༄། ༥ ང

389

12TH NOVEMBER, 1831.

390

how a bill came into the House of Com-general good; and of this whole country, mons, and was passed there, to authorise containing so many cities and towns the selling of their dead bodies; they do where the working men possess this not form themselves into clubs, in order peculiar privilege, nowhere has the to raise money to defray the expenses generous surrender been made with so of watching the graves of their deceased much enthusiasm as in this very city of relations; they do not do this without Bristol. When, therefore, they learned, asking, why the Parliament cannot pass and from your own mouth, that it was a law to protect the dead bodies of the the intention to prorogue the Parlia ce spoor, while they pass so many laws to ment until a time undefined, was it not protect the live and dead bodies of to be expected that their feelings of pheasants, partridges, and hares? In disappointment would be strong in proshort, they want no instruction upon portion to their generosity and zeal and these subjects: they know well, that all devotion? It is a common saying, that their hardships arise from the want of you cannot have blood out of a flint having members in the Parliament stone; but it is as reasonable to expect chosen by themselves. blood from that callous material as to expect passive obedience and nonresistance to associate with enthusiastic public spirit.

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The people of Bristol knew these things as well as the people in every other part of the kingdom; and, besides this general knowledge, they were But, if the people of Bristol felt sore particularly interested in the fate of the at the delay in passing the bill, what Reform Bill; particularly interested in must have been their feelings at susthe passing of that bill without any al-pecting, as I suspected, and as we had terations; and especially an alteration good reason to suspect, that the new which would raise the qualification of bill was not only to deprive them of voting in large towns. The elections their ancient right of suffrage, but to at Bristol were made by the freemen, deprive them also of the ten-pound who are a very numerous body, and voting contained in the last bill; or, at who are principally working men. The any rate, so to alter the suffrage as to bill that has been rejected by the diminish the number of voters in the bishops and other lords took the right city of Bristol? If I be asked what away at once from all the freemen who ground they had for this suspicion, I are not actually residing in the town at once more repeat the speech of the Lord the time of the election, and for some Chancellor, made towards the close of months before; and it also took away the debate on the Reform Bill; and the right of all resident future freemen; here are the parts that I allude to of that so that the present apprentices never speech. At the beginning of his speech would, as freemen of the city, have a (Oct. 8), he said, "I have listened with right to vote at elections; but the bill "profound attention to the debate, of did not do injustice to Bristol, because" which this, I believe, will be the last it gave a vote to every man that paid night, and which has already occupied ten pounds a year rent for a house," five days, and having heard a vast which was better for the city and better" variety of objections, having weighed for the nation; because, while it gave the arguments on both sides, and a greater number of voters than existed "careless whether I give offence in before, it made those voters more inde-" any quarter, I must say, that I am so pendent, less liable to be over-awed or "far moved by some points urged as to corrupted. "be ready to reconsider some matters The world has never exhibited in-" upon which I had deemed that my stances of public spirit, of generosity," mind was sufficiently made up." After of devotion to country, equal to those an hour or two of very unmeaning stuff, which have been exhibited by the work- he came to this: "In London and the ing men of England in their eagerness to great towns, in the Tower Hamlets, give up their peculiar privileges for the" in Lambeth, and the like, ten pounds

"is a low qualification; but in other and thus leave the working millions places it is not. TWENTY POUNDS without the power of returning one "was ORIGINALLY DESTINED for single member. Does your Lordship "the qualification; but, upon inquiry imagine that the people of Nottingham, "into the circumstances of the small of Derby, and of Bristol, did not see "towns, we were induced to abandon it. this as clearly as I did? They saw that "But if noble Lords, speaking upon the the Lord Chancellor was ready to give "question in general, choose to object them up; they heard, coming from "to this qualification that it is uniform, your Lordship's own lips, that the new "and say that it ought to be different bill was to contain alterations; what "at divers places-lower in the smaller those alterations were to be was kept a "towns, and higher in the larger-Isecret; and no contradiction was ever "will not say that I agree with them; given, and has not yet been given, tờ "I will not say what was originally my the interpretation which I gave to the opinion; I will not tell the reasons speech of the Lord Chancellor; and "that now recommend the bill, as it what, then, were the people to think "stands, to my support; but I will say other than that this part of the bill was "that whoever holds that doctrine will to be surrendered? What the feelings "find me ready to secure for him the of the people are may be best described, "most ample, the most scrutinising, the perhaps, by what they would inevitably "most candid discussion of the subject be if the new bill, with this alteration in "in the committee. I speak as an in- it, were to pass. The bill being passed; "dividual; candour compels me to say the famous Reform Bill having become "thus much. But I, at the same time, a law, off would go the reforming mem"say that it is emphatically a subject for bers to Dover, to Canterbury, to Ro"the committee.' chester, to Chichester, to Portsmouth, to Now, my Lord, it was impossible for Southampton, to Chester, to Northampme to read this without seeing clearly ton, to Liverpool, to Derby, to Nottingthat the Lord Chancellor was ready, not ham, to Hull, to York, to Newcastle, and like the hunted beaver, to throw any-other large towns. If we suppose one thing to the hunters belonging to him- of these members addressing his conself; but to throw to them the sole stituents in order to get them to choose protection of the working people. Let him again; and, as a happy instance, it be observed, and your Lordship let us suppose your Attorney-Generał knows it well, that the ten-pound suf-arrived for this purpose at Nottingham; fráge in the great towns was the thing something like the following would, if on which the opposing bishops and he were to speak common sense, be his peers made the stoutest stand. They speech :saw, as I see, and as the people saw, that the ten-pound suffrage in the great towns would be a real good to the working people. The opponents of the" to keep together in my chivalry with bill, therefore, took it as their strongest ground of objection. They dwelt upon" We have fought the good fight; we it more than upon any other part of the "have beaten the boroughmongers; we bill. With from fifty to a hundred "have carried our glorious Reform men, really chosen by the working peo- "Bill; we have, indeed, taken away ple, they clearly saw that the Pension" the suffrages of all those working and Sinecure List never could stand a "" men in this ancient and high-spirited year. They saw, in short, that they" town who returned me to Parliament; might as well give universal suffrage at " and we have given the right of voting once. Therefore it was, that the Lord" to the tax-eaters and tithe-eaters, and Chancellor made the speech that I have" others who live by the labour of the quoted from, clearly expressing a readi-" working men; but, then, we have ness to give up this ten-pound suffrage," taken care to secure to those working

"GENTLEMEN,

"When I last had the honour to be elected by you, you deputed me to

my learned brother, Lord BROUGHAM.

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❝ men the valuable, the precious, privi- excepted. In Cambridgeshire not a single "lege of paying taxes and of fighting working man would have had a vote, "for those who have the votes !" and the same in Huntingdonshire, RutLong before he arrived at this sentence, landshire, and Leicestershire. There happy man would he be if nothing harder were absolutely no places at all the than rotten eggs saluted his eloquent suburbs of London, Norwich, Bristol, mouth; and, if he exclaimed, that he and the great towns in Warwickshire, had a right to say what he thought, he and Staffordshire, Derby, Nottingham, would be answered by being reminded and the great towns in Lancashire, that he denied to the Duke of Newcastle Yorkshire, and further to the North, the right to do what he liked with his including the great towns in Scotland, own. Such, however, must be the sub-and four or five great towns in Ireland stance of his speech, if he were to give there were none but these populous spots, his vote for such a bill. He might en-in which there would have been one deavour to varnish the matter over. single working man entitled to a vote; He might tell the people of Nottingham, and yet this was too much, and the that houses were rented higher in Not-famous patriot Brougham was "ready tingham than in the towns of Hamp-to reconsider" even this! Here, how shire; and that, therefore, it would not ever, 1 take my stand. Not one shilling be fair, it would be ununiform, to give of rise in the qualification; no trick of a vote to as low a rent in Nottingham shifting the suffrage from rent to rate, as in Winchester. But his clever and so as to enable the owners of houses to sharp-sighted constituents would tell nullify the right of voting by letting him, that the way to make the thing their houses free of rates and paying uniform would be to make the tenpound rent the highest qualification, and to go on lowering it according as rents were lower in other places. The "patriot" Colonel DAVIS wanted a scheme of proportion; but he was for raising the qualification in the great towns, and lowering it in the small towns, in which he was not afraid of adding to the number of voters; because, in those towns, the aristocracy would have great and immediate influence.

the rates themselves: as touching this matter, I will never give my assent to any alteration that shall, in any manner, raise the suffrage in any towns, great or small; or that shall, in any way, tend to diminish the number of voters, whether in the towns or the counties.

Amongst all the schemes of disquali fication, I do not hear of any one for disqualifying any persons who live upon the taxes or the tithes! Pensioners in general are nothing more than state Even according to the rejected bill, paupers. Lord ALTHORP said, that there are many whole counties in which many of the pensions were given as not a single working man would have charity. While parish paupers are dishad a vote. The ten-pound rent shuts qualified, why not disqualify state pauout every working man in every town pers? Our fathers, when they, in evil in Sussex; in every town in Hampshire, hour, consented to mortgage the counexéept, perhaps, Portsmouth; in every try and to establish a revenue to be town in Kent, except, perhaps, a few at raised by internal taxation, disqualified Rochester and Chatham; in every town revenue-officers from voting at elections in Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, of members to serve in Parliament; Cornwall, and Somersetshire, unless because such officers had a manifest Bristol be deemed a part of Somerset- interest in choosing such men as were shire; in every town without exception likely to heap taxes upon the people. in the whole of Wales, North and South; Fen so late as the date of the estais every town in Oxfordshire, Berkshire, blishment of the paid justices of the Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire; and in Wen, this principle prevailed; and short, in every town even in Lincoln- these paid justices cannot vote at elecshire; and, it is the same to the east, tions in consequence of a clause in the Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, Norwich first police act, moved, I believe, by

yourself, or, at least, I recollect well tion will be their resentment if they see that it was supported by you. This was themselves studiously marked, out as very proper; to introduce the clause creatures fit only to be trodden underwas a very meritorious act; but, my foot.

Lord, are these police magistrates more Besides the injustice and the insodeeply interested in returning to Par-lence of such an alteration, there is the liament men disposed to heap taxes flagrant impolicy of it; that is to say, on the people, than are the pen- impolicy on the part of the aristocracy sioners, sinecure people, grantees, re particularly, who, as a permanent privitired-allowance people, dead-weight, leged body, have nothing so justly to and even the officers of the army and dread as the rivalship of an aristocthe navy, and all the long train of com-racy of money, which in this country missaries and commissioners and must always be powerful, always interclerks? If there was good ground, posing, always full of envy of the noand never was there better, for disqua- bility, and must always be desirous to lifying officers of revenue and magis- pull that body down to their own level. trates of police, is there not equally I have known the dispositions of a pretty good ground for disqualifying all others many men in my life-time, and I have who have a manifest, a vital, interest in always observed that the most bitter returning such men to Parliament as enemies of hereditary rank and heredishall be likely to heap taxes upon the tary wealth are to be found amongst people? monied men, who measure lords I by no means impute blame to by the scale of pounds, shillings, and vour Lordship for not attempting to do pence, and who, having been the this act of justice at this time; nor inakers of their own fortunes, take spedo I argue, from your not doing cial care never to look behind them, it, the want of a disposition in and have not the smallest regard for you to do it; but I beseech your any-thing that bears a traditionary chaLordship to consider, how mortifying, racter. All the world is the same to how galling, how provoking it must them; and, as all men have ambition of be to the working man, who pays some sort or other, the ambition of such taxes and who receives none, to see men is, not to see a greater man than perked up by the side of him a person themselves; and as the order of nobility who lives upon the taxes, qualified to tells them, thus far shall you go, and vote at elections, while he himself is no farther, they have a natural desire disqualified! If the editor of the to pull down that order. Now, this is Morning Chronicle, in the fulness of by no means the turn of mind of the his contempt for the knowledge of the working people, whose utmost ambiworking people, think them too ig-tion is that of attaining excellence in norant to perceive, or too blunted to their several callings, and whose desires feel, the injustice and insolence of this, all terminate in being able to live well, he knows less of the working people of in exchange for their constant labour. England than he knows of the Hebrew From thousands of men in the middle tongue. They do perceive the insolence rank of life I have heard invective of this distinction; they do feel upon against the order of nobility; from no the subject as it becomes them to feel: working man did I ever hear such in their good-nature; their generosity; my life; and I am perfectly satisfied their proneness always to think well of that there would be more danger to the the Government; their natural abhor-order of nobility from voting confined rence of every-thing tending to dis- to twenty-pound householders than from honour the country and to tear it to voting on the principle of a suffrage pieces, made them eagarly seize the perfectly universal. Nay, I am satisfied Reform Bill as the olive branch; but that if the twenty-pound householder in exact proportion to the sacrifice scheme were tried, the peers would, for which they willingly made to concilia-their own safety, be compelled to resort

and to raise the suffrage and thereby diminish the number of voters in the great towns; and I further believe, that this is the conviction of every well-informed man in the whole kingdom.

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to universal suffrage, as Henry the Seventh, to preserve his kingly powers against the encroachments of the barons, was compelled to call in the people. But, my Lord, the peers who oppose the bill seem to have thought of no- Such a thing as this never before disthing but the present moment. They graced any body of rulers upon the face saw, as I saw, that the members coming of the earth! What a surprising thing from the great towns, and chosen by that a man, literally bred up at the the working people, would never suffer plough tail; never having been put to a that working people to be borne down school; never having had a patron of to the earth as they now are; and they any description; having had to work clearly saw that there was no possible all his life like a horse, to maintain and way of relieving the working people, breed up a numerous family; having other than that of taking off the taxes had no one contingency that has fato a very great extent; and they knew voured his progress in life; having had that this could not be done without no one earthly resource out of himself; beginning by taking from them and never having written a line to catch the their families and dependents the enor- thoughtless, or to flatter any description mous sums which they now receive out of persons, high or low; having preof those taxes. They saw, for instance, ferred living on a crust to riches and that the ten-pound suffrage would, if I ease obtained by any of those means chose it, put me into Parliament, where by which literary men usually obtain they well know that I never would be, wealth and exaltation: what a surprising without making the most strenuous thing that such a man, leading such a efforts to cause this object to be ac- life, should become so formidable to two complished. I am fully warranted in great parties, dividing between them believing that the certainty, or nearly the whole of the powers of the Govern the certainty, that the ten-pound suf-ment of the greatest and richest country frage would put me into Parliament, in the world, as to make those two was one of the reasons for their rejecting parties (waging eternal strife as to the bill. I am fully warranted in be-every-thing else) unite like children from lieving this, because, while almost every the same mother, in efforts of every deone of them who spoke against the scription, to keep that man down! Yet, bill made allusion to me and to Man- surprising as it is, it is not less true than chester, no less than four of them it is surprising. Before the Reform named me and that town, and cited the Bill was brought in, and when we were intention of that town to choose me as all on the tiptoe of expectation, I said an instance of the great danger to be to a friend, who was sitting talking with apprehended from the ten-pound suf- me on the subject, What sort of re frage in great towns; and, my Lord, 1" form do you think they mean to give would not take my oath that it was not "us?" His answer was: "I think they Cobbett and Munchester that convinced" will give just as much as will your colleague, Lord BROUGHAM, of "enable them to keep you out of Parthe propriety of being "ready to re- "liament." I told him that I made no consider" his opinions relative to that doubt, that that would be the wish; but part of the bill! that if they gave so little as that, they To be plain, I do verily believe, that would soon become more odious than Cobbett and Manchester had great their predecessors; and that they could weight in the rejection of the bill, and not very well exclude me by name, as also great weight with most of your col- they had very nearly done in the SIX leagues, if not with your Lordship, in ACTS, two of which might as well forming that design, which I believe to have had the name; for every man in the have been entertained, if it be not still en-kingdoin saw that the Acts were intended tertained, to alter the bill in this respect, solely for the man.