Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1868-01-29
Lecture by Henry Vincent.
The English Movement I have Taken
Part in, and the Men 4 have Known.
Half q Century of Struggle sar Reform.
IChicago Tribune 18th instl

before the \ Oung Mems Library \ s.
S 2c;. tion, to large audience, on The
English movements | have taken part
in, and the men | have known 1t
is impossible IN condensed report
to do any justice to this splendid eff
fort Of oratory, which electrified the
audience and called out repeated aud
tumultuous applause. The raPidity
of the speakers utterance made it i'm
possible to catch some portions Of the
lecture, but the .ubjoined sketch Will
give an idea of It's drift:
The lecturer commenced by speak
ing Of the condition of England after
the great battle Of Waterloo. In
1915 and 1916 the army was supreme
in England without any power in the
House of Commons to check it. Pow
er was lodged IN the hands Of a few
men. Small rotten boroughs, some
Of them not containing more than
three men, who met to elect two men
to represent them, controlled the gov
ernment. At this time the Catholics,
the Congreg gationalists, the Baptists
and the Methodists were excluded
from participation in public affairs,
the press was taxed, and it was a
wonder that the old country, with a
population Of twenty millions and a
tax of nine hundred millions, could
rise up and place, as it now has done,
aristocracy at the mercy Of popular
influence.
Among the men Of whom he first
spoke were Lord Brougham, Jeremy
Bentham. and other men Of that time
Among the earliest memories of his
time were the struggles for Parlia-
mentary reform, when his father once
said to him, Henry, if you turn Tory
| shall hate YOU He was glad to
say that he had never turned Torv.-
Among the prominent men was the
stormy Henry Hunt, a farmer origi-
nalIy, splendid specimen Of the En-
glishman in bulk, a man of awful in
t1uence, and who, like a true dema-
gogue, never could blush He was
not man of the most blamelrss life.
hav n been separated from his wife
He presided over a reform meeting in
1919, when the cavalry charged upon
them, aud he was sent to Jail for two
wears.
Another was the famous William
Cobbett, a strong man, who had out
Of his slender pittanc-, and with the
small opportunity afforded by the pay
and position Of a private soldier, edu-
Gated himself until he was finally able
TO write a grammar so full of learning
that the people could never use it 1t
spoke out plainly Of public abuses.
saying about the beginning, IF YOU
cannot speak we'll about him. speak
plainly, and say that he is rascal {"
He went to the United States and
made himself prominent as a Tory, to
the intense delight Of the English no
bles, who wer" glad to find one man
in America who could read and write
aud was a Tory. He came back, de-
Tended Queen Caroline, and, in 1915,
the speaker remembered his vigorous.
downright, earnest writings IN the
newspapers of that period
la London, about that time, when
the speaker was trying to make a
speech in public, he first saw the ia
nous Roebuck. He used the strange
words Of democracy, and stirred up
the young men of the age, to whom
the word was inspiring.
Thomas Wakely was the first pub
Usher Of the homeopathic magazine.
and a man of great wit. with the art
or gift Of stabbine men in the ribs,
and making them laugh whether they
would or not.
But the man who did the most, at
that time, of any man IN England,
was Daniel O'Connell. the Irish refor-
mer. He was a man of finely formed
body, with a good humored face, capa-
bic of the most powerful influence
and liberality of belief that made him
most valuable man IN parliamentary
reform. \ Catholic, and yet charita-
bic towards Protestant denominations,
efficient towards managing popular
assembly. There was, the speaker
said, an astonishing power in good
audience-more, he thought, than in
the orator. A good audience could
almost make an oyster speak.
Another man to whom he was
greatly indebted was the late Francis
Place. He was a tailor in the advI
ser Of the Wing party, for years, and
when the speaker was IN his teens he
was permitted to creep into his libra
~ and read his BOOKS
In 1882. with immense masses Of
people arming. the KING flying, and
the Lord Mayor of London saving he
would not be responsible for the safe
" Of the city, the first popular victo-
~ was achieved in the freedom Of the
press, when cheap papers and masa
zines frat made their appearance.
Bronterre . Brien arose in the north
part Of ireland. He published the
Poor Mans Nagaai,ls. for which he was
continually tined, but he Continued to
print it aud did much good. At the
same time the Dispatct was published
by London and secretly circulated,
being an advocate of popular freedom.
50 that it had to be smuggled out in
collins. One Of the writers was Doug
las Jerrold. the witty author, who was
the write. OF the Candle lectures.