The Sun.
London, England, 1866-11-21 00:00:00

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LONDON, TVEDNES'DAY, 21, 1866.

If we do not all get heartily tired of the subject of
Reform before the legitimate time arrives for its dis-
cussion it will not be the fault of Mr. BRIGHT and
his friends, for they are really going on ad infinitum
in their repetition of hackneyed phrases and stereo-
typed utterances. Be this as it may, since their
march is through the long lane that has no turning
it is our duty to follow them, and to watch their
proceedings. Last evening a grand banquet was
given in the Free Tradepall at Manchester, under the
auspices of the National Reform Union, to Mr BRIGHT
and a number of Liberal members. Mr. G. WILSON
presided, but there were many who at the last were
prevented from attending. Lord Ho uoxToN made
a brief speech, in which he said that he was there
" Only as a peer," but he sympathised with the
wishes of those present. In the course of his
observations the noble lord alluded to one of the
mottoes upon the wall. " Privileges are ephemeral,
the people are immortal." Ile said that, if true,
politically there were some that he would not forecro •
they were the privileges of an intelligent mind and
, r,
of
the enlightened conscience, and, above all, the privi-
leges of the individual pulse and the individual mind
which beat in the heart of every Englishman."
We
quite agree with this, the more so as it seems to be
the ruling passion with some of these new Re_
formers of our day to sink individuality as much as
possible, and, in doing so, to put forward their doc
trines in preference to their independence of mind
and character, which is the foundation of all our
national greatness. Mr. BRIGHT'S speech was, of
course, the chief feature of the evening, and being,
as we suppose, at a loss how to saysomething new, he
declared that he came to that one of the most
striking meetings which had been held in this coun-
try for years with a ft:clip(' of comparative indif-

ference and an absence of responsibility. The
reason which he gave for this was that when he
received the invitation to be present, he found in
the calculation of those to be present his name half
way down the list, and inferred thereby that
he was not expected to take a very pro-
minent place, but rather would be in the
position of a looker-on and a spectator.
So far as we can judge it would seem as if those who
had the conduct of affairs had made a mistake in
this arrangement, and the consequence was that
Mr. BRIGHT seemed a little more bitter and sarcastic
than usual, if possible.
From beginning to end he was intemperate, il-
logical, and exaggerated everything, and every per-
son that came in his way was attacked mercilessly ;
and it is pretty evident by this time that any one
who attempts to answer Mr. BRIGHT will not only be
abused himself, but everything he touches upon in
commenting on him will be abused also. In the first
plane, Mr. BRIGHT recapitulated his own grievances.
He was told last year by the degenerate members of
an inadequate Parliament that he was very fond
of calling spirits from the vasty deep, but that the
said spirits did not come when he summoned them.
Judging from the opinions he entertains, it is for-
tunate, for the peace of society, that they do not
hear the voice of the charmer, we should say, but
passing on from that, the real offence is,
that just now it is the fashion to flatter
the middle classes, and to tell them that
political power rests with them, but that the ex-
treme men would swamp them by the overwhelm-
ing numbers they would introduce into the franchise.
The secret of this denunciation is, that Mr. BRIGHT'S
influence is not what it was with the middle ranks
of society ; they begin to see that he is not to be
trusted, and that, unless everything can go as he
fancies, he sinks argument in abuse, and loses the
politician in the demagogue.
Then the newspapers have a great deal to an-
swer for in Mr. BRIGHT'S estimation, for they are
always presuming to say what will happen, and
giving us to understand, or, to use the hon. mem-
ber's own phraseology, " for the newspapers are
always understanding a great many things of which
they know nothing." We should say that they
followed Mr. BRIGHT'S own example if we were to
condescend to bandy words on such a subject ; but
there is nothing in which this great man shows
himself so little as in his affected contempt
for a power that he knows to be above him
and the influence of his violence. He shows
himself quite unworthy of the position he assumes as
a tribune of the people in his persistent practice of
abusing and reviling the press of the country.
Nothing, however, comes up, in a hundredth de-
gree, to the intensity of excitement and the depth
of rage which take possession of Mr. BRIGHT when
he approaches the subject of the Tories. This is
always a very dangerous topic, but when they are
in office his language is, beyond all things, intem-
perate to the last degree. To begin with his
arguments on this point—if we can by any
stretch of fancy call them so—he says that
some persons are credulous enough to think that the
men now in office will bring in a Reform Bill, and
that, too, a very satisfactory one ; they say that
Sir ROBERT PEEL and the Duke of WELLINGTON
passed Catholic Emancipation, that Sir R. PEEL
repealed the Corn Laws, and " why should not
Lord DERBY pass a Reform Bill?" The answer is,
that " Lord DERBY is neither Sir ROBERT PEEL nor
the Duke of WELLINGTON; he left those statesmen
in 1846, and he has never shown from that hour
to this an atom of statesmanship or one spark of pa-
triotism." This clap-trap may do very well, for the
purpose in hand, but we would recommend those

who are silly enough to applaud the bombastic

utterances of AIL BRIGHT that there is no truth in
them, and we wonder even that his effrontery should
allow him to stand up before Lancashire men and
say such things. In their time of imminent peril,

in their hour of darkest distress, who came forward
to their relief ? The political agitator, who saw
little of them and their wrongs, and the statesman
who, he says, is indifferent to their rights.

So far as:any one has ever heard Mr. BRIGIIT did
nothing, and could spare no pence, while Lord
DERBY gave his time and trouble, and spent
thousands in alleviating their distress.
So much for his argument, we now come to his
abuse ; and we learn that though the Ministers call
themselves her MAJESTY'S servants, they have not
dared to proclaim themselves the accepted servants

of the people ; their conduct was bad in the ex-
treme, they " would not suppress, nor allow the
suppression of a single rotten borough ; in fact,
there was no abuse, however intolerable, however
putrid, to which they would allow the Legislative

reforming knife to be applied." It has been said by

some of his greatest admirers that Alr. BRIGHT is

our greatest orator, but he is really forgetting him-
felf in an extraordinary manner when he uses such
language. But, to proceed, as for talking of the pre-
sent occupants of the Treasury benches bringing
forward a great measure, he considers it quite an
idle Supposition. "If a man were to tell me he
had a broth composed of half a dozen of the most
poisonous ingredients, and could make a wholesome
diet, I could not believe him ; the conspirators of
last seesion cannot turn out to be the statesmen of
next year." Finally, Mr. BRIGIIT says that there are
enemies and false friends to the cause of Reform.
We concur in the truth of this, and counsel him to
look at home.
lie is now doing precisely what he did the last time
Lord DERBY was in power : he is going about from
post to pillar proclaiming this, that, and the
other; raking up old grievances, finding out
past troubles, inventing some and exaggerating
other until the upshot is that he exclaims,
,
march against Philip."
We have no hope
,et things,
us
of influencing Mr. BRIGHT, but we trust that those
he is constantly addressing will show themselves
more alive to the spirit of fair play which it was the

pride of Englishmen to possess, more imbued withthe
love of justice, more affected by the sense of honour,
than to listen to the suggestions put before them
so speciously and so forcibly. By the most con-
temptible dodge of modern days the Conservative
party was driven from power in 1857, and, when
benefited by it, what measure has passed that has
freed the people or immortalised those who forced
themselves into office on false pretences ? Mr.
BRIGHT calls the present House the master of the

people, not its servant. It does the bidding of a
" small and limited—often an ignorant, necessarily
a selfish—class." But we must take care

that we are not put in a position to

be at the mercy of a more selfish class than any be

mentions ; and all we can say is that precisely be-
cause we are Liberal in the true acceptation of the

term we demand that Lord DERBY'S Government

shall have a fair trial, and declare that they must
have one if the principles of the Constitution are car-
ried out; and we would entreat all honest Reformers
to take what measures they can get, and not to be
so busy finding fault that they overlook merit, and
so eager to put others in the right that they go
astray themselves.

Mr. HUGHES, M.P. for Lambeth, is always well
worth hearing. His speeches arc not indeed likely
to please every one, neither of his own party nor of
his opponents, for he does not hesitate to express