The Sun.
London, England, 1867-04-23 00:00:00

WHALES IN THE FORTH.

___,:.

For some days the fishermen op the south side of
the Frith of Forth have been in a state of expectancy
from the rare appearance in their waters of a shoal,
variously estimated at from 150 to 200, of bottle-
nosed whales. They were repeatedly seen off Aber-
lady Point, and it seemed uncertain whether they
would stand in for the Frith or go out to sea. At
length, on Friday, they came so far into Mussel-
burgh-bay that the Midlothian Coast Artillery
Volunteers, who were practising at Portobello with
their big guns, fired once or twice at the shoal,
without, however, any of the shots taking effect.
N ext morning a Prestonpans boat fell in with the
shoal near that village, and gave chase. They
succeeded in striking one of the fish with the
harpoon, and, after some blowing and lashing of the
water, .the animal made up the Firth, followed by
the shoal, and dragging the boat by the line. The
rapid passage of the boat, without sail or oars, drew
the attention of the fishermen on shore as the boat
passed Leith Pier in the direction of Newhaven-bay.
The Newhaven fishermen were immediately on the
alert, and went out in their boats with harpoons,
hatchets, and other weapons. The fish which the
Prestonpans boat was pursuing became lost to its
first captors, but, turning inshore about Wardle,
fell a prey to other hands. Another whale, how-
ever, was soon struck, and was ultimately carried
off by the Prestonpans boat. As the whole shoal
accompanied the first wounded whale, a grand
opportunity arose for a general capture. Cap-
tain Anderson, of the steamship Queen, lying
at Granton with his crew, manned three boats and
succeeded in hemming in the herd into the corner
formed by the east breakwater of Granton, and for
the time there was a prospect of making a clean
sweep. The eagerness of the Newhaven fishermen,
however, broke up the shoal, but after an exciting
and protracted battle viewed by many hundred
spectators, 16 whales were brought ashore at New-
haven and seven at Granton. One of the whales
measured 25i feet long and 11 feet in girth. The
smallest of those captured was about nine feet long.
A party of officers with carbines went out from
Leith Fort to join the chase. It does not appear that
the boats of the Queen obtained any share of
the plunder, for, although they struck several
fish, the wounded animals were seized by others who
were playing foul in the exciting game. A whale
about 16 feet long, which had probably been
wounded by the Artillery Volunteers, was !stranded
at Portobello on Saturday morning at ebb tide, and
was dragged ashore. One of the fish caught at
Newhaven was taken to the Grassmarket, Edin-
burgh, in the evening for exhibition at a penny a a
great many
bead. On Sunday people from
Edinburgh and elsewhere flocked to the sea shore to
get a sight of the captured fish, of which several
were lying on Newhaven-pier. It is expected that
further captures will be made, from the tendency
of the fish to be attracted by the blood of their
comrades, which for a time made the little bay of
Newhaven quite red.

COURSE OF EXCIIANGE.—This Evening.

Amsterdam Short. 11 171 11 18
Ditto 3 Months. 11 19 11 19f
Rotterdam
Antwerp — 25 40 25 45
Brussels — 25 40 25 45
Hamburg — 13 9 , 13 94.
Paris Short 25 124 25 224
Ditto 3 Mouths. 25 321 25 40
Marseilles
Frankforl, on the Maine 119 120
Vienna — 13 6U 14 0
Trieste - 18 GO 14 0
Petersburg ti - 291 30
Berlin
.

Madrid —
Cadiz

Leghorn - 28 60 281V80
Milan - 28 60 28 80
Genoa - 28 60 28 80
Naples - 28 60 28
Palermo - 28 60 28 80
Messina - 28 GO 28 80
Lisbon'-- b 2
•• s2i
ClKlt9sniuminiosmillu -- - 02 02*

FOURTH EDITION.

Refoim Demonstration at Birmingham.

BIRMINcuum, Monday.

Another of those great popular gatherings on the
subject of reform took place to-day. The shops
were nearly all closed, the plate-glass windows of
such as were unshuttered being occupied, not by
tradesmen's dummies, but by animated spectators.
Flags were flying on prominent juttings overhead,
while from all quarters of the town there came the
music of brass bands and the beating of drums. It
was a most exciting time, and few there were pas-
sive enough to be perfectly calm and disinterested
spectators of the proceedings. The first part of the
procession moved on its way up New-street at 12
o'clock, and for full two hours did men pass five,
six, and seven abreast, their banners flying on high,
their bands playing spirited and popular airs, and
they themselves marching with firm and steady
tread on their road.

In the evening a meeting was held in the Town-
hall, which was densely crowded in every part.
The Mayor (Mr. G. Dixon) presided, supported by
the members for the borough (Mr. Scholefield and
Mr. Bright), Archdeacon Sandford, Professor
Rogers, Mr. Beaks, M.A., Mr. Baldwin, and the
representatives of the provincial Reform Leagues,
with the leading Liberals of the town and neigh-
bourhood.

Messrs. Bright and Scholefield met with a most
enthusiastic welcome.

Mr. BRIGHT then rose, and was received with
bursts of cheers, which were renewed again and
again. When silence was restored, he said—lt was,
I believe, on the 27th of August last, now nearly
eight months ago, that I was permitted to address
you from this platform. Since then great changes
have taken place in reference to the question in
which we took so deep an interest ; but in one thing
there seems to have been no change, that is, in the de-
termination felt and manifested by the people of Bir-
mingham and of this district in favour of a real and
substantial measure of reform. Eight months ago
you astonished the country by the magnitude of the
meeting which you then held. I understood from
several of those present whom I have consulted to-
day that the meeting to-day greatly surpassed the
meeting of August last ; but though you have not
changed, and do not intend to change, yet there has
been a great change in other quarters and in other
persons, and one not altogether unfavourable to the
objects which you seek. At this moment there is no
political party in this country, whether outside or
inside the walls of Parliament, that bases itself upon
a denial of the right of the people to a wide exten-
sion of the franchise. It is difficult to estimate the
measure'of this change, but if you will look back
only 12 months to the bill that was before Parlia-
ment last session, and remember how it was treated
and what was said about it, you will then be able to
discover to some extent the distance that we have
marched since then. Since that time a proposition for
a £7 rental franchise in borough‘—for the discussion
turned then, asit turns no w, mainlyupon the borough
franchise—was declared to be a measure of the ut-
most rashness. It was said by many members of the
Tory party, by some who are now in offise in the
present Government, that it was a measure that
would be entirely destructive of the Conservative
party, and there was a general chorus of observation
that Lord Russell and Mr. Gladstone were revolu-
tionary characters of the most dangerous complexion.
(Laughter.) Well, during this session, there has
been nothing of that said ; on the contrary, men—
some eminent—in the Tory party, and some very
much the contrary—(laughter)—have come before
the house expressing their repentance, in fact de-
scribing to us in touching terms the manner of their
conversion, and making a complete confession of
the folly and the error of which they were guilty at
last session. (Laughter and cheers.) In fact, when
one remembers—for the sounds have scarcely yet
departed—when one remembers what was said last
year, we now seem to be in a different atmosphere
and amongst a different order of beings. They utter
strange and unaccountable things compared with
what they said only one year ago. The fact is that
the whole Tory party has been dragged from its
anchorage. They dud no longer any holding ground,
and in their confusion they offer they know not
what. (Laughter and cheers.) Some say that it is a
measure far in advance of anything that Mr. Glad-
stone and Lord Russell proposed; others say, it is a
highly Conservative bill. In point of fact, I believe
the majority of the supporters of the Government
find themselves completely bewildered, and as the
only solution of their difficulty they have determined
to follow Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli wheresoever
they may lead—(laughter)—but there is another
striking change. The arrogance which they dis-
played last session has been abandoned and some-
thing akin to moderation and to weakness has suc-
ceeded ; and even I, who am considered perhaps the
most guilty of all men in regard to this question—
even I escape now without one single sentence of
that vituperation which was lavishly bestowed upon
me during the whole of last session. (Laughter and
cheers.) Now, why is it that this change has taken
place? This is the explanation of it —that since
the unfortunate catastrophe which overtook the bill
of last session, the working men of this country
have undertaken to do their own work. (Cheers )
About this time last year I wrote a letter—l am
not sure whether to my friend Mr. Beales or to the
Secretary of the Reform League—in which I made
an observation to this effect—That if the working
men of London would come out some day and ask
for a Reform Bill in such numbers that they
would fill the space between Charing-cross and
the venerable Abbey, that then I should not be
in the least surprised that they would find that
which they were looking after. (Laughter.) I was
very much blamed for that observation,which I made
in a very innocent letter which I was writing ; but it
did happen not long afterwards that the men of
London did come out to look for a Reform Bill.
They did not go to the space between Charing-cross
and the venerable Abbey, but they went in the di-
rection of Hyde-park (cheers) —and, singular
enough to say, they found the railings of Hyde-park
just as rotten—giving way on a gentle but united
pressure—just as rotten as they would find all the
other barriers raised up against their rights when
they are united in demanding them—(loud cheers)—
and then immediately following their example, the
example of the men of London, you in Birmingham
somehow simultaneously and unanimously agreed
that you would have a meeting—and you had a meet-
ing, the fame of which has not passed away, or the in-
fluence of which is yet felt; and, after you, in South
Lancashire and Manchester there was a similar meet-
ing, and afterwards in the West Riding, at Leeds,
and after that iu the west of Scotland ; and, besides,
this, and a thousand other meetings iu various parts
of the country. Well, then, I attribute the change
that has taken place to the effect of these meetings,
and if there be anything now that stops the way—
and there is much—let these meetings go on.
(Cheers.) In the West Riding to-morrow there will
be a gathering, perhaps, not less than that you have
had to-day ; and thus the voice of a great people,
gathering strength as it proceeds from one end of
the island to the other, will at last strike with dread
those usurpers and impostors who, pretending to be
a Government in favour of Reform, are offering you
the most affronting and insulting measure that has
ever yet been proposed. But if this change is not
altogether unfavourable, there is one point which,
after all, is a great misfortune. It was referred to
by Mr. Wrght this evening, and it is this—That
this question, on which we have set our hearts, is at
present in the hands of an Administration which is
not really and truly in favour of the object which
f that bill professes to grant. It may be, I think,
but I am not sure yet, that the Tory party have
learned no longer to hate Reform ; but of this
I am quite certain, that they have not truly learned
to love it—the bill proves this. It is impossible for
any man who really examines the question to go
through the bill from the first to the last clause
without coming to the conclusion that it is not
bill of a Cabinet of statesmen—that it is the bill l of
this
a Cabinet made of Tory agents, and there
proof of it further. The other night a circular was
by the
read in the House of Coinmons, sent forth
chief Tory in London to all the Tory agents in the
various boroughs in England and Wales, consulting
them as to whether the borough suffrage proposed
by the Government in their bill, or that proposed

by Lord Grosvenor in his amendment, would be
most likely to serve the interest of the Conservative
party. (Cheers and hisses.) Every clause of,
the bill will show the point to which Mr. Scholo..
field just referred. Every clause of the bill
proves that the measure has never been intended to
satisfy the honest aspirations of the people, but the
main object has been to deceive the people, and,
under the pretence of granting them reforms, t:
ebeea franchise.
it
i s that
occupier he t e t
ofßeform point us
is
strengthen Conservative interests in the boroug I *
I.
say that last session, as well as this, the whole
debates altesoetiutrufeodr
aonintohont, us
the
borough
oAnetwohficlhBt3l2ie
gfaatvee a
o f thevotbillvote
todepends.every The
dwelling-house, or a counting-house, or a shop, or
warehouse, or other buildings, except to those below
£lO in value—that was the limitation. The bill
now before Parliament proposes not this limit, but
another, it proposes to give a vote to the occupier of
every dwelling-house, except to those whose rates
are paid by their landlord. The limitation in one
case is £lO value ; the limitation in the other is that
word,
as ewell
all persons, however good they may be, however re-
iepyetsat br theious, ilordinaryweve however
s eneof
the
intelligent, instructed
as orderly, and desirous of the political franchise,
not one of them is to have a vote if his rates are
paid through means of his landlord. At the same
time Mr. Disraeli confessed in the House of Com-
mons that the multitude of those whose rates are
thus paid, who he said were just as good as those
Who paid their own rates, would not be ad-
mitted to the franchise. If that be so, clearly the
object of the limitation, the object of the principle
of the bill, is not the admission of the people, but
the exclusion of the great bulk of them. In addition
to this there is that monstrous proposition of a two
years' residence instead of al2 months' as now. As
Mr. Scholefield said, 12 months is a great deal too
long, for if a man enters into a house on the Ist of
Aug. he cannot vote for two years and four months,
if the bill passes; and a man coming to Birmingham
from London or Manchester, and taking a shop in,
your beat street, and not being entitled without re-
sidence from July3l, 1867, cannot have a vote
until
Dec. 1, 1870. These are the mean and contemptible
methods by which these persons, whilst pretending
to give, seek in every little dirty way to exclude you
from the franchise. Look at this limitation,
and as
proposed in the bill. How will it work ? How far is
it equal, or what are the kind of its inequalities ?
There is a return before Parliament which gives
minute details on this point, and it shows that there
are 29 boroughs in England and Wales, 12 of which
are very small, and ought in any reform bill to be
all disfranchised. In these 29 boroughs the bill will
give household suffrage, because all the occupiers in
them pay their own rates and none through the
landlord. Every man in them who pays his rates
will have a vote. Of these 29 boroughs eight of them
are of considerable size, and, curiously enough, out
of the whole number of persons who would be en-
franchised—that is, supposing every man of them
comes on the register—two-thirds, that is, 82,000 out
of 103,000, are to be found in these eight boroughs to
which I refer. Reference has already been made to
the special case of Birmingham, but I should like to
give you the case of these 8 boroughs out of the 29
to which I have alluded. In some of them, where
household suffrage will be established under the bill,
it will admit 82,000. There are eight other boroughs
out of the 29, and supposing that every man comes
upon the register the bill will admit 21,000 only, but
it will exclude 100,000. (Hisses.) I will read their
names, because it will show more clearly the mon-
strous, the incredible, and the unnatural injustice of
the bill. The first eight are Huddersfield, York,
Bury in Lancashire, Rochdale, Stockport, Oldham,
Stoke-upon-Trent, and Sheffield. In these eight
boroughs the bill, supposing every man comes on the
register, will admit 82,000. The other eight are Hull,
Merthyr Tydvil, Norwich, Bradford, the Tower
Hamlets, Leeds, Manchester, and Birmingham. In
these the bill will exclude 160,000, and will admit
2,380 in Birmingham. It is a curious fact that a
large portion of those to be admitted will be found
in Sheffield. In that town no landlord pays rates ;
but this bill makes no reckoning of a matter of this
kind. It gives to Sheffield2B,ooo new voters ; itshuts
out from Birmingham 36,000. (Cries of " Shame,
we won't have it.") The town of Sheffieldgets more
than a quarter of all the new voters of the 29
boroughs, and it gets more than one-ninth of allthe
new voters introduced into the boroughs by this bill.
I ask you as sensible men, looking to our legislation
upon.other matters, whether such a proposition as
this is to be accepted by the country, even though it
should unfortunately be accepted by Parliament.
(No.) Suppose the Chancellor of the Exchequer,
who has proposed this bill, had come forward with a
budget framed on the same principle—suppose your
taxation or your tariff were so arranged that in one
county the taxes should be ten times what they, are
now, while in another county there should be no
taxes at all ; or that in London and in Hull there
should be heavy duties imposed on imported goods,
and in Bristol and Liverpool there should be no duties
at all—suppose a bill that has excited the interest of
your Chamber of Commerce—the Bankruptcy Bill
—was to be a bill to affect the counties south of the
Mersey or south of the Hu ml. cr, and to have no ef-
, feet to the north of thus= rivers, everybody would
say that the Government which proposed such legis-
lation was a Government that was more fit for
Bedlam than the House of Commons, and yet this is
the proposition which au eminent but always un-
successful statesman—Lord Derby—has offered to
Parliament and the country. What is the actual re-
sult of this bill? I will take it up on their own
figures, which are the most favourable that can be
stated for it. On their own returns they show that
throughout the country, throughout the boroughs of
England and Wales, there are 246,000 male occu-
piers below the rate of £lO who might come in if
this bill passed ; but they admit, which I know to
be true, that from a two years' residence and vari-
ous other obstructions, not more than one half that
number Would ever find itself upon the list ; in fact
it is a matter that may be demonstrated that no
more than 100,000 actual voters and names would
I appear upon the borough register in all the boroughs
of England and Wales together if this bill as it now
• stands become law. If more than that is to be done
it would be done by the repeal of the Small Tene-
inents Act, and the repeal of the various local rating
acts under which, as in Birmingham, the occupiers
pay their rates through their landlord in their rent,
and their landlord pays them to the parish. I hear
that you have in this town a local rating act which
was passed nearly 40 years ago. There is hardlya mart
in this hall who took any part in the passing of that
bill, yet it was an act of Parliament as much a law of
the land as this bill, and I hope a great deal more
than this bill will ever be ; and that act determined
the mode in which the rates in Birmingham should
be paid —they should not be paid by the tenant to
the parish, but by the tenant in his rent to his land-
land, and by the landlord to the parish; but the effect
of that is, under this bill, to disfranchise not fewer
than 36,000 men, occupiers of dwelling-houses in
Birmingham under the value of £lO per annum .
Now, how are you to get rid of all this, sup-
pose this bill passes ? You will have to get up
au rgitation in Birininghain, if you are not con-
tent to sit down just as you are, to repeal your
m will have
local rating acs ; and every man of y(
ew bargaingo
sin
uSsion
with his landlord. There must be 36,00 n
and agreements, or attempts to bargain, and then I
know not what amount of correspondence with the
overseers, and an amount of trouble and labour by
which you arc not expected to get in, and by w hick
it is confidently believed by Lord Derby you will
be effectually kept out. Look at the proposition of
Mr. Gladstone and compare it with this ; and un-
derstand that I an not asking any man to give up
his view that every man should have a vote, nor ask-
ing any household suffrage man to
yieldanything
from the household suffrage to whlc • I he is attached
—bear in mind that in the House of Commons the
unenfranchised are but little represented b ; ear in
mind further, that there are in •
whose opinions must be recorded amongst those who
are represented now, and no M. • mister and no Cabi-
net can arrange a Reform Bill upon the basis of
meeting the view only of one section of the nation.
I said, years ago, when I was asked at an influen-
tial conference of R f e oriners to prepare a MOM