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

Dinner to Mr. Doulton, M.P.

iast 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. 13arton, 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 most 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.,
been ill-used.
The CHAIRMAN, in proposing
who agreed that Mr. Doulton had
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 b3en 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
agitation and turmoil which every one wished to see
ob
re
Iperpetuallyo
tr
be
ies n. gpraesast
aqgureesatitoanoodf
croemfoprirne-;
put to rest ? Was it for the good of the nation to
wiser hteo
hensive measure which should settle the question for
one generation ? A certain section of the Liberal
party had obtained a nickname ; but they included
among their number men of the greatest ability and
administrative capacity, and they offered arguments
in support of their views which were quite unan-
swerable. (Cheers.) Would the electors of Lambeth
commit to the trades unions of working men the
power of returning the whole of the representatives
of the House of Commons ? (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 mub. (Cheers.) The
chairman concluded by proposing " The Health of
Mr. Doulton, M.P.," which was drunk with the
greatest enthusiasm.
Mr. DOULTON said that if he 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 during last 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.
He 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
in 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 satisftictorily
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

a fair Redistribution Bill, but this, although pro-
mised by the Ministry, was not forthcoming. No
argument was necessary to prove that a complete
measure ought to be laid before the House of Com-
mons. He voted on Earl Grosvenor's motion against
the Government on this first issue, and he never
gave a vote in his life with a firmer conviction not
only that he was right, but that he could justify that
vote to a Liberal constituency whenever the time
should arrive for doing so. (Cheers.) Lord Gros-
venor's motion was lost by five votes, yet practi-
cally the Government were defeated, and the best
proof that the minority were right was that the Go-
vernment undertook to introduce a Redistribution
Bill. It was conceived unwillingly, brought forth
in anger and disappointment, and received not
merely with coldness, but with something like con-
tempt and derision on the part of the House of
Commons. If ever there was an absurd and pre-
posterous bill it was the Redistribution of Seats Bill
of the late Government. The hon. member pro-
ceeded, amid the laughter and cheers of the meet-
ing, to give some examples of the groups proposed
by the bill, and of the anomalies which it created.
Another principle of the bill was to give an ad-
ditional member to large towns such as Bir-
mingham and Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds.
But what did the bill do for Lambeth? No-
thing ; and the elite of the working classes would
still have been excluded. He objected to giving
additional members to large existing constituencies.
He was not afraid of a large extension of the fran-
chise ; but let the great constituencies be separated,
and boroughs like Lambeth divided into wards.
By a division of large towns two objects would be
attained—a practical representation of the working
classes, and a full and complete representation of
the opinions of the electors of the borough. At
present as a rule only one-third of the electors
of the larger boroughs recorded their votes,
and in Lambeth out of 26,000 voters 14,000
did not vote at all. The result of the present
system was that the supposed minority did not come
to the poll at all. The hon. member next proceeded
to defend his vote on Lord Dunkellin's motion for
a rating instead of a rental qualification. In the
Reform Bills of 1852 and 1854 a rating qualifica-
tion was adopted, and in 1860 Earl Russell advo-
cated a rating clause. At all events, a member of
Parliament might be allowed to have an opinion of
his own on such a subject without being politically
excommunicated. (Cheers.) The Government,
however, being defeated resigned office in the same
spirit in which they had brought in and discussed
the bill—namely, in a spirit of anger and disap-
pointment. It was not expected on the Liberal side
that they would resign, but when they did so he saw
no cause for clothing himself in sackcloth and ashes.
(Laughter.) There was but one feeling, that
it ought to have been withdrawn long before the
division on Lord Duukellin's motion ; and it was
apparent to every one, when it was introduced, that
it bore upon its face the marks of haste, incomplete-
ness, and indecision. It was said to be a step, but
it was a step in the dark. No two of its supporters
agreed as to what it would do. Mr. Gladstone
asserted that 204,000 working men would be ad-
mitted by the bill to the franchise. Mr. Bright
said it would only enfranchise 116,000. Mr. Glad-
stone said that when the bill passed it would place
330,000 additional voters on the register. Mr.
Bright put the number at 179,000. The difference
between Z 1 more or less might seem unim-
portant, but the difference between £6 and £7
might be imagined from Mr. Gladstone's statement
that he did not take a £6 franchise because it would
give a numerical preponderance to the working
man. The first blunder was the denial by the Go-
vernment of independent judgment to individual
members. The Liberals were to receive the Bill with-
out inquiry, and accept it without hesitation. They
were to open their mouths and shut their eyes and
see what their leaders would send them. (A laugh.)
The language of Ministers, and of a portion of their
press, was, " Differ from us and you are politically
excommunicated." (Laughter.) He, on his part, pro-
tested against the illiberality of those who said that
because he voted against a Reform Bill he was there-
fore opposed to Reform. This was tyranny under
the guise of liberty. (Cheers.) Mr. Bright said that
the House of Commons ought to accept no Reform
Bill from a Conservative Government, but this was
not the language of an honest R►eformer. It was
not that he loved Reform less, but agitation more.
(Cheers.) He (Mr. Doulton) was not one of those
who believed that the agitation of the past six
months had advanced the just settlement of this
question. If, as he believed, on the contrary, the
coming assembling of Parliament would find class
more bitterly than ever arrayed against class ; if
there were more distrust and suspicion on the part
of the working classes against the House of Com-
mons, it would not be difficult to fix upon those
who would be responsible for such a state of things.
(Loud cheers.) Five years ago he had told them
in that room, when seeking their suffrages, that he
should go into the House of Commons as an inde-
pendent member, supporting measures, not men.
If he continued to be member for Lambeth, it
would be to support the same principles as an inde-
pendent member, and not as tha nominee of any
party. (Loud and continued cheering.)
The Hon. MEMBER afterwards proposed " The
Health of the Electors and non-Electors of Lam-
beth," humorously expressing his obligations to
certain of the latter body who had attended the
meeting at the Walworth Institute, and had denied
him a hearing.
After the usual compliments to the chairman and
to the hon. secretaries the meeting broke up.