The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-05 00:00:00

,he sister country without urging the people to ex-
citement here. (Cheers.) In Ireland—lreland, which
I have described before Irishmen as the favoured
field on which all the power of the Tory party has
been displayed and tried—in Ireland the Habeas
Corpus Act is suspended; individual liberty, ex-
cept by the consent of the Executive, is abolished ;
troops are pouring into the country ; ironclads, it
is said, are ordered to the coast to meet some, I hope
and believe, imaginary foe; country gentlemen, it is
said, ar flying from their ancestral homes to find
refuge in garrison towns ; and all this is the magni-
ficenkresult of the policy of the Tory party of which
Lord Derby is the head. (Cheers.) And even up to
this very last session of Parliament that party had
no remedy for that state of things but the ancient
and rude and savage remedy of military force. But,
with all this cause for apprehension in Ireland—as
I hope and believe greatly exaggerated by some
public writers, but still enough to cause pain and
anxiety—was it a judicious course for the present
party in power to create a great excitement in Great
Britain ? I s.=ay that Lord Derby, as the representa-
tive of his party in Parliament, is himself the
fomentor of discord, and that his party and not our
party is at this moment the turbulent element in
English political society. (Cheers.) And let me
tell this party—l tell them nothing from this plat-
form that I have not told them from the floor of the
House of Commons—let me tell them that this ques-
tion will not sleep. Some months ago a remarkable
Convention was held in Switzerland, composed of
men of eminence and character there, by which Con-
vention an address or memorial was prepared and
forwarded to the Government of the United States,
congratulating them upon the close of their gigantic
struggle and upon the establishment of universal
freedom throughout the wide bounds of the Re-
public. There was a passage in the memorial—a
passage of true philosophy and of true statesmanship,
and it was this :—" Unfinished questions have no
pity for the repose of nations." It referred to the
great question of negro slavery; but it is just as
true when applied to the question before us, where
from 5,000,000 to 6,000,000 grown men in this
United Kingdom, under a constitutional Govern-
ment,
Withithoarepresentative system, are shut out
directly and purposely
iou. H e
leftt rrpoopsreelsyouftruotmtha(toar,hesr.) This
constitution, and
are
great question which we are debating to-night is an
unfinishedquestion, and as the Swiss express it, it will
have no pity on the repose of this nation until it be a
finished question. (Cheers.) I observe to-day in an
article, supposed by some to be of great authority,
their betters—for that
that the working men are told by what are called
paper only writes wdroi
enoughne for ou
betters—(laughter)—that they have
and they are exhorted by the very hand probably
which during the whole of the last session of Parlia.
ment was doing all it could against them—they are
exhorted, I say, to stand still and to wait in confi-
dence for the action of Parliament. (Hear, hear.)
Well, but it is the same Parliament. (Hear.)
It is the same House of Commons which I left with
sadness and apprehension in July last. There may
threw
be—l suppose there are yet—the men who on our
side of the House betrayed the cause which they
change I know of is that t
were supposed to sit there tohdeemfenen who d. And
the
with all terms of ignominy the bill which we wished
to pass last session are now, or will be in February
next, if they do not break in pieces before
(laughter)—on the Treasury Bench, and will take
that leading and authoritative position in the House
which belongs to the Ministers of the Crown. Now,
I differ from this writer altogether. I would not put
any confidence in the course of that House of Com-
mons if I were a man unenfranchised and asking for
a vote. I should like them to tell me they had
wholly repented of the cheers with which they met
all those vile and violent imputations upon your
character. (Cheers.) My opinion is this, that
your duty, your obvious duty, the duty from
which you cannot escape, is to go on as you have
gone on. It is to perfect in every part of the coun-
try your organisation in favour of your own enfran•
chisement. (Cheers.) It is to bring every society
with which you arc connected to give itself for a
time—it will be only for a short time—to the work-
ing out of your political redemption. (Cheers.) I
should advise you,whether you are the supporters of
the Reform League in London, or whether connected
lu
any way with the Reform Union in Manchester,
or with any other association, to establish a system
of small weekly or monthly contributions. (Cheers.)
Do not allow
my friend Mr. Beales—(cheers)—or
my ancient friend and political brother, Mr. Geo.
Wilson, of Manchester— towant money to carry
on and to direct the great
societies of which they are
the chiefs. (Cheers.) And let begof of you more
than all else to have no jealousies
e orse)a_c each
jother.
Give to our chairman his due—( h

Mr. Beales and his council their due—(chieers)—
give to every one who, with a single eye to this
great question, is working in your name, give him
his due—(cheers) ; and help in every way you can
every honest endeavour to bring this great national
question to that state of final issue when it shall no
longer disturb the repose of this nation. Finally, I
beg of you to raise yourselves to a just contempla-
tion of what the great issueis for which you are con-
tending—it
is to make you citizens, full citizens, of
one of the noblest nations on the face of the earth—
of a nation which has a grand history in the past,
which I trust, partly through your help, will have a
still grander history in the future. Let me beg of
you, then, as the final word I shall speak to you to-
night, that in all you do you be animated with a
great and noble spirit, for you have set your hands
and your hearts to a great and noble work. (Mr.
Bright sat down amid loud and continued cheering.)
Mr. UPSBALL then moved the following resolu-
tion :
" That this meeting desires to acknowledge the services of
the Right Hon.W. E. Gladstone (cheers), Mr. John Bright
(cheers), and Mr. John Stuart Mill, who have supported
the people's claims, and vindicated their character in Par-
liament, and further express their confidence in Mr. John
Bright as the champion of the national cause in the House
of Commons."
(Cheers.) He referred to the absence of the metro-
politan members as a proof that they were not re-
presented in the House of Commons. When the
working men of London met to advance the work of
Reform the metropolitan members were conspicuous
by their absence. They altogether failed to put in
an appearance. The working men of London had
yesterday shown that they were not apathetic in the
cause of Reform ; and it would be dangerous for the
Government to withdraw their rights much longer.
Mr. THOMAS seconded the resolution.
Mr. MASON JONES rose to support it, and said
that when he went to Bolt-court some six weeks
ago and had a conversation with the leader of the
Working Men's Association at that place, he sug-
gested that with a view to an effective demonstra-
tion on the subject of Reform a wider range should
be taken, so as to have delegates from the trades in
the country. This suggestion was acted on, and the
result was the magnificent demonstration made on
the previous day as regarded the feelings of the
working classes in favour of Reform. (Hear, hear.)
Those who managed the procession of the working
men on that occasion deserved the greatest credit
for the manner in which it was carried out. (Hear,
hear.) He would not quarrel with those who said
that the procession of the working men did not con-
sist of more than 30,000 or 40,000 persons ; but
this at least was clear, that the public who lined the
streets on its route from St. James's Paik to Beau-
fort House, and who evidently deeply sympathised
with the demonstration, amounted to from 500,000
to 750,000. (Hear, hear.) This present state of
things as regarded the Reform question arose out of
the conduct of the Adullamites, and what had oc-
curred in Hyde Park when the people wanted to
meet was the consequence of the conduct of that
class of politicians. (Hear, hear.) And here he might
say that he was glad the railings at Hyde Park had
been pulled down—it was the first triumph of
the Reformers. (Hear, hear.) The late Reform
Bill was lost through the most glaring lying and
the most spiteful tricks, and especially by the leader
of the party to whom he had referred drawing up
a bill of indictment against the great body of the
working classes. (Hear, hear.) But he believed
that Mr. Lowe was punished enough for what he
had done in this respect. (Hear, hear.) But if it
WN true that the people were what Mr. Lowe
stated them to be, then the governing party ought
to have gone into sackcloth and ashes, for on their
shoulders ought to rest the blame that the people
were ignorant ; that they got drunk, and were im-
moral ; and where did the money go that ought to
be expended in enlightening the people ? Why, in
sustaining our boasted armaments and other extra-
vagant and worthless purposes. The question had
arrived at a new era, the tide was still rising, and
unless the opposition to Reform ceased, it would
overflow its barriers and sweep every ;,hing before it.
([sear, hear.) They had now risen from the con-
sideration of the rating clause, and such like topics.
They eschewed figures and statistics, and they took
their ground upon the great question of registered
manhood suffrage. (Hear, hear.) It had been urged
against Reformers that they had not brought much
argument to bear in favour of the extension of the
franchise. But in the face of the existing state of
facts, why should they argue w ith the Tories, who
openly proclaimed that they were insensible to ar-
gument, and that they listened only to the voice of
fear. Then, again, it was stated that in this agita-
tion they were setting class against class ; but was
it not the Tory party, who never missed an oppor-
tunity of exciting that class animosity which they
must all so deeply deplore? The great demonstra-
tions which had taken place at Manchester, Bir-
mingham, Leeds, Glasgow, and in London yesterday,
showed that the people were interested in the ques-
tion, and that they desired to see the constitution
of the House of Commons considerably improved.
Another reason why they asked for a meast•re of
Reform was that labotir might be properly repre-
sented in the House of Commons, where it really
never had been repres3nted at all. What harm could
possibly arise to other classes and interests, if the
working men were allowed to have a fair share in
the representation of the country ? He believed
that one immediate result would be the abolition of
strikes. The present state of things could not long
continue. If the Tory party were wise they would
at once yield to the popular demands for Reform,
or perhaps by and bye the ugly rush about which
they had heard so often might come at last. They
might rely that the working men were not going to
stand much longer exclusion from the pale of the
Constitution. Before concluding he desired, as an
Ir'shman, to express It's heartfelt thanks to Mr.
Bright for his noble advocacy of the rights of Ire-
land, and the extension of justice to the unhappy
people of that misgoverned land. He urged that
Irish landlords ought to be purchased out, and half
the evils of Ireland would cease. In carrying out
the present agitation for Reform they did not seek
to injure any one, but simply to obtain equal and
impartial justice. (Cheers.)

The CIIAIRMAN next read a letter from Mr. Ed-
mond Beale', apologising for his absence from the

meeting, as he was obliged to leave town, and a
telegram from the National Scottish Reform League,

complimenting them on the success of their move-

ment, after which the resolution was unanimously
carried.

The CHAIRMAN introduced to the meeting, amid
loud cheers,

Sir JOAN GRAY, who said ho did not come to speak, but
to hear what was said, and he had to express his thanks for
the manner in which his own country was spoken of and
received whenever it was alluded to. He had seen yesterday
one of the most magnificent scenes he ever witnessed, and
the more so because of its peaceable aspect and termina-
tion. lie had been in London on Lord Mayor's-day, and
did not see the "roughs" controlled. He had been in
London on the opening of Parliament, and did not see
them controlled, but yesterday they seemed to have for-
gotten their qualities as "roughs," if ever they possessed
any, and conducted themselves much better than many
of those who called themselves gentlemen. (Hear, hear,
and a laugh.) They also desired to have an extension
of the franchise in Ireland, and above all and before all
they wished to have the vote by ballot. (Hear.) Ho had
seen many voters coerced to go to the poll to support their
landlords, but he promised them they would at all times
get a hearty and generous support in all their demands
from tho Irish members both outside and inside of the
House of Commons. (Cheers.)

Mr. POTTER, M.P., said that ho had no claim upon the
attention of the working men of London, and his presence
there on that occasion was simply to hear his glorious
count' yman, Mr. Bright, address them on Ile all-important
subject of Reform. This was, however, not the first time
that ho had addressed the working men of London. Ho had

done so when the great question relating to the conflict in
Amer:ca was under consideration in this country, and he

was happy to say that ho deeply sympathised with Mr.
Bright's views on that subject. (Hear, hoar.) lie saw the
demonstration yesterday, and he hoped after that display of
order and right feeling on the part of the working clasSes
the objection to the manhood franchise would be given up,
and that the demonstration which was to take place between
this and the meeting of Parliament would result in the

concession of manhood suffrage to the demands of the
people. (Hear.)
Mr. Ayrton, M.P. for the Tower Hamlets, at this moment
appeared upon the platform, and there were loud cries of

" Como forward."
Mr. AYRTON, in complying with this request, said ho had
just looked in upon the meeting, haying heen occupied