The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-29 00:00:00

SIT U 1 GHT AT .ROCHDALE.
Last evening a soiree was given to Mr. John
Bright by his fellow-townsmen of Rochdale, in the
public hall of that borough, when the hon. gentle-
man took occasion to make a further exposition of
his views on Parliamentary Reform. The hall,
although very limited in its dimensions, and in this
respect presenting a marked contrast to the St.
George's-hall at Bradford, where Mr. Bright first
propounded his scheme of reform, is nevertheless
the largest building used for public meetings in
Rochdale, and it was filled to overflowing in
every part. The audience comprised about 800
persons, and hundreds were refused admission
owing to the want of room. The company assem-
bled at half-past five o'clock in an apartment
situated below the hall, where they partook of tea
and other refreshments. The more serious business
commenced at seven, the chair being taken by Mr.
Andrew Stewart, the Mayor. Mr. Bright was ac-
companied to the meeting by some of the leading
reformers of the district, and on taking his place on
the platform he was most enthusiastically cheered.
Letters of apology for their absence were received
from Mr. Cobden, Mr. E. Miall, Mr. W. J. Fox,
M.P., Mr. Thomas Bazley, M.P., and other gentle-
men. Mr. Cobden's letter was as follows :
" Midhurst, Jan. 18.
" Dear sir—Circumstances, which I trust justified my
110 doing, led me to the determination to withdraw for a sea-
son:from public life. In order to fulfil this resolution, I was
obliged to adopt a rigid rule of abstaining from all political
meetings for a time. It would have been very pleasant to
have made exceptions, and I need not tell you that your
approaching meeting would have been one of the pleasantest,
but I should not longer have the plea which I require to
justify me in declining other invitations ; besides, I should
really be wanting in something like veracity if I were now
to appear at a public meeting, after the answers which I
gave to the invitations from Manchester and elsewhere.
You will, I am sure, therefore, not misconstrue my motives
in declining to partake of the pleasure of your approaching
meeting ; and with many thanks for the kind terms in
which you have conveyed the invitation.—l remain, &c.
" To Robert Mills, Esq." " R. COBDEN:
The CHAIRMAN having opened the proceedings,
Mr. W. FENTON moved and Mr. G. ASHWORTH,
seconded the following resolution, which was carried
by acclamation, viz. :
" That this meeting desires to place on record the
high esteem entertained for Mr. John Bright, M.P., by
his fellow-townsmen. Born and educated among us, a
member of a family noted for liberality and the care
bestowed by them on the physical and intellectual improve-
ment of their numerous workpeople, he early developed, in
the defence and advancement of local interests, those great
talents and that high-minded integrity which have since, in
a more extended sphere and on questions of national impor-
tance, gained him a world-wide and lasting reputation. Re •
cognising these services, his fellow-townsmen have assem•
bled on this occasion to assure him of the sympathy they
felt for him in his affliction and temporary exile, how greatly
they rejoice in his restoration to health and a seat in the
British Parliament, and to express their fervent hope that
ho may be spared not only to bring to a successful issue the
gregt measure of Parliamentary Reform confided tohis care;
134 to seer the only reward he seeks in seeing it contribute
in future years to the peace, happiness, and prosperity of
his fellow-countrymen.'
Mr. BRIGHT then stood forward to address the
meeting, when the demonstrations of enthusiasm
recommenced, and were continued for several mi-
nutes. Silence having been restored, the hon. gen-
tleman said—Mr. Chairman, ladies, and gentlemen
—I wish I were able to convey some just idea of
the feelings which crowd upon me at this moment.
I cannot say how much I feel indebted to those who
are here to-night, and to such of my townsmen as
have promoted this assembly. It is to me not an
ordinary public or political meeting ; it has another
and a deeper significance, for I find myself sur-
rounded by my friends and neighbours, among
whom I have lived from my youth, by those with
whom I have acted on many questions—some of a
local, and others of a more general character ; by
those who have known much of my private and all
my public life. I hope I may be permitted to accept
this manifestation of your kindness as a token that
you at least believe that I have in the main endea-
voured to pursue a course in unison with the best
interests and the honour of my country. (Cheers.) I
may, perhaps, also assume that with regard to recent
proceedings, and to a great question with which my
naive has been prominently connected, you are not in-
disposed to give the sanction of your high approval to
those proceedings. (Renewed cheers.) This question
of Parliamentary Reform, which some men speak
lightly of, and which some writers write of as though
it were of no moment, is of the highest moment to
you and to this country; it lies at the basis of poli-
tical improvement, and from it and from its proper
settlement alone is to be derived any sound and wise
hope for the future power and prosperity of this
great nation. There is a change, a noticeable change
in the mode in which this subject is treated now,
compared with that which it received but three
short months ago. You recollect that three months
ago I had the opportunity of addressing a meeting
, composed of many thousands of my friends and
constituents in Birmingham. You recollect the vio-
lent hurricane of abuse with which the facts and
arguments I laid before that meeting were met by
a portion of the public press. I afterwards attended
an assemblage wonderful in magnitude and in influ-
ence in the city of Manchester. After, too, a meet-
ing scarcely less numerous in Edinburgh, I also
attended another gathering of like importance in
Glasgow, and only last week I spoke before a meet-
ing as numerous as any of those to which I have
referred, except in the town of Bradford. Well, I
now find that that which was revolutionary, and
wholly to be condemned and repudiated, has begun
to be regarded as something reasonable, which men
may discuss without being considered outlaws in
the country. (Cheers.) I have made no change
since the hour that I applied myself to this ques-
tion in the Town Rall of Birmingham, three months
ago. I have not made the slightest change in any
single thing that I have said in connection either
with the extension of the franchise, the mode of
voting, or the manner in-which members of Parlia-
ment should be distributed among our various elec-
toral bodies. There is one portion of the press which
I cannot in the least blame, which, consistently
with the objects of the party to which it belongs,
has always been opposed to Parliamentary Reform;
there is another portion, which may probably
be said to represent the late Govern-
ment more than any other party or section
of a party, and which has not professed toste alto-
gether opposed to reform, but of which one Wing
is quite clear, namely, that it is very much opposed
to reform not emanating from the old workmen of
1832. This portion of the press has no wish for any
measure in the carrying or,in the proposition of
which I may have taken a prchninent past,* and I
do lyt wonder at this, for in this country, for much
longer time than any of us can recollect, all these
affairs have been managed with
great comfort and
great profit by certain small sections of the commu-
nity, one calling itself Tor
itself Whig ; and they have andthe other calling
to find this question taken uap verybthgreat objection
e people them-
selves, or by anybody sprung froym, allied
Cheers.)
to, bound
up with, and faithful to the people. ,ers.) They
dislike to see a great measure of this nature taken
out of their accustomed and orthodox hand
discussion that has occurred during the lastansd three
months months has materially changed all this,
bound to say, so far as I have seen the newspapers,
—and they go far to mould or to follow public
opinion—that they are beginning to take a view of
this subject more consonant with the character they
assume as public instructors, and more in accord-
ance with that which ought to belong to them as
writers, full of patriotism, endeavouring to do the
best they can for the legislation of the nation. I
said that I have not made any change from the
meeting at Birmingham down to the meeting at
Bradford, or the meeting this evening. What is it
that I have recommended on the question of the
Parliamentary franchise ? I began by stating that
I was in favour of the ancient franchise of the coun-
try, which prevailed universally until restrictions
in later times had been imposed upon it. I con-
tended that every man whci`mras in such a position
of independence as to be able and compelled to con-
tribute to the support of the more necessitous of his
countrymen, might safely and rightly be placed on
the list of electors in the boroughs of the United
Kingdom. Now, the Reform Act treated this subject
not indeed exactly in the way I would treat it, but as
showing that it had regard to the ancient basis of
the suffrage. The Reform Act insist d that every
£lO householder in the boroughs should be rated to
91,..eJ300r. That Act, not as it originally stood, but
""t now works, gave a period of six months, be-
tween the sth Jan, and the 20th of July, in which
every it assumed that .ry man's rates would be paid
who was ever likely to pay them ; and if all those
whose rates du©
on the sth Jan. were paid by the
20th of July right to have their names placed
voters
on the register of
was conceded, provided
always they lived in houses of the annual value of
£lO. Now, what I propose
do is to strike out
the restriction of £lO, an to do
never wished to
re
. go further than to leave the
of these proposi-
oduld then tions standing on the footing theysizve
occu-
py. But the question may be a
months, ‘o‘rWhy keep
no the condition as to the six
why take
odly those who during that or some other period
shall pay their rates ? I put it to every
man,
whatever whatever be his theoretical notions, whether he
be-
lieves it Would be beneficial throughout the borougl
of the kingdom for the constituency as a whole to
include some scores in a very small borough, some
hundreds in others, and a few thousands, perhaps,
in the largest, of a class of which unhappily there
are so many among us, I mean the excessively poor,
some of them intemperate, some profligate, some it
may be only unfortimate, some naturally incapable;
but all in a condition of dependezlce, such as giye,s