The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-09 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAL OCTOBER 9, 1866.

Last night, in the Town Hall of Leeds, Mr.
Befoul' enjoyed another opportunity of making a
display of his powers. He seems fully determined
that the public shall have enough of his eloquence
this autumn, and criticism on his remarks and re-
monstrances respecting his vehemence only seems
to enrage him the more, and to send him forth more
fiercely to the fight. As a proof of the harm that is
occasioned by the extreme measures he advocates,
and the manner in which he does so, we may notice
that the members of the West Riding, with one
exception, were
absent on this great occasion.
Registered manhood
suffrage seems to have
been the great object in view among those who
yesterday assembled in full force. Mr. E. A. LEA-
THAM seconded the resolution respecting it, and
,‘
went so far as to declare that,
with manhood
suffrage his personal liberty would be respected, his
property safe, and his country prosperous and
happy." After this ridiculous remark he followed
in the wake of his leader, and went on to say that
in the event of the ten-pound franchise
being
de-
clared perpetual, and the power of the law and the
Government put forth in its defence, " he was pro-
foundly convinced that neither liberty nor property
would be long safe, and that
.both law
and the Government must themselves even-
tually perish in the attempt to enforce this
shameful and perpetual silence of the people."
Now this is a very blameable course to pursue thus
to persist in making constant allusion to the neces-
sity of having recourse to the arguments of force,
and Mr. BRIGHT is entirely responsible for taking
up this view of the question. It is an insult to those
who attend these meetings to suppose that they can-
not, and will not, restrain themselves, but must rush
into extremes, and compromise themselves and their
We may notice that in this the hon. mem-

cause,

ber for Birmingham has gone further than he did
some years ago when the Conservatives were ink
power. Then he confined himself to denuncia—
tions of their evil course, but he has nowt
stumped so that he utters threats, and while
seeking to amend some of the laws relat-
ing to representation, he seems anxious that the law
of peace and order should be broken rather than►
that his crotchets should fail and his efforts be un-
, attended with success.

A part of Mr. BRIGHT's speech last night was
devoted to defending himself from the remarks
which had been passed upon his recent harangues.
Thus we find him asserting that he is offended that
some have presumed to say that he said much the
same thing in Manchester as at Birmingham ; but
he consoled himself by the reflection that the same
charge was brought against one of the wisest of
ancient men more than two thousand years ago. We
may, however,' assure Mr. BRIGHT that he is not
following the example of his predecessor, for he is
now saying very different things about Reform than
he did some time back. He is degenerating into the
mob orator, in place of speaking in the character of
a representative. That abuse is not argument, has
been truly said, but Mr. BRIGHT seems to be totally
unmindful of the past. When he assails Mr. LOWE
so vehemently for his remarks upon the manner in
which the representation is sometimes carried out,
he forgets that he is going still further himself in his
attacks on the House of Commons itself. Were
it half as bad as he makes out it would be idle to
talk of reforming it, and nothing but complete ex-
termination could be its cure. Is this the modo in
which to speak of that great assembly before an
audience of his countrymen. It is bad not only for
what it excludes but for what it includes, " While
it excludes the great bulk of the nation, it includes
every form of corruption and evil of which a repre-
sentative system is capable." We may fairly state
without exaggeration that this is one of the worst
things Mr. BRIGHT has said in all his vituperative
speeches. How can he so mistake facts and mis-
construe circumstances as to make such a charge
against the House of Commons ? It is because it
contains so much power and influence, that real
Reformers wish it to be amended, not because it is
base and vile that they are ashamed of it.

We must protest against this new dodge of Mr.
BRIGHT'S, which consists in uttering slanders on the
reputation of all right and left who do not fall into
his plans. He asserts that be has seen men on the
Treasury Bench " who would sell the mace, which
is the symbol of loyalty, on the table of the House,
if by so doing they could give to themselves fixity
of tenure on the Ministerial benches." This is as
unfounded an assertion and as gross a libel as can
be uttered, and we are glad to think so. It only
shows how low Mr. BRIGHT has fallen, that he
should stoop to such contemptible means of
making an assertion. Truths and errors abound
among politicians as among others ; but we may
safely say that none of the high or low are actuated
by such igaoble desire for place. The best proof
that Mr. BRIGHT does not really think that a Con-
servative Government is so obnoxious to the people
is that he can bring indefinite charges against them;
but he has to resort to abuse, and make charges
against them quite untenable. He twists and turns
what Lord DERBY said upon taking office last time,
until he makes out that the noble Earl declared that
he was proud to take office because his party was
so greedy for office. Whereupon Mr. BRIGHT
adds that there is a party in America that
is always seeking office, and it goes by the name of
Bread-and-Butter party ; and it turns out after all
that the party of Lord DERBY is not an anti-Reform
party, but a Bread-and-Butter party. We really
wonder what Mr. BRIGHT will come to before he
has done ; he attacks every one right and left who
presumes to go against him, and in doing this he
is inconsistent to the last degree. Who was more
anxious than he was at one time to uphold the press
of this country, and now who is more eager to
decry it. It is a pity that some friend or adviser
cannot show him how little he makes
himself when he uses language like this,
" I shall not appeal to the writers in newspapers,
one of whom, and not a very creditable one, is con-
cealed somewhere in this town. I shall appeal only
to the truth-loving vast majority of the people of this
country." If he holds this opinion of newspapers,
why did Mr. BRIGHT and his friends raise such au
outcry about the advantages of the penny press ?
They had better have advocated the increase of duty
to retard rather than advance the spread of such mis-
chievous organs. The people of this country have
learned too much to be led astray now by such
doctrines as these. They revere their Constitution,
the time-honoured work of glorious ages ; they
honour and respect the great institutions of the
land, foremost among which must be ranked the
free Press, which is neither afraid of tyrants, nor
will it bow.to demagogues; and if the new crusade
for Reform is to be heralded in this fashion, we
may tell its promoters that they will fail utterly and
completely.

Of course we could not expect to read a speech
of the hon. member of Birmingham's that did not
contain a glowing eulogiura on America,
and therefore with regret, and not surprise,
we find him in favour of the Radicals,
who are seeking to uproot that constitution of
America about which Mr. BRIGIIT has so often
raved, and whose merits he has never been slow to
advocate. Millions of men are to go to the poll to-
day, he declares, in order to decide if justice shall
or shall not be done to the liberated African, and
he will be greatly surprised if " the result does not
add one more proof to those already given of the
solidity, intelligence, and public spirit of the great
body of the people of the United States." He adds
that the English nation are brought together,
and they must march on together ; the
spirit of either Government must be the
same, although the form may be different. "A
broad and generous fraedom is the heritage of Eng-
land" is the welcome announcement at the close of
this speech, and in that we agree ; but it is precisely
why we object to Mr. BRIGHT'S remarks, because
he does not pracise what he preaches. What is
there either " broad" or " generous" in the tenour
of this discourse? It is narrow and exclusive to the
last degree ; and it is most mischievous, inasmuch
as it is calculated to mislead those who put faith in
the hon. member's powers of discernment.

one so gifted as Mr. BRIGHT I'3 s
We consider it as a matter of
hdeeuelpd rtehgrusetwtahsatet
his powers and misuse his opportunities. H e has,
indeed, sadly changed from the days of his early
career. It is true that he was always too much in
the extreme, but he never went to the length he
now does. In the course of his remarks last night
Mr. BRIGHT alluded to a saying of his lamented
friend,Mr. COBDEN, and we are sure that distinguished
man would have given his opinion against the course
now followed by his associate. Often prejudiced,
and sometimes extreme, Mr. COBDEN was never
bitter and intemperate. This was his chief cause
of success, and in this Mr. BRIGHT is
now entirely wanting. Nor can it advance the
cause of progress among us to ral against all
existing institutions. Nor does it make the poor
and ignorant better to tell them that the rich
and titled are their natural enemies, and that vices