The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-20 00:00:00

Mr. T. Hughes, M.P., and his Constituents.

Last night the electors and non-electors of Lam-
beth were invited by Mr. T. Hughes to meet him in
the lecture hall of the Walworth Institute, Carter-
street, to hear his first annual account of his steward-
ship as member for the borough, and to take coun-
sel together on the present state of public affairs.
The hon. gentleman, who was accompanied by many
of the most influential electors, met with a very
cordial reception.
Mr. W. R. SELWAY (chairman of Mr. Hughes'
election committee) was called to the chair, and
briefly asked Mr. Hughes to address the meeting.
Mr. T. HUGHES, on rising, was greeted with re-
newed and prolonged cheering. When silence was
restored the hon. gentleman said he came there in
conformity with what he called the good old custom
of representatives in the House of Commons meeting
their constituents once a year. He called it a good
old custom, because he found nowadays that that
opinion was not universally shared by members of
Parliament, and he had even been remonstrated
with by some members, who said they were sorry he
was about to take that course, because it had a ten-
dency to make members the mere mouthpieces of
their constituents. On the contrary, he thought it
was important that members should keep in sym-
pathy with those they represented, keeping at the
same time an independent mind, and he believed
that just in so far as any member did so would he
have power either in the House of Commons or
elsewhere. (Hear.) He could not see how that sym-
pathy was to be kept up unless a member came once
a year to tell those wbo sent him to Parliament
what he had done in the past, and to discuss with
them on the basis of existing facts what was best to
be done in the future. (Hear.) The question was
how to make that meeting most useful, and the
method by which that could be done was most diffi-
cult, because there were so many questions con-
nected with the Government of this immense em-
pire that it was utterly impossible to compress them
into a speech, however briefly touched upon, to be
delivered in one evening. One difficulty, however,
he had escaped, which other members told him they
felt, namely, that their constituents were so indif-
ferent to political matters that it was useless to meet
them. (Laughter.) He had never opened his mouth
in Parliament without having many letters sent to
him, either approving or disapproving of his speeches,
and not a few had been sent to him when he had
been silent, asking him why he had not spoken.
(Laughter.) Perhaps the best course he could pur-
sue would be in fact to follow that correspondence;
and in the first place, as to keeping silence, he would
observe that nothing paid for keeping better than
talk, and that if a man made many speeches he was
sure to come to grief. (Laughter.) He had, there-
fore, made it a rule not to speak unless he had some-
thing to say which nobody else would say. (Cheers.)
If he merely got up to say what others had said be-
fore him it would beta mere waste of time, which
belonged to the nation. (Cheers.) The only disad-
vantage of that course, however, was that the mem-
ber who adopted it had to say unpleasant things, for
there were always plenty of members who were
ready and willing to get up and say what the House
of Commons wished to hear. (Laughter and hear.)
That was his answer to the gentlemen who had pro-
tested against his not speaking enough. (Cheers.)
He would refer to the speeches which he had thought
it his duty to make. The first was in the second
week of the session on the subject of the eviction of
the working classes and the pulling down of their
dwellings by the railway companies. (Loud cheers.)
In his mind that was a most important question,
and he told them so when be first sought their suf-
frages. (Hear.) When he made his first speech
he was very green in Parliamentary tactics, but he
thought the best thing he could do was to oppose
the very first private bill that came before the house
without a clause or clauses in it making it binding
upon a railway company to erect as many dwellings
for the poorer classes as they pulled down. On that
occasion he succeeded, and the bill was triumphantly
thrown out. (Cheers.) When the next private bill
made its appearance he got up and opposed that
too, but the chairman of the committee said if that
course were pursued it would be detrimental to the
interests of the country at large, and suggested that
it would be better to pass some general rule applic-
able to the whole of the country. That suggestion
was concurred in by Col. 'Wilson Patten, whoadded
that if he (Mr. Hughes) would consult with the rail-
way pecple interested in these bills, and with their
consent frame some clauses which could be adopted
as a standing order, no doubt the house would agree
t it. Well, he took that advice in good part. He
thought it was better to cut off all the heads at once
than to take them one by one, and therefore he
went to his chambers, and, after careful considera-
tion, drew up clauses, the great object of which
was to insist upon railway companies erecting as
many dwellings fcr the poor as they pulled down.
(Cheers.) He must say that he met with the
utmost sympathy on the part of the railway gentle-
men, who admitted the gravity of the question and
the extent of the evil, and professed themselves
willing to accede to any fair and reasonable proposal.
(Hear.) When, however, he brought his clauses for-
ward in the house, to his horror and astonishment
Col. Wilson Patten got up and said they were far
too sweeping to be embodied in a standing order,
and that he had better get them inserted in the Go-
vernment bill on the subject which had been intro-
duced by the President of the Board of Trade. That
,reasnuditibreetiore he
t
seemed a good suggestion, too
waited for that bill, with this
attieend of the session Mr. M. Gibson withdrewait
leav-
ing him (Mr. Hughes) out in the cold—(laughter) ;
but in the meantime, between the introduction of
his clauses and the end of the session, no less than
houses of the poor had been pulled
20,000 down.
(Shame, and hear, hear.) Why, the strongest-handed
bill of the whole session, the Cattle Plague Bill, was
passed in the first three weeks of the session almost
at the point of the bayonet. Look at that, as an in-
stance of the value of direct representation in the
House of Commons. The working classes were told
that they did not need any further or direct repre-
sentation there. Plenty of members sat in the house
whounderstood their views and could advocate their
interests. But look at the fact. The country party,
with a powerful direct representation, carried their
bill in three weeks, but it took a whole session to
prevent 20,000 houses of the working classes from
being pulled down, and then the effort was abortive.
Other members laboured equally uselessly,
for the
same object, notably Mr. M'Cullagh Torrens—
(cheers)—who had a measure on the same subject,
and was compelled to withdraw it at the close of the
session. That, to his mind, was a proof that there
was considerable good in a party being directly re-
presented in the House of Commons. In order to
get anything done in that house, it wanted a reso-
lute party directly connected with the people to
keep driving persistently at a clearly-defined and tan-
gible object. (Cheers.) The next speech he made was
when the question of maritime law was before the
house. Nobody else spoke upon it but Mr. Oli-
phant. The Government contended that the ques-
tion was one entirely of municipal law ; but he (Mr.
Hughes) suggested that it was no question with the
Americans whether our municipal law was sufficient
to prevent such vessels as the Alabama from destroy-
ing their ships and commerce, but how to stop such
ships from issuing from our ports, and carrying de-
struction on a large scale, without being interfered
with by us, and, indeedil
the Alabama was destroyed,
pe rbmy i t
thet e d tAo
md
eor
iscoa, n usnbti
Kearsage. lie suggested that they should send the
whole question before an independent and impar-
tial arbitration,
instead
of becoming judges in their
own cause, and if it was decided that we were
wrong, then let us pay fair damages. It was said at
that time that there would be a difficulty in fixing the
terms of arbitration, but what were lawyers and
judges appointed for but to get over such difficul-
ties
'! At all events the suggestion was not then en-
tertained, but now Lord Stanley had agreed that a
commission on the subject of maritime law was to
he issued immediately, which meant that the Ala-
bama claini3 were to be considered, for if that was
not the case the Americans would not come into
our commission. lie saw, too, that the Premier had
been saying some very civil things of the Americans
at the Mansion-house, and with reference to this
subject, he was very glad that Lord Derby had ar-

rived at this conclusion, and could only say that if
he had done so five years ago there would have been
no Alabama claims to arbitrate upon. (Laughter.)
The speech of the noble lord was a capital one, but
at the bottom of it all there was the feeling—very
likely it was the feeling of that meeting—that
Britannia ought to rule the sea. (Cheers.) The
noble lord said that because we had laid the Atlan-
tic Cable at the bottom of the sea we had proved
Britain's maritime supremacy. (Cheers.) Well,
there were two sides to this question, and the other
side had been put by an American poet in some
verses, entitled " Jonathan to John :"

" We own the ocean too, John ;
You must not think it hard,
If we can't think with you, John,
It's just your own backyard.
Ole Uncle S. (that's Uncle Sam),
Sez he, I guess,
If that's his game, sez he,
The fencing stuff
Will cost enough
To bust ole J. B."
(Laughter.) That was just what he thought, the
ocean was not our backyard. (Hear, hear.) Next
he came to the Reform Bill. (Hear.) In his speech
on that bill he endeavoured to show, as he had
already said, that the people were not directly re-
presented by referring to existing legislation. In
the case, for instance, of the Masters and Servants'
Act—what was a civil offence on the part of the
masters was a criminal offence on the part of the
workmen. Was that fair? (No, no.) Then, were
the people satisfactorily lodged and housed? Were
they properly educated and trained, as we could wish
to see them? It had been said with great truth during
the recessthat we were all squabbling about theologi-
cal questions, and meanwhile the people had no proper
schools provided for them ? Was that right ? , He
thought that if the people were fully represented that
matter would be speedily dealt with. He believed the
time had come when we must make up our minds
to have compulsory education. (Cheers.) At the
meeting of the Social Science Congress, which he
attended, he found that there was a growing opinion
among all who had given that subject any attention
that the principle of the Factory Acts must be ex-
tended, and children must not be allowed to work
until they are educated in some reasonable degree.
Then there was the question of the adulteration of
food and drink. Was any one of those questions in
such a state as any honest Englishman would like to
see them ? He was sure they would say with him
that they were not. (Cheers.) But they might say,
as was said by others, that these were things
to be regretted and deplored, but that Government
could not alter them. In reply, he would say, they
had all seen that the Government could alter many
things when they were willing to do so. They
altered the corn laws, for instance ; and if Govern-
ment could not deal with such questions as those he
had enumerated, then Government must be much
less important than he took it to be ; and if it was
of so trifling a nature, why not let everybody have
a share in it? (Cheers.) He thought the people,
looking at these things, had a right to say, " You
have failed most miserably. You have allowed these
abuses to come to a head. We, as the people, are
deeply interested in having them remedied, and we
claim a share in the Government in order to try
our hand at it." (Cheers.) Therefore he said the
people were entitled, gradually it might be, but
surely, to participate to a larger extent in the
legislation and administration of this great country.
(Hear, hear.) They had a right to ask to be put in
harness to drag the State coach—and it was a
mighty one—along the road it should go. They
were willing enough to do so, but there were others
who had got in harness and they pulled to the ditch
and not along the road. (Laughter.) With re-
spect to the bill of last session, he believed that if
some Liberal members bad observed the rule of
silence it might have passed, if not altogether, at
least another stage. One night, when Sir Rainald
Knightley's motion was on, the house had gone to
dinner, and the Ministerial whipper-in came to
them and said, "If you'll just let this speaker
finish on the other side we'll have a majority on the
division." But unfortunately a Liberal member got
up to air his vocabulary, the Opposition now came
back, the debate was adjourned that night, and
that stage was lost. With respect to the probablie
future he would just say a few words. He thought
it probable, from all he saw and heard, that the
present Government would try its hand at a Re-
form Bill. If so, and it embodied household suf-
frage, he should vote for it. It was no joke to sit
through such debates as those of last session on the
Reform Bill. Revenge was sweet, and he knew no
revenge that would be so sweet as to see General
Peel, Lord Cranbourne, and all the rest of them,
walking into the lobby to vote for a Reform Bill
brought in by their leader, and that bill including
household suffrage. (Loud cheers and laughter.)
The honourable member said his views on the
general question had not altered since the last elec-
tion. He still adhered to the plan for the representa-
tion of minorities. He was not opposed to the
ballot, but he was not an advocate of it. He pre-
ferred voting papers, which were not necessarily
secret, and if anything liked open voting. The
disclosures of the election commissions led, in his
opinion, not to the ballot, but to disfranchisement.
What he would like to see was an educational test,
not so severe as that of Mr. Clay's bill, but that the
person who claimed to vote should write his name
in a free current hand, and further, that he should
be called upon to go to the registrar every year for
that purpose, because the man who would not
once a year take the trouble of showing himself
and writing his name did not evince sufficient inte-
rest in politics to make a useful voter. He now
came to a point on which there had been a great
deal of very fierce letter-writing disapproving of his
conduct in writing to the papers at a certain time
to say that if the League persisted in holding meet-
ings in Hyde Park he would be one of the first to
oppose them. What were the facts ? He under-
stood that the Government had offered to the league
every facility for trying the question of right in a
legal way,
and that pending this trial the League
insisted upon
andu m holding
impression
es
s hisi thoseon
meetings in the park.
(N o, nno d.
that That was
phe impression
wrote
the
eo fle
ttheer
which
facts,
man was more stanch than he wasin
defence
remonstrances.
ofthe
right of public meeting, but the No
tion
(No, no,
nme,eethtiengs
people'ssho should be
park.) That was the very
held
queisnßwas whether
Royal park.
question at issue, and until it was settled by a proper
tribunal he doubted the propriety of bringing to-
gether crowds so large and of such a character as
to be beyond the control of the League. (No, no.)
They must pardon him for differing from them.
Ile saw enough in the street in which he lived to
prove that fact. No doubt, so far as the demon-
stration which was directly under the
management
of the League was concerned, all was right enough ;
but there were others, and by far the larger portion,
who were not under that control, and he saw a
neighbour of his, a fine liberal fellow, knocked down,
kicked, and then thrown
into the air, simply because
seeing a policeman ill-used be rushed from his
assistance. drawing-room to his He was treated
thus amidst cries of " Let's kill this fellow,"
and but for the intervention of a clergyman, a
neighbour, he might have been killed. In these
matters they ought to know what the law was and
abide by it ; and here he could not help quoting
again from " Jonathan to John" some lines which
he thought it would be well to remember—

" Our folk believe in law, John,
And it's for her sake now
They've left the axe and saw, John,
The anvil and the plough.
Ole Uncle S.,
Soz he, I guess,
If 'tweru't for law, sez ho,
There'd be one shindy
Front here to Injy,
Which wouldn't suit J. 11.,
When not 'twist you and mo."

(Laughter and cheers.) The hon, member then
defended the course which the Jamaica Committee
had pursued in instituting the prosecution of ex-
Governor Eyre. If the Government failed to do its
duty there were serious questions at issue—the
rights of colonial governors over our fellow-subjects,
and especially of different races ; the rights and
powers of those tribunals sarcastically called judi-
cial courts-martial, and many others of the utmost
importance. It was for the interest of the whole

empire, which included 200 milli° ns of other races
than our own, that these question s should be settled;
and it was for the sake of our own character and
the perpetuation of that empire that they should be
settled in the spirit indicated 137 Him who said, " In-
smuch as ye did it not unto the least of these, my
brethren, ye did it not unto m e." (Hear.) In conclu-
sion, Mr. Hughes called attention to the number of
convictions which had taken place in South London
for the possession of false weights and measures.
(Laughter.) It was no laughing matter. When he
saw these things in the papers they made his ears
tingle, and he hoped that their ears would tingle
too, and that an enlightened public opinion would
put an end to such dishonesty and fraud. (Cheers.)
The CHAIRMAN having invited questions,
There was a cry of " Where's your brother
chum ?"

Mr. HUGHES—I can give an answer given on a
graver occasion, "Am I my brother's keeper ?"
(Great laughter and cheering.)
Other questions were put, to which Mr. HUGHES
replied briefly. The time had come when he must
state to what extent he agreed with the temperance
movement and the Permissive Bill, and he had ac-
cepted an invitation to do so at the Lambeth Baths
on Thursday, where he invited all who felt inte-
rested to attend. As to the separation of Church
and State, he was a member of the Church, and
upon the whole he thought the advantages of that
union preponderated. With respect to the allow-
ances made to her Majesty's children on their mar-
riage with German Princes and the reason why he
did not speak against them, his reply was, that to
speak against the opinion of nine-tenths of your
hearers was a mistake. (Oh, oh.) That was his
opinion, but his interrogator had of course a right
to his own.

On the motion of Mr. Granville, seconded by Mr.
Meehan, a vote of thanks was tendered to Mr.
Hughes, for his manly and honest speech, for the
consistent and independent manner in which he had
represented the borough, and expressive of the fullest
assurance that he would in future deserve the con-
tinuance of that confidence.

The motion was carried amidst enthusiastic ap-
plause, which was renewed and prolonged when the
hon. member briefly acknowledged it, and stated
that so long as they sympathised with each other he
would be happy to be their representative ; when he
failed to do so, let them part in peace and good
friends. (Cheers.)

A vote of thanks to the chairman closed the pro-
ceedings.

John Bull and the Alabima Claim.

The following letter has been addressed to a con-

temporary :

Sir,—Typically, John Bull is supposed to repre-
sent an individual who loves ease and comfort, and
consequently is opposed to all excitement, whether
natural or artificial, the pugnacity of his disposi-
tion having wondrously subsided during the present
century, and only manifested its dormant state in
two or three exceptional cases. Since the Crimean
War, in which he expended so much money and
blood, and obtained so little substantial glory,
Mars and his occupation have had very little in-
terest for him. Such trifling affairs as the Trent
and Alabama breezes may have disturbed his equa-
nimity for a moment and called him away from his
ordinary avocations, but he summarily dismissed
them after he had given his ultimatum and relapsed
into his former habits. As long as he was contented
he supposed all the world must acquiesce in his wise
decision.

John Bull, by experience, has learned that he has
never made anything out of interfering with other
people's business. It was all very well when he was
young, fiery, impetuous, and so forth, but he has
bought that experience dearly ; he even feels the
weight now. No, he would and did devote his time
to peaceful employment, and his aim and object was
to preserve a respectable neutrality ; in fact, to
mind his own business. Ile was very sorry about
poor Denmark, and the loss of Schleswig-Holstein,
but he comforted himself with the assurance that
he did not understand the merits of the case. The
late combat in Germany, " short, sharp, and deci-
sive," was shocking to read about. The absorption
of Hanover was, he thought, rather a liberty on the
part of Prussia, and the conduct of Mr. Von Bis-
marck was anything but according to the recognised
rules of international propriety. His sympathies
were with Austria, Italy, Saxony, and Hanover.
But he conceived it was a very different thing con-
doling with a friend who had received a discoloura-
tion of the eye from a bully antagonist, and endan-
gering his own ease and safety by knocking or
attempting to knock down the pugnacious bully. No.
his mission was peace, to develope the wealth of the
country by promoting the agricultural, mechanical,
manufacturing, and commercial elements which
enriched the nation individually and collectively.
Now if there was one thing annoyed John Bull
more than another, it was to allude to the shop
after he had turned his back upon it, and was en-
joying the comforts of his well-earned repose. We
will suppose, for example, he has attended to and
transacted the business of the day. Everything has
gone on satisfactorily, his letters show that mine,
manufactory, warehouse, and marine have all been
successfully conducted, his advices from abroad all
tell the same tale, and he departs at the close of the
day in a peaceful, contented state of mind. Arrived
at home, he is full of hilarity, casts aside the cares
and anxieties of business, and enjoys with his family
those comforts which he has provided for them. His
dinner has been partaken of to his satisfaction,
the last glass of port has disappeared, and then
happy, easy, benign, peaceful, neutral John Ball
takes his nap. " Forty winks" have not yet elapsed
when the sharp and sonorous bang, bang, of the
postman is heard at the door. The worthy gentle-
man is startled from his slumbers, an expression of
displeasure overspreads his otherwise genial coun-
tenance. He has not much time for considering
what was the cause of the disturbance before the
dining room door opens, and the servant hands him
a letter. He rubs his eyes for a moment, fumbles
in his waistcoat pocket for his spectacles (John Bull
never uses eye glasses in the evening), carefully
wipes them, places them on his nose, draws his chair
closer to the table, and then, after examining the
caligraphy, removes the letter from its enclosure,
and reads the contents.

The knitting of the brows, the compression of
the lips, the shaking of the head, sufficiently evince
the contents are not of the most pleasant nature.
" Presumptuous!" ejaculates Mr. Ball. " Annoy-
ing in the extreme, and to be disturbed at this time
of night about an almost forgotten affair; the fel-
low's mad, impudent beyond bearing."
" Nothing wrong, I hope, my dear uncle, that
will call you out to-night ?" said Miss Britannia, his
niece, who was seated at the opposite side of the
table.

nev"eWr greotnagn,
yofpecaocuersoertqhuerieet'
there's
omnesss. fellow
etnhienrge,ws raong. I
whose claim I have over and over again refused to
pay, and whom I thought, after my last letter, would
drop the matter forever. After a lapse of twelve
months he now writes to me thathehas sentan agent
to England, that he has brought additional and
overwhelming evidence to substantiate his claim,
and that if I don't settle it at once he will take sum-
mary proceedings. Hang him, though, but I won't
be bullied." Here Mr. Bull brought his fist down
upon his mahogany in such a forcible manner as
caused the decanter and empty wine glasses to ring
again.

But, my dear uncle," interrupted his niece,
" what is the nature of his claim ? You know I
do not pretend to understand much about business,
yet you have often given me credit for sensible
counsel and advice. Now, won't you tell me all
about it, and let us talk it over ?" Miss Britannia
had spoken in her usual quiet, unobtrusive way that
always won on the old gentleman. After perusing
the letter again he removed his spectacles, reclined
himself once more in his comfortable arm-chair,
then, with preliminary " h'ems," he commenced as
follows : _

The story is a long one, and very intricate, even
for a lawyer. You see, my dear girl, a good many
years ago (although not as large as now) I still car-
ried on a most extensive promiscuous business ; in
fact, there was no firm who had so many agents
abroad, still my home establishment did not present