The Sun.
London, England, 1851-09-26 00:00:00

FRIDAY EVENING,

(Cheers.) In the House of Commons they spoke re-
spectfully of his Catholic Majesty the King of the
Two Sicilies, and the Cz ir of Russia; whilst here
there were those who would agree with him, perhaps,
that it would be no unpleasant sight to see a gibbet with
two arms, with the Cz tr dangling at one end and the Ca-
tholic King of the Two Sicilies at the other. If Lord
John Russell meant to introduce a new Reform Bill
that would satisfy the people, and that would not re-
quire patching and tinkering a dozen times, he should
consult the feelings and principles which were ex-
pressed, and expressed not as a formal matter, but
warm and glowing from the heart, as well with the
strength of intellectual confidence, at meetings such
as the one be (Mr. Fox) was addressing, the precur-
sor, he trusted, of many more which would ensure a
result to wards which they were certainly advancing.
—(Cheers.) He was too little in the habit of doing
this. His tendency hed been always to look to the
narrow rather than to the broad and expansive, to the
creed, the outworn creed, of a party, i nstead of the
living voice of the living millions.—(Cheers.) When
he should be reading his Bible for religious truth and
liberty, be went and consulted a bishop, and took
counsel with a clique when he ought to be listening
to the voice of public opinion ; and he was attentive to
the House of Commons when his senses should be
open to the language and will of those, who, in
theory and right, and eventually in practice, were
the makers and the masters of the House of
Commons. They called that House representative !
Representative ! He should like to know of what ?
Suppose an intelligent foreigner were brought into the
House of Commons, and, on looking round him,
remarking one man and another, he were to sad,
" Well, what worthy and trusty commoner is that ?"
" Oh, sir," the reply would be, " He is a marquis;
we have six marquises in this House." Looking at
another he would say, " Who is that ?" and the
reply would, " Why, sir, that is a viscount ; we have
eight viscounts in this House." He might then ask
who another was, and the answer would be, " Oh,
he is an earl; we have several earls here." On in-
quiring who another was, he would be told that he
was a lord, and that there were thirty-six lords in
the House, besides sixty-one baronets, and twelve
honourables ; altogether two hundred and seventy-
four persons connected with the peerage and the
aristocracy. The foreigner would then say in amaze-
ment, " Tben, if you call this your House of Com-
mons, what is your House of Lords?"—(Laughter.)
He might say that the Commons was only a sort of
junior House of Lords, they were found there in such
multitudes ; and that there did not seem the least pro-
priety in the designation conventionally bestowed
upon them. His impression would be very much
like that of the young angel of Franklin's fable,
who asked an older angel to show him the
earth. The older angel brought him down at a
time when there was a tremendeus sea-fight purpling
the waters with human blood, when the younger
angel said to his guide, " Why, my friend, you must
have mistaken me. I asked you to show me the
earth, and you have shown me hell."—(Laughter.)
So the foreigner would say that he came to see your
commoners, and that the chief things you showed
him were lords. After some allusions to the compo-
sition of the House of Commons, Mr. Fox said our
electoral system—if system it could be called, for it
had nothing to answer to the idea—went to the
utmost verge of absurdity. They had, for instance,
in their boroughs 30,000 electors returning four re-
presentatives, and they had also 30,000 electors re-
turning 105 representatives. They had 330 Mem-
bers representing six millions of property, and they
had 380 Members representing seventy-eight millions
of property. There were nine counties which had
fifty per cent. of the population of the country, and
thirty-four per cent. of the representation ; and there
were thirty-four counties which had fifty per cent.
of the population, and 66 Members. The census
returns just published showed the great necessity of
the re-distribution of representation in proportion to
the population, which happily was something in
proportion to property, but adifference was continually
growing. There were places where the population
had diminished in the last ten years, and they returned
the same number of representatives—there were
places where the population was stationary, and they
returned the same number—there were places also
where population had increased, and was likely to
continue to increase, and they only returned the same
number of representatives. The increase in Man-
chester during the last ten years had been 30,000
souls, a number which constituted the five•hundredth
part of the entire population of the kingdom. The
increase in Liverpool, Manchester, and Salford had
been 85,376 persons,whilst 81,000 persons in eighteen
boroughs returned no fewer than thirty Members to
Parliament. London had increased 405,000 persons,
without a single additional representative, whilst
Lancaster had increased 55 persons, and kept its tws
Members. Nor were the incongruities confined to
this portion of the subject. In the Reform Bill itself

they were inherent, for in it an arbitrary line of de-
marcation was drawn with no foundation or reason,
or justice whatever. A 10/. householder—who and
what was he? Why did the amount of rent consti-
tute a title to have a share in the legislation of this
country? The line was most unhappily drawn; it
included the most dependent of all classes—the small

tradesmen—and excluded the most independent of all
classes, the intelligent operative.—(Hear, hear.) Tak-
ing it for granted that all the working men in the Re-
form Bill were to he found in that class who paid be-
tween 151. and 101. a year rent—that number was
between 90,000 and 100,000; and suppose half of
that number, not quite 50,000, as the total amount
of the enfranchised working classes, by that Reform
Bill it appeared that the working men, who consti-
tuted the masses of the commons of England, had but
one vote to seventeen votes possessed by other classes
of society.—(Hear, hear.) This was an anomaly
which must not be longer endured. His fear was lest
Lord John Russell should stick too close to the little
and accommodating way in which he achieved that
reform, and should be peeping about in society to see
whether it might safely, as it was called, be attempted
within the boundary of the constitution. The course
should be direct, for there was a prima fade right in
all cases, and the inquiry should be made, not on
whom Parliament should bestow the boon, which was
not the property of Parliament to give, but cause,
and good cause too, in every instance where the fran-
chise was withheld, should be shown. Lord John
had his fears and apprehensions. He had expressed
them, and he seemed to be in alarm as to the safety
of some of our institutions. Stronger alarms were
felt in other quarters when he introduced his Reform
Bill. When be heard Lord John say, a short
time ago, " I cannot conceive the House of
Commons merely representing the number who
would act in harmony with the monarchy,
the hereditary House of Lords, and the Es-
tablished Church," his thoughts went back to
the time when prophecies were made as to what
would result if the Reform Bill were introduced.
Those prophecies had not been fulfilled. The mo-
narchy was perfectly secure under this reform, he be-
lieved the House of Lords was quite as safe as it de-
sired to be, and as to the Established Church, he was
not quite sure whether the time would not come
when it would have to be further reformed or entirely
abolished. Church, peerage, and royalty, they were
made by the people and fur the people. They were
only entitled to our respectful notice when they pro-
perly discharged their functions; but when the con-
trary was the case they were entitled to the sentence,
" Cut them down, why do they cumber the ground ?"
—(Applause.) He expressed his heartfelt delight at
the great combination of the middle and operative
classes he saw before him for the common rights and
interests of both, and he thought he might safely
predict a brilliant achievement for them in the cause
in which they were engaged. The Honourable
Gentleman concluded by a brilliant peroration, point-
ing out what great things the middle and operative
classes combined had achieved,' assuring them that as
the first Reform Bill was carried by that means,
so by the same means should they at length enjoy a
second, and a better Reform Bill, more just, more
comprehensive, more glorious, and more enduring.
Mr. KETTLE then read an address, which was well
received, and at a subsequent period obtained the ap-
proval of the meeting.
Mr. WILLIAMS, M.P., and Mr. G. THOMPSON,
M.P., next addressed the meeting. The latter gen-
tleman called upon the working men to put their
shoulders to the wheel to obtain a whole reform ; for
he would rather see no reform than a partial one. If
we increased the electors of the kingdom by only a
million, we should be in a worse position than we
were now; for we should have added a million of
honest men to a million who had hitherto been dis-
honest, and by so much reduce tke public opinion that
belonged to the disenfranchised. Let us have the
whole people enfranchised, or at least so large a num-
ber added that wealth should not be adequate to
corrupt, nor power equal to intimidate. To the
working men of Manchester he said, be up and doing.
They had two good Members—(Cheers)---but they
were returned by the shopkeepers and artizans and
labourers in Manchester, and not by their own class ;
and were they left to the mercies of the millionaires and
great manufacturers of Manchester to-morrow,
they would never, through their suffrages, enter
the House of Commons again.—(Hear, hear.) There
was a moral to be drawn from the truths they had
been hearing—that they must help themselves, and
respect themselves. There must be in all they did
an exhibition of temper on their part, which should
show that, while they were not disposed to be patient
under oppression, they could respect law and the
rights of others.—(Hear, bear.) Ile conceived that
all other reforms were comprised in that now sought,
and therefore it was one which ought to secure the
support of all parties. He believed that the working
population of the country were qualified to receive
the proposed franchise, for he never spoke in any as.
sembly which did nut anticipate his meaning before
he had given it utterance, and that often before others
of wore pretension bpd reached the mine conclusion.