The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-13 00:00:00

sera, and, let me add, as check clerks yesterday at I
the polling-booths, gave their time to me gratui-
tously. (Cheers.) If that can be done in a great
constituency like this—if I can leave his borough
to-day without having spent more than is absolutely
necessary for legal expenses—and r' ese are a hun-
dredfold more than they ought to i c—then, I say,
the working man will have a chance of going to
k Parliament. Therefore, the principle involved in
this question of local interests is purity of election
against money. Have I spent a sixpence in bring-
ing down men to hoot and howl ? Why, what
should I have thought of myself if, after the pledge
I gave, I had on Monday last been represented here
in this vast area by 100 or 150 men whose coun-
tenances and condition lead me to believe they come
from a neighbouring, but a sister island--(laughter)
and who congregated for the purpose of interrupting
our proceedings ? I should have imposed upon you,
and done discredit to this constituency. Would the
working men then have rallied round me as they have
done ? Talk of a man protecting local interests. Let
him protect local character first. (Cheers.) Your
reputation and respectability are surely your
greatest local interest. I ask any working man pre-
sent whether his face was not tinged with the blush
of shame--I confess my own was—when he read the
account in the papers of what took place here the
other day ? Because reflecting persons, Tories and
enemies of the working man, will point to that scene
and say, " Here is your reduction of the suffrage ;
here are the men you want to intrust with the
franchise !" Who brought that discredit on the
working men ?—who were the means of giving him
such a false and calumnious character? Why, it was,
I will not say the man himself, but the friends of
the man who came here to uphold your local inte-
rests. (Cheers.) The great argument in favour of
the rotten boroughs is that they alone afford seats
to competent men, men of capacity, statesmen, and
how is that argument to be overcome if great con-
stituencies only return men upon the ground of
narrow local interests ? In Southwark a broader
principle
has triumphed, and mark my words, gen-
tlern;;n,
the victory we have gained here will have
its effect throughout the length and breadth of the
land, and may be fraught with more important
results to the working man than any event that has
happened for many years. (Cheers.) Working men,
if you want to reform Parliament, irst reform the
constituencies. When you have have done that you
will reform Parliament. Elect the men whom you
think the best calculated to promote your own and
the general inte rest, and depend upon it the day
will not be distant when you will enjoy the rights
and hold the place in the Constitution which you
deserve. (Cheers.) Ido not therefore regret coming
down here to encounter all the difficulties, perhaps
even the dangers, incident to this contest. I feel
proud of being returned, as well as of the friends
who have retnrned me. It now remains for me so to
act as that they should be proud of the member
they have chosen. (Cheers.) By whom has this
victory, this Inkermann of constitutional battles,
been gained ? I say by the working men. The poll
in the early morning, and at the dinner hour proves
that. On the support of the working men alone I
have relied, and through that support I have tri-
umphed. (Cheers.) Is it not incredible that in
these days calumnies should be thrown on the
working man, and attempts made to make the
world believe he is not an intelligent and reflect-
ing individual ? Is it not surprising that all
the mean arts, the dirty intrigues, the con-
temptible proceedings which I hope have been seen
in Southwark for the last time, should lead to any
disparagement of the working man beyond your
limits ? It depends upon you, gentlemen, whether
that shall ever occur again, and whether this great
borough will hereafter send men to Parliament,
myself or any other, upon the same principles as
have guided you in this contest, and whether
Southwark shall be relieved for ever from the
stigma that some have endeavoured to place upon
it. (Cheers.) The Reform Bill of 1832 was carried
by the working man. Bat did he profit by it ?
No ; unselfish and generous as he always is, he
helped to benefit another class, giving up•his own
claims in the belief that his rare moderation would
before long win for himself fair treatment and the
recognition of his just rights. During the last
twenty-eight years, again, have not the working
classes behaved nobly ? And when it is said by
the enemies of reform that there is no symptom of
a desire for it in the country, let me ask what are
the symptoms they require ? Manufactories burnt
down, houses sacked, gaols pulled to pieces, riot,
fire, and misery throughout the kingdom ? If these
are the symptoms they want they will not have
them. (Cheers.) No; the symptoms of reform being
necessary are to be found in this, that Englishmen
and working men now rest their cause upon truth
and reason alone, and appeal to the justice of their
country. Have not the condition and the intelli-
gence of the working man improved since 1832 ?
If not, what has been the use of all our mechanics'
institutes, our educational grants, our public and
and private schools, our cheap literature per-
meating the million ? Not only has the working
man improved, but I say his improvement has been
greater than that of any other class in the State. I
venture even to assert that it has compelled the
improvement of the classes above him, and made
them become more just, wise, and truly enlight-
ened. (Hear, hear.) Shall you continue, therefore,
to refuse him his due ? lam told that the spread
of intelligence among the great body of the working
classes is dangerous to the country. I scorn such an
unworthy plea. No one who knows the working
man, or knows foreign nations, as I hope I do, can
pretend that the diffusion of education is dangerous
to any State. Let us illustrate this case by a refe-
rence to the volunteer movement. Have our agri-
cultural classes, perhaps the lowest in the scale of
enlightenment, taken any considerable part in that
movement ? No; it has been the intelligent work-
ing men and their employers in our cities and towns,
as for example in Bermondsey, who have done that.
Is a man, because he is more enlightened, less quali-
fied to appreciate the blessings of constitutional
government, or less likely to defend them at the
risk of his own life ? (Cheers.) Look at America.
Sixty years ago the volunteer movement began
there. During the first 20 years it made little ad-
vance ; in the next 20 it gained ground considera-
bly ; and in the last 20 its progress was enormous.
And who formed the great bulk of those volunteers ?
Why the movement was always most successful in
those American States which were most distin-
guished for their intelligence. (Cheers.) And so
it is in this country. If you have your people armed
and ready to defend their own homes, and at the
same time too enlightened to interfere with other
countries, then we may hope for reduced taxation
and rendering cheaper every article of the poor
man's consumption. But as long as our money is
suffered to be spent by classes, and petty jealousies
are allowed to divide States, we must continue to

support great armaments and give up all idea of
diminished taxation. As long its the working man's
feelings, sentiments, and interests are not consulted,

we must expect to have class government and to pay
heavily for the faults of our rulers. Fifty years
and more ago, when the working man had no
voice whatever in the Government, what was
the result ? England engaged in expensive wars,
lavishing her blood and treasure in support of
tyranny in Europe. She was never found on the
side of freedom or of the peoples. No, there never
' was a despot, who saw his throne sinking from
under
him and felt that his time was come, who
did not
appeal to this country and receive from her
millions of pounds sterling and thousands and tens
of thousands of lives,
And what did all this lead
to ? What wasour
position at the peace of 1815 ?
Were we beloved io
E nusrope P Did these despots
ever do anything for
and selfish men, they aiway(sNiever !oo ked after their own) No, like vile
interests alone, and when they had exhausted our
money and our lives they turned their backs upon
us and gave us neither gratitude nor respect in
return. What have we seen with-
in the last few
people of England have raised their
years ? The
voice in favour of the liberty and independence of
nations—they have declared themselves on the aide
of peoples, and not of tyrants. One example of
this was given in this very borough. I will not
pass an eulogium on Barclay and Perkins's dray-
men--(laughter)—l think they treated a distill. j