The Commonwealth. — 1867-03-16 (London, England)

EDMOND BEALES, M.A., President of the Reform League' in the chair. The hall was densely crowded, principally by delegates from the various trade societies of the metropolis. The CHAIRMAN, in opening the proceedings, called attention to the report of' the meeting called under the auspices of the League, on Monday last, given in the Times. He said there was no person more willing than he was that his conduct and that of the League should be fairly discussed, and that it should be subjected to honest criticism; but when he saw, time after time, that untrue—wilfully untrue—and dishonest statements were put forward in the public press with respect to the proceedings of the Reform League, he felt it his duty to hold the writers in the press up to public reprobation (cheers.) He did not think the people of this country ought to allow this kind of thing in every way of reviling them to go on (cheers.) The Times of yesterday (Tuesday) thus gave publication to what was a deliberate, disgraceful untruth. It said :—" Last evening the Reform League held its demonstration, adjourned from its acknowledged failure of the previous Monday, in Trafalgar-square." Now, nothing could be more deliberately untrue than that, because the meeting was held on the requisition of a gentleman connected with the Reform League, but the League itself had nothing to do with it (hear, hear.) The statement, therefore, in the Times, was not only a wilful, but a deliberate, untruth (hear, hear.) The Times report went on to say this :—" Half an hour before the advertised time, which had been fixed by the experience of the previous failure at eight o'clock, as the right time for working men,' there was not only a very large gathering, mostly of roughs and boys, about the Nelson column, but every point which could command a view of St. Martin's Church was crowded with spectators, who did not care to venture among the rough specimens_ of their nn,`,Thlbing-dmid be more deliberately untrue than that statement of the Times, and it was especially so because Mr. Howell, the secretary of the League, wrote a letter to the Times stating that the Reform League had nothing whatever to say to the meeting in question (hear, hear.) The report in the Times went on to say that, "At the time when the meeting commenced, the large space between the columns and the fountains was quite full, and there must have been several thousands present. The majority of those were rough in their dress, and were evidently of the lowest class of labouring. men, intermixed with the regular London roughs, and a very large number of boys and youths. Well, he had no objection to the numbers as stated in the Times, but he stated that as respected the meeting being composed of "roughs" and boys, such a statement was a deliberate and wilful untruth, and the man who wrote must have known it was a base, disgraceful, inexcusable untruth (cheers.) With respect to the paragraph in the Times that violence was offered to the people in the square, there could not be a grosser untruth (hear, hear.) After referring in terms of strong condemnation of Earl Russel's speech on Monday night in the House of Lords, the chairman concluded by announcing that a great Reform meeting would be held next Monday in Trafalgar-square, and that the delegates would meet next Wednesday night. After some discussion,  The CHAIRMAN said that the friends of Reform in Manchester had suggested that a "people's parliament" should assemble, but of course it would be for the delegates to decide what course they would adopt. Mr. BRISK moved, and Mr. RICFIARDSON seconded the following resolution, which was passed amidst much cheering: " That we, the Reform League, in delegate meeting assembled, fully sympathise with our brethren in Ireland, and with respect to the prosecution, and oppression, and misgovernment they have endured; and while we regret their action as imprudent, and leading to bloodshed, we recognise the greatness of the provocation they have received, and request them to cease wasting their lives in an useless struggle, but to unite with their brethren in Great Britain in demanding the platform of the Reform League, and feel convinced that no Government can long resist a demand so supported." The resolution was carried amid loud cheering.  Mr. MANTLE then moved, and Mr. GUEDALCA seconded, and it was carried :—" That this meeting, having heard the statement of Earl Russell in the House of Peers on Monday last, deeply regrets that his lordship should, by that speech, have separated himself from the great Liberal party of England, and also deplores that it is necessary to regard that speech as an act of political suicide on the part of his lordship:' The meeting then adjourned.