Star.
London, England, 1831-10-05 00:00:00

I•a ieiathan, and have we not twisted the strings
•,,, : a• ropes and the cede welly .have wo not
• • icd that atrociouain influence behhid theihrone,
.J Lord Chatham said was Stronger than the
Lae itself. (Loud cheering.) He would ex-
i.iain that atrocious influence of the oligarchy,
which had governed the Kiiig, the Lords and the
people. He did not say ibwas the House of Lords,that
. honourable and illustrious House composed of an
Aristocracy associated wish so many great and
glorious recollections, but it was a junta of about
1,5.0 individuals, and some of whom were Members
of that right honourable House, and who had
secretly and fraudulently usurped the powers of
Lards, and Commons, and had in fact
governed every thing in England with despotic
. sway (cheers). These were the men who were
rightly called " Oligarchs," and obese dominion
• rya, now coming to an end. In accomplishing this
great work, no violence was required; " by obey-
ing the law," said Mr. A. " we become powerful
to control the law," (cheers). They had united
.two millions of wen peaceably and legally in one)
.grand and dosermined associa'ion to recover the
liberty, the happinesss, and the prosperity
of the country, and he should like to know
%lot power there was in England that
could resist a power like this ? (Cheers.)
,His would explain what he meant by prosperity.
He did not mean to say that men could live with-
mit labour, and hart! labour too. This was the
Will of GOD. But he meant to say that every
honest labourer in England had as good a right
to a reasonable maintenance for his family in ex-
change for his labour, as the King had to the
erown upon his head ; and this was the right that
he i Mr. A.) was determined to enforce. (Cheers.)
If he had seen this right secured—if he had seen
every honest man in England possessing an un-
doubted security for an honest bread for his family
—if he had seen every houest labourer possessing
;abundant wages for himself, and at the same time
leaving reasonable profit to •his employer, he (Mr.
A.) should never have, assisted in the formation of
the Political Union. But when he found beyond
doubt that the oligarchy had either no know-
ledge of the wrongs of the people, or no dis-
position to redress them, he felt compelled to
come forward to assist in bringing the po-
litical influence of the people to relieve
their miseries and redress their wrongs. There
was no difficulty in this operation. The most il-
lustrious man in Europe, Ls Fayette, had told them
fogy years ago, " that for a nation to be free
it was sufficient that she willed it." (Cheers.)--
Look around at this immense and magnificent as-
semblage in the very heart of England, where the
English blood was pure and uncontaminated with
fereigat alloy—see this prodigious mass of brave
and upright men assembled together to support
their good, and gracious, and patriotic King—and
who, with such a spectacle before them, could pos-
sibly doubt that the British nation willed that the
Bill of Reform should pass, and that it must pass.
And did they not see at this moment that the Bri-
tit!' nation was lifting up its mighty shoulders,
and peacefully and legally shaking off the oppres-
sive burden with which the productive energies and
happiness of her people have been kept dome. Now
if the oligarchs had done their duty, if they had
fed the hungry, and clothed the naked, and ren-
dered justice to the poor and the oppressed, he
(Mr. A.) for one would never have disturbed their
peaceful reign, for he deemed all power good that
was used for the happiness of the people ; but in-
asmuch as they had been bad shepherds, who had
fel themselves, and neglected their flock, he had
t!• ought it his duty to endeavour to pull them down.
The holy Scriptures had said " Woe unto the
shepherds of Israel that d., feed themselves and
reglect the flock. Therefore I am against the
she) hen's, and I will require the flock at their
hands." It was, therefore, said Mr. A. that we
removed the people of England from the oligarchy,
end that we placed them in•the hands of
1,100,000 of their own next door neighbours add
friends. He (Mr. A.) knew that the system
" worked well," but he asserted and affirmed that
it worked well only for the harpies and drones
of society. He defied them to point out any
honest man who had benefitted by it. He re-
membered reading in his school-days that a hero
of ancient hi.tory, when once setting down to din-
ner, on les !court from conquest, found that the
whole o' the pros its ens were carried off from his
tabs, by a specie. of foul birds tallied harpies,
quite as fast as they were placed thereon. Now
the system cet 'airily orked well for these harpies.
but how did it work for the unhappy hero of to
riutece and hi. faithful friends ? Why so well, that
the hero took up his bow and his arrows and de,
streyed the harpies. He did net wish the people '
ot england to act in this way by their har, ies, but
he gas determin d that the harries should be con-
tined within their own domains, and that they I
should. no longer' be allowed to defraud, plunder and
oppress, the people. Now the Lords were not harpies, I
they were he believed, honorable aed upright men.
Ile believed they wore the most humane, kind-
hearted, aid upright men, generally speaking, in
the country ; but their, gre • t misfortune was that
they. sere hot n in the di uds, lived in the clouds,
and not er touched ibe earth on which men lived.
,They lad been deceived. by .fiatterers• and syco-
phants, and designing men, and given to believe
tGat.the people were gr- wn lukewarm in the cause
ate reform. Why, they found out the truth, no men
11:1, England would be more ready to do justice
. to. tile people than the ancient. and waive, sally -
a arpeeteu Aristocracy of the land. They would
.not .vijsh to " fob" off the people with " a show
o jilsetty which yet they tie er must taste of."
They would not give the people a mere house of
• ~ • • ,
humbug. but a house of reaLtepreoentatives, able
and' willing to restore and protect , the interests of
Asepeople. -As soon as the Lords understood the
wishes of. the people, they would be quite certain
to attend to them. The' meeting would recol-
lect that two years ago, nearly the whole of the
wore afflueet classes, in Birminghain were rpposed
to 'reform. Now theysaw that the whole of the
,inbabitants of Binning/14, employer and employed
had all come for wardfin"support of the great cause.
Why tihould ,not slit same influence act upon the
geese of LordalisitUndouhtedly it would act ; and
if, the Lards "sheisld pessially err to day, it was not
It y anytneapareertain, that. they would err to-
morrow
.(cluaert). Attwood concluded in the
folio *big wards:—". It nip slat:King, personally,.'
t 1 t e,Awe),gtors. in thia,g,reat• weak .of reform:
than tQ any tallier,buinanbeigg!iskexistence.- An.
ancient 14.1)lRhOr has 441. That see an
man at! nem% ?Wt. ,mut:ptzsening. hie.
.. .. ra .1 V.;

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