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

famine in Ireland—a famine whieh destroyed as
many lives in that country as would have been de-
stroyed by a great war, and which drove into exile
as many of the people of that island as would have
been driven into exile by the most cruel and relent-
less conquest—it required all that before the Parlia-
ment of England, the men among whom I sat,among
whom I sit now, whose faces are as familiar to me
as those of any persons whom I have known in life,
—I say it required all that before they would consent
to give up that intolerable wrong, and cease to tax
the bread of an industrious community. (Cheers.)
Now, suppose that the bill which was brought into
the house last session as a franchise bill only—a
course taken, as was admitted by Lord Russell, in
accordance with advice which I had publicly given
to the Government, and which advice I believe was
eminently sound and ought to be followed whenever
this question is dealt with again by a Liberal and
honest Government—l say suppose that that bill,
instead of being met with every kind of unfair and
ungenerous opposition, had been accepted by the
House of Commons, and had become law. What
would have been the state of the country during the
present autumn and winter ? It would have been
one of rejoicing and congratulation everywhere—
not because the bill included everybody or satisfied
everybody ; but all working men would have
felt that the barrier created by the last Reform Bill,
if not absolutely broken down, was at least so much
lowered that the exclusion was much less general,
and less offensive. (Hear, hear.) You would have
bad this result—that we as a people in these islands
would have been no longer two nations ; we should
have felt more that henceforth we were one people.
Every element of strength in the country would
have been immeasurably strengthened, and even to
the humblest of the unenfranchised would have been
given a feeling of hope which would lead him to
believe in and to strive after something higher and
better than that to which hitherto he had been able
to attain. (Cheers.) Now, who prevented this?
Surely we did not prevent it. We, who thought we
were speaking the general opinion of the people, ac-
cepted the measure with an honourable sincerity and
fidelity. We said, " It is good to the point to which
it steps forward. It is perfectly honest, it has no
trick or subterfuge about it ; it will give satisfac-
tion to some hundreds of thousands ; it will give
what is as great a boon—hope and confidence to
millions whom it does not include." And, there-
fore, if not without some difficulty, yet with a per-
fect honourableness, we accepted that measure.
Well, who opposed it ? Surely none other than
Lord Derby and the party of which he is the acknow-
ledged and trusted leader. They and he opposed
and rejected it, and they and he are responsible for
all that has since been done in the country as a
necessary and inevitable consequence of that rejec-
tion. (Cheers.) Lord Derby now stands nearest to
the Throne ; I venture to say not as a strength, but
as a weakness to the Throne—(cheers)—for in his
conduct last session—the conduct of his party which
he adopts—he thwarted at once the benevolent inten-
tions of the Crown and the just expectations of the
people. (Cheers.) I confess that lam rather sur-
prised at the conduct of the Tory party in this
matter. When the bill was introduced into the
House of Commons it appeared to me to be the very
least that any Ministers with a spark of sense or
honesty could offer on this question ; and I did not
believe that on the other sida of the House
there was, I will say, if you like, bitter parti-
sanship enough, or stupidity enough, to induce
them to fight a combined battle with all who would
join them for the purpose of rejecting that bill. And
now one would suppose that the present Govern-
ment had troubles enough on hand in what is called
the 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, are flying from their ancestral homes to find
refuge in garrison towns ; and all this is the magni-
ficent result 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 say 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 thii 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,,
are left without with a
representative system, are shut out
directly and purposely
representation. from that( l,e
a r , constitution,h shoar.)
r.) an
Thisd
great question
questiollel we are debating to-night is an
have no pity on the'(zr
unfinished,
se of this nation until it be a
and as the Swiss express it, it will
some
I observe to-day in an
finished question.
article, supposed by
totoldbe of great authority,
that the working men are told
by
they
what are called
their betters—for that paper only writes
hand
betters—(laughter)— havethatfor our
probably
th are
and they are exhorted by the very enough,
which during the whole of the last session nd
ey
ment was doing all it could against thero—
of Parlia.
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
be—l suppose there are yet—the men who on our
side of the House betrayed the cause which they
were supposed to sit there to defend. And the only
change I know of is that the men who threw out
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,
__. . 1

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•
chisemeut. (Cheers.) It is to bring every society
with which you are 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
theßeform League in London, or whether connected
in any way with the Reform Union in Manchester,
or With any other association, to establish a system
of small weeklyor monthly contributions. (Cheers.)
Do not allow my friend Mr. Beales—(cheers)—or
my ancient friend and political brother, Mr. Geo.
Wilson, of Manchester—to want money to carry
on and to direct the great societiesof which they are
the chiefs. (Cheers.) And let rue beg of you more
than all else to have no jealousies of each other.
Give to our chairman his due—(cheers)—give to

Mr. Beales and his council their due—(cheers)—
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. UPSIIALL then moved the following resolu-
tion :
" That this meeting desires to acknowledge the services of
the Right Hon.'. 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 whioh 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 Park to Beau-
fort House, and who evidently deei.ly 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
v'.4 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 thing before it.
(Hear, 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 t,) bear in favour of the extension of the
franchise. But in the face of the existing state of
facts, why should they argue w:th 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 measure of
Reform was that labour might be properly repre-
sented in the House of Commons, where it really
never had been represented 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
Irishman, to express his 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 CHAIRMAN next read a letter from Mr. Ed-
mond Beales, 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 JOHN GRAIL', who said he 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. He 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.) He 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 the Irish members both outside and inside of the
House of Commons. (Cheers.)
Mr. POTTER, M.P., said that he 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
countryman, Mr. Bright, address them on the all-important
subject of Reform. This was, however, not the first time
that ho had addressed the working men of London. He had
great qttetion
in h
relating
tthis country,
to the 7 nailnidc t
he
on
Americado n e so whenwa h
was under
utndeerconsideration

was happy to say that ho deeply sympathised with Air.
Bright's views on that subject. (Hear, hear.) He 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 tho meeting, haying neon occupied