The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-15 00:00:00

PA 'MI A,ME,N TAR Y REFORM.

The first metropolitan meeting of the Nntional
Charter Association was held last evening, at the
Lxidon Tavern, and was most numerously attended.
The great room of the tavern was densely crowded,
end amongst those on the platform we noticed Messrs.
Arnott, Clark, Harney, Kydd, Dixon, Reynolds,
M'Grath, Graisby, Stanwood, and other active mem-
bers of the Chartist Association ; Mr. Feargus O'Con-
nor, M.P., was called to the chair.
Mr. T. CLARK, who officiated as secretary to the
meeting, then read the following address :
" THE PROVISIONAL COMMITTEE TO THE CHARTISTS OF
GREAT BRITAIN.
. _ _

" Friends and Brethren,_Weavail ourselves of
the opportunity afforded by the first grand metropo-
litan meeting held under our administration, to afford
you some idea of that policy which we intend to
adopt for the purpose of imparting vigour to the
cause of resuscitating Chartism ; and by this spon-
taneous readiness on our part to give an account of
our stewardship at so early a day after our election
to office, as well as by the plans we are about to
make known to you, we believe that we are affording
the country the best possible proof that .no time has
ken wasted in entering seriously, actively, and
energetically upon the important duties entrusted
to us.

" In the first place, we have directed our attention
to the propriety of holding several grand metropolitan
meetings, at the largest places that can be obtained
for such assemblage ; and also in localities the inha-
bitants of which have not hitherto been much accus-
tomed to hear anything of Chartism save through the
studied, intentional, and unwearied misrepresentation
of the principal newspapers of the day. Whether we
have commenced our series of great meetings in a
fitting place, and a proper neighbourhood, we must
leave those who are, acquainted with the London
Tavern, and who are aware that it is in the very
heart of London, to decide.
"In the second place, we are about to promulgate
to the country, at an early day, a system for local
organization ; and this will be the very first measure
to which we propose to direct our attention in the
course of the ensuing fortnight.
"Thirdly, we have it in contemplation to hire
upon lease some large, commodious, and well-suited
place of meeting, where weekly assemblages may be
held, and where lectures may be delivered; and
should it prove difficult to obtain such a place as may
be in all respects suitable for the purposes named, we
propose to negotiate with a builder for the erection of
a Chartist hall, in a spot conveniently central.
" Fourthly, we have already deliberated, and shall
shortly renew, the discussion upon the propriety of
calling a conference to assemble in London, in the
middle of the month of March, for the purpose of
giving additional vigour to the Chartist movement,
and affording the people's real representatives, thus
chosen, an opportunity of Proclaiming the require-
ments and interests, the demands and the rights, of
the industrious classes, at the same time that the re-
presentatives of aristocracy, capital, and landed inte-
rest, are assembled at St. Stephen's.
"Fifthly, we purpose to make arrangements for
the publication and gratuitous distribution of tracts,
written in a plain and calmly argumentative style, so
that the wrongs and sufferings of the masses may be
expressed at the same time that the remedies may be
suggested ; and that the people generally may be well
prepared to make a worthy use of those rights and
privileges of which it is hoped they will soon become
the possessors.

" Sixthly, we have resolved to place ourselves in
communication with the democrats of Ireland, and
solicit their co-operation in the great moral struggle
which the unrepresented and enslaved masses in Eng-
land, Scotland, and Wales, have undertaken against
aristocratic tyranny, class-legislation, and oligarchical
oppression.

Seventhly, we shall appeal to the democrats in
the colonies to unite their voices with those of their
suffering brothers and sisters in the mother country ;
and we shall assure the dwellers in those misgoverned
portions of the empire, that they have our warmest
sympathies and must give us theirs in return.
"Eighthly, we have resolved to call upon the great
cities and towns of En ;land and Scotland to adopt
immediate measures for the furtherance of the good
cause by a vigorous arid energetic, though peaceful,
legal, and moral agitation, for the People's Charter.
We invite our friends and brethren in those cities
and towns to develope as speedily, and as fervidly as
possible, all the resources of which local effort is
capable, and which neither menace public tranquillity
nor violate the law. We recommend large meetings
to be called ; and, under suitable arrangements, we
propose that deputations from your provisional com-
mittee should visit those places where their services
would be useful.

" This i 3 the outline of the policy unanimously
adopted by your provisional committee. If the
Chartists of the metropolis, and the provinces, will
support us, we have no doubt of our ability to carry
into execution all the plans just shadowed forth. The
result will be to give Chartism such an imposing
attitude a 3 it never has assumed before ; and with
the middle classes agitating for reform on the one
hand, and the industrious classes sustaining their own
grand, enlightened, and majestic movement on the
other, no considerable length of time can elapse ere
monopolisers of power and oppressors of all kinds
shall be forced to abandon their strongholds, and
yield to the voice of justice and the pressure of truth.
Signed by the Provisional Committee,
" JOHN ARNOTT "G. JULIAN HARNEY
" THOMAS CLARK "S. M. KYDD
"WILLIAM DIXON " PHILLIP M'GRATH
"JAMES GRASSDY u M. REYNOLLS
EDMIINDSTALLWOOD.

" January 14th, 1850."
The CHAIRMAN then rose, and after some prelimi-
nary observations proceeded to declare that the
meeting before him was a proof that if Chartism was
struck down to-day, it might remain so for a while,
but it would rise up in its might again, when its
time came.—(hear, hear.) Yes and Chartism was
alive and stirring.—(Hear, bear.; Sir J. Walmsley
declared to his constituents at Bolton the other day
that he accepted the Charter.—(Hear, hear.) Was
that nothing ? In a fortnight from Thursday the
show would be open again, and such a contest would
be seen as never was witnessed before. Did they
suppose that he was going to abandon a single bristle
of the animal to support any party, Ministerial or
Protectionist ? No, neither ambition or self would
induce him to stand in the way of any relief to those
orders.—(Hear, hear.) He sympathised with the
Poles, the Hungarians' and the Italians, but he felt,
as Shakspere said—"lf England cannot keep back
the dog from her door, let her be worried"—(Cheers)
—and therefore that Englishmen should be true to
themselves first In 1834, he declared that free trade
would not do unless the land was thrown open, and
he would oppose the Free-traders now, if it had not
been that they had turned to the plan of the Chartists
for free trade in land. The millowners had not come
forward to join the new movement, because they
knew they made more profit of the people's labour
than some landlords did.—(Cheers.) He never before
felt more anxiously on the subject of Chartism. His
mind was full of thought for them, and Chartism was
his night dream—(Cheers)—but then he could see
well enough that if the millowner employing 2,000
hands struck off 2s. a week from their wages, it at
once made for himself 2001. a week. On Wednesday
he met Mr. Cobden at Aylesbury. He did not go
there to meet Mr. Cobden, but to see if the great
Baron Munchausen, Mr. Disraeli, would be there.—
(Laughter.) On that occasion Mr. Cobden carrie3
a resolution which amounted in effect to universal
suffrage.—(Hear, hear.) He(the Chairman) was
well received by the meeting, and proved that the
views which he enunciated in respect of the conduct
of the landlords towards their tenants was appreciated
by his hearers. The object of his life was to
make free trade useful to the great body of the people,
and what they waned was to bring the land into
the retail market.—(Hear.) They would soon have
Parliiment opened, and he would tell them what they
might expect there. Every Minister wished for a cr3
to go to the country. Lord John Russell would bring
in a Bill to extend the suffrage in this country and in
Ireland. It would pass the Commons, but the Lords
would throw it out, and the extension of the suffrage
would be the cry to go to the country with.—(Hear.)
He might be asked why he assumed to himself the
leadership of the Chartists. He had his authority
there on parchment., which was given to him by the
representative of the Chartist body in 1835, and fo'
15 years he had acted as the leader of the Chartists
Let him tell them the reason why they did not effect
an extension of the suffrage before now. It arose front
their own disunion.—(Hear.) The trades and the unions
differed, because one man could get 30s. a week, while
another could only earn 10s. But if they all worked to-
, gether they would soon be in a position to earn 3/. a week.