The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-28 00:00:00

MEETING FOR PARLIAMENTARY
REFORM AT BURY.

A meeting of Parliamentary Reformers was held
at the Town-hall, Bury, Lancashire, on Friday even-
ing, at which Mr. W. J. Fox, M.P., and Mr. Tindal
Atkinson were present by invitation as a deputation
from the National Parliamentary and Financial Asso-
ciation. The hall was well filled, and some influential
men of the middle class and some ladies were also

present.
Mr. J. GRUNDY, of Oatwood-lodge, presided, and
cyened the proceedings.
Mr. B. GLOVES moved—
" That the First Minister of the Crown havinz inti-

mated his intention to introduce a measure of Parlia-
mentary reform during the next session, the people
should lose no time in giving effective expression to their
wishes; this meeting doth therefore declare that any
measure which does not re-arrange the electoral dis-
tricts, extend the franchise to every occupier of a tepee
went, protect the voter by the ballot, shorten the dura•
Lion of Parliament, and abolish the property qualification
required of Members, will fail to satisfy the just expec•
tattons of the people—will bo ineffectual in preventing
the corruption, intimidation, and oppression now pre-
vailing at elections, and in securing the full and free re-
presentation of the people in the Commons' House of
Parliament."—(Applause.)
Mr. E. Guureee, of Park-hills, seconded the motion.
Mr. W. J. Fox, M.P., was then introduced to the
meeting, and said he supported the resolution in the
sense and spirit shown by the chairman and seconder,
believing that financial reform was a most important
consideration, and that the direct road to it was' a re-
form of the mode of choosing and amending the re-
sponsibility of those who are to have the holding of
the people's purse-strings, and that by a heuseholdei
we should mean every man whom a house holds.—
(Laughter and cheers.) They were met at an inte-
resting time, when an illustrious stranger bad just
reached our shores—(Cheers)—and the best compli-
ment we could pay Kossuth was by showing that,
while cheering him, we were the guardians' Of our
own country's rights. Let us show that we were
worthy to welcome Kossuth to our shores, that
our struggle, like his, is a constitutional, though
determined one—let us exhibit that which constitutes
his real greatness, and that we belonged to that bro-
therhood of integrity, independence, and universal
freedom which distinguishes the real nobility of man-
kind from its baseness and its slavery.—(Hear,
hear.) The Metropolitan Association he and his
friend were there to represint might be said to
have originated in the feelings of some new
Members of the House of Commons—some that were
new in the present, and some that were -new in pre-
vious Parliaments ; men who had felt that they were
breathing a different atmosphere to what they had
been accustomed to out of doors, where different
feelings, sentiments, and sympathies prevailed. And,
feeling that they could hardly be listened to with re-
spectful attention, they said to themselves, " How is
this ?" Some of the older Members were prepared to
sympathize with them, and Mr. Hume took the lead
in that respect. Thus originated his annual motion
for reform, in which they found the profession of the
National Reform Association. That might be said to
be the origin of it. Originally it came from the
members for the people, who said, " How is this ?
Was it your meaning to send us to a place where there-
is very little political sympathy—where there is
so little care of the public money, where lavish ex-
penditure is so continually incurred for objects which
you feel no particular interest in, or which you per-
haps object to_? Do you wish for these large arma-
ments to be kept up in the 35th year of peace ?
If it be so, we have egregiously mistaken you; you
have sent us to Parliament on false principles. But
if it be not so, and if we rightly interpret your sen-
timents, then come forward and assist us ; for
without that assistance we can do nothing. Let us
find that we have you at our backs when we urge
upon the House such things as tend to remove these
incongruities, and to remedy these evils."—(Hear.)
Thus originated the society of which Sir Joshua
Walmsley was the president, and which numbered
many member?, besides local associations in many of
the towns and counties of this kingdom. Another
reason why we should discuss this question at the
present time was; that Lord John Russell had 'pro-
missed another Reform Bill. What it was to be we
knew nothing of at present, for it was not the custom
for Governments to lay their intentions before the
public for consideration ere they brought them into
the Legislature. The consequence was, that the
public was always liable to be taken by sOrprise ;
they were like jurymen having to say aye or no to a
proposition which they had no time to consider, and
which, perhaps, it was scarcely possible to calculate
the consequences of, or to give such a decisive verdict
upon as might be obtained if there was opportunity
for a full and continuous canvass beforehand. Then,
as Lord John Russell would not tell them his mind,
suppose they told him theirs.—(Cheers.) His man-
ner seemed to invite this. He seemed to say, " What
do You want, and what will content you ?" Their
answer was in the resolution. before the meeting.—
(Cheers.) They did not propound this as all the
people would ever require; they only said it combined
a larger amount of support, in and out of Parliament,
than any other changes which had been submitted to
his consideration. If his Lordship chose to propose
anything broader than this, by all means let him do it
—(Cheers)—and they would give their careful con-
sideration to any strong measure which he might have
in contemplation.—(A laugh.) In the meantime they
gave him this as their minimum, as being large
enough to secure the benefits of a real representation
such as they did not now possess, while it was limited
enough to satisfy any cautious Reformer, and while it
was constitutional in all its parts. Small and poor
boroughs were not originally selected because they
were small and poor, but because, comparatively, they
were then rich and populous, and on this ground they
claimed a redistribution of seats. Lord J. Russell
had repeatedly confessed that householders' votes he
deemed to be the common law of the land. Then
give us household votes, or else universal suffrage,
which would include all.—(Cheers.) Even the ballot
was not a novelty in this country. We found by the
Sate tracts of the reign of William 111., that it was
at that period practised at the borough of Lyme
ington, in Hampshire, and highly praised, as giving
independence to the voter and preventing his being
biased and influenced by others; and no doubt those
t science
.there
apciirgorsisni fathert
whoelrasntio
ttn
d soughtest
a h lsinbeedr t
carried it with them from this country. It had been
ytheofbaclolon
tried on a limited scale, and we now asked for it that
a man's vote might be his own and not his landlords
or his customer's. Triennial Parliaments had been
the law, and even annual, till that monstrous usurpa-
tion the Septennial Act was introduced, upon a prin-
ciple by which the Legislature might have made itself
perpetual or hereditary. Here then they were within
reasonable limits, and it was only by such a union
as this offered that anything had ever been won from
the ruling classes. Looking at the aristocratic and
titled classes, he thought they were pretty well pro-
vided for already. They were not merely left the en-
joyments of their rank, their wealth, their station—
though these were pretty considerable, and might
content many reasonable persons—(A laugh)—but
they had a good deal more than this; all the insti-
tutions of the country were worked in their favour.
—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) They had whatever
was most profitable is connexion with the
monarchy. How were the large sums an-
nually voted for the Sovereign in this country—how
were they expended ? Not by the Queen. Her
Majesty, God bless her could not get through half
the money voted in her name.—(Cheers.) It did
not go into the purse of the Queen, but to the Lords
who were grooms of the chamber, the ladies in wait-
ing, the gold sticks, and silver sticks, and black sticks,
and masters, of the buckhounds, and ladies of the
bedchamber. That was to say, it furnished some
nice pickings for a particular class, and it was the
contemplation of such expenditure as this that made
preatptpainrgespuobfi
itte.,z_oznacrhceheyrsw.)oulßdubtetheantouwgshs tnoo
trappings
Milton say of it in his day, that " the mere
t all.
tainmdes they
They had their own hereditary right of legislation,
makem u must bews mfoorr e
tthan s
sake
en if they
the did
advantages
which would result to themselves. But waiving all
this, and leaving to the Lords the enjoyment of this
privilege, they also divided am
in
nll thethe hcigahhinoeffit.ces
yofeuSteaatwe.
tYheoue:
whatever his intellect or capacity, ofetrhesamwidadnlye man,l
themselves chiefly
never
gbevinet full of Lords,
and generally, too, Lords who were relatives
. of. one
another. Had Kossuth run his career of
this country he could scarcely have been atradmittediotes m i n
. into
the Cabinet. The great Edmund Burke, whose writings
were referred to as to some political
Ible, great
as he was, and though first the
Whig and then the
Tory party gave him a place, not one ever thought of
admitting him to the Cabinet. The Peers and titled
classes got all the best offices—governorships in the
colonies, ambassadorships, and diplomatic posts. The
nominees of Peers often found their way into places as
well as into the nominal representation of the people
in the House of Commons. He said, then, having all
these advantages—having rank, title, and wealth—
they might be content to leave the House of Com-
mons for the Commons.—(Hear, hear.) The Howe
of Peers was their house, and let them keep to their
own side. It had been said that some of them wished
to exclude the Peers—that was, the nominal Peers