The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-16 00:00:00

• ON, TIMES E V ENING, MAY 16 1867.

that case they would have placed all these persons
on the roll in Sheffield, Rochdale, and the other
boroughs, which make up the 29 included, and the
extension of the franchise would then have been
equal and generous to them all. Mr. Forster has
alluded to the case of Scotland ; and what, let me
ask, has the Chancellor of the Exchequer done with
regard to that country. 1 sometimes suspect that
the Scotch are somewhat sharper than we are.
(Laughter and cheers.) I joke a very excellent
friend of mine, who is a Scotchman, that the only
thing in my life with which I had nothing to do but
which I blame myself for, is, that I was not born
with some Scotch blood in me. (Laughter and
cheers.) What, I say, does the light hon. gentle-
man do in Scotland ? There every occupier pays
only half his rate ; the landlord pays the other half ;
and yet in Scotland every householder above the
level of £4—for below that sum they do not collect
the rates from the occupier—is to be enfranchised
by this bill. I do not complain of that in the least ;
but I will tell you whatl do complain of very much,
and it is this—l complain that the Scotch occupier,
and who pays only half his rates, say 10e, if he is
rated for 205., should receive a vote, while the
Englishman, who pays at least 15s. out of the
is not to be allowed to have a vote. The Scetch-
man gets a vote who- pays only half his rate, but
the Englishman cannot get a vote in a single in-
stance under this bill although he pays as much as
three-fourths of the rate. (Shame.) I presume
it will be the same in Ireland. In that country
occupiers below £4 do not pay any rates, and above
that they pay only half and the landlord pays
the other half. The principle of this bill will I
suppose be extended to Ireland. I am not one of
those who depreciate the people of Ireland. (Hear.)
I think they have been too much oppressed by us
to justify any Englishman to throw a slur upon
their character ; but I will ask whether there is any
man within the three kingdoms who will say that
it is a wise, or necessary, or just act on the part of
Parliament to give in all the Irish boroughs a fran-
chise to those persons paying above £4, to give the
same to Scotland, and yet to deny it to the great
majority of the people of England who live in the
170 boroughs to which the restrictions of the bill
apply? (Loud cheers.) Mr. Hibbert, the member
for Oldham, proposed to introduce into the Govern-
tnent measure that particul tr clause to which I re-
ferred in the Compound Householders' Act of 1851,
which gives the right of voting to the compound
householders, and there was an idea that Govern-
ment would be got to accept it. You recollect the
little negociat ions —(laughter)—that took place be-
tween the head whip of the Govermneut and a
Welsh member on our side of the house. They
were cooking it all very nicely in the lobby. The
Welsh member thought he was cooking the whip,
but it turned out the very opposite way—the whip
was cooking the Welsh member. (Laughter.) In-
stead therefere.of Disraeli,who, through Col.
TdYlor, was to give.. the question his most -candid
(,consideration—(laughter)—no man: has so inueli
candid consideration as the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer— (renewed laughter)—doing what he said,
he turned round upon Mr. Hibberd and said, with a
profusion of compliments about the beauty, elegance,
eloquence, and truthfulness of his speech,- "I not
only won't take the clause you propose ; I not only
won't accept it and give the benefit of it to the new
voters under the bill, but I will repeal it with re-
gard to the voters who are at present entitled to be
upon the register:" He in fact, gave t 3 all those
gentlemen who were so credulous with respect to
his candid consideration a slap in the face
which I hope they will long remember. (Cheers.)
In addition to what I have mentioned there
was another way in which the Governme ut might
have chosen to act if they liked to preserve the
principle of their bill and yet give satisfaction.
They might have said to all the boroughs of Eng-
land and Wales to which this bill does not fairly
give the franchise, we will give it to every house-
holder of a certain clear annual value, so that in
those boroughs where the bill does apply the prin-
ciple will work, and in those where it does not
apply it will establish another franchise which, in
the long run, will come to the same resell. Thus if
in Sheffield 28,000 men have the right to come upon
the register, in Birmingham 30,000, or 36,000 men,
may have the right to come on under another pro-
position. But no; they will not do this. They
stand by what they call the principle of the bill, and
the principle of the bill merely means an enormous
most unjust, and I will venture to say-a most
perilous exclusion of the great body of the house-
holders of the Kingdom. (Cheers). Well, what is
it that it is our duty to do? Considering that we
have marched some distance since last December,
and a good deal further since this time last year,
N'e3.
of u
"11y,
or perhaps,
fancy, with some truth, that the
end journey may ultimately be reached.
(Hear, hear.) Everything that was said last ses-
sion against the bill of Lord Russell's Government
is now, I think, pretty nearly given up. The lies
have served their purpose, and are now dropped.
(Laughter). Most of the. things that were said
Nearly all the things they said
and I think they have a
Vlr. Gladstone are also given up. They
ssaeabyrotuaotbf ioni
due:
aa ritleti:aa also
perhapsggone
arty
against 1 •
have, it is true, found a
Igomoadyibneanoyf
snoemwetlhititnlgesutsoe
I ask, ought we to do, after
having done oans`el can by
v Arell? we(C
in helping them to get
ptehsrsoiuhigiliitysuherhiepgarmtsysoeflftthee
of this
rtioesbee
of '°
contentNe,
no.")'tv
ith
the
Or are we to insist upon it that whatever be its
basis, whatever be
liberality, when
so far
its principles., whatever be its
propositions
when
Parliamentwdi:ttever bean dithseaesesmutenseldm\lib,,
it
accomplish it, be at least a fair and equal
aiptsr
pewtaeesns
cce
ase
ns ,
measure, and shall be just and equally acceptable to
all the boroughs of the kingdom. (Cheers.) Last year
Mr. Gladstone brought in a bill, which as you know
did not go as far as many of us could have wished,
although it was a great recommendation to us that
the bill was so easy to comprehend. (C beers.)
There was not a single dodge in it from one end to
another. (Cheers.) It said that every man in a
county who occupies a house and laud of the value
of £l4 shall have a vote, and every man in a
borough, without any question of rating, or pay-
ment of rates, who occupies a house of the clear
annual value of £7, shall have a vote. Everybody
knew what that meant, and those who would have
been glad to go the length of £6 or £5, or even
househeld suffrage, were.obligel to confess that the
ofdmieffiaesuulrteieslike t
any
throught
Government
nie.:t housein passingwereso a
great great
that it was necessary to conciliate the opinions of
I h
others ; and even enthusiastic reformers, therefore,
I seeing the clear and transparent honesty that had
been employed in the construe ion and framing of
theStlt
thebil l
billg allalvveeintowa not have
a support(l\,g
the
1a
s dodge.
e
be-
cause there is scarcely a clause from beginning to
end in
which there
The subtlety of
Mr. Disraeli's intellect, combined with the corrupt
o:
quite in
contrary, their
power.
experience of the electioneering agents of the Go-
vernment, have brought this bill to the condition iu
which it was when it first made its appearance on
the table of the House of Commons. I say there is
only one answer that we can make to its proposals.
We must move on with an increased resolution and
an increased combination and union for-the purpose
of achieving that t grea success which, though it is
not exactly at our feet, is not so far ahead but that
I think most of usc:ui see it. (Cheers.) I am not
of opinion that the 29 boroughs in England and
Wales, or the -boroughs in Scotland that will be
enfranchised under this act, will . sit down and
say, we have got our table spread, and we
really cannot attend to what is said by our fa-
mishing brethren in the 170 boroughs. I believe,
when they are enfranchised under the operation of the
bill they will be still more resolve 1 th to the exist-
ing constituencies are now that the bill shall be made
an equal and a just bill to all their countrymen in
all the boroughs. (Cheers.) Now, what I should
recommend to the associations connected with this
question is this, that they should proceed to estab-
lish and organise in every borough in the kingdom
a committee for the. special object of doing this
speci.d work. (Applause.) As they were working
for their own enfranchisement in 170 boroughs, so,
in order that their own enfranchisement in the 29
favoured boroughs may be effectual for a better

Parliament, you will find in all these boroughs some
ten, or twelve, or thirty, or fifty persons who will
form themselves into an active committee, and who
will take care that this question, if it should be
momentarily left- where it now is, shall never remain
there longer than the period of a general election.
(Cheers.) I should say that in all those boroughs,
and iu all the boroughs of Scotland, and in all the
boroughs of Ireland, there will be this distinct ques-
tion put to every candidate—" Are you willing to
vote, and to vote steadily and constantly—for that
is a very important thing now—(a laugh)—are you
willing to vote in favour of making the franchise
proposed or pretended to be given by the act of 1867
a real extension of the franchise to all the boroughs
of the kingdom ?" and whatever may be the charac-
ter of the candidate, whatever his pretensions, what-
ever his past services, .whatcver his politics, 'should
advise all the constituencies in then.; boroughs not
to stultify themselves and the electoral rights of
their countrymen by returning any man to Par-
liament, under any circumstances, who is not
willing to accept that pledge. (Cheers.) Now, there
have been two or three allusions to the views of
what are termed the middle class—of the present
electoral class—upon this matter. I met a gentle-
man this morning who said to me that the shop-
keepers were very tired of the agitation, which they
fancy—what two or three newspapers tell them—
disturbs their business. Well, no doubt but that great
processions going up Regent-street do not stop much
to buy jewellery—(alaugh)—but upon a motive, and
for something infinitely better for the people than all
the jewellery iu the world. (Loud cheers,) But Ido
not believe that the majority or that any great
number of the shopkeepers of London are of this
opinion. (Hear, hear.) There are many causes
that affect the state of trade now, as everybody
knows, not in*Londou alone, but in all parts of the
country. What the shopkeepers of London should
do is this, to bring their minds to the examination
of this question, and what is desired on the part of
the people, what has been promised by Parliament
and by the Government; what the Parliament and
the Government are about to offer, seeing that what
is about to be offered is pot that Which has been
promised, or what the people have a right to expect
—they should shake hands with Mr. Wilson in
Manchester, with Mr. Beales, in London, and
should take the cause which their fathers took five-
and thirty years ago, when they came out like men,
and like men demanded from au adverse Govern-
ment their just rights, and their just rights, up to
the light of that time, were conceded to them.
(Cheers.) There has been reference made to cer-
tain members of Parliament by wh )se defection the
ixesent momentary cloud has come over this ques-
tion. I shall not speak of them 'with any feeling
of anger. I shall speak of them only with a
deep—l might say with an inexpressible—
sorrow. They, by their feebleness and by their
combination with - the real opponents of
reform, have transferred the management and
the coinpletion of this bill to the hancle of a states-
man who during 20 years has led a great party iu
opposition to every proposal from our side of the
house- for any improvement in our legislation and
in our administration. They have done this fur-
ther—they have, by so greatly elating him, and by
weakening the Parliamentary power of Mr. Glad-
stone—they have given to the Chancellor of the
Exchequer that spirit which ho has manifested for
some weeks past, and which does not allow him to
lose a single opportunity of venting a sneer or pass-
ling an insult upon the leader of the Liberal party.
(Hear, hear.) This, I know well, was not intended
to be the result of the action of those members; but
the Chancellor of the Exchequer is a man
who does not change countenance very much,
as those of you know who have seen him
—(a laugh).; but like most other men—and like
most horses—he cannot stand more than a certain
quantity of corn—(great laughter),—and, elated•as
he is now by a temporary success, he is not judicious
lenough to sustain himself, and he taunts some men
who are his opponents is this matter, and eminently
Mr. Gladstone, in a manner which I have never be-
fore seen on the Treasury bench since I have• been
in Parliament. (Loud cheers.) We are, I admit,
-I under a momentary disappointment. But I, if 1
could get from my soul the grief with which I have
seen men who up to this time have been so just and
so firm, depart, as 1 believe, from the policy of their
past lives, if I could get from it or get it from rue,
I do not think I should feel very much dismayed or
grieved at the present aspect of the question. There
can be no manner of doubt that the great
,cause of
Reform has marched on with stately and rapid steps
during the last year and a half. From the moment
when Earl Russel came into power, with Mr. Glad-
stone as his leader in the House of Commons—
(thetrs)—from that moment this question took
another start. We found ourselves surrounded by
a host of frietyls from that hour till now ; and
whatever may have been the temporary calamities
of the struggle, still we see that the march has
continued—the great question grows—and no man
but has the confident belief that nothing but a just
and generous settlement will ultimately be arrived
at. (Cheers.) Oh, let us bear in mind—let us not
forget now, any more than we did in past years,
how great and noble is the cause for which we
strive ! (Cheers.) You sae how it thrives beyond
the Atlantic. (Cheers.) You see how it thrives
in almost all the countries of Europe. (Cheers.)
You see how it has grown here within the time to
which I have referred. I say, let us not only not
despond, but let us take greater courage to go on.
(Cheers.) It is a great cause for which we fight,
it is for the enfranchisement of a great people, and
the tribunal to which we have to appeal, and which
. must finally test this question, is the incorruptible
conscience of the British nation.
The hon. gentleman sat down amidst enthusi-
astic cheering.

Mr. J. B. Toius, of Manchester, seconded the re-
solution, and in the course of his speech observe]
that when Mr. Disraeli had inscribed " household
suffrage" on his banner, he had written' underneath
it, in invisible ink, that nobody should get it, and
now feeling himself likely after all to be beaten he
was beginning to use bad. language like an ill-con-
ducted school-boy. (Laughter.) Mr. Disraeli had
accused the deputation on Saturday of sedition, but
be was the last person in the world in whose mouth
such a charge should be found, for the letter was on
record in which the right hon. gentleman, when a
candidate years ago for the parish of Marylebone,
concluded a very beautiful letter by saying—" Re-
member, my forte is sedition." (Great Ltughter and
cheering.) - The speaker concluded by promising
that the National Reform Union would hold a great
many more meetings yet.
Mr. BEALES, in supporting the resolution, said he
was perfectly willing'to co-operate with his Man-
chester friends who composed the National Reform
Union, in adopting measures against the Govern-
ment Reform Bill, but in so doing he was not to be
understood as in the slightest degree abandoning the
position which the Reform League had taken up
with respect to Reform. lie would continue to ad-
vocate residential registered manhood suffrage,
which, he believed, was the only satisfactory settle-
ment of this question. He added that those who
assisted to defeat the Government measure would
have to introduce a more liberal measure.
The resolution was then put by the Chairman,
and carried unanimously.
Mr. POPE moved, " That this meeting, having no
hope of any frank and free concession of equal elec-
toral rights from those who have arways been the
avowed enemies of Reform, calls upon the Liberal
members of the House of Commons, if the bill of
the Government arrives at a third reading without
the amendments indicated in the last resolution, to
reject it altogether, and remit the qucsiion to the
people." (Cheers.)
Mr. WARBURTON seconded the resolution, which
was also put and carried. •
There were loud cries for Mr. .Mill, but the chair-
man intimated that he would address another meet-
ing which was to be held next week.
On the motion of Mr. Mason Jones, a vote of
thanks was given to the chairman, and the pro-
ceedings terminated.

The other day, at the Central Criminal Court, a
prisoner was on trial, and at its
.conclusion was told that
the jury had found him guilty. "Exactly," replied the
culprit, " that's just my conviction."

ON THE STUMP.

(From the Morning Berta)

Saturday has settled it. At the moment when
shouts of triumph are pealing through the Conser-
vative camp, and the ',mans of shameless renegades
ring their loudest, the people are rallying to the
drooping banner of William Ewart Gladstone. A
callous aristocracy, a mere money-getting middle
class, and even the debauched intelligence of the
working population, may range itself on the side of
Tory treachery and Adullamite perfidy, but after
all the voice of the people is echoed in that yearning
appeal, that tearful apostrophe, which wrung from the
heart and the lips of their own William last Satur-
day the grandly aulacions deliance which has ere
this sq-uck the chill of terror in.° the mass of gelid
fl tbl)ittess which would be called the heart of the House
c,f Commons. Henceforth we have done with Parlia-
ment. Too long, with a generous but overstrained
patience, has the one statesman of England sought to
teach that the end and am of its existence is to restore
the Whigs to Downing-street. Thrice has he forced
that intelligible issue upon its conscience and its
loyalty, and thrice has he met with a repulse at once
shameless in its disobedience and cynical in -its
audacity. Those who, -ia mournfully diminished
numbers, still hold to him, are good men and true,
but he is faced by a soulless congeries of dishonoured
partisans, who fail to acknowledge the grandeu:.' of
tile programme which would place the leader of the
people once mare in his proper place on the right of
the Speaker. What though he is backed by such sin-
cere Reformers as Lowe and Bernal Osborne? He
struggles vainly against the mass of traditional
Tories, professed Liberals, and the self-seeking clique
of renegades represented by a Headlam, a Bass, an
Elcho, a Harvey Lewis, a Grosvenor, a-Laing, and a
Roebuck. There must be an end to this, and the sturdy
men of Manchester have said that it shall be so. They
demand household suffrage pure and simple, with
triennial parliaments, and while they know that Mr.
Gladstone will accept neither, they throw themselves
into his arms with a sublime confidence, and are not
even mean enough to ask what he means to do for
them. And what is the response to this splendid
generosity, this childlike trustfulness ? The tri-
bune of the people is chiefly identified with a Leven-
pound franchise or a five •pound franchise, or a
" hard and fast" limit of some kind or other. But
mark how the true statesman rises superior to small
pledges and peddling consistency. With a noble
, scorn and a grand derision be sweeps from his path
these records of a forgotten past, these finger-posts
which mark the traces by which, from separate

starting•points, he has sought the way to office, and
bursting the shackles of a hollow conventional
decency, untrammels himself from the pledges of
the past, and declares himself at liberty to say, to
do, and to suffer anything—evenfrom manhood

suffrage down to bigamy—if only he may open to
himself the portals of Downing-street. As we have
said before, so we repeat now, let us have no carp-
ing about details, which are puerile or meaning-
less in contrast with the grand • purpose which
William Ewart has ever steadily kept in view. Let
those who love good laws, and look to have them in
halcyon days in a not far future at present remote,
await with peaceful lips,. and faithful, if yearning,
eyes the good things that their trusted leader will
send them. Let them, we would say, with a gener-
ous defiance to Tory scoffers, let them even shut
their eyes, as the shrewd men of the NatiOnal Re-
form Union have done. They demand household
suffrage pure and simple, but will Mr. Gladstone
give it them ? Not a bit of -it. Do they ask him
to pledge himself to their programme ? By no
means. They leave him free ; they promise - him
their support to crush the 11,:ferm Bill; and when
he gets into office, we can promise them that,
having kept their eyes shut all the while, when
they
.open them they shall see what they
shall see. What, then -•-• in the glowing
language of the lofty orator and inspired
poet of the .name of Jones, who crewhite thrilled a
universe for a shilling a head at the Hanover-square
Rooms. What, then, is to be done? There is no
uncertain sound in the trumpet-tongued response
of the People's William. Let the House of Com-
mons look to it. He offers grace and mercy, if
only it will ben:: to his majestic will. Let it cancel
i:s votes of April 12 and May 9. Let the Tories
cease from troubling, and the Liberals and the tea-
room party from thwarting him. Let the Parlia-
meut of England crouch at the feet of its master,
acknowledge its fault, cancel its decisions, and be
ready to register the dictates of him who speaks in
the name of the multitudinous people. Let it un-
say all that it has said, undo all that it has done,
and be ready to back him in one supreme effort to
save an agonised nation, and restore the Whigs to
power. This is one alternative, the other is equally
simple. Defy him, pass this Act of Betrayal, this
Measure of Measureless Infamy, this Statute of Stre-
perousTurpitude, and the People's William will turn
in loathing scorn from a base and besotted Parlia-
ment, and fling himself into the longing arms of a
yearning but maddened populace. Again, we re-
peat, let the House of Commons look to it, and let
the upper and middle classes and the industrious
and intelligent working men look to it. They are
sick of the reform agitation, of meetings, and de-
monstrations ; we promise them a resumption of the
campaign on a far more gigantic and irritating
scale. They are weary of Bright, and Beales, and
Bradlaugh ; yet if these minor satellites could so
stir the hearts of the people, how menacingly deep,
how terribly earnest will be the response which will
follow when the People's William takes to the stump,
and attunes the heartstrings of roughs to the noble
promptings of his generous ambition. A sterner
Minister than 'Walpole may mass his forces to ter-
rorise the followers of Gladstone. Sir Richard
Mayne may array his myrmidons, the War-office
may lay Aldershot under contribution and make
London to gleam with hireling bayonets, and Lord
John Manners may encase Hyde-park with palings
'of triple strength; but when the people arise in
their might at the bidding of their trusted leader,
the peerless Paladin who knows nor shame nor re-
proach, the barriers erected by an effete oligarchy
will be burst like the withes which Samson rent in
the very scorn of his resistless power, and the Cam-
mons of England will be scattered in.dismay when
the walls of St. Stephen's are affrighted by the tread
and summons of the legions led by 'William Ewart
Gladstone.—Gaily Bellowgraph.

, The will of Benjamin Cohen, Esq., of Asgill
House, Richmond, and Marine-parade, Brighton,
was proved in London on the 12th ult., and the
personalty sworn under £140,000. The executors
are his three sons, Lionel, Nathaniel, and Arthur,
and Sampson Lucas, Esq.• The testator died March
30, at the Great Western Hotel, Paddington. He
has left the following charitable bequests :—To the
Jews' Free School, Bill-lane, £200; Jews' Hos-
pital (Beth Holem), Mile-end, £lOO ; Mesh war
Neposh, £100; Jewish Ladies' thnevolent Society,
founded by his sister, Mrs. De Rothschild, £100;
Great Synagogue; .Duke's-pla3e; £100; Jews'
Orphan Asylum, Hackney, £5O, all free of legacy
duty ; to the Vicar of Richmond £l5O for
benevolent purposes ; and directs that on the de-
cease of his relict £lOOO shall be distributed among
such charities as his executors may see fit. There
are numerous legacies to his friends and to his ser-
vants. To his wife he leaves an immediate legacy
of £5OO, the interest of £60,000, and his residences
and furniture, except the jewels and medals which
are specifically bequeathed. He has made a liberal
provision for his daughters, and leaves the residue of
his property amongst his three sons equally.
The CATTLE PLAGUE.—The cattle, plague is re-
ported to have agai❑ made its appearance in Cornwall, and
great uneasiness prevails in consequence. A cow, the pro-
perty of Mr. Jell, farmer, of Calstock, suddenly became ill
during the past week, and on Friday a veterinary surgeon
declared it, to be a bad case of cattle plague. The animal
was ordered to be killed.

About 100,0001bs. of a good quality of sugar,
made from blot root, have just been received at Spring-
field, Illinois, from a manufactory recently established in
LiN ingston County, in that State.
EDITORIAL COURTESIES.—Iii a recent number of
the Foxtown Fusilier appeared the following editorial note :
—" Postscript.• -We stop the press with pleasure to an-
nounce the decease of our contemporary, Mr. Snaggs,
editor of the Foxtown Flash. He has now gone to another
and a better world. Persons who have taken the Flash
will find the Fusilier a good paper."—The Stationer,