The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-25 00:00:00

member for Birmingham, but as the expounder of
the will of a free people. (Cheers.)
Sir JAS. WATT proposed the following resoluton :
" That this meeting, while recording its indignation at
the insults offered in Parliament and by the Press to the
working class and their advocates, calls on the people of
this country to allow themselves no longer to be trifled with
by an oligarchic few, but to rally round those men who have
upheld their cause."
Mr. ERNEST JONES, in seconding the motion, called
upon the people to be no longer trifled with, but to
wring a substantial measure of reform from a re-
luctant House of Commons, which to be of value
and to satisfy their just demands must not only be
substantial, but speedily conceded. The people were
no longer to be satisfied with the crumbs which an
exclusive oligarchy might consider sufficient to ap-
pease them, but would no longer be put off with the
old excuses, being determined to have a full conces-
sion of their right, and that right was manhood suf-
frage and the ballot.
The resolution was carried by acclamation.
Mr. GEORGE WILSON moved that the following
address be presented to Mr. Bright :

"John Bright, —ln the name of the people of Lancashire,
we welcome you back to the metropolis of the north. Man-
chester will henceforth regard this day as an auspicious
one in her history, for she now pays homage to a life-long
services rendered to the cause of popular rights.
" Lancashire is proud to claim you as her son. Your
public career has been unfalteringly devoted to the inte-
rests of humanity, and while other men have thought it
politic to change the convictions of their youth, your life
has been unswervingly true to Liberal principles and the
advancement of freedom. Without fear of being charged
with presumption, we may address you in the name of hu-
manity, for its claims have ever been paramount with you
over the selfish dictates of party and class interests. We do
homage to your forgetfulness of self, your enlightened pa-
triotism, your far-seeing statesmanship. As men we respect
you, as Englishmen we honour you, as sons of Lancashire
we are proud of you ; for your public career has cast unfad-
ing lustre upon the county which gave you birth, and the
nation which points to you as an example of what an Eng-
lishman should be.

" This is no ordinary occasion upon whichweaddressyou.
Our beloved country is in a crisis of its fate, and we all look
to you as the pilot who shall weather us through the storm.
We remind you of what you have accomplished in the past,
that we may pledge you to equal, if not greater exertion
in the impending future. Schooled among that noble band
of patriots who, led by the revered Richard Cobden, shat-
tered the barriers which hemmed in the privileged few
from the oppressed many, placing an untaxed loaf in the
huts and cottages of suffering millions, we call upon you to
complete the work which you and your brother freetraders
so triumphantly commenced. Crown the victory you helped
to achieve in the cause of economic truth with the still
nobler laurel due to him who helps to gain political rights
for a whole people.
" The country looks to you, the nation is with you. It
calls upon you to hasten forward the work you have so
bravely undertaken. The voice of the metropolis, of the
empire, has echoed throughout the land. 'Hyde Park and
Parliament-street to the venerable Abbey,' have been com-
pactly filled with law-respecting, freedom-loving multi-
tudes of your fellow-countrymen, solemnly resolved to re-
gain for themselves and their children those rightB which
a proud and overbearing minority still presumes to With-
hold from them. Birmingham has taken up the appeal,
'and echoed it northwards with many times ten thousand
voices. The cry for Reform resounds -throughout • the
North, rolling in determined tones over the plains of Lan-
cashire,, rushing along her valleys, and echoing from
hill to hill. Soon shall the great West Riding take up
'the loud refrain, and the long-suffering sister isle repeat
the cry from her furthest Western shore. The voices of
the three kingdoms are unanimous in demanding their
political rights. They call upon you to be their standard-.
, bearer in the approaching contest. It is a mighty responsi-
bility thrown upon you, but your countrymen feel confi-
dence in your judgment, courage, and devotion. You will
not return to Parliament simply as the representative of a
single borough, but as the elected tribune of a mighty
people. Face to face you have seen this people. You have
a right to speak for' the east and west, the north, and the
south ; and when you are assailed with the taunts and gibes
and sneers of a proud oligarchy, who use every weapon
' that slander and malice can suggest we pray you to re-
member that a whole nation stands at your back resolutely
! determined to support you while you battle with it for its
liberties. Tell these opponents of freedom that the right-
denied millions of their fellow-countrymen must not, cannot
longer be trifled with ; that principle must be the guiding
star of men, and results be left to Providence ; that the
broadest base is the firmest security of all authority, and
that our country will achieve a still more glorious destiny
among the nations when her Government depends for its
strength upon the hearts and the arms of the entire people,
and bases its freedom on the rights achieved by God."
Mr. Hoosox seconded the mation, and the ad-
dress, after a few words from Mr. Beales and Mr.
Armitage, who were listened to with extreme im-
I patience, was adopted amidst tremendous acclania-
' tions, which were renewed again and again as the
chairman presented it to the hon. gentleman.
Mr. BIND-11T, who was loudly cheered, then ad-
dressed the meeting. He said :—I was not aware
when I was invited to attend this meeting that any-
thing different from the ordinary course of proceeding
would take place. I was not informed that I should
be honoured by the presentation of any address. I
accept that address, however, with many thanks for
the kindness which you have shown me : at the
same time I accept it with something like fear and
trembling-, because of the mighty responsibility
which, by that address, you have thrown upon me.
I have never had any ambition for leadership. I
don't feel myself to have fitness for such an office.
I have worked hitherto wheresOier I Chanced to be,
whether in the ranks or in the front, and, without
pledging myself to undertake all that this address
asks me to- undertake and perform, I may, however,
fairly pledge myself to this, that wherever I find
men willing to work for human freedom and human
happiness I trust I shall be ready to take my part
with them. (Cheers.) And now, as my eye has
rested upon this wonderful assembly, I have thought
it not wrong to ask myself whether there is any
queStion that is great, that is sufficient, that is
noble, that has called us together to-night. I have
come to the conclusion that great as is this meeting,:
and transcendently great the meeting which was held
in the middle of the day,-the question which has
brought us together is worthy of our assembly and
Of every effort we may make. (Hear.) We are met*
for the purpose, so far as lies in our power, of widen-
ing the boundaries and making more stable the;
foundation of the freedom of the country in which
we live. (Hear.) We are not, as our fathers were
200 years ago,. called upon to do battle with the:
Crown ; -we have no dynasty to complain of, no:
Royal family to depose, in our day- the wearer of
the Crown is in favour of freedom (cheers) ; and on,
many, separate occasions, as you all know the
Queen has strongly—as strongly -as became her•
atation.—urged upon Parliament the extension of the
f,ranel%lse of the. people. Parliament, however,: has
7en lean liberal than the Crown, and time-after
time
those'reo mmendations have been disregarded,
and the wish of the monarch have been rejected
and denied. It
T 1
KA our business to n. ht t
tot bt to as-
sail the other branch of the Legislature.--the House.
of Peers. For my part, I.can
think 'that if
there are dangers ahead for' the- House of Lords
they are dangers not sn mnelOro.n without a
;,
within. Its foes, in my opinion, are tli.of its
own
„household : it stands in the high place
a Senate,
but too much it abdicates the duties of a senate_ It
gives its votes, its powers, its proxies into thehands
of one man, and he often, as at present, not by any
means the wisest:of men. ("Hear, hear," and
laughter.) Unfortunately for that house it does al-
most nothing—it does not even debate freely—a
session will pass and you scarcely hear any discus-
sion in,that houSe whichis calculated to instruct the
people in political subjects. I sometimes fear that it
is no longer the temple of honour, the path which
leads through the temple of virtue ; it has become
too much a refuge for worn-out members of the
House of Commons. (Cheers and laughter.) It be-
comes every year more numerous, without, I fear,
becoming more useful. If it cannot make itself up
to the great duties, decay and darkness will settle
upon it. Some of its members may read what I say.
I beg to assure them that in these few observations
I am speaking in no unfriendly spirit to the House
of Lords; but we have a distinct purpose to-night,
and our purpose is this—to restore the representa-
tion of the people—to make the House of Commons
the house which professes to represent the people a
reality and no longer a sham. (Cheers.) Now-the
facts of our representation are simple. The import-7
- ant facts can be stated in about two sentences. I
think at every reform meeting they should be re-
stated, and that they should
fix themselves in the
mind of every reformer throughout the country. I
am charged with telling things that everbodyknows
—(a laugh)--but if we tell them often enough
body will know them: (Laughter and
cheers.) This'
are
is a fact which is worth knowing—that 1

7,000,000 of grown-up men, 7,000,000 of men re-
sponsible to the lawsin the United Kingdom of Great
Britain andlreland; that of those but one million and
a quarter are on the list of voters; that, exclusive of
paupers and exclusive of criminals—though I am
sorry to- mention those two classes in the same sen-
tence —exclusive of those to whom no man proposes
to give the franchise, there are 5,000,000 of men in
the United Kingdom who have no vote. ("Shame,"
" We will have them.") Of the million and a quar-
ter who have votes, the counties take up about 750,000
and the boroughs 550,000. Now, I shall say that
which some men will contradict, but which I venture
to say is true, when I declare that, for the most part,
the county representation in this country is not
a popular representation in any honest sense of that
term. (Cheers.) We know that with a franchise of
£5O occupation, and a freehold franchise added to it,
that the great body of the people in every county is
excluded from the elective franchise. Well, I regard
the county representation to a very large extent as a
dead body tied to the living body of the borough
representation. I believe it will become less so. In
Ireland there are some free counties. In Scot-
land there are some, and there will be soon
more—but, still taking the county representation as
a whole, it is in a most unsatisfactory condition.
Well, but as to the boroughs where they are alive
and where there is some freedom, what is their con-.
dition? Let me give you only one fact. There are
145 boroughs with over 20,000 inhabitants each, and
they return 215 members. There are 109 boroughs
with over 20,000 population, and they return 180
members. But look at the difference in the number
of votes, the number of the population, and the
amount of the taxation. It is something startling
and enormous. The boroughs under 20,000 have
79,000 electors. The boroughs over 20,000 have
485,000 electors. The boroughs under 20,000 have
1,350,000 people. The boroughs over 20,000 people
have 9,305,000 people The boroughs under 20,000
pay £367,000 of income tax—the boroughs over
20,000 pay £5,240,000, and yet the boroughs under
20,000 have 215 members, as against 181 members
for the boroughs over 20,000. (Cries of " Shame.")
Now, I am sure you will agree with me in this—
that a representation which as regards the franchise
shuts out five millions of men, and which as regards
the distribution leaves the state of things which I
have now described, can only be fairly pictured
when I call it a stupendous fraud upon the people.
(Cheers.) As to the counties we have Lord Derby's
own authority for it, that the counties are
politically the hunting grounds of great landowners.
Lord Derby said if you would tell him the politics of
half-a dozen principal landowners in a county, he
would tell you the politics of the county members and
the boroughs. What are they? Manchester knows
not bribery, nor Birmingham; but of the boroughs
of 20,000 population and under, how many of them
`are full of corruption ? There are small boroughs,
such as Banbury and Tavistock, and Liskeard,
'where, I believe, great honour and great purity
,prevail, but the bulk of these boroughs are acces-
sible to the influence of any man who would go
:there with plenty of money in his pocket and no
:principles or morals in his heart. (Loud cheers.) In
;point of fact, without any exaggeration, we may
;say that all the evils which are possible to an elec-
toral system are amply provided for by the electoral
system of England, comprising bribery, drunken-
: ness, and a lavish and disgraceful expenditure. All
these not only exist, but are absolutely icevitable
under the state of the law which now prevails. I
venture to say, and I never said anything in my life
which I would more easily undertake to prove, that
there is no remedy for this state of things where
ambitious, and unprincipled, and rich men come into
contact with a small number of voters. There is no
remedy whatsoever but in large constituencies
( and the security of the ballot. (Loud cheers.) Now
if I have given a fair description of the stateof things,
need we wonder at the difficulty which we meet with
when we have any question before Parliament ?
Look back at the question of the corn laws. Look
back at the question of the paper duties. Look back,
or rather look at present, on the question of our
disgraceful expenditure, and you find on every occa-
sion when the people ask for any reform of any
kind, they have to make a desperate fight for it, just
as if they were wresting it not from countrymen and
brothers, but from the representatives of a con-
quering nation. Take this last session of all, the
session which has just passed over, a session ever to
be remembered. The Government, headed by Lord
Russell in the House of Lords, and by Mr. Gladstone
—(cheers)—in the House of Commons, this Govern-
ment anxious to make a step in the direction of popu-
lar rights, brought in a bill more honest in character
and more moderate in dimensions, and it was a binge
moderate in its dimensions that some of us who think
it would be wiser to grant much more found ourselves
in some difficulty in tendering to the Government our
cordial suport, to enable them to carry their bill
which I hold every man who is in favour of any Re-
form at all had no kind of excuse in opposing. That
bill, I may as well sayso at once; vim met by an opz
position as malignant and discreditable as I have
ever seen brought against any measure in the House
of Commons; there was no artifice, there was no
trick that was too mean and too base to be made
use of to retard the progress of and ultimately to
destroy that bill, and to such an extent did they go
that.even Lord Stanley--(hisses)—was induced, I
know not how or by what evil spirit of his party, to
make a proposition, which, to my knowledge, emi-
nent men of his own party pronounced to be utterly
discreditable. The •facts and arguments on which
the bill was supported were not met and never could
be met. Another policy was adopted, and, to get
rid of inconvenient arguments and figures, they
turned round and did not hesitate to slander the'
whole nation. The name of a gentleman eminent
in this matter has already been mentioned. If L
mention his name, or if I quote what he said, under- i
stand that I make no charge against him that he
holds opinions •which Iso much deplore. Any man'
may hold what opinions he likes, and the opinions,
of any particular member of. Parliament are not of
very greatimportance. But these opinions are im-:
portant, because they, were addressed to 300 mem- '
bers of the party which is now in power, and because
by that party they were received with uproarious and:
universal enthusiasm. (Cheers.) I don't think
that any meeting of the working classes held during
this recess should pass off without some reference
to 'these observations. Bear in mind that, not only
were they received with enthusiastic cheers by the
Tory party, but 'when the Queen sent for Lord
Derby, and committed to him the charge of form-
ing a Government, he either directly, through his
patron, the owner of the borough of Caine, endea-
voured, as is universally believed, and as I believe,
to prevail on the man who uttered these senti-
ments to become a member of his Government.
(Shame.) These are some of his sentiments :
--," I have had opportunities of knowing some-
thing of the constituencies in this country, and I ask
if you want venality, ignorance, drunkenness, and
the, means of intimidation, if you want impulsive,
unreflecting, and violent men, where do you go to
look for them,
to the top or to the bottom? It is
. ridiculous
et
great to
corruptionbli
nk
has prevailedthefactthat asimncoeng thetheßeform
Avoters
of between £2O and £lO rental, among the £lO
lodging-house and bee house rkeepers ; but it is said
only give the franchise to the artisans, and then see
the difference." lie went • • on, omitting a sentence
which is nothing to the argument, and said, " We
know what sort of people live in these small houses;
we have long had experience of them under the
name of freemen, and it would be a good thing if
they were disfranchised altogether. They were dying
out of themselves, but the Government purposed to
bring them back under another name." This refers,
of course, to the persons who live in houses of be-
tween £7 and £lO rental. Then, he said, "If thig
bill passes, see what dreadful things will happen. In
the first stage an increase of corruption, intimida-
tion, disorder, and all those evils which happen
usually at elections. What will be the second . The
second will be that the working men of England, find-
ing themselves in a large majority of the whole con-
stituency, will awake to a full sense of their power.
They will say, ' We can do better for ourselves ; do
not let us any longer be, cajoled at elections Met us
set up shop for ourselves ; we have objects to carry
as well as our neighbours, and let us unite to carry
those objects. We have the machinery ; we have our
trades' unions ; we have our leaders all ready.' "