The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-14 00:00:00

DEMONSTRATION AT BRIDPORT AGAINST THE

J3ILL.

A large and influential meeting of the inhabitants
of this borough took place on Friday evening last,
for the purpose of taking into consideration the
course to be pursued with regard to the Government
measure for the redistribution of seats. A strong
feeling of resentment was manifested at the pro-
posed linking together of this borough with Lyme
Regis and Honiton.
Mr. MITCHELL, M.P., who was received with loud
cheers, said he regretted extremely to have to visit
them again so early after his last visit; and on what
he might call a very distressing occasion ; and lie
also regretted the absence of his hon. colleague,
who he felt shared the bulk of his opinions. He
alluded, of course, to the bills that were before Far-
hament with reference to the reduction of the fran-
chise and the redistribution of seats. One of these
bills affected so gravely, and in a manner which ha
considered so scandalously unjust, the constituency
to which he had the honour to be attached by ties of
more than a quarter of a century, and which he be-
lieved was also attached to him, that he thought it
his duty to come down and state clearly what were
his views on the subject of the redistribution of seats,
to hear their opinion upon it, and also to state the
course which he meant to pursue with regard to the
further prosecution of the measures before the house.
After a few words on the Reduction of the Fran-
chise Bill, for the second reading of which he voted,
he said Mr. Bright publicly stated it was his advice
to the Government to destroy all opposition by not
letting the borough know beforehand what was to
be their fate afterwards. He (the speaker) thought
any Government which took such a course as that
was very much to be blamed. Then followed the
redistribution of seats, and it was upon this he desired
to speak, because he felt the borough of Bridport
had been treated with the most scandalous injustice
—an injustice which, as far as he could make
out from the return laid before Parliament, no other
constituency in the country had experienced. He
reminded them there was no reason why Bridport
should be treated worse than any other constituency,
for never was there a charge of bribery brought
against them since his unhappy election there, 25
years ago ; it was a thriving and interesting town,
and it was not a nomination borough, but as in-
dependent as any in the country. (Cheers.) He
found by the Government proposal that they were
to be clubbed together with two other boroughs,
making a total number of population larger than
any others which exist under any of the classifica-
tion of boroughs in the country which it is intended
shall be represented by only one member. He was
not at all satisfied with the reasons given by Go-
vernment for not bringing forward their bill for the
redistribution of seats until they had got members
pledged to the bill for the reduction of the franchise.
That simply proposed there should be no disfran-
chisement at all, but that the boroughs should be
mixed up together, in the hope that the 79 members
who would be affected by the measure in considera-
tion of their boroughs not being actually disfran-
chised, would be induced to vote for the bill for the
redistribution of seats. (Hear, hear.) He did not
think that was the principle on which any Govern-
ment ought to bring forward a measure of that kind.
(Cheers.) He should have been better prepared to
support a bill which would totally disfranchise some
of the small towns in the country which were purely
nomination boroughs, such as the decayed places,
Ashburton, Devon, or the town of Arundel, which
contains only 1,500 inhabitants. He should have
been better prepared to see a number of small towns
disfranchised altogether, and moderate sized towns
such as Bridport deprived of one member, without
being mixed up with other towns, and the privileges
so created transferred to the large unrepresented
towns in the country. But this was not proposed
in the present bill. But it seemed to him that the
Government, upon the principle of popularity hunt-
ing, and trying to get all the support they could,
had clubbed the boroughs together, had disfranchised
nobody, and had made a present of half the seats to
the county members, who were principally Conser-
vatives. (Hear, hear.) As to the remainder they
must fare the best they can. (Hear, hear.) The
united population of the Bridport boroughs would
be 11,200, and this he said was larger than any
other constituency. But independently of that
they were proposed to be clubbed with no near
neighbours. They might not so much object to the
neighbouring town of Lyme, which was only eight
miles off, but they were to be mixed up with a de-
cayed place called lloniton, which none of them
knew or cared anything about. He confessed it
would almost be preferable to lose the franchise
altogetherce
sa
with such
sthese.
(Cheers.) thought
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