The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-18 00:00:00

IGHT AT BRADFORD..

Mr. T fright addressed a public meeting of the in-
habitar.ts of Bradford last evening in St. George's-
hall, on he subject of Parliamentary Reform.
The I tall, capable of accommodating between
4,000 ar,d 5,000 persons, was densely crowded in
every p art. The platform was occupied by leading
merchants and manufacturers of Bradford, and by
deputations from most of the principal towns in
the West Riding of Yorkshire. Mr. Henry Brown,
the Mayor, presided, and when Mr. Bright entered
the hall at 7 o'clock, accompanied by the influential
menibers of the local Liberal Registration Society,
under whose auspices the meeting was held, he was
received with loud and prolonged cheering.
After a few introductory remarks by the
MAYOR,
Mr. T. SALT moved, and Mr. JOHN CROSSLEY
seconded the following resolution, which was car-
ried with acclamation
" That this meeting, gratefully recognizing Mr. Blight's
eminent services in the great struggle for the repeal of the
Corn Laws, cordially welcomes him to Bradford on this his
first visit since the triumphant issue of that conflict, and re-
membering the severe and painful illness which more re-
cently compelled him to withdraw awhile from public life,
offers him its hearty congratulations on his happy restora-
tion to health, and expresses its earnest hope that his life
may be long spared, and that he may be able to devote the
rare abilities and enerwies for which he is so distinguished
to the promotion of tase objects which are most closely
identified with the political and social well-being of the great
mass of the people."
Mr. BRIGHT, on rising to address the meeting,.d
was received with protracted cheering. He said,-'—
I,
I must ask you to bear with me if am unable in
fitting language to acknowledge the kindness
. with
which you have just received me. I feel it to be
a very heavy responsibility to stand upon this
platform to-night, but at the game time I feel it
to be a privilege, and in some sense a plea-
sure, to be permitted to join this amazing meeting
in its open deliberation upon the great question
which is now submitted to the Judgment of the
country.
I see before me a very large representa-
tion of your most energetic community, and this
meeting comprises, I have reason to believe, not a
few of what I may call the flower of the active-
minded politicians and Reformers of the great West
Riding of Yorkshire. (Cheers.) The question which
I shall to-night submit to your judgment is a great
one. If I had not felt it to be such I would not
have left my home and the comforts of my family
for the purpose of exhibiting myself upon public
platforms in various parts of the country. I have
spoken in Birmingham, in Manchester, in Edin-
burgh, and in Glasgow, and upon each of those
occasions vast multitudes came to listen, filled with
a great and glowing interest in the question of re-
form, and anxious as I am that any step which the
Government and Parliament may take may conduce
to the lasting and highest interests of this great
nation—(cheers)—l have been particularly stimu-
lated, if I may so speak, to address the meetings to
which I have referred, by the belief that it is of an
importance which cannot be described in words
that we who wish for reform should know what it
is we want, and should so understand the question
that we could at any moment detect and place our
finger upon any imposture that may be offered to
us. (Cheers.) Whatever may be our next step, I
trust that we shall have sense and intelligence
enough to avoid any mistake which we or our chil-
dren might hereafter have cause to lament. (Hear.)
I suppose we are all Reformers—everybody is for
Parliamentary reform. I thought I had met with
a man against reform as I came to Bradford to-day
by train, but I found out, after all, that he was not
against reform, only he did not much like paying
to hear political speeches. (A laugh.) If then
everybody is for reform, why, it may be asked,
-Warn people against an imposture ? Have you
observed the comments which have been made
by the press upon the question of reform, and
upon the course which we have taken during the
last three months ? lam quite willing to allow
it to be assumed that my expressions have
not always been judicious, that I may have com-
mitted some mistakes ; but still the comments of a
considerable portion of the press have been dictated
not by an honest desire to point out with a friendly
finger the errors into which I may have fallen, but
by an intense feeling of hostility. I know not whe-
ther the press which represents the present Go-
vernment, or the press which represents the last
Government, is more open to the charge of rancor-
ous opposition. (Hear, hear.) Have you observed,
again, the silly panic into which some members of
the peerage have been thrown ? These noblemen
are not anxious that the question of reform should
be discussed by those who are able to deal with it
thoroughly, and they imagine that the people will
be led away from the pursuit of a great object by
attributing to me oftentimes language, but always
objects, to which I have never given the smallest
approbation. (Cheers.) The great question which
we are assembled to discuss may be conveniently
divided into three—the first is, what ought to be
done with regard to an extension of the franchise
beyond the limit at which it is now fixed ? the se-
cond, shall ;any alteration be made in the mode in
which the right of the franchise is exercised; and
the third, what steps shall be taken to withdraw
members from places and populations wholly incom-
petent fairly to exercise the right of election ; and
to what new, or old, or great towns or industries,
and populations, shall these members afterwards be
distributed? The consideration of the last question
will be the main object of my speech to-night, but
I must 'briefly allude to the first and second before
I come to it. With regard, then, to the Parliamen-
tary franchise, I may.say, on the part of all earnest
Reformers, that they decidedly object to what may
be termed fancy franchises, franchises which are
given, not so much with reference to those they
include; as with reference to those they exclude.
(Hear, hear.) Somebody, for instance, has pro-
posed that our friends the lawyers should have a
special representation in the House of Commons.
You do not know so much of the House of Com-
mons as I do, but you know, at all events, that
on the Ministerial bench there generally sit five
lawyers—the Attorney and Solicitor-General for
England, the Attorney and Solicitor-General for
Ireland, and the Lord-Advocate for Scotland, and
that on the opposite bench there are just as many
more, who want to change places with them. (A
laugh.) There are certainly not fewer than 100
other lawyers—l mean barristers—in the House of
Commons, and therefore I do not think the legal
profession requires anymore representation. (Hear.)
Why should we not make a special body of the
worsted manufacturers of Bradford, just as useful
men in the country as lawyers ? The object of
giving the lawyers a member, or two members, is
that the people should not get that one or those
two members. (Hear.) Again, some one has pro-
posed that the doctors should be enfranchised. I
presume that all the doctors who live in £lO houses
vote in Bradford, or elsewhere. If you talk to a
doctor about politics he generally tells you that, as
he goes into the houses of gentlemen of all parties
he really does not care to mix* himself up in public
matters, or that his occupation is so onerous and
responsible that he cannot devote any portion of
his time to subjects beyond the range of his profes-
sion. I maintain that doctors and lawyers, though
highly educated and intelligent, and devoted to the
great interests of society, are not specially learned
on political questions, and have no more right to the
franchise than any other class of their countrymen.
A proposition has also been made that all persons
should be enfranchised who have £5O in a savings'
bank. I should like to see every man have £5O
or
£lOO in a savings' bank ; but, according to the
proposals to which I allude, if a young man hap-
pened to marry, and to withdraw his £5O from the
savings' bank, and invest the sum in the furniture
of a comfortable house, although he would thereby
become what I must consider a more responsible
citizen, he would lose his special franchise. (Hear.)
The fact is, I believe, that all these propositions
are submitted by men who have not really consi-
dered the question, or who have considered it so
much that they are finding out by what means
they can manipulate the representation so as to
avoid conferring it upon the actual citizenship of
the kingdom. Cheers.) On the other hand, my
main objection to the franchise as it now exists is,
that while it is distributed with considerable free-
dom among all other classes of society, it is fixed
at a point which necessarily excludes the most
numerous class of all. (Cheers.) The occupiers of
£lO houses do not generally receive wages from
week to week, or from fortnight to fort-
night. The object of the Reform Bill of 1832 was to
exclude the wages receiving class. lam not blaming
that bill or its authors, nor have I ever denied that it
was a great measure, considered as the first step
taken in this country with a view to extend political
rights among the people—(hear)—but it is a fact
that it does so exclude the great wages-receiving
class of the kingdom,
to be an injury andthat exclusion I maintain
to all other honest classes and an
enormous grievance to the class which it more im-
mediately affects. (Cheers.) It is not in the least
necessary that everybody should vote, but it is ne-
cessary, for the satisfaction of common sense and
justice, that the franchise should be
such equality as we can arrive at, aber ydisand with
tributed
among all classes of the people who are called
to obey the law. (Cheers.) How shall we ace uy.on
this object ? It must, I think, be by pi
something
dif-
ferent from franchises founded upon deposits
savings-banks, as well as from votes given especi-
ally to colleges and professional men--we must adopt
some more broad and general, and indeed all-
encompassing principle. I have recommended, as
that all persons whose industry
many of you know,
is called upon to contribute some portion to the
maintenance of the most indigent and helpless sick