The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-14 00:00:00

order for want of previous notice, inasmuch as it
dealt with funds of the corporation.
Mr. H. L. TAYLOR, as a means of getting out of
the difficulty, moved the committee be empowered
to confer with the artist and ascertain from him the
minimum price at which the corporation might pos-
sess themselves of the picture when finished to their
entire satisfaction.

The amendment was negatived, on a division, by
12.

Mr. C. REED then moved to refer the matter back
to the committee to take professional advice as to
the merits of the picture, but that also was lost on a
show of hands. In the end the Court adjourned
without coming to a definitive decision.

Mr. Doulton, M.P., and his ConstituentE.

Last night Mr. Doulton, M.P. for Lambeth, met
his constituents at the Walworth Institution, with
a view to explain to them his conduct with refer-
ence to the Reform question in the last session of
Parliament. The hon. member's invitation was ad-
dressed to " the electors and the non-electors," both
of whom attended in as great numbers-as the hall,
which is not of very large dimensions, would per-
mit. Seven o'clock was the time fixed for commenc-
ing the proceedings, but nearly an hour before that
the platform and about half the body of the hall
were filled by persons admitted chiefly at the side
entrance, the rest of the building being speedily
occupied after the doors were opened. The audience,
one, of course, of a somewhat mixed character, in-
cluded a considerable proportion of "roughs," who,
though scattered here and there in different other
parts of the assemblage, had most thickly con-
gregated in the gallery. When Mr. Doulton
presented himself on the platform, accompanied by
some of his principal supporters, his appearance
was the signal for vehement and apparently
very general cheering, with the waving of hats
and handkerchiefs, interspersed, however, with
groans and hisses, which, beginning low, gradually
swelled into a louder and still louder chorus, until
the conflicting manifestations, which lasted several
minutes, grew almost deafening. Amid the din Mr.
T. P. Alder took the chair, and essayed to open the
business, but the tumult drowned every syllable that
fell from him.
Mr. DOULTON then stood forward to claim a hear-
ing, and was again greeted with mingled cheers and
yells, the uproar apparently proceeding chiefly from
the roughs and costermonger lads posted in the
gallery. The hon. member's friends gathered round
him as if to hold a consultation upon what was to
be done to allay, or at least to meet, the rising storm,
and several gentlemen in succession beckoned
earnestly for silence, but in vain. There was at
length a momentary lull, which was seized by a Mr.
Weston, as we understood, who announced that he
had an amendment to move to whatever resolution
might be proposed to the meeting. His amend-
ment, he said, would be to this effect :-
44 That this meeting, having heard Mr. Doulton's so-
called explanation of his recent conduct in Parliament,
hereby declare that they have no confidence in him, and
that he no longer represents the borough of Lambeth in
the House of Commons."
This amendment, however, rather prematurely
assumed one condition to have been fulfilled, which
was more than its author could guarantee--namely,
that Mr. Doulton should first receive a hearing.
This the hon. member now tried again, if possible, to
secure ; but he was assailed with another wild out-
burst of clamour ; and, utterly despairing of being
able to make himself audible to any considerable sec-
tion of the meeting he advanced to the very edge of
the platform, and addressed himself exclusively to
the representatives of the press who sat immediately
below. Although he bent
.his head low towards the
reporters, and strained his voice to its utmost pitch,
it was with extreme difficulty that they could catch
a few fragmentary and disjointed sentences of his
speech. The hon. gentleman courageously perse-
vered in tlie face of the most incessant and discor-
dant interruptions, his indomitable persistence, while
drawing repeated rounds of cheering from his sup-
porters, who seemed to form the great bulk of the
assemblage, especially in the front sections of the
hall, apparently served only still further to in-
furiate his opponents. Amid a scene which wholly
defies description,
Mr. DOULTON was understood to say that, in ac-
cordance with his usual custom, which he conceived
to be a good one, he had convened that meeting,
and in doing so he needel no-other promptings than
those wl ich he had always felt since he had had the
honour of representing that borough. He was quite
aware that on that occasion he would meet with
hose who were opposed to the course he had felt it
its duty to take ; but, nevertheless, he saw no rea-
_ _ _

,
son why he should depart from the rule which he dividual vote which he had given, would in the main
had heretofore observed, or refrain from coming endorse the policy he had pursued in reference to
there, as he had done that night, to offer them such the recent Reform Bill. Yet, if that were not so,
i
explanations as might seem to be necessary with re-
f through the line that he had taken on that ques-
tion the connexion which had long subsisted between
ference,. to the line be had adopted during the last
Session of Parliament. It would be useless for him him and that borough were to be dissolved, even
then to attempt anything like a review of the pro- that were better far than that he should retain his
ceedings of the last Session. Suffice it to say, that position by the sacrifice of his own individual con-
upon the Reform measure submitted to the House
victions, and endorse a policy which in his conscience
he believed would not serve the interests of his con-
by the late Government, he felt it to be his duty to
vote in opposition to those with whom he had pre- stituents, and which would be fatal to the well-being
viously been politically associated. In his place he of the community at large.
had stated at length the grounds upon which he had Loud cheers and renewed uproar greeted Mr.
done so. It was, therefore, now only necessary for Doulton's conclusion, and while the confusion was
a
him to say that the main grounds of his oppositiont its height the form, if not the farce, was gone
through of proposing, seconding,. and declaring
to Mr. Gladstone's Franchise Bill were these—first,
that it was an incomplete Bill ; next, that it pro- unanimously carried a resolution to this effect :
posed a uniform loweringof the franchise ; and next, , That this meeting, having heard Mr. Doulton's expo-
that
the Redistribution Bill, which was afterwards his political views, desires to express its entire
connected with the Franchise Bill, would increase and hearty concurrence
sition of
in his Parliamentary conduct, and
th its admiration of his manly and straightforward vindica-
e anomalies and evils under which they now
tion of the principle of independent political action."
suffered. A uniform franchise, lowering the Mr. H. Hunt and Mr. J. Alderson were given as
suffrage alike in all cities and boroughs, was a
. the names of the mover and seconder of this reso-
principle that would not stand the test of examina-
tion. lotion.
tion. That
might be proved one or two striking illustrations. There
was
at by Another resolution, moved amid similar difficul-
present on the part tics by Mr. GEORGE TAYLOR, and seconded by Mr.
of some a demand f„
household, suffrage ; but
while household suffrage in STANTON, was declared to have been passed with
Lambeth would not add
more than 50 voters to the constituent equal unanimity—viz.,
y, it would " That with a view of securing the return of Mr. Doul-
add something like 2,000,000 voters to the entire ton at any future election committees be forthwith organ-
electoral list of the country. After referring to the isod for the division of the borough into districts, and for
ome boron case of Preston, and asserting that in s
equal to the effective canvass of the individual electors."
ghs a
a £6 franchise would not be more than The amendment of which Mr. Weston had pre-
£lo franchise in others, the hon. gentleman ad-
viously given notice was, therefore, understood to
verted to the agitation which had recently taken have been declared rejected.
place in the metropolis and the provinces. it -,.,., he Mr. DOULTON, in responding, promised that
said, there was any significance at all in that agita- whenever the time came for another election for
tion, it had been in favour not of the bill introduced I Lambeth to be held he would do his part if they
but of universalsuffrage. by the late Government, would do theirs. (Cheers and uproar.) He was
It was well, therefore, that they should ask them- satisfied that the course he had adopted was approved
selves what universal suffrage meant. It did not Iby the great body of his constituents, and he should
mean simply the admission of the industrious and be ashamed of himself if he did not stand and afford
intelligent portion of the working classes to elec- to every elector an opportunity of expressing his
toral rights; it meant also the admission to political Views. (Great confusion.) He was not to be de-
power of that class which the secretary of the Re- i terred from that trhich he believed to be his boun -
form League described in the public journals
of the ! den duty by
attempts such as those made that
previous day as " roughs and thieves of too much
the lowest night. lie had t confidence in the fairness
order." Sometimes America was held out to them of Englishmen to believe they would allow that
m of intimidation to prevail at public meetings.
uni- ' system as an example, and sometimes France, where .r.,. .
e wished them adieu, and would meet them again
vernal suffrage prevailed ; but God forbid that free 1-1
at Philippi. (Cheers
England should be reduced to either the political ,laughter, and renewed uproar.)
1 Mr. Doulton then withdrew debasement and corruption of the one, or the cen- 1 rew, escorted by a sort of
body guard of his supporter
tralised despotism of the other. What was the a, whereupon the dis-
of the
platform,
complaint at present of our working classes ? Why, turbing element took possession
and held a counter-demonstration, t. in which the
a ton,
that in the existing House of Commons their order a
course of proceedings wasalmost
was not truly represented. He did not for one mo- previous
reversed, with the exception that the opponents of
ment deny that. He yielded to no man in his desire
hon. member, being now nearly completemasters
freely represented. But he asked the working classes,
' the
to see the working classes of this country fully and
of the situation, were enable to go through their
who were now complaining, what would be the state I
part of the farce with comparatively little let or
of things if to the million or so of existing voters hindrance.
addressed the assemblage, which
four millions more were added ? If he understood and other persons,
the principle of representation at all, it was that agreed with fully as much unanimity as had been
a brief half hour or so before in proposals
they should give a full, fair, and free represen- displayed
to resolutions of quite an opposite charactern de-
neither
ted the
Cation to all classes of the community, but that
daring in effect that Mr. oulton had forfeited
one class nor another should gain
that Mr. Gladstone,
such a supremacy as to be able to overbear all confidence of his constituents,
Mr. Bright, Mr. Mill, and Mr. Hughes deserved
the rest. That was the principle which had been
laid down the confidence of ReformerB, and that manhood
by Mr. Gladstone, and advocated by Lord
Russell suffrage, protected by the ballot, is the only sound
• He might be told that his argument against
universal d not really apply toMr. Bright,
suffrag d' basis of 4 satisfactory representative system.
suffrage did
the leader of the present movement, because that The strange and almost unprecedented scene then gentleman was not in favour terminated.
His reply was__more wan the
of universal suffrage.
honesty if, with the gifts viz. h
pity for Mr. Bright's
God had endowed
him, he encouraged an acitatiico
n from the results of
which he shrank, and laboured for the triumph o
principles in which he did not agree, if
in order to ex-

BYRON AND BURNS.—Mr. Bruce, M.P., at Liver-
pool, said, the other day, he remembered the witty retort
made in reply to the argument used by a champion of pub-
lic schools, that Byron was a Harrow boy. "He was ; and
Burns was a ploughboy."

cite an antagonism against tire middle classes, and
against those who felt it their duty to oppose the
Reform Bill of last session. At almost every meet-
ing he had lately addressed Mr. Bright had urged
the working classes to hang 11Q in their workshops
certain expressions alleged to have been used in the
House of Commons, charging those classes as a body
with ignorance, venality, and drunkenness. Now,
he was not there to apologise for what had been said
in that way; but when he found Mr. Bright so con-
tinually reiterating such advice he could not help
entertaining a wish that, side by side with those ex-
pressions there should be placed extracts from what
had very lately been uttered by the ultra-Radical
leaders and their newspapers with regard to the
House of Commons, and what were called the ruling
classes. And, to surmount the whole, there ought
t be a statement of those measures proposed during
the last 10 or 15 years to the House of Commons
for the amelioration of the social condition of the
working classes which Mr. Bright had in any way
supported. Whether those measures related to the
abridgment of the hours of labour in factories, to the
regulation of the labour of women and children in
mines, or to any other question affecting the social
or domestic condition of the working classes,
not one of them had Mr. Bright assisted to
pass. Therefore, when members of the House
of Commons were accused—justly or unjustly
he did not say—of expressing sentiments de-
rogatory to the character of the working men,
he ventured to assert that the language used at the
Reform meeting held at Beaufort-house last Mon-
day week towards the House of Commons was in-
finitely more reprehensible.
Hitherto Mr. Doulton's remarks had been not so
much " interrupted" as overpowered by one con-
tinuous accompaniment of deafening clamour, an-
swered now and again by loud cheers and waving
of hats on the part of his sympathisers ; but at this
point increased confusion arose from an " ugly rush"
towards the platform by some turbulent spirits in
the body of the hall. The pressure from this cause
soon became so great as to drive the reporters from
their seats, and force theca to take refuge as best
they might upon the platform. Mr. Doulton, how-
ever, still maintained his ground, and strove to re-
sume the thread of his discourse, some of his stalwart
friends forming a circle round him, and acting as a
sort of breakwater against the angry living sea which
threatened to sweep all before it. The hon. gentle-
man, continuing his observations to his immediate
entourage amid the eame, or, if possible, a louder
and fiercer din than before, said, that if anything
were needed to show the tyranny of those who pro-
fessed at the present moment to be the peoples' leaders,
and to show how they would exercise their influence,
he thought it would be found in the infuriated at-
tempts which had been made by a portion of the press
during the last few weeks to render that meeting of
his impossible. To some extent, undoubtedly, those
attempts had succeeded, but he thought it would be
apparent to those around him that night that five-
sixths of those whom he had the honour of address-
ing were prepared, if not to agree with all the sen-
timents he might have uttered, at least to give to
him that which every accused man had a right to
expect—a fair hearing to vindicate his character.
He did not regret the agitation which had occurred
in this country for the last few weeks—he did not re-
gret the attempt made that night to stifle his voice,
and prevent him from defending the course which he
had pursued. It had taught him, and also, he be-
lieved, the great bulk of the middle class, what they
were to expect if those who were at the bottom of
interruptions of that kind once obtained a position
that would give them power. To adopt a phrase
very often used during the last session of Parlia-
ment by Mr. Gladstone, " they now knew with
whom they had to deal ;" and he would be much
surprised if the middle classes of England did not
resent as one man the attempts that were being made
to suppress that free discussion which they had been
accustomed to regard as the birthright of English-
men. It needed but a glance at those who were
then disturbing that meeting to see that they were
not the working men who walked in order and pro-
priety last Monday week from the park to Beaufort-
house. Yet they were those who would inevitably
be enfranchised by the adoption of the principles
advocated by the Reform League. Ilis life had been
spent among the working men ; and amid all that
clamour he challenged any person to lay his finger
on any act of his which could be fairly construed into
an attempt to deprive them of their liberty. One
word more and he had done. It was impossible for
him then to go into the statement which he had in-
tended to make ; but this he wished to say, that he
felt mon.: than ever assured since he entered that
room that the great body of the electors of Lambeth
though many of them might not approve every in