The Sun.
London, England, 1866-05-22 00:00:00

Reform Demonstration on Primrose Kill.

Last afternoon a public meeting, convened by
the National Reform League, was held on Primrose-
hill, for the purpose of adopting resolutions in sup-
port of the Reform Bill introduced into Parliament
by her Majesty's Government.

Mr. EDMOND BEALES, the president of the league,
stated that letters announcing the meeting had been
sent to several leading members of the Ilouse of
Commons. One of these had been sent to Mr.
John Stuart Mill, the member for Westminster, and
from that gentleman the following reply had been
received :

"Blackheath, May 19, 1866.

. •
" Dear Sir,—l entirely approve and applaud the
object of the meeting to be held on Monday next
on Primrose-hill, that of encouraging and strengthen-
ing the Government in resisting all compromise in
the leading provisions of the Reform Bill.
" I am greatly obliged by your very cordial in-
vitation to attend the meeting, but my absence from
town will prevent my being present at it.—l am,
dear sir, very sincerely yours,
" Mr. George Howell." "J. S. MILL.
Mr. Bright had also been written to, and the fol-
lowing important letter had been received in reply :
" Rochdale, May 19, 1866.

" Dear Sir,—l thank you for your invitation to
the meeting to be held on Monday, but I am not
able to be present at it.
" I hope all your friends will understand the
exact position of the reform question. The main
portions-of the objections made to the -Franchise
Bill on the second reading were mere pretences—
there was no truth in them. The only real objec-
tion was against the admission of any portion of the
working men to the suffrage.
" The same game will be played hereafter. There
will be resolutions saying one thing and meaning
another. Everything will be criticised, but the
thing really hated and feared will be the extension
of the franchise to the working men.
" The Government Distribution of Seats Bill is,
I fear, not good enough to excite the hostility of
the Tories, or of those from the Liberal ranks who
have joined them, as it has little to excite enthu-
siasm or favour among the people. It will be op-
posed chiefly because it is henceforth a part of the
bill which offers the franchise to working men, and
because the rejection of any considerable or impor-
tant part of the bill will be the rejection of thewhole.
" The Tory party, and those from the Liberal
ranks who join it, are animated by an unchange-
able hostility to any bill which gives the franchise to
the working men. They object to any transfer of
power from those who now possess it, and they ob-
ject to share their power with any increased number
of their countrymen who form the working class.
" They regard the workmen here as the Southern
planter regards the negroes who were so lately his
slaves. They can no longer be bought or sold ; so
far they are free men. They may work and pay
taxes, but they must not vote. They must obey the
laws, but must have no share in selecting the men
who are to make them. The future position of the
millions of men in the United Kingdom is now de-
termined, if the opposition of the Tory party is to
prevail—it is precisely that fixed by the Southern
planter for the negro.

" Millions of workmen bear this in mind ; they
will now know the point or the gulf which separates
one party from the other in the House of Commons.
" There will be great efforts made to induce the
Government to abandon the line of £l4 for the
county and £7 for the borough franchise. If the
Government yields, it mill probably destroy itself,
and it will leave the question open for the next Par-
liament—for no man can suppose the suffrage ques-
tion settled for the term of a single Parliament on
the basis of a departure from the figures of the pre-
sent bill.

Lord Derby's bill of 1859 proposed a £lO fran-
chise for counties, and Lord Palmerston's bill of
1860 offered the same county franchise, and a £6
franchise for boroughs. If anything less or worse
than a £l4 and £7 franchise be now carried, there
will not be a single reformer in the kingdom who
will not be at liberty, when the bill is passed, to
petition or to move the house for a further extension
of the suffrage.

" I hope you may have a good meeting, but I
shall regard it only as preliminary to the meetings
you will hold if the moderate measure now before
Parliament should be mutilated or rejected. Work-
ing men everywhere should feel that the real posi-
tion and future of their class are now in suspense,
and that they depend mainly on themselves.—l
very truly yours, " JOHN BRIGHT.
" Mr. George Howell, 8, Adelphi-terrace,
London."
He then went on to state that they were there on
that occasion to support the Government in carry-
ing a measure of reform which they had introduced
against the factious hostility of those who were op-
posed to all progress, and who wished to prevent
popular representation from being converted from
a pretence into a reality. They were there to uphold
Earl Russell and Mr. Gladstone in the effort they
were making to redress long-standing grievances
and to pay off a debt which had been long due to
the people. (Cheers.) Whilst he agreed in every
word of the letter which he had just read from Mr.
Bright, he still had to congratulate them upon the
discussions which had recently taken place in Par-
liament, and upon the present aspect of the reform
question. The result of those discussions had been
that they showed in the clearest manner, by the ad-
missions and tactics of their opponents, that the
Reform League had takeen its stand on that which
the Constitution originally contemplated, which the
law accorded, and which the representative prin-
ciple of self-government necessarily embodied. Mr.
Lowe, the captain-general of the Adullamite rene-
gade battalion, who had been received and welcomed
by the Tories as a gift from Heaven, had declared
that practice as regarded representation could never
be made to conform to theory until they had got
universal suffrage and equal electoral districts.
They, therefore, readily accepted that from an op-
ponent, as the true character of what the repre-
sentative principle necessarily meant and intended.
Then, again, came Mr. Disraeli, who said that as
the Chancellor of the Exchequer had declared the
suffrage to be a moral right, those whom this mea-
sure would not reach were, upon his reasoning, as
much entitled to it as the 400,000 to which the
measure would extend it. That, said the Tory
leader, is au American principle, and would be most
fatal to this country. No doubt it was an Ameri-
can principle, and it had been worked in America
to good effect, and to the great advantage of that
country ; but it was an English principle long be-
fore it was an American one. (Cheers.) The
Americans took it from their and our forefathers;
and they were indebted to that redoubtable cham-
pion of the people for bringing out that striking
declaration respecting it made by Lord Somers in a
conference with the two Houses of Parliament, in
the course of which that great man said that the
franchise was an essential privilege whereby every '