I could bring to
bear to stand prominently forward as the advocate of
education, peace, and retrenchment. Whilst upon all
these subjects we have met with keen opposition, and
upon two with obloquy and derision, I see progress
making and made which will encourage me to persevere
in the advocacy of these principles with renewed and re-
doubled efforts.—(Cheers.) I find education assuming a
prominence and importance, even by the admission of
those who, until lately, have been opposed to it in every
form, that cannot leave a doubt upon my mind that public
opinion will be brought to bear on that topic with
such irresistible force that ere long we shall find a
solution for this, which is one of the most difficult pro-
blems of our social existence. I find that the question
.1' peace, even in the eyesof those who leave our attempts
to ridicule its advocates, has become a leading topic of
the day. I find that what I told you in the Free Trade-
hall just three years ago, that we might live to see the
time when the expenditure which sufficed for 1835 would
,uffice again, is in process of being realized. We have