The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-28 00:00:00

gain. (Cheers.) Turning back to the speech or
speeches to which I have referred, you know the
sort of language which was used in speaking of the
people which this bill does not purpose to bring on
to the electoral roll, even by what I should call the
highly-coloured estimate of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, more than 200,000 working men
throughout England and Wales. I believe that
number far exceeds the numbers which will be
placed upon the register during the first two years,
because he estimated that all those who will come in
living in £lO houses when the ratepaying clauses
are done away with will be working men. We all
know that whatever the exclusion by those clauses
—if those excluded live in £lO houses—it would be
a very high estimate to suppose that one-half of
of them would be working men ; and, further, he
calculates that those who will be included between

the £7 and ilO limit will all be working men, al-

though we all know that in this town, and in fact it
is the case in every town in the kingdom, there are

_ .
many persons living in houses, £7 and £lO, who

cannot upon any ordinary rule of calculation be

reckoned in the list of working men. (Hear, hear.)

I believe, therefore, that statement of the Chan-

cellor of the Exchequer, made doubtless in all

honesty by himself, is not correct, and that the

number of working men admitted will fall short

of that which he estimates, but I have no doubt

that in process of time that number will year after

year increase ; that there will be an anxiety on the
part of the well paid and instructed working men
to place themselves upon the list of electors ; that
there will be a tendency to build better houses, and
for that class of the working men to wish to live
in better houses, and that gradually by a self-acting
process, there will be, it may be, a slow but a sensi-
ble extension of the suffrage. But now if the speeches
which I refer to could be made with any degree of
fairness of the hundred thousands or the two hun-
dred thousands who are to be admitted by this bill,
what is the opinion which these speakers must hold
of the great majority of the people who will still be
excluded by this bill ? Why, that they are men
who really are in that state of brutish ignorance and
degradation that it is not possible to commit to them
—not the making of laws—but even the giving a
vote for any man of good character or of education
and social position in the district that he may go to
Parliament for the purpose of enacting laws ; but
that, in point of fact, this vast population, these
millions, the great majority still of the whole nation,
are destined to be henceforth but hewers of wood
and drawers of water for these men in high posi-
tion, of high titles, and great wealth, who seem to
think that the world was made for them, and that
the constitution of England is for:them alone, and
not for the great people of the kingdom. (Loud
cheers.) I regard this bill in the present position of
this question and of public opinion as so just and 60
moderate that all men who refuse to accept it must
be placed in the list of those who are opposed to
representative institutions, and who, if they had
lived when such institutions did not exist in this
country, would in all probability have offered to
them the same resistance that they are now offering
to this measure. But we know perfectly well that
if there be anything of freedom in this country, it
comes from our representative institutions, and if
there be any solidity in that freedom, or any security
for its future, it must come—it can come—only
from that portion and that department of our
frame of government which is elected periodically
by the people of the country. Then, if there be
this great issue at stake, if our children, grand-
children, and so on, in the generations to come, are
to live under this Government ; if they are to be
affected in all their interests by its legislation, how
much does it become us now to make a great and
irresistible effort to carry this measure ? (Cheers.)
When the Reform Bill of 1832 passed it was a distinct
and undeniable revolution, a revolution of the hap-
piest kind, carried without bloodshed, carried by the
almost unanimous expression of the opinion of the
nation, but not less a revolution, for it established
this principle beyond all possibility of recall, that
the House of Commons should some time, if not
then, and that it should then more than it had here-
tofore be the true and faithful representative of the
intelligence, industry, and virtue of the population
of the United Kingdom. (Cheers.) From that time
till now this question has been discussed ; it has
made progress, and we come now to another point
of time when, in all human probability, another
step will have to be made. But these gentlemen who
oppose the bill tell us in the House of Commons,
and some of their newspapers tell us outside, that
really nobody wants this bill (laughter) and that a
few men who have objects of their own to serve are
constantly talking about it, but the great bedy of
the people have really no interest in it whatever.
They said exactly the same of the bill of 1831. I
stated in the House of Commons the other night
that in the years from 1821 to 1831 there were
scarcely any petitions presented to Parliament in
favour of Parliamentary reform—( A. Voice—" They
durst not")—and yet in the year 1831 the whole
thing was an explosion. The House of Commons
was terror-stricken, and men of great families were
almost hiding themselves from popular indignation.
What do these gentlemen want now? Are they
content to be taught by great and peaceable meet-
ings, and by the presentation of great petitions, or
do they want something more ? Do they believe the
people of England never feel anything until they
break windows, and overturn gentlemen's carriages,
and attack their houses, and get into excesses which
are the first steps of terrorism and insurrection? Or
are they willing to imagine that we can want this
bill and yet are ready to proceed by a steady and
regular course of peaceful political movement, and
by those steps which the constitution of a free coun-
try points out to free people? Judging from what is
seen in the papers within the last few days, through-
out the country, meetings are being held, con-
stituencies are giving reminders to their members,
those who are weak in the knees—.(laughter)—are
being strengthened, doubts are being removed—
(laughter) —and gradually by the time we come to
the second reading of the bill, in all probability the
Liberal party in the house, which some must have
thought of late rather dislocated, will be drawn
together in a close and powerful phalanx, which I
trust will bear down all the opposition that may be
tendered against this bill. But let us have these
meetings everywhere. (Cheers.) You devote one
night to a great meeting, but that work of one night
is to set something going which may be felt for
generations by your countrymen, and the sacrifice
of this one night's labour is a sacrifice that may
only have to be made for once, and the result be
sufficient to attain your object. But supposing that
this bill should not pass readily through the House
of Commons, suppose that Lord Russell, who it is
to his honour that it may be said is not popular
with the opponents of Reform now—(cheers)—any
more than he was popular with the party in
.1832
—suppose that Lord Russell should find his Ad-
ministration thwartel, and that, by a combination
of Lords and Commons, there should be a disposition
to maltreat this bill, or to destroy it; suppose, then,
that he should exert the power which, no doubt, will
be intrusted to him, of bringing about an appeal to
the existing constituencies of the country that may
take place before the longest day, and many other
things in connection with it may take place—should
there not be in all the towns of Lancashire a large
meeting of working men ?—men to some of whom
this bill will hold out the right hand of fellowship,
inviting them to take their share in the political
Government of the country, should not these
various meetings of the working men throughout
t'fhoer
South
hhern division of this county select a
small
number of men to form a joint committee
Lancashire,
nearer to thatperiodthat when we get a little
they might callto of the year when fine
weather is the
geetirlather than the exception,
in
this division a vast meetein some proper place in
that should tell to these
slanderer,
tle working classes,
rers of their order s,
they are not the men that they are
described to be in the llouse of, Commons and that
living in a free country, with a representative con-
stitution, they determine to partake in some sort of
that representation and to be themselves free? I
believe that as this question goes on for discussion
during the next three months, there will arise a
greater expression of opinion tlion some men who
are opposed to this bill look for,. I will advise them