The Sun.
London, England, 1835-09-02 00:00:00

THE PEOPLE

THE LORDS
GOVERN THIS GREAT COUNTRY?
THAT IS THE QUESTION!
SHALL A HANDFUL OF
FACTIOUS PEERS
RULE THE HIGH-SPIRITED
PEOPLE OF ENGLAND ?

Your Implacable Enemies, the TORIES, threaten you with
WAR !
CIVIL WAR ! !

You beat them in 1832, and by the same means may beat them
again in 1835. Let your Watchword be now, as then,
UNION UNION !

Your old tried Friends, the Political Council, are at their
Posts! Let the Standard of
THE UNION

be again unfurled, and rally round it ! The eyes of a:
England are upon
THE PEOPLE OF BIRMINGHAM!

Display the same undaunted Courage and Perseverance you
have displayed before, and Victory is secure!

A Public Meeting will be called by the Council without
delay. By Order of the Council,
P. H. MUNTZ, Chairman.
GEO. EDMONDS, Hon. Sec.
Town Hall, Aug. 29, 1835.

WESTAIBROMWICH POLITICAL UNION.
TO THE MEMBERS OF TIIE COUNCIL.

At our last annual meeting it was unanimously resolved,
that the operations of the Union should be suspended; giving
power to the President and Secretary to call a special meeting
of the Council in case of any political emergency.
When we consider the conduct of our hereditary wise Le-
gislators, in mutilating the Municipal Reform Bill ; in de-
stroying the Irish Church Bill; in opposing every measure
passed by the Commons, at all calculated to benefit the peo-
ple, and when we take into account the general infatuation of
the Tories, (the would-be called Conservatives ; but who are
the real Destructives ;) the formation of Orange Lodges in
the army, the systematic attempt to cause agitation throughout
the kingdom to the ruin of trade, and, which if persisted in,
will ultimately bring about a revolution alike destructive to
the aristocracy, the altar, and the throne; we are compelled
to say that the present is a period of political emergency,
when every man who values his liberty, his property, or his
life, " ought to speak out."
We, therefore, urged by repeated applications from various
Members, and by our own sense of duty do hereby call a
special general meeting of the Council, to be held at the
Union Rooms, on Tuesday evening next, at six o'clock pre-
cisely, and we request all those members of the Union, and
friends of Reform, who can make it convenient, to be present.
W. JACKSON, President.
S. REEVES, Secretary.

Aug. 28, 1835,

WOLVERHAMPTON.

On Monday last a numerous and highly respectable meet-
ing of the inhabitants was held in the above town, to take
into consideration the conduct of the Lords with respect to the
Corporation Bill. A requisition, signed by upwards of fifty
of the most respectable gentlemen of the place, was pre-
sented to the constables, requesting them to convene the
meeting. These good Tory souls, after taking 24 hours to
consider how far they could consent to assist in destroying
the corporate nests of corruption, came at last to the
sapient conclusion, that they (lid nut see the necessity for
calling the meeting, and accordingly declined doing so.
The requisitionists, however, who could see the necessity
for such a meeting, issued a spirited placard, requesting the
inhabitants to meet them at the Public-office on Monday last.
The call was responded to, and at two o'clock, the ap-
pointed hour, the building was crowded to excess. Richard
Fryer, Esq., banker, and one of the late representa-
tives of the borough, was called to the Chair; upon
which a general cry of adjourn was raised. The Chair
man immediately consented, and proceeded to the Peacock
Inn, in front of which it was resolved to hold the meeting.
At half-past two o'clock, there being not less than between
3,000 and 4,000 persons assembled, the Chairman opened the
business in a long and sensible speech. He said the meet-
ing wa-s called to consider the reasons advanced by the House
of Lords in justification of their conduct, with respect to
sevsral Bills which had been sent up from the House of
Commons.—(Cheers.) The first Bill which they had to
consider was the Corporation Bill, and in order to afford to
the meeting an opportunity of coming to a rational conclusion
upon that subject, he would briefly refer to the principle of
that Bill. At present the people of many large and wealthy
towns and cities were governed by few men. These men
had immense sums of money at their disposal, all of which,
by the by, was the money of the public—because left ex-
pressly for the benefit of the public.—( Hear, hear, hear.)
They met annually or whenever they pleased ; elected and
re-elected one another, to the total exclusion of every
man whom they considered incapable of lending him-
self to their mode of governing and disposing of the public
funds. Now the Bill passed by the House of Commons went
to take away this unjust power out of the hands of these men,
and to place it in the hands of the people. In a word, it was
a Bill to enable the people to govern themselves, in place of
being governed by a handful' of self-elected men.—( Loud
cheers.) Was there, he would ask, anything more reasonable
—( Cries of " No,")—and yet the Lords had the hardihood to
all but reject that Bill. The Speaker next adverted to the
Irish Church Bill, which they had thrown out. They were
not willing that the clergy should receive some 20 per cent.
less than they demanded, when, in point of fact, their refusing
to allow them to receive that sum amounted to a refusal of any
support at all for the clergy, They said it was robbery to ap-
ply a portion of the Church property to educate the people.—
( Shame)—although by all laws, human and divine, the clergy
were bound to educate the people. Little, however, need be
said upon that act of their Lordships. The time would
come when they would be very glad to get 70 per cent.
secured to the clergy by Act of Parliament.--( Cheers. )
The House of Lords had also thrown out the Imprisonment
for Debt Bill, and why so ? Because it went to compel their
Lordships to pay their debts the same as other men. Taking
their conduct altogether, it was bad, and he regretted it be-
cause it would have the effect of alienating the affections of
the people from that branch of the Legislature for which he
once entertained a respect.
Mr. WALKER moved the first resolution (for which see ad-
vertisement) and in doing so entered fully into the nature and
abuses of the old system of Corporations, dwelling particu-
larly upon the disgraceful manner in which the charity and
other funds had been, from time to time, expended by these
bodies in returning Tory Members to Parliament. But it had
been asked, were the Lords created, and did they exist only
for the purpose of registering the votes of the House of Com-
mons? He would answer that question by asking another—
Were they created, or did they exist for the purpose of inter-
fering with, and destroying the rights and liberties of the
people ? Did the Bill now under consideration do more
than give the people their just rights ?—( No, no.) Then if
it did not, and that the Lords opposed it for their own
purposes, the people had the remedy in their own hands, and
he hoped they would exercise it.—( Loud cheering.) The
Constitution expressly declared, that whatever other privileges
the Peers possessed, they ss ere not to interfere in money
matters.—( Renewed cheering). There the people were all
powerful when in the hands of honest Representatives.
The Rev. Mr. ROLFE, Unitarian minister, came forward to
second the resolution, and aas received with loud cheering.
In coming before them on that occasion he hoped he was se-
cure from the soldiers. He knew it had been said that it
was great blessing to have the soldiers to protect them from
their own acts.—( Shame.) But to be serious, he had hoped
when the great struggle for the Reform Bill was over, that
the people had only to
.express their wishes through their
Representatives, and that laws would accordingly be enacted
suitable to the wants of the people. He thought the Lords,
after the experience which they had on that occasion, would
see the folly of contending with the people, and would quietly
allots them to govern themselves. It appeared he was mistaken
for they were just in the same position as before the passing