The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-08 00:00:00

LAMBETH.

Last evening Mr. J. Morgan Howard, one of the
candidates for the representation of this borough in
Parliament, addressed a crowded meeting of the
electors, chiefly composed of the working classes, at
Wilcocks' Rooms, Westminster-bridge-road.
Mr. JAMIESON having been voted to the chair,
briefly introduced Mr. Howard to the meeting.
Mr. HOWARD then rose to address the meeting,
and was received with much applause. He said that
this was the first time he had had the opportunity
of addressing himself more especially to working
men. He stated that be was an advocate for the
equalisation of the poor rates, as he considered that
the present system pressed most unjustly and se-
verely on the poorer
.parishes of the metropolis.
(Cheers.) In respect of the question of education,
he held that the Bible ought to be the groundwork
of all education, and that it should be used in all
their schools. There was one question on which
he particularly wished to make himself understood.
It had been said that he wished to shut up public-
houses on Sunday, and that he was a supporter of
Mr. John Abel Smith's bill. He most distinctly
stated that he had no such intention. For
any man, or any body of men, or for any
Government or House of Commons, to say
that while the public-houses were opened on
the Sunday for the benefit of a very large class of
the community, they were not required to be kept
open on the Sunday for them, and that therefore
they ought to be shut up, was a species of tyranny
to which no party or class of men ought to submit ;
and he hesitated not to say that the man who could
fritter away his time in the concoction of such a
project must, to say the best of it, be hard up for.
topics on which to exercise his legislative talents
(Cheers.) It was said that the working classes could
get what they pleased into their houses on Saturday
night, so that they could have what was necessary
on the Sunday ; but while that might be all plain
and palpable enough to the parties who made the
suggestion, it would not at all suit the classes he
had alluded to. They had not the opportunity of
adopting such a system, and to attempt to enforc
it upon them by legislative enactment was about
one of the most ridic lions nostrums which
even the Radical party had ever suggested.
(Loud cheers.) He had been sonuwhat thisrepre-
sented on this point, and he wished to put himself
right. He had been represented to say that rather
than shut up the public-houses on Sunday he would
open the museums. W hat he did say was, that he
would neither shut up the public houses on Sunday
nor would he open the museums on that day. The
Sabbath was the Sabbath, or it was not. It was
divinely instituted, or it was not. He believed that
it was divinely iustituted, and th it being so it
ought to be reverenced ; but that did not imply
that it should be kept as a day of misery and gloom.
It was a day of rest for the worship of God as well
as for the social recreatiehot the people, and there-

fore he would not deprive the people of the means
of social recreation by legislative enactment.
Several questions having been put to Mr. Howard
and satisfactorily answered, a resolution was
adopted approving of the principles he had enun-
ciated, and promising him support.