The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-09 00:00:00

LORD TBYNHA At ON THE DUTY OF

THE PEOPLE.

Lord Teynham, following up the idea of a Na-
tional Association of Political Councils, lately
broached by his lordship in a letter to the Secre-
tary of the Northern Reform Union, again writes
to that gentleman as follows

" Maidenhead, Oct. 24.
" Sir,—Should the Northern Reform Union now mani-
fest impaired vigour (pardon the suppositim), it would be
said—the standard bearer of the army or, reform fainteth ;
and the recent overthrowers of the Cou,mons would shout,
and lift their outrageous feet to trample again on the
liberties of the people. It is true Yao voice lately raised
in the United Kingdom can evoke. more than the faintest
echo from the arch of freedom which is supposed, to
canopy our people. Yet, if it ever have been manly and
humane to work and speak for the electors, who, without
the ballot, are but partially free, and for the non-electors,
who know not more than semi-freedom, more abundantly
is it so to-day.

" During the last session of Parliament, the House of the
Commons of England was speaking. It tried to put forth a
measure of reform of the very lightest description : one
would have thought that the faintest breath might have
wafted it to the Lords; but it had not even strength enough
to pooh pooh it on its way.

" A heavy Bankruptcy Bill was put into its hands to carry
to the Upper House, and, as might have been expected, it
fell from them, leaving, alas I many of our countrymen in
prison, debtors, of many of whom it may be said that their
only crime is unexpected poverty ; leaving also the property
of creditors in the estates of bankrupts still to be swallowed
up to a large extent by the cost of law.
" It put also its little shoulders under one of the burdens
of the people, the paper duty, and tried to lift it off them,
showing some courage at first, which damped ; and the re-
presentatives of the people had only just strength enough
to do the beginning of their work, and send the Relief Bill to
the Lords. These, seeing the mannikins they had to deal
with, made a shuttlecock of it, and knocked it away. The
Commons heard of the game, and instead •of, like men—
like wise men who had acted pertinently ; like fathers of
the people who had been working for their good—perfect-
ing their work as they might have done, notwithstanding
the majority of the Lords; like a turtle thrown upon its
back, it contented itself with boasting of what it would do
when on its feet again, should any hereafter amuse them-
selves at its expense by upsetting it as it went along.
" A House of Commons that cannot carry the people's
measures needs that the people should carry it. If there
be any better litter on which to place it than the National
Association of Political Councils I have proposed, let it be
patented and used at once. If not, let the people thus sup-
port their representatives in the Lower House.

" But are the people as weak as their representatives ?
Do we dwell in Lilliput ? If not, les them arise upon their
feet, and stretch themselves to the full stature of men, and
have a solemn proclamation read, ero they march to fight
for freedom once again.
„ _

" Look, Britons, to the kinsmen of your fathers, who
were colonists in North America, tax ed, or attempted to be
taxed, being unrepresented. They 'petitioned Parliament
that it might not be so, and the prayer of their petitions
was rejected. Under these circumstances they asked their
hearts what should freemen do, and the reply was, ask
your swords. These gave them freedom.
" People of the United Kingdom, unrepresented, yet
heavily taxed ; or, if represented, being without the pro-
tection of the secret ballot, tempted by the avaricious, who
would buy you with bribery, to sell you again to your loss
and for their sordid gain ; or tramplod on by dominating
landlords and their imperious agents, or by wealthy female
buyers who enter shops, that the tradesmen's vote mny be
theirs, though not by stealthy ways, yet by persuasion,
barbed with covert threats, hearken ?
" When Liberty shall gather together her soldiers from
various climes, and of every age, to crown her victors with
laurel, the freemen of the United States that became war-
riors, the warriors that became freemen doubly free, will
rise in judgment against you, unless you petition Parlia-
ment for manhood suffrage and vote by ballot, and unless
you continue to back your petitions with the sword of
truth—now and hero we need no coarser weapons—until
all the freedom you could and should have is yours and
your children's while Britain is the Briton's home.
• "And be sure of this, the American colonies had never
been independent States had they not first become United
States. And ye, my fellow-countryman, ye will not have
your liberties perfected, ye will not have the inhuman poor-
laws amended, so that they may gracefully direct the per-
formance of your purposes of charity--unless by means of
a National Association of Political Councils, or by some
other device, you become and remain a united people.—l
remain, sir, for the people, yours faithfully.

MYNITIN.
",Mr. R. B. Reed, Hon.'See. Northern Reform Union,
Newcastle-on-Tyne."

THE EIGHT HON. E. ELLICE, M.P.

The following letter has been addressed by Mr.
Ellice to his constituents, in reply to a communica-
tion from the Mayor of Coventry :
" Brechin. Castle, Oct. 31.
"My dear Sir,—Your letter, which had been
following me from place to place, reached me here
to-day. I read it with true despair, both as regards
the state of the trade in Coventry, and all parties,
whether manufacturers or weavers, engaged in it,
and as regards the object of it, for I know no means
and see no way by which I can bring either reason
or influence to bear on Mr. Gladstone, to induce
him to review the decision he has communicated to
you with respect to the drawback on paper used in
the manufacture or in preparation of ribands for
sale.

" The whole proceedings of the financial depart-
ments of the Government have been so inconsistent,
and so utterly devoid of caution and foresight, that
it has been impossible for members of Parliament
representing the interests of large constituencies
either to insist upon a due examination of the man-
ner in which their interests would be affected by
the measures of Government, or to provide by pre-
cautionary suggestions against injury unnecessarily
inflicted upon them by the precipitancy and incon-
siderate manner in which these violent changes
have been made.

" On no part of the Budget has this been more
remarkable than in the proceeding with respect to
the paper duties. The particular object in proposing
their repeal at the beginning of last session, in
addition to the repeal of the duties connected with
the French Treaty, would appear to have been to
satisfy the exigencies of individual members of the
Cabinet, and to conciliate the support of a certain
party out of it, connected with them, without
sufficient consideration of the general and public
interests involved in the question. To favour that
proceeding, the whole expenditure of the country
was concealed from Parliament, and, as will be
seen by the result, estimates of revenue were grossly
exaggerated. When I say the expenditure was
concealed, I refer to the amount required for for-
tifications, the report and estimate for which were
in the hands of the Cabinet at the time the Budget
was proposed, and the requirements of the unfor-

tunate China war, which were obvious to all the
world. It is useless to refer to the manner in
which the repeal of the paper duties was defeated.
When defeated, the Chancellor of the Exchequer
did not think proper to act upon his own convic-
tions, and to insist upon a • reconsideration of the
decision, but found his revenge in repealing the
Customs' duties on the importation of paper, on
what I consider a strained construction of the
article in the French Treaty. The question of
Free Trade, as bearing on the point, was equally
strained to suit his purpose. The duties had been
revised and settled by, able men on that principle
a few years before. He now admits the difficulties
in which several interests, beyond thus© of the silk
manufacturers, have been involved by his want of
foresight in framing his measure, and pleads that
as a reason for not relieving the Coventry trade
from a grievance, which he fully admits to be
unjust. Of course, all this is intended as a
preface to a renewed proposal in thenext
Ses-
sion to repeal the paper duties, which would
and it would be the best remedy in many respects,
beyond removing from the statute-book the last law
inflicting Excise regulutions upon an important
branch of manufacture.
"But is there more hope or chance of this mea-
sure passing the next Session ? Our expenditure
will have been greater, our revenue I sadly fear
less, than has been calculated, and the probability
is we may be compelled, by the public necessities,
rather to augment than reduce taxation. When
the question of reduction comes, the poor will have