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

Reform Meeting in St. James's Hail.

A public meeting was called yesterday evening
in St. James's Hall, by a body of gentlemen who
style themselves " The National Reform Union,"
tor the purpose of " considering the present aspect
of the Government Reform Bill." As particular
prominence was given to the fact that Mr. Bright
would address the meeting, and as the hall was open
to all comas, it is scarcely necessary to add that
long before the commencement of business the
building was filled to overflowing. On the occasion
of the last great Reform meeting in St. James's
Hall a very slight charge for admission was imposed,
and it was then discovered that neither the attrac-
tions of Mr. Bright's famous eloquence nor the in-
terest ;7enerally felt in the question of Reform was
suificieut to fill the hall. Profiting by the expe-
rience v:aaned on that occasion the committee re-
solved not to incur again the risk of a thin meeting
for the sake of a few pounds ; and by opening the
13111 indiscaUminately to every one a numerous au-
dience-3mi we must add, a very respectable one—
was secured. The majority of the persons present
appeared to belong to the lower section of the
middle class, and ninety-nine out of every hundred
of them were probably already in possession of the
suffrage. There were about 3,000 men in the hall,
and 17 ladies.

The chair was taken at eight o'clock by Mr. S.
Morley. Among the gentlemen on the platform
were Mr. Bright, M.P., Mr. Mill, M.P., Mr.
Forster, M.P., Mr. Vernon Harcourt, Mr. Baines,
Mr. Beales, Mr. I. Holden, M.P., Mr.
Barnes, M.P., Mr. J. B. Potter, M.P., Sir H.
Hoare, the lion. L. Stanley, Mr. Sergeant Parry,
and oth,A. gentlemen.
The cheers with which the appearance of Mr.
Bright was greeted having subsided, the chairman
attempted to open the proceedings, but for the space
of five minutes or so there was a great deal of con-
fusion and noise arising out of the inconveniently
crowded state of the hall. When silence was in
some degree restored,
The CHAIRMAN said that he and these who appeared
with him ou the platform were not fond of agitation;
but they from a feeling of duty and because of
their profound conviction that the people were about
to be cheated in the matter of reform. (Applause.)
In common with many other earnest men he had
once entertained the belief that a Reform Bill would
be introduced such as honest men could accept, but
the recent division of the Hoare of Commons
was enough to convince every one that the old trick
was about to be played out again. (Applause.)
The bill contained the very essence of Toryism—
it spoke of the distrust of the people felt by the
Tory party, governed by fear of them. (Applause.)
The Government had kept the word of promise to
the ear, and had continually broken it to the hope.
The hundreds of thousands of compound house-
holders whom it was pretended to enfranchise would,
in fact, be handed over to the parish officers and to
the landlords, and he did not know which was
worst. (Applause.) There were now five or six
millions of men in England and Wales without
votes ; and he and his friends would never rest sa-
tisfied till such a proportion of these persons were
enfranchised as would settle the question, at any
rate fur some time to come. (Cheers.) Never,
be believed, had Mr. Disraeli been more faithful to
the interests of his party than in the construction
of this bill, which would hand over the boroughs of
England and Wales to electioneering agents. It
was founded in fraud, and with the intention to
cheat the people of their rights. (Cheers.) There
was no question now of Reform Union or of Re-
form League; they were all involved in the same
cause, and no spirit of division or difference should
be suffered to divide their councils. (Applause.)
The enemy—and it was an enemy they had to deal
with—was united, and they must meet it with a
compact front. Let them have either an honest
bill, or none at all. (Applause.) Ile was not
afrai 1 or ashamed to say that the Liberal party in
the House of Commons wasdisorganised ; but out-
side the house the people were true to the cause,
and they were true to their noble leader (great
applause, which was followed by three enthusi-
astic cheers for Mr. Gladstone) If he were de-
serted in the house the people would show that

va.lvax. 11,,C ILI
the Tea-room or anywhere else. (Applause.) The
chairman concluded by calling upon the speakers to
be brief and condensed in their observations, as the
hour was late and the speakers were many.
Mr. VERNON HARCOURT moved the first resolu-
tion, as follows—" That this meeting desires to ex-
press its heartfelt thanks to Messrs. Gladstone,
Bright, Mill, and the other members of Parliament
who have acted with them in their endeavours to
secure a satisfactory Reform Bill during the present
Session, and assures them of its entire confidence in
their efforts to obtain a full, just, and equal recog-
nition of the rights of the people." In supporting
the resolutions, he said they were that night to do
what they could, in a legal, constitutional, ratianal,
and proper manner, to reverse the verdict of the
House of Commons. (Loud cheers.) They had
asked that House for bread, and had received a
stone ; they had asked for fish, and had only got a
serpent. (Cheers and laughter.) The question
was, were they to acquiesce in such a state of things:?
He hoped no one present would agree to do that.
There were constitutional means of repealing unjust
decisions of the House of Commons, and he did not
despair of the recent one of which they complained
being ultimately reversed. (Cheers.) Public dig-
nussion was the way to accomplish this most desir-
able result, by educating public opinion, and if
possible educating the House of Commons itself on
so great and momentous a question. (Laughter
and cheers.) It was not necessary to use hard lan-
guage when facts were so strong. If the Liberal
party was disudited it was doubly necessary that the
Liberal party outside the House should be united.
(Cheers.) Let them pursue the policy which had
always been advocated by the Liberals, which that

party in the House of Commons had too much
neglected, and let them have faith in their
leaders, and give them a generous, an encourag-
ing, and undivided support. If this were done

he had no fear as to the ultimate result. He need
not waste their time in eulogising the great Li-
beral leaders mentioned in his resolution. lie could
not, however, help asking them to accord their
warm sympathy to Mr. Gladstone, who on account of
his steadfastness to the cause of Reform had had to
suffer a good deal of obloquy and reproach. He
had been subjected to mortification, insult, injus-
tice, cabal, and intrigue, all the more that he was
of so noble and sensitive a nature, and he deserved
all the encouragement that could be given him. He
had never heard insults heaped upon Mr. Gladstone
without being reminded of the lines of Johnson :
" It never wounds more deep the generous heart,
Than when a blockhead's insult points the dart."

Those who were in favour of amending the Govern-
ment Reform Bill might be stigmatised as incen-
diaries. He accepted that word. He would take
the Government bill and try it in the fire of public
opinion to see whether it was sterling metal or mere
dross. (Cheers.) They might be spouters of stale
sedition. lie hoped the words would be remem-
bered. (Cheers.) He was persuaded that the in-
sults which the Chancellor, of the Exchequer had
heaped upon the people would have a different effect
to what was intended, and that they would in the
end help to effect the object they all had in view
that of getting the bill of the Government amended
so as to be satisfactory to all clas.ses of the people.
Sir H. Iloaru: seconded the resolution. The only
end that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had in
the bill was to juggle his own party, disappoint the
country, and cheat the people—a bill that took away
ou one side what it gave on the other ; that would
rais: class against class, and would increase the Re-
form agitation instead of settling it. lie admitted
that the Chancellor of the Exchequer had succeeded
in routing the Liberal party—for that Party was in
a state of complete rout—but it was for the people
to reinvigorate them, if not now at any rate at
the next general election. (Applause.) Nothing
more unjust could be imagined than the position of
the compound householder under the bill. Why, a
gentleman was telling him only the other day that
he was the owner of a number of houses iu Man-
chester (he believed), the rent of which was ,t 4

and the difference between the rent and the com-
pound rate on them was no less than 12s. 6d., and
he asked whether it was not not absurd to suppose
that be could allow a tenant claiming the suffrage
to deduct this bonus, as well as the rate, from the
rent, and whether he would not be obliged to raise
the rent in proportion ? (Applause.) It was, in-
deed, obvious that this must be the effect of the bill
in this respect. Well, he thought the people must
now take up the matter; they must agitate until
their just demands were granted ; they must sup-
port their great leader in the House, and follow him
blindly, confidently, and unhesitatingly--(great
cheering)—in any course that lie might take to
secure the claims of the people. In the great agita-
tion before the bill of 1832 the cry of the Reformers
was, "'The bill, the whole bill, and nothing but the
bill," and so now he would have the cry to be, " A
real bill, an honest bill, or no billat all." (Great
applause.)
The resolution was carried unanimously.
Mr. W. E. FORSTER, M.P., then moved--" That
this meeting utterly repldiates the bill of the Go-
vernment in the present form as a settlement of the
Reform question, especially of the borough fran-
chise ; and resolves that as the House of Commons
by the divisions of the 12th of April, and of the 9th
of May, refuses to improve the partial, capricious,
and unjust restrictions by which the Government
seeks to prevent large numbers of householders from
acquiring the franchise, the agitation be at once re-
newed and continued until these restrictions be
abolished, and an honest and straightforward mea-
sure be secured." (Cheers.) He said the time had
come when Reformers in the House should take
counsel with Reformers out of the House, and all
should now feel it to be their duty to let the Govern-
ment know what course of action would be adopted
if this bill were allowed to become law. He dis-
claimed the intention of making use of the Reform
Bill to displace the Government, but he had always
felt it was a misfortune that such an important
question should be left to be settled by the anti-
Reformers, instead of being in the hands of Mr.
Gladstone, the Liberal leader. He had not
wished to reject the bill, because up till lately he
had not abandoned the hope that it might be
amended so as to give satisfaction. Even as
matters at present stood if Reformers through-
out the country resolutely did their duty hopes of
a settlement of the borough franchise need not
be despaired of even from the present bill. The
bill was to some extent a good one. It was very
good for 29 boroughs, but it was very bad for 171
boroughs. It was bal because it put difficulties in
the way of the compound householder obtaining a
vote, and gave facilities to other men for making
him a voter. It made it very difficulty for the
hard-working, intelligent, honest householder to
procure a vote, but it made it very easy,
for unscrupulous electioneering agents and intimi-
dating landlords to make him a voter. The practi-
cal suggestion which he had to offer was that what-
ever influence they possessed should be used before
the bill became law ; to ask the House of Commons,
and to demand from the Government that they
should treat all boroughs in England as they had
treated the 29. They should demand that, inasmuch
as Government had given household suffrage to
these, it should also be given to the remaining 171.
(Cheers.) If they did not succeed in their efforts
to amend the bill they should continue to agitate
and use the Government measure as alever to remove
the inequalities which it contained, and which were
now so justly complained of. The Chancellor of
the Exchequer had not thought it unbecoming his
place as leader of the House of Commons, and the
second man in the Government, to throw out hints
and suggestions which would be followed quickly
enough by those who were his followers, as to the
manner in which those who agitated for the people's
rights were to be followed. He had stigmatised as
sedition the arguments and reasoning which had
led to the abolition of the corn laws. (Shame.)
The right hon. gentleman might e )mplain of agita-
tion and disturbance, but the real disturbers of
the peace of the country were her Mak sty's Govern-
ment. (Cheers.) They were bringing about a
state of things which it was for people like those
present to prevent being dangerous, for he could
imagine nothing more dangerous than to hold out
acid rerllSe it It/ ine,
majority. Such a course of procedure was playing
with edged tools. Those who sat in the House of
Commons were accustomed to see Mr. Disraeli in
this vein, but those outside were not. He would,
however, advise them to disregard such foul words
as he had used, continue their agitation, and use
every constitutional method of getting the evil of
which they complained removed. (Cheers.)

Mr. BRIGHT, who was received with vehement
cheering, which lasted some time, said—Although
I dare say we all feel that a great meeting like this
is not generally the best assembly for the discussion
of business, yet I cannot help thinking that there is
some important business before us, and in the
speeches already delivered some part of it has been
got through. We have before us a work which per.
haps 1 can measure as well as any man, as I have
had the opportunity of measuring the work that has
already been accomplished. I forget exactly the
day when I was on this platform last, butit was one
day in the month of December. And looking back
only for six months I think we have a right to say
that the great question on which we have set our
hearts has made a great and memorable advance.
(Cheers.) But, notwithstanding that advance, it
would be to blind our eyes to the facts, if we
did not see and acknowledge that that
question is at this moment in a critical
condition, and in one of no small peril.
From the first day of the opening of Parliament
we have had the misfortune of seeing this ques-
tion in the hands of its enemies—(cheers)—and
when we know how great is the power of every Go-
vernment, whilst it lasts, in the House cf Commons.,
you can form some idea of the great disadvantage
which we are subject to in seeing this bill, or any
reform bill, in the hands of Lord Derby's Adminis-
tration. (Hear, hear.) The members of that Admi-
nistration have not dared altogether to refuse to de-
fer to public opinion ; but whilst pretending to do
that which the people want, they have, in almost
every clause of the Reform Bill, introduced some-
thing of a pernicious tendency that should make the
whole bill of very small value to the country.
(Cheers.) Now, I shall not say much about the basis
of the borough franchise except this :—What I think
it bad in is that the requirement that every man
should pay a certs in rate—the poor rate—will infal-
libly, in the lower classes of voters, afford at least '
great opportunities for corruption. (Hear, hear.)
But as we cannot expect that in the provisions of
the bill everything should be as we wish, I will not
even quarrel with the basis of the bill, if the basis of
it had been fairly applied, or if, where it could not
be fairly applied, some other method of enfranchis-
ing the people had been adopted, so that through
the broad land of England and Wales the same
common justice should be meted out to all the house-
holders in all the boroughs. (Cheers.) Now, the
newspapers tell us—some of them—(a laugh)—that
nobody can comprehend what the compound house-
holder is ; that the thing has been so much discussed
that those who knew nothing before know nothing
still, and those who thought they knew everything
find themselves in a state of complete confusion.
(A. laugh.) But this bill, if it passes, even coining
into operation under the most favourable circum-
stances, and operating as I believe its framers hope
and intend that it should operate, would offer to
245,000 men in all the boroughs of England and
Wales the elective franchise, on condition that
every one of them had resided twelve months,
paid his rate, and had taken whatever steps
inay be necessary to see that his name is neither
left off the rate book nor the register. Now it is
admitted, and has been admitted in the House of
Commons, that if you take this whole number and
divide it by two, you get as near as possible the
actual number of persons whose names would come
upon the register. As many would not have lived
long enough, that is twelve months—and in point of
fact it comes to nearly two years—some would not
have paid their rates, some would have changed their
residence from one town to another, some would
have forgotten this or that, or somebody else would
have forgotten something--(a lauzh)—but ha the

result one half of the whole number does not find
itself upon the register. But if you admit or offer
the franchise to 245,000 persons you would really
adsait 122,000 upon the borough register; but the
bill excludes--taking the whole number of those to
whom it does not fairly give the franchise—it ex-
cludes in these same boroughs not less than 476,000
persons, and dividing that number by two, it prac-
tically and actually excludes 238,000 persons who
would be voters if the bill fairly applied eaually to
all the boroughs of the kingdom. (Cheers.) Now I
suppose that some of you have, after all—notwith-
standing what some writers say—got some idea of
the cause of this. (Hear, hear, and a laugh). I have
on two occasions--once in Birmingham, and once
in the House of Commons—illustrated the case by
the example of the two great towns of Sheffield, in
Yorkshire, and of Birmingham, which I am per-
mitted to represent. (Cheers.) Now, in Sheffiell, as
a rule, the householders pay their rates to the parish
officers ; in Birmingham, as a rule, in consequence of
acth, some of which were passed nearly 40 years ago,
the rates—and in the case of houses up to £l2 rating
which, I suppose, is equal to £l5 rental at least—are
paid by the owners, the landlords of the houses. In
the case of Sheffield the occupiers will come upon
the list, in the case of Birmingham they will be ex-
cluded from it. In Sheffield 28,000 persons have the
chance of a vote, of whom we may reckon that 14,000
would actually get it. In Birmingham 36,000 per-
sons have not the chance of it, and 18,000, or half of
the whole number, are practically prohibited from
obtaining the franchise. (Hear, hear.) Now, I have
asked in the House of Commons—there are a good
many rational men there— (a laugh)—and they some-
times admit au argument, and yet, on a division,
will not vote in accordance with it—(a laugh)—l
have asked them whether any one man will say
there is any difference between the condition of
the people of Birmingham and the people of Shef-
field? They are both—speaking of them in refer-
ence to the trade of the towns—wonderfully inge-
nious and industrious workers in metals; they obey
the law as well in Birmingham as in Sheffield ;
they are as good men in Sheffield as in Birming-
ham ; I claim no preference whatever for the town
that has returned me to Parliament, but if these
men are the same men, if in all the duties of life
they are equal, if before all the other laws of the
country they are treated with just equality, I say it
is a monstrous proposition, and unheard of till this
day, in English legislation, that a bill should pass
the Imperial Parliament which opens its arms wide
to all the people of Sheffield, and closes them almost
absolutely to the people of Birmingham. (Loud
cheering.) Now ➢lr. Forster has referred to the
point that 29 boroughs are treated with this libe-
rality ; but what is the good of the franchise in 29
boroughs if you do not also give it in the other 170
boroughs ? (Hear.) Can the members for the 29
boroughs, if they are improved in quality by the in-
crease of the constituencies—can they materially
affect the conclusions of the House of Commons if
the 170 boroughs are left almost in their present
position ? Now, it has been admitted by the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer that although these persons
do not pay their rates with their own bands to the
overseer, but pay them through the landlord—he
has admitted they are just as good as other men,
and, further, that in paying what may be called the
reduced rate to the landlord, in reality they do pay
the full rate as much as those who lire in the 29
favoured boroughs. Well, if that be so, the in-
justice is something, I say, monstrous and in-
credible. (Cheers.) But look at the effect of it.
The 29 boroughs are many of them little boroughs—
some of them ought not to be boroughs at all. (A
laugh.) In these 29 boroughs the number of persons
to be admitted would be 103,000; but the most ex-
traordinary fact is this—that of the 103,000 82,000,
or three-fourths of them, are to be admitted in eight
boroughs alone —(hear, hear) ; and, therefore, in
this vast extension of the franchise—(a laugh)-
-in this unheard-of liberality with which it is

contemplated to confer this trust upon the people
of England—the blessing is reserved to 29 boroughs
and three-fourths of all the new voters will), be given
to only eight of these 29 boroughs. (Cries of
" Shame.") Why, if you were to put eight boroughs
of any kind against these eight others you will see
what an utter fraud, as the bill stands, it is upon
tho rivirtpla - - pecj- tire k lA'b aeUI OUlty, and
where the occupiers will get a vote :—Huddersfield,
York, Bury, Rochdale, Stockport, Oldham, Stoke-
upon-Trent, and Sheffield, and the number of voters
they let in is 82,000. Here are eight others—not
less respectable, not less creditable, as specimens of
English borough life :—Hull, Merthyr-Tydvil, Nor-
wich, Bradford, the Tower Hamlets, Leeds, and the
great towns of Manchester and Birmingham. In
these eight boroughs the bill actually leaves out not
fewer, not more, than 160,000 occupiers of houses.
(Cries of " Shame," and hisses.) So, while in the
other eight boroughs, 82,000 are invited in ; in the
eight boroughs I last mentioned 160,000 occupiers
are, I may say, invited out—(great laughter and
hisses)—while the whole number of electors invited
inintheseeight las ti-e butment 2ion1e:001b0. Now,oroulgls,
1 said I
where so
many areexcluded,
twouldhebilln.otlqfutahrereelwinnetrshisefspeheeuecheswniethwhtelriee
paid
dis of
rates—if they were req'tired, and it were the usualthe
practice, as f tr as poverty did not prevent it, to pay
their own poor-rates, then I would say, considering
the variety of opinion in the country, and the diffi-
culty of making progress in a great question like
this—that it would have been a large and generous
extension of the suffrage to have admitted all such
to the franchise. But when the Government found
that the basis they:adopted applied in the way I have
just pointed out—that it would confine the benefits
goifvtehae billhalf,to i
in fact
abeotronueagrhlsy, ttohreeige..heituoafrtwerehichefitawil thatould
it pretends to give to the whoie people of England
—that these 29 boroughs would be let in, and that
170 other boroughs, large and small, throughout
the kingdom would get almost literally nothing ;
then I say that the Government are not in earnest,
hoistthat tthheey
hmaenannertoof deceive,b
(Louda necessaryn n banner r
co,
ef
eao
rrns insulting
s You
tandhey
reallythat, whi
followis t they
reform
1
ooueownritlrhicattion,em which it will be
vhereatdo
thhaeulddeboawtnes.
will have perceived that when Mr. Disraeli was.
charged in treating those persons whose rates are
paid by the landlord, and who are called compound
householders because the owner compounds for the
rate with the parish--when, I say, he was charged
with treating the compound householders below
£lO in a different manner to what he treated those
who were above that sum, he found that the argu-
ment was unanswerable, and having got an idea,
perhaps, that the House of Commons would not
allow him to establish such a distinction he adopted
a new course. But what did he 'do ? Why he
turned back to an Act of Parliament in the year
1851 in which there was a clause which put the
occupier whose landlord paid his reduced rates on
exactly the same footing with regard to the franchise
as the occupier who paid his own rates and which
re-established and restored the franchise to not less
than 94,000 occupiers, of £lO value, and he said—
g"rleanit aiyneqpeurahlaiptys
wnohtiehbel ahlalov‘evepdrotpuopseedrpe,
btruattel
wthiilsl
do this. By repealing a clause of that Act I will
treat the 91,000 persons who have now a legal right
to be upon the register just as badly as in my new
Ell I am going to treat all the compound house-
holders who occupy houses under £10." (Shame.)
And thus he was to get rid of the argument com-
plaining of the difference to be made in dealing
with those above and those below £lO, and was to
establish a great equality, as he said, by a most in-
tolerable injustice. (Cheers.) There ere two or
three modes by which the Government, if fairly and
honestly disposed towards the people, could have
remedied this great difficulty, and in either of those
cases the borough franchise would have before this
been agreed to almost unanimously by the house.
They might have admitted all those whose rates are
paid by the landlord if the rates really were paid.
That is the existing law, and this is the provision
which he is now proposing to repeal. Or they might
have adopted another course. They might in this
bill have enacted that in future, wherever the
owners of houses paid the rate instead of the occu-
pier, the owner should only be permitted to pay
the full rate, and not have any reduction off it. Iu