The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-05 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON FRIDAY tWEN

MR. BRIGHT AT LIVERPOOL.

Yesterday morning Mr. Blight was entertained
at breakfast in the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool,
by the Liberal Association of that town. The body
of the ball was filled by the leading Liberals of the
district, and the boxes were occupied by a brilliant
assemblage of ladies. Mr, G. S. Rathbone pre-
sided, with Mr. Bright, M.P., on his right, and
Mr. Vernon Harcourt on his left. After a few
opening remarks from the chairman—
Mr. MACRAE moved a resolution expressing gene-
ral satisfaction with the extension of the franchise
secured by the recent Act for Amending the Re-
presentation of the people, approving the resolution
for the disestablishment of the Irish Church, and
rejoicing in the union of the Liberal party in
favour of a policy of equal justice to the whole
kingdom.
Lieut.-Colonel TIUMBLE seconded the motion,
which was unanimously adopted.
The CHAIRMAN introduced Mr, Vernon Harcourt,
who addressed the meeting at some length in sup-
port of the resolution.

Mr. R. GLADSTONE then moved a resolution ex-
pressing the deep gratitude of the meeting to Mr.
Bright for the assistance he has given in securing
to his country the great Liberal measures of the last
25 years, and espe'ially thanking him for his ser-
vices to the came of freedom during the present
Parliament.

Mr. R. MUSGROVE seconded the motion, which
was unanimously adopted.
Mr. BRIGHT, on rising to acknowledge the resolu-
tion, was received with great cheering. He said—
When I was invited to meet some gentlemen con-
nected with the Liberal party in Liverpool at
breakfast, I expected that I should meet from b 0 to
100 of them on that occasion that was to be partly
social, partly conversational, and partly political ;
but I find myself now face to face, I suppose, with
at least 600, probably 700 people—(cries of "More")
in this hall, and also, if I turn on every side in the
galleries, by ladies who I presume take a commend-
able interest in the great public question of the day.
(Cheers.) The resolution which you have been
kind enough to pass expresses approval generally of
my political conduct during the last five-and-twenty
years. I need not tell you, I hope, that it is
the very highest satisfaction to any perscn who has
laboured in the public service to receive the appro-
bation and sympathy of a large portion of his coun-
trymen. (Cheers.) I have been now for 25 years
a member of the House:of Commons—(hear, hear)
—for 30 years I have actively engaged in political
labour. During that time I think it may be said
that we have seen more legislative changes of a
financial character than have occurred in this coun-
try during the whole period preceding that time,
going back as far as the Revolution of 1688.
(Cheers.) If you turn back in your minds to the
Parliamentary history of this country before the
Reform Bill you will find that nearly the whole of
the politics 'of the country were centred in foreign
affairs. (Hear, hear.) And almost all the names
that appear in the Parliamentary history of this
country before that period—the period of the Re-
form Bill—all those great names were distinguished
by patriotism displayed in the great Parliamentary
contests—not on home, but almost entirely on ques-
tions of foreign policy. (dear, hear.) We had wars
during almost the whole of the period, and the
policy of those wars was necessarily discussed. There
were great questions of finance, and the great and
lamentable question of a vast and ever-growing
taxation ; and upon these subjects, of course, great
speakers and great statesmen might do that which
would make great names ; but during that period
the actual English nation within the geographical
limits of the kingdom here, of Great Britain and
Ireland, was almost, if not altogether, neglected.
(Hear.) Nothing could have been worse than our
finances ; nothing worse than our grievous and un-
equal taxation ; nothing wurse than the continued
ignorance in which the English population were
left ; nothing more cruel, execrable, and barbarous
than our code of punishment, and particularly with
regard to the sanguinary capital punishments con-
stantly inflicted. (Cheers.) But if we look to all
manner of home policy on all questions which really
affect the true greatness, the true progress, and the
true happiness of the popk?, we find that Parlia-
zncut cared fur acne of these thiugi Our t'rime
Ministers and Cabinet statesmen and our Molarehs

&voted almost the whole of their attention to a
policy and course of proceeding which we now
look back upon with astonishment when we see
their influence upon the condition and inte-
rests of the nation—not only with astonishment,
but wi,h lamentation and actually with horror.
(Cheers.) Now, in 1832, we turned over a ne•,v
leaf, for then the people became better represented,
and, as was very natural, very much more cared
for. (Hear, hear.) For 30 years I have been con-
nected, in one way or another, sometimes obscurely,
sometimes in a more prominent position, with
almost all the great questions that have been dis-
cussed by Parliament, and which have been accepted
by the nation ; and I may say, 1 think, without
any special boast, that I have regarded all these
questions apart from the interests of party, and
have tried to view them in what may be termed a
simple and natural sense. Does it ever strike you,
lin looking over the tremendous fights we have seen
on the various questions of the last thirty years,
how simple these questions appear to us now
when we are out of the battle, when victory
has been won, and when we can look at them
without any of the disturbing influences which
then so much excited the country ? I look back
particularly to one of these questions--perhaps
the greatest question—which first brought me
' prominently into public life—the repeal of the
corn laws. (Applause.) A new generation has
grown up since the repeal of the corn law in 1846.
Young men—under 40—who are little acquainted
mith the circumstances of that great contest,
can scarcely believe the amount of excitement
created, the anger that was aroused, and the spirit
of turbulence that was raised over many parts of
the country—how country gentlemen—even dukes
—threatened to leave the country if the corn laws
were repealed. (Laughter.) I recollect an agricul-
tural labourer, in a smock frock, in one of the agri-
cultural towns in Wiltshire, when he heard that,
made this consolatory remark. He said—" They
beant a goin' to tak' t' land wi"em, be 'em ?"
(Great laughter and cheers.) Well, looking back
upon this, I say that if the corn law had been in
existence during last year and this year—during the
time from the harvest of 1866 to the harvest which
we are now about to gather—l believe, considering
the time we have had to pass through, that that law,
if it had been continued, would have involved the
overthrow of everything else in the country which
the people are accustomed to value —your Church,
your peerage, your Monarchy itself. There is no
one of these institutions that could have withstood
the turn of events that must have been excited
in this country by the sufferings of millions of
the people. (Cheers.) Just so with other measures
which have been dealt with during the same inter-
val—the
,question of monopoly in sugar, of the
monopoly in ships, iu the navigation laws. -Why,
all these were questions that were fraught with
frightful animosity by those who were supposed to
be profiting by these monopolies. Yet, now they
at e gone, we look back with astonishment that any-
body could ever have defended them. We feel how
much the country has gained by their entire aboli-
tion. Take, for instance, as an illustration, the
question of the taxes upon newspapers. (Cheers.)
I consider that the removal of the taxes upon news-
papers—the advertisement, stamp, and paper duties
—one of the greatest triumphs and blessings
achieved in our time. (Cheers.) It is a measure
for which we are indebted very much more than to
any other member of the present House of Com-
mot.s to my right hon. friend Mr. Milner Gibson.
(Cheers.) When the paper duty came to be abo-
lished you recollect how much it was struggled
against. Mr. Gladstone, who was then Chancellor
of the Exchequer, was thwarted one session by the
conduct of the House of Lords, and in the fol-
lowing session we had that resolution—which
never can be too much applauded—(cheers)—
which forced the proposition for repeal of the duty
upon the House of Peers, and it was accepted by
them. (Cheers.) Well, has there in our time—

within any time in England—been a measure car-
ried by Parliament which has so largely promoted
education and instruction as that? Take this very
country during the last seven years when so much
suffering existed during the cotton famine. Every
man and every woman in my end of the country
was informed of the cause of the distress ; and when
men are told the cause of their suffering, when they
know that it has not been brought about inten-
tionally, not by any injustice of other men, they
learn to be patient—(cheers) —and they abstain
from that anger and that violence which suffering
naturally promotes among a population. (Hear,
hear.) 1 believe that during that period we were
very much indebted to the newspapers which are
now so cheap and universal. What did the oppo-
nents of that measure say ? They—the Times and
other papers—said that the penny papers would be
made up of paragraphs and leaders taken from
the dear papers. Now, I believe, that the penny
papers write just as good leaders as dear papers.
They said, further, that we should have a news-
paper press that would be immoral, that would be
slanderous, that would be libellous, and that would
be mischievous in the country ; whereas nothing is
more clear and more universally admitted than that
the character of the newspaper press in all these
things has been gaining and improving for many
years past, and that at this moment there is nothing
whatever to be said in favour of a dear, ancient
press over the cheap newspapers brought into life
by the abolition of the taxes upon newspapers.
(Cheers.) Then we had another great measure
which I like to look back upon with special plea-
sure, and that is the treaty with France. (Cheers.)
I need not mention to you the name which must for
ever be inseparably connected with that noble
treaty. (Cheers.) It was one of the greatest works
certainly ever accomplished by any citizen for the
advantage of any country. Since that treaty passed
there has been a growing friendliness, not only be-
tween the Governments, but between the peoples of
England and France; the "spirited policy" of a
late aged Minister is gradually passing away ; and
there is a fair hope that the tranquillity of Europe
will not again at an early period—l hope that it
never may—be disturbed by a contest between
England and France. (Cheers.) But there were
persons in the House of Commons, and a large
party, opposed to that treaty. The present Prime
Minister and the bulk of his supporters were op-
posed to it. In fact, there has been no great and
good measure in England to which they have not
been opposed, and which they did not oppose to the
utmost of their power. (Cheers.) I might refer
to one or two other questions—to the question of
the Government of India. In 1853 the present
Lord Halifax—then Sir Charles Wood—made a
speech in the House of Commons of five hours'
length, chiefly in defence of the Indian Company.
I felt it to be my duty to oppose it—and I spoke
after his long speeel. 1 recollect that we took up
the whole time of the house from five o'clock in the
evening till midnight. lie spoke five hours in de-
fence of the company, and it only took me two
hours to demolish it. (Cheers and laughter.) I
am afraid you will think I am vain in making use
of such an expression ; but the fact is the com-
pany's life was prolonged to five years afterwards,
when the sad mutiny occurred in India. Then
that which men would not concede to argu-
ments that could not be answered they conceded
to the force of the terrific events which had
happened in the British dependencies in India.
(Cheers.) Then about the same time we come to
that unfortunate event, the war with Russia. You
know, many of you, the course which I took with
reference to that war. I argued, from the Blue-
books and other documents and facts, that the war
was altogether unnecessary, and that it must fail of
any good result, either as to Turkey or Great Bri-
tain. Well, I shall not go into any detail about it,
but I think now, when we look back upon the events
that then excited the violent tempest of condemna-
tion which overtook the few men who were opposed
to the war, we shall at least come to the conclusion
that the matter was very doubtful indeed. (Cheers.)
I will say no more than that it may be left, if you
like, a point of dispute whether there was any
ground for that war or not. My further experience
an I consideration of it forces me to the conclusion
th:it ou no public question during my lifetime have
I bean more entirely right than I was with regard
to that unhappy and sanguinary contest. (Cheers.)
I believe the sick man at Constantinople is sick
still. (Hear, hear, and a laugh.) I believe, fur-
ther, that the outbreak of that war has led to
almost double armaments throughout Europe—
(cheers)—that it has vastly increased the military
spirit, and has produced an enormous augmentation
of the taxation and expenditure of the Government
for military purposes. (Cheers.) Well, then, the
one great question to which reference has already
been made is that of the Reform Bill. In 1858 I
was commissioned by a conference in London to
prepare a bill to be submitted to Parliament. It
was prepared, and was discussed considerably in the
country, but it was not submitted to Parliament
because the Government of Lord Derby, which was
then in office, proposed and did, indeed, submit to
the house, a bill which was afterwards rejected.
The fundamental basis of the bill was, I may say,
household suffrage for the boroughs, and a reduc-
tion, which had been before proposed and carried
in the House of Commons, of the county fran-
chise to £lO. There was a distribution of seats,
which I venture to say will be a very good dis-
tribution when we get it, and we are making
progress to it. It proposed that no borough with
a population under 8,000 should remain a
borough or return members to Parliament, and
it proposed that no borough with less than
16,000 of population should return more than one
member to Parliament ; and these seats s) gained
were to he transferred to the large constituencies.
For instance, I proposed to give six (four additional)
members to Liverpool, and I proposed to divide
Liverpool into three compartments as it were, each
of which should return two, which I thought was
the proper way of permitting whatever there is of
difference of opinion in your town to be fairly re-
presented. (Hear, bear.) I did not have recourse
to that miserable, false, odious, and unconstitu-
tional proposition which is called the minority
clause, by which it has been sought to cripple and
enfeeble all the great borough constituencies of the
kingdom. (Cheers.) For my part I agree with
Lord Derby and with Mr. Disraeli that that is one
of the most unconstitutional propositions ever made
to Parliament, that it tends to the utter destruc-
tion of representation, and, if I am not greatly mis-
taken, it will be found in practice to be so odious
that it will not then be long before it is
abolished. (Cheers.) I shall only be surprised
if any man who has any self-respect will offer him-
self as a candidate for the minority in any of
these boroughs. But that Reform Bill which I pro-
posed was not carried, as you know, and in 1866
Mr. Gladstone brought forward a measure of more
moderate dimensions. You recollect what those
gentlemen did who oppose everything. They op-
posed that, and they said—for this was their chief
argument—that it was very
dangerous, that it put
you at a point where you could not stop, and that
there was household suffrage a long way down, to
which you would inevitably come if you went as far
as Mr. Gladstone proposed; and household suffrage
was everything that was to be avoided, and every-
thing that was destructive to the Constitution of
the country. Having got rid of Mr. Gladstone's
bill through the weakness of Lord Russell's Govern-
ment in not dissolving Parliament, and in going out
of office, this Government came in, and finding
that they could not remain in Parliament next
Session a fortnight unless they were prepared to
introduce a Reform Bill, what did they do?
Instead of going gradually down to the fourth
story, to the basement, by steps and landings, as
might have been the case under Mr. Gladstone's
proposition, and which they so much dreaded, they
threw themselves boldly out of the window—
(cheers and laughter)—till the whole party was
found exhausted, shaken, bruised, and bleeding on
the pavement. (Cheers and laughter.) Now, all
those measures I have referred to have been op-
posed by the party that is now in power.
Is it reasonable to say that that party has been
wise, or patriotic, or successful ? There is not one
of those measures that I have not heard Mr. Dis- ,