The Sun.
London, England, 1859-04-26 00:00:00

XEP.RESEN7ATION OF BIRMINGHAM.

. BIRMINGHAM, MONDAY EVENING.
To-day an immense meeting of the inhabitant's,
convened by the mayor, was hld at the Town-hall,
to consider the merits of the respective candidates.
The hall was crowded to excess, and the Mayor
said, in opening the business, that Mr. Ackland's
committee bad declined the tickets sent, and the
hon. gentleman would not be present. Several
speakers having addressed the meeting, Mr. Bright
spoke as follows :
Mr. BRIGHT, who on rising was received with
round after round of cheering, which lasted several
minutes, said—lt is a very short time since I had
the opportunity of speaking to many of you from
this platform ; and we all know that in about three
days hence it is very likely I may be called upon
to speak again from the same place. You will
therefore agree with me that I shall be doing right
to follow the example of my hon. colleague, and
occupy your time but for a few moments on this—
what I may call preliminary election occasion.
(Hear, hear.) Since we were here last considerable
events have taken place in connection with the
question of Parliamentary Reform—for we have
seen a measure which was introduced by the Go-
vernment, but which was condemned—l may say
universally condemned—by thepeople—condemned
also and utterly rejected and repudiated by the
House of Commons itself. (Hear, hear.) I con•
eider this step to be a very great gain in our con-
test for a real Reform Bill. (Cheers.) For to tell
you the truth, when I was here at the end of
October last, said—l am not sure that I stated it in
this hall, but I know I stated it in private—that I
should consider that the session of 1859 would not
turn out a blank session if I succeeded in showing
the impossibility of passing a very ba,l mea•
sure of Reform. (Loud cheers.) But we had
another great gain ; we have had some weeks
of discussion on the question of Reform, during
which the most ignorant, I hope, have learnt
something. (Hear, hear.) Look at the position
of our opponents on this question—for although
we have no 'opponents—in the sense of men
who are entirely opposed and pronounced as such
against all Reform—still we have a great number
who will be glad to settle this question upon some
trifling and unimportant change. But look at the
position which they now hold; they have no sus-
tained point whatever. (Cheers.) You know what
is meant—although you are natives of an inland
town—when it is said that a ship " drags her
anchors ;" there is nothing to hold her on, she is
buffeted by the winds and the waves—she may
happily get into a safe haven if near, or she may
get on the rocks if she be near them. Now our
opponents have dragged their anchors. (Much
eheering and laughter.) They have abandoned
every position which in past times and which until
very recently they have occupied ; their glorious
constitution, as they have read of it, is, not under
our hands, but under their own hands, going down
like old furniture at a Dutch auction. (Much laugh-
ter.) Now, what are we to learn from this—we,
the great party of Reformers in this kingdom ?
Ought we not to discover the signs of the times ?
—that " the winter of our discontent" is past, and
that under the genial sun of more education, more
-physical comfort, more intelligence amongst the
people, the ice is breaking. on every side, and even
that party who so long insulted the 'people, and
ruled them so long as they dared, and so long as
they could, with a rod of iron, is being broken up,
and the great popular party is every day becoming
more omnipotent in this kingdom. (Cheers.) But
whether we have this great party united against
us, or whether we pursue our course having our
opponents in full route before us, let us keep to the
same course, let us keep in the even tenor of our
way, and comprehend as heretofore great principles
and great objects, and march with a definite object
before us, and success—success consolatory to our-
selves and glorious to the country—undoubtedly
awaits our efforts. (Cheers.) -What is it we really
do seek ? Because we may be assailed unless we are
somewhat definite. We have got now to times when
men are reported to be mealy-mouthed ; the strong
English of our ancestors is to be given up,
and we are to speak of great proposition with bated
breath and whispering humbleness. We say we
will no longer sit down content with the state of
things where one man in six only of the grown
men in the United Kingdom has a vote. (Cheers.)
We say we are of the great populations—Birming-
ham, Manchester, Liverpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh,
Leeds, Sheffield, Bristol, Dublin, Belfast, Cork, and
the metropolitan districts—we say we are unwilling
that each of these great populations should have
only the same number of members as small towns
of 4,000 and 5,000 inhabitants. (Loud cheers.)
With regard to these small boroughs, our opponent,
who is not always perfectly guarded in his lang-
uage, said he wished the little boroughs were at
the bottom of the sea. (Much laughter.) But
I do wish that the little boroughs, through
their representatives nominally, but in reality
through their patrons or proprietors, or some in-
genious or clever lawyer, did not exercise quite so
much influence in Parliamentary divisions as they
do. (Applause.) We ask, then, notwithstanding
Mr. Acland's opinion to the contrary, that every
voter should be permitted to go to the poll and to
give his vote free from the control of his employers
—(cheers)—or of his creditors, or of anybody who
may have the means of exercising coercion with
respect to him. If it were in the Southern States
of America, or in the island of Cuba, nothing would
be more reasonable than that if you wanted any-
thing of the negro cultivators of the estate, to ask
the master, the owner, whether you might ask the
negro cultivator to do anything you wish him to
do. But when you are discussing a matter of poli-
tics in a free country, that you should ask the
landed proprietor to give you permission to can-
vass his tenants, indicates a state of ;submission
which I say is frightful and degrading to the coun-
try. (Loud cheers.) The fact is, that so far as
regards popular representation, the great bulk of

your county representation is a sort of a dead car-
cass tied on to the living body of your borough
representation. (Efear, hear.) You cannot stir
a step without having to drag this on with you
When you get the £lO franchise for the counties,
and the ballot to protect the vote—(cheers)—then,
in all probability, you will find that there are
liberal opinions amongst the county constituencies ;
and the counties will come up to the boroughs,
and they will march side by side, and shoulder to
shoulder, on behalf of any of those future conquests
by the popular party which are ahead and in store
for us. (Cheers.) There is one question to which
some reference has been made. You are aware that
perhaps on this very day—this day of almost uni-
versal holiday in England, this day when with us
men, women, and families are accustomed to be
more than "ordinarily at their ease—on this very
day possibly may commence a contest in the south
of Europe, the duration of which, and the result of
which are as much hidden from our view as are
the real causes which have provoked it. (Hear,
hear.) On the face of it the contest is to determine
whether the despotism of Austria or the despotism
of France shall exert the greatest influence in the
Italian States. For us, for every man, such a con-
test must have intense interest. States will be
overturned, the political position of States will be
changed, men's lives will be sacrificed, homes will
be destroyed, terror and agony will march through
the length and breadth of the Italian peninsula.
Bnt we live in these islands surrounded by the salt
water. We have no fear that anybody from Italy,
or that anybody from Austria, or from France, will
make any assault on these shores. If they do, the
power which in past times has preserved the inde-
pendence and security of these realms, is competent
still to defend them. (Great applause.) What I
ask you to beware of is this, lest your rulers of
1859 pursue the course of your rulers of 1793.
(Hear.) At that time, according to the Scotch
historian .Alison, who on this point may be fully
relied upon, the spread of liberal opinions abroad
was the thing that was feared at home, and that it
was found necessary to lead the spirit, to lead the
hearts of the English
peoule in a different direc-
tion; to rouse, as he calls it, the ancient gallantry
of the British nation. If you had not gone
into that war, you would have had Parliamentary
Reform thirty years earlier than you had it—you
would never have had the corn laws—you would
never have had this great debt—your expenditure,
instead of being now nearly seventy millions, might
iesall probability have been less than one-half the
amount, and the great body of the working classes
of England might have been, I solemnly believe, in
a position of indepence, and comfort, and education
equal, or nearly so, to that which is the average of
what 'is termed the middle class in this country.
(Cheers.) Well, what are we to do ? Are we to
have our minds distracted from the question of
Parliamentary Reform? (Hear, hear.) Are we
to run away from this fuhstnntial chase to pursue
the phantom of military glory ?
(No, no.) Are
we to insist upon a Government attending to our
own affairs rather than meddling with the insane
and saisminary c()i test which is aboutto commence
in the :swill of Europe. (Yes, and cheers.) Now,
in my opinion there must be no mistake. Do not
suppose that because I found myself opposed to a
large amount of public opinion on the question of
the Russian war—that because I was insulted and
defamed—that because every wretched scribe who
earned his bread by writing:newspaper articles, and
whose conscience was not the guide of his conduct—
that because every man of that class thought that I
was a fit object for his jeers, and for his calumnies,
and for his lies, for three years together—(shame)
—that because I suffered the loss, whatever that
may be estimated at, of the representation of one of
the first constituencies in the kingdom—l have ever
rogretted, the position I then s9cl, ;•To ; for if I

had lost more than that, everything I had in the
world, and everything I hope for in the world,
never should I for one instant have regretted the
course I took. Great app)luse) Baut ;(-,w, when
it is not a question of Russia and the T rk, but a
question of Paris and Vienna, and Milan and
Turin, whatever be your opinion, whatever be the
opinion of any class of my countr men, let it be
fairly understood that I am committed irrevo-
cably, so far as I have any influence, to the
entire absention of England from any meddling
whatsoever. (Loud and long continued cheers.) I
can remain in the House of Commons—l can do my
duty with such energy and capacity as have been
bestowed upon me ; or I can leave the House of
Commons—l can return to my own domestic en-
joyments, and to what were at one time my com-
mercial and manufacturing pursuits; but there is
one thing that I cannot do, and that is to sit
tamely by to see intriguing place-holders, or intri-
guing place-hunters, gradually, bit by bit, by
blunders here, by tricks there, by crime yonder,
step, drift, slide, as it were, into the terrific abyss
which yawns below us. (Cheers.) I value the
blood, I value the sweat, I value the comfort, the
lives, the homes, the happiness of the people of
this country. (Renewed applause.) Never for one
single moment, at the behest of power or at the
call of popular frenzy and popular clamour, shall
any man be able to charge me with being acces-
sory to a policy which should sacrifice the happi-
ness of the common people on the altar of san-
guinary war. (Great cheering, which lasted several
minutes).
The motion was put to the meeting and carried
unanimously amid the most intense demonstrations
of enthusiasm, not a single hand being held up
against it throughout the vast meeting.