The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-08 00:00:00

greater sacrifice, because the sacrifice of traditions
—Le did not say of principles--(laughter)—and of
party ties was greater than a mere sacrifice of place.
(Cheers.) When the future historian came to write
the history of Reform, these would be the healings
of his successive chapters : Chapter I. cf
the Russell Ministry, pulling down with
them in their fall the pillars of the
temple of Conservative 'resistance. Chapter
H. Miraculous conversion of the Conservatives.
Chapter 111. Introduction of the Conserva-
tive Reform Bill, covered over with a quantity of
checks. Chapter IV. The ignominious strangula-
tion of all these checks at the hands of the Liberal
party. Chapter V. The galvanic resuscitation of
these checks by the House of Lords, and lastly—and
here he must prophesy—the final eftinction of these
checks at the hands of the Liberal party, and the
passing of the Reform Bill in a straightforward,
satisfactory, and practical manner. (Loud cheers.)
The right hon. gentleman concluded by moving a
resolution, in which the meeting indignantly pro-
tested against the amendment of the House of Lords
,for therepresentation of minorities, thus neutralis-
ing the additional representation given to large
constituencies, and perpetuating the present unjust
distribution of political power. ,„
Mr. TREVELYAN, M.P., seconded the sresolution,
and said that voting papers would be a protection,
not for the voter, but for the briber aud intimida-
tor. The electorwould be bound hand and foot
and delivered to his landlord and the electioneering
agent. If the Lords wanted to protect the voter,
there was an easy means of doing so through the
ballot. (Cheers.) The people owed this Reform
Bill to Mr. Bright first of all, and next to Earl
Russell and Mr. Gladstone, who stuck to the cause
like earnest men, and fell with it like honest men.
(Cheers.) It was true that Lord Derby had "dished
the Whigs." The Whigs as a party were gone, but
what Lord Derby had done was to turn their party
into Radicals. (Cheers.)
The resolution was carried unanimously.
Mr. HUGHES, M.P., moved the second resolution,
protesting against the raising of the copyhold fran-
chise from £5 to £lO, " thus further restricting the
county franchise, already limited and unjust," and
emphatically condemning "the pernicious and un-
necessary system of voting papers, which, if adopted,
will lead to every kind of intimidation and corrup-
tion, the real-cure of which is the ballot ?" The
hon. member said that the Lords had kindly helped
to overhaul the constitution of the House of Com-
mons, and the time might come when the Commons
would turn the tables and be able to suggest some
amendments in the constitution of the House of
Lords. (Cheers and laughter.) He felt sure that a
good time was coming, and that the English people
were awaking into new political life. There was not
one iota of reason for raising the copybold franchise.
It was a mere capricious alteration, and he endorsed
the condemnation of the voting paper system as
" pernicious and unnecessary." He should not be
honest if he did not tell the meeting that he dis-
agreed with their first resolution condemning the
representation of minorities, for he thought that,
instead of this being the case of a timid driver who
put on the drag too soon, it was rather that of a
driver who wished to make all the four horses of the
coach do their duty. (" No !" and cheers.)
Professor ROGERS, of Oxford, seconded the reso-
lution, and denounced the voting paper system in-
troduced by the Lords. At the election for the Uni,
versity, when Mr.-Gladstone was defeated, votes
were manufactured wholesale, a large number of
persons being hunted up who had not taken their
Master's degree. An incredible time was occupied
in finding out whether these papers were genuine or
not. Though the voters were educated men, many
of the voting papers were improperly filled up, and
Sir Roundel' Palmer, as counsel for the University,
was besieged night and day to answer questions upon
the validity of these papers. No doubt both Whig and
Tory peers thought by this system of voting papers to
recover nearly as much power as they lost by other
parts of the bill. Even in the Univereity election there
were whole districts in which Masters of Arts had
been got into magistrates' parlours and threatened
with loss of social position if they did not vote for
Mr. Gathorne Hardy in preference to Mr. Gladstone.
(Shame !) Social tyranny among this class of
voters took the form of coercion and bribery among
the lower class, tind the voting paper system
would bring about such a result. It would also
tend to increase election expenditure, throw elec-
tions more than ever into the hands of rich men,
and keep in the hands of an hereditary aristocracy
the power which they had used so mischievously.
(Cheers )
The Ch AIRMAN then introduced
Mr. MONK PRICE, a working man of Manchester,
who supported the resolution, and denounced the
intermeddling with the bill by that chamber of an-
tiquities, the House of Lords. As a privileged class
the peers were simply tolerated by the people of
England, so long as they were content to eat their
bread in idleness, and do the world no mischief.
(Cheers.) But their interference with any of the
great principles on which the heart and mind of the
English nation were centred could not, and would
not, be tolerated for an hour. Did they want to
hasten the inevitable inquiry, '6 Who are you ?
What are you ? And what practical purpose do
you serve ?" (Cheers.) Did they wish to at
ttraci-
t
the eye of the English nation to their unjust priv
leges ? Were they so tired of their position that
on they must needs run thus into destruction ? If so,
there was no path so certain to lead to destructi
thine. and
of the Bourbons that they had learnt no c, as the path they had recently. trod. Napoleon said
forgotten nothing, and he (Mr.
iteachable aris-
would apply this epithet to au ui
emne into
tocracy. These modern Nimrods, tole
Monk Price)
working
the world booted and spurred, w
h
legislators,
y voting paper w o were
den by them—these hereditary
b the v
men were born with saddles on their backs
to be rid-
born to rule, were now seeking,the memorable
i‘ Tell me the
ho said,
utterance of Lord Derby,
w I'll tell you the politics
and
system, tog ive point and force to
position with which
of the country. that a
Well, then,
politics of the la”ndllovrastis,
ctoo Nile:Use of Lords—
the people should bed
but a creation of the
in the main
which was
let this meeting Eel] 1;:t1Ower(
f Lords—(cheers) —a voice which
Upper House o
misunderstood declaring that
should not be nnsun
to recommence an agitation
they were ready
that should be more powerful than any of
its predeces, ,
-ors and possibly less genteel. (Load
cheers.)
the people had asked for bread, and the
'
aristocracy, true to their past instincts, true to that
hatred of liberty which characterised them, had
given the people political stones. By Lord Cairns's
amendment Manchester would be neutralised by
Arundel, Birmingham would be checked in the
division lobby by the nominee of 175 political
dummies in Caine, and the greatest seaport in the
world would be degraded to the level of Honiton.
And this was the thing called Reform, offered by
men whose bread the working classes • buttered on
both sides.: (Cheers and laughter.) The people must
throw. aside all hopes or exceptions of honest or fair
dealing from this party of Levites, who had so long
misgoverned the country for their own advantage,
and had passed by on the other side contemptuously
when they heard of the wants and wishes of their
fellow-countrymen. (Cheers.) He called upon the
meeting by every means in their power to bring
back to office the incorruptible Gladstone, and to
give him as his colleague, friend, and adviser—
Liberty's matchless apostle, John Bright. (Great
cheering.)
The resolution was then carried.
moved the
Mr. WapuToN, Alandlede
r