The Sun.
London, England, 1867-02-01 00:00:00

practical proposal to make would be listened to
with attention and patience. But they were entering
upon a critical time. He did not object to the new
schemes of Reform which men propounded. He
knew bow to deal with them. But he objected to
the new means and the new morality by which they
were supported. (Cheers.) Every man who pro-
fessed to be a Liberal must now choose his party ;
he must choose his leader, and, what was not less
important, the leaders must choose who were to be
their followers. Hitherto they had believed that
they lived in a free country, with a power of free
speech. But all that was now changed. Those
new Reformers made intimidation the basis of their
policy. (Cheers.) He had stood before a hustings
in the metropolis where an excited multitude pelted
an unpopular candidate with cabbages and rotten
eggs until they could not see the colour of his coat.
But, with art instinct of old English goal feeling
they had never thought, on account of a difference
of opinion, of inflicting violence on a man's person.
But all that was now changed. (The wounded
gentleman here re-entered the hall amid general
cheering.) But if a member of the House of Com-
mons conscientiously expressed:opinions unpalatable
to those outside, the word went forth that his speech
was to be hung up in workshops, he was to be
hooted, hustled, his windows smashed, or his head
broken. That was their notion of free speech.
They were there that night to protest against such
a state of things, and against Reform being made
a screen for carrying out what was in fact re-
volution. (Loud cheers.) He knew well the at-
tachment of those he addressed to truly Liberal
principles, and that they could discriminate between
them and their base and senseless counterfz-it.
(Cheers.) They did not intend to go to America for
their institutions, neither would- they go to the
League for their political morality, or to Birming-
ham for their Christian charity. Actuated by purer
and higher principles, inspired by the maxims of the
religion which was their hope, by their regard for
the institutions which they valued, by their love for
the country which they would protect and guard,
they would, by God's help, carry her through every
conflict and every danger until they could transmit
to their descendants unspotted, unimpaired, and
untarnished that noble constitution which was the
bulwark of freedom, the type of progress, and the
envy and admiration of the world. (Loud cheers.)
After some other toasts, the company separated.

Dinner to Mr. Doulton, M.P.
Last night Mr. Doulton, M.P. for Lambeth, was
entertained at a public banquet by his constituents.
The entertainment was originated by men of oppo-
site political parties in the borough, and was de-
signed to express a general approval of the indepen-
dence which has marked the political career of the
hon. member. About 150 gentlemen sat down to
dinner in the large room of the Horns Tavern, Ken-
nington. Mr. Evans (who proposed Mr. Doulton
at the last election) took the chair, having Mr.
Doulton on his right, and supported by the Rev.
Dr. Lester, Major Irvine, Dr. Griffith, Dr. Pinder,
Messrs. Tarn, Pew, Colls, Hodges,
Barton, Mit-
chell, Rathbone, Clark, J. Barton, Cullen Murphy,
and G. Taylor, honorary secretaries, and
_other in-
fluential inhabitants of Lambeth..
After the usual loyal and patriotic toasts,
Mr. G. Taylor read letters— from the rector of
Lambeth, expressing the opinion that Mr. Doulton
had been roost illiberally treated because he had
the moral courage to take a free and independent
line in the matter of Reform ; from the Rev. Ar-
thur Mursell, a Dissenting minister, conveying his
disapproval of the un-English manner in which Mr.
Doulton had been attacked ; and from Mr. C.
Buxton, M.P.,
who agreed that Mr. Doulton had
been ill-used.
The CHAIR3IAN, in proposing the toast of the
evening, said that Mr. Doulton had been the
faithful representative of the electors of
Lambeth. (Cheers.) He had not failed in any
of the promises he made at his election, and
had been in all respects a sincere and
true Reformer. He had been throughout willing to
accept a full, free, and fair representation of the
people of this great country ; but was it for the in-
terest of Lambeth or of the country at large that
they should accept a miserable instalment of reform,
with the certainty of a renewal every year of the
o
great question of reform ;
porutwtoourldest ?
itnoltVbaeswiitsefrortothpeas good oa o
great
o f thea n
dn a t n
compre-
hensive t
agitatimi and turmoil which every one wished to see
be perpetually raising the
measure which should settle the question for
one generation ? A certain section of the Liberal
working
party had obtained a nickname ; but they included
among their number men of the greatest ability and
o administrative capacity, and they offered arguments
unan-
swerable. (Cheers.) Would the electors of Lambeth
commit
of
in support of their views which were quite
men the
powerrepresentatives
of the House of Commons ?
t o
returning t he tradest h
e unions
who le f
of
the m
(No.) Mr. Doulton
was desirous to support a complete and perfect mea-
sure, but he was not willing to commit the country to
the turmoil and dictation of a mob. (Cheers.) The
chairman concluded by proposing " The Health of
Mr. Doulton, Aix.," which was drunk with the
greatest enthusiasm.
Mr. DOULTON said that if be had felt any doubt
as to the general feeling of the borough of Lambeth
in respect to the course he had felt it his duty to pur-
sue in the last session of Parliament on the question
of reform that doubt had been removed by the com-
munications he had received, and by the cordiality
with which he had been received by a meeting,
which, as a representative assembly, had never been
exceeded in the borough of Lambeth. (Cheers.) Ho
would not accept the present gathering as a personal
compliment, nor was it necessary to assume that all
who werepresent agreed in all he did d •
urmglast ses-
sion. (Hear.) He was, however, justified in assuming
that the feeling of the borough was directly opposed
to those who expected their representative to give
a blind, unthinking obedience to any political party.
lie was also justified in regarding the present de-
monstration as a protest against the tyranny of those
who would degrade the position of a representative
in Parliament to that of a mere delegate, and who
would make membership of the House of Commons,
not as it now was, an honour to be desired, but a
shame and a humiliation to be avoided. (Cheers )
The object and end of any Reform Bill was to give
to all classes a proper share in the representation of
the people, and as that proper representation did not
exist any Reform Bill to meet the requirements of
the day must give a largely increased representation
to the most intelligent of the working classes ;
secondly, a wise and extensive redistribution of
political power ; and, thirdly, provisions against
bribery and corrupt influences. The Reform bill of
the late Government did not seriously attempt to
deal with the redistribution of seats, or the preven-
tion of bribery, but only with the extension of the
franchise. The object of any Reform Bill should be
to admit to the franchise those who by political edu-
cation and training were most worthy to exercise
it, but the bill of the late Government would have
admitted within the electoral pale many of those
who were the least worthy, and would have left out
in the cold those who ought to possess votes. (Loud
cheers.) The principle of the bill was that it carried
out a uniform and indiscriminate reduction of the
franchise in all town constituencies. To that prin-
ciple he for one was directly opposed: A uniform
franchise could not be a just franchise. The late
Government proposed to reduce the £lO franchise
in boroughs to a £7 franchise. A£7 franchise
would hardly have given 25 additional voters to
Lambeth, while it would have increased the number
of voters in some country boroughs three or four
fold. (Cheers.) What would household suffrage do
iu London ? It would not add 50 voters to Lam-
beth ; but it would add 2,000,000 to the electors of
the United Kingdom. A£6 house in some districts
was worth more than a £lO in others, and it
was therefore impossible to deal satisfactorily
with the question by a simple lowering of the
franchise to a uniform amount. He would
admit that the bill included a large franchise,
but it was so hedged round with restrictions that the
Government could not have anticipated that any
great number of the working men would have been
enfranchised by the lodger clauses. The defects of
the bill would have been supplied to some extent by