The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-19 00:00:00

THE SU N, LONDON, FRIDAY " EVE NING, AUGUST 19, 185 g.

that where constituencies have only one member
there is a greater tendency to maintain a higher cha-

ratter and greater public spirit. There are more
contests, and the line of demarcation more strongly
marked. Where there are two members people get
tired of contests; they say " Let us agree to vote
one and one," and there is a general acquiescence.
This a bad state of things, because political contests
are of the greatest advantage in the maintenance of
free institutions. (Cheers.) I don't intend to say
anything about short Parliaments; they have been
short enough lately—(laughter)--and to all ap-
pearances will continue to be as short, unless our
legislators deal with this question of reform in such
a way as to give a predominance to some one party
in the house. I have always advocated a return to
the rule of triennial Parliaments. Short leases and
frequent reckonings are more likely to maintain the
character of the representatives of the constituency.
(Cheers.) I could enlarge much longer on these
topics if time permitted, but I am to be followed by
several gentlemen, and by one in particular, to
whom if we ever do get a Reform Bill the country
will be mainly indebted. (Cheers.) The hon. gen-
tleman concluded his speech by expressing his grate-
ful acknowledgments to the electors and non-electors
for his unopposed return, and sat down amid loud
and prolonged cheering.
Mr. FENTON then moved, and Mr. SHEPHERD, a
non-elector, seconded a vote of confidence in Mr.
Cobden.
After a few words from Mr. S. CRAWFORD in
support of the resolution,
Mr. BRIGHT then addressed the meeting, and on
rising was greeted with prolonged and hearty
cheering. He said,—l was very glad that during
the speech delivered in this place by Mr. Cobden
last night he announced his intention of speaking
more at length to-night on the question of Parlia-
mentary Reform—(hear)—for, notwithstanding that
some men may think that this question has not re-
cently excited the attention which it merits, I think
every thoughtful and logical man will admit that
after the settlement of it has been promised by not
less than five Administrations within the last
few years, I may fairly assume that there is some
necessity for dealing with it, either in the re-
cent condition of parties in the House of Commons,
or in the temper and resolution of the people with
regard to it. If we turn back only to the month, I
think, of April last we shall remember that there
were held in this country in one fortnight far more
than 100 public meetings, most of them of great
magnitude, at which a bill called a Bill of Reform,
introduced by the Government of Lord Derby, was
unanimouslycondemned,and resolutions were passed,
on the whole, demanding more extensive changes
than those which have been discussed to-night.
(Hear, hear.) I am not, therefore, one of those who
are willing to admit that the people do not care
about this great question. I admit, of course, that
we do not see it discussed in a hurricane of passion,
and surrounded by all those bitter animosities amidst
which the question was treated in the years 1831
and 1832. As a far larger number of the people are
now enfranchised there is a general admissionlon
the part of even the most obtuse of our opponents
that there must be a still greater enfranchisement.
We have none of the opposition to contend with
that we had then, and there is not the necessity
now, which could not be avoided then, of tumul-
tuous assemblies, of revolutionary speeches, of in-
surrectionary movements, of menacing demonstra-
tions before which the oligarchy of this country
quailed, and in the face of which they were unable
to deny a considerable and beneficial measure of re-
form. But there are people still who tell us that
the country is so well governed and that the people
are so well off that a very little need be done, a mere
sop to a few of the discontented, and that a measure
very little in advance of the old measure will sa-
tisfy any demand which exists. They tell us that
the people are so comfortable that it is of itself a
proof that the country is sufficiently well, nay, ad-
mirably well governed, and that it is a good rule in
politics, as in many other things, to let well be well,
and not to disturb anything for fear we should find
ourselves worse. (Laughter.) Now, I am speaking
here to a meeting composed of several thousands of
men who were not born, as it were, with silver
spoons in their mouths—(laughter)—except it be a
blessing—and I hold it no mean blessing in a free
country and with a fair field—that men are born to
earn their living, to make their fortunes, and to
build their hopes upon their own industry, their
own intelligence, and their own virtues. (Oh !)
But, whether men are well off or not is in some de-
lgree a question of comparison, and, speaking as I
am to thousands of men who have nothing in the
world but their own skill and their own industry
to depend upon, lam willing to undertake the task
of showing that which is great and good and pros-
perous among the people of England springs from
the people of England themselves, and not from
any peculiar virtue or intelligence in the oligarchi-
cal Government of this country. (Cheers.) What
is it that we owe to the Government, and what is
it that we owe to ourselves ? Looking back for 60
years, we shall find that for 22 years of that period,
from 1793 to 1815, when you had
.no power, and
when we who are on this platform had no power
over the Government of this country—when the
Government was an absolute, undisputed, and un-
controlled oligarchy, all the vast resources of Eng-
land and her population were employed in costly
and sanguinary war for an object which now we
know was not accomplished, but has been entirely
reversed, and which, if it could have been perma-
nently secured, could have brought not one atom of
good to any single working man of the toiling mil-
lions of this kingdom. (Cheers.) I will not ask you
to listen to any lengthened description of that long
-war. I might tell of the sufferings of your citizens
who entered the military service, of the suffering
of your manufacturers, your shopkeepers, and the
millions of your artisans. Suffice it to say that it
is written on the page of history, and no sophistry
can ever erase it, that that was a period when free-
dom was unknown in England, when there was
spread among the people of every class but the con-
sumer of taxes a suffering and a misery such as
never existed in modern times before, and such as
it was utterly disgraceful to our country that it
could exist at all. (Oh.) Many here can look
back to the time of the conclusion of that war;
everybody here knows who has read of
those times that, starting from 1815, the peace
and plenty which are supposed to attend the cessa-
tion of war—the plenty, at any rate, was long in
wasa n d thata
periodup
otfo
allBm2o6s , t and,
u nv ie nr
coming—(a laugh)—and
sdaele dd
stcoo
nltBe3n2t,. t erells\o
much had the capital of the
country been wasted, so enormously were taxes in-
creased, so grievous was that fiendlike infliction
which was embodied in the clauses of the Corn
Bill, so frightful were the consequences of the
policy of the preceding 22 years, that I will under-
take to say that all the burning words which
orators have ever used utterly fail to describe the
calamities which that war had entailed upon the
people of this kingdom. (Hear, hear.) You know
that hundreds of men were tried for sedition and
insurrection under one form or another ; that con-
tests were incessant between workmen and their
employers ; that many men were transported for
offences into which their sufferings of necessity
drove them ; and that some even finished their
career upon the scaffold or gallows, who, had it not
been for the evil system of our laws and Govern-
ment, might have lived out their natural term of
life in honour
of
aelrdgt3tiy2h,name
aaaatm:
nny
improvement
mnec credit,anphtnhretdoech\r,e\esv .mRh) ocealfnneoctd,r Coming
reputationinmmn Bite
ni
htegi
oglethl
htttpdiaelahotemsNiaNtsi:)ien'
meed:elt
iieootltfrdhtwtrte ahehirinneeel
hbpa reeai
rsdai unblemisheddobpmdeoe
been
e
iwseclpnipooeoennaerechedapvelitaleutieNroois, ,
oyefinaontorenl.
bvilmsasoht
seefFni
sr:gtovholhr,
Nef,
htedia sytoawi-ulsi
Forty-four
our people
rubpe
relve;
becomeie
years believe, e,
evidentmh aa
_ne l
eyi
na fm
eemdi r the
since
aes
the
ae
l-
aphasaet
rltla
gradual
tf latter
hep the
portion
ntoieduos nnpsteeorenfyi thatsa iali
yide,
theoe irpnyl el t
rising into a better state than that which they occu-
pied before. They are better fed, they are wonder-
fully better clothed, they are far more sober,
they are far more instructed, far less bar-
barous, far more kind to each other, and to all
classes of the people they are more moral ;
and there is about them more of everything
which marks a steady and high hope—a per-
manent improvement in their condition. (Hear,
hear.) But, let me ask you, is it the exclusive
and class government of the country which has
brought all this to pass ; or does it spring from the
industry, and the growing comfort arising from that
industry, which we observe among the people ? I
am not about now to slay the slain, and recapitulate
the glories of that victory in the fight fbr which I
bore such part as I was enabled to bear—l mean
the victory by which the principle of free trade was
established for ever in the legislation of this king-
dom—(cheers)—but I may say what I think all wise
men admit, that if it be true that since the abolition
of the corn laws nearly £20,000,000 worth every
year—not in the 13 years, but every year,
£20,000,000 worth of corn of various kinds, of cattle
and of various articles of food, which before were
mainly prohibited, have come into this country,
surely somebody among our 30,000,000 of popula-
tion must have hada better filled cupboard, a better
spread table, and greater health and comfort in the
enjoyment of life. (Cheers.) But he would be a
very bold man who said that we owed free trade to
the oligarchical Government of England. We

fought for free trade as though we were wringing
some act of justice from an enemy of our country.
It was a battle of many years ; it lasted nearly as
long as the fabulous siege of Troy, and, as you know
hundreds of thousands of pounds were subscribed
and spent in the prosecution of that great contest.
Take another source of well-being in this country
during that period—namely, the extension of the
system of railways throughout the United Kingdom.
I have sometimes endeavouredto make acalculation,
not of the money which has been expended, for there
has been great waste, but of the money which has
been saved to the commerce and the people of Eng-
lund by the introduction of our railways. And I
believe that it would take, according to our old sys-
tems of conveyance, an annual sum equal to the in-
terest of the national debt to accommodate the
traffic which is now necessary in the conduct of our
affairs. But the Government did not make the
railways. (Laughter.) There are great lords, and
I am afraid great commoners, who resisted the
introduction of that system, and Parliament, in-
stead of giving facilities, made everything as costly
as possible when anybody wished to make a rail-
way. Railways are the offspring of the intelli-
gence, industry, and capital of the nation, not of
the intelligence or the patriotism of your Govern-
ment. (Cheers.) There is another source from
which many persons think we have derived great
good—the extension of our colonies and the dis-
covery of gold in Australia and California ; but,
whatever be the amount of that good, it has come
from the energy and industry of the people, and
not from any special virtues of our Executive Go-
vernment or Parliament. But before free trade,
extension of railways, colonial extension, and gold
discoveries, in my opinion the people have gained
most in every way from the long duration of peace
from 1815 to 1859. With the exception of two
years in the period before 1815, you worked when
you got work; you had wages when you could get
them, but the capital of your employers and your
wages were year after year more and more ab-
stracted and diminished by the guilty evpenditure
caused by the wars. During the last 44 years the
cost of your Government has been less, probably
by one-half, than it was during the war. During
those 44 years you have worked, you have received
wages, your employers have created and accumu-
lated capital, and I believe that the long duration
of peace more than any other thing has been the
cause of that universal and most gratifying im-
provement which we find among all ranks of people.
(Cheers.) All these things the Government has not
done. It has permitted among us a large amount
of personal freedom. For the last 30 years we have
been free to talk, to write, to meet and pass resolu-
tions, to demand whatever we thought the Govern-
ment ought to concede. But in all this the Govern-
ment has permitted, not because it liked it, but be-
cause, as the people became more intelligent, more
organised and determined, the ruling classes found
it less safe to withhold these things than in past
years. Suppose that during the 60 years of which
I have spoken we had had peace, and that the in -
telligence and industry of the people had been as-
sisted by a wise and just Government, don't you
think there would have been a still greater improve-
ment in the condition of the people, and should we
not have presen. ed to the world a spectacle of a free
and a prosperous nation such as Europe yet never
saw ? (Cheers.) I hold that our Government has
been far behind the just sentiments of the people,
and it has been somainly because your Government
has been in the hands of a small class who fancied
that they had interests opposed to the general in-
terests of the nation. I was speaking the other day
To a member of the House of Lords, one of the most
eminent of its members, and one of the most con-
scientious of our statesmen. We were discussing
the very question of Parliamentary reform in refer-
ence to Lord. Derby's bill, and he made this obser-
vation to me, " Up to 1832 the Government of this
country was the government of the aristocracy. No
man, of course, can deny that ; and I think the Go-
vernment have been better since the Reform Bill,
though whether it will be better still by going fur-
ther in the same direction is a question about which
men will form their own opinions ; but I have no
doubt that a further change in that direction is in-
evitable." If, then, the government before the Re-
form Bill was a government of the aristocracy—if
since that bill it has been less absolutely a govern-
ment of the aristocracy—if since then the course of
legislation has been more just and liberal—if the
physical condition of the people has improved, and
their temper towards the Government has become
more kind and more in harmony with the Govern-
ment—l ask you, as sensible men, whether you
have not laid a foundation for our demand for ano-
ther advance in that direction ? (Cheers.) -What
interest have we who stand. on this platform in
overturning any institution which is advantageous
to the country, or in making a change which shall
even endanger the prosperity which is as much to
us as to any other man or class of men in the na-
tion? The people do not want to seize the whole
power, or to exclude anybody else from their fair
share in the Government. What they want is,
that the Parliament of England. should fairly and
advantageously represent all classes, from the
highest to the lowest. (Cheers.) What are we to do?
You have a Government which is pledged to reform.
In that Government there are men honestly anxious
that a Reform Bill, and a good Reform Bill, should
be carried. It is our interest and it is our duty to
give them our honest and energetic support. We
are doing that to-night. (Cheers.) Thousands are
here assembled to whom the law has hitherto said,
" You are not competent to take part in even those
simple deliberations which end in a return of a
member to Parliament ;" thousands are here to-night
who have led their lives in a state or unremitting
industry—who from morn till night, from youth to
gray old age, have fulfilled honestly and scrupu-
lously the duties which devolved upon their condi-
tion ; thousands are here to-night who look forward
to something better than they now possess and en-
joy, and are stimulated in their daily and hourly
exertions by the hopes and aspirations which ani-
mate their souls. Shall we repudiate, shall we re-
ject or neglect the hopes and interests of the mil-
lions of our fellow-countrymen who are represented
by the thousands I see before me ? Let us make
up our minds that we are not only people of the
same country, brethren of the same soil, living under
the same Government, but that we are all men in
common—that the highest interest of every poor
man is the same as the true and highest interest of
every rich man ; that the Government shall be a
just Government, faithful to its trust and to its re-
sponsibilities, dispensing that which is equal fairly
among all classes of the people. (Cheers.) If we
believe this, as I do firmly believe it, let us become
as though our interests were the same. Let us
petition, let us resolve. (Cheers.) Let us, by re-
turning suitable members to Parliament, where we
have the power, by the creation and organisation
of opinion, show to our fellow countrymen and the
Government that we know what it is we want, that
we comprehend the justice of that we demand; let
us support the members of this Government, all of
them, if they be in favour of a real and substantial
measure of reform ; let us, between this and Febru-
ary next, unite with our countrymen everywhere
in such an expression of opinion as shall convince
Parliament that, whether they like the ques-
tion or not, the people of England like it
and, liking it, are determined that it shall be
settled at an early period in a manner consistent
with justice, and with their true and universal in-
terests. (Cheers.)
The resolution was then carried unanimously,
and the proceedings terminated.

EADTERTISEMENT.II-
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THE SERPENTINE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

Sir, We had intended not to have troubled you
again on the matter, but we must continue to do so
until we find that the letters sent to you for inser-
tion are based upon something like facts.
Sir S. M. Peto appears to be very indignant at
our venturing to contradict a statement made by
him, upon a matter not of opinion but of fact, and
one, too, in which we are directly concerned. We
have known Sir S. M. Peto for many years, and we
can honestly say that no one has a higher appre-
ciation of his great talents than we have, so long as
they are exercised in his own vocation, but we can-
not help thinking that to take his opinion upon a
question of water supply is somewhat like calling
in an eminent medical authority to decide on a
point of law. The question at issue between us is
this :—Sir S. M. Peto, " who resides near the Ser-
pentine, and who has a business establishment near
St. James's Park," states that the concrete bottom
of the lake in St, James's Park is pervious, and that
the water filters through the concrete bed, and is
pumped back again into the lake. We, on the
other hand, who sunk the well, fixed the ma-
chinery, filled the lake, and are still pumping into
it under contract for the Government, say that this
statement is not correct, and we have given our
reasons for this assertion in your paper of the 13th
inst. Now, independently of our to be presumed
better opportunities of knowing the exact state of
the case, it must: be observed that Sir S. M. Peto
has not been publicly supported in his statement by
one single individual, while public opinion, ac-
tuated by public common sense, cries aloud against
the plan for the Serpentine supply which his sin-
gular assertion is intended to support.
It would be supposed that the able letter of your
correspondent " Tyburnian" in your impression of
Saturday last would have been sufficient to con-
vince Sir S. M. Peto that he had made a mistake,
and would have induced him to relapse as quickly
as possible into silence upon a subject of which he
obviously could know but little. As, however, he
seems determined to adhere to his opinion on this
point, we will inform him that, after a fortnight's
cessation of pumping, the lake has remained full ;
the difference of level between the surface of water
in it and the well being still five feet. This we
state as a fact, but if any doubt should exist, let the
pumps be stopped, and watch the result. The dis-
cussion is assuming this position—viz., that of a
person endeavouring to persuade the public that a
basin with a hole in the bottom will remain full
without a further supply. If, therefore, Sir S. M.
Peto does not now choose to be convinced, we must
• leave this portion of the discussion as it at present
• stands.

We wish only now to say that, notwithstanding
the accusation against us that we force our plans
upon the Government, we still think that we have,
as taxpayers, a right, as well as a duty, not to
allow a useless and wasteful expenditure of public
money to pass in silence, while we know of a means
of avoiding it. Further, we wish it to be clearly
understood that we have taken up this Serpentine
question chiefly as a matter of professional reputa-
tion. We have already shown that the work in
St. James's Park is only the first portion of our
plans of 1848-57 for the improvement of the condi-
tion of the public lakes. It is, happily, not a matter
of importance to us whether we are employed by
the Government or not in this business, but we do
think that a change of Government should not be
allowed to arrest the completion of a plan proved
by experience of one lake to be perfectly successful,
and to substitute for it a more expensive and less
efficient one. _

We think that, could it be obtained, the opinion
of Mr. Mann, who superintended and directed the
whole works in St. James's Park, would be of great
importance in this question. We are induced to
make this remark from having just observed in Mr.
Hawksley's report that he claims the concur-
rence of Mr. Mann in some of his conclusions, from
which it might be inferred that Mr. Mann was of
opinion that a sufficient quantity of water could
not be obtained from the well in Duck Island. We
do not think this can be so, because to Mr. Mann
is due the merit of originating the idea of this
source of supply, from circumstances that came to
his knowledge during the progress of the works ;
and he had also the opportunity of observing the
immense quantity of water pumped from that well,
and the large increase day by day as we extended
the cuttings made for collecting the water.
We feel that we have now done our duty ; we
Lave placed the matter in a true light before the
Government and the public, and we care not whe-
ther our plan be carried out by ourselves or any
other " contractor," merely remarking that in
case we sdould be employed, we are still willing to
guarantee thot the supply of fresh water, in-
stead of filtered, shall be carried out at a less first
cost of £5,500, and a less working expense of £7OO
per annum. The pui);ic may have a better idea of
the quantity we propose to supply by our saying
that were it flowing over A weir 12 feet wide it
would run 2,1, inches deep.
We are, Sir, your obedient servants,
EASTON, ADIOS, AND SONS.
Grove, Southwark, S.E., Aug. 17.