The Sun.
London, England, 1867-10-25 00:00:00

THE MEMBER FOR HULL ON THE RE-

FORM QUES7ION.

A large and influential meeting was held in the
Hull Sessions-house on Wednesday evening to hear
addresses from the borough members, Mr. Clay and
Mr. Norwood. Mr. B. M. Jalland, who presided,
said he thought they had cause to be thankful to
their representatives for the assistance they had ren-
dered in the passing of the new Reform Bill.
Mr. CLAY on rising was received with repeated
rounds of cheering. After the applause had sub-
sided he said—Since I last had the honour of ad-
dressing you Parliament has sanctioned a change in
the laws respecting the representation of the people
greater even than that which was effected by the
Reform Bill of 1832, greater especially as r gards
the extension of the franchise than probably the
most sanguiue among us had expected. As it was
easy to believe there have been many different
opinions expressed as to the result of this measure.
Some recoil from it with fear, others look forward to
it with hope ; while some there are, and those are
the men who have always been the most eager and
the loudest in asking for an extension of popular
power, who find in this great change scarce any-
thing for which to be thankful. They are bad
to please. For my part it appears to me that
the Reform Bill of 1867 is a triumph of Radi-
cal principles, for which every honest Radi-
cal and every reasonable Radieal should be the
more thankful, because he little expected it. (Ap-
plause.) But there are many here to whom I have
had the pleasure of speaking frequently before, both
those who have for a long time enjoyed the fran-
chise, and many who are even yet excluded from the
franchise—an exclusion which is about to see a
speedy termination. I appeal, therefore, confidently
to your memory whether events have not fully
borne out the opinion which I have always expressed;
when I have told you over and over again that no
member of Parliament, however earnest a speaker,
however eloquent, no Government even, however
well disposed, could obtain for you a wide and real
extension of popular power, no, unless by your own
efforts, by your own clearly and generally expressed
desire and determination, you obtained it for your-
selves. Nor was there any good reason why this
should be otherwise. England, since the first Re-
form Bill, had been well and wisely governed; and
the reason for a great change was only to be found
in the unmistakable and notorious demands of the
people for a more direct participation in the legis-
lation of the country, a demand having its source
in their increased well-being and their intelligence.
Failure after failure, both of individual effort and
of Government bills, had tested the correctness of
my views, until at last—a little more than a year
past—until at last the voice of the people was heard
in earnest, and we were already in easy sight of
household suffrage. When, therefore, lam asked
to which of the great parties in the State the people
are to return their thanks for the great boon which
has been conferred upon them, I am never puzzled
for my answer. Are we to thank the Tories ? Are
we to thank the Whigs? Certainly not the
the Whigs. Are we to t hank the Radicals ? No,
to none of these is your first gratitude due. First
and foremost let the people thank themselves. (Ap-
plause.) They have done their own work, and done
it well. We will see presently who should come
next. It is little more than a year since I had the
honour of speaking to you in the Queen's Theatre.
It was at that time suite uncertain
whether Lord Derby's Government would introduce
a Reform Bill. Forgive me if I ask from you some
little credit for sagacity—(hear, hear)—when I re-
mind you that I then ventured to prophesy that
Lord Derby's Government would introduce a Re-
form Bill, and that one of its leading provisions
would be household suffrage. (Applause.) It is
true that household suffrage was not the first offer
which was made to us. Other schemes were sug-
gested, scarcely proposed, and certainly not insisted
on. I dismiss them, and they were generally so
dismissed as altogether unworthy of notice ; they
only serve to show that little less than that which
we have now obtained would have been accepted.
(hear.) At the meeting to which I referred I
pledged myself, with your loudly expressed approval,
to support any measure, from whatever party it
might come, which promised a rehl and wide exten-
sion of popular power. (Applause.) At last, then,
after the schemes to which I have alluded—as I had
always expected—household suffrage came; not,
indeed, pure and simple, but accompanied by certain
checks and counterpoises—so its authors called them
—as a screen of laths to keep out the sea, framed
only to be abandoned, and inviting destruction from
their very frailty. The good sense of General Peel
foresaw at once that they could never stand. Then
arose a difference of opinion in the Liberal ranks.
Many thought the measure went . much too far ;
others considered it a sham so transparent, and sur-
rounded by provisions so offensive, that it would be
impossible ever to mould it into a good measure—
that it ought not to be allowed to go into committee,
but shoul Ibe defeated on the threshold. Among
those who held this opinion was the great leader of
the Liberal party, Mr. Gladstone, of whom I will
only say in passing that I do not believe that there
is one single member of the Liberal party who
will dispute for one moment that he is their only
fitting and possible leader. (Applause.) I ven-
tured to hold a different opinion as to the merits
of this bill. Household suffrage had been taught
me in my political catechism more than thirty
years ago by Lord Durham. For a period almost
equally long I had advocated it here and on
the hustings to our neighbouring Beverley, which
place, as many of you may recollect, was my politi-
cal cradle, and where I received kindness which 30
years have done nothing towards effacing. (Ap-
plause.) Household suffrage had to me a sort of
magic sound. The fortifications which a timid Tory-
ism still sought to raise against this advance of de-
mocracy were so weak that I did not believe for one
moment in any serious intention of defending them.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer also, as we all
heard, promised, with an earnest sincerity which I
at least could not understand, that if his bill was
allowed to go into committee, he was anxious to
take the whole house into his councils, and to make
every reasonable concession to their wishes. For
these reasons I felt the strongest confidence that
Lord Derby's bill might be and would be made a
very valuable measure, and I determined as far as I
had the power to assist it, that it should go into
committee, and that it should there receive a fair
hearing. (Applause). A great number of the most
earnest Liberals in the House of Commons were of
the same opinion as myself, and fifty good Radicals
met in the tea-room of the House of Commons, and
the number would have been doubled if any efforts
had been made to procure concerted action. You
have no doubt frequently read-in the newspapers of
late that Mr. So-and-so, in addressing his consti-
tuents, defended his conduct in going with the tea-
room party. lam not here to defend my conduct
in that particular. On the contrary, I took no in-

significant part in that movement, and I look upon
it as a cause of congratulation and triumph. (Ap-
plause.) The aim and the action of that party were
only to procure for the Government bill a fair hear-
ing in committee, in the belief that it might be
moulded into a measure conferring greater power
on the people than they were likely to attain
under any other circumstances. They made
their opinions known through a deputation
to Lord Russell and Mr. Gladstone. Their
advice was taken. The bill did go into corn-
m'ttec. It was fairly heard iu committee; it was
altered, and it was very greatly amended, and it
came out the great Reform Bill of 1857, the start-

ing point of a new era in the constitutional history.
(I fear.) And there the matter ends, except that if
the people, after thanking themselves, which I ad-
mit they have the first right to do, have any spare
gratitu(le left for others, they will do well to bestow

it on the members of the tea-room party. (Cheers.)
Let it not, however, be supposed for a moment that
I look upon this act as perfect. Could it well be ex-
pected that so great a work should in so short a
time come forth smooth and polished everywhere as
a statue from the hands of a sculptor? One great
work at least remains, for the coming year, I mean
a law to prevent corrupt practices at elections. This

subject has been carefully considered early iu the
year, by a committee of the House of Commons—