The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-05 00:00:00

The Reform Bill.

DEMONSTRATION AT ROCHDALE.
A public meeting of the inhabitants of Rochdale
was held last evening in the large mill of the Co-
operative Manufacturing Society in support of the
Government Reform Bill. The mill, which is
estimated as capable of containing 11,000 persons,
was densely crowded. The Mayor, Mr. Samuel
Stott, took the chair, supported by Mr. Bright, M.P.,
Mr. T. B. Potter, M.P., Messrs. G. L. Ashworth,
Petrie, Heape, Robinson, T. Ashworth, Tatham,
Kemp, Moore, and the principal inhabitants of the
borough.
The proceedings having been briefly opened by
the Mayor,
Alderman G. ASHWORTH moved the following
resolution :
" That believing the Reform Bill recently introduced into
Parliament by Mr. Gladstone, though coming short of what
the unenfranchised were reasonably entitled to expect, will
if passed, prove a substantial and sensible advance towards
its
thanks fair representation of the people, this meeting tenders
thanks to the Government for the measure and for their
expressed determination to supplement it by other neces-
sary refo of Parliament, and resolves to use its utmost
endeavours to secure the passing of the bill into law."
He said the Bill of the Government, although not
what the people had a right to expect, was honest
as far as it went. Its principle was just, because it
recognised in some form the right of the occupier
of a house to vote for a Parliamentary representa-
tive. He alluded to the fact that the building in
which the meeting was held belonged exclusively to
the working classes, and said it was a stigma upon
the representative institutions of the country that
not a dozen of the owners of such magnificent pro-
perty possessed the franchise. 11 the bill now brought
forward by the Government was not carried, he
sincerely trusted that an appeal would be made to
the constituencies of the country. (A. voice—" There
won't be many who will go back again.") (Great
cheering.)
Mr. PETRIE, a Town Councillor of Rochdale,
seconded the resolution.
Mr. T. B. PoTrEu, M.P., in supporting the mo-
tion, said he was not altogether satisfied with the
bill of the Government ; it was not sufficiently com-
prehensive for his views, but it was a substantial
step in the right direction, and was an honest bill,
introduced by an honest Government. He had full
confidence in Earl Russell and Mr. Gladstone, and
believed that they would stand true to the cause of
reform. The Conservatives, although they pretended
to take some interest in the question, were really
doing all in their power to shelve it. As to the re-
solution of Lord Grosvenor, he agreed with Mr.
Gladstone, that it said one thing and meant another,
and that it was really undeserving of consideration.
It might be possible that jealousy and distrust on
the part of some of the great Whig families induced
them covertly to oppose the efforts of the Govern-
ment to settle the question, but there could be no
doubt that the most serious danger the bill was
likely to meet with was occasioned by treason in the
Liberal ranks rather than by Tory opposition. He
complained of the course which had been taken by
Mr. Lowe and Mr. Horsman, and said he was better
content to remain the trumpeter of Mr. Bright than,
like the right hon. members for Caine and Stroud,
to be his own follower and blow his own trumpet.
As to Lord Elcho, that noble lord had the disad-
vantage of being born in the ranks of the aristo-
cracy, but he would never succeed in crushing the
spirit of democracy under his heel, although he had
certainly done all in his power hitherto to set class
against class. With regard to Mr. Marsh, who
formed the tail of the malcontents, he would only
say this, that Australia had no reason to regret the
loss of his distinguished services.
The resolution was put by the MAYOR, and agreed
to.

Alderman HEAPE moved the next resolution—
" That the following petition in favour of the Govern-
ment Franchise Bill be adopted ; and that Mr. T. B
Potter, the member for the borough, be requested to pre.
sent it :---‘ That your petitioners having considered the pro-
visions of the bill to amend the representation of the
people, recently introduced into your hon. house by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer, hereby express their belief
that such bill provides an honest and safe extension of the
suffrage in counties and boroughs. That your petitioners
have learnt with satisfaction that the Government intends
during the present session to lay before your hon. house
further measures for the reform of Parliament. Your pe-
titioners, therefore, pray your hon. house to pass the bill
already introduced without delay, and to reject all attempts
to defeat it or to alter its provisions, especially as far as
those provisions will extend and -simplify the existing
franchise." (Cheers.)
Mr. ROBINSON, a member of Town Council,
seconded the resolution.
Mr. BRIGHT, M.P., who was received with over-
whelming cheers, then rose to support the motion.
As soon as silence was restored, the hon. gentleman
said—Mr. Mayor and fellow-townsmen—l very
much fear I shall not be able to make myself heard
by the thousands I see before me. Since the day
to which my hon. friend has just referred—since
last Saturday—l have been so hoarse that I could
scarcely speak, even in common conversation. I
must therefore ask you to be as quiet as possible, to
give me the slightest chance of being heard to-night.
It is but three months now since I was last per-
mitted to address any number of my fellow towns-
men on the question of parliamentary reform.
Many of you will recollect on that occasion I took
the liberty of giving some advice to reformers
throughout the country, and some also to those re-
formers who now compose her Majesty's Govern-
ment.l regret to say that, while the advice
gavel to reformers in general has been in the main
followed, that which I gave to her Majesty's Go-
vernment has not been followed so
exactly as I
could have wished, for I foundthat when Mr. Glad-
stone brought forward the bill it differed in almost
every particular from that bill which I had urged
him and his colleagues to prepare ; but if we have a
Ministry or Cabinet composed of 14 or 15 persons of
bothld houses of Parliament, and if they are to be
held responsible . for great measures submitted
toe Parliament, of course it is but fair that we
should allow them an exercise of their judgment,
and make allowance for some difficulties which they
see
see, but which perhaps we did not:lr business
,o a
sano r d
egiv e. a
candid and fair consideration to the
which
they have proposed. Well, it is
toit
consider it and to accept it, or to condemn
Some of you will recollect the opinion which I pro-
nounced on it in the House of Commons. lam
glad to say that is the opinion which has been pro-
nounced on it by Reformers throughout every por-
tion of the kingdom. (Cheers.) The Liberal
party throughout the country have agreed to accept
the bill, believing it to be, as I then described it, an
honest bill, and to offer to the people a substantial
improvement on the Liberal condition of our repre-
sentation. But what there may be in the bill which
engages our sympathy and support, by so much it
necessarily courts the hostility and opposition of the
Tory
PartY ; and I think in what is now taking place
-
in Parliament we see the character of that party ex-
hibited, as it has been exhibited throughout its
whole history for the last hundred years,
con-
sistent and persistent hatred of popular insti-
tutions--(hear, hear)—or in in a
an attempt to keep the
government of this
country Permanently in a class,
and in a class whose syrapa
%es with the people are
not such as to give us any kind of security that the
Government of the country will belensmen ht, and gener-
te
things Tory
gener-
ous, and wise. (Cheers.) At this in
party in the house is exhibiting one of two t
a more than usual depravity, or else a desperatel re:
solution to withstand every proposition of Reform,
If you go back to 1859 you will find in the :sr:.
pipers the record of a bill which Lord Derby's aGo-
vernment proposed, and which Mr. Disraeli intro--
duck' in the House of Commons. That bill pro-
posed a ,ElO franchise for the country, but the bill
of Lord Derby proposed to shut out from voting in
the counties all the freehold property that is within
the limits of boroughs. The object was to confine
the county representation more strictly than ever, if
possible, to the powers of the great landed proprie-
tors, and to shut out from it all the influence of the
towns. Still, if a 10-pounder in the counties was
fit for the franchise by the bill of 1859, surely a 14-
pounder in the county is fit for the franchise in the
bill of 1866, and yet the Tory party wish to get rid
of this bill, and object so far as I hear to this pro-
vision of the £l4 franchise in the counties. Well,
is the boroughs the bill of Lord Derby made no

difference—that is, it did not lower the. franchisei2o,
below £lO, it proposed a lodger franchise of
and savings-bank franchise, and I think ofrnaenoerbistweso,
others, which I have described as fancy
all of which I think may be set down
reteoolbloeorat ?heart
bad than otherwise. But you may
two very eminent members of LosrdooDre7abzyy
's,
.ia°cvl ell‘llir-
ment—Mr. Walpole, the Home .
Trade—re-
- - -t
they
were signed Bentley,
tbtehi
re Ps
eraetssi dienn t
tohfa
tt Ph
aßb Board, of
becauseTr
were in favour ofaretdbue roctbioonoufgtbhefbraonroebuigshe
to
orabne-
chise ; they wished
brought down at least to £B, which is within 20s.
a year of the present Government proposal, and
we have it upon record that Mr. Disraeli, the
leader of the house at the time, did hold
out, it is said, distinct promises, but cer-
tainly did hold out most strong expectations, that
if the House would but read the bill a second time,
they would consent in committee to some reduction
to a borough franchise. Well, if they were willing
for the sake of retaining office then to carry a bill
with a £lO franchise for the counties, and to hold
out the hope that they would reduce the borough
franchise from £lO at least to £B, what are we to
say of the patriotism of the party which now, seven
years afterwards, stakes its Parliamentary reputa-
tion upon a course which involves the rejection of
this bill, and, if possible, the destruction of a Go-
vernment by which the bill has been introduced ?
(Hear.) I say that this course of theTo
Brypuatrtiyf
itis
factious to the very last degree. (Hear.)
be not this, it is something, perhaps, if not more
immoral, more selfish and more stupid—(cheers)—
because it is the manifestation of a desperate re-
solve that they will never consent to any further ex-
tension of political freedom to the people of the
United Kingdom. (Cheers.) They say to the six
millions—more than six millions and a half of
grown-up men in this kingdom—they say
to them
in effect, " Not one of you shall ever come within
the barriers that the bill of 1832 erected. You shall
be outsiders every one of you for ever, unless in a
county you can surmount the barrier of a £5O
rental, or you can surmount the barrier in a
borough of a £lO rental." lam not quite sure that
Lord Derby or any of his followers dare say that to
the people of this country. (Cheers.) But either
their conduct is factious or immoral to the last de-
gree in their opposition to the bill, or they have
changed their minds and their convictions upon the
subject of Reform, and conceive it to be their inte-
rest or their duty to resist in all future time any ex-
tension of the suffrage. (Hear.) Now, what is this
bill, and what is it to do ? It is to admit 400,000
men who have now no votes to the elective fran-
chise within the limits of England and Wales. Of
that number 200,000 will be within the limits of
counties and holdings, or land of the annual value
of £l4 and upwards, and therefore we may set them
down as not of the working class. Within the
boroughs it will admit about an equal number
close upon 200,000 new voters ; and although nearly
all these have been reckoned by Mr. Gladstone as of
the working class, yet I am perfectly satisfied that
his estimate is altogether inaccurate, and although
it would be a substantial increase of the number of
electors, I believe that no more than the bare majo-
rity of that number can be said to be really and pre-
cisely of what we term the class of working men.
(Hear.) I think lam not overstating the case when
I say that after 34 years have elapsed since the pass-
ing of Reform, if a Bill is proposed, and if it be ola:.
jected to and resisted by a great party in the State,
we may say that party sets itself resolutely and de-
terminedly against the enfranchisement and the
manumission of the working people—(hear, hear)—
that they mean the representation should remain as
it is. Depend upon it, if this bill is not passed, that
if there be a power in Parliament that can resist it,
any idea of a reduction of seats, or, in fact, of doing
anything in this matter, must be, for some time at
least, abandoned. (Hear, hear.) You are to be
condemned for ever, you working people, to exclu-
sion. The country which carries on a constitutional
Government by representative system is to be hence-
forth only 1,000,000 of electors, and that millionso
placed, so distributed in regard to members and
seats, that the representation of the people in the
House of Commons is little better than a sham and
a farce. (Cheers.) In the counties you know per-
fectly well that the landlord, and the landlord only,
is really the elector. You know that in the boroughs
—you read the reports of the electors and every
general election—that is, in many scores of the
boroughs, there is a system of compulsion and cor-
ruption which destroys almost even the very sem-
blance of popular and honest representation ; and
every man knows, who knows anything of our elec-
toral system, that the whole process is hideous, and
disgraceful, and humiliating to the last degree to all
intelligent and honourable men. (Cheers.) I was
speaking the other day to a member of the House
of Commons—a man most honourable, of great
wealth, of high reputation—who was returned to
this very Parliament at the head of the poll,
whose conduct during the election—whose personal
conduct--was without the slightest stain or blame,
who told me that there were things done in this
borough such as, after the contest was over, made
him feel the deepest humiliation that his name had
been in any degree whatever connected with it, and
I believe that his feelings have been so shocked by
what he has witnessed that nothing probably could
induce him again to appear to be connected with so
much that is so odious to those immediately con-
cerned, and discreditable and dishonourable to us as
a great nation. (Hear.) But they tell us in Lon-
don, in the House of Commons, and occasionally at
the clubs, that the -working people, after all, don't
care for the franchise, that the middle class who
have the vote don't wish to extend it to their bre-
thren who are beneath them in the social scale, and
that the working classes themselves aro altogether
careless about their enfranchisement. Now, so far
as this borough goes, I know no man of the Liberal
party, whatever his position in the borough, however
wealthy, however eminent, who is not willing and
anxious to hold out his hand to the working man,
and say, " My good countryman and fellow towns-
man and friend, come up higher and be on the same
level with me." (Cheers.) I admit that the work-
ing people are very quiet ; they have not yet taken
throw
country
of the
or 11 hours a day, most of them ; they have their
wives and their children at home, and there is a de-
mand
evandery da
at home ;
every day for the wages of the work
and it would be a perilous thing for
this
working
ft hefreesho ul
or that
aweek their e
be
tt that kind of move-
mentto willstimulardite themnar
up fora wdaps classesy
labour to turn themselves into active and agitating
politicians. (Cheers.) Thereis nothing more mar-
vellously obtuse than the expression of these men
at head-quarters that they will not give this ex-
tension of the suffrage because the working
people are very quiet and make no clamour
—even those who vilify them most in the House
of Commons can walk among them unarmed. If
the state of things were otherwise, would it con-
vince these men ? (Cries of " No, no I") They
might yield from fear, but they would not yield
from a sense of justice—(cheers)—and when in the
years 1831 and 1832 your fathers were not so quiet,
and when in half a dozen populous counties there
were great armies ready to take the field, not drilled
and armed, but still assembling in vast numbers to
a Parliament partly with petitions and
paparpchtrloyawith menaces, these men, or rather the men
of that day, althouh they were driven from their
positions,they
wwilorlikinoffer no menaces.
placiladsedthtehaßt Refeofronirmßitliriupmaspsehded, tthhaeyn
athreeandtriumph now, when
(Cheers.) thaterngpe o
people
I c Reforma r e quiet should
society of statesmen ;
fellow-
townsman, a man not brought up in Universities or
in the little or
I may be nothing, being only your
nothingappears that
of these things but to me it
providing against them, statesmanship Con • ' I may know
fore-
sight, and in foreseeing evils that are coming, in
,paaalurtotdigyeitnihnethwr.ihs
abso-
lutelyAaptrtowtviheissic.omanlloment
them
I regard Earl Russell
members
Mr. Gladstone, their col-
leagues, and the
willing to support themrßi3f Parliament who are
regard them all as men
to whom history will point its finger in future times
and say, " These were really the statesmen of
day." (Cheers.) Probably, however, this Tory party
and
Par y
and the three or four men—for when it cornea to

the final decision probably they will not be more
than three or four men who sit on our side of the
house who will be likely to join them—the Tories,
I say, have probably a double object in the course
which they are pursuing. They may reject the bill,
and they may destroy the Government. For a mo-
ment we will imagine this to be possible. What
then ? Will Lord Derby come into office ? Will all
his colleagues, supplemented, it may be, by the two
or three men on our side who will join them ? What
if they do? Will they bring in another Reform Bill,
or will they try something else to avoid Reform?
Have you read the newspapers within the last few
days ? You will have heard a whisper of diffi-
culties in the heart of Europe—that Austria and
Prussia are quarrelling over the distribution or the
division of the territory which they united two years
ago in seizing from Denmark. The Prussian people
at this moment have a Parliament which is very
much in the position of the Parliament of England
some 230 years ago. They have a monarch who
seems desirous of playing the part in Prussia which
Charles I. played in England. I hope, in our less
severe times, that, whatever may
happen him, he
may not come to so calamitous a fall as that which
overtook the King of England. (Hear, hear.) Now,
suppose that war broke out, can anybody tell how
far it will spread or where it may end If you
look at the map of Europe you see Prussia . 9 i
east—always a great army there. You see France
n the
in the west—always a great army there. You see
, that the annual income
Italy in the south with an army so large, and mili-
tary expenses so excessive
of the country does not suffice to meet the annual
expenditure. If a war breaks out between Vienna
and Berlin, between Austria and Prussia, how far
the conflagration will extend no man can tell ; but
this it would be easy to do if we had a Tory Govern-
ment in England anxious to follow the course of the
Tory Government of 1793. It would be easy, per-
haps—if it were easy it might ultimately be perilous
—it would be easy to postpone the question of Re-
form by plunging the country into an European
war. (Cheers.) Look across the Atlantic and you
will see questions not without delicacy, not without
difficulty. You know the excited state of the Irish
population in the United States ; you know some-
thing of the difficulties which have arisen between us
and Canada, and the abrogation of the treaty of
commerce which has existed between them ; you
know what the Tory newspapers have said during
the last four or five years on every question con-
nected with the United States ; there would be no
difficulty whatever in a Government determined
not to face this question of Reform involving
you in financial difficulties, and, perhaps, in
war with the great Republic on the Ame-
rican continent. I would not trust that Tory party
—(cheers)—their annals for the last 100 years have
been annals of calamity to this country. (Cheers.)
To them we owe mostly what there is of ignorance
and brutality and of the abject povery that is spread
among the lowest and most hopeless class in the
kingdom, and now, when you have a fair measure
like this—fair, but most moderate, I say that they
are showing themselves in the old colours when they
unite, it may be to a man, to resist this small con-
cession to the people. (Cheers.) Well, what have
we to do ? The 5,000 assembled here are but a
small portion of all the people of England ; but to
night there are many 5,000 meetings ; last week,
this week, next week, and longer, we have had and
shall have in the newspapers accounts of great meet-
ings to discuss this question. We have to choose
probably whether there shall be a Reform or no
Reform—whether the book of progress in which is
written so many good measures of late years shall
be shut up and closed for ever, because if you allow
the Tory party to gain the ascendancy again it is
impossible to say when that book will be again
opened. (Cheers.) Of the working class, which
they spoke of with so little respect, without which
England would be no nation at all, without whose
industry the greatness and the wealth of the country
would be as nothing in comparison with even an
unimportant country in Europe, you have to say
whether that class shall sink under the slanders which
have been heaped upon it; whether, for example,
the national verdict shall confirm that which was said
the other night by a gentleman who, being a mem-
ber of her Majesty's Privy Council, is by title a
right honourable, and who sits for a rotten borough,
elected by the Marquis of Lansdowne. (Cheers.)
That right hon. gentleman said, "If you want
venality, which means corruption—if you want
ignorance, if you want drunkenness, if you want to
be intimidated, if you want an impulsive, unreflec-
tive, violent people, go to the unrepresented class."
(Cries of "Oh ! Oh !") Now, what we have to
decide—what this town and the public have to
decide, is this—whether the national verdict shall be
given in favour of that slanderous sentence uttered
against the millions of the people of England.
There is no complaint that you work and that you
toil for 10 or 12 hours a day ; and six days in the
week you sweat at your work ; you pay your taxes ;
you build your wealth for others. In combination
with capital and intellect you make the greatness
of this nation, and yet in the House of Commons—
the people's house—not the House of Lords—lan-
guage like this I have quoted is uttered and cheered
by the great Tory party in the house. (Hear, hear.)
I say there is a desperate peril in this—that lan-
guage like this, the state of mind which causes it to
be uttered, the doctrine out of which it springs is
the doctrine of revolution of the worst and themost
calamitous character. We abhor all this. (Cheers.)
We are for peace—for peace at home and peace
with all nations abroad. We are for peace and for
justice, and for the safe and gradual advance of
freedom. We believe that the time is come when
the middle classes, who are mainly Liberal, shall
unite, and can unite, with the great body of the work-
ing class, who are aspiring for something higher
and better than they have hitherto had; and we
say that, united together, we can gain from our
Government and Parliament whatever is necessary
for us. We feel that our fate is in our own hands,
and, assembled here 5,000 strong, we resolve, and
ask the country everywhere to resolve with us, that
we will never of our own free will be parties to our
own humiliation and to our own enslavement. The
hon. gentleman, who was labouring under a severe
cold and spoke with great difficulty, resumed his
seat amid great cheering.
The resolution was unanimously agreed to, and
votes of thanks having been passed to the Co-ope-
rative Society for the use of the mill and to the
Mayor for presiding, the proceedings terminated at
9 o'clock.
Mr. BRIGnT, in supporting the vote of thanks
to the Mayor, said the people would really
help the question of Reform by signing the peti-
tion to be presented. He hoped no mishap would
attend the bill in its passage through Par-
liament. His own impression was that if the bill
passed the House of Commons, it li ould pass with-
out mutilation through the House of Lords. He
suspected that wise men of that house would not
wish to get into contest again with the people of
England as to the condition of the franchise which
should return members to the House of Commons.
The petitions should be short, good, and sensible,
and extensively signed, that the House of Commons
might feel that those who spoke of the bill within its
walls were seconded and backed and supported by
the great public opinion in those districts from
whence they came. Mr. Bright was loudly cheered
on retiring.

AN EFFECT BY CAUSE DEFECTIVE.—RATIIER
SPITEFUL is the following snarl in the Examiner,
which says—The firm of Russell, Gladstone, and Co. is
about to fail. This great misfortune is not due to bad
management, or to the state of the market, or to any of
the usual causes, but solely to the loss of a customer. A
distinguished contemporary, enlarging upon the nature and
consequences of Lord Grosvenor's motion, continues thus :
"After such a rebuff, it is very doubtful whether the Minis-
try can last long." We all know the story of the great
man of boots, Hoby, who, on receiving the severe re-
proaches of an angry client, called John to put up the
shutters instantly, as Captain Smith withdrew his cus-
tom.' Lord Grosvenor, it appears, is Government's Cap-
tain Smith. Up with the shutters ! Mr. Lowe and Lord
Stanley will perhaps be ready to deal with the assignees
for the " goodwill ;" a thing some of the " party"—the
Hybrid, or Lowe-bred party, or what is it ?—are likely
enough to require. What great effects from little causes
Wig!

:GENCB