The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-27 00:00:00

CONSERVATIVE DEMONSTRATION' IN

BRISTOL.

On Thursday evening a meeting, convened by
the Bristol Working Men's Association,was held in
the large hall of the Rifle Club, in order that the
operatives of the city might hear addresses from
Mr. W. Ferrand, Mr. Cecil Raikes, and Mr. R. N.
Fowler. There were about 5,000 persons present.
The proceedings, which commenced in an orderly
manner, grew, before the meeting had lasted long,
very tumultuous, and concluded amid a perfect
uproar. Mr. W. Kearsey presided.
The CHAIRMAN said that Lord Stanley had re-
marked of the banquet held there the night previous
that he had attended many demonstrations, but he
never saw one more powerful or loyal than that of
Wednesday in their ancient city of Bristol.
(Cheers.) Ile regretted the absence of Lord
Stanley on this occasion, and read a letter he had
received from him.

Mr. OWEN proposed the first resolution :
" That this meeting desires to express its full
confidence in the home and foreign policy of her
Majesty's Ministers, and at the same to record its
deep gratitude to them for having, under circum-
stances of great difficulty, restored the franchise
to a large number of their fellow countrymen."
(Cheers.)
Mr. W. FERRAND, who was well received, se-
conded the resolution. He sdd that it was now 40
years since he first took a part in public affairs, and
during the whole of that period be had never hesi-
tated to appear before his fellow countrymen to
stand by the political truths which he professed,
and it was a high compliment paid to him that
evening by those he saw before him who were
assembled there—(ironical laughter, and cheers)—
to hear an address from him in defence of those
principles which had bee,n dear to his heart from
early youth, and he deeply regretted that Lord J
Manners had not appeared that evening along with
him. It was now 26 years since he became acquainted
with that nobleman, noble in nature and noble
in heart—(cheers)—whose political life had been
spent in trying to exalt the character, the social
and religious position of the working men of this
country. (Cheers.) It would have done his heart
good to have been present there that evening, and
to receive a greeting by their hearty cheers. (Ap-
plause.) Official duty alone prevented him being
present, duty to the country and duty to his Sove-
reign. Now, he stood there that night a Tory—
(cheers)—and he would tell them why he was a
Tory. (Cheers.) Toryism was political Freema-
sonry—(cheers)—it united every rank and every
class in one common bond of amity, cementing the
whole in mutual interests, and it was on account of
Toryism working that principle and that action
throughout the country that ho was a Tory—
(cheers)—and that night he stood there to defend
Toryism. And why ? Because for the last 40 years
Toryism had been calumniated and abused—(confu-
sion, and a voice, " Justly")—falsehoods had been
propagated against it by the Liberals and by the
Liberal press. (" No, no," and "Yes, yes.")
The Tories had treated these attacks with con-
tempt, but no principle was worth having un-
less it was worth defending. What did he see there
that night? (A Voice—" A lot of Liberals.") A
number of persons came there to listen and not to
abuse, to see fair play, and not to shout, and groan,
and hoot down. (Cheers.) The days for blubber
and noise had gone by ; the people were exalted ;
they were determined to judge for themselves ;
they listened, they
they took no man's word ;
studied, they argued, and having formed their
opinions they acted up to them. (A Voice—" The
Liberals taught them to do it," and confusion.) A
great mistake that had been made by the Tories
was that they had neglected the Conservative press.
The Conservative press had fought their battles for
years, and had not received that support at the
hands of the Tory party it ought to have had ;
but the Tories saw now that it was their
duty to support the Conservative press, and he
rejoiced to find they had papers in that
city of every shade of politics, so that they
could judge both sides, and that was all he asked of
the Liberal party—freedom of conscience, freedom
of action. Well, then, let them have that, and if
there was any one there standing on the outside—
for he always found the lurkers in that part—
' (laughter)—if there were any there who thought
they could put him down by noise and vulgar clap-
trap, they made a great mistake. (Laughter and
confusion.) Aye, let them recollect that the insult
was not offered to him, but to the intelligence and
respectability of that great meeting, and he warned
the disturbers that if they continued in their dis-
turbance it would recoil against them at the next
general election. He had told them they had been
charged and calumniated as being the enemies and
oppressors of the people. (A voice—" Three cheers
for Bright," and uproar.) But if they were the
opponents of the people he challenged their oppo-
nents to prove it. Mr. Berkeley,
in a speech he
made in November last, charged the Tories with
all sorts of crimes, and he finished his harangue
with

"Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On Gladstone our hearts we fix."
(Cheers and laughter.) Now, during that speech
Mr. Berkeley told them nothing in his opinion could
save the country except the ballot, or words to that
effect. (Cheers.) Well, it was an extraordinary
thing that Mr. Berkeley should say he had fixed
his h'eurt ort Gladstone and the hearts of his friends,,
when Gladstone had always voted, against the
ballot and spoken against it too. (Laughter.),
Now, he stood there to prove the charges against the
Tories to be false. Previous to the year 1830 they
had been in office for a period of about 49 years,
and during that lime the trade and commerce of the
country bad increased in a marvellous manner, and
the working population had also increased in an
equal ratio in prosperity, in happiness, and in con-
tentment; but in the year 1830 the Duke of Wel-
lington made the great mistake of his life. He
then, in the House of Lords, declared that he was
opposed to all reform. From that time young as he
(the speaker) was he protested against that declara-
tion, :and it was made against the feelings, the
wishes, and the opinions of the great majority of
the Tory party. (Confusion.) Well, the Liberal
party, which was then the Whigs, took advantage
of that declaration of the Duke of Wellington, and
commenced a violent agitation throughout the
country. They roused the passions of the ignorant,
of the roughs, and rowdies, and dangerous classes
then, as they were attempting to do now. (Con-
fusion.) The Tories, who had for centuries been
the natural leaders of the working population of
the country—(sheuts of laughter)—were denounced
as their enemies, and the cry raised against them
became so strong throughout the country that at a
general election there was a majority of 350 Whigs
returned to the House of Commons. When the
Reform Bill was under discussion, the working
population were urged to call out for the bill, the
whole bill, and nothing but the bill. They well
knew that in that bill, if he might use the ex-
pression, there was their political " death in the
pot," that they were determined to be
politically extinct. (Confusion.) Ho might tell
them that there were people sent to that meeting
to disturb it, and they were afraid of free discus-
sion. He trusted, for the character of that city,
they would conduct themselves with propriety, and
if they did not he would appeal to the others to pro-
tect him from insult. (Cheers and uproar.) Be-
fore 1831, when the Whigs came into office, the
working men of the country returned to the Hon*
of Commons, entirely or through their material
inflence as voters, nearly 150 members. Now, the
Reform Bill which was introduced by the Whigs
was concocted to destroy the influence of the work-
ing men—that was, their votes to return these 150
members. That was a statement, which, being made
by him, he was boundto prove, and he would prove
it by quoting Lord J. Russell himself, and let them
recollect the Tories resisted the attempt of the
Whigs to rob the working men of the franchise.
Let those recollect who did not feel inclined
to listen to him that he was going to show
them facts which they ought to know, and expose
the treatment they had received at the hands of
those who had for so long professed to be their
friends. Se then quoted from Lord John Rumen

speech in the House of Commons on the introduc-
tion of the Reform Bill in 1831, with respect to the
gross venality and corruption among the electors of
Bristol, and his assertion that he wished to give
the franchise to the real respectability of the coun-
try. He (the speaker) would ask him to point out

a more respectable man on the face of the earth

than the honest working man. (Cheers.) Sir
Robert Peel's defence.of the operatives and a quota-
tion from a speech of Mr. Baines, member for Leeds,
who he said was a Whig and Radical combined,
were given, and then the speaker proceeded to re-
mark on the benefits conferred by Sir C. Wetherall,

but his observations were received with derisive

shouts. He called on them to listen to what Sireharles

did, and then let his enemies blush for very shame.
Passing on to speak of the measures introduced
by the Whigs, he said that they introduced the

new Poor Law. (Confusion.) Ile would open
the eyes of the working man that night—(laughter)
—and be challenged his opponents to disprove what
he said either in On public press or anywhere else.

Who were the chief advisers of the new Pon. Law
but the Manchester party ? They proposed that it
should be directly enforced, in order that the work-
ing population of the south of England should
be driven down into Lancashire to keep down
the wages of the factory operatives. Letters
bearing on that had been published and quoted
by men in the House of Commons, and no man had
power to deny them. Who had been the leader for
the last twenty-five years of that Manchester party,
and instructed the Poor Law Commissioners to
send down the working men of the south into
Lancashire to keep down wages, but Mr. Bright?

(Cheers and hisses.) Now, who was it resisted the
new Poor Law but Lord Eldon and the Bishop
of Exeter? The Whig Government, from 1830 to
1841, pursued a course of gross extravagance in the
wars in China and India, the people of which coun-
tries were unoffending, and they organised a system
of jobbery and robbery unparalleled in the history
of the country, and so disgusted did the people at
_ _

length become with the Whigs that their majority
dwindled down from 350 to one. (Confusion.) He
glanced at the Government of Sir Robert Peel,
and said that their member, Mr. Philip Miles, helped
to strengthen his hands. The Tories then tried to
raise the social position of the people, to redress
their wrongs and restore to theirs the franchise. (A
Voice—" All gammon.") As to the present Re-
form Bill, he remarked that in 1867 Mr. Gladstone
assembled his supporters in the House and im-
plored them to throw out the bill, and Mr. Bright
said if they did not throw it out on that occa-
sion they would never be able to do it. (Cheers.)
He would tell them what the Tories had done for
the people since 1841, and he had taken one of
the most active parts in achieving the benefits
which they had rendered. They repealed the
harsh clauses of the Ten Hours Bill, and the
Times newspaper proclaimed that he had been the
chief cause of the repeal. They carried the Fac-
tory Bill ; they abolished the truck system and
enforced the payment of wages in the current coin
of the realm, and he was the man who brought the
question before the House of Commons. (Cheers.)
He was the man who moved that a committee
should be appointed to inquire into the system ;
and the committee was granted, and on their report
the bill prohibiting the payment of wages in any-
thing but the current coin of the realm was passed.
They stopped the working of women and children
in coal mines, and introduced the free allotment
system. If Mr. Berkeley were there he would tell
him that those were the knavish tricks of the Tories,
and no honest working man would confound their
politics as long as they supported such interests. It
was the Tories who frustrated the knavish tricks of
the Whigs when they wanted to dispossess the
freemen of the franchise. (Laughter and cheers.)
Mr. Bright had charged the Tories with being
the enemies of the working man. He was a
large manufacturer, and bitterly opposed their
interests. In factories formerly women worked
fifteen hours a day, and had occasionally to
be carried from the factories in the pangs of
labour, and children were brutally treated by over-
lookers; but Mr. Bright protested against any fac-
tory legislation, and said that the masters had a
right to do what they liked with their own work-
people, as long as the workpeople consented to work
for them. (Uproar.) As to Mr. Gladstone, who
had charged the Tories with deserting their prin-
ciples, there was not a greater political renegade in
Great Britain and Ireland than Mr. Gladstone.
(Confusion.) He had not represented one con-
stituency which he had not betrayed. (Great
uproar.) He would give them a slight history
of Mr. Gladstone's political career ; it was short
and sweet, and they and the country ought to
be reminded of it, and thoroughly understand
it. (A Voice —" Cheers for Gladstope," and
great tumult.) In 1832 he took his first seat
in Parliament, and commenced his political life as
the Tory nominee of the Tory Duke of Newcastle,
and for three years he represented the borough of
Newark. In 1835 the Duke turned him out for
deserting his principles. In 1837 he went to a great
meeting at Glasgow and urged the Whigs and
Tories there to defend the institutions which were
threatened with destruction by the extreme Radi-
cals, and to unite on a neutral ground to meet the
attacks of the common enemy. Then he subse-
qf h
had
def
an
beenvt
oy rmt
oah
fde eTs aoi
pms
pp
oe re t c hr
Paine i nsf
tt,
eRe Hg
Cornho tus s
Leo
af
wo
I. Ca
(no
L.
a, mu
goi
hin
es-
ter and great copfusion.) 'AA, they might be
annoyed; the flesh would qUiver where the, pincers
pierced. (Laughter.) In 1815 he deserted his
principles and
I memberillbBesc4a
(Cheers.)
e becamemheefoarac
leadershipll
teedOmford theniversitoyf.
cetlph'ree-trader. In 1847
h
the political dissenters, whose chief labour was to
destroy the State Church. In 1852 the Tory
Glad-
stone joined the Whigs for office, and then after-
wards he joined the Radicals to keep the Whig
Lord Russell out of office. (Great cod • usion.) Let
those who made the noise go home and tell the
poli-
tical fools who sent them there that they were not
going to fool the meeting. (Further uproar.) They
might go home and be fried in their own frying-
pan. f • ng-
pan. (Laughter.) In May, 1864, Mr. Gladstone
spoke in favour of trades' unions. (Great uproar.)
Let them roar, he had a good pair of bellows. Those
who made that uproar were the men who boasted of
the liberty of their political principles, who asserted
they ought to have a right to exercise their own
judgment, and yet they came there to prevent a
fair hearing. They did that because they knew
Toryism was founded on truth and justice, and he
was proving it to demonstration. (Confusion.) In
1867 Mr. Gladstone published a letter stating that
trades' unions were an evil. (Great tumult, with
cheers for Gladstone.) Let the men of Bristol re-
collect that they wanted their trade and commerce
protected, and Lord Derby's Government was a safe
standing-ground for every loyal man to take his
stand upon—(confusion)—and he firmly believed
that loyalty to their Sovereign and love to theis fa-
therland would unite the whole country in defence,
at the next general election, of the altar, the
throne, and the cottage. (Cheers and great up-
roar.)
The resolution was put by the chairman, and de-
clared to be carried.

The Council of the Zoological Society have elected
Mr. Jesse as their zoologist to accompany the Abyssinian
expedition, which appointment has.been approved by the
Government. Mr. Jesse will join the head-quarters of Bir
It. Napier.

FLOODS AT OXFORD.—The recent heavy rains
have submerged the low lands in and near Oxford ; the
lower part of Port Meadow is nowhere to be seen, and
Christ Church Meadow, the land towards Ifiley and Sand-
ford, and the meadows near llincksey, are also inundated.
The floods are not, however, higher than they have fre-
quently been at this time of year, and certainly not of
sufficient consequence to cause any alarm, more especially
as they have, within the last day or so, subsided several
inches.
The Athenceum understands that the authorities
of the National Gallery; lamenting the probable cessation
of the most valuable annual exhibition of pictures by the
old masters and deceased British artists at the British
Institution, are in treaty with the proprietors of the last-
named gallery for the further hiring of their premises in
Pall Mall, in order to the carrying on of the gatherings of
pictures on loan from the best furnished English private
collection&