The Sun.
London, England, 1867-10-17 00:00:00

REFORM 13.1NQUET A 7 LEEDS.

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On Tuesday evening the Leeds and Bradford
members of the Yorkshire department of the Reform
League celebrated the passing of Lord ll,;rby's Be-
form Bill by a bancinetat the Queen's Hotel, Leeds.

Mr. A. Blingworth, of Bradford, occupied the chair,

Mr. Baines, M.P., Mr. E. A. Leatham, Mr. Chad-
wick, of Arksey, Mr. S. Plimsoll, of Sheffield, were
among those immediately supporting the chairman,
but there were also in attendance gentlemen from
Halifax, Huddersfield, &c., and many members of
the Leeds Corporation. After the usual loyal toasts,
Mr. BAINES, M.P., in responding to the toast of
" The Houses of Parliament," which had been re-
ceived most heartily, said in the manner of its re-
ception there was an assurance to all who needed such
an assurance, that when they (the Reform League)
were calling for Reform they never meant revolution
—they never meant that they were not attached to
the glorious old Constitution of England. No; they
honoured both Houses of Parliament, and even the
aristocratic house, as institutions. They looked back
upon their history ; they knew the great number of
distinguished and noble men whom they included ;
they believed that they were a machinery calculated
to promote a free opinion, and calculated in every
way to promote the happiness of the nation ; but
what they claimed was, and what their conscientious
wish was, that those Houses of Parliament should
represent the people—(applause)—that they should
not represent a mere fraction of the people, and that
claim certainly was most reasonable. And now what
made them rejoice was not a selfish object attained,
but an object wide as the nation itself, and which
they shared and enjoyed with all their fellow-citi-
zens. (Applause.) Ile might remind those present
that with their good help for years, and as the
chief work of his Parliamentary life, he had aimed
and strived at accumulating proof that the work-
ing classes of this country—men fitted for the
exercise of the franchise—were almost entirely
shut out of the pale of the Constitution. lie ac-
cumulated evidence which had convinced him-
self over and over again that this was so. Ile
had told the men of Leeds when standing in their
presence that, when he looked upon the faces of those
very men, perhaps a large majority of whom were
not electors, he could no more doubt their fitness—
no more doubt the fitness of the men before him
whose eyes beamed reason, and judgment, and in-
telligence—than he could doubt the fitness any
gentleman sitting around that table. During the
eight or nine years that he had been in Parliament
his labour had always been to gather proof of what
he thought it was impossible for any one to deny—
that there had been a great advance in the intelli-
gence, in the education, in the temperance, in the
saving habits, in the political knowledge, in the read-
ing tastes, and in everything which went to consti-
tute the fitness of a people for the exercise of the
electoral franchise, and that it was no longer either
just or wise or safe to withhold the franchise from
them. (Cheers.) During the nine Sessions that he
had been in Parliament he had supported six Reform
Bills. Three of them were what his witty and wicked
friend (Mr. E. A. Leatham) had called his (Mr.
Baines's) own bill, "single-barrelled bills." (Laugh-
ter.) But three of them were great revolvers brought
forward by the Government, and he (Mr, Baines)
was not sure now that that last revolver had not
gone off so imperfectly that even Mr.Leathain would
not have been glad if it had been a single- barrelled
bill. (Laughter.) He believed that if they had dealt
last session with the question of the franchise only, as
Mr. Bright proposed, and as Government proposed in
the preceding session, and had left those other ques-
tions as to the mode of voting, and as to the redistri-
bution of seats, to the new Parliament, they would
have done a great deal better. And they might
depend upon it, the question of the redistribution
of seats was still to come on. (Applause.) He need
scarcely remark that in Parliament, when he and
Mr. Leatham sat there together, they had the Tories
continually for their zealous opponents on this ques-
tion. Five out of those six Reform Bills were op
posed by them, and their leaders were found leading
their troops perpetu.lly to the defeat of the opposite
party, when they advocated the right of the people
to an extension of the suffrage. Let him give an
anecdote or two to show what the losition of the
leaders of the two parties had been N 4 All regard to
this question. And first with regard to Lord Derby,
the head of the present Ministry, and by whom the
recent Reform Bill had been passed. And Leeds was
somewhat peculiarly interested in the statement he
was about to make. In 1860, when Lord Palmer-
ston's Government brought forward a bill with which
they did not persevere, a committee of the House of
Lords sat under the chairmanship of Earl Grey, and
two gentlemen from Leeds were examined on that
committee. One proceeded to prove that a£6
borough franchise would admit a great number of
men admirably qualified to exercise the franchise,
and he endeavoured to show reasons for the belief
he had formed, and also endeavoured to show that
after all it would be a minority of the population of
Leeds who would be admitted then to the exercise of
the franchise. It was him (Mr. Baines) himself who
proccededto give evidence in that sense. (Applause.)
Now what was the position in which he saw Lord
Derby on the committee ? He was the man who
chiefly cross-examined him (Mr. Baines) in order to
throw doubt on all his statements, and on his assur-
ances with respect to the fitness of the people and
their strong desire to be admitted, and to express his
(Lord Derby's) own alarm with respect to those who
would be admitted by a£6 franchise. The other
gentleman examined was Mr. Bond, the Leeds agent
for the Tory party. Mr. Bond was Lord Derby's
witness, and he was brought forward to show that
there would be an alarming number of persons ad-
mitted to the franchise in Leeds who were not parti-
cularly well qualified for it. That was the state
of things which he (Mr. Baines) saw, and in which
he took part so far back as 1860. So much, then, for
the consistency of Lord Derby, who in 1867 had
come forward to carry a household suffrage bill.
(Hear, hear.) Well, now, as to Mr. Gladstone.
(Loud cheers hailed the mention of Mr. Gladstone's
name.) He (Mr. Baines) was glad they received
that name with the honour it deserved. (Cheers.)
He felt very great happiness that on one of his own
feeble attempts to bring this question before Par-
liament he was honoured by the support of Mr.
Gladstone in the first great Reform speech which
that right hon. gentleman made, and which speech

might be considered as perhaps the commencement
of that course of action and popular feeling, and as

awakening it, which had never ceased until the great
work of Reform was accomplished. (Applause.) Mr.
Gladstone was the principal author of the bill of last
year, which did not succeed. It was known to many
gentlemen in Parliament that Government would
bring forward not a £6, but a £7 borough franchise.
When he (Mr. Baines) heard that he went to Mr.
Gladstone, and did all he could to persuade him that
it would be safe and wise and right to bring forward
not a£7 but a £6 franchise. Mr. Gladstone lis-
tened most attentively, and with the eagerness of a
man who sought to be convinced or to find grounds
for supporting such a measure ; and he was con-
vinced that as to Leeds and Bradford and the York-
shire towns, as well as those of Lancashire; but he
sail, " While I am convinced that you are right,
and that if left to Lancashire and Yorkshire it might
do, yet Mr. Brand tells me that in the midland and
southern counties of England it would not go down,
and that I should not be able to carry it." It was
Mr. Gladstone's conviction that he should not be
able to carry a bill so strong as that, for that was
considered too strong to go down then. (Laughter.)
How times had changed since Mr. Gladstone would
have embraced most heartily that course and brought
forward that measure, but after referring to the
southern and midland counties, and to the state of
so many Liberal members of the House of Com-
mons, and of the Liberal party, on whom he could
not rely for support iu such a case, he said, after
he (Mr. Baines) had been with him an hour, " Ah,
it is hard work to make a silk purse out of a sow's
car." (Cheers and laughter.) That really was the
state of Mr. Gladstone's mind. He was most
anxious to bring forward a more liberal measure,
and only refrained from doing so because he was
detatained not to bring in a measure stronger than
he should be able to carry. What was the contrast
between the two administrations, the Russell and
Gladstone on the one side, and the Derby and Dis-