Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1866-09-13
Mr.. Bright and Mr.. Will on the Hyde
Park Riot.

4uG 1lkiloA ASASAhA ASsaSt
took decided ground as to the right of the
people to use Hyde Park for a suffrage
reform meeting, the attempt of the Gov
eminent to suppress which led to a not.
In answer to an invitation to attend the
meeting Mr.. Bright wrote to the Secretary
Of the London Reform League:
DEAR SIR: I thank your council for the
invitation to the meeting intended to be
held in Hyde Park on Monday next. I
cannot leave home for some days to come,
and therefore annot be in London the
23d inst. I see that the chief of the metro
politan police force has announced his in
tention to prevent the holding Of the meet
ing. 1t appears from this that the people
may meet in the parks for every purpose
but that which ought to be most impor-
tant and most dear to them. To meet in
the streets is announcement, and to meet in
the parks is unlawful-this is the theory
of the police authorities Of the metropolis!
You have asserted your right to meet on
Primrose Hill and in Trafalgar Square.
I hope after Monday next no one will
doubt your right to meet in Hyde Park.
II a public meeting in a public park is
denied you. and If millions Of intelligent
and honest men are denied the franchise,
on what foundation does our liberty rest ;
or is there in the country any liberty but
the federation of the ruling class? This is
a serious question, but it is necessary to
ask it, and some answer must be given to
it. I am very respectfully yours,
JOHN BRIGHT.
On the day after the riot, while it was
under discussion in the House of Com
mons, John Stuart Mill made q speech
which was considered quite menacing to-
ward the Government. He vindicated the
right of the people to hold public meetings
in Hyde Park, and said:
HE maintained, moreover, that when
application was made for permission to
hold the meeting it should have been
grandchildren and that If the people
really believed they had the right to meet
in the park, that belief formed a reason
under the circumstances for granting the
request ten thousand times rather than re-
fusing it once. The people were already
in an excited state upon another subject,
and the government might reasonably
have expected that if the people were re-
fused the simple request they made, con-
sequences such as had happened would
have resulted. II the people were not per-
mitted to meet in the parks, where, be
asked, could they meet with less Interrupt
ton to the traffic or inconvenience to the
inhabitants Of the metropolis Trafalgar
square could not be said to be more con-
venient for q meeting than the parks ; and
he asked whether q meeting held in any
one Of them once in every two or three
years would cause one.thousandth part Of
the interruption to the ordinary uses to
which a park was put that was caused by
q volunteer review. The home secretary
had assured them that he had no objection
to the holding of such meetings in proper
places and at proper times, but he did not
describe what were the proper times and
places I; and already the newspaper scribes
who were supporting the government were
declaring that no open-air meetings ought
to be tolerated in the metropolis. He
advised the government to accept that
declaration, and he promised them that in
such an event they would have to encoun-
ter resistance of a very different kind from
that they had encountered. [Hear, hear,
from the ministerial side Of the house..
Noble lords and right honorable gentle
men opposite could be congratulated on
having brought about a piece Of work last
night which would require wiser men than
they were to eface. [Hear, hear.l 1t had
been the anxious wish Of all we'll wishers
of their country that the necessary changes
in the constitution Of this country should
be made. if possible, without the least
alienation or i'll blood between the govern
ing classes and the governed. The present
government, however, seemed to be deter
mined. as far as depends upon them, that
this anxious desire should be frustrated.
TCries Of "Oh, OH" and shear, hear."l It
was well-known that a kind Of people ex-
listed who could do more mischief in an
hour than could be mended in a lifetime.
ministerial cheers.] Her Majesty's pres
ent advisers seemed to be DESTROYS Of hay
ing their names inscribed in company with
the names Of those illustrious mischief
makers" [Hear.1