The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-19 00:00:00

NEWSPAP

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tie had been convinced, however, by .; ; i''-:, 4*.$111": -
these parties on the occasion that the 11'4';
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nothing of the share of the political pe ..'t• WI '4lwA
114,
their class that was not actually wreuc sk froki h
them by the force of a public opinion which they
could not resist. He should certainly support no
policy so revolutionary and alarming as that which
was at such risk persisted in prior to the Reform
Act, viz., damming up the current of the popular
will till it was about to burst into violence.
Mr. APLAnErz, M.P., moved the first resolution,
consisting of the first clause of the first resolution
adopted at
.the day meeting, and expressed his great
gratification with the procession and Queen's Park
meeting, which was in his opinion attended by even
more than were present at the great meeting of
1832, when the number was estimated at 50,000.
ITc said, while he was not prepared to go the length
of inankooci suffrage, for which the country was not
yet sufficiently prepared by education, he would
gladly support any measure of reform which enfran-
chised a large portion of the working classes, by
whatever party it might be introduced, and would
not consent to view reform as a question of party
interest, to be used for putting one party in and an-
other party out. They were told by the newspapers
which professed to know the intentions of the pre-
sent Government that they had it in view to intro-
duce a bill that would give household suffrage in the
large towns and an £8 suffrage in the small ones.
Household franchise in the large boroughs would bs
a very large measure of reform indeed, but an £8
franchise in the small towns would be a perfect
mockery. (Hear, hear.) Itwas in thesmall boroughs
that the franchise was particularly required to be in-
troduced, because in a large town like Edinburgh,
with an increasing population, where rents were
high, a spriuking of the working classes was on the
roll already ; but in the small towns the working
man was not to be found on the roll at all. He had
made a calculation of the number of voters in
Edinburgh at different qualifications, and he found
that while the present constituency was 10,343,.the
number of voters at £7 would be 13,643 ; at £5
17,143 ; at household suffrage, 23,731 ; and at
manhood suffrage, 38,282 ; deducting in all cases
one-eighth from the gross numbers of those whose
residence qualification was incomplete. Ile went on
to advert to the fact that, while the working classes
had helped to give the suffrage to the middle classes,
the favour was so barely requited now. It had been
like an Irish reciprocity, all on one side. The aristo-
cratic Whigs of Edinburgh who crowded Reform
platforms in 1832 had deserted the cause, and be-
come practically Tories ; Tories in all but this, that
they desired' that the Tories should come out of office
in order that they should go in. To the aristocratic
-Whigs of Edinburgh he would apply the lines in
which Byron had expressed the comparison between
the ancient and the modern Greeks :
• "So coldly sweet, so deadly fair,
"We start, for soul is wanting there."
IMr. MILLER seconded the resolution, which was
carried unanimously ; and the other resolutions of
the forenoon were duly proposed, seconded, and
I agreed to.

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