The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-06 00:00:00

rnE KIN; LONDON,' THURSDAY EVENING-. JANUARY .6; O.

FOREIGN

THE ACCIDENT 2' 2'R.E .t. 2'.8 CI- 1.1171 C
INSTITUTION.

THIS LAY'S MA RKETS.

fI.EI'OI?M MEETING'AT DVPHAM.

•
On Monday evening a meeting Of the inhabitants
of Durham was held in the New Town Hall of that
city, to consider the question of parliamentary re-
form. The mayor occupied the chair.
The following resolutions were adopted
That a reform in the representation of the. people in the
House of Commons is imperatively. required, the present
limited distribution of electoral power precluding large
masses of 'the people from giving practical effect to their
opinions on public affairs; which is necessary to the good
government, the well-being, and the ,proVerty.of the na-

" That a, re...distribution of seats in the Irguse . of Com-
mons is much needed, owing to the large development of
the resources of the 'country since the passing ofthe last Re-
form Bill; and it is also deSirable that the boundaries of
boroughs and large populations 'around them should be
widely extended."

" that in order to electors giving a free and unbiassed
expression to their opinions it is necessary that they should
have the protection of the• ballot ; and that no Measure of
reform will be satisfactory to the country which does not
include vote by ballot."

" That a petition of the, inhabitants of the city of Dur-
ham to the House of Commons, embodying the previous
resolutions, be prepared, and after w being signed be forarded
to Mr. Atherton for presentation."

W. ATHERTON, Esq., M.P., said it was good that
constituencies and bodies, as individuals, should be
heard to speak for themselves ; and it was not
convenient that any person—howeer able, or
zealous, or eloquent—should at all times be per-
mitted to be adopted as the mouthpiece of OtherS. He
made this remark because of an allusion having
been made to a very eminent politician of the day
--a gentleman formerly connected politically with
that city—he alluded to Mr. Bright, who had been
referred to as having been up to the present mo-
ment, for want of such demonstrations and public
meetings, as the person by means of necessity
adopted as the mouthpiece, as it had been called, of
the Reformers of England. He yielded to no man
in his admiration of the talents aid of the per-
severance of Mr. Bright; he yielded to no man in
his gratitude to Mr. Bright in connection with the
repeal of the corn laws ; but he must be permitted
to say, with that freedom and independence which
characterised Mr. Bright himself, that he would
not wish every, observation and sentiment uttered
by Mr. Bright in the course of his numerous, long,
and eloquent harangues on Parliamentary Reform,
should be set down at his door. There were differ-
ences upon matters not essential to the question of
reform, but what might be expected to be found
amongst men where the various parties thought in-
dependently for themselves, and, therefore, it was
he repeated, better that neither Mr. Bright, nor
any other politician, however eminent, should be
adopted as the mouthpiece of the people. When he
should have the honour of being entrusted with the
petition from this-meeting; if it should be said to
him that the reformers of Durham adopted the
opinions of that gentleman at that time, and then
another at another time, he should say the electors
of Durham had recorded their opinions in the
resolutions in that petition ; and he had the
honour and privilege of attending the meeting
at which that petition was adopted ; and he
heard there expressed, in eloquent language, in
tones of the utmost sincerity, a desire for a truly
expansive measure of reform—a measure which
should gather within the walls of the constitution
large masses of industrious and intelligent men at
present excluded from their confines. Those were

the feelings of the people of Durham. They had,
wisely, he thought, in their petition, confined them-
selves to general terms, because precise details of
length assumed the form of a particular measure,
in which it could not be expected that any great
number of men could precisely concur. He there-
fore felt pleasure in being entrusted with that
petition. The propositions which it contained were
those to which he most sincerely 'subscribed ; and
he believed-there was not one of them to which he
did not give pliin expression of his opinion in that
hall on the very first night of his addreSsing them.
He had always gone for a re-arrangement of seats,
or a division into electoral districts, because he
thought our constitution--if lir. Banks was correct
—was of Saxon origin, and was at least 600 years
old from the time of the Great Charter of 1215. He
did not, however, desire to see those old distinctions
of county and borough removed and the counties
split up into squares or parallelograms of electoral
districts. He preferred—and individuals in this
country preferred--that they should retain the old
distinctions, and thereby give to far greater num-
bers an interest in the government of the country,
which was likely to lead to the result in which
they themselves were interested. The hon. member
concluded by' moving a vote of thanks to the Mayor
for his -conduct in -the chair, and the meeting
separated.