The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-31 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—Last night the threatened demonstration
against the Government took place at the Agricul-
tural Hall, Islington, and will be pronounced by its
promoters a complete success. There was a great
multitude of people; and they were perfectly re-
spectable and inoffensive ; there could be no doubt
of their enthusiasm for the cause in which they came
together ; every speaker was received with applause,
and every opinion with unlimited assent. What
more can a chairman or a committee want for de-
claring that the people had pronounced the doom:of
Government, and had asserted their own sovereignty
and their fitness to exercise it ? Whether such
gatherings do really possess the political influence
which their promoters attribute to them will now be
seen. We are disposed from the remembrance of
former agitations to think that they do not ; and if
we desired to carry a measure we would far rather
circulate a few well-written tracts and hold real
business-like meetings in a modeiate-sized hall, after
the fashion of the Anti-Corn Law League in the
old times, than set a number of gentlemen shouting
themselves hoarse in the vain attempt to talk to
tens of thousands of people. The concourse last even-
ing will be admitted by every one who was present
to have been highly respectable and well-conducted,
and composed to a great extent of a higher class than
might have been expected to attend. To bring so
large and so decent an assemblage together is cer-
tainly an achievement for the League, and they will
do well to make the most of it, for the proceedings
that followed were hardly worthy of the audience
and the occasion. The twenty thousand people
and upwards who congregated in the hall were
the " demonstration," which might be called im-
posing ; but the effect would actually have been
far greater had they separated in silence after
having shown their numbers, for the scene that
followed made clear above everything the futility of
such gatherings for any useful political purpose.
The platform had been constructed in a very rude
and primitive manner half way down the Hall, and
for more than an hour before the time appointed
for taking the chair it had been occupied by the
Reformers and their friends. In front of it a con-
stantly
increasing crowd gathered, who came thus
early and took up their positions in order, as they
thought, to hear some good speaking, for the League
had been profuse in its promise of eloquence. As
is the fashion with the promoters of public meet-
ings, Mr. Beales and his friends invited a number of
M.P.'s, and, without receiving an affirmative answer
from them, straightway advertised that they were
" expected." An advertisement to this effect ap-
peared in our columns as late as yesterday morning.
The consequence was that a large number of respect-
able people attended, chiefly young men of the
trading class, who, so far from appearing to belong
to the unenfranchised millions, might all of them
have been, or have expected to become, substantial
householders. Half an hour before the time for
taking the chair no stranger, lookini, at the assem-
blage in front of the platform, would have supposed
that it was a working man's demonstration. The
people were essentially of the middle class in the
body of the Hall, while the large galleries on each
side of the organ were filled with a still more select
society, who paid a shilling a head. Up to this time
the lower class, chiefly lads and young men, had
favoured the long galleries which ran round the
Hall, the elevating position attracting them to sur-
vey from it the world below. The more agile
climbed in all directions up and along the girders and
made their way into the very roof. But the assem-
blage was, on the whole, decent, quiet, and trades-
manlike, and had evidently come with the notion
that they were to hear Mr. Beales and his distinguished
friends the members of Parliament with their own
ears. The power which political reputation has to
draw an audience together was evident in the in-
terest which the people felt before the perform-
ance began, and their disappointment at what fol-
lowed. As 8 o'clock drew near the Hall became
fuller, and at last the sound of distant music and
the waving of banners announced the arrival of a
procession. The procession was made of working
men, with a considerable admixture of rather well-
dressed young men belonging apparently to the
superior class of artisans. There were " roughs,"
too, in the train, but in an extremely small propor-
tion, the contrast between yesterday and yesterday
week being very striking in this respect. Whether
it be that the regular " rough" shrinks from a
covered building as a Bedouin from a town, or that
when no row is expected he does not care to come,
certainly the working men marched yesterday by
themselves, and without the following of ruffianism
which they took with them the week before. But
no sooner did the hall begin to fill than the utter
absurdity of the attempt to hold a meeting in such
a place became apparent. At Hamburg visitors are
taken to a gallery of the Bourse at 1 o'clock in the
day, and the sight of the busy multitude below and
the buzz of their voices are one of the curiosities of
the place. At the Great Exhibition, 15 years ago,
many of our readers may remember the tumult of
the vast crowds which assembled during the last few
days that the building was open. Similar was the
effect at the Agricultural Hall last night. The most
orderly multitude in such numbers makes a sound
whiclaforbids the human voice, or, at any rate, arti-
culate words, to be heard at a distance. The noise
of movement and inevitable conversation are suffi-
cient to overpower the strongest speaker. And, of
course, it was not to be expected that these thou-
sands of people would be all quiet. They were well-
behaved, but they would talk and laugh and move
about ; and before 8 o'clock struck the discerning
might perceive that the meeting would be more or
less in dumb show. There was a steady hum, some-
times deepening into a roar, which no human lungs
could overcome. We have said enough to intimate
that the speakers had to speak to the reporters.
Mr. Beales was simply inaudible a few paces off. A
great deal of energetic action, which he surely did
not acquire in Lincoln's-inn, accompanied his ora-
tory, but the matter of it remained a mystery to all
but those who were close beside him. Other
speakers, gifted with stronger lungs, extended the
radius of their circle of hearers, but none of them •
could take in any considerable part of the assembled
multitude. Mr. Mason Jones bawled till it seemed ,

that he must certainly break a blood-vessel, and Mr.
Bradlaugh made a telling speech in a most power-
ful voice, but even these stentorian orators were
unable to fill the Agricultural Hall or even a quar-
ter of it. As for Mr. Mill, who ought to have been
the lion of the evening, he certainly rose and seemed
to say something ; but at this period the roar and
confusion were, for some reason or other,Tedoubled,
and a shout of applause announced that Mr.
Vincent, the Chartist, was on his legs, before we
were able to catch a single word of his hilosophical
predecessor. So the meeting went on. Tremendous
were the denunciations, but very few heard them.
Yet the people in the galleries, who were the most
demonstrative, received their favourites warmly,
and every sentence of Mr. Bradlaugh and Colonel
Dickson was received with a loud, short, sharp
cheer which had a peculiar effect. But the mass of
the people in the building could not be expected to
remain still when they could hear nothing.
Before the principal meeting was half over little
subsidiary meetings were being held in every part of
the Hall. On each side of the organ a succes-
sion of speakers addressed the occupants of the
benches, and down the sides of the building small
gatherings surrounded particular orators. One
of these scenes was curious. On the steps lead-
ing to the gallery a young woman wedged in
amidst the throng was shouting herself hoarse
against the Ministers, who, she said, got a great
deal of money for doing nothing, and ought to be
the servants of the public, who paid them, and
not the masters. This was Miss Laws, a celebrated
female preacher, said to be of marvellous intellect,
and to understand Political Economy and other
abstruse subjects. Yet after the strain upon her
voice last night it may he doubted whether she will
be fit for the pulpit next Sunday. Of course, the
meeting was a failure. The celebrities who were
announced did not come, with the exception of Mr.
Mill, ;who could not get a hearing. The other
speakers simply shouted their complaints or denun-
ciations at the tops of their voices, or, more wisely,
addressed them to the reporters. othing could
better confirm, what we have ventured to tell the
League before, that for the purpose of discussion
these immense gatherings are utterly useless. A
speaker cannot fill the Agricultural Hall, and a
fortiori, he cannot fill Hyde Park. Yet it must not
be for a moment supposed that we underrate the
importance of such a gathering as took place last
night. At the beginning of the meeting, and be-
fore it became evident that the speakers would be
inaudible, the Hall was nearly full, and, as we have
said, of a generally decent class of people. Whether
attracted by curiosity or by political sympathy, there
they were, and their assembling bears witness to
the interest which they feel in political questions.
They came quietly, and went home quietly also ;
but theirnumbers and behaviour were the " demon-
stration," to which the speeches of the League made
but a feeble addition. _ _

iIEPALD.—In order to clearly understand what
passed last night, on the motion for going into corn- .
mittee on the Fortifications Bill, a recapitulation
may be convenient to our readers. The Defence
Commission having reported in 1860 a plan of forti-
fication which they judged sufficient to protect the
metropolis and the principal dockyard and arsenals,
the Government of Lord Palmerston adopted a
portion of that plan, and proposed it to Parliament.
The whole scheme was to have cost eleven mil-
' lions ; the estimates for that portion which was
sanctioned by the House of Commons on the re-
commendation of the Ministry of the day amounted
to a little more than five. This sum was to be pro-
vided by a loan raised in the form of terminable an-
nuities, a provision for which Mr. Gladstone, as
Chancellor of the Exchequer, was chiefly and directly
responsible. Since that time the estimates have in-
creased ; not because new works have been under-
taken, but because, as generally happens, both in
civil and military works, those which were originally
intended have required a larger outlay than was at
first contemplated. A central arsenal formed part
of the Government plan ; but no steps have ever
been taken towards the realisation of this project.
On coming into office General Peel found that one
of the most essential recommendations of the Com-
mission, regarding the defence of the Thames, had
been altogether neglected. Now, there can be no
reasonable doubt that, if we are to have fortifications
at all, this is the point at which they are most in-
stantly and urgently required. Fortifications serve
two principal purposes : they prevent a coup de main,
which it is said has been rendered a much easier
matter now that steam enables an enemy inferior at
sea to effect a surprise, if he can gain but a start of
twenty-four hours ; and they enable a small force to
protect, for a length of time, positions of paramount
importance while the army in the field is engaged in
general operations. It must be admitted that the
Thames offers the greatest temptations to a coup de
main, and that the metropolitan dockyards and
water highway are more important to the country
than any other point against which an attack could
be directed. The Thames, then, is the part which
above all others re luires to be fortified, and General
Peel needs no excuse for having determined to
carry out, above all things, this essential point of
the scheme suggested by the Commission. He
determined to provide the means for this object
by omitting the central arsenal from the
plan ; so that he was not, strictly speaking,
obliged to come to Parliament at all. But he
very justly thought that it was right to acquaint the
House of Commons with the change made in a plan
which had received its approval ; and accordingly
introduced a bill to divert the funds, no longer
required for the central arsenal, to the Thaznes forti-
fications, thus laying before the house for its sanc-
tion the alteration he had devised in the original
scheme of national defences. No one seemed dis-
posed toiquarrel with the change itself ; its necessity
was too evident. But Mr. Gladstone took occasion
to object to the bill on two grounds. He insisted,
first, that no new fortifications should be provided
for by loan beyond those originally authorised by
Parliament ; and secondly, that no bill on the sub-
ject ought to be introduced at so late a period of the
session. In face of the strenuous resistance of the
leader of Opposition, supported by the party which
is opposed to fortifications at large—and to nearly
all defensive preparations—the Government found
it necessary to give way, and the order for going
into committee was discharged. We should be sorry
to accuse the Liberal leader of factious conduct ;
but we cannot help observing that his conduct on
this occasion presents a very unfavourable contrast
with that adopted by the Conservatives in 1860.
Many of them doubted the expediency of the forti-
fication scheme of the Government altogether ; most
of them disapproved of the proposal to provide for
the expense by a loan. But they felt that it was not
convenient for the house to take upon itself the re-
sponsibility of refusing to sanction measures of
defence recommended by the Executive Government,
which was unanswerable for the national safety ; and
that to oppose the loan would be virtually to
defeat the proposition entirely. Accordingly, having
stated their objections, they gave way, and allowed
the Government to act as it thought necessary. Mr.
Gladstone, on the contrary, has thought fit to take
upon himself the responsibility of postponing for six
or eight months to come the commencement of works
necessary for the protection of the port of London.
And the grounds on which he has done this are not
such as can satisfy any impartial mind ; that is,
they may be good in themselves, but they are not
good in the mouth of Mr. Gladstone. He objects
to the introduction of the bill—which proposes a
mere alteration of detail—on the 30th of July.
But the original bill, which included the whole
scheme of fortification, was introduced by the
Government of which he was a leading member on
the 23d July, 1860 ; and while it might be neces-
sary that the house should discuss and pronounce an
opinion upon the general question then raised, it
cannot be desirable that it should interfere with the
discretion of the Executive on such a matter of
detail as that involved in the bill of General Peel.
The latter might be fairly treated as a mere matter
of form ; the former could not ; so that it does not
lie in the mouth of those who introduced the general
measure on the 23d July to object to the introduc-
tion of the special one a week later in the season.
Again, it may or may not be true, that the expense
of national fortifications raised in time of peace
should be defrayed out of revenue. But the objec-
tion is one which Mr. Gladstone is debarred from
urging. For he was responsible for the mode of
provision by loan adopted by Lord Palmerston's
Government ; if he did not approve it, he was
bound to resign. He does, indeed, allege special
circumstances in excuse of the policy then deter-
mined upon. The country, he says, was burdened
with a heavy war expenditure—that is to say, with
the cost of the Chinese war. But he forgets to say
that in that year two millions of annual expenditure
expired by the termination of the Long Annuities
—a sum which, if he had not thought fit to apply it
otherwise, would have more than met the imme-
diate expenditure upon the fortifications. He for-
gets to say that in that year he cut away several
millions of revenue by remissions of taxation which,
however convenient, were by no means urgent. It
was those remissions that necessitated a loan for the
fortifications ; and if it were right to raise a loan in
order to do away with paper duties, and lesson wine
and spirit duties, a fortiori it must be right to charge
the expense of the Thames defences upon that loan
rather than raise new taxes to meet it. A year in
which two millions of debt fall in, and three millions
of taxation can be remitted, is certainly not a year in
in which a loan is exceptionally justifiable. We must
besides remember that, since 1860, Mr. Gladstone
has very largely reduced the public revenue. He
might, had he pleased, have got rid of the fortifica-
tion loan altogether ; but he preferred to earn popu-
larity by remitting taxes ; he is therefore precluded
from turning round upon his successors, and insist-

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