The Sun.
London, England, 1866-08-09 00:00:00

Reform Meeting at the Guildhall.

A meeting convened at the instance of the Reform
League and the London Working Men's Associa-
tion was held yesterday evening at the Guildhall
under the presidency of the Lord Mayor. The
meeting was announced to take place at half-past
seven, but long before that hour the approaches to
the hall were densely thronged. Those who mus-
tered there appeared to be for the most part work-
ing men, and their behaviour was good-humoured
and orderly. Among the crowd were a few adven-
turous female politicians—the number was very
small indeed—who pushed their way by dint of
energy and persuasion to the foremost places. They
were greeted sometimes with cheers, sometimes
with the cry of " There go the clients of Mr.
Mill." At half-past six the doors were opened and
the body of the hall was quickly filled. Few, if
any, roughs were to be seen among the crowd,
partly, of course, because admission was only ob-
tained by ticket, partly, no doubt, because that class
of the community are addicted rather to al fresco
than to indoor amusements. Before the proceedings
commenced the hall, which is capable of containing
some 5,000 or 6,000 persons, was completely filled.
Those who could not obtain admission, and they
also mustered pretty strongly, held meetings on
their own account in the open space outside the
hall, and made themselves repeatedly heard during
the progress of the speeches delivered inside.
The Low? MAYOR took the chair at the appointed
hour, and was received with loud cheers. He said,
in opening the proceedings, that his first duty was
to return the meeting his grateful thanks for the
cordial reception given him. That man must have a
heart of stone who could witness the magnificent
sight before him without deep emotion. (Cheers.)
He was present in the Guildhall that evening in the
discharge of his municipal duty—a duty from which
he never had shrank. (Cheers.) Whenever any-
thing was to be done in that hall which demanded
the presence of the chief magistrate he should, he
hoped, so long as he occupied that honourable posi-
tion, be found at his post. (Cheers.) It was not
his intention on that occasion to pronounce any
opinion of his own or to endorse that pronounced by
anyone else on the subject which they had assembled
to discuss. Public meetings such as that he had the
honour to address were convened for the purpose of
giving expression freely, temperately, and indepen-
dently to certain views, and interchanging opinions,
but there were three things essential to the satisfac-
tory attainment of that object. The first was good
temper ; the second good judgment ; and the third,
moderation. All these essential qualities he thought
he saw that evening written in the face of as fine
and as intellectual a gathering of working men as he
had ever beheld assembled under one roof. (Cheers.)
He stood before them as a guarantee for public order,
and he appealed to each one among them to look
kindly and generously on his position and to give
him countenance and support. (Cheers.) Having
made those few observations he begged to call on
Mr. Beaks to move the first resolution.

Mr. BEALES then presented himself to the meet-
ing, and was received with loud cheers. He moved
the following resolution :
" That the moderate measure of Reform introduced by
her Majesty's late Government having been rejected by
Parliament, and the present Government having indefi-
nitely postponed the question of Reform, this meeting feels
it its duty to declare that the great body of the unenfran-
chised working classes in this country will be satisfied with
nothing less than the speedy introduction of a bill for the
amendment of the representation on the basis of residential
and registered Manhood Suffrage and the Ballot."

(Cheers.) He claimed, he said, to be considered a
working man himself, no thanks to the Tory press,
which sought to set him down as a briefless bar-
rister. It was, he added, a greattrial of the people's
patience that the leaders of whom that press was
the advocate should, owing to the defeat of the late
Ministry, be permitted to intrude into office. The
head of the Government, Lord Derby, was no
doubt personally a man of high principle. He pos-
sessed, moreover, great debatingpower and eminent
literary attainments—attainments which had been
so gracefully referred to by the Lord Mayor on a
recent occasion. (hear, hear.) For those qualities
he had the highest respect, although he was
quite at a loss to understood how the noble lotd
could have accepted office under the humiliating
circumstances by which his recent accession to it
was surrounded. But, be that as it might, the
noble lord stated a short time ago that the good
cause which they had met to promote could only be
injured in the eyes of the public and of the Legisla-
ture if an attempt were made to support it by any-
thing having the appearance of intimidation or vio-

lence. (Cheers.) That doctrine he at once accepted,

as the representative of a body which advocated
manhood suffrage and the ballot, but he must say

he thought there was something very like intimida-
tion in those uplifted truncheons of the array of
armed police which were assembled in Hyde Park

on the 23d of last month—(loud cheers)—acting

under the order of the Government of which Lord
Derby NV a 3 the head, and whos?, magnanimous
C ommissioner did his utmost to expose the humble
individual who addressed them to the tender vio-

lence of his horse's hoofs. (A. laugh.) The Times,
in commenting last Monday on the able letter which

was addressed to it by Mr. Mason Jones, improved
on Lord Derby, and protested against any attempt
on the part of the Reform League to overawe rea-
son by brute force, or to silence discussion by
threatening demonstrations. Brute force was,

however, employed against the members of the
Reform League on the 23d of July, and if it pro-
voked brute force in return it was itself to blame.

(Cheers.) The Times went further, and most ludic-

. .
rously and extravagantly laid to the charge of the
Reform League, and to the charge of the Reform
League alone, all the mischief which followed. Itwas

nevertheless as certain as that he was then speaking

that the sole cause of all that mischief was the ill-

advised and injudicious and vexatious attempt which
had been made to shut out the people from the parks
by closing the gates—(cheers)—and the truth
of that observation was borne out by the good
order which had marked the meetings which had
been held the same evening in Trafalgar-square and
the recent magnificent demonstration in the Agri-
cultural-hall. (Cheers.) And what had led to such
demonstrations? Invective after invective had been
poured forth against the working classes. They had
been characterised by one who was well known to
the Times as so venal, so ignorant, and so vicious as
to be unfit to be admitted to the exercise of the fran-
chise.

(Cheers.) The working men had assembled

in their halls in the first instance to protest against

such a falsehood, but their meetings thus held were
either ridiculed or ignored, and they then deemed it
to be their duty to meet in larger numbers out of
doors. Acting upon that view, they selected Hyde
Park as a place where these assemblages might have
the effect of at last bringing conviction home to the
minds of their opponents. In doing so they had no
wish to have recourse to brute force. They simply

sought to meet where reviews and other large
gatherings had been held, which were not at all
found fault with by the Times. (Cheers.) They,
moreover, chose an unfrequented spot in the park,
and a time when all the aristocratic loungers would
in all probability have left for their homes. Now,
if, under *loge circumstances, it was true that the
Crown had to exclude the public from the
parks, was
would ask, wise or expedient to
exercise that right? What became of the reason-
ing of Lord Derby and the Times when they ap-
proved the offer to the Reforrateague of Primrose-
bill for the purpose of holding their meetings? Was
it allowable to overpowerr
demonstrations
hy brute force and
a resort to threatening
Leagtuheereand
not in Hyde-park ? The Reform
how-
ever, could appeal to the country for their 'verdici
on these proceedings, and all the power of the
Tii;:eg, great as it was supposed to be, would be
found to be idle when it sought to make that Which
was wrong appear to be right. (Cheers.) In his
opinion the prohibition of the meeting in Hyde-
park had done more than a hundred meetings under
other circumstances would have done to advance the
cause of Reform and to unite the people in its sup-

port. (Renewed cheers.) It was true that the Go-
vernment, with the aid of certain partisan magis-
trates, was doing its best to aid that cause, and when
he reflected on what had passed between Mr. Wal-
pole and himself, it was, he must confess, with

ineffable contempt and scorn that he had read re-
marks which were said to have been made by a man
who acted as a representative of justice in this coun-
try—remarks the use of which, to his astonishment,
Mr. Walpole appears to have sanctioned the previ-
ous evening in the House of Commons. (Hear.)
In conclusion, he had simply to say that the banner
of the Reform League, with " the ballot" and
" manhood suffrage" inscribed upon it, was hailed in
all quarters of the country, and would before long
meet with a still warmer reception throughout the
length and breadth of the land. (Loud cheers.)
Mr. G. POTTER, in seconding the resolution,
pointed out that there were 6,000,000 of people in
England who had no more voice in the election of
members to represent them in Parliament than if
they were Russians or barbarians. (Cheers, which
were re-echoed by those outside the Guildhall, pos-
sibly as a mark of approval of some similar senti-
ment uttered by one of the speakers engaged in ad-
dressing them.) The franchise, he contended, was
necessary for the protection of the subject from
plunder from class government and iniquitous taxa-
tion. Why, then, was the working man precluded
from its exercise? One reason was that which was
given by the Tories, which was to the effect that he
was not fitted to possess it, and which in plain Eng-
lish meant that the working classes were men of bad
and depraved character. Now that, in his opinion,
was a base libel upon thosewho as a body were con-
spicuous for probity, industry, and morality. (Cheers.)
What trust, he would ask, had ever been betrayed
by the working men? The bayonet was placed in
their hands; why should not the franchise be com-
mitted to their keeping? (Cheers.) Did not they in
the management of their affairs call forth the admi-
ration of statesmen and philosophers? It was only
the other day that the Times had pronounced their
societies to be conducted with skill, wisdom, and
tact ; why, then, were they deemed unworthy of that
political privilege for which they sought? The work-
ing men had, he maintained, a higher stake in the
welfare of the country than any other class. Their
energy, labour, and industry it was that had made
England what she was. Were their provident societies,
with assets amounting to £6,000,000, to be ignored?
Were their trade and friendly societies, with funds
to the extent of £2,000,000, of no consequence ?
Was no account to be taken of their co-operative
societies with their £6,000,000 annually; of their
building societies, with invested savings amounting
to £13,000,000 ; of their hard earnings invested in
Post-office savings-banks, savings-banks, and life
assurances ? Could it be said that with all that
capital, and an annual income in the shape of wages
to the extent of £400,000,000, the working men had
no stake in the country? (Cheers.) Why should
such men be slandered by the Tories, be called venal
and corrupt, and be deprived of their rights by a
combined and overbearing oligarchy? (Renewed
cheers.) But the working men were growing in
intelligence ; they were becoming more united, and
while it was the glory of this country that all great
organic changes were effected, not by violent revo-
lutions, but by the force of intelligence and virtue,
they had the satisfaction of knowing that they might
place confidence in the great leader of the Liberal
party. (Cheers.) With such men as Gladstone,
Bright, Mill, and others to advocate their cause,
they need not despair; but they appealed to all
classes to aid them in the struggle, strong in the
hope that they would not have much longer to plead
in vain. (Cheers.)
The resolution was then put by the Loup MAYOR
and carried with acclamation.

Mr. CONNOLLY, a stonemason, and member of the
Working Men's Association, in moving the follow-
ing resolution—
" That unless the present Government is prepared to
redeem the antagonism it has already exhibited to popular
rights by the speedy introduction of a bill for the amend-

went of the representation of the people, in accordance
with the preceding resolution, it will be the imperative
duty of Reformers throughout the country to withhold
from such a Government all sympathy and support,"

complimented the working men in the assembly
upon being allowed to meet for the purpose of dis-
cussing a great Constitutional question in that hall,
under the presidency of the chief magistrate, whose
predecessor, some centuries since, had fought at
the head of the chivalrous Alderme❑ of London
against Jack Cade, then leading the men of Kent to
London for the purpose of obtaining redress for the
grievances of the nation. The working men of the
present day had, however, since then become more
enlightened, and, under the direction of O'Connell,
Cobden, and Bright, had learnt to see that the
greatest political changes could be effected without
resorting to violence, and without shedding one drop
of blood. (Cheers.) He regretted that the Earl of

Derby should ever have attained power by trampling
upon the liberty and the rights of the people.

(Cheers.) As an Irishman he was especially desirous
of seeing a Reform Bill passed, because he believed
that more ample justice would then be done to his
unfortunate country than had been meted out to her
hitherto. (Cheers.) The Tories, bad as they were
in a political view, numbered some good men among
their ranks, and the working men were not unmind-
ful of the part which the Earl of Derby performed
in relieving the distress in Lancashire. As they
ought therefore to look to measures more than
men, they should not hesitate to welcome beneficent

and progressive measures, even though brought for-
ward by a party which had hitherto offered such

measures every obstruction. (Cheers.)
Mr. ODGER, cordwainer, and member of the
Reform League, in seconding the resolution,
regretted that the meeting in Hyde Park had been
interfered with, and that Sir Richard Mayne,
bludgeon in hand, should have been sent to knock

down unarmed and unoffending people—men,
women, and children. (Cries of " Shame, shame.")
The Tory Government, however, by whose orders
these acts were committed, would find that for
every blow struck a citizen had sprung up deter-
mined to stand by the principles ad vocatedby the
Reformers until their importance had been fully
recognised by the country at large. (Cheers.)
When a moderate measure of Reform was brought
forward the people were abused by the Lowes, the
Horsmans, and the Elchos (loud hisses), and they
would have been wanting in their duty to them-
selves as men and to their wives and families if

they had not risen in their might and majesty
and declared that such calumnies, such studied
abuse, and such lying was as false as false
could be. (Cheers.) Who were the men who
had replaced the late Liberal Administration ? The
Earl of Derby had declared from his place in Par-
liament that his mission was to stein the tide of
Democracy, but it would be a woeful time for
the noble earl and his party if he persisted in
the attempt. The merits of Mr. Disraeli would
bear no comparison with those of Mr. Gladstone.
There was not indeed a man who could put his
finger upon a page in history and poic t out one deed
of Mr. Disraeli's that was worth twopence. (Cheers.)
Mr. Disraeli was always willing hough to make
sneering speeches in the House of Commons, and
when he rose a few nights previously and said that
he did not know whether he should be able to go
home, or, indeed, whether he had a home to go to,
people might have expected that he would have
favoured them with a second edition of the story
of the Wandering Jew. (Laughter and cheers.)
Ile trusted that the members of the Reform League

would in the future, as they had done in the past,
respect property, law, and order, and that they would
work steadily during the ensuing winter in prepar-
ing for the campaign of the next Session of Parlia-
ment. (Cheers.) However much they might object
to a Tory Government, if Earl Derby and his col-

leagues would give them good measures, they would

find that the working men, while they were earnest

and sincere enough upon the subject of Reform
could also be generous when their object was at-
tained. (Loud cheers.)

The resolution was then put to the meeting and
carried unanimously.
Mr. UPSIIALL, a joiner, and one of the Working
Men's Association, moved the third resolution :
" That the working mon and others composing this
meeting pledge themselves to support the objects and
principles of the Reform League and the Working Men's
Association by enrolling themselves as members either of
tho Association or the League, and by all other legitimate
means."
Mr. Upshall expressed a belief that Lord Derby's
Government would be compelled to bring forward
a more extensive Reform Bill even than that intro-

duced by Earl Russell and Mr. Gladstone, and, as a
proof of the respectability of the people who had
taken part in the Reform demonstrations, stated
that on the following day there were not so many
charges of pocket picking as were often heard after
the opening of Parliament by the Queen or after a
Lord Mayor's show. (Laughter.) He strongly
believed in manhood suffrage, vote by ballot, and
equal electoral districts, and, in conclusion, urged
the working men present to join the Working Men's
Association and the Reform League for the purpose
of procuring their rights—rights which they would
never succeed in obtaining without such combina-
tion.

Mr. COFFEY, bootmaker, &c., one of the Reform
League, seconded the resolution, and in answer to

repeated calls from the meeting,
Mr. MASON JONES came forward for the purpose
of speaking in its support. Mr. Jones was glad that
the meeting was composed of working men, and that

the speakers had been selected from the same class,
because it could not be said that the meeting con-
sisted of people desirous of hearing great speakers
without caring anything for the cause which was
advocated. The late spontaneous outburst of
popular feeling had been excited by a Tory Govern-
ment, who had done all they could to abuse the pre-
rogative of the Sovereign, and drag her Royal
robes into the mire. Mr. Jones was proceeding to
ask the meeting to pass a resolution calling upon
the Lord Mayor to sign a petition to the Queen,
which was to be presented by a deputa-
tion, asking for the dismissal of the Earl of
Derby and his colleagues and the recall of Earl
Russell and Mr. Gladstone, when he was reminded
that the fate of the resolution already before the
meeting had not been determined. Mr. Jones then
exhorted the working men to place reliance in them-
selves and to endeavour in the coming winter to
raise such a storm of indignation as would for ever
drive the Tory party from office. (Loud cheering.)
The eyes of the civilized world were on the working
men of England, and when beauteous and wronged
Italy, enriched with the poetry of a Dante, the
genius of a Mazzini, and the sword of a Garibaldi

(loud cheers), was achieving her independence, and
Austria, cemented by the blood of Poland, Hun-
gary, and Italy, shattered by the blows dealt her by
her adversaries, was rolling down into chaos amid

the stormy execrations of gods and men, English-
men ought not to close their eyes to the light which
was bursting out all around them, and to fall back
into the darkness of the Adullamite cave, but to show
by their deeds that they were worthy of their fathers,
and that England was prepared not to recede from
her pride of place and power, but to maintain her
exalted position among nations. (Cheers.)
Mr. BRADLAUGII, who also supported the resolu-
tion, deprecated the adoption of any such proposal
as that suggested by Mr. Jones, on the ground that
it would tend to place their chairman in a false posi-
tion. They were there that evening as the guests
of a generous host—(loud cheers)—and if they
thought it desirable to petition for the dismissal of
Earl Derby and his colleagues, such a petition could
easily be adopted in meetings just as numerous
elsewhere.

The resolution, on being put to the meeting, was
carried amid cheering.
Mr. WESTON, joiner, and member of the Reform
League, moved, and Mr. F. E. Davis, painter, and
member of the 'Working Men's Association, seconded
the following resolution :

" That the cordial thanks and confidence of this meeting
are most justly due, and are hereby presented, to the Right
Hon. the Lord Mayor for his able and courteous conduct in
the chair on this occasion ; and the warm thanks of this
meeting aro also duo, and are hereby gratefully presented to
the Court of Common Council for their kindly granting the
use of the Guildhall for the present meeting."

The Lord Mayor having acknowledged the com-
pliment, the meeting quietly dispersed.
Outside the Guildhall two large meetings were
formed. One was presided over by Mr. G. Brooke,
who took his stand
.upon some scaffolding imme-
diately outside the Guildhall,whence the crowd in the
yard were addressed by Messrs. Bradlaugh, Baxter
Langley, Nieass, Mantle, and others, and the same
resolutions as those adopted in the Guildhall were
proposed to the meeting,and carried by acclamation.
The second meeting was presided over by Mr. John
Richardson, who took his place on the roof of a cab
drawn up in front of the Guildhall Coffee-house, and
this meeting was addressed by Messrs. Woolorton,
Leicester, Finlon, and Leno, the same resolutions
being proposed and adopted as at the othermeeting.
Both meetings passed off in an orderly manner, and
terminated shortly after 9 o'clock.

THE CHOLERA.

-

MANSION-lIOUSE RELIEF COMMITTEE,

Subscriptions poured in yesterday at the Mansion-
house towards the fund now being raised there under
the auspices of the Lord Mayor and a committee of
bankers, merchants, clergymen, and other persons
of consideration in the city of London, for the relief,
as far as may be, of persons suffering from cholera,
and of the distress consequent upon the loss of heads
of families by the ravages of the disease. The fund,
it should be stated, is applicable to all parts
of the metropolis, wherever the epidemic has appeared
or may appear, and part of it is to be expended in
preventive measures. It is also in all instances to be
dispensed through the agency of local boards and
committees, as far as practicable, with the view to
its just distribution, founded upon local knowledge
of the wants and circumstances of each particular
district, and wholly regardless of all sectarian con-
siderations or feelings, if any such could be sup-
posed to operate in so great an emergency. Though
the movement was only commenced at the prelimi-
nary meeting held at the Mansion House on Tues-
day last, a sum far towards £3,000 has been sub-
scribed, mostly in a single day. At the Commercial
Sale Rooms alone, in Mincing-lane, a sum of £BOO
has been subscribed, of which £562 odd was paid in
yesterday by Messrs. Fischer and Prior, and the
Drapers' Company have sent a donation of £lO5.
Yesterday, at the Mansion-house alone, £693
12s. 6d. was received by the Lord Mayor, and
£132 19s. on the previous day, making upwards of
£826. The Clothworkers' Company have sent
£52 10s. ; Messrs. W. S. Shuttleworth and Co.,
£5O ; Christy and Co., £2O ; Budgett and Co., £25 ;
Johnson, Matthey, and Co., £25 ; and Mr. and
Mrs. Darling, £25.

At 2 o'clock yesterday a meeting of the Relief
Committee was held at the Mansion House, the
Lord Mayor presiding, to consider applications for
assistance, to make grants in money, according to
circumstances, and to determine the principles on
which the fund should be generally administered.
There were present, besides the Lord Mayor, Mr.
Joseph Hoare, banker ; Mr. Fowler, banker ; Sir
Mordaunt Wells, the Rev. William Rogers, rector
of Bishopsgate ; the Rev. F. G. Blomfield, rector of
St. Andrew, Undershaft ; Mr. W. J. R. Cotton,
Mr. Richard B. Wade, Mr. Andrew Johnston,
Mr. H. W. Ripley, Mr. William Needham, Dr.
Andrew Clark, and the Bishop Designate of
Nelson (the Rev. A. B. Sutter.) They first set-
tled the rules which are to govern them in the
administration of the fund—namely, that grants in
ttid made by them are to be applicable exclusively to
the prevention of cholera, the relief of cholera
patients and of sufferers front the effects of the
disease, and to be dispensed through local boards
reserving eervi:lgnutOittteleise'instleilevesl‘. Itahnesiopiotoruste,o
iCusopnemcititttheee
scalctcios
fuyn ttsh
co suche
sl oacsaltocotzmi iutdtei
ce
us
it
elxi
ptelni edvi
tiue wre to
f
the money before making another grant. Uon
this part of the subject the Rev. Mr. Blomfield took
occasion to call special public attention to the im-
portance of organising local committees where
none as yet exist, and to hint that a local com-
mittee should be formed before a grant could be
made. Mr. Cotton, a leading member of the Man-

sion-house Committee for the Relief of the Lanca-
shire Distress, bore testimony to the satisfactory
manner in which a similar arrangement worked
during that emergency, and stated _that half a mil-
lion of money was dispensed through it over a
period of more than three years.
Yesterday a grant of £2OO was made by the com-
mittee to the Poplar and South Bromley Cholera
Fund, and £5O to that of Mile-end New Town.
The parishes of Poplar and South Bromley contain
a population of about 60,000, and the deaths in
Poplar alone for the two last weeks were 144 and