The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-06 00:00:00

ADDRESS OF THE BIRMINGHAM RE
FORM ASSOCIATION.

(From the Birmingham Journal.)

The following address was adopted yesterday by
the Reform Association of Birmingham, and will
be immediat3ly issued :

" THE REFORMERS OF BIRMINGHAM TO THE RE-
FORMERS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

" Fellow-Countrymen,—We invite you to co-
operate with us in an attempt to obtain, by legiti-
mate and peaceable means, an efficient reform in
the representation of the people in the House of
Commons.
" The association we have formed embraces men
of all shades of Liberal opinion, enfranchised middle
classes, and non-electors. We have agreed to sink
our minor differences, and to work together to ob-
tain these reforms, viz. :

" 1. A large extension of the suffrage.
" 2, Vote by ballot.
" 3. A more equal appointment of members to
population.
" These reforms, we believe, lie at the root of all
other about which Liberals have hitherto been un-
happily divided. They offer a broad and well-
defined common bond of union, for they lie in the
direction in which the most decided Liberal is ad-
vancing.
" We are no theorists. We do not wish to impair
institutions bequeathed by our forefathers, and
which, on the whole, have proved suitable to the
wants of our country ; our object is to expand,
consolidate, and strengthen them. We are loyal
subjects of the Crown, and venerate the illustrious
lady who fills the throne. We have no desire to
interfere with the fair and legitimate action of the
House of Peers in the government of the country,
nor with the just influence of the aristocracy. -We
have no intention to set class against class. We
believe all to be so intermingled that the permanent
interests of the peer and the peasant, the manufac-
turer and the artisan, are identical and inseparable.
" But we claim for the House of Commons that it
shall represent the opinions and interests, not of a
class, but of the great body of the people.
"It is notorious that with the present restricted
franchise, with the hindrances to its honest exercise
which the plan of open voting interposes, and with
the system of counterpoise by which small consti-
tuencies neutralise the opinions of vast bodies of
electors, the House of Commons does not truly re-
present the national will.
" Reformers are accused of seeking Reform for
the mere sake of change. We deny the charg.e We
desire a change because we want good government.
" Under the present system, with the influence of
the aristocracy predominant in both Houses, Mi-
nistries are confined to two parties, and a few fami-
lies have generally monopolised the government of
the country. The Administration is the Ministry
of a party ; its energies are wasted in the endeavour
to maintain place and power, and, however pa-
triotic, it is rarely able to grapple with any subject
which might affect the interests of its supporters.
Hence the constant changes in the Administration,
hence the personal unfitness of many of those who
direct the great departments of the State, the con-
sequent detriment to the public service, and the
scandal to political morality. There is no national
Administration. The business of the Legislature is
neglected, measure after measure is introduced and
abandoned ; commissions issue without result, and
_the real work of legislation is made subordinate to
the possession of office.
" Although these facts are obvious enough, it may
be well to notice a few of the subjects that have
long required the attention of successive Govern-
ments, but have been neglected.
" Administrative reform is required in almost
eve department of the State.
We require immediate attention to our financial
condition. With a debt constantly. increasing, the
budget constructed on no fixed principle, merely
Aiding over the difficulty, and attempting to show
a favourable balance on the year's account, no pro-
vision is made for extraordinary emergencies, or
any suggestion even of diminishing the debt.
" We require a readjustment of the property and
income tax, so that the tax on income derived from
realised property and the income tax upon industry
shall not remain the same. On no grounds of
equity can it be maintained that the man who gains
£lOO per annum by his profession or trade should
be taxed in the same ratio as he who derives the
same income from the funds, landed, or other
accumulated property.
" We require free trade internally ; that the home
manufacturer shall not be cramped by vexatious
Excise duties, when the foreign article is imported
free. As, for example, in the case of the paper and
hop duties, both of them opposed to the fundamental
principles of free trade.
"We require a settlement of the question of
national education,

" We require an investigation into the causes of
the enormous mass of pauperism that now presses
on the country-1 in every 11 of the adult popula-
tion being a pauper, and propably as many more
just on the verge of destitution.
" We require stringent laws against seduction,
and that the disgusting profligacy which disgraces
both town and country should have the serious
attention of the Legislature.
"We require a searching investigation into
charitable and other trusts, in which the funds are
either misappropriated or the trust badly adminis-
tered. Nearly every parish in England can furnish
an illustration.

" We require a revision and consolidation of the
Statute Law. Many laws are obsolete, many con-
tradictory, and the judges have often to decide by
majorities what is law.
"We require a complete change in the Bank-
ruptcy Laws. Bad as the old law was, the present
is much worse. Barristers and official assignees
are appointed to manage insolvent estates, without
competent qualifications to decide commercial ques-
tions ; and the proceeds of such estates are often
swallowed up in charges.
"We require facilities for the transfer of real
estate. At present the expense is enormous, and
numberless titles are defective. In the United
States, or in our own province of Upper Canada,
real estate is transferred at the expense of a few
shillings, and the titles are incontestible.

" Such, fellow-countrymen, are a few of the ques-
tions in finance, in commerce, in morals, and in
law—all of them out of the province of party war-
fare—which have been postponed to the cabals and
intrigues of rival statesmen and place-hunters,
which ought to have occupied the attention of the
House of Commons, and which will do as soon as
that house fairly represents the national will.
" If it were necessary to make out a case in favour
of an extension of the suffrage, the reasonableness
of which even the opponents of popular govern-
ment now admit, we might contrast the present
state of society with its social, intellectual, and
commercial condition a quarter of a century ago.
Intelligence has immensely increased—the working
man is more sober, thoughtful, and provident, con-
scious alike of his rights and his duties. There is a
greater respect for the laws, a more intimate know-
ledge of the relation in which one man and one
class stands to another. During these 25 years,
while this capacity for self-government has been
increasing to an extent that makes the working
man of the present day equal in intelligence to
those enfranchised by the act of 1832, the existing
basis of representation, with its disqualifying
clauses of ratepaying and registration, has shut him
out from all share in the government of the coun-
try, and the great industrial interest has been, and
is, practically unrepresented.
"Fellow-countrymen,—The reformers of Bir-
mingham have united themselves together for
the purpose of removing this injustice by ob-
taining a fairer and more honest representation
of the people. Progressive Liberal and Advanced
Reformer, Elector and Non-Elector, we have re-
solved to sink all minor differences of political faith
in the determination to advance our common cause.
" In this cause we have no wish to lead. We will
either follow or go side by side with others. We
desire only the welfare of our common country.
" We call upon you to aid us in our endeavour to
secure the efficiency ofany measure of Reform which
may be introduced into Parliament, by forming
associations, by public meetings, by petitions to
Parliament, by obtaining the co-operation of your
representatives,.and by every legitimate and peace-
able means which the constitution allows. Above
all things, be united. Apathy has to overcome,
active opposition to be defeated, and discord and
distrust to be guarded against.

" Reformers, you can succeed if you will. Upon
your determination now depends the character of
the next Reform Bill. • Your earnestness may now
decide whether party or the national will shall
triumph, whether an end shall be put to the con-
stant agitation and discontent which a sense of in-
justice inspires, or whether the moderate demand
now made by the people for a fair share in the
government of the country shall be accumulated by
vexatious delays, so as ultimately to create—as pro-
crastination did once before--so .violent an impulse
as will no longer admit of a calm and deliberate
consideration and settlement of the question.
" Signed on behalf of the Birmingham Reform
Association. " P. H. MUNTZ, Chairman.
" Birmingham, Dec. 3."

IMPORTS OP CATTLE.—The following is a return
of the number of foreign cattle, imported into Hull last
week :—Per Seahorse, from Rotterdam, 3 cows, 17 calves,
3 pigs, and 12 sheep ; per Twenthe, from Kampfen,4 cows,
20 pigs, 5 sheep ; per Norfolk, from Rotterdam, 76 cows, 9
calves, 0 pigs, Total-83 cows, 26 calves, 29 pigs, and 17
sheep.