The Sun.
London, England, 1859-04-28 00:00:00

WOLVERHAMPTON.

On Monday evening last a meeting of the friends
and supporters of the Right Hon. C. P. Villiers
and Sir R. Bethell, the candidates for the represen-
tation of the borough of Wolverhampton in the
next Parliament, was held in the National School-
room, Coseley ; Mr. David Green in the chair.
Mr. VILLIERS, after referring to the various mea-
sures of a more or less liberal nature which the
Conservatives had of late years conceded to public
opinion, said they had to bid a little higher this year
for favour, and they had found, as they were told,
that one of the engagements with which they took
the Government was to bring out a Reform Bill.
(Cheers.) Now that was not an easy matter for Con-
servatives to do—(laughter)—and it required all
Mr. Disraeli's astuteness to devise a scheme that
would satisfy Reformers and not offend his own fol-
lowers. (Laughter.) Well, it was perhaps no argu-
ment against a man eminent in many things, that he
did not succeed on eveiToccasion, and Mr. Disraeli's
Reform Bill was certainly not one of his successful
productions. It was a Reform Bill certainly, but
the part of reform was hardly apparent in it.
(Laughter.) The bill was introduced by way of
doing something in the line of reform, and so it
did ; but when reformers came to look at it very
closely, and pull it about, it was found to be doing
something the wrong way—it went backward as
much as it went forward—what it gave with one
hand it took back with the other. They pretended,
no doubt, to liberalise the county constituency, but
as they knew well, when they shut out freeholders
from voting who resided in a borough like that they
took away from the county more that was liberal
than what they gave. (Cheers.) Now he must
admit that there were several dodges of this kind
in the bill—and that the Liberal party were right
in being suspicious of the whole concern. (Hear.)
They saw it was not straightforward, and therefore
Lord John Russell, who was rather eminent as a
doctor in those cases, was called in—(laughter)—
and he prescribed a resolution—(renewed laughter)
—which put the subject to the test, and the result
was, as they knew, very adverse to the authors of
the bill. (Cheers.) However, he should have been
glad if a dissolution could have been avoided, and
he thought it ought to have been avoided. (Hear,
hear.) He thought the Government ought to have
amended their bill ; and as everybody professed to
be reformers, it was a sign of bad workmanship in
the house that a bill, meeting the requirements of
the country, should not have passed this session,
and the whole country should have been thrown
into confusion by a general election. (Cheers.)
Looking, moreover, to the state of affairs on the
continent, he could not think it was either
right or wise to dissolve the parliament.
The only advantage was that it gave him the
opportunity of visiting his constituents, which
he was always happy and ready to do.
(Cheers.) Upon the subject of reform, he was
bound to tell them, that great differences existed
amongst liberals in the House of Commons. He
thought himself that the condemnation of the late
House of Commons was carried too far by some.
He would not for any party purpose say what he
did not think, but he thought that, though there
were considerable defects in the constitution of the
house, yet they did not require any sweeping mea-
sure to rectify them. He should wish to see them
amended, but he thought that when ascertained
they should proceed carefully though surely. He
desired to see extensive reform, but he was bound
to say there were few great reforms that under
great pressure the house would not yield. But the
house, in his opinion, ought to act spontaneously in
harmony with the wants and opinion of the coun-
try, and not always require a great agitation to
exact what was right to be done. He thought this
greatly arose from the county constituencies being
too agricultural, and from the small boroughs being
too many. (Cheers.) He thought those small
boroughs should have one or both of their members
transferred to large and intelligent constituencies,
either by adding to the number of towns now re•
presented, or giving the franchise to places unre-
presented. (Cheers.) He thought that when this
was done, and the householders or occupants of £lO
value should be admitted into the county consti-
tuency, the opinions of the county members would
be brought more into unison with the feelings and
interests of the entire community than they were at
present. (Cheers.) The right hon. gentleman then
spoke of the propriety of admitting the working
classes to the exercise of the franchise, using the
same arguments as on previous occasions. His
opinion was, he said, that no people as a class
should he excluded from the political franchise, and
should at once be admitted, when exhibiting the
intelligence and independence requisite to exer-
cise it with advantage to themselves, as well
as for the good of their fellow-countrymen.

(Cheers.) He believed the opinions of this
borough were reasonable on the subject of reform.
He had been in London within the last few days,
and found that the views held in this borough
corresponded much with the views held in other
places. When Parliament met, therefore, they
might, no doubt, agree on some reasonable course
to be adopted on that subject. He feared, however,
that a question of graver importance would require
their attention even before reform, or even before
the assembling of Parliament—that was the ques-
tion of peace or war. There was great anxiety and
excitement now in the metropolis owing to the news
which had lately arrived. He was happy, how-
ever, to think that if there was war on the continent
that, so far as he had been able to collect the opi-
nions of the leading men, it was one that England
would have but little to do with. (Hear, and cheers.)
The parties engaged in the struggle, which it was
probable would soon commence, were those whose
objects they were obliged to question—their past
history cast great suspicion on what they now pro-
fessed—and inasmuch as no English interests were
at present involved, and as he trusted this country
would never sympathise with despotism in any
shape or form, he hoped there would be reasonable
and just ground for keeping entirely aloof. (Cheers.)
With the cause of the dispute they were no doubt
pretty well acquainted. The_ opposing parties were
France and Austria, and the dispute had arisen
respecting Italy. s far as he knew, France and
Austria had been agreed for the last eight years
in subjecting Italy to the dominion of their armies.
The armies of both nations had been in occupation
of the centre of that country, where neither had any
right to enter; but by means of which force every-
thing like liberty or the free expression of opinion
had been entirely suppressed, and it was only now
that a dispute had arisen between these two nations,
who were equally regarded as oppressors by the
people at Rome. The leading men of this country,
however, would probably regard a strict neutrality
on the part of .England as the proper course to be
pursued, and he believed that the people generally
would endorse that opinion. (Cheers.) Mr.
Villiers, after alluding to the great questions
that would engage their attention in the next
Parliament, concluded by referring to the emi-
nence and ability of the hon. and learned gen-
tleman, Sir Richard Bethell, who had come
forward to solicit the suffrages of the electors in the
place of their late respected member, Mr. Thornley,
and sat down amidst loud applause.
Sir R. BETHELL, on rising to address the meeting,
was greeted with the same cordial reception which
had been manifested at previous meetings at which
the right hon. gentleman had addressed the electors
of this borough. He considered there was hardly
ever a period more unfortunate for an appeal by the
ministry to the people of England than the present
particular crisis. They were all aware to a certain
extent what was the nature of the controversy be-
tween the two great contending hosts. His right
hon. friend Mr. Villiers had stated with great ac-
curacy the nature of the impending struggle, and
undoubtedly it was difficult to determine which of
the two contending parties to prefer. On the one
hand there was Austria, which had oppressed the
whole of Italy with an iron rule—(applause)—
while on the other there was the great French na-
tion (ground down by the despotic sway of a most
absolute monarch), which in 1849, when there was
a rising in Rome to redeem Rome from that ter-
rible sway which still exists there, and when re-
publicans had got possession of the country and
were about to establish a better form of govern-
ment, sent down its armies and besieged Rome,
drove out the advocates and friends of liberty, and
re-established that most terrible form of ecclesias-
tical despotism. The only consolation, if it were
proper for any friend of humanity to entertain such
a thought, would be that the might of the one des-
pot and the might of the other would be opposed to
each other, and that they might possibly mutually
crush each other, and that in the weakness of the
two the lovers of freedom and of civil and religious
liberty in Italy might obtain those glorious privi-
leges which they were so nobly contending for.
Let them, then, that being the true state of affairs,
inquire whether there was anything on the one
side or the other to call for the interference of
England. He (the speaker) would say undoubtedly
not. So far as France was concerned, so far as
Austria was concerned, it was utterly impossible to
have anything in common with the views of
the one or with the views of the other. It
was undoubtedly true there was the little king-
dom of Sardinia, in which there was unquestionably
the tree of civil and religious liberty planted—(ap-
plause)—and with that kingdom they would desire
to sympathise. If she had been content to develop
and promote her institutions, and had not given way
probably to feelings of revenge, and called on the
French nation in the hope of revenging herself on
the Austrians for the defeats which she suffered in
1848, if it were poseihro ;ntlepri
tiuence, one would have liked, and this a strong
Government might have done, to have said to Aus-
tria, you shall withdraw your armies from the rest
of Italy, you shall permit Italy to establish a differ-
ent Government at Rome, and to have full liberty
to do so ; but they were aware that for these 40
years past, whenever a gleam of freedom had shone
over any part of Italy, it had at once been put out
by the iron tread of an Austrian army sent for that
purpose. He earnestly hoped, therefore, that it
would be the unanimous opinion and the united
voice of all the electors of Wolverhampton, that in
the event of such a war between such parties, Eng-
elahnederso.u)ghLtetto
themha thank
tnho part whatever.
theirinsular
(Lo id
k
God for
they possessed ; and when those great combatants,
position, as well as for the other advantages which
neither of them having any feeling whatever of
sympathy with the real interests of the human
race, when they became exhausted, then England
might probably interfere, and compel something to
be done by treaty and by remonstrance that might
produce some good out of the evil, and might make
the condition of the exhausted combatants minister
to the purposes of truth and justice. Having thus
made known his opinions upon this subject, in
which it gave him great pleasure to find his col-
league, Mr. Villiers, concurred, he could now only
hope that those opinions would meet the approval
of the electors of this borough. Now let them look
a little at their own domestic state of things. His
right hon. friend had referred to the ostensible
cause of the dissolution which had led to the pre-
sent meeting. Unquestionably the ostensible
cause had been the rejection of the Govern.
ment Reform Bill, and his right hon. friend
had said, with great reason and truth, that that bill
was not only a mockery, but that it was a thing
which was in reality intended to serve and promote
an end different from that which its title would
seem to imply ; in fact, that it was no reform mea-
sure at all. The Government bill was constructed
with great art, nay, (said the hon. speaker) it was
constructed by its chief author with the deliberate
avowal that its chief purpose was to roll back the
tide of reform, and to accomplish some object
through the medium of that bill which should re-
store power to the Tories, and place them in the
same prominence in which the Liberals were placed
by the act of 1832, the moment that by that act
the voice of the country could be heard. This would
have been the effect of the bill ; but the device,
although cunning, was too transparent to admit of
concealment. It had been properly deified by a
certain eminent statesman in the House of Com-
mons the other night as " a thing too cunning by
half," and the result of that subtlety was that the
bill crumbled beneath the first touch ; and when
the resolution was applied to it in what he (the
speaker) considered was a most just and fair spirit
—(hear)—because, as they were aware, the resolu-
tion defined two things which must be essential
conditions in every real reform question, and the
resolution accordingly put to the Hirise of Com-
mons was, was it or was it not their deliberate opi-
nion that there should be a reform bill that did not
seek to accomplish those two purposes ? But, said
the hon. gentleman, they were aware that the Mi-
nistry endeavoured to escape from the contest upon
the merits of the resolution by pretending it was a
work of faction, of intrigue, and of party; but if it
were so, he (the speaker) never saw any resolution
less likely to accomplish the end, for if the Minis-
try had only dealt with it as they did with the
suggested resolution upon their India bill, if they
had only agreed to take the sense of the House
of Commons upon it, all the present disgrace
would have been saved from the turmoil attend-
ing a general election. Could there possibly
Ministry inimist
have been anything more dishonest on the part of
t
mdiiTeatotel immediately
profess
afterwards
one courseaband
abandon
andit thenan and
almost
advocate another ? Why were they to have
confidence in Lord Derby, or Lord Derby's Go-
vernment ? Did they suppose that a man could
change in an hour ? Who were Lord Derby and
the present Conservatives ? Why, said the hon.
gentleman, they were the legitimate heirs and the
direct descendants of the Tories of old. With whom
was it they had fought the great battle of free
trade ? With Lord Derby and .bis confederates.
(Hear, hear.) Did they believe they had converted
them in reality. (Cries of "No, no.") Did they
think they had rescued them from the darkness of
paganism ? No, said the speaker, they were unwill-
ing converts, and they still retained about them
much of the old leaven. (Applause.) He could not,
therefore, looking at past events, say that he was
disposed to place implicit confidence in Lord Derby.
Why did Lord Derby dissolve Parliament but be-
cause he believed it was elected under peculiar cir-
cumstances at the time of the China war? and he
thought he could so manage the election as to give
himself an unfair majority; therefore it was that he
refused in his Reform Bill to attack these nomina-
tion boroughs. Why did he refuse to attack these

small constituencies ? Let general rumour, which
he (the right hon. speaker) believed was in this in-
stance perfectly correct, answer the question. It
was because he knew that by the raising, by the
Carlton Club, of a fund of £BO,OOO, or, as some per-
sons had said, of £lOO,OOO, to which the current
report was that Lord Derby himself had contributed
£20,000 down, that that money might be so judici-
ously applied by travelling emissaries throughout
these boroughs that the elections in the country
might be unduly and improperly influenced. Now,
he could not think it was a right thing, or a be-
coming thing, nay, he was sure it was not a consti
tutional thing, for the Premier of this country, if it'
were true—for of course they knew nothing but by
report—to encourage the creation of a fund for such
a purpose, and himself a peer of the realm, forbidden
to interfere with elections, to subscribe to that fund
for the purpose of unduly tampering with such elec-
tions. The voice of the people should be freely ex-
ercised without any undue party or private influence
whatever. In this state of things therefore he was
unquestionably most desirous that the voice of the
people should be heard, and they should speak out
in a most unmistakeable manner as to the policy
which it was advisable to pursue, both in our
foreign relations and in the carrying out of mea •
sures for our domestic amelioration. Now, as in
regard to foreign matters he should express their
true policy in one word-=-" Peace," so with regard
to domestic matters, if he were to choose one word
to express their policy it would be " Progress."
(Cheers.) They were to go onward and not to fall
back, neither were they to stand still. They had
gone onward since the year 1832, the era of the
Reform Bill ; they had gone onward with accele-
rated rapidity since the noble efforts of the electors
had compelled the adoption of Free Trade, and he
said let them go on in improvement. But then he
thought that the party of progress was not the
party of Lord Derby—(hear, hear)—he thought the
party of progress was the great party that brought
in the parent of all the great liberal measures—the
Reform Bill of 1832—and he conceived therefore
that the true interests of the country would be best
committed to the hands of the reformers, not refus-
ing to the Conservatives the great merit of being
watchful observers of what was done by the Libe-
rals, not refusing to them the exercise of their
meritorious office, which was to see how others
were going on in their movement, and to check
them, propose obstacles and suggest difficulties to
them when they appeared to be going too fast. But
unquestionably the true policy and the true inte-
rests of this country require that its helm should
be held by a man who was convinced that the
country must, in the American phrase, still " Go a-
head," and not by one who supported a retrogres-
sive policy. (Hear.) Now a good many things re-
main to be done with which, he feared, the wars
and rumours of wars would interfere. A good deal,
he, said remained to be done both in the way of
domestic and social improvement ; but if it should
please God either that England should not be mixed
up in the war, or that the war might soon come to
an end, these were subjects to which unques-
tionably the representatives of the boroughs would
have to address themselves. (Hear, hear.) There
was much to be done in the improvement of
the administration of the law, and he wished the
public voice to be more effectually heard respect-
ing the management of public accounts, and the
mode in which the revenue was collected and ad,
ministered. He wished to see the way in which
the accounts were rendered to the country simpli-
fied, but above all he wanted the day to come when
the Government should not belong to a few aristo-
cratical families—(cheers)—whey high honour and
place and political power should belong to superior
ability and be regarded as the rightful inheritance
of talent ; and unquestionably when this came to
pass the mode in which the ordinary duties of Go-
vernment were administered and in which places
were distributed would be altered, and,as he humbly
thought, greatly, to the benefit of the community.
(Cheers.) After alluding to the subject of church-
rates, Sir R. Bethell discussed the question whether
it was right and proper that political liberty should
be extended to the working classes. He said he
admired much an expression which had fallen from
Mr. Villiers—that he would not agree to any man
being excluded from the franchise on principle.
That was the true principle on this subject. The
meaning of the phrase was that political liberty
ought to be extended to all on the fulfilment of cer-
tain conditions. They were personal conditions,
the only conditions absolutely requisite for the use
and proper enjoyment of the boon, to be conferred.
For what use would it be to give a man a beautiful
instrument to be employed in his trade if he did
not know the value of it, or was not qualified to
handle it ? Why the gift world be altogether use-
less. On the same ground would political liberty
be an evil, if it were given to any class not having
sufficient intelligence and independence properly
it. Tho great i fri.ll,lee bat wepn the
reformers and the Ministry of Lord Derby was
this, and he begged his audience to mark it. The
Ministry said—" There shall be no political liberty
extended to any class below the £lO householders ;
we never will go lower; that shall be the ne plus
ultra, that shall be the impassable line." Now, un-
questionably the Reformers differed from that—
(hear, hear)—their great purpose would be to have
it established that there was no such impassable
barrier—their view was that as men grew up in
the country in independence, in material prosperity,
and in intelligence, so, from time to time, should
the question of the franchise as it existed and of
the further degree to which it might with propriety
be extended be taken into consideration. (Cheers.)
That the meeting would see was the philosophy
and principle of progress—proceeding on all occa-
sions according to the capacity of the recipient of
the act. (Hear, hear.) And so it was in religious
instruction. They might just as well take a lisping
child and tell to it some of the more recondite doc-
trines of religion as admit a party incompetent to
use the franchise with security within the pale of
the body of electors. He hoped, therefore, the meet-
ing would see in his right hon. friend and himself
a perfect accordance of opinion on that subject. He
heartily wished that there existed the same simi-
larity of opinion everywhere. They would have had
no Lord Derby or Lord Derby's Ministry to com-
plain of, if the great body of the Liberal members
of Parliament were not in the condition denounced
in Scripture of " a house divided against itself."
(Cheers.) This want of unity was a thing to be la-
ol hn
res i t hr
leader.o
h themu
wishedht
They
h as e a
to
avowed
m
mented—it was a thing which he hoped would in
some degree be remedied by the present election.
For himself,
feart:idsn
however,
rs rightson
particular
h
e
a notratnoi enduc.
friend,
ade
partisans speak
also
ol
focif elected, go to Parliament as the representatives of
those great liberal opinions on which the weal and
prosperity of the country depended, and he earnestly
hoped that enough of independent men would be
found in the House of Commons to compel unani-
mity, and to give to the country the benefit of a
great, a united, and a reforming Government. (The
hon. and learned gentleman sat down amidst loud
cheers.)
Resolutions in favour of both candidates were
carried with enthusiasm. would,yi!aehyd
that the

MANCHESTER.
A fourth candidate appeared yesterday in the
person of the Hon. Capt. Denman, R.N., who was
the associate of Mr. Locke in the unsuccessful at-
tempt to oust Messrs. Gibson and Bright in 18f 2.
He now seems to come forward with assurance of
support from the Conservatives. It was announced
yesterday morning that he would meet his sup-
porters at noon, and the result was a meeting of
about 1,500 persons in the Corn Exchange.
Mr. S. HEEL'S was voted to the chair amidst loud
cheering. He said the present proceedings were
rather suddenly determined upon, but some step ap-
peared necesssry to she* that the electors of Man-
chester were not to be ridden over by the league, as
heretofore—(cheers)—as well as to provide a suit-
able colleague for Mr. Turner. (Renewed cheering.)
Captain Denman had appeared before this consti-
tuency on a former occasion on liberal principles,
but his great recommendation to his (the chairman's)
mind was, that he came forward then and now in
opposition to the league. (Cheers.)
Mr. W. H. PRATT moved a resolution to the effect
that Captain Denman was a fit and proper person
to represent Manchester. (Great cheering.) He
expressed his firm conviction that Messrs. Turner
and Denman would be elected.
Mr. F. PERCEVAL seconded the motion, which
was carried with great enthusiasm, only seven or
eight dissentients appearing. Three groans were
given for Mr. George Wilson.
The Hon. Captain DENMAN shortly afterwards
entered, and was greeted with most enthusiastic
cheering. He said that when he left Manchester
in 1852 he told the electors that if wanted again in
the same good cause—(cheers)—they had only to
summon him. (Hear.) Although defeated in 1852,
he received nearly 4,000 votes ; and he was only
1,500 behind the gentleman who was supposed to be
the great favourite of the constituency. If he could,
with a fair prospect of success, again assist the elec-
tors in striking a blow at the domination which had
so long oppressed this city—(cheers)---he was ready
to go heart and soul into the contest. (Loud cheers).
As upon the last occasion, so now, he stood entirely
independent of party. He was a liberal in the real and
honest sense of the word—liberal in his desire to see
all despotisms, no matter where, knocked on the head
and put down. (Applause.) The Reform Bill of 1832
—drawn by his father, then Attorney. General—
(applause)—was a liberal measure on sound prin-
ciples; and all such measures were truly conservative.
(Applause.) He was in favour of an extension of that
measure, which would preserve in its integrity our
glorious constitution, and at the same time extend