The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-24 00:00:00

1.41 ;

LONDON, SAT URD A V Eli 14‘,1N IN G, JAN U A

it struck him that associations such as the one he was
addressing arose out of the faulty institutions of the coun-
try. He said— We ought pot to be meeting here, gentle.
men't We have people whomwe choose every seven years,
wh4e business it is to do the duties we are now doing. I
want to know what the Parliament in Westminster sits
for. :CA Voice—" That's the 'point.") Do they sit there
o lOok on while we work ? What is it we are doing now ?
Ve are going into the very. discussion into which Parlia-
ierft ought to go night after night. We have our power,
elaise the mischief has riheri.to such a height that pea-
ile Won't stand it any longer, and that,, they take tk is
3xt sordinary mode of expressing their opinion. 'Now,
wh t I wa t to do is this :•--LI avant to get at some effect-
tiv instrument to work odt the purposes which we are
en avowing. to do in ;this eiitraordinary and, if I may
use the term, 'spasmodic effiirt. 'How is that to be done ?
W Y; sir, the House of Cottons, ought td be the watch-
do sof the people. Now, what I want to do is to make
ou House of Comme its
en fit and willing to perform ts
en ; and therefore I saye sir, that younannot expect
to ave any real financial reform until you have had Per-
lin entary reform. I have pe'reuad'ed the Administrative
Re orm Association of that feet,- and the consequence is,
wehave determined that all our organisation, spreading
ever England as it does, all the various means we have
of isfluencing public opinion, are to be directed to that
en 4, as well as to the direct aim of the association.
Arid what we intend to do is this—first of ail, to
persuade the people that the great mischief lies in
the present constitution of the House of Commons,
and to bring your minds round to demand a' full
reform of that house. We intend —and here lam
making a bold declaration, and it may, Sir, probably
alarm you—we intend to dosiaur utmost to affect the
coming elections of this`ciiiihery; and froln that we in-
tei;id: to threat our efforts.; So' the formation of a real
party.iu the House of. Commons, whose business and
aim it will be to act as one rishVaeot_make the Ministers
feel that we are reformers of finsidoW x•eform---reismners.
after the manner of the Financial Reform Association.
He (Mr. Roebuck) hoped for their co-operation, and drew
a picture of the construction of the " parties' in the
[louse of Commons, again pointing out the influences
abich were used by the great parties in London to se-
cure the vote of Mr. A for Ministers. The great towns
of this country were given, a great number of them, the
power of returning members of Parliament by the Re
ferm Bill. They chose what they thought to be efficient
representativee. Those men, as soon as they got to
London and entered the House of Commons, found that
Rouse divided in a very curious manner. There was a
line ran down it from the very middle, from the
Speaker's chair ; and on the one side sat the Opposition,
and on the other side sat the Ministry ; and it was ex-
pected that every man who came into that house should
take the one side or the other. There (continued the
lion. gentleman) it is, indeed, a fact—there are a certain
wild, impracticable, wonderful set of men called inde-
pendent members. (Laughter.) They wander about in
space, like a.planet that has no sun round which to revolve.
They go about they know not where, and they find them-
selves, in strange places they know not how, (Laughter
and applause.) The Minister and his satellites—(a laugh)
make their situation a very uncomfortable situation.
Rejected from the Ministerial side, they go to the Oppo•
sition, and there they meet in the same way, with
" What do you belong to, and what do you mean ?" and
it you don't swear iu the words of one party or the other
you are, in the slang phrase, " nowhere. (Laughter
and applause.) The consequence of this is, that when
these very simple gentlemen come from the north
they find themselves as I say—nowhere. They do
not know what to do; and Mr. A. brings up Mrs.
A., and Mr. A. is affected through the means so very
well known to be employed by the great parties in Lon-
don. Mr. A is affected through Mrs. A. Oh 1 I have
seen it, and I have known it so often—that Mrs. A
wanted to go to the Queen's ball, The way to get there
was to make Mr. A vote with the Minister ; and when he
voted with the Minister she received her invitation.
(" Hear, hear," laughter, and applause.) I am not speak-
ing, Sir, without my host upon this matter ; I know well
what I am saying ; and I have known instances of
cajolery of this kind, of mean appliances of this description
—of this sort of low and disgraceful means by which to
reach a man'shead and his heart, quite as debasing es the
one I have described. (Applause.) Well, then, had these
men found, when they came up untainted, untouched,
unknowing—had they found a party to which they could
ally themselves they would have gone there. (Hear, hear.)
But no, finding none such, they wandered to one side or
the other ; and let me tell you that, wandering to one side
or the other, they got into what I find has a wonderful
influence in the north as well as the south—namely, what
is called good society. (Laughter.) They found themselves
all at once shaking hands with noble lords and ladies ;
and it is wonderful, perfectly marvellous, to find, Sir, that
gentlemen whom I thought sturdy, well.to-do, well-going,
honest men, who have made their way in the world—to
find these people bowing down to the very ground, aye,
crawling upon their bellies—( oud laughter)—before
noble scions, or little pet.y or atures who did not know,
hardly know, their right hand from sham Ink; but because
they signed their, name without their Christian name—
llanglater)--sfside-gendeinan were their most obedient,
bumble servants. (Applause.) Now, Sir, Ida not
preclude from s, my, reprehension
.this_ good town of,
Liverp?ol. (Hear.) `I find there is a wonderful desire in ;
the princely merchants of this princely town to be thought'
fine gentlemen in the house. (Laughter.) If they could
only hear the sort of criticism and sarcasm that follows
their own individual debasement, I think they would be
prouder of their position as independent men than sub•
servient followers. Lady A says to Lord A, who is the
Minister (say A, B, C, or P), who is Minister of the
Crown, the Prime Minister—my Lady A says, " Who'
is that vulgar fellow, A, that you have introduced to.
me?" (Laughter.) He says, "My dear, now don't use,
that language. I acknowledge that fellow to be a vul-
ar fellow ; I know it—know it as well as Yen ; but he,
has a vote in Parliament ; now do be civil to hint"
(Loud laughter.) And so she is civil to him, and the
poor man votes ever after as Lord A. bids him. And
these are your watchdogs. (Laughter and applause.)
He (11r. Roebuck) wanted to point out through the Ad-
ministrative Reform Association every time in which a
man thus actually departed from his duty and betrayed
his trust to the people, and he believed that they could
do that by means of that organisation. He believed
,
they would do much good by instructing the people,
Yet if they got to learn in that way the feelings of the
people upon their representatives they would do much
more to carry financial reform than all the pamphlets
they might publish. • It appeared to him that when they
had got together even a very small body of men who
would say they would act as one Men, they would make
the Minister understand that they would set their fan,
against all the maladministration of which he was the
instrument. When they had done that, and if they had
only gathered together six men who would say so, before
next session came there would be added to their number
many a revolting independent gentleman. He hoped
to see the chairman join that party, and he hoped to
see every independent constituency telling their member
that he must do so too—that he must not ally himself
with one aristocratic part or the other, but that he must
consider the people of England. (
reiterated (Applause.) He in'
stanced the cases where men of worth and ability had
been set aside for same empty jackanapes who had
just come from college or his mother's drawing.
p agreat
the man
army, a t
aonndc o.
room, and who, strutting up the house, was made
a i the
phrase,way they
dthat
Hedebniosunced former
it was "an army, of lions led on by asses." He re;
ferred to the number of famous admirals England had
possessed, and who sprung from the people, and to the
scarcity of generals. The navy was not then an aristo-
cratic service ; the army always was. There was a fine
coat, there was. Captain So-and-so; and, as Sir Walier
Scott said, " Women, like turtles, are taken by a piece
of red rag." The army was a sort of refuge for the des-
aitute aristocracy. The consequence of this was seen in
the Crimea—a standing ignominy to the people of Eng-
land, who bore such a thing ; and not till they had seen
the fatal result, the fatal policy, read in such dreadful
characters on the plains of the Crimea, did they rise up
to ask for army reform. He said that army reform was
administrative reform. The consequence did not extend
only to that to which he bad alluded, but he found,
though he was unable to prove it in the progress of the
investigation of the Sebastopol Committee, that every
step of the inquiry was marked by proofs of corruption,
and that corruption went to high places. He wanted
that corruption laid bare. Rethought, with the party in
the House of Commons he spoke of, they should be able
to probe the mischief, and let out the foul substances,
and he hoped that what he knew to be a fact would not
long exist. In conclusion, he said—l know, Sir, that
real honest and distinguished mercantile houses refused
to have anything to do with Government contracts, be-
cause they were obliged to-preface their proceedings by
bribing the departments. I am not now speaking in' a
whisper. What lam now saying I see the gentlemen
below will tell to the people of P.
—ngland. And lam as
sure of this as I am of my own existence —tbat from the
very top to the bottom of the standing departments' the
permanent departments, of this country, there ' is eorrnp-
lion to be found. I want this exposed. It can only be
done by a united effort on the Part of the people of this
country, acting through the House of Commons, and
upon the House of Commons. This Reform Association
may work its Lela out, but the people who profit
by the mischiefs which they perpetrate will laugh it
to scorn. But let the House of Commons once lay
its finger upon their giros,
and
they will
feel
It is by
that little finger a very
heavy one.
means alone you can effect your nurpose • and I
would ask and entreat of you to bear • '
o this in mind, that
we are acting now, here in this hall in what I would
call in the cant phrase of the'da an ,
Icondition.
It is not our proper undertakebusiness'toyabnorma.
b.ess
of the House of Commons ; but thee uasivne a
House of Commons whichwwold we ought to h
supersede such meet-
jugs as this. In order, then, that, we by our united
efforts, contribute to this gr end, eatma3l, have accepted
the invitation to come here.
- I determined to say what
I would have said the .ae .
, oment I appeared before the
people of this great.
Sown, because I thought, by stating
it to an audie
ace like the present, it would make its
way throe
h all parts of the country—and I see it will
(100 v -4
sing at the reporters). I thought by so doing I
stiould condsce to the same end you have in view, the.
same end I have in view, and I believe all right-minded
men have in view, and I am sure that every man who
wishes the prosperity of England will have in view ; and,